Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Shopkeep's Daughter

One of the most important updates to the Pathfinder adventures in terms of conversion to 4th Edition is the addition of skill challenges where appropriate. In Part 2 of Burnt Offerings there are two such challenges: The Shopkeep's Daughter and The Boar Hunt.

Note that all skill challenges posted here use the skill check DCs from the July 16, 2008 update to the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Skill Challenge: The Shopkeep’s Daughter

Setup: One of the male PCs is tricked into accompanying Shayliss Vinder back to her father’s shop’s basement where she attempts to seduce him. The PC must avoid a violent confrontation with Shayliss’ father when he catches them in the basement. Allies may assist in skill checks made before they reach the basement.

Complexity: 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)
Level: 1 (200 xp)
Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight

Bluff (DC 10): You can use this skill to convince either Shayliss or her father that the situation transpired in a different way than it actually did, or that you have something important to attend to for the good of the town.

Diplomacy (DC 10): You can use this skill to reason with Shayliss or her father, describing the situation in a way that looks favorable to you, or politely declining Shayliss’ request.

Insight (DC 5): You get the feeling that Shayliss is interested in something more than just rat extermination, and use that to attempt to weasel out of the situation before things turn ugly. This skill cannot be used after the PC reaches the basement.

Streetwise (DC 15): You recall hearing that Shayliss is even more of a troublemaker than her sister. Success here opens up the use of the Intimidate skill. This skill can only be used once this encounter.

Intimidate (DC 10): You threaten to spread word of Shayliss’ brazen actions to the town at large, causing Shayliss or her father to back off slightly.

Stealth (DC 10): You scamper out of sight, hoping to avoid a confrontation by not being noticed in the first place. This skill can only be used in the general store's basement before the PC has been spotted by Ven Vinder. The DC increases to 15 after two uses of this skill.

Success: The PC manages to remove himself from the seduction or confrontation with Ven Vinder. Succeeding with no failures means that there are no hard feelings created between the PC and Shayliss.

Failure: The PC is unable to avoid enraging Ven Vinder, who attempts to drive him from the shop. The PC and his “pervert friends” are thereafter barred from Ven’s shop.

2 comments:

SPT Rainbow said...

A little late to the game perhaps, but I am running this AP for a new 4th ed campaign

I have 3 relatively inexperienced players so 4th ed is good for that. But the WoTC stories are so bad that I had to try and run the Paizo AP.

Anyway, the PC chosen for this matter enjoyed it greatly. He used fast talking to avoid trouble. He kept making rat noises using his prestidigitation spell and convince the father through good diplomacy rolls that nothing was amiss.

The party leader (a warlord) later attempted and succeeded at preventing the young lass from making another try at the PC - so more excellent role play.

Final point. I am trying to avoid formally telling the players that "you are now in a skill challenge". Instead, I simply describe the situation, and ask them what they are trying to accomplish, and ask them what skill they would like to use. So far, so good.

Scott said...

Ah, great to hear.

As far as running skill challenges go, your player's decision to use prestidigitation is an excellent example of players coming up with something that you'd need to adjudicate on the spot.

Because prestidigitation doesn't actually involve expending any resources (it's not a daily or encounter power), I'd require the PC to couple it with a skill check - in this case, probably Arcana - in order to pull it off successfully. This way you're allowing the PC to make effective use of his particular talents without necessarily giving him a freebie.