What kind of skills would make up this skill challenge? Negotiations with a Goblin?

[Ratinyourwalls]

So last session the PC's had cleansed a mine of Kobolds and chased it's sorcerer into the Goblin King's territory. After a rather rough fight they ended up killing her and leaving back to the village.

The Goblin King has kinda been irked by this. He doesn't like trespasser's into his territory and feels that the staff they took off of her body belonged to him. A few days later he responded by sending some of his boogeymen to kidnap a bunch of the townsfolk's kids.

Now the PC's could go into the Goblin King's swamp again, kill his forces, take his stuff, but that would be very time consuming and considering that the Goblin King isn't all that bad of a guy (compared to the other stuff that could move in on his territory afterwards...and he has helped the village in the past), so they want to go and try to negotiate for the kids back.

I'm going to run it as a skill challenge but...what can I do to spice it up a bit? I'm thinking at least part of this challenge will require some sort of game of chance with the Goblin King, but I'm not sure what else to throw in. Any advice?

 

[GreyICE]

Well I'd suggest that the goblins have orders to kill the humans on sight. So the party has to sneak in to get to his palace guards (or whatever, you know what I mean), get to him, and negotiate. That could involve:

1) Stealth and Nature for sneaking through the swamp. Nature probably to avoid being poisoned/hurt (lose healing surges, or gain a poison condition that has some nasty effect). Stealth to avoid patrols. If you gain the poison condition, Heal or Endurance to negate the effects (maybe have a mild/severe condition and Heal or Endurance lets characters downgrade the severe to mild).

2) If you encounter patrols, killing them will annoy the goblin king more (raise DCs on negotiation, make sure the PCs know this) so Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate to get out of it, or Athletics/Acrobatics to run away.

3) Optional encounter with some nasty beasties in the swamp. Perception to gain the drop on them, Nature to gain an advantage from the terrain (maybe lead them into a nasty mudpit so they give combat advantage and are slowed until they escape).

4) Other skills as applicable. The game with the king should be roleplayed, but History or Arcana could give bonuses (possibly make the game very difficult, then let them learn rules that make it easier from History/Arcana).

I think that gives us a challenge that involves:

Athletics/Acrobatics
Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate
Heal/Endurance
Nature
Stealth
Perception
Arcana/History

That should be enough to allow diverse rolls.

 

[Ferghis]

Perception to avoid the trap or Ambush that they laid for the party, Diplomacy or Intimidate to convince someone to take them to the Goblin King to talk, Diplomacy to convince the Goblin King to be open to talk about this, Insight to figure out that he really fears something else, Nature or History or both to figure out who or what he really fears, and then roleplayed negotiations to lay those fears to rest.

Baseline for failures: aside from the damage itself, being ambushed will make the Goblin King less prone to trusting the party's capabilities. Failing to convince the guy to take them to the GK will mean that the party will have to figure out how to get to him without assistance. Failing to convince the GK to talk might mean a fight to get his attention. Failing the insight check would mean that the later negotiations are penalized (the GK doesn't think the party can figure things out). Nature and History failures simply deprive the party of info that the GK didn't have, info that would make the negotiation at the end easier.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

...so they want to go and try to negotiate for the kids back.

This is how you negotiate with goblins.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpsYJrGb_yI]Negotiation Techniques - Fifth Element - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Ratinyourwalls]

Unfortunately my Player's idea of diplomacy is to invade the keep, demand the Goblin King release the kids...or he dies. So they ended up surrounded by literally dozens of the Goblin King's troops. They fought their way through some of them to the place where the kids were held, fought a boss, and split.

So, all that work for nothing =/

 

[Radiating Gnome]

That's often the case -- combat is the default solution to most problems in D&D, at least for most groups.

The antidote is consequences.

How will the Goblin King respond to the PC's actions? What's his next move? He's certainly not done -- the PCs have now delivered TWO insults to him -- first when they killed the kobold in his territory, and now they've assaulted his fortress and stolen his prisoners, denying him the recompense for the first insult.

- Hound them. Send raids and skirmishers and saboteurs into the human town to cause problems and keep the PCs from earning an extended rest.
- Attack the town while the PCs are absent. Kill the parents of the children and leave the PCs with a couple dozen orphans to take care of.
- Consider the goblin's revenge on the town a siege -- deny food and water to the town, attack anyone trying to get in or out.
- Send for help from Allies -- any hobgoblin cousins out there looking to burn a human village for the honor of goblinkind?
- Make sure the townsfolk know that what they are suffering is because of the actions of the PCs -- that he has been a good neighbor until they came along and caused problems, and if they will just turn over the PCs for punishment things can go back to normal.

-rg

 

[Mistwell]

I suggest you put this decision on the PCs and not the DM.

Tell them the situation, tell them it's a skill challenge, and ask them what they'd like to do.

Give them the freedom to come up with a plan, and the freedom to choose which skills to use to accomplish that plan. Then you react to what they do, and make decisions based roughly on 1) That makes perfect sense (+2 to the roll), or 2) OK that might work (normal roll), or 3) Uh, hmmm, that doesn't seem likely to succeed (-2 to the roll), and set a DC for the different kinds of tasks, and how many total successes are needed vs. failures, and then see if they succeed at it.

The consequences for failure are also in your control, of course.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I agree with [MENTION=150]Radiating Gnome[/MENTION], (and would xp him if i could) consequences can make even the most hack-happy heroes think twice. My players recently went back on their word on a deal with a master thief, and turned him over to the authorities. The then made a deal to reduce his jail time if he helped them on a mission. Given another opportunity to release him, they returned him to the cruel and abusive captain of the guard.

Eventually, this thief I going to become a problem for them. He has no reason to trust them now, and enough of a grudge to fuel quite a little revenge project.

Making your players feel as if their actions have lasting effects isn't just good story-telling, it's a good way to make things challenging for them. If every problem can't be solved by fireball or a two-handed sword, then they'll have to be much more prepared for a variety of circumstances.

Trit