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Message: <blockquote data-quote="OnlineDM" data-source="post: 5662347" data-attributes="member: 90804">First, let me say that the other replies on this thread are great.Second, I'll say that I don't track XP any more, which makes a structured skill challenge with structured rewards less important in my campaigns.Third, the way you should run a skill challenge depends on how much structure the challenge itself demands and how much structure your players need.With a fairly linear challenge (navigate these tunnels to find the bad guy, for instance), I'll run it as a series of scenes. - Wayfinding: The PCs need to use something like Dungeoneering to understand which tunnels are stable and which are dead ends, or Perception to detect the passage of bad guys, or History to see if they remember seeing any accounts of this cavern.- Pit: The tunnel continues on the far side of a pit. PCs could use Athletics to jump across or climb around, or perhaps Dungeoneering to look for an alternate passage. Once across, a PC could anchor a rope to help the others.- Ambush: The PCs spot some bad guys waiting in ambush for them. Perception to notice them ahead of time. Stealth to sneak by. Thievery to rig up a trap to drop rocks on them. And so on.In these situations, I present the scenes and then ask the party what they want to do. I'll have some skills that I think will work, but I'll let the players tell me how they want to overcome the challenge. If they come up with something cool (using skills or powers or whatever), I go with it. Each scene only requires one or two skill checks to overcome (occasionally a group check).Now, if the challenge itself is less structured, I might let the players allow it to evolve based on their ideas. Searching for information about a murder suspect might go in lots of different directions depending on what the PCs want to do. But even here, I prefer to have some scenes in mind. If you ask around at the local tavern, you might be told to check the abandoned lighthouse at the end of town since the suspect has been said to lay low there before. Once there, they'll have to figure out how to get inside, etc.Also, I like to intersperse real combats into skill challenges. You're navigating the wilderness, and at some point you'll have to fight some wild beasts. I'll probably trigger this after the first skill failure, and if the group doesn't fail at all, I'll trigger it at the end with a big advantage for the party (surprise round, plus their choice of battlefield position).I also like to have consequences for failure at individual scenes as well as the challenge overall. This will often be damage - you get jumped and have a brief fight that you win, but everyone loses a surge, or you lead the party into a rockslide area and everyone loses a surge, etc. But it can also be making the next check harder or presenting a new, more challenging scene.</blockquote>

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