Help!!!

[CrazyKhajiit]

So, I DM a group once a week, and am a relatively new DM. The players have decided too gather resources so they can fortify/rebuild a city.
I am completely lost as too the DC's/skills I should use for rolls, how to run the campaign, and how long all of it should take in-game.

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Please help.

[Kimera757]

Make it a skill challenge. Each PC can choose one task. PCs need to roleplay a little over each task.

For instance, one PC might recruit labor. That's a Diplomacy check, DC - base it on the new skill DC rules, and pick an appropriate level.

A PC might scrounge up stuff to bolster the walls. Many skills could be used for this. Wood from outside? Nature. Donated stuff? Diplomacy. Stuff outright taken from the populace? Intimidate.

Recruit clerics from different temples for their healing magic? That could be a Religion check. Keeping those clerics from killing each other? Intimidate.

A PC might decide to acquire arrows or bolts for guards. Another PC might try to recruit more people into the militia. Someone might convince the mayor to let the crooks out of jail, as long as they're forced to fight in the army. And so forth. Sounds like lots of Diplomacy checks. Hope you have a hard in the party!

[Badgerish]

The skill challenge parts are a great start, but it depends on how big you want this to be. If you want to spend longer on this, include some encounters/short adventures for parts of it.

e.g. you need more lumber to rebuild.
Do you go to the haunted/spider-filled/fey forest with a squad of loggers to gather lumber? If so, that can be a skill challenge on it's own, leading to a combat encounter as something tries to eat your loggers.

Trying to organise people?
There is a end-of-the-world cultist preaching about how this is a clear time of the end times and everyone clearly needs to repent all their sins/go wild as nothing matters/pledge themselves to a new god.
People are buying into this and that disrupts work. Offer both a skill challenge to, well, challenge the cultist and get them to stop (diplo/intim to effect the followers, bluff to get the cultist to reveal their evil plan, arcana/relgion to point out their lies/mistakes) and a combat encounter to take them out of the picture.

A reminder on skill challenges: Both success and failure should be interesting.
If they fail a part of the overall task, what happens?

[DHKase]

DCs vary depending on the PCs level, you should check the DMG for those values. There are a few static values that are listed on the DM screen as well. Basically, you'll have to use your judgement to determine how difficult a task is going to be for the PC's to complete.

As for what skills to use, Dungeoneering and Thievery are generally used for fortification building. The former includes architecture in it's set, and the latter is used for securing vulnerable points. You could also use raw ability checks and grant a 'trained' bonus if you feel the PC's back story would allow it.

[CrazyKhajiit]

Thanks to everyone for the responses, I am also wondering what skill I would use for checks if a player is actually trying to harvest resources, I.E. cut down a tree, mine, etc. I was thinking about using Nature, but I don't know if that is the right one. The PC's are Level one, Rogue, Swordmage, Ranger and Soldier so I don't want to have anything too difficult.

Thanks in advance.

[Cloud]

As others have said you could use a skill challenge so that multiple skills could be used.

Actually cutting down trees or digging up something is probably athletics, but it would be nature to know which trees to use, and dungeoneering to actually know what you're mining for and where to look. You could easily fit in endurance to actually get the supplies to where they're needed, and heck, just to make sure everyone can do something, you could perhaps work in history for a bonus, perhaps it would reveal a mine that was abandoned not because it ran out of ore, but because a monster moved in, as easy problem for the adventures to fix.

[Inevitability]

Just out of curiosity, what is the 'soldier' class? Is it a refluffed class? Homebrew? A typo?

[CrazyKhajiit]

Just out of curiosity, what is the 'soldier' class? Is it a refluffed class? Homebrew? A typo?

A typo. I meant fighter, although I am using Martial Power.

[DHKase]

Knowledge checks would probably be used to determine where the resources are, and then strength or endurance checks for the actual physical labor involved. Logging would probably be a nature check (probably an easy DC if all they want to do is build a barricade), and then an endurance check (variable depending on how fast the PC wants that tree down), and then a strength and endurance checks to haul it to where they need it to be. Failure's would probably result in increased time, lost healing surges, or harder DCs on the construction end due to inferior materials being harvested.

So I have to ask, where do you intend to take this skill challenge? Is there going to be some type of massive attack in the near future?

[CrazyKhajiit]

So I have to ask, where do you intend to take this skill challenge? Is there going to be some type of massive attack in the near future?

Yes, actually. The PC's have about a month before they are attacked by a goblin (Minion) horde. They are reinforcing wooden walls around a town, trying to make weapons and generally prepare.
Does that change anything?

[DHKase]

Yes, actually. The PC's have about a month before they are attacked by a goblin (Minion) horde. They are reinforcing wooden walls around a town, trying to make weapons and generally prepare.
Does that change anything?

Knowing what is going to happen can help you decide how to utilize failures in the skill challenge. Skill challenges are not supposed to prevent the story from going forward after all. So, in this instance, every failure can be represented by an additional enemy to each encounter the players with have to fight later on, or less available allies. Alternatively, it could be something that effects the narrative of the story. For instance if the PCs fail to properly fortify the town, they still might win the battle, but the town may still be destroyed in the process and this may effect the final reward they receive for the adventure.

[Ashdate]

Thanks to everyone for the responses, I am also wondering what skill I would use for checks if a player is actually trying to harvest resources, I.E. cut down a tree, mine, etc.

I think it would depend how time-critical the action is.

I would suggest that Athletics would be the most appropriate if attempting to perform such a task in a very short amount of time (i.e. less than 3 rounds). If the task requires a large amount of effort (i.e. a field of trees), then Endurance might be more representative if the task is expected to be rushed, but over a time-constrained period of time (i.e. the party has 24 hours to fell enough trees to build crude defenses for a town). Penalize the task with healing surge losses, representing fatigue.

If the task is not time sensitive/failure just would mean another roll, then just let the player succeed without rolling.

EDIT:


Yes, actually. The PC's have about a month before they are attacked by a goblin (Minion) horde. They are reinforcing wooden walls around a town, trying to make weapons and generally prepare.
Does that change anything?

I would suggest that a month would be plenty of time to reinforce the town and make crude weapons (remember that many peasants are already going to have crude weapons, such as daggers, polearms, clubs, and potentially spears if there are fishermen).

My temptation would be that where the PCs should be helping is not in "speeding" things up, but directing efforts. So the PCs aren't about reinforcing buildings, but making sure the right buildings are reinforced. Or they're not about cutting down individual trees, but figuring out a more efficient way to reinforce (say) 4 buildings rather than 3. Or perhaps a diplomacy check can allow a messenger to potentially get some reinforcements from a nearby town.

Regardless, I think you need to think bigger in this case than purely physical tasks.

[Inevitability]

If the charisma-pc's feel left out, let them train some peasants to become warriors. One of the players could command those as if they're real PC's, or you could just handwave the rules and let the warriors both take and deal 3 damage each round, without attack rolls.