Thread: Chase limits
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Old 01-27-2021, 08:44 AM   #3
Kromm
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Default Re: Chase limits

In actual play, somebody usually wipes out due to a bad roll before long . . . or is taken out by being shot, forced, or rammed . . . or gets caught or escapes due to clever choices of maneuvers or good dice rolling (usually enhanced by Luck). If someone is always hovering just out of reach but never quite getting away or getting caught – and nobody decides to try something violent or cool that produces one of the above outcomes – that's a sign that the GM isn't including "suitable scenery," or that the players aren't invoking Serendipity or spending character points for a "Lucky Break."

Remember that this is a cinematic chase system conceived for Action campaigns. It assumes that every hero has Luck and/or Serendipity. It assumes that the players have the right to spend character points to buy outcomes. It assumes clever encounter design with exciting scenery on the GM's part. And it assumes audacity rather than caution on the players' part.

If you want something else, you'll have to adjust the system. For that, you have many options: driver FP, vehicle fuel, or just running out of road. The latter is sort of a generalization of not running combat on infinite featureless plains where people can step and retreat forever without hitting an obstacle. You could easily abstract that just by saying "if the pursuer fails to catch the quarry after x rounds, the quarry gets away" or "if the quarry fails to escape the pursuer after x rounds, they're caught." The former works well for wide-open spaces and transcontinental highways; the latter, for bounded areas. Also don't ignore the possibility of realistic "suitable scenery" in the form of, say, roadblocks because the cops get tired of idiots speeding around in cars . . . or the road ending in the Atlantic Ocean.
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