M.T. Black
Hero
I'm working on a new adventure and want to include some sort of chase scene. What's the best chase style encounter you've ever played in D&D? How did the mechanics work?
D&D 5E Chase encounters in D&D
Ath-kethin
Elder Thing
Chasing which direction? That is, PCs chasing monsters, or vice versa?
I just finished running a Primeval Thule adventure that had the PCs on the trail of a bunch of cultists who had slaughtered their (the PCs) tribe and were planning to summon an Elder God at an upcoming celestial conjunction. My players loved it.
The way that chase was laid out was, the book gave a timeline of where the high priest would be day by day as he traveled with his retinue. There were a few encounters along the way, both random and planned, which could slow down the PCs. There was always the chance, depending on the players' decisions, that they could catch the priest before he reached the city.
Many of the possible delays involved empathy; after arriving just before another massacre, would the PCs stay to help rebuild and bury the dead?
If they didn't catch him on the trail, once the PCs made it to the city where the final ritual was to take place, they had to find the priest. Depending on how they approached the search (and how lucky they were on some gathering information type rolls, if you needed to follow that route), they would arrive at one of three different points during the ritual, each with its possible ways to stop the summoning.
I don't know if that kind of setup meets your needs, but it worked really well in my campaign.
I just finished running a Primeval Thule adventure that had the PCs on the trail of a bunch of cultists who had slaughtered their (the PCs) tribe and were planning to summon an Elder God at an upcoming celestial conjunction. My players loved it.
The way that chase was laid out was, the book gave a timeline of where the high priest would be day by day as he traveled with his retinue. There were a few encounters along the way, both random and planned, which could slow down the PCs. There was always the chance, depending on the players' decisions, that they could catch the priest before he reached the city.
Many of the possible delays involved empathy; after arriving just before another massacre, would the PCs stay to help rebuild and bury the dead?
If they didn't catch him on the trail, once the PCs made it to the city where the final ritual was to take place, they had to find the priest. Depending on how they approached the search (and how lucky they were on some gathering information type rolls, if you needed to follow that route), they would arrive at one of three different points during the ritual, each with its possible ways to stop the summoning.
I don't know if that kind of setup meets your needs, but it worked really well in my campaign.
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Ezequielramone
Explorer
I recommend you to check the chase rules in pathfinder. You can use that as inspiration. I only run chases in a narrative way since those were not planned, were consequences of character's actions.
Aoirorentsu
Explorer
http://www.runagame.net/2015/06/chase-rules-for-d-5th-edition-part-1.html
The series that begins with this post is pretty great.
The series that begins with this post is pretty great.
KahlessNestor
Adventurer
pdzoch
Explorer
I've done two chase scene so far. Neither were like the examples in the DM's guide. My problem with the chase rules I have read (this is a caveat to point out that I may not have seen the ideal ones out there) is that the procedure seems to focus on catching up to or evading the target to prevent a melee encounter or capture. The procedures for the chase essentially involved interaction with the terrain and not so much with the target.-- dodging, avoiding, placing obstacles to movement or sight to facilitate the escape.
Chase 1: Party hastily escape town hopping on the nearing object to escape they can find -- a couple of horse drawn wagons. They have two NPCs with them they are protecting, one of which is an old man. One of the party has land vehicle skills. The party has a head start and heads out of town. Because the 2nd wagon does not have a skilled driver, I penalize him for movement and he can not execute a dash (full move) with steering, so he starts to lag behind. The pursuers hop on horses and they chase after the wagons. They easily catch up to the wagons (by coming within arrow range). What plays out is a standard western cowboys/indians wagon chase. The archers start with ranged attacks from the back of the wagon at the pursuers, who do not have ranged weapons. On the table, I place the figure maximum range apart where the ranged attacks start. Instead of moving each figure each round, I instead move only the difference in move speed, so the pursuers eventually get closer and closer, and the trail wagon falls further and further behind. The party archers shot at the horse to defeat the pursuers and get away. Only a few got close enough to snatch the NPC away, but they met the same fate when the party slew their horse and the pursuer failed to make a dex save to grab onto the wagon. [It was also a bit surprising as I had intended the horses to be part of the adventure treasure for the party (and get them off the wagons)]
Chase 2: Ship pursuit at Sea. Pretty much played out the same way as above, except the very competent captains of the ship steered the ships. The faster ship was in pursuit, and the open ocean did not provide much means to delay the pursuer. I allowed the ship crew to roll group skill checks to see if they afforded any advantages to the captain's command, most of which did not result in extra distance but better angles for the archers and balistas to fire upon each other. Crews were also allowed to aim at ship parts (sails, masts, riggings, etc) to cause a delay. Eventually, the ships closed with each other (but it was close -- they almost disabled the pursuing ship enough to break away) and the melee fight broke out on board. Due to the attrition during the ranged phases, the melee was very one sided when the party engaged in the melee. The turn radius of the ships also had an effect, and the pursuing captain had to react or anticipate the movement. The wind also was a factor as it limited the amount of change (tack) the ships could take and still move full speed. I had another ship encounter (planned for another aspect of the ocean) where the pursuers were in a rowed vessel, so they were not limited by wind direction, but did have a limit on chase duration.
Anyway, those were the chase scenes I ran and how I approached them. Mostly narrative, with some elements of encounter management/combat rolls tossed in. I hope it was helpful.
Chase 1: Party hastily escape town hopping on the nearing object to escape they can find -- a couple of horse drawn wagons. They have two NPCs with them they are protecting, one of which is an old man. One of the party has land vehicle skills. The party has a head start and heads out of town. Because the 2nd wagon does not have a skilled driver, I penalize him for movement and he can not execute a dash (full move) with steering, so he starts to lag behind. The pursuers hop on horses and they chase after the wagons. They easily catch up to the wagons (by coming within arrow range). What plays out is a standard western cowboys/indians wagon chase. The archers start with ranged attacks from the back of the wagon at the pursuers, who do not have ranged weapons. On the table, I place the figure maximum range apart where the ranged attacks start. Instead of moving each figure each round, I instead move only the difference in move speed, so the pursuers eventually get closer and closer, and the trail wagon falls further and further behind. The party archers shot at the horse to defeat the pursuers and get away. Only a few got close enough to snatch the NPC away, but they met the same fate when the party slew their horse and the pursuer failed to make a dex save to grab onto the wagon. [It was also a bit surprising as I had intended the horses to be part of the adventure treasure for the party (and get them off the wagons)]
Chase 2: Ship pursuit at Sea. Pretty much played out the same way as above, except the very competent captains of the ship steered the ships. The faster ship was in pursuit, and the open ocean did not provide much means to delay the pursuer. I allowed the ship crew to roll group skill checks to see if they afforded any advantages to the captain's command, most of which did not result in extra distance but better angles for the archers and balistas to fire upon each other. Crews were also allowed to aim at ship parts (sails, masts, riggings, etc) to cause a delay. Eventually, the ships closed with each other (but it was close -- they almost disabled the pursuing ship enough to break away) and the melee fight broke out on board. Due to the attrition during the ranged phases, the melee was very one sided when the party engaged in the melee. The turn radius of the ships also had an effect, and the pursuing captain had to react or anticipate the movement. The wind also was a factor as it limited the amount of change (tack) the ships could take and still move full speed. I had another ship encounter (planned for another aspect of the ocean) where the pursuers were in a rowed vessel, so they were not limited by wind direction, but did have a limit on chase duration.
Anyway, those were the chase scenes I ran and how I approached them. Mostly narrative, with some elements of encounter management/combat rolls tossed in. I hope it was helpful.
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Tony Vargas
Legend
'Chase Encounters,' IMX, from the dismal 'Pursuit & Evasion of Pursuit' rules in the 1e DMG on, have been pretty unappealing. Again, IMX, most players will stand and fight rather than run, and be frustrated when enemies escape. Monsters frequently have higher movement than PCs, especially when the party feels limited by the slowest character.
Two comparative bright spots were 1) a ship-to-ship action in an old AD&D game, 'rules' completely improvised by the DM at the time and consisting of little more than the two ships pacing eachother while we traded fire at comparatively long range (and, if I'm being honest, that's probably a fond memory because of the havoc my Druid wreaked with Call Lightning) and 2) a Skill Challenge in a playtest for a convention game (I can only hope it went off as well when he ran it for real).
OK, I can think of a recent third example from a few years ago, but it was 13th Age.
I've yet to see or run any chases in 5e...
Quickleaf
Legend
[MENTION=6782171]M.T. Black[/MENTION] I fully agree with [MENTION=80982]pdzoch[/MENTION]'s analysis that the DMG chase rules rarely map to the reality of the gaming table (where "catch in a chase" and "shoot into submission" tend to be conflated by players & players almost never run away).
That said, I've had some success implementing chases across various editions...albeit tweaking the rules to make them my own.
I highly recommend you take a gander at this thread I started about chase rules: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...les-that-actually-do-what-they-re-supposed-to! And there is really good commentary there too, well worth your read.
That said, I've had some success implementing chases across various editions...albeit tweaking the rules to make them my own.
I highly recommend you take a gander at this thread I started about chase rules: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...les-that-actually-do-what-they-re-supposed-to! And there is really good commentary there too, well worth your read.
M.T. Black
Hero
Thanks Quickleaf - I'll check it out
MostlyHarmless42
Adventurer
The default rules in the DM are actually pretty decent for a spur of the moment type chase. I find the complications thing to be quite enjoyable for both sides and it keeps things interesting. If you have more time, rather than rolling the dice randomly and narrating the results, you could instead focus roll or pick the appropriate complications ahead of time to match whatever route you want.
A few things to consider with default ruling, or any chase mechanics in general:
1) How do you deal with different speeds, be it from base movement, fly/climb/swim, or stuff like rogues dashing? With the default rules, a creature with a slower speed is basically doomed to fail at getting away like 95% of the time. If you are okay with that, fine, if not you will have ro consider are solution.
2) Ranged attacks, particularly spells that do stuff like restrain. These are potential chase enders right off, especially the latter. The former can be a tad annoying as well, if the chase begins from a combat runner (they are likely low on health to start the chase).
3) The environment. It plays a BIG deal on the outcome of the chase. Same with the goals of the fleeing person. Perhaps they aren't trying to get away, but hand off an item stolen from the chaser? Maybe they are trying to raise an alarm or get reinforcements?
I myself use a bit if a modified default rules, where I alter movement so that people move one square on a grid. I then let people do one of 3 things:
Dash to move two squares (I have them make conchecks after so many rounds to represent people getting tired. Rogues and people who have higher move speeds get extra rounds or advantage on the checks). Failure either causes them to not move that round or potentially gain exhaustion and fall out of the chase.
Move one square forward.
Make an attack. It can be Be a ranged attack or spell. If the spell is relevant, it may do other stuff, though I rule that damage doesn't harm the target, but instead causes them disadvantage on the next complication check for the chased, or chaser of the chased's choice. If they are next to them, they can make a melee attack to either do the same, or a grapple check to end the chase. From there it would switch to normal combat, if needed, and the target being grappled by whoever made the check.
After each side takes their turns, one complication occurs and is added to the "map" of the chase as an obstacle to bypass for each side. Basically two per round.
If the chased achieves it's goal, they escape. If the chasers have someone grab the chased, they don't. It tends to result with the party chasing one target with one person firing from afar while the rest of the party try and get close to grapple and works well enough for my tastes. Most importantly, it keeps it simple and moving, like like a chase should feel.
A few things to consider with default ruling, or any chase mechanics in general:
1) How do you deal with different speeds, be it from base movement, fly/climb/swim, or stuff like rogues dashing? With the default rules, a creature with a slower speed is basically doomed to fail at getting away like 95% of the time. If you are okay with that, fine, if not you will have ro consider are solution.
2) Ranged attacks, particularly spells that do stuff like restrain. These are potential chase enders right off, especially the latter. The former can be a tad annoying as well, if the chase begins from a combat runner (they are likely low on health to start the chase).
3) The environment. It plays a BIG deal on the outcome of the chase. Same with the goals of the fleeing person. Perhaps they aren't trying to get away, but hand off an item stolen from the chaser? Maybe they are trying to raise an alarm or get reinforcements?
I myself use a bit if a modified default rules, where I alter movement so that people move one square on a grid. I then let people do one of 3 things:
Dash to move two squares (I have them make conchecks after so many rounds to represent people getting tired. Rogues and people who have higher move speeds get extra rounds or advantage on the checks). Failure either causes them to not move that round or potentially gain exhaustion and fall out of the chase.
Move one square forward.
Make an attack. It can be Be a ranged attack or spell. If the spell is relevant, it may do other stuff, though I rule that damage doesn't harm the target, but instead causes them disadvantage on the next complication check for the chased, or chaser of the chased's choice. If they are next to them, they can make a melee attack to either do the same, or a grapple check to end the chase. From there it would switch to normal combat, if needed, and the target being grappled by whoever made the check.
After each side takes their turns, one complication occurs and is added to the "map" of the chase as an obstacle to bypass for each side. Basically two per round.
If the chased achieves it's goal, they escape. If the chasers have someone grab the chased, they don't. It tends to result with the party chasing one target with one person firing from afar while the rest of the party try and get close to grapple and works well enough for my tastes. Most importantly, it keeps it simple and moving, like like a chase should feel.
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