3 Tips for Running Skill Challenges

Posted on : 08-02-2011 | By : Brian | In : 4th Edition, Advice, D&D, Skill Challenges

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Skill challenges are an oft-maligned aspect of D&D. In my experience, this is likely because they are often misused. D&D is a very mechanics-heavy game, and very focused on tactical combat. There are a lot of tactical combat options, meaning that combat is, by its nature, mechanically interesting from moment to moment. Skill challenges are a different beast. They’re mechanically much simpler and–lets be truthful here–less interesting mechanically, too. There’s not as much going on from a purely gamist standpoint, and that’s very likely intentional. In my experience, a lot of DMs have a misunderstanding of how skill challenges really should work at the table; this leads to bad experiences with them, which leads to not using them. There are a few relatively easy things you can do, though, to make them interesting again.

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe
Skill challenges are at their best when they’re invisible. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been at a game and the DM has said, “Okay, this is a skill challenge. You can use Perception, Nature, and Insight here. What do you want to do?” That’s mistake number one, in my opinion.

See, the players don’t need to know that they’re in a skill challenge. In fact, it’s probably better if they don’t. When you couch it in mechanical terms, everybody looks at their list of skills and tries to find the ones they’re best at. If those skills aren’t relevant to the challenge at hand, those players are just going to sit there and do nothing, or try to aid someone else. That’s pretty boring, as is simply going around the table calling for check after check.

Instead, read the skill challenge beforehand (even if you wrote it), and imagine what it looks like in the world. Imagine how a group of adventurers might face it, and overcome it. Describe it in those terms, in terms of the world and the narrative. Give players some hints as to courses of action that might be useful, but don’t ever mention specific skills. Let them describe for you what they want to do, then tell them what to roll based on their description. If a player says, “I roll Insight”, ask that player what his character is doing. Try to coax the narrative out of your players, and get them thinking in terms of the story rather than the numbers on their sheets.

Go Off-Script
A lot of DMs look at the list of skills provided in a skill challenge, and they get tunnel vision. If a player tries to use a different skill, the DM tries to guide him back to using one of the ones listed in the skill challenge. What a wasted opportunity!

A skill challenge is a basic framework that allows you to adjudicate success or failure in a particular, non-combat encounter, and reward it appropriately. It is not a script that you must adhere to slavishly. Think of the skills on a skill challenge as suggestions more than anything else. If you’re using a pre-written skill challenge, some of the work has been done for you, but you may not need it. Your players are creative, and will likely think of things that the designer never did. That’s a good thing, and you should reward it.

Let me tell you a secret about how I write skill challenges: I don’t! At least, not in the traditional sense. If I’m writing one up for publication somewhere, yeah I’ll do the full writeup. But for my own games, a skill challenge is represented in my notes as a level, a complexity, and then a brief list of possible skills with DCs, sans any descriptive text. I don’t want to decide beforehand what success on a given skill means; I’d much rather let that evolve organically, in reaction to what the players are actually describing.

Make Failure Fun
Or at the very least, make it interesting. Your players are going to fail skill checks from time to time, and they might even fail the whole skill challenge. This is an opportunity for drama, and to throw additional challenges at your players. It’s very tempting, when a player blows a Perception check, to say, “Yeah, you don’t see anything.” Resist that temptation. Describe what the player does see, instead, but be deliberately misleading. Emphasize things that aren’t important, and downplay things that are. Describe things in ways that cause the player to draw the wrong conclusion. In the long run, this will be a lot more fun than a null result.

When considering these tips, consider this, as well: it’s a good idea to rehearse the skill challenge in your head beforehand, probably more than once. Look at it from your players’ perspectives, as well as from the perspectives of any opposition they may be facing. Think of possible outcomes, and come up with cool descriptive elements or awesome turns of phrase that you can pepper your narration with. It’ll pay off big time.

Guest Post: Throwing Axes: A Skill Challenge

Posted on : 28-01-2011 | By : Brian | In : 4th Edition, D&D, Guest Posts, Links, Marcelo Dior, Skill Challenges

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Guest contributor Marcelo Dior returns to us, giving us his take on a contest of martial skill, the axe-throwing contest.

Let’s say there are two Rangers in the group, equally skilled with the battleaxe, or you’re the Ranger and that thickheaded Dwarf Fighter keeps bragging about he being the best axe thrower of the realm. I present you, dear reader, a Skill Challenge that could be used between two PCs or against one or more NPCs. It’s a competition, the…

Axe Throwing Derby

Setup: a target (usually circular, but it could be a straw doll mounted on a rack) is put 10 yards from each of the competitors, who have 30 seconds to throw their axes. Considering 10 seconds for each Skill Check, the contenders may roll up to three different Skills before actually throwing their axes, otherwise they won’t be awarded any points. Only the battleaxe or the greataxe is permitted.

All the Skill checks have a DC 15, and they might be:

  • Acrobatics: The contender concentrates on the weight and balance of his axe while adjusting his stance so the throw comes out more precise. Success: +2 bonus to the throw. Critical failure: -5 penalty to the throw.
  • Athletics: Cannot be used on the last (third) throw. The competitor flexes his or her muscles to lend potency to the throw. Success: +2 to the throw. Critical failure: -5 to the throw.
  • Bluff: Must be made prior to the throw of another contender. The competitor makes sudden and odd movements, feints, and jokes in an effort to make an adversary lose focus. Success: one contender near the you takes a -1 to his or her action (throw or Skill Check).
  • Endurance: Cannot be used on the first throw. You try to catch your breath for the next throw, ignoring the weariness of the previous throw. Success: +1 on a Skill Check made before the next throw.
  • Healing: You summon your inner energy and your knowledge of anatomy to warm your muscles correctly and recover from the weariness of the competition. Success: +1 on the Endurance check, above.
  • Perception: You gauge the distance to the target, wind speed and direction, and the play of lights and shadows cast over the field to precisely calculate your throw. Success: +2 to the throw. Critical failure: -5 to the throw.

(I decided the roll of 1 on Skill Check should have consequences, something alien to 4e, to make things a little bit more interesting, reflecting in game terms a gross miscalculation on the use of Acrobatics, Athletics, and Perception.)

Competition details:

After all contenders have made their Skill Checks, any and all of the bonuses and penalties they earned are added to a Melee Basic Attack roll against 12 (that’s right, Melee Basic, not Ranged. This is a precision test, not an attack to kill a monster). The one who beats it by the greater margin earns points equal to the number of contenders. The second best net hit earns points equal to the number of contenders -1, and so forth. Failing in beating the DC of 12 earns you no points for that round. In the case of a tie, both competitors earn the same number of points.

After the first throw, the weapons are returned and the targets are repositioned at 25 yards. The same 30 seconds (three Skill Checks) are available and now the DC for the Melee Basic Attack is 15. The points are tallied and we move to the third and final round of the competition, with targets at 50 yards and DC 18. In the case of a draw at this point, the last round is done again with the contenders that have tied, as many times as necessary to untie the score.

Usually, in this kind of contest, magical axes or other items โ€” such as magical bracelets or belts โ€” aren’t allowed, and the organizers (if there is one) will have means of detecting magic over or on the competitors.

Variations:

Obviously, this competition may be about other kinds of weapons. It could be a dispute of archery (with Ranged Basic Attacks instead of Melee), knife-throwing or even the obvious handaxes. An especially peculiar organizer could allow the mix of battle- and greataxes and handaxes amongst the contenders (in which case the check is made with the Ranged Basic Attack for the contender using the handaxe). That would lead to possible and interesting protests by the other competitors or heated discussions at the tavern after the competition about the validity of such an obviously lop-sided contest.