BladeRunner/rules/RUNDOWN.md

# RUNDOWN

**Cardless chase rules for the Blade Runner RPG.**
*v1 draft — unofficial fan supplement. Requires the core rulebook.*

> Nobody in this city runs because they think they'll get away. They run because
> stopping means answering the question.

RUNDOWN replaces the chase subsystem in the core rulebook. It needs **no cards,
no tables to roll on, and no components beyond the dice already in front of
you**. Every player has a job in every round, and the whole chase fits in
fifteen minutes.

---

## 1. What you need

- The dice you already use: an attribute die and a skill die per roll.
- **One number written where everyone can see it** — the LEAD.
- **Six obstacles**, written before play. Take one from
  `reference/obstacle-ladders.md` or write your own (§7).

That is all. No deck, no board, no tokens.

**Resolution is unchanged from the core rules.** Roll your attribute die and
your skill die. **6–9 is one success. 10+ is two successes.** Advantage adds a
d6; disadvantage drops your lowest die.

---

## 2. LEAD

**LEAD is how far ahead the prey is.** One number, 0 to 8.

| | |
|---|---|
| **LEAD 0** | **ENGAGED.** Chase over — hands on them. |
| **LEAD 8** | **GHOST.** Chase over — they broke away clean. |

Set the starting LEAD when you call the chase:

| Start | When |
|---|---|
| **3** | **Close.** A stumble away. They were nearly in reach when they bolted. |
| **4** | **Standard.** They got a jump on you. *Use this when unsure.* |
| **5** | **Distant.** You spotted them across the plaza, the lot, the traffic lane. |

LEAD goes **down** when the pursuers gain and **up** when the prey does. It
moves once per round, by one number, and that number is the only arithmetic in
the system.

---

## 3. Roles

At the top of the chase, **every participant takes a role**. Any number can
share a role, and anyone may change role between rounds.

**RUNNER is the default.** A player who declares nothing is a Runner.

### RUNNER — *close the gap, or open it*
**Roll:** Mobility (on foot) or Driving (vehicle, spinner)
Successes move LEAD. Costs nothing. The safe, steady option.

### PRESSURE — *make them flinch*
**Roll:** Firearms, Manipulation, or Connections
You act on the prey without moving: a warning shot, a shouted order down an
alley, a call ahead to someone who owes you, a traffic signal killed from a
terminal.

Successes move LEAD — **but every success generates 1 Collateral (§6).**

### SPOTTER — *read the ground*
**Roll:** Observation
Spend each success on **one** of:

- **Negate one Toll penalty** suffered by anyone on your side this round.
- **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.

### CUTTER — *take the other way round*
**Roll:** Mobility (on foot) or Driving (vehicle, spinner)
A parallel route — a fire escape, a service corridor, a side street, an overhead
pass. Your successes are **banked, not applied.**

Banked successes may be spent **all at once, in any later round**, added to that
round's side total. On a roll with **no successes**, you are out of the chase
for one round and **your bank is lost**.

### How the roles pay off

| Role | Buys you | Costs you |
|---|---|---|
| **RUNNER** | Steady progress | Nothing |
| **PRESSURE** | Speed | Collateral |
| **SPOTTER** | Safety, and Collateral back | A round of progress |
| **CUTTER** | A decisive later round | Risk of losing everything |

A table of pure Runners will win a chase slowly and cleanly. A table that leans
on Pressure will win it fast and leave a mess behind. **The quick way to catch
someone in this city is the expensive way.** That is the whole point.

---

## 4. The round

Six rounds, maximum. Roughly fifteen minutes.

> **1. The GM reveals this round's obstacle.**
> **2. The prey declares their role and rolls.**
> **3. The pursuers declare in any order and roll.**
> **4. Work out the net. Move the LEAD.**
> **5. Stamp Collateral. Narrate. Next round.**

**The obstacle is revealed before anyone declares.** Nothing is hidden and
nothing is simultaneous — that is what removes the cards. Players choose their
role knowing what the street just threw at them, so the choice is a decision
instead of a guess.

### Working out the net

Each side totals up:

> the **highest single RUNNER result** on that side — *not the sum*
> **+** all PRESSURE successes
> **+** any banked CUTTER successes spent this round

Then:

> **NET = pursuer total − prey total**
> Positive → **LEAD goes down** by that much.
> Negative → **LEAD goes up** by that much.
> Zero → LEAD is unchanged. The round still happened; Collateral still lands.

Extra Runners make a side **more reliable, not more powerful.** A second Runner
is worth about half a success; a fourth is worth about a fifth of one. Four
people running down the same alley is four chances at a good roll, not four
times the speed.

### Running the other side

**An NPC makes one roll per round**, in a role of the GM's choosing. Do not roll
for a mob. If the opposition has a real advantage — a bike, local knowledge,
a head start through a door that locks — give them **one advantage die**, not
another roll.

This holds the GM's dice load at one roll per round whether there are two
players or six.

---

## 5. Gambits

**Once per chase, each participant may declare a Gambit** — a named, specific
risk. *"I go over the gap."* *"I take the spinner under the span."*

A Gambit modifies **your role roll for that round**. It is not an extra roll.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Roll** | At **disadvantage** — drop your lowest die. |
| **Success** | **Double your successes** this round. |
| **Failure** | You are **out of the chase**, with a consequence the terrain suggests, and you generate **1 Collateral**. |

A Gambit is the moment somebody talks about afterwards. It is capped at one
each so it stays that.

---

## 6. Collateral

Chases in this city cost the city. **Collateral is a track from 0 to 6.** It
never touches a character sheet — not Health, not Resolve, not Humanity.

**Generated by:**

- each **PRESSURE success** — 1 each
- each **failed Toll in crowded terrain** — 1 each
- each **failed Gambit** — 1 each

**Removed by:** SPOTTER successes, one for one, in the round it is generated.

**Capped at 6.** Beyond that, narrate it and stop counting.

### Spending it — after the chase, never during

| Collateral | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| **1–2** | Noise. Someone remembers your face. A witness who will talk to the wrong person. |
| **3–4** | A report gets filed. LAPD attention, a supervisor's question, or a fresh complication in the case. |
| **5–6** | A body, or a burned asset. Something you were going to need is gone. |

Collateral never modifies a roll and is never spent in the moment. It is a
budget the GM draws on in the scenes that follow — which is exactly what makes
players argue about whether to reach for Pressure.

---

## 7. The Obstacle Ladder

**Six obstacles, written in advance, played in fixed order, one per round.**
This replaces both the obstacle deck and any table you would otherwise roll on.

Rung 1 is a nuisance. Rung 6 is a wall.

Each rung is one line carrying a **Toll** and a **Tilt**:

- **Toll** — a roll to avoid a penalty. Anyone the obstacle touches makes it.
- **Tilt** — which side the terrain favours, usually one advantage die.

```
[3] TRANSIT PLATFORM — Toll: Mobility or lose your roll this round.
    Tilt: prey (+1 die). A crowd is the runner's friend.
```

### Rung 6 is always a Terminator

The last rung is a feature that **forces resolution**: a dead end, a rail line,
a roof edge, a checkpoint, a canal. The chase has to break one way or the other
against it. Write it that way.

### Why authored, not random

- Pacing is built in — the scene has a written shape and a written ending.
- The obstacles are about *this* market, *this* rooftop, *this* freight yard.
- No lookup, no randomiser, no shuffling.
- The GM knows what round four looks like before round one starts.

**Writing one takes about five minutes.** Pick a location, list six things in it
that would interrupt a person running flat out, order them from *annoying* to
*impassable*, and give each a Toll. Eight finished ladders are in
`reference/obstacle-ladders.md`.

---

## 8. Ending it

The chase ends at **LEAD 0**, at **LEAD 8**, or at the **end of round 6** —
whichever comes first.

| LEAD | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|
| **0** | **ENGAGED** | Hands on them. Combat, restraint, or a conversation at contact range. |
| **1–2** | **CORNERED** | Trapped, not held. A standoff, a negotiation, or a jump nobody should survive. |
| **3–4** | **LOST, BUT** | Gone from sight — and you have a direction, a dropped thing, a plate, a witness. |
| **5–7** | **GONE** | Clean. The street still remembers, and so do 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 ordinary failure and it still
hands you the next scene. GONE and GHOST still leave you the Collateral, and
they leave you what the prey gave away by *how* they ran — the route they knew,
the door that was unlocked for them, the fact that they never once looked back.

### Overtime

If round 6 ends with the chase unresolved and the table is leaning in, the GM
may call **Overtime — at most three more rounds.**

- **No new obstacles.** The Terminator stands and applies every round.
- **LEAD 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 always ends: nine rounds is the hard ceiling, and the automatic drift
drags any close chase to ground. At the end of it, read the outcome table
whatever the number says.

---

## 9. Terrain

One engine, three skins. **The procedure never changes** — only this table.

| | RUNNER / CUTTER | SPOTTER | Start LEAD | Collateral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Foot** | Mobility | Observation | 3–4 | Standard |
| **Ground vehicle** | Driving | Observation | 4 | **Doubled** — a car in a crowd |
| **Spinner / aerial** | Driving | Observation *(plotting vectors)* | 5 | **Halved**, but every point is severe |

**Mixed chases** — a spinner over a runner on foot, a car chasing a pedestrian
through an arcade — use each side's own layer for its own rolls, and the
**higher** of the two Collateral rates.

---

## 10. If the PCs are the ones running

Nothing changes. The roles, the ladder, the net, and the outcome table are all
symmetric. Swap which side wants LEAD to go up.

The only thing to watch: **the outcome table reads from the pursuers' side.**
When the PCs are prey, invert it — LEAD 0 means *they caught you*, LEAD 8 means
*you are a ghost*, and LOST, BUT means you got away but left something behind
that they will follow.

Collateral still accrues to whoever generates it. A PC who shoots their way out
of a crowded transit hall owns that, even running.

---

## 11. Quick reference

**LEAD 0–8.** Start 3 close / 4 standard / 5 distant. 0 = caught, 8 = gone.

**Round:** obstacle → prey declares and rolls → pursuers declare and roll →
net → move LEAD → Collateral → narrate.

**Side total** = highest single Runner + all Pressure + banked Cutter spent.
**Net** = pursuers − prey.

| Role | Roll | Does |
|---|---|---|
| RUNNER | Mobility / Driving | Moves LEAD. Free. |
| PRESSURE | Firearms / Manipulation / Connections | Moves LEAD. 1 Collateral per success. |
| SPOTTER | Observation | Negate Toll / remove Collateral / grant advantage die / reveal next rung. |
| CUTTER | Mobility / Driving | Banks successes; spend all at once later. No successes = out a round, bank lost. |

**Gambit:** once each. Disadvantage. Win = double successes. Lose = out, +1 Collateral.

**Six rounds.** Six rungs. Rung 6 forces the end. Overtime = 3 more, −1 LEAD a
round, double Collateral.

**Outcomes:** 0 ENGAGED · 1–2 CORNERED · 3–4 LOST, BUT · 5–7 GONE · 8 GHOST.

---

*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. Not for sale.*