I have read the Swoop race in the "Suns of Fortune" Module and I'm still not exactly clear on how the rules actually apply in regard to "Who's in the lead" and how do players recover from loss of speed, or how spped for each rider determines where they are at each stage.

I am very sorry if i'm coming f as particularly dense but for some reason it's just not "Clicking" in my head.

Every participant makes his roll of Piloting (Planatary) against his (speed in purple dices) and (half size as upgrades usually 1) as an action. The winner (most successes) goes on his/her top speed, the second on top speed minus 1 and so forth. The participants who fail the check get on the last positon and lose 1 speed (You could also spend a manuever for the Accelerate manuever to increase the speed by 1 again). At the end of each round you can determine every position by the current speed.

For talents like Full Throttle I would suggest to restrict the effects on one round/leg in this case. If two participants have top speed at the end of last round, call for a competitive Cool check!

Thats is a really thrilling and funny encounter until the end. You will have a blast...

Yeah, essentially what Kingpin said.

Treat Speed levels as range bands. So if 6 speeders are in the race, and 2 are going at speed 3, 2 are going at speed 2, and 2 are going at speed 1.

The speed 3 speeders are close to each other, with the person in the lead being the one with the most successes on their piloting check. They are at short range to the speed 2 group, and medium range to the speed 1 group.

Naturally going slow in a race will result in you falling behind.

The piloting checks the players and NPCs make are not normal checks or even opposed checks, they are 'competitive checks' so everyone rolls their pool, and compares their results to everyone elses to determine placing and narrative influences.

If you want a quick & dirty set of rules:

speed = auto successes

Piloting(Planetary/Space) roll (including maneuverability)

The race is broken up in X blocks:

Each block is Y successes long each of a per-determined difficulty.

You can spend advantages to:

A) give out setbacks to other racers

B) give boost dice to your next roll

C) add extra successes

D) reduce strain on either the vehicle or pilot

Spend Triumphs to decrease the difficulty of the next roll or spend as advantage

As an example:

The Oman Pod Race:

Block 1: Straight away

Difficulty: 2

Range: 15 successes

Block 2: The hills

Difficulty: 3

Range: 20 successes

Block 3: The Black Hole

Difficulty: 3 with 2 upgrades

Range: 8 successes

Block 4: The Runback

Difficulty: 1

Range: 30 successes

It works for any race of any type, just change the blocks. Lap races just repeat the pattern over & over.

I would like to flesh this out a little as i'm gonna be using it as the Swoop gang race that takes place in Kotor (As that's what my campaign is).

Your information helps I wasn't getting the whole speed=position thing, but that's cool. Ebak I may message you on Fb near the weekends as I anticipate me finding another issue lol.

thanks for all your input guys.