While designing my very first skill challenge, I started getting ideas. The scenario is that there’s a very isolated elven village deep in the woods, with no established road or trails, and the player characters have to find it. It’s very similar to the “Lost in the Wilderness” Skill Challenge example presented in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. If they succeed, they find the place. If they fail, they run across some big nasty monster that they have to fight. To adhere to the caveat that failing a Skill Challenge shouldn’t derail an adventure, I decide that the monster was being tracked by elven rangers, who would show up after the fight (or in the nick of time if the PCs are losing badly), and in gratitude for taking the monster down will lead them back to the village.
Skill Challenges, as I understand them, are supposed to equate to one encounter. The consequence of failing this particular challenge would be another encounter. It seemed like it would be more of a movie montage, condensed into one encounter, each skill roll representing a mini-scene in the montage. That’s when I realized that the quest to find the place could be its own adventure within the context of the campaign, and easily fill a whole game session. (Why they’re going there is a whole other story, but there are reasons).
As I started blocking out each skill roll for the challenge, I realized that while failing the overall challenge should lead to a very large consequence each step of the challenge, each failed skill roll, should have a small consequence, and each consequence would turn into a side encounter. Maybe failing a climbing roll means falling rocks got the attention of wandering monsters, or a failed Nature roll leads them into a poacher’s trap. It definitely makes it more meaningful, I think, when they finally complete the challenge.
Another thing that “exploding” the Skill Challenge this way can do is provide you with an opportunity for foreshadowing. In this example, I put the big, nasty monster as the consequence of failing the skill challenge. For each successful skill roll, in addition to adding up toward the overall success of the challenge, the player characters should get some clue as to what the consequence will be. A sound in the distance, a scale or feather or hunk of fur from the monster, a half-eaten adventurer. In this instance I’d build some paranoia, so that they know that something’s out there and may even be stalking them. It adds some story depth to the challenge.
If the adventurers pass the skill challenge, then the consequence can still be used as foreshadowing as you make that consequence the focus of the next adventure. In this example, rather than being surprised by the monster nad having the elven rangers come to their aid, they can join the rangers in their hunt for the beast, and be able to adequately equip themselves knowing what they’re going to face.
Currently, I’m still working on this “adventure challenge” and plan to run it in the coming weeks. After I do, I promise to publish it here for your amusement.
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