[4E] The Race of Eight Winds - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

[4E] The Race of Eight Winds

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Gilo
Apr 29, 2010 1:38:04 I would like to run The Race of Eight Winds as a complex skill challenge for my PCs or It could be something along the lines of Dungeon # 176 the Cross-City Race.

One of my PCs (level 14th) have recently become the new Steel&Clouds guild master, with the combined support of house Deneith and house Lyrandar the guild specialize in air combat (mostly supplying air-marshals for airships - based on the "Lyrandar Tower web enhancement") I'm going to suggest the race as a public relationship boost for the guild which has been on the decline lately (due to neglect following the death of the previous guild leadership).

I'll probably split the skill challenge into two parts: one relate to the politics of getting to be a contestant in the race and then the race itself.

Some of my PCs have a magical dragonfly figurines which allow them to fly (ebony-fly) - but some don't. I think the main challenge for me will be to incorporate all the party members in both stages of the skill challenge.

I'm looking for any cool ideas (crunch and fluff) or suggestions.

#2
Magicstar1
Apr 29, 2010 2:50:39 I did a very extensive Race of the Eight Winds for my group at level 7. One player was a contestant and the others helped. I used an intricate mechanism of a number of small Skill Challenges within one race spanning Skill Challenge. To include all party members some of these smaller challenges were actually played out as flashbacks. I'm at work now but maybe one of my players will chime in with some more info or I will tonight.
#3
Madfox11
Apr 29, 2010 3:21:56
One of my PCs (level 14th) have recently become the new Steel&Clouds guild master, with the combined support of house Deneith and house Lyrandar the guild specialize in air combat (mostly supplying air-marshals for airships - based on the "Lyrandar Tower web enhancement") I'm going to suggest the race as a public relationship boost for the guild which has been on the decline lately (due to neglect following the death of the previous guild leadership).

Considering the PCs are 14th level I wonder wheter it makes sense to have the race part being the actual challenge unless their mere presence is getting other powerful enemies of the PCs suddenly showing an interest in the race. For me the problem is that if 14th level PCs are having difficulties with particular challenges, the typical NPC in Eberron would fail without even trying, which makes it odd that this race now is so much more difficult then in the previous years. I admit though that I am a bit of a stickler for finding the right challenge for the right level as opposed to simply raising the DCs.

As for the race, I am a player in Magicstar's campaign and the way the race was run was definitely one of the highlights in the already great campaign. Basically Magicstar gave us a list of all the candidates and a couple of Streetwise checks and conversations with allies later we also knew a bit more about those candidates - mostly tidbits that told us a bit about their chances, personalities and alliances. We then planned on which NPCs to focus and how such attention would help our friend in the race (and we did not want to cheat, so it was mostly about befriending them or getting them to fight with one another instead of our friend). Of course, time limited us from focussing on all candidates.

The next session was the actual race. We specifically planned it this way to give the DM the time to prepare just those NPCs as opposed the need to detail all twelve candidates. The PC in the race made a couple of checks, and then we came at the flashbacks. In these flashbacks one or more of the PCs dealt with one of the other candidates, or in one case, with a sabotage attempt by Boromar clan. Success in a scene was treated as a success in the skill challenge, failure as a failure. The DM did a great job in showing how it impacted the race. For example, in an accident one of the candidates felt from his mount, and the PC actually prevented that person from falling to his death. We had befriended one of the other racers in the flashback that immediately followed, and made winning much less important for that racers, and he took over that person, allowing the PC to get back into the race without resorting to dirty tactics.

The biggest benefit of this approach is that even though only 1 PC is actually racing, it allowed all the other players to actively participate during the race. Otherwise chances are that the actual race would just have been a string of dice rolls. The downside is that it requires some good on-the-fly DMing, but any DM should be able to do that ;)

[Edit: I am not getting paragraph endings in this large piece of text, sorry.]
#4
Gilo
Apr 29, 2010 17:37:30
Thanks Magicstar and Madfox11.

Considering the PCs are 14th level I wonder wheter it makes sense to have the race part being the actual challenge unless their mere presence is getting other powerful enemies of the PCs suddenly showing an interest in the race. For me the problem is that if 14th level PCs are having difficulties with particular challenges, the typical NPC in Eberron would fail without even trying, which makes it odd that this race now is so much more difficult then in the previous years. I admit though that I am a bit of a stickler for finding the right challenge for the right level as opposed to simply raising the DCs.

I think I'll make the first-part (getting the sponsorship of one of the regions, interacting with the other candidates, Dura politics and pre-race troubleshooting) the skill challenge itself. while the race will be a full transition sequence (/flashback) told by me without any player interaction. Success gained in the first-part will determine the race flow and outcome.

In term of justifying DC scaling up for a 14th level party as you suggested I will use their enemies in making everything harder:
The party already have a history of conflict with the Boromar clan, house Tarkanan and the Swords of Liberty which I'll use to make diplomacy/streetwise skill check require higher DC as the locals fear Boromar clan retribution if they aid the PCs, some city officials loyal to the swords of liberty may put bureaucratic obstacles in their way and I'll probably incorporate a combat encounter with Tarkanan assassins just as the race is starting - making them late for the race and suffering a skill-challenge failure for every combat round (above 5 rounds?).

[Edit: this paragraph endings issue seem thread contagious ;)]

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Gilo Apr 29, 2010 1:38:04	I would like to run The Race of Eight Winds as a complex skill challenge for my PCs or It could be something along the lines of Dungeon # 176 the Cross-City Race. One of my PCs (level 14th) have recently become the new Steel&Clouds guild master, with the combined support of house Deneith and house Lyrandar the guild specialize in air combat (mostly supplying air-marshals for airships - based on the "Lyrandar Tower web enhancement") I'm going to suggest the race as a public relationship boost for the guild which has been on the decline lately (due to neglect following the death of the previous guild leadership). I'll probably split the skill challenge into two parts: one relate to the politics of getting to be a contestant in the race and then the race itself. Some of my PCs have a magical dragonfly figurines which allow them to fly (ebony-fly) - but some don't. I think the main challenge for me will be to incorporate all the party members in both stages of the skill challenge. I'm looking for any cool ideas (crunch and fluff) or suggestions.
#2 Magicstar1 Apr 29, 2010 2:50:39	I did a very extensive Race of the Eight Winds for my group at level 7. One player was a contestant and the others helped. I used an intricate mechanism of a number of small Skill Challenges within one race spanning Skill Challenge. To include all party members some of these smaller challenges were actually played out as flashbacks. I'm at work now but maybe one of my players will chime in with some more info or I will tonight.
#3 Madfox11 Apr 29, 2010 3:21:56	One of my PCs (level 14th) have recently become the new Steel&Clouds guild master, with the combined support of house Deneith and house Lyrandar the guild specialize in air combat (mostly supplying air-marshals for airships - based on the "Lyrandar Tower web enhancement") I'm going to suggest the race as a public relationship boost for the guild which has been on the decline lately (due to neglect following the death of the previous guild leadership). Considering the PCs are 14th level I wonder wheter it makes sense to have the race part being the actual challenge unless their mere presence is getting other powerful enemies of the PCs suddenly showing an interest in the race. For me the problem is that if 14th level PCs are having difficulties with particular challenges, the typical NPC in Eberron would fail without even trying, which makes it odd that this race now is so much more difficult then in the previous years. I admit though that I am a bit of a stickler for finding the right challenge for the right level as opposed to simply raising the DCs. As for the race, I am a player in Magicstar's campaign and the way the race was run was definitely one of the highlights in the already great campaign. Basically Magicstar gave us a list of all the candidates and a couple of Streetwise checks and conversations with allies later we also knew a bit more about those candidates - mostly tidbits that told us a bit about their chances, personalities and alliances. We then planned on which NPCs to focus and how such attention would help our friend in the race (and we did not want to cheat, so it was mostly about befriending them or getting them to fight with one another instead of our friend). Of course, time limited us from focussing on all candidates. The next session was the actual race. We specifically planned it this way to give the DM the time to prepare just those NPCs as opposed the need to detail all twelve candidates. The PC in the race made a couple of checks, and then we came at the flashbacks. In these flashbacks one or more of the PCs dealt with one of the other candidates, or in one case, with a sabotage attempt by Boromar clan. Success in a scene was treated as a success in the skill challenge, failure as a failure. The DM did a great job in showing how it impacted the race. For example, in an accident one of the candidates felt from his mount, and the PC actually prevented that person from falling to his death. We had befriended one of the other racers in the flashback that immediately followed, and made winning much less important for that racers, and he took over that person, allowing the PC to get back into the race without resorting to dirty tactics. The biggest benefit of this approach is that even though only 1 PC is actually racing, it allowed all the other players to actively participate during the race. Otherwise chances are that the actual race would just have been a string of dice rolls. The downside is that it requires some good on-the-fly DMing, but any DM should be able to do that ;) [Edit: I am not getting paragraph endings in this large piece of text, sorry.]
#4 Gilo Apr 29, 2010 17:37:30	Thanks Magicstar and Madfox11. Considering the PCs are 14th level I wonder wheter it makes sense to have the race part being the actual challenge unless their mere presence is getting other powerful enemies of the PCs suddenly showing an interest in the race. For me the problem is that if 14th level PCs are having difficulties with particular challenges, the typical NPC in Eberron would fail without even trying, which makes it odd that this race now is so much more difficult then in the previous years. I admit though that I am a bit of a stickler for finding the right challenge for the right level as opposed to simply raising the DCs. I think I'll make the first-part (getting the sponsorship of one of the regions, interacting with the other candidates, Dura politics and pre-race troubleshooting) the skill challenge itself. while the race will be a full transition sequence (/flashback) told by me without any player interaction. Success gained in the first-part will determine the race flow and outcome. In term of justifying DC scaling up for a 14th level party as you suggested I will use their enemies in making everything harder: The party already have a history of conflict with the Boromar clan, house Tarkanan and the Swords of Liberty which I'll use to make diplomacy/streetwise skill check require higher DC as the locals fear Boromar clan retribution if they aid the PCs, some city officials loyal to the swords of liberty may put bureaucratic obstacles in their way and I'll probably incorporate a combat encounter with Tarkanan assassins just as the race is starting - making them late for the race and suffering a skill-challenge failure for every combat round (above 5 rounds?). [Edit: this paragraph endings issue seem thread contagious ;)]