(foot) chase rules question

[Sunwolfe]

Hi, All:

We're trying to play out a foot chase where one character is heavily armored using the chase rules on page 218. Heavily armored character wants to tackle/grapple the lightly armored runner. Lightly armored character has a slight head start. Using the rules on 218, how should this play out? Please give an annotated round by round explanation. We've spent a better part of an hour discussing this...a happy hour, but an hour nonetheless. We'll probably simply house-rule it, but I'd like to know how it is supposed to work RAW.

Do the characters in question make a CON vs CON roll on the RT until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds?

Do both characters roll against Stamina each round...the heavily armored rolling difficult, the lightly armored rolling normally until one fails in two consecutive rounds?

Do characters make a CON vs CON roll on the RT AND a stamina roll until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds?

Which rolls, when failed twice in a row, indicate who wins or who loses? How does the lightly armored character know if he's "gotten away"? How does the heavily armored character know if he's caught the runner?

Thanks in advance :happy:,

Sunwolfe

[NickMiddleton]

Hi, All:

We're trying to play out a foot chase where one character is heavily armored using the chase rules on page 218. Heavily armored character wants to tackle/grapple the lightly armored runner. Lightly armored character has a slight head start. Using the rules on 218, how should this play out? Please give an annotated round by round explanation. We've spent a better part of an hour discussing this...a happy hour, but an hour nonetheless. We'll probably simply house-rule it, but I'd like to know how it is supposed to work RAW.

Okay, I'll have a stab - others may of course disagree with my interpretation.

Do the characters in question make a CON vs CON roll on the RT until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds?

No. That's the base rule for evenly matched opponents and, because one participant is heavily armoured, does not apply.

Do both characters roll against Stamina each round...the heavily armoured rolling difficult, the lightly armoured rolling normally until one fails in two consecutive rounds?

I'd say yes - per the final paragraph in the spot rule on Foot Chases, the heavily armoured character has to make the Difficult Stamina rolls to maintain distance to the lightly armoured character - but to close to the point of being able to grapple, he need the lightly armoured character to "drop back" into range, which per the rules requires two failed rolls.

Given you said "slight head start" I might allow the heavily armoured character to try the grapple after only ONE failed roll from the lightly armoured character - it would depend on the exact circumstances and context in the scenario.

Do characters make a CON vs CON roll on the RT AND a stamina roll until one fails twice in two consecutive rounds?

No - if they are evenly matched in speed and load, they use the resistance table; if one is more heavily laden than the other, the heavily laden character makes Stamina rolls to keep up.

Which rolls, when failed twice in a row, indicate who wins or who loses?

Per the rules the character at a disadvantage (more heavily laden) makes the rolls, and two failures in a row indicate that they have dropped away from their target such that the target has eluded them. This does NOT explicitly therefore allow for the possibility of catching the target, hence my suggestion above.

How does the lightly armored character know if he's "gotten away"?

Per the rules, if the pursuing heavily armoured character fails two successive stamina rolls, the lightly armoured character has eluded their pursuer.

How does the heavily armoured character know if he's caught the runner?

Per the rules as written, he can't, he can only maintain the original separation - and given he IS heavily encumbered, I'm not sure that is entirely unreasonable at this level of abstraction... However, as I said above, I'd have the lightly armoured character also making Stamina rolls (routine ones) and two successive failures would drop them back to "side by side" with their pursuer, allowing the grapple attempt - but note if the grapple fails, I'd let the lightly armoured chaarcter pull ahead again out of grappling range...

That's what I'd do, anyway. Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Nick

[FunGuyFromYuggoth]

I'd be interested in seeing some rules in the parkour/free running vein of things. Lots of running, jumping, etc. in the vein of "Casino Royale," "Distric B13," and "The Bourne Ultimatum."