Designing a "Being Chased" Campaign?

[paperskeleton]

Hey everybody!

So, I've been wanting to write a new adventure for my party for a little while now, and I really like the idea of an adventure where the heroes are on a quest, but along the way they are being pursued by something they have no hope of defeating (think The Fellowship of the Ring and the Nazgul).

My idea was to have them pursued by a Death Knight. I love the thought of a tireless, sleepless, solitary knight slowly hunting the party as they try to deliver a message or artifact of some kind. He'll be slow, but he has his undead and demonic minions, and if the party takes too long at any of the obstacles I have set up along the way, he'll show up and destroy everything, considering he totally overpowers the level 5 party.

To avoid having players just try to fight him, I would establish early on that they couldn't beat him. Since the party will be transporting something, I'm going to have the original quest-bearers be 10 or so much stronger paladins that he massacres in front of them when he first shows up. His undead forces raid and burn the town, forcing the party to flee and undertake the quest.

I feel its a simple but effective plot and a really cool way to build tension.

I was hoping to hear if anyone has tried an idea like this? I can't seem to find any campaigns of a similar nature, and would love to hear any suggestions for keeping it running smoothly and enjoyably, and without getting too stale, predictable, or hard to manage.

(If you like any part of the idea, feel free to use it! :) )

[Goaty14]

TBH, the best way to get the players to run away is to tell them they should run away.

As in: On "session 0" or OOC, you tell the players that they will often be fighting forces bigger and stronger than themselves, and you do not expect them to win, much less stand a chance, and if they ever see the BBEG, they should hi-tail out like zoom zoom!

If they *still* don't run away, then teach them a lesson the hard way. I.e
-Boss monster appears
-Players fight back
-Boss kills players
DM: "Alright, let's try that again"
-Boss monster appears
-Players fight back
-Boss kills players
DM: "Alright, let's try-

... until they get the memo.

[Kalaska'Agathas]

It can be tricky to make this sort of thing work, in game, as anything which can be reliably outrun or otherwise avoided isn't a very effective threat, but if the overpowering pursuer actually catches the party, then the game is over. There needs to be a balance between the magnitude of the overall threat, to the party or more broadly (which should be great), and the degree of danger the party experiences in any particular encounter (which should be survivable, or even winnable in the case of a tactical withdrawal).

Part of why the pursuit worked in Fellowship was that their pursuers didn't know exactly whom, or even what, they were chasing. The Nazgûl were not able to track the hobbits (later the fellowship) so effectively as to simply run them down on horseback or otherwise force a fight which the fellowship couldn't withstand - while the fellowship had no hope of wholly defeating the nine permanently, they could at least hope to drive them off (as with Gildor Inglorion and his party, or Aragorn at Weathertop), or even temporarily disable them (as at the ford of Bruinen, or when Legolas took a shot in the dark and killed a Nazgûl-bird).

So perhaps it could work if the power behind the pursuit wasn't actually in the chase (like Sauron being stuck in Barad-dûr), and instead the minions came in sufficient strength or numbers to make a knock-down-drag-out fight unwinnable, or at least unwise, but where any individual minion, or even small groups of minions, could be driven off, defeated, or (temporarily) disabled by the party, to allow them to make their escape. But in a game like D&D (which I take to be the system in question, given your post) it can be very hard to manage that balance, and the consequences of getting it wrong can quickly lead to a TPK, which is generally (though not necessarily) unfun.

If you could manage it, though, it would be an awesome campaign.

I agree with Goaty14 regarding establishing the overall threat. That's probably better to do out of game, rather than by simply having the BBEG show up and slaughter some paladins - better to leave that to your players' imaginations than show exactly the extent of the danger. Or, you could make some pregens (more powerful than their PCs at the start of the campaign) and have your players start the first session playing those instead of their own characters - and then throw them into an unwinnable fight against the Death Knight/Sauron/whatever to show them what the consequences will be if they stand and fight with their own characters.

[TheYell]

Biggest downside I see to your plan, is that players will spend a lot of time in session without winning combats.

This can be avoided by giving them rewards for RP and achieving side goals. This should be spelled out clearly in advance.

I would have the quest involve side goals of passing artifacts and magic weapons to and from NPCs. THIS sword to THAT king.

For instance, in your first scenario, the party could be tasked with getting palace children to a farmer in the countryside. This explains why they don't fight with the paladins or die trying to stop the undead from taking the city. Their duty is to save the kids -- and themselves.

Finally, the Death Knight believes in an ancient prophecy of total triumph. A relevant portion describes the party being sacrificed ritually at the foot of his throne. He tells them about it. So if one or a few of the party try to take him out, they'll be defeated but not killed. He will remind them that he is destined to capture and slay the whole gang at once when he dominates, and he will let them go, taking possession of their artifact or killing the NPC or both.

This gives the party some freedom of action and makes defeat recoverable. It lets you have a theme of pursuit and overpowering menace without totally railroading the party.

[Kaptin Keen]

Hey everybody!

So, I've been wanting to write a new adventure for my party for a little while now, and I really like the idea of an adventure where the heroes are on a quest, but along the way they are being pursued by something they have no hope of defeating (think The Fellowship of the Ring and the Nazgul).

My idea was to have them pursued by a Death Knight. I love the thought of a tireless, sleepless, solitary knight slowly hunting the party as they try to deliver a message or artifact of some kind. He'll be slow, but he has his undead and demonic minions, and if the party takes too long at any of the obstacles I have set up along the way, he'll show up and destroy everything, considering he totally overpowers the level 5 party.

To avoid having players just try to fight him, I would establish early on that they couldn't beat him. Since the party will be transporting something, I'm going to have the original quest-bearers be 10 or so much stronger paladins that he massacres in front of them when he first shows up. His undead forces raid and burn the town, forcing the party to flee and undertake the quest.

I feel its a simple but effective plot and a really cool way to build tension.

I was hoping to hear if anyone has tried an idea like this? I can't seem to find any campaigns of a similar nature, and would love to hear any suggestions for keeping it running smoothly and enjoyably, and without getting too stale, predictable, or hard to manage.

(If you like any part of the idea, feel free to use it! :) )

Well ... I think your plan is fine, and would work.

Have the PC's be squires of the paladin troupe, for instance. Have the paladin leader be a likeable fellow, and have him explain the importance of their quest, and how the gods, or the king, or whom so ever, pulled together the greatest knights in the realm for it.

Then have DK show up, and pummel them. Have one paladin break from combat, hand the mcguffin to the PC's, and tell them to RUN!

Easy-peasy.

DK could show up occasionally, but clearly they shouldn't be fighting him. I would use his menacing presence more than DK himself - tell the players they can feel when he gets close. Obviously DK is the final boss, so eventually a fight against him will become unavoidable.

[VoxRationis]

To prevent the all-or-nothing issue mentioned above, I would suggest giving the players a few in-character mulligans to be able to escape from one or two failures of discretion and evasion. A few scrolls of teleport for instance, or some gadget that will foil the attack plan of the villain, with the caveat that he's adaptable and will find a countermeasure so it won't work next time. (If you're playing 5th edition D&D, the spell teleportation circle is good for this because the DM can quite easily limit the available destinations. Therefore, you could have it such that using the scroll sends you back to "square one," as it were, meaning that there's a substantial cost for using it above and beyond the exhaustion of the scroll in and of itself.) Heck, depending on the players and characters, even having a few minor NPCs with the party (hirelings, squires, etc.) that might throw their lives away to buy the PCs time to escape might work. Their loss will likely be felt on a material level, and quite possibly on an emotional one.

[Cespenar]

Out of the Abyss, a D&D 5e Underdark campaign, has a main feature in which a group of drow slavedrivers chase the PC around. That's a much closer chase than what you might have imagined for your game, but still, I'd suggest you check it out.

[bc56]

The big thing is that the players will try to kill the bad guy. In order for this to be successful (it's a good idea), you must tell them about it in your pitch. Not just that it's a chase, and they won't be able to kill the bad guy, but that from the very first fight, they should be running away.

[FelineArchmage]

Hey everybody!

So, I've been wanting to write a new adventure for my party for a little while now, and I really like the idea of an adventure where the heroes are on a quest, but along the way they are being pursued by something they have no hope of defeating (think The Fellowship of the Ring and the Nazgul).

My idea was to have them pursued by a Death Knight. I love the thought of a tireless, sleepless, solitary knight slowly hunting the party as they try to deliver a message or artifact of some kind. He'll be slow, but he has his undead and demonic minions, and if the party takes too long at any of the obstacles I have set up along the way, he'll show up and destroy everything, considering he totally overpowers the level 5 party.

To avoid having players just try to fight him, I would establish early on that they couldn't beat him. Since the party will be transporting something, I'm going to have the original quest-bearers be 10 or so much stronger paladins that he massacres in front of them when he first shows up. His undead forces raid and burn the town, forcing the party to flee and undertake the quest.

I feel its a simple but effective plot and a really cool way to build tension.

I was hoping to hear if anyone has tried an idea like this? I can't seem to find any campaigns of a similar nature, and would love to hear any suggestions for keeping it running smoothly and enjoyably, and without getting too stale, predictable, or hard to manage.

(If you like any part of the idea, feel free to use it! :) )

Out of the Abyss module (5e) has a mechanic specifically used for when the party is being chased. Long story short, party escapes from some drow, and the high priestess is chasing them.

The quick and dirty of the mechanic is that there is a numbered system of 0-5. Zero is where the drow have lost the party, and 5 is completely catching up. Depending on what the party does in their adventure, an increment of 1 or 2 is added or removed until you either reach 0 or 5. Examples of increasing the mechanic (to reach 5) would include the party staying too long in one area, or doing so blaringly obvious that their location is known (and they would catch up). Examples of decreasing the mechanic (to reach 0) would be actions that specifically hid their trail, or passed through a very difficult area, such as lands guarded by hostile tribes or something (thus getting them off their trail).

[Thinker]

Game-play flows from mechanics. What you're describing is a whole series of mechanics. You need mechanics for avoiding encounters with powerful foes, mechanics for identifying foes as being impossible to defeat, and mechanics for escaping an impossible foe once it has caught up with them.

First, they need a basic ability to identify the power-level or difficulty of their enemies. Even a basic 5-tier system would work: Impossible, Difficult, Average, Easy, No Challenge. It might be a basic Wisdom roll when seeing a foe for the first time. Ensure that the descriptors are clear and that the players know that Impossible really means Impossible. You'll also need to back up the statement of Impossible. Maybe the bad guy has enough armor so that only a natural 20 hits her or has enough fire resistance that no fire can hurt it. You can come up with a weakness, but force the players to have to discover that weakness in the course of the game - either through research during a brief respite or an interaction with an NPC with intimate knowledge of the Death Knight.

Next, narrow the focus for various classes to identify powerful foes to give players a unique way to gauge power. The sorcerer can feel the foe's innate power from a distance, like a Highlander immortal sensing another. That might be too powerful so limit it to only Draconic and Infernal foes. A fighter might be able to quickly study a foe and come to a conclusion about its physical properties - "My blade could barely harm such a warrior". Maybe the Bard could glean such information when in a town, hearing rumors from the merchants and other travelers of a powerful force. I would limit the distance abilities to only Impossible threats and only let the players know that they're in the area and a general direction, rather than for all threats or else it kind of replaces perception mechanics, which isn't really the intent.

Now, you need an ability to avoid the formidable foe. The characters likely know the general direction that the Death Knight is in so we can say that so long as the party is not going in that direction, they can use these mechanics. It would make sense to base this on stealth and on tracking/overland abilities. Also, require the party to avoid major roads since it is very difficult to hide on those. So, every day that the party is avoiding a foe, designate the following roles: Scout, Cover, and Trailblazer. The scout is looking out for who or what is ahead; the trailblazer is leading the party down a specific path; and the cover is ensuring that the party's trail is obscured to those pursuing them. For each day of the journey, those with roles must roll Wisdom checks and make 10 successes before rolling 3 failures to successfully stay ahead of their enemy. Give various classes bonuses to this or extra things they can do (maybe the Ranger can have his animal companion act as the Scout?).

So, what do you do if the villain catches up to the party? You need to create a basic escape mechanic. Everyone should have access to this mechanic and it should be easy to use. It might be something as easy as "Flee!":

Every round in a chase-scene takes approximately 10 minutes. Roll an opposed Dexterity check. If you gain 5 successes before 2 failures, you successfully flee the encounter. Rough terrain reduces your roll by 1 and the foe's roll by 1 (your Death Knight might have a magical steed that allows it to avoid this penalty). If your character has a higher move speed than the pursuer, gain +1 to your roll, if your character is slower, suffer a -1. A character who has not yet escaped can sacrifice one of their own successes to negate a failure of an ally. Characters who are incapacitated cannot flee.

This isn't perfect, but it's a 5-minute solution so modify as needed.

Finally, you need abilities that modify the basic escape mechanic. A rogue might have Pocket Sand - Once per scene, you can throw your pocket sand into the face of an enemy that is bearing down on you to negate 1 failure while fleeing. A ranger might have Terrain Expert - negate penalties caused by rough terrain. Come up with at least one thing for each class to allow players to interact with your mechanic.

You'll also need to decide what happens when the Death Knight catches up with the party. Do they have a get out of jail free card (in the form of an artifact or class ability)? Does the Death Knight simply care for the McGuffin and stops paying attention to the insignificant party once he has it? Maybe the Death Knight takes the McGuffin and hands it off to a lieutenant with instructions before turning her attention back to the party, giving opportunity for the characters to escape and then they have to recover the McGuffin while also staying a step ahead of the Death Knight.

[jay103]

I remember years ago playing a Call of Cthulu campaign, where we attracted the attention of a Hound of Tindalos. I think the GM just wanted to use a Hound of Tindalos. Anyway, as I can recall the thing was nigh-invulnerable and could track us perfectly. We had to work on the normal campaign while simultaneously running from the thing AND trying to figure out how to beat it. We eventually managed to put together a LOT of dynamite in one place and got him to teleport in on top of it.

[FreddyNoNose]

Getting players to run away is often problematical. Basing an entire campaign would be more so. It isn't always something they are considering fun.

Now the fellowship of the ring had a task to do: destroy the ring. The chasing was a side-effect of the primary adventure.

[LibraryOgre]

One thing I did was set a sound on my laptop to play whenever the hunters were getting close... any time my players took too long, they'd hear the horns again, and the hunt had gotten close.

For the enemy? I'd establish that he might be defeated, but cannot be permanently beaten... something on par with a Lich, where they might be able to destroy the body, but they phylactery is hidden and protected. Defeat the lich, and he comes back in a while with more undead. If the lich is a HARD fight for them, they'll get the idea that they have to fear it, and that running is going to keep being necessary. Since he keeps returning, that's going to ratchet up the fear. They might relax after the first time, but then the second happens. And a third. And a fourth. Each time, they face a stronger and smarter lich, getting little in return.

As for why the lich regenerates so quickly? His phylactery is next to a rift to the Negative Material Plane... destroy him, and he regenerates quickly from the bath of Negative energy.

(You might use something other than a lich; I use that to discuss the idea of the regenerating monster)

[Arbane]

Just one bit of advice: don't be THIS game.

[Incorrect]

Tell the players before hand that they will be chased by something they cannot beat. It will just make everything easier.

Maybe have the enemy described more as a force of nature, something no one can fight. Its not just a man/monster, its the embodiment of Wild Fire (or Necrotic Plague, or something)
Yes, it has the shape of a man, but in a 100 meter radius everything burns/rots/is poisoned. The players can not even get close to him without dying.

I like the idea above, about having a scale (0-5) and awarding points based on party actions. Its very easy for players to understand and react when you tell them that the scale is now at 4!.

[Knaight]

This can work just fine - it just needs to be explicitly pitched. Session zero game description should mention that the game is about accomplishing indirect goals while avoiding pursuit. It wouldn't hurt to reference similar structures explicitly (LotR, Terminator, A Wizard of Earthsea, Faster than Light), or to pay attention to genres where this sort of thing is ubiquitous, from cat and mouse detective stories to heist films.

Making this explicit at the metagame level also absolves you of any need for a heavy handed introduction. You don't need the scene where the death knight kills a bunch of paladins while the party flees, because they already have that information. That isn't to say that this sort of thing should never happen, just that when it does is more flexible. The hobbits knew to flee the ringwraiths before the butchery in Bree.

[FreddyNoNose]

This can work just fine - it just needs to be explicitly pitched. Session zero game description should mention that the game is about accomplishing indirect goals while avoiding pursuit. It wouldn't hurt to reference similar structures explicitly (LotR, Terminator, A Wizard of Earthsea, Faster than Light), or to pay attention to genres where this sort of thing is ubiquitous, from cat and mouse detective stories to heist films.

Making this explicit at the metagame level also absolves you of any need for a heavy handed introduction. You don't need the scene where the death knight kills a bunch of paladins while the party flees, because they already have that information. That isn't to say that this sort of thing should never happen, just that when it does is more flexible. The hobbits knew to flee the ringwraiths before the butchery in Bree.

This is completely reasonable.

[Nifft]

Lots of good advice in this thread.
- Pitch this explicitly. Get player buy-in.
- Have a (relatively) transparent mechanic to measure success in running away.

Here's my contribution: Think about ways to define and reward success (at least partially) in terms of running away.

For example, let's say the PCs encounter a group of scouts. These scouts aren't particularly looking for the PCs, but they'll report back to a location that does include people who are specifically looking for the PCs. The PCs will get full rewards for the encounter for:
- Sneaking past the scouts, unnoticed.
- Disguising themselves such that the scout group's report won't lead anyone to the PCs.
- Killing every single scout and making the attack look like the work of wandering monsters.
- Scaring the scouts away by appearing to be wandering monsters.
... etc.

They'll get negative returns from attacking but NOT killing everyone, since the surviving scouts will surely raise a loud alarm about them.

They'll get mildly negative returns from being seen and failing to trick the scouts, since a report about their location will eventually fall into the hands of their opposition.


The key factors are that ingenuity is rewarded and success has a clear & achievable condition.

The "puzzle" of tactical combat is preserved -- it's just that the success criteria has been changed from kill everyone into trick everyone.