Resolution

Maybe a mix of good ideas and good dice makes them look slick and cool, or maybe they run into some trouble and come out a bit worse for wear, but either way the adventure continues. Unless the party made a real mess of it and failed, the Narrator should reward them with experience. For every two obstacles of the challenge, give one-quarter the normal experience for an encounter with CR that matches their tier. If one of the consequences was a fight, don’t give separate experience for that fight.

Example 4: Complex Timing and Flashbacks

If a Narrator is comfortable with flexible use of narrative time, they don’t have to come up with all the obstacles in a challenge at once, nor to run the Assess the Challenge stage first. They can simply present the first obstacle, then let an adventurer try to overcome it, and if their roll isn’t good enough, the player can retroactively describe how they would have prepared for that. In this style, the presentation of obstacles, efforts, and flashbacks to preparations can continue until the party overcomes enough obstacles (one per adventurer) to earn them a win on the overall challenge.

Consider a possible perilous challenge for a 17th level party. One of the players, Ford, had his rogue petrified last session by a bounty hunter and her pet basilisk . His petrified form has been taken as a trophy for Filpot, a crime boss who hated him. The party wants to rescue their companion, but George the Narrator would rather avoid running a multi-session rescue mission while Ford twiddles his thumbs.

Without explicitly telling them that he’s running a perilous challenge, George asks how they’re going to get to Ford’s character without making the crime boss panic and destroy the petrified rogue. Billy asks what his savant knows about Filpot and George has him make a DC 18 Investigation check, which counts as his effort for the Assess the Challenge stage. He succeeds, so George quickly invents some broad strokes about defenses and Filpot’s penchant for wild parties and cruel executions.

Carrie’s marshal poses as a bounty hunter to try to sneak in with a scroll of stone to flesh. She makes a Deception check and fails. She asks if she could have retroactively purchased a necklace of fireballs to threaten to detonate, to get an expertise die , and George allows it. However, even with the bonus from the die, the result is still a failure. To represent the imperiled nature of the operation, George says Filpot lets her into his lair, but he still has his suspicions. She decides to still try to unpetrify Ford, this time with a Stealth check to sneak around after dark. However, she fails the second roll and is discovered. George says she did manage to get in and unpetrify Ford’s rogue, but they’re spotted. The rogue is thrown in a cell, and Carrie’s marshal is disarmed and forced to attend Filpot as a servant.

Peter suggests his berserker could be there too, having gone in as the bounty Carrie brought in. He makes an Athletics check to secretly break his bonds, so he’ll be ready to fight at full strength when the time comes. Meanwhile, Mark wants his herald to walk in and threaten Filpot to release everyone. George advises that this is a bad plan, since the guards at the gate will ensure he’s unarmed and the DC will be higher because of it. Mark is overconfident, and he rolls an Intimidation check against DC 20 and fails. Imperiled and facing DC of 25, he decides to attempt a Sleight of Hand check to steal a weapon from a guard, but fails again. George says a trap door dumps him into a dungeon where he has to fight a hill giant. The herald survives the encounter, but is taken prisoner.

Billy has only used his Assess the Challenge effort, so as his Face the Challenge effort he says that this whole time he’s been posing as one of Filpot’s guards, which has let him seed the whole organization with his allies. He wants to spring everyone now, but he fails his initial DC 18 Stealth check. George says that the escape will have to wait until all adventurers are gathered together for a public execution: being fed to a Gargantuan sand worm.

Since success hinges on Billy beating a DC 23 check, Mark says that in preparation before the mission, he could have sent a follower ahead undercover with his weapon, so he can be armed for the escape attempt. Peter suggests that he was put into a cell with Ford as a fellow prisoner and can make a Medicine check to get his friend strong enough to fight. The two expertise dice together give Billy enough of a bonus to succeed his second check.

George then details the resolution: the herald’s ally tosses him his magic sword, the berserker hurls a few guards in the monster’s mouth, the martial strangles Filpot, Ford’s rogue takes out the bounty hunter who initially captured him, and Billy’s savant pilots them all to safety on Filpot’s dirigible. The team is together again and ready to go save the world, all within a single session!