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Scenario: The party has been put together before a large gathering of townsfolk. An ancient enemy lurks on the borders of the town, but it can be fought if the people have the will to do it. The PCs’ job is to help them find that will to confront evil and not give in.
Complexity: 3 (Eight successes before three failures)
Encounter Level: PC level
Goal: Convince the townspeople to stay and fight rather than run away from the enemy.
The Power of Words
Give the players a few minutes to work on a speech. Then have the party’s designated speaker deliver it. The very first roll will be a Diplomacy (moderate DC) check which all PCs can use Aid Another to help the speaker on. Modify the check according to the players words. After the speech, voices from the crowd will speak out and the PCs will have to address the crowd’s concerns.
Skills Used:
Perception (moderate DC, maximum of two successes): You sight someone in the crowd who is on the fence. you speak to them and convert them to your way of thinking and influence others as well. Make a Diplomacy (moderate DC) check. If this succeeds, you gain an extra success.
Diplomacy (moderate DC): You answer the crowd with stirring oration.
Insight (moderate DC, does not count towards success or failure): You read the mood of the crowd and react accordingly. +2 to your next Diplomacy or Bluff roll.
Bluff (hard DC,success counts as two successes, failure counts as two failures): ‘We are invincible I say! We can win this fight without a single life lost!’
Intimidate (moderate DC. Maximum one success. Second attempt is an auto-failure): ‘What are you, cowards? Fight the enemy or I’ll fight you!’
History (moderate DC, maximum of four successes): You stir the hearts of the crowd by re-creating scenes from history.
Arcana/Nature/Dungeoneering/Religion (moderate DC, maximum of three successes): ‘I know how our enemies think! We can use this knowledge for a definitive advantage.’
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It’s amazing that I found this – as my PC’s will be faced with a situation similar to this in our next session (this weekend).
I was worried I might have to find a way to convince them to stay in town and tackle the bad guy, but now I think I’ll put it on them to convince the townsfolk why they should stay and keep the town alive.
Ideally, PC’s would just storm the haunted mine and cleanse it, but it’s hard to tell what this party will do next.
I gotta add that this specific skill challenge does more than allow for some awesome role playing. This is a brilliant way to allow the PCs to really contribute to the history of the town and what not. Successes with the History check should require the PCs to come up with what that historical event was. I can only imagine that PCs would feel more invested in the welfare of a town for which they have played a part in developing.
Excellent skill challenge.