VEHICLES,
POWER ARMOR
& BIG BADASS MOTHERJUMPIN' ROBOTS! |
Body: : | The size, strength and sturdiness of the vehicle. A Body rating
gives you a specific size for your vehicle. The Body is also what
you roll when your named vehicle is about to snuff it while you're flaming
out at 20,000 feet, and the bad guys are getting away. Each vehicle
can lift, move, or pull its Body rating in weight. As well, when
crashing into someone, or engaging in combat, Body determines collision
or punching damage.
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Toughness: | Toughness is seperated from the Body. Toughness is related to
the size (larger objects can absorb more damage) of the vehicle.
How well armored or armed your vehicle is, your Toughness is what keeps
the other guys from shooting it up.
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Movement: | Movement is different from character movement. Move is determined
by Top Speed in mph/10. Simple as that. If you wanna do KM,
then divide by 16, and suffer for your metric ways... bwahahahahaha.
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MANEUVERABILITY AND DODGE BONUS
Movement also helps to determine the basic agility of your craft, but
Toughness does tend to bite deeply into that. Here are the two rules
of Maneuverability and how they apply for each type of vehicle.
Aircraft: | For every 10 full Movement points, add a +1 to
your AV for Dodging. The idea being the quicker you are, the more nimble
you are.
For every point of Toughness over 9, subtract a -1 from your AV for Dodging. If your craft is tougher, it's less aerodynamic and most likely heavier, and thus dodges like a brick. |
Ground and
Surface Craft: |
For every 4 full Movement points, add a +1 to
your AV for Dodging.
For every point of Toughness over 11, subtract a -1 from your AV for Dodging. If your craft is tougher, it's less streamlined, and heavier which means problems in handling on various surfaces, and thus, dodges like a brick. |
Water Craft: | Get no AV bonuses or penalties for dodging underwater. |
DETERMINING THE BODY & TOUGHNESS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
RATINGS
Every sourcebook, from Car & Driver to ZZ Gundam, has the weight and height or length of the vehicles they feature recorded in them. (Choose whichever is the "deepest" stat for height or length.) Since all vehicles have to have a certain mass, for engine systems, controls, and the ability to survive harsh abuse, Body is based off of weight, not the space taken up by the vehicle. |
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When comparing bonuses, choose
the largest applicable bonus.
add the bonuses together! This is RIFTS, and all, but let's not get into supreme munchkinville. |
Power
Armor and Robots Are A Different Kind Of Beastie
As your average Cadillac, doesn't have arms and
a carrying capacity (unless he's a Transformer)use the chart to the right
to determine its strength.
However, a 385lb SAMAS is a tough STRONG cookie. What to do, what to do...
Robotic Strength |
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Converting Power Armor and Robots depends on
the ROBOT strength of the vehicle. As the lifting abilities of the
robot generally depend on the sturdiness of the vehicle (a 15 ton
sponge isn't gonna lift much, even with the mightiest arms), Body is determined
by the strength of the vehicle.Its also important to remember that just
because Robots and Power Armo are small it doesn't mean that they can't
be tough.
Whence some accounting for MDC...
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How
Does All of This Work with the Transformers Conversion that was Already
Published Elsewhere?
Invariably, with jet fighters, automobiles, motorcycles, and of course,
flying armors and robots, you're gonna find yourself dogfighting.
Here are some general rules.
For every 10 Full Movement points over the Driver's REF rating, Driving
AV checks are -1.
For Ground Vehicles, this number is 5 Full Movement points. |
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For every 5 Full Movement points you move faster than your pursuer,
your Dodge rating is +1.
For Ground Vehicles, this number is 3 Full Movement points |
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For every 5 Full Movement points which you slow down, your Dodge rating
increases by +2 for the first sequence in which it's used.
For Ground Vehicles, this number is 3 Full Movement points. |
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For every 5 Full Movement points you move faster than someone you're
chasing, your attack AV is +1 as you close in on him.
For Ground Vehicles, this number is 3 Full Movement points. |
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By slowing 10 Full Movement points, you may strafe a stationary target
at +2 AV for the first sequence in which you attack.
For Ground Vehicles, this number is 5 Full Movement points. |
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This also applies to vehicles, but since this is Rifts oriented, and quite easily can translate into anime, power armor is the example we'll use.
One day, the players are travelling in the countryside in their nifty little collection of cars and whatnot, when out of the sky come screaming a small squadron of POWER ARMOR! Chances are, the GM who sics these guys on you has just had this as a random encounter. The named pilots are at home, building their reserves for an upcoming conflict.
But Power Armor is more of a threat than mere mooks. The same would apply to a Cadillac pulling up with mooks sticking their guns out of it. What to do? Make the Power Armored troops a throwaway, and thus making the existence of them idiocy except for named pilots? Nahhhhhhhhh.
Treat Mook Power Armor and vehicles as MINOR characters.
There are two range levels of Mook vehicles as far as durability is concerned. Car or Power Armor range which has 20 Wound Points, and Tank or Robot range, which has 35 WP.
A Minor Vehicle has 20 Wound points, and does not roll snuffing it checks,
but once it suffers its 20 WP, it's OUTTA THERE. Remember, though,
once you snuff the vehicle, one or more mooks may have survived inside.
If you exceeded the wound point count by 5 in the final attack on the vehicle,
disregard annoying survivors. If not, you now have irate mooks running
at you with guns, presumably after being hammered with some heavy weapons.
Mobster Cadillac | ||||
Crew: 5 (1 driver, 4 gunmen) | ||||
BOD:11, TGH:12, Move:14, Dodge: +0 | ||||
Wound Points: 20 | ||||
Weapons Systems:
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Coalition PA-60A "Death's Head" SAMAS
Coalition
PA-60A "Death's Head" SAMAS
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Crew: 1 | ||||||||
BOD:8, TGH:8, Move:30, Dodge: +3 | ||||||||
Wound Points: 20 | ||||||||
Weapons Systems:
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(Note, the pilots of Mook Power Armor are
QUITE good. Their combat ratings for Mecha Combat are from 8 to 10,
with some elite, semi-named types getting as high as 12 if your mecha jockey
seems a bit cocky with "Mooks." However, peel away the armor, and
they're just normal types. Roll an outcome of 5 (or more if they
have Megadamage armor), and you nailed them. Also, remember all those
movies where the hero doesn't even blink twice knocking out the pilot of
that trillion dollar special airplane, then slips into his flight suit
to steal it? THIS is that guy he konks on the noggin.)
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