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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5725299" data-attributes="member: 8835">I've assumed the entire point of the shortcut question was that PC knows where the NPC is going.  If you do not know his destination, you can't determine if there is a shorter path from your current position."Or I get my players to think creatively and use ingenuity in the actual parameters of the challenge instead of short circuiting it with a narrative "I win with a single check" button. See there's no reason to assume I am not also eliminating just as many un-fun alternative solutions as well... which is something you seem to keep glossing over and not addressing in our converstion."Nobody in this thread ever said PCs have the power to change reality by player suggesting (barring some specific game systems).And technically, EVERY chase is about finding a shortcut.  Even in NASCAR, the best way to pass is on the insider, which is SHORTER.A chase scene is inherently about who is faster or who can navigate better.  A DM who declares the NPC has taken the perfect route has just cock-blocked 50% of the standard strategy.Of course this is my opinion. But I actually know how complicated routing is, and on this topic, it is unrealistic if every NPC has perfect routing.  Of all chases you run, only a minority of them should involve the NPC truly having determined the best route (probably a prepared genius who planned on it).  Everybody else is realistically constrained by limits of their own knowledge of the area and the abstractness of the game map given that it was an imaginary construct.  Even assuming the GM's perfect knowledge, common advice for NPCs is to play them as themselves with THEIR knowledge, not the GMs.  Here's a challenge.  Pull up Google Maps for your city.  There's a world of difference on your options when you have Satellite mode turned on.  How much info does your game map carry?  How does that differ from what NPCs and PCs actually know?And this goes to what EW said about the 50' wall.  A wall is an object.  It is or is not 50 feet tall.  A route is information.  Knowledge and calculation.  For which the game system has skills to determine if the character is aware of.  The game system does not have rules to determine what objects appear where or their traits.Since a chase is about catching up, cutting off or reaching the end point, shortcut finding is part of the encounter challenge.  To rule otherwise is unrealistic to the concept.  Therefore, the possibility of a shortcut existing must exist.  That might mean 2 skill checks to determine the best path for each party (and that the NPC does indeed figure out the better path).  it might mean that the shortcut is available, IF your PC can cross the 50' wall that surrounds the palace.</blockquote>

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