Today we talk about a PnP player's worst enemy: Skill Challenges.
At worst a Skill Challenge is someone rolling his D20(or equivalent multiple times in order to perform a single action. At best a Skill Challenge is run silently in the background of the game without the player's knowledge.
The second one doesn't sound too bad, but it has a major flaw: The player will eventually be upset at having a single dice roll seem to unravel an entire session of play. Not knowing it's a Skill Challenge makes him think he's just making normal Skill Checks and thus doesn't understand when the Baron randomly decides to not pay him.
I personally run constant hidden Skill Challenges during my games. But I don't do them the way the various guides tell me to. Instead I forego the arbitrary numbers and set a mood instead. I'll explain this in more detail in a bit. But first...
How a Skill Challenge Works:
The DM(or adventure writer) decides that the task being handled is too complicated for a single dice roll. So multiple are required. Usually it is listed as something along the lines of - Each turn you may roll the dice once. A DC/TN(Difficulty Class/Target Number) is set. If you roll high enough to succeed 5 times before failing 3 times then you pass the Skill Challenge.
In a combat situation this works great. It gives you a sense of urgency and possible failure in your task and still allows you to heal or defend yourself during the activity. Out of combat it just feels like you're rolling the dice way too much to be useful.
Dungeon Magazine and Dragon Magazine have a series of articles about making Skill Challenges more effective and fun(they are in 2010 issues). Unfortunately they don't address the fundamental flaw in Skill Challenges. The player feels like he has to roll the dice 10 times to complete a task that could have been delegated to a single roll. In D&D 3.0 this wasn't a huge issue as the entire system was overly complicated, but in most systems it feels out of place.
The best tip out there for dealing with the big flaw is to not tell the players it is a Skill Challenge. Just have them roll as the encounter or in-game day goes on. This makes them more tolerable and adds a sense of mystery to the game. But then the arbitrary numbers get in the way.
Using the earlier example of 5 successes before 3 failures, what if the PC has been sweet talking a few guards. Let's say he has successfully rolled over the DC 4 times and under 2 times. The next roll will determine if the guards let him in the castle or send him away. What if the PC decides to try and convince the guards to meet him for drinks later. A task that has nothing to do with his mission, but still follows under the rules of the Skill Challenge. If he fails to convince the guards to go for drinks, should he be denied entry into the castle?
The short answer is: No. The long answer is: Does the guard feel he's being bribed with the drinks?
When I run a Skill Challenge, I don't tell the players that it's happening unless it is during combat. I set a general mood for success and a general mood for failure. In the previous example: Success = the guard feels like the PC is both trustworthy and a decent guy. Failure = the guard feels he is being bribed or the PC is a shady character.
This seems a bit abstract, but it isn't arbitrary. Deciding that 5 successful dice rolls is more important than 4 in the grand scheme of things has no meaning. It just ratchets up the chance of failure. So rather than having to successfully roll a 15 on 5 separate Diplomacy Checks while talking to this guard, I now only have to roll as many as it takes to convince him I'm not a bad guy. Which, if I word it right, could be as little as 1 roll.
Of course I'm a big fan of the "Natural Rule". In which a Natural 1 or Natural 20 in the D20 system makes something incredible happen. This also works for Natural 3 and Natural 18 for the AGE System.
In talking to the guard for the first time, a Natural 1 basically means I looked or acted nervous and it was obvious that I was lying. He might believe me to be a spy or an assassin and attack right then. A Natural 20 on the other hand would be akin to being temporarily the world's greatest actor. The guard doesn't just let me in, he escorts me where I'm going.
All this allows me as DM to allocate a Skill Challenge without telling the players or upsetting them. And the game runs smoothly. It takes a lot of improvisation, but that is one of the great DM tips anyway.
