Vehicle Martial Art

[crayadder]

Greetings,

 

I have a character who is becoming the go-to guy for piloting/vehicle operations and I've been thinking up "martial art" manoeuvres for him to perform with a vehicle.

 

One I though of was for when he is piloting a spacecraft with shields. I called it "Full shields to Port!" (the campaign revolves around b-movie actors who have been sent into space with the remnants of humanity and have inadvertently become humanity's leaders )

 

The idea of the "manoeuvre" is that he somehow quickly dumps all shield power, and then some, to one arc of shields, but this is in addition to the normal shield rating of the vessel. So I started buying some force field to make the power and realized that it would only affect him personally. I assume I need to make the field usable on other, but how would you build it so that it covers an arc of a ship with, say, 20 crew on board? The shields would only last until the end of the phase, or maybe until the character's next phase and then "automatically reset".

 

In point form:

 

• Ship is 150 meters long
  
• Ship has 20 crew
  
• Ship has current shields of 20pd/20ed on all four arcs
  
• My character, the pilot, can, on his phase, pump fictional power into an arc, bringing it up to 40pd/40ed for his phase and lasting until his next phase.
  
• The extra shielding protects the ship on that arc and the crew
  
• It requires the character to make an System Operations Roll, or maybe piloting roll?
  
• Could add that the other shield arcs are temporarily reduced in power to further enhance the impression that he is channelling power to one arc.
  

 

What do you think?

 

Thanks,

Cray

[Manic Typist]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

.....he uses fictional power to create an actual improvement to the shields?

[Escafarc]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

You don't need to buy UBO for this. Build the "shields" with the Barrier power. Use the Limited Arc Limitation. Then buy multiples of it with the 2x equipment for every 5pt. Then use the Multi-Attack maneuver.

 

After thinking a bit, don't take the Limited Arc Limitation.

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Actually,

 

I was thinking about it and Manic went there before I could reply.

 

Let's modify this so that it is more manoeuvre and less a "superpower"

For the sake of argument I will propose the following situation:

The starship is being shot on the port side.

Shields are up and evenly spread across all four arcs.

Instead of taking the time and requiring the appropriate systems Op skill to transfer all the shields to the portside my character does a manoeuvre that twists the ship so as to bring all for arcs into contact with the shot, effectively gaining the benefit of full power to shields on one arc.

How would you build this?

 

And thanks for your help :-)

[dmjalund]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

teleport - only for Position Shift adder?

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

That's an interesting idea dmjalund. Let me see what that would cost

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Teleportation will cost too much due to the Increased Mass Modifier having to be so high in order to accommodate millions of pounds of starship

[dmjalund]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Teleportation will cost too much due to the Increased Mass Modifier having to be so high in order to accommodate millions of pounds of starship

not if the teleport is bought FOR the vehicle (you can teleport oneself, for base cost, no matter what your mass) so its not UAA, its UBO

[The Weapon]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Could you buy it as a sort of "Naked add" to vechicles? Characters can buy "+2 DC with any guns" why can't you just buy 20 points or resistent PD/ED for a vechicle and not specify what vechicle it's for? Limitations would be Limited Arc, only for 1 phase, only with certain types of vechicles. GM review to prevent abuse is mandatory here.

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

not if the teleport is bought FOR the vehicle (you can teleport oneself' date=' for base cost, no matter what your mass) so its not UAA, its UBO[/quote']

 

Wouldn't this mean I'd have to buy the teleport for every ship I want to use the ability on? I'm looking to be able to do it with any vessel I pilot regardless of size (optimally)

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Could you buy it as a sort of "Naked add" to vechicles? Characters can buy "+2 DC with any guns" why can't you just buy 20 points or resistent PD/ED for a vechicle and not specify what vechicle it's for? Limitations would be Limited Arc' date=' only for 1 phase, only with certain types of vechicles. GM review to prevent abuse is mandatory here.[/quote']

 

This looks interesting. Does anyone else feel that this is a reasonable solution?

[dmjalund]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Wouldn't this mean I'd have to buy the teleport for every ship I want to use the ability on? I'm looking to be able to do it with any vessel I pilot regardless of size (optimally)

no - UBO (Usable By Others) can be used by any target (in this case, any vehicle)

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

no - UBO (Usable By Others) can be used by any target (in this case' date=' any vehicle)[/quote']

 

Would it have to be bought with increased mass to cover teleporting everyone within the ship?

[dmjalund]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Would it have to be bought with increased mass to cover teleporting everyone within the ship?

anyone (including a vehicle) who recieves Teleport via a 'Usable By Others" can teleport themselves and anything they are wearing, any implants, any food eaten etc. I believe this will allow a spaceship to teleport it's passenegrs and cargo.

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Cool Beans! dmjalund. Thanks for the idea. I repped you.

[AlHazred]

I've been waiting, and no one else brought it up, so...

Weapon Elements. You can do this relatively cheaply by designing a Martial Art using the regular Martial Maneuvers list, and then defining its default Weapon Element as "Usable with Wheeled Vehicles." This is how you fight with Giant Mecha, you purchase "WE: Usable with Mecha" for your Karate, and then go to it.

The second paragraph under "Weapons" (HSMA 90) says, "A few Weapon Elements (e.g., Use Art in Zero Gravity, Use Art in Armor) work a little differently -- they function sort of as Limited forms of Environmental Movement, allowing characters to use their Martial Arts in situations where they would otherwise be unable to use them or suffer penalties.

It should be possible to design a Vehicular Combat Martial Art. I'd give all maneuvers either the FMove element or Requires a Half Move, as this feels like how vehicles should do damage to people.

Check out the attachment to see what I'm talking about. The Martial Art there is for a Murdoch-style (The A-Team) character who gets into lots of car chases on the streets of Los Angeles, but the same principle applies to Captain Starkiller and the SS Zero Gravitas. It's a particularly cost-effective way to do it without sinking lots of points into specialized Powers/Talents -- if you're going to have whole sessions go by without a chase scene or space battle where they can be used, the 50 points you sank into them tend to look wasted.

Prefab file is located here.

Martial Arts - Vehicular Combat.pdf

Edited February 11, 2015 by AlHazred

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

I've been waiting, and no one else brought it up, so...

 

Weapon Elements. You can do this relatively cheaply by designing a Martial Art using the regular Martial Maneuvers list, and then defining its default Weapon Element as "Usable with Wheeled Vehicles." This is how you fight with Giant Mecha, you purchase "WE: Usable with Mecha" for your Karate, and then go to it.

 

The second paragraph under "Weapons" (HSMA 90) says, "A few Weapon Elements (e.g., Use Art in Zero Gravity, Use Art in Armor) work a little differently -- they function sort of as Limited forms of Environmental Movement, allowing characters to use their Martial Arts in situations where they would otherwise be unable to use them or suffer penalties.

 

It should be possible to design a Vehicular Combat Martial Art. I'd give all maneuvers either the FMove element or Requires a Half Move, as this feels like how vehicles should do damage to people.

 

Check out the attachment to see what I'm talking about. The Martial Art there is for a Murdoch-style (The A-Team) character who gets into lots of car chases on the streets of Los Angeles, but the same principle applies to Captain Starkiller and the SS Zero Gravitas. It's a particularly cost-effective way to do it without sinking lots of points into specialized Powers/Talents -- if you're going to have whole sessions go by without a chase scene or space battle where they can be used, the 50 points you sank into them tend to look wasted.

 

Prefab file is located here.

 

Thanks a lot for the input AlHazred. I'm glad you decided to post, this is very helpful. Repped.

[AlHazred]

I thought about this more after I posted last night. In movies and books, you have a variety of "vehicular tricks" that characters use. In Hero terms, some of these are best represented as Talents, while others are best represented as Martial Maneuvers. In general, anything that does extra damage should be designed as a Martial Maneuver; Talents would cover every other kind of trick. For instance, one trick that's constantly used on TV and in movies but that rarely shows up in books is the ability to eke just a little more speed out of a vehicle. This can be bought as a Talent based on the Aid power; if you bought it as actual extra meters of movement, then you'd need to buy the Usable Simultaneously Advantage with lots of extra mass.

 

2 Just A Little More Juice: Aid Movement 1d6, Any Movement Power (+1/2); Only Works On Vehicle For Which Characters Is The Driver/Pilot (-1 1/2), One Use At A Time (-1), END=1

On the other hand, you could design an Automobile Martial Art for your 70s Cop Hero game, where the character is adept at using the mirrors on his shiny Pontiac GTO to blind people next to it.

 

4 Flashy Wheels: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, -1 DCV, Flash 4d6

So, there are lots of options.

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

Nice suggestions AlHazred. I'm curious to see how you would build the all shields to "arc" manoeuvre?

[AlHazred]

Hmmm... You could build it as a Talent (either extra PD/ED for the ship with Limited Coverage, or Barrier which already has coverage limitations built in). Or you could define Reinforce Shields as a Block -- the PC flying the ship uses his Phase to Block the incoming attack. If it works, it doesn't matter how large the attack is, the Block deflects it (assuming the thing blocked isn't unusually large/powerful -- asteroids and massive Wave Motion Guns might cause the GM to declare the attack does damage anyway). Neither is more right than the other -- it's just a matter of seasoning to taste!

[crayadder]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

I love the block idea! Thanks AlHazred.

[dmjalund]

Re: Vehicle Martial Art

 

One thing you may need to consider, is that the pilot may not be the one in charge of the shields. I would have a Piloting Martial Art, rather than a 'Vehicle Martial Art'

[AlHazred]

Another thing to consider is that there shouldn't be one "Vehicle Martial Art." What works for a motorcycle probably won't for a 400-ton Subsidized Merchant starship.

Instead, consider creating Weapon Elements for different specific Transport Familiarity Vehicle groups (Two-Wheeled Motorized Vehicles; Tracked Military Vehicles; etc.) the same way most other Martial Arts have Weapon Elements for different specific Weapon Familiarity Weapon groups (Axes, Maces, Hammers and Picks; Blades; etc.)

Then make your Vehicle Martial Arts "styles" as different as regular Martial Arts styles. Keep in mind that pilots and drivers will have different goals than the guys manning the vehicle's guns; keeping in motion and such is much more important than hitting the target. I would hazard a guess that most maneuvers should involve an OCV penalty to represent this. Exceptions could be made, such as "Combat Motorcycling" for example. For the most part, I would only allow Vehicular Martial Arts for vehicles that are supposed to be maneuverable: space fightercraft and maybe smaller freight haulers or general-purpose vehicles in a Sci-Fi setting; motorcycles and sports cars in a Modern setting; chariots and small carts in a Fantasy setting. Larger vehicles are likely to have their own defenses.

[AlHazred]

I reuploaded my Hero Designer prefab file and edited my post to point to the correct link. I also noted that the forum move dropped the attachment and put it back.

[Nolgroth]

AlHazred, the link in your Vehicular Combat file seems to point towards a Martial Arts for School Playground Combatants.  Funny, but not the one you likely intended.