Good chase rules?

[Rob]

Stu which are they...come on let the cat out of the bag man.

[Stu]

Spycraft 2.0 has an interesting chase mechanic. It's a subsystem that applies to all their extended contests, collectively called Dramatic Conflict. As opponents change strategies in a conflict, it alters the matrix of modifiers used to adjust their opposed rolls. A set of handy cards helps keeps the details of the exchange before the players in play.

Savage Worlds has good chase rules, especially with vehicles. they swipe the essence of Car Wars for their base mechanics. The Pulp Toolkit has an outstanding abstract dogfight system which foregos the use of figures.

Spirit of the Century applies their sweet system of invoking aspects of an opponent or an environment to make chase scenes fun and compeling, as well as an interesting tactical execise.

The thing about chase rules is that it's truly incumbent on the GM to make a chase interesting, regardless of what game you're playing. Since rpgs seek to emulate some of the same adventure genres films do, everyone likes chase rules in their games. But that's one thing that games and movies do very differently. You can have an exciting chase in a game, sure. But it won't be exciting the same way Bullitt or The French Connection or Running Scared are exciting. Movies have huge screens and sound and a genuine feeling of movement in your seat while you're watching them. Games have "tell me what you're doing . . . roll . . . you extend your lead . . . roll." Two very different experiences.

During a chase the GM has to visualize the environment as a flow chart of changing situations during the chase. If you have the luxury of planning the sequence, map interesting features into the environment. If you don't, just get yur head into a place where you're going toswitch things up on the players every few seconds. Picture the Batman movie (Adam West) where he's running along the docks, trying to get rid of the bomb. It's not a chase, but he is racing against time, for high stakes, in a constantly shifting environment. Those are the key elements for an interesting rpg chase.

[Rorschach]

An RPG Chase flat out can't work without a Map. Oddly, even if your group hates maps for combat, they'll need one for a chase.

[Lawrence]

The Spycraft Chase Rules are a lot of fun. Last Thursday our group were being chased by lava from an erupting volcano. The rules worked very well. The week before We had a chase through the out skirts and then down town Tokyo.

[Stu]

The Lava Chase!

Awesome. That would be an outstanding TV show. A group of young Harvard law students working out their personal problems as they race down the side of an erupting volcano to the sea, where they are met by John Houseman, the drunken reprobate from The Fog. "At Krakatoa, you don't follow the escape route, you burn it!"