[Action 2] Chases, Wipeouts, and Recovery

[Gigermann]

I ran a foot-chase last week, using Action 2's chase mechanics, and the results felt a bit off to me.

For a specific example, one round had the quarry attempting a Stunt by jumping the 6-foot fence at the end of the alleyway; he failed.

• If the quarry fails the stunt, does the pursuer have to even make one to keep up?
• It doesn't say the quarry loses the benefit of the stunt (bonus gained from penalty taken on the stunt) if he fails, but that obviously feels weird
• Failed stunt=Wipeout, and in this case, it's a "Close Call"; it says the next maneuver must either be an Emergency Action or Stop, or suffer a wreck—why can't the quarry attempt another Stunt here?
• What if you choose to "suffer a wreck" and aren't disabled by it?
• I'm having trouble imagining what the difference looks like between a "Close Call" and "Wreck" in a foot chase
• For that matter, I'm wondering what the writer(s) was imagining with regard to the Emergency Action—if it takes a whole "round" here, it would have to be pretty involved

Anybody have any experience, or even just educated opinions?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

I'm having trouble imagining what the difference looks like between a "Close Call" and "Wreck" in a foot chase

• The quarry springs to the top of the fence and...
  - almost drops to the other side before realizing there's a pack of Dobermans there, so falls back on the original side
  - drops to the other side into a pack of Dobermans
  
• The quarry leaps for the top of the fence but his foot slips...
  - sending him crashing to a stop into the fence
  - turning his leap into a headfirst slam into the metal fence post, dealing damage and knocking him out
  
• The quarry starts to leap for the chain-link fence and...
  - realizes it's electrified so chooses to crash into the garbage next to it instead
  - neatly arrives spreadeagled in the middle of the electric fence, nimbly grabbing hold tight with both hands and feet.
  
• The quarry ducks around a corner where there's an obligatory fruit cart and...
  - makes an Acrobatic roll to vault over the cart (taking an extra -3 to keep hold of an apple and causing the shop owner to run out and shake his fist, creating a Close Call for the pursuer on a critical success)
  - smashes into the cart, which collapses on top of him dribbling assorted fruit down to bounce off his head

Close Call is "Emergency Action or Stop, or suffer a wreck". Wreck is "an instant Stop and is out of the chase. Worse, that participant collides with something, taking thrust damage..." So, anything that makes you stop fleeing (unless you do something dramatic just to avoid stopping) versus anything that not only makes you stop with no chance of avoiding it, but also hurts.

[Gigermann]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Wreck is "an instant Stop and is out of the chase. Worse, that participant collides with something, taking thrust damage..." So, anything that makes you stop fleeing (unless you do something dramatic just to avoid stopping) versus anything that not only makes you stop with no chance of avoiding it, but also hurts.

Looks like I overlooked that part—probably because, at the time I was running the situation, the "wreck" didn't happen.

So, with a Stunt, the results of significant failure have to "end the Chase" (intentionally, or as a result of a "wreck"). In the example, the Quarry could break a leg jumping the fence, so it qualifies. Easy enough.

So it's back to Emergency Action: what does it look like here? He jumps the fence, but the Stunt fails, resulting in a "Close Call." Mechanically, on the next round, he must avoid a Chase-stopping collision/injury/etc. ("wreck") by either ending the Chase intentionally or accepting a delay (-5 to the Chase roll)—there's no Trait-check associated here, and no choice other than "keep going or stop." If the result of his failure is that he got caught up on the fence, and he had to take the next round to untangle his foot, this makes sense—he's not really going anywhere this round, so there's nothing else to do—but then where's the "wreck" if he doesn't stop?

It feels like one of those weird breakpoint issues, like having to wait a round after a grapple to do a Judo Throw. Maybe you just have to play it out and ignore the visuals and the terminology until after the mechanical results are determined.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

Maybe you just have to play it out and ignore the visuals and the terminology until after the mechanical results are determined.

Or just don't narrate through to the results until you know them. For the Quarry, it actually doesn't matter, as the sequence has them choosing a maneuver immediately after resolution of their previous choice, even if that does happen to be on the next turn. For the Pursuer, there's a gap between finding out they had a Close Call, where the Quarry has to make their choice without knowing what the Pursuer is going to do about their problem. (They can't be sure that P will Stop, so likely they just keep running, though Q can afford to be conservative. They do know P had a Close Call; they just don't know if they're going to give up.)

So you'd need to narrate the Pursuer not so much as "you crash into the fence" (suggesting a stop because that's a fairly closed-ended thing to describe) but "You jump for the fence after your quarry, but your foot slips...", leaving open some possibilities either way.

It's similar to the problems in narrating combat mechanics. "I try a very fancy attack I learned in France, which involves a beat, a feint in quarte, a feint in sixte, and a lunge veering off into an attack on his wrist" is a way to describe a Deceptive Attack, colorfully describing your mechanical choice before you roll the dice. But consider the difference if the sentence ended "... a lunge which nicked his wrist so that the blood flowed". The second one narrates too far, describing the result before it's known. But it would be perfectly acceptable if you'd already rolled the dice. Either style will work, as will both together. But you have to beware of verbally painting yourself into a corner too early.