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Scenario: The players are looking for information (whatever you want it to be) and the one available lead is a tiefling gambler, D’ucell Larson. Du’cell offers games of the highest stakes — souls. He is employed by the forces working against the players, and can give them them all the information they need. But first they must play a game of skill with the veteran gambler. And he never loses. The players must wager a soul (one of the players or an NPC) and sit down at the table to play a game of Dragon’s Bluff for very high stakes.
Complexity: 4 (10 successes before three failures)
Encounter Level: PC level +3
Goal: Beat the Gambler in a game of Dragon’s Bluff ( a fantasy version of poker) by robbing him of all his chips, and get the information the players are seeking.
One player is Du’cell’s opponent, but other PCs may support that character as they play Du’cell is confident in his abilities and won’t object to this. If the PCs lose, the character whose soul has been wagered instantly dissapears and reappears as a chip in Du’cell’s hand. The characters face appears on each side of the bone-white or blood-red chip, like all the other chips that Du’cell has. The chips that will be used are all from past victims of Du’cell and serve as warning to the players on how serious a threat this rogue gambler is.
A note about Du’cell’s ability. The ability is dependent upon him winning or losing a wager. The only way to get souls released from their chip imprisonment is to beat Du’cell at Dragon’s Bluff. Killing him will not release the souls. Likewise, intimidating or torturing Du’cell for his information will not work. Magically seas in his mind mean the information is only released by him losing the game.
Hands
Du’cell is always the dealer.
Starting before the first skill role, and after each success or failure thereafter, have the gambling PC and Du’cell each roll a d6. On a 1-3, the roll indicates a bad hand. A bad hand for Du’cell gives a +2 on the next success-granting skill roll. A bad hand for the PC, grants a -2 to for the next success-granting skill roll made. 4-6 represents a good hand. A favorable hand like this for Du’cell grants a -2 to the next success granting skill roll, and a good hand for the PC grants a +2 to the next success-granting skill roll. Du’ cell always adds +1 to his roll (see below). Keep Du’cell’s roll a secret.
The PC gambling can attempt to cheat after the first hand, pocketing away cards for use later. A Thievery (DC 15) roll adds a +1 to the Hand roll. Failure means the tiefling catches you in the act. Du’cell always cheats, so he always gets a +1. A Perception (hard DC +2) spots him. If Du’ cell or a PC is caught cheating, Du’cell laughs it off and re-deals. Make another roll for the Hand.
“All-in”
At any point, the PC may go “All-in”. If there are no failures accumulated, he can choose to automatically win the skill challenge or automatically fail based of the next skill roll. Up the difficulty of the next roll by 2, due to the increased pressure of such a risky play. If the player fails, the skill challenge is automatically lost. If he wins, he robs Du’cell of all his chips and wins the skill challenge automatically.
If the PCs have accumulated only one failure, they can have the next test be worth two failures or six successes. Add 2 to the skill roll. On failure the PCs lose automatically. If they succeed at the skill roll they earn six successes.
If the PCs have accumulated two failures, they are in too bad of shape in the game to effectively go “All-in”.
Skills Used (Success-Granting. These skills are the main skills used to score a success or failure. Aid Another may not be used on these skills)
Bluff (hard DC) : Who is trickier? For this hand, you are. One success.
Bluff(hard DC +4, maximum of three successes): You attempt to catch the Du’cell in a trap when he overplays. Counts as two successes.
Intimidate (hard DC) : You counter’s Du’cell’s wiles with hard-charging, aggressive moves and plays. One success.
Insight (hard DC): Du’cell is good at hiding his “tells”, but you’re even better at ferreting them out.
Skill Used (Supporting. These skills grant bonuses or more details to other roles. A maximum of two supporting skills can be used each hand.)
Diplomacy (moderate DC): Distract the gambler with a little banner. +1 to your next success-granting roll.
Thievery (moderate DC): A little sleight of hand goes a long way. Only the PC gambling may use this skill. Success grants a +1 to your next Bluff roll.
Perception (moderate DC): You know what kind of hand Du’cell is playing with based on what you’ve seen and formulate a strategy. +1 to your next intimidate or bluff roll.
History (hard DC, maximum of one try, successful or not): The rules and strategies of the game are implanted in your memory. +1 to all rolls for the rest of the challenge.
Religion (hard DC, moderate DC for worshippers of the Raven Queen, one success maximum): Unsure of the proper move, you pray to the gods for luck. Grant a +2 to the next Bluff, Intimidate, or Insight roll.
Insight (moderate DC, maximum of three successes): Du’cell thinks you’re a rube, so he doesn’t hide his tells as well as he should. +2 to your next success-granting insight roll.
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- Skill Challenges #4: The Better Part of Valor
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.
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Wow, that is just great! I have a D&D blog as well (in Brazilian Portuguese), and my reader would love this material. Would you mind if I translate it to Portuguese and put in my blog with all proper credit and linkage?
Anyway, I’m eager to see them all!
I’d be honored! Glad you like. I’ll put up a link to your site.
Awesome job, i’m looking forward to using it in a game. Please keep going
Nice job! I think I’ll have to give it a shot sometime when the situation arises.
cathrak and mkay, thanks for commenting! I think you’ll like what’s in coming tomorrow.
If you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it went.
Thanks again!
Thanks, I’m doing it already. As soon as it is done, I’ll drop a line.
Pretty good!
I wonder if you have examples on how they’d actually play out.
That’s probably the hardest thing for me to figure out about skill challenges – are you flat out giving them choices or is it more of a roleplay event where the DM interprets the players within the parameters of the skill challenge?
(Am I making any sense outside of my head?)
The City Ablaze is up in Portuguese!
WOW! I found your site because of a link from Chatty DM and I have to say, I love your skill challenges. I’ve already bookmarked your site and can’t wait for more. Keep ‘em coming!!
@everyone. Thanks for the kind words! I’m glad you all like, and I’ve got a lot more coming down the pipe.
@eric I’ll post up an article on the playing out of skill challenges later, but the basics of it is to describe the options that the players have that aren’t strict skill rolls –in this case, the “All-in” option and “Hands”– then give the basic options of some valid and then roleplay out each roll. You as the DM can control the pacing of the challenge — each “hand” could represent anywhere from between a few moments to a few hours of grueling play –and then the characters are simply roleplaying and making the accompanying roll. There’s a lot to it, but I promise I’ll go into more detail later. Also, your proposed skill challenge is near the top of my list.
@daniel –I’m honored. At-Will is going international! Thank you.
@rauthik –Glad you like. Definitely more on the way.
Wow, I didn’t know D&D was even capable of this! I hope the people who designed the skill challenge concept see what you’re doing with it so they can put more tips in the DMG.
I like this idea.
If a PC loses, are they considered dead, or do you have a way of releasing them from the chip?
Welcome to At-Will!
A few ways you could do this:
Great Site! Just got the link from a thread on skill challenges at Enworld.
I like this challenge,but I’m thinking of trying to do it in reverse, actually playing the poker game at the table, but using the skill checks for extra cards to each player’s hand or other manipulations of the game.
Du’Cell is great. A npc that can only be bargained with through playing a poker game is an awesome idea.
Maybe Endurance could come into play during one of the long grueling hands or after so many hands are dealt. It could grant a bonus with success or maybe success simply means no penalty (from being mentally exhausted).
I’m excited to have found this site (and wealth of skill challenge wisdom). I ran my first skill challenge last night (my blog has a write-up of it). I feel like it went well, but I immediately saw all sorts of ways to improve for next time.
My favorite aspect of the skill challenge was the way it actually encouraged role-playing in my group. Only one of my players consistently thinks in terms of role playing out his actions. The rest have not fully embraced that aspect, yet. Both my wife and my friend’s wife got very creative in their descriptions of what they were doing. I actually enjoyed the skill challenge more than the combat. That surprised me.
Ok, I’m done.
WotC needs to put you on their pay roll.
whoah, this bizarre use of a skill challenge turns it into a real adventure!