I've been considering running an adventure for my group in which they're engaged in a sort of race against several different groups who are all trying to achieve the same objective (capture a fleeing nobleman, in this case). In designing it, I've found myself unsure how to run a chase scene so as to give them the feeling of urgency and being involved, rather than just narrating it, and so I was running how the members of the Paizo community generally handle chase scenes.
On a wider topic, how do you usually handle long travel in general, particular in regards to specific encounters and locations, without it being a long narrative occasionally interrupted by calls for initiative?
The new GMG has a defined mechanic for chase scenes, though I haven't actually used it in a game yet. In fact, I've never really run a fantasy chase scene.
I have, however, used it quite a lot in Star Wars games. In those, the PCs usually end up with one person making Pilot rolls, a couple of people shooting (either out the back of a speeder or using ship weapons) and then the rest making Knowledge (to figure out shortcuts or to know about upcoming obstacles) or Perception checks (to see obstacles and give a bonus to Pilot checks) and the like.
I'll usually either define a "course" with specific decision/action points and then keep track of distance between the groups based on those. For the bad guys especially, I treat critical failures as spectacular disasters (yeah, speederbike into tree stuff). We've had some good times with them. For instance, in my two-Jedi Legacy Era game, an airspeeder chase through Taris city (mini Coruscant) ended when one of the Jedi used the Force to bring down a floating billboard on top of a chasing speeder. Both of the chasing speeder pilots botched pilot rolls and crashed into each other. It was fun.
I've also had non-chase action scenes like this...with the PCs ship trying to fly below radar up a river to reach an enemy outpost. Whoops, got to fly *up* that waterfall that's racing toward you. They lost the deflector dish on a 90 degree roll to squeeze through a narrow canyon. Again, lots of fun!
For long travel I generally go for the montage...but I set it up, describe the other travellers, and open it up for any PC interaction that the players want to have. In RotRL, my players enjoyed the riverboat trip from Magnimar to Rannick, taking the opportunity to interact with a "lady of the evening" who had a sihedron rune tattoo (she worked on Lady Lucretia's barge but was unaware of the greater conspiracy) and a particularly paranoid traveller who kept seeing creatures in the water - they ended up messing with him by casting illusions. So. Bottom line. We didn't play out every day, just a couple of interesting incidents. Then the trip ended. If they're going somewhere on foot or by horse across known territory I usually just shortcut to the destination.
Hope any of that helps!
M
There's a great chase scene in Curse of the Crimson Throne. The Chase Scene mechanics described in the Game Mastery Guide seem to be based off the CotCT chase scene.
Anyway, in the adventure the PCs are supposed to chase someone across some city rooftops. The chase can be sort of abstractly described with a bunch of movement spaces that represent an abstract obstacle of some sort along the chase.
When I ran this scene for my players, I just drew a bunch of 2 inch by 2 inch squares on a piece of paper that they could move their miniatures along as they pursued their quarry. In each square are listed two skill checks. Usually, one is a lower DC and one a higher, but it's good to mix things up as much as possible.
On each character's turn, they have 3 options:
1) Use a move action to move 1 square for free, and then take a standard action such as firing an arrow or casting a spell, or if they've caught up, attempting to initiate a grapple.
2) Use a full-round action to attempt one of the two skill checks, and if successful, move forward two squares. Failure means no progress, failure by 5 or more means you fall off the roof.
3) Use a full-round action to attempt both skill checks, and if successful, move forward three squares. Same penalties for failure as above.
In the CotCT scene, the skill checks were usually Balance, Climb and Jump checks to take little shortcuts or maybe Spot checks to notice easier routes.
It creates this really interesting scenario where more agile characters like Rogues and Monks move rapidly after their target, whereas Wizards and Clerics are often unable to make the skill checks and move slowly, but support with spells.
This could probably be adapted for long range pursuit over days and weeks, but you would probably want to use Diplomacy, Perception, Knowledge skills and Survival to determine rapid progress.
There's a great chase scene in Curse of the Crimson Throne. The Chase Scene mechanics described in the Game Mastery Guide seem to be based off the CotCT chase scene.
Which AP within the CotCT had the Chase Scene?
The CotCT chase rules were used in the GMG and are available in the PRD here: link
For long travel I typically assign a number of skill checks to be made along the way. For each check I create an encounter which occurs if the check is failed (usually a very simple one to put together like things straight out of the Bestiary, or a trap, or environmental hazard, etc).
Skill checks are typically things like Survival, Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (geography), Perception, Knowledge (arcana- if magical traps or forces are at work in the area), Knowledge (religion- if undead or divine forces are at work in the area), and so on. Stealth can be added if they're trying to avoid detection. Climb in mountains, Acrobatics in icy terrain, Fly for aerial travel, etc.
The advantage to this is that it let's the players see the benefits of their skills and the direct effects of success and failure. It also allows you to tell them what encounters they avoided (Your success on a survival check allows you to skirt around the area of quicksand, your Stealth allows you to sneak by the dire tigers prowling the area.) which helps to give the area flavor without forcing you to have a combat encounter.
I use group checks for things like Perception and Stealth and if half the party succeeds then they all succeed. I also allow a variant on aid another in which a skilled person (such as the ranger with a +20 Stealth modifier) can aid the others. He takes a -2 penalty to his check per person that he's aiding, but then each person only has to beat a DC 10 to use the ranger's result.
The CotCT chase scene is pretty unbalanced against an average party unless one of the party members is built similarly to the NPC, i.e. a high DEX character with skill boosting feats and the shingles runner feat.
The NPC was consistently able to ace both skill checks per square and perpetually got further than our party, which consisted of a talk/trap rogue, a barbarian, and a cleric (who made little to no progress in the chase). I felt the whole chase part of that adventure path (though technically only one "encounter") was a waste of time since we had no chance unless we started banging out consecutive 20's (which don't necessarily help on skill checks).
While I would run with the chase rules, I always look to give my player's a sporting chance then put the pressure on when it comes to crunch time rather than severely outpace the party to the point where it's impossible for them to catch up.
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I use a system I developed years and years ago that works basically like the basketball game "Horse." Each side in the chase takes turns choosing a skill and a DC for skill check. If both pass or fail, then neither side gains ground. If one passes and one fails, then the character that passes gains a letter. The first side that completes the "chase word" wins the chase.
So consider two rogues chasing each other through a city. We'll call them Bob and Doug. Bob is chasing Doug. Doug, being the pursued, gets to go first.
Doug choose to climb up a wall and run across a rooftop. He decides the DC will be 18 and makes his roll. He passes the check, and its Bob's turn. Bob rolls and also passes the test.
Bob decides that Doug will have to jump across an alleyway from one roof to another roof - an Acrobatics check of DC 15. Doug rolls and makes the check. Bob fails the roll - he barely clears the gap, and is left clinging to the edge of the roof, losing vital seconds as he pulls himself up. Doug gets a C.
Doug decides to jump down to the street below, a DC 10 Acrobatics check. He makes the check, Bob fails it! Doug now has a CH, while Bob has nothing.
Bob hopes that Doug doesn't know about a shortcut that will let Bob cut him off. Bob declares the next challenge a Knowledge (Local) check with a DC of 24. Bob makes the roll, Doug fails it. Bob now has a C, Doug has a CH.
This goes back and forth until Doug spells CHASE while Bob only has CHA. So Doug escapes, leaving Bob in his dust.
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And if you don't have the time or artistic skills to make your own chase cards there's always the Gamemastery Chase Card Deck.
Honestly this system is really cool. Examples of variant chases include a run down some primordial river rapids, escaping an erupting volcano through its own lava tubes, and running a gauntlet of traps and terrain hazards.
-Vrockslide
I use a system I developed years and years ago that works basically like the basketball game "Horse." Each side in the chase takes turns choosing a skill and a DC for skill check. If both pass or fail, then neither side gains ground. If one passes and one fails, then the character that passes gains a letter. The first side that completes the "chase word" wins the chase.
So consider two rogues chasing each other through a city. We'll call them Bob and Doug. Bob is chasing Doug. Doug, being the pursued, gets to go first.
Doug choose to climb up a wall and run across a rooftop. He decides the DC will be 18 and makes his roll. He passes the check, and its Bob's turn. Bob rolls and also passes the test.
Bob decides that Doug will have to jump across an alleyway from one roof to another roof - an Acrobatics check of DC 15. Doug rolls and makes the check. Bob fails the roll - he barely clears the gap, and is left clinging to the edge of the roof, losing vital seconds as he pulls himself up. Doug gets a C.
Doug decides to jump down to the street below, a DC 10 Acrobatics check. He makes the check, Bob fails it! Doug now has a CH, while Bob has nothing.
Bob hopes that Doug doesn't know about a shortcut that will let Bob cut him off. Bob declares the next challenge a Knowledge (Local) check with a DC of 24. Bob makes the roll, Doug fails it. Bob now has a C, Doug has a CH.
This goes back and forth until Doug spells CHASE while Bob only has CHA. So Doug escapes, leaving Bob in his dust.
I like this.