Help running a chase

[orangefruitbat]

I want to run a dramatic chase battle in next week's game. The party (6 characters level 7-8) are escorting an important noble across the country when they are going to be ambushed in the woods. My problem is to get the party to run, and thus have an evening of dodging branches, jumping streams and engaging in skirmishes, rather than just hunkering down and fighting.

How do you get PCs to flee rather than fight (besides the obvious - lots of bad guys), and what tips do you have to make it memorable?

 

[MojoGM]

Hi,

In my experience, you can never *count* on the PCs to flee when you want them to. If the opposition is too much, one would hope they would flee, but there is no way to know for sure.

Have they ever fled a battle?

Also, what if one character gets in too deep? He gets surrounded, so he cannot flee without taking a lot of damage. The others may not choose to flee because of this.

You should be ready for them to flee, or stay and fight it out. That way no matter what they do you are covered.

Maybe to nudge them a bit a NPC can suggest they flee, but one never knows if they will take the advice.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

Maybe to nudge them a bit a NPC can suggest they flee, but one never knows if they will take the advice.

This is a Nobel we are dealing with. The guy could run on his own and the PC's would have to catch up to him before the badguys did. Of course the scumbug would take credit for being the one to defeat all his attackers not the Pc's of course.

 

[Bloodsparrow]

PC's would have to catch up to him before the badguys did.

I agree, the best way to get them running is to give them something to chase after.

Perhaps, if your players do not flee, have the attackers grab something of value and then run off themselves. (i.e. - The person they are guarding, or something important to him. Or maybe, if one has been wounded enough, one of the PCs is taken prisoner.)

Once they've spent time and resources chasing after something, and they manage to get whatever (or whomever) was taken back, they would probably be more likely to flee once the attackers try to reclaim it/them.