Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 onionkid Sep 11, 2010 22:40:46	The arena isn't all fights to the death. Sometimes it's used for ye olde NASCAR in the form of chariot races. Now of course, this is Dark Sun so there would naturally be all kinds of traps, obstacles, and beasts on the course as the characters race. But how exactly would you run a chariot race? I'm not sure what skills I'd use to simulate this in a skill challenge. Athletics? It's the Crodlus that are running, not the characters. Nature? Why is the druid a good charioteer and the gladiator fighter is terrible? Or maybe this isn't something that you should do in a skill challenge at all. Perhaps it's best done by running a combat in which all characters are "mounted" on chariots? Some characters hold the reigns, and some characters fling javelins and and use telekinesis to make the other charioteers crash. How would YOU run the races?
#2 Timmeh Sep 11, 2010 22:50:35	I'd probably have it be a combat/skill encounter. Your chariot runs as a normal vehicle with a speed. A nature check could push your beast. Make it a standard action, and if successful, the beast gains a +2 to speed. Have the first check of each round using this be a moderate check, and if they want, they could do a second check for another +2, but at a hard difficulty. An intimidate check could lower an enemy beast's speed. The same as above, except -2. Other creative uses of skills that could hinder/help would be good. Otherwise, I would assume that you would have there be "laps", instead of a straight out race. Laps gives you a little bit more difficulty, because if the team pulls away quickly, they could avoid the combat. With laps, it's more difficult, because then a losing team could slow down and attack the team doing the best. The chariots should be able to hold everyone and allow everyone to fire from it. I'd imagine that if you were close enough, you could use melee/melee reach attacks.
#3 rollawaythestone Sep 11, 2010 23:10:43	Each competitor can spend a move action to roll a d8 to see how many squares you move in the race. A standard action can be spent to move again but you only roll a d4 to move. You can also spend a standard action to use certain skills (set the dc's appropriate to the parties level). Athletics - Roll a d10 instead of a d8 to move when using a move action. Intimidate - An opponent rolls a d6 instead of a d8 to move. They can be intimidated again to move down to a d4. Nature - Calms your animal, if an opponent intimidated you, you can recover back to a d8. A minor can be used to slam against an opponent's chariot  (as you move past them, or if you are adjacent) or to do other things. Slaming a chariot - make an opposed athletics check to deal 1d8 points of damage to a chariot (Chariots have 20/40 hit points?) Minor action acrobatics - negatves some sort of hazard? Some thoughts... I like rolling for speed, otherwise it gets kind of repetitive with everyone moving the same speed. I'd go with something like this if it was strictly a race. If it was a mounted combat thing, I don't know..
#4 atomicbanana Sep 13, 2010 16:53:21	Athletics to jump from one chariot to another.  It's the driver that wins the race, not the chariot, so with that mechanic in mind I like the idea of the chariots moving at approximately the same pace.  +2/-2 may be too much for speed, I'd probably go with +1/-1 so that everything stays more or less balanced except for an exceptionally unlucky dice-roller.  Since this would also be a combat encounter, I agree with rollaway, give the chariots HP.  That way damage characters are just as useful as skillful characters in the race. As for traps, say there are three/four "lanes", three/four chariots.  Introduce hazards like ramps, pits, spikes protruding from either side of the walls. from the diagram, you'll notice that characters A and F are both taking damage from the spikes (1d8/1d10 at the start of their turn until they switch places with characters B/E or the chariot moves out of danger.  The spikes should obviously be placed so that they do not damage the chariot/animals drawing the chariot (unless you're particularly vicious). In order to avoid falling into the pit, chariot AB needs to go after chariot CD in the initiative order and use two movement to get out of the way of the pit.  also, B is adjacent to C, and therefore in melee range. the jump is pretty explanatory.  In order to clear the pit with the ramp, six speed must be sacrificed to put the chariot on the far side of the pit, any extra speed can be used for movement. in order for this type of jostling to work, the DM should call for constant perception checks to see what is ahead on the tracks. kind of interesting.
#5 rollawaythestone Sep 13, 2010 21:40:29	Nice diagram, AtomicBanana.
#6 brainstem Sep 14, 2010 0:06:38	Maybe treat it as a combat and just include the occasional forced hazard.  One character maneuvers the chariot while the others focus on eliminating opponents.  The driver goes through a Skill Challenge in order to avoid obstacles while the other PCs are in combat with the opponents.  The Encounter ends when one driver passes the finish line (conveniently around the same time that the opponents have been bested in combat). This gives most of the players the opportunity to have a more dynamic combat (jumping between chariots and, essentially, fighting on small moving platforms) and one a chance to flex some skills.  I would say that, ideally, your Leader would be the driver, as (s)he could use one Action to control the chariot and the other to buff/throw heals.  Each Leader Class (although I didn't check Artificer) can heal as a Minor Action, so that'd make this a pretty doable thing.
#7 tavitin Sep 14, 2010 13:28:48	Nascar? more like Destruction Derby!
#8 atomicbanana Sep 14, 2010 13:37:00	I'm totally running something like this in my DS campaign.  Prince of Persia: Two Thrones soundtrack in the background (chariot escape).  Yeaaaaahhhh.