4 days ago
Retreating Tactics
Run away!- King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
There comes a time in any adventures life where he has to learn to RUN LIKE HELL!!!! We also run into this as Dungeon Masters when our armies fail their moral checks. Now, the DMG and the PHB are not kind to those who choose to retreat, it states that anybody who runs away will have an Armor Class Rating of 10, which is rather stupid if you ask me. Every time when I realized that I was in over my head, it was far too late, and I lost a lot of good characters this way, so today, we’ll be discussing the FINE ART OF RUNNING AWAY!!!
Is this good for my campaign?
I honestly don’t see how it can be any worse then the system that is in play now? As long as we use logic, and properly understand this tactic, then I’ll except any argument of why you think that it shouldn’t work.
I run away.
To all you players out there, DON’T SAY THIS!!! Not ever! If you simply run away, then you’ll be screwed. There are things that can make a character run away. FEAR!!!! Some monsters radiate and aura of fear, and a failed check results in high-tailing it out of there. Some spells, such as Cause Fear will also force you to run, but there are some instances where a DM can force a player to make a Fear/Horror Check if he feels that you aren’t roleplaying your character well enough.
Running away is a tactic of last resort, it may cause you to drop whatever you are carrying, and run like hell away from whatever is scaring you, and perhaps right out of the pan and into the fire. Besides all of this bad stuff, you also have an AC of 10 until you have put enough distance between you and it.
I Retreat!
A retreat is organized! And it should all be done at once. A single fighter leaving the front to seek a cleric or drink a potion is withdrawing, and hopefully a comrade will protect him while he is performing this action. A retreat on the other hand is an entire party or group admitting defeat but attempting to escape.
A retreat does require a few conditions to be successful.
You have to be able to outrun your enemy
Foil the enemies long-range attacks
Elude any long-term pursuitsOutrunning the Enemy
We aren’t going to be giving the enemy our backs, weaker comrades can run like hell, but strong allies will be covering for them. The best way to do this is on horseback. As long as you’ve got a greater movement rate then the enemy does, then this is easy.
Foiling Long Range Attacks
Long range attacks are usually arrows or magic. This can be accomplished by firing arrows and forcing long-range attackers to take cover, or using spells to foil their attacks. One can also simply depend on one’s armor to function as it is suppose to! A retreating party is not running, they do gain all bonus’s for high Dex, as well as keep their base Armor Class. This is a tactic!
Eluding Pursuit
A nice word for hiding. Fleeing to a city or woods and hankering down until the enemy gives up, or you are ready to reinitiate battle.
Of course, depending on the enemy, retreating can be easy. If the battle is about protecting something, then by leaving whatever it was that you were protecting should end the battle.
Using the Retreat as a cover
Sometimes, you can fake a retreat and bait the enemy into going to a different area or terrain that would give you an upper hand. If you had time to prepare an area before the enemy arrived to try and take it from you, then you could set up traps which the pursuing enemy might fall for! A good retreat can actually turn the tide of a battle. This just doesn’t cover PC tactics, but NPC tactics as well. Goblins can be smart little devils, they know that they can’t retreat from humans, however they can move the battle to an area that would give them an upper hand.
Retreats and Experience Points
Launching a retreat does take time and planning, and if pulled off successfully, should be rewarded with XP. We DM’s don’t just want to reward players for violence, if they force a retreat and allow the enemy to escape with their lives, they won the battle and should be rewarded for that with the same amount of XP that they’d normally have gotten by killing all of them. . . Well, unless of course a rout was exactly what their goal should have been. If an evil army of Trolls retreat to a town where they can lock it up and start munching on NPC’s . . . well, this is clearly a tactical error on the PC’s part and they have lost that battle.
Final Words
Retreating is a fine art, and it has to be handled on an individual basis. A failed Moral check for elite troops will result in a retreat, not running. Depending on how badly a Moral check is failed determines how effective their retreat should be as well. Intelligent leaders (INT/WIS 8) will first study a battle field and create a backup plan for if they lose, PC’s should get the hint on their own. If you don’t use miniatures and a player asks to see your battle map, you should have one printed just for them (without all of your nasty secrets on it) Through this map, they can plan their getaway incase the battle doesn’t go their way. Once this is in place, that is there plan, and it should stay that way, depending on an enemies intelligence and wisdom to be able to easily see through it.
Even many animals with Int of 2-3 have a true and tested route of escape in their own domain, and an experienced hunter can lead its prey to follow an exact path that goes to its killing ground, so remember to really push intelligent creatures to use strategy. Even low intelligence rated monsters have a few good tricks up their sleeves, yes they will use this tactic over and over so that once a PC has seen it, they will know what to look for, but anything with INT of 8 is going to be able to be an excellent tactician.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
My Blog List
-
Thoughts on Real World Dungeoneering - My house has a big and eccentrically designed cellar. The house was constructed around 1930 on a pretty steep hillside that once was riddled with drift m...
-
Mapping The Oldest Dungeon Crawl Session Report, Part 1 - *The Dungeons of Black Moore Castle* (reprinted on pages 63-67 of the *Blackmoor Foundations* book), is the oldest tabletop RPG fantasy game narrative de...1 week ago
-
I come from the land of the ice and snow - So I got a wild hair and created 81 pages of demographically accurate random birthplace charts covering every hamlet, village, town, city, castle, and...
5 weeks ago -
Twilight: 2000 RPG With The Found In The Ruins Podcast – Episode 283 – 5/15/2025 - Shane Plays Geek Talk Episode #283 – 5/15/2025 A RAD-SATURATED BONUS EPISODE! The Cold War gone hot! “Bam” Shane joins “Doc” Benny and “Boom” Mike on the...1 month ago
-
D&D 2024 Ignored One of Fifth Edition’s Original Goals, Losing Something We All Still Want in D&D - Before creating the 2014 version of Dungeon & Dragons, lead designer Mike Mearls set goals for the new, fifth edition. He wanted the update to play fast. “...2 months ago
-
Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...
3 months ago -
STILL ALIVE BITCHES - Well. Here we are again. It's been a while of sickness, needing a wheelchair, and being mostly bed-ridden. SO I do have time for games when I'm not too ...
4 months ago -
DM Style Questionnaire: What are you playing like? - *Hey folks. Quick little post here since I had a discussion with a good friend about the different types of rpg out there and what that means (please tra...
5 months ago -
La nuova vita di Dungeons&Dragons versione Mentzer! - Ben ritrovati, di recente mi è capitato di leggere su Facebook un commento che mi ha lasciato attonito. In corrispondenza a un post che pubblicizzava un...
6 months ago -
Attronarch's Athenaeum - Over at the forum El Borak mentioned Attronarch in his thread Hirelings, loyalty, and morale which you should take a look at. Attronarch has a website Att...1 year ago
-
Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
-
It's been a decade, now... - This is a tough time of year for me. So, with your indulgence, here's this link to a post I did a decade ago... EDIT: I have no idea why it didn't take. S...3 years ago
-
This Blog is now on Indefinite Hiatus - Greetings, I haven’t been able to post except sporadically for a while. I just found out I will need to find a new place to live within the next few months...3 years ago
-
RIP Christopher Tolkien - LONDON (AP) – Christopher Tolkien, who played a major role protecting the legacy of his father’s The Lord of the Rings series, has died. He was 95. The Tol...5 years ago
-
Sacrifice in the Perilous Realms - Characters sacrifice consumable goods to gods and demons. Characters specify a particular recipient of sacrifice. Characters must find a suitable altar ...5 years ago
-
The Sprawl Session Recaps - For those interested in Actual Play for my campaign of The Sprawl, a Powered by the Apocalypse cyberpunk RPG by Hamish Cameron, I've made a landing page fo...5 years ago
-
Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign: New EN World Column: #1 - Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign: New EN World Column: #1: I am now an author for EN World with a monthly column. Six lead columns have been submitted to...5 years ago
-
Blackmoor Week 2019 (9/24/19) - Blackmoor Week and Dave Arneson Game Day running from September 24th through October 1st. This year 2019 is the 45th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and ...5 years ago
-
Dave Arneson Blackmoor Week and Game Day 2019 - Blackmoor Week begins today Sept 24, 2019. What are you doing this week to celebrate Dave Arneson's Birthday and his foundational game setting Blackmoor ak...
5 years ago -
Blackmoor Week Day I 2019 - *Blackmoor Week* kicks off today and concludes on October 1st with *Dave Arneson Game Day*. [image: Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor - B-Ware - Sphärenmeisters Spi...5 years ago
-
Character Concepts: Planescape pt 3 - Part 1 Part 2 Continuing my series on oddball Planescape Faction Personalities... Harmonium Sidby the Stick (LG/halfling/fighter) - Sidby's a good enough b...5 years ago
-
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...
5 years ago -
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon - It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to indulge m...6 years ago
-
Save Versus All Wands Contest: What is the Value of the Coin Hoard? - Treasure Type H Announcing the third annual (well, not quite) Save Versus All Wands contest! You can read about and see the results of the first two - *...
6 years ago -
NIGHTMARES AND SUBURBS: CHARACTER SOCIAL CLASS TABLE - * CHARACTER SOCIAL CLASS * *BACKGROUND TABLE* *I am a big fan of the “Social Origin Roll” for all my player characters in all my g...7 years ago
-
RPGs, Avatar vs Chess Piece Playing - I've gone from DMing AD&D 1E games for friends to my kids to paying clients as a team building tool. I've seen the approaches of playing a character as an...7 years ago
Links to Suggested Stuff
1 comments:
Good article.
Don't forget tempting the enemy to stop chasing you. Many an adventurer has been saved by dropping food (for less intelligent enemies) or gold as they retreated, to distract pursuit.
- Brian
Post a Comment