Whether you're chasing across rooftops trying to avoid capture by town guards, dashing through the undergrowth in pursuit of unknown prey, or playing a game of tag with an owlbear cub, sometimes it's fun to just run. This is a set of custom rules that can be used during an encounter that involves chasing that ties into the standard D&D combat and movement rules, but streamlines a lot of concepts to make these sorts of encounters more interesting.

1. Setup

To begin a chase, mark out a 'chase track'. The track has five sections on it, described as follows:

Front: This section marks the 'head' of the race, where all participants are generally trying to be. There should always be at least one participant here.

Point-Blank: The participants immediately behind the Front are described as being at Point-Blank range. Participants in this area may make melee weapon or melee spell attacks against participants in the Front, although this must involve making an attack roll with disadvantage. Participants who make this attack with a weapon with the 'reach' quality do not suffer from this disadvantage.

Short Range: This section is considered to be about 30 ft. behind the Front and Point-Blank sections for the sake of spells, weapons, and effects with a range.

Medium Range: Participants in Medium Range are an additional 60 ft. behind Short Range.

Long Range: Participants in Long Range are an additional 60 ft. behind Medium Range.

Participants who fall beyond Long Range are considered out of the chase. If they are still able to move, and they know where the chase is headed, they may continue moving towards that goal, but they will arrive long after all of the other participants.

Participants within a single section are assumed to be within 5 ft. of each other.

At the start of the chase, the quarry should be put in Front. Other participants may go in the other sections of the chase track according to their positions away from the quarry.

All participants should then roll initiative as usual. If the chase is an extension of an existing fight scene, the participants should keep the initiative used during that fight.

Each participant should also calculate their Move DC. This is equal to 20 - (Speed / 5). For most participants this will be their normal speed, but if a participant has another speed (e.g. a fly speed or swim speed) they may use that value instead if it makes sense to do so in the situation.

For example, a Human Monk with a speed of 40 ft. will have a Move DC of 12, while an Ancient Blue Dragon chasing down an aerial opponent (and thus able to use their fly speed of 80 ft.) will have a Move DC of 4.

The minimum Move DC is 0. If a participant would have a Move DC lower than this, they instead have a Move DC of 0.