Forest Chase Scene

[the_matrix_walker]

I just discovered this thread! My PC is the pursued, and I have not read the chase rules, so I I'm trying to figure all this out.

Originally Posted by ericthered

I'm running a chase scene in a forest at night in low tech, using the action chase rules. I have a couple of tweaks/unsettled issues I could use advice on:

• Survival (Forest) is good as a complementary roll in the forest right? Urban survival works in the city, so for a forest chase we should be good.
• The hide penalties feel like they're made city chases, not chases in dense woods. What can I do about this? or do the penalties make sense to you in a forest
• Its also night. I've ruled that lighting penalties apply to the people trying to find but not to the hiders. Does that sound fair? should the hider's only get half penalties?
• I feel like night vision should help the chase in general but I'm unsure how to account for it. A simple bonus if you have it to all chase rolls is pretty darn strong.
• Is the hiking skill at all relevant?
• The chase involves horses in the forest. I've ruled they use their move, not their top speed for the move bonus because of the thick foliage and twists and turns. Does that feel right?
• Before the forest they crossed a wheat field, and there +2 for double the speed of the quarry felt wrong. Any suggestions? is there a on the ground explanation? should I give the chasers a bonus for favorable terrain?

Thanks for looking this over with me! and yes, this is a PbP game so some of this stuff is still unresolved.

• Survival seems legit
• Chase penalties seem weird, but, again, I don't know all the source stuff but they do seem off from the values presented.
• Lighting penalties should just affect everyone normally. those values are different if you have night vision, and lighting penalties only apply to vision based rolls in the dark.
• Hiking does not seem relevant.
• Full move in the forest in the dark is suicidal behavior for horse and rider IMO.
• Double speed bonus, I can't comment on. it points back directly to the assumptions of the basic chase rules (which I suspect are for car chases... that -10 seems to be for doing a reverse slide of the car to parallel park rather than hiding in the dark with a 50 yard lead on foot)

Originally Posted by ericthered

I've got one question that I'm still considering: Is having a -10 to hide at medium range reasonable? This is 20 to 100 yards away, which feels pretty darn far for someone on foot to me, especially if people aren't sprinting it (and multiple chase rounds of sprinting feels wrong). I can some penalty being justified but -10 is really big.

If you're 30 yards away at -7 to spot them with for distance and -7 lighting penalties and add to that obstructions... haven't you lost them?