Vehicle Combat Examples: Are there any?

[greypaladin_01]

I have been working on a campaign for a little while now that would involve vehicle combat as part of it.   Both space combat for starfighters as well as vehicle combat on the ground level.  While I am comfortable with the character side of things, I realized that I am a little less clear on the official rulings for vehicle combat.

Reading through my Ultimate Vehicle sourcebook, it referenced a great deal of skill checks and maneuvers for combat as well as the relative DCV penalties for Size and the like.   What I was not seeing however was an actual example of play.   (In fact I am finding that this is an annoyance in MOST rpgs, you might get 1 example of a short combat in a core book, then nothing but small blip examples of a rule here and there.  Why is it so hard to have 1 full example using new rules in the book if they are something beyond the norm?)

 

If anyone knows of a HERO book with an example of play for vehicle combat using the various skill checks and other details from the Ulitmate books please let me know.   Or if there has been something like that on the forums I would appreciate some guidance.   I attempted a Forum search but apparently failed my skill check on it.

 

Thank you all!

[dialNforNinja]

If there isn't one, perhaps some of our old hands could make one? It does sound like a very useful thing to have.

[greypaladin_01]

That would be very helpful.   I am still reading over the various rule sections but I admit that most of it is leaving me scratching my head a bit.    In many ways I do wonder if come 7th edition  (whenever that time comes)  it might be a good idea to focus on the user-friendliness of the game.  Making sure to give more examples of various pieces of HERO working together.   Most editions have had a short combat example.  But I think combat example, skill use scenario and vehicle examples for both combat and perhaps skill sequences for crew would all benefit from extended examples.

 

In the meantime, perhaps this is something people on the boards here could assist with.  It seems like a good resource that could get put in the downloads (maybe?) section for reference.  

[Chris Goodwin]

To be honest, I don't know of any examples of play, other than the "Example:" paragraphs in the various books.  I know those probably aren't drawn from actual play and are used to illustrate a single rules-piece.  I've written enough both criticizing and extending the vehicle rules over the years that one might think I knew what I was talking about, but I haven't actually played with them very much.  

 

I have used the dogfighting rules (mostly haven't changed from the very first appearance in Champions II to the very last in 6th edition in the Advanced Players' Guide, p. 188) and they work very well for dogfight-style combat.  They abstract away most of the movement, though, and break everything out to full 12-second combat Turns.  They're essentially ongoing, opposed Piloting vs. Piloting rolls to improve one vehicle's position enough against its opponent to get that sweet, sweet "Tail chase, attack every Phase" at which point you can blow them out of the sky.  

 

Vehicles move at DEX and SPD each equal to the lower of that of their driver or themselves.  They automatically have a Turn Mode when moving.  For the most part, as long as a vehicle is moving within the parameters of its Turn Mode, and not trying to do anything too crazy, and not trying to attack or do things while being attacked, the driver doesn't have to make a Driving or Piloting roll.  For every one of those conditions not in effect, the roll is required, with bigger penalties for the more of those that don't apply.   (Generally speaking, if you've ever played with Hot Wheels cars, and made the tire screeching noises while doing so... you probably have some idea of when to require a Driving Roll.   )

 

Aside from that, I'd recommend busting out the Hot Wheels or the Car Wars chits, and a hex map, and gaming something out!  If you call a Car Wars scale map 1" = 4 meters, you can keep some semblance of HERO System movement with it, while having something of a gameable scale.  Keep playing until you run into something you're not sure about; once you hit one of those, write it down, then make a GM ruling to keep the game going, and write down what the ruling was.  If at any time you think to yourself, a vehicle shouldn't be able to do that, then call for a Driving Roll.  Then come back here and tell us what the rulings were and the cases that brought them about.   

 

Besides The Ultimate Vehicle, The Ultimate Speedster has some bits that might be useful, including better ideas of when you might call for a Driving or Piloting roll.  TUS gives some examples of character movement that might require a Control Roll (basically a DEX roll made by a fast moving character) that are certainly adaptable to vehicles, and also give some alternate ideas for movement including breaking vehicular movement out into Segments rather than Phases.  

 

I hope that helps.

[greypaladin_01]

Thank you for that overview.   I still find it disappointing that the company has not managed to give some full examples in 6 editions, but what you put there is very helpful to get started.