Design Day: Chase Scenes!

Aaaand we’re back! Welcome to Design Day, where I present YOU with something fun to use in your games. Today, we’re taking a turn away from the usual. No NPCs, no magic items, no house rules. Today, we’re looking at a new set of Chase Rules that I designed this weekend during our weekly game. At first, these rules were pretty on-the-fly. One character was fleeing from another (a drunk barbarian from an over-zealous samurai), and I had to come up with a system to use at that moment.

Now, I know some of you are going to ask “why not just use the chase rules in the Gamemastery Guide?” Well, I don’t know those rules off the top of my head, and from what I can remember they’re fairly complex (requiring obstacles and a deck of cards to use). I thought I’d throw something simpler together.

To use these chase rules, all you need is a d20, a piece of paper and a pair of characters that are…well, running.

First things first, let’s establish what exactly we’re going to be doing. In its simplest terms, each player rolls the dice, and the player who rolls higher “advances”.

Simple, right?

Now, to give it a little more complexity, let’s establish our terms:

Movement Bonus: This is the bonus that a character gains to their movement check each turn. This bonus is equal to their movement speed divided by 10. For climbing or swimming chases, you can instead use the bonus related to that skill.

Movement Check: This is the check made to determine whether your character advances or not, and how far they advance.

Movement Track: This is the recorded advancement of each character. Both characters have their own advancement track.

All right, now that our terms are defined, let’s take a look at the nitty-gritty of all this. How does it work?

Let’s start at the beginning.

Step 1 – The Movement Check: Both players (or the Players and a GM, if they’re chasing an NPC) make a movement check with the bonuses given above.

Step 2 – The Movement Track: Check the numbers rolled. The character who rolls highest automatically gains 1 on their movement track, representing that they’ve pulled ahead in the chase. In addition, for every 5 by which the winning roll surpassed the losing roll, that player increases their advancement track by 1 more. If the rolls tie, neither player gets a point.

Step 3 – Resolution: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until both players have the same number, representing that one player has caught up to the other. At that point, resolve it as a normal encounter.

Races

Now, thematically, whenever you have a chase, you usually have a race as well. The villain is rushing for his airship or his mystical teleportation circle or something. In this case, you can use the same rules as presented above. The only difference is that the GM should set a goal number. Once that number is reached on an advancement track, the player who reaches it achieves their goal.

Let’s build an example. We’ll use two characters. We’ll call the first one—our hero—Adam. Our villain will be named Daggron. Adam and Daggron both have a movement speed of 30 feet. So that means that their movement bonus is +3 each.

So let’s get started! I’ll set the scene. Daggron has just escaped from his Death Palace, having been defeated by Adam. He is rushing toward his airship, which is a good distance away (let’s say 400 feet for the sake of argument). He has no horse available, and realizes that he has to hoof it the entire way. The hero hot on his tail, he begins running.

Let’s put the “Goal” number that Daggron wants to reach at 10. If he reaches that number, he gets on his airship and gets away.

Round 1: Adam rolls a 6, while Daggron rolls a 16. Wow! Off to a good start, villain! Not only that, but he beat Adam by 10 points, meaning that he’s already 3 points ahead.

Round 2: Adam rolls a 22! WOW! But Daggron is close behind with an 18. That makes Adam the winner, but he only won the roll by 4 points, meaning he only has a 1 on his advancement track, while Daggron still has that 3.

Round 3: Adam rolls a 14, and Daggron a 15. It’s close, but the villain starts to pull ahead, giving him a total of 4 on his advancement track, while Adam still has 1. He’s going to need to catch up quick.

Round 4: Adam rolls a 17. Daggron rolls a 12. The hero ‘s starting to catch up now, netting 2 points on his advancement track, giving him a 3, whereas Daggron has just 1 more at a 4. If he doesn’t win the next roll, he’s Hero Food.

Round 5: And Daggron pulls it off! Adam gets a 17, whereas Daggron gets a 20. He only gains 1 point, but it’s 1 point more than he had before. Daggron’s sitting at 5 now, while Adam has a 3.

Round 6: Adam rolls an 11 and Daggron nets only 10. It’s enough to stay in the lead, but that hero’s getting a little close for comfort.  It’s 5 to 4 now, Daggron over Adam.

Round 7: And both hero and villain tie with a 10. Neither gets a point this round.

Round 8: Adam rolls a 14, and Daggron…a 23! HOLY CRAP! NATURAL 20! However, he only won by 9, meaning he gains 2 points. Now he’s at 7, and Adam at 4. Looks like he might just make it.

Round 9: Adam rolls a 19—a good number. Daggron, however, rolls a 22! He advances 1 more point, to an 8. Victory is definitely in sight for our villain. He can win this next round, in fact.

Round 10: But he doesn’t. Adam rolls a 21. That’d be nice on its own, except that Daggron only rolled a 7. That puts him 14 points ahead, meaning that he gains 3 on his advancement track. Adam is back in the game, with 7 points to Daggron’s 8. Round 11 could end this.

Round 11: Adam only rolls a 6. Ouch. Looks like the villain is getting away. But wait, Daggron only rolled a 9. Only winning by 4 only gives him 1 point. It’s 9 to 7. Never thought it would get this close when I started.

Round 12: Another tie. Wow. Tense, right?

Round 13: And just as Daggron is about to board his ship with a 9, Adam comes up from behind and takes him down with a 16, netting him 2 advancement points and allowing him to catch up to the villain mere feet from his airship.

So there it is. I guess it took a little longer than I expected, so I should have probably set the goal lower. But the system itself seems to work like a charm. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope even more that you find a place to use it. It’s simple, and it works.

-Chris