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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5468548" data-attributes="member: 82106">I don't understand why a series of skill checks would make it less exciting. It might not make it more exciting but I'd prefer to at least be able to showcase the fact that I'm good at X, Y, or Z now and then. Sure you could make a couple skill checks and call it a day, but personally I find it more exciting when the players get to experience the trials and tribulations of the struggle with fate a bit and have some chances to decide if it is worth using up significant resources to change the course of things, etc. It is hard to do that with one or two tosses of the dice. Now, do I think the_jester's SCs are the best or exactly the way I would write them? Maybe they're a bit different in style. I'd probably structure them a little different, but I certainly think his examples are worthy of being SCs. Every group and every situation is a bit different, so it is rarely easy to criticize specific example SCs taken out of the context of the game and table they were designed for. DMing style makes a huge difference as well.Now, see, if I were say building the 'Get to the Island' SC, I'd probably make fighting the ghouls the failure consequence of the challenge and have the party make it to the island either way. That's just me though. The parameters of the challenge and its appropriateness? Seemed very solid to me. Likewise I'd probably do the 'Traverse the Swamp' a bit differently. I'd first of all probably expand the SC to include researching the route. This would involve some knowledge skills to come up with a map, references to landmarks, etc. Then I'd emphasize the ticking time clock. Each failure at any stage would represent time wasted getting to the ziggurat. Maybe the ritual goes off at the full moon, so you could describe the time passing day by day as the PCs move closer to the goal. Failures would then represent time wasted by losing the trail or a bad shortcut, or people becoming exhausted, mired in the mud, equipment being lost and needing to be recovered or replacements crafted, failure to spot a landmark, running into some lizard folk that could have been avoided (thus forcing the party to backtrack, fight, or spend time negotiating with them). Still, the structure of the thing is good and I have no doubt it was an entertaining and successful SC as written. Just different styles for different DMs.I don't doubt that the style some groups prefer isn't really conducive to using a lot of SCs. I get the impression that tactical encounters are something your fond of, so maybe these other out of combat type things are generally less exciting and you want them to be short and perfunctory. That's cool.</blockquote>

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