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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jasonbostwick" data-source="post: 4378443" data-attributes="member: 34924">Stalker, I've got more data points for you.I've used the Obsidian system in a campaign I've been running with three players, two of whom were completely new to roleplaying. I've run one skill challenge in each of the two sessions I've run.A few general comments: The system was incredibly easy for the players (old and new) to grasp, and the simplified mechanics were a real boon to roleplaying. They weren't struggling with modifiers or an overload of choices like they did in combat, and it flowed like a straight role playing scene with the dice rolls providing structure.The target numbers (DC and successes needed) felt very fair, in a party that was not especially optimized as far as skills were concerned. The first challenge: Sneak through the CityLevel 1; DC 18; Physical (mostly)The PCs had to find their way through the Warrens (the slums of Ptolus) without being detected by the City Watch or any of the street gangs.Primary skill was Streetwise, although the +2 bonus made it somewhat boring for the player whose Warlord was trained in it, as he had little mechanical benefit to trying anything else. I think I might try changing the primary skill like Skud did, it provides some interesting variance.I mentioned how the skill checks could also represent actions to aid fellow party members, rather than contributing directly to the task at hand, and my players really picked up on it.The ranger succeeded on a Stealth Check, and the player described his character walking around the party, tightening their armor straps and tucking their coin purses into their pockets so they would make less noise.The system also gave a lot of narrative freedom to my players, something that I was really hoping for. One of the newer players described his Paladin hearing some rustling down an alley they passed and a can being knocked over, and rolled an initiative check to place his hand the handle of his axe threateningly. I was really trying to encourage creativity, so I allowed it and described an old crone in the gutter, her pleas for assistance quickly cut off in fear before they gave the party away.The party succeeded admirably, with only two failures. The skill challenge was followed up by a combat challenge against a street thug and his two hounds. As a reward for their success, the players were allowed the freedom to position their characters anywhere on the map they liked before the encounter, in addition to being given a surprise round. Partial success would have given them only the surprise round, but a tougher fight, and a failure would have had them ambushed by a larger group of thugs.The second challenge: Bribe the DocksmasterLevel 1; DC 18; Social (mostly)The party needed to find out what dock a ship they were interested in raiding would be moored at, and needed to ply the Docksmaster for the information without provoking his guards.The Primary skill was Diplomacy, and as the characters had done a bit of snooping around to find out that the Docksmaster had a penchant for fine chocolates, their initial bribe gave them all +1 bonuses in the first round.This skill challenge didn't run quite as smoothly as the first, mostly due to the differences in roleplaying a social encounter - mechanically, it worked just as well. I found structuring a conversation into three rounds, and giving each player something to do in those rounds to be a bit more difficult than applying the same system to a physical encounter.The +2 bonus to Diplomacy as a primary skill was a bit of a damper on roleplaying, as it affected the same player it did in the first encounter. Once again, he didn't really get to be as creative with his Warlord's actions.The Warlord and Paladin played Good Cop/Bad Cop alternating Diplomacy and Intimidate, with middling success. I didn't feel that it was necessary to penalize the Intimidate checks, but had the encounter ended in a failure, it would have caused the situation to devolve quickly into combat with the guards. The Ranger had no social skills, and seeing that the challenge would not be won without his contributions, decided to try and use Stealth. In a standard diplomatic encounter, I would have ruled against this, but they were speaking to the Docksmaster through a locked door. He was able to sneak around the building, enter a window, and pilfer the ledgers with the information they needed.The party had barely achieved a victory, and it showed me the need to not lock down anything until all the rolls had been made.</blockquote>

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