Chases, Simplified

Tracking movement within a chase is tedious, and I don't like that the dramatic tension of a chase can easily be removed by a small difference in movement speed, so I've come up with simplified chase system:


Instead of tracking movement/distance, track two values: escape and capture, each beginning at 0. If escape reaches 10, the pursued get away. If capture reaches 10, the pursuers catch up and a normal combat ensues. Because both tracks advance at once, much like death saves, eventually something is going to happen, and you won't be stuck in a chase for too long. Complications happen normally, but any complication that would cost extra movement instead adds 1 to escape or capture, depending on which side the complication happened to.


I made a fancy card, as I am want to do, to track these values with check boxes. The card assumes the player's are the ones doing the running away.


At the end of each round, or during the enemy's turn, check off some number of escape/capture boxes (depending on if the players are running away or doing the chasing; escape if the enemy is running away, or capture if the enemy is chasing) based on the chase difficulty. 2 boxes is a good default. The players can then, on their turn, make skill checks or take other actions to try and advance their own track. For instance, they could Dash, in which case they would make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, against a DC depending on the speed of the enemies, and on a success, they would advance their track by 1. Other actions, like evading detection, using the terrain to your advantage, using your knowledge of the pursuers, yelling at people to get out of your way, or any other action might also call for a check, or possibly automatically succeed.


Here are a couple examples I put together for my Out of the Abyss game (spoilers):


[sblock]Steam Chase (2,000 XP)

This long series of passages is filled with small cracks in the ground, which sporadically vent steam. At a slower pace, they are easily avoided. In a combat, place a few steam vents on the map. Each has a 25% chance of venting on initiative count 20. Anyone on the vent must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 fire damage.
During a chase, things are not so easy see Chase Complications below.

Creatures: 4 drow (MM 128, CR 1/4) and 2 quaggoths (MM 256, CR 2) hound the party. If only one drow remains, they flee if the battle is not otherwise going well, leaving any remaining quaggoths to cover their escape.

Chase!
· Check off two capture boxes at the end of each round.
· A DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check as art of a Dash action can be made to run away, checking off an escape box. A failure by 5 or more checks off a capture box instead. A 25 or higher checks off two escape boxes.
· A DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check can be made to hide in the steam to check off an escape box. A failure by 5 or more leads to a dead end, checking off a capture box instead. A 25 or higher checks off two escape boxes.

Chase Complications
1-6: Steam vent! You must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 fire damage. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks this turn.
7: Slippery floor! Make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or check off one capture/escape box.
8: Steam in your eyes! Make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or you are blinded until the end of your next turn.
9: Sudden drop! Make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall 10 feet, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage.
10: You trip over a sleeping steam mephit (MM 217, CR 1/4). You must make a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check to apologize or it harries you for the rest of the chase. You can repeat the check as an action to get it to go away.
11-20: No complication.


Boneyard Chase (2,000 XP)

A set of obviously worked stone doors suddenly appears in the otherwise natural cave wall ahead. Beyond the doors lies a series of twisting catacombs. Piles of bone litter the floor and the many niches carved in the walls.

Creatures: 4 drow (MM 128, CR 1/4) and 2 quaggoths (MM 256, CR 2) hound the party. If only one drow remains, they flee if the battle is not otherwise going well, leaving any remaining quaggoths to cover their escape.

Chase!
· Check off an escape box at the start of the chase if the party blocks the door behind them.
· Check off two capture boxes at the end of each round.
· A DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check as art of a Dash action can be made to run away, checking off an escape box. A failure by 5 or more checks off a capture box instead. A 25 or higher checks off two escape boxes.
· A DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check can be made to dart around a corner to check off an escape box. A failure by 5 or more leads to a dead end, checking off a capture box instead. A 25 or higher checks off two escape boxes.

Chase Complications
1-3: Bones! Make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or check off one capture/escape box.
4-6: Twisty passages, all the same confuse you. Make a DC 10 Intelligence check or check off a capture box.
7: Arrow trap! Make a DC 10 Dexterity taking throw or take 1d8 piercing damage.
8: Poison dart! Make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or take 1 piercing damage and be forced to make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or take 2d6 poison damage.
9: You run into a skeleton (MM 272, CR 1/4), which makes an attack against you (+4 to hit, 1d6+2 piercing damage).
10: A minotaur skeleton (MM 273, CR 2) begins chasing you. If you check off an escape box, it give up. Each time you check off a capture box (but only once per round), it makes an attack against you.
11-20: No complication.
[/sblock]

Every DM should be required to read 'Hot Pursuit: The Definitive Guide to Chases'. While it's meant to be for D20 specifically, it's fairly system agnostic and can be tweaked to handle just about any desired result.

Celebrim said:

Every DM should be required to read 'Hot Pursuit: The Definitive Guide to Chases'. While it's meant to be for D20 specifically, it's fairly system agnostic and can be tweaked to handle just about any desired result.

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It looks like that's more of a "make chases as complex as combat" type of deal. What I'm doing here is making chases even less complex than they already were, in an effort to avoid tracking too many values and positions, and to give the players more of a chance to be creative in deciding how they want to try and escape, rather than to give them more mechanical options. Most turns will boil down to just making a skill check, but what they're trying to do with it matters a lot narratively.

Goober4473 said:

It looks like that's more of a "make chases as complex as combat" type of deal. What I'm doing here is making chases even less complex than they already were...

Click to expand...

How many chases have you actually run? Because you don't make chases less or more complex. They are inherently complex. Your system is far more complex than you actually think it is. For example, a party running from a foe might move at different speeds or have different luck with challenges, meaning that as the pursuit continues the party can become separated. What happens if the rear of the party gets caught? How far ahead are the party members that are not yet caught when that happens? Or the reverse, what happens if the lead of the party catches whatever they are chasing? How far behind are the other members of the party? If the party doesn't move at different speeds, does it move at the speed of the slowest party member? If so, then you are punishing a player for investing in things that make them fast. If the party effectively moves as fast as the fastest party member (which, if you have only a single track, yours does), then what's the disadvantage of being slow?

Your system depends on a huge amount of custom ad hoc values. There is nothing wrong with that except that your system doesn't tell another DM - presumably one more of a novice than you - how to generate these numbers. How much more difficult is escaping the hobgoblins if the hobgoblins are mounted on horses, for example?

I admit that the "Hot Pursuit" rules are hardly perfect, but I don't think that in practice they are more complicated than yours and they certainly provide for more player agency. You system as written doesn't provide for player's making choices. Chases are just something that happens to them, not something they actively participate in.

Celebrim said:

How many chases have you actually run? Because you don't make chases less or more complex. They are inherently complex. Your system is far more complex than you actually think it is. For example, a party running from a foe might move at different speeds or have different luck with challenges, meaning that as the pursuit continues the party can become separated. What happens if the rear of the party gets caught? How far ahead are the party members that are not yet caught when that happens? Or the reverse, what happens if the lead of the party catches whatever they are chasing? How far behind are the other members of the party? If the party doesn't move at different speeds, does it move at the speed of the slowest party member? If so, then you are punishing a player for investing in things that make them fast. If the party effectively moves as fast as the fastest party member (which, if you have only a single track, yours does), then what's the disadvantage of being slow?

Click to expand...

Not worrying about all that is exactly what "simple" means though. The second we care about who's movement speed is higher, we're tracking more values. The second we start tracking leads or separate groups, we're adding complexity. Say what you will about realism and choices, but what I have presented is most definitely simple.

The only time we care about exact position is if the chasers catch up, at which point it becomes a normal combat. The party is probably either in marching order, or if they described splitting up or otherwise changing position, they are wherever makes sense for them to be.

Your system depends on a huge amount of custom ad hoc values. There is nothing wrong with that except that your system doesn't tell another DM - presumably one more of a novice than you - how to generate these numbers. How much more difficult is escaping the hobgoblins if the hobgoblins are mounted on horses, for example?

Click to expand...

This is certainly true, but it's a fledgling system, so I'm presenting it as a concept with examples first. Once I've tested it more, I can discuss exactly what values work best.

I admit that the "Hot Pursuit" rules are hardly perfect, but I don't think that in practice they are more complicated than yours and they certainly provide for more player agency. You system as written doesn't provide for player's making choices. Chases are just something that happens to them, not something they actively participate in.

Click to expand...

Goober4473 said:

Most turns will boil down to just making a skill check, but what they're trying to do with it matters a lot narratively.

Click to expand...

The point is to allow them creative space to figure out how to apply their skills or other actions. Maybe a dakrness spell could cover their escape, or tipping some barrels might be an automatic escape box. It depends on the situation and their capabilities. At no point is it intended to be as tactical, or nearly as common, as combat.

Goober4473 said:

Not worrying about all that is exactly what "simple" means though. The second we care about who's movement speed is higher, we're tracking more values. The second we start tracking leads or separate groups, we're adding complexity. Say what you will about realism and choices, but what I have presented is most definitely simple.

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No, what you presented is most definitely abstract. It's not most definitely simple. The two often overlap. We worry about fewer details to make things simple. The fewer details we worry about, the more abstract it seems. But in an RPG we have to integrate the fiction with the mechanics, and whenever we do that, if the mechanics don't provide an answer it doesn't matter how abstract the system is, it's not simple.

You run into this immediately....

The only time we care about exact position is if the chasers catch up, at which point it becomes a normal combat. The party is probably either in marching order, or if they described splitting up or otherwise changing position, they are wherever makes sense for them to be.

Click to expand...

Bam. Now your abstract system isn't providing you with the answer you want. This is particularly true in the context of your complications system. If you narrate that someone slips and falls down, and that's the reason the party is caught, you've introduced a fiction your system doesn't easily handle. You've now got to translate from one fiction to another. Everyone may at this point have in their mind and entirely different idea about where everyone is at. This is going to be particularly true if party cohesion is breaking down and that chaotic ranged weapon wielder is like, "I never once slipped. I'm at least 20 squares ahead of everyone else!" Now your system amounts to arguing in the metagame over wherever it makes sense for everyone to be. The result isn't simple. Leaving it up to the DM to work it all out without a lot of guidance is not 'simple'.

Your making the same mistake a lot of designers do in assuming that if you don't write the rules down, the rules are short and simple. But rules and guidelines that you need to make rulings, but which are not written down but rather left up to 'realism', 'social contract', 'concensus', or 'reasonable' or some other metagame metric are not actually simple.

And again, you've hit this multiple times in your discussion of how the rules work. For example:

The point is to allow them creative space to figure out how to apply their skills or other actions. Maybe a dakrness spell could cover their escape, or tipping some barrels might be an automatic escape box. It depends on the situation and their capabilities.

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"It depends" is not a simple rules system. Does the darkness spell give them an automatic check on the escape box or not? If the answer is, "It depends", or "It's left up to the DM to figure out how to test that proposition, and we are providing no guidelines.", then it's not a simple rules system. It might work for you, because you already have all those answers up in your head without thinking about them and those answers work well for you. But having a bunch of house rules in your head is not the same as having a simple system.

At no point is it intended to be as tactical, or nearly as common, as combat.

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Is it intended to be as exciting as combat? Is it intended to be as engrossing as combat? Is it intended to be as satisfying as combat?

Because if the answer to any of that is 'No', based on the old writer's adage that you should skip the boring parts, perhaps you should just do combat instead? If you are going to spend time on it, it should matter as much as combat. Otherwise, use a real simple system like a coin flip.

I love that you are considering a chase system. I think that's a great thing to do. I ought to formalize my own rules regarding chases at some point as well. You have some good ideas. All I'm saying is don't mistake 'short on paper' for 'simple in play' much less 'very useful in play'. I think you are falling into some of the same traps as the 4e skill challenge system.