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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5467630" data-attributes="member: 1210">Thanks! I bet it would too, just based on my firm belief that a good dm can take any system and make it sing given adequate experience and motivation, and on the fact that we seem to have considerable overlap in our playstyle preference.Back to the skill challenge discussion...I run a lot of skill challenges off the cuff; I am a firm believer that the pcs should be able to initiate a skill challenge through their actions when appropriate. (Sometimes they know they have done so, sometimes not so much). The reason I mention this is because the very first skill challenge I ran in 4e was initiated by the pcs and I don't have any details written down for it- basically, they stole a boat and attempted to escape a doomed city before the enemy fleet arrived and cut them off, but they failed it and were run aground on a mudflat and had to fight their way free across country.Which led, second session, to my first pre-written skill challenge:[sblock]Evading the Hand (Level 1 Skill Test- 100 XP/Character)    XP: 100 per character.    Setup: The pcs must evade the Six-Fingered Hand for a week to make it to the xvart tunnels, using their knowledge of the terrain and their skills at avoiding detection.     Level: 1.     Complexity: 5 (requires 12 successes before 3 failures).    Primary Skills: Athletics, Endurance, History, Nature, Perception, Stealth.    Athletics (DC 15): The character is able to push his companions on more quickly. They travel hard and fast.     Endurance (DC 15): If no pcs make a successful Endurance check in a given turn, everyone in the party loses a healing surge until the first extended rest after the skill test is completed.    History (DC 15): A character can use his knowledge of history to predict where the safer travel routes will be. Only one History check, successful or not, can be made during this skill challenge.     Nature (DC 15): A character can use his nature skills to aid the party by helping them travel along more hidden paths, as well as to help forage for the group along the way. If the pcs are out of food and no pcs make a successful Nature check in a given turn, everyone in the party loses one healing surge until the first extended rest after the skill test is completed.    Perception (DC 10): Using his perception skill, the character can spy the enemy before they spy him. This skill does not generate a success but can be used to aid the next character’s roll.    Stealth (DC 10): Obviously, using this skill helps prevent discovery.     Complications: After the party’s first failure on the skill challenge, they have the encounter entitled The Burned-Out Village. After that encounter, continue the skill challenge to its conclusion.    Success: The pcs reach the mountains, and the tunnel into it. Go to the encounter entitled Into the Mountain.    Failure: The pcs reach the mountains, but cannot find the tunnel. Go to the Deadly Cliff Dweller encounter. [/sblock]As you can see, this is a much 'stiffer' skill challenge, with much less built-in flexibility. The characters failed this challenge too, which left them exposed for another encounter before they finally found their way into the xvart territories beneath the mountains.  I now see this as a cardinal sin for skill challenges; failure should never simply mean an extra encounter. Note that both of these first two skill challenges used harder DCs, per the original DMG advice, which made them rather wonky.</blockquote>

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