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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jbear" data-source="post: 4630890" data-attributes="member: 75065">Umm, good question. One I will have to look at more my game more closely to really come up with a good answer. The first thing that springs to mind though, is a more one phase situation skill challenge. With the Obsidian system its very easy to divide a series of events into the three phases of the challenge and make each part of the challenge different, i.e physical, social or mental or sometimes a mix of two kinds like social/mental because two differnet things are happening at once during that phase. This allows everyone to participate in the skill challenge and shine at different phases of it. The excitement building as a failure in the first phase makes everything that follows trickier, or vice versa. I can see this system filling a very nice slot where the skill challenge is a one off thing, or you want the action to move more slowly. Lets say Stalker0's Negotiation with the Duke: You don't really have three phases for it but it's important enough to run a skill challenge for, or you want to make it a special moment of its own as opposed to a fast-motion 3 phase Obsidian challenge where part 1 was sneaking into the Duke's bedroom in the dead of the night and waking him without alerting the guards. Phase 2 maybe convincing him not to scream, that his life is in danger, that he's surrounded by spies and he should meet you in a certain place at a certain time to go into hiding for a while, and phase 3 being an escape a different way that you came, being chased or not depending on your success or failure during the other two phases. If you wanted each phase to be more complicated or in depth you could just run 3 Obsidian challenges instead of the above phases, one after the other, now that I think about it.  But what if the PC's are doing something that only involves talking to the Duke, chilled out during the day, as a one off negotiation that doesn't slide so easily into a sequence of events but the favorable outcome is important, or it's something that you haven't been able to come up with an interesting way to divide into three phases.  Then you whip out this awesome system and its cool as well. My main group is very new, 5 sessions. So in that time I've only run 3 skill challenges. Got plenty more on the horizon though as the PC's race across Faerûn trying to reach Loudwater before winter sets in and the trade routes close down. As I have imagined them, they are all Obsidian system. When they reach town to try and quietly discover the identity of Renacuajo (Tadpole), the contact they have to find to deliver a mysterious scroll. I'm going to have Loudwater attacked as per Rescue at Rivenroar adventure path. The guards will have a prisoner that the pc's may or may not interrogate. Its a one off skill challenge that doesn't flow straight into other events. So this style skill challenge perhaps fits the build better. Also there are several ready made skill challenges offered by that adventure, as the heroes travel from the city to the villains lair for example. If you haven't had time to prepare you're own version, this system is far more similar to the official Skill system and perhaps easier to adjust the ready made challenge to on the fly.Again I need to take a closer look with the material in front of me. I might be totally wrong. I'm sure as my groups progress more situations will arise. But both system are brilliant... if I knew how to give xp I would have given a stack to Stalker0 by now!!!</blockquote>

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