Curating Your Skill Checks
(Welcome to the first of many articles aimed at educating novice Game Masters and refreshing those of us with more experience.) “The adventuring party walks through a dark room with a vaulted ceiling. The walls are lined with runes in a forgotten tongue, partially concealed by blood-red vines that seem to pulse. Sinister and strange bronze instruments hang from the ceiling - possibly surgical tools, possibly something worse. Jars against the walls are filled with the jellied remains of extinct ooze. An oaken door leads to the next room. It has no lock, but time and moisture have warped it badly. A putrid smell fills the room when the door is bashed in. The adjoining hall is long and narrow, and a cool draft passes by the party, sounding like a howl.” How long do you want the following scene to take? 30 minutes? An hour?
How do you want this scene to feel? Do you want this feeling like an old Sierra game, where the players take every possible action in every room for fear of overlooking a puzzle? Most GMs really struggle with Skill Checks, and in doing so, sacrifice the pacing of their game and the player immersion. Yes, traps are a part of DnD. Yes, so is caution, information gathering, and planning. But if you make it feel like you’re always trying to “get” your party when they forget to roll something, you are going to paralyze them. In fact, “forget to roll” shouldn’t be a thing at all. Forgetting to look, listen, act, yes. Forgetting to roll? No. I should back up a little. You don’t want your players guessing about when to roll dice, or what to roll. You want them thinking about what they’re doing in the world, in character. When a player wants to learn something, or do something, ask them for an action. Then, after they have described what they’re doing, you tell them what to roll. Player “How long ago was the Reign of Mother Vulture?” GM “Give me a knowledge history roll.” Player “23″ GM “At least a thousand years ago.” You should be lightning quick with that response, too. Don’t get out a book. Don’t go online and search. It’s tempting, I know, to give the best response, but the best response is a fast one. It isn’t going to ruin your game if you ask for a History roll instead of Planes. At the same time (and this is where I’ll break with Angry GM), I don’t think you need to be too draconian about this. Player “I want to break free of these vines.” GM “Give me a CMB roll.” Player “Oh, I have a class ability that allows me to-” GM “That’s fine, use that instead.” Player “I roll Perception to look at the vines. 30.” GM “Try to get in the habit of acting, and only rolling skills if I ask you. But that’s fine. You notice the vines creeping towards you.” Remember your goals. Pacing. Immersion. You want to be fast, and you want your players engaged. In fact, if you are fast, it is all the more likely you will keep your players engaged. While I think I’ve outlined the best way to handle Skill Checks, I will give a little bit of time to another way I’ve handled them in the past, and a way I commonly see them handled. Some GMs let you pick what skill you roll, and then assign a DC increase (usually secret, but I always went with +5) if you roll something that could work, but isn’t ideal. Acrobatics instead of Climbing. Engineering instead of Dungeoneering. Planes instead of Religion, and so on. Going with a Skill Check system like this one...
-Widens the gap between experienced players and new players. (Veteran knows exactly what knowledge roll to use for an Ooze, while the new player is left guessing.) -Slows your game down. (Players have an extra decision to make, and one that could honestly screw them.) -Breaks immersion. (You’re playing that old school Sierra game now, figuring out what buttons to press.) -Adds a strategic element. Something that was automatic is now a decision. I look at that list and see three negatives and one positive, but at the same time, there is a reason people still play Pathfinder and 3rd Edition. Sometimes, you want to get into the rules and the number crunch. It’s there for a reason. That said, I think there is already plenty of strategy in just trying to decide what to do in character, without also deciding what to roll. My general design philosophy is to make something complicated enough to be an interesting decision, but simple enough to be a quick decision. We’ve touched on a lot of ideas in this Skill Check article, and I’ll cover some of them in depth at a later date. For now, I’m resisting the urge to write a massive “So You Want to GM” article. I’m hoping that this piece will give some good insight on a tricky subject - Skill Checks - while also giving you a peek into the decision making process of an experienced GM. Thanks for reading.