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So, I'm becoming a GM for the first time, after a few years of fairly consistent RPGing. I'm starting things off with an idea I had, with my PCs being all part of a Mandalorian clan. (Yes, I'm a fan of the Traviss books, I know they're a subject of some controversy, but I also really, really hate the Jedi Order in the Clone Wars era, so ) I've written up the contract they've been hired for, tracking down a software engineer with the codes for a nearly finished Star Destroyer. However, they need to find the guy first. The one lead they have is a retired Bothan spy spending his days on a space station that really values the privacy of all on it. So, because none of my players have ever done anything with a Skill Challenge, I wanted to give one a go in terms of finding the Bothan. I was trying to think of a couple different Skills I could use for it, along with DCs to set for stuff. A couple I had thought of:

Gather Information: Just asking around the station.
Use Computer: Try to hack into the station's records to see if they've got any information on him.
Wisdom (or Persuasion?): Get into an ongoing card game, talk to the players.
Perception: Wander around and see if the party can find any Bothans.

Think that's enough to go from, or should I have any others? And can anyone suggest any they might use, just so I can prepare some ideas of what to do if my players throw it at me?

You've got a good list to start from, which will give your players a framework to deal with. I'd drop the "get into a card game" aspect and instead let Persuasion be used to simply chat up some of the locals, convincing them (if successful) to let the player know that they've seen the Bothan in question not too long ago, or where the Bothan likes to hang out.

As for "left field" skill suggestions, most of the Knowledge skills can be used based upon what the PC in question knows about Bothans, either the history of this one in particular, Bothan social habits, or even tell-tale signs of Bothans in residence. Knowledge (tactics) could even be used, using what the character knows about Bothan paranoia and what steps this one particular Bothan might have taken to ensure a lack of unpleasant surprises around the homestead. Deception might come up with the player feeding some of the locals a phony story about how this Bothan owes them a favor or welshed on a deal or whatever the player can come up with. Endurance, being used to keep at the asking around and not stopping for various bio-breaks (eating, drinking, and other such stuff), I might consider as a support skill; success simply grants the next person to roll a +2 bonus, but at the same time each PC can only use Endurance once during this skill challenge.

The physical skills are going to be pretty tough to work into a social-based skill challenge though, so ask your players for really good explanations why they should be allowed to use them. If they can't come up with something that sounds at least marginally possible, then they have to pick a different skill.

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Additional possibilities:

Survival - to attempt to track the Bothan
Stealth - to attempt to follow a go-between without being observed
Initiative - (my favorite) to attempt to anticipate what the Bothan's next moves might be and thereby be waiting for him
Mechanics - to set up holorecorders to try to search for the Bothan
Pilot - to fly around the local hangars in an attempt to spot the Bothan's ship (this one is a bit of a stretch, but I would probably allow it).

Some of the physical skills could be used in conjunction with these. For instance, a player could use Climb to place a holorecorder in an advantageous, yet innocuous position on the top of a light pole. Try not to limit your players' creativity.

I hope it goes well!

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aka Jim Jedi-Scramble

Quoting from the Saga Edition Core Rulebook: "The galaxy is a dangerous place (p. 143)...bad things happen sometimes. (p.246)"

I'd more than likely call the "get into a card game" aspect as an option for the players to pursue should they want to and then call for an appropriate skill check depending on what they decide to do. If they're simply listening and/or chatting up the table, it could be Gather Information. If they're attempting to speak to/intimidate a single person at the table, it could be Persuasion or even Deception if they're trying to pass themselves off as someone else to a known contact of the Bothan at the table.

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True that. A skill challenge works a lot better when players think and act cinematically, and you have them make skill checks "behind the scenes," rather than a player going "uh...I make a Use Computer check."
Like Cyril said, set up some card games. Or populate the area with some sliceable information terminals, or give them (obvious) places to access via Stealth/Climb/Jump/Mechanics. Reward your players for creativity rather than setting up some static applications of certain skills and expecting them to "guess right."

Also, some advice for the budding GM, especially as it relates to Skill Challenges. Keep in mind that players will very rarely do what you expect them to do unless you make things cringingly obvious, and sometimes not even then. They aren't you, they aren't Sherlock Holmes, and they aren't MacGyver--in other words; their minds won't automatically go to what yours will, they won't pick up on the tiniest minutiae, and they probably aren't superhumanly creative. That was my hardest lesson to learn as a GM. It's best to set the scene, make things as vivid as possible in their imaginations, and then let them try and figure out what to do while you assign the required skill checks and DCs in your head. Chances are they'll think up something even cooler than what you had in mind, and you'll all have more fun for it.

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Especially with skill challenges but a good rule, let the players tell you what happens, what they're doing. Let them paint the picture. Your job is to respond and interpret dice like a palm reader reads palms or a gypsy reads tea leaves. Get them talking. Get them thinking. When you see an appropriate check that needs to be made to determine success, have them roll it. After they chat up a source roleplaying, have them make persuasion or deception checks and use the dice and the exchange to determine how things went right or why things went bad. The answers are usually right in front of you if you get the players to start talking, like an exchange might include the player saying, "I could eat like a Hutt I'm so hungry." The roll fails. Why? You decide the NPC's mother was enslaved by a Hutt. Oops.
Likewise, using the computer, let them tell about the device they're using to hack, where they're going on the computer. A failure could be because they found a stash of Jawa porn and are too disgusted to go on.
Garrett

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Listen to Threat Detected. The Dawn of Defiance Podcast.
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This reminds me of a couple of exchanges and a running gag we had in one of my play groups.

Yeah... I've played with some weird people.

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UTINNI!!!

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aka Jim Jedi-Scramble

Quoting from the Saga Edition Core Rulebook: "The galaxy is a dangerous place (p. 143)...bad things happen sometimes. (p.246)"

Sweet, thanks for all the advice guys, really appreciate it! I really do want to encourage a lot of roleplaying in the group, which will be interesting since I've never been that great at it myself, but those ideas will be perfect ones to start from, especially because I'll probably have another 'hunt' skill challenge at some point in time. And Scoundrel...that's just messed up,

Good day, all. I found this thread as I was searching for help creating a basic skill challenge for my players per the rules outlined in Galaxy of Intrigue.

1) Has this material been covered in an Order 66 podcast?
2) Can you folks give me a hand with it?

I am thinking of testing this out using a simple skill challenge for my characters who have just crash landed on a desolate planet and are in need of sustenance. In our last session, the scoundrel character offered to go hunt for food and initially I was simply going to roll a simple survival check for her and based on the result either give her the prize, so to speak, or not on a failure. Delving into the aforementioned book, I am thinking that perhaps a skill challenge might best fit this and give her and the others a chance to earn some much needed experience points.

So, what say you? Can you give me a hand?

Thanks in advance.

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Secede or Die!

Kotasen in Awaypt's EotE PbP
Guest on Star Wars Saga Edition AP podcast, Threat Detected

I think I covered in Threat Detected: Scorpion Goo a skill challenge about survival on an inhospitable planet... elaborating on it in Change Your Destiny.
For a hunt I'd use the antagonist skill challenge effect. After each PC acts, I'd have the beast make a skill check to notice being followed, to hide tracks if more intelligent, to hide, find food, cross rivers, etc. Three successes on the beast's part... it gets away. Time to start over the next day. Food resources dwindle each day. I'd have rations drop by 25% each day from full to empty, building the tension as resources become scarce.
Survival is good for finding bantha scat or whatever. Stealth to hunt, knowledge life sciences and galactic lore to know the habits of the prey... giving bonuses to perception and survival checks.
Be sure to tell a story. Have false leads, stumbling on a giant hornet's nest... and morality questions... finding a sick cub with her mother. Could kill the mother, but the child would die.
Garrett

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Listen to Threat Detected. The Dawn of Defiance Podcast.
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I must be getting older, my memory is failing me. Thanks for the reminder. I shall give it another listen.

Thanks also for the suggestions!

_________________
Secede or Die!

Kotasen in Awaypt's EotE PbP
Guest on Star Wars Saga Edition AP podcast, Threat Detected

Chris, Dave, and TG also covered them a little before episode 100 IIRC. Extended Meat in the Hut(t) was the show title, and they brew one up and run it on the show.

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Beauty! I cooked up one for the PCs in order to retrieve their gear out of the burning hull of their wrecked Luxury Liner (thanks to Captain Reddjak).

In the Wreckage CL 5
Complexity: 1 (5 successes before 3 failures)

Allow the players to search through the wreckage of the Chainbreaker, however, as the ship is still on fire in various areas the PCs take a chance on getting burned. For each round that the PCs search the wreckage they will have to face possible fire and smoke damage per the following unless mitigated by creative skill use:

Suggested Skills:

Survival [DC 21]: The heroes can take mitigating actions to avoid being burned by the fire each round. If they wait for the fire to burn out, all equipment will be lost.
Perception [DC 21 or 26]: The heroes can search for equipment amidst the burning flames to locate equipment.
Acrobatics [DC 26]: The heroes can use parts of the debris to avoid the flames and/or take advantage of clear space to get to their equipment.
Jump [26]: The heroes may opt to jump through the flames to avoid being burned by them.
Climb [DC 26]: The heroes can make use of partially destroyed parts of the ship to avoid the flames.
Endurance [DC 21]: The PCs can grit their teeth and make their way through the flames taking as much of a direct route to the equipment while enduring the heat of the flames.

Challenge Effects:
Degrees of Failure: For each failure earned, the heroes must make a 'save' vs. fire and smoke per the Unknown Regions Hazard entries.
Extreme Success: A hero who succeeds on a skill check by 10 or more earns two successes instead of one.
Success: The heroes are able to retrieve all the equipment they were looking for before the ship is burned up completely.
Failure: In addition to perhaps suffering from the effects of fire and smoke, the heroes' ship burns completely to the ground and no further attempts to retrieve equipment may be made.

As an added threat, searching the weapons locker adds an explosion hazard per the 'Explosive Trap, Detonite' Unknown Regions entry unless the PCs take measures to extinguish the flames around the cargo hold (Survival Check DC 21). As an added reward for putting out the flames, allow the PCs to recover all of the weapons in the weapons cache. Alternatively, they may try to get the items out of the weapons locker before the flames over come it and detonate the cache. Initiative [DC 26]

What do you think?

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Secede or Die!

Kotasen in Awaypt's EotE PbP
Guest on Star Wars Saga Edition AP podcast, Threat Detected

I ran this skillful challenge yesterday with excellent results. The players really did enjoy the cinematic elements associated with running into a burning hull of a ship in order retrieve medical supplies, food, engineering equipment and weapons before the entire structure was blown to smithereens and all, of course, just in the nick of time. I think that I shall transform the DoD Episode IV encounter with the Squibs and Ugor into a negotiation challenge.

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Secede or Die!

Kotasen in Awaypt's EotE PbP
Guest on Star Wars Saga Edition AP podcast, Threat Detected