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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5913676" data-attributes="member: 1165">In new gaming parlance, this is called "railroading".  (I'm not saying it's always a bad idea.) :/ It also seems like a waste of a DM's time. It's pretty rare to put work into creating a powerful NPC, and then expect your PCs to never face them.I like this idea. Of course, that stuff should be in every encounter, whether PCs can run away or not.In a real-life military conflict, the kind fought before guns that is, most deaths occurred during the retreat. PCs rarely run unless they've been smacked down, and once the bad guys see bleeding, weakened, spell-depleted PCs run away, they're thinking of plot reasons to kill them, or loot. The PCs need to run away really far before the bad guys give up.On a similar note, if the losing side doesn't retreat until they've lost a few members, they're weaker and the winners are incentivized to attack. It doesn't help that, unlike mercenaries or soldiers, PCs are much more willing to risk their lives (they wouldn't be adventurers if they wouldn't) and so aren't going to back down because there's a chance they could get hurt as they pursue. The same would apply to at least some opponents.I'm picturing a group of (fairly weak) goblins who managed to defeat PCs. They had the numbers, or arrows, or (worse) both! There's little incentive for the goblins to not just finish off their opponents unless the PCs have demonstrated some very specific abilities (eg lots of flaming cloaks). And even then... arrows.There's, of course, a risk of falling into another encounter. This risk is pretty high in a dungeon, but IMO if the battle is making that much noise, perhaps one of the NPCs should have retreated to summon reinforcements. As for the villains, it's pretty rare that the PCs have brought (competent) backup. The risks for following them are low. (Unless the PCs have taken control of traps further back, which is pretty cool, and also sometimes funny.)Maybe we have different ideas of what counts as "immediate" territory, but I think bad guys will usually pursue the PCs for a few minutes.If the "bad guys" (who might not really be bad guys, of course) are guards protecting a specific point (such as towers with arrow slits), it makes sense not to pursue. However, villains will usually try to kill the PCs. After all, how often do PCs let villains go? If you've won a victory over hard opponents, you're going to want to avoid the possibility of losing to them next time.I think it's impossible to divorce the system from the running away scenarios, though. Many game systems have poorly-written (or none!) chase rules. If PCs or villains start running away, it's easy to stop them. It can be frustrating to make running away possible.Here's an example that occurred a few months ago in a Pathfinder game I'm in. Our PCs hid a catapult in the forest near a bandit-occupied fortress. We intended to use the catapult as a distraction when we attacked. We made a good Stealth check to hide it, but it's size penalty gave it a middling result. A few elven bandit scouts barely spotted it (I think they rolled a 17+ natural on their Spot/Perception checks), and while we were a distance away, they attacked.We arrived as they were trying to destroy our catapult and kill the crews. There were three elves, and in a few rounds there was one, trying to flee. He had great Stealth and a slight speed boost, so the DM wanted him to get away. We were having none of that.My druid PC has good Survival and Perception, and could cast Longstrider. He could use an ability to give him low-light vision and Scent (a weaker Wildshape ability, it only lasted 1 minute). His animal companion, a small bear, had speed 40 feet (at least as fast as the elf), low-light vision, and Scent. When you're attempting to use Stealth, you move at half speed or you take penalties. When you track someone, you move at half speed or take penalties. So a slow-moving chase went on. The rules were inadequate for the situation, but all the advantages laid with my PC, and since the rest of the party was following, it didn't matter if the elf could (somehow) ambush my PC and hit him with a few arrows. As soon as he broke Stealth to attack, he was dead. So we just followed him until he realized what would happen. He attacked. He died.</blockquote>

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