Basic gist is the PCs have a merc friend of theirs that theyve hired from time to time and are on good terms with. The merc will be trying to bring in a bounty, but being the greedy people my PCs are, they will follow the merc. The bounty will be running from both the PCs and the Merc with the bounty having some low level spells to trip people up while escaping, and the merc having a few tricks up his sleeve as well to trip the PCs up.
Mechanically, how would I run a 3-way chase? Im envisioning 2 sets of saves for most people, like getting through an obstacle (a crowd) then another obstacle (dealing with a spell effect that the bounty created). I also want to make all my PCs included in the chase, not just letting one person roll the whole time. So also delegating different roles in the chase (clearing a natural obstacle, slowing down the merc, and getting through the bountys obstacle). Im confused as to how to run this, any advice appreciated.
Anyone who uses an action to attack, cast a spell or (in this case) create an obstacle, can't (as an action) Dash. Keep track of the number of Dash actions that are taken by each participant, and award Exhaustion accordingly. And as soon as an individual cannot continue to keep pace, or looses sight of the Rabbit and fail their passive Perception vs the Rabbit's Stealth check, the Rabbit has escaped that individual.
Each individual will get their own checks, saves, actions. The Party can organize and cover more area than the Merc can, but that requires communication of some type. This will be complicated to track and will likely require a map that shows the layout of the city (assuming?) in a bit more of a zoomed out view . Think 3,000 ft. view vs. 300 ft. view.
P.S. Consider giving the Merc the ability to bonus action/legendary action some stuff to keep them relevant to the task. Otherwise, action economy could make them irrelevant pretty quickly.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Did you get Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel? The adventure "The Fiend of Hollow Mind" has really good chase mechanics in it, including a table of chase complications that each player rolls on on their turn, with their roll effecting the next person in the turn order. It's a cool idea that I'm definitely stealing for the one-shot I'm running, though the complications table does need to be tailored to the encounter's location.
Yeah, I was using a complications table, and some of the ones for my area (quite a few) just did not fit well. I think only like half of them im using.
Thats good thinking giving the merc legendary actions, ill definitely do that. That was one thing I was concerned about, having the merc fall behind due simply to action economy.
Yeah, it is a city, similar to Venice.
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Hi all,
Im going to be running a 3 way chase sequence.
Basic gist is the PCs have a merc friend of theirs that theyve hired from time to time and are on good terms with. The merc will be trying to bring in a bounty, but being the greedy people my PCs are, they will follow the merc. The bounty will be running from both the PCs and the Merc with the bounty having some low level spells to trip people up while escaping, and the merc having a few tricks up his sleeve as well to trip the PCs up.
Mechanically, how would I run a 3-way chase? Im envisioning 2 sets of saves for most people, like getting through an obstacle (a crowd) then another obstacle (dealing with a spell effect that the bounty created). I also want to make all my PCs included in the chase, not just letting one person roll the whole time. So also delegating different roles in the chase (clearing a natural obstacle, slowing down the merc, and getting through the bountys obstacle). Im confused as to how to run this, any advice appreciated.
Anyone?
You're running a chase after a single rabbit. There's only one goal and that is to catch the bounty. The Merc wants it, so do the PCs.
You are running two parts
The PCs are running one part
Anyone who uses an action to attack, cast a spell or (in this case) create an obstacle, can't (as an action) Dash. Keep track of the number of Dash actions that are taken by each participant, and award Exhaustion accordingly. And as soon as an individual cannot continue to keep pace, or looses sight of the Rabbit and fail their passive Perception vs the Rabbit's Stealth check, the Rabbit has escaped that individual.
Each individual will get their own checks, saves, actions. The Party can organize and cover more area than the Merc can, but that requires communication of some type. This will be complicated to track and will likely require a map that shows the layout of the city (assuming?) in a bit more of a zoomed out view . Think 3,000 ft. view vs. 300 ft. view.
P.S. Consider giving the Merc the ability to bonus action/legendary action some stuff to keep them relevant to the task. Otherwise, action economy could make them irrelevant pretty quickly.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Have you looked at the Chase mechanic in the DMG, that may be able to meet your needs?
Did you get Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel? The adventure "The Fiend of Hollow Mind" has really good chase mechanics in it, including a table of chase complications that each player rolls on on their turn, with their roll effecting the next person in the turn order. It's a cool idea that I'm definitely stealing for the one-shot I'm running, though the complications table does need to be tailored to the encounter's location.
Yes, i have looked. I wasnt the biggest fan of what was in there for what im doing with this chase, but for single chases i have used that before.
Yeah, I was using a complications table, and some of the ones for my area (quite a few) just did not fit well. I think only like half of them im using.
Thats good thinking giving the merc legendary actions, ill definitely do that. That was one thing I was concerned about, having the merc fall behind due simply to action economy.
Yeah, it is a city, similar to Venice.