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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5370618" data-attributes="member: 704">Well, I probably should have checked this thread earlier, but I did run the challenge.  Things went alright with what I chose to do, but not as well as I had hoped in terms of keeping things interesting.Situation:It was 4 players chasing down one guy who had a bit of a head start.  Players were all level 4.Distance between runner and players was abstracted to a point system with 10 points of lead for the runner.  They needed to close the gap to zero before the runner reached the destination.Chase was to start with the palyers finding the path for the runner.There was 18 hours of travel for the runner to get to his destination, + 9 hours of resting for the runner.Players would each make one atheltics check per hour opposed by the runners athletics check.  If the players got 3 wins, they gained on the runner.  If they got 3 losses, the runner gained ground.  2 successes maintained a stalemate.Players also were able to make one additional check each hour.  They could either try to create an advantage to generate bonuses for the athletics checks, or use the checks to evade patrols (6 successes needed every 3 hours to avoid patrols), or they could look for food (see below).  Checks used to create an advantage would apply to all players, and would add 1.5 each, rounding down.  The players could gain either +1, +3, +4, or +6 to their checks.Each hour beyond the 10th without an extended rest for the players, they would start to accumulate a penalty for each check they made.Other:Players encountered a large hobgoblin patrol and were only spared a TPK by a Dm not inclined to torpedo the adventure.  They had all their money taken, were branded with a 'Mark of Shame' by a Hobgoblin Warcaster (-5 penalty to Intimidate checks until a remove curse ritual is performed).  They also had all their food taken away.I rolled the runners check in the open but never told the players his atheltics check bonus.  If the players thought they had 3 successes, one of the players could apply the check to something other than athletics.Once their food was gone, the players were required to find new supplies if they wanted to have an extended rest.  Food checks were dc 12, and presumed nature and perception.Every 3 hours I would make a d20 check.  If I beat a 5, the players would run into a small patrol.  Each anti-patrol check (Nature, Stealth, or Perception at DC 17) would increase the patrol DC by 2.  at 6 successes, no patrol would find them.There was a 4 hour stretch of intensely bad weather.  The players and the runner would take -4 penalties to all checks unless they passed a DC 20 endurance check to negate the weather penalty.There was a detour when the players came onto land owned by a large militant church.  The players needed to pass several diplomacy checks to avoid a detour that would cost them 2 distance points.Near the very end, there was a Decoy runner (the bad guys behind the 'Evil Conspiracy' used Sending rituals to arrange for the decoy) which the players very nearly fell for.When I was in doubt about something, I would use opposed checks based on the runners stats.  This did not come into play, but here is the skill checks I had for the runner.Acrobatics +6Arcana +3#Athletics +9#Bluff +11Diplomacy +6Dungeoneering +4#Endurance +8Heal +4History +3Insight +4Intimidate +6Nature +4#Perception +9#Religion +8#Stealth +11Streetwise +6Thievery +6Results:The players manged to win.  Barely, catching up to the runner just as the runner would have made it.  It really came down to the last possible roll.  however, the decoy was in play, and the players almost fell for that too, when the runner and decoy managed to win a buff vs passive insight check vs the party.  But when trying to interrogate the runner, they caught him in a lie / bad bluff check and caught onto the fact that the guy they caught was not the one they were chasing for hte past 18 hours.The Good:  The players managed to fit in a few unexpected checks to create an advantage:History:  used to create advantage by remembering old maps.Endurance:  used to justify just pushing harder than the runner.  Was also used for food checks justified as "I just wont eat'.Nature:  Finding a better path.Heal:  Keeping the players from suffering blisters and the like.The players used an alarm ritual and gained the benefit of an extended rest in less time due to no one needing to stand guard.  They gained 3 points on the runner this way.The hard time limit and need to accomplish many things with limited number of checks per hour was engaging due to the decisions that needed to be made.The Bad:I eased up a bit on the anti patrol check requirement after it became apparent that the runner was going to win too many atheltics checks unless the players were able to get more advantage checks in.After the extended rest, each player ended up spamming their best check to generate a check bonus.  The sameness kind of killed the fun of it for the last few rolls, as there were no more real decisions to make with what to use a given check for.There were 19 hours where checks were made, each player making 2 checks.  Even broken up with some encounters, the challenge was too monotonus in the end.As a planning flaw on my part, I built the 'large hobgoblin patrol' encounter without accounting for how damaged the players were from the previous game.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

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