Chases Under 1E

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I love chases under the 1E rules. They're fast, easy to use, and represent the hot action of the movies superbly.

Where are Chases covered in the 1E rules? Space Combat. You can use those rules for any type of chase, whether you're talking about a dogfight during the Battle of Yavin, a footrace through the corridors of Nar Shadaa, an airspeeder chase among the buildings of Coruscant, a pod race on Malastare, an atmospheric chase with TIE fighters over the starship graveyard of Jakku, or a fathiers race on Canto Bight. Those space combat rules cover it all.

The powers-that-be at WEG got rid of the Speed Code in 2E in favor of a much more detailed system. I typically love the details, but once you've played using Speed Codes, you see how well matched the mechanic is with the atmosphere of a Star Wars movie.

Zoom-zoom!





CHASES!

No matter what kind of chase you're talking about, they're all run like Space Combat.

You use generic range which just so happens to correspond with the range categories used in combat. You never have to count squares or know the exact distance between participants in the chase. And...you always know what difficulty to use for ranged combat. Quick-n-easy, baby!

If two ships are coming at each other, then range automatically decreases by one category.

If two ships are going away from each other, then range automatically increases by one category.

When a chase happens, that is, when one ship is chasing another, and the lead ship is attempting to get away from the chasing ship, then you roll dice. You roll the Speed Code of each ship. The winner of this toss decides what happens: The chasing ship will close range by one category, and the leading ship will increase range by one category. Very simple.

Once range is established for the round, after that Speed phase, ships can fire weapons at each other. You already know the range. Range was decided upon in the Speed phase.

And, folks, that's chases in 1E D6 Star Wars.

Oh, and what's a Speed Code for a person on foot? Use his DEX score.





PILOTS

A good pilot can, of course, greatly influence the outcome of the chase. In the game, this is tackled by allowing the Pilot's Starship Piloting skill to be added to various throws.

Every skill check a pilot makes during the round is subject to the multiple action rule.

A pilot can add his Starship Piloting skill to his ship's Speed Code roll in the Speed Phase.

Evasion is a reaction roll, and a pilot can use his Starship Piloting skill to improve his ship's Maneuverability roll (both of these added to the difficulty number) to make his vessel harder to hit when being fired upon.

Shields is also a reaction roll, and a Pilot can use his Starship Shields skill to protect the ship.

Gunnery is another task a Pilot can attempt during a round. During the fire weapons phases, a Pilot can use his Starship Gunnery skill to fire at the enemy. A Pilot can only fire one weapon during any single round, but he can fire that one weapon multiple times, subject to the multiple action rule.





CHASE PHASES

Piloting Segment: This is a declaration phase where pilots and gunners declare their actions this round.

Reaction skills do not have to be declared. Pilots declare if their skill will be used in the Speed Segment. Gunners declare fire with specific weapon and specific target.



Speed Segment: This is where range is determined for the round. Each ship in the dogfight rolls the ship's Speed Code. The higher of this toss decides on the range.



Fire Segment 1: Now that range is known, weapons are fired.
Gunnery skill is rolled against difficulty based on range.*

*Some GMs allow difficulty to be automatically improved by a ship's Maneuverability Code.

Evasion: This is a reaction roll that Pilots can take to increase the difficulty of hitting the ship. Starship Piloting is rolled, added to the roll for the ships Maneuverability Code, added to the Range Difficulty number.

Shields: This is a reaction roll where a Shield Operator rolls on his Starship Shields skill against a shield difficulty based on range. If successful, the incoming attack is ignored, considered absorbed or deflected by the ship's shield.

Damage: If a Gunnery shot succeeds against Evasion and Shield use is unsuccessful, then roll damage against the ship's Hull code.



Fire Segment 2+: If a weapon is fired more than once, then each shot is considered in its own fire segment. All first shots are resolved in Fire Segment 1. All second shots are resolved in Fire Segment 2, and so on.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

OBSTACLES AND MANEUVERS!



You can easily add in obstacles and special maneuvers to this system. Whether you're zipping through a dense asteroid field or skirting around and through junk starships in the graveyard of Jakku, this system can handle it.

And, it handles it simply.

All you will want to do is add a difficulty to the Speed Phase above.

The GM selects the difficulty and the damage that will be applied to the ship if the roll fails.

So, in the Speed Phase, you are already rolling the ship's Speed Code (or Speed Code + Piloting skill). When you add obstacles, this one roll serves two purposes: It decides which Pilot chooses range, and it shows if the ship avoided the obstacle.



Example:

A TIE fighter is chasing an A Wing through the bowels of the Death Star II during the battle of Endor. During the Speed Phase, both ships roll their Speed Codes normally, but if that roll is lower than the 15 difficulty that the GM has decided is the obstacle number for vessels zipping through the giant space station, then the ship collides with a part of the ship that fails the roll.

Let's say that the A Wing wins the Speed Code toss. The A Wing will then increase range by one category. But, if the A Wing's total Speed Code roll is not 15+ (the difficulty being set by the GM), then the A Wing collides with a part of the Death Star II. Damage is then rolled and applied against the A Wing.

Damage is also a the GM's discretion. The GM may want to change damage based on the amount that the collision difficulty was missed. The GM could decide that, for every 3 points, the damage is increased by +1D.

Thus, missing difficulty 15 by 1 or 2 points means 1D damage applied to the A Wing. Rolling between 10-12 means 2D damage. Rolling between 7-9 means 3D damge. 4-6 means 4D damage. And, anything 3 or lower means 5D damage.

This scaling of damage helps simulate scrapes and bump collisions to full-on crashing into the object.

Shields can be used for collisions, as a reaction roll. Evasion cannot be used for collisions.

The GM may or may not want to scale damage as suggested above. If scaling is used, then the GM may set a maximum damage level. All of this iis based on the obstacle, of course.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

CREW!



Rey remarks how difficult it is to pilot a ship without a full crew when she pilots the Falcon for the first time when leaving Jakku. The game gives us minimum Crew requirements needed to operate ships safely. Second Edition gives us penalty modifiers to use if using a less than recommended crew (if you want to import that to your 1E game).

A crew, even if it is just one more person, can take quite a burden off a pilot. For example, if a gunner is operating weapons, and a shield operator is operating the ship's shields, then that leaves the pilot to focus just on piloting in adding his skill only to the Speed Phase and to Evasion, when needed.

Don't forget to use your droids!

If you are in an X-Wing, you can allow your droid to operate shields or even take over the piloting while the pilot focuses on gunnery.

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I forgot about the Collision Chart at the back of the 1E book!

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

The actual Chase Rules for 1E are kinda hidden. See page 34 under the Mechanical attribute. Full Chase Rules are described.