Skill Challenges - good/creative ideas and uses?
- Thread starter NewJeffCT
- Start date
LostSoul
Adventurer
My suggestion for the "reputation" challenge would be something like this:
DM: You can increase or lower your reputation based on your actions. It'll be a skill challenge. I'll tell you when your actions will feed into this challenge; otherwise, let's just play.
I'd leave it open - sitting in the background - and look for times when PCs take actions that feed into it. Players who are interested will take actions to increase their rep.
I'd make the "Romance Challenge" something on its own. There's potentially a three-way conflict there; the girl wants the PC, the father wants (something), and the PC wants something else. This could be interesting since each roll would have the potential to change the situation in major ways.
I'll write more - 3rd period has just started.
edit: Canada wins soundly, well done.
So, the romance challenge. I'd keep track of two challenges here, either of which may be nullified by the actions of the PC. Give the girl Complexity 1 before she sees things the PC's way, and the same thing for her father.
Let's say the girl likes the PC because she's a rebel and she wants a bad boy adventurer to upset her father. The father, on the other hand, wants a stable guy who will treat his daughter well.
The PC might ask the father for permission to take the daughter out. This would trigger a roll from the PC. Now the girl, who likes rebels, won't like that approach, so she might turn up her nose at the PC at this point! But if he fails that roll and decides to sneak the daughter out, well, she'll like that - but if he gets caught, what will he do then?
That's what I mean by the situation changing on each roll.
DM: You can increase or lower your reputation based on your actions. It'll be a skill challenge. I'll tell you when your actions will feed into this challenge; otherwise, let's just play.
I'd leave it open - sitting in the background - and look for times when PCs take actions that feed into it. Players who are interested will take actions to increase their rep.
I'd make the "Romance Challenge" something on its own. There's potentially a three-way conflict there; the girl wants the PC, the father wants (something), and the PC wants something else. This could be interesting since each roll would have the potential to change the situation in major ways.
I'll write more - 3rd period has just started.
edit: Canada wins soundly, well done.
So, the romance challenge. I'd keep track of two challenges here, either of which may be nullified by the actions of the PC. Give the girl Complexity 1 before she sees things the PC's way, and the same thing for her father.
Let's say the girl likes the PC because she's a rebel and she wants a bad boy adventurer to upset her father. The father, on the other hand, wants a stable guy who will treat his daughter well.
The PC might ask the father for permission to take the daughter out. This would trigger a roll from the PC. Now the girl, who likes rebels, won't like that approach, so she might turn up her nose at the PC at this point! But if he fails that roll and decides to sneak the daughter out, well, she'll like that - but if he gets caught, what will he do then?
That's what I mean by the situation changing on each roll.
Last edited:
Pseudopsyche
First Post
As DMG2 observes, announcing a skill challenge can break immersion, but it can also help players who aren't sure what they're supposed to be doing. It advises announcing if your players could use some mechanical guidance.
I definitely prefer not to announce.
I think the players need to be given some sort of signal that they are in a part of the game where they have to play the mechanical aspects of their characters - D&D players are used to making that assumption automatically when physical conflict seems imminent, but might be less used to that for non-combat situations.
Related to this, you need to send some sort of signal that the players are expected to be creative in using their PCs' skills, and that as a result the ingame situation is (at least partly) under their control (eg if they use Acrobatics in the romancing-the-daughter skill challenge to jump through the window as the father is knocking on the door, then they are choosing to take the game in a direction where their wooing of the daughter is at the expense of the father, whereas if they use Diplomacy to achieve a reconciliation between PC, daughter and father - perhaps at a higher DC - they are taking the game in a less conflict-oriented direction). Otherwise I think many D&D players might be tempted to look for the script, or assume that their is a script, and simply try to follow it, and thus not get maximum fun out of the skill challenge.
It's a matter of taste, I guess.
I never announce them. Note that I'm mostly making skill challenges up as I go.
I don't much care for preparing them in advance. Anything beyond a rough outline will result in something too constrictive.
Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
I ran a skill challenge mixed with combat yesterday.
The setup:
The party is in a swamp where some vampire has performed a ritual centered on an obelisk. 4 sacrifices are bound to the obelisk, and their blood is powering the ritual. Their souls are being tormented and slowly ... "thinned" to fuel the ritual. The blood is entirely symbolic and it is regenerated as part of the ritual. Their bodies are beyond the turning point to death.
The ritual's actual effect is that it protects the Vampire and others of his kind from the effects of the sun _and_ it makes creating new undeads considerably easier (and cheaper).
The PCs have overpowered the Vampires and other undeads guarding the Obelisk, and they found a description of the ritual. Unfortunately, aside from some notes scribbled on the sides, the script is unreadable for them, written in Abyssal.
But the ritual book also contains a few traditional rituals, among them Comprehend Languages. None of the players are Ritual Casters, but the Warlord is a multiclassed Wizard, so he is well trained in Arcana. He determines he could try to bring down the ritual, even if it poses some risks - the victims might be turned into undeads if he is not careful enough, and the rituals energy will discharge possibly uncontrolled in the area. To improve his chances, he first wants to try performing the Comprehend Languages ritual. In this context, I decided to make it a kind of "Micro Skill Challenge". he could try an Arcana check multiple times, but each time he failed, he'd need to spend a healing surge to try again, and 2 failures would be enough to make it impossible to try again.
The reward - aside from being able to read the detailed description was a "reliable" reroll as part of the actual challenge. "Reliable" means he could decide to reroll a check, and if the reroll fails, too, he can try again for his next check, until he finally succeeds with it.
The actual skill challenge required 8 successes before 4 failures. The first 2 checks represented actually the major part of the ritual. Characters could use either Arcana or Religion for the ritual itself, and secondary skills were:
- Religion for gaining a +2 bonus to the next check. (No success or failure)
- Endurance. A player character succeeding this check could try to "attract" one of the energy strikes from the breaking ritual. A succesful check indicates that they manage to endure the pain long enough to absorb the entire blast, though this dealt moderate damage (1d8+5 necrotic and radiant damage).
The Warlord felt the presence of undeads in the area approaching the Obelisk and warned his comrades. On the third "round" of the ritual, actual combat started, as some Swamp Ghouls (basically normal Ghouls with Swamp Walk, people that drowned in the swamp) arrived. The Ranger and the Fighter moved to defend the Warlord. The first batch of Ghuls was quickly dispatched thanks to the Ranger's Bows.
This started the final stage of the encounter. Anyone performing the counter-ritual could attempt a Arcana (or Religion) Check as either a minor (Hard DC) or as a standard action (Moderate DC). A succesful check also meant that the PC could direct one of the energy spikes, making an Intelligence +3 attack vs Reflex, dealing 1d8+INT radiant and necrotic damage.
Endurance and Religion could be used as mentioned before, requiring a minor action each.
More and more undead arrived, including some tougher ones (the first batch was merely minions), and the PCs had an additional constraint - The Arcana Check could only be made within a certain distance of the Obelisk, and the Ghouls all have grabbing attacks... Their goal was to drag the ritual caster off the area. Each round they made no arcana check, they would gain one failure.
There were basically three possibly end results:
Success: The ritual ends and the victims die naturally, the undead in the immediate area are destroyed.
Failure: The ritual does not end, OR the victims rise as undead. This result could only be achieved if some Endurance check succeeded. Basically, every energy spike not directed by the caster or absorbed by his comrades would hit the victims. Every 2 successes would also free one victim.
Failure (Total): Ritual does not end, the victims rise as undead.
The PCs succeeded with 8 successes and 2 failures. The reroll saved them... The Warlord was grabbed multiple times, but only once did a Ghoul actually manage to drag him off. (But not far enough to get out yet.) Thankfully, he wasn't grabbed by the non-Minions, that could have ended badly...
The setup:
The party is in a swamp where some vampire has performed a ritual centered on an obelisk. 4 sacrifices are bound to the obelisk, and their blood is powering the ritual. Their souls are being tormented and slowly ... "thinned" to fuel the ritual. The blood is entirely symbolic and it is regenerated as part of the ritual. Their bodies are beyond the turning point to death.
The ritual's actual effect is that it protects the Vampire and others of his kind from the effects of the sun _and_ it makes creating new undeads considerably easier (and cheaper).
The PCs have overpowered the Vampires and other undeads guarding the Obelisk, and they found a description of the ritual. Unfortunately, aside from some notes scribbled on the sides, the script is unreadable for them, written in Abyssal.
But the ritual book also contains a few traditional rituals, among them Comprehend Languages. None of the players are Ritual Casters, but the Warlord is a multiclassed Wizard, so he is well trained in Arcana. He determines he could try to bring down the ritual, even if it poses some risks - the victims might be turned into undeads if he is not careful enough, and the rituals energy will discharge possibly uncontrolled in the area. To improve his chances, he first wants to try performing the Comprehend Languages ritual. In this context, I decided to make it a kind of "Micro Skill Challenge". he could try an Arcana check multiple times, but each time he failed, he'd need to spend a healing surge to try again, and 2 failures would be enough to make it impossible to try again.
The reward - aside from being able to read the detailed description was a "reliable" reroll as part of the actual challenge. "Reliable" means he could decide to reroll a check, and if the reroll fails, too, he can try again for his next check, until he finally succeeds with it.
The actual skill challenge required 8 successes before 4 failures. The first 2 checks represented actually the major part of the ritual. Characters could use either Arcana or Religion for the ritual itself, and secondary skills were:
- Religion for gaining a +2 bonus to the next check. (No success or failure)
- Endurance. A player character succeeding this check could try to "attract" one of the energy strikes from the breaking ritual. A succesful check indicates that they manage to endure the pain long enough to absorb the entire blast, though this dealt moderate damage (1d8+5 necrotic and radiant damage).
The Warlord felt the presence of undeads in the area approaching the Obelisk and warned his comrades. On the third "round" of the ritual, actual combat started, as some Swamp Ghouls (basically normal Ghouls with Swamp Walk, people that drowned in the swamp) arrived. The Ranger and the Fighter moved to defend the Warlord. The first batch of Ghuls was quickly dispatched thanks to the Ranger's Bows.
This started the final stage of the encounter. Anyone performing the counter-ritual could attempt a Arcana (or Religion) Check as either a minor (Hard DC) or as a standard action (Moderate DC). A succesful check also meant that the PC could direct one of the energy spikes, making an Intelligence +3 attack vs Reflex, dealing 1d8+INT radiant and necrotic damage.
Endurance and Religion could be used as mentioned before, requiring a minor action each.
More and more undead arrived, including some tougher ones (the first batch was merely minions), and the PCs had an additional constraint - The Arcana Check could only be made within a certain distance of the Obelisk, and the Ghouls all have grabbing attacks... Their goal was to drag the ritual caster off the area. Each round they made no arcana check, they would gain one failure.
There were basically three possibly end results:
Success: The ritual ends and the victims die naturally, the undead in the immediate area are destroyed.
Failure: The ritual does not end, OR the victims rise as undead. This result could only be achieved if some Endurance check succeeded. Basically, every energy spike not directed by the caster or absorbed by his comrades would hit the victims. Every 2 successes would also free one victim.
Failure (Total): Ritual does not end, the victims rise as undead.
The PCs succeeded with 8 successes and 2 failures. The reroll saved them... The Warlord was grabbed multiple times, but only once did a Ghoul actually manage to drag him off. (But not far enough to get out yet.) Thankfully, he wasn't grabbed by the non-Minions, that could have ended badly...
