Assess the Challenge

If the party knows about the challenge in advance, each adventurer can undertake one effort during this stage to either surveil or prepare. A failed check in this stage has no negative consequence; it just doesn’t grant any bonuses.

Surveil. Before preparations begin, an adventurer can seek for more information about the challenge as a whole. On a success, each other adventurer gets an expertise die on their checks they make to prepare during this stage. Depending on the approach and the result of the check, the Narrator can also choose to reveal one or more previously unknown obstacles.

Prepare. Once surveillance has concluded, an adventurer can devise a way to deal with a single known obstacle, usually by acquiring the right tools or setting up favorable conditions. On a successful check, their preparation provides an expertise die to whoever tries to overcome that obstacle during the Face the Challenge stage.

Example 2: Heist

Heists can certainly be complex enough to deserve one or more full sessions, but sometimes they’re just a stepping stone to the part of the story that’s more important. Does the party need a particular magic item for their main quest? Sure, the Narrator could just drop it as loot or sell it at a magic shop, but why not put it somewhere lightly defended and let the party steal it?

Say they need a few potions of water breathing , but the alchemist they want to buy from says his whole stock was stolen by the Last Ravens—a gang of wizard school dropouts who specialize in nicking magical items. The Narrator comes up with four obstacles, but the only one known to the party is that they first have to get into the gang’s lair.

They have time to prepare, so during the Assess the Challenge stage, one adventurer surveils, using a Persuasion check to befriend a member of the gang and get info. She succeeds and learns the nature of the four obstacles: the lair is accessed via a magic portal in a haunted forest, there are always a few wizards inside the lair, bound spirits of guard dogs watch the gang’s treasure room, and stealing from the treasure will trigger a curse.

Armed with this information, the remaining three party members detail their efforts and roll their checks with expertise: Religion to make charms to ward off forest ghosts, Investigation to get blackmail on a gang member so she’ll be easier to manipulate, and Animal Handling to train a cat to distract the spectral dogs.