Lord Zardoz
Explorer
I have found that there are typically two problems to solve for Skill Challenges. You have solved the first, which is the resolution mechanic.
The second is that you need to have a failure condition and a success condition that will actually matter. Without a reasonable success and failure condition, its just a dice-wank where you waste some time, the players throw some dice and you can totally feel the disinterest.
For short term encounters I like to use the loss of healing surges, locking out daily / encounter powers, (ie, daily not expended but not usable for next encounter either) and inflicting conditions on the players that persist into the next fight. Penalties to defenses and attack rolls, Weakened condition, or the denial of a proper full rest. Longer term encounters are harder to apply a cost to.
As for the resolution mechanic, I prefer to allow a player to have a fixed duration, and to give the player a limited number of rolls they can make of any given skill for the entire challenge. This basically boils down to 'X successes before Y fails for each player. The 'for each player' aspect will prevent all the Athletics checks for a single player being made by the one guy who trained the skill. I also permit players to make checks on the behalf of other players. This forces more tactical decision making during the challenge.
END COMMUNICATION
The second is that you need to have a failure condition and a success condition that will actually matter. Without a reasonable success and failure condition, its just a dice-wank where you waste some time, the players throw some dice and you can totally feel the disinterest.
For short term encounters I like to use the loss of healing surges, locking out daily / encounter powers, (ie, daily not expended but not usable for next encounter either) and inflicting conditions on the players that persist into the next fight. Penalties to defenses and attack rolls, Weakened condition, or the denial of a proper full rest. Longer term encounters are harder to apply a cost to.
As for the resolution mechanic, I prefer to allow a player to have a fixed duration, and to give the player a limited number of rolls they can make of any given skill for the entire challenge. This basically boils down to 'X successes before Y fails for each player. The 'for each player' aspect will prevent all the Athletics checks for a single player being made by the one guy who trained the skill. I also permit players to make checks on the behalf of other players. This forces more tactical decision making during the challenge.
END COMMUNICATION
