roll, narrate what your character is doing to keep up with the chase. If he is sprinting, then the GM in all likelihood expects a Quickness roll from you. If your character is pumping a mine car along a track, you can use Strength to make your chase roll.
But there is more than that. In a crowded street, a play- er who narrates his character enlisting the aid of street urchins can roll Charisma as his chase roll. If you are in the library and your character has a history of using this library, you cold narrate how your character’s knowledge of the reading room allows him to dodge between the stacks and come out ahead. In this case, roll your reason die with your library history bonus. The possibilities are limited only by the environment and your skill and imagination.
Chase Rolls
One word of caution: chases are inherently physi- cal activities. Players should not abuse the ability to narrate substitutes for physical, speed-related charac- teristics and abilities. In other words, the GM should be vigilant about what narrations make sense. A good rule of thumb is that in a typical chase scene, a charac- ter will only find one or two environments where she can use reason, charisma, or a related skill instead of Quickness or a skill directly related to speed and chas- es. A player who has made the choice for her character to excel in chase scenes by choosing chase-related histories and abilities should not be overshadowed by weakly justified narrations from players eager to run every chase scene down the yellow brick road (that is, munchkin it up).
Especially exciting or thrilling narrations – “critical narrations” – gain a one die-size increase.
If you equal or exceed the chase difficulty with your chase roll, you gain a number of range incre- ments specified by your action for the round.
If you fail your chase roll, you lose one range increment.
Example. Terrence races down a corridor of the Rithaign Tower Dungeon, two steps ahead of the kingsmen. The corridor has difficulty 3, and Terrence
chooses the Run maneuver. His player narrates Ter- rence running, so he rolls his Quickness die. With a 3 on the die, Terrence succeeds and gains 1 range incre- ment this round.
Example. Terrence now reaches the torture room, with iron maidens, racks, and a viewing balcony with walnuts and sherry for the nobles. The difficulty in this crowded room is 5. Terrence’s player chooses the Run action again, but this time the player narrates Terrence jumping, grabbing one of the manacle chains dan- gling from the ceiling, and swinging his way up to the viewing balcony. He rolls his strength die and uses his History: Wolf Child to increase the die size by one. He rolls a 4, a failure. Now he has to decide whether or not to use an Inspiration or a Mood. If he does not, he loses 1 range increment this round.
Once all chase rolls have been made, the players in the chase are re-sequenced.
The ranks are 1-5 plus Long Range. The leader or co-leaders of the race always occupies rank 1. All ranks are relative. That means that if everyone in the chase gained 1 range increment this round, then no one moves on the rank order (because no one gained or lost ground relative to anyone else).
Example. Nezzar, Oliver, and Phineas are rac- ing horses in an Equine Steeple at the Unicorn Downs. Nezzar starts the round in the lead. Oliver is one rank behind, and Phineas is at Long Range. As a result of the round, Nezzar gains one increment, Oliver gains one increment, and Phineas gains two increments. This means that Nezzar and Oliver remain unchanged, and Phineas moves up one spot into rank 5.
Example. This one is as complex as chases get. Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it. Let’s put Nez- zar, Oliver, and Phineas in the same ranks as above: 1, 2, and Long Range. This round, Nezzar loses one range increment, Oliver gains two, and Phineas gains one. This means Oliver has a net gain of three on Nez- zar and one on Phineas. So Oliver takes over the lead
Sequencing
in Rank 1, with Nezzar two behind in Rank 3. Oliver’s net gain of one on Phineas means that Phineas is now five spots behind Oliver instead of four, so Phineas is still at Long Range (although he is two spots closer to Nezzar).
The technique used in the second example is a quick way to re-order multiple-participant chase scenes: find the new leader, determine his change relative to everyone else, and just fill in everyone else behind him. Of course, many chase scenes end when the leader is overtaken, and in the round when that happens, there is obviously no need to re-order.
Here’s a secret for running a great chase scene. Imagine that the characters are standing still while the terrain changes around them. Don’t describe it that way to the players, of course, but it helps you get in the right frame of mind: you’re bringing things to the players each round. They’re standing still, and each round you’re bringing new challenges and new choices to them in the form of new ter- rain options and new obstacles.