D&D 4E Running away and pursuit in 4e

[McTreble]

While I love the tactical aspect of 4e and the use of the battlemat to express it, I often wondered how to deal with players or monsters who want to move beyond the encounter's parameters.

In a dungeon setting this isn't too tough, and even in an urban setting I can see how a big enough battlemat could do the job, but I'm currently prepping for Goodman Games' Isle of the Sea Drake.

Lots of outdoor wilderness encounters, nearly all of which are 15x9 in size. I would hate to corral the players into the encounter area, but I also have no desire to map out every square of the island. So I was wondering how you all handle this kind of thing.

Thanks for any thoughts,

Wade

 

[Stalker0]

When we had a ranger in the group (who was always outside the range of the board), we would put him on the edge and use a d20 to mark how many more squares away from the edge he was. As for terrain, we had to fudge it at that point.

 

[McTreble]

That makes sense, and I've done it as well, but I'm talking about when the combat moves out of the board, in its entirety. I could artificially keep it in bounds, but that seems like a cop out.

 

[Flipguarder]

This has happened to me a few times, and I've always considered it something to be (kinda) planned for. Just be ready to create a BS a new setting and re-use the battlemat. Despite popular belief it shouldn't take longer than 4 or 5 minutes to do so.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[McTreble]

Awesome! Thanks a bunch. This will make what seems like an amazing module run even smoother.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I have used the 'zoom' function on a battlemap on occasions when an encounter starts much farther away, or when a group of NPC's flee, and need to be chased.

For prepared long range encounters I mark a line or two on the map that indicate a zoom level change. On the outer side of the line each square has a higher cost to move through, essentially zooming out from the characters. Once they cross the line the get to normal battlespace.

For adhoc run away scenarios, I 'zoom' the entire map.. usually doubling the cost of all the squares, and shift the fleeing characters back to the appropriate place on the map. Repeat as needed.

I also prefer to use the excellent 'Hot Pursuit' rules, which are pending a rewrite to 4e.