Chapter 5: Q&A / Discussion

[Jeff]

And that's with me always trying to encourage a faster pace and more involvement.

[Jeff]

So, hey. Shall I move on? I'm not sure if I'm waiting for some further interaction, or if you guys are just swamped. Which is okay. But, you know, no way for me to know.

[Darren]

Speaking for myself, I've just been so loaded down with work and exhausted on a regular basis that I've had trouble contributing anything meaningful. But I'm still following along and trying to input at least enough so that you know I'm still alive. But yeah, I'm ready to move on.

[Josh]

These are the situations that are tough for me. Grafth based on character is not going to be the story teller. He's already done that once in 24 hours in-game out of necessity to keep it moving out-of-game. But he's not going to volunteer to be the one to tell the whole story again in this setting.

Should I post saying that he's just standing there?

[Jeff]

Yup, I know that that would be in character for Grafth. In instances like this, you can always just post that Grafth looks like he's deferring to others (or a specific person) or somesuch.

That way he's clearly not taking the helm in this kind of situation but has staked some kind of stance (even if passive) for the rest of us to know.

[Jeff]

Just an FYI: we won't be staying in this big-giant-monologue-posts mode for too long. There'll be more give-and-take coming soon. You'll see.

[Jeff's backup]

Okay, this bit is very new to me. I read the previous skill challenge, so I think collectively we need 8 successes before 4 failures, right?

So Condign will get one chance at the skill challenge; getting either 8 success or 4 failures leaves him with one shot at it. And he shouldn't use another skill that another party member has used (preferably).

Boy am I glad I go last on this one ;D

BTW, Jeff responded to my old post before I modified this one. I haven't read it yet, so any inconsistency is my fault.

[Jeff]

Good question. (And don't worry, Brian. This is still new to most of us.)

When it's Condign's turn, you choose any skill you want (one of the four "primary" skills for this particular challenge, or any that he's good at) and act or speak in such a way that supports that skill. You then make one roll with the skill.

If it's a success, then it'll be one of the 8 successes needed for the whole party to "win" the skill challenge. If it's a failure, it'll be one of the 4 failures that can make the skill challenge not work out as well.

Does that help?

What's a success on any given roll? For one of the primary skills, you most likely just need to get a 15. For a secondary skill, a 20 or higher is more like it.

Also, once Condign goes, then we go back to the top of the list again and Streko goes again. It just goes in a cycle until 8 successes or 4 failures.

[Jeff]

Also, after Streko goes, Charis will go. And you can see how I handle it for her. Might help!

[Josh]

I'm excited for this.

[Jeff]

Good! ;D

It's kind of fun mixing in probability with creativity.

[Jeff]

And he shouldn't use another skill that another party member has used (preferably).

Not necessarily so. Condign could use Diplomacy even if, say, Charis or Kal use it. But he could also use History or Intimidate or Endurance quite well, since he's trained in those. Or even skills he's not as good at, if you're creative about it.

But ultimately it's good to get a mix of skills in. If everyone tries Diplomacy, it can still work, but you'd be solving the problem only from one direction. More effective if the argument is more well-rounded.

Ultimately, we're winging this a bit.

[Josh]

Maybe Grafth will do one in Arobatics, and just flip around the room for a while.

[Darren]

Wow. Josh, if you can find a way to work that in to the story, I will send you a basket of cookies.

[Ken]

I'm psyched for this, too! I may even try to work in skill challenges in a v3.5 game I'm supposed to run for some old friends soon. It's a cool concept.

[Jeff]

Maybe Grafth will do one in Arobatics, and just flip around the room for a while.

That makes me think of Grafth pulling a Daffy Duck and just flipping out.

[Jeff's backup]

Jeff:

Not necessarily so. Condign could use Diplomacy even if, say, Charis or Kal use it. But he could also use History or Intimidate or Endurance quite well, since he's trained in those. Or even skills he's not as good at, if you're creative about it.

If Condign uses Diplomacy or Intimidate, his roll needs to be greater than 15, but if he uses History or Endurance (or some other secondary skill) the roll needs to beat 20, right?

Endurance? Hmmm. He could challenge the prince to a contest of handstand pushups!

Maybe not.

[Jeff]

If Condign uses Diplomacy or Intimidate, his roll needs to be greater than 15, but if he uses History or Endurance (or some other secondary skill) the roll needs to beat 20, right?

Yup, that's the core of it. Little variables apply. Like, if you somehow use Endurance (why not? sounds crazy!) and you end up with an 18, if you make a very compelling or creative justification for using that skill, you could get a +2 bonus on it. And so on.

Or if what Condign is saying forms a very nice compliment to what someone else said, then that'll factor in as a circumstance bonus, too. And so on.

[Jeff]

Btw, I highly recommend writing your post BEFORE rolling the skill check, so that the result doesn't color your hopes/efforts.

[Jeff]

I'm enjoying this, guys. Good job so far!

And please, do feel free to work off from each other. The more you tie in your words to the words and ideas of the others the better. And remember, if you want to interject something—even if it's not your "turn"—go right ahead. You can post whatever...just keep the big arguments for your turn in the initiative order.

[Darren]

Wow. A perfect 20 on my Streetwise check? Do I get extra street-wisdom for that? ;D

[Jeff's backup]

I thought it was a great post, Darren. Worthy of a natural 20!

[Jeff]

I continue to be impressed with everyone's contributions to this skill challenge. It's going very nicely.

[Jeff's backup]

Of course, I didn't mean to imply that Darren's was the only great post. I think everyone has done extremely well. This has been fun!

[Ken]

Absolutely! Great posts by all. I liked Condign's dire imagery.

[Jeff's backup]

Why thank you very much! I did work pretty hard on that one.

[Jeff]

By the way...you know how in combat when it's your turn in the initiative order, you can choose to delay and slide down the order to a lower point?

In a skill challenge it's similar. If you want to, you can choose to delay until someone else after you goes. But doing so does force those next in line to go next, perhaps unexpectedly, so do so with some discretion. And if you want to skip, have a brief in-game gesture or word to that effect.

[Josh]

I'll be posting early tomorrow morning~Jw

[Jeff]

Cool. Thanks for the heads up.

[Jeff]

So as you can probably see, I'm delaying the current scene until you guys come to a final decision. Then we'll get things going! Now, you are free to keep making your arguments to one another (this is good stuff to me), but I don't want it to get tedious to you. Eventually it'll just get cyclic, until a decision is made.

If you'd like to talk or strategize out-of-character right here, to make this go a little faster, I'm okay with that, too.

The options presented, concerning the book, seem to be as follows.

Malov's book...

(A) Stays in Fairhold, under the prince's guard, awaiting further instructions (and possibly to be destroyed at a later time).

(B) Is sent, under royal guard, to the towers of Arcanix where the alleged most knowledgeable mages of the Arcane Congress will examine it and determine what the notes suggest about Malov's intent. Turnaround time: Likely less than 48 hours.

(C) Is kept in the party's possession and the lead casing (which hides it from whenever Malov uses magic to scry its location).

(D) Is kept in the party's possession and not in the lead case precisely so that Malov can find it, presumably to bait him or his servants. (This is Lamara's preference.)

(E) Is destroyed straightaway. To end the matter, for good or ill.

There may be other options, of course. But I hope this helps for any discussion.

This is in addition to whatever else the party decides to do. Charis's suggestion is to get Kreelo's attention, as Kreelo is Fairhold's most notorious crimelord and who is allegedly working with Malov so that Malov may operate more freely within the city). Her argument is that you can try and get to Malov by first getting to his roguish cohorts, who should be more accessible than he is. Despite their differences concerning the book, both Charis and Lamara agree on tapping into the underworld.