MrSandman
2018-06-21, 10:51 AM
I've been thinking about running away from something as a challenge for the past couple of days. By this, I don't mean try to sneak as an alternative to combat, or running away because you're playing a sandbox and you've found a monster too big for you to chew. I mean that the challenge of the scene is to run away and that being caught/discovered/found would effectively mean a fail. I'm thinking about something like Frodo and Sam's escape from the Nazgūl in The Fellowship of the Ring.
I think that for that to work it is important that the flight has a purpose. Sam and Frodo aren't simply running away because the hooded black guy is scary. They are running away because they've got something scary in their hands and they need to meet Gandalf in Bree. It would also require players to have some information, whether it's something that you gather on the spot (none of the present characters has significant fighting power and they see a group of armour-clad and well-armed guys coming towards them) or something that you find out beforehand (the ghost of an extremely powerful wizard warns the characters about this hideously unbeatable monster).
So, while musing these and other thoughts, I wondered if this sort of challenge would work in a role-playing game and what would be needed for it to be exciting rather than frustrating. Any thoughts?
I think that for that to work it is important that the flight has a purpose. Sam and Frodo aren't simply running away because the hooded black guy is scary. They are running away because they've got something scary in their hands and they need to meet Gandalf in Bree. It would also require players to have some information, whether it's something that you gather on the spot (none of the present characters has significant fighting power and they see a group of armour-clad and well-armed guys coming towards them) or something that you find out beforehand (the ghost of an extremely powerful wizard warns the characters about this hideously unbeatable monster).
So, while musing these and other thoughts, I wondered if this sort of challenge would work in a role-playing game and what would be needed for it to be exciting rather than frustrating. Any thoughts?