In Progress - RPG Tactical Zones Theater of the Mind Combat Aid

 

    I usually run "theater of the mind" styled combats.  I'm not a fan of grids for tabletop RPGs, I love dedicated wargames like Battletech or Warhammer 40k but don't usually run RPG games that focused on combat.  It's kinda hard to run good combats off of the rough sketches I make however, so I started wondering if there was a better way to represent a battlefield that was not super-detailed.

    What I came up with is pictured to the side, dividing up the battlefield by the roles involved.  This is not a totally original idea, The One Ring RPG by Cubicle 7 uses something similar (a little from the D&D 4th ed combat roles too).  I'm adapting it in a more free-form way however.  You can just use the boxes without worrying about the roles to have a good idea of where everybody is, put your miniature or token in the corresponding space.  Or you could get more detailed, adding bonuses or penalties to each role to help make combat more tactical without the foot-counting precision of a grid.

    I'd love to come up with a full set of house rules for several systems, like the D&D 5th ed I usually run, but also Fate and any other game that could use a semi-structured combat.  Something for those like me who enjoy tactical choices but doesn't want to get too in-depth.  I'm still working on ideas though, and with 2020 my group has had a hard time meeting to play of course.  So I'm not sure when I'll be able to craft something detailed - but I decided to go ahead and throw this out there and see if anyone found it helpful.

    EDIT 1/10/2023: Due to current confusion about the upcoming OGL v1.1 and how that might relate to the previous OGL 1.0a that I was using, I have removed all links to my previous documents.  I will try to alter and re-upload them in the near future.

    I have a few more ideas like this, visual aids for some common challenges, that I am going to be posting in the near future as well.  I always welcome comments (it's nice to know somebody's reading this, inconsistent as I am about it).

Skirmish Combat part 1 - above "party" below "mass"

    Overall I've been enjoying running the "Adventures in Middle-Earth" RPG that brings Tolkeen's works to DnD 5e.  I've even been using the published campaign "Wilderland Adventures" and I don't normally like published adventures.  Sadly, the good times have come to an end - I really, really hate the last 2 adventures, and how I want to re-write the ending for my party does not work well with 5th Edition.  Why?  Because my story ends with a big set-piece battle, the party defending a town from a band of orcs/etc.
     Dungeons & Dragons has always been written and balanced around party combat.  Most RPGs are.  But that level of detail quickly breaks down when you double or triple the number of combatants.  The scenario I want is not a full-blown army vs army encounter.  DnD doesn't have any native "mass combat" rules anyways, but lots of people (and I believe an Unearthed Arcana article) have tried making some.  No, I'm looking for something like a few dozen NPCs backing up the PCs as they fight against a few dozen bad guys and a few stand-out bad guy NPCs.  Which I haven't seen anything for.
      So I need to make my own rules.  In fact, I have, and I just had a chance to playtest them a little recently.  So if you are like me and want to do a set-piece battle that isn't quite army vs army, hopefully this will help you too.  I'm going to start by outlining the system in general, the next post will fill in the mechanical details.

How Should This Feel Different From Normal Combat?

    Let's be honest, most RPG combat turns into miss, miss, miss, I hit it with my axe, miss, miss, miss, I hit it with my axe.  Boring.  You're waiting on the other players' turns, waiting on the monsters' turns, and then a brief moment in the sun when you actually get to do something, followed by frustration if you miss or back to the waiting cycle.  This Skirmish Combat system is designed for more active, grander combats.  For when a lot is on the line, the fate of a city, stopping an invasion before it can start (or starting one).  For when the players are leading dozens of allies into battle.  And this style of combat is meant to be more engaging, to keep the players interested in the combat itself - not just the loot drop after or getting past an obstacle.
   
   

Highlighting The Logistical Layer Of Combat

    I once heard logistics defined as "having the right thing at the right place at the right time."  This dynamic nature, different things that need to be in different places at different times, is what makes larger combats engaging.  Archers are strong at range, but weak in melee - so you need to get your melee troops to the enemy's archers, or keep the enemy melee troops away from your archers.  This exists even in party-scaled combat, like the MMO trinity of Tank, DPS and Healer, and it exists in RPGs like DnD.  I think the big problem with RPG combat though is the level of detail and game design that goes into creating individual abilities, which steals the focus from how those individual abilities can chain together and work in coordination.  One of the big things I want this Skirmish level to do is strip away some of the detail on the individual and put more emphasis on how individuals interact and can support each other.  In party combat you can usually survive with each person acting on their own, but in group combat (like this Skirmish or full Mass combat rules) all the individuals have to work together or else they will be defeated (called a "defeat in detail," when a large force is beaten one piece at a time, usually because that force did not stay together).
    There is something to look out for however, and that's the fact that not all role-players are also war-gamers.  Skirmish combat needs to be simple enough that its principles are easy to understand by those who are casually picking it up, and also needs to look as much like regular RPG party combat as possible so the player doesn't have to memorize a ton of extra rules.  That's going to be a tricky balance to maintain.

Player-Focused

    Another thing about this system, I'm using this for when the players are the ones leading the battle.  This is designed for the players to be heavily involved and invested in the turn-by-turn flow of the fight.  That means they have to be leaders, have to be driving the combat.  If the PCs are just in the fight but not driving it, then you don't need rules for all the battle stuff going on, just narrate it in the background, like you would a storm or fire behind the PCs while they struggled with another goal.
    Because of this, every unit in the Skirmish system is generally made up of 2 parts: the Captain and the Supports.  Captains are characters, PCs or NPCs, while Supports are abbreviated/streamlined groups of lower-level/lesser background characters.
   
   

Turning Characters Into Captains

    By and large PCs work the same way as Captains as they do in regular party-level combat.  They have the same hit points, and use their usual attacks.  Defense is a bit different.  When dealing with 12 vs 12 combats, there is no such thing as nobody getting hit.  While a few attackers may miss, others will hit, enough so that on average some amount of damage is always dealt.  Seeings how damage is already being randomized by rolling dice, that will represent how many hit out of the group.  So Armor Class needs to be re-worked.  What we do is convert it to Damage Reduction.  A Captain's DR is just a lowered form of their AC.  Any Energy Resistance works normally.
    Another big change is that Captains get a Resolve Modifier.  Since there are groups of people all working together in the fight, we need to measure how well the unit is acting as a whole.  In real life many battles have been won, or turned decisively, when a group dissolved into individuals and lost their will to fight.  I didn't want to call this Morale like in other versions of DnD or other games, I'm using this in my own way after all, so I call it "Resolve."  A unit's Resolve DC is the number a Captain has to roll to keep the unit together and following orders.  We don't use it a lot, if a unit charges a superior force in what looks like a suicidal maneuver there is no Resolve check as long as they have a Captain.  After all, combat is dangerous and so the Supports know they might be killed.  That's just to cut down on the amount of dice-rolling; I want the players spending more time thinking about and analyzing the battlefield than juggling dice.  Also, it means that breaking an enemy unit's resolve is something the players have to plan for, and they don't have to worry about their own soldiers running away at random.  Captains don't check Resolve for themselves, under the principle that the GM/system should not force a player's actions or take away their agency.  Likewise NPC Captains are under the GM's control (and the GM is always free to throw an even/odd die if they want to leave it in the hands of fate).
    Lastly, Captains can also have special abilities.  I'm not sure about exactly how to so this one.  Normally I'd say that a Captain Ability would be for characters who took the Leadership feat or such.  But that isn't as big of a thing in DnD 5e, and I don't want to limit non-fighter-centric characters from being able to contribute.  So I'm tempted to make a list of 5 or so abilities for each class, and then let every character pick one every 4-5 levels from their classes.  Speaking of abilities, since this is group combat a character's abilities need to be re-examined.  In order to effect the combat as a whole a character needs to use an ability that effects multiple people and lasts for minutes or more.  So some class abilities may not have a noticeable effect.  And spells have to be re-examined as well, which I'll talk about later.  I haven't sat down yet to pour over the books and figure out which class abilities should do what.
    Oh yeah, Captains can also lead more than one support depending on their level.

Cannon Fodder... er... I mean... Supports

    Now the real meat of the system, the Supports, the people (and maybe animals) that are following our heroic players into battle.  We can't track each supporting individual, well, individually, since that would be tons of extra bookkeeping.  But we can turn them into a special kind of character.  Now, I don't really like the mass combat systems out there that just reduce every army unit to a character.  That seems to be over-simplifying things.  But in this case, I think it can work with one change to how characters work.  In party combat each character is perfectly and fully capable in combat until they totally drop out of combat at 0 HP.  So I think if we make a Support like a character, compacting several individuals into one set of numbers, but - with Supports as they lose members they also loose effectiveness.  Supports have 3 tiers: Coherent is around full HP.  Shaken starts at about 66% HP.  And Faltering is from 33% HP to 1.  Of course 0 HP means the unit has been totally Destroyed.  For each tier the Support's attack damage gets lower, the Resolve DC gets higher, and units that depend on each other for defense (like a phalanx) lose defense as well.
    Most Supports also have a special ability, which is the main function of that unit.  So Calvary can Charge, Archers might have a Barrage, stuff like that.  Speaking of which, Supports have a class, like players, so Infantry, Calvary, Artillery.  And they have a level, since they need to scale with the players in order to stay relevant.
    Supports do just that, they Support the Captain and each other.  So each Support has a damage rating (for both melee and ranged) that gets added to the Captain's regular damage.  This creates one damage total for all the units.  However, Supports can act without a Captain, they just will do their own damage and have a flat d20 roll for their Resolve, so they will not be as effective as a Captain/Support combo, and they will be more likely to fail Resolve checks.

The Flow Of Combat

    Speaking of damage, let's go over the combat turn in general.  In party combat each round is 6 seconds long.  For Skirmish combat, each round is 1 minute.  Party combat also measures everything in feet, while Skirmish uses "zones."  A zone is a general area that's big enough for several units, say about 9 units of any number of Supports each.  Just because two units are in the same zone does not mean they are engaged in melee combat (zones are big).  By default personal ranged weapons can reach to an adjacent zone, while artillery usually reaches 3-4 zones.  A Support's movement speed is how many zones it can cover in one turn.
    The first thing is to set the battlefield.  The GM needs to know what enemies are involved and where the battle will take place.  The players need to know what Supports are available to them, and decide on who is commanding what.  Also the players need to pick a starting position for their forces, from wherever the GM allows.
    Because the goal is to get the players more involved in combat, initiative is handled differently.  The players always go first.  Whenever a player interacts with an NPC unit they both roll damage (even if one side totally destroys the other, there will still be some blows from both sides - in 12 v 12 combat the odds of "instant death" are pretty slim).  Once a player has finished commanding all their units, that player then chooses the next player to act.  Again, this is to try and reinforce teamwork between the players.  Once all the players have gone, if there are any NPC units that haven't acted the GM moves them.
    On a turn units can move once and attack/ use an ability once.  Or the unit can move twice, not attacking or using any abilities.  Other things might use an action like climbing ladders/ stairs.

Warmages and Battlepriests

    Magic is a tricky thing in general, but it gets more difficult in Skirmish combat.  Because of the longer time for each round, and the fact that multiple characters are involved, some spells (and abilities, these guidelines could work for both) would not logically have much of an impact.  Take "True Strike," a cantrip that gives the caster Advantage to hit on the next attack roll.  From a Skirmish standpoint, this spell is useless, a single attack with advantage to hit is not a big enough change to effect the round.  But from a game design standpoint, saying that a character's abilities are useless is not a good thing, we don't want players to get frustrated.  So at the moment (and this may change a little or lot with playtesting) I'm going to strike a compromise.  Some spells are useless, like True Strike.  But lets look at another spell, "Mage Armor."  As a 1st level spell that grants AC to any single character not wearing armor and lasts 8 hours, we have some room to play with here.  So, the core principle of Skirmish magic is: lowering one type of effect can be used to bolster another effect.  So that 8 hour duration is long, too long.  A first level spell should not last the entire battle.  But the single target is too weak, like with True Strike, buffing a single character is useless in group combat.  So lets create the Warmage version of the spell - by dropping the duration from hours to a single Skirmish turn we can increase the effect to cover the Captain and all attached Supports.  We don't do AC, just DR, so we'll say the spell is a DR bonus, like +2 (or +caster Int mod?), but it's supposed to only effect unarmored targets, so we'll say the DR bonus only applies to Captains or Supports with a DR of 3 or less.  Now the spell can be useful, but it is still kind of weak - which makes sense given that this is just a 1st level spell.
    So, single-target spells need a long duration to lower to make then effective.  Spells that already hit a group, like a combat spell that has a Line or Cone of effect work normally (since they are already designed to hit multiple targets).  I'm tempted to say that Burst spells, like a Fireball that hits everything within range, would actually get a bonus to damage since they completely cover their area of effect.  Skirmish combat doesn't use saving throws, this is just to reduce the amount of bookkeeping, so some spells that have a save might use a Resolve check instead.  Which brings us to...

Resolve Checks

    Every support has a Resolve DC, like 11+.  This is a d20 roll with no modifiers if the Support is acting alone, or with the Captain's Resolve Modifier if the Support has an attached Captain.  Special abilities by Supports and Captains will have a specific effect if the Resolve check succeeds or fails.  Sometimes the effect on a failed check is that the Support becomes "Broken."  Resolve represents how well the Support is acting as a single force, so when a Support's Resolve fails they have stopped acting together.  A Broken Support does half damage, has half their DR (rounded down, minimum of 0 for both), and will move away from combat as quickly as possible.  Once the Support has gotten out of combat they will stop and hold their position, only moving again to escape enemy forces.  Any Captain can move next to a Broken unit any try to re-form them with a Resolve check.  On success the Support loses the broken condition and acts normally, on a failure the unit remains broken.
    Resolve is a powerful effect.  Historically there have been many battles where units have lost their resolve and turned the tide of battle.  Penalties to Resolve also stack during the same turn.  For example, one player has a special ability that forces the enemy to make a Resolve check at -2.  The enemy passes the check.  The player hands the turn off to another player, who has the same ability.  Now the enemy has to make a check at -4, because the stresses of combat are piling up.  This is to encourage the players to work together.
    Resolve isn't just a weapon, some abilities that buff friendly units will call for a Resolve check too.
   
   
    So that's an overview of my Skirmish system/ house rules.  This was designed for DnD 5e, since that's what I'm running at the moment, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to adapt this to other systems.  Next post I'll get into the details of how the system works so you can try it yourself if you want.


You can find the rest of this series here

Looking at the 5th Edition SRD - part 12 - Exploration Actions

A Quick Side Note- this post did not come out, as the last predicted, a week later :(  In fact it's been several months since I last updated this series.  I want to apologize for that, and say that I'm re-committing on finishing this series as quickly as possible while still being worth reading.



    Having looked over the attributes, and how skills modify them, let's look at the rules for different types of actions.  In my 5-fold system for describing RPG actions/ challenges my categories are: Exploring, Investigating, Manipulating, Communicating and Fighting.
    That list starts with Exploring because it covers how the character interacts with the game world.  This is the very first starting point, you need a world to inhabit to do anything/ exist in after all.  This category includes both "natural" and "man made" environmental factors.  So traps are a part of the Exploring rules here.  So is stealth, since it's not really about the person looking for you as it is your ability to 'blend in' with the environment somehow (same way Perception is the ability to identify your environment).  Survival, tracking, movement - both gross like running and swimming, and fine like acrobatics - are also Exploration, obviously, since they move you through the environment.

    Here are the skills that I put as being exploring-
⦁    Acrobatics
⦁    Animal Handling
⦁    Athletics
⦁    Perception
⦁    Sleight of Hand
⦁    Stealth
⦁    Survival

    And here are the sections of the SRD that I think go along with those:
⦁    some of the Attributes & Skills
⦁    Time & Movement
⦁    The Environment
⦁    Traps

    I don't consider objects a part of Exploring, because I put working with/ changing objects as a part of "Manipulation."  Traps are in Exploring however because a trap denies access to a place/ items.  And movement, ie changing places, is a part of Exploration.  Likewise poisons and diseases can afflict a character from a trap or location, but treating or removing them is also Manipulation (that is, manipulating bodies, ie healing).
    So these are the core things to Exploring challenges, in my own system (which I use here only because the 5e SRD has no system at all, and I want to have a logical and well-constructed discussion [as opposed to just listing all my thoughts alphabetically, like too darn many RPG books])...
⦁    Perception / Stealth (stealth hides your whole being while sleight of hand hides your actions)
⦁    Movement
⦁    Access and Barriers (incld. Traps)
 ⦁    Weather/ Environmental Effects (including falling) [while healing these may be in Manipulation, taking them in the first place works best here]

    With that as a filter, just how many rules are there and what are they like for Exploring challenges?  Well, we have about 4 pages in 'The Environment' section, 2 pages of 'Time and Movement', and 4 pages of 'Traps' - and let's say 2 pages from the 'Abilities and Skills' section, for about 12 pages of Exploring-styled rules: out of 403 pages total (though a lot of that is characters, spells and monsters).  There are maybe 50 pages of rules on running the game (estimating generously).  Looked at that way the Exploring rules take up a decent proportion of the total rules.
    So what all do we get in those 12 pages?  Well, let's look at each section.
   
    In the Abilities and Skills we have the skills I listed above.  There are some examples of what each attribute/ skill might be used for, but as I mentioned in my last post there are no examples of DCs - weather each action might be easy or hard.  While that does give the GM flexibility it also sucks if you're a new GM and don't feel comfortable with the DC system, or you're a player and the GM hides your DCs, in which case you have no idea how likely an attempt might be, and thus weather it could be worth any potential risks.  Something is better than nothing, but I wouldn't call this section very useful.
    Let me give you an example of what I mean.  There is a little sidebar in the Dexterity section that talks about hiding.  It has exactly one sentence about hiding while invisible, "An invisible creature can always try to hide.  Signs of it's passage might still be noticed, and it does have to stay quiet."  Okay, now how does that tell you anything you wouldn't have figured out on your own when thinking about invisibility and hiding?  Instead of being written by Captain Obvious, how about we get a game designer to write about this - because a game designer would say something like: invisible creatures don't need to make Stealth checks unless the environment might give them away (ie, leaves or twigs that could break), or maybe, invisible creatures always have advantage on Stealth checks, or maybe, if an invisible creature makes noise/ tracks other characters who rely on sight still have Disadvantage to attack or interact with them, or anything that might actually help you adjudicate an invisible player/ monster at the table?  I'm not saying the game needs precise rules, just some quick advise to the GM about how to use the system. A good thing to have, even in a "rules light" styled game.

    Time and Movement is next.  Time in RPGs is always screwy.  No matter how detailed your rules it's impossible to simulate reality enough to measure things in exact seconds.  And it's useless to try.  The most valuable thing is figuring out who gets a task done first, or arrives at a location first.  And given that DnD has always used identical numbers for a group (ie, all Humans move at exactly 30 feet per round) (DnD Olympics must suck), then it's really important to say what gets checked in a contest.  If two players are having a foot race what do they roll to determine the winner?  Dexterity?  Strength?  Constitution?  Wisdom, what ?!?!  That's the only really useful thing at the table, counting minutes and seconds is actually more of a waste of time than anything else.
    Sadly the 5e SRD doesn't have a lot of useful information.  And again it is very wasteful of its word count.  Pretty much the entire Movement section can be boiled down to this:

Walking: choose a pace-
    Fast- covers the most distance (automatically beating/ arriving before any slower creatures), but Disadvantage to Perception
    Normal - the default speed, cannot use Stealth
    Slow - the slowest speed, automatically beaten by all others, but can use Stealth
*Forced March - can treat your speed as 1 category higher, but have to make a Constitution save or gain 1 level of Exhaustion
*Difficult Terrain - move at half speed

Climbing and Swimming: move at half your normal speed

Jumping:
    Vertical - can jump roughly half your height from standing, or just over your height with a running start
    Horizontal - with a running start you can jump your Strength score in feet, half that from a standing start
*difficult or longer jumps require an Acrobatics check

    What the rules miss (IMHO) are:
        Flying creatures ignore ground terrain (and hazards), and will beat any ground characters at the same Pace.  High winds may count as difficult terrain (headwind) or a free 'forced march' (tailwind) for fliers however.
    Short-term movement is a contested Acrobatics check to determine a winner in the same Pace.  Long-term movement is a Constitution save/ check.
    Normal Pace should allow Stealth, just at disadvantage, while at Fast Pace Stealth is impossible (without a special ability).  Also a Fast Pace may impose Disadvantage to other skills than just Perception (like Survival to track).
    Hazardous Terrain (like Desert, Arctic, Volcanic) requires a save, typically Dex (? Con?) but could be another attribute, or the creatures take damage (use the Trap tables for save DCs and ignore attack roll, just apply damage).  For ease of bookkeeping Hazardous terrain should only be applied once per journey, ie a Desert may be a Con Save vs the heat to the Oasis, then another Hazard check from the Oasis to the City the PCs were headed to (making checks for every day seems like it would just slow the game, no way to heal the damage though so that's the state you arrive in).  Proper equipment/ abilities may negate Hazardous terrain, like being Fire Resistant may reduce or ignore hot environments, and using camels and buying extra water (or hiring native guides) may negate the hazards from the Desert example above.
    Characters may need extra supplies (like food and water) if they travel at a Slow Pace, or fewer supplies traveling at a Fast Pace.  Not having enough supplies requires a Con save (like for a forced march, but without the speed boost; and forced march w-low supplies is Con save at disadvantage).
    Since a Forced March represents moving when others are normally resting, ie at night or just by making a smaller camp and shorter rest/ sleeping breaks, then any creatures moving this way need to be able to see in the dark, or else make any Hazard checks at Disadvantage.
    Animal Handling - animals and the AH skill are usually either used to ride a mount or direct a carriage, or as a save against an animal hazard (ie, you recognize the dangerous animal's signs and avoid them).
    Again, this list has my personal house rules, the book doesn't say anything about them.  I only mention my thoughts to show how much the SRD is missing that might be needed at the table.


    The Environment section has a decent amount to unpack, so I'll hit on each element in order:

    Falling - as in previous editions falling damage is 1d6 per 10 feet, which works for me.  While I'm not a fan of exact foot measurements, ten foot increments are broad enough and not too hard to approximate (you could say 1d6 per 'floor' or 'story' I guess).  Hit Point inflation does make this wonky, but that's another problem.

    Suffocating - the SRD says a creature can hold it's breath for it's Con modifier in minutes, min of 30 sec (with a 0 mod).  I decided to try a scientific (I wrote it down, like Adam Savage said to do :) test and held my breath three times.  I got 0:29, 0:33 and 0:28 - I'm a middle-aged overweight guy, no Con mod here, so I'd say the low end sounds about right.  I kind of feel like it should be an extra 30 sec for your Con mod, a full minute seems like a long time - I seem to remember hearing that brain damage occurred around 6 minutes without oxygen.  This sounds logical overall, and I'm not sure just how often it will come up, but the rule makes sense and is short and sweet, so I like it.

    Vision and Light - again the SRD gets excessively wordy, basically there are 3 possible visibility levels: Normal, Lightly Obscured and Heavily Obscured.  Lightly Obscured can be caused by dim light (the edge of the torch, twilight, full moon), patchy fog or light/mod foliage and gives Disadvantage on Perception checks relying on sight.  Heavily Obscured can be caused by darkness, full fog or heavy foliage and creatures gain the 'blinded' condition.  That's simple enough and works. (though, overly-bright light could have similar effects I guess)
    Then the book talks about other types of perception, which gets a little odd.  Blindsight lets a creature perceive it's surroundings within a radius, but that's all the SRD says.  What kinds of details can it perceive?  Can it sense colors?  Can it detect a limb moving while the main body is standing still?  Read lips?  You really have to work this out on your own.  Darkvision makes Heavily Obscured into Lightly Obscured instead, and only sees in black and white.  That's detailed enough.  Truesight lets a creature see, well everything, which works since it tends to be a high level ability.

    Food and Water - like suffocating I'm not sure just how often this will come up at the table, but the rules deal with hunger and thirst by gaining levels of exhaustion.  On page 358 is the conditions list, and there are six levels of exhaustion, with level 6 being death.  That means you could survive 4 days without any water, which I think is pretty "realistic" (as weird as that gets when dealing with an RPG), I remember it being 3 days.  For food you can go 3 + Con Mod (min 1) and then gain 1 level of exhaustion each day, for a minimum of 10 days and a max of about 14 - I seem to remember 30 days being the average you could survive without food (it was 3 min w/o air, 3 days w/o water and 30 days w/o food, and I don't remember where I heard that from).  So I might house rule gaining a level of exhaustion every 2 days, but again I'm nit-picking something that might not ever come up.
   
    The last section is about traps.  Traps are a huge topic, there have been books written about traps and using them in RPGs.  I don't want to get into it here, that will be a post for another day, but I will just say that the 5e SRD rules are okay.  They're fairly detailed, they tell you to think about what the players are doing and the circumstances and not just rely on die rolls.  There are not a lot of sample traps, but there are a few tables as guides and I think enough to get your house ruling pointed in the right direction.

    Okay, so we've covered 1/5th of my Challenge categories, next post we'll cover some more.

   
You can find the rest of this series here

Pathfinder's Ultimate Intrigue - Pursuit Rules

    In most of my Pathfinder games we've just used the basic rules.  We did once use the rules for 'Performance Combat' from Ultimate Combat to make a really cool fighting/ talking hybrid adventure, but by and large even though we have a lot of the Pathfinder books we don't use many of the optional rules.  In my current campaign, however, one character made a Bard with the Wit archetype from Ultimate Intrigue.  One of the archetype's abilities directly uses the 'Verbal Duel' rules from that book, so I decided to also use them so that character would get all they were designed for.  I also decided to use the 'Pursuit' rules from the same book since in for a penny in for a pound - why not try as many rules as possible and see what they were like?
    Today I'm going to cover the Pursuit rules since they are the easiest to understand and run, and I have a clear and strong opinion about them.  So let me start by recapping the rules from pages 142 - 147 of Ultimate Intrigue:


Part 1 - Setup
    Now, the GameMastery Guide has rules for a 'Chase' - which is a short-term, foot or carriage or steampunk-car chase.  These 'Pursuit' rules are for much longer chases.  I think the book even mentions Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas chasing the Orcs who kidnapped Merry and Pippin, a pursuit that takes several days to resolve.  So this is a long-term action, not a quick and frantic scene.
    The first major distinction is weather this is a pursuit or a race.  In a pursuit one group (PC or NPC) is directly following the other, hoping to catch them, I'll come back to that.
    In a race both groups are headed to the same destination, and whichever gets there first wins.  A race is the easiest to set up and play, since one group's actions do not directly effect the other.  The GM does have to decide if both groups are taking the same path/ trail  (which could be dramatic as they might see signs of the other group being ahead or behind) or if each group is taking a different path.
    For a pursuit the biggest question is who's casing and who's being chased?  PCs pursuing NPCs or vice-versa?  I guess there could even be multiple groups, like the PCs trying to evade two hostile forces, but the rules don't directly mention that (that I remember) and I'm not sure if the added complexity would really add anything to the game.
    Another question is: how could the pursuit end?  The book mentions several ways...

Ending a Direct Pursuit: A direct pursuit can end in one of four ways. When the pursuers are on the same tile as the quarries and have made equal or greater progress than the quarries, the pursuers catch their quarries. When the quarries reach a location where they stop progressing (such as a safe haven or stronghold), pursuit ends and may turn into a siege. When the pursuers can’t possibly succeed at the Survival check to continue tracking their quarries and have exhausted any other tactics that might help relocate the trail, their quarries have eluded them. Finally, the pursuers can voluntarily give up the pursuit. Optionally, the GM can choose a distance at which the quarries are so far ahead that the pursuers have no real chance of catching up. For instance, the GM might decide that if the quarry group is five tiles ahead of the pursuers, they’ve escaped; this number might be smaller in jungles or other dense terrain.

    This is all reasonable enough, though I do hate the part about how the GM can set an arbitrary distance for the pursuit to end.  In a more rules-heavy game like Pathfinder this should really be some specific guideline or formula, not "whenever the GM feels like it."
    To measure progress each character uses their speed divided by ten.  So Generic Medium Creature with a base land speed of 30 feet has a base Pursuit Speed of 3.  The group is expected to stay together during this however, so the Group's speed is equal to the lowest speed of it's members.  This different speed is used because each 'round' of the pursuit is 1 hour long.  You get 8 rounds in a day, going off a generic length of daylight.
    Now, this is not explicitly mentioned when setting up the pursuit, but weather matters.  Rain or snow can make it harder to track somebody, so there is a sidebar that mentions the weather.  It has two main problems however.  First it does not mention how you determine if it might rain.  Roll percentile?  Okay, but what are the odds?  Should the odds vary depending on the season? The type of terrain?  I'm not sure if there is a 'random weather table' somewhere else, like the Core Rulebook.  I usually don't throw a lot of weather into my games.  But if there is a table I wish the book had mentioned where, if not I wish they had come up with at least a quick and dirty system.
    The next problem is that you need to know how long the weather lasts and who is in it, beyond it, or headed towards it.  This is all really complicated, and I'm not sure just how much it adds to the game.  Here's the whole sidebar...

    Bad weather, especially precipitation, can affect both the progress a group makes and the DCs of Survival checks required during pursuits.
    Progress: Heavy precipitation, strong winds, and other environmental factors might impede a group’s progress. For brief storms lasting one or two pursuit phases, reduce the group’s progress by 1 in each pursuit phase. If an entire terrain tile has particularly nasty weather (like a high mountain plagued by winds or a jungle during a monsoon), instead add between 4 and 8 to the tile’s progress to complete, depending on the weather’s severity. Increase the tile’s number of maximum advantages by 1 so the travelers have the opportunity to find a way to overcome the nasty weather.
    Tracking: If there is rain during a direct pursuit, increase the DC of the Survival check by 1 for every pursuit phase that it rained. If it snowed, increase the DC by 10 instead. To track the duration of the precipitation during a direct pursuit, mark down the tile where the quarries are and the amount of progress they have made when the precipitation begins, then mark down the progress they had made when the precipitation ends. When the pursuers are on that tile and have made an amount of progress equal to or greater than the lower progress value, use the increased Survival DCs. After the pursuers have passed the higher progress value, the Survival DCs return to normal. If the precipitation occurs before the quarries entered an area, the Survival DCs to follow the trail might be reduced since the ground becomes very soft mud or covered in snow.

   While I applaud them for thinking about weather changing the pursuit, this is such a damn cumbersome and clunky system.
   Finally, to end the setup phase the GM just needs to determine the path the quarries are taking.  This could be easy if there is already a hex-map of the area, or the GM just needs to pick out some terrain (from a list) that seems appropriate.  Then the GM needs to determine how far ahead the quarries are.
    With everyone in their starting blocks we're ready to begin the pursuit.

   
Part 2 - Terrain
    The primary factor in the pursuit is the terrain.  There are 14 terrain types.  Each has 3 core elements and some optional elements.  The core stuff is...

• Progress - this is how hard it is to cross this terrain tile.  You subtract the group's speed from the tile's progress, when it hits 0 they move on to the next tile (which could be the same type of terrain).
• Ground - this sets the Survival DC to make progress.
• Advantages - this sets how many extra things you can do to progress faster.

     Progress is pretty easy to understand, it's how hard the tile is to cross.  Plains and Roads have the lowest at 8 and Jungle has the highest at 32.
    Ground is also an easy concept, it just sets the Survival skill DC.  These could be the standard ones of: 5, 10, 15, or 20.  If you make the DC you make progress, if you don't then you don't.
    Advantages, this is a little bit tricky.  There are two reasons I can see for advantages, one is based on 'realism'/ logic and the other on gameplay.  Basically an Advantage is a way to make extra progress, from a logical standpoint.  Plains and Roads have the lowest advantage numbers, at 0.  This makes sense because these terrains are so easy to traverse that you can't really make it any easier/ faster.  Jungle has the highest at 8, so if you can use your machetes to cut down the foliage you'll make it easier to travel.  Or of you can do something creative then you can make it easier (beyond just finding a good trail with Survival).  From a gameplay standpoint, the advantages give the rest of the party something to do.  A lot of travel becomes a one-player game with whoever has the best Survival skill rolling while everybody else takes a nap.  So this system tries to get everybody involved, with mixed success.
    Okay, we haven't actually started rolling dice yet, so let's go...


Part 3 - Tracking and Advantages
    I wish the book laid this out better, but basically each party member is going to be making one action/ skill check.  Each round is 1 hour long, and there are a default of 8 in a day (I don't think the book specifically mentions it, but I'd say the GM can change that if needed).  The party is going to be roughly split into two groups, those tracking and those advantaging.
    Trackers - so at least one character has to be tracking.  They make a Survival check based on the terrain's DC, that increases by 1 for each day behind the quarry they are, and decreases by 1 for every 3 characters in the quarry party.  And then the weather of course.  Any number of characters can choose to be 'assistant trackers' which is their one action for the round, and they make a normal Aid Another check.  All trackers and assistants move at half speed, unless they have a special class ability or item or something that lets them track and move faster.  Likewise, the only spells or actions that can modify this roll (or any for advantages below) are those that have a duration of at least 1 hour.  Also no one can take 10 or 20, or use an ability that allows only a single re-roll (since again this is a long-term action).
    Trackers and assistants also suffer a penalty, they only move at half speed.  I don't remember it sating if you should track fractions or round down or up - so a Medium Human of base speed 3 is either a 1 or 1.5 or 2 when tracking.
    Advantagers - the other action a party member can take is to create an advantage.  This is a little tricky though.  First, each terrain tile has a maximum number of advantages that are allowed.  The book does not clearly spell this out, but I feel safe in saying that each member of the group can create an advantage that number of times.  For example, a Forest tile has a max of 3 advantages.  So a party of 4 characters, with only 1 tracking, can make a total of 9 rolls (3 from the tile for each of the 3 party members not tracking).  There is a list of 10 different advantages, and 3 are tied to a specific terrain while the rest can be used anywhere.  They are all a little vague, enough so that the GM may rule that a certain advantage is not possible, or might have a higher or lower DC.
    Basically an Advantage is just a non-Survival skill check.  The book does not give any base DCs, it seemed to think you should just look the skill up in the Core Rulebook to work those out.  I was saying that the DCs for advantages was the same as the DC for the Survival check from the terrain tile, just because that was easier.  Also, while a failed Survival check from the trackers means you make no progress, the Advantagers checks work differently.  A successful Advantage check adds 1 to the group's progress (I'm assuming even if the Survival failed, just to keep things moving).  Failing reduces that character's speed by 1, unless they failed by 5 or more in which case they slow the whole group by 1.  This is a little weird since if the whole group has the same speed (all Medium creatures for example) and the slowest person sets the group's progress, then reducing your speed by one is going to reduce the whole group, which makes the distinction kind of meaningless.  I don't know, I just don't like how an advantage can either add or subtract to progress, I'd rather have even a failure just not add anything, like with tracking - maybe that's just me though.  Sine this is really designed to give the rest of the party something to do, I don't want to make a player feel like they shouldn't try to help since they might hurt the group as a whole.  While adding zero is not really helping, it seems like (with my players at least) psychologically it seems safer than knowing you could subtract from the others.
    Okay, so to recap, each round each player chooses to either track or advantage, and they make however-much progress until they leave the tile.  But, of course, there's one more potential complication.


Part 4 - Tactics
    While the action (tracking or advantage) says what each character is doing, there are also tactics to say how they are doing it.  There are both individual and group tactics, and there is no limit to how many each character or group can use except for the ever-elusive "common sense" or GM fiat.
    Tactics get kind of weird, so I actually want to cover them individually.  First up we have the personal tactics which each character can choose.
    Fast Tracking - a tracking character does not reduce their speed by half, but they take a -5 to the Survival check.  Some abilities let you track at full speed anyways, but the -5 is not a really big deal since the highest DC is 20, and 25 is doable for most mid-level characters.  Also this is only an individual tactic if only one person is tracking, any assistant trackers also have their speed halved, so remind them to take this as well to keep the group moving.
    Obscure Trail - Quarry Only - mark where the character starts and stops using this tactic, the character moves at half speed but add 5 to the tracking DC through the marked section.  Wow, I really hate this one.  Too many things say "mark this section" for my taste, this should be a simple system, not a ton of additional book-keeping.  Also the flat +5 DC is crap at higher levels, why not make it a contested Survival or Stealth vs Survival check? (though admittedly that's even more bookkeeping)  And, since this is an "individual" tactic, if each member of the group chooses to use it do the penalties stack?  That could be huge for a low-level party (three quarry could apply a -15 penalty, which might make it impossible to succeed) though it would at least be meaningful for a higher-level group.
    Recovery - a character can spend a round healing their allies with spells or items.  They cannot track or advantage for that round.  This seems like way too big a penalty.  I can see using the Heal skill taking enough of a chunk out of the hour to slow the character, but spells and scrolls and potions and items can all be used in one round of combat, wich is just 6 seconds long.  So helping 5 of your comrades takes less than a minute.
     And this one I hate the most, I'm going to print exactly what the book says...
    

Special Movement: A character with consistent access to a fly speed, swim speed, or the like for a full pursuit phase might be able to move particularly quickly over the appropriate type of terrain; though, for instance, a character flying above a jungle canopy would not be able to follow a trail below.

    WTF?!?!  Wow, what a way to gloss over something so important.  It's bad enough that these rules seem to be only written for two groups of people on foot, since there is no mention of horses/ mounts and how they effect speed, tracking or endurance.  So if I can fly the GM just makes up what happens?  I get that flying means I can't roll Survival to track someone through the jungle - but what about rolling Perception to spot the guys I'm chasing?  What's the DC?  How is that DC effected by the distance ahead of me they are and the terrain type?  All of this is just getting left up to the GMs imagination?  If that's the case, why did you bother writing rules for it?!?!

    Then there are the group tactics, which every member of the group has to agree to use...
    Forced March - the group takes a 9th round at the end of the day, but each member has to make a Con check or take nonlethal damage and possibly become fatigued - it references the rules on page 171 of the Core Rulebook.  This seems like a pretty small bonus, and also a trivial penalty at higher levels.  I'm not even going to bother reading the rules in the Core Rulebook, I don't care.
    Gather Information - Pursuers Only - okay, this is a weird one, let me cover it and then set off the rant-bomb.  So this is a Diplomacy check, it takes 2 rounds (they call them phases, whatever, and this is the only thing that takes more than one: that's 2 hours of 'real' time), and there have to be people around (no guidance on how to determine that) or you have to be able to talk to animals or plants or something.  Typical DC of 15, though that depends on "how sneaky the quarry are being."  Replaces the Survival check for tracking to make progress.  Holy bajolie there is so much wrong with this.  If this replaces Tracking, why the hell is it in the back with the Tactics and not in the front with the Actions like tracking and advantages?  How the hell am I supposed to determine (as the GM) if there are "enough people around" and "how sneaky the quarry are being" ??  What is the DC for talking to plants and animals?  Should it be lower in a Forest or Jungle tile where presumably there are a lot of flora and fauna and higher in a Road or Mountain tile???  This wonky mechanic should have been cleaned up in playtesting or proofreading - neither of which I think was actually done for this, or honestly any of the other new rules in Ultimate Intrigue.
     Here's another one I hate, and it's full description...
    

Hustle: This tactic is analogous to hustling during overland movement. A group using this tactic can double the progress they make during that pursuit phase. They can use it once per day without consequences, but using it again requires all members of the group to take 1 point of nonlethal damage and become fatigued. Each additional hour spent hustling deals twice the amount of nonlethal damage of the previous hour. A group can hustle during a forced march, but they take the nonlethal damage and conditions from both, meaning a healthy group usually becomes exhausted when they do so. Hustling is a useful tactic with fairly light repercussions, but the group spends all of its time moving. This means that the obscure trail, recovery, gather information, and set a trap tactics can’t be used when hustling. Unless an advantage is focused specifically on movement (such as climbing lead or fancy footwork), it can’t be gained while hustling.

    Okay, this thing is wonky since it interacts with everything else in the Pursuit system, and it's a bunch of weird book-keeping. The amount of non-lethal damage is trivial to a mid- or high-level party, so the fatigue thing gets thrown in there.  Again, what happens if the party is mounted?  Do all mounts take fatigue the same way characters do?  The speed gain is not at all worth it if you have Advantages left to use, so this is really meant for low/ no advantage terrain or after you've used your advantages up (which I wish it just said).  Having to track this every single round seems annoying, and if you're so focused on movement why don't you take a penalty to the Survival check to track (like a forced "Fast Tracking" tactic above), and if you do why doesn't it explicitly say that?  I get this as a tactic, and you really, really need ways to increase your speed since most living things move at the same rate, and the only way to go faster is tied to the Terrain's Advantages, which mean that again they apply to everyone involved.  But this seems way too complicated for what should be a quick and simple system.  Rolling each hour of 10 days' pursuit is a recipe for insanity, this whole mini-game is more grinding bookkeeping than meaningful decisions.
    I forgot about this one, it sucks too...

Intentional Hardships: A quarry group using this tactic chooses a circuitous or treacherous path to attempt to shake pursuers. This decreases their group’s progress by 2 as long as they use the tactic. Mark the terrain tile and amount of progress the group made on that tile when they start and stop using this tactic. While the pursuers are in the same area, their progress is reduced by 2, but their number of maximum advantages is increased by 2. Like advantages, this reduction applies after any multiplication or division due to tracking, hustling, and the like. For simplicity’s sake, the GM might want to require the quarry group to use intentional hardships when they first enter a terrain tile and stick to it throughout that terrain tile.

    Okay, so the quarry are forced to lose 2 progress, and the pursuit loses 2 progress, but gain 2 advantages, which means they can just roll (again trivially for a mid- to high-level group) to make up the loss that the quarry have no way to regain.  Whoever is stupid enough to use this tactic deserves to be caught.  Again too we have the minutia of tracking exactly where and when the quarry use this, so much that to book itself even points out that this is a bunch of stupid book-keeping you should simplify.  If the game designers saw that this was as stupid system why didn't they write a better one?
    The last two are really easy to work out, mostly.  First there is "Set A Trap" which means the quarry ambush or create a trap for the pursuit.  Which you just adjudicate normally when the pursuit reaches that point.  Sounds easy, though I don't remember the time and DCs to make an improvised wilderness trap off the top of my head, so might take some book-flipping to work out.  Lastly a group can "Split Up" into multiple groups, which is easy enough except for the extra work of tracking an extra party's progress/ speed/ advantages/ tactics so again even the book points out that this sucks and you might not want to do it.  A big question though, if the quarry split up because one of them has an item, and so they want to make the party chase down the wrong group (ideally), what roll does the pursuit need to make to determine how many groups they split into?  Say there are 4 quarry, only 1 has a stolen artifact.  They travel for a day and then split up (because they knew/ suspected they were being pursued?  a friendly raven told them to?)  - so when the pursuit reach that point do they need to make an extra Survival check to find how many groups they split into?  Do they automatically know?  Is there any way to figure out who has the stolen artifact?  And now if 4 pursuers also split up you've got 8 different people's progress and tactics and such to keep track of.  That should be fun.
    And that is the Pursuit system in a nutshell.
    Are you as exhausted as I am?


How It Played For Me
    Total s***storm.
    I made one huge mistake, I didn't pay enough attention when I read the rules, and so I ran this for a group of level 10 characters.  A maximum 25 DC is trivial for characters of that level.  So I ended up using the "fail skills on a natural 1" optional rule (that I never normally use) and I nerfed my NPCs skills so a couple of bad rolls made them loose progress.  It ended up being long, boring and stupid.
    So, instead let me create a sample group for you and we'll do a fresh playtest here.

The Situation
    A group of monsters have stolen an artifact from a church.  The PCs have been called in to retrieve it.  There will be 3 monsters with a 1 day head start.  There will be 5 PCs.  All will be considered to be low-level.  The monsters are headed back to their hideout, their path will cover 5 tiles: Forest A, Forest B, Plains, Hills, Mountains.  The Mountains tile will be considered Hard (DC 20).  Both sides will be considered to have enough food.  The monsters are taking advantage of a storm front, stealing the artifact just before it hits, so the PCs are going to have 4 rounds of bad weather at the start of the pursuit, the monsters will be past that section so they will be unaffected.

The Party
    Are going to be considered to be level 1, trained in whatever they need to do (ie, someone with Survival as a class skill is doing the tracking), with a +2 in the relevent attribute (this is just so I don't have to actually make some characters).  That means they will have a +6 bonus to whatever action they take (I'll assume they choose Advantages that they are likewise skilled in, for simplicity's sake).  They will all have a base speed of 30', which I'm going to round down to 1 progress for tracking.

The NPCs
    Are going to be considered "level 1" monsters, so about a CR 1/4 to 1/2 each.  I'm going to assume they are a little less skilled than the heroes, so they will only have a +5 to their rolls.  I'm also going to assume they are a little bit faster, so they will have 2 progress while tracking.

The Rolls
    The 3 Quarry gives a +1 bonus to Survival for tracking, while the 1 day's head start gives a -1, so they will cancel each other out.  I'm also rounding up that "day" - I'm going to say the monsters traveled for 4 hours to get ahead of the storm before taking a nap for the night, so I'm giving them 4 rounds of progress to set the lead.
    The first terrain tile is a Forest, with a DC 15 and 3 Max Advantages.  Since the monsters get 4 rounds of progress I'll let them take all 3 advantages, and 1 round with no advantages.  Advantages will be made off the same DC as the tile's Survival (again, for simplicity).  So let's roll, tracker first then the advantages (while they last).  I'm going to use an online dice roller (to lazy to reach for my bag :) from Wizards of the Coast https://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm - for the first round I get: 12, 19 and 17.  So the tracker failed, which gives the group a base 0 progress, and both advantages succeed for 2 progress total.  Round 2 is 10, 11 and 20 total, for 1 progress, which makes the total 3.  Round 3 is 7, 8, and 18, only 1 more progress for 4 total.  Round 4 is the last round of the head start, and all advantages have been used up, so it is just the tracking roll, an 18 means they get the base 2 progress for their speed, and a total of 6 progress.  The forest needs 16 progress, so they are still in the Forest A tile when the PCs join the chase the next day.

Round 1
    The monsters have used all their advantages for this tile, so it will only be the tracker rolling, but both of his buddies will aid another him (so they need to make DC 10s), I'm going to roll them first.  The aides get 25 and 12, so they will give the tracker a +4.  He gets an 11 even with their help (and his buddies are thinking about eating him) so they make no progress.  This leaves them in Forest A at 6 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    The heroes give chase.  They have 3 advantages, which they will use, but they are penalized by the storm (which I'm ruling by time and not distance, to simplify) which is going to reduce their movement by 1 for each round it's raining, it also increases the survival DC by 4 (the last 4 hours it's rained) which will increase by 1 for each of the 4 rounds it continues to rain.  However, it also adds 1 advantage making a total of 4.  One hero is tracking, the others will try for an advantage while they can.  Tracker first I get 9, with 21, 12, 14 and 13.  The 15 base survival plus 4 for the rain makes 19 total, which the 9 is way short of.  I'm also using the same DC for advantage (to simplify), so only 1 advantage roll is made, for a total of 1 progress.  The heroes are in Forest A at 1 of 16 progress, 5 behind the monsters, with 3 advantages.

Round 2
    Same 2 aid another checks and then survival for 10, 25 and 13.  The leading monster's blindness continues so they make no progress.  Monsters are in Forest A at 6 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    Heroes switch tactics, the rain penalty increases to 2, making the DC 20.  Given their poor showing last round they are all going to do aid another (DC 10) with 8, 24, 24, 26 for a +6 to the tracker who gets a 16 total, again no progress.  Heroes are in Forest A at 1 of 16 progress, still 5 behind the monsters, with 3 advantages.

Round 3
    Monsters are the same, 21 and 21 give the tracker +4, his 26 total finally gets them moving, for 2 progress.  Monsters are in Forest A at 8 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    Rain penalty increases by 1 again for DC 21, just one more round after this it will be raining.  Heroes will again aid and track.  The aides roll 24, 14, 25 and 16 for a total of +8 and the tracker rolls 18 so no progress.  Heroes are in Forest A at 1 of 16 progress, now 7 behind the monsters, with 3 advantages.

Round 4
    Monsters get 22 and 9, for a +2 to the tracker.  He gets an 18 which beats the Forest DC 15 (he's not effected by the rain), so they finally make 2 progress.  Monsters are in Forest A at 10 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    Heroes have the final round of rain, for DC 22 to track.  Others aid (DC 10) with 23, 17, 16, 11 for +8 to tracker.  Who gets a 28 so they finally move for 1 progress.  Heroes are in Forest A at 2 of 16 progress, now 8 behind the monsters, with 3 advantages.

Round 5
    With the rain over both groups now are at DC 10 to aid and Dc 15 to track or advantage.
    Monsters get 12 and 9, for +2 to tracker.  Who gets a 16 to make 2 progress.  Monsters are in Forest A at 12 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    Heroes go to 1 tracker and others take advantage, they get 15, 11, 15, 18, 19 - 4 successes for 4 progress.  Heroes are in Forest A at 6 of 16 progress, now 6 behind the monsters, with 2 advantages.

Round 6
    Monsters 25 and 10 for +4 aid.  Tracker 26 for 2 progress.  Monsters are in Forest A at 14 of 16 progress, with 0 advantages.
    Heroes same as last round, 23, 23, 26, 26, 24 for 5 progress.  Heroes are in Forest A at 11 of 16 progress, now 3 behind the monsters, with 1 advantage.

Round 7
    Monsters 19 and 7 for +2 tracking.  Tracker 18 for 2 progress.  Monsters are in Forest B at 0 of 16 progress, with 3 advantages.
    Heroes take their last advantage for this tile, with 22, 26, 21, 19, 24 for 5 progress.  Heroes are in Forest B at 0 of 16 progress, and they have caught the monsters!!!

    I've been working on this article all day, so I'm finishing this example here.  I was going to give the monsters a full 8 rounds of a head start, but shortened it in hopes of keeping the pursuit shorter.  As you can see, at low levels it can be pretty swingy, but when you go from 1st to 6th level, and those +6 become +11 or more, these DCs get pretty easy to hit.  Like an auto aid another and 4 or higher base, with 2 allies that becomes auto as well.  Which is the biggest problem with the system.  It relies on the swing of the dice to create leads and catch up, but if you reliably hit those DCs then it becomes impossible or incredibly long to catch up.
    It's hard for me to say exactly how long this would take to play at the table, but note that I've had to make 59 die rolls, assuming 3 seconds per roll with description that's just shy of 3 minutes.  So maybe 5 minutes tops to play this if you knew the system.  Not too long, but I wonder about it since all that happened was the players caught the monsters at the end of the same day even with having to navigate the storm.


What I Like
    I think there is potential here, a small grain of a good idea, that is buried under a lot of crap.


What I Hate
    Just about everything.  As I mentioned before this is really meant for low-level characters on foot.  There isn't a lot of depth to this.  It kind of involves the group but let's be honest, an "Aid Another" check does not really feel like you're involved.  The stupid "every living thing moves at exactly the same speed" of Pathfinder is really on display here, and why that is stupid.  It seems like a lot of rolling for very little return, it is not all that deep, dramatic, or tactical.  I guess it's better than nothing, but that's a pretty low bar.
    There are also Underwater, Water (surface), and Planar terrain types - which totally show the faults with the system.  How the heck do you make a Survival check to track someone underwater?  Where are the rules for ships with oars and exhausting the rowers, along with sailing ships and wind conditions?  What the heck good is a "Planar" terrain type when it just says "make something up or copy another tile" ?!


What I Would House Rule
    I would actually love to have a good pursuit system.  And this does have a decent core, after you burn off all the fat I think there's a skeleton your could build something useful on top of.  I am so not going there though, not right now.  I've got two campaigns running, one of which I am making a brand new and detailed setting for - so I don't have the time to try to fix this (to my liking at least).  Maybe someday though, someday...


    When I played this I decided to make some handouts.  I thought it would be better to have the Terrains and Advantages on cards that I could lay out and the players choose from.  So I'm dropping some links below to my Google Drive with those files in case you want to try it yourself.  I sized each 'card' to fit in some 66mm x 91mm clear deck protector sleeves.  After I ran this I thought it would be good to have a "tracker" for progress and all those weird effects that start and end at certain places, so I added that at the last minute.  This all kind of helped, one player did say she liked choosing from the cards.
    I have two files:

EDIT 1/10/2023: Due to current confusion about the upcoming OGL v1.1 and how that might relate to the previous OGL 1.0a that I was using, I have removed all links to my previous documents.  I will try to alter and re-upload them in the near future.

    So have you tried these pursuit rules?  What did you think of them?