"If you are winning the race three rounds in a row, you automatically come
in first place. This rewards players who are dramatically better than
their opponents. It's a runaway win. Expect others to team up against you
on the last lap!"
Overall, I think that the racing rules are an interesting take and is enjoyable. I however think that possibly there could be alternative ways of viewing a race. As it stands the quote above of 3 lap wins gives an automatic win does not really seem to make sense. For 1, it depends on how long the race is. If the race is 4 laps long, then sure it could possibly make sense that the racer won, but how many times have we seen in movies where the hero comes from behind and pulls it off in the end? Also what if we were in a race that had 15 laps? What if the character who has won 3 in a row has barely beaten the person who is in the number 2 slot who clearly beat them in the first lap? The thing is the system doesn't really take distance into account. Perhaps it could work like this:
1) Each race has a set number or distance that has to be reached to make it to the end. So lets say that the race was a 10 lap race. Each lap or segment of that race, if its more of a cross country race, could also have its own difficulty adjustment in regards to any kind of terrain or obstacles. But it any case, it has a base value that the pilot needs to pass in order to complete that portion of the race. How this affects placement explained below.
2) The adjust phase remain the same. I really like all the things that can be done in preparation for the piloting phase.
3) During the piloting phase, the rolls would reflect the actions during the adjust phase in difficulty of the check. Pilots roll their pilot checks. Lets say for the example for lap 1 (or first leg of race) the base distance, taking into account difficulty, is 50. So a pilot needs to roll greater than 50 to make it successfully to the next lap or segment of the race. After pilots roll, their rolls are compared to each other and more specifically to the distance. Here is how it would work:
Total race distance: 500
Lap 1 distance:50
Pilot A rolls 87
Pilot B rolls 55
Pilot C rolls 48
Pilot A and B progress to the next segment of the race, while pilot C almost reaches the end, but for whatever reason doesn't make it. This is also the distance that they have traveled when compared to the course total.
Pilot A has traveled 87 units of distance which gives him an advantage on the next segment of the race by the amount he beat the roll for this segment. 87-50 or 37
Pilot B is the same, except that his advantage is not as great. 55-50 or 5
Pilot C has a 2 point penalty for the next segment of the race. 50-48 or 2
Lap 2 distance: 70 (noticeably longer than lap 1)
Pilot A needs to roll 70-37 or 33 to get to the 3rd stage.
Pilot B needs to roll 70-5 or 65 to get to the 3rd stage.
Pilot C needs to roll 70+2 or 72 to get to the 3rd stage.
Here is how lap 2 goes through:
Pilot A rolls 33
Pilot B rolls 75
Pilot C rolls 92
They all make it through the second lap, but now the distance totals are:
Pilot A: 87+33 or 120
Pilot B: 55+75 or 130
Pilot C: 48+92 or 140
So after 2 laps or segments, Pilot C due to expert flying has pulled out ahead. This process would continue until one of the pilots has reached a distance total of 500. This would prevent a pilot from winning outright at the beginning of a race when there is plenty of race left to accomplish. It would also reflect how good rolls were so that folks who are pulling off epic rolls get credit for how well that helped them.
If a pilot won the first round 97 percent to everyone else's 60ish percent rolls, but then one of his competitors pulls off 3 wins that are in the 60-70 range that barely beat out his roll, the current system says that player wins. Lets say there are 10 more laps to go....does that make sense? I would say probably not because anything can happen. You can build a 3 lap lead and then have a blowout and completely botch what you were doing. Even if for ease of code sake all the laps were equal, and the Storyteller could only adjust the race total, it would still be a viable and more realistic approach I think.
Anyways, its just food for thought. I look forward to seeing comments and other ideas.
