Hello Talents!
Next Tuesday - April 4 - all backers will be able to download Chapter 2 from the draft manuscript. It's a pretty big chapter, and offers expanded rules and guidance on running investigations, taking actions in a heist, and vehicular combat and chases. Basically, the cool cinematic stuff that you can do in your
Trinity Continuum game. Today, we're gonna get a sneak peek at some of the material built around chases.
But first, a quick celebration!
ACHIEVED! - At $28,000 in Funding - TRINITY CONTINUUM PLAYER’S GUIDE DIGITAL WALLPAPER- Exciting Trinity Continuum artwork will be used to create a wallpaper for your computer desktop. This digital wallpaper will be added to the rewards list of all backers supporting this project.
An Onyx Path classic, and a great way to help us keep up our pace over these first days! Let's continue with this great momentum as we work toward our next Stretch Goal...
At $30,000 in Funding –
THE ART OF CRAFTS – The unlocked PDF supplement will be expanded to include a streamlined version of the crafting system, along with some examples, to help inventor characters make new toys for their Talents.
The vehicle in motion is virtually synonymous with action. Car chases offer danger, high stakes, and a wide variety of threats and complications, while aerial combat presents a dizzying array of high-speed maneuvers and technological sophistication. The
Trinity Continuum Core Rulebookalready offers the basic tools for vehicular mayhem and excitement, but this section will drill down to offer more options, tools, and toys for games and groups that want to lean into vehicular action.
Towards the Vanishing Point: The Chase
A hunter chases after their quarry, hoping to catch them before the latter can escape. The core of every chase is that simple, but it’s the specifics that make them compelling. Tight city streets packed with irritable citizens; pursuers armed to the teeth and willing to inflict wanton destruction to get what they want; elusive targets causing as much chaos as possible to obscure their trail and secure their getaway. These rules endeavor to enable this, providing ingredients for kinetic conflicts and running pursuits.
Chases require a quarry, an individual or group who is fleeing, and a hunter, the party who wishes to catch, apprehend, or destroy the quarry. This is important: A quarry who’s willing and able to simply turn around and fight is instead a mutual combatant, and there’s no chase — instead “just” an opportunity for vehicular combat.
Setting Stakes
This makes it important to establish the stakes and reasons behind the chase. The quarry’s goal is to get away, but why do they have to run and not stand and fight? Are they knowingly outmatched by their pursuers, or by forces their pursuers could call for reinforcements? It’s one thing to punch out a corrupt cop, after all; it’s another to stay and deal with an entire police force on the take. Do they want to avoid a direct confrontation for practical reasons, such as protecting a vulnerable hostage or piece of technology from being collateral damage in a stand-up fight? Especially against a numerically superior foe, the chances that an innocent is taken hostage or a suitcase full of advanced technology is nabbed increase dramatically if the quarry stays in one place. Are there social, organizational, or cultural pressures involved? Will getting involved in an all-out brawl on a Sunday make them local pariahs, or have their allegiances urged them not to get involved in blatant violence in public, even if they’re attacked?
The hunter’s goal is confrontation. Perhaps they want to destroy or kill the quarry. Sure, they might be able to do it mid-chase, but it’s much easier if the quarry is standing still. Perhaps they want to apprehend the quarry. Stopping them nonlethally is the only way to arrest, kidnap, or otherwise have the targets at the pursuers’ mercy. Or perhaps they simply want to force an interpersonal confrontation; sometimes, you just have to let someone know how upset you are with them face-to-face.
These specifics between escape and confrontation affect the nature of the chase. If the quarry is escorting a scientist and trying to keep shadowy pursuers from kidnapping them, those hunters don’t win by totally destroying the fleeing vehicles; they win by forcing the quarry to stop, so they have a chance to kidnap the scientist. If the players are pursuing a murderous assassin who’s killed a beloved ally, they may be fine with simply slaying them as they flee, reducing their vehicle to flaming slag…or they may want to take them alive so they can question them.
Setting the Pursuit Goal
Once both sides establish stakes and goals, the Storyguide sets the starting range between hunter and quarry, and the pursuit goal. This is the number of successful milestones either side needs to obtain their goal. This isn’t simply distance between the two vehicles; in the chaos of pursuit, it indicates movement towards a final, decisive moment, when the quarry is either caught or gives the hunter the slip. Short, quickly resolved chases begin with a pursuit goal of 3, while longer chases (such as those meant to be the centerpiece of a session) begin with a pursuit goal of 5. If there are other characters involved, they roll initiative for the scene normally (though quarry and hunter drivers do not.)
Each phase of the chase, the drivers of both vehicles make opposed rolls, modified by Speed Scale. They compare totals after choosing to buy off Complications, the quarry choosing which to buy off first. The winner gains a milestone towards the pursuit goal and may spend any additional net successes on Stunts. On a tie, the chase immediately intensifies, shifting the local environment, and reducing the pursuit goal by 1 unless this would result in one of the sides winning. After resolving the chase roll, other characters may go, following the normal initiative rules.
Victory
If the quarry wins, they’ve escaped for the moment. They’ve put even distance, real estate, other vehicles, or confusion between them and their pursuers, and they’re free of immediate physical threat or apprehension. Even against overwhelming pursuit or panopticon-scale surveillance, the quarry should at least have a scene to collect themselves, marshal their resources, and decide what to do next.
If the hunter wins, they’ve forced the quarry into a direct confrontation, starting at the range band of the hunter’s choice. They may have driven the quarry into a dead end, run them out of road, or physically blocked their egress, whichever is most appropriate for the scene. The quarry will need to outfight, trick, convince, or otherwise outmaneuver the hunter if they want to get away.
Destruction of a hunter or quarry’s vehicle usually provides a different end to the chase, one way or another.
Chase Stunts
Drivers of both hunter and quarry may purchase the following Stunts with successful chase rolls.
Flat-Out (4s): Immediately complete an additional milestone towards the pursuit goal.
Jockey for Position (2s): Increase or reduce the range band between vehicles. May be purchased multiple times.
Keep Her Steady (1s): Reduce any increased Difficulty or Complication for Action Stations by 1. This Stunt may be bought multiple times. Special: Purpose Action Station may buy this Stunt.
Road Hazard (Variable): For every success the quarry spends, or for every 2 successes the hunter spends, create a Complication for their opponent’s next chase roll. If not bought off, the opponent’s vehicle must suffer the unmet total in Injury Conditions or lose one milestone towards the pursuit goal. They cannot choose to lose milestones they haven’t accomplished. Special: Any action station may also buy this Stunt.
Scenic Route (2s quarry, 3s hunter): Immediately force the chase into a different local environment. Special: Navigation action station may also buy this Stunt.
Vehicular Combat Stunts
These Stunts chiefly involve close kinetic contact between two vehicles. They can also be used in regular vehicular combat as Pilot-based attacks, ignoring any chase specific effects. Normally, you must be within short range or closer to purchase these Stunts, which moves your vehicle into close range. Vehicular soft armor adds to the cost of damage-causing Stunts such as Sideswipe normally.
Boarding Party (3s): A willing character from your vehicle is now on their vehicle. You may spend 1 success per additional character you wish to send over on a Boarding Party action, OR, you may retrieve any number of willing, unrestrained characters from the targeted vehicle. Special: Action stations may buy this Stunt.
Critical Smash (4s): You may only purchase this if you’ve already purchased another vehicular attack Stunt. Inflict your vehicle’s Size in additional Injury Conditions to your target OR reduce its Speed Scale by 1 until it can be repaired. If a vehicle’s Speed reaches 0, it becomes immobile.
Drive Defensively (2s): Increase the Defense of all characters in the vehicle by 1 against attacks from outside, and increase the success cost for vehicular attacks and boarding actions by 2 for the next chase roll or round. Special: Contact action station may also buy this Stunt, and it may be bought at any range.
Kinetic Stop (3s): Attempting to use precision contact between vehicles to make the other vehicle lose control, hopefully bringing it to a stop. The target loses a pursuit goal milestone and counts their Speed Scale as being one lower for the next chase roll or round.
Ram (variable): Spend successes equal to the higher of your target’s Size and Speed. You put the full weight and power of your vehicle into their vehicle for catastrophic results. They suffer the higher of your vehicle’s Size or Speed in Injury Conditions. Your vehicle suffers their vehicle’s Size in Injury conditions. Neither you nor your target benefit from Speed Scale next round or chase roll.
Sideswipe (variable): Spend successes equal to the target’s Size to deal an Injury Condition to it. If the target’s Size is larger than your vehicle’s, your vehicle suffers an Injury Condition.
Other Complications
Beyond chase environments, all manner of problems can make life more difficult for either or both sides of a chase. Some high-speed hiccups interact directly with chase mechanics, but those that don’t fit into any scene where at least one character is driving or piloting a vehicle can be a Complication towards an action. Each Complication lists the successes required to buy it off and then describes the results if not bought off
-
A Really Slow Truck is in the Way (1): Your next Pilot action’s Speed Scale cannot be higher than 1.
-
Dangerously Wet Road (1): Your next Pilot action suffers +1 Difficulty.
-
Traffic Lights Change at Exactly the Wrong Moment (1): Pick one: Your vehicle suffers an Injury or counts as Speed Scale 0 for your next Pilot action.
-
Unwise Pedestrians (1): Lose a pursuit goal milestone. If you have zero, your opponent gains one instead. If not in a chase, the next opponent targeting your vehicle or opposing your actions gains +1 Enhancement to their action.
-
Unsecured Debris Spills Across the Road (1): Your vehicle suffers an Injury.
-
Collateral Road Rage (2): Lose a pursuit goal milestone, and your vehicle suffers an Injury. If not in a chase, the next opponent targeting your vehicle or opposing your actions gains +2 Enhancement to their action.
-
Hazardous Road Debris Ahead (2): Pick One: Your vehicle suffers an Injury or −1 Speed Scale for the rest of the scene.
-
Just-Resurfaced Asphalt (2): Your next Pilot action suffers +1 Difficulty and counts as Speed Scale 0.
-
Two Workers Carrying a Clear Pane of Glass Across the Street (2): Your vehicle suffers an Injury, and characters aboard suffer +1 Difficulty to action station actions.
-
Caught in a Funeral Procession (3): Your vehicle’s Speed Scale cannot be higher than 1, attacks from your vehicle suffer +1 Difficulty for the next affected action, and you lose a pursuit goal milestone. If not in a chase: Next round, all opponents targeting your vehicle or opposing your actions gain +2 Enhancement to their actions.
-
Rush Hour Traffic Arrives (3): Reduce your next Pilot action’s Speed Scale by 1 for every unresolved point of Complication. If this would take Speed Scale below 0, you’re at a standstill next round.
Dogfights!
Fighting within visible line of sight of the enemy, desperately fighting for position, trying to line up the perfect shot to send the enemy plane tumbling, burning to earth… the dogfight combines direct, one-on-one combat with the kinetic miracle of flight.
For Trinity’s purposes, the dogfight rules are appropriate for play whenever two or more (see Furballs, below) opposing vehicles within 2 Speed Scale fight it out in flight. A vehicle with a 3-Speed edge can simply disengage and reengage with impunity, making dogfighting them impractical for their outmatched enemies.
Dogfights are determined by relative position and energy, enemy pilots trying to put the other into kinetic checkmate. Each round that combatants are engaged in dogfighting, they make an opposed piloting “dogfight” check, modified by Handling rating and Speed Scale. The winner outflies their opponent, allowing them to spend extra successes on dogfighting Stunts, and then freely disengage, press the advantage, or immediately make an attack. The loser must then decide whether to try and escape, turn the tables, or another desperate maneuver. On a tie, both combatants must choose desperate maneuvers.
Dogfight Stunts
The winner of the dogfight roll can spend their extra successes on any of these Stunts, though other general Stunts, those granted by equipment or situation (such as flux Stunts), or others may also be applicable.
Blindspot (variable): Increase the Difficulty of any Desperate Attacks against you by the successes you spend.
Break Lock/Break Jamming (3s): Remove a “Locked-On” or “Jammed” Condition. Special: This may be bought multiple times for multiple Conditions.
Breathing Room (3s): Remove any bonuses your opponent has gained from Press the Advantage.
Force Repositioning (2s): Immediately change the environment the dogfight is occurring in.
Harry Them (variable): For every 2 successes you spend, increase the Difficulty of any Escape or Turn the Tables roll a specific target makes against you by 1.
On Target (variable): Gain +1 Enhancement for every two successes spent for an attack or Press the Advantage action made this turn.
Again, this is just a sneak peek - a tiny portion of what's coming our way on Tuesday, when the next draft manuscript section is made available for backers to review.
I'll be back next Monday with some podcast links and possibly information about an upcoming Twitch stream that we're in the early stages of sorting out. Until then, please continue to spread the word about this project, sharing in your social circle and on your social media. Let's see if we can't maintain our pursuit of that next Stretch Goal target and get some streamlined Crafting rules for our clever gadget-loving Talents!
#TrinityContinuum
#TCPG
.png?scheme=https)
