Hot Pursuit

[Nahat Anoj]

Has anyone got Adamant Entertainment's Hot Pursuit pdf yet? It's an expansion of the chase rules in Grim Tales. It looks like loads of fun, and I'd love to run this in the d20 Modern Star Wars game I'm playing.

Jon

 

[Piratecat]

There's a fun thread by the author over in the General Discussion forum that discusses chases. I haven't seen the product yet, though. I'm hoping it's as great as it sounds.

 

[barsoomcore]

The thread in question is here, the PDF in question isn't EXACTLY an expansion of the GT chase rules (more like a modification, merging with d20 Modern AND an expansion) and the author in question is, er, me.

So I'm happy to answer any questions you (or anyone else) might have.

But it looks like a fair number of people HAVE got it yet. Much to my self-centered glee...

barsoomcore wonders if ENWorld features any limits on the depth to which self-pimpers are allowed to sink...

 

[Napftor]

barsoomcore wonders if ENWorld features any limits on the depth to which self-pimpers are allowed to sink...

Dear god, I hope not! And welcome to the wonderful world of Adamant Ent., barsoomcore.

 

[soulforge]

If I wanted to use it as an expansion for grim tales am I going to get a lot of repeated material or is the majority of it original? And aren't the grim tales rules the exact same as Spycraft's?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

If I wanted to use it as an expansion for grim tales am I going to get a lot of repeated material or is the majority of it original?

It is greatly expanded on what's in GT. Like most of GT, our vehicle rules strives to be streamlined and loose-- HP is much more exacting.

And aren't the grim tales rules the exact same as Spycraft's?

Nope. Very different, in fact. Inspired by Spycraft, but with a better d20 adherence (I think).


Wulf

 

[jezter6]

As someone who just got this yesterday...it's 'similar' to Spycraft (as in you pick from a list of maneuvers), but is detailed just right to be somewhat mathematically correct, yet there's no counting squares, and no need to plan too much ahead. You roll for random encounters (obstacles) along the path and just keep the chase moving swiftly.

I'm sure being a passenger isn't quite fun in a chase (as you have less to do unless you're firing at your persuers), but there's enough to keep occupied. In fact, I see many more possible maneuvers brewing in my head right now.

The rules are good and allow you to run a good chase that runs pretty fast and furious. But I think one of the gems in the book is it does a good job teaching you how to run an exciting chase by setting terrain types and possible conditions of the road (or whatever you're racing along on) and giving descriptive flavor to what would just be a normal: "I run away" or "I follow in persuit"

Oh, and to anyone who doesn't now, you can download spycraft 'lite' which has a good portion of the chase rules in it for anyone who wants to look at other maneuvers or ways that GT and 'Hot Persuit' might be similar.

 

[barsoomcore]

Wulf and jez have pretty much laid it out, but just because it's a chance to pimp, hey, here I am!



You should find HP a great deal of value as an add-on to GT. While I was definitely directly inspired by Grim Tales, these rules are by no means the same set. As Wulf says, they're an expansion on what GT had -- and they're also much more carefully aligned with d20 Modern. They should fit just fine into either game type (not to mention straight-up D&D as well).

The Hot Pursuit rules don't make any assumptions as to available classes, feats, technology or magic levels. They assume that the more common d20 skills are available (Drive or Ride, Hide, Spot, Bluff etc), that saving rolls and ability checks work in a more or less standard fashion, and they include suggestions on adjusting DCs depending on the type of game you're running (the level of swashbuckliness, basically).

The basic differences are:

Spycraft depends on two parties making secret choices about their maneuvers, then revealing those choices and comparing them to get a result. Sort of like the way psionic combat used to work -- the attacker picked their attack mode in secret, the defender picked their defense mode in secret and you cross-referenced those to get a bonus or penalty or whatever. It makes chases feel very different from the rest of the d20 world -- which isn't good or bad, but that's what you get.

Grim Tales uses a notion of "Reaction Rolls" -- where instead of comparing one maneuver against another, players go in order of initiative and choose maneuvers. Some maneuvers require a Reaction Roll where your opponents make an opposed check to resist your efforts. It makes chases feel more like standard d20 combat does.

Hot Pursuit takes the Grim Tales system and expands it out to create a full-blown, standalone chase system that gives chases all the detail and color that combats have in "standard" d20. My intention was to make it as easy to integrate chase scenes into my many and varied games as it already was to integrate combat scenes.

I'd love to know what you think! Don't be shy with your questions!

 

[jezter6]

I still have to reread it in depth, but I do have a quick question...

You roll for obstacles for each initiative count (that is 'driving' a vehicle, running, etc), but how does that work if the first guy gets nothing, and the second guy gets a giant obstacle (moat), the 3rd guy gets nothing, and the 4th guy gets a creature.

It seems that obstacles should be a 1 time per round thing and everyone has to work around it (ie: there's a building up ahead, and ALL participants encounter it, not just #2 or #4, but not 1 or 3).

I'm still getting adjusted to it.

 

[barsoomcore]

Well, obviously as DM you'll need to adjudicate that sort of thing. But the idea is that an obstacle for the guy being chased is very often not going to be a big deal for the guy chasing.

Obstacles (and maybe I need to make this clear) aren't the built-in, foreseeable aspects of the environment; they're elements that for one reason or another appear suddenly and without sufficient warning that the driver has to use up their concentration to avoid them. So, for example, the buildings alongside the street aren't Obstacles, since they're just part of the environment and their density and the regularity of their placement is taken into consideration in the Terrain definition.

But if you turn onto Broadway and somebody's erected a massive stage for the U2 concert right there, that's an Obstacle. It's a Barrier, and it's probably HUGE (which means that everyone at Point-Blank range to you will have to avoid it as well), but anyone who's a ways back from you will see you react to it and thus it's not an obstacle to them. They're prepared for it, if you see what I mean, and so don't need to spend their round dealing with it.

Basically if you can see it coming, it's not really an Obstacle. It's just part of the Terrain.

Now, you might argue along the lines of, "How likely is it that a GARGANTUAN Barrier is just going to APPEAR in front of somebody?"

And I have to admit I don't have a GREAT response to that other than to say I don't want to tell anyone else how to run their games.

And indeed, in the chase I ran a couple of nights ago, a Gargantuan Obstacle DID appear: A pride of T-Rexes. Hungry T-Rexes.