Chase Rules: Deluxe vs. Explorer’s Edition

Savage Worlds Deluxe introduced an entirely different set of chase rules from those in the Explorer’s edition. After using the Deluxe rules several times, I have decided to go back to those used in Explorer’s. One reason is because Deluxe uses an entirely new rule set that differs from anything else in the game Further, those rules are too abstracted, and I am a fan of abstraction. I prefer zones over real world measurements, for example. However, the idea that you were engaged in melee in one round and then the next you so far away that a Shooting roll suffers a -4 penalty is a hard concept to accept. It can be an even harder sell to players who are not interested in abstract concepts of rounds and distance, and who simply want to catch and fight the bad guys.

Another reason to use the chase rules in Explorer’s is that they use the standard initiative system. Using the initiative rules allows you switch from a combat scene to a chase, and vice versa, or even use both, with minimal impact. So the party might be chasing the villain and one of the PCs catches up to the quarry. For a round or more, that PC might be fighting the quarry using the initiative rules, while the rest of the party, using the same initiative rules, is still trying to catch up per the chase rules.

Being able to switch between combat and chasing is important for my group. The chase rules never work with my group when the PCs are the ones being chased. The players have always decided that fighting 1,000 screaming savages was a better idea than being chased by them. This meant that we were using the Deluxe rules for chases one round, then had to switch to the standard initiative rules the next. If it happened in the middle of the round, then some PCs might still be using the Chase rules, while others might be in combat. When am I supposed to drop out of the Chase rules and start using the standard Initiative ones? Further, how far away are the opposing sides?

One rule I liked from Deluxe is putting a duration on a chase. After a certain number of rounds of game time (which actually might be hours or days in the game world, depending), that quarry is assumed to have escaped. There’s a certain amount of abstraction to this too. The party might be less than 1 chase increment away and then the next round the quarry is gone. This abstraction I find easier to justify to players: you crest the hill and the enemy is nowhere to be seen; or you reach an intersection and have no idea which way the quarry went; or the man on horseback spurs his horse and reaches the city gates, which close behind him.

We are currently playing Hell on Earth Reloaded, a post-apocalyptic world that will have a lot of chase scenes with souped up cars on the highways of the Wasted West. I need rules that will move seamlessly between combat and chases. If a PC in a chase scene leaps from his car to the car driven by the enemy, I can continue the chase scene with the other PCs and the combat with the PC at the same time using the same rules for the most part.