Great Size escaping combat (Some DoM spoilers)

[madgael]

So I was running the company through The Beast Of The Forest (more or less) from DoM in our last session. For some reason, we had 5 players show up that night, rather than the more usual 2-3, so when the Werewolf burst into Orophal's celebration, they chose to go on the offensive and had its endurance pretty well shot after a full round or two of some solid rolling.

The text indicates the beast flees back into the woods once it reaches 0 End, but the company was pretty loathe to let him get off that easily. (I suspect they were still a bit annoyed about having Tauler flee the minute things started to go their way back in the Millfort session.) One player asked to make an Athletics check to block its path of retreat, while another wanted to invoke his Stalwart trait to keep up the fight. After some discussion, I thought they made a pretty good case, and I wanted to err against the side of Loremaster fiat... So I chose to let them continue to harass and attack the WW as long as they could make an Athletics check every round to keep him in the clearing.

In retrospect, I don't think that was the right call, as we then entered an honestly rather silly phase of combat where players were rolling a lot of great attacks that meant absolutely nothing unless they also hit Edge and had a chance of wounding the beast. Which of course took seemingly forever to happen. And my own dice were pretty cold so I wasn't hurting them back enough to make them want to break it off themselves.

I didn't want to overthink it too much at the time, since I knew even if/when they kill the WW, it will return to fight and confuse another day. But now some time later, I'm curious how other loremasters have handled combat with a Great Size creature after it hits 0 End but before it takes a wound - especially if its intent is to flee. Should I have had the WW make a check instead of the company, along the lines of a PC using the Escape Combat maneuver? Should I have made it an opposed check perhaps, or just required the company to make a great/extraordinary success to keep it at bay? Or should I have just hand-waved its escape and had us all move on with our lives? Did I miss something obvious in the text somewhere that suggests how these situations should play out?

Thanks

[skywalker]

These is an age old RPG conundrum where fiction often has antagonists withdraw to fight another day but in RPGs the rules are such that the PCs can prevent such from happening and will rarely chose to let such happen.

IMO if you are not prepared for something to happen due to the results of dice rolls, then don't ask for dice rolls. Simply be upfront about what happens and why. It may be GM fiat but if your players trust your judgement as GM, and it is done only when there is cause, then it is better in the long run.

Alternatively, if you call for dice rolls, let them fall where they may and roll with it. Sometimes you can be surprised and the game is better for it.

[Indur Dawndeath]

If my players try to prevent an enemy from escape, then I use the Escape combat in reverse. Moveret TN for the creature is 10+ highest Body score. Needing a Great success if engaged by more than one player.

However with the WW, who has Great Size and Great Leap... I would have spend a point of Hate and he was gone.
Also, I dont understand the scene you are describing. With Attribute of 8 and 4 dice he would hit almost every time... Or he would smash some lamps if they barred the escape to get denisen of the Dark to double his attribute. The WW should not be an easy fight!

Cheers

[Earendil]

If my players try to prevent an enemy from escape, then I use the Escape combat in reverse. Moveret TN for the creature is 10+ highest Body score. Needing a Great success if engaged by more than one player.

This is exactly what I do.

The players don't get to roll to prevent that, any more than their enemies would get to roll to prevent them escaping. It's never actually come up, though; I've always just said "It tries to escape combat (roll dice) ... and succeeds." Even when an enemy fails its roll, I always tell them it's trying to escape and give them the option to simply let it go, and they usually do so.

They've never asked if they could prevent an enemy escaping when it made its roll: I don't think it had occurred to them, and it certainly hadn't occurred to me! But if they did ask, I would allow a resisted roll for a character who had an appropriate trait. I'm not sure Stalwart would be appropriate, though: maybe Cautious or Clever (to realise it's about to try to escape) or Swift (to react in time to stop it).

[Majestic]

I think you handled it okay, though you're right that it can end up being pretty wonky when the fight goes on and on, with no hope of ever hurting the bad guy (until somebody rolls their Edge). We've had a few fights that way.

I've just generally allowed them to flee, which is what happened with the Werewolf (the first time) and Tauler. But later on they fought the Werewolf and actually killed it (of course, it will be back to menace them again some day!)