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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8857827" data-attributes="member: 97077">D&D 5e has chase mechanics which use speed as a gauge, but also offer opportunities to hide at the end of every round plus complications that may slow down pursuers. The PCs can also "pay off" any complications that arise with Inspiration to avoid them, which monsters don't have. These rules are in the DMG though which nobody reads.Speaking of fleeing: I was in a game the other day where the DM had our base of operations (a school of sorts in a large tower) attacked by some bad guys which included an adult red dragon. We are all around 5th to 7th level. My cleric, Wanda Curelight, was able to blast some of the invaders with a fireball and others slowed them down and finished them off, but we knew the red dragon wasn't anything we could handle, so we fled. As it turns out, this was the DM's expectation - we were meant to flee out a tower window and climb down a few floors to escape the immediate problem then head down the stairs and out of there. Only the tower was described as something like 200 feet tall, so falling was just as deadly as the dragon's fire, and not everyone - including my cleric - were willing to take the chance that the DM would call for a Strength (Athletics) check that would likely fail.So two of us tried to get away in a mazelike library in hopes that the dragon would go after someone else. The other 3 characters climbed out the window. The dragon went after the two that went into the library. As soon as the dragon got within breath weapon range, my character was toast. The other fell shortly after that. The three that went out the window had some problems too and one of them died. This was 30 minutes into the session.What was initially hailed as a shake-up to the campaign ended up being retconned after a 5-minute break of DM reflection. The DM's intention was to have us flee out the window to witness the destruction of our base presumably to set up a revenge arc or whatever. That didn't work out, so corpses were recovered and resurrected, and we were back in business. This was a dissatisfying moment, and the result of a DM who should have known better trying to push a particular outcome. The chase mechanics may have helped here (my cleric actually has a good Dex and Inspiration banked), but what would have also helped is not pointing a gun at something you're not willing to shoot, and not trying to force a particular resolution. I definitely find that sort of thing to be unfun.</blockquote>

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