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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8729321" data-attributes="member: 6696971">In one of the two Stonetop games I GM, the PCs are going to undertake a perilous journey through this primally-ensorcelled bog called Ferrier's Fen to locate the lair of and confront The Willow Witches. I'm going to make up what a possible moment of resolution might look for this perilous journey and 4eify the whole thing.  I'm going to use[USER=6785785]@hawkeyefan[/USER] 's PC.  He is The Judge of Stonetop which is kind of a Paladin of the Deity of Knowledge/Order/Civilization.So let us pretend this Stonetop game is 4e and its mid Paragon.  The PCs are level 15 lets say.The players:  "We're going to journey through The Ferrier's Fen to locate the lair of The Willow Witches."Me (GM):  "Ok, Level +2 (so level 17), Complexity 2 Skill Challenge (so that means they need 6 Successes before 3 Failures, they have 2 Secondary Skills available at DC 16, 5 Moderate DCs at 23, 1 Hard DC at 31)."1) I establish the first situation by framing the action, describing a provocative environment/scenario, foregrounding conflict, and telegraphing potential consequences.2) Players ask any clarifying questions (about environment, about conflict, about potential consequences) and I answer, firming up the situation.3)  They settle upon a course of action, marshal their resources and we resolve their action(s).4)  Rinse/repeat with changing/escalating situations.Now let us say we're well late in the Skill Challenge.  We're at 5 Successes and 1 Failure.  I've already used the Hard DC of 31 for the Skill Challenge.  They have 1 of their 2 Secondary Skills remaining.  This might be what a situation looks like here:GM:  "As you crest the enormous rise, the world drops away and below.  An expanse of dead grass pokes through a blanket of snow as far as the eye can see due East.  Through the light veil of mist, the frozen bog betrays the odd croaking of the pestilential Fenblight Toads that call this place home...perhaps worse still, it shows signs of eruption from underfoot.  The terrible Gliomor calls this place home and it is ever hungry...especially in the dead of winter when prey is light.To the northeast the ridgeline you're on skirts the bog after a long, exposed trek in the foul, frozen winds of this miserable place. There, a maze of thorny briars and the hungry fire midge swarms that call those elevations home would make for a particularly inhospitable hike.Regardless of your course, eventually, you'll get to willow trees on the eastern edge of the Fen all the same."The Judge:  "I think we'll chart a course straight across the frozen bog and steer clear of those briars, frozen winds, and fire midges of the ridgeline.  This Gliomor must be an abomination or a natural creature.  I'm studied in neither Dungeoneer nor Nature but I know of its legend.  I'll pull a tome from my pack and let the accumulated knowledge of the all of Aratis' scribes guide our way.  Surely we can identify one of its easy prey items, set food for it, and let it lunch while we traverse the frozen bog in peace."<Player uses Encounter Power Utility 2 Legend Lore to sub History for another knowledge check>They've got a 17 in History.  If they roll a 6 or better (the necessary DC 23), they've hit their 6 Successes and what the player has proposed comes to pass and we're at the Willow Trees in western Ferrier's Fen, the lair of The Willow Witches.If they get a 5 or less, we're at 5 Successes and 2 Failures and I'm depicting a complication that I telegraphed.  Perhaps the stories that the Judge knew where true and they baited the Gliomor perfectly...EXCEPT...the book wasn't aware that the Glimor has successfully multiplied since it was written!  There are two that haunt that frozen bog and the mate of the first one erupts out of the ground, everyone takes a Healing Surge worth of damage and we're in a level +4 Combat against a terrible Solo, its broodlings, an array of Difficult Terrain, Challenging Terrain, frozen bog Hazards and a giant hole (that the creature erupted from) with pestilential rot.Or perhaps they've navigated the Gliomor but the thick fog rolled in and they ventured well of course and onto thin ice and the den of the Fenblight Frogs.  All 3 PCs need to make a Saving Throw (at the end of an encounter when you've been exposed to a disease, make a ST to determine if you contract the disease).  Maybe one or more of them now have Fenblight.  Regardless, I'm now framing a new situation where they're on a thin ice sheet, threatened on all sides horizontally by Fenblight Toads, and threatened underfoot by imminent collapse of the ice sheet. If they can successfully navigate this final situation, that means 6 successes (the Win Con) so they'll pick their way eastward to the Willow Trees and we'll flash cut to the lair of the Willow Witches.If they fail, that means the Skill Challenge Loss Condition is met; 3 Failures.  In that case, I'm putting another thematically and situationally appropriate complication before them; perhaps a social challenge with a strange denizen from the swamp who fishes them out but demands the debt repaid with some company back at its eerie abode...perhaps a new small topographical challenge related to this not-quite-frozen lake where they have to get to shore before hypothermia...perhaps a Swarm (creature type in 4e which is a ton of a small thing) combat with Fenblight Toads in a very precarious thin ice sheet and freezing water situation.[HR][/HR]That is what the successfully executed loop of a 4e Skill Challenge looks like (and what pretty much all Closed Scene Conflict resolution looks like from Maelstrom Storytelling to Fate to Dogs in the Vineyard to Cortex+ etc; frame obstacle > decide on course of action > marshal resources > resolve > rinse/repeat until GM's scene budget is exhausted or player's scene budget is exhausted and win/loss con is met).</blockquote>

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