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5/30 Q&A: Charm, Chases, and Combat Free
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6140843" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>I'm a huge fan of chases and I consider myself highly proficient in running them. Skill Challenges in 4e, when treated properly, are a perfect mechanical framework to compose a closed scene such as a chase. I agree with @<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?42582-pemerton" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: #ffffcc">pemerton</span></strong></a> above and that there is a natural tension produced by the stakes, the scene distinctions and the inclusion of the metagame in the same way that HPs are the metagame measure in combat of "who is winning" or "where are we in the continuum of this challenge"?</p><p></p><p>I'm sure you're familiar with the Cortex Plus systems (spsecifically MHRP) or Fate systems. The success/failure model maps perfectly to the "stressed out" model of those systems. If you acrue enough failures to lose the challenge then you're "stressed out" and the GM must determine what that means with respect to the stakes and the context of the scene's journey and its ultimate resolution. If you acrue the requisite failures then the inverse is true; you've "stressed out" the opposition (in a chase that is typically the pursuit or the quarry) and you've either gotten away (personally or with a McGuffin, etc) or captured/cornered the fleeing party.</p><p></p><p>At my table we use the metagame to our advantage to make the tension palpable. Its clear and out in the open how many successes or failures are remaining to "stress out" the opposition or for the opposition to do the same to you. That carries the weight of pacing the scene and allows the players to know where the "panel" that they are currently on is with respect to the scene's full continuum, thus allowing them to derive tension from that knowledge's framing of the advance of pursuit vs the escape of the quarry (which is resolved by reaching the end of that continuum, one way or the other, in the same way the HP continuum is used to adjudicate combat or the "stressed out" continuum is used to adjudicate scene resolution in other systems). Obviously, It is a tool for the GM to texture the fictional accompaniment as well. </p><p></p><p>Like Fate and a system like MHRP, you should be using Aspects and Distinctions for your scene that serve as setting elements for the PCs and GM to riff off of to produce genre-relevant complications/decision points and potential answers from panel to panel. Technique-wise, these can either be explicit and metagame-leveraged by writing them down on cards and putting them in the middle of the table where everyone can see them; eg Crowded Fruit Market, Vast And Treacherous Badlands, Ravenous Hyena Pack, Foggy Dawn, Worn-Out Horses, Overflowing Storm Drains, Drunken Parade, etc. You should be adding new ones as the the chase advances toward its conclusion. These are all Aspects/Distinctions of the scene that should serve both the GM in their challenging/pressuring the PCs and in the PCs attempting to resolve their respective panel. </p><p></p><p>You don't have to go the "writing them down on a card and presenting them on the table" metagame route, but, in-play, the functionality of the scene resolution should be the same. If I put a Ravenous Hyena Pack yipping hungrily while attacking a tethered horse while Mob of Angry Sentinels emerge from the temple where the Precious And Pilfered McGuffin was just stolen, set in a Vast And Treacherous Badlands with allies Too Far Away To Lend A Hand set under a Dimly Moonlit Sky...the upcoming panels, both PC-side and GM-side, need to leverage these for complications and mechanical/narrative resolution. Players can use their resources (such as a Difficult Terrain inducing resouorce like a distinct trap) to introduce complications for their opposition and they become a new Distinction/Aspect. Adjudicating and deriving the whole (both mechanically and the narrative rendering) is quite easy with practice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 6140843, member: 6696971"] I'm a huge fan of chases and I consider myself highly proficient in running them. Skill Challenges in 4e, when treated properly, are a perfect mechanical framework to compose a closed scene such as a chase. I agree with @[URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?42582-pemerton"][B][COLOR=#ffffcc]pemerton[/COLOR][/B][/URL] above and that there is a natural tension produced by the stakes, the scene distinctions and the inclusion of the metagame in the same way that HPs are the metagame measure in combat of "who is winning" or "where are we in the continuum of this challenge"? I'm sure you're familiar with the Cortex Plus systems (spsecifically MHRP) or Fate systems. The success/failure model maps perfectly to the "stressed out" model of those systems. If you acrue enough failures to lose the challenge then you're "stressed out" and the GM must determine what that means with respect to the stakes and the context of the scene's journey and its ultimate resolution. If you acrue the requisite failures then the inverse is true; you've "stressed out" the opposition (in a chase that is typically the pursuit or the quarry) and you've either gotten away (personally or with a McGuffin, etc) or captured/cornered the fleeing party. At my table we use the metagame to our advantage to make the tension palpable. Its clear and out in the open how many successes or failures are remaining to "stress out" the opposition or for the opposition to do the same to you. That carries the weight of pacing the scene and allows the players to know where the "panel" that they are currently on is with respect to the scene's full continuum, thus allowing them to derive tension from that knowledge's framing of the advance of pursuit vs the escape of the quarry (which is resolved by reaching the end of that continuum, one way or the other, in the same way the HP continuum is used to adjudicate combat or the "stressed out" continuum is used to adjudicate scene resolution in other systems). Obviously, It is a tool for the GM to texture the fictional accompaniment as well. Like Fate and a system like MHRP, you should be using Aspects and Distinctions for your scene that serve as setting elements for the PCs and GM to riff off of to produce genre-relevant complications/decision points and potential answers from panel to panel. Technique-wise, these can either be explicit and metagame-leveraged by writing them down on cards and putting them in the middle of the table where everyone can see them; eg Crowded Fruit Market, Vast And Treacherous Badlands, Ravenous Hyena Pack, Foggy Dawn, Worn-Out Horses, Overflowing Storm Drains, Drunken Parade, etc. You should be adding new ones as the the chase advances toward its conclusion. These are all Aspects/Distinctions of the scene that should serve both the GM in their challenging/pressuring the PCs and in the PCs attempting to resolve their respective panel. You don't have to go the "writing them down on a card and presenting them on the table" metagame route, but, in-play, the functionality of the scene resolution should be the same. If I put a Ravenous Hyena Pack yipping hungrily while attacking a tethered horse while Mob of Angry Sentinels emerge from the temple where the Precious And Pilfered McGuffin was just stolen, set in a Vast And Treacherous Badlands with allies Too Far Away To Lend A Hand set under a Dimly Moonlit Sky...the upcoming panels, both PC-side and GM-side, need to leverage these for complications and mechanical/narrative resolution. Players can use their resources (such as a Difficult Terrain inducing resouorce like a distinct trap) to introduce complications for their opposition and they become a new Distinction/Aspect. Adjudicating and deriving the whole (both mechanically and the narrative rendering) is quite easy with practice. [/QUOTE]
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