So, the preview for the Skill Challenge chapter of the DMG II is up here and careful readers may note a reason I'm particularly curious to see it
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The more I run skill challenges in LFR the more certain I am that it's crucial to make them seamless in play. I like the way yours would work for that quite a bit.
My newest ancillary skill challenge trick -- make sure there are opportunities for one-off skill rolls in play as well, so that you aren't signaling "skill challenge!" every time you call for a non-combat skill roll. This is akin to the old trick I learned from I think JoT where you ask for Perception rolls from time to time even if there's nothing to see.
I think they can be non-seamless, but it demands something very different in the approach: if the skill challenge is in the place of the dungeon, structurally, I think it can work, because you still get cool scenes.
When I first saw 4th edition skill challenges, I was excited to see a mechanic in D&D that said "here's what's at stake in this scene". I thought it was best to run skill challenges explicitly: "This is a skill challenge; you need X successes before Y failures; here's what happens if you win; here's what happens if you lose." That way, all players would know what the stakes were.
As you can imagine, that approach in actual play lead to flat, uninteresting scenes. If I get the opportunity to run D&D 4e again, I'll strive to run skill challenges more organically.
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My newest ancillary skill challenge trick -- make sure there are opportunities for one-off skill rolls in play as well, so that you aren't signaling "skill challenge!" every time you call for a non-combat skill roll. This is akin to the old trick I learned from I think JoT where you ask for Perception rolls from time to time even if there's nothing to see.
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When I first saw 4th edition skill challenges, I was excited to see a mechanic in D&D that said "here's what's at stake in this scene". I thought it was best to run skill challenges explicitly: "This is a skill challenge; you need X successes before Y failures; here's what happens if you win; here's what happens if you lose." That way, all players would know what the stakes were.
As you can imagine, that approach in actual play lead to flat, uninteresting scenes. If I get the opportunity to run D&D 4e again, I'll strive to run skill challenges more organically.
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