In my group I ran a swoop bike race using modified chase rules, which caused a question of how the Shortcut talent would work in a race that is in a defined path. The Racer talent gets short cut which mention they work in a chase which a race isn't necessarily a chase, on a race track there are no real shortcuts (NASCAR or Indy) so how would you let them use these talent in a define race course.

On a the Order 66 podcast they mentioned you could use the boost dice from shortcut if you fall behind in the race.

So I was wondering how other were allowing these talents to work in a race track?

Thanks for any suggestions or sharing your processes.

Shortcut by making a new path between other racers that are trying to block you.

Shortcut is often about choosing the best line around a track, about noticing small gaps that one could slip through, about being more situationally aware than the other competitors. I've got a podrace in my next game, and many of the NPCs have Shortcut.

Looking at it another way, Shortcut is what makes a racer better than, say, an Ace pilot at winning on a closed track. The pilot can still be a spectacular flyer, but the Racer is more focused on this one thing. That's what the boost die represents.

I wouldn't take the Talent name too literally. The name is meant to be evocative, not necessarily literal. "Well Rounded," for example, does not mean that you are plump or that all of your corners and angles have been sanded down.

As the other contributors mentioned, the "Shortcut" Talent is what makes your Racer better in his/her element. What form that takes in the narrative can (and should) vary for each situation.

Aye, I would probably use the talent for developing very unusual passes. Like I imagine scoop bike racing to be 3 dimensional, incorporating both height and width into the track so while it's one track, there are usually multiple things going on. It's being able to see that optimal racing line and follow it, or take the more unusual racing line that would bypass a particlarly conjested chokepoint; riding outside is usually suboptimal, but due to the density of the racers they are all forced to slow down e.c.t.