Alzrius,
Thanks for the review and a special thanks for some excellent constructive criticism. I can tick off at least 3 key points from your review that we'll want to address as we continue with the Skill Encounter's line.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
My only complaint is that the system has the same flaw as 4E's skill challenges. Small incentive for players to participate.
Why, you ask? Because of the chance of failure.
If I'm Mr. Noskill, and stand a better chance of failing than succeeding, the best course for me is to sit out so I don't add failures to the total. I roll too many failures, the whole party loses. It would be best to cut out 'total failures before complete failure' completely.
Hey TriOmegaZero, let me try to assuage your fears.
While I agree your quote above is often the case in 4E skill challenges, Skill Encounters attempts to deals with this issue in a number of ways we’ve found very effective at our table. Basically we start from the idea that it’s more fun to do something rather than sit around and wait. So what have we done to mitigate this…
The main means is Secondary skills. Secondary skill checks aid a Primary skill check or have unique effects like allowing a reroll, negating a consequence, providing a small bonus over a number of turns, etc. Only Primary skill checks can score a failure for purposes of determining success or failure of the skill encounter so Secondary skills are worth trying as there is no real negative side.
Secondary skills also allow you to be creative. You can try to find a unique way to use a skill you are good at but might not be readily applicable to the encounter (at a high DC) or try something skill encounter appropriate that your character isn’t very skilled at (however with a lower DC).
Next there are a number of end conditions that vary based on the purpose of the skill encounter.
Success/Failure: You achieve X successes you succeed, accrue Y failures you fail.
Duration: The skill encounter ends after so many rounds regardless of failures. If you achieved X successes you succeed. If not you failed. There may levels of success or failure in a duration based skill encounter.
Success only: The skill encounter ends after you succeed. Skill Encounters: Traps (next project starting layout) works this way a lot. For instance one trap the Vicious Spiked Pit plunges the PCs into a pit of whirling blades and punching spikes. Each round a PC is in the pit they have to make a save or take damage and the encounter ends for each individual PC once they gather enough successes to escape the trap or work together to disable it. Much like combat the fail condition is death.
Some skill encounters are run on an individual level. Each PC keeps their own success/failure tally and their ultimate success or failure does not directly impact the other PCs efforts. In this scenario each PC needs to make checks in order to have a chance at success. Chase from this product is a good example of this type of skill encounter.
Lastly other skill encounters are designed to be a teamwork affair. In these skill encounters only one PC makes a Primary skill check (often at a rather high DC) while the other PCs assist him using Secondary skills. Wilderness Travel and Gather Information from this product are good example of this type of skill encounter.
Anyways this is to say that there is always a reason to try something in a skill encounter. The worst you can typically do is nothing and if you’re skilled or lucky you might provide useful aid to your ally making the Primary skill. Also my table finds some really great roleplaying can come out of trying something new and outside your characters box. Plus there's nothing like the rush of that illiterate half-orc barbarian successfully aiding his elven bard ally in a Diplomacy check with their noble patron. "I do believe that fellow has a point, sir!"
Robert Hahn
www.4th-dimensiongames.com
For Gamers By Gamers. Level up your game!
