So this month’s Dragon has an article about running skill challenges, but I don’t subscribe to DDI. (I think this should have been free to everyone, but I digress.) So I ask all of you now, how do you handle this part of DMíng? Every 4th Ed. DM is technically a newbie Dm when it comes to Skill Challenges…
I’ve been running KOTS since I began DMíng, and there are a few situations in the module that I consider Skill Challenges: The conversation with Sir Keenan, and the trap room. Keep in mind these were written before the famous errata changed the success/failure numbers.
How do you guys run and present this to the players? Do you tell them “okay gang, we are now entering a skill challenge?” or “in order to accomplish x, give me 3 arcana rolls before 3 failures…”
For example, in the trap room either 3 arcana checks or 3 thievery checks disable one of the traps… So the Magic User, without me telling him said “I’ll try to use some arcane magic on it” I had him make a check, and he beat the DC, so I said something to the effect of “you see the statue react to your magic, it looked like its mechanism fizzled off, but sputtered on again”.
He didn’t bother trying again. I thought that was enough of a hint to get him to continue making his attempts. Should I have told him what was expected? What do you guys do?
And Wizards, c’mon, open the article. Skill Challenges are core rules, and people are having a hard time with them…
www. Newbie DM .com 
Swordgleam
November 7, 2008
I agree it should have been open to all, especially with the rampant misunderstanding.
I usually say something like, “You are now in a skill challenge. Diplomacy is a good idea, and probably some other skills will help.” Then they just roleplay, and I call for what sounds like the appropriate roll. Occasionally they’ll ask me if a certain skill would work, and I’ll ask how they’re using it, and tell them if it counts as a success, gives a bonus, etc. I try to give them feedback as to whether it’s working, in terms like, “He seems to be taking you seriously now” or “You’re definitely sure these are the tracks you were following earlier.”
I don’t use skill challenges as much as I probably should, but I’m working on it. We’ve mostly had diplomacy-based ones so far, since I’m bad with puzzles, and those are the most obvious situations for skill challenges, at least to me.
I never tell them the complexity, since I halfway wing it. I think three failures in a row has a lot more of an impact than getting off on the wrong foot, doing well for a while with a minor screwup, then making one more mistake. I usually have a target number of successes I’m shooting for, but the effect of failures depends more on the current situation than an arbitrary threshhold.
Mike Lemmer
November 7, 2008
I prefer covert skill challenges myself. The way I look at it, skill challenges prevent social encounters from getting stale by giving a threshold for when -something- happens. If they reach 3 failures, it takes a turn for the worse. If they pass with flying colors, I give them XP based on how many successful rolls they made during the skill challenge.
The trouble with that is providing a reason for everyone in the party to make a roll or contribute something, but that’s the same problem that plagues social encounters in other games as well.
Questing GM
November 7, 2008
There’s an interesting thread in ENWorld that addresses this. I would definately recommend you to have a look.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/243552-how-do-you-present-your-skill-challenges.html
One thing’s for sure is that there is no ONE way that skill challenges are meant to be run.
newbiedm
November 8, 2008
There are so many different takes on skill challenges, that I feel Wizards should address this in an open article. It is a core rule after all, and explain ways of running them in a firewalled article is not very nice of them…
Thanks for your input guys…
Lou in Cincy
November 15, 2008
I’ve been running scales of war in 4ed and I’ve pretty much skipped skill challenges all together. They just look like a drag to roll thru. The only place I found them really appropriate was in overland travel. With limited time to get things done each session (3 hours tops), I gloss over anything that would slow things down.
newbiedm
November 15, 2008
Lou, I agree with the limited time sentiment.
I have the same issue….
Neubert
November 19, 2008
I use the Obsidian System made by Stalker0 (on the EN-world board). I haven’t had much time to run 4e yet unfortunately, but the one skill challenge I did go through with them went very well (considering it was our first try at one). I told them that this was a skill challenge and the basic premise for it. At first they were unsure of what to do, but we all “learned by doing” and it seemed like everyone enjoyed themselves.
PrecociousApprentice
January 7, 2009
I use Obsidian as well. Works much better. I run my challenges in the open. You know when a combat encounter happens right? Skill challenges are just another encounter in my books. I give bonuses for good roleplaying, or allow skills that I wouldn’t have thought of except for the great roleplaying that convinces me. It goes just as quick as any role play situation.
“Hey guys, this is a social skill challenge. Social skills will work great. Knowledge will work ocasionally, so no more than once per character per skill in this challenge. Physical skills will not likely be useful, but I am open to the idea, roleplay it well and we shall see. Only once per skill in this encounter though. The DC for skill checks is 18, roleplay it, tell me the skill you used and the result. I’ll tell you when we are finished, and I’ll let you know partway through how well you are doing. I’ll add bonuses in secret for good RP.”
“Now, the Captain wants to know how to get out of the harbor with his ship despite the ordered closing of the harbor gates. What do you do?”
Then we roleplay as usual, but the characters get a little narrative control, we have a fun gaming challenge, DM fiat is minimized, and I as the DM am surprised in my own campaigns sometimes. It works fantastically.
doculmus
January 23, 2009
I usually let my players know they’re in a skill challenge, but not how many successes or what the primary skills are. I don’t want to remove the suspense, but I also don’t want to stifle their imagination in coming up with ways to solve the challenge that I didn’t think of.
doculmus
January 23, 2009
By the way, have a look at my thoughts on Skill Challenges at polyhedral.wordpress.org
doculmus
January 23, 2009
Sorry, that’s polyhedral.wordpress.com
grackle
February 14, 2009
“I said something to the effect of “you see the statue react to your magic, it looked like its mechanism fizzled off, but sputtered on again”.
He didn’t bother trying again.”
No criticism here, what you said might have worked on 50% of the players out there. But he didn’t try again because his success was perceived as a failure. When I ran this encounter, I gave the players feedback like:
“You notice the force wall dimming, and the water volume lessening. The statue has developed some cracks as well.”
If you want someone to keep doing something, they have to think its working and that trying the same again will have more of an effect.
Brivealia
May 11, 2009
It can really be so.
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