HYPERBOREA / Pursuit/chase house rule

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 8/13/2021 5:52 pm

So, last night I ran a mini-session with the party's 2 purloiners. Some wererats transformed during a service at their temple of Rel at the start of Bealltain.

The wererats ran away and the purloiners and a dozen other rogue guild members joined in.

I had to make something up on the fly to make a pursuit mechanic to play out the chase.

Movement rates were equal.

After the first half mile a test of CN was made. If failed either stop or lose a point of CN.

Then checks every quarter mile after that.

Second failed check stop or lose 1d3 CN.

Third failed check stop or lose 1d6 CN.

If CN drops to 0 or less then the subject collapses.

CN is restored at 1 point per hour of rest.

At that point of the chase only 1 of the purloiners was left. The conditions were such that a DX check was needed (running through a graveyard at dark with dim moonlight, which they failed and let the rats get away. For now.

Now that I have some time to think about a more structured process...

I think a check every X rounds.

For double movement it is every 3 rounds(?)

For regular movement is is every turn(?)

The CN penalty progress I think is:

1st failed: 1 pt
2nd failure d4
3rd failure d6
4th failure d8
5th failure d10
6th failure d12
then for each failure d20

**Posted by Larrydanger** 8/16/2021 10:45 am

I like that idea. How would you have determined that your players caught up to the wererats? Were the wererats making checks too?

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 8/16/2021 12:14 pm

Yep, I was making rolls for the wererats, too.

I might have fudged 1 or 2 rolls to nudge things towards an "easier" chain of events.

However, as it turned out the last pc in pursuit missed that DX check and I didn't have to fudge a much tougher roll for the 'rats.

I think I like the mechanic in general. I just want to figure out a distance or round/turn count to use for the check periods.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 8/16/2021 6:15 pm

Trying to rationalize things a bit I was trying to figure out what is a "reasonable" X for the per round check.

To that end...looking at times to reach 100 yards and 400 yards.

Which seems "slow" if all movement is locked to using feet. I went looking for changing MV to yards outside, which Ghul has said all MV is all feet al the time.(last part edited in)

To run 300 feet at 80 feet/round would take approximately 24 seconds. Whereas if if was 80 yards/round then just over 1 round to cover 100 yards.

However, what is a good abstraction? Since we aren't running a simulation.

Maybe a check every 5 rounds if running and every turn if normal movement.

More thinking on this though

Last edited by gizmomathboy (8/17/2021 6:45 am)

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 8/16/2021 6:58 pm

The wererats are going to try to lose the PCs by going into tight spaces. A rat can get through anything his head can poke through.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 8/17/2021 6:47 am

Jimm.Iblis wrote:
The wererats are going to try to lose the PCs by going into tight spaces. A rat can get through anything his head can poke through.

Yep, the Old Graveyards, where the chase led into, I envision to be like Père Lachaise Cemetery where Jim Morrison is entombed.

Which is why I had a DX check at the end. I figured they were in the parts that were hard to maneuver around.

Whether or not their lair/HQ is there I haven't totally determined yet, but I better since the next session is Thursday!

Last edited by gizmomathboy (8/17/2021 6:47 am)

**Posted by Jimm.Iblis** 8/17/2021 11:46 am

What might be fun is to have the "rat race" test the PCs other abilities. Wererat wriggles through a gate or portcullis, those bars gotta be bent or lock picked to follow. Rat scales a wall, gotta climb, jump up after it; etc.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 8/17/2021 2:39 pm

Well, wererats are still human sized so they will be limited to whatever they could fit through. Now, some of the PCs are smallish and some are biggish so that would pose some challenges right there.