A little while ago, Michael Lee the point of contact for Aglarond in the Living Forgotten Realms campaign, agreed to let me pick his brain about the RPGA. He has some interesting reasons for getting involved in the RPGA, and a little more info about how to do it. Thanks to Michael Lee for his time!
Inside the RPGA: Discussion with Michael Lee.
November 18th, 2008 — Gamemastering, RPGA, d12 interviews
Designing Skill Challenges
November 14th, 2008 — Uncategorized
Some musings on the creation of skill challenges by someone who is currently obsessed with them! Building skill challenges with frames, skins, and outs.
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Skill Challenges #4: The Better Part of Valor
November 14th, 2008 — Gamemastering, Rules, Skill Challenges
Courtesy of the Skill Challenge Request Line –kaeosdad, this is for you!
Scenario: The PCs are being chased by a monster far above their level (PC level + 10 or higher solo!). Escape from the monster or be slain. As fulfilling as bravery can be, discretion is…
Complexity: 3 (8 successes before three failures)
Encounter Level: PC Encounter Level + 1
Goal: Escape the monster before he can catch up to the party.
skill challenges are about actions not skills
November 14th, 2008 — Uncategorized
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Skill Challenges #3: Demon Dialogue.
November 13th, 2008 — Gamemastering, Rules, Skill Challenges
Scenario: The PCs have either summoned via a ritual or stumbled upon in an old ruins a demon. The barrier holding the demon back is tenuous. The demon is willing to stay his claws for a moment, however to see what manner of deal he can get from the players. He is not patient however, so players must bargain with him swiftly or he will decide to negotiate with might. The PCs can contract the demon to service, or they can just get the demon to leave without attacking them.
Skill Challenges #2: Bet your life
November 10th, 2008 — Gamemastering, Rules, Skill Challenges
Scenario: The players are looking for information (whatever you want it to be) and the one available lead is a tiefling gambler, D’ucell Larson. Du’cell offers games of the highest stakes — souls. He is employed by the forces working against the players, and can give them them all the information they need. But first they must play a game of skill with the veteran gambler. And he never loses. The players must wager a soul (one of the players or an NPC) and sit down at the table to play a game of Dragon’s Bluff for very high stakes.
Skill Challenge Request Line.
November 9th, 2008 — Uncategorized
I have a host of skill challenges that I am writing at the moment, but I am taking a brief moment to take requests. What type of skill challenges would you like to see me write up? Request and they shall be granted.
A preview of what’s to come:
- Duel with a gambler for someone’s soul.
- Bargaining with a demon for services.
- Navigate your way through the realm of dreams.
- Give a rousing speech to townsfolk, inspiring them to make a stand versus evil.
- Manuever troops into just the right position during battle.
Skill Challenges: City Ablaze
November 5th, 2008 — Gamemastering, Rules, Skill Challenges
I’ve decided to start posting some of my skill challenges I’ve built. I’ve run about as many, if not more, skill challenges than combats in my 4e game. You’ve heard me talking about them before –I love them. Once I got used to the system though, I wanted to go further. To take this idea for a roleplaying mini-game to another level. One of the benefits of skill challenges is that the framework is simple enough that you can modify and tinker endlessly until it fits into the context of whatever you’re doing. Like the rest of the system, skill challenges are quite easy to “skin”. One template for a skill challenge could be reset to do any number of different challenges. Replace a few skills change the role-playing of the characters, and voila! “New” skill challenge. I’ll set my skill challenges up in a template format with some of the specifics yanked out so that they’ll be easier for you to use in your own campaign.
Inside the Insider: Dungeon and uh…Dragon.
November 4th, 2008 — WoTC Stuff
I don’t know who is surprised that I signed up for D&D Insider, but I did. I signed up for the month by month plan, because I want to be able to opt-out when I’d like. At this rate though…I’m thinking about going all in.
BlackTree Chronicles #14: Against the Night, Part Two
October 30th, 2008 — Blacktree, Campaigns, Play Session
Last Time: The characters ran through the city as wraiths attacked, defending townsfolk where they could and looking to grab the wraithstones that brought the wraiths there.
This Time: Lot of fast combats with boards full of minions. No time for extended rests, so each combat wore the group down gradually. The group acquired all the wraithstones, and then high-tailed it out of town, with hundreds of wraiths pursuing them, almost descending upon the group to bring the Pcs into their undead ranks…just as day broke, and the wraith horde dispersed.
The Twist: Some of the townspeople were being mind-controlled by the wraiths. This was a fun and interesting combat as I also added two conditions: 1) the players could get XP by killing no one out of 20 possessed citizens and 2) because of their crazed nature, they couldn’t just choose to drop the citizens at 0 without talking an attack roll penalty. The PCs managed to navigate this by isolating and killing the controlling wraiths.
Some Background: Finneas Jack, an old foe of the party, was yelling taunts out from the shadows. The players know he’s involved with this somehow, but they don’t know what yet.
The Best Part: The final skill challenge of the evening with the PCs high-tailing it out of town with an “entourage” of soul-thirsty wraiths. The players were in absolutely no shape to fight anything. Low on HP, no healing surges, the PCs could not have survived anything close to a real fight, so the tension was pretty high on the results of the skill challenge. When your players themselves audibly breathe a sigh of relief, you know you’ve done your job.
