Author Topic: Running Away?  (Read 2449 times)

Offline DarthCyberWolf

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Running Away?
« on: August 12, 2011, 06:37:43 AM »
 Hi. My group and I are new to the Dresden Files RPG and the FATE system in general, so naturally there’s rules and stuff I’m sketchy on. The main thing here is that during a playtest, we encountered a problem and I don’t see anything in the book about it. (Maybe I just failed my search investigate roll).

The Situation™:
 Two parties are in a physical conflict. One party decides to start running away! The other wants to chase them down and keep the fight going. The problem is that, from what I’ve read, moving more than one zone takes up your whole action. So even though the second party is capable of catching up to the first (or even surpassing them if they get a good roll), they won’t be able to do anything when they get to the same zone again.

 Am I missing something to this or is there another way to handle it? My group has ‘volunteered’ me as GM so it’s kinda my area to figure out how to resolve this.  :-\
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Offline cybertier

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2011, 06:47:45 AM »
I am also new to the system and worked myself through the rules this week.

I guess what you are looking at is suplemental Actions:
You can make two actions and the primary action takes a -1 (or -2?i don't remember) to its roll.
The secondary action must be an action, that doesn't require a roll, which should count for running.

Offline Tsunami

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2011, 07:14:18 AM »
A supplemental action allows you to move 1 zone for a -1 penalty. If you want to move more than one zone it requires a roll, and therefore is no longer a supplemental action. (Speed powers can change that, but let's ignore those for now)

The easiest way to model such a chase would probably be to make it into a little sub-conflict using the contest rules. Specifically the rules for Races (YS:194)
A wants to run away, B wants to catch A. The GM sets a difficulty, the two parties start making Athletics rolls. Whoever accumulates the necessary shifts first wins the race. If A wins he gets away, If B wins the conflict continues.

Offline Smith

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2011, 08:41:42 AM »
That and you're overlooking a major theme in the FATE system... Fate points.

The person chasing should start slinging around fate points to make declarations, tag Consequences, Invoke Aspects, Compel Aspects and create Manuevers.

The GM (or player of the Chase-e) could then start slinging Fate Points back to negate these attempts, also helping you get your players into the mood of a fluid FP Economy in game (as I find new players love to hoard their points).


Offline Radijs

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2011, 10:48:24 AM »
A supplemental action allows you to move 1 zone for a -1 penalty. If you want to move more than one zone it requires a roll, and therefore is no longer a supplemental action. (Speed powers can change that, but let's ignore those for now)

The easiest way to model such a chase would probably be to make it into a little sub-conflict using the contest rules. Specifically the rules for Races (YS:194)
A wants to run away, B wants to catch A. The GM sets a difficulty, the two parties start making Athletics rolls. Whoever accumulates the necessary shifts first wins the race. If A wins he gets away, If B wins the conflict continues.

I'd go with this solution as well. Make it a race, success means he loses his opponent, failure means he's forced to fight on.
What part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" don't you understand?

Offline wyvern

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2011, 05:19:27 PM »
This is an issue I've run into as well; one of my PCs pissed off a ghoul (by scoring a direct hit with a holy water balloon) and then ran.  In circles.  For most of the rest of the fight until the other characters got around to dealing with the ghoul that was chasing him.

After that, I instituted a new rule, based off the Overflow rule (YS214).  If you're chasing someone, and you get shifts in excess of what you need to get to the zone they're in, those excess shifts apply as a block against the target running away some more.

So, say Mr. Slowpoke is running away from a ghoul.  He rolls well and gets an athletics result of three, moving three zones away.  The ghoul manages to get an athletics result of six - catching up, and applying a strength 3 block against Mr. Slowpoke making further attempts to run away.  Now, in the next exchange, Mr. Slowpoke *can* still try to run... but he'd need an athletics result of three to get even a single zone away, and he'd need four or more to get far enough away that the ghoul couldn't immediately pounce on him.  And even if he did get a result of 4, that would put him two zones away - if the ghoul gets another six on its athletics, he'd be looking at a block four next exchange.

Offline DFJunkie

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2011, 05:39:19 PM »
It depends on what the fleeing party is hoping to gain.  If they're looking to simply get out of the fight a concession could be appropriate.  Something like "As I make a mad dash away from the whatsit I smash headlong into a brick wall, getting a Nasty Headache (minor consequence) in the process. 

Keep in mind that you, as the GM, are the entity who decides whether to accept the proposed concession based on the needs of the story, not the desires of the NPC.
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Offline jb.teller4

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2011, 09:40:37 PM »
Like DFJunkie said, it also depends on what the runner is trying to accomplish. The above option assuems they're trying to get away. If they're jsut runnign around in circles trying not to die for a couple turns until their allies show up, then that isn't a sprint roll, it's a full defense. They're just dodging, so they get a +2 to their defense roll (which would be Athletics if they are trying to run around in circles so the ghoul can't get close enough to gut them).

But I wouldn't let them use the Sprinting rules as an automatically successful defense roll (they sprint, therefore forcing the enemy to spend their action sprinting as long as they get over one success, therefore taking up the enemy's action, therefore guaranteeing that the enemy can never attack even if they roll better on the sprinting roll) which is how I interpreted the example in the original post.


But if they were trying to run away and I didn't want to handle it as a chase conflict for whatever reasons, I think I'd give the chaser a free action against the query on any turn that they catch up (i.e. end the turn in the same zone as the query). I'd allow for pretty much any action that can be justified (an attack, a maneuver such as placing a "tackled!" aspect on them that can be tagged to start wrestling the next turn, a block against running the next turn, etc.). And of course the query would get a defense roll if it would normalyl be applicable (like vs. an attack).

But if the chaser doesn't catch up (i.e. make it all the way to the zone where the query ends up), then they don't get a free action (basically they spent their action sprinting).

Regardless of the results, at the end of the turn you'd know where each party was (they've each moved a certain number of zones on the map so you'd know how far apart they are). If the query ends any exchange at three or more zones away, then they've escaped (you can modify the number of zones they have to get ahead depending on the cirumstances).

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Offline ARedthorn

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Re: Running Away?
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2011, 12:16:12 AM »
I personally use a system similar to wyvern's, with the visual/cinematic arguement being that the chaser rolled well enough to head the chased off- and is physically ahead of them, blocking their path. Since position within a zone is entirely cinematic and not at all mechanically covered, this works well for my group. The chased can try to turn around and run another direction (which, at speed, isn't easy, hence the increased difficulty), or dodge past the blocking chaser (hence a literal block).