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Memorable Chase Scenes

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
naturax
Aug 23, 2010 22:06:32 Have you ever been chased through the streets of Sharn, only to jump off the balcony into a passing skycoach? Have you ever run a gang of thieves stalking the party as they make their way to a midnight rendezvous in a bad part of Fairhaven? I'd love to hear your stories! What made the chases memorable?
#2
Madfox11
Aug 25, 2010 9:00:43
There were two memorable chase scenes which went really well and were appreciated by the players, but both were with me as a DM, so I my opinion might be colored:
- The PCs were chasing a villain through a lightning rail train. They had no tickets, having jumped on the train as it left the station. The PCs could of course have dealt with it on the train by talking with the Orien employers on the train, and simply pay they fine and buy a ticket. For some reason though the players decided that was a bad idea. Instead they climbed on the roof while the train was riding, and walked towards the elite wagon hired by the employer of the villain they were chasing. Of course, the PCs were not particularly stealthy and a running battle on the roofs of the coaches started while the train was running at full speed. It was in 3E, so much less forced movement, so in 4E the threat of falling of might be a bit too strong. As it was, the threat of falling off, or facing unexpected objects above the wagon, certainly added much to the fight. It had a feel as in the cowboy movies ;)

- PCs witness an ambush in Firelight. The PCs decided to help out. The ambushers highjacked a skycoach. PCs decided to follow, throwing a handful of platinum coins to the goblin coachdriver to follow that cab. A high speed chase through middle Sharn started, dodging bridges, other skycoaches, laundry, and manouvering through narrow streets going through towers, and so on, all the while the persons they were chasing caused accidents, and at one point the local Watch also got involved. There is something about being flung off a sky coach hundreds of feet in the air, while hanging precariously on the side ;) It was 3E, and the action point mechanism prevented characters from falling to their death. In 4E I probably would make it some kind of skill challenge.

#3
morgrum
Aug 25, 2010 10:32:31

There were two memorable chase scenes which went really well and were appreciated by the players, but both were with me as a DM, so I my opinion might be colored:

I was missing the memorable chase scene in which you were a player, untill I remembered you weren't there for the second half of it.

We were in Graywall looking for the bad guy, who had just stolen an important artifact. We heared that he was headed to the Orien enclave so we ran that way full speed. Bullying our way past the Orien guards we found a still active teleportation circle that he had just gone through. Being PCs we took the obvious course of action: i.e. jump straight through the circle after him. <> We emerged in a warehouse, in what later turned out to be Sharn, minus Madfox's character who had been cut off by the circle (convient really if you consider Madfox couldn't make that session ;)). Battling past some of his minions we continued in pursuit of the bad guy, which involved jumping out of windows, a halfling hannging on to a lift by her fingertips (this being Sharn afterall), before climbing up in front of a very surprised bad guy and eventually a confrontation with the Sharn Watch, who took the sensible approach of 'arrest them all and let someone else sort them out'.
#4
naturax
Aug 26, 2010 5:18:03 Awesome! Thanks for these!

I'm running a game in a couple of days, and the PCs don't know it yet but they are about to get chased through the streets of Sharn by an elite group of Dragonmarked agents to get the Delirium Stone back. I'm looking to brainstorm for ways to make the scene memorable and show off what Eberron is all about to my relatively inexperienced players.

I don't know how much I'm going to be able to plan in advance, and I'm the planning kind of DM. I figure at least having a bunch of ideas in mind will give me a range of options.
#5
morgrum
Aug 26, 2010 9:48:28 Be sure to make use of the 3D-nature of Sharn: skycoaches, soar sleds, lifts, people jumping off bridges, etc. To show off more of Eberon have the chase lead the PCs through a good variety of districts, Sharn has some good contrasts you could show them.
#6
naturax
Aug 26, 2010 12:07:54 That's exactly what I had in mind.

How are the sky coaches controled, exactly? With a sort of rudder, like a little boat? Or more like a gondola with an oar? Or more like a taxi, with levers and buttons?

And soarsleds just read your mind, being floating magical disks and all, correct?
#7
Madfox11
Aug 27, 2010 3:40:23 I depicted sky coaches as a gondola's, but without an oar. The rudder is some kind of khyber shard. Of course, you can also have other variants, like large barge-like constructions for cargo hauls and so on.

Soarsleds are indeed just floating discs.

Don't forget the almost continual rain in Sharn, especially in the lower district where even on dry days it appears to be raining because of the sludge flowing from above.
#8
Gurv
Sep 02, 2010 18:09:43 I once had a party fleeing some rivals in House Lyrandar. They laid low in Sharn for a while, and then snuck onto the lightning rail using forged identities. But someone messed up and the Lyrandar who were after them caught wind of it.

They were pursuded by an airship. The sky grew dark and conditions became dangerous for the speeding train. Conductor stones and electrical storms are bad company. Naturally, the PCs realized they were in trouble and took action. When the engineer decided to slow down for the sake of his passenger's safety, the PCs disagreed. They hijacked the engine, cut the cars loose, and made the poor engineer take them to full speed.

Meanwhile, the airship was right over them, trying to board the train with ropes and rope ladders. Good fight on the roof. Close encounter when they went through a tunnel. The whole thing ended when the desperate BBEG deployed the grapples the airship routinely used for lifting cargo and tried to lift the entire engine away from the conductor stones. Would have worked too, at least long enough, if one of the PCs hadn't cast wall of fire in front of the airship. The ship easily veered around the obsticle, but the weight of the engine turned against them.

There was a badass climatic battle with the flaming wreackage all around them, still discharging the energies of two elemental as a supernatural storm raged overhead.
#9
naturax
Sep 02, 2010 21:58:49 That sounds amazing. Thanks for this, Gurv.
#10
Ogiwan
Sep 05, 2010 10:29:17 I never got to do this scene, but one that I had planned would be for the PCs to chase an enemy all over Sharn, with the usual goodies (sprinting through an outdoor cafe and knocking tables every which way, maybe a scene where everybody glares at each other from two concurrently-operating lifts, etc), ending with the bad guy climbing to the top of a tower for the climactic fight.....where skeletons climb up over the edges, and assist in engaging the PCs. On the top of a tower. In a thunderstorm.

Ahhhh if only.....
#11
almeidaboo
Oct 07, 2010 14:00:04 How exacly do you guys run sky combats in Sharn wth 4e's need for minis, maps and such? And with all the towers and stuff? (ohh, this must be reaaaly overasked...)

Have any pics to share?
#12
accuser
Oct 07, 2010 18:09:01 If you have the campaign guide, it gives an example of a sky battle and how to manage it in there.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 naturax Aug 23, 2010 22:06:32	Have you ever been chased through the streets of Sharn, only to jump off the balcony into a passing skycoach? Have you ever run a gang of thieves stalking the party as they make their way to a midnight rendezvous in a bad part of Fairhaven? I'd love to hear your stories! What made the chases memorable?
#2 Madfox11 Aug 25, 2010 9:00:43	There were two memorable chase scenes which went really well and were appreciated by the players, but both were with me as a DM, so I my opinion might be colored: - The PCs were chasing a villain through a lightning rail train. They had no tickets, having jumped on the train as it left the station. The PCs could of course have dealt with it on the train by talking with the Orien employers on the train, and simply pay they fine and buy a ticket. For some reason though the players decided that was a bad idea. Instead they climbed on the roof while the train was riding, and walked towards the elite wagon hired by the employer of the villain they were chasing. Of course, the PCs were not particularly stealthy and a running battle on the roofs of the coaches started while the train was running at full speed. It was in 3E, so much less forced movement, so in 4E the threat of falling of might be a bit too strong. As it was, the threat of falling off, or facing unexpected objects above the wagon, certainly added much to the fight. It had a feel as in the cowboy movies ;) - PCs witness an ambush in Firelight. The PCs decided to help out. The ambushers highjacked a skycoach. PCs decided to follow, throwing a handful of platinum coins to the goblin coachdriver to follow that cab. A high speed chase through middle Sharn started, dodging bridges, other skycoaches, laundry, and manouvering through narrow streets going through towers, and so on, all the while the persons they were chasing caused accidents, and at one point the local Watch also got involved. There is something about being flung off a sky coach hundreds of feet in the air, while hanging precariously on the side ;) It was 3E, and the action point mechanism prevented characters from falling to their death. In 4E I probably would make it some kind of skill challenge.
#3 morgrum Aug 25, 2010 10:32:31	There were two memorable chase scenes which went really well and were appreciated by the players, but both were with me as a DM, so I my opinion might be colored: I was missing the memorable chase scene in which you were a player, untill I remembered you weren't there for the second half of it. We were in Graywall looking for the bad guy, who had just stolen an important artifact. We heared that he was headed to the Orien enclave so we ran that way full speed. Bullying our way past the Orien guards we found a still active teleportation circle that he had just gone through. Being PCs we took the obvious course of action: i.e. jump straight through the circle after him. <> We emerged in a warehouse, in what later turned out to be Sharn, minus Madfox's character who had been cut off by the circle (convient really if you consider Madfox couldn't make that session ;)). Battling past some of his minions we continued in pursuit of the bad guy, which involved jumping out of windows, a halfling hannging on to a lift by her fingertips (this being Sharn afterall), before climbing up in front of a very surprised bad guy and eventually a confrontation with the Sharn Watch, who took the sensible approach of 'arrest them all and let someone else sort them out'.
#4 naturax Aug 26, 2010 5:18:03	Awesome! Thanks for these! I'm running a game in a couple of days, and the PCs don't know it yet but they are about to get chased through the streets of Sharn by an elite group of Dragonmarked agents to get the Delirium Stone back. I'm looking to brainstorm for ways to make the scene memorable and show off what Eberron is all about to my relatively inexperienced players. I don't know how much I'm going to be able to plan in advance, and I'm the planning kind of DM. I figure at least having a bunch of ideas in mind will give me a range of options.
#5 morgrum Aug 26, 2010 9:48:28	Be sure to make use of the 3D-nature of Sharn: skycoaches, soar sleds, lifts, people jumping off bridges, etc. To show off more of Eberon have the chase lead the PCs through a good variety of districts, Sharn has some good contrasts you could show them.
#6 naturax Aug 26, 2010 12:07:54	That's exactly what I had in mind. How are the sky coaches controled, exactly? With a sort of rudder, like a little boat? Or more like a gondola with an oar? Or more like a taxi, with levers and buttons? And soarsleds just read your mind, being floating magical disks and all, correct?
#7 Madfox11 Aug 27, 2010 3:40:23	I depicted sky coaches as a gondola's, but without an oar. The rudder is some kind of khyber shard. Of course, you can also have other variants, like large barge-like constructions for cargo hauls and so on. Soarsleds are indeed just floating discs. Don't forget the almost continual rain in Sharn, especially in the lower district where even on dry days it appears to be raining because of the sludge flowing from above.
#8 Gurv Sep 02, 2010 18:09:43	I once had a party fleeing some rivals in House Lyrandar. They laid low in Sharn for a while, and then snuck onto the lightning rail using forged identities. But someone messed up and the Lyrandar who were after them caught wind of it. They were pursuded by an airship. The sky grew dark and conditions became dangerous for the speeding train. Conductor stones and electrical storms are bad company. Naturally, the PCs realized they were in trouble and took action. When the engineer decided to slow down for the sake of his passenger's safety, the PCs disagreed. They hijacked the engine, cut the cars loose, and made the poor engineer take them to full speed. Meanwhile, the airship was right over them, trying to board the train with ropes and rope ladders. Good fight on the roof. Close encounter when they went through a tunnel. The whole thing ended when the desperate BBEG deployed the grapples the airship routinely used for lifting cargo and tried to lift the entire engine away from the conductor stones. Would have worked too, at least long enough, if one of the PCs hadn't cast wall of fire in front of the airship. The ship easily veered around the obsticle, but the weight of the engine turned against them. There was a badass climatic battle with the flaming wreackage all around them, still discharging the energies of two elemental as a supernatural storm raged overhead.
#9 naturax Sep 02, 2010 21:58:49	That sounds amazing. Thanks for this, Gurv.
#10 Ogiwan Sep 05, 2010 10:29:17	I never got to do this scene, but one that I had planned would be for the PCs to chase an enemy all over Sharn, with the usual goodies (sprinting through an outdoor cafe and knocking tables every which way, maybe a scene where everybody glares at each other from two concurrently-operating lifts, etc), ending with the bad guy climbing to the top of a tower for the climactic fight.....where skeletons climb up over the edges, and assist in engaging the PCs. On the top of a tower. In a thunderstorm. Ahhhh if only.....
#11 almeidaboo Oct 07, 2010 14:00:04	How exacly do you guys run sky combats in Sharn wth 4e's need for minis, maps and such? And with all the towers and stuff? (ohh, this must be reaaaly overasked...) Have any pics to share?
#12 accuser Oct 07, 2010 18:09:01	If you have the campaign guide, it gives an example of a sky battle and how to manage it in there.