Author Topic: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG  (Read 8017 times)

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2012, 09:25:55 PM »
Yeah, I like the bidding idea. IIRC Exalted uses something kinda similar.

But I also like the zone map. It's an easy way to track what's going on.

Random idea: maybe there could be such a thing as "chase stress" which measures how close people are to getting away/being caught.

I think to use zone maps effectively you'd have to have a chase situation where the destination matters. Sometimes you need to get the beer back to the Southern Classic before the time's up or be the fastest and most furious driver to the finish line. But sometimes the quarry just needs to get away and they don't care where they end up, and it's those kinds of chases where a zone map falls flat for me. The absolute position of where you are in that kind of chase is not as important as your relative position, and if a goal is to reduce the amount of pure "I roll Drive to move my car" checks, I think losing the map ultimately helps us, as much as I hate to say it. I have a few ideas on a sort of relative-positioning zone map, but they're not solid yet. Something where each zone could reinforce each vehicle stat or a terrain type or particular mode of driving. Tactically, you'd want to keep yourself in the zones most advantageous to you and keep your opponents out of theirs, but then we should make it so you cannot both simply sit in your preferred terrains/modes/zones and be able to effectively take someone out of the chase.

I like the chase stress angle, although would it get unwieldy in multiparty chases? Would you have a stress track for a participant's vehicle's durability and then another one for their chase stress?


Offline Taran

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2012, 11:59:51 PM »
I like the chase stress angle, although would it get unwieldy in multiparty chases? Would you have a stress track for a participant's vehicle's durability and then another one for their chase stress?

Wouldn't the vehicle's durability be represented by armour on the stress track?
Your stress track could be based on your Drive skill and your cars stats can be based on powers:

<<Thinking out loud......>>
Maneuverability can work like the speed Power:  It lets you dodge easier and defend and increases initiative.
Speed can be the STR Power:  allows you to move in quickly and make offensive moves
Durability is your toughness/armour

So a vehicle has 3 stats with 4 levels in each.
My honda civic has no speed, armour or STr boosts
A tank will have no Maneuverability , Mythic toughness and Inhuman speed
A formula 1 will have no armour, Mythic STR, and Mythic Speed.

Maybe the tank has better maneuverability because it has sensors and can squish obstacles...

</Thinking out loud......>>

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #17 on: October 10, 2012, 09:01:05 PM »
I like the chase stress angle, although would it get unwieldy in multiparty chases? Would you have a stress track for a participant's vehicle's durability and then another one for their chase stress?

Yes and yes.

Multiparty chases are a bit of an edge case, so I wouldn't be bothered too much if the rules for resolving them were an inelegant kludge with like four stress tracks/person.

And getting caught/escaping are different from having your car explode/exploding everyone else's cars.

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #18 on: October 10, 2012, 09:31:06 PM »
Quote
Wouldn't the vehicle's durability be represented by armour on the stress track?
Your stress track could be based on your Drive skill and your cars stats can be based on powers:

OK, I like Drive as the determiner for Chase Stress track length. But I like using the FATE fractal and giving vehicles actual stats. At that point, Body (or Durability or whatever you want to call the "this vehicle is tough" skill) can determine the vehicle's durability stress track. And then, Armor can represent an actual armored vehicle. Look at Mr. and Mrs. Smith - those BMWs that were chasing them definitely had Armor above and beyond a stock Beamer's durability.

I think giving stats AND powers to vehicles allows more freedom, and more finely-grained statistics, than keeping to the 3 tiers of powers.

Quote
Multiparty chases are a bit of an edge case, so I wouldn't be bothered too much if the rules for resolving them were an inelegant kludge with like four stress tracks/person.

And getting caught/escaping are different from having your car explode/exploding everyone else's cars.

Fair enough, although multiparty chases seem to happen to me all the time. :)

My last counterargument for having a single stress track is, couldn't being caught/escaping/exploding be part of the Taken Out terms?

Now, I think I have a zone map that could work for relative positioning.



The idea is based around the 3 vehicle stats - Speed, Handling, and Body - and a general type of terrain that's best suited for each.

Straightaways: when you're in the Straightaways zone, chase rolls made with Speed get a +1 bonus. OPTIONAL: Crashes might also somehow be deadlier.
Tight Turns: Swerving and cornering is king here. Chase rolls made with Handling get a +1 bonus. OPTIONAL: Ranged attacks may only be made from the same zone.
Obstacles: Vehicular mayhem! You throw your vehicle around like a wrecking ball. Chase rolls made with Body gain a +1 bonus. OPTIONAL: Chase rolls MAY NOT use Speed.

I'm not set on the details, but each main zone should provide some sort of small bonus to vehicles using that preferred skill. The intermediate zones don't provide any bonus or penalty.

You can ram vehicles in the same zone. You can shoot at vehicles one zone away.

I think moving from zone to zone should have enough of a border value that most of the time you'd only be moving one zone, but two zones should be doable and 3 zones should be attainable maybe with naturally high skill or FP. Maybe border value 2 or 3.

The tactical level comes out here if you've got a way to move your own car into advantageous zones and to move your opponents into zones where they are disadvantaged. Maybe the zone effects should be greater. You could also assign Aspects to each zone specific to the place your chase is happening too. "Open Freeway" for Straightaways, "Off-ramps and Access Roads" for Tight Turns, and "Wrong Way Through a Traffic Jam" for Obstacles.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #19 on: October 10, 2012, 09:42:47 PM »
Fair enough, although multiparty chases seem to happen to me all the time. :)

My last counterargument for having a single stress track is, couldn't being caught/escaping/exploding be part of the Taken Out terms?

Really? Huh. I'm not really a chase kind of guy, so maybe my idea of what a normal chase is is messed up.

And yes. But being taken out socially can get you killed, if the social conflict was a trial or something. Take-out results can blur conflict lines a bit.

Having thought more about the vehicle stat thing, I really don't like it. The characters are the important thing, the vehicles are just props.

There are some games where your gear is an integral part of your character, but this isn't one (with a few exceptions for magical gear).

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #20 on: October 11, 2012, 11:27:46 AM »
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Really? Huh. I'm not really a chase kind of guy, so maybe my idea of what a normal chase is is messed up.

Honestly, mostly it's cops. Sure, one side's trying to catch one side and then the police are there trying to catch everybody. And something that definitely isn't an edge case is when many people are trying to catch one person. It's a little simpler than the cop free-for-all, but we still need to make sure what we come up with handles that (I don't think that part will be tough, though).

I also thought maybe for a zone map a 4x4 or 5x5 grid would work well too. It's big enough to handle many participants, you can throw down some scene Aspects or obstacle values randomly in some of the zones, and you can track relative positioning as well as get a sense of "they've got him boxed in!" or "this one guy's going around trying to cut him off". Plus it's dead simple to draw.

Quote
Having thought more about the vehicle stat thing, I really don't like it. The characters are the important thing, the vehicles are just props.

There are some games where your gear is an integral part of your character, but this isn't one (with a few exceptions for magical gear).

And I disagree here. Not statting vehicles in a car chase sounds as strange to me as not having weapon and armor stats for combat. Although I do agree that the driver's Drive skill should be the forefront moreso than some arbitrary vehicle skills, so I would personally use vehicle stats as modifiers to a character's Drive skill. If I have some time today I'll try to write up an example chase with an abominable mishmash of the stuff we've discussed so far.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2012, 04:53:41 PM »
I'm not against vehicle stats in general, but they look too prominent here. Weapon and armour stats provide an edge in a fight, but they don't change much...they're just numbers. And not huge ones.

As for a many vs one chase, chase stress would work fine for that. A group of chasers could be modelled as one character, or we could have some kind of zone-attack equivalent.

The messiness comes when x is chasing y who is chasing z who is chasing x.

PS: Having vehicles grant "Powers" is very clever, but it gives gear more importance than I'd like.

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #22 on: October 11, 2012, 09:54:49 PM »
OK, I never got around to an example, but I did codify the "mapless" rules ideas somewhat. I actually like the look of them on paper. I'll work on a zone map version next, and then if time allows, some examples.

Chases

Chase Stress

Requires: none
Optional: Vehicle Stats

Chase Stress is a measure of how effective you are in the chase. It’s a catch-all stress track, and can cover losing ground in a chase to vehicular damage. Drive determines the stress track length. When your chase stress is filled, you are out of the chase in a manner determined by the Taken Out condition.

If you’re only using Chase stress, but are using vehicle stats, you may allow the higher of Body or Speed to modify the Drive skill for determining stress track length.

Durability Stress

Requires: Vehicle Stats
The Durability stress track relates directly to a vehicle’s condition. Its length is determined by the vehicle’s Body stat. When it is filled, the vehicle is undriveable and is out of the chase. “Undriveable” can cover a lot of situations and should be determined by the Taken Out conditions.

Vehicle Stats

Requires: None
Vehicles have two stats:
Speed: It’s a combination of acceleration, cornering, and top speed. I tried making a chart with Speed and Handling divided up, but honestly most of the cars came out with speed and handling either equal or with a difference of only 1 point or so. If there is going to be a significant difference between speed and maneuverability, use Stunts or Compels.
Body: Durability stress, surviving collisions, ramming, passenger protection, and plowing through obstacles. Body is mass and weight and toughness. Note that it’s not armor - if you have an actual armored car, you should have Armor above and beyond its Body.

A vehicle’s Speed and Body are usually not rolled directly. Instead, they modify their driver’s Drive skill. Most of the time a driver will be able to describe their action in such a way to gain the maximum benefit from their vehicle, but sometimes a wily opponent or a well-timed Compel might force you to deal with your vehicle’s disadvantages.

Vehicle   Speed   Body
Motorcycle   5   0
Sports Car   5   1
Police Car   4   3
Muscle Car   4   2
Coupe   3   1
Sedan   2   2
SUV      2   3
Pickup   1   4
Truck   0   5


Do You Know Where You’re Going? Chases Without Maps

Requires: Chase stress
Prohibited: Zone Map


Goals

The quarry’s objective is to Take Out their pursuers by filling their chase stress tracks. The pursuer’s goal is to fill their quarry’s chase stress track and Take them Out instead.

Initiative

Initiative happens a little differently in a chase. The quarry goes first, then that quarry’s pursuers take action in descending order of Drive skill. If there’s a tie, PCs go before NPCs.

Striking Distance (sorry, Bruce Willis)

The default during a mapless chase is a situation where all participants might be able to see their quarry/pursuers, but they are not close enough to ram them off the road or shoot them at will. To get close enough to take offensive actions, you have to tag an appropriate Aspect for effect, just like initiating a grapple in unarmed combat. When you do, you are considered to be within Striking Distance of your target. It’s a condition that’s a prerequisite for many actions during a chase. The intention is to make the chase about maneuvers and descriptions, not about a simple gunfight on wheels.

Please note: Striking Distance can be maintained over several exchanges if the Aspect you tagged was sticky. It also means that in these situations, your opponent can be considered within Striking Distance of you for any actions they wish to take.

What You Can Do on Your Turn

Shake Pursuit

Shaking Pursuit is a special action only available to the quarry. Choose a difficulty and roll Drive against it, describing the insane risks you’re taking to escape your pursuers. If you fail to beat your chosen difficulty, you take chase stress equal to the degree of failure.

The benefit of taking the Shake Pursuit action is that each one of your pursuers must now roll Drive against the difficulty you chose. Failure inflicts chase stress to their vehicles equal to the margin of failure. In this way, one skilled quarry can evade multiple lesser pursuers without having to target each opponent individually. If a pursuer beats both the chosen difficulty and their quarry’s own effort, they move up to Striking Distance as if they had tagged an appropriate fragile Aspect for effect. If the pursuer was already at Striking Distance, they inflict chase stress on their quarry equal to the margin of success between their roll and the quarry’s roll.

As the quarry, therefore, you want to choose a difficulty low enough for you to beat, but not too low, else your pursuers will easily beat it as well, giving them a chance to beat your roll and move into Striking Distance. If you choose too high a difficulty, however, you’ll take chase stress and then any pursuer who can beat the chosen difficulty will automatically beat your roll and move into Striking Distance.

Maneuver

Maneuvers are the most widely useful action in this kind of chase, and any participant, driver or passenger, can usually justify a maneuver. Maneuvers generally work as normal, although the importance of having Aspects to tag for effect in order to move within Striking Distance cannot be overstated. In addition, the GM should take into account the ever-changing environment in a typical high-speed chase when deciding if a given Aspect is fragile or sticky.

Attack (requires Striking Distance)

Once you’re within Striking Distance of your opponent, you can attempt to inflict stress on them. The skills involve can vary depending on the tactics used. Some common ones are listed below:

Ram / Trading Paint / P.I.T. / Sideswipe

You ram your vehicle into your target. Roll Drive to attack (modified by Body). Your target may choose to avoid the collision (roll Drive, modified by Speed) or welcome to chance to force you off the road (roll Drive, modified by Body). If you beat your opponent’s roll, you deal stress to their vehicle equal to the margin of success. If they are avoiding your attack and succeed, they may choose to put themselves within Striking Distance or they may move you out of Striking Distance. However, if they are countering your sideswipe with their vehicle’s own bulk, then treat it as a simultaneous attack roll. Highest effort deals stress to the losing vehicle equal to the difference in rolls.
Optional: If you are using Vehicle stats, add the difference in Body to the stress inflicted. If your opponent’s vehicle has a high enough Body to reduce the stress below zero, YOU take the resulting stress. Don’t sideswipe a bus with a motorcycle.

Shoot the Car

You make a ranged attack on the opponent’s vehicle. This usually is a Guns roll, but it might be Discipline if it’s a lightning bolt or something. The opposing driver avoids the attack with Drive. We generally even out the would-be penalties for firing from a jostling, speeding vehicle with the would-be bonuses to hit a large vehicle.

If the shooter is also driving, don’t forget the -1 supplemental action penalty.
Optional: The target’s Drive roll is restricted by Speed, this will make it a little easier to hit slower trucks and the like.

Shoot the Driver

If you’re shooting your opponent’s vehicle and beat their defense by 3 or more, you may apply that attack to the driver or a passenger.
Optional: Stress inflicted should probably be counted as if the defensive Drive roll was 3 higher, else every attack 3 points over the victim’s defense will be some sort of devastating headshot. Or you can reward the good rolling/FP expenditure and apply the full margin of success. It’s messier but it’ll resolve the conflict faster.

Shoot the Tires

Shooting out the tires is something best handled as a sticky Maneuver or as a Consequence of stress inflicted.

Block (requires Striking Distance*)

Blocks in chases work pretty much like blocks everywhere else in the rules, except generally you have to be within Striking Distance to pull them off in a chase..

*Sometimes the specific circumstances of a Block might not require Striking Distance. It’s situational and should follow from the narrative.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #23 on: October 12, 2012, 09:54:13 PM »
I dunno, seems like more special rules then I'd like.

It occurs to me that speed and handling could be represented as weapon ratings and armour for chase stress attacks. If your car moves faster than mine, your attempts to catch me will probably go pretty well and mine will probably not.

In fact, you could handle this with an ordinary conflict...with zones and everything. If you're in my zone, you're close enough to ram. Doesn't mean I'm close to being caught, though...unless my chase stress is nearly full.

I'll toss up some suggestions later today.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #24 on: October 13, 2012, 07:12:05 AM »
Okay, here's my idea.

A chase conflict is a conflict like any other. The objective is to either escape your opponent(s) or corner them.

Initiative is determined through Alertness. In addition to normal stress tracks, each character gets a chase stress track. The length of your chase stress track is determined by the skill you're using to move.

Taking an opponent out on the chase stress track allows you to either escape them or corner them.

Chase attacks can be made and defended against with whatever skill you're using to move. You may target either any single character or, if you are trying to escape, all of your pursuers at once. The latter option imposes a -2 penalty to your attack roll.

Vehicles make it a heck of a lot easier to win a chase. They give (large) weapon and armour ratings for chase attacks. A bike might be weapon 2 armour 1, while a typical car might be weapon 5 armour 2 and an exceptional car might be weapon 6 armour 3. These ratings depend on the environment somewhat.

(Not sure whether to treat Speed as a vehicle or to just use the Athletics bonuses. Regardless, the idea here is to make foot vs vehicle chases viable. They can happen in real life, too, as long as the area isn't a flat plain. Of course, on a flat plain the car's weapon and armour bonuses would increase to insurmountable levels.)

Zones in chase conflicts measure relative position, not absolute position. Chase attacks generally ignore them. People who want to mix in some physical attacks/maneuvers/blocks have to pay attention to them, though.

Offline Taran

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #25 on: October 13, 2012, 01:41:56 PM »
Okay, here's my idea.

A chase conflict is a conflict like any other. The objective is to either escape your opponent(s) or corner them.

Initiative is determined through Alertness. In addition to normal stress tracks, each character gets a chase stress track. The length of your chase stress track is determined by the skill you're using to move.

Taking an opponent out on the chase stress track allows you to either escape them or corner them.

Chase attacks can be made and defended against with whatever skill you're using to move. You may target either any single character or, if you are trying to escape, all of your pursuers at once. The latter option imposes a -2 penalty to your attack roll.

Vehicles make it a heck of a lot easier to win a chase. They give (large) weapon and armour ratings for chase attacks. A bike might be weapon 2 armour 1, while a typical car might be weapon 5 armour 2 and an exceptional car might be weapon 6 armour 3. These ratings depend on the environment somewhat.

(Not sure whether to treat Speed as a vehicle or to just use the Athletics bonuses. Regardless, the idea here is to make foot vs vehicle chases viable. They can happen in real life, too, as long as the area isn't a flat plain. Of course, on a flat plain the car's weapon and armour bonuses would increase to insurmountable levels.)

Zones in chase conflicts measure relative position, not absolute position. Chase attacks generally ignore them. People who want to mix in some physical attacks/maneuvers/blocks have to pay attention to them, though.

I still like Drive being the indicator for length of stress track because, regardless of a footrace or car-chase, Drive indictates the participants knowledge of the "race track"  - even if you're using Athletics to outrun your opponent.  Knowing what alley's to duck into, where there is construction, knowing where there's bridges are out so you can jump over them Dukes of Hazard style, where there might be big crowds at certain times of the day...

If you go back to vehicle stats representing powers, it means a person with Inhuman Speed could keep up with a car (who's speed is represented by inhuman speed).  Since you're giving cars stats anyways...  The STR power already gives a bonus to damage and the Toughness Power already gives armour and an extended stress track.  Just reword the powers.  If you use "striking distance"  STR powers already give bonuses to grapple.

I like admiralducksauce's "striking distance".  Although this might only be required to do damage to the occupants actual stress track.  Like if you don't care about taking out the car itself - where you just want to shoot the driver.  It might also needed in situations where occupants are doing stuff to the other car as opposed to car on car action.  This can be where other players in the car can use alternate skills (like athletics to jump from one car to the other, or guns to shoot etc..)

I also like the rest of the rules he posted, but I have to agree with Sanctaphrax, there's a lot of additional rules that go away from the basic system.  They make sense and are good, but it seems like a lot to remember.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2012, 01:43:46 PM by Taran »

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #26 on: October 13, 2012, 07:07:08 PM »
I still like Drive being the indicator for length of stress track because, regardless of a footrace or car-chase, Drive indictates the participants knowledge of the "race track"  - even if you're using Athletics to outrun your opponent.  Knowing what alley's to duck into, where there is construction, knowing where there's bridges are out so you can jump over them Dukes of Hazard style, where there might be big crowds at certain times of the day...

Not a bad idea...Driving could use a touch of extra usefulness. People who want to chase people down on foot can take a stunt, I guess.

If you go back to vehicle stats representing powers, it means a person with Inhuman Speed could keep up with a car (who's speed is represented by inhuman speed).  Since you're giving cars stats anyways...  The STR power already gives a bonus to damage and the Toughness Power already gives armour and an extended stress track.  Just reword the powers.  If you use "striking distance"  STR powers already give bonuses to grapple.

It would make very little sense for Inhuman Strength to boost chase stress.

And I'm kind of attached to the idea of vehicles as weapons/armour. It makes them meaningful in the same way that other gear is meaningful, which is what I wanted.

I like admiralducksauce's "striking distance".

It's a pretty good rule, though it could use a more clear duration.

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #27 on: October 13, 2012, 08:02:23 PM »
It's a pretty good rule, though it could use a more clear duration.

I think the whole striking distance thing ties into the aspects you tagged to get there, but in general they're going to be fragile aspects even if you rolled well above what you needed to place them. At most, I might let someone stay at striking distance until they used that benefit if the roll and specific maneuver made sense. I wouldn't let something like "Right Behind Him" set up an ongoing striking distance; chases are just too variable and positions too fleeting.

And sure, my rules stray a bit into "minigame" territory. However, if you strip out vehicle stats and most of the optional rules I suggested, it's really all about the Shaking Pursuit action and the striking distance condition.

Still trying to wrap my head around vehicles as Weapon/Armor values. But then I run a game about bikers, so vehicles come up more often than not. I'll be using more detailed stats for my own games.

Offline Taran

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #28 on: October 13, 2012, 08:45:30 PM »
And I'm kind of attached to the idea of vehicles as weapons/armour. It makes them meaningful in the same way that other gear is meaningful, which is what I wanted.
Fair enough. 

For striking distance, I'd just make it a regular maneuver-type thing.  If the attacker creates a maneuver and tags it to get into striking distance, the person trying to get away can do something to remove the maneuver.  Going full defense would give a bonus to do this.

The other option is to make a failed attack/maneuver/block remove the striking distance.  Once again, going full defense would help, but as long as you are successfully doing what you set out to do, you can maintain your striking distance status.  Anyone can actively try to remove the striking distance status which would have to beat the original roll that got you there.

I like the idea of the vehicles giving a boost of armour and weapon values, but they would probably only be used when trying to damage the Drive Stress track - and used as armour if you want to attack occupants in the car.

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: Vroom! Car Chases in DFRPG
« Reply #29 on: October 14, 2012, 01:26:55 AM »
I did a variant on my style of rules that does use a zone map. Here they are. I'd say they adhere a little more closely to normal conflicts, and I couldn't say which rules I'd use in my own game without running some tests first.

The Map Is Not the Terrain: Zone Maps and Chases

Requires: Chase stress, Zone Map

Goals

The quarry’s objective is to Take Out their pursuers by filling their chase stress tracks. The pursuer’s goal is to fill their quarry’s chase stress track and Take them Out instead.

Initiative

I've decided not to mandate any sort of initiative thing. People will use what they like.

Zone Map

When you don’t have a specific map in mind, you can use a simple square grid. 5x5 is probably a good mix of plenty of zones with room enough for movement but close enough to force conflict. 4x4 could work fine for a 1 on 1 chase, and 6x6 or more might work for huge fiascos.


What You Can Do on Your Turn

Shake Pursuit

Shaking Pursuit is a special action only available to the quarry. Choose a difficulty and roll Drive against it, describing the insane risks you’re taking to escape your pursuers. If you fail to beat your chosen difficulty, you take chase stress equal to the degree of failure.

The benefit of taking the Shake Pursuit action is that each one of your pursuers must now roll Drive against the difficulty you chose, -1 difficulty for each zone between you and them. Failure inflicts chase stress to their vehicles equal to the margin of failure. In this way, one skilled quarry can evade multiple lesser pursuers without having to target each opponent individually.

If a pursuer beats both the chosen difficulty and their quarry’s own effort, they may move 1 zone. This does not count as a supplemental move. If the pursuer was already in the same zone as their quarry, they inflict chase stress on their quarry equal to the margin of success between their roll and the quarry’s roll.

As the quarry, therefore, you want to choose a difficulty low enough for you to beat, but not too low, else your pursuers will easily beat it as well, giving them a chance to beat your roll and gain on you. Plus, you don’t want to be too far away from your pursuers when you attempt to shake them, or else they’ll have time to prepare and your maniacal driving won’t be as effective (represented by the difficulty decreasing over intervening zones).

Maneuver

Maneuvers generally work as normal, although the GM should take into account the ever-changing environment in a typical high-speed chase when deciding if a given Aspect is fragile or sticky.

Attack

TL;DR version. You can shoot another vehicle from one zone away, and you can ram them if you’re in the same zone.

Ram / Trading Paint / P.I.T. / Sideswipe (same zone only)

You ram your vehicle into your target. Roll Drive to attack (modified by Body). Your opponent defends with Drive (also modified by Body). On a successful hit, you deal chase stress (if using durability stress, it does durability stress) equal to the shifts.
Optional: Use the difference in the two vehicles’ Body as a Weapon value, or , if your opponent’s vehicle’s Body is greater, apply that as Armor value. Motorcycles should not ram buses.

Shoot the Car (0-1 zone away)

You make a ranged attack on the opponent’s vehicle. This usually is a Guns roll, but it might be Discipline if it’s a lightning bolt or something. The opposing driver avoids the attack with Drive. We generally even out the would-be penalties for firing from a jostling, speeding vehicle with the would-be bonuses to hit a large vehicle.

If the shooter is also driving, don’t forget the -1 supplemental action penalty.
Optional: The target’s Drive roll is restricted by Speed, this will make it a little easier to hit slower trucks and the like.

Shoot the Driver (0-1 zone away)

If you’re shooting your opponent’s vehicle and beat their defense by 3 or more, you may apply that attack to the driver or a passenger.
Optional: Stress inflicted should probably be counted as if the defensive Drive roll was 3 higher, else every attack 3 points over the victim’s defense will be some sort of devastating headshot. Or you can reward the good rolling/FP expenditure and apply the full margin of success. It’s messier but it’ll resolve the conflict faster.

Shoot the Tires (0-1 zone away)

Shooting out the tires is something best handled as a sticky Maneuver or as a Consequence of stress inflicted.

Block

Blocks in chases work pretty much like blocks everywhere else in the rules.

Move

Movement works like normal, except you roll Drive instead of Athletics.