I'd like to run a chase encounter in which a group of bandits have stolen several horses and the PCs must chase them. I've read over the chase rules in the GameMastery Guide, but they don't seem to work very well in an environment as uninteresting as plains or rolling hills. I was thinking of an alternative:
Start off the bandits 150 feet ahead. The bandits and players make opposed Ride checks. Each roll, they advance 150 feet. (It's only 150 feet because a) the players' horse is carrying 500 pounds and b) the bandits are controlling horses they aren't riding.) If one group beats the other by five or more, the losers advance only 100 feet. If one group beats the other by ten or more, the losers advance only 50 feet.
The players will be on a cart pulled by the horse. When in range, they will have the chance to cast spells or fire ranged weapons. Once the players have caught up to the bandits, they would need to either attack the bandits while running alongside them or make a Hollywood-style horse-to-horse jump (Jump check DC 20) and commandeer the bandit's horse.
If the players do no catch the bandits in time, the bandits will make it back to camp and gather their allies, making the players fight the bandits on the bandits' terms.
Does this seem like a reasonable way to run a horse chase?
Sounds fine to me overall, I have two questions which you might want to think about:
What do you want to do with range increments?
Do the attackers get penalties for shooting from a moving object?
Actually, I just learned the rules on range increments last game. It's -2 per range increment, right? I don't see why I would need to change that. As for moving while firing, I thought a -4 would be enough. My players just hit level 2, so a -4 (or -6 or -8 with range increments) sounds plenty difficult for them.
I don't know if this will help you, but the way I do chases is by converting a creature's movement speed (30 for Humans, for example) into a modifier for opposed d20 rolls, and do the same for the other creature/persons involved. It can get as complicated as you want by adding encumbrance or armor modifiers to the final number, factoring in the length of the quarry's "head start" (again, divide by 5 and add that result to the result of dividing the movement rate by 5 for the total modifier) or just keep it as simple as you want.
Anyway. That's the way I do it.
