Skill challenges in Keep on the Shadowfell

[Asmor]

First give them a chance on their own. A lot of times, players are just begging to know things. The moment you mention a strange symbol, a lot of experience players will say "I get a 23 on my arcana check, can I recognize it?" without even asking you if arcana's applicable!

If they don't do that on their own, ask them to roll it. It's not necessarily a conscious activity to try and figure out what a symbol is. It's a reasonable assumption that the character, upon seeing the symbol, either instantly recognizes it or does not. Whether they recognize it or not is based on an arcana or religion or whatever check.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

how do you prompt new players to realize they can use skills?

If you want to be subtle then I would suggest pointing out the specific item/situation in a more detailed fashion in comparison to the rest of your description of any given area.

If you dont care about subtlety and verisimilitude to that extent, then you can just say roll a XXXX check.

 

[Nytmare]

There is one posted on the wizards site that changes the final encounter of the module.

Why can't I find this anywhere?

 

[Asmor]

Why can't I find this anywhere?

Not to be too snarky, but because you didn't check very hard?

It's listed under features (that's where all the 4e previews have been going) and still on the front page, though it's on the sidebar as just a headline now. Here's a direct link: http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/20080522b

 

[Torchlyte]

I actually thought the suggested skill challenge for the final room is very good.............I know they were tight for space but prbably should have left it in.

It seems like a much better example of what they're trying to do than the Sir Keegan challenge.

I think the opposite; the new skill challenge seems pretty dumb to me.

I like the Sir Keegan one. Then again, I'm biased.

 

[Nytmare]

Not to be too snarky, but because you didn't check very hard?

Ah, how foolish of me. I spent all my time looking on the Keep of the Shadowfell page, the resources page, and the direct link to the Vicious Venues page, which (by the by) doesn't have a link to the Keep on the Shadowfell skill challenge.

[EDIT]On top of that, the direct link won't open for me in either Firefox or IE. *sigh*

 

[tombowings]

Ah, how foolish of me. I spent all my time looking on the Keep of the Shadowfell page, the resources page, and the direct link to the Vicious Venues page, which (by the by) doesn't have a link to the Keep on the Shadowfell skill challenge.

[EDIT]On top of that, the direct link won't open for me in either Firefox or IE. *sigh*

I'm running firefox and it's working just fine for me. Although that may have something to do with me using a Mac

 

[Nytmare]

I'm running firefox and it's working just fine for me. Although that may have something to do with me using a Mac

I haven't been able to pin down what it is, but ever since the big Gleemax upgrade I've got like a 1 in 4 chance of not being able to access a page at all. The rest of the time it just won't allow me to stay logged in to D&D Insider or the forums.

 

[Asmor]

Weird. Works fine for me and I'm using Firefox on a real computer.