I've been trying to get creative with some challenges. Mostly environmental challenges relying on skill checks for the random element. I've come up with 2 recently that have worked well. Feel free to critique.
What challenges have you had a good time with?
My two are being caught in rapids and being caught in a stampede...
The first was players were checking out a half burnt ship wreck just down-steam from a waterfall. While they were checking it out a ship on fire came over the falls and splashing down caused a wave heading towards the party. They could either try to grab something where they were and hope the wreck survived the wave (STR check) or run to shore over the fallen mast that was acting as a bridge (Dex check) If anyone failed they got caught in the wave and tumbled down river in rapids. I did progressively lower DC checks (as the wave subsided) to swim to shore with each round counting towards drowning. Everyone did make it out of the river but only on the last round for one player who would have drown otherwise.
The other one was a stampede of Elk fleeing from a pair of griffon. The party was in a pass between the mountains. It had been raining and foggy all day. They heard strange screeches and brays echoing from the mountains in the fog. Then they heard the sounds of hooves coming fast their way. Most of the players had already tried to hide so I worked with that. I gave anyone else a chance to hide or be caught in a stampede. Basically, If you are caught in the herd you'll roll a DC18 Dex Save using the parameters based on how well you hid. If you're not able to get out of the way you'll be hit by the elks Ram and Charge attack (DC13 STR or get knocked prone and also suffer damage from Hooves)
I did the hide DC like this:
DC20+ and you're safe No Dex check needed.
DC15-19 - You're hidden pretty well, Dex with advantage
DC10-14 - Barely able to find a spot. Normal Dex check
DC9 and bellow - You're caught in the thick of it. Dex at disadvantage.
I find the 4th Ed concept of the skill challenge really works for this kind of thing. See:herefor an example of how to adapt these to 5e. There's also a fantastic article on how to use skill challenges for chase scenes ( if you can tolerate Angry's Long Rambling Prose Style(tm) ):here.
Skill challenges are easier/shorter to design as the GM doesn't need to figure out what the applicable skills are for the situation, and their target DCs ahead of time - just the overall success/failure thresholds for the challenge. The rest is thrown open to Player creativity - and they can come up with some amazing applications of their skills to the problem that the GM will never think of :) It involves some spur-of-the-moment DC determination by the GM - but that's not too terrible.
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I like the stampede idea, might use a stampede myself now. I like to mix an environmental challenges with combat.
Crossing a river while a swarm of quippers protects their egg nests at the bottom of the river. Put a magic item in a nest to entice someone to go for it.
Rock climbing up a steep mountain where eagles nest, you guessed it they are protecting their nests and swoop at the players.
fighting on a series of rafts down rapid waters, gotta make checks or fall prone, possibly fall off into water.
but anything without combat I like to use skill challenges like mentioned above. They are pretty great and fun.
More of a roleplaying challenge, but one of the best sessions I ran at my LGS involved a magical barrier that required each character to tell a story it had never heard before to pass through. Hearing what everyone came up with was a ton of fun!
Taking that one. I’ve done one similar but it was a door you had to tell a secret that only you know to it. A way to hopefully get some RP and character info out in the open.
Once I was running an adventure and I had to simulate what was like to be in a sandstorm. I was worried that it could kill the players, but actually it was really fun.
The situation was this: the players were protecting a caravan and the sandstorm suddenly turned to exactly where they were. They not only had to find a was do protect them, but to also guide the drivers to safety. The outcomes were many:
The Sorcerer succeeded in a Survival check so he found out that if he climbs a dune further to the North he could protect himself in a timely manner;
The Ranger made an Animal Handling check to convince two of the camels to follow him where the sorcerer went;
The Paladin grabbed the content of one of the wagons and with an Athletics check ran to where the Ranger went (certainly not the smartest choice because the driver of that wagon did not react in time and died by suffocation because of this, as well as the camels since the wagon rolled over killing them;
Finally, the Fighter rolled a nat 20 in an Intimidation check so he yelled so loudly that two of the drivers heard him and got the camels to safety.
Since a sandstorm is a big deal, they wouldn't be able to completely evade it. Even getting to this vantage point, part of the sandstorm hit the caravan, killing the driver and the camels that were left behind, 2d6 damage to the players and camels, and also applying one level of exhaustion. Not sure if it was fair or accurate, but they laughed a lot and we had a good time.
I ran my players through a rickety rope bridge challenge. After a rain storm came through the mountains they had to cross a 90’ wide ravine. The players had to cross as difficult terrain or suffer disadvantage on Dex saves for normal movement. When a turn started with a player on the bridge they had to make a Con save as the held on to the swaying bridge. If they failed the save their movement was 0 for the turn. Final kicker was that at the beginning of the turn cycle, a d3 was rolled. On a 1 DC dropped 1 point not to drop below DC 10, on a 2 the DC held unchanged, and on a 3 the DC increased by 1. This was due to cold winds picking up in the canyon. After 3 fails a player would start to earn exhaustion. To keep all the players involved they wold take turns to roll for the weather.
the Monk made it over easy. The Druid animal shaped her way across . The Sorcerer made it but it was close. The Bard got stuck. At 2/3rds across the monk had to go back and use a rope to get the Bard.
The players were engaged and in the moment. Their fear was probably helped with my maniacal laughter that followed failed rolls
Traveling through a mountain pass just before or during winter can be deadly. The cold can kill if the characters don't have the proper gear. That gear is bulky and expensive. Using the rules for Encumbrance, vision and lighting, movement over difficult terrain and exhaustion can make things tremendously difficult. Snow can be in drifts higher than the characters are tall. Wind can make things feel colder, blowing snow around enough to make it hard to see. Daylight can be blinding, reflecting off the snow and bright enough to bring tears to their eyes.
The air gets thin at high elevations. A slow trudge over a short distance can be exhausting. Time can be short. As winter deepens, things only get worse. There may be little time to rest. Magic can solve a great many problems. Food and water can be conjured up. Fire can be created, wood to burn summoned. Will the characters have enough spells they can afford to use? They might needs them for other things. Rations are heavy and take up a lot of space. It is hard to drink your water if it freezes solid.
Snow and ice can hide terrain features. Crevasses in the ice are apt to be slippery, crusted over with a thin layer of ice under deep snow, and climbing out of them again can be tough. Did the characters bring proper climbing gear? Even more weight to carry around.
Many other environments can be dangerous. A steaming hot jungle can kill you. Clothing becomes uncomfortable, armor even more so. Visibility can be rather short. Poison and disease are rampant. The water may not be fit to drink. It's so easy to get lost. Jungles and swamps are similar in many ways. Swamps get quicksand pits just waiting to swallow up adventurers.
Trackless desserts can broil you in the heat of the day and freeze you over the night. Sandstorms can erase all signs of your passage, leaving you to wander the wastes for days on end. What looks like an oasis can be a mirage. It takes a lot of heavy and expensive gear to live for long in the dessert. Sandstorms and high winds can bury your tents deep enough that digging your way back out won't be fun. You can *drown* in the dessert. Flash floods can sweep over you with little warning.
Even nice peaceful forests can have unexpected hazards. Crossing a stream can lead to stepping into a deep area or being washed away and over rocks and rapids. Waterfalls aren't easy to avoid if you're being swept along in the current. Up near the mountains, even in low elevation you can still get caught in a flash flood. A narrow canyon can channel the water into a huge wall that carries rocks and boulders. Just a quick dunk in a little stream will get your gear all wet, spoil provisions, soak your torches, and fray your nerves.
Nature based characters like Druids and Rangers can be life savers. A Ranger in their favored terrain can locate food, drinkable water, and environmental hazards while keeping the party from becoming lost. Druids can live off the land like nobody else, and Goodberries never tasted so great as when those rations have run out.
Characters may never have to fight with monsters on their way to and from what-ever their goal might be. Adding in creatures appropriate to the terrain makes this go from bad to worse. Getting back home with your loot may not be trivial. Characters laden with loot may long for the comfort of the city. All they have to worry about there are thieves and assassins trying to get their loot, taxes, monsters crawling out of the sewers, undead stalking the night and figuring out what to wear to the grand ball. Simple, normal stuff that is much less frightening than dying in the wilderness.
I've been trying to get creative with some challenges. Mostly environmental challenges relying on skill checks for the random element. I've come up with 2 recently that have worked well. Feel free to critique.
What challenges have you had a good time with?
My two are being caught in rapids and being caught in a stampede...
The first was players were checking out a half burnt ship wreck just down-steam from a waterfall. While they were checking it out a ship on fire came over the falls and splashing down caused a wave heading towards the party. They could either try to grab something where they were and hope the wreck survived the wave (STR check) or run to shore over the fallen mast that was acting as a bridge (Dex check) If anyone failed they got caught in the wave and tumbled down river in rapids. I did progressively lower DC checks (as the wave subsided) to swim to shore with each round counting towards drowning. Everyone did make it out of the river but only on the last round for one player who would have drown otherwise.
The other one was a stampede of Elk fleeing from a pair of griffon. The party was in a pass between the mountains. It had been raining and foggy all day. They heard strange screeches and brays echoing from the mountains in the fog. Then they heard the sounds of hooves coming fast their way. Most of the players had already tried to hide so I worked with that. I gave anyone else a chance to hide or be caught in a stampede. Basically, If you are caught in the herd you'll roll a DC18 Dex Save using the parameters based on how well you hid. If you're not able to get out of the way you'll be hit by the elks Ram and Charge attack (DC13 STR or get knocked prone and also suffer damage from Hooves)
I did the hide DC like this:
DC20+ and you're safe No Dex check needed.
DC15-19 - You're hidden pretty well, Dex with advantage
DC10-14 - Barely able to find a spot. Normal Dex check
DC9 and bellow - You're caught in the thick of it. Dex at disadvantage.
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
I find the 4th Ed concept of the skill challenge really works for this kind of thing. See: here for an example of how to adapt these to 5e. There's also a fantastic article on how to use skill challenges for chase scenes ( if you can tolerate Angry's Long Rambling Prose Style(tm) ): here.
Skill challenges are easier/shorter to design as the GM doesn't need to figure out what the applicable skills are for the situation, and their target DCs ahead of time - just the overall success/failure thresholds for the challenge. The rest is thrown open to Player creativity - and they can come up with some amazing applications of their skills to the problem that the GM will never think of :) It involves some spur-of-the-moment DC determination by the GM - but that's not too terrible.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I like the stampede idea, might use a stampede myself now. I like to mix an environmental challenges with combat.
Crossing a river while a swarm of quippers protects their egg nests at the bottom of the river. Put a magic item in a nest to entice someone to go for it.
Rock climbing up a steep mountain where eagles nest, you guessed it they are protecting their nests and swoop at the players.
fighting on a series of rafts down rapid waters, gotta make checks or fall prone, possibly fall off into water.
but anything without combat I like to use skill challenges like mentioned above. They are pretty great and fun.
More of a roleplaying challenge, but one of the best sessions I ran at my LGS involved a magical barrier that required each character to tell a story it had never heard before to pass through. Hearing what everyone came up with was a ton of fun!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
Taking that one. I’ve done one similar but it was a door you had to tell a secret that only you know to it. A way to hopefully get some RP and character info out in the open.
Once I was running an adventure and I had to simulate what was like to be in a sandstorm. I was worried that it could kill the players, but actually it was really fun.
The situation was this: the players were protecting a caravan and the sandstorm suddenly turned to exactly where they were. They not only had to find a was do protect them, but to also guide the drivers to safety. The outcomes were many:
Since a sandstorm is a big deal, they wouldn't be able to completely evade it. Even getting to this vantage point, part of the sandstorm hit the caravan, killing the driver and the camels that were left behind, 2d6 damage to the players and camels, and also applying one level of exhaustion. Not sure if it was fair or accurate, but they laughed a lot and we had a good time.
I ran my players through a rickety rope bridge challenge. After a rain storm came through the mountains they had to cross a 90’ wide ravine. The players had to cross as difficult terrain or suffer disadvantage on Dex saves for normal movement. When a turn started with a player on the bridge they had to make a Con save as the held on to the swaying bridge. If they failed the save their movement was 0 for the turn. Final kicker was that at the beginning of the turn cycle, a d3 was rolled. On a 1 DC dropped 1 point not to drop below DC 10, on a 2 the DC held unchanged, and on a 3 the DC increased by 1. This was due to cold winds picking up in the canyon. After 3 fails a player would start to earn exhaustion. To keep all the players involved they wold take turns to roll for the weather.
the Monk made it over easy. The Druid animal shaped her way across . The Sorcerer made it but it was close. The Bard got stuck. At 2/3rds across the monk had to go back and use a rope to get the Bard.
The players were engaged and in the moment. Their fear was probably helped with my maniacal laughter that followed failed rolls
Traveling through a mountain pass just before or during winter can be deadly. The cold can kill if the characters don't have the proper gear. That gear is bulky and expensive. Using the rules for Encumbrance, vision and lighting, movement over difficult terrain and exhaustion can make things tremendously difficult. Snow can be in drifts higher than the characters are tall. Wind can make things feel colder, blowing snow around enough to make it hard to see. Daylight can be blinding, reflecting off the snow and bright enough to bring tears to their eyes.
The air gets thin at high elevations. A slow trudge over a short distance can be exhausting. Time can be short. As winter deepens, things only get worse. There may be little time to rest. Magic can solve a great many problems. Food and water can be conjured up. Fire can be created, wood to burn summoned. Will the characters have enough spells they can afford to use? They might needs them for other things. Rations are heavy and take up a lot of space. It is hard to drink your water if it freezes solid.
Snow and ice can hide terrain features. Crevasses in the ice are apt to be slippery, crusted over with a thin layer of ice under deep snow, and climbing out of them again can be tough. Did the characters bring proper climbing gear? Even more weight to carry around.
Many other environments can be dangerous. A steaming hot jungle can kill you. Clothing becomes uncomfortable, armor even more so. Visibility can be rather short. Poison and disease are rampant. The water may not be fit to drink. It's so easy to get lost. Jungles and swamps are similar in many ways. Swamps get quicksand pits just waiting to swallow up adventurers.
Trackless desserts can broil you in the heat of the day and freeze you over the night. Sandstorms can erase all signs of your passage, leaving you to wander the wastes for days on end. What looks like an oasis can be a mirage. It takes a lot of heavy and expensive gear to live for long in the dessert. Sandstorms and high winds can bury your tents deep enough that digging your way back out won't be fun. You can *drown* in the dessert. Flash floods can sweep over you with little warning.
Even nice peaceful forests can have unexpected hazards. Crossing a stream can lead to stepping into a deep area or being washed away and over rocks and rapids. Waterfalls aren't easy to avoid if you're being swept along in the current. Up near the mountains, even in low elevation you can still get caught in a flash flood. A narrow canyon can channel the water into a huge wall that carries rocks and boulders. Just a quick dunk in a little stream will get your gear all wet, spoil provisions, soak your torches, and fray your nerves.
Nature based characters like Druids and Rangers can be life savers. A Ranger in their favored terrain can locate food, drinkable water, and environmental hazards while keeping the party from becoming lost. Druids can live off the land like nobody else, and Goodberries never tasted so great as when those rations have run out.
Characters may never have to fight with monsters on their way to and from what-ever their goal might be. Adding in creatures appropriate to the terrain makes this go from bad to worse. Getting back home with your loot may not be trivial. Characters laden with loot may long for the comfort of the city. All they have to worry about there are thieves and assassins trying to get their loot, taxes, monsters crawling out of the sewers, undead stalking the night and figuring out what to wear to the grand ball. Simple, normal stuff that is much less frightening than dying in the wilderness.
Taxes. *shudder* Why did it have to be taxes?
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