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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Strack" data-source="post: 4885998" data-attributes="member: 71340">More challenge ideasHere are some of the things I think go into making a good skill challenge:1) The challenge has to be about something the players care about. A meaningless challenge is boring. The challenge should be related to the story you are telling.2) The players should have a chance to show off and be cool. A challenge that requires skills that none of the PCs are good at is not a good challenge. A challenge that lets one particular character shine, though, can be entertaining. One way to help this along is to present a general problem to the players, but let them decide how to approach it. They will usually choose an approach that plays to their own strengths.3) You should have a meaningful result for both victory and defeat. A challenge that requires success is a bad challenge, because it means that the GM cannot allow the players to fail. "Succeed or die" is a bad challenge. "Succeed or you can't find the dungeon" is another bad challenge.A good challenge might be: "Succeed and you get to ambush the bad guys, otherwise they ambush you." Another good challenge is "Succeed and you catch the bad guy before he commits the murder: then you fight. Fail and he kills before you catch him: then you fight."Successful challenges can also give them bonuses: "Succeed and you get some extra healing magic to get you through the hard part of the dungeons. Fail and you get nothing"Challenges can force them to take an unpleasant alternative that still moves the adventure forward: "Succeed and you find your own way into the castle. Fail and you have to turn to the thieves guild to get you in, and now you owe them a favor."4) You should "prepare to improvise". Jot down some notes on what might happen for individual skill check successes and failures in a challenge. Once you've done it for while, it gets easier to make things up on the fly. Be prepared to respond to whatever crazy scheme your players come up with, even if it means pitching out you notes. Remember: the PCs just have to achieve the goal. How they get there is not so important.5) Let the dice decide how things turn out. This is part of "saying yes" to the players. When your player comes up with an idea that you think is clever or stupid, don't judge for yourself. If the dice roll well, it was a good idea. If the dice roll poorly, it was a bad idea, or the PC got unlucky and there was some unforeseen problem. If the roll was good and you can't possibly see how what the PC was doing will help, make the *player* tell you how the result was helpful.</blockquote>

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