Yeah, I'd be reluctant to do these as seperate challenges since it may feel a little artificial but just have "save the town from the chaos" as a goal. The sub-challenge successes would just be DM reference if helpful. I like some of the rewards put forth here as well. It's nice to see the flexibility in this system on what "success" and "failure" could mean.
Skill Challenge for Return of the Burning Plague
- Thread starter Wolfwood2
- Start date
OgreBane99
First Post
Hmmm... sounds similar to the "Save the City of Cauldron While the Volcano Explodes" chapter in The Shackled City campaign. When I ran the campaign, it was a blast.
If you were looking for some more examples there, check out that campaign book.
I'd go with...
-a mob of angry villagers seeking vengeance for the attack (accusing the wrong people). Could use social skills.
-save people from a burning building. Could use physical skills.
-follow the kobolds responsible for the attack back to their lair. Could use thievery skills.
If you were looking for some more examples there, check out that campaign book.
I'd go with...
-a mob of angry villagers seeking vengeance for the attack (accusing the wrong people). Could use social skills.
-save people from a burning building. Could use physical skills.
-follow the kobolds responsible for the attack back to their lair. Could use thievery skills.
LostSoul
Adventurer
I think the best way to handle the skill challenges is to focus on the goal/the conflict. Let the skill checks the PCs make colour how things turn out. You can respond to things dynamically that way, and the end result will be something that no one expected. I find that things are awesome that way.
The reason why you'd want to do a lot of sub-challenges is a pacing issue. Do you want to spend a lot of time (and award a lot of XP) for saving the town? Zoom-in on a number of conflicts going on right now.
Important: each skill challenge should be its own conflict. I don't know if the current system will allow you to resolve a greater one ("Save the town") by adding up little ones. Whether or not the town is saved is up to the players to decide - that is, the players look at the outcomes of all the challenges, and ask themselves, did we do enough?
bert1000 said:
The reason why you'd want to do a lot of sub-challenges is a pacing issue. Do you want to spend a lot of time (and award a lot of XP) for saving the town? Zoom-in on a number of conflicts going on right now.
- The town is on fire. Can you put it out in time?
- A mob has formed outside the mayor's office. Will they lynch him?
- Cattle - the lifeblood of the town - are stampeding. Can you round them up, or will people starve?
Important: each skill challenge should be its own conflict. I don't know if the current system will allow you to resolve a greater one ("Save the town") by adding up little ones. Whether or not the town is saved is up to the players to decide - that is, the players look at the outcomes of all the challenges, and ask themselves, did we do enough?
LostSoul said:
Sure, the DM willing to put in more work can adjust the outcome.
If they stop the fire with no failures then only the one building was damaged and it was mostly superficial. The more failures they rack up, the more damage the town suffers until, with complete failure, a third of the town has been destroyed.
The more failures they rack up trying to stop the mob, the more damage the mayor's home and the mayor, of course, suffer. Complete success means minor damage to the facade, maybe a broken window, and a bloody nose for the mayor. Complete failure means the mob lynched the mayor, completely destroyed his home, and looted some of the shops in the village market.
For the stampede, more failures means more property damage before the cattle were rounded up with complete failure meaning the cattle tore up the street they were running down, damaging homes along it, tore down the gates and escaped into the area surrounding town. They'll do damage to the crops out there before they're rounded up over the course of a week and in the mean time their numbers will suffer due to predation by wild animals and kobolds.
Just adjudicating each scenario and describing the results should take an entire play session. If the players get lucky and breeze through their dice rolls and save the town they'll be lauded because what could have been utter disaster instead resulted in the urban equivalent of scrapes and bruises. If they fail horribly then a third of the town will be homeless and they'll all be leaderless and at risk of starvation if they don't round up the cattle, adding the possibility of a fourth skill session as the PCs now have the difficult task of convincing the townsmen to follow their leadership. Since the townsmen saw the PCs make the situation last night worse than it might otherwise have been, that would be a heck of a job. Failure could force them into the wilderness with no hope of succor and only a bunch of XP to console them.
Of course, this is all academic because Wolfwood doesn't want to do that.
