Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Snooze Aug 18, 2008 15:12:20	I'm trying to put together the mechanics for a skill challenge that I think might be fun. Here is the scenario: There's a mine shaft where there are some miners trapped behind some fallen rock. The party is tasked with clearing out all the rock that's blocking the way. It's at the bottom of a shaft though, so to accomplish this, they have to load the rocks into a pair of carts that are attached to a pulley system. Then, they have to use the pulley to lift the rocks up and out of the shaft, using their own body weight in the opposite cart to counterbalance the rocks. They will need to repeat this five times to clear out all the rocks. Each "round" they need to make the following checks: Three Endurance checks to fill the cart with rocks. Three different people can do this, or one person can do all three, with -4 and -8 penalties to the second and third checks. Failure means the person still succeeds, but has to spend a healing surge. The pulley system is then locked into place. Three characters need to climb up out of the shaft to get into the mine cart at the top. They make Athletics checks to climb up the shaft, and then get into the cart at the top, which counterbalances the cart full of rocks at the bottom. A failed Athletics check means the character falls and takes 1d10 damage. An Acrobatics check will cancel the falling damage, as normal. One person at the top of the shaft (not in a cart) must use Dungeoneering to operate the pulley mechanism to lower the party and raise the rocks. This is a throttle of sorts, which allows the user to control the friction on the mechanism, thereby adjusting the falling speed. A successful check means the rocks are raised to the top of the shaft, and the mechanism is locked in place again for unloading. Failure means he does a poor job of controlling the rate of falling, causing 1d10 damage to all three party members in the cart. There's no room to tumble in the cart, so this damage cannot be negated by Acrobatics. Then, the party members have to unload the cart at the top, meaning three more Endurance checks. Party members can either climb up and down (making an Athletics check each time) or post one person at the top and bottom to load/unload. This could actually become a fun game of trying to figure out who to put in the carts, etc. The system is a little rickety, and cannot support more than 3 people in the cart at a time. Players might also use the pulley system instead of climbing, putting people in the cart instead of rocks. To accomplish this, there must be one more person in the top cart than the bottom. Failure damages people in both carts. So, feedback on this? The challenge is set up so that the party will succeed, but it's a question of how much it will cost them in damage and healing surges. Some questions for feedback: Does this seem like too much? I can tweak the number of Endurance checks per load (which also affects how many characters need to participate). I can also tweak the number of people who need to be in the cart, or I can lower the number of repetitions required. Obviously I can also change the difficulty of each check. Speaking of difficulty, if we assume a level 2-4 party, what's a good DC for these skill checks? With the requirements for three people to climb, and up to three people loading rocks, it's likely that some of these checks will be from untrained characters. I was thinking 15 should be good for all of them, maybe 20 for the Dungeoneering check. None of the characters in my group currently have Tenser's Floating Disk, which would negate the need for the pulley system, but not the loading. Hopefully none of them pick it up. Any other suggestions? Things to remove, or more fun things to add?
#2 lifat Aug 18, 2008 15:27:43	I'm not familiar enough with 4th edition to begin jduging on DCs and stuff like that. But what do you do if the players don't follow the script? what if they do something else? What if a clever player figures out another way to do it that was better than your original plan?
#3 Snooze Aug 19, 2008 1:00:26	Honestly, that's part of what I'm looking for. If there's an easy way for the players to solve this problem (such as Tenser's Floating Disk) I'd love to hear about it, so I can plan accordingly. I'm also looking for feedback as to whether or not this sounds like a fun challenge.
#4 viatos Aug 19, 2008 15:14:13	Needs a more exciting element. Maybe the material they're lifting out is explosive or poisonous, or there are spiders/driders in the mine shaft, or up top they're being attacked by Hostile Group X who occasionally try to push the rocks back down if they're not dealt with. Great mechanics, though.
#5 werral Aug 19, 2008 19:22:01	Or have the miners have only a limited amount of air so there's there's a ticking clock. Also you could have: A child/spouse of one of the miner's insists on helping/ gets in the way or falls down the shaft and must be rescued. Other miners attack the mine boss and want to lynch him for using cheap timbers (which may have caused the collapse) Heavy rain means the shaft is filling with water. One of the carts breaks or jams. The noise attracts something (the party may never see the monster but just hear/feel the vibrations it causes) something big and nasty (or maybe just an echo). Spellswise I guess strength and enlarge spells (if they're still in 4E) could help