Sample Vehicle Chase

Lissa the Game Master is guiding a group of four players as they flee the scene of a successful raid

Buddy

on the headquarters of the Akitonian Redliner gang to retrieve a piece of stolen technology. Joe is playing Buddy, an android technomancer; Crystal is playing Sssazza, a vesk solarian with anger-

Sssazza

management issues; Tonya is playing Cha’lak, a shirren mystic and student of the Akashic Record; and Mark is playing Merris, a korasha lashunta envoy whose sarcasm plagues his enemies.

Cha'lak

As the heroes blast through the city streets on a stolen exploration buggy (see page 228), they realize that two basic enercycles (see page 228) driven by two angry ysoki gangsters are hot on

Merris

their tails. If the PCs can lose them, they might be able to hide out until the heat dies down. A vehicle chase ensues!

The GM draws horizontal lines on a battle map to represent several zones (see page 282) and puts all the vehicles in the center zone.

The Redliners pull out of a side street on enercycles,

GM

furiously waving laser pistols. Roll initiative checks!

The players all roll initiative checks, and the GM rolls an initiative check for the ysoki. Sssazza gets an 18, Buddy gets a 16, Merris gets a 12, the ysoki get an 11, and Cha’lak gets a 6. Buddy is the PCs’ pilot, and the ysoki each pilot their basic enercycles. It’s Buddy’s turn to take his pilot actions for the exploration buggy.

All right, time for the pilot actions phase! Buddy, what

GM

actions would you like to take?

Buddy: I’m going to try to speed ahead of them and then duck down an alley. Maybe we can lose them.

Buddy uses his full action to make a double maneuver to first use the speed up action, requiring a Piloting check, and then to use the trick action to duck into an alley. The GM determines that this trick action requires a Piloting check, since maneuvering the buggy into the alley is tricky. Buddy takes a –4 penalty to both skill checks because of the double maneuver. Buddy’s Piloting check to speed up has a DC of 18. Buddy has a Piloting skill bonus of +8. He rolls a d20 and gets an 18, for a total of 22. The buggy advances one zone immediately and then will advance another zone during the chase progress phase. The DC of the check for Buddy’s trick action is 16, but Buddy rolls a 5 for a total of 9, so he can’t quite zoom into the alleyway.

GM The ysoki also try to speed up to catch you!

Each of the ysoki attempts the speed up action, which requires them each to take a move action. The DC for their Piloting checks is 18 (17 + 1 for the enercycles’ item level), and they each have a +5 modifier to Piloting checks. Each ysoki also gains a +2 bonus to Piloting checks thanks to that vehicle’s modifiers. One ysoki rolls a 12 and succeeds with a total result of 19. The ysoki moves forward one zone immediately and will move forward another zone during the chase progress phase. The other ysoki rolls a 2 and fails with a total result of 9. This is a failure by more than 5, so the ysoki doesn’t move forward and won’t move forward during the chase progress phase!

The second ysoki must have sludge in his engine.

GM

Anyway, now it’s time for the chase progress phase. The buggy and one enercycle move ahead another zone, but the enercycle of the Redliner who failed badly doesn’t move forward. It is two zones behind everyone, so the chase leaves it behind!

You and the remaining ysoki cross a canal bridge just

GM

before it lifts. The slower Redliner is out of the chase!

Sssazza: Only one left! Let me at ’em!

It’s now the combat phase and you have the highest

GM

initiative, so go for it.

Sssazza: I shoot at his vehicle’s back tire.

Sssazza fires a shot from her azimuth laser pistol, adds her bonus to attacks with that weapon, and subtracts 2 due to the penalty to attacking from the buggy. She gets a total of 9. She compares this to the vehicle’s EAC of 10—the shot barely misses.

Sssazza: Blasted peashooter!

Oh, so close! Buddy, it’s your turn, but you spent your

GM

full action piloting the buggy. Merris, it’s your turn.

Merris: I’m also going for the bike’s tire.

Merris’s total is 15, so he hits. He rolls 1d4 and deals 2 damage.

The ysoki chitters with rage as his back tire billows

GM

smoke! It’s his turn, and he’s looking at you, Merris!

The ysoki uses his remaining standard action to shoot his flame pistol. Once accounting for the –1 penalty for shooting from his enercycle, the ysoki’s result is 11—not enough to hit Merris’s EAC.

Cha’lak, the ysoki’s enercycle isn’t in great shape. What

GM

do you do?

Cha’lak: Eat pavement, rat—I shoot the other tire!

Cha’lak rolls a natural 20 on her attack roll with her tactical semi- auto pistol. It’s a critical hit! She rolls double her normal damage dice—in this case, 2d6—and gets 5. That reduces the ysoki’s enercycle to 0 Hit Points, meaning that it’s wrecked.

GM The enercycle spins out and the ysoki takes a dive!

Because the PCs have outrun one gang member and broken the other’s vehicle, the chase is over. The PCs are free to take their stolen exploration buggy and technology back to their base!