Hey guys,

I posted this thread over to the Star Wars RPG subreddit and got a lot of answers that were all over the place in opinion, so I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I'm really struggling with them. My problem is as follows:

My next session is going to lead to a swoop race. I was wondering if any of you guys know of a Live Play episode where they do a swoop race or if there's a youtube video of someone conducting one.

The reason I ask is because it's hard for me to visualize the mechanics of this race with the RAW. Maybe someone can help me out. I'm using the rules supplement for "Taming the Dragon".

Quote

After the beginning of the race, positioning is determined by top speed. Those going the highest speed (probably 4 or 5) are jockeying for first, those going one speed slower are jockeying for second, and so forth. Once per leg, have all contestants make a competitive Piloting (Planetary) check with difficulty set by the speed and size of the swoops. The winner of the check is first amongst all other racers going his speed.

In this module, there are six legs of the race. It sounds to me like you just go super slow the entire race to reduce the difficulty of all checks so you survive and then at the end you just punch it since speed is the only thing that determines positioning. It doesn't seem like your speed during the first five legs matters. Am I missing something? Because it sounds like if I'm speed 1 all race and then I punch it on the last leg to speed 5, I'm instantly with the leaders.

Also, they never explain what failures do in the race. I know that in the core rule book, if you fail going through stellar phenomena, you reduce your speed by one and do not make it through. Does that mean if racers fail their check on leg 2, they have to repeat leg 2 while all other racers move on to leg 3?

I'm just having a very hard time visualizing this race in my head because there seems to be no reason to go fast until the end. I feel like I may be missing some important detail. Could someone please help me out?

Does anyone have any house rules to make speed not such a detriment? It seems like chases are the same. If you want to catch someone, you go as slow as possible because your dice pool will be incredibly small and you'll generate way more successes than someone who is going at a higher speed or full throttle due to the extra difficulty. In chases, the only upside to a higher speed is you get to increase/decrease your range band on the chaser/chasee by two. However, if you just play it safe and go speed one, it seems you'll just catch them/get away every single time.

Bump.

I prepped for a swoop race by prerolling all the other racers results... put them all into Success, Advantage, Triumph over Failures, Threats.. worked out a commentator's narrative with blanks to put in the PC postioning.. by the last bend there was only one NPC and the Player still swooping, soem lost control on the first hairpin bend OUCH! they were coming in second after first getting up to 4th place.... I let them flip a destiny to pip them on the line.... so a five minute session took about half an hour to 45 mins to plan but the players loved it... I'll do something similar for 'Season 2' using flyers or nerfs 😄

I didnt do RAW for a race that I did. I used the speed and silhouette for the base difficulty for the roll, the added setbacks or upgrades depending on how difficult or dangerous the section of the track was. If the player succeeded on their roll the move their speed in points, if they fail they move half the distance of their speed. For using narrative results you could only effect people within 3 points of you, ahead or behind. This way the person in last can't effect the leader if they are too far.

I made the race 6 tracks and the person with the highest total won the race. You could also determine a number of points needed to win the race. This cause speed to become more important than it is in RAW.

There is an episode of the Order 66 podcast dedicated to racing and the chase. Episode 99 Gone in 60 Parsecs.

Hope this helps!

36 minutes ago, damnkid3 said:

I didnt do RAW for a race that I did. I used the speed and silhouette for the base difficulty for the roll, the added setbacks or upgrades depending on how difficult or dangerous the section of the track was. If the player succeeded on their roll the move their speed in points, if they fail they move half the distance of their speed. For using narrative results you could only effect people within 3 points of you, ahead or behind. This way the person in last can't effect the leader if they are too far.

I made the race 6 tracks and the person with the highest total won the race. You could also determine a number of points needed to win the race. This cause speed to become more important than it is in RAW.

There is an episode of the Order 66 podcast dedicated to racing and the chase. Episode 99 Gone in 60 Parsecs.

Hope this helps!

I'd add success to their speed, and subtract net failure from their speed rather than halving speed. This rewards skill more dramatically.

I like the reduce speed by failures, instead of just halved.

The successes counting to speed may cause more or going slow and relying on success from simpler checks to get the same speed or go faster. So going speed 3 you only have a hard check, successes can get you to speed 5. Where speed 5 is formidable would be more likely to fail the roll.

Also it helps to keep people close to each other so they can use advantages to cause trouble for others.

I basically do an accumulation of points. On a success, you gain points equal to your Speed plus your successes. On a failure, you reduce your speed by one, then gain points equal to your speed, perhaps subtracting net failures. Each racer only has to roll once on each "zone," a failure just represents someone who slid out or something. At any point of the race, whoever has the most points is in the lead. That simple, really.

If you calculate based on speed and succeses, do it so 2 success equals 1 speed. Otherwise the players just slow down and throw the easier checks. If 2 success equals +1 point, you need to roll 2 less successes on a roll with 1 more purple to get the same result with higher speed. It encourages ppl togo faster as only a double failure will lessen their points.