Part I · Play

Chases

In a chase, the world’s trying to trip you up while something behind you wants you for dinner.

A chase runs in rounds like any conflict, with telegraphs, answers and consequences. The difference is that there are three dice on the table instead of a threat, and two of them move on their own.

The Gap is the distance between you. It usually starts at a d8. Past d2, they catch you. Past d12, you’re away.
The Pursuer is whatever’s chasing you. It starts at its Challenge, and it keeps its tags. Past d2, it’s shaken off: it loses you, tires, or gives up.
The Ground is the city, the cliff, the crowd. It starts wherever the GM thinks the place deserves. Past d2, the world wins: a dead end, a fall, a locked gate, a crowd you can’t get through.

Rule

The Pursuer’s die starts at its Challenge, but in a chase (and only in a chase) it’s how much chase the pursuer has left. That’s why shaking it steps it down. It won’t tire on its own, so you’ve got to make it.

The Round

The GM telegraphs. The Pursuer grabs, shoots, cuts a corner or calls for help. The Ground throws something in the way, like a cart, a gap between two roofs or a market day.
The players act, one action each, in any order.
The round ends. Unanswered telegraphs land. Then the Gap and the Ground step down one, unless someone changed them this round: they’re gaining on you, and the way’s getting worse.

The chase ends the moment any die runs out (past d2, or the Gap past d12), and whichever one got there first decides how.

What You Can Do

Gain ground. Roll against the Gap’s die. Beat it and it steps up one.
Shake the pursuer. Roll against its die. Beat it and it steps down one. Or go after one of its tags instead, and strip it.
Deal with the ground. Roll against its die. Beat it and it steps up one, because you’ve found the way through, for now.
Answer a telegraph or join a friend’s roll. Everything you can do in a fight, you can do here.

There are three dice, and each one wants something different from you. The crew has to split its attention: the fastest runner gains ground, the fighter slows the pursuer, and whoever knows the city finds the way. If everybody just runs, you’ll lose the chase.

ExampleThe harbour at dawn

The crew’s running for the harbour with a painting wrapped in sailcloth, and the harbour patrol is two streets behind. The GM puts out the dice: the Gap at d8, the Pursuer at d6 (the patrol’s Challenge 3), and the Ground at d10, because it’s market morning.

Round 1. The patrol telegraphs a whistle, a d6 aimed at the Gap: more of them are on the way. Vesk answers it and gains ground in the same go, because she knows the rooftops and she’s taking them where the whistle can’t follow. Her Move’s 4 steps, and move unseen from her Sneak makes it 5 for 1 Aura. One action gives her one split: a d6 for the Gap and a d4 for the whistle. The d6 rolls 5 against the Gap’s 4, so it steps up to d10, and the d4 rolls 4 against the whistle’s 3. That’s a top face, so her Aura’s straight back. Bram shakes the pursuer by tipping a fish cart across the alley, and the Pursuer steps down to d4. Nobody deals with the ground, so at the end of the round it steps down to a d8.

Round 2. The Ground telegraphs a dead end, a d8. Isolde answers it: she’s read the old city maps, and there’s a cut-through behind the chandlery. Vesk gains ground again, and the Gap’s a d12. Bram doubles back at the mouth of the cut-through and spends 1 Resolve for an extra action. He shoulders the lead runner with his Fight, 3 steps without the hammer, a d6, then heaves a stack of lobster pots across the lane with his Lift and carry, another d6. The patrol’s d4 comes up 2, and that one roll stands for the whole round. Bram rolls 5, then 4. That’s two wins, so the Pursuer steps down to a d2, then past it. The patrol’s shaken off, and it’s all over before the Gap even gets past d12. They walk the last street to the harbour.