Zone Question

[PatchR]

I'm listening to the Knights of the Night podcast, and the question of "Is a zone for a car the same for a zone on foot?"

[Taran]

Zones are pretty much up to the GM.

If it were a car-chase - or a car vs a creature that could run as fast as a car, then I'd say that a zone is a zone is a zone.

If it's a car vs someone on foot then maybe you'd use foot zones and have the car be able to move faster by having it move multiple zones.

If it's a straight chase, then I'd use Cat n' Mouse rules.

There are people on these boards with more experience than me with this and they have custom rules regarding cat n' Mouse and car chases.  What is the situation?

[UmbraLux]

"Is a zone for a car the same for a zone on foot?"

Yes...and no.



A zone is the area in which entities can interact directly.  (Paraphrased from YS197.)  That applies to both cars and people as well as airplanes and other potential entities.  So they're the same.  However, if you were to translate into real world distances the areas would differ - potentially significantly.  So they're different. 

[PirateJack]

This is actually a very relevant question for me, because one of my players has uber Athletics + Supernatural Speed, and in the last session he outran a helicopter. Now, this isn't really a problem because I see SS as being able to do that, but it made adjudicating whether he could shoot at the thing (and vice versa) rather challenging.

[Taran]

Have athletics(if you're running) or drive(if you're flying/driving) to modify guns.  See the "drive" skill.  They have an example there.

One Hand on the Wheel
Driving
Trying to do something in a car? Roll Driving,
simple as that. If you are trying to do something
fancy, like driving and shooting at the
same time, Driving will restrict (page 214) the
skill being used. Note that this trapping generally
applies to physical actions that you can
conceivably do while driving. Since Driving
only restricts your other skill, there’s no way
you could become better at doing something
while you’re also driving a car—your aim won’t
suddenly improve because you happen to be
driving while you shoot at your target!

Also, shooting at something with Supernatural Speed is already taken into consideration with the power.  They get a +2 to dodge.

[PirateJack]

Cheers for clearing that up for me. I think I've got a better idea of how the next fight with the FBI will go now.