Main > Systems > Dungeons & Dragons 2024 > Special Systems

Skill Challenges

Based on mechanics proposed by various RPG game designers.

Skill Challenges are explicitly stated. The players are told when a Skill Challenge begins, what the stakes are, how difficult it is, and what the favored skills for the challenge are.
Skills
- Some skills are favored by the challenge. They can be used in the Skill Challenge without special explanation.
- Any skill that is not favored by the challenge is called is a creative skill. These must have a special explanation by the player for why the skill can be used.
- In order to be used, the character must have Proficiency with the chosen skill.
Stakes
- Each failed skill check during the Skill Challenge one Failure. The Skill Challenge always ends unfavorably when it accumulates 4 Failures.
- Stakes can be graduated (for example, "for each Failure, the party takes 1d6 damage") or can be all-or-nothing (for example, "if the Skill Challenge fails, the boat sinks").
- The stakes for each degree of failure is communicated before the Skill Challenge begins.
- The stakes are dictated by the fiction. They can include anything, from narrative inconvenience all the way to character death!
- The stakes can be shared (for example, "the party is cursed") or individual (for example, "each member of the party must make a Constitution Save or be turned to stone").
Difficulty
- All of the skill checks for the favored skills of the Skill Challenge are made at DC 15.
- Skills outside of the favored skills may be assigned a higher or lower DC based on how they are applied to the challenge.
- The DC of any check can be altered if the player and GM negotiate circumstantial bonuses, such as expending resources (spells, potions, healing dice).
- The number of Successes required for a favorable outcome is determined by the difficulty of the Skill Challenge: 4 Successes is a Standard Skill Challenge, 6 is a Difficult Skill Challenge, and 8 is a Hard Skill Challenge.
Structure
- Players take turns in Initiative order.
- On each player turn, they choose a skill that they are Proficient in and explain how they will use that skill to help with the challenge.
- After the explanation is accepted, the player rolls a check using the chosen skill. If the check succeeds, the party gains a Success, and if the check fails the party gains a Failure.
  - Alternatively, if the party has already accumulated all of the Successes they need for a favorable outcome, the player may use a successful Skill roll to reduce the number of Failures by one, if supported by the fiction. This type of roll does not risk the accumulation of a Failure.
- Each favored skill can only earn one Success per player (i.e, a player can't use a favored skill if they already made a successful check with that skill in the challenge).
- Each creative skill can only earn one Success per challenge (i.e. a player can't use a creative skill if that skill was already used by any player).
Multi-Part Challenges
- A Skill Challenge can be broken into parts, where there is a significant shift in the nature of the challenge but it is part of the same narrative scene. For example, a "Search" challenge and a "Chase" challenge could be chained together as two parts of the same Skill Challenge.
- Each part of the challenge should have its own favored skills and unfavorable outcome. If parts of a skill challenge have the same favored skills and unfavorable outcomes, they should be a single Skill Challenge without parts.
- The skill challenge should share a single favorable outcome. If parts of a skill challenge have different favorable outcomes, they should be separate Skill Challenges.