Chase Rules and Suggestions

Has anyone used the chase rules in DMG? I have yet to do so but think it would be fun as the party moves to either apprehend the bad guys who have an hour lead OR to be chased by their minions (overwhelming numbers).

If you have used the rules, do they work well?

Any ideas on what would be a fun use of the chase?

I have to have it friday so if you are bored and want to reply today, it would be fab!

Yes, I use them. They work alright, but could be better. I haven't bothered to make them better because it doesn't come up enough to make it worth my time. The main thing I find is that you want to have some visual way of showing relative distances during the chase so it's easy to keep track of. And it helps to distill the specific setup and process into a handout to make it easy to run it.

As for whether there will be a chase, that's up to the players. My players only very rarely run away and don't often chase after monsters that run away.

Here's what I use (art pulled off Google images and thrown into Roll20):





Then I have a roll table set up in Roll20 which is referenced by a macro. When it's time to check for Complications, the players just hit the button and it spits out a result which we resolve.

very cool! thanks!

I have been doing one big set piece encounter per meeting and want a race to civilization or to get the bad guys as the biggest choices. I want to be prepared for the group to get home or get the bad guys and have their minions desert.

The other option will be that they simply track the bad guys to the hidden location of the the big villain who is generally not trackable on her own per the MM...

I am going to make a flow chart and see if that helps me anticipate some choices they might make with one of two chases possible. This was very helpful to me...

Warpiglet said:

Has anyone used the chase rules in DMG?

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There not that different from just the rules. Move/Dash, if you break line of sight try to hide? You could use them without knowning they were there.

I have yet to do so but think it would be fun as the party moves to either apprehend the bad guys who have an hour lead OR to be chased by their minions (overwhelming numbers).

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An hour lead would be more a matter of tracking, I suppose. Bring in the Ranger.

Overwhelming numbers is definitely a thing in 5e, and, obviously, means you can't just split up...
...the existing rules wouldn't be practical to use a horde chasing you as individuals, it'd make more sense to concentrate on the checks made by PCs to escape, and treat the horde more as a collective danger than as individual creatures.

Any ideas on what would be a fun use of the chase?
I have to have it friday so if you are bored and want to reply today, it would be fab!

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This might be helpful:

https://www.tribality.com/2015/11/04/in-defense-of-skill-challenges-5th-edition/

Warpiglet said:

very cool! thanks!

I have been doing one big set piece encounter per meeting and want a race to civilization or to get the bad guys as the biggest choices. I want to be prepared for the group to get home or get the bad guys and have their minions desert.

The other option will be that they simply track the bad guys to the hidden location of the the big villain who is generally not trackable on her own per the MM...

I am going to make a flow chart and see if that helps me anticipate some choices they might make with one of two chases possible. This was very helpful to me...

Click to expand...

The chase rules cover what I would say is a fairly close-quarters chase. If I'm reading your correctly, it sounds like you are wanting more of an overland chase (?). If so, these rules probably aren't going to cut it. You might consider something more like what I do for overland travel activities which I can elaborate on if you can describe your scenario a bit more.

iserith said:

The chase rules cover what I would say is a fairly close-quarters chase. If I'm reading your correctly, it sounds like you are wanting more of an overland chase (?). If so, these rules probably aren't going to cut it. You might consider something more like what I do for overland travel activities which I can elaborate on if you can describe your scenario a bit more.

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what I planned on was an overland chase until the quarry is in sight and then have the characters, if they chance upon the baddies, be able to try and pursue. If they are slow in getting to them, and this does not develop, they will be led to a place of decay and badness they would not otherwise know about. The big bad lives here and this might be one way they can chance upon her lair.

If they go in the exact opposite direction I was thinking about large groups of enemies pursuing them. If they get exhausted or choose a place to fight, perhaps they fight individual groups in waves. So I was thinking tracking overland first and if they get nearer to eachother, then chase rules and something dramatic.

Since it is a forested area (lighter forest in a mountainous region, newer growth), I liked the idea of being able to hide and perhaps deal with waves on the their own terms and either hide again, do guerrilla warfare or simply run again after hiding...I want the choices to be real and meaningful with the only "wrong" choice being to face a very large group at once and not piecemeal.

So far the advice is very helpful. I realize the flow I want might be ambitious...

I want them to make a few decisions...where to make a stand, how to find a way to fight waves on their terms and so forth. If I make it misty in the woods, maybe it makes it that much more believable that hiding is possible.

What I need to do is think about how to represent these decisions and their consequences. For example, if they stand and fight one group, how long would it be until they second arrives? And would they then get tracked? In short, instead of monsters in a dungeon with discrete encounters being divided by rooms, I would be looking to have encounters outside. Just as you strike a hornets nest, you would not want to stay put and wait for them to gather I am thinking they might want to fight and move on. And, I also realize I would need to foreshadow the idea that they are in increasingly hostile lands. Each few hours allows for more enemies to gather...

I might start with a flowchart...

To the extent that I understand what you have in mind, I would probably do something like this:

There are essentially two initial choices: (1) Pursue bad guys in one direction or (2) go in some other direction for some reason.

If 1, then the meaningful decision points after that would be Pace (slow, normal, fast), Marching Order, and Activities While Traveling per PC: Keep Watch, Navigate, Track, Draw a Map, Forage, Work Together. The viability of those tasks are impacted by Pace - it's harder (or impossible) the faster you go. Each task provides a benefit if successful, one that is actually useful in context. Throw in random weather (temperature, wind, precipitation) to see if this throws a wrench in things. They have specific game effects that can impact the viability of travel tasks.

Now set a particular chance of random encounters on that path which is adjusted by the Pace. Perhaps on an 18+ every few hours. If Fast pace, you have a lower chance of encounters, but there is a trade-off of -5 to PP (Keep Watch) which means surprise is very possible if a random encounter is indicated (and the monster is being stealthy), plus other tasks are impossible (Forage, for example). You can then come up with a means by which you determine how quickly the enemy gets to destination. This could be a random roll or set number. If the PC's pace and success indicate they catch up to the enemy, then you drop into the Chase rules and resolve accordingly.

If 2, you would have the same decision points, but the Chase rules come out when the enemy catches up to the PCs.

In either choice, you can also set up planned encounters on top of the random encounters if you wanted to be sure there's at least some kind of "road encounter" along the way. Additional random encounters just increase the difficulty, especially if they end up having to short rest which risks letting the enemy get away or catch up to them.

This would be a pretty easy structure to implement and mirrors a basic framework that I use in most of my games. It's loaded with decisions to make for the players. I discuss it in more detail here.

Warpiglet said:

Has anyone used the chase rules in DMG? I have yet to do so but think it would be fun as the party moves to either apprehend the bad guys who have an hour lead OR to be chased by their minions (overwhelming numbers).

If you have used the rules, do they work well?

Any ideas on what would be a fun use of the chase?

I have to have it friday so if you are bored and want to reply today, it would be fab!

Click to expand...

I found the DMG chase rules boring and just barely useable.

Instead, I adapted the rules at https://geek-related.com/2009/12/13/life-in-the-big-city-chase-rules/ along with my own, which I put into Beast of Graenseskov.

The key principle is: the players should get to decide how much risk they take on & their choices should be meaningful.

I have run short chases as skill challenges. The players decide how they want to contribute. I ask for a check and set a DC. X successes before Y failures results in a favorable outcome.

Players can decide to just go faster with Dash, requiring Constitution checks with increasing difficulty over time. Other PCs make attacks or might use a spell like hold person to get a success or alter the outcome.

My players had a bit of trouble coming up with ideas the first time, but got more creative with later chases.

Quickleaf said:

I found the DMG chase rules boring and just barely useable.

Instead, I adapted the rules at https://geek-related.com/2009/12/13/life-in-the-big-city-chase-rules/ along with my own, which I put into Beast of Graenseskov.

The key principle is: the players should get to decide how much risk they take on & their choices should be meaningful.

Click to expand...

I like that link. Will need to look at it more closely when I get the time.