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Skill Challenges are one of my most favorite things found in 4E.  It can be run many ways, and none of them are wrong, but I find some more enjoyable than others.  Here are some ways I see them run:

The Mechanical Challenge - The DM announces that we are now in a skill challenge, tells us the primary skills available, as well as the complexity.  I find these to be particularly jarring, but when the bulk of the table says "I try to use diplomacy" and announces their score, I usually just roll with it, though I usually can't resist injecting some roleplay into my checks "I draw upon my vast knowledge of the lore regarding the underdark" which the DM says "Dungeoneering" to which I retort "I said 'Lore', so I was really thinking History".  The challenge is handled in rounds, and each

Warning: This post contains spoilers for D&D Encounters - Undermountain: Halaster's Lost Apprentice

My adventuring company, "No Drow Allowed" totally manhandled the encounter last night.  I think it's because of our experience playing together in other Living Forgotten Realms games before that really helped with this cohesion.  The defenders did their role in locking down the bad guys, the minions were handled easily (though nobody got a hat trick) and the bad guys rolled poor initiatives, making our getting into positions that much easier.  It could have totally gone the other way had the guards gone first. 

I forgot my camera, but took this cell phone pic of our DM, Gavin.  I really appreciate those who take the time to run these sorts of games, it really goes a long ways towards

Let me start by saying that I was very pleased with how my Shardmind Psion character handled in combat last night.  Having never played a controller before, I really enjoyed the ability to... well, how do I say this without spoiling it for others, ah yes, I enjoyed pushing and pulling creatures when there is architectual features involved.  Great fun!  My table was well balanced, and we were all very experienced with 4E... so our DM threw a harder encounter at us.  Fate would have it that his dice were cold and ours hot, so the situation was well handled.

At the onset of our game, we had two bits of business to resolve.  First, I needed a character name, since I decided that mine was unpronouncable.  The party picked "Skippy" as his nickname.  I frowned and explained that I

It's a ritual for me.  Before every gameday I make sure my bags are packed with everything I'll need for an event.  Dice, check.  Power cards, check.  Character sheet, check.  Players Handbook 3, check.  iPhone, setup to receive Twitter (#DNDENC).  Mini, uh, a shardmind... hmm... oh how about our old friend the Galeb Duhr!  So instead of a tall, skinny pile of crystal shards, he's a dumpy pile of rocks (perhaps he was part of the foundation!)

I have a 6pm gametime as a player, and DMing at 8pm.  Haven't seen the adventure yet, but I expect this should be pretty straight forward.  One of the things I LOVE about 4E is that I can just grab an adventure and run it with just a quick skimming (or in this case, a run through with another DM just prior). 

Compare this to my working