Skill Challenge / Dramatic Task
In an RPG, you frequenly have situations that fall into the normal round-by-round combat and that are too complex and too interestingt to just be resolved with a simple skill check - avoiding wandering monsters while navigating a swamp, seeing how will the party impresses the king at the royal banquet, determining if the party escapes the city after insulting the king at the royal banquet. The Skill Challenge is meant as a special mechanic in those situations.
(These rules are adapted from Charles Ryan's blog entry of 10/2010. Savage Worlds GMs might be asking - What about Dramatic Tasks? I find Dramatic Tasks too limiting - they are generally just 1 character doing something while the other players watch and involve just 1 skill)
Savage Worlds Skill Challenges
Rounds
A Skill Challenge takes place over three rounds. These rounds represent an abstract amount of time - A round for escaping a city might be 5 minutes per round, a round when navigating the haunted forest might be 1 week per round.
Each round, everyone gets a card for initiative order. Since this is an abstract system, initiative edges do not apply.
Each round, a player makes a skill check looking for successes and raises. Over the three rounds, the group needs to achieve a certain number of successes to successfully complete the challenge.
Skills
The skills to be used in a skill challenge are different from one challenge to another and are decided by GM ruling. Any skill might work for a challenge if the player can give a good enough reason why they apply. Skills for a challenge fall into 4 categories:
Primary Skills: These are the skills that most directly apply to a challenge (Stealth for a sneaking challenge, Boating for a sailing challenge). Every success and raise on this skill roll counts towards making the goal.
Secondary Skills: These are skills that are helpful, just not as helpful as Primary Skills (Climbing for a sneaking challenge, Notice for a sailing challenge). For the skill roll, only success and 1 raise count towards making the goal.
Tertiary Skills: It's a bit of a stretch that this skill applies to the challenge. Raises don't count towards the goal.
'Nope' Skills: Some skills just aren't helpful for this challenge and provide no help in making the goal (Knowledge - Plants on a sneaking challenge).
Two Use Maximum: Any one player can only use a particular skill twice in a challenge. They must come up with a second skill if the challenge goes to three rounds.
Non-skills: A PC might have edges, powers, equipment or something else that can help during a challenge. These should be allowed and it is up to the GM to rule on much help it gives in completing the challenge. Example: A PC that can fly should provide bonuses when navigating a swamp, a PC with a Connection edge should be helpful in escaping capture in a city.
Making the Skill Check
Each round, the PC makes a skill check of their choice and successes and raises are added up as determined by the usefulness of the skill.
Critical Failures: Failing a skill check doesn't have negative consequences, but a critical failure on a skill check counts as -1 to completing the goal. You've really screwed up.
Complications: If the player has a club for initiative, they receive a complication as determined by the GM. This might be a -2 for their skill check or some other skill check they have to succeed at to act this round.
Special Actions: There are a couple special actions a PC could take on their turn:
Aid A Complication: Like Aid Another, but you help someone with their complication. You can make the complication skill check for another character, but at a -2 on the roll. Your normal skill check for the round also gets a -2. Alternatively, you can sacrifice your action this round to attempt another player's complication with no penalty.
Maximum Effort: You put forth maximum effort this round. You get +2 on your check this round, but take a -4 on your check next round. In the third round, you may only take this action by spending a benny before the roll.
Goal & Progress
Overall Goals: To achieve the overall goal, the PCs need a number of successes equal to the number of PCs & NPCs making a skill check x 3. So if you have 4 PCs, you need 12 total successes to be successful at the overall challenge. The GM can raise/lower this number according to the difficulty of the challenge. This skill challenge ends immediately once you have this number of successes.
Example: The king agrees to send his army, you escape the city.
Making Progress: In addition to the Overall Goal, the PCs must get a number of successes equal to the number of PCs each round to "make progress". Failing to make progress in any one round has a consequence that is up to the GM. Examples might be that skill rolls in the next round are at -2, the PCs are fatigued, the Overall Goal might be achieved but at a cost or with less support, etc.
Required Skills: Some skill challenges might require a certain skill is used with a success each round. Not every PC must make that skill check - just one player gets a success with that skill. Failure to get a success with that skill is a failure to Make Progress.
Example: A Stealth check might be required every round to sneak past a zombie hoard.
Skills: What skills are used in a skill challenge? Whatever skill you want that you can convince the DM would apply. The DM decides if the skill can be used, can't be used, or if the skill is a "stretch" and therefore can only count as 1 success with raises ignored. Be creative. Any particular skill can only be used twice by the same character in a skill challenge. Some examples:
Examples
Challenge: The PCs are sneaking through a zombie-infested city
Overall Goal: Escape the city. Failure indicates a battle with some zombies.
Making Progress: You've attracted the attention of some zombies- two PCs must make fighting/shooting successes next round or the challenge fails.
Required Skills: Stealth each round
Primary Skills: Stealth
Secondary Skills: Notice. Survival
Tertiary Skills: Climbing, Fighting
Challenge: PCs are at a banquet trying to convince the King to send his army in support of their duchy
Overall Goal: Success, the king sends his army. Failure, he doesn't.
Making Progress: You still acheive your overall goal, but the King sends a smaller army
Required Skills: The King's advisor is arguing strenously against it. All Persuasion rolls are -2 until a successful Intimidate has been rolled.
Primary Skills: Persuasion, Knowledge (Battle)
Secondary Skills: Knowledge (Royalty)
Tertiary Skills: Intimidate
Challenge: PCs are crossing a large swamp
Overall Goal: Success, you cross the swamp without mishap. Failure, you cross the swamp but must fight a wandering monster along the way
Making Progress: All PCs make a Vigor check or gain Fatigue
Required Skills: Survival every round
Primary Skills: Survival
Secondary Skills: Notice, Knowledge (Plants, Animals, etc.)
Tertiary Skills: Climbing (scouting from treetops)
Challenge: PCs are sailing their boat through reef-infested waters
Overall Goal: Success, the PCs make it. Failure, the boat has been wrecked.
Making Progress: Boat picks up a minor wound (Fatigue) making further rolls harder
Required Skills: Boating
Primary Skills: Boating (Captain, 1st mate only), Notice (Crow's nest lookout only)
Secondary Skills: Boating (everyone else), Knowledge (Geography)
Tertiary Skills: Notice (everyone else)
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Here are some older rules we used in Pathfinder.
Skill Challenge in Pathfinder
Goals: A skill challenge generally has a victory condition (the king is impressed with you, you escape the city, you avoid wandering monsters) and a defeat condition (the king will not speak with you, you're captured before escaping the city, you have a wandering monster encounter).
Hit Points: A skill challenge has "hit points", the measurement of what you need to accomplish for a victory. The baseline hit points for a skill challenge is (Number of Players) x 2 + 2.
DC: A skill challenge has a DC with a baseline of 10 + Party Level.
Rounds: Skill Challenges are resolved in three rounds (note that a round is not any set amount of time, we just have 3 of them regardless of the type of encounter). Each round, all of the characters are allowed to make a skill check. Each skill check that makes the DC does 1 hit point of "damage" to the skill check. For every 5 points the DC is beaten by, an additional point of "damage" is done to the skill check. For each subsequent round of the skill check, the DC increases by 2.
Criticals: A "critical" occurs when the party does damage in a round equal to or greater than half of the hit points of the skill challenge. Generally, a critical means that the DC does not increase for the next round but the DM might apply other rewards (you befriend the queen on the way to trying to befriend the king, you learn a secret at the royal banquet).
Skills: What skills are used in a skill challenge? Whatever skill you want that you can convince the DM would apply. The DM decides if the skill can be used or not, if the skill is a "stretch" and can only do 1 damage on a success and other such things that DMs do. Be creative. Any particular skill can only be used twice by the same character in a skill challenge. Some examples:
Avoiding Wandering Monsters While Traveling: Stealth, Perception, Knowledge Nature/Undead/Places (depending on where you are traveling), Survival, Knowledge Geography (to know the best places to travel).
Befriending the King at the Banquet: Diplomacy, Intimidate (maybe insulting someone you know the king does not like), Perform, Perception (eavesdropping on conversations to learn helpful info), Appraise (a stretch, maybe to notice who is dressed well and who is not), Knowledge Local/Royalty
Escaping the city with guards after you: Stealth, Climb (to move across rooftops), Ride (if you have access to mounts), Diplomacy (getting people to help you), Disguise, Knowledge Local, Intimidate, Jump.
FAQ
Can you Aid Another? Yes, though it counts as a use of that skill for you.
Does failing a check hurt? No. There is no penalty for a badly missed skill check.
What about roleplaying? Roleplaying still applies. If you're trying to befriend the vain king, be sure to mention that you're flattering the king with your diplomacy skill. The DM can award bonuses to the skill check if you explain it well.
What about character powers, magic items, etc.? All still apply. If the wizard can turn the entire party invisible, the wandering monster skill challenge might be an automatic success, everyone gets a bonus to the skill checks, or some other DM ruling. If the druid is turning into an owl to scout, a bonus on perception checks vs. the wandering monster may apply. If you want to Charm Person a servant to spill soup on the person the king hates, you can do that in the middle of a skill challenge and get bonuses.