A puzzle that simulates a chase?

[The DMs Wife]

I'm GMing a solo adventure for my husband. I've got a scene where I'd like him to chase an NPC through a crowded market. I've found threads on here about rules for chases but I'd love to work in some kind of puzzle. He enjoys them and this adventure is light on them so far.

Has anyone used a puzzle or trap that could be modified to simulate trying to follow someone through a crowded market? I think I'm thinking of one of those mazes where you have to follow a thread among other threads or something. But handing him a printed maze seems a little lame. Ideas?

 

[Rakusia]

the guy is wearing a bright cap which is easily identifiable but if he gets too far ahead he has to do a spot check in the form of a wheres waldo page to pick up the chase? have it be timed based on his spot soll higher number gives him more time

 

[The DMs Wife]

Really like the idea of giving more time for a good spot check. Better than a pass/fail. I wasn't sure what to do if he just flat out failed.

 

[Rakusia]

depending on his lvl and the exact scene give him a static maybe 20 seconds. then for every x amount over the dc of spot he gets an extra five seconds maybe. its a way to actually make him spot something as if he was chasing a person. and if you look im sure you could find a medieval type wheres waldo challenge

 

[MichaelSomething]

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/chases.html

Pathfinder Chase rules.

Your welcome.

 

[Rakusia]

very good idea from pathfinder. one of many reasons my group is making the switch. not really too much of a puzzle though.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm GMing a solo adventure for my husband. I've got a scene where I'd like him to chase an NPC through a crowded market. I've found threads on here about rules for chases but I'd love to work in some kind of puzzle. He enjoys them and this adventure is light on them so far.

Has anyone used a puzzle or trap that could be modified to simulate trying to follow someone through a crowded market? I think I'm thinking of one of those mazes where you have to follow a thread among other threads or something. But handing him a printed maze seems a little lame. Ideas?

Yes, I did a masquerade chase. It worked nicely, but it requires some prop setup ahead of time. And it doesn't work as a fast-and-furious action movie Parkour foot chase, but as a classic spy movie cat-and-mouse chase scene with moments of searching/sleuthing punctuated by brief action sequences.

Basic idea is you create a bunch of Chase Clue tiles and use a grid map of some kind with miniatures. The prey is really cunning and is using everything at their disposal to throw the PC off - decoys, triggered hazards, magic, whatever. Once the PC finds sufficient clues (by turning over the appropriate tiles), they can be pieced together to solve a logic puzzle which reveals the prey's destination, route, strategy, motivation, secret magical signature trail, or whatever.

That's the gist of it. If you want more detail I can provide it; it was a complex setup but totally worth it.

 

[VariSami]

Shortcuts. As in, multiple possible trajectories in chasing the prey. It forces decisions based on the following factors (for example - there are probably many more):
1. Is there anything which might delay me in there? (Possible skill challenges - if you pass, there is no delay. If you fail, you are delayed.)
2. Will the prey choose the direction I will be shortcutted to? (Does he have a reason to expect that they will?) If not, they will again be delayed simple because they will need to run to the crossroads in which the prey chose a different path.

Each decision has a "delay value" based on the results in comparison to the prey's results. If your total delay value exceeds a certain threshold, the quarry escapes. If you manage to bring it under a certain threshold, you catch them.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Assuming your husband isn't too far into "immersion" that it would bother him completely... the first puzzle I thought of for your chase was using a Where's Waldo book.

You start with some regular chase mechanics... spot checks, athletics checks and the like... then shortly into it the perp runs into a crowded area and you open up one of the pages of the book to have him try and find his perp (Waldo). Depending on his successes and such with the skill checks previously, can determine how much time he has to try and find Waldo. If he finds Waldo, chase continues. If he doesn't, he loses him. You can do this for as many times as you want, interspersing skill checks with Waldo searches. After maybe like the third Waldo search, he finds his man and grabs him.

Using Waldo might be a little immersion breaking because of the picture and whatnot... but at least it gives him something to actually do instead of just rolling checks. Of course... if there happens to be a picture search book at Barnes & Noble that's been published that is a more applicable or themed toward fantasy/medievel times... then so much the better for you.

 

[Rakusia]

there s an actual wheres waldo medieval knights book