Comments on: Four Skill Challenge Tips

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:33:49 +0000

Not that hard. “He’s getting away with the jewels. If you can’t catch him before he goes to ground he’ll be much harder to catch later and your reputation as troubleshooters is going to take a major hit.”

“Is this a skill challenge?”

“A what now? He’s getting away. What are you doing about it?”

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:05:07 +0000

Okay I’m a bit confused.

“Make Rewards and Penalties Known

Skill challenges can quickly become boring if players don’t know what they are going to gain. ”

…

“First off, don’t tell your group it’s a skill challenge.”

Those two things seem pretty much opposites. How can you explain it’s a challenge w/rewards/penalties w/o telling them it’s a skill challenge.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:13:35 +0000

Another idea would be not to think of the outcome as failure/success, but success/even greater success. In other words, don’t penalize players for failing skill challenges, just proceed with the game as intended, but give them a bonus they wouldn’t have had otherwise – maybe an NPC helps out with the next fight, or permanent bonuses to knowledge checks in a certain town or part of town.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:09:40 +0000

I think the challenge in creating workable skill challenges lies in the reward/penalty to the PCs in either case of success or failure. It’s been stated in other places, but you can’t block the story if PC’s accrue failure, but a penalty must be given. For example, in my latest campaign, the PCs were in a skill challenge while trying to descend a cliff and their number of successes determined where they started on the map in the following encounter. Total success put them at the cliff bottom, but failures put them higher up and they’d have to climb down while a manticore took cheap shots at them.

By: Jon Adelson

Jon Adelson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:02:47 +0000

I’m not clear about how you make the rewards and penalties known when you are trying to take the storytelling approach. In the last tip, you suggest just wrapping the skill challenge into the story. Can you clarify how you would do that and still include the mechanics and make the penalties/rewards known?

By: Mike Shea

Mike Shea — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:06:31 +0000

That’s another good question. I think it can depend. I try to come up with some flashy storytelling way to signify the skills:

Those light of feet might avoid the beams of energy. Those strong of arm might succeed in crushing the gem from which the beams fire. Perhaps one knowledgeable in the arcane magics might decipher the powers held within.

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:41:45 +0000

This is gonna seem like a major noob question, but: How specific should a DM be regarding which skills are going to be used in a challenge? I’ve tried just listing them off at the beginning, I’ve tried being totally vague… I’m sure there’s a simple answer to this, I’ll just be damned if I can discover it.

By: Mike Shea

Mike Shea — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:55:37 +0000

They’re forced only if you force them. I suppose RPGA judges could be forced but any of the rest of us can do whatever we want with them. If you know the group, you can tailor a challenge to fit their playstyle. Feel free to experiment and make them in a way that fits your group the best. Remember the key rule: fun.

By: James

James — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:49:51 +0000

Thanks for the tips. I have also listened to the tome show in which skill challenges were discussed. I have ran into one of them in the Icy Spire adventure. This is the only one I had ran. It felt rather awkward and clunky. I will have to read that chapter again, but do you feel that they are being forced, or genuinely allow more fun in the game?

By: Paul W.

Paul W. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:01:04 +0000

Good Tips.

I think skill challenges get a lot of hate because they’re new and different. It didn’t help much that the rules as presented in the DMG were flawed to the point where they were nearly useless. The tips you give here go a long way to making skill challenges playable and fun.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about making rewards and penalties known at the outset of a skill challenge. Part of me feels like those elements should develop organically during play. Sometimes rewards and penalties are obvious – last session our group had to go through a skill challenge to prepare a fort before an orc army got there. We knew that if we failed the challenge, the fort wasn’t going to be secure.