New to these forums. Hope this is an appropriate topic for this thread.
I'd appreciate some feedback on this general approach for a skill challenge. I will use a specific case as an example.
The party is confronted with some non-combat problem that will have consequences if they fail. Example: A storm has washed out the path to the temple in the forest hills. The party must use skills to reach the temple.
Challenge Rating: select an appropriate rating to achieve this task. Example: For my washed out trail case the party is low level, and the challenge is supposed to be moderate. The CR is 13. This is the number their skill roll must reach to count as a "success".
Duration: This challenge will continue until the party has a particular number of successes. In my trail case, I'll choose 16 rolls. There are no "group" attempts, and no "aid". Each party member must make a skill roll and succeed or fail on their own as a "round". Then move on to another "round". Once that number of successes (16) has been achieved the challenge is met. In the example, they have reached the temple.
Major Failure: If the party reaches half of the duration in failed rolls, they have had a major failure in achieving the task. In my mountain trail case, 8 failed rolls before 16 successes a major setback has occurred. Maybe night has fallen, and they must take a rest in the wilderness before continuing.
Minor consequences: After some set number of failed rolls, some consequence occurs. In my case, every fifth non-successful roll results in a consequence, determined randomly. Such as: (roll on D10)
1-3 - Failing member falls along the path and takes d4 damage
4-6 - Failing member falls along the path and takes d8 damage
7-8 - Injury: d4 damage, failing member is "slowed" until a short rest or healing
9 - Lost: Negates 2 successes
10 - Attacked: Wandering monster attack
What Skill: Players are allowed to apply any skill to the challenge, but they have to have some rationale. For the washed out trail, athletics applies to make brute force progress through the woods. Acrobatics could be used in a similar way. Nature, and Survival too.
Some skills could only be used once. A player might argue that their character knows something about the history of this trail that would be of help. I'd let them use History for once success, but that's it.
My aim is a challenge that plays out sort of like combat, where accumulated successes (in the form of damage done to foes) must reach a certain level, while failures (in the form of damage done by foes) create consequences and consume resources.
The trick is setting the CR and duration to levels that are appropriate so the challenge doesn't take too much time and is achievable, but might occasionally put some fear into the players that the next roll is really critical to achieve.
Generating the table of minor consequences might be difficult for some challenges.
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New to these forums. Hope this is an appropriate topic for this thread.
I'd appreciate some feedback on this general approach for a skill challenge. I will use a specific case as an example.
The party is confronted with some non-combat problem that will have consequences if they fail. Example: A storm has washed out the path to the temple in the forest hills. The party must use skills to reach the temple.
Challenge Rating: select an appropriate rating to achieve this task. Example: For my washed out trail case the party is low level, and the challenge is supposed to be moderate. The CR is 13. This is the number their skill roll must reach to count as a "success".
Duration: This challenge will continue until the party has a particular number of successes. In my trail case, I'll choose 16 rolls. There are no "group" attempts, and no "aid". Each party member must make a skill roll and succeed or fail on their own as a "round". Then move on to another "round". Once that number of successes (16) has been achieved the challenge is met. In the example, they have reached the temple.
Major Failure: If the party reaches half of the duration in failed rolls, they have had a major failure in achieving the task. In my mountain trail case, 8 failed rolls before 16 successes a major setback has occurred. Maybe night has fallen, and they must take a rest in the wilderness before continuing.
Minor consequences: After some set number of failed rolls, some consequence occurs. In my case, every fifth non-successful roll results in a consequence, determined randomly. Such as: (roll on D10)
What Skill: Players are allowed to apply any skill to the challenge, but they have to have some rationale. For the washed out trail, athletics applies to make brute force progress through the woods. Acrobatics could be used in a similar way. Nature, and Survival too.
Some skills could only be used once. A player might argue that their character knows something about the history of this trail that would be of help. I'd let them use History for once success, but that's it.
My aim is a challenge that plays out sort of like combat, where accumulated successes (in the form of damage done to foes) must reach a certain level, while failures (in the form of damage done by foes) create consequences and consume resources.
The trick is setting the CR and duration to levels that are appropriate so the challenge doesn't take too much time and is achievable, but might occasionally put some fear into the players that the next roll is really critical to achieve.
Generating the table of minor consequences might be difficult for some challenges.