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Chaosforge 4e PBF - OOC
thelaptop:
That's fine O mighty DM. =)
S.K. Ren:
NP. I'll just be here, hitting the new replies button...
Malek Deneith:
So for those not in the know what I did when running that chase with Isirius was play a fast-and-loose version of something that 4e calls a "Skill Challenge". What are those? Well in theory a Skill Challenge is supposed to be a kind-of non combat encounter centered about using skills. They're built around involving whole party, and to win one the party needs to make some number of successful skill checks before getting three failures.
Now this might sound fine on paper but really the concept is a mess. For one to get everyone involved you'd need some way to prevent one or two people going through their skills repeatedly - using initiative order is suggested but that kind of makes it like combat lite so urgh. Also there is an issue of transparency here - do I let players to know what skills are good for the challenge? Or do I have them figure it out from the context? Lastly there is this fact that there is little in terms of how to keep players without relevant skills involved when they can say "oh I'm going to do aid another on next player's skill check" which also draws-out the whole thing.
TL;DR - Skill Challenges kind of suck, and even most pro-4e people tend to agree on this.
With that in mind would anyone hold against me if I did my best to cut those out whenever I can do so without damaging the integrity of the adventure? To be forward about this - there is one challenge coming up which is supposed to cover your "journey" to the source of the winter "problem". If we were to go without it we'd just have a short description and cut to your arrival.
slave:
To be honest, Skill Challenges don't sound particularly interactive or enjoyable, so go ahead.
LuckyDee:
--- Quote from: Malek Deneith on February 27, 2014, 10:40 ---With that in mind would anyone hold against me if I did my best to cut those out whenever I can do so without damaging the integrity of the adventure?
--- End quote ---
Depends, I guess. When are Challenges called for according to THE RULES?
And in regard to your specific question regarding our journey: why a Skill Challenge at all? This potentially shortens the story by a significant amount. "Ah, three failures in three rolls. You're unable to locate your destination. Markelhay thanks you for your time and Fallcrest's population lynches you on the way out. The end."
Taking care not to start sounding repetitive: this smells just like the fear I have about D&D being too much governed by rules. So as to our journey: why not point us in the right direction, have us walk for hours/days and slap an encounter (from a randomized table for all I care) on us, see what happens? In the end we reach our destination (if we live) and the trip there will have been a natural and eventful element of the story.
Why set up complex schemes like Challenges when you can just ask for independent checks as the situation requires - which also nicely circumvents the problem with players maximizing potential by delaying/aiding/generally being cu...cumbers - and let the story evolve based on the outcome?
Alternatively you could:
) have multiple players make any given check and decided that at least N of them have to succeed
) require success by at least N points
) require failure by no more than N points
) have multiple players check and calculate the total number by which the group succeeds/fails
etc.
There's plenty of possibilities with a little creativity.
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