D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Hauling Tail Overland

[RedTonic]

Hi y'all, I'm Paula Deen. Today, we're gonna make... Yeah, anyway, so I'm looking for advice on making exciting overland pursuits.

I've already isolated the rules in DMGII, so that's not what I'm looking for. I am receptive to tweaks to those rules and any cool houserules. I definitely want tips on how to make chases exciting, whether the party is hunter or quarry.

 

[Jack Simth]

For the most part, exciting is done by way of fluff description. "Make or Break" die-rolls can be exciting, but they'll only be so if the people involved are already deeply involved in the roll beforehand. So it's a matter of describing running through the woods at a breakneck pace, the branches whipping your arms (no damage) as you dodge through them, stumbling over a root hidden in the underbrush (failed a roll) and just barely getting up in time due to the other person also tripping (because the other person failed a roll, too).

 

[kitcik]

Is it a close pursuit, as imagined by the last response, or more of a tracking situation?

If the latter, it's always a good twist for the PCs to arrive in a town only to hear rumors that their pursuers were there beforehand...

 

[RedTonic]

I actually expect to have both types of pursuit in the game, so I'm welcoming all comers here. Or goers, as it were.

My first planned "pursuit" is for my level 1 party to find that their horses are being stalked by wolves during the nights (when fog falls). Early on, there'll be a nighttime encounter with a stampede (a mob, according to the rules) of water buffalo. I've tweaked it so there's not too much chance of anyone being killed outright, in case anyone here worries about the CR of such an encounter. They're going to spend several evenings in the not so distant company of these very hungry wolves. (Winter has just ended, there's not much growing on the land yet, yadda yadda.)

I just don't want to completely narrow the discussion down to one planned encounter I have, in the hopes that others might find this type of topic useful, too.

Thank you for bringing the attention to the descriptive side, Jack.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

The chase rules in Adamant's "Hot Pursuit" and "Hot Pursuit: On Foot" generally get really high marks.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Introduce Race cars into your fantasy setting.

Or, in (slightly) more seriousness, look into vehicles in Arms and Equipment guide.

Or, in (slightly) more seriousness, consider a sea campaign, there are a lot of rules in Stormwrack for ships chasing ships and battle between.