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Dear All

We just finished our last session: the party left Mount Gram and in our next game they are going to travel to Rivendell.

They alerted the orcs and i would like to setup some pressure on them with a group of enemies chasing them during the journey: how would you run it?
The currenti situation is: party of 3, 2/3 are weary and 2/3 are injurued, they have horses but also 4 NPCs with them. The carachter who usually rolls for travel has the skill favored and 3 grades on it

I'm looking for ideas and suggestions, in general i would like to build tension until they reach rivendell, wich is still hidden for them so after the journey they are going to have a challenge to find it.

As a starting point (and I haven't checked the map to see how many hexes this journey would take but) I think this could be handled through Journey encounters that allow the party to speed up/be stalled by environmental factors, with narrative description of how the Orcs gain or lose the Fellowship depending on result, with multiple failures causing a combat with an advance party of enemies, and multiple successes leading them to lose the pursuers.

As a starting point (and I haven't checked the map to see how many hexes this journey would take but) I think this could be handled through Journey encounters that allow the party to speed up/be stalled by environmental factors, with narrative description of how the Orcs gain or lose the Fellowship depending on result, with multiple failures causing a combat with an advance party of enemies, and multiple successes leading them to lose the pursuers.

Thanks Theror
if you go south from mt gram to last bridge and then you go trough the troll's forest they should be around 17/18 hexes

So you would let the orcs gain terrain upon event failures, makes sense, i would have to set a number of failures that makes the orcs reach the party

I tought something similarm close to your solution: let the orcs gain terrain on Travel skill failures: for a 18 hexes journey i was thinking about 8 failures=many orcs reach the party. My option puts all the responsability on the guide, while yours on the whole party, wich may be better

Yeah I think broadening it to the whole party helps keep everyone involved, with more tailored events depending on the role. For example the Scout could find a short-cut or a long-delay, the look-out could spot an advance/scouting party of Orcs etc. Hunter may be a difficult one to integrate here as nothing comes immediately to mind.

Depending on how long you want to play it out you could have a small group of Orcs catch-up first after 6 failures, run a combat and then start the chase again with a modifier based on how quickly the fellowship were able to win combat. Then at 8 failures a larger group catches them etc. This is just my mind throwing out ideas haha, so I'd have to sit down and plan/look through this to see if it's viable in play.

I would permit both Hunter & Scout to assist with finding the best paths forward (or failing to do so). The NARRATIVE is different but (in this case) the EFFECT is similar. E.g. The Scout will Explore the geography of the terrain and find a best path forward; the Hunter can use their knowledge of animal movements to exploit the tracks and trails of wildlife - so they would follow the safest/most energy efficient path down a steep hillside, or lead them directly to good watering spots instead of having to spend excess time Exploring a region which a Scout would have to do.

If you have Strider rules, you might wish to try out a running Combat using the skirmish mode, but for your entire party. E.g. Have a small group of goblin archers on the other side of a gully or fast flowing river and you are trying to displace a fallen tree style bridge to prevent them folowing you further...

Just as another suggestion, I would probably go for a Skill Endevour of Athletics of the whole Fellowship. The time would depend if they are traveling on a Forced March (more time) or not. Maybe break it into 2 possible encounters (1 for every 7-10 hexes). In case of failure, they are caught. In case of sucess, they are not and go for the second round of chase. Additional Sucesses increasing the time for the second Endeavor. Also additional Success on Travel Events may gain additional die on the second endeavour. In case of Eye of Sauron on the Marching Test, reduce time for the chase.

I wrote this on the fly, so more rule digging and structuring is necessary.

Those all sound like good ideas. I have done the following before. Start out by determining how far a lead the player characters have. How many hexes are they ahead of their pursuers? You can decide by such things. Did they use stealth or did they fight their way out. If they fought their way out most likely they would only be one to two hexes away. If they used used stealth maybe the characters start automatically two hexes away with another hex for every six rolled. Then use a Skill Endeavor to see if they get away (3-6 resistance depending on how determined the pursuers are)). The Guide rolls his skill check normally with the Scout rolling Explore, the Hunter rolls Hunting, and The Lookout. Awareness. Their success give the Guide Bonus d6 for their roll. A regular success on the Travel check keeps them the same distance apart with any 6’s gaming them a hex on their pursuers, and a failed travel check loses a hex ( two hexes if the Eye is rolled on the failure). The pursers catch the party if they gain enough hexes to do so.

I hope that helps.