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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9774854" data-attributes="member: 4937">They aren't really, but I do think it is interesting that you think that they are.It's the exact opposite of the system you used.  I'm shocked you can't see that.The Star Wars rules tie each moment very specifically to the details of the fiction.  Namely, how difficult is this terrain?  Difficulty of the terrain determines how fast it can be safely navigated as well as how difficult the terrain is if you exceed that speed.  And margin of failure determines exactly how your failure translates into a forced fictional positioning.  And that forced fictional positioning like "slip sideways a movement length" matters only if the fiction is actually specified.   What this means is that the preexisting fiction is determining the die roll and the outcome of the die roll.  The system is meaningless unless we have concretely chosen the fiction before rolling the dice.  Whereas, when you described running a chase scene earlier, you had die rolls that were completely disconnected from the fiction and which you used to determine what the fiction actually was.  So the PCs succeed on this check, and that creates fictional positioning recording success in an abstract manner (whatever you determine that to be) and then you do more checks and that creates new fictional positioning leading to you eventually determining to create the fiat positioning of total success or failure ("A motorcycle appears and the bad guy speeds away through traffic.")If the fiction has been pre-created and exists in a tangible manner, that is we have some sort of course or layout that the chase is going to occur on, and you've pre-created all the terrain difficulties and concrete fiction of what that means, then at that point as a GM in the Star Wars system you've given up control of the scenario.  None of your choices will be based on what the players do, just what the rules say should happen in this specific scenario.  If the speeder bike slips 10 meters, then you know whether or not there is an obstacle for them to slip into you.  You as a GM aren't deciding whether or not that happens.  You aren't deciding who wins or loses or what that win or loss looks like.  You've given all authority away before this moment, letting the dice and the preexisting fiction determine the outcome.  And I as a player can see that and trust my choices are meaningful.Now, I'm not saying that you can't improvise a chase or that you shouldn't or that improvised chase scenes are bad.  Quite often chases happen in situations you didn't plan for and you do have to improvise obstacles and complication and have somewhat abstract fictional positioning.  But I am saying that there is a vast difference in the experience of play between having a preexisting fiction and not having one, and that the preexisting fiction (perhaps counterintuitively) gives the players more agency than one that only comes into being based on the GM whim.</blockquote>

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