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<blockquote data-quote="med stud" data-source="post: 4162684" data-attributes="member: 1211">A skill challenge might be a about getting an audience with a king or merchant lord in a short time span. The players know that the PCs are in the right place; they know that it takes a long time to get an audience the &quot;honest&quot; way. I will just ask the players: &quot;How do you do to get an audience?&quot; Then it's up to them to come up with ideas and what skills to use for those ideas and I will allow/veto usage of skills before they try. Using History to come up with an idea of what people traditionally hold power in courts? Works. Using Diplomacy and bribe an official? Easy check due to the bribe, works. Using Bluff to seduce the merchant lords daughter, making her put in a good word for the PCs? Hard check, high effect, disastrous if you fail, but it works. OTOH, using Athletics to show the merchant lord how good you climb? Doesn't work. Something like that.The nice thing here is that the players most likely will feel that they have accomplished something when they get the audience. A skill check takes 10 seconds to make and a series of straight up Diplomacy rolls is just boring. This way you can make a story out of this, creating a sense of dynamics. I also expect to get positively surprised by the players, making it fun for me as the DM.But, from what we know, skill challenges sounds like something you use when a situation is open ended enough. If you have one problem with one solution, there is no need to bring in everyone and try to force some contrived solution to the problem with a challenge. Climbing a wall? Use Athletics one at a time, you don't cross the wall until everyone make it. Picking a lock? One PC uses Thievery, the others can't contribute. Like it always has been, really.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="med stud, post: 4162684, member: 1211"] A skill challenge might be a about getting an audience with a king or merchant lord in a short time span. The players know that the PCs are in the right place; they know that it takes a long time to get an audience the "honest" way. I will just ask the players: "How do you do to get an audience?" Then it's up to them to come up with ideas and what skills to use for those ideas and I will allow/veto usage of skills before they try. Using History to come up with an idea of what people traditionally hold power in courts? Works. Using Diplomacy and bribe an official? Easy check due to the bribe, works. Using Bluff to seduce the merchant lords daughter, making her put in a good word for the PCs? Hard check, high effect, disastrous if you fail, but it works. OTOH, using Athletics to show the merchant lord how good you climb? Doesn't work. Something like that. The nice thing here is that the players most likely will feel that they have accomplished something when they get the audience. A skill check takes 10 seconds to make and a series of straight up Diplomacy rolls is just boring. This way you can make a story out of this, creating a sense of dynamics. I also expect to get positively surprised by the players, making it fun for me as the DM. But, from what we know, skill challenges sounds like something you use when a situation is open ended enough. If you have one problem with one solution, there is no need to bring in everyone and try to force some contrived solution to the problem with a challenge. Climbing a wall? Use Athletics one at a time, you don't cross the wall until everyone make it. Picking a lock? One PC uses Thievery, the others can't contribute. Like it always has been, really. [/QUOTE]

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