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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheAuldGrump" data-source="post: 2123280" data-attributes="member: 6957">Hot Pursuit: The Definitive D20 Guide to ChasesFor more than a decade I have relied on a sheet from the TSR Dungeon Masters Design Kit for running chases. Ironically it has served me far better in 3rd edition than it did in the edition it was designed for back in 1988.However Hot Pursuit looked like something that might serve for chases that are more off the cuff, though I will be the first to admit that spontaneity is not my strongest point. So after waffling for a week or two I buckled and made my purchase. I would use it in the next session of OGL Steampunk game I ran.Looking Her OverI will start with my biggest negative comment first, both to get it out of the way and because while it is annoying it in no way detracts from the rules - This book is not printer friendly! A color cover was easy enough to exclude from printing, but every page has a color border. Even when printed in black and white the border eats ink. It also slows the response time of Acrobat Reader on my computer. I am not going to complain about the illustrations, looking at straight up text can get wearing fairly quickly, though some of the pictures are a tad on the static side, a vehicle just sitting there, looking pretty rather than illustrating the theme of the chase, but the borders are a great annoyance. The lack of bookmarks was a minor annoyance, since a printed copy will be required during the games anyway.Sitting in the Driver’s SeatRight from the start I could tell that this was going to be better for handling off the cuff chases much better than the Chases sheet from my ancient copy of the DM’s Design Kit. No miniatures, no map, allowing the DM to make stuff up as he goes along... Uh oh! That is exactly my weak point! However a quick glance tells me that a quick break to the ‘little boy’s room’ will be sufficient to come up with something to throw at the players, filling out the Chase table, and making notes as to possible NPC actions, and obstacles to make life harder for PC and NPC alike. Sadly this brought me back to the old TSR Chase sheet again, as I saw how it could be worked in... (Bad Grump! Bad!) Alternatively the chance of obstacles can be rolled off the cuff, from round to round. A number of obstacles are described, and it easy to come up with others, write them down, and use them later. The writing style is breezy, and humorous, so I am going to write the remains of this review in a similarly light hearted vein.  For the first use I would set aside my beloved chase sheets and try the rules raw.The Chase Begins!Unsurprisingly a chase begins when somebody tries to run away and somebody else tries to chase them down. The author suggests starting things with words to the effect of ‘A chase ensues’, preferably with great enthusiasm.A chase is handled much like a standard combat, with initiative being rolled and everyone acting in their appropriate turns. A few pieces of simplification are used, because it is assumed that everybody is moving only standard actions are considered, no full attack etc, they are spending their move actions just staying in the race.  And because it is a chase it is assumed that everyone is going as fast as they possibly can. Vehicle and creature speeds grant a bonus or a penalty to the maneuvers to catch up and to get away, the creature or vehicle itself may also have a maneuver penalty aside from its speed. Each participant chooses a maneuver, and rolls the appropriate skill, with the modifiers that are called for by speed and terrain, as well as the opponents maneuvers. Drivers can choose from Chase maneuvers, while passengers are relegated to passenger maneuvers. A successful ‘One Hand on the Wheel’ maneuver allows the driver to make a passenger maneuver, while ‘Take Charge!’ allows a passenger to seize control of the vehicle. For unopposed checks a DC is provided.He’s Getting away!Or Now We’ve Got Him!Success and failure on the chase maneuvers affects the range of combat, if the quarry gets far enough ahead the chase ends, while if his vehicle can be disabled the hunters catch him up. This may end the chase immediately or merely transform the chase into a standard combat round, depending on circumstances. In my single playing with the rules the quarry ended the chase by standing their ground and blowing the ornithopter that was chasing them out of the sky with a well thrown grenade. Rather an abrupt ending, as the unfortunate pilot, who survived the grenade, did not survive the crash.Brace for Impact!On every driver’s turn a roll is made for whether an obstacle crops up, in those cases the driver must choose an obstacle maneuver, swerving, braking, or trying to barrel on through. With the old chase sheet I set up some obstacles that will affect both quarry and hunter. In thechase that I have run the quarry was on foot, running through open country while being chased by a bad guy in an ornithopter. In their favor the bad guy’s job was to follow them so that more villains could find them and capture them. Because of the disparity in travel types I set up two lists for obstacles, one, the more common of the two, for foot, while the other, rarer occurrences were for air. (A flock of startled birds being the only one that came up, and was deftly avoided.) If a collision occurs then the vehicle, and possibly the passengers, can end up damaged or wounded.There She Is! A Beauty, Ain’t She? A list of creatures and vehicles and their properties allows the selection of the appropriate speeds for the chase, and the modifiers for how responsive the creature or vehicle is. A piece of advice: Do not expect a triceratops to be the most maneuverable mount... And for reasons I cannot comprehend a camel has a higher rating than a horse... I had to create the stats for the ornithopter, which I had prepared before the chase began. There was a potential for the PCs to be mounted, however the PCs never made it to the stables so I did not have a chance to test their riding ability. When D20 Past comes out it may contain some of the vehicles that I need for my Victorian Era setting. Conversion between Ogl Steampunk and Hot Pursuit was easy, but not too many standard vehicles are covered in OGL Steampunk. (The ornithopter on the other hand was very easy to translate.)At this point some Chase related feats, or at least the implications of existing feats would have been nice, not even athletic or run was taken into account. In fact no rules for either exhaustion or running out of fuel are provided, so in theory the chase could have gone on forever without a final result.Taking a Well Deserved BreakIronically the chase ended when the PCs gave up on running away and hiding, a result that I had not anticipated. Truncated as it was the chase lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, with a number of tense moments. I will be using the rules again, and they are now living in my house rule binder inside of my backpack. You know it’s good when everybody is standing up and yelling at each other in character. As a result rating this is somewhat hard, the chase itself was a blast, but between the omission of feats, the lack of bookmarks, and the printer antagonistic nature of this work it loses a point, so a total of 4/5, or 8/10. If I did not have those minor annoyances it would rise to 5/5 or 9/10 for giving me a great time at the game.The Auld Grump</blockquote>

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