Skill Challenges you and your players will love

I think skill challenges are great, i love the idea behind them but i hate building them. The reason is the book tries hard to really explain what a skill challenge is and it over complicates things. I think that you can create a hole game night around skill challenges and the players will go home loving the game even more. Hopefully i can prove it with this example.

I'm a support tech by day, i believe in KISS. Keep It Simple Solution*. The simpler you keep a skill challenge the better it works.

Paul Smecker: Television. Television is the explanation for this - you see this in bad television. Little assault guys creeping through the vents, coming in through the ceiling - that James Bond shit never happens in real life! Professionals don't do that!

Think of your favorite TV show, your favorite episode even its all a skill challenge and yet you loved it.

Here is an example of an episode of Star Gate Season 3, Episode 8 – Aired: 8/13/1999 called Demons

SG-1 arrives at a medieval village and frees Mary, a young woman who has been left outside tied to a stake. Simon, friar of the village and Mary's friend, explains that Mary is a sacrifice for the demon that plagues their village. The Canon chose her when he mistook her illness for an evil possession.

When the demon arrives and finds no sacrifice, he promises to destroy the village the next day unless five humans are left for sacrifice. SG-1 recognizes this "demon" and plot to destroy it, but the Canon pronounces SG-1 evil and condemns them to be sacrificed.

SG-1 must convince Simon to go against everything he believes in order to save themselves and rid the village of its demon forever.

Now sure this episode is almost 10 years old now but you know its been around. You can have this simple adventure from a series of skill challenges, the key is create the challenge and let the players use the skills. What they do with the skill is more important then the skill itself, and that should be used to determine if the roll is success or nothing (or if the roll is a failure)

Skill Challenge DC's and Complexity
First let me say ignore the complexity listed in the DMG, ideally because this is an encounter (just not a combat encounter) you want to all players to each have a chance to roll at least twice so they feel they contributed. So number of successes is twice the party size failure is set by you, i would say a quarter of the party size to half.

ie: party 5, successes 10 before 3-5 failures

As for the Difficulty, you can use the charts listed in the DMG, i would say use the tougher values, your players may just surprise you.

Skill Challenge 1: Convince the people of the town that the woman is sick and not possessed
Success:
When the 'demon' shows up the town refuses to give in, thus the demo makes the threat
Failure:
The town is now plotting against the party, this could lead to a combat, or a kidnapping of the woman. the party can easily retrieve her
Skill Challenge 2: Cure the woman of the disease
Success:
The party successfully cures the woman of the disease
Failure:
Wile trying to cure the woman, the party contracts the disease itself
Skill Challenge 3: Convince Simon to help them against a demon
Success:
Simon gives the party a blessing that gives them +2 to hit and damage vs demons until the next extended rest.
Failure:
Simon warns the demon that the party is on the way to slay him in hopes to protect the town, the party grants combat advantage on its first round of combat or the party is surprised
Combat: Fight the Demon
a nice elite fight here would work well, one elite, toss in some minions and your good to go.

That's it your done, you have a interesting adventure that will last one night, and that your players will remember for a long time all because you focused on skill challenges/role playing over combat. You can build an entire campaign based on this idea, and based on TV shows you know and love.

What i hope you've learned about skill challenges

• Trust your instinct not the book
• Give all your players at least two chances to participate
• Use multiple skill challenges in the form of role playing
• End the night with a big bang

Extra tip: After each player makes their roll in the skill challenge, role play it out a bit
, give them a chance to turn a possible failure into a success or add flavor.

Well that's it for me, until next time keep your dice on the table