The rules on chase mechanics are a bit thin and most deal with piloting chases. What about foot chases? how would you run these?

For example, A player running from a creature chasing him. It becomes structured play but before rolling initiative, you do a competitive Average Athletics check to see who gains a rnage band on who, but then what? Do player and crateure both get an normal structured play round each then or not? If so, it would seem to nullify the results of the chase competitive check imo as each could take maneuvers then to get away.

What about spending advantage and threat on each roll in the competitive checks? Say the player had one advantage and no successes, but the creature had 2 failures and 3 advantage. Obviously the player wins the competition here, but how does this work? What if one of them rolled threat, would it basically be the same as rolling advantage for the opposite PC/NPC?

I would say yes use the range band to do the chase and as far as advantage and disadvantage 2 failures to 3 advantages I would say when an advantage beats disadvantage I would allow the player to be able to skip I band if not two depending on the situation. for example a bounty hunter (assassin/gadgeteer) was chasing Bainus dobrain the hunter was in long range and bainus being in the short range band so that would put him two bands away. if the competitive athletics check with two failures and 3 advantage. so I would allow the player to skip at least one range band but it would mostly depend on what the gm agrees upon with the rest of ur group. hope that might have helped.

When characters are locked in a chase, they first roll the competitive check at the beginning of each round, and then take their turns according to initiative. They can still spend maneuvers on their turns, but they can't spend those maneuvers to move. So they can draw weapons, use inventory items, or interact with the environment, provided those maneuvers can reasonably be performed on the run.

As far as interpreting the competitive checks, a character has to succeed on the check in order to "win" it that round. So, in your example, both the PC and the creature got tangled up in something that slowed or stopped their forward momentum. If they had both succeeded on their checks, then the higher success gains a range band. I'd spend Advantage/Threat the same way I would in structured play. Maybe the PC sees an opening to add a Boost to her next blaster shot, or she suffers strain due to the obvious stress and fatigue of the situation. With 3 Threat, she falls down and now has to use a maneuver on her turn to get back up.

Thanks for the consise replies. I lifted Spjork's reply exactly and used it in my game's post to explain to my players how this works.

When i use chase on vehicles , the rules state that the GM should allow the two vehicles involved when they both are at a range band that ALLOWS the CHASE to initiate?

What is this relative Range Band?

So at round 1 my speeder is at speed 0 , i use 2 maneuvers to go to speed 2. Round 2 : Accelerate Speed 3 and Drive (change bands) and so on, until i am in a relative distance to the target and THEN i make

the competitive check???

I just had a foot chase on my game. I let the person in the lead pick the skill they want for the competitive check as long as it make sense. Difficulty is average but the person in the lead can adjust it base on what they are doing to get away. Only change 1 band at a time since they are equivalent speeds.

What happened in the adventure for my group. A kid picked a pc but was noticed. He was at short range when they saw him. He pick athletics to get up the wall to get away. Everyone passed but he had a triumph so I said he did the wall leap and made it up quick enough the other could attack him. Difficulty was 2 average with a setback for the narrow path.

2nd round of the chase they are jumping across roofs, so change to coordination. Difficulty 2, but upgraded due to risk of falling. One play rolled a dispear and fell. The leader and one other passed. The player used his action to draw a bola using his utility belt talents and ensure the person in the lead.

So that was our short chase that was ended by the action of the players early.

Hope that helps.

Now that the specifics have been nailed down ...keep in mind, Athletics is only the beginning of what you can do. You really can replace Athletics with any skill you want. Social skills might let you "gain a range band", hiding among the locals by using Charm, Coercion, etc. Technical skills might get you past a security door that provides a shortcut. Streetwise might mean knowing you can dash through that hallway and come out ahead of the enemy. Sky is the limit here.

When using other skills to in a chase I try to limit how often they use the same skill, to keep they person from just picking their best skill for the whole time. Except for the base skills for chases (athletics - on Foot or Piloting for Space) any other skills I don't let them use in consecutive turns. If they pick a skill they want to use just make sure they explain how it will work for the scene.

I don't give the player's carte blanche, I describe the setting and ask what they want to do, and the skill choice has to have something to do with the setting. The nice thing is you can change the setting every round, bringing a new set of skills to bear. I also try to rotate through the group, letting one PC's results stand for the group that round.* It speeds things up, and makes it more cinematic. If you have every PC go every round, it gets really tedious, you might as well play a race around a Monopoly board.

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* other factors might come to bear on the skill check, eg: if they are carrying wounded or in hostile territory, setbacks or upgrades are appropriate.

On 5/24/2018 at 2:41 PM, whafrog said:

Now that the specifics have been nailed down ...keep in mind, Athletics is only the beginning of what you can do. You really can replace Athletics with any skill you want. Social skills might let you "gain a range band", hiding among the locals by using Charm, Coercion, etc. Technical skills might get you past a security door that provides a shortcut. Streetwise might mean knowing you can dash through that hallway and come out ahead of the enemy. Sky is the limit here.

On a slightly different note, you can also apply the Chase mechanics to things that don't feel like chases, but actually are. So, for example, tracking someone across the Jundland Wastes might require each party to roll Survival checks (or Perception, Skullduggery, Deception, Outer Rim, or something else if they can think of it) as the tracker gains on their quarry, or the quarry manages to conceal their tracks. A very similar thing can be done with Streetwise (or Underworld, Charm, Coercion, Core Worlds) in the depths of Coruscant, as a bounty hunter tries to close in on their target by asking the right questions to the right people.