Montage Test Planner
A montage test is a group skill challenge where the heroes work together toward a shared goal over a series of tests. Unlike a single test, the outcome depends on how many heroes succeed collectively.
When to Use a Montage Test
Use a montage test when:
- The heroes need to accomplish something complex over time (a day's travel, a night of research, infiltrating a compound)
- Multiple approaches are valid (different skills can contribute)
- Success and failure both have meaningful consequences worth playing out
- You want every player to have a moment, not just the one with the best skill
Avoid it when a single test is enough, or when failure has no interesting consequence.
How It Works
The Director sets a success threshold (how many successful tests are needed). Each hero makes one test using any valid skill the Director allows. After every hero has acted, count the successes.
| Result | Condition |
|---|---|
| Full Success | Successes ≥ threshold |
| Partial Success | Successes = threshold − 1 |
| Failure | Successes ≤ threshold − 2 |
Thresholds by party size:
| Heroes | Easy | Standard | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
Designing a Montage Test
Use the template below when prepping a montage test for a session.
Montage Test Template
Objective:
What are the heroes trying to accomplish?
Stakes:
What happens on full success? Partial success? Failure? Make all three meaningful.
Full success:
Partial success:
Failure:
Valid skills (list the skills that make sense for this challenge — be generous, 4–6 is ideal):
| Skill | How a hero might use it |
|---|
Difficulty: Easy / Standard / Hard → Threshold:
Complications (optional — things that can happen mid-montage to raise the stakes):
Example: Escaping Through the City
Objective: The heroes must slip through Castanas' back streets while guards chase them.
Stakes:
- Full success: They escape clean. No one was seen, the guards give up.
- Partial success: They escape but one hero is recognised. Expect trouble later.
- Failure: They're cornered in an alley. Cue a combat encounter.
Valid skills:
| Skill | How a hero might use it |
|---|---|
| Stealth | Move through shadows without being spotted |
| Presence | Bluff a guard at a checkpoint |
| Persuasion | Convince a shopkeeper to hide you |
| Athletics | Scramble over a rooftop or ford a canal |
| Nature | Cut through the drainage tunnels below the market |
| Lore | Recall which streets are patrol routes, which are safe |
Difficulty: Standard (4 heroes → threshold: 3)
Example: Researching the Artifact
Objective: The heroes must uncover the history of the Songshard in the Heaven Garden Academy library before the Drakonium resonance grows worse.
Stakes:
- Full success: They learn what the Songshard is, how it was made, and how to suppress it.
- Partial success: They learn what it is and that there's a suppression ritual — but not the location of the ritual components.
- Failure: They learn only that the Songshard predates recorded history. Dead end, and time lost.
Valid skills:
| Skill | How a hero might use it |
|---|---|
| Lore | Cross-reference ancient texts on Drakonium |
| Presence | Persuade a reclusive archivist to help |
| Intuition | Recognise which sources are trustworthy |
| Crafting | Identify the metallurgical composition of the shard |
| Language | Read a primary source written in Old Cantoran |
Difficulty: Hard (4 heroes → threshold: 4)
Tips
- Let players describe how their skill applies before rolling — improvise whether it works.
- Failures can contribute narrative detail even when the roll fails (the hero learns something, just not what they needed).
- A complication mid-montage (a guard patrol appears, a tome is missing a key page) keeps the tension up even when the party is on track for full success.
- Montage tests work well as the "travelling" scene between locations.
Read more: Tests