Love how the article describes the herd as 100 miles wide and unknown length
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How to model riding out a stampede?
- Thread starter RangerWickett
- Start date
The Walking Dead has documented evidence that this is true of zombies as well. Get enough of them pushing up against a fence, and pretty soon - no fence.
Johnathan
Stampeding Zombies result in Stampeding People
Suddenly had an idea for a Deadlands game in which the fall of the Meso-Amercian empires was due to a botched necromancy spell which created a load of zombies (of the contagious variety).
So when the White Man came to the Americas, the plains were covered by hordes of zombies, as far as the eye could see. So many, in fact, that some hunters even took to shooting them from the windows of passing trains...
Summer-Knight925
First Post
Falling damage.
It makes no sense normally, but with a stampede, have 10ft of falling=10ft of cows
chances are the stampede is a fun little snip for a larger encounter, so stick with that, instead of putting emphasis on the cows.
I'm more worried about the owl bear that scared them.
Because we all know it's an owl bear.
It makes no sense normally, but with a stampede, have 10ft of falling=10ft of cows
chances are the stampede is a fun little snip for a larger encounter, so stick with that, instead of putting emphasis on the cows.
I'm more worried about the owl bear that scared them.
Because we all know it's an owl bear.
I am going with a kids and fireworks or Mimic as a log at the watering hole...or a weather event, not just a stampede but a tornado too, life can be rough on the plains.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I've actually run a stampede in my games before! 
It was a herd of dire elk on the tundra for me (ah, the visuals of bounding, leaping, house-sized deer thudding around the party!), but the basic rules should work okay.
Roll initiative (but only for the party).
The stampede is continuous. The only hope to avoid it is to get to safety and ride it out. It is also over fairly quick.
As each party member gets an action, they must decide how they're going to avoid the herd on their turn. Possible options include trying to escape it, spend the round dodging bison, or finding the edge of the stampede and hoping to get outside of it. They might also improvise things (like using magic to turn the herd).
In NEXT, I'd use straight ability score checks: make a DEX check to leap up on the creature's backs and get swept along with them, or a STR check to scramble up the tree, or a CHA check to get the panicked creatures to turn aside from you. If the game is wahoo enough, a CON check might help your gnome barbarian just push away any bison that tries to trample you. If you're trying some complex spellcasting, maybe an INT or WIS check. DC would probably vary with the level, but I might sit it at something like 18 or 19 -- very very difficult for anyone who isn't already heroic in some way.
If you succeed on that check, for that round, you're safe (for this round).
If you fail that check, you take damage. I'd peg damage differently in different e's, but I'd peg it at "if this stampede hits a given party member every turn, what is the worst damage I'd want to inflict?" For me, that's usually character death, and a stampede that lasts about 3 or 4 rounds is good, so I'd peg damage as "enough to kill the highest HP party member in 3 rounds." In 4e, that would be conveniently pegged to damage in the realm of one healing surge.
I'd then have the stampede last about 4-5 rounds: I like the idea of a possible PC who fails three checks laying there in a heap bleeding out and having the other PC's have to decide between entering the herd to save her or staying safe and secure themselves. If the PC's are all hitting their checks and don't seem very threatened, I might end the stampede early.
So the threat is reactive, I'd make sure that whatever option the PC chose isn't safe. Trees get knocked over, grips loosen, hiding holes get blasted away, bluffs lose their effectiveness. They need to KEEP MAKING checks to survive. And different checks, too: find a tree that's knocked over, you're going to need to do something else in round 2. Blasting magic might work, but each round is going to consume a spell.
I'd expect this encounter to chew up a low-level party, which is fine: stampedes should be VERY dangerous!
It was a herd of dire elk on the tundra for me (ah, the visuals of bounding, leaping, house-sized deer thudding around the party!), but the basic rules should work okay.Roll initiative (but only for the party).
The stampede is continuous. The only hope to avoid it is to get to safety and ride it out. It is also over fairly quick.
As each party member gets an action, they must decide how they're going to avoid the herd on their turn. Possible options include trying to escape it, spend the round dodging bison, or finding the edge of the stampede and hoping to get outside of it. They might also improvise things (like using magic to turn the herd).
In NEXT, I'd use straight ability score checks: make a DEX check to leap up on the creature's backs and get swept along with them, or a STR check to scramble up the tree, or a CHA check to get the panicked creatures to turn aside from you. If the game is wahoo enough, a CON check might help your gnome barbarian just push away any bison that tries to trample you. If you're trying some complex spellcasting, maybe an INT or WIS check. DC would probably vary with the level, but I might sit it at something like 18 or 19 -- very very difficult for anyone who isn't already heroic in some way.
If you succeed on that check, for that round, you're safe (for this round).
If you fail that check, you take damage. I'd peg damage differently in different e's, but I'd peg it at "if this stampede hits a given party member every turn, what is the worst damage I'd want to inflict?" For me, that's usually character death, and a stampede that lasts about 3 or 4 rounds is good, so I'd peg damage as "enough to kill the highest HP party member in 3 rounds." In 4e, that would be conveniently pegged to damage in the realm of one healing surge.
I'd then have the stampede last about 4-5 rounds: I like the idea of a possible PC who fails three checks laying there in a heap bleeding out and having the other PC's have to decide between entering the herd to save her or staying safe and secure themselves. If the PC's are all hitting their checks and don't seem very threatened, I might end the stampede early.
So the threat is reactive, I'd make sure that whatever option the PC chose isn't safe. Trees get knocked over, grips loosen, hiding holes get blasted away, bluffs lose their effectiveness. They need to KEEP MAKING checks to survive. And different checks, too: find a tree that's knocked over, you're going to need to do something else in round 2. Blasting magic might work, but each round is going to consume a spell.
I'd expect this encounter to chew up a low-level party, which is fine: stampedes should be VERY dangerous!
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Good find. That's the kind of correction I was hoping somebody would find.
Given other articles comments on bison's undomesticatability (they tear through barb wire fence with ease), if they hadn't been nearly wiped out, we'd have these huge, very dangerous herds of bison blocking traffic and occupying large tracts of farm land as the least of our problems.
Given the low density, I wonder if they'd be as prone to true stampeding, or bunching up so tightly in their stampeded.
Plus. with that large of a herd size, it would take DAYS for the initial stampede to spread to the whole herd. Sure, they might transfer a distress moo at the speed of sound, but the cows on the opposite side of the initial boltiing cow have no clue what direction the herd is going until the herd catches up to them.
Grogg of the North
Adventurer
All I can think of is an old arcade game where you had to jump on top of the stampeding cows and run across their backs.
It's so silly it would have to work! Jump check, balance check, and you're good to go!
It's so silly it would have to work! Jump check, balance check, and you're good to go!
And in the case of a bison stampede, keep doing that until 100 miles of buffalo had passed beneath your feet!
