OOC Chat Thread

Sorry for silence. I’m at a work conference and haven’t had much time. I will definitely get something in later tonight.

Not a problem, appreciate the heads up.

Hey gang, I wanted to provide a real life example to help convey what Skill Challenges can feel like, and how they're perhaps best used by you as a player.

I feel like i neglected in my rules description to mention exactly how much SCs are really an opportunity for you guys to take a lot of control as Players (something D&D doesn't necessarily do too often outside of combat), of the narrative and the mechanics.

It's supposed to be an opportunity for you guys to create a narrative, and create realities in the game world, that weave an exciting and interesting scene of your choosing, while using the Skills that your characters are best at, all to shine as a player and character.

Summary of actual gameplay:

Situation was, the party has just fought their way through a town suffering from a zombie apocalypse-style invasion of undead. And defended the townhall from a prolonged zombie siege.

We played through that all in "normal" scene to scene, round to round, gameplay. Lot of combat. By the end they were beat up and depleted.

Well, then I used a Skill Challenge to play out an escape from the town, because zombies were just continuing to appear and swarm.

There was a big horse drawn cart, they had a couple dozen townsfolk they loaded into it, and the Challenge was to escape with as few townsfolk dying as possible.

Success meant no one died, the sooner the failure meant the more townsfolk died.

We kick it off and the Druid is like, "I use Animal Handling to keep the horse calm and drive the wagon."

Fighter is like, "I use Athletics to boot zombies off the wagon as they try to crawl up it's side as we ride by!"

Sorcerer is like, "I use Deception to keep the townsfolk calm - everything is fine here folks nothing to worry about! :D"

Rogue is like, "I use Stealth to throw a blanket over everyone and try to keep us low profile as can be... in a wildly racing wagon..."

DM: "Heh, well, the less flesh that is showing, the less excited a zombie might be about your cart. I think that helps!"

Ranger is like, "I use Survival to shout directions to Druid for the fastest way out of town!"

Warlock be like, "I use Eldritch Blast???"

Me, a DM: "Noooo! No attacks remember? I know this is hard for you."

Warlock: "Ok, well... I think the townsfolk are starting to lose it, despite Sorcerer's cajoling, so I'm using Intimidation to shut them up - CAN IT peasants or I will send you to my Infernal Lord for sup!"

DM: "Ok, that's on-brand, yea."

And so on...

They gave more narrative than that with each scene ofc, and there was more interaction between us all, being like, "Oh that's good!", and laughing and wincing at failures, and cheering success, but for the sake of not typing out an entire book, I paraphrased.

But, so, point is: I didn't ever tell them the horse was skittish, or that their were zombies trying to clamber onto the wagon, nor that the townsfolk were scared, or that they needed directions, or needed to hide, or that the townsfolk were getting scared again.

They made up all of those realities themselves, based on the narrative situation and the things that they reasonably saw happening in such a situation that their particular Skills could really help them with in overcoming it.

That's what Skill Challenges are for, for you all to flex your creativity as a storyteller and to use your best ranked Skills to show how you overcome a broad challenge.

Skill Challenges are there for you to create exciting stories and to shine.

You have A LOT of agency in Skill Challenges and it really shines as a mechanic when you use that to the fullest. Use your best Skills. Tell the version of the story your character shines in. Make the whole thing what you want it to be.

Does that make sense and/or help you guys picture the ways in which you could be using this opportunity?

Just a heads up that I am incredibly busy at work as we head into the Labour Day weekend, and for a couple of weeks after. So I will be slow to reply, but will try to post when I can. Where you need to keep the game rolling maybe just skip me and assume I am just tagging along.

Appreciate the heads up, Drakis.

I think maybe we'll use your two ideas as guidance for the narrative, and can have either @Mnrtoler,@Stefron roll for you, since the Tavern Challenge has ended on a skid of bad dice?

Mnrtoler or Stefron, would you want to choose a Skill for Seonaid and roll it up, based on her initial idea of roping street kids in to help?

Persuasion seems the obvious choice, but I could also see Traditions or even other Skills potentially fitting, depending on the specific approach...

May I do a little bit arguing here?
I read guide:
A decent meal and a mug of ale can be had for a few coppers.
Exchange
1 silver penny = 12 copper coins


And I read we spent 5 silver each, meaning 60 cooper coins.

Did we get robbed!?

"A Feast" for 1 person is described as 10s, you guys got half that cost, spanning untold hours and activities.

With a Skill Challenge when you fail the Challenge you lose control of the narrative to a level of abstraction based on what you said your general approach was, but the narrative still goes on.

Maybe you did get pickpocketed - that could certainly happen in this part of town? Maybe the barmaid/keep saw what you were all about - sitting around but not really eating or drinking, and so she took advantage of you all, clearing your stuff and then coming back to demand you purchase more lest you get kicked out? Maybe you did actually eat and drink and buy food and drinks for others trying to ply their tongues? Maybe a little bit of all of those, and/or something different that I'm not thinking of off the top of my head? (EDIT: maybe you engaged in some gambling to try to get in good with pirates, maybe you made a bribe or two?)

We don't exactly know. It doesn't really matter. You can even choose in retrospect, but the end result is you spent 5s.

Had you succeeded in the Challenge it still would have cost you a couple silver. "A meal and a few drinks." So isn't it reasonable that failure costs more?

It takes resources to get things done. That's the game of D&D. Whether those resources are hitpoints or coin or other things (like Conditions that take time to heal).

When you get unlucky and roll poorly it takes more resources to get the thing done. That's how the game works whether it's hit points or whatever.

And this is true whether it's in a Skill Challenge or not.

That's why we can say for Skill Challenges that the details don't necessarily matter.

What matters is that we play the game - use your characters Skills and roll the dice (we did that), what matters is that we weave a narrative - you all choose your narrative (so we did that), and what matters is that your game resources were impacted as that impacts future play - less wealth means maybe you're more likely to give in to the Shadow (steal or loot) at some point, that's a HUGE part of the game here (we did that).

All of that is important and what we would have done had we played this all out through "normal" moment to moment play, except we did it in 1/10th the time.

Yes, at the cost of abstracting some details, that's the price of Skill Challenges, but again we got to play through this in 4 posts instead of 40, when it's not even the main adventure. It's just legwork.

Please have some trust in me as a DM, and as a storyteller, that I'm not here trying to bankrupt you because that way I win.

Please trust that I am here taxing your resources in this moment because that pressure is what creates challenging and interesting and dramatic situations and gameplay in this moment.

And please trust that you will be rewarded adequately in the future for your adventures, such that you will net a material progression for your character, because I understand that material progression is part of what makes the game fun.

Sorry if that's all very meta and "behind the curtain", but I don't want you to be upset. I want you to have trust in me, now and moving forward, that I understand what makes this a game and what makes it fun, and that I'm not just doing things without thought or reason or understanding, and that I'm trying to craft dramatic and interesting gameplay and situations, because presumably those are what we're all here for.

Does that make sense and sounds reasonable, if not fair?

Both fair and reasonable. Just wanted to double check if it is not a typo.
Got it, I will ignore the fact of loosing the money in my role-play.

Hello all due to irl commitments and a recent miscarriage by my wife I need to step away for GP. Thank you all so much for the wonderful games and best luck adventuring.

So sorry to hear about your situation Mnrtoler. I hope everything gets easier, and I wish you all the best.

Best of luck Mnrtoler

Thanks for joining us while you could Mnrtoler, sending you and yours my best wishes.

@Mnrtoler, best wishes to you and your wife.

Could you elaborate on this? Can we fairly easily help each other during skill challenges gaining advantage on the rolls?

The Help Action does not apply to rolls made during Skill Challenges. The narrative and actions that make up Skill Challenges take place at a scale beyond rounds.

Skill Challenges are mini-games with special rules.

But we won't hande most of the game with Skill Challenges.

Honestly not sure what is the goal/aim of watching. Do we try to gather info to make a better plan of getting onboard the ship later/during the night?

Just brainstorming
- are we trying to discover some routine (i.e. workers loading boxes into the ship) we could feign to get onboard?
- do we want to just analyze best option for night swimming and climbing the other side - just as in movies?
- count number of guards/watched and interact with them to gain info on weather it would be possible to distract, bribe or finally knock them out
...

-mainly we don't want to lose sight of the ship: the kidnapped kids could be taken somewhere else by boat (and we'd lose them completely)
-we could see them being transported off the ship to somewhere in town (we could follow)
-we need to find out if they are still hidden aboard or if they've been moved

-we need to find out who Ibn-ahten is, and how he is connected to the kidnapped kids.

@GreyWord: if you have a better idea then suggest it, so we can explore it as another option?

As @Dr_B says it is about keeping an eye on our target. But if you have a better way of finding out where the children are being held, by who, and why, then let's try it out? I am open to alternative approaches to finding the children

@Stefron,@rpgventurer could/should weigh in here as well. If the majority of the group can agree on a thing, than that's what we'll do

I think at least one person should watch the ship until we confirm whether the children are on the it. We should probably rotate people to avoid suspicion. I like the idea of swimming to and skulking around the ship to find out, but I prefer to try less risky methods first, such as targeting one of the ship's sailors/workers and deceive him/her for into giving information.

One way to discover who is Ibn-Ahten is to inquire about booking passage on the ship, while saying something like, "We heard this is the best ship in town. Someone told me to talk to Ibn-Ahten. Is he the captain?"

In a less direct approach, if there is a records office, we can look up information there. Maybe there's a library to look up family history and we'll find his name. I am not above bribing an official if we have to.