In ship, speeder or on feet, chasing or being chased, what makes a good chase encounter? How would you run it?

Added: Do you have any good examples of what to do with advantages and threats, both on a failure and a success? And what would the rest of the group do while the piloting is flying?

Are you asking if we would use rules other than the existing chase rules, or how we would implement them?

Terrain .

Chases are really all about the terrain they move through. A speeder chase over a flat open plain or spacecraft flying in open space have no way to be interesting, nothing to describe, and nothing to use or effect. Hell in space, if you're both moving at nearly the same speed in the same direction, you might as well not be moving at all.

In movies and tv, nearly all chases take place through thing to make them interesting. Traffic to avoid, streets to navigate, asteroids to duck, windows to crash through, etc.

I've seen the same thing with my group when talking about our past games. The chases that come up in discussion are almost universally referred to by 'where' the case occurred, not who was in it or who was shooting who. "Remember that time we were chased through Nar Shadda traffic?" or "Remember that time we out the back door of the cantina and through the habblock I crashed out the second story window to catch him?"

Quicksilver touched on the how: terrain. Make it memorable, make it fun! Take a look at any good chase scene in a movie, or a video game, or a book, etc. It's where the chase took place that matters.

As to the how, that's easy! By the book! Page 241has the chase rules.

-EF

Terrain .

Chases are really all about the terrain they move through. A speeder chase over a flat open plain or spacecraft flying in open space have no way to be interesting, nothing to describe, and nothing to use or effect. Hell in space, if you're both moving at nearly the same speed in the same direction, you might as well not be moving at all.

In movies and tv, nearly all chases take place through thing to make them interesting. Traffic to avoid, streets to navigate, asteroids to duck, windows to crash through, etc.

I've seen the same thing with my group when talking about our past games. The chases that come up in discussion are almost universally referred to by 'where' the case occurred, not who was in it or who was shooting who. "Remember that time we were chased through Nar Shadda traffic?" or "Remember that time we out the back door of the cantina and through the habblock I crashed out the second story window to catch him?"

I would love to hear more on those examples, the Nar Shaddaa traffic and so on! Was it improvised or did you set it up and plan for it?

Are you asking if we would use rules other than the existing chase rules, or how we would implement them?

Both:)

I just used a chase in my last session with the group I run. The Palace was collapsing around the party and they were rushing to get out before the whole place came down while being chased by a Rancor. The falling debris, tight corners, and the path they had just come through each presented obstacles and destiny tokens were flipped like mad trying to ensure the party escaped with their treasure. We stuck pretty close to the rules in the book but I agree with the prior posters it was all about the scenery.

Expanded Examples:

Nar Shaddaa :

I'd set up the chase is low-planet orbit, using an modified and under-gunned Marauder as the attacker (we're in a Wayfarer). I'd intended the ship traffic there to be the backdrop for the chase, so we could dive around bulk transports and the like. My players surprised me by putting the ship into a steep dive and going below skyline level and into the airspeeder traffic. This, however, opened up wonderful descriptive and 'triumph/despair' opportunities, as they shot down support beams, split around hairpin turns and evaded transports.

Rules wise, I ran this with the standard chase rules, opposed pilot checks at the top of the round to determine gain or loss. The heavy nature of the terrain and the relative high speeds put the difficulty fairly high with a challenge and a healthy chunk of blacks (for being too **** big). Because they were being chased by a corvette with plenty of crew, I decided each station would be a 2 minion group with a 3 attribute, and a generic boost from the rival captain. Plot the course became a very valuable tool, as did co piloting. This gave me a lot of advantage, threat, triumph and despair to work with, who really carried the bulk of the narrative weight. (Including one despair on the marauder's part the players spent to have their ion cannon miss to strike a passing building while the occupying hutt was on an important call. Because it was funny and just to make these bounty hunters less welcome in the future.)

Hab block chase :

Ok, I kinda cheated, this one was from a Dark Heresy game, not a Star Wars game, but it was one of the better foot chases that came to mind easily. Still the same principle applies. This chase was entirely improvised, I'd expected the guy to get shot down rather then get a chance to try and escape. So once the chase started I took a moment to consider what was behind the cantina and what would be interesting. I almost went with abandoned industrial, but decided habitation apartments were more likely. It also let me throw in people as potential obstacles, and add a lot of confusing twists and turns, which would allow the runner's superior knowledge of the location shine.

As I said, this was Dark Heresy, but if I were in the same situation with Star Wars I would have run it as follows: Figure out what the next thirty seconds or minute's worth of running would take the runner, then set the difficulty based on that. In this case he's quite an athlete, so he's picking more difficult routes (over walls, up stairs, etc) I give him a boost for being familiar with the area. The players roll against this same difficulty, but with a setback because there are so many sight-breaks and side passages they have to keep track of him past. Both sides roll athletics to figure out relative distance, which counts as having taken 2 maneuvers. PCs may spend 2 strain to have an action left (ie, having bought their second maneuver). I'd also rule that because of the constant exertion required, strain may not be recovered during the chase.

Great stuff you guys! Quicksilver, when you say opposed checks I assume you mean competitive checks like it says in the chase rules?

Yeah, sorry. I never manage to get that terminology right.

Yeah, sorry. I never manage to get that terminology right.

Only reason I did is because I got it wrong in our last session:p

I would love to hear som examples of using threats and advantages in a chase! Have any?

Terrain, totally yes, but also chaos. A good chase scene isn't just ships winding through an asteroid belt, it is also the characters aboard the ship scrambling to do things.

A speeder chase through the neon skyline of Nar Shaddaa might include people falling out and needing to help each other back in if they get too many threats, minion groups dropping from buildings and engaging the players inside the speeder.

I also think it helps when the chase isn't about catching the vehicle, but taking something: object or person. Then you can have that trope about keep away and the players needing to pass it back and forth and take it back from the enemy.

I've yet to run a chase sequence, but I plan on incorporating one in my next session and this is what I had planned (largely because I can't be bothered understanding the vehicle/space combat/chase RAW.)

It's basically a foot chase in a scrap yard. Using competitive Athletics or Coordination checks, difficulty goes something like: flat land (Simple), small mounds of scrap (Easy), tall piles of junk about the height of a small human (Average) and heaps of debris that requires climbing/scaling (Hard). Every success from both the PC and NPCs counts as a 'space' gained during the chase (note this is not necessarily a range band - I plan on using a counter. ie, PCs start at 0 but NPC starts at 2 and each uncancelled success counts as a +1 to the total) and goes for about two or three turns (GM's discretion) until you decide the chase is over - with either the target getting away by reaching a certain distance (10 'spaces' etc.) or locking himself in a room or whatever. PCs will catch the target when the number of spaces they've rolled matches the target (ie, the PC/NPC both have values of 8 'spaces').

I plan on letting Triumph or at least two Advantage count as the PCs being able to take a shot at the target whilst fleeing with a ranged weapon (range dependent on 'space' between the characters) with setback die to represent aiming whilst moving, but any significant amount of Threat or a Despair implies the PCs either fall over or drop whatever they're holding.

EDIT: Typos.