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Add RUNDOWN design spec: cardless chase rules for Blade Runner RPG

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A dice-only replacement for the published chase subsystem: single
accumulating LEAD track, four per-round player roles, authored six-rung
obstacle ladder in place of the obstacle deck, and a Collateral track
that costs the city rather than the character sheet.

Six-round budget with bounded Overtime so a chase fits a convention slot
by construction. One engine covers foot, ground vehicle, and spinner via
terrain layers, symmetric for PCs as pursuer or prey.

Calibration figures computed exactly over the joint success
distributions, not estimated.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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README.md
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# RUNDOWN
**Cardless chase rules for the Blade Runner RPG.**
A complete, dice-only replacement for the published chase subsystem. No card
deck, no randomiser tables, no components beyond the dice already on the table.
Every player has a job in every round.
## Status
| | |
|---|---|
| **Version** | v1 — design spec only |
| **Playtests** | 0 |
| **Remaining** | Rules text, GM sheet, obstacle ladders, console module, playtest |
The approved design lives in
[`docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-rundown-cardless-chase-design.md`](docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-rundown-cardless-chase-design.md).
## What it is
- **LEAD** — one accumulating 0–8 track replaces the published range categories.
- **Four roles** — Runner, Cutter, Spotter, Pressure. Everyone rolls, every round.
- **Obstacle Ladder** — six authored obstacles in fixed escalating order, one per
round, replacing the obstacle deck.
- **Collateral** — the pursuit's cost to the city, not to the character sheet.
- **Six-round budget** with a bounded Overtime, so a chase fits a convention slot
by construction.
One engine covers foot, ground vehicle, and spinner pursuits as swappable
terrain layers, and works identically whether the PCs are hunting or running.
---
*Unofficial fan supplement. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by
Free League Publishing or the rights holders of Blade Runner. Requires the
Blade Runner RPG core rulebook to play. Private play materials — not for sale.*
docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-23-rundown-cardless-chase-design.md
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# RUNDOWN — Cardless Chase Rules for the Blade Runner RPG
**Design spec — v1 draft**
Date: 2026-07-23
Repo: `slaguru666/BladeRunner` (public)
Status: design approved, not yet implemented
---
## 1. Objective
A complete, dice-only replacement for the chase subsystem in *Blade Runner: The
Roleplaying Game* (Free League). It requires no card deck, no randomiser tables,
and no components beyond the dice already on the table. Every player at the
table has a defined job in every round, and the procedure is structured enough
to drive a tablet console module.
It is an original house subsystem, not a reformatting of the published rules.
## 2. Design intent
1. **RUNDOWN replaces the published chase rules; it does not patch them.** The
maneuver duel, the range ladder, the obstacle deck, and the simultaneous
secret selection are all superseded.
2. **Every seat rolls every round.** The published chase collapses a group of
pursuers into a single roller. RUNDOWN gives four distinct roles on four
distinct skills so different pregens matter.
3. **Pacing is structural, not a GM intervention.** A hard round budget and an
authored obstacle ladder mean the scene has a fixed shape. The GM never has
to decide "this is dragging, let me end it."
4. **Open information over hidden selection.** The obstacle is revealed *before*
declaration. Choices become decisions rather than guesses. This is the
deliberate trade that removes the need for cards.
5. **A chase costs the city, not the character sheet.** Consequence is tracked
as Collateral — bystanders, property, witnesses, LAPD attention — never as
Health, Resolve, or Humanity. Nothing on the PC sheet is touched.
6. **No outcome is a dead end.** Every terminal state, including failure, hands
the GM a usable trail.
7. **It is not a tactical map game.** No grid, no measured distances, no
positioning beyond a single abstract number.
**Content note:** none. Chases are as violent as the GM narrates them.
## 3. The problem with the published chase (why replace, not patch)
Verified against the core rules (p. 081–085) and against the working GM
quickref written for the AFTERIMAGE night-market chase
(`Continuum2026/reference/foot-chase-gm-quickref.md`).
| # | Problem | Consequence at a convention table |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cards exist only to hide maneuver selection | 30–60 s of silence per round; ~20% of a 15-minute set-piece spent on admin, with strangers who don't know the maneuver list yet |
| 2 | Multiple pursuers collapse to one roller (lowest die size) | Three players watch one player roll — contradicts the house lesson *idle pairs get jobs* |
| 3 | Range categories have no memory | Round 3 can be identical to round 1; nothing accumulates, so nothing forces an ending |
| 4 | Obstacles are randomly drawn and generic | The draw hands the GM a beat unrelated to the location they authored |
| 5 | Three simultaneous lookups (maneuvers, obstacles, range) | Reference load under pressure while four people wait |
Problem 3 is why the AFTERIMAGE quickref needed the manual patch *"dragging past
5 → deal obstacle 6"*, and problem 4 is why it needed a bespoke d6 market table.
Both are already this design, improvised. RUNDOWN formalises them.
## 4. The system
### 4.1 LEAD — one accumulating track
**LEAD** is a single integer: how far ahead the prey is.
- **Range: 0 to 8.**
- **Starting LEAD** is set by the scene: **3** (close — a stumble away), **4**
(standard — they got a jump), **5** (distant — spotted across the plaza).
- **LEAD 0 → ENGAGED.** The chase ends; hands on them.
- **LEAD 8 → GHOST.** The chase ends; they broke away outright.
- Otherwise the chase ends at the round cap and the outcome table applies.
One number, moved once per round by one net result. That is the entire state.
### 4.2 Roles
Assigned at the top of the chase, reassignable between rounds. Multiple players
may share a role. Every participant rolls their role every round.
**RUNNER is the default role.** Any number of participants may take it; a
participant who declares nothing is a Runner.
| Role | Skill | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| **RUNNER** | Mobility (foot) / Driving (vehicle, spinner) | The direct pursuit or flight. Successes move LEAD. Free — generates no Collateral. |
| **CUTTER** | Mobility (foot) / Driving (vehicle, spinner) | A parallel route — fire escape, side street, overhead pass. Successes are **banked**, not applied. Banked successes may be spent, all at once, in any later round to add to that round's side total. On a **failed roll** (no successes) the Cutter is out of the chase for one round and loses the bank. |
| **SPOTTER** | Observation | Reads the ground. Spend each success on one of: **negate one Toll penalty** for anyone on your side; **remove 1 Collateral** generated this round; **grant one advantage die** to an ally's next roll; **reveal the next rung** of the obstacle ladder before it is played. |
| **PRESSURE** | Firearms / Manipulation / Connections | Acts on the prey without moving: a warning shot, a shouted order, a call ahead to a contact, a killed traffic signal. Successes move LEAD — **but each success generates 1 Collateral.** |
Each role has a distinct economic identity, and the four interlock:
- **Runner** — steady LEAD movement at no cost.
- **Pressure** — faster LEAD movement, paid for in Collateral.
- **Spotter** — buys off Collateral and insures against Tolls and Gambits. The
natural counterweight to a table leaning on Pressure.
- **Cutter** — burst timing. Nothing this round, potentially decisive later,
and it can go to zero.
Four roles on three attribute lanes (Agility, Intelligence, Empathy) means a
pregen roster built for investigation is never dead weight in a chase.
### 4.3 Side totals
This is the balance-critical rule. Group size buys **reliability and options**,
not raw multiplication.
**Pursuer side total** =
> the **highest single RUNNER result** on the side (not the sum)
> **+** total PRESSURE successes
> **+** any banked CUTTER successes spent this round
Taking Runner with more people therefore raises the side's *reliability*, not
its ceiling — a second Runner is worth about +0.57 expected successes, a third
about +0.31, a fourth about +0.20 (see §5). Diminishing, never multiplying.
**Prey side total** = the prey's own roll, computed the same way.
**Net = pursuer total − prey total.** Positive lowers LEAD; negative raises it.
A net of 0 leaves LEAD unchanged (the round still happened; Collateral and
narration still land).
An NPC prey makes **one roll per round** in a chosen role. The GM may grant a
+1 advantage die for a notable situational edge rather than adding rolls, so GM
dice load stays at one roll per round regardless of table size.
### 4.4 Round procedure
1. **GM reveals this round's obstacle** (next rung of the ladder).
2. **Prey declares their role and rolls first.**
3. **Pursuers declare in any order and roll.**
4. **Compute net. Move LEAD.**
5. **Stamp Collateral. Narrate. Advance the round counter.**
No secrecy, no simultaneity, no components. The obstacle is public *before*
declaration, which is what makes an open declaration interesting rather than
merely faster.
### 4.5 The Obstacle Ladder
Replaces both the obstacle deck and the published d12 tables.
**Six obstacles, authored for the location, played in fixed escalating order,
one per round.** Rung 1 is a nuisance. **Rung 6 is always a Terminator** — a
feature that forces resolution: a dead end, a rail line, a roof edge, a
checkpoint.
Each rung is one line carrying a **Toll** (a roll to avoid a penalty) and a
**Tilt** (which side the terrain favours):
```
[3] TRANSIT PLATFORM — Toll: Mobility or lose your roll this round.
Tilt: prey (+1 advantage die). A crowd is the runner's friend.
```
Because the ladder is ordered and authored rather than drawn:
- pacing is deterministic — the scene has a written shape
- obstacles are about *this* market, *this* rooftop
- there is no lookup, no randomiser, and no deck
- the console displays *rung N of 6* and nothing else
Scenario authors ship a ladder with the set-piece. A GM improvising one cold
uses a pre-written ladder from the reference file.
### 4.6 Gambits
**One per participant per chase.** A declared risk, named in the fiction: *"I
jump the gap."* A Gambit modifies **your role roll for that round** — it is not
an extra roll.
- Roll at **disadvantage** (drop the lowest die).
- **Success:** double your successes for that round.
- **Failure:** you are out of the chase, with a terrain-appropriate
consequence, and you generate **1 Collateral**.
Self-limiting by the once-per-chase cap, and it is where the memorable moment
comes from.
### 4.7 Collateral
A **0–6 track** for the pursuit's cost to the city, **capped at 6** — further
generation is narrated but not tracked. Fed by:
- each PRESSURE success (1 each)
- each failed Toll in crowded terrain (1 each)
- each failed Gambit (1 each)
Reduced by SPOTTER successes, 1 for 1, in the round the Collateral is generated.
| Collateral | Consequence, spent by the GM *after* the scene |
|---|---|
| **1–2** | Noise. Someone remembers your face. |
| **3–4** | A report gets filed — LAPD interest, or a complication lands in the Case File. |
| **5–6** | A body, or a burned asset. Something you needed is gone. |
Collateral is never spent during the chase and never modifies a roll. It is a
consequence budget the GM draws on in the scenes that follow, which gives
scenario authors a hook to write against.
### 4.8 Round budget and Overtime
**The chase runs a maximum of 6 rounds** (~15–18 minutes at a convention table).
The obstacle ladder has exactly 6 rungs, so the ladder *is* the clock.
**Overtime** — the GM may declare at most **3 additional rounds**, only at the
end of round 6, only if the chase has not already ended, and only if the table
is engaged. During Overtime:
- **No new obstacles.** The Terminator from rung 6 stands and applies each round.
- **LEAD automatically drops by 1 at the start of each Overtime round**, before
any rolls. The pursuit closes; the city closes in.
- **Collateral generation is doubled.**
Overtime therefore always terminates: hard ceiling of 9 rounds total, and the
automatic drift guarantees the LEAD reaches 0 from anywhere in the CORNERED
band. At the end of Overtime the outcome table applies regardless.
### 4.9 Outcomes
Triggered at LEAD 0, at LEAD 8, or at the end of the final round — whichever
comes first.
| LEAD | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|
| **0** | **ENGAGED** | Hands on them. Combat, restraint, or conversation at contact range. |
| **1–2** | **CORNERED** | Trapped but not held. A standoff, a negotiation, or a jump. |
| **3–4** | **LOST, BUT** | Gone from sight — but you have a direction, a dropped item, a plate, a witness. |
| **5–7** | **GONE** | Clean. The scene still left a mark on the street and on you. |
| **8** | **GHOST** | You never had them. They were better than you, or they were never alone. |
**No outcome is a dead end.** LOST, BUT is the default failure and it still
hands the GM a trail. GONE and GHOST leave the Collateral track and whatever the
prey revealed by *how* they ran.
### 4.10 Terrain layers — one engine, three skins
The procedure is identical in all three. Only the table below changes.
| | RUNNER / CUTTER skill | SPOTTER | Start LEAD | Collateral rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Foot** | Mobility | Observation | 3–4 | Standard |
| **Ground vehicle** | Driving | Observation | 4 | **Doubled** — a car in a crowd |
| **Spinner / aerial** | Driving | Observation (vector plotting) | 5 | **Halved**, but each point is severe |
Mixed chases (a spinner pursuing a runner on foot) use the pursuer's layer for
pursuer rolls and the prey's layer for prey rolls; Collateral uses the higher
rate.
## 5. Calibration
Expected successes per die, on the published resolution (6–9 = 1 success,
10+ = 2 successes):
| Die | E(successes) |
|---|---|
| d12 | 0.833 |
| d10 | 0.600 |
| d8 | 0.375 |
| d6 | 0.167 |
A competent runner (Agility A / d12 + Mobility B / d10) expects **1.433**
successes. A solid but non-elite one (d10 + d8) expects **0.975**.
Highest-of-N, computed exactly over the full joint distribution:
| Runners on the side | All competent (d12+d10) | All solid (d10+d8) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.433 | 0.975 |
| 2 | 2.004 | 1.413 |
| 3 | 2.309 | 1.656 |
| 4 | 2.507 | 1.816 |
A realistic mixed table of two competent and two solid pursuers, all taking
Runner, expects **2.224** against a prey's **1.433** — a net of **+0.79 per
round**. An all-competent table of four expects 2.507, a net of **+1.07**.
From a starting LEAD of 4 that predicts a catch around **round 4–5**; from 5,
around **round 5–6**. Both land inside the 6-round budget, which is the point.
Strategy check — a four-player table, one round, against a competent prey:
| Line-up | Expected net LEAD | Collateral generated |
|---|---|---|
| 4 × Runner | +1.07 | 0 |
| 2 × Runner, 1 Spotter, 1 Pressure | ≈ +2.0 | ≈ 1.4, less what the Spotter buys off |
All-Runner is viable and safe but slow. Diversifying roughly doubles the rate
and puts the cost on the city. That is the intended incentive: **the fast way to
catch someone in this city is the expensive way.**
The distributions above are exact. Whether they produce a *good scene* is a
hypothesis — §7 exists to test that.
## 6. Deliverables
| Path | Contents |
|---|---|
| `rules/RUNDOWN.md` | The system. 3–4 pages, house style: scannable, tables, bold keywords. Self-contained. |
| `reference/rundown-gm-sheet.html` | One printable page: roles, round procedure, outcome table, Collateral track, blank 6-rung ladder. |
| `reference/obstacle-ladders.md` | 6–8 pre-written ladders: night market, Sector 12 rooftops, LAPD impound, spinner over the Wall, storm drain, Tyrell atrium, transit interchange, off-world freight yard. |
| `reference/converting-from-raw.md` | Mapping LEAD to the published range categories, and how to switch mid-chase. |
| `gm-utility/rundown-console.html` + `modules/rundown.js` | REPD-DETECT-style tablet module: LEAD track, round counter, ladder stepper, Collateral counter, outcome readout. |
| `README.md` | Index, status line, licence footer. |
## 7. Playtest plan
Per house protocol, RUNDOWN is not "table-ready" until it has survived desk
playtests and the fix list has been applied and versioned.
1. **Desk playtest 1 — calibration.** Run the night-market ladder solo at 4
pursuers vs 1 prey, start LEAD 4, five times. Record the round the chase
ends and the final Collateral. Confirm the §5 prediction (catch in rounds
4–5) or re-tune starting LEAD.
2. **Desk playtest 2 — degenerate cases.** A prey that only Flees; a table that
only uses Pressure; every player Gambits in round 1; a two-player table.
Confirm none produces a chase that cannot end or an outcome with no trail.
3. **Desk playtest 3 — contrarian pass.** Drive the moves the GM hopes nobody
makes: the prey turns and fights, a PC refuses to chase, someone shoots into
the crowd in round 1, the Cutter banks for all six rounds.
4. **Live playtest.** Retrofit the AFTERIMAGE Act Two market chase onto RUNDOWN
and run it inside the 15-minute budget.
Only after step 4 does the README status line change from `v1 draft` to
`table-ready`.
## 8. Licensing and IP
The repository is **public**. Therefore:
- All text is original. No table, maneuver list, obstacle entry, or rules text
from the published game is reproduced.
- Published mechanics are *referenced* only where a GM must consult their own
book (die ranks, success thresholds, skill names).
- `README.md` carries an unofficial-fan-supplement notice: not affiliated with
or endorsed by Free League Publishing or the Blade Runner rights holders; not
for sale; requires the core rulebook to play.
## 9. Decisions log
| Decision | Rationale |
|---|---|
| Replace rather than patch | All four drivers selected (jobs for everyone, table friction, console-driven, portability); a patch satisfies only friction and portability |
| One engine, terrain layers | One thing for a GM to learn, one data model for the console, covers the spinner pursuit the setting demands |
| Symmetric — PCs may be pursuer or prey | Avoids needing a second subsystem the first time the PCs run |
| Collateral as the only cost | Fits the setting, touches no character sheet, gives the GM a post-scene budget. Health/Resolve and Humanity costs were considered and rejected — Humanity is the game's most sensitive mechanic and not worth destabilising for a chase |
| Obstacle revealed **before** declaration | The published chase's secrecy is the only thing the cards buy; trading it away removes the components and speeds the round |
| 6-round cap plus bounded 3-round Overtime | 15–18 minutes fits the slot budget; Overtime is capped and self-terminating via automatic LEAD drift |
| Highest single Runner roll, not the sum | Group size must not multiply LEAD movement, or a four-player table trivialises every chase |
| Runner is the default role, any number may take it | Spec self-review caught that a single mandatory Runner produced a net of ≈0.00 against a competent prey — the chase could never resolve. Making Runner the default and stacking by highest-of-N fixes it while keeping diminishing returns |
| Spotter buys off Collateral rather than adding successes | As a pure buff the Spotter was worth ≈ +0.24 expected successes — strictly worse than being a second Runner (+0.57). Recast as the insurance-and-mitigation role, it becomes the counterweight to Pressure and the four roles form an economy |
| Name: RUNDOWN | Approved 2026-07-23 |
| Cost track name: Collateral | Retained by default; not explicitly ratified — flag for review |
## 10. Open questions
1. **"Collateral" as the track name** was not explicitly confirmed. Alternatives
if it reads too generic: *Fallout*, *Damages*, *the Bill*.
2. **Console module scope** — whether `rundown-console.html` stands alone or is
added as a module inside the existing Con Desk hub. Deferred to
implementation; it does not affect the rules.