Quick Rules for Running a Chase

[Stormborn]

Does anyone have or know of quick rules for runnign a chase, especially ones you have playtested? I have Mongoose's Ultimate Game Designers Companion but those rules seems a bitconvoluted for a fast paced chase.

The chase is going to be run through city streets at night, and will hopefully end up with the prey escaping so the PCs can do some tracking.

 

[The Souljourner]

Make them do Con checks every round starting at DC 10 and going up one DC per round. If you fail a check, your running speed (not base speed) drops by 5'. If you make two checks in a row, you regain 5' (up to your max running speed).

Add salt to taste.

That's just off the top of my head... basically it should be all about who has the better con (and a little luck). Not sure if that's what you're looking for.

Probably should require spot checks for seeing which way people go around corners (don't forget distance and darkness modifiers... elves get a nice boost in low light).

-The Souljourner

 

[Stormborn]

Sounds good. DCs for obstacles? What checks? Dex or Tumble maybe?

 

[MarauderX]

Alert - these are my houserules and by no means belong in this forum, and is not being posted to hijack this thread:

I use opposed Con checks as long as their movement speeds about the same. If you win, you gain 5'. If you win by 5 or more you gain 10'. It makes for shorter checks and a faster chase. Should the chaser catch the chasee, the chaser can dive-tackle (treat as grapple attempt with no AoO), charge, overrun or attack the chasee. If the chaser attacks the chasee, the chaser loses a round of movement next turn.

In a city chase I add in a few Dex checks too, and depending on how crowded the streets are it makes the DC higher or more often. If the chasee is overturning carts of melons or something it adds to the Dex check DC, and if the chaser misses it they lose ground, possibly a whole round of movement. If they fail horribly I have them make a reflex save to stay on their feet.

I have changed to these rules because I don't like the 'slinky effect' of movement with turn-based chases. It works well for most movement types that are disparate too, such as the speedy monk that zips out to chase down every last mook before he gets away.

 

[Gizzard]

On the Green Ronin site there is a free adventure which features a chase through streets and over rooftops; check it out for some interesting ideas. Also, some of the Freeport modules feature chases if you have them lying around.

Here's the link to the Freeport page:

http://www.greenronin.com/freeportfocus.shtml

Deus Ex Machina is the one I am thinking of, but Holiday in the Sun has a chase as well.

 

[Stormborn]

I'll check it out, thanks. Its funny, I almost used Freeprot when starting this campaign, but then went with a homebrewed world with less magic.

 

[Gaiden]

I recall an online roleplaying convention in part related to EN World where players had to design characters of 6th level as part of one of the role playing events and were involved in some sort of obstacle course/triathelon/race and they had a round based bechanic where you rolled a d20 to determine how far you moved in a similar way as to psionic save DCs (normally the average of a d20 would be 10 but in this case, you roll and add the rolled result rather than 10). I believe the way it worked was to subtract 10' from your speed and then have the die roll be a substitute for the base of 10'. This did not counteract the bonus speed from monks or barbarians and averaged out to be the same thing as your base speed would indicate. I have not playtested this and know that it was used for a long distance.