Chase Scenes

The assassin fires a crossbow bolt through the window, landing a bolt in the chest of her target.  He then leaps from the balcony and attempts to escape into the crowd hoping that his slight lead over the party will be enough to get away....What follows could be an interesting chase event or just a simple counting of distances with a predetermined result just playing out as difference in speeds.  I've DMed such an event rarely but never had I been happy with the way it worked.  

I ran across a post on oldschoolroleplaying.com that reviews the history of pursuit rules in D&D.  I think it makes an interesting read.  In this post, I will look at how chases are defined in RAW and consider a couple alternative rules.  

Chase as Defined in DMG

The Dungeon Masters Guide, Chapter 8 has a section on Chases that makes for a fairly simple process; though, it creates confusion for a fairly significant part of the player base. 

The whole section is predicated on the observation that a strict comparison of speeds results in a totally predictable outcome after a calculable number of rounds -- boring.  The chase rules in RAW are intended to make this a more interesting event.  

Here's my boiled down view of RAW:

1. A chase begins when the quarry attempts to flee and at least one creature attempts to pursue,
2. Track the distance between the quarry and the lead pursuer (closest at start of each round),
3. Participants in chase, can perform one action and move each round,
4. Dash actions can be freely used 3+Con Bonus times.  After that a DC10 Con check must be passed to avoid a level of exhaustion,
5. Attacks can be made with an action as normal.  Opportunity attacks are not allowed between participants in the chase, 
6. If the quarry is able to break LOS with ALL of the pursuers, he/she may make a free Dex(stealth) check opposed by the passive perception of the pursuers.  Advantage/disadvantage per Escape Factors table in the DMG.  Success ends the pursuit, 
7. At the end f each round, each participant roles on an appropriate Chase Complication table, 
8. Pursuit ends when the quarry is forced to combat, exhausted, hides, or the pursuers give up. 

That's all pretty simple in keeping with typical 5E rules.  Though the bit about exhaustion takes a long time to come into effect, typically 6 or so rounds (longer than most pursuits) and is rather brutal requiring a long rest to recover each level -- a less than one minute chase could lay up a creature for four days to completely recover.  That bit just doesn't work for me.

Alternative Chase Rules

As is often the case, quite a few people have tried to step in to offer alternative systems when RAW seems underwhelming.  Three of which are linked below:

• Hipsters & Dragons: How To Run a Chase in 5e D&D…. Step by Step Rules!
• GM Binder: Revised Fifth Edition Chase Rules 
• Old Dungeon Master: D&D 5E – Quick Reference – Chase Rules

The first two replace the DMG rules in whole, creating rather more complete and complex systems. At this point, I'm not thrilled about using either of these and will not be looking at them further. 

The third is really just an extension of the RAW rules which seem solid to me.  Ronny (apparently the old dungeon master himself) retains the seemingly unlikely to be used but brutal exhaustion rules that still bother me. 

Exhaustion in a Chase - Fatigue

Exhaustion potentially setting in in 3 + Con Mod rounds makes it seem unlikely to be a factor, but if it is a long rest to recover each level is just a brutal punishment for what seems like being winded by a sprint.  The idea is sound but the time required is so long and the cost so steep as to make it seem unworkable.  

What I want is something that is a bit easier to trigger and much easier to recover from.  That leads me to wanting to define an alternative status to exhaustion to represent different levels of fatigue from sprinting. I'm going to call it exactly that, Fatigue.  

Edit 12/7/20: I've posted a separate article focused on Fatigue, as such, I have stricken my brief definition of fatigue in this post and refer the reader to me post on Exhaustion and Fatigue.

Fatigue behaves very much like exhaustion, it has levels with stacking effects, but can be completely recovered by taking a short rest (Breather recovers up to 3 levels).  Here are the levels of fatigue I intend to use:

1. Disadvantage on Ability Checks
2. Speed Reduced by 5
3. Speed Reduced to Half 
4. Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and Saving Throws
5. Speed Reduced to 5
6. Speed Reduced to 0

After CON modifier rounds of pursuit, a DC10 Con check must be passed each round to avoid accumulating a level of Fatigue.

I think this addition to the Old Dungeon Master's rules results in something close to RAW which I think is even better -- that is what I plan to use.