Hi,

I have an upcoming situation where my party (lvl 5) needs to cross a chasm.  There are several points where someone could use something like a lasso to attach a rope (which they have a fair amount of) in order to tie off on the local end.  They'll need to do this 3 times to cross the chasm fully.  I was thinking of having them make an athletics check, but increasing the difficulty as they do this in order to simulate their stress level a bit.  I was also thinking that the rope might be less supportive over time (6 party members), but I don't want to make this too difficult (or maybe I do.. ?!)

Have any of you got any suggestions?

Thanks

Can I ask how wide the chasm is, or what the risk of falling is? Because my advice could be drastically different depending on whether this is like... a 10 foot wide chasm over a river, or a 50 foot wide chasm over stalagmites.

That said... I also agree there's no need to overcomplicate things. Challenges where each single player needs to make multiple checks to succeed usually  just end up being time sinks and inevitably one person is gonna fail then the whole thing screeches to a halt as everyone has to stop what they're doing and dig the lost player out of a hole.

Thanks for your comments.

The chasm is about 100 ft across.  There are a couple ledges with stalagmites, which is where I estimated that they'd need 3 seperate ropes to get across fully.  The width for each rope is 15 ft.  Players definitely don't want to fall into this pit - it wouldn't be survivable.  

I guess I could just have them come up with a plausible way to get across or maybe make it a very simple die roll once they have a plan.

Thanks.

I am a great believer in these situations of just painting the picture and being ready to come up with rolls on the fly based on player behavior. By creating a set route through you risk making the players feel railroaded, by having the confidence to let them come up with how they want to face it and then deciding DCs on the fly you give them the agency. In addition from experience you can have every possibly option mapped out and dcs ready, only to have the party then discuss the 10 things you didn’t think of and settle on an 11th at the last min. Better just presenting an obstacle and then sitting back and letting them figure out how to overcome it. If that means making details up on the fly run with it. 

Thanks -- all great comments.  Thanks for that link, Lyxen - it was super helpful.

Also just want to throw out there! Be careful calling for skill checks if your not prepared for the failure! 
The failure that comes with failing a skill check while crossing a chasm is usually, "The player falls into the chasm" which could spell death to the character from a single unlucky roll. 

I am NOT saying this is the only thing that can happen, I'm just suggesting that maybe think in advance about alternative things that happen on a failure (rope brakes and they start swinging, they drop something important, or something that isn't instant death lol)

Quote from LeBattery >>

Also just want to throw out there! Be careful calling for skill checks if your not prepared for the failure! 
The failure that comes with failing a skill check while crossing a chasm is usually, "The player falls into the chasm" which could spell death to the character from a single unlucky roll. 

I am NOT saying this is the only thing that can happen, I'm just suggesting that maybe think in advance about alternative things that happen on a failure (rope brakes and they start swinging, they drop something important, or something that isn't instant death lol)

 I think this Colville video builds on your second paragraph, which I agree with wholeheartedly.