Planning & Preparation

[Ebiris]

Okay. I'll try and put something together to post at some point.

[Ebiris]

[23:20] <Henrietta> roll 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them
[23:20] * Hatbot --> "Henrietta rolls 1d20+14 GI on whether the rescue party of Rudy's landlady brought that pirate ship back with them and gets 26." [1d20=12]

As far as Henrietta can learn by chatting up dockhands and harbour rats, it's been months since the last prize ship was sailed into Salerno.

[Ebiris]

Chase Rules

We're picking up next week with you guys chasing after the polymorphed dog, and we're going to run it as a Chase encounter rather than a Combat encounter, which is a bit different in how it plays out, but I'm hoping it'll result in a more fun and memorable encounter rather than having anyone feel short-changed about their combat abilities not working the way they normally do.

First off, here's a map as requested, not particularly to scale but it gets the message across I hope.

Left to right the green dots are Rudy, Lucie, Henrietta, and Glenn. Blue dot is the air elemental, red dot is the dog.

The chase will resolve itself like a board game. Currently Rudy and Glenn are on square 1, the Elemental, Lucie and Henrietta are on square 2, and the dog is on square 4.

On each square there are two 'obstacles' to overcome. A participant can avoid the obstacles and automatically move one square forward as a move action on their turn without making any checks. Alternatively they can try to overcome the obstacles with various checks, taking a standard action to overcome one obstacle, or a full round action to attempt both.

If an obstacle is attempted but failed by less than 5, the character only moves forward one square (even if he succeeded on the other obstacle). Failing by more than 5 results in not moving forward at all. Failing both checks results in becoming stuck in the current square and having to spend a full round action becoming unstuck (effectively forfeiting the next turn) as well as potentially other penalties such as damage depending on the sort of check attempted.

Base speed and special movement both impart modifiers to these checks to account for the mobile nature of the chase. For every 10 feet less than speed 30, a -2 penalty is applied to all checks. This becomes a +2 bonus for every 10 feet faster than speed 30. Having flight provides a +10 bonus. (the air elemental therefore has a total bonus of +24)

A character can also attempt to cast a spell or make an attack on their turn, but in the case of melee attacks these can only be done if on the same square as the target.

This particular chase will end when you either kill/capture/incapacitate the dog, or it gets more than 8 squares away from its nearest pursuit.

So you have an idea of what to expect, here's what's on squares 1 and 2 for you to deal with when we start next week.

Square 1

Alley shortcut - DC 15 perception
Barge through crowd of shoppers - DC 20 intimidate

Square 2

Squeeze through narrow alley - DC 10 escape artist
Climb onto building balcony/stairwell - DC 15 climb

You might notice these are pretty generic, that's intentional. There's no set route through the city for this so I want to keep my options open - don't have any concerns that I'll skimp on the flavour text once we're in the chase and you're actually dealing with this stuff first hand. Every time you land on a square I'll tell you OOC what the options are and describe the scene IC to match as best it can depending on where you are. Taking a move action will basically assume that you're steering clear of anything too hazardous and taking your time over the simple stuff. If you can think of a spell, item, or special ability that would handle the obstacle in question, feel free to suggest it when it comes up.

Before it gets asked, you can't take 10 on any checks during a chase.

[Carthrat]

So what actually happens when we overcome an obstacle? >_>

[Ebiris]

I should've just transcribed the rules from the GMG, can't believe I overlooked that.

Each obstacle overcome is one additional square of movement. So if you pass one you move 2 squares, pass both and you move 3 squares.

[Corwin]

Another stupid question, this time from me! We can move from 0 to 3 squares, that seems obvious, but what about the dog? Does our object of pursuit also play by the same rules and decides whether to roll skill checks to bypass obstacles, or is it fleeing at a set speed?

[Ebiris]

All participants follow the same rules.

[Corwin]

I would like to GI the neighborhood to make sure no one but that Waltham guy got a recent change of personality/behavior.

[Corwin]

[22:07] <Henrietta> Can I GI, btw? I'd just take 10 for 25.
[22:09] <Ebiris> sure fine

[Carthrat]

So we have a couple days, right? I'll pay a visit to that casino sometime.

[Ebiris]

If you guys want to we could run the casino visit next Saturday during the wait for Henri's mind being fixed.

[Corwin]

Sure. Who here isn't up for drinks and gambling, really?

[Sierra]

Sounds like fun. Perception will be rolled with wild abandon to spot cheaters!

[Sierra]

Noting that Lucie intends to take Ilona up on her offer to show Lucie around town if there's time for PbP this week.

[Ebiris]

Actually now that I think about it, are you guys still intending to go talk to Lavinia about the Zameina situation or are you just letting it lie for a few days after the sudden drama of Rudy's arena fight?