Hot Pursuit: The Definitive D20 Guide to Chases

[barsoomcore]

In further defense of camels:

Camel, Dexterity: 16
Horse, Dexterity: 13

'Nuff said.

Great review, TAG! I'm glad you had some fun with the rules. That's what they're for.

As regards to providing new feats -- I steered away from that because feats and their acquisition and their balance and so on are all very tightly tied into game setting and game style. A feat that would be appropriate in a Call of Cthulhu game might be completely unbalanced and/or inappropriate to a Mutants and Masterminds game. I very much wanted these rules to fit in either type of game, so I didn't think there'd be a lot of value in defining a bunch of feats that would assume certain things about the game in which the rules were being used.

Besides, most games have driving and/or riding feats that tie into these pretty easily. I mean, just take Skill Focus (Drive) and boom! virtually every maneuver gets easier for you.

Is what I reckon.

Finally, on the Foot Chases front, expect to see a new release very soon that offers full-blown rules for foot chases, including tiring, jumping around Jackie Chan style and finding just the right tool at just the right time. Plus more sample obstacles and locales for your chase-happy fun. Coming soon!

 

[The LMS]

hmmm. This sounds kind of similer to the Spycraft chase rules, except without the feats.

Anyone with both who can give a comparison?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

The difficultie with camels is not what they can do, it is getting them to do it!

Mules can also kick every which ways, even sideways...

The Auld Grump

 

[GMSkarka]

Thanks for the great review!

I just wanted to add, for the folks who don't like PDF, or who feel that our border is too hard on printing:

HOT PURSUIT is now available in book form, also through RPGNow.

Available Here. It's a 40-page saddle-stitched book, for $10.95. Anyone who has already purchased the PDF receives a discount of $2.50 from the order. (I'd like to discount it further, but I can't without losing money on the printing)

 

[BWP]

Definitive?

> Finally, on the Foot Chases front, expect to see a new release very soon that offers full-blown rules for foot chases,

So, er, "Hot Pursuit: the Definitive Guide to Chases" isn't actually all that definitive, then, if it needs another product to cover the stuff that it left out ...?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Mr. Skarka - I love PDFs, and prefer to be able to print them and put them into the rules binder to having a separate printed version.

Please, for your next release create a printer friendly version as well - I was seriously considering copying the text and pasting it into my word processor. Telling people to go buy the print version if the borders annoy them is rather like telling them to 'go pound sand'.

The Auld Grump

 

[barsoomcore]

Hot Pursuit vs Spycraft

LMS:

The Hot Pursuit rules are actually quite a bit different from Spycraft's. They're much more similar to the chase rules found in BadAxe Games' Grim Tales.

In Spycraft, chase participants choose maneuvers simultaneously in secret and then reveal their choices -- maneuvers cross-reference with each other to determine modifiers etc and they resolve at the same time.

In Hot Pursuit, chases are handled sequentially, just like d20 combat, with each character getting a turn, resolving their action and then waiting for the other participants to act until it's their turn again. It's much more similar to combat than the Spycraft system.

What it takes from Spycraft is the notion of divorcing the chase from any particular representation on a map or a grid, and letting the action of the chase dictate the environment to some degree.