The Toadmaster review of TUV

[Toadmaster]

Well since nobody else has done one and I know many are waiting to hear opinions of TUV I thought I'd toss out mine.

It's great, it is about as opposite of GURPS vehicles as you can get, it is based around finding the effects you want the vehicle to have and then helps write them up in HERO terms. As a plus for those who really wanted a GURPS vehicles for HERO I see no reason you couldn't build a vehicle with a crunchy system like GURPS vehicles or BTRC's VDS and then convert it to HERO.

The book is divided into 9 chapters

Chapter one deals with rules that apply to all vehicles, the effect of various characteristics including PRE and COM, built in skills, talents, powers etc.

Chap 2 deals with ground vehilces and has write ups for common forms of power and propulsion, and special rules for ground vehicles, it also includes several sample ground vehicles.

Chapter 3-6 follow Chap 2's format but

Chap 3 is water vehicles
Chap 4 is aircraft
Chap 5 is space vehicles
and chap 6 is Mecha

Chap 7 is vehicle equipment including special rules, weapons, defenses, movement, perssel, power, sensors/communications and misc equipment. Lots of examples and ideas fr handling these topics.

Chap 8 is vehicle combat and adventuring which covers about 50 pages.

Chap 9 is vehicles as characters.

I bought it Saturday and skimmed through it quickly, I have now made it about 1/4 of the way through with a more careful read and am very happy so far. Lots of examples of how to use the system to build various vehicle systems from headlights to antimatter reactors. I have not made it through vehicle combat yet but it looks to be a big improvement over the system in Fred. There are also some guidelines on using real world stats to build a vehicle in HERO terms.
Overall I felt it was worth the money and I already have lots of plans for it. If you have StarHero or the Beastiary I would compare TUV with them in quality.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Sounds good!

This seems to be exactly what I'm looking for to make my Hero collection complete (well, I still need the Bestiary). Hopefully TUV will make creating vehicles a faster process (with the predesigned equipment lists and whatnot). I should be picking up a copy this weekend (fingers crossed, hoping theres still copies left)

[SirViss]

Just to know, does the book conver remote-control?

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by SirViss
Just to know, does the book conver remote-control? Not really, though the text on remote control from the final-draft manuscript I sent to Steve can be found in Digital Hero #7.

[Talon]

I'll be posting a review (or at least impressions) once I get my hands on a copy -- hopefully about a week from now. I'm hoping that some concerns I had about the playtest version were addressed...we'll see!

[Nelijal]

Does TUV cover animals as vehicles?

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Nelijal
Does TUV cover animals as vehicles? Yes, though not in depth. The strongest discussion on the matter is just one paragraph (albeit a rather long one) on page 7; the general concept is touched on, often invisibly, throughout the book.

[Nelijal]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Yes, though not in depth. The strongest discussion on the matter is just one paragraph (albeit a rather long one) on page 7; the general concept is touched on, often invisibly, throughout the book. Thanks.

[Talon]

I would add that it does (or at least, it did) provide an admirable amount of support for vehicles towed by animals.

[BasilDrag]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
Not really, though the text on remote control from the final-draft manuscript I sent to Steve can be found in Digital Hero #7.

Is that one of the free downloads from Digital Hero? (I hope, I hope, I hope)

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by BasilDrag
Is that one of the free downloads from Digital Hero? (I hope, I hope, I hope) Not at present, but there's plenty of time for it to be done before the next issue comes out. It might even be tomorrow. (OTOH It might not be done at all... I'm not in charge of that.)

[Chaosliege]

Does TUV give any rules for buying Power Armor as a vehicle?(other than Mecha, I dont want a 200' tall Power Armor guy)

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Chaosliege
Does TUV give any rules for buying Power Armor as a vehicle?(other than Mecha, I dont want a 200' tall Power Armor guy) Not extensively of course, but yes -- in fact, one of the sample Vehicles is a military Powered Armor Suit (page 83).

[JmOz]

My FLGS does not have it yet, did it include the rules from the manuscript on integrating a computer into the vehicle?

[tenebre]

Mine is shipping tommorrow :-))))

cant wait

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by JmOz
My FLGS does not have it yet, did it include the rules from the manuscript on integrating a computer into the vehicle? Most of them. It does include INT and EGO as optional Characteristics (as well as PRE and COM), and a good deal of stuff scattered throughout the book on computerized abilities. The deleted computer-oriented material was, I think, mostly minor stuff that could more readily go in The Ultimate Computer or some such.

[MisterVimes]

Whoo Hoo
Fro those of you waiting for TUV to show up near you, RPGshop has just posted its availability to orderTUV on RPGshop (http://enworld.rpgshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=32290&PHPSESSID=2eb196cef466db8bce77740717604bda)

[MisterVimes]

*caresses new copy of TUV*
Mmmmyyyyyyyyy Prrrrrrrrrrecious

Bob... Excellent job. The Ultimate Vehicle had everything I wanted or needed in a Vehicle suppliment. I give it two thumbs up. It was much better than cats.

*whispers* okay... where's the $20 you promised?

[AlHazred]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
Bob... Excellent job. The Ultimate Vehicle had everything I wanted or needed in a Vehicle suppliment. I give it two thumbs up. It was much better than cats.

"I loved it. It was much better than 'Cats'. I'm going to see it again and again."

In fact, it's an excellent supplement, well worth the wait. So, Bob, did the delay in the product release give you a chance to refine it to its high standard, or did you hit gold from the start?

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by AlHazred
In fact, it's an excellent supplement, well worth the wait. So, Bob, did the delay in the product release give you a chance to refine it to its high standard, or did you hit gold from the start? [/B] Actually, if anything, the delay worked against me. It was originally to be formatted in roughly the same way that the three Fourth Edition Ultimate Books (TUMA, TUM, TUSM) were formatted, written initially as The Ultimate Giant Robot but later expanding to The Ultimate Super Vehicle. Then Steve Peterson asked that it be made into The Ultimate Vehicle, to take away the appearance that it would apply just to superheroes, and asked that I include more stuff for low-end vehicles. Then there was a year or so of delay, and finally Bruce said it would become the first supplement for 5th Edition Hero but I needed to rewrite it in accordance with the rules Steve had rewritten and also include stuff for Fuzion. Then there was another long delay, Hero changed hands to Cybergames and then to DOJ, and around it came again -- I needed to rewrite it to fit the new Fifth Edition rules (not just Steve's review manuscript), take out the Fuzion stuff... and rearrange everything to the outline in the book as you now have it.

By this time, the only Fifth Edition book I had was the rulebook, and I'd only briefly gotten to glance inside the Champions genre book, so I was a bit confused as to how exactly to proceed. I did what I could, but Steve still had to cut a lot of what I wrote (only a little of that got into DH#7), add more material of his own writing, rearrange a lot of the text I'd written into the correct order (nearly all of the vehicle construction rules in Chapters Two through Seven are either moved from my Chapter One or written by Steve), add more sample Vehicles, and fix a whole lot of other stuff. In retrospect, if I were starting the manuscript today and had the other Hero books now in my possession (which is everything published so far except NH and TE), I would've come up on my own with something much closer to what Steve ended up with than what I actually turned in.

So, while I'll gladly take credit for 55% of the text in the book (which is about the percentage I got paid for, and rightly so) I have to give Steve at least 75% of the credit for how great the book is. Hopefully I'll be able to redeem myself with a better job performance with a future supplement. (There are a couple of "unassigned" books on the 2005 schedule that I'd drool over, but Steve won't let me start on them. :( )

[GradonSilverton]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
So, while I'll gladly take credit for 55% of the text in the book (which is about the percentage I got paid for, and rightly so) I have to give Steve at least 75% of the credit for how great the book is. Hopefully I'll be able to redeem myself with a better job performance with a future supplement. (There are a couple of "unassigned" books on the 2005 schedule that I'd drool over, but Steve won't let me start on them. :( )

Someone cut this man a Bonus Check..... His humility deserve reward!

[AlHazred]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade
[Excessive humility snipped.]

So, while I'll gladly take credit for 55% of the text in the book (which is about the percentage I got paid for, and rightly so) I have to give Steve at least 75% of the credit for how great the book is.

It definitely fits in superbly with everything published so far, displaying a unity and cohesion to the Hero System rules that has been sorely lacking. I am gratified to finally see some of the stuff I remember you talking about years ago (like the stuff about towed vehicles and the detailed Sailing rules) and am glad examples are given that illustrate very well the proper usage of the rules.

Give yourself a pat on the back between floggings... ;)

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by AlHazred
It definitely fits in superbly with everything published so far, displaying a unity and cohesion to the Hero System rules that has been sorely lacking. I am gratified to finally see some of the stuff I remember you talking about years ago (like the stuff about towed vehicles and the detailed Sailing rules) and am glad examples are given that illustrate very well the proper usage of the rules.

Give yourself a pat on the back between floggings... ;) Well, I just may do that... though I will admit that only about a quarter of the published text on sailing is my own. Steve did most of the work there.

OTOH I will say that most of the text on Characteristics (other than the "How Much CHA Should A Vehicle Have?" sections) is my own, as is nearly all of the stuff on mecha (the examples are 100% Steve's work). So is nearly all of the combat chapter, though Steve rearranged it rather more nicely than I had it.

[Steve Long]

Let me suggest that we put a stop to this "who wrote what" discussion right here and now. It's pretty much pointless.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Steve Long
Let me suggest that we put a stop to this "who wrote what" discussion right here and now. It's pretty much pointless. Well, I'm pretty much a "give credit where credit is due" kinda guy... but okay, if you say so. :)

[AlHazred]

I don't care who wrote it, really... It's all good...

[pinecone]

I really like it and I am ever so grateful for the zeplin write up...you just can't play golden age/pulp without a zeplin!

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by pinecone
I really like it and I am ever so grateful for the zeplin write up...you just can't play golden age/pulp without a zeplin! I would've included a map, but I didn't have enough Graf paper... :D

[lemming]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade (There are a couple of "unassigned" books on the 2005 schedule that I'd drool over, but Steve won't let me start on them. :( )
Well, maybe he just wants you to stop drooling first. After all, unless it's something to do with slimes and goo, I prefer my supplements drool free.

[Agent Escafarc]

Originally posted by pinecone
I really like it and I am ever so grateful for the zeplin write up...you just can't play golden age/pulp without a zeplin!

Heck you can't play in my Fantasy Hero game with out a zepplin, Now I really can't wait until my copy gets here later this week:eek:

[Talon]

"Ed has a lighter than air pilot's license."