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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scud.NZ" data-source="post: 4429460" data-attributes="member: 73097">Finally got around to using Obsidian with my group last Wednesday after a number of weeks of combat (we only play about 2-3 hours per week) heavy sessions. I thought I'd post some observations.The group were trekking through moorland after an exceptionally heavy storm (this was how the PC's met, sheltering from the storm) and the mule that one of them was riding wandered into the bog. The PC avoided falling in. The Skill Challenge was a physical one; Rescue the Mule. Failure: Lose mule and its load. Partial Success: Lose a few items, save the mule. Success: Save everything. Primary Skill: Athletics.I'm in two minds about whether or not my party "liked" the encounter. They were (eventually) creative (even the mule's owner, who after a tantrum that would have Basil Fawlty thinking WTF! [replace mini with mule and you have the rough idea] got into the spirit of things, and decided he would pray for the mule - thinking outside the box, so I let him do it). How did it play out now?Round One: Mage tried to attach rope to mule using magic [Arcana]. Someone tried to look for a rock or something to attach the other end of the rope to [Dex check]. The ranger tried to calm the mule [Nature]. It started getting a little "How many people does it take to change a light bulb" around this point. The remaining three members of the party decided to try moving items off the mule to prevent it sinking further [Endurance - we figured they would be flailing around in the mud]. End Result -  1 Success [Calm the mule]. 5 Failures.Therein began a long discussion about whether or not this was roleplaying...I kind of got the impression that they didn't like it. I pointed out that Obsidian was an improvement on the RAW. I wanted to continue with it.Round Two: We had discussed during our break that suitable people needed to take on suitable roles. So they redistributed the jobs, the cleric started praying, but they didn't roll particularly well and again there was only one success I think.Round Three: I think the party were secretly resigned to losing the mule, but did their best to avoid it. Most were making the same checks as during the previous round, and a number of them used action points to reroll dice. Somehow they got the number of successes to earn a partial victory. Thoughts: Running the skill challenge was not a resounding success - a bit like the rescue attempt in that respect.  I got the impression that some of my players were cool with it, others didn't like it. Part of the problem I'm having running my game at the moment is that all the player have many, many years RP experience, so they generally work well together, and have "expectations". I think that those that didn't like it were primarily dissatisfied with the non-linear nature of the skill checks [how this affected what they regarded as "roleplaying" - bear in mind that for four weeks they've been in a dungeon and things have been combat heavy, so they want to roleplay rather than fight, which I can appreciate], and how difficult it seemed to get a success [DC 18 at level 1], even though I handed out a reasonable number of +2 bonuses.Outcome: I can sympathise with those players that seem to dislike skill challenges (not just Obsidian, but RAW too), as it is non-linear, real life problems do not break down into three easy rounds, it is different from anything they have come across before. I think I can work around their doubts, so I am not going to give up yet.The one thing we did decide on was to lower the DC by 1. I'm not too worried about this. All party members are human, my campaign rule, and whilst everyone is playing a different class, only two of the six players have any skill bonuses at +10, the rest have mainly +5 to +8 as their best bonus. So, I figured give them the break.Anyone got any suggestions on how they make skill challenges go smoothly?</blockquote>

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