Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

[Edsel]

Attached is an Acrobat document that I have been working on. It is a three page set of rules and three pages of cards for doing car chases in Hero System using a system adapted from Spycraft 2.0 by AEG.

 

I did these in order to try and improve the car chase rules for use in my own Dark Champions campaign. That means that this conversion is specifically intended to be used with cars and motorcycles. With some work I imagine it could be modifed for use with other forms of transportation. While I built it with Dark Champions in mind I think it would work equally well with Pulp Hero.

 

I have not playtested these rules yet. In fact I have barely proof read them. Since my group only meets every two weeks, and I don't know when the next chase will develop, I don't know when I'll have a chance to try them out.

 

So I am posting them here for anybody who wants to try them out. If you find any errors or have any suggestions I would be happy to hear about them.

 

EDIT: Version 1.2 is now attached.

[Edsel]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

After thinking this over some more I am starting to think that it might be best to have the players pick strategies every Post Phase 12. That would mean that strategies that have the pause benefit would need to be extended to a one minute pause, but that causes some other problems. Initial strategy would be picked the segment the chase begins.

 

Obstacles and Random Encounters should still be used at the GMs discretion, but agian I think that this should be on a turn by turn basis (once per turn).

 

Groups of armed characters in each car are likely to bring a chase to a rapid end when they start shooting apart each other vehicles. Also doing the strategies by the turn really hurts the advantage that a participant with a higher speed should enjoy.

 

My solution to this problem would be to compare the Speeds of each character involved in the chase (drivers & passengers). The baseline would be the slowest speed vehicle in the chase (remember that's the lower of the driver or the car). Each character would get a bonus equal to a +1 Overall level for each point of speed above the baseline, or a penalty of -1 to all rolls if their Speed was slower than the baseline. Since the chase rules are really intended for Heroic combat most characters are going to be 3 or 4 Speed anyway so I think that might work.

 

I also am not sure that I like the penalty that gives a car 1/2 DCV when attacked from behind (that's a Hero System rule). I think it would just as easy to hit a car chasing you if you were a passenger in the rear seat. I think that the 1/2 DCV penalty should only apply to mounted and/or fixed weapons on the vehicles.

 

All of this changes the time scale of chase so that they are based on the turn instead of the Phase or Segment. I don't think that is a big problem. If the chase passes character's who are standing on a street corner the odds are that they will pass so quickly that the pedestrian can only get brief interaction with them so the turn-based thing ought to still work.

 

BTW the original document is done in Word, I converted to Acrobat to reduce the size and make it easier to share. If anybody wants the Word document (so they can make their own changes) let me know and I'll email you a copy of it.

 

EDIT: I have done a little rework on the original document to implement some of the changes that I mentioned above. I am going to replace the PDF in the post above with the revised one shortly. I also proof-read the rules a little better.

 

I have decided to allow drivers and passengers to make normal attacks on their Phases even though the chase mechanic works on the Turn. This way I don't need to worry about bonuses and penalties for Speed differences. If play testing shows that chases are brought to quick conslusions due to weapons fire then I may have to revisit the idea of forcing all combat in chases to use the once-per-turn model of the chase mechanic. I am hoping that the range penalties and -2 OCV penality for firing from moving vehicles will make it work though.

 

Warning, don't be surprised if I decide to tweak things again before I am satisfied. I still need to look over the cards to see if the changes I've made in the rules require changes to their benefits. I've already had to change the Pause benefit on the cards.

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Edsel again."

 

BRILLIANT! Thank you Sir

 

QM

[Edsel]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

Okay I have made one more set of revisions and expansions to the chase document. Version 1.2 is now attached to the first post in this thread. The revisions mainly fixed errors that I found on the cards and the expansion pushed the page count of the rules up to four pages. I think that about does it. I do not anticipate any further changes at this time. Frankly, I can't think of anything I have missed.

 

Now I'll have to try and get a chase to develop in my Dark Champions game so I can test out these rules.

[NightStick]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

Edsel,

I just gotta start postin more often!

 

I'm tryin to to the Rep thing as often as I can, But the dang thing won't let me Rep you again!

 

So I Repped The Answer Man instead!

 

From What I see about the chase rules, they should be rather interesting!

[mattingly]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

I can't think of anything I have missed.

You missed sending it to Digital Hero.

[NightStick]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

You missed sending it to Digital Hero.

 

Gotta Rep ya for that!

[Edsel]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

You missed sending it to Digital Hero.

Since it borrows so heavily from a copyrighted source I figured there could be some issues with publishing it.

[Shike019]

Re: Spycraft Style Car Chases (Conversion)

 

You might want to check the OGL for Spycraft material to see what they allow. I know that Spycraft has some OGC material, though.