PC's Chased - Skill/Combat Challenge

[weem]

I recently (quickly) threw a skill/combat challenge together on paper and ran it for a few people to test (as I will be using it in my next campaign session) and it went well. I wanted to drop it in here as I have made adjustments to it and wanted to share it for feedback.

SETUP (will keep this as short as possible)

The players are meeting someone with information they need - this person is in danger. When they arrive, he begins to help them but a group of people come into the building (a large library) looking for him and the PC's.

The NPC suggests that a friend can help them as well, but he is leaving on a ship very soon from the pier.

THE CHALLENGE

After getting out of the library, the group will need to rush this man to the pier as fast as possible to make it to the ship before it leaves. However, outside are some hired men sent to get the NPC and kill the PC's (part of the same group who chases them out of the library).

So, they must get to the pier as fast as possible (no time to stop and kill everyone) but while doing this, they are being chased - not just in the streets, but by rooftop.

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This chart below i just threw together (forgive any typos that could be in here) shows how I handle this.

Basically, I described the scenerio as such -

"Your burst out the side door and into the streets. You need to get to the pier quickly, so who has the best streetwise? [player chosen]. You will be rolling it on your turns to determine the fastest/safest route. Everyone else has 2 options - Option 1 is to aid the NPC in his Athletics check. He is overweight and will need help. Option 2 is to aid [player] with his streetwise checks helping figure out the way"

In the chart below, you can see what successes and failures mean as well as (in the blue text) my way of explaining successes and failures in-game.

What do you think about this? What would you change/add/remove? It's slightly tweaked from when I did the test run, but I will be using it this Saturday and wanted to get some extra eyes on it. There are no DC's on here as I haven't got that far (test run was on PC's higher level then my campaign group is currently) - but I figured it didn't matter too much.

Thanks!


---edit---

Test group had a blast with it by the way, though the dc's were a bit too tough at the time.

 

[FalcWP]

Seems like a good way to handle a pretty classic scene - having just watched 3:10 to Yuma last week, I can imagine something like that playing out.

A few thoughts:

I'm not a huge fan of giving them two options and saying 'you have to do this'. Perhaps present those as two good choices, but certainly leave the door open for creativity.

Allow for people deciding to split up, draw off pursuit, get the attention of a guard or scout ahead. Things like this don't take a lot of extra time, as opposed to fighting, and they could give the party an edge. Just some stuff that springs to mind.

 

[weem]

I'm not a huge fan of giving them two options and saying 'you have to do this'. Perhaps present those as two good choices, but certainly leave the door open for creativity.

Allow for people deciding to split up, draw off pursuit, get the attention of a guard or scout ahead. Things like this don't take a lot of extra time, as opposed to fighting, and they could give the party an edge. Just some stuff that springs to mind.

Thanks, and yea that's a good point. My description of what was said to the players was paraphrased from memory and I think I did let them know they could also do something else - I may not have been very clear about it though - I'll remember that this weekend.

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!