Skill challenge system/lite resolution system
Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:41 pm
Based off of things I've read on TGD when it comes to the skill challenge system, here's my shot at fixing that funked up skill challenge system in 4e:
Setting appropriate DC's is another thing but 4e numbers can get so wonky that I haven't really looked at that. Instead I figured this is a good start for being the resolution system to a standalone game, like say a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of book or video game. So here's additional info to make it a standalone game:Resolution Mechanics
-Roll a d20+modifiers to beat DC.
-Gain X successes before Y turns pass.
-If you fail 3 times in a row you are knocked out of the challenge (they no longer participate in the challenge)
Running a Challenge
The nature of the challenge determines how effective/limited each skill is.
Determine the effectiveness of each skill for the challenge
Perfect: The skill is highly appropriate and gains +2 when rolled.
Neutral: The skill works as normal without any modifiers
Bad: The skill is inappropriate for the challenge and suffers a -5 penalty to rolls.
Locked: The skill cannot be used for the challenge (should it be an auto-failure if someone tries to use it or should they be informed to try something else?)
Certain Skills may have additional effects when a success is achieved
-Limited: After X successes are achieved with this skill it becomes Locked
-Unlock: This skill's success changes the effectiveness of another skill, such as making a Locked skill now neutral or a Bad skill becomes Perfect.
-Aid: Success with this skill doesn't count as success towards the challenge but instead adds +X to success with another skill
-Save: This skill's success allows a KO'd player back into the challenge
-Extend: This skill's success adds another round of rolling to the skill challenge
DC's and level appropriateness
Here's a guide to setting DC's for challenges
Will give examples of skill challenges like "you wake up in a burning house" and DC's in further postsCharacter Creation
You are a murderhobo adventurer. Choose 6 skills from the list below to be Proficient in, and then choose 3 skills you are proficient in to be Focused in.
If you are not trained in a skill you are -4 on rolls to use it
Proficiency has a +0 bonus, removing the penalty for being untrained
Focused grants a +3 bonus to rolls.
You add +level to your roll.
Skill List, this particular list is meant for a D&D kinda game but it can be changed based on what the genre n' setting of the game is.
Athletics: track & field & gymnastics kind of actions
Perception: noticing details, spotting an ambush, tracking
Larceny: covers all kinds of stealing, overlaps with rigging when it comes to bypassing barriers like locked doors
Stealth: sneaking around
Survival: making due in the wilds, scavenging, also overlaps with perception for tracking
Animal Empathy: communicating with non-sapient critters
Insight: figure out a person's intentions (if they're lying, what they're about to do)
Inspire: Making yourself larger than life to fill people with courage and dread alike
Persuade: basically like diplomacy and bluff rolled into one
Tactics: organizing folks to victory on the battlefield or football fields alike.
Operations: covers operating and repairing machines like boats n' ballistas
Tech: Can be electronics or arcana depending on the setting
Medicine: knowing what ails and what cures and how to go about doing so
Research: the knowledge skill, or in D&D4e terms it's History, though maybe knowledge should be its own category as that's quite broad...
Rigging: Macguyvering, building things and making them explode, arming and disarming traps, etc.
Gauging DC by level
This doesn't mean level 5 characters should be scaling level 5 walls, this is just a chart for showing what would be challenging or trivial to a level 5 character, a more fleshed out setting would have info like "Surving in the forest of thorns is a DC_ check"
Too Easy: DC= Character level +2
Very Easy: DC= Character level +5
Decent Challenge: DC= Character level +8
Evenly Matched: DC= Character level +10
Tough: DC= Character level +12
Very Tough: DC= Character level +15
Incredibly Tough: DC= Character level +18
Impossible: DC= Character level +20