Yo,
So the players in my game are about to find themselves on one side of a small village with a desperate need to get to the other without being seen by the general populace (think lynch mob).
What I would like is a quick, easy and fun way to adjudicate this and not by mapping out the whole village, with multiple Stealth checks against the Perception checks of countless villagers, and all that.
How would you go about it? I don't want to make it a Chase (even though I love them because a)did one already and it's too soon. and b)they aren't being chased by the mob - they are running around, trying to avoid them.
My first instinct is to model it after Chases though as it is similar. Something like, the village is 9 cards (3x3 grid) and as the PCs move from card to card, there is a chance of being seen.. that grows as the mob spreads over more squares?
The other factor in this scenario is the PCs are against the clock. There is another group in the same situation but there is only one escape and once a group uses it, it is gone. Thus, the party has to beat the NPCs to it.
So, maybe going from square to square can be done fast, but obvious or slow but hidden?
Give me your thoughts please.. I'd love to cement this
I think that the chase rules would be the most effective with what you want to do.
However, if you don't want to use the chase rules, you could modify the rules for Mass Combat and apply them to skill checks. You could treat each enemy army as a group of guards or a mob which the players need to avoid, using the army's HP as a DC for a skill check. You could even have separate boons that would modify the group's stealth roll and make the journey of their espionage unique.
It would be complex, but, it could work.