Chases represent a common form of Conflict in many Stories, representing the efforts of Characters to pursue or race each other.

The Actions Characters may take within a Chase are covered by the Conflict Rules, below however covers additional Rules which apply to a Chase Conflict.

The Goal of a Chase Conflict is typically for one Party (the Runners) to escape, while the Goal of the other Party (the Chasers) is to catch that other Party.

Other Goals however are also possible.

Rather than outrunning a Party, the Runners could be attempting to achieve a Goal or reach a location before a certain time (e.g. they are trying to escape a building before the self-destruct sequence elapses). In this case the Chasers would be represented by a single Clock which steadily ticks down at the end of each Round.

Or potentially there may be no Chasers, and the Runners are all instead racing each other to fill their Clocks first.

In all cases however the Chase ends when all Runners have either been caught, or all Runners have filled their Clocks.

Time in a Chase Conflict depends upon the scale of the Conflict.

In a Short Distance Chase, the time for each Round may be as short as 10 Seconds, with the whole Chase lasting about 1 Minute. Or in a longer Race each Round may be as long as 100 Seconds, with the whole Chase lasting about 10 Minutes.

Chases lasting longer than this may be better represented outside of the rules for Chases.

The Turn Order of a Chase should typically be determined in the manner as presented on the Conflicts Page (e.g. use Freedom Initiative).

The exception to this will be when the Characters are engaged in a Race, where the order of play within a single round is critical to determining who wins.

In such cases, determine the Turn Order by having each Character make a Dexterity with Athletics Skill Check. The Turn Order will progress in order of who had the highest Result. In the event of a tie, have the tied Characters repeat the Check to determine who goes first between themselves.

Use this same Turn Order for all of the Rounds of the Chase Conflict.

The Positioning of Characters during a Chase is abstracted, and tracked through the use of Clocks and Paths rather than a Grid.

The exact distances which Characters may cover during a Turn are not tracked, as it is understood to vary greatly with the locations and obstacles which the participants pass through.

Within a Chase a Character’s Position is tracked using a Clock.

The completion of segments of the Clock will represent the Character’s progress towards their Goal, such as reaching a certain location, outrunning a Chaser or outrunning a Runner.

The length of the Clock represents how much time and effort a Character must put in to reach their Goal.

For Example, a 4 Segment Clock would represent an exceptionally short Chase (e.g. a quick sprint), meanwhile a 12 Segment Clock would represent a much longer and drawn out pursuit.

Longer Clocks are especially well suited to Chase Conflicts involving Vehicles and Mounts, due to their potential to Move Characters much quicker.

Once during a Character’s Turn, they may make a Movement Check to determine how many Segments of a Position Clock they may fill (see the Skill Checks Page for more).

A Character may make an additional Movement Check during their turn using the Move Action.

The DC of the Movement Check depends upon the Difficulty of the Terrain through which the Chase takes place in.

For example, easy to traverse areas with few obstacles, a DC 10 is appropriate. Meanwhile difficult terrain with many obstacles (e.g. dense woodland or crowded city streets) may have a DC 20 Check

On a Success, 1 Segment of the Clock will be filled.

On a Failure, no Segments of the Clock are filled.

On a Weak Success, a Segments of the Clock may be filled, but the Character will receive a detriment such as gaining 1 Stress or granting the GM 1 Tension.

On a Strong Success, 2 Segments of the Clock will be filled.

On a Critical Success, 3 Segments of the Clock will be filled.

The Performance of a Failure is adjudicated as per the normal rules (e.g. Weak Performance granting Player Characters detriments or Stress, or granting the GM tension, a Strong Performance granting the Player Momentum etc).

The Position of Characters relative to each other will depend upon how many segments of a Clock they have filled.

If Characters have the same number of segments filled, they will be Adjacent to each other.

If two Characters have a different number of segments filled, they will be a number of Spaces equal to 1 + the difference.

For Example, a Chaser and Runner who have filled the same number of segements will be considered Adjacent to each other, potentially allowing them to Attack each other with Melee Attacks! Meanwhile two Characters who are separated by one segment would be a Distance of 2 Spaces from each other.

Characters within a Chase may take one of two different roles: Runners or Chasers.

A Runner’s goal during a Chase will be to outrun the Chasers. They will achieve this if they fill their Clock before a Character Chasing them catches them.

Meanwhile, a Chasers’ Goal will be to catch a Runner. They will achieve this if they fill their Clock before a Character they are pursuing fills their Clock, provided they are on the same Path (see Paths for more).

Runners and Chasers will have Clocks with the same length. However, the GM may at their discretion grant the Runners a head start (i.e. allow them to start with 1 or more segments already filled) to represent if in the narrative they were able to get ahead of their Chasers before the Conflict began.

In some Chase Conflicts there are no active Chasers, rather the Runners are attempting to fill their Clocks by outrunning a Timer.

In this case, there would be a single Timer Clock which progresses by 1 Segment at the end of each Round without the need for a Movement Check.

A Timer Clock does not need to have the same number of segments as that of the Runners. A shorter Timer may put more pressure on Runners to complete multiple segments on their Clocks with each Movement Check.

The Timer Clock may be considered a Chaser who is present in all Paths who will catch all Runners who have not filled their Clocks before the timer is completed. See Paths for more.

In a Race there are (typically) no Chasers or Timer Clocks. Instead the Runners are each attempting to fill their Clocks before the other Runners fill theirs.

A Race need not be played out until all Characters have filled their Clocks. In some cases it may only be critical to discern who has won the Race, or who the top three contenders were.

In some cases a Character may wish to reduce their Clock’s segments to become closer to another Character (e.g. they wish to make a Melee Attack against them, or administer some kind of help that requires they be Adjacent to them).

A Character may at any point during their Turn choose to remove any number of segments of their Clock.

The Segments filled on the Clock are only intended to represent the relative position of Characters: however all Characters are assumed to be making progress each Round, moving from one area to another.

Generally the Terrain through which Characters will pass through will be assumed to have the same properties throughout the entirety of the Chase, and will effect all Characters.

For example, a Chase through a Forest may provide both Obscurement and Cover to all Characters throughout the Chase (i.e. they are all considered to be travelling through Terrain with the same effects). See the Combat Page for more examples of Terrain effects.

However, a Chase could also pass through many different Terrains. Characters might begin a Chase within a city, but then progress from there into open fields outside the city during the next Round, to forests on the Round after that.

Characters on the same Path will generally be assumed to be travelling through the same Terrain as each other each Round (i.e. there is no need to track the Character’s individual and specific positions).

A GM may at their discretion rule that Characters are travelling through different forms of Terrain during the same Round (i.e. the Paths they take may have different terrain effects) or there may be a large enough separation in distance between the Characters that they are passing through different Terrains.

Terrain will in most cases have the same effect on Characters during a Chase as they would as described for Combat Conflicts.

For example, Obscurement will provide Characters with the ability to hide themselves from sight, and Cover will cause Ranged Attacks to have Disadvantage against them. The effects of Terrain are discussed on the Combat Page

However, below are some notable exceptions:

Obstacles represent parts of the Chase which prevent a Character making further progress. It may be a wall in their path they need to scale, or a locked door which they must unlock or break through to proceed.

An Obstacle may be considered as existing between a pair of segments of a Clock: no progress can be added beyond that point until the Character Resolves that Obstacle.

If a Character encounters an Obstacle when they are filling Clock segments in excess of the position of the Obstacle (e.g. they had a Strong Performance, but could only fill 1 Segment of the Clock due to the Obstacle) the GM may grant them Advantage on their next Skill Check to pass the Obstacle. This reflects how they Encountered the Obstacle early and had more time to attempt to Resolve it.

In some cases all Character must resolve an Obstacle (e.g. they all must climb a Wall to proceed), in others only one Character may need to resolve the Obstacle (e.g. the Locked Door).

Paths represent when Characters in a Chase are on the same route as each other.

Characters may only interact with each other if they are on the same route. This includes determining whether a Chaser catches a Runner: if a Chaser fills their Clock, but the Runner is on a different Path, then they are not caught!

Generally it is assumed at the Start of a Conflict that all Chasers and Runners begin on the same Path, although it is possible for a Conflict to Start on two different Paths (e.g. the Runners decided to split up to draw their pursuers in two different directions).

A Character may choose to take a different Path if the area through which they are travelling would reasonably allow it.

For example, a Chase through a city could take Characters through different streets, over the roof tops, or even through the air! A Chase through a single, winding tunnel however may only allow for a single Path.

When taking a different Path, the Character must remove one Segment of their Clock. This reflects how in changing Path the Character must take some time to change Path.

For example, a Character who is able to Fly might remove one Segment of their Clock to fly upwards into the Sky. For other Characters to join this Path, they must also be capable of Flying!

Whether or not multiple Paths are available is at the GM’s discretion.

A GM may request a Player use the Skill Action to spot or discern the presence of an alternative Path if a New Path is not immediately obvious, or use the Skill Action to overcome an Obstacle between them and the New Path (e.g. scale a building to reach the rooftops or pick a lock to enter a door leading to a new Path).

When a Character takes a New Path, it will generally not affect the duration of the Character’s Clock.

However, in some cases an alternative Path may allow them to move more quickly towards their Goal (i.e. the Path is a Shortcut).

If a Path is a Shortcut, the DC for Movement Checks on that Path may be lower than the previous Path.

The opposite may also be true: potentially the other Path could be more difficult. In which case the DC for Movement Checks on that Path may be higher.

Not all Paths may remain separate, particularly if a Chase has a set destination. In such cases, the GM may at the start of a Round rule that two or more Paths have become merged.

The Clocks of Characters on those different Paths are unaffected when their Paths become merged.

During a Chase a Character may wish to Hide.

Provided the Terrain which the Chase is taking place in provides Obscurement, they may Hide using the Skill Action (see the Conflicts Page).

While Hidden, in addition to it’s other benefits, a Runner cannot be caught.

A Hidden Character will no longer be Hidden if they move to an area without Obscurement. Consequently, if the Character stays on the same Path they may be spotted. To avoid this, a Hidden Character may wish to take a New Path.

While on a different Path a Character will be either Obscured or Fully Obscured from Characters not on that Path.

When a Character is Hidden, a Character may use the Skill Action to attempt to determine their location (see the Conflicts Page for more). If the Character is on a different Path, determining their location will reveal what Path they are on.

Many effects in the game may grant Characters Additional Movement. These may be Magical effects such as Teleportation, or effects which allow a Character to Move in response to danger. These effects are typically described assuming Characters are not engaged in a Combat Conflict, however they may still be used within Chase Conflicts using the following Rules.

Whenever an effect would allow your Character to Move a certain number of Spaces in a direction towards their Goal, the Character may make an Additional Movement Check.

The Bonus for an Additional Movement Check will be determined by the number of Spaces of Movement the effect grants.

For Example, a Character using the Misty Step Spell would be able to Teleport a distance of 3 Spaces. Within a Chase Scene, they would be able to make an additional Movement Check, with a +3 Bonus to the Check instead of their usual Speed Bonus.

When using an Area effect, the Characters affected but be one the same Path.

Additionally, the Relative Position of Characters may be used to determine whether the Targets are within the Radius of an effect.

Note that Characters which have the same number of Segments are considered within 1 Space of each other (i.e. Adjacent), Characters who are 1 segment different from each other would be within 2 Spaces of each other etc.

A Ray Effect may be assumed to effect Targets are either in front of you or behind you with respect to their Relative Position. If Characters are Adjacent to you, you may choose whether any of them are affected by the Ray Effect or not.

During a Chase Conflict you may board a Vehicle or Mount you are Adjacent to, provided you are not Immobile.

If you made a Movement Check in order to become Adjacent to that Vehicle or Mount and you have an excess number of Segments, you lose any unspent Segments.

For Example, if a Vehicle is in a location which is 1 Clock Segment ahead of you, and you have a Strong Movement Check, you may only increase your Clock 1 Segment, and you lose the benefits of additional Segments. you would have had.

While aboard a Mount or Vehicle, you may Command the Vehicle or Mount to take a Movement Check, as well as the Move Action to make an Additional Movement Check.