BladeRunner/reference/obstacle-ladders.md

Obstacle Ladders

Eight ready-to-run ladders for RUNDOWN. Pick one, set the starting LEAD, run it. Each is six rungs, played one per round in the order written. Rung 6 is always a Terminator — it forces the chase to break one way or the other.

Reading a rung:

• Toll — a roll to avoid a penalty. Everyone the obstacle touches makes it. A failed Toll in crowded terrain also generates 1 Collateral.
• Tilt — which side the terrain favours. Usually one advantage die.

Crowded rungs are marked [C] — a failed Toll there costs Collateral.

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1. THE NIGHT MARKET — foot

Start LEAD 3–4. Steam, frying oil, six languages, nobody looking up. The classic. Bodies everywhere, and every one of them a reason not to shoot.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	Noodle stalls — a wall of stools and elbows [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Prey +1
2	Steam-cart collision — scalding white-out, someone screaming about their cart [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Neither
3	Monk procession — slow, chanting, impossible to shove through [C]	Manipulation, or your role fails this round	Prey +1
4	Holo-ad burst — a four-storey geisha blooms across the alley, blinding everyone	Observation, or lose your roll	Neither
5	Plastic curtain maze — hanging sheeting, animoid tanks, forty ways out	Mobility, or lose your roll	Prey +1; Spotter rolls at disadvantage
6	THE SHRINE ALLEY (Terminator) — a dead end behind a paper shrine. Three metres of wall, no door, an old woman watching	None — there is nowhere left to go	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: the best place in the sector to catch someone gently. If the prey reaches this rung still ahead, they are choosing the wall over you — play that.

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2. SECTOR 12 ROOFTOPS — foot

Start LEAD 3. Wet tar, aerial clutter, a two-hundred-metre drop on every side. Gambits are the whole texture here — expect three of them.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	Gravel and standing water — no grip anywhere	Mobility, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Aerial forest — dishes, guy-lines, a decade of illegal cabling	Mobility, or lose your roll	Prey +1
3	The service gap — four metres between blocks, forty storeys down	Mobility. Failure here is a Gambit failure — you are out of the chase and hurt	Pursuers +1
4	Downdraft — a spinner passes low and the roof turns into a wind tunnel	Force, or lose your roll	Neither
5	Skylight run — old glass over an occupied floor [C]	Mobility, or you go through it	Prey +1
6	THE PARAPET (Terminator) — the block ends. Below is the arterial, moving fast	None	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: somebody is going to jump. Decide before you start whether this city's rooftops have a next building close enough, and tell the players.

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3. THE STORM DRAIN — foot

Start LEAD 4. Concrete throat under the city, ankle-deep and rising. No crowd to hurt — Collateral here is structural and personal, not civilian.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	The grade — a long wet slope, no handholds	Mobility, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Dark — the lighting failed years ago	Observation, or roll at disadvantage next round	Prey +1
3	Sluice discharge — a side pipe dumps hard across the channel	Force, or lose your roll	Neither
4	The junction — four identical mouths, one right answer	Observation, or your role fails this round	Prey +1; Spotter shines here
5	Rising water — knee-deep and climbing, the sound enormous	Stamina or Force, or lose your roll	Pursuers +1
6	THE OUTFALL GRATE (Terminator) — the channel ends at a rusted grate and open air beyond	None	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: the grate is the question. Locked, and it is a capture. Loose, and it is a fifteen-metre drop into a settling pond.

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4. TRANSIT INTERCHANGE — foot

Start LEAD 4. Six levels, forty thousand people an hour, cameras on every face. The most expensive place in the city to draw a weapon.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	The concourse — a river of commuters going the other way [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Prey +1
2	Turnstile bank — everyone stops, nobody stops for you [C]	Connections or Tech, or lose your roll	Neither
3	Down escalator, wrong way [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Prey +1
4	Transit police — two officers who have noticed [C]	Manipulation, or your role fails and you generate 1 Collateral	Neither
5	The platform — a train arriving, doors about to close [C]	Observation, or lose your roll	Prey +1
6	THE CLOSING DOORS (Terminator) — one carriage, both of you, or one of you	None	Neither

Terminator note: if the prey makes the train and the pursuers do not, that is GONE, not a failure — the platform cameras have a face and a departure time. Say so out loud.

Collateral warning: every rung here is crowded. A table that reaches for Pressure in a transit hall will max the track by round four. That is the lesson, not a punishment — let it happen and bill them later.

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5. THE FREIGHT YARD — ground vehicle

Start LEAD 4. Collateral doubled. Container stacks, gantry cranes, and nobody around to see it except the people who own the containers.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	Standing water and rail — the surface will not hold a hard turn	Driving, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Container canyon — blind corners, no sightlines	Observation, or roll at disadvantage next round	Prey +1
3	Gantry crane — a load swinging across the lane	Driving, or lose your roll	Neither
4	Yard hauler — forty metres of articulated freight, reversing	Driving, or your role fails this round	Prey +1
5	Fuel apron — hard surface, wide open, and a very good reason not to shoot	Driving. Any Firearms Pressure here generates double Collateral	Pursuers +1
6	THE GATE (Terminator) — closed, manned, and lowering	None	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: the gate is a choice between stopping and going through it. Going through it is 3 Collateral and a report that writes itself.

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6. SEPULVEDA ARTERIAL, RAIN — ground vehicle

Start LEAD 4. Collateral doubled. Eight lanes, standing water, everyone doing ninety because the traffic system says it is safe.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	Spray — the car ahead throws a wall of it	Observation, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Lane discipline — the automated flow does not want you doing this [C]	Driving or Tech, or lose your roll	Prey +1
3	Underpass — dark, loud, three lanes narrowing to two [C]	Driving, or lose your roll	Neither
4	Stalled vehicle — hazards on, occupants inside [C]	Driving, or lose your roll and generate 1 Collateral	Pursuers +1
5	Interchange ramp — four ways off, decided in a second and a half	Observation, or your role fails this round	Prey +1; Spotter decisive
6	THE CHECKPOINT (Terminator) — LAPD barrier across all lanes, lights on [C]	None	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: the checkpoint ends this one way or another. If the prey runs it, that is a citywide alert and someone else's arrest — the PCs get LOST, BUT with a very good lead and a very bad afternoon.

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7. OVER THE WALL — spinner / aerial

Start LEAD 5. Collateral halved, but every point is severe. Nothing below you for six hundred metres, and everything below you is somebody's roof.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	Traffic lane — you are both in a corridor you are not cleared for	Driving or Connections, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Rain shear — the weather between the towers is its own animal	Driving, or lose your roll	Neither
3	Ad blimp — three hundred metres of illuminated hull, directly across	Driving, or your role fails this round	Prey +1
4	Transponder ping — traffic control wants to know who you are	Tech or Connections, or roll at disadvantage next round	Pursuers +1
5	The span — a bridge deck with clearance nobody sane would take	Driving. Taking it is a Gambit; refusing costs your roll	Prey +1
6	THE WALL (Terminator) — the sector boundary, and a hard deck beyond it that is not your jurisdiction	None	Neither

Terminator note: the Wall is jurisdictional, not physical. Crossing it means the chase is over and the paperwork has begun. If the prey crosses, that is GONE — you know exactly where they went and you cannot follow.

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8. THE ATRIUM — foot, corporate interior

Start LEAD 3. Polished stone, filtered air, and four hundred employees who have never seen anybody run. Every camera works. Every camera is owned.

#	Obstacle	Toll	Tilt
1	The floor — wet-polished stone, no traction at speed [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Neither
2	Reception cordon — a desk, a rope line, and a very calm young man [C]	Manipulation, or your role fails this round	Prey +1
3	Elevator bank — twelve doors, one of them closing [C]	Observation, or lose your roll	Prey +1
4	Corporate security — two of them, polite, armed, and not police [C]	Manipulation or Connections, or your role fails and you generate 1 Collateral	Neither
5	The gallery — a mezzanine walkway over the whole atrium, in full view of everyone [C]	Mobility, or lose your roll	Pursuers +1
6	THE SEALED FLOOR (Terminator) — the building has decided. Every door on this level locks at once	None	Pursuers +1

Terminator note: the building sealing is not on the PCs' side. Everyone is now inside with corporate security, and the question of who leaves is a negotiation, not a chase.

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Writing your own

Five minutes, six lines:

1. Pick the location and picture somebody sprinting through it.
2. List six things that would interrupt them. Not six dangers — six interruptions. Crowds, doors, weather, machinery, other people's business.
3. Order them from annoying to impassable.
4. Give each a Toll — the skill that gets you past it, and what it costs to fail. "Lose your roll this round" is the default and is usually right.
5. Tilt about half of them. Crowds favour the prey. Open ground favours the pursuers. Leave some neutral.
6. Make rung 6 force the ending. A wall, a barrier, a drop, a door that locks, a vehicle leaving. Something that cannot be run past.

Mark crowded rungs [C] so the Collateral rule is visible at the table.

One thing to check before you run it: read your six rungs in order and ask whether they escalate. If rung 2 is scarier than rung 5, swap them. The ladder is the scene's shape — that is the whole reason it is written down.