Future rules for vehicles?

Does anybody know if there are rules for vehicles in the Gamemaster Toolkit, or is it something for further down the line? :thinking:

I’d imagine it’s further down the line. The core game is very Fallout 4 centered and there were no vehicles in that game.

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@Grendel

Not player controlled, but you could get transported by vertibird.

The reason I am wondering about it, is the inclusion of the Pilot skill and the veracity of said skill. I know that if I were playing a BoS person, I would like to have the chance to pilot a vertibird - especially in an all BoS game.

That said - I could probably conjure something up, if need be. Though official rules would be nice.

I can understand why it’s not in the core book - a) you need things for sourcebooks and b) it’s really pretty fringe to Fallout 4. In the game it’s not much more than a fast travel option which runs semi-counter to the explore/survive theme the RPG is going for.

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There’s a 2d20 game called Devil’s run they sell on the modiphius store that has some decent vehicle rules that could be ported to Fallout. The dice set would also be awesome for Fallout games.

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I imagine vehicle rules will happen: FO1-2 had them and it looks like Modiphius is able to expand the license I don’t forsee it taking too long before that gets covered, especially given some distances.

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This has always been a pet peeve of mine with fallout, the Brotherhood and Enclave cruising in their Vertibirds and yet the Waste landers can get power armour going but not a Car ? arguably a much simpler task … just my thoughts , i plan to homebrew the rules myself when i start a Game, i realise its 4 months later but i just wanted to post somewhere , and i am stupid and cant work out how to start a new thread myself

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It has to do with what is manageable in a computergame. Vehicles in a game such as Fallout 4 is very difficult to manage and so they have been omitted. Probably for the best… Not that I would not have liked to race across the wasteland as in Fallout 2.

I do agree that they ought to have been included in the TTRPG. Though I do not think that there are any really vihicles rules in any of the other 2d20 itterations, that can be easily modified for use in Fallout, whĂ­ch might be one reason that they were not included in the base game. I do hope we will see some soon :nerd_face:

Edit: It seems that Devil’s Run should have some rules :face_with_monocle:

Yeah i was looking at Devils run and thought about that , seems lik e agood idea to use a game based around vehicles to add to fallout , must get the PDF , but having some TTRPG rules for fallout would be good , enter the Biker gangs

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Star Trek Adventures also has vehicles, though it looks like the only ones that have any stats are spacefaring vehicles…

I’m making due with some quick-n-dirty vehicles from the Fallout PNP rules using the vehicle rules from the Infinity RPG. Here is what (little) I have.
FYI: Cut-n-paste, use fixed length font.

VEHICULAR MOVEMENT

ACTIONS

MANOEUVER (FREE): move to anywhere within Close range.
CAREFUL PILOTING (MINOR): move a number of zones equal to half its Speed, rounding down, min 1.
HASTY PILOTING (MINOR): move a number of zones equal to its Speed. Sill tests +1 difficulty until the pilot’s SoT.
FLAT OUT (STANDARD):  (D1) Pilot test, move a number of zones equal to its Speed, +1 for each AP spent. Sill tests +1 difficulty until the pilot’s SoT.
ENTER/LEAVE VEHICLE (MINOR/STANDARD): Minor is Exposed vehicle, Major if not.
EVADE (REACTION): attack becomes a skill test opposed by the pilot’s Pilot skill, pilot +1 DN per Scale

EXAMPLES

TYPE        SCALE  SPEED  STR  CAP  IMPAC  HP  DR  TRAITS
Car         1      2      12   5    2+5§   12  3   Exposed (+2§ Cover), Ground, Wheeled
Hovercraft  3      2      14   14   4+6§   20  4   Exposed (+4§ Cover), Ground, Hover, Watercraft
Motorcycle  0      3      9    2    1+3§   7   2   Exposed, Ground, Wheeled
Truck       2      2      14   3    3+6§   20  4   Exposed (+2§ Cover), Ground, Wheeled
Walker      1      2      15   1    2+6§   16  5   Enclosed, Ground, Hands, Single-seat, Walker
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I’ve never seen working cars in a Fallout game, which might be the reason they don’t appear in the RPG. There are often licensing restrictions that affect the final content of a game. That said, I can think of no reason why they can’t exist in the world of Fallout. So, as a game designer, I’d go about it by making vehicles as much like creatures as possible. The same rules apply: combat zones are represented in the abstract.

Consider starting with the following system (roughly sketched here):

Every vehicle has hit locations. These locations have an armor rating of 0 to 10. For reference: most cars on the road today would have an armor rating of 1 or 2, motorcycles 0, armored cars 5, tanks 10.

1-2 Front (front bumper to the top of the windshield)
3 - 6 Left side
7 - 10 Right side
11 - 12 Rear (rear bumper to the top of rear window)
13 - 14 Left front tire
15 - 16 Right front tire
17 - 18 Left rear tire
19 - 20 Right rear tire

Injuries Like characters, injuries occur when a vehicle suffers 5 or more damage (after damage reduction) in a single hit.

Front: The front armor is destroyed and the engine fails. The vehicle comes to a complete stop in 2 (Pip-Boys) rounds.
Rear: The rear armor is destroyed
Sides: The armor on that side is destroyed. Any further hits to this location penetrate to any passenger sitting on that side of the vehicle.
Tires: The tire is blown. The vehicle’s speed is reduced by 25% per blown tire and it takes 1 health point damage per round the vehicle is driven after the tire is blown without being changed.

Fusion Cores Pre-war passenger cars are powered by compact, clean running fusion cores. These cores are highly protected by the structure of the vehicle. Although protected, they can still be destroyed, and cause a great deal of damage when they explode. Once a car has lost all its health points and the armor has been destroyed in the front of the car, the fusion core can be targeted with an aimed shot. This shot requires 3 successes and causes an explosion that is the equivalent of a mini-nuke.

Cars are not subject to radiation damage, but the occupants are. Any environmental radiation damage not blocked by the car’s radiation defense is applied to its passengers.

Radiation Defense (most cars protect you to some extent from environmental radiation damage). This is usually a value between 0 and 6,but can potentially be higher if the vehicle was specially constructed to withstand irradiated zones.
Body Total number of health points a vehicle has (small to mid-size cars 15-25, small trucks 20-35, medium size trucks (box trucks and specialized heavy vehicles) 30-45 big rigs (usually 18 wheelers and comparable size vehicles) 40-55. This is to scale with creatures so damage is applied consistently throughout the rules. A semi has approximately the same health points as a super mutant behemoth or a mirelurk queen.
Collision Damage (Damage you do to another vehicle when you collide with them). Usually 3 to 6 pip-boys for small to medium size cars, and up for heavier vehicles. A vehicle that causes damage to another vehicle sustains damage equal to that vehicle’s Collision Damage.
Speed is mainly measured in miles per hour (or kilometers per hour if you aren’t in the United States). This is mainly to show how many miles a vehicle can travel over an extended period of time.

Initiative is a measure of your vehicle’s maneuverability and is expressed by when they move during combat. You can get mods that improve this value.

Defense This is the number of successes required to hit the vehicle. This is usually a value between 1 and 4 and is a reflection of the car’s overall difficulty to hit. More maneuverable cars, cars with camouflage patterns, and cars with any defensive systems installed usually have a higher Defense.

Attacks are per the weapon and operator. Obviously, cars can have big guns mounted, but the attack role is made by the character operating it.

Special Abilities These vary from vehicle to vehicle and might include special attacks, special defenses, special rules if you are hit in combat, etc.

Combat Combat works much as it does for characters. You figure out the initiative order, you may move up to one zone closer to or farther away in relation to other vehicles in your immediate area.

Driving Checks Driving checks are made when the car is in a precarious position, such as driving along a steep embankment, passing through a narrow space, making it around a sharp corner at high speed, or whenever else the Overseer thinks you need to make a check. Driving checks use the Agility + Pilot check.

Attempting to hit another vehicle requires a contested Driving Check. If the attacker wins the check, the vehicles collide. If the target of the attack wins, the attack fails. The vehicle being targeted may choose to allow the hit since their vehicle also does damage to the attacking vehicle.

A car’s HP must be completely depleted before passengers take damage. Excess damage is applied evenly to all passengers.

Damage A vehicle is disabled and comes to a complete stop after 2 pip-boy rounds (rolling two blanks indicated the vehicle is stopped immediately, usually by a large heavy object).

Head-on Collision Vehicles in head-on collisions take double the usual collision damage and automatically generate a mishap. Resulting damage is first applied to the vehicle, and if its total number of hit points are exceeded, the remainder of the damage is applied evenly to the passengers.

Again, this is just a suggested system, and it’s certainly the farthest thing from polished rules writing, but I think it works in a rough and dirty way.

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In Fallout 2 you could repair a car quite early on and then drive all over the map :red_car:

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And… that so clearly reveals that Fallout 2 is the one entry in the series I haven’t played. :wink:

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It is the game that introduced me to Fallout and it is fun and great - even if quite buggy.

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When I did my initial read through of the rulebook, I thought for sure there’d be a vertibird in there someplace. Once the Prydwen arrives in the Commonwealth (in FO4), its a pretty common sight to see them taking fire from mutants or raiders on the ground… and all too common to see them exploding and crashing to the earth.
I certainly want Vetibird and Prydwen stats… eventually. But, I wonder if we don’t really need stats for now.

Consider this… the Vertibird has damage points and resistance as do PCs and Creatures but, primarily it’s just a means of rapid movement. You use it for the scene and move on. If you want to, have a PC Pilot make a couple rolls to keep it aloft while taking fire, or to land it safely in a “hot LZ,” you could do that. You could even have PCs serve as door gunners, allowing the players to man miniguns while the 'bird is in the air. If the Pilot is hit, then it doesn’t go back into the sky. Damage becomes more of a drama thing than a “tracking hit points” thing.

Anyway, that’s my two cents.

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Well, since this game heavily leans on the Bethesda titles, and Bethesda can’t figure out how to vehicle in their own game engine… I wouldn’t hold my breath. We already have Fo4 Power Armor, which is a lot more like a vehicle than a suit of armor. That’s not a complaint… I prefer the Fo4 Power Armor over the previous versions. I find it to be more awesome, like a walking tank! Digressing.

So, we already have a third of the functional Bethesda Fallout vehicles. That leaves only Vertibirds and a flying aircraft carrier/command center, which might as well be a slow-moving, mobile settlement. Bethesda can’t figure out how ground vehicles work, so I wouldn’t hold my breath that they allow them to be functional at all in their authorized version of the lore. Damn, I really don’t digress very well, but I’m certainly good at passive aggression. Hahaha!

Reality? I was surprised to see a “Pilot” skill in the game, and even more surprised that it reference ground vehicles, at all. I wouldn’t hold my breath for Bethesda to “green light” Modiphius to introduce very many functional vehicle options.

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I have functional vehicles in my game, but they require constant maintenance and a skilled technician. I don’t have them actively used during combat or anything, largely because there are no rules for that. We mostly use them to get around and transport things.

My “Rules” for vehicles are simple. You need pilot at 2 to be able to drive anywhere without making constant skill checks and risking complications. You roll piloting whenever you try to drive on difficult terrain (anything other than a road or well worn path). You have to track fuel (or energy if using a fusion core powered car).

It has been working out well so far, but it is just a matter of time before the party decides it is time to trick out their truck for combat and I’ll need more involved rules.

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There have been vehicles in almost all Fallout games, but they are strictly relegated to fast travel or plot devices:

Highwayman in Fallout 2
Vertibirds in 2, 3, 4, 76 and NV
Boats in 3, 4, 76
Bomber in NV
Airship in 4

I’m trying to design some functional rules for my game currently. My thought is that the mechanics of vehicles are pretty simple for people to replicate (non-aircraft at least), so the trouble is a power source. I’m thinking of the following as a rough guideline while I design:

Steam Powered: (Requires 1 Purified Water and 1 Common Materials per scene. Dirty water can be used but all passengers must roll 1CD for radiation exposure) x4 consumption for Aircraft
Combustion: (Requires 1 non-beer/wine alcohol per scene) x3 consumption for Aircraft
Fusion Core: (Requires 1+1CD charges per scene) x2 consumption for Aircraft

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I think one of the reasons you would not see many vehicles in universe is fuel consumption.

It takes about 3kg of corn to make 1L of ethanol, plus the fuel required to distill it.

Ethanol has about 2/3 the energy density of gasoline/ diesel fuel.

Practically all in universe travel would be considered “off road” and engines will not be in top condition. Thus you would get from 2-5 miles/ L of gasoline, depending on vehicle size and load.

Thus two miles of travel takes roughly 1kg of corn, or about 1/2 days food. One Acre of land (growing corn) would allow you to either drive 2400 miles OR feed a family of 4 for a year.

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