Deviance #2 – Victory Condition: Arrive

In this installment of the Aberrant Rules alternate victory condition series, we’re going to talk about the Arrive condition.
There are several variations of Arrive, but the basic theme is simple – ‘move to this square to win.’  There is a spot on the map that if the PCs can make it there, it ends the encounter.  Maybe they push the button on the arcane machine that causes it to meltdown and send everyone running.  Maybe planting a battle standard in a certain spot is a way to claim a relatively bloodless victory among ‘gentlemen combatants.’    However it works, your goal is to claim territory, not lives.  Add more tension with a time limit!

Option 1: Escape – It’s going badly for the PCs.   You don’t want to TPK them…  this time…   Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.  What do you do?  Pick a square on the map . Any PC who can get to that square escapes the battle with some amount of XP The Escape condition lets PCs feel some sense of tactical accomplishment in the face of conventional defeat.    Follow this up with a good chase scene skill challenge for maximum effect.

Most of the time you’re not going to plan this victory condition in advance  The Escape battlefield looks like whatever other scenario you had written up, just with really  trashed PCs and a couple fewer enemies.    Due to the sudden nature of this condition’s creation, it’s difficult to arrange the field tactically.  In general, though, there are a few guidelines to follow to make the most exciting Escape you can from what you have at hand.

1. Slow Enemies –  Most NPCs should stay relatively in place and open up with ranged attacks.  A couple melee pursuers are ok, but remember that you already made the decision to let them try to legitimately skedaddle.
2. Unfortunate Escape Square –  don’t place the Escape square in some random spot with nothing going on nearby.    Good Escape squares are across pits or stationary traps, up ladders, or on the other side of that hoard of minions.  The PCs should either have to make a couple Skill rolls or bust out a unique movement power like Fey Step or Expeditious Retreat to surmount the final obstacle.  Not only does this add tension during the last couple rounds, it also gives you a reason to have the PCs’ pursuers delayed, thus allowing a daring escape.
3. Escape Is Still Victory or Failure is Fun – The PCs shouldn’t just be running from something, they should also run into something – just not something immediately lethal.   The next place the PCs end up should still be relevant to the story somehow.   The Escape zone should provide the PCs another method with which to acheieve their goal.

Option 2: Escort –  a specific person has to get to a specific point on the map, at which time the encounter ends.

Once again, this is really a battle against the clock, not against the NPCs.  A hard, plainly stated time limit is one way to go about it, say four rounds.  Another is to have most of the NPCs focus fire on the Key so that he or she will be dead or captured  far quicker than the PCs can Rout the enemy forces.  The attacking enemies need to be mobile enough to respond to  the Key utilizing terrain, like cover and concealment, yet be legitimately stymied by a couple good Defenders and maybe a Striker or Leader. Finally, the Escort path shouldn’t be any more than about half the length of the battlefield.  When the players feel “so close and yet so far,” you’ve done it right.

Option 3: Seize –  Seize something, a PC has to Arrive at that special point and then stay there for a round or two.  During this time, the PC may have to rub out the magic circle, beat down the door or do some similar time-consuming task.   Whereas the difficulty in the Escort is getting to the destination, staying there is the difficulty of the Seize .    Brutes are bags of HPs with low defenses and medium damage output and Push effects which are handy for dislodging that obnoxious PC from his Seize point as well as action-denying conditions like Daze and Stun.    Once the main PC arrives at the Seize point, he really only needs one action per round to perform the necessary activity, so being Dazed is actually a problem that the rest of the party has to deal with, i.e. keeping everyone else from using that Combat Advantage.   Finally, consider upping the amount of ongoing damage versus initial impact damage. Seize encounters are going to be longer encounters to begin with due to trying to hold the Seize point and all, so the effect of ongoing damage becomes greater the longer the fight wears on.