Basically Mike, can I call you Mike?, tries to have three ‘threads’ of a skill challenge that do all end up in a pass or fail but the how they get there varies significantly. Which sounds like a very good thing indeed.
The original thread and the important post that ‘spoke to me’.
A good skill challenge, like a good fight, should present a number of potential outcomes and pitfalls that emerge because of the players’ choices.
It’s all too easy to set up skill challenges like overly complicated skill checks, with the players on one side, a pile of dice rolls in the middle, and the outcome everyone expects on the other.
You can get away with that in a fight, because the players get to have fun using their powers and beating down monsters. In a skill challenge, though, it’s dull. Everyone is just rolling dice, waiting to either succeed or fail.
What I’d do:
1. The sooner you start the skill challenge, the more complications and branching paths you can create.
2. Create scenes and choices that flow from the characters’ decisions.
3. Be nimble enough to handle a few different outcomes.
Using your example: the PCs want to look at the baron’s tapestry.
Scene 1: How are the PCs going to get into the throne room?
Streetwise -> Success gives the PCs a map of the sewers and a secret passage into the throne room.
Diplomacy -> The PCs can arrange for an audience through a merchant prince, but now they owe him a favor (to be cashed in at the DM’s whim).
Bluff -> The PCs can pose as visiting dignitaries. In fact, the baron is expected a famous horticulturalist to visit his gardens, and the gnome rogue in the party happens to look just like him…
You can then build three new paths for each choice, each keying off a skill. The key is that the PCs don’t necessarily know where a skill take them, and multiple success give them more options (the PCs might find the sewer map and meet the merchant who can do them a favor. Which path do they follow?)
You can also have paths diverge and converge as needed. For instance, the captain of the watch might be open to a bribe, and that could come up if the PCs sneak into the palace and are caught or if they pose as the horticulturalist.
My rules of thumb are:
* Three scenes, each with three paths. You have your set up (how can we get access to the tapestry?), the meat of the challenge (execute the plan to get to the tapestry), and then any repercussions (dodging any negative repercussions of getting to the tapestry).
* One check per NPC or obstacle, unless you are 100% sure that more than one check is still interesting.
* Failure should end the challenge and put a new obstacle before the PCs. Plus, failure can mean more than stopping short of your goal. Regardless of what happens, the PCs might get access to the tapestry, but they could end up accused of breaking into the palace, thrown into jail, in debt to one or more folks, and so on.
The really fun thing for a DM when it comes to skill challenges is that you have a ton of options for making failure an interesting part of the game. Failing at a fight is pretty much always the same – the PCs are dead, captured, or running for their lives. Failing in a skill challenge can set up even more interesting complications, barriers, and challenges. __________________
Mike Mearls – Lead Designer, RPG R&D
Wizards of the Coast – http://www.wizards.com
Retro Stupid and proud of it.
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