First off, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving on Thursday, and a great long weekend. I was able to gather the group on Sunday for our game, and almost everyone managed to make it… if everyone who plays were to show up for a session, I would be running 9 guys at the table!!! (YIKES!)… We had 7 players, plus myself. It was a loud Sunday night in my dining room, us playing while Mrs. NewbieDM and my 3 year old daughter were busy setting up the Christmas tree…
So, we ran our first skill challenge, and it was… alright I guess. I wasn’t too impressed with the way it turned out, and granted, it may have been my fault. It was my first time running it, and we were a little clumsy. I adapted the skill challenge presented in Dungeon issue 159, in the “Menace of the Icy Spire” adventure. It is a skill challenge simulating travelling through a blizzard, where players lose healing surges if they fail. I’ve been hoping to find some mp3 actual play sessions of skill challenges, but haven’t, so I improvised it.
I set up the skill challenge, said what primary skills would be involved, and what secondary skills. It went something like this:
“Alright guys, you have to cross this blizzard, and we are going to do this as a skill challenge. The primary skills involved are endurance, nature, history. This is a complexity 4 challenge, so I need x successes on your skill roles before 3 failures.”
And then I went around the table, and the players told me what skill check they were making as part of the challenge, I described what a success meant, and a failure and we took it from there…
A few things:
- Group checks. I should have done them. Everyone should roll for endurance on a case like this, not just one or two guys…
- Assisting others for the +2. This is a good roleplaying opportunity that was wasted. How are you assisting? What exactly is granting your companion a +2? I didn’t get into that.
- DC numbers need real thought put into them. There is a huge difference between a 10 and a 12.
The players enjoyed it, and I sort of got the hang of how they work… finally. I’m going to run more, keeping these things in mind. I’m chalking up the clunky nature of this SC due to my doubts and inexperience, but there will be more opportunities…
Oh, and at 4th level, they failed the challenge….
www. Newbie DM .com 
Tommi
December 2, 2008
Did the players tell what their character was actually doing, or what the situation looked like, or anything else, or was it just the players rattling off their characters’ best skills?
newbiedm
December 2, 2008
Well… a .ittle bit of both, but it was more roll playing than anything else… not very descriptive or roleplaying heavy to be honest… but I learned that for the next one….
Swordgleam
December 2, 2008
I find social skill challenges to be easier to run, or at least I did to start off with. Just let the players talk, then say, “That sounds like an Intimidate check” or “make a Diplomacy check.” They’ll usually ask questions, and when they say, “My family is from this area, do I know anything about the duke’s past?” you ask for a history check, etc. The roll-playing comes from the roleplaying.
I don’t let my guys just say “I rolled a 15 for intimidate” without telling me what their character is doing that’s intimidating, but your group might be different.
samvdw
December 2, 2008
Stick with the skills challenges. I honestly think they get better as your group gets used to them. Our first skills challenge was horrible, everyone hated it. The second one was better. After the third we’re all starting to really get into them.
Also one thing, like Tommi was alluding too, players shouldn’t just be rattling off their best skills. They should pick and skill and explain how they’re using it. Once we (the players) started doing that, the skills challenges got really awesome and fun!
Scott
December 3, 2008
Yes, definitely have them tell you what they’re doing first.
Also, I find it helps not to set down particular skills. If you call out History, Endurance, and Nature specifically, people will naturally try to use those, but if you don’t, they’re more likely to try to find ways of using the skills they’re good at. This sometimes leads to interesting moments.
newbiedm
December 4, 2008
These are all great suggestions…
Swordgleam, my next skill challenge will be a social one, they seem more interesting and a lot more fun to play. The roleplaying can really shine there….
Sharp Walker
January 13, 2010
Great report!
Skill Challenge are one of the great difficulties for the whole group in the 4th. As I’m starting to follow you now, I hope read more about that! Thanks!