Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Pickles JG" data-source="post: 5338214" data-attributes="member: 61501">What do you want the skill challenge to achieve?&nbsp;1) Is it a punishment for some other behaviour?&nbsp; - going where they should not have, insulting the druid that was keeping the wolves away etc&nbsp;2) Is it just for a change of pace a break from combat &amp; interactions&nbsp;3) Is it a &quot;random&quot; event in the wilderness where the PCs are travelling/exploring&nbsp;Any skill challenge should have the consequences for failure built into it - anytime you make players roll dice you should consider the consequences of failure as well as success or you might as well determine the result yourself.&nbsp;Anyway the consequences would be different in the cases outlined above. If the skill challenge is punishment then the way outlined by Tony Vargas looks good with the wolves attacking a weakened party if they fail. (But if the PCs see this as the likely outcome they may just fight straight away to avoid the risk of being weaknened)&nbsp;If the encounter is for a change of pace then you can essentually break my rule. The point is to get players to come up with cool ways of avoiding the wolves &amp; have fun narrating this. The consequences of failure can be trival - the wolves steal some rations/eat one of your animals maybe cost a healing surge as you get tired escaping when they find easier prey.&nbsp;If it's the third option you are somewhere in between. You probably want to avoid having a huge uphill fight but the penalties would be more severe than in 2- inability to take an extended rest &amp; loss of surges as you fight off the wolves a few at a time &amp; keep pushing on to the limits of your endurance. This works better in the context of wilderness survival in general where there are other pressures on the party's resources.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Pickles JG, post: 5338214, member: 61501"] What do you want the skill challenge to achieve? 1) Is it a punishment for some other behaviour? - going where they should not have, insulting the druid that was keeping the wolves away etc 2) Is it just for a change of pace a break from combat & interactions 3) Is it a "random" event in the wilderness where the PCs are travelling/exploring Any skill challenge should have the consequences for failure built into it - anytime you make players roll dice you should consider the consequences of failure as well as success or you might as well determine the result yourself. Anyway the consequences would be different in the cases outlined above. If the skill challenge is punishment then the way outlined by Tony Vargas looks good with the wolves attacking a weakened party if they fail. (But if the PCs see this as the likely outcome they may just fight straight away to avoid the risk of being weaknened) If the encounter is for a change of pace then you can essentually break my rule. The point is to get players to come up with cool ways of avoiding the wolves & have fun narrating this. The consequences of failure can be trival - the wolves steal some rations/eat one of your animals maybe cost a healing surge as you get tired escaping when they find easier prey. If it's the third option you are somewhere in between. You probably want to avoid having a huge uphill fight but the penalties would be more severe than in 2- inability to take an extended rest & loss of surges as you fight off the wolves a few at a time & keep pushing on to the limits of your endurance. This works better in the context of wilderness survival in general where there are other pressures on the party's resources. [/QUOTE]

Verification