When you SCRAMBLE, you lift, climb, jump, run, or swim, usually either away from or into danger. You might vault over a turnstile while escaping authorities. You might climb up the side of a cliff to approach a secret base. You might dodge blaster fire as you cross the hanger to get to your ship. You might chase after a mark you’re following (though SKULK may be better).
You can also use SCRAMBLE to move across difficult terrain. Perhaps you want to push through the jungle of Aketi with decent speed or without being attacked by some sort of beast, trek through the desert on Shimaya without suffering dehydration or alerting sandworms, or bounce from asteroid to asteroid in your spacesuit to reach the Precursor ruin hidden inside one of them.
GM QUESTIONS
- How fast are you trying to move?
- Where do you want to end up?
- How are you avoiding missteps or pitfalls?
When you SCRAMBLE, you’re trading finesse for efficiency. You chase or evade, usually at a decent speed. If you’re attempting to do so without making a scene, you may need to SKULK instead. If you are doing so on a vehicle, that’s HELM.
You can use SCRAMBLE as a group action, when the entire group is running away from the problems they’ve just caused. When you consider the scene, imagine what that action scene looks like. Perhaps there’s blaster fire raining down on them from across the courtyard. Perhaps all of them are scaling down a tower to the drydock below.
All SCRAMBLING has an element of action or danger to it.
When a SCRAMBLE roll goes badly, it’s almost never because the action fails outright. There may be unexpected complications, or trouble you didn’t see due to your speed. Let the action progress before demonstrating how it gets derailed. Push to the last possible moment to inject failure into the scene and SCRAMBLING will feel punchy and tense.
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