Autoduel Hero

[Captain Obvious]

I've been toying off and on with the idea of converting Car Wars vehicles and equipment over to Hero. This job was made much easier when The Ultimate Vehicle came out, but I didn't get around to making any sort of conversion until now.

Some design notes:

I wasn't particularly interested in recreating the exact mechanics of Car Wars. I wanted vehicles with a similar feel, but with Hero mechanics.

I didn't want to convert the CW vehicle design system, just the vehicles. To design new vehicles or figure out the effects of refitting existing vehicles, use the CW system, and then convert the result to Hero.

Armor the big way I diverged from CW. All plastic armor takes the Ablative Limitation, which keeps the feel of CW, but uses a Hero mechanic. (If you really want to keep the exact mechanic of CW armor, I suggest you buy all vehicles with no DEF and lots of extra BODY, which only affects certain facings.) All armor is bought with Limited Coverage to reflect that one DEF value only applies to attacks that hit one particular side of the vehicle, and they all ablate separately (so that all armor could be gone from one side, but still be untouched on another).

Weapons also use Limited Coverage. Sponson turrets and cycle turrets can fire 180 degrees, only on horizontal level. Turrets and cupolas can fire 360 degrees, only on horizontal level. Universal turrets and cupolas have no horizontal level limitation.

Anyway, here is the conversion system I used, and all the vehicles from the 2034 AADA Vehicle Guide, minus weapons and electronics. That stuff can mostly be swiped straight from TUV.

EDIT: okay, I'm having issues with the file upload. I'll get it up soon.

[Captain Obvious]

Retry:

[paigeoliver]

Um, have you seen the old Autoduel champions sourcebook? You should really check that out if you are working on an Atuoduel hero setup.

[Captain Obvious]

I haven't seen Autoduel Champions in years. I don't know how much difference it makes, though, since the vehicle rules changed pretty drastically from 3rd to 4th Ed Hero. Characters and powers from earlier editions can be used pretty easily, but as far as vehicles go, it's a whole different game than it used to be.

[paigeoliver]

The Autoduel champions car rules are totally incompatible with current vehicle rules, yet SO MUCH BETTER.

[Captain Obvious]

Maybe so. If they're the same vehicle rules that were used in Champions II, I could take or leave them, but even if they were so realistic you could smell the gasoline and hear the screeching tires, and so playable that game time exactly equalled real time, the rules are still not commonly available, whereas TUV is.

As an aside, I should point out that these conversion rules are not set in stone. I'm thinking about tweaking the DEX with a chassis modifier, to add a little more granularity. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post them, and I may add them to my official unofficial writeup.

[Chris Goodwin]

The Autoduel Champions rules were mostly the Car Wars
vehicle design rules dropped wholesale into Hero with a few
bits from the Champions II rules. For example, weapons all
take up weight and space, and you spend money on
them rather than points, but they have DEF and BODY scores
and Hero System damage. Vehicles are rated for Hero
System STR, and building up your chassis increases the
vehicle's STR. They are rated for a BODY score as
well (unlike Car Wars). IIRC they used Turn Mode for
Handling Class instead of DEX. Cars had no DEX or SPD,
moved every segment as in Champions II, and were rated for
an Acceleration score as in Car Wars.

IMO, the Hero System vehicle rules work fine if you want
your superhero team to have a jump jet or whatever, but
they're utterly unsuited for a campaign in which the focus
is vehicles; they suffer primarily from moving
the way characters do (and to a lesser extent being statted
out like characters).

On the other hand, Captain Obvious, if what you've got
works for you don't let me tell you you're having wrong
fun. If that's what this looks like that's not my intent.

[Captain Obvious]

The current rules aren't without issues, but no more so, IMO, than the older ones. It also seems to me that the newer rules are more playable, although I've never played in a game where vehicles were this significant in combat.

At any rate, like I said earlier, unless SJG and DOJ decide to release an updated Autoduel Champions, or failing that, until the copyright runs out, Autoduel Champions is not widely available, and I for one am just not interested in seeking out a copy or laying out all the green that rare games go for.