I do think the dark horse needs to be in there, though. It feels right given the tone. It is, of course, primarily about Kris vs Lilly. I like the suggestion of just having "rest of the pack" as the other contest, with the dark horse as the winner should they fluke to a win.
I will cogitate some more. It might be worth (especially for this particular race) to make it mano a mano with narration determining if they get in each other's way enough for a dark horse to sneak in. (I can always add other actual rivals later as the story evolves if it makes sense to.)
Jeff wrote:
>
>
> > Any thoughts?
>
> It sounds like you have framed this as a contest between the player
> and the hot-shot upstart NPC. Any other racers are just color (as they
> usually are in race stories - how significant are any racers other
> than Ben Hur and Messala?).
>
> The other option is that you have the PC paired off against his rival
> and against a dark horse NPC. Keep score separately. That way the PC
> may beat his rival but lose to the dark horse.
>
> Ultimately the contest should depend on what the story is really
> about. If this is a tory about the player versus the hot-shot upstart,
> I'd suggest doing it mano a mano.
>
> Jeff
>
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