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Old 10-05-2024, 12:21 PM   #1
thom
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Default Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

So my players repulsed a night-time assault by an orc band; and (for next session) they want to pursue the fleeing, Reeling (condition) survivors & finish them off. They have Continual Light (daylight) stones, the terrain is rolling hills, and the orcs (obviously) weren't concerned with hiding their tracks while they fled. I'm trying to figure how hard it'd be for humans to track at night. Thoughts?

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Old 10-05-2024, 02:37 PM   #2
Refplace
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Depends om how dark it is.
GURPS Powers Enhanced Senses has a chart (p. 13) that lists Full Moon at -4, Starlight at -7, etc.
Visibility (p.B394) suggests reducing that to -3 for a torch or flashlight.
I would say Continual Light has the same, though full Daylight would be no penalty in its radious.

Trouble is the group with the light would be walking if they wanted no penalties.
I would have them break into groups. Walkers with the lights carefully tracking the trail and forward scouts running ahead with thier own light (in a cone pattern if you have enough of them) to look for tracks.
I imagine a leapfrogging group that slowed down if they lost the trail but otherwise would have multiple groups of say two or three running ahead, yelling if they spotted anything for others to converge. If they failed to spot then spreading out.

So lets say +6 for following a group, -3 for Darkness with lights) and roll each time the group sprints ahead/leapfrogs rather than the normal interval. But get a secondary roll from those following more slowly or other groups.
I'd give secondary groups -1 per attempt as they have to deal with tracks by the others of their own band.
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Old 10-05-2024, 03:12 PM   #3
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Given ample artificial light, the actual tracking isn't particularly harder than it would be during the day. The problem is that following tracks isn't particularly fast, and walking around with bright lights at night is super noticeable, so the orcs can be expected to run away faster than the PCs can track, recover composure somewhat, realize they're being followed, and take measures. Actually chasing down the orcs will probably require trying to detect the orcs themselves, rather than following their tracks, and in a chase scene like that if the orcs have night vision or infravision they'll have a significant edge (it may not be a sufficient edge, the PCs are likely higher skill than the orcs, but it's a meaningful edge).
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Old 10-05-2024, 07:54 PM   #4
thom
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Thanks guys, you've covered my issues with the night-time tracking. As it happens, the orcs are all 0HP or less with their healer dead, so they can't really get away. I'm going to have them set an ambush for the PCs they know will follow them, to try to take as many of the PCs down with them as they can. Of course they'll see the PCs coming from a mile away-but they can't really do anything about it...

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Old 10-05-2024, 08:18 PM   #5
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Quote:
Originally Posted by thom View Post
the orcs are all 0HP or less with their healer dead, so they can't really get away
I'll say! Wouldn't <= 0 HP mean that the orcs all pass out within seconds? (HT roll each turn to remain conscious?)

At less than 1/3 HP Speed and Move are halved, which would help with the pursuers catching up despite having more to do than just flee. Perhaps that's a better threshold for the desired ambush.
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Old 10-05-2024, 09:40 PM   #6
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

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Originally Posted by thom View Post
Thanks guys, you've covered my issues with the night-time tracking. As it happens, the orcs are all 0HP or less with their healer dead, so they can't really get away.
That's not even a scene; they can be expected to collapse within seconds, at which point the PCs can just coup de grace them all.
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Old 10-05-2024, 10:58 PM   #7
thom
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Weeellll...there are several things going on here:

1] I make orcs a little tougher; they have HT12 & Fit, so their rolls to remain conscious are fairly good,
2] I use Extra Effort in my game; specifically in this case Shaking it Off.
3] I use Steven Marsh's "This one goes to 11" for all NPC rolls that don't directly involve the PCs.

Which means once they broke free of the PCs (by sacrificing part of the warband staying behind to delay the PCs) they were able to keep moving long enough to find some cover and hunker down to wait for the (inevitable) PC counterattack. By the time the PCs find them, the orcs will have regained enough FP to make it a semi-challenging fight. But yeah-they're toast!

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Old 10-06-2024, 02:52 AM   #8
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

I generally assume that if someone at 0HP or below manages to stay concious for 15 minutes (most likely by doing nothing) they are no longer in danger of losing conciousness as long as they take no further injury. If they lose conciousness, I go with the RAW (B423) - once they regain conciousness they aren't at risk assuming no further injury.

Being a big softie, once out of combat I'd probably require one conciousness check for a character attempting to bandage themselves, assuming they take it slowly.
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Old 10-06-2024, 10:47 AM   #9
thom
 
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert View Post
I generally assume that if someone at 0HP or below manages to stay concious for 15 minutes (most likely by doing nothing) they are no longer in danger of losing conciousness as long as they take no further injury. If they lose conciousness, I go with the RAW (B423) - once they regain conciousness they aren't at risk assuming no further injury.

Being a big softie, once out of combat I'd probably require one conciousness check for a character attempting to bandage themselves, assuming they take it slowly.
Oooh...I like this-consider it stolen! ;)

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Old 10-06-2024, 11:05 AM   #10
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Default Re: Humans using Tracking skill at night-difficulty?

Since the Orcs did the sacrifice - delay thing once, they might do it again. Pick the least injured/best runner to keep moving and bring back reinforcements to extract revenge. Could wind up flipping the script. The PCs might become the heavily injured band trying to move out of range of the expected larger fresh party of Orcs. Even if the orcs don't send a runner (or the runner gets eaten by a grue), make the party think fresh orcs are on the way.

Now the question is how well can the party hide tracks at night.
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