Vehicle rules for personal combat

Hi all, thought I’d run an idea past you before my next game on Saturday.

My players are about to run into a Mad Max style combat scenario, with makeshift ground vehicles running around and shooting them. From what I can find there are no official rules for personal vs vehicle combat, although some people are adapting starship combat (please correct me if I am wrong!) and I don’t want to whip up a full complex set of rules for one scene…

So I’m thinking of using the Trait system (2e specifically):

  • A vehicle is a Trait, with a rank representing its general toughness (a tank might be around 7 or 8, an off-road buggy like I will be using is a 3).
  • It can carry up to 4 characters, with 1 required to act as a driver.
  • The driver can move the vehicle up to 3 zones (number of zones is “Move” below) with a Control/Daring+Conn roll at difficulty 1. A complication forces a second roll to avoid a loss of control (difficulty = number of complications), otherwise the vehicle crashes, losing “Move” ranks on the Trait and causing “Move” impact damage to all occupants.
  • Non-driver characters may shoot from within the vehicle, but suffer a “Move” penalty to their Tasks.
  • Any non-driver may use a mounted weapon, at no penalty.
  • Shooting at the vehicle’s occupants is at a penalty of “Move”, and the occupant gets Rank resistance to the attack.
  • Finally, shooting at the vehicle itself involves a Create Trait Task, with a penalty equal to the Rank of the vehicle. A success reduces the Rank by 1, and reducing it to 0 immobilises it (causing a potential loss of control as above).

Does this look reasonable, or too complex? I’m wanting to keep the emphasis on the characters, and I really don’t want to figure out how you damage statted vehicles with personal weapons!

(And yes, Lucas, and any other of my players, you can weigh in on this!)

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The 2d20 SRD (free at DriveThruRPG via https://modiphius.net/en-us/pages/2d20worldbuilders) has info on vehicles. Chapter 4 Equipment and Tools, page 19 in v1.0, discusses vehicle crew roles, passengers, and cargo. There are also sections on movement, attacks, and NPC vehicles.

(I’m pointing this out for reference—I have not compared what the SRD contains to your post (yet?).)

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Thanks for that. They’re basically those from the 2d20 version of Achtung! Cthulhu, but they’re a lot more complex than I need. I’m running 1 or 2 battles in STA 2e, so having complex stats for the vehicles isn’t quite what I’m looking for :smiley:

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