Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Hi, I'm new to the game, trying to play a solo adventure. I reached a point where a level 1 fighter is in the middle of a forest engaged in a combat against an orc. The fighter (12 constitution) wants to flee from the combat. So, as I understand, they are in melee range, so the first thing is the orc having a free +2 attack over the character. After that, I don't understand the paragraph that explain how to determine if the fleeing is successful. Can anyone help?

Edit: the character is wearing a chainmail, so his movement is 20' --> 40' when running. And the orc's is 30' --> 60' when running. So it's all over automatically?

Thanks!

Sounds like he has no escape, running works better when the opponents are far away.
He could try to outmaneuver the orc by zigzaging or moving thru difficult places and hoping the orc slips and he doesn't.

I love to see people playing BFRPG solo. I'm interested in hearing how this adventure went

When I'm running the game, and my players choose to flee, I generally go easy on them and give them a decent chance, if feasible. Never tried playing solo. Don't know how to adjudicate going easy on one's self. An old carry-over rule from the original roleplaying game of the mid-seventies is to entice intelligent creatures by dropping treasure and non-intelligent ones by dropping food, and discouraging pursuers in general by dropping burning oil behind you. Consider this a resource tradeoff - escape for valuables. A transaction of sorts. It's good shorthand and it would work just as well in a solo game.

There's a number of factors, like have the players secured an exit route, do they have some tricks ready for a forced retreat like bait, treasures (real or fake), caltrops, marbles, diversionary spells, etc... Otherwise, it's just a plain race and guys in armor are typically not good at that.

Otherwise, in a balanced adventure, a more challenging monster might not be disposed to pursue anyway.

I forgot to mention earlier, but Chris recently recommended someone borrow the Reaction mechanics from Iron Falcon for certain situations in BFRPG, and I agree. Reaction/Morale are a cornerstone of this old school type of play. They can turn a typical dungeon slog with multiple combats into something more nuanced and memorable. That big Ogre in your path might be willing to barter, or it might willingly join the party. That dynamic where not even the GM knows how the game is going to go ahead of time is what's always drawn me to this style of gameplay.