Vehicle Cost

[Snarf]

Does anyone know what the reasoning is behind making vehicles cost 1 character point per 1 vehicle point after the vehicle is worth more than the character? Do you find it necessary and balancing in your games? It seems like this is would be hard on "pilot" type characters, who have little or no powers, but use an awesome vehicle, like a giant robot or that talking car from knight rider.

[JmOz]

I think it is a balance type thing, there are so MANY advantages to vehicles you need some.

 

Let me give you a SCARRY example, eam of 8 350 point heroes design a single 400 point mecha, If it was not for the 1 for 1:

 

It would cost the group as a whole 95 points for everyone to have one, divided among 8 people it would cost aprox 12 points apiece...

 

Now admitingly it can still be abused (the above example as is 135 points total, 17 per member) but every little bit helps

[Jhamin]

Anyway, vehicles are not inherently less cost effective than characters are, so if you did have a pilot type character whose main power was a vehicle then why should they get it for 1/5 the cost of the rest of the team's powers?

[Blue Jogger]

I think the reasoning is that only Batman can own a Batmobile. When Champions II came out, there was lots of disadvantages (Distinctive Features, Unluck, Mysterious Disadvantage: Lemon) and limitations (limited arc, partial cover, stall velocities), to give advantages to getting out of the vechile and fighting and exciting battles as you taxi down the runway.

 

Of course, the idea that a mecha pilot isn't at least 1/5 as cool as his mecha leads to other problems. The main one being, "Hey, how come he gets to ride a cool mech and I got to take the bus?"

 

The last time I built a mecha, I threw out the vehicle rules and just bought Growth, Full Power Only, shapechange (from human-shaped form into a vehicle form), Armor, and lots of Running all on a OIF, Immobile (Cars are fairly immobile except under their own power or being towed)

 

"You think this is cool now? Let me hit the Transform level..."

[BNakagawa]

uh, so you think it's somehow unfair that your 350 pt character can only have a 350 pt vehicle and 280 points of stats skills and other stuff?

 

Would it be more balanced to allow him to have 100 points of stats and a 1,250 pt vehicle?

 

I suspect not.

[Snarf]

Originally posted by Jhamin

Anyway, vehicles are not inherently less cost effective than characters are, so if you did have a pilot type character whose main power was a vehicle then why should they get it for 1/5 the cost of the rest of the team's powers?

They seem to end up being that way in my games. People can't just drive their tanks around dinner parties for instance, they have to leave them behind a lot. I thought that was what the 1/5 cost was for.

 

The last time I built a mecha, I threw out the vehicle rules and just bought Growth, Full Power Only, shapechange (from human-shaped form into a vehicle form), Armor, and lots of Running all on a OIF, Immobile (Cars are fairly immobile except under their own power or being towed)

That's an interesting way to do it. Just to clarify, was it roleplayed like he actually turned into the vehicle or like he was driving it? How did you handle it taking damage?

 

By the way, I think most vehicle equipment is supposed to be OIF Bulky. Immobile is for giant battlecruiser size vehicles that are reallly inconvenient.

 

Does anyone else have ways to do power-vehicle campaigns or characters?

[Jhamin]

Originally posted by Snarf

They seem to end up being that way in my games. People can't just drive their tanks around dinner parties for instance, they have to leave them behind a lot. I thought that was what the 1/5 cost was for.

 

Not necessarily, Sure your M-1 Abrams is pretty inconvenient, but the Flying Ferret-Cycle goes pretty much wherever you need it to. A lot of Anime also include mecha that go pretty much everywhere. If power armor guy only got a -1/4 or -1/2 for his stuff, it just isn't fair for mecha guy to pay 1 for 5 for all of his powers. The fact that he has to get out from time to time is already being made up for by the 1 for 5 he paid for up to his character point total.

 

You also have to remember that you can double the number of vehicles you get for +5 points, a lot of people I know of interpret that to mean you can have many different vehicles for +5 or +10 points. This explains the Bat-Mobile, the Bat-Boat, the Bat-Wing, etc. Problem is that if a PC pilot goes that way it will be really hard to come up with a situation that he doesn’t have a vehicle for.

[Bengal]

Use the Duplication subset of rules for multiple vehicles with differing abilities. (+1/4) advantage on the lot of them if they are 25% different, (+1/2) advantage on the whole schlop for vehicles with 50% differing powers, and so on. It gets more expensive fast... not a problem for Batman (Who presumably ahs the same about of XP as Superman) but quickly prohibitive for the 250 point super with 350 point vehicles.

[JmOz]

On Mecha in Anime:

 

I do think it is important to determine wether or not it is actualy a vehicle or a Foci.

 

I would never build something like the fighters in Macross (aka Robotech) as anything other than a vehicle, but the hardsuits from Bubblegum Crisis are probably better as an OIF or OIHID...

[Jhamin]

Originally posted by JmOz

On Mecha in Anime:

 

I do think it is important to determine wether or not it is actualy a vehicle or a Foci.

 

I would never build something like the fighters in Macross (aka Robotech) as anything other than a vehicle, but the hardsuits from Bubblegum Crisis are probably better as an OIF or OIHID...

 

I agree completly. But things get fuzzy in some cases. The Transforming Motercycles/Power armor from Southern Cross could go either way. As could the Shrikes from Blue Gender.