Do you ever cut and run?

[Festivus]

I was reading the excellent running commentary on PCats 4E game and spotted something he said about "I know we will win in 40 minutes". It got me thinking, how often does the party flee a battle that is obviously unwinnable?

Have you ever "cut and run" from a battle in D&D, or do you heroically die with a total party kill? (By cut and run, I mean cut your losses, leave to fight another day in case the colloquialism is lost on some from other parts of the globe)

I have seen something way too powerful for our group, and left the party to their doom after round 3... only to have a grumpy party (even when I make my knowledge checks, know it's far too powerful for us and stated in the game that they should run in no uncertain terms).

How about you? How did it make the rest of the group feel when you did so? Did they stay and slog it out? What was the aftermath? As a DM, how do you go about hinting to the players that the party is in way over it's head?

 

[Piratecat]

My groups definitely run -- err, strategically retreat -- when they need to. Likewise, the remnants of my bad guys spend a lot of time fleeing. They seldom survive, though.

 

[Nagol]

As a player, I like to arrange the option to cut and run. I really like when the other players will consider the option as well. I'll cut and run without them if necessary, but it'll take me longer to reach that decision.

One of my favourite methods of adventure crawling is a recon in force set to bug out once the nature and level of threat is determined followed by a targeted followup.

As a DM, my groups will cut and run (or at least portions of them will).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yep!

"Run away!" isn't just for Monty Python characters.

And my PCs are not the only ones who act thusly- one of the old table quotes in our group presages my joining (more than 10 yrs ago): "Dave, I'm running away." "Dave, did I mention I'm running?" "Still running, Dave!"

He ran at the very start of the combat.

Poor guy was playing a dwarf- when the rest of the party figured out he had the right idea, he suddenly found himself chasing them.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

My most notorious moment of this (thankfully rare because I mostly DM) was during a Living Greyhawk game. I was playing a character from desert lands that travelled to the area surrounding the infamous Temple of Elemental Evil. The judge, to put it nicely, was doing the best he could. The module called for a erinyes to appear and taunt the party as she snapped her fingers and six deils appeared. The exact type of devil depended upon party level. He described the devils as walking, devilish scorpion-men. My character, knowing how bad normal scorpions can be, confronted by a devil-woman who could snap her fingers and summon a half-dozen of the horrid creatures --- ran like hell!

I caught the judge wispering disdainfully to his friend that he hated people who use player knowledge. Never mind the fact that the type of devil he described would be difficult for our low-level characters if just one showed up. Turns out he described the high-level encounter. What should have appeared were 6 lemures. If my character had not been confronted with scorpion-devil-men he would never have run away.

I didn't really get any flak from the other players though. I guess they came to expect such shenanigans in LG modules.

 

[Nadaka]

I had a quite frankly overpowered ranger (strait 3d6 in order, I managed to get 4 scores of 16 or higher where most everyone else had 1 or less) in one game that I was ready to sacrifice to allow the rest of the party escape. But no, after I died, they kept fighting, all but 1 character were knocked down to negatives and most of the party bled to death.

Most of the other times, my character would say "we need to run" but was unwilling to run if no one else went with him, honor is pesky that way.

 

[Umbran]

My groups definitely run -- err, strategically retreat -- when they need to.

I think the term you're looking for is, "strategic advance to the rear."

Yep, do it when necessary, if the character I'm playing isn't the sort to let emotions get in the way of good tactics.

 

[Sunseeker]

We just did the other night. After they dropped 3 of us in 1 round and a 4th the second(and a revived one of the 3 again), we were just all "uh, no lets go."

 

[Dragonbait]

Depends on the game. Never in D&D. In fact, if the players are about to lose I've seen them willingly go down in flames before they have to run.

In any other rules - maybe once per campaign.

I recall a Shadowrun game where the PCs were supposed to deal with a very powerful mage looking for the lost soul of his wife. The soul was trapped in an incredibly valuable statue own by an incredibly rich man. I tried to talk to the mage in the Astral and I got my Astral rear spanked. We saw that our guns were not very useful against him, too. I then said "You know what? This guy is just looking for his wife. He hasn't killed or directly harmed anyone. Why are we trying to stop him?. He's not such a bad guy." Everyone agreed and they all lived happily ever after.

 

[jonesy]

We've had the 6-r mantra for 7 years now:

Retreat. Research. Rejuvenate. Re-arm. Return. Reak havoc.

It's 6 r's because the W ran away and didn't come back.

(and yes, I know there are actually 10 r's there)