Building a boat chase

[dev-zero]

I'm trying to build a boat vs dire crocodile chase for my level 4 group (as a replacement for the direct fight against the dire crocodile which is given as a random encounter in the module).

I started by laying out the obstacles for the boat (like a sudden calm or reefs) and then tried to deduce the obstacles for the PCs from that (for example a Str check to hoist a sail). The problem is that I did not find enough different obstacles for the PCs (especially lacking some for the wizard/cleric type characters).

Has anyone done something like this before and would share the ideas?

[CalebTGordan]

What skills do the PCs have, and what is the makeup of the party.

Tailoring it to the abilities of the party is going to ensure that it is both challenging and balanced.

[Adoke]

So, you're on a ship getting chased by a big, mean crocodile... Please tell me somebody onboard has a hook for a hand. =)

Skills your party might have that you can utilize for challenges:

Craft (Tailoring): Have them be beset by a storm that leaves some of the sails damaged and in need of repair

Craft (Carpentry): Have them go through some shallows or a reef and have the rudder damaged (this is called out requiring Craft (Ships), but since that's kind of a weird one to take outside of constant ship involvement you could be nice, up to you ofcourse)

Profession (Sailor): Obvious for manning the ship during turbulent times such as combat or storms, but also useful for them to try and avoid hazzards

Survival: Predict that nasty weather ahead of time and batten down the hatches beforehand

You could also make food an issue, maybe forcing them stop by an island to forage and run into a ravenous band of cannibals.

Just some off the top of my head ideas, but I would really recommend using a visual aid to represent their boat. Paizo has a pretty decent one here although myself I draw them up and print them out. Helps a lot with relational movement with multiple ships and the like, and adds a nice little bit of flavor to the experience.

[dev-zero]

Sorry for the late response and thanks for your hints.

@Adoke: yes, there is a pirate involved, no hook, but an eye patch :-) (it's a NPC already given in the module and I used him as the mate who could also direct the PCs in case they didn't have any idea).

Here's what I did (also thanks to the help of a friendly GM):

1) Choose obstacles like sandbank, cliff, direction of wind changes, mixing it with some "open water" obstacles which gives the PCs time to prepare spells, discuss, pray ...

2) Then I divided every obstacle (and free card) into 4 fields

3) Every round (which is longer than a normal PF round of course) they advance a number of fields. I chose a base speed of 2 fields for the ship and 3 for the crocodile. Obstacles like algae would further reduce their speed by 1, sandbank would strand them completely.

4) For every obstacle I thought of 1 or 2 possible ways to solve it: for the calm they could either hoist more sails which required a climb check to go up the mast and an acrobatics check for not falling down when releasing the hawser or start rowing where they got the assistance of the sailors and required a strength check.

5) If they did well (let's say they could only release one sail), they got a +1 for the advancement, if they did very good (like: all rowing characters succeeded in their check) they got a +2.

For the skill checks: most were Str and Dex based, that's something I couldn't change. But there is also Perception where I allowed them to see 1 field per 5 points. Effectively allowing them to check what's ahead of them. Besides giving them Int checks if they didn't know what to do.

The result: This design kept it open enough to give the PCs a number of possible ways to get away: The wizard was able to cast some spells (like gust of wind) while being on open water, the cleric could try to reach his deity by praying (this is an option I sometime give the PCs in situations where they can't do much else and can grant them a circumstance bonus on insight, perception: the better the roleplaying, the lower the DC).

And my gamers liked it very much and did well (one of the gamers had ranks in Profession (Sailor) for real and came up with her own ideas on how to avoid some obstables).