Topic: How would you GM a 3 mile running race?

[Druss_the_Legend]

Iv been tinkering with different ideas and rules for a footrace in my campaign. Its 3 miles long. There are around 30 runners, mostly NPCs, with 1-2 players.

Runners will use their manouvre bonus and exhaustion points.
They can also use sprinting and athletics games-long distance running.
how would you play out the race?

I have looked at grouping rounds together, letting runners select a pace, make a roll on the manouvre table, using the number there as a % of success, calculating total distance covered in that time, reducing exhaustion points as per pace rules. Its too complex and slow with this number of runners. I divided the race in 1/4 mile sections, thats 12 rolls with variable pace and base movement.

I am looking for a much simpler method to determine the winner that uses less dice rolls (6 max) and some tactics using sprinting to overtake. Was thinking of having one initial roll using AG/QU or AG/QU/CO stat mod to establish the player character(s) position. Then let the use sprinting to overtake up to 3 runners at a time throughout the rest of the race (another 5 rolls throughout the rest of the race, modified by -20 or -30 if they are attempting to overtake 2 or 3 people at a time). This still might be overly complex but it seems to give there race a feel of realism and should create some tension with limited opportunities to overtake before the finish. I was thinking Exhaustion Points would be more important at the end of the race where some runners would have saved them for a last minute dash to the finish line. In game terms their remaining exhaustion points could be added to their final manouver roll. keeping track of these individually for each runner is just too much number crunching for my tastes.

So to summarise, my latest idea is... after the initial manouvre roll to establish their position in the race (1st-30th) they will make one more roll for each 1/2 mile section of the race. This roll is modified by the number of people they wish to overtake. Overtaking requires them to succeed in a sprinting roll of some kind (either on the manouvre table or another table or a static action?). The most important information is their actual position in the race, not the actual distance they are covering or time its taking them.

Is there another way i could be using the manouvre table or is there another table that would be more suited for a race like this?

Any thoughts on how you would GM a race like this?

[Peter R]

Personally I would pre roll all the NPCs throughout the race before the session starts so they do not bog down the narrative you are trying to tell.

If Distance Running is a skill in play I would use that if not then I would use Athletic Games.

The players make a skill roll when there is a change of circumstance, so if there is a rocky climb with a slightly harder difficulty factor, a stream or river crossing and so on.

I would sum their skill roll totals and at each point you can tell them if they have been passed or they are catching someone as you already have the totals at each point for the NPCs. I would probably use the difference in actual totals as the number of metres between runners.

That way you can describe the race as they approach obstacles they are just a few metres ahead of runner B who has been gaining on them, up ahead is a knot of five runners and so on.

[Malim]

30 x ex points calculation, stride speed and speed is best for exactly each person.. sounds like a big work for a run.

[Druss_the_Legend]

30 x ex points calculation, stride speed and speed is best for exactly each person.. sounds like a big work for a run.

it is a big amount of work, using the pace/exhaustion pt rules as stated. thats why id like to simplify it.

[Druss_the_Legend]

Iv been tinkering with different ideas and rules for a footrace in my campaign. Its 3 miles long. There are around 30 runners, mostly NPCs, with 1-2 players.

Runners will use their manouvre bonus and exhaustion points.
They can also use sprinting and athletics games-long distance running.
how would you play out the race?

I have looked at grouping rounds together, letting runners select a pace, make a roll on the manouvre table, using the number there as a % of success, calculating total distance covered in that time, reducing exhaustion points as per pace rules. Its too complex and slow with this number of runners. I divided the race in 1/4 mile sections, thats 12 rolls with variable pace and base movement.

I am looking for a much simpler method to determine the winner that uses less dice rolls (6 max) and some tactics using sprinting to overtake. Was thinking of having one initial roll using AG/QU or AG/QU/CO stat mod to establish the player character(s) position. Then let the use sprinting to overtake up to 3 runners at a time throughout the rest of the race (another 5 rolls throughout the rest of the race, modified by -20 or -30 if they are attempting to overtake 2 or 3 people at a time). This still might be overly complex but it seems to give there race a feel of realism and should create some tension with limited opportunities to overtake before the finish. I was thinking Exhaustion Points would be more important at the end of the race where some runners would have saved them for a last minute dash to the finish line. In game terms their remaining exhaustion points could be added to their final manouver roll. keeping track of these individually for each runner is just too much number crunching for my tastes.

So to summarise, my latest idea is... after the initial manouvre roll to establish their position in the race (1st-30th) they will make one more roll for each 1/2 mile section of the race. This roll is modified by the number of people they wish to overtake. Overtaking requires them to succeed in a sprinting roll of some kind (either on the manouvre table or another table or a static action?). The most important information is their actual position in the race, not the actual distance they are covering or time its taking them.

Is there another way i could be using the manouvre table or is there another table that would be more suited for a race like this?

Any thoughts on how you would GM a race like this?

what about a formula for calculating a single running bonus?

Running Bonus modifiers
* + total manouvre bonus
* +2 for each rank of endurance running
* +1 for each rank in sprinting
* +1 for each 5 remaining exhaustion points
* x2 pace (no added bonus)
* x3 pace (+5  added to running roll/costs 5 exhaustion points)
* x4 pace (+25  added to running roll/costs 25 exhaustion points)
* x5 pace (+40  added to running roll/costs 40 exhaustion points)

Race procedure.
The total running bonus is added to each 1d100 roll. This number (d100+ running mods) is recorded and will represent the distance in yards each runner has covered for that section of the race.
6 d100 rolls will be made for the entire 3 mile race.
10 Exhaustion points will automatically be subtracted from each runners total exhaustion points after each roll.
NOTE. It is assumed that all runners will be jogging at 2x pace, unless they elect to increase pace before each new roll.

[Druss_the_Legend]

Iv been tinkering with different ideas and rules for a footrace in my campaign. Its 3 miles long. There are around 30 runners, mostly NPCs, with 1-2 players.

Runners will use their manouvre bonus and exhaustion points.
They can also use sprinting and athletics games-long distance running.
how would you play out the race?

I have looked at grouping rounds together, letting runners select a pace, make a roll on the manouvre table, using the number there as a % of success, calculating total distance covered in that time, reducing exhaustion points as per pace rules. Its too complex and slow with this number of runners. I divided the race in 1/4 mile sections, thats 12 rolls with variable pace and base movement.

I am looking for a much simpler method to determine the winner that uses less dice rolls (6 max) and some tactics using sprinting to overtake. Was thinking of having one initial roll using AG/QU or AG/QU/CO stat mod to establish the player character(s) position. Then let the use sprinting to overtake up to 3 runners at a time throughout the rest of the race (another 5 rolls throughout the rest of the race, modified by -20 or -30 if they are attempting to overtake 2 or 3 people at a time). This still might be overly complex but it seems to give there race a feel of realism and should create some tension with limited opportunities to overtake before the finish. I was thinking Exhaustion Points would be more important at the end of the race where some runners would have saved them for a last minute dash to the finish line. In game terms their remaining exhaustion points could be added to their final manouver roll. keeping track of these individually for each runner is just too much number crunching for my tastes.

So to summarise, my latest idea is... after the initial manouvre roll to establish their position in the race (1st-30th) they will make one more roll for each 1/2 mile section of the race. This roll is modified by the number of people they wish to overtake. Overtaking requires them to succeed in a sprinting roll of some kind (either on the manouvre table or another table or a static action?). The most important information is their actual position in the race, not the actual distance they are covering or time its taking them.

Is there another way i could be using the manouvre table or is there another table that would be more suited for a race like this?

Any thoughts on how you would GM a race like this?

what about a formula for calculating a single running bonus?

Running Bonus modifiers
* + total manouvre bonus
* +5 for each 5pts of base movement above 50. (55ft = +5, 60ft = +10, 65ft = +15, 70ft = +20 etc)
* +2 for each rank of endurance running
* +1 for each rank in sprinting
* +1 for each 5 remaining exhaustion points
* x2 pace (no added bonus)
* x3 pace (+5  added to running roll/costs 5 exhaustion points)
* x4 pace (+25  added to running roll/costs 25 exhaustion points)
* x5 pace (+40  added to running roll/costs 40 exhaustion points)

Race procedure.
The total running bonus is added to each 1d100 roll. This number (d100+ running mods) is recorded and will represent the distance in yards each runner has covered for that section of the race.
6 d100 rolls will be made for the entire 3 mile race.
10 Exhaustion points will automatically be subtracted from each runners total exhaustion points after each roll.
NOTE. It is assumed that all runners will be jogging at 2x pace, unless they elect to increase pace before each new roll.

* +5 for each 5pts of base movement above 50. (55ft = +5, 60ft = +10, 65ft = +15, 70ft = +20 etc)

[Malim]

Distance running in RM2 gives you 1 EP pr skill point.
Sprinting in RM2 is a RoCoII table where you can gain from 10%-75% more running speed.

[Druss_the_Legend]

Distance running in RM2 gives you 1 EP pr skill point.
Sprinting in RM2 is a RoCoII table where you can gain from 10%-75% more running speed.

yes, i now see that. ive created my own rules around the 3mile race to make it manageable for 20+ competitors.
ive tested it and it seems to work fine. 6 rolls for the entire race. its assumed runners will move at 2x pace for most of the race and have one opportunity per section (6 sections) to increase their pace provided they have the exhaustion points to pull it off.
Not using the manouver table was the right call in this case as i wanted a way to quickly generate distances for each runner so the cumulative totals would quickly show you who is in front and how far back the trail runners are.
The formula ive created for Running Bonus combines all factors into a single roll (no additional sprinting or manouver roll needed). I am allowing open-ended down and open-ended up results and might even use unbalancing fumbles or create my own fumble table based on the sprinting table failures or just use that table for very low rolls or high rolls to give a +20% modifier to distance covered for one section of the race.