Basically, the players knew that they were about 12 rounds of running from the small tunnel that would allow for their escape.
They also knew that those in pursuit were about 6 rounds of distance behind them.
So what I did was I assigned a d12 timer to represent their escape and a d6 to represent the jump they had on the slavers. Each round the d12 would increase a step, then players with stamina equal to or less than the current value on the d12 would roll a fortitude save to represent getting tired and being forced to slow the party for a round. So each round a player failed a save I would reduce the value of the d6. If the value of the d6 decreased to zero before the party reached the 12 spot the slavers would be upon them and likely cast them back into chains. They were encouraged to come up with clever actions to improve their chances along the way
.Based on the varied stamina scores and rolls they ended up at turn 11 and 1 space between the party and the slavers. One zero level schleff failed the majority of the saves and the other party members essentially decided that thinning the herd in order to ensure their own safety was the way to go! So, they essentially threw an improvised Molotov cocktail onto the poor guy and sent him a blazing down the tunnel back toward the quickly approaching adversaries...truly heroic? maybe not, but they lived to find out who was buying slaves at this particular waystation at least.
If you use this example or a modified version for a chase scene in one of your games, let me know about it!
