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Message: <blockquote data-quote="grickherder" data-source="post: 4395567" data-attributes="member: 68043">My friend N on the West Coast emailed me his AP for his skill challenge using Obsidian 1.1 that he inserted into Keep on the Shadowfell.  We were both planning on running investigation skill challenges.  Mine was good, but it sounds like his turned out awesome:Warning, Possible Keep on the Shadowfell SpoilersThe default skill challenge in KotS is to convince this guy to give you his magic sword.  Boring!!!  I changed it to figuring out who in the town was secretly part of the Orcus cult.  While the module actually specifies this, I chucked that as well.  Whomever the players accuse in the process of the skill challenge (assuming success in their rolls) is the guilty party (proved conclusively in a complete success, not proven or the person escapes on a partial and innocent on a failure).  I made a list of facts and gave a piece of informatin through RPing/dialogue even if they failed their skill roll.It was awesome.  They spend the first segment narrowing down their suspect list just like in your game. Their second was spent gathering information on those like liked for the crime.  The third segment was a feast in their honour for killing the goblin warlord, Irontooth (thanks for the idea of making the last segment be where everyone including all the suspects might be gathered together).  At this feast they had sort of a Agatha Christie style unveil going on.Until one player threw a bomb.  They had learned about different relationships and desires and whatnot of the different key townsfolk (I made them up as KotS is sorely lacking in this regard).  One of their suspects (the young priestess Linora of the local shrine) was in love with Lord Padreig's clarke, Weldly.  The lord himself, was getting on to his 50s and had no heir.  One of the PCs spent the whole day drinking with the mayor and so Lord Padreig was quite drunk by the time the feast even started and was also quite inclined to listen to the dwarven warrior's suggestions at this point.So the player had his dwarven warrior, a hero of Winterhaven and drinking buddy to the noble lord, convince Lord Padreig to declare his intention to take a new wife-- the young priestess.  He stands up and announces it.Kaboom!  What came out of the multi participant shouting match effectively exonerated the priestess and Weldly (in the eyes of the PCs), leaving the party looking at a local hunter/scout which was the last suspect to not be cleared.  While it also resulted in both the priestess and young Weldly losing their positions and being arrested as cultists, the Dwarf felt it was a price worth paying.At this point, they had almost enough success for a partial success.  In advance I told them that a partial success would mean they figure out who it is but either lack the proof to convince everyone else or the spy/cult leader escapes.  The 3rd to last player in the last segment then accuses her, outlines their case and the suspect makes a defense.  Unfortunately for the player (who failed the roll), the character who made the accusation was an Infernal Pact Warlock and it wasn't too hard in a town of people fearful of dark powers to shock everyone that the so-called heroes of winterhaven deal with the dark powers of the Abyss (or whereever one gets infernal power).  Then the guileless halfling rogue (PC, named Plucky), acting shocked at the implication himself, added a confirmation that his ally does indeed traffic with dark powers.A "conviction" at this point doesn't seem likely unless she can pull something off.  The 2nd to last player says that some piece of evidence is false and contradicts something she knows.  She makes a brilliantly high Arcana roll and pushes the results into a partial success.  The spy had been keeping a fake journal hidden away to be found in case she was ever suspected which would seem to exonerate her.  In it it outlined how she had left her homeland because of a repugnant arranged marriage to a foul and cold elf.  It portrayed her as a traggic hero who had been investigating the cult herself.  She masterfully acted angered when it was produced during the Warlock's accusation (the PCs had searched her house while she was away).  But the Arcana check!  She remembers that Elves do not practice arranged marriage!  Atleast not those in the Elven settlement the accused claimed to be from.  The journal was a fake!So the suspect bolted.  They only had a partial success and needed two more successes to make it complete.  But there was only one PC left to go.  An Elven Ranger who, suspecting that if the spy tried to escape, would go out the North Gate towards the ruined keep (the suspected base of operations for the cult).  The spy arrived at the gates, killed the guard there (most of the town and the guards had been called to the feast as a result of the ruckus there with the preistess, the clarke and druken Lord Padreig.  But the ranger was there.  The case was made for an athletics check to try to stop her from escaping.Natural 20.  Which in that system means two successes.  He just pulled off a complete success. The ranger lowers himself outside of the wall as the spy approaches and taking a position to hold the gates shut and keeping them from being pushed open, preventing her escape.  The rest of the party and 4 or 5 guards arrived.  Given the spy only had a small dagger, no armour and these were the heroes of Winterhaven who had bested Irontooth, she decided to give herself up.You were right though, prep work took a long time.  It took me quite a while to generate a list of contradictory facts for each character depending on who the PCs decided to go after as the guilty party.  And each time I gave a piece of information I had to go through my list and cross out ones that were too contradictory so the list gradually narrowed down to a single, cohesive answer.-------------------------One thing I'm definitely going to do is for any time the players need to figure out "who" as a skill challenge it won't be set in advance (or atleast only loosely).  It just works too well to have the guilty party result from the roleplaying that happens during the skill challenge.How would any of you feel about that as a player?  That the DM may change the answer depending on how you do in the skill challenge?  Would you feel like you actually didn't solve the mystery or does that not matter because you characters did?</blockquote>

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