Stalker's Obsidian Skill Challenge in Play...

[Nebulous]

i've used Obsidian twice and thought it was better than the default system, but i'm still just not comfortable with skill challenges, period. When using the Obsidian system i told the players which skills they could use for a social challenge, but they STILL wanted to use anything else they had high ranks in! And argued against this. "Why can't I use Intimidate here? Why an autofailure, it's my best skill!" "Why can't i use Perception?" "How about Aiding another?"

I think i'll still make it more freeform in the future. i've read through all the DMG 2 challenge examples and for the most part they look like a pain in the butt that requires me to do a considerable amount of "homework" to make it flow smoothly. I really think the key is knowing what you want to happen and ad-hocing the results on the fly, invisibly, so the players don't know. Which can be hard to do.

 

[CapnZapp]

One of the best parts about Obsidian is that there is no "aid another".

(Getting to do an aid another is broken not because of the +2 - even though getting an almost-automatic +8 IS utterly broken in its own regard - but because it means you're not taking a risk yourself that round. Aiding another simply isn't heroic or dramatic.)

I love how Obsidian explicitly is balanced around the fact everybody needs to make relevant skill checks, even if they don't stand a particularly good chance of succeeding.

Of course, this all depends now how the system then isn't penalizing failure (there is no counting up the failures):

Having to make a check in a skill you're not great at isn't a punishment - it's an opportunity to shine despite the odds!

 

[Nebulous]

One of the best parts about Obsidian is that there is no "aid another".

(Getting to do an aid another is broken not because of the +2 - even though getting an almost-automatic +8 IS utterly broken in its own regard - but because it means you're not taking a risk yourself that round. Aiding another simply isn't heroic or dramatic.)

I love how Obsidian explicitly is balanced around the fact everybody needs to make relevant skill checks, even if they don't stand a particularly good chance of succeeding.

Of course, this all depends now how the system then isn't penalizing failure (there is no counting up the failures):

Having to make a check in a skill you're not great at isn't a punishment - it's an opportunity to shine despite the odds!

I tend to agree with you, but i had some players express particular dislike because of those very traits. What i most liked is how Obsidian forced people to be creative with their skills, but some of them wanted to be creative with a skill i didn't tell them they could use. For example, they wanted to use Perception in a social challenge (because they had high ranks) to spot someone in the crowd, and then warp it into a Bluff (which they had crap ranks in) by saying, "Look! That person in the crowd is spying on you! So you better trust what we have to say in private."

Which i admit is creative, but abusing the rules. Maybe it was my group complaining/arguing more than the rules themselves that left a bad taste.

 

[CapnZapp]

Why not allow them to roll, but to (secretly) up the DC by five or so?

Yes, I think that if the SC devolves into bickering about which skills can be allowed then it's not going to work.

But that's not the way you should do it. Your job isn't to say "no, you can't do that". Your job is to assign various DCs (and not by setting a DC to 999, but by using your +/-2 and +/-5 tools in a friendly manner).

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

What I like about obsidian is its simplicity. I just need to know the target number for my party and I can make up everything else on the fly. Thay don;t even have to know they are in a challenge. But the system gives me some structure and a method for XP awards.

 

[ZEM Miles]

Hello!
This is a skill challenge that I ran today with a party of 5 level 3 PC-s. I used Obsidian SCS, without notifying PC-s that they have entered a skill challenge (although they realized it soon enough ). It went like this:

Prelude:
A group of adventurers has escaped a city overrun by greenskins. They are in the forest covered with snow and they have to reach closest settlement which will take them approximately 6 hours. Fearing goblinoid patrols on the road that leads to that settlement, they move carefully through forest while keeping the road in sight.

Skill challenge
Aim: To reach a settlement while avoiding attracting unwanted attention
Success: The party reaches their destination while the greenskin army is none the wiser
Partial success: They are attacked by a goblinoid party (and by drakes if they score badly in the 3. round) – L+1 encounter. The greenskin army will realize that there is a missing patrol and will be alerted.
Failure: They are ambushed by a goblinoid party (and by drakes if they score badly in the 3. round) – L+2 encounter. The greenskin army is aware of their presence and movement.

1. Round
The party follows the road, taking following actions:
- Shaman: looks for shards of wood to make snowshoes (Nature vs. normal DC = success)
- Assassin: makes snowshoes (Thievery vs. normal DC = fail)
- Warlord: keeps the pace of the march (Athletic vs. normal DC = success)
- Swordmage: attunes himself to feel the presence of magic (Arcane vs. normal DC = fail)
- Wizard: looks for any trails in the snow (Nature vs. normal DC = fail)

2. Round
The party almost runs into a bugbear campsite. They decide to circumvent it. Assassin uses a power that gives all of them his Stealth bonus. All 5 score a success. I gave them a +2 bonus to their rolls (although they didn't need it) since this is the appropriate skill for this round (Primary skill).
Alternative approach: If they decided to storm the campsite, which would be a L+2 encounter, they would have to make skill rolls in order to run away/hide from a patrol that would arrive to investigate the clatter.

3. Round
Based on trails of slime on the trees, the party realizes that they are in the territory of drakes. Not eager to engage them, they seek to leave their territory as quickly as possible:
- Shaman: looks for traces of drakes in order to avoid them (Nature vs. normal DC = success)
- Assassin: scouts around the party (Stealth vs. normal DC = success)
- Warlord: keeps the pace of the march (Athletic vs. normal DC = fail)
- Swordmage: thinks of useful information about drakes and ways to fight them (History vs. hard DC = fail)
- Wizard: keeps the party on the right track towards their destination (Nature vs. normal DC = fail)
Alternative approach: If they decided seek out the drakes, they would have to roll skills in order to catch them by surprise.

The party has scored 9 successes of 8 required and thus succeeded in the skill challenge.

This is my second use of the Obsidian SCS, in other words it’s still new to me, and I would really like to read your comments on this skill challenge.
P.S. Hopefully, this is not yet a dead thread

 

[Jhaelen]

P.S. Hopefully, this is not yet a dead thread

Well it's only been 5 years... that is not dead which can eternal lie...!!!

 

[ZEM Miles]

Well it's only been 5 years... that is not dead which can eternal lie...!!!

Hahaha Well, for someone like, dunno, Cthulhu, that's nothing

So, anywhere I can post my skill challenge and get comments and perhaps a detailed analysis?