Seeking Ideas for a Skill Challenge

[Jan van Leyden]

I believe your result comes from the typical player mind-set that encounters are a) dangerous things that the entire group has to be part of and b) not so dangerous that they will lose.

IME, any encounter that doesn't comply with those two concepts has to be clearly communicated multiple times in advance. And in as blunt and obvious way, often OOC, to ensure the players don't miss that *this* encounter is different.

Oh, my players are used to lose encounters and run for their life!

Sorry to hear that your players missed the note and the game didn't go quite as expected.

Oh, no problem with that. I was still tired when I re-visited this thread and posted my message. Playing til 1:30 am may have some effect on my mental abilities on the next day.

 

[Jhaelen]

Playing til 1:30 am may have some effect on my mental abilities on the next day.

I know the feeling - we're getting old, I fear!

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

So my tabletop group is in dire need of an extended rest. The problem is: they're currently in the dungeon beneath Ptolus without being able to secure a good resting place.

I'm looking for a way to give them at least a chance for a successfull rest and on the other hand make it more fun than just saying "OK, you're back to full strenght again!"

I'm currently considering using a skill challenge for this purpose and looking for ideas how to handle it.

Stuff like several Dungeoneering checks are of course needed in order to find a good place to rest. But what about the characters on watch? Perception for advance warning is easy, but how to follow up on the information? Bluff to have creatures pass by?

Seems like I'm only at the beginning and need your help!

I haven't read the rest of the thread yet, trying to just see if something completely off-the-wall manages to bubble up...

I'm having a problem with the scope of this SC, as you were also. Dungeoneering, maybe Stealth, perhaps Endurance, possibly a monster knowledge check or two (nature or arcana usually). The thing is I don't have a PLOT for it. The greater context is the PCs are in a large dungeon complex. Its hard to make the SC really abstract because the dungeon environment is so detailed. Its hard to reframe it to a different scope for the same reason. Hmmmm.

I'm not sure there's really a strong case here for an SC TBH. What happens if the party fails, do they not get any rest? That would leave them in the same situation, the plot hasn't advanced at all. If they succeed then they've got whatever amount of recovery you are allowing for. I guess there can be graded success depending on number of fails. I think honestly I'd just structure this as "make a dungeoneering check to pick the most suitable room" and if they succeed they get N amount of recovery. Then have them make a Stealth check to stay hidden, failure meaning they have to wake up early and move, otherwise they get N amount more recovery, and then finally a nature/arcana check to anticipate the best time and place to rest to avoid the monsters, another N amount of recovery. If they make all the checks they get the full recovery amount, and maybe another bonus. If they fail one or more they obviously get less. Its quick and painless and you can get on with the rest of the adventure. If you wish you could make these all (or some) be group checks. A group check should probably be medium or easy, a single PC doing a check should be hard I think (the best character will do it anyway, but make it medium if you want them to most likely succeed).

That's about all I've got. You could try for a more elaborate challenge but do to the inherent plotlessness of it I don't think it will carry off that well. Its likely to turn into a bunch of repetitions of one or two checks.