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The SkillCast
I decided to start a podcast! Why another 4e podcast? Well, this podcast is strictly about one element of 4e — the skill challenge. There is a lot that’s said about them, but there aren’t really a lot of examples of skill challenges in play. I think many people need that, because there’s still that sense people seem to have that they’re “doing them wrong”. I’m not saying that I’m doing it “right”, but I know that my players and myself have fun with this game element. Maybe if you see what me and other players are doing, it will give you ideas or just inspire you to say “hey, I do it better than that!”
The first episode is all jabbering by yours truly about the three basic fundamentals of skill challenges, which are:
1. If you’ve been roleplaying for awhile, you’ve essentially been doing skill challenges all along.
2. Skill Challenges are about actions, not skills
3. Skill Challenges provide constraints and structure that helps foster roleplaying.
Have a listen, and tell me what you think!
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
By day he is a technologist.
Follow gamefiend on 
This may be a dumb question, but is there a way to download this rather than just listening to it in the browser?
There is in fact –the feed link is: http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/feeds/podcast
Enjoy!
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/omnivangelist/FvNp
This feed worked for me.
I think this is a great idea. I am especially looking forward to the actual play podcasts. Giving people Actual Play recordings of something they have a lot of questions about seems like such an obviously smart idea, yet no one has done it that I’m aware of.
I think your remark that skill challenges are pretty much just the roleplay you’ve already been doing are right on the money. When I first saw them, that is exactly what I thought, and I thought “Great! A structure for what I already do!”
But then everyone was so baffled by them and I thought maybe I had been confused about the concept. Glad to see someone else coming from that vantage point.
Been waiting for the skill challenge podcast for a long time now. Glad it’s finally here. I’m looking forward to the examples in play.
The intro and outro music is a bit sleepy though…
Glad to see you stepping up to do this and a nice intro. I have to admit, with all the Penny Arcade/PvP podcasts WotC ran, a few short demos of skill challenge scenarios would have been ideal shortly after 4E launched. It’s clear with the attention skill challenges got in Dungeon articles that a lot of folks were struggling with them. Looking forward to hearing more episodes.
The bit about wizards flying over the bridge kind of went off into the weeds
) Otherwise, it was a good break down of how skill challenges can be used to structure game elements that were previously free form. I particularly like how you touched on the “what do you do?” point. I think this is something that a lot of 4e DMs miss. They keep presenting skill challenges as “here are the skills you can use”, so instead of seeing it as an opportunity to think outside the box, players are reduced to scanning down their skills list to pick the matching skill in which they have the highest bonus. I try to present the situation and just ask them what they want to do. But this approach requires the DM to be a little more flexible.
Can I subscribe to your podcast through Itunes?
Great work, Quinn! I’m waiting for ep. 2! Thanks from Brazil!
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Silvio
Is there an iTunes subscribe link? Not interested in sitting in front of the computer while I listen, and the link in the comments didn’t work for me.
Thanks.
I’m really looking forward to more episodes. I am slowly liking skill challenges more and more, now that I’m getting more comfortable running them. I can’t wait to see what insights you and your guests will show us.
@Gamefiend: Just adding my “me too” to thank you for starting this podcast … and to recommend that you get listed in the iTunes Store and provide an iTunes subscription link.
@iTunes users: In the meantime, you can still subscribe through iTunes. Here’s how: go to the iTunes Advanced menu and choose Subscribe to podcast …. Paste http://feeds2.feedburner.com/omnivangelist/FvNp (thanks, Jeff M!) into the box when prompted, and now you have an iTunes subscription to the Skillcast even though it’s not currently listed in the iTunes Store.