Dungeons & Dragons: How To Run Fun Skill Challenges

Skill challenges in Dungeons & Dragons are encounters where players creatively use their skills to resolve a situation. The idea is to build tension and create an experience as engaging and reactive as combat - just without the fighting. In movie terms, skill challenges are like set pieces. They're essential obstacles that showcase the protagonists' power and growth.

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Older players might have unpleasant memories of skill challenges in Fourth Edition D&D. These sometimes felt like a series of fixed checklists rather than a creative use of player skills and imagination. Thankfully, skill challenges don't need to be tedious or overly rigid. Let's check out how to run fun skill challenges in D&D.

What Is A Skill Challenge In Dungeons & Dragons?

A skill challenge is a carefully crafted encounter where the players must beat several skill checks to progress.Examples include defusing a bomb, convincing an enemy to turn into an ally, investigating a crime scene, or infiltrating a castle.

Different skills will make sense depending on the challenge. Defusing a bomb could require proficiency with Thieves' Tools, Sleight of Hand, an Intelligence check, or even an Arcana check if it's a magical device. Great skill challenges incorporate multiple checks that engage different members of the party.

The DM should know the criteria for success and failure before the challenge begins. There are many ways to assess the party's success. For example, if there are six skill checks, the party might need to beat four to succeed. Failure should have consequences but doesn't need to mean a catastrophic result.Failure can simply make the next part of the adventure more challenging.

Essentially, skill challenges are a lot like combat in their execution. The DM sets out the situation and the stakes and then asks the players what they want to do. Just like combat, victory can come in more than one form.

How To Set Up For Skill Challenges

Description

A skill challenge is supposed to be different from a skill check.Your players shouldn't be able to resolve the situation with a single ability or spell. That said, if someone at the table comes up with a brilliant idea that you haven't thought of, consider running with it - even if it bypasses the challenge. Rewarding player creativity makes for switched-on players.

Combat in D&D works best when the players feel a palpable sense of failure. The same rings true for skill challenges.The situation doesn't need to be a skill challenge if there's no way the party can fail and no real consequences for failure.

The description is the key to setting up a skill challenge's options, stakes, and consequences. Whether it's a chase scene, a negotiation, or escaping an erupting volcano, the DM's description should create urgency in the players. In a skill challenge, doing nothing results in failure just as surely as doing the wrong thing.

Consequences

If the party fails to defuse the bomb, the bomb goes off - that much is self-evident. But the DM needs to know how this affects the game world, the party's reputation, and the trajectory of the adventure. D&D encounters work when the consequences of success and failure are clear beforehand.

There are several ways to adjudicate success and failure in the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG):

• Roll VS Difficulty Class (DC): This is the system most players are familiar with. The DM decides the difficulty of the challenge and assigns it a corresponding DC from 0 to 20. The player rolls a d20 and adds any skill modifiers in an attempt to match or exceed the DC.
• Critical success and failure: Technically, critical rolls don't apply to skill checks in the rules as written. (They are officially only a feature of combat.) However, many DMs use critical failure and success during skill checks to add to the excitement.
• Degrees of success and failure: Failure and success needn't be clear-cut depending on the situation. For example, skill check failure during a negotiation may result in less favourable results for the party without engendering any truly negative consequences.

The Unexpected

Skill challenges get stale when the players get comfortable. Each new round should potentially introduce some wildcard element that could upset the balance. Players engaged in street-level chase? Throw a cat at them, a brawl outside a tavern, or a canal leap that's just about possible...

Lay out a few elements that could turn things on their head for each skill challenge. You can even assign them to a table and roll at the start of the round to see what happens.

How To Handle Player Agency In D&D Skill Challenges

Players love options. RPGs (both tabletop and digital) aren't very satisfying when there's only one prescribed way to do things. Luckily, DMs can react to their players' ideas in real-time, allowing for emergent gameplay and creativity. That's not to say you must run with every idea your players come up with, but be open-minded as a DM.

Let them try if a player's suggestion makes sense in the game world (or if they make a compelling or entertaining case). The use of some skills should carry risk, too. For example, some NPCs might be receptive to attempts to Charm or Persuade them, but react angrily at any Intimidation attempts. DMs can foreshadow this preference by playing the NPC as tough and proud.

The DM should have skills for each part of the challenge divided into three categories: likely to work, might work, and likely to backfire. For example, during a crime scene challenge, a skill that's likely to work is Investigation, a skill that might work is Identify, and a skill that could backfire is Speak With Dead (the bodies of the victims and attackers are indistinguishable, leading to misinformation).

Challenge

Likely to work

Might work

Likely to backfire

Defuse a Bomb

Sleight of Hand, Thieves' Tools

Investigation, Arcana, Dispel Magic

Athletics

Chase Scene

Athletics, Intimidation, Acrobatics

Persuasion, Endurance

Stealth

Crime Scene Investigation

Investigation, Mending, Detect Magic

Divination, Scrying

Speak With Dead

How To Describe Player Skills in Dungeons & Dragons

DMs can agree, saying "I use Investigation" doesn't count as roleplaying. Your DM is more likely to give you bonuses or advantages if you give clearer, more vivid descriptions. Listen to the DM's description of the crime scene, then tell them what element of the scene you want to investigate.

The principle applies to all skills. Tell the DM your intentions when using particular abilities. It might seem obvious to you, but the DM has a lot on their plate at any given time. Avoid crossed wires by describing how and why you want to use specific skills at specific times.

One way for the DM to encourage skill descriptions is to use lots of modifiers. Players who make sensible connections while using skills should get liberal bonuses to their checks. If a player is barking up the wrong tree or simply spamming skills to get it right, give them no bonuses.

As DM, be open-minded as to what skills the players want to use. Player creativity often means your group will develop ideas and solutions that never occurred to you. It's OK to say no if these ideas don't make sense. But the core idea of D&D is fun, cooperative storytelling. Be liberal in your interpretations.

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