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Skill Challenges: Please stop
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5473647" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>I think the vast majority of challenges with skills can be handled via a few skill rolls and cut to the chase. Having said that, I do think that there are some elements that most good skill challenges have in common.</p><p></p><p>1) They have to involve all of the players. There should be at least 4 primary skills in them and the 4+ primary should be a mixture of at least two of the four types of physical, mental, awareness, and interactive skills.</p><p></p><p>2) They should be designed for the party makeup in mind. When the SC has Endurance and Religion as primary skills and one group has a Paladin with both of these two skills and nobody else has them, whereas the second group has a Fighter with Endurance and a Cleric with Religion, the SC is better designed for the second group than the first. Occasionally, one PC might be left out in the cold with regard to a primary skill, but that should be the exception, not the rule.</p><p></p><p>3) The SC should be pertinent to the overall adventure and exciting/new for the players. A lot of SCs that are used are more mundane like "sneaking into the town" or "trampsing through the swamp". These are less exciting uses of SCs. Yes, SCs can be used for that, but I think that SCs should be reserved for cool and interesting encounters, not more mundane ones. It's possible to run more mundane SCs at lower levels and more exotic ones at higher levels once the PC's skills start to really improve, but mundane uses of SCs can be boring at low level as well. Exotic SCs should trump mundane SCs because the former is interesting whereas the latter can be boring.</p><p></p><p>4) SCs should not be used for one specific obstacle of one specific type. For example, they shouldn't be used to climb a cliff. Or cross a river. Or bribe the guard. These should be handled with a few dice rolls. Move on.</p><p></p><p>5) SCs should not be used just to have X number of SCs per level.</p><p></p><p>6) SCs should have a significant penalty for failure.</p><p></p><p>7) SCs should be doable. Since they shouldn't be used a lot, the average dice roll of 10 or even as high as 12 for a primary skill should succeed for most primary skills.</p><p></p><p>8) The number of dice rolls in SCs should be relatively short. The 12 successes before 3 failures model should rarely be used. 6 successes before 3 failures is better. 9 successes before 3 failures is 11 rolls max for 5 players or 2 per player. That should be the upper end. The roleplaying aspect of SCs can be lengthy, but the number of rolls until success or failure should be relatively few.</p><p></p><p>9) SCs should be rewarded with XP. If it's important enough to have an SC, it's important enough to reward.</p><p></p><p>10) SCs should have few Aid Another opportunities. If there are enough primary skills to go around, then most every player has something to do other than just try to help out someone else to shine. Aid Another should be possible in most SCs, but it shouldn't be the only option for some of the players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 5473647, member: 2011"] I think the vast majority of challenges with skills can be handled via a few skill rolls and cut to the chase. Having said that, I do think that there are some elements that most good skill challenges have in common. 1) They have to involve all of the players. There should be at least 4 primary skills in them and the 4+ primary should be a mixture of at least two of the four types of physical, mental, awareness, and interactive skills. 2) They should be designed for the party makeup in mind. When the SC has Endurance and Religion as primary skills and one group has a Paladin with both of these two skills and nobody else has them, whereas the second group has a Fighter with Endurance and a Cleric with Religion, the SC is better designed for the second group than the first. Occasionally, one PC might be left out in the cold with regard to a primary skill, but that should be the exception, not the rule. 3) The SC should be pertinent to the overall adventure and exciting/new for the players. A lot of SCs that are used are more mundane like "sneaking into the town" or "trampsing through the swamp". These are less exciting uses of SCs. Yes, SCs can be used for that, but I think that SCs should be reserved for cool and interesting encounters, not more mundane ones. It's possible to run more mundane SCs at lower levels and more exotic ones at higher levels once the PC's skills start to really improve, but mundane uses of SCs can be boring at low level as well. Exotic SCs should trump mundane SCs because the former is interesting whereas the latter can be boring. 4) SCs should not be used for one specific obstacle of one specific type. For example, they shouldn't be used to climb a cliff. Or cross a river. Or bribe the guard. These should be handled with a few dice rolls. Move on. 5) SCs should not be used just to have X number of SCs per level. 6) SCs should have a significant penalty for failure. 7) SCs should be doable. Since they shouldn't be used a lot, the average dice roll of 10 or even as high as 12 for a primary skill should succeed for most primary skills. 8) The number of dice rolls in SCs should be relatively short. The 12 successes before 3 failures model should rarely be used. 6 successes before 3 failures is better. 9 successes before 3 failures is 11 rolls max for 5 players or 2 per player. That should be the upper end. The roleplaying aspect of SCs can be lengthy, but the number of rolls until success or failure should be relatively few. 9) SCs should be rewarded with XP. If it's important enough to have an SC, it's important enough to reward. 10) SCs should have few Aid Another opportunities. If there are enough primary skills to go around, then most every player has something to do other than just try to help out someone else to shine. Aid Another should be possible in most SCs, but it shouldn't be the only option for some of the players. [/QUOTE]
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