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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 6181167" data-attributes="member: 1210">When you take the basic skill challenge framework and are willing to shake it like it a baby, it deforms into a variety of very useful frameworks. There are a ton of ways to make cool, engaging skill challenges that the entire party will take place in:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Challenges on a clock, where the party has x rounds to get as many successes as they can;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Traveling challenges, where each pc must make an appropriate check to avoid fatigue/losing healing surges/whatever;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Multi-stage challenges that engage a wide variety of skill and character options;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Undeclared skill challenges, where the pcs engage with the situation and the dm secretly tracks their successes and failures until a resolution is reached;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Frequent small and quick skill challenges designed for individual pcs to overcome (everyone gets his or her turn);</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Challenges with no traditional "3 failures and you're out";</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Challenges where there is a distinct advantage in finishing quickly.</li> </ul>I have found that skill challenges done well are a joy to run and fun to play, but done wrong, they're terrible. For my group- and I'm sure this varies by playstyle- the more the SC draws them out of the fiction, the worse of a SC it is, so I rarely announce them anymore- they usually figure out that they're in a skill challenge when someone notices me tracking successes and failures on dice. And I pretty much never give them a list of skills that they can use; I ask what they can do and adjudicate what an appropriate check and/or DC is, as well as the consequences of that success or failure.I think that one of the best things about skill challenges is that they provide a framework for determining when a non-combat encounter or event is worth xp.</blockquote>

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