High-speed chases?

[monk]

One thing I haven't been able to emulate too well is the high-speed foot chase of adventure stories.  I've tried a couple mechanics, but they're either:

a.  Too mechanical.  Meaning lots of modifiers and dice rolling and you forget the imaginative action of the PCs running after or from an enemy.

b.  Too narrative.  Not enough mechanics or die-rolling, so it's just me trying to describe it in a really exciting way which, once I'm doing it, immediately reminds me that my players don't come to my garage every week to listen to me reciting fanfiction.

Anybody care to share their personal way of handling them?  I'd prefer, in the end, to settle on a mechanic that could work quickly (to keep the action going) for foot-chases, speeder chases, dino-mounted chases, etc.  I'm kind of assuming this would be in a city/undercity.

[Admin Pete]

I love high speed chases, but since my players PCs never chase the monsters it is always the monsters chasing the players PCs when it happens. I tell them what the monsters are doing, they tell me what they are doing, I describe what they see ahead of them, give them lots of decisions to make and have them roll dice at the appropriate time. I had one game where there was a chase, then they got away, then they were found another chase and so on for most of the game. Sometimes they fought, sometimes they ran, sometimes they did a number of other things. My job as a ref is to keep it moving at a pace where they have to keep making split second decisions, until they are caught or until they get away.

That is about as close as I can describe it, to be more detailed you would have to be there and experience it. All I can tell you is the adrenalin flows!

[Necromancer]

Interesting topic, monk. I don't have any good advice to offer here, as I pretty much share your experience. I think if there was some sort of balanced solution incorporating both the mechanic and narrative aspects that would be perfect for me, but often it tends to be one of the above, not both simultaneously. I'd also appreciate hearing how other board members have dealt with it.

[tetramorph]

This is tough.

Are you wondering about how to describe it, narratively, as the DM?

Or are you thinking about how to rule it, mechanically, at a game level?

Or both?

[Necromancer]

Feb 27, 2015 15:59:49 GMT -5 tetramorph said:

This is tough.

Are you wondering about how to describe it, narratively, as the DM?

Or are you thinking about how to rule it, mechanically, at a game level?

Or both?

Hmm, I'd like to say it tends to be one way or the other - but I'd much rather prefer to have some form of means to include both to carry out a high-speed chase sequence during play in a more interesting and exciting way.

[monk]

tetramorph: I'm concerned with the mechanical part.

@perilousd: your description sounds like my ideal. Perhaps you could just give an example of one or two of the "decisions" you might place in front of the players while they're being chased? And what exactly would you be rolling for when you have them roll? Ability checks? (P.S. I think your rapper name, if you don't already have one, should be Perilous D

[hedgehobbit]

I've always like the chase rules in the James Bond game. It was fairly mechanical but not too bad. There was a bidding system that might not be so easy to port to D&D. Anyway, the person with initiative got to pick what he was trying to do:

-Run/Drive fast
-Double back (probably only applicable to vehicles)
-Quickly hide and hope the chaser runs past
-Grab/Tackle/or Force off the road
-Perform some sort of dangerous stunt (jumping through a window). Both sides have to do the stunt. This one's more of a gamble.

Distance was in vague range bands.

[Admin Pete]

Feb 27, 2015 19:54:04 GMT -5 monk said:

tetramorph: I'm concerned with the mechanical part.

@perilousd: your description sounds like my ideal. Perhaps you could just give an example of one or two of the "decisions" you might place in front of the players while they're being chased? And what exactly would you be rolling for when you have them roll? Ability checks? (P.S. I think your rapper name, if you don't already have one, should be Perilous D

monk I just got back from a birthday party and will be going to an 80th birthday party (and spending 6 hours driving on Sat) so I won't try to answer this now in full, but will when I have the opportunity. One thing I will throw out is a description of what they see as they are running and ask them what they are doing as a result. Some things require no roll, some an ability check, some a simple chance of 1 or 2 on a d6. I will try to give you more later.

[Admin Pete]

monk my wife decided that she is not up to the trip today, so I am going to be around, but no promises about getting your answer today, but I will as some point before too long.

[Admin Pete]

monk I have thought more about this and all I can say is this: I do them on the fly, winging it all the way with no real concern for the "rules" and just doing what feels right at each step along the way for a heart pounding adrenaline fueled experience for the players and myself. I give them lots of choices, some things I have them roll for and some not.

I can not write down a "how to" for this or for most other things I do. I don't do a lot of planning but what I do is usually behind the curtain. I rely a lot on instinct and go with the flow in the moment. I don't know how to explain or teach this, but I would love to have you in my game so you could experience it. When your players have experience or even with first timers, with a very basic thumbnail of "this is how it works" and off you go, you can play virtually rules free.

[Admin Pete]

Some of the choices I give them:

indoors, things like intersections, doors, secret doors, hidden passages, up or down stairs or ramps, flowing water, other monsters, portals, rooms, pits, all kinds of things and I ask them what they are doing and give them a few seconds to tell me, since they are running and this is taking place at breakneck speed

outdoors, things like woods, hills, caves, creeks, streams, rivers, thickets, heavy brush, briar patches, things you can use to disguise or hide your scent and all kinds of things and I ask them what they are doing and give them a few seconds to tell me, since they are running and this is taking place at breakneck speed

when they do some things I have them roll, a d6, a d20 or something else, some things they don't roll for, somethings the monsters roll for

I consider things like line of sight, sense of smell, sound, and all types of environmental things and literally thousands of other things.

[Necromancer]

Thanks, Admin Pete! Som great advice there. The way you put it, it seems pretty straight-forward, not too complicated. It actually opened my eyes a bit for how I could go on handling this in a manner I think would suite me. Very helpful indeed!

[tetramorph]

Yes, Admin Pete, I agree with Necromancer, I like the way you describe keeping it simple.

Some d6 "sense" and "open door" type checks with a few ability checks and STs thrown in should really be all the mechanics necessary.

The rest is narrative and throwing them interesting options.

Cool.

[monk]

Alright! I'm gone for a bit and everything gets sorted by the time I'm back--that's how I like things to work!

I very much like your style too, PD. I keep most of the mechanics behind the screen already, and we play with very few mechanics to begin with, so this should work great. It's just the sort of "bare bones" die rolling that will keep it from being StoryTime With Alexey while retaining that feel of a rushing narrative.

[Von]

It's one of the few occasions on which I might resort to a grid map and miniatures. "You can move this many squares per turn without fatigue or risk and there's an escalating chance per extra square that you'll take a tumble. By watching the map you can attempt to guess how fast your pursuers can move and plan accordingly. There may be other hazards in play which you won't notice if you're moving flat out."

In fact... I've just realised that I might actually have a chase mechanic based on Blood Bowl of all things. Seriously, it's perfect. Actually... ye gods, would the Blood Bowl mechanics make an absolutely perfect RPG if the footballing concept were stripped out? (I might keep things like the Blunderbuss and Throw Team-Mate though, especially if grenades are a signature of the setting...)

You've started something here, monk. I Exalt thee.