Skill Challenge for Return of the Burning Plague

[Wolfwood2]

I'm going to try running 'Return of the Burning Plague' this weekend, but I'd like to start it off with a skill challenge similiar to Escape from Sembia. I'd like some suggestions.

Roughly, I'm thinking that a couple of kobolds snuck into town and started a fire, only to be killed by the townsfolk. All combat is over by the time the PCs get there. However, there are still some serious problems to deal with. One or more buildings is on fire (perhaps with sick/children trapped?), there is a panicked mob rushing every which way, and maybe something else like a herd of cattle running loose.

I'd like to let the PCs split up and try to deal with things using their skills in whatever fashion the players narrate. Can somebody remind me what the easy/medium/hard DCs should be and some suggestions for accumulated successes/failures and the consequences thereof?

If some way could be found to make success give them an advantage while inside the mine, that would be great.

 

[keterys]

That sounds like a great use of the skill challenge mechanic. I've seen differing reports on what the actual DCs were, but 11/15/19 is probably close enough.

 

[bert1000]

Great idea. I'd up the # of successes from what we've seen to make it a nice extended set piece and since you have 3 sub-challenges. Maybe 8 or 9 / 6? (that's ~3 succ per sub-challenge)

Some ideas for overall success (I'd only give one of these):
- young 16 year old warrior (F1?) is saved from the fire / stampede etc. and follows the PCs to the entrance of the mine and joins them [good for smaller # of players]
- town council loans them a minor magic item for saving the town (or gives for keeps if you are more generous with magic items)
- PCs capture a Kobold in the act of setting more fires and the Kobold gives up helpful info on #s in mine and type of creatures
- silver nugget for saving cattle

For failure, they'd lose the opportunity to get the reward above and I'd just describe the town in ruins, cattle driven off, some children and elderly dead from fires and stampede and leave it at that.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, it really looks like you've got three separate challenges (like three monsters in a fight!) so you could go with 3 successes 2 failures for each with each having some sort of individual award.

I like the idea of NPC help for the fires (I wouldn't go as far as a full fighter), information given for stopping the panicked mob, and a small cash reward for stopping the cows.

Failure will result in no reward and a general "thanks for nothing" attitude.

Fitz

I'm really starting to like the idea of these skill challenges.

 

[Harr]

Here's some stuff that has helped me out, feel free to take or leave as sounds cool for you:

I would string these three sub-challenges together one after the other, and make like a running narrative of each thing as it happens. I would stay away from trying to have everything happening at once, as I find that when the challenge doesn't have a clear and well-communicated goal, my players usually fall into 'I have no idea what I'm supposed to do' territory. You always wanna be able to say 'what was the point again? oh right, the kid in the burning building'.

Also, unless it's an obvious do-it-or-die situation, I find it's good to straight-up just ask the players if they want to 'take the challenge' as it were, or just pass and do something else. 'You see a child screaming from the top of a building. You can take the challence of trying to help this kid get out alive, or you can keep walking and try to find somewhere else to help.' If they pass, they'll take consequences for doing so, maybe they have time to come back afterwards, maybe it'll be too late.

Hmm, another thing you could do is lay it all out and let them choose the order they want to tackle things in. Maybe they see a child in a burning building, a crazed alchemist running around screaming that his lab is going to explode, a herd of cattle rampaging through the streets, and a girl with her face burned off slowly dying in the gutter... Which one are they going after first, second, and so on? And, maybe they only have time to do three of those things, so they rescue the kid, heal the girl, and stop the cattle before the lab promptly blows up. Then each time they come to town, you could describe 'the big black crater, where the potion shop used to be.'

Regardless, I think it's important to the feel of the game to 1) let the players have a say in what they're going to choose to do and 2) not have them split up to do different things, but rather tackle each thing as a team and with a clear idea of what the objective is at any one time.

As for the results afterward, you should have a good idea of 'something good' that will happen if they fail, maybe giving them some mechanical reward, and 'something bad' that could happen if they fail, pass, or bail out on the challenge, but don't get too attached to the outcomes and try to improvise it out of the decisions of the players. Let the consequences be born out of the actions of the players.

In general I think 'something good' should come with a mechanical reward while something bad should just come with the lack of a reward or a reduced-reward (I would never give an out-an-out punishment)

Maybe if they save the potions lab, they can have some free healing potions, and if they let it blow up, they don't. If they save the girl, turns out she can lead them into the mine through a secret entrance that lets them get in undetected and have a surprise round in the first fight; if they let her die, they just have to go in the normal way. Maybe if they save the kid, their father will reward them with one of the magic weapons from the PHB Lite, and maybe if they steer the cattle away, the mayor is so grateful that he assigns his personal (non-heroic fighter-type) bodyguard to watch over them when they venture forth. Just in general things that would be nice to have but are not powerful enough to be deal makers or breakers.

Oh also give some XP at the end of each challenge, more if they did very good, and less if they didn't do that good (but don't not give any XP, that is discouraging, they should get something for at least trying).

Some other 'burning town' challengy things that can happen off the top of my head:

- Burning ceiling beams can come crashing down
- Your typical 'guy completely covered in flames running around and flailing'
- Smoke inhalation and poisoning
- a bank can have a small river of molten gold coming out of it
- a halfling or a dwarf can go down in a running mob and risk being trampled to death
- the party could possibly get blamed for setting the fire

There's lots of stuff you can do, but mostly I think you'll be better off just focusing on the three or four things that really catch your attention, then add whatever your players think of on top and see what comes out.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I'm going to try running 'Return of the Burning Plague' this weekend, but I'd like to start it off with a skill challenge similiar to Escape from Sembia. I'd like some suggestions.

...

If some way could be found to make success give them an advantage while inside the mine, that would be great.

Hm, what if you set up the adventure so that the party needs info from the villagers. "Rumors have been floating around about a strange [insert plot hook here] in the region, but the locals at nearby villages have proven strangely reticent - almost as if there was something they didn't want a group of adventurers nosing into. You approach the town of [name] hoping to find some way to endear yourself with the locals..."

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Anyway, potential good times:


-Flames are still spreading from house to house, although the confused townsfolk (at the direction of the equally confused local constable) are starting to carry buckets of water from a nearby well. The PCs can try to take charge of the situation to prevent half the town from getting torched.

-A small mob of villagers has surrounded the local inn, where three dragonborn mercenaries who had been passing through are holed up. The townsfolk accuse them of working with the kobolds, as much out of a general distrust for strangers as any racism towards dragonborn (although there are no dragonborn natives in the village). The party can try to talk down either group (mob or mercenaries), or get physical. It's up to you as DM if the mercs are actually guilty... I'd generally say that "yes" would be the more fun answer. ;-)

-A few particularly enterprising kobolds have stayed behind, lurking in the shadows and trying to take advantage of the chaos to rob the abandoned homes. A particularly perceptive player might see them and track them down; killing them is easy, since they're 1hp minions, but capturing and interrogating them might be more productive.

The fun part is that whichever order the players tackle these challenges, the others become easier or harder. Obviously if they get a bucket brigade going and get the fires under control, more villagers are available to deal with the other threats, and the constable might cool tempers with the mob at the inn. If they go for the inn first, that frees up other townsfolk to deal with the fire and kobolds. And if they take care of the kobolds, they might learn more info that proves the innocence or guilt of the mercenaries. And failure will have the opposite effect: people running around pell-mell getting in the way of whatever the party tries to do.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Here's some stuff that has helped me out, feel free to take or leave as sounds cool for you:

I would string these three sub-challenges together one after the other, and make like a running narrative of each thing as it happens. I would stay away from trying to have everything happening at once, as I find that when the challenge doesn't have a clear and well-communicated goal, my players usually fall into 'I have no idea what I'm supposed to do' territory. You always wanna be able to say 'what was the point again? oh right, the kid in the burning building'.

I am a little worried about how to juggle six players at once if they're done sequentially. It seems like the first few players to think of something will solve the problem on their own, then move to the next problem and solve it on their own.

Also, unless it's an obvious do-it-or-die situation, I find it's good to straight-up just ask the players if they want to 'take the challenge' as it were, or just pass and do something else. 'You see a child screaming from the top of a building. You can take the challenge of trying to help this kid get out alive, or you can keep walking and try to find somewhere else to help.' If they pass, they'll take consequences for doing so, maybe they have time to come back afterwards, maybe it'll be too late.

Hardly a choice for heroes!

Hmm, another thing you could do is lay it all out and let them choose the order they want to tackle things in. Maybe they see a child in a burning building, a crazed alchemist running around screaming that his lab is going to explode, a herd of cattle rampaging through the streets, and a girl with her face burned off slowly dying in the gutter... Which one are they going after first, second, and so on? And, maybe they only have time to do three of those things, so they rescue the kid, heal the girl, and stop the cattle before the lab promptly blows up. Then each time they come to town, you could describe 'the big black crater, where the potion shop used to be.'

Regardless, I think it's important to the feel of the game to 1) let the players have a say in what they're going to choose to do and 2) not have them split up to do different things, but rather tackle each thing as a team and with a clear idea of what the objective is at any one time.

Well you have some good points. I'll think about it. I'm just not sure I can reasonably require enough successes on a single challenge to ensure that everybody gets to make multiple skill rolls. With 5 or 6 PCs, that will be a lot of rolls!

 

[LostSoul]

I don't think you really need to plan things out too much. Just have a dynamic, interesting situation that the PCs have to deal with. "The town is burning, what are you going to do?" is a good one.

The DCs for 1st level PCs are 10/15/20.

As the skills are rolled, narrate successes based on how successful use of that skill contributes to the overall goal. A successful History check might mean that the PC remembers an old well that can be used. Get creative.

Failures can be narrated taking the check into account. You can also complicate things using time. For the History test failure might mean that the PCs head over to the old well, only to find it bone dry, while all around them the flames approach.

 

[Harr]

Hardly a choice for heroes!

Haha, totally right... but even when it's a moot point, just the ritual giving of a choice brings up an investment from the players. It's a psychological thing, if you just assume they're going to want to help, you can trigger a 'pfft, well what if we dont wanna help??' By getting them to say yeah we wanna help, you get them to buy into it, which goes a ways into them seeing the thing through.

Mostly I agree with LostSoul here, even though I had fun coming up with a super complex scenario up above, if it's the first challenge for you guys, the best, *best* thing for you to do I think is to keep it simple. The town is burning Fighter. People are dying. What do you do? The town is burning, Wizard. What do you do?

The story of exactly what's happening and where can just as easily be painted out of what they decide to do, than planned ahead. It's enough just to have the different bits of color in this thread floating around in your head and just tossing them in as seems cool in the moment.