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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 4682392" data-attributes="member: 20323">First off, check out Travis' nifty homebrew rules. <a href="http://Obsidian Skill Challenge System" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/241440-stalker0s-obsidian-skill-challenge-system-new-version-1-2-a.html</a>Second, there's an interesting thread about portraying skill challenges over at the General Discussion Board.As far as designing really good skill challenges, I have 3 suggestions.(1) Create complex "skill terrain." A lot of feedback on 4e combat is how terrain makes the fight interesting - cover, hazards, obstacles to jump, fog, etc. To implement this in a skill challenge (besides making one skill harder than another), do as Travis suggests with partial victory conditions. Certain actions may impose conditions upon the PCs. At certain points they make opposed checks against an opponent. In a skill challenge where the PCs must make a choice provide multiple "victories" depending on what they choose.(2) Have a skill challenge evolve in response to a certain number of successes/failures (perhaps keyed to specific skills). One example is a successful skill check unlocking another skill's use (or a more advanced use of the same skill), but you can make it much more dynamic than that. For example, a failure with Endurance might cost you a healing surge while three successes with Endurance might change your victory conditions (instead of following the hag to her lair, you catch up with her en route).(3) Involve the players by letting them choose the level of risk they want to take (sort of like a PC fighting offensively/defensively or melee/ranged). If they make an Easy check it's not counted as a success and they provide another ally with +2 instead, but a failure doesn't count toward defeat. If they make a Medium check success or failure is treated normally. If they make a Hard check successfuly they gain a success and one of the party's existing failures is cancelled, but if they fail they get a failure and one of the party's existing successess is cancelled.</blockquote>

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