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I understand the 4E rules for skill challenges, including the revisions in DMG2. But when I read the "examples of play" it strikes me that the players in the examples are suspiciously good at picking actions and skills exactly as foreseen in the skill challenge as written.

If I start a skill challenge like any role-playing encounter with a description of a situation, and ask "what do you do?", I get answers that are not easy to fit into the rules corset of a skill challenge. For example shouting "help, thief!" to stop a thief instead of using a skill, or using a power (see also How do I work Powers into Skill Challenges?). Especially after some of the more obvious skills have been used up, I rarely get a player idea which in any way fits with the remaining skill checks demanded by the challenge.

I would like to learn how to run a skill-challenge without suppressing my players' creativity and forcing them to just roll dice. I thought I might improve my skill-challenge handling by reading/hearing/watching examples of real, well executed skill challenges. Are there any good examples of skill challenges in an actual play description, podcast, or video somewhere?

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Tobold
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    fwiw, this is why many DMs drop Skill Challenges entirely. – DampeS8N May 09 '14 at 15:25
  • The critical hit podcast had some pretty creative skill challenges back in their day. Haven't keep up though. – Cole May 09 '14 at 16:15
  • @tobold do you have D&D Insider access? – Joshua Aslan Smith May 09 '14 at 16:34
  • I've written two articles on Skill Challenges: http://bankuei.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/4e-skill-challenges-made-easy/ http://bankuei.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/4e-approaching-setting-up-skill-challenges/ –  May 09 '14 at 17:14
  • @JoshuaAslanSmith Yes, I do have DDI access. I listened to the Acquisition Incorporated podcasts and video there, but they never used skill challenges to my knowledge. I'd love to hear how Chris Perkins runs a skill challenge. :) – Tobold May 09 '14 at 17:33
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    @Tobold Your question, as it's currently phrased, is only answerable with play recordings, and eliminates the possibility of someone describing based on their 4e sessions how they tend to work out, how they can be handled and what you can do about it as a player or as a GM, which could even be more useful than a podcast. It might be worthwhile opening the question up to those. – doppelgreener May 10 '14 at 01:18
  • AngryDM’s Getting the Most Out of Your Skill System is fantastic, and includes many examples though not actual play examples. I don’t even play 4E, and it’s an amazing resource that has really opened up my eyes to running non-combat encounters better. – KRyan May 10 '14 at 17:35
  • This question doesn't really have a definitive answer, since it basically asks for a list of references. As such, it should probably be closed or reworded. – Ravn May 10 '14 at 17:53
  • @JonathanHobbs Isn't that a no win situation? If I had asked "how to handle skill challenges" my question would have been closed as duplicate. I have read the previous questions and didn't find a satisfactory answer. Thus asking for references, a question that can be answered without subjectivity. – Tobold May 11 '14 at 05:26
  • I don't think we actually yet have a question that is just: "How the heck do I run a skill challenge? These seem like they could never work out the way they do in the book short of telepathy or a gm who knows their players that well. How do they actually realistically go down, and what can I do to make them work and avoid?" or etc. But that might be worth its own question, separate from this one. – doppelgreener May 11 '14 at 05:42
  • @JonathanHobbs Okay, I'll write a new question. – Tobold May 11 '14 at 05:43
  • I suspect it might be more appropriate to ask it as a separate and alogether new question, leaving this one as is. We tend to avoid changing the meaning of questions altogether, this question has an answer (and accepted) now and can easily just exist independently. – doppelgreener May 11 '14 at 05:53
  • @JonathanHobbs Done! http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/37521/how-do-i-run-a-skill-challenge – Tobold May 11 '14 at 06:31

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I listen to a podcast called Critical Hit: A Major Spoilers Dungeons & Dragons podcast. They play 4e and they have a skill challenge about once every 3 episodes. It's good entertainment, very informative, and I certainly learned a lot about GMing Skill Challenges from it.

doppelgreener
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