Starfox | Home | T3 | Chase Chase Rules "The highway's lined with broken heroes…" -Bruce Springsteen, "Born to Run" What a Car Chase Is. If you're reading this, odds are you play Feng Shui. If you play Feng Shui, it's a sucker bet that you're familiar with that staple of action flicks: The car chase. Typically the hero is either trying to run the bad guys off the road and catch them, or is trying to avoid being run off the road and captured. At the end of the scene, someone's either crashed, escaped or been stopped. That's a real simple description of a car chase. Of course, "four guys got on-stage and played some instruments" is a simple description of Led Zepplin's farewell concert. Clearly there's more there. In fact, there's so much more to the interaction of fast cars, treacherous pavement and square-jawed racers that it inspired an entire sub-genre of pop music in the '50s and '60s. The soul of a Feng Shui car chase is description, just like the fights. You can say "I'm going to catch up to his car" and roll your Drive score, but is it really worth the effort? Instead, you want to be interacting with the landscape, with the other cars and with the bad guys themselves. If your GM is worth anything, you'll also be interacting with set pieces, a promiscuous assortment of exotic vehicles, and (at least on occasion) fire and things that go boom. So, how does it work? Well, it's fairly much like normal combat. Most actions still take 3 shots, with defensive actions costing but a single shot. Characters use their normal Speed and initiative. The main difference is that you don't separate action and movement; the characters are moving all the time, squeezing in a bit of action in between. Naturally, there are some special stunts and other special cases. Later on, we describe how various cars are described in game terms. Each car has two numerical stats, named "Pep" and "Toughness." "Pep" is a measure of the car's pickup, handling, and general ability to gobble up pavement like a hungry kid eating french fries. "Toughness" determines how much abuse a car can take before turning into modern art; it's the same attribute characters use to avoid damage, but damage works a little different for cars. And yes, these rules are mainly about cars, but there's no reason why they cannot be used in any kind of vehicle, or even a foot race. You'll find little notes here and there about other types of chase, but most things stay the same. I just assume that cars are the norm, and writing 'vehicle' in every second paragraph makes the rules real stuffy. Pep: the "Lil' Deuce Coupe" Element. If you're trying to outrun someone, you want a car with high Pep. It's also desirable if you don't want to get outrun. Your standard car has about 7-9 Pep. All cars involved in a chase usually start out with their full Pep scores. If the quarry has the highest Pep score, he is up front; if the pursuers have higher Pep scores, they are all over him and he is generally out of luck. Both sides then try to outmaneuver one another, until only one side remains. You can kind of convert Pep into Mov, but Pep really works best when compared to other Pep scores. It's an abstraction (much like the concept of the "combat sequence" itself) that incorporates acceleration, top speed and control. I could rate every car on each of those, but that would make the system so complicated that you'd need an hour to figure out who's ahead after three blocks. Lots of characters in Feng Shui have a high Move score or shticks that let them move around real fast: Sorcery's "Movement" shtick, an abomination's Aerial Mobility Unity and the creature shtick "Flight" all might allow PCs to involve themselves in car chases even if they don't have a car per se. All you do is subtract 4 from Mov to get your personal Pep. Flight (creature or sorcerous) is the exemption; because you are so agile, and can move in three dimensions, you get yo use your full Move rating for these. Unless you've got an absurdly high Mov rating, the race is likely to be very one sided: about like a foot race between Ben Johnson and Lyndon Johnson. My advice? During that first sequence, grab onto a car and get your bad sorcerous/supernatural/abominable self inside. A pedestrian uses his Dodge score instead of Drive during a chase (yes, gunmen can run, too). A supernatural/cyborg/abomination/sorcerer uses whatever skill governs the schtick they want to use. During a chase, you are likely to lose some Pep. This reflects a partial loss of control; an overheating engine, skids, wrong turns and general stress. The goal is to reduce the other guy to zero Pep; when this is done, he is out of the race. If you ever reduce an opponent's Pep to 0, you've outrun him and can rocket off, leaving him an ignominious dinner of your trail dust. Go Speed Racer, Go! Any time your Pep hits 0, the other people leave you behind like a snubbed little brother. It the guy being chased gets down to zero Pep, he comes to a dead end, gets mired in mud, is boxed-in or whatever and can no longer continue the chase. What happens now is up to the story; but given what Feng Shui is all about, a fight is likely. Toughness: the "Deadman's Curve" Element "What is more important, a tank or a man's life?" "A tank!" Leona Ozaki and colleague in Tank Police Not everyone prefers a subtle, tense, adrenaline-packed race between two lightning-quick automobiles. Others prefer to smash into each other with big, heavy trucks. Here at Feng Shui we aim to please: Thus, each car has a Toughness score. Your average suburban sedan or commuter's compact has a Toughness score of about 12 to 14. In Feng Shui, a car is much more important than the Mook who drives it. When a car is hit, calculate the damage of the attack by adding the Outcome to the weapon damage as if you are attacking a named character. If the damage is less than the car's Toughness, nothing happens. If it equals the vehicles Toughness, it is damaged but not destroyed. Reduce both it's maximum Pep and Toughness by one. It's still running, but further damage will find it that much easier to destroy. You will also need a new paint job. If the damage matches TWICE the Toughness your car is wrecked, good for nothing but road scrap. Example: Big Brother Mau is shooting his shotgun at an escaping car, and hits with an outcome of 4, scoring a damage of 17. The target is a subcompact, with a Toughness of 9. 17 is more than Toughness [9] but less than twice Toughness [18], so the car is damaged but not destroyed. It loses one from Toughness; is now a subcompact that's falling apart, with a Toughness of only 8. One more hit like that, and it's history. This damage system also works for inanimate targets. You can use your car to drive through a brick wall (typical Toughness 20, but a Dodge of zero) using these rules. Stunts Stunts are the heart of Feng Shui: colorful descriptions and high-stake, adrenaline-pumping action is what an action flic is made of. Go for the dramatic; "I try to get rid of him" and "Going on two wheels, I pass the gate to the mall, narrowly missing the soda stand. Let's see if he can catch me on this one!" may have the same effect, but which is more adrenaline-stimulating? Defense Most stunts take three shots, like normal combat actions. Defensive actions take but a single shot, and can be made out of sequence, as a reaction to what other drivers are doing. Defensive actions apply to one skill; as you can use your Drive skill to avoid attacks in a chase, dodging bullets and dodging maneuvers are different effects of the same stunt. But if you are dodging maneuvers, it won't improve your Guns-based Dodge against attacks. Make 'em Lose It During a chase, you can try to outrun and outmaneuver another car. Each attempt takes three shots and should be described in some fashion. ("I'll swerve into oncoming traffic then slide back in at the intersection" is much better than "I'll go faster.") Once you describe your move, roll Drive. The Difficulty is the other guy's Drive. If you fail the roll, nothing happens. If you roll higher, you reduce the other guy's Pep by one. Because it's hard for small, nimble cars to force a big, slow truck off the road, you cannot reduce the Pep of an adversary who is more than five points tougher than you are. This applies only as long as you are chasing them; if they are chasing you, you can always outdistance them, thus reducing their Pep. Get Back on Track Instead of reducing the other guy's Pep, you can increase your own. Now, you're trying to recover from spin, let the engine cool off, and generally get back on track. This stunt uses the highest Drive among the opposition as it's difficulty; if you succeed, you regain one point of Pep. You can never increase your Pep higher than the normal value. Example: If you start out the race in a Pep 8 Escort, it ain't ever getting peppier than 8. The score can drop and rise, but never go higher than 8. Drop-Dead Driving Normally, you reduce or increase Pep by one with a successful manoeuvre. If you want to put your life on the line, you can do more than this. Simply decide on the number of Pep you want to shift, describe an appropriately harrowing manoeuvre, and take this as a penalty to your Drive roll. If you succeed, you win a lot of ground. But in many cases you will simply fail. And, once again, the chance of a fumble increases dramatically. Outrun them All You can do a multi-target stunt to ram, outrun or maneouver several cars. This uses the standard multi-target rules (Feng Shui first edition, p. 148), with a penalty equal to the number of targets. The Desperate Move You can try a desperate move at any time; this is even more daring than Drop Dead Driving. A desperate move gets a special +3 bonus to your Action Value, but if you fail, you are immediately reduced to zero Pep and out of the race. This is a handy way for the GM to get rid of less-than-successful mooks. It can also make or brake a hero's career. Demolition Derby If a driver opts to ram, sideswipe or otherwise use his car as a weapon, he rolls Drive. The difficulty is his opponent's Drive score. However, it's hard to ram someone who has an edge on you. If the target has a current Pep score more than five points higher than yours, there's no way you can ram him. If you're driving an Explorer with Pep 7, you aren't going to be able to ram into that Thunderace motorcycle with 13 points of Pep: It's just too far ahead of you. If the ram succeeds, each car takes damage equal to the other car's Toughness, but the rammer gets to add his Outcome to this, while the one being rammed must subtract the Outcome from the damage he inflicts. Characters and monsters use their Strength rather than Toughness to inflict damage. Watch out for that giant ape, man! Leaping from Vehicle to Vehicle You must have an equal or greater Pep to try this. It takes a Dodge roll against the target's Drive Action Value. Unless you have Prodigious Leap, it is a three-shot stunt to shift vehicles. Once on board, you can try to gain access to the cockpit and thus, to the pilot or driver. For you, it's no longer a chase. Boarding Action Normally, it is a somewhat desperate move to try to jump from one moving vehicle to another. In certain circumstances, a wholesale boarding action is desirable. The driver or pilot maneuvers up to his target and remains side-by side, allowing troops to board. This is mainly applicable to slow-moving vehicles such as ships. To throw the proverbial grapples; you must succeed with a maneuver with an Outcome equal to the other's current Pep. Once you make it, crews on both vehicles can freely engage each other. Ranged Attacks You can always make Ranged attacks on other vehicles in a chase. The vehicle with the highest Pep rating can use distance and terrain to advantage; the others just have to hang on and hope for the best. In order to make chases interesting, with drawn-out starts and dramatic, bloody endings full of gunfire, there is a penalty applied for shooting at vehicles whose Pep ratings are higher than your own. Subtract the difference from your Action Result. Yes sir, this means you fumble more easily. Don't say I didn't warn you. Remember that all attacks made while riding a vehicle counts as Continuos Actions (Feng Shui first edition, p 152), and thus costs an extra shot to execute. When attacking vehicles during a chase, ignore range, cover and such modifiers. All such factors are summarised under Pep points. You can't attack passengers and crew on the other vehicle, except if they expose themselves to attack, and even then they get the benefit of Cover (see Feng Shui, page XX). Close-Combat Attacks You can only make close-combat attacks when your Pep points are equal or greater than that of your opponent. If you are being attacked by a character from another vehicle in close combat, you can strike back, but suffer a penalty equal to the difference in Pep, just as for a ranged weapon. Directors Tips Here are some hints on how to set up a chase to give it a certain feel. Thinks of these as tips from one movie director to another; these are the tricks of the trade, the staples you must vary endlessly to keep the audience happy. Use them, but don't overuse them. There is no real need to be fair. If the players have too easy a time of it, reduce their starting Pep (the villain started out before they did or whatever). Feel free to toss in more unnamed characters at any time. Make them sweat; they deserve it. But never make things hard out of sheer obnoxiousness; they do deserve some triumphs as well. If the area is appropriate, a few random sniping attacks can be good fun (remember the Sand People in Phantom Menace?). If you want a flat-out speed chase, such as on a freeway or in empty air, reduce the starting Pep rating of all participants by the same amount, say five. Those with low starting Pep scores will get even lower, so that they can be easily outrun. High pep scores are also reduced, but proportionally less. This gives more of an advantage to faster, high-Pep vehicles, and also makes the race play faster. Those whose initial Pep become zero or less are just to slow to take part in the race. In some cases, this might almost be necessary, to avoid an endless chase between high-Pep vehicles such as airplanes. For a chase in a very crowded space, such as a bazaar, supermarket or narrow alley, halve the initial Pep of all participants. This reduces the fast guys more than the slow ones; skill becomes more important than speed. This too reduces the time it takes to play the chase. When one vehicle slowly creeps over the horizon, let it start with half Pep, or even lower. This makes the chase either very short or very long. To spice things up, you can throw obstacles in the course. Everyone must pass some GM-determined difficulty, or loose some Pep. Bridges that open, passing trains, whatever; when your players invent them, use the normal maneuver rules, when you invent them call them events and spring them on everyone.This can also be a way to even the odds if you added too many enemies; typical events do a lot more damage to mooks than to player drivers. You want to make things more dangerous? Introduce snow, darkness or a spiked arena? Give everyone in the race a big Impairment. Now, the chance of fumbling increases for all involved, and stunts with Action-Value penalties become truly dangerous. If you are feeling kind, off-road vehicles and pedestrians might suffer lower Impairments. Or you could set a damage value for each failed stunt. Most chases have some time limit. After a while, the quarry arrives wherever he was going, and pursuit becomes too dangerous. This is not usually a problem; most chases wont last more than a few sequences. But a race against time can be an interesting variation of the usual chase theme. Giving either side reinforcements over time, or adding interfering cop cars, can have the same effect. When you run chases with ships, balloons and other exotic vehicles, the Sequence time frame sometimes seems silly. But remember, you can make a Sequence as long or as short as you wish. A nerve-tingling death-race between two ships of the line or two galleys might have shots as long as a minute apiece, but since all the action is slow, you can still use the normal initiative rules. And just because it is slow doesn't mean you have to play it slow; timing is merely a tool as you build suspense and drama. The end of the sequence is a good time to take a short break and describe the situation. Pep points gone down? Then the chase is probably in narrow streets with many dead-ends, where any mistake can be the last. Really, Really Big Guns When shooting at heavy vehicles, normal guns just won't do, you need really big guns. Many military vehicles described below are armed with cannon or missiles; these have the option of firing either High Explosive (HE) or Armor Piercing (AP) rounds. HE rounds explode and kill people over a big area; AP rounds penetrate deep into vehicles, buildings and stuff, wrecking them. In military jargon there are even more names for big-gun ammo than there are for normal guns; HEAT, fleshette, KEAP, KEAPER, APDU, whatever, they're basically designed to kill people or to kill things, and thus classified as either HE or AP in Feng Shui. High Explosive Rounds A HE round is a big explosion; it does the weapons full damage in a diameter equal to the damage rating of the gun (in meters). In a cinematic game this rarely hurts player characters; mooks die by the dozen. Make a single attack roll, and apply the result against the first target; against each later target, the attack roll is reduced by one. If there are a lot of people in the area, an attack bonus of +3 per ten people is appropriate. Only big cannon can fire HE rounds; smaller cannon must settle for AP rounds. Armor-Piercing Rounds These penetrate, but have no area; they only affect the target. Against structural Toughness, like buildings, vehicles and other objects, they do double their normal damage rating. Thus a cannon with a damage rating of 15 would do 30 damage against a car, probably wrecking much more than your paint job. The reason for this is simple and cinematic; it is boring if heroes start to hunt each other down with antitank weapons, but the damage ratings required to touch heavy vehicles are so high, that they would simply vaporize heroes if used against them. Hence this system, where cannons do only slightly more damage than normal guns to people, but kills tanks. Starfox | Home | T3 | Chase

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