One Page Chases: Final

So, thanks for all your input. It was clear that the graphics-only version of the chase rules wasn't cutting it, so I've gone back to the text plus graphics style of One Page.

This is just more economical of space; for example, rather than rest the interpretation of difficulty of terrain on a squiggly brown line, or actually put in graphics representing all different kinds of terrain that could be difficult, I let a line of words do it for me.

Even so, the One Page format forces simplicity on the rules. So, instead of the "roll to lose sight" in the text incarnation, now it's just a flat number - the randomness and excitement come from the chase procedure itself.

An extended ruleset would cover things like tracking and listening after losing sight, but an aware enough GM can handle that kind of thing ... right?

Chase, No Words

What do you think? Is this a clear enough expression of the basic chase rules from earlier this week (everything except "losing sight")? Or does it come across more like a rebus you have to figure out? What icons or symbols would you add? Where do you need some words to come in?

Back to the Chase

Picking this up from a while ago, what kind of complications should we add to a simple "roll d6 for each 30' of movement" to make a more engaging chase system?

At a minimum this needs to have:

obstacles, generating them during play if the chase isn't going through a detail-mapped area - giving an advantage to nimble or athletic racers

fatigue,  giving an advantage to fit racers

things that end the chase - the chase leader disappearing from view and being untrackable by sight, or deciding to hide; at which point the chasers have to either split up or use other tracking and detection means. Also rules for what happens when the chasers catch up.

So here we go...

Layout of the chase: At the point where one group or individual flees an encounter, and an enemy group or individual pursues, create a chase track of about 20-50 spaces where each space = 10' (using a battlemat, Snakes and Ladders board, etc.; or just use percentile dice to represent their distance along the track). Lay out the fleeing and pursuing figures representing the relative distance between them. To save space on the track, you can assume that a figure must move 12 spaces just to stand still, and move them backwards or forward on the track according to how much they exceed or fall short of this number.

Conducting the chase: First the fleeing, then the pursuing figures move. Each fleeing figure rolls 1 d6 for each 3 points (30 feet) of movement he or she has.

For each die that rolls 1, the figure moves ahead 2 spaces.

For each die that rolls 2-5, the figure moves ahead that number of spaces.

For each die that rolls 6, the figure makes a Body save (aka Fortitude, Poison). If it succeeds, it moves 6, if it fails, it gets fatigued, moves only 3, and has a -1 to its movement rate in future rounds (that is, subtract 1 from the number of squares moved on any die roll). Penalties from multiple failed fatigue rolls add up. Staying in place for 1 round removes all fatigue penalties.

Movement Obstacles: These procedures generate random terrain for areas of the chase you don't have closely mapped. You can use the rules for how these obstacles affect pursuit even if you have them mapped out already.

Rolls of 1 made by the leading figure may create Movement Obstacles. If running across flat ground (dungeon floor, plains) the leader creates one obstacle for every 3 1's rolled. If running across ground with some obstacles (shrubs, fields, bumpy floor) he or she creates one obstacle for every 2 1's rolled. If running across ground with many obstacles (forest, city alleys, busy streets, jagged ground, swamp), one obstacle is created for every 1 rolled. Put the obstacles separately in the spaces right in front of the leader before he or she moves.

Each obstacle requires the leader to make a Speed save or have -3 movement that round, to a minimum of 0. Pursuing figures must make the same save when moving through an obstacle. If you're subtracting 12 movement spaces from each figure, this would make the obstacles travel backwards on the track 12 spaces per round.

Losing Sight: At the end of a round after everyone has moved, roll dice to see if the pursuers have lost sight of the pursued, who may have disappeared around a corner, over a ridge, or behind some foliage. The DM rolls a number of d6 that will tell how many 10' spaces the leading pursuer can see ahead in the environment. If this is less than the distance to the last fleeing figure, sight is lost.

Flat, clear land: d6+100 spaces
Low hills: 3d6 x 2 spaces
Steep hills/mountains: 3d6 spaces
Light forest, city streets, light mist: 2d6 spaces
Heavy or hilly forest, city alleys, heavy fog: d6 spaces

If the total dice roll is even and sight is lost, the pursued figure may try to hide on the spot, subject to skill resolution. If the total dice roll is odd and sight is lost, there is an opportunity for the leading figure to go one of two ways and not be seen in the act; pursuers must then try to track their quarry, or split up to continue the pursuit.

Next up: Some issues in representing this all visually.

A Simple Chase Rule

Following on the previous post about random movement rates and chases, here's the simplest chase rule I can come up with:

Just before moving, a character may choose to give up its regular movement rate and instead move d6 for every 3 points of movement, plus 1 for every leftover point. A movement rate of 12 becomes 4d6, for example, and a move of 10 becomes 3d6+1. This move is rerolled on every round it is used.

Cue "Yakety Sax."

This does a number of things.

1. It makes chases exciting in a simple and traditional way.

2. In normal tactical combat movement, there is seldom going to be a reason to delay the game by rolling movement instead of using the reliable rate. As I noted last time, the normal move rate usually will be enough to do whatever maneuvering is needed once sides have closed. If that's so, then you don't want to take the chance of a low roll ruining it.

3. The dice will normally only be used if speed is of the essence - charging missile weapons, racing an enemy to get to a switch, or just plain chases. Why? Because the average roll of a d6 is 3.5, giving a variable but overall half-point advantage over a plain predictable 3.

4. It represents switching from a more cautious to a more risky mode of movement. Good and bad rolls can  be visualized as bursts of speed or accidents.

5. It slots easily into any number of combat rules sequences by offering an option for movement, whenever and however that happens.

6. It reflects the advantage of a large pursuing party; each round, the more figures you have, the more likely someone will roll high and catch up. Outpacing a horde of 6-move kobolds with your 9-move party is no longer such a done deal! At the same time, if this gives too much unrealistic advantage to an unruly mob, you can just say (as my rules do) that you need to spend 3 movement points in order to pass through a slower figure in front. 

As simple as it is, this rule is missing a couple of things. One is the possibility for character stats and terrain to regulate such things as dodging obstacles and getting tired. These I'll cover next post.

Another is a protocol for ending the chase. With perfect visibility ahead, a chase can continue until the pursuing side catches up or gives up. If a chase is taking place across terrain already mapped by the DM - for example, a dungeon or a well-developed city - then visibility is easy to determine. Otherwise, visibility can be determined generically - 10' in thick fog, 20' in twisty city streets, 30' in deep woods, and so on.

When the chasers lose sight of their quarry and there is more than one way to go, they need to decide whether to split up, continue along one way at the risk of being entirely wrong, or give up. Those being pursued, once the chasers lose sight of them, also have the well-known cinematic option of finding some place to hide and waiting as the chase goes by. 

To guard against this, the more intelligent kind of pursuers, if numerous,  will need to leave behind a searcher each round. Somehow, they never seem to do that in the movies ...

Roll Dice And Move

It's one of the most ancient of board game mechanics, going back to the Egyptian Senet. It powers the most beloved family board games, from backgammon to Parcheesi to Monopoly. Yet rolling dice to move is almost completely absent from the geekish world of hobby games that has sprung up since the 70s.

Random determination of movement stands out as the easiest and most fun way to run a race game. Certainly, there are other ways. For example, the almost-luck-free Hare and Tortoise is deceptively complex for its kiddie theme. Movement depends on managing a hand of carrot cards which can be used to fuel movement. The "mileage" gets mathematically less efficient with greater speed. Picking up carrots depends largely on predicting your position in the race when the next turn comes.

However, board and miniatures wargaming took a different turn. Military science in the 19th century emphasized the predictability of troop movements, gunnery and logistics. The rates of march tables from military manuals were translated to fixed movement distances in military kriegspiel. Wargames in the 20th century picked up these habits. Although combat required dice to resolve, being seen as necessarily uncertain, how you got there was seen as a much more predictable process.

By the time wargames evolved into roleplaying games and fantasy board games, the cultural divide between serious and family games was clear. Figures in serious games were going to be moving at a fixed and stately pace. Even the exceptions confirm the rule. Avalon Hill's Titan, for example, used random movement on the highly abstracted strategic board but fixed movement on the more detailed and war- gamey tactical board, as if to flaunt the hybridization of the two models while keeping clear what each one was for. Milton Bradley's family-oriented HeroQuest was a dungeon crawl where your movement rate was the roll of two dice. However, fixed movement could just have easily been used and the movement dice had little impact on play most of the time. Again, this choice betrays the association of random movement with light, family-style gaming.

But there are good reasons to make movement random in some way, even if you're aiming for simulation. On a strategic level, whether a small party or a huge army, a movement roll can easily reflect all the myriad mishaps and inefficiencies of day-to-day travel. Greater expertise in logistics or terrain should be able, too, to reduce some of the slower results. On a tactical level, combat is an ever-shifting field of dangerous weapons flashing, opportunities to lunge, divided attention and obstacles underfoot. With this in mind, it makes more sense to have movement be in some way random, rather than carefully plotting out a steady distance each turn before your one allotted attack.

Some game systems today acknowledge that randomness in movement is part of simulation. Most often this is done through a command control system, where the uncertainty is less about how much a unit or leader can move than whether it can move at all. This has always been a good feature of the De Bellis Antiquitatis family of wargames, for example, and also plays a part in the very popular family of card-driven conflict games that began with Hannibal.

For skirmish combat in role-playing games, the main drawback of random movement is added time and strategizing to roll, for not a lot of payoff. I find, actually, that the amount of movement that can be done even in a very short 6 second combat round is sufficient to get most figures from one end of the effective fight area to another, so varying this really adds very little tension or strategy.

However, I'll make an obvious exception for contexts where it could be important, like charging to close or better yet, a chase. I recently commented on the 9 and 30 Kingdoms blog that chase scenes are the one form of contest that are most under-served by adventure game rules, especially traditional ones. The main culprit is the insistence on fixed movement rates. Clearly, this is what "roll to move" was made for.

Next post I'll consider some options for making chases exciting. In the meantime, check out the system that Talysman came up with in response to my comment.