Running a chase scene?

[Ronnocius]

So, in the campaign I'm currently running I plan to have a chase scene. If everything goes according to plan, the party will chase somebody throughout a small village. Does anybody have any tips/recommendations when running a chase scene?

P.S. I am wondering whether or not to use the "inspiration negates complication" rule. Please let me know what you think about it.

[Safety Sword]

So, in the campaign I'm currently running I plan to have a chase scene. If everything goes according to plan, the party will chase somebody throughout a small village. Does anybody have any tips/recommendations when running a chase scene?

P.S. I am wondering whether or not to use the "inspiration negates complication" rule. Please let me know what you think about it.

Turn based mechanics are the enemy of the chase scene. I would also not recommend trying to use any sort of grid system, it really kills the whole thing.

Perhaps a simple opposed check to allow you to extend away or catch up with the other side as a starter. Since most "people" have exactly the same movement speed in their stat block it has to be something a bit more abstract.

The odd DEX save to avoid hazards or the opposition catch up by a few feet, that sort of thing. Maybe have a table with a few generic conditions (ie. Move a bit slower due to crowd congestion, knock over something which gives your position away even if the chasers can't see you, etc.)

It's not really an easy thing to do, especially if your party isn't all the same speed...

[Knaight]

I'd recommend heavy house ruling here, involving the quarry starting some distance away from the pursuers, which can be moved up and down by opposed checks. Then, both parties get to make meaningful decisions on how to approach. On the quarry side, there's the broad strokes of just running, trying to hide for a while, or doing something to buy time, along with the matter of choosing a path. Do they take a crowded street and try to lose their pursuit by being better at crowd manuevering? Do they take to the roof tops and try and jump away? Do they steal some horses and leave that way? Etc. On the pursuers side, there's basically two big options - keep following, or cut them off. Then there's the complications introduced by splitting up.

Given that there's not a lot of rules here, working fast and loose with a starting distance, escape distance, and catch distance pretty much covers things.

[Regitnui]

The best model I've seen for a chase scene isn't d20, but I'll try to translate. Essentially, it boils down to three or more contested checks. Athletics would be the most obvious skill, but Acrobatics (for the chase going to the rooftops or obstacles) and Stealth (disappearing into the crowd) could be involved, with more general Strength and Dexterity checks.

Essentially, opposed Athletics checks determine who's in the lead; a success for the pursued means they pull further away, while the pursuers' successes mean they get closer to catching up. Of course, at their discretion, other checks can be substituted; an intelligence check to outflank the target or escape a trap, a dexterity check to create an obstacle or avoid such, or a Constitution check if the chase goes on for more than five checks.

[quinron]

I actually just ran a chase scene in my last session. Ran it gridless, as has been recommended, and abstracted a lot of the gritty parts - made it much easier to track things.

For a one-shot, I had an ancient copper dragon shape changed into an Assassin rob the party to set off the plot. The chase started out with the PCs accompanied by a guard who'd tried to arrest the thief, and by the end they'd gathered another two more guards who'd failed to grapple her when alerted - six big dudes in armor (except the monk) desperately huffing and puffing after this thief, failing to catch her despite the fact that she failed every single ability check except the grapples - including taking a full 3 rounds to climb up a building, then falling off that building with absolutely no grace. Chase scenes, it turns out, are a lot of fun.

Anyway, enough of my gushing - I went by the DMG's basic recommendations, assuming everyone was using their whole turn to move (fortunately there was no rogue, so there was no chance for her to be overtaken with that Cunning Action). She tried to duck them any time she could, so I had the group make Perception checks - taking the higher of their roll or their passive score - to determine whether they saw her; I figured it was fair to assume they'd be actively searching for her every time they rounded a corner. Other than that, whenever a round involved something other than "move, then try to hide," I switched to turn order, with the thief first and the party going in order of their Perception scores. Worked out pretty well.

[Ronnocius]

Ok, thanks for the advice. What I have gotten from this is to house rule it :smallbiggrin:

[N810]

Great time for a skills challenge. ;)

[Waazraath]

Amen to all the good advice about skipping grid and doing it turn based. My group did that once in a chase scene, didn't work.

[Gtdead]

AngryGM had some good advice for a chase scene.
Here's the link.

http://theangrygm.com/how-to-build-awesome-encounters/

He talks about the mechanics in about the middle of the page.
He talks about counting "spaces" between the pc and the target, and actions may cost or gain spaces. For example if you use your action to knock down some stuff, you lose a space, but if the pc doesn't pass his check to avoid them, he loses two spaces. Or something like that. I have only skimmed the article, but it made a lot of sense.

[mevans7]

If you've ever listened to the Critical Hits podcast, they handle this situation in a pretty creative way. It's a complete houserule for 5e but I feel that's more what 5e is all about... More DM freedom.

Basically you set a success DC for all checks as the DM. All checks have the same DC. They players and the person they're chasing act in iterative order. In a round, each player has to decide which skill to use, and thematically explain how they're using it to affect the chase. A player can't use the same skill twice in a row, and they can't use the same skill as the player before them. Set a number of successes required to win, and failures to lose, similar to how death saving throws work. Since your Pcs are working together, you can say they need 7 successes vs 3 failures. Successes by the NPC can be either a failure for the Pcs, or remove one success. Your choice as DM.

If catching the guy is necessary to progress the story, that's fine. You can make it so they catch the guy even if they fail, but maybe the NPC has time to dispose of a vital clue, or a helpful item, or some other way to diminish the reward in case the Pcs fail the challenge.

So you set it all up, the NPC takes off through the market. The fighter might use Athletics, saying she sprints off after him. The rogue decides to take to the roof to try to cut him off, and makes an acrobatics check. Now the monk goes. He can't use acrobatics because the rogue did before him, but perhaps he makes a great Insight check to see if he can figure out where this guy might be running off to. Let the Pcs describe what their characters do on success, while you handle the failures.