Forest Chase Scene

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by ericthered

You seem to assume this forest has cliffs in it. I've yet to be convinced of that.

I've yet to run into a forest that didn't have pitfalls sufficient to injure you if you failed to notice them in the darkness, and if no-one has area knowledge... how do they know if there's a cliff? Sure, hundred foot cliffs are pretty rare and obvious, but a gully you can fall into and break something is not.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I've yet to run into a forest that didn't have pitfalls sufficient to injure you if you failed to notice them in the darkness, and if no-one has area knowledge... how do they know if there's a cliff? Sure, hundred foot cliffs are pretty rare and obvious, but a gully you can fall into and break something is not.

Perhaps the problem is that I HAVE run into a forest like that. Yes, you have obstacles here are there, but no cliffs, all the rocks are weathered and domed, and next to no underbrush.

I've also run into dense forest built on the side of rocky slopes.

[jason taylor]

The chaser has to make sure the tables don't get turned. Remember what happened to General Braddock?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ericthered

That's also a great point. We tend to turn our worst land into forests, but I can't imagine that medieval people didn't do that too.

It's been that way since antiquity. The most fertile land gets cleared or drained to grow crops. Areas that don't lend themselves to agriculture become woodlots or pastures.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I've got one question that I'm still considering: Is having a -10 to hide at medium range reasonable? This is 20 to 100 yards away, which feels pretty darn far for someone on foot to me, especially if people aren't sprinting it (and multiple chase rounds of sprinting feels wrong). I can some penalty being justified but -10 is really big.

In the dark? In the woods? Anyone trying to hide should get a bonus, even in a relatively open woodland.

Most modern folks live in areas where there's some degree of light pollution, so we have little idea just how dark it could get at night when the best source of illumination available was a bonfire.

The scene could easily turn into a deadly game of blind-man's bluff, with pursuers tripping over hidden characters, a brief melee in the dark before the PCs can disengage, rinse and repeat.

Hearing rolls will become incredibly important, since pursuers will be following the PCs by sound more than sight. Have the PCs stumble over roots or rocks, fall down and have to make Stealth rolls at a major penalty to avoid making a noise that attracts the pursuers attention.

Something that hasn't been discussed so far is magic. A mage able to cast any sort of vision enhancement or trail obscuring spell could completely change the way the encounter plays out.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

It's been that way since antiquity. The most fertile land gets cleared or drained to grow crops. Areas that don't lend themselves to agriculture become woodlots or pastures.

That and anything outside about an hour's ox range (~2 miles IIRC) from a village or farmstead - apparently that was about as far as it was reasonably practicable to plough until horsepower was normalised. You also get to adjust for the lay of the land, so steep slopes tend naturally towards being unploughed and the ploughed fields extend more along the valley than up the sides. Of course, if you don't plough and instead terrace and hand tool it, that changes things, but you normally only do that if you are short of flat land to begin with.