Leonine Roar

Retreat, fleeing  and withdrawing from combat could use more clarification or guidance as a standard part of the D&D 4e game rules. So could other encounter strategies like parlay and surrender.

Sure, lots if not most creatures will flee, to live and fight again, or just to live.  Many are willing to or are compelled to talk – for a variety of noble and practical reasons.  And some will even surrender, expecting their lives be spared per an arrangement or the unwritten rules of battle and war.

However, while all these alternatives to combat are quick and dirty to execute in many forms of cinema or literary works… doing so smoothly in D&D is hit or miss.

The Fight or Flight Dilemma

Part of the reason for this is because of its nature as the gray area between or hybrid of exploration and encounter modes, or said another way, story and combat modes.  From a game perspective, you’re sometimes left with the “Do we (the PCs or monsters) chase them?” conundrum as well as the “Do I or how do I change the next encounter(s)?” DM question as well.

You’re left to decide as DM if there’s any on-the-fly encounter adjustments you could or should make, based on PC actions, encounter environment and the adventure circumstances.  And for a game like 4e, where set-piece encounters run an average of 60 minutes and are carefully balanced challenge-wise, handling such a scenario might seem intimidating or difficult, whether you’re a player or DM.

However, as discussed in Attack with Your Social Skills!, adventures and encounters are more engaging and dynamic when the party has multiple options – even before an encounter begins.  Characters and their opposition should remember they often have the options to parlay, retreat and surrender as well.  Not every fight, especially with intelligent and civilized adversaries, need come to blows – at least not right away or for the entire encounter.  And best of all, applying, encouraging and making these options available all reinforce immersive storytelling, shifting focus beyond combat and onto the goals and motivations of the adventurers and monsters.  In short, you breathe more life into your campaign.

So how should your playgroup handle all these encounter options?   A read-through of Richard Baker’s Fight or Flight? is highly recommended.  However, are there better or at least more streamlined ways to present and execute some of the rules therein?

What about making an encounter status check before the encounter even begins, directly impacting encounter difficulty?  And do you really need a chase scene skill challenge (sometimes with unique and additional “scoring” and rules) every time groups flee and give chase?

Encounter Status Checks: Add One at Encounter Start

The encounter status check suggested in Richard Baker’s Fight or Flight? is a brilliant additional “tactical check” when running encounters, as it occurs at a natural and fair moment (after everyone has acted the same number of times, or between rounds).  However, it’s at least unclear whether one is appropriate for encounter start.  I strongly suggest adding a special encounter status check also at the start of an encounter, similar to the checking for surprise rounds when appropriate to the environment and circumstances.

Conditions, circumstances and clues that characters pick up or look for might indicate an opportunity to flex those social skills and parlay with the opposition as early as right out of the gate.  Break out the lies or threats, or begin a negotiation or truce before weapons are swung or even drawn, or after enough blood has been spilled, causing one side to seriously question the wisdom of continuing the fight.  Exchange or offer information, for whatever price, coin or otherwise.  If it’s not clear, ask yourself as a PC or as an NPC or monster – what do they (the other group) want?

The opportunities for diplomacy, intimidate, bluff, insight and more in these scenarios are rich.  And as the original article mentions, remember classic and cinematic options such as influence, pursuasion or coercion through bribery, food or supplies, whether you’re dealing with men or beasts.  Generalizing the possibilities in the original article and taking them a step further, consider allowing such actions to provide a bonus to a skill check, count as a successful skill check, or be an encounter-changing or encounter-ending action all by themselves.

Chase Scene: Alternatives to a Skill Challenge

As I’ve often said, there are many times where the 4e skill challenge mechanics are not needed, potentially feeling too gamey and intrusive to immersive gameplay.  Their originally very “scoreboard” mentality and feel can be very hard to shake if you’re not careful weaving them subtly into the scenario.  Often a simple and more organic skill or ability check or two is all you need; describe the action and its impact – the adventure continues.

Here is another situation where I don’t think we need multiple skill checks and special skill challenge rules for chase scenes.  If you must use skill challenges, don’t use anything more complex than the simplest 4-success format or, if the thought of more complex rules doesn’t bother you, you can try the rules as originally presented in Fight or Flight?

In D&D 3.x, one simple retreat-chase rule was simply to compare speeds of the two groups.  Fastest group flees successfully or catches up to the runners.

I think the best solution is something in between.  Focus on a few relevant skill checks and the average speed of each group.  At the natural encounter status checks before the encounter and between rounds, either side can decide to retreat.  Compare speeds of the two groups.  If one group averages (don’t round up or down, to prevent ties) a higher speed, then it gains a +2 circumstance bonus on its skill check.

The featured and most appropriate skills in the original article make sense here; have each individual roll their Athletics or Stealth check (or others, if compelling enough justification can be made – Acrobatics and Endurance come to mind).  You could simply use the natural opposed skill for each skill check (i.e. Perception vs. Stealth, Bluff vs. Insight) or alternatively – or if there’s any doubt –  simply mirror the same skill check for both sides (i.e.  Acrobatics vs. Acrobatics, Endurance vs. Endurance).  Highest roll wins: successful retreat or successful re-engagement of the runners.  For even faster resolution, have the PCs make a single check for the party while the DM makes a single check for the opposition.

To clarify “re-engagement,” the original article doesn’t mention encounter start distance, though it does mention whether it is or isn’t a new encounter and whether some of your “until the end of encounter” effects stay in place.  Talk about this with your playgroup if you’re unsure what’s fair or sensible enough.  The standard rules for encounter start distance (including environmental factors such as illumination, weather, blocking terrain, etc.) are a good point of reference, as are the different distances from enemies and relevant DCs mentioned in the article when breaking off combat.

In general, perhaps re-engagement is more dramatic, believable and best at very short range, meaning around a move’s worth of distance, matching standard poor visibility dungeon settings for initial encounter distance.  Or for extra cinematic flare, you could even decide that re-engagement actually means someone literally just jumped on top of the enemy, and has him grabbed or grabbed and (both) prone!

You see it all the time in TV and movies, so why not?  Besides, I’m sure my friend Glimm the Gnome would approve of my idea!  Just ask his fantastic Cinematic Combat series.

Run Away!  And Other Options

Whether you’re King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table being cut down by a truly terrible beast or pelted by livestock, or adventurers biting off more than you can chew in a fortress teeming with guards, demons or both, or a hobgoblin raiding party that’s clearly outmatched by young heroes, sometimes you just need to run away – or talk or even surrender (a story-rich conversation for another time) – and that realization could come at any point during an encounter.

Remember that you and your adversaries almost always have more options and desires than to fight to the death!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies, Storytelling & Roleplaying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.