D&D General Run Away!

[iserith]

The make running away really a thing there would need morale rules applying to the party. Something along the lines of if party reaches X state then the PCs have 2 turns before they break and run. Organise a withdrawal and activate the disengage mechanics.

I think it would work better as an incentive or at least a lesser disincentive. For example, you get X% of the encounter's XP if you succeed in the Chase challenge.

 

[Lidgar]

This is our party in most campaigns:

 

[Maxperson]

One time I remember being in an encounter that was clearly unwinnable, and as players we all agreed that we needed to get out. There followed an entire round of combat where nobody got out because we each in turn attempted to stay back and cover everyone else's retreat.

I had something similar happen in my game. The players had decided to retreat into a room and shut the door, because they believed that the enemy was unbeatable. One PC was already in the room. The other four ran in and then he ran out to cover them long enough for them to shut the door. Noble. The other four, however, all ran out the next round to save him, because he couldn't survive alone. Fortunately their belief wasn't actually correct and it was just a very difficult fight that they won with no casualties due to some good rolling on their part.

 

[MarkB]

I mean, making the thing people don't want to do mechanically mandatory is certainly one way to do it.

Yeah, nothing says "player agency" like having the game tell you how brave your character is.

 

[Charlaquin]

I've never thought about it straight up like this, but believe I have had better luck fighting to the death than fleeing. As you suggest, often the point of no return is not too visible. Hard to tell if you can still make it or not. Had a few TPKs, but also had a handful of last man standing with a handful of HPs and won the day.

Yep. Part of the problem is that D&D combat lacks a clear emergency state, short of being knocked out of the fight. Sure, you can see how many hit points you have left, but as long as you have any you can keep fighting at full strength, which makes it easy to convince yourself to stick it out “just one more round.” Especially when your allies are all also fighting at full capacity. The game just lacks a clear signal that it’s time to shift gears from offense to defense, until it’s too late to do anything to defend yourself.

 

[Mannahnin]

In B/X, monsters explicitly wouldn’t pursue the PCs if they broke line of sight.

When I first read this rule as an adult, all of a sudden the weird, jagged corridors in dungeon maps made more sense.

 

[Mannahnin]

The make running away really a thing there would need morale rules applying to the party. Something along the lines of if party reaches X state then the PCs have 2 turns before they break and run. Organise a withdrawal and activate the disengage mechanics.

I'm not a fan of doing it to the PCs, but this is another area where old school actually has a useful mechanic, with morale checks for hirelings and henchmen. If the NPCs leg it, the PCs may get the idea that the fight is unwinnable, or may reassess the odds now that their numbers are reduced.

Yep. Part of the problem is that D&D combat lacks a clear emergency state, short of being knocked out of the fight. Sure, you can see how many hit points you have left, but as long as you have any you can keep fighting at full strength, which makes it easy to convince yourself to stick it out “just one more round.” Especially when your allies are all also fighting at full capacity. The game just lacks a clear signal that it’s time to shift gears from offense to defense, until it’s too late to do anything to defend yourself.

True. I've seen some intriguing suggestions for mechanics to allow characters to remain (or at least make a check to remain) conscious and mobile when reduced to zero HP, but unable to attack, or only able to do so at a major penalty. I like the idea, but haven't settled on any particular set of these to adopt.

 

[Charlaquin]

When I first read this rule as an adult, all of a sudden the weird, jagged corridors in dungeon maps made more sense.

So much of the design of B/X and AD&D is like that. I get the impression that a lot of players at the time ignored a lot of the rules, sometimes intentionally and sometimes because EGG wrote like he cared more about sounding smart than communicating effectively. But when you actually look at the system holistically, there really were good reasons for a lot of the seemingly bizarre design choices.

 

[Charlaquin]

True. I've seen some intriguing suggestions for mechanics to allow characters to remain (or at least make a check to remain) conscious and mobile when reduced to zero HP, but unable to attack, or only able to do so at a major penalty. I like the idea, but haven't settled on any particular set of these to adopt.

I have tried a couple such rules myself, but not to any great success. Mostly I find that my players would rather just drop unconscious and wait for someone to heal them than remain an active target for the monsters while being offensively debilitated.

 

[MGibster]

Yeah, nothing says "player agency" like having the game tell you how brave your character is.

Aren't there spells that require a character to flee?