Since the time TSR published a sample dungeon in a D&D product, players have been using that as guidance as to how the game should be played. Sometimes they're straightforward, sometimes not so much. In any case, I think that Wizards of the Coast really missed the mark when it comes to modules and skill challenges as encouraging samples. Though I'm not sure if they're just throwing us roleplayers a bone so that we have something other than combat in there, there's still quite a bit that is implicitly gleaned by the players when these come up in a module, aside from the fact that skill challenges in 4e have been a subject of hot debate since this edition of the game came out.
How does this relate to Dark Sun? In 2nd edition AD&D, there were no "skill challenges". as such, traipsing across the desert could be wonderfully unpredictable, battling a giant one moment and a sand storm the next, both of which required both wit and physical endurance.
Opposingly, in 4th edition D&D, the game is broken up into combat and skill challenges, and for better or worse, they have presented a format for skill challenges that is laid out in a very smilar manner as that of combat. This is where I believe the error stems from. In the module I am running, "Bloodsand Arena", the skill challenges mention what happens during the whole day and night in the boxed text you read to the players. Let me repeat that. The players are given the entire day's worth of events in one chunk. How is anyone supposed to make sense of this? Even worse, following it, the DM is given a list of abilities that can be applied to the skill challenge, many times with effects unrelated to the boxed text.
Now, many of my old school friends on Dragonsfoot will tell you, that they want nothing to do with boxed text. While I'm mostly in agreement, I understand it's sometimes necessary for the unseasoned player who just picked up an interesting looking module. Not all of us can translate a paragraph of details into an interesting event or environment while in gameplay, which brings me around to another common story - gamers didn't always want to read the whole module ahead of time. I didn't do it, a lot of friends didn't do it. We're all guilty at one point or another of this, and I suppose some of it was adolescent impatience, and just wanting to play this cool new thing we got. Well, it seems as if Wizards tried to allow some of that at the sacrifice of game cohesion, which when you arrive at the skill challenge, becomes a crash and burn affair. What follows is a guideline to correcting this problem. It's probably not the best solution, but as an old school 2e player, it's what works for me, and makes me feel more like I'm painting a dangerous, detailed and dynamic environment for the players, which is always my goal.
Get the module out ahead of time (I know, this is a pain, but it pays off.) First, read the discriptive, non-boxed text, if there is any, then the boxed text. Now you know what will go on during the day. Write out the events that are to unfold during that period of time. If you can sequence the events, great. I prefer to separate things into night and day, or at least craft events that can be dropped in non-sequentially - what we like to call the sandbox effect - and what a sandbox Dark Sun is! Wokka wokka wokka! Then, examine the implied events in the skill-effect descriptions. These will give you further insight as to what's going on. What you end up with is a set of events that can happen in any order you like, creating opportunities for the players, and you may find as I did, that new ones present themselves (in Bloodsand Arena, I found quite a few new opportunities for Diplomacy when I laid out the events day by day.)
Boodsand Arena, however, has been by far the best example of a skill challenge I have found so far, and Wizards offers it for free download on their website as the free product of Free RPG Day 2010. (Also of note are the wonderful maps, which is why I sought the module out when FRD rolled around)
How do you run skill challenges in Dark Sun? Let's learn from each other.
May the wind be at your back and your path clear, until the next time.
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