I'm continuing the Chasers series I'd outlined before and did an episode of -- I was initially thinking I'd blitz through a bunch of episodes, but it wound up being almost as hefty as the first episode. So, here's episode two of Chasers!
After working out the rough draft of the episode generator, I played around with the dice-rolling, figuring out what difficulty thresholds would give the results I was looking for. I ended up settling on 2d6 + stat + identity, with a threshold of 6-9 for a partial success and 10+ for full success, drawing some inspiration from the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. To make each episode tie up a bit better, I gave a +1 bonus to the rolls for the second conflict in each episode. All told, the first conflict has a 83% chance of partial success or better, and the second 90%. I’m a bit on the fence about this – partial successes have the most storytelling potential when played out, but viewed from a distance, it’s less interesting than a hard failure or success.
As always, the series-generator is here, and the episode-generator (rough draft) is here.
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Episode 2:
Gauge follows Savanna to a penthouse bar she frequents, the Sky’s Eye, with the city laid out below, the lights softened and diffused by the rain. Gauge wants to talk about what the elemental said at the end of the last episode. Savanna’s uncomfortable, we get the sense she comes here to be alone and brood over the city, and she doesn’t handle Gauge’s fears well, awkwardly telling Gauge that she should be having fun, she’s pretty, there are plenty of people she could be socializing with instead of Savanna.
Hurt, Gauge makes an excuse to leave the bar. She isn’t petulant about it and she tries to hide it, but she clearly feels like Savanna just dismissed her and doesn’t want to be friends.
Savanna sits at the table for a minute with her drink, thinking about the interaction, before slamming her drink on the table and cursing herself out for how she handled that, how she handles anyone who tries to get close to her. She storms to the window and plants one hand palm-out on it, knocking back her drink with the other, then shrinks the distance to the city below – not actually traveling, but reducing the perceived distance between them, so the sounds of traffic and the smells and heat of people walking the street are as intense as if they were only a few feet away, instead of hundreds of feet below and socially distant.
Gauge doesn’t go back to the Gold Star Cuisine right away, she walks through the city; we get a shot of various buildings she’s passing, with a passing shot of the playground from the last episode, definitely in a different location than before.
Gauge suddenly notices the presence of elementals – they’ve apparently got a talent for sneaking up on the Chasers. A chase scene ensues, and she manages to get a phone call off to their crisis line; Savanna picks up. Savanna guides Gauge up stairs and onto rooftops, because if she can visually find Gauge, she can warp to her. Gauge does eventually get onto a rooftop that Savanna can see, but there’s a whole bunch of elementals there, and there aren’t any rooftops within jumping distance. Gauge starts to panic, but Savanna tells her to jump to one of the distant rooftops. I can’t make it, she yells through the comms, it’s too far! Do you trust me? It’s thirty feet, Savanna, I can’t – Just trust me!, Savanna yells as she starts to run through the bar’s outdoor seating. Gauge turns and starts to run, jumping just before the elementals can grab her –
Savanna tesseracts in behind Gauge, her own momentum added to Gauge’s jump, and she tesseracts the distance between them and the far roof. The elementals at the other roof aren’t able to catch up in time, only a few stragglers are in their way as they exit the building, and they get a cool fight sequence. We get shown that Gauge isn't incompetent and she isn't a shrinking violet, she just needs to feel confident in her friendships. When they're fighting back to back, Gauge and Savanna are both badass.
Savanna and Gauge make up. Savanna says that she’s not good at being social, especially since she lost her memory, and she won’t always be able to express how she feels, but she values the other Chasers, they’re her friends. Gauge promises to keep that in account, but she’s going to hold Savanna to that promise to try to be a better friend.
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