Pursuit

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Dice Pool: [Dexterity + Athletics/Drive]

Discussion: Vampires must often pursue their terrified prey, and sometimes they themselves must flee. Generally, pursuit can be resolved automatically by using the formulas for calculating movement (p. 258); if one party is clearly faster than another, the faster party catches or evades the slower party eventually. However, dramatic situations may occur if two characters are of equal or nearly equal speeds, or if one character is slower but might lose the faster character or make it to safety before she catches him. In these cases, use the system below.

Basic pursuit is an extended action. The target starts with a number of free extra successes based on his distance from the pursuer. This breaks down as follows: on foot, one for every two yards/meters ahead of pursuers; in vehicles, one for every 10 yards/meters ahead of pursuers. For chases involving vampires and mortals, remember that mortals tire, but the undead do not.

The target and pursuers make the appropriate roll (depending on the type of pursuit) each turn, adding new successes to any successes rolled in previous turns. When the pursuer accumulates more total successes than the target has, she catches up and may take further actions to stop the chase. As the target accumulates successes, he gains distance from his pursuers and may use that lead to lose his opponents. Each success that the quarry accumulates beyond the pursuer’s total acts as a +1 difficulty to any Perception roll a pursuer must make to remain on the target’s tail. The Story- teller may call for the pursuer to make a Perception roll at any time (though not more than once each turn). If the pursuer fails this roll, her target is considered to have slipped away (into the crowd, into a side street). On a botch, the pursuer loses her quarry immediately. If the quarry botches, he stumbles or ends up at a dead end.