[RPG] Glowing Sea & Electric Skies: Vehicles, Mounts, and Mounted Combat in MCC RPG
Glowing Sea & Electric Skies,
A Mutant Crawl Classics homebrew setting
Vehicles
Mutant Crawl Classics does not seem to support rules for motorized vehicles beyond the few entries on page 183 and it's definitely something that I want to include into the setting of Glowing Sea & Electric Skies. While the PCs may not be part of a tribe of combustion engine worshipping madmen (in the style of Mad Max: Fury Road), encountering roaming bands of dangerous raiders in armored vehicles is part of the setting I envision. I looked for third party options either to port over directly or to get inspiration from.I've come across a couple rules systems that expand on vehicle combat and chases which are worth exploring for those that enjoy a crunchier approach: Umerican Survival Guide, by Reid San Filippo and Vehicle Mayhem, by Jonathan Snodgrass. While I enjoyed these systems, they present a level of complexity that I don't want to emulate in my games. Ultimately, I want something faster to run and simple to teach to new players.
After giving it some thought, I realized that treating motorized vehicles as living mounts is the way to go. There are already Mounted Combat Rules in Dungeon Crawl Classics (which for some reason are missing from Mutant Crawl Classics even though mounts DO exist in MCC!) and the abstraction actually works really well when it comes to vehicles and mounts. This leads us to our clear design goals for handling vehicles in GS&ES.
Design Goals for vehicles in Glowing Sea & Electric Skies:
- Keep things simple and easy for players and judges to understand.
- Expand on existing DCC Mounted Combat rules (rather than creating new rules).
- Treat Vehicle stats as Mounts/Monsters, with Hit Dice, Initiative, Attack, Armor Class, Special Abilities, etc.
Vehicles as Mounts/Monsters
In DCC, a horse has stats just like any other Creature or Monster.
In Glowing Sea & Electric Skies, motorized vehicles are treated the same way. The DCC corebook page 87 gives us some great guidelines to start with when it comes to Mounted Combat. Let's briefly review Horse/Mount stats to help with the vehicle stats of GS&ES (DCC corebook page 418).
HORSES, MUNDANE
Donkey/Mule:
Init -1; Atk bite -1 melee (1d2); AC 11; HD 2d8; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +4, Ref +2, Will +2; AL N.
Horse:
Init +1; Atk hoof +2 melee (1d4+2); AC 14; HD 3d8; MV 60’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +1; AL N.
Pony:
Init +1; Atk hoof -2 melee (1d2); AC 11; HD 1d8+2; MV 40’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will -1; AL N.
Warhorse:
Init +1; Atk hoof +5 melee (1d6+3); AC 14; HD 4d8; MV 60’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +2; AL N. These statistics are for mundane mounts without barding or armor.
Hit Dice
To create Vehicle stats, start with Hit Dice and go from there. To keep things consistent and easy to remember use this guideline: the number of cylinders of the vehicle = the number of Hit Dice (HD).
That means a 4-cylinder is 4HD, 6-cylinder is 6HD, 8-cylinder is 8HD, etc. If the vehicle is powered by something other than a combustion engine (Q-Cell etc), make stuff up or better yet, let the dice decide. Generally speaking, combustion engines will be tougher and heavier than futuristic hovercraft type rigs.
All passengers in a vehicle gain Cover (+2 individual AC) and are considered Mounted (+1 individual AC vs non-mounted combatants).
For heavily armored vehicles, consider base AC to be the same as the vehicle AC.
Initiative = 1D20 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver
Attack (Ram / Run Over) 1D20 + HD/4 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver; Damage = HD6 (Blunt)
Attack (Mounted or Projectile Weapons) Attacker's regular Projectile Attack
Armor Class = 8 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver (Reinforced vehicles gain an additional +1 to +4, but will be slower).
Special Armor = Half-Damage from Blunt attacks; Double Damage from Explosive or Targeted attacks specifically focused on the engine.
Hit Dice (Combustion Engine) = Number of Cylinders x D8 (or roll as Advanced Tech Engine); anything above 12 Cylinder, increase HP die from a D8 up the dice chain.
Hit Dice (Advanced Tech Engine) = Roll 1D20:
1 = 1D8
2-5 = 2D8
6-8 = 4D8
9-12 = 6D8
13-15 = 8D8
16-17 = 10D10
18-19 = 12D10
20 = 12D12 or more
Movement is variable. Guideline: 100 MPH is about 1500' per round.
Act (Driving) = 1D20 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver.
Saves = Fortitude = +HD; Reflex = +HD/4 + Reflex Save of pilot or driver; Will = same as pilot or driver.
Thunderstick = 4D6 Explosive Damage.
Polecat Grapple Attack 1D20 +3, range is 20'.
Reflex Save DC = Grapple Attack Total
Fail = 1D4 Subdual Damage, target is moved to another vehicle at the end of the round.
Success = avoid being grappled, take no damage.
Crit Success = disable the attacker.
All passengers in a vehicle gain Cover (+2 individual AC) and are considered Mounted (+1 individual AC vs non-mounted combatants).
For heavily armored vehicles, consider base AC to be the same as the vehicle AC.
Initiative = 1D20 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver
Attack (Ram / Run Over) 1D20 + HD/4 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver; Damage = HD6 (Blunt)
Attack (Mounted or Projectile Weapons) Attacker's regular Projectile Attack
Armor Class = 8 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver (Reinforced vehicles gain an additional +1 to +4, but will be slower).
Special Armor = Half-Damage from Blunt attacks; Double Damage from Explosive or Targeted attacks specifically focused on the engine.
Hit Dice (Combustion Engine) = Number of Cylinders x D8 (or roll as Advanced Tech Engine); anything above 12 Cylinder, increase HP die from a D8 up the dice chain.
Hit Dice (Advanced Tech Engine) = Roll 1D20:
1 = 1D8
2-5 = 2D8
6-8 = 4D8
9-12 = 6D8
13-15 = 8D8
16-17 = 10D10
18-19 = 12D10
20 = 12D12 or more
Movement is variable. Guideline: 100 MPH is about 1500' per round.
Act (Driving) = 1D20 + HD/2 + Agility Bonus of pilot or driver.
Saves = Fortitude = +HD; Reflex = +HD/4 + Reflex Save of pilot or driver; Will = same as pilot or driver.
Special Attack Types (inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road):
Ramming a vehicle into an obstacle (hitting a rock the size of the vehicle, a reinforced bunker wall, etc) = Roll Ram Damage as normal, but apply full damage to the vehicle itself. The vehicle also loses its momentum.Thunderstick = 4D6 Explosive Damage.
Polecat Grapple Attack 1D20 +3, range is 20'.
Reflex Save DC = Grapple Attack Total
Fail = 1D4 Subdual Damage, target is moved to another vehicle at the end of the round.
Success = avoid being grappled, take no damage.
Crit Success = disable the attacker.
Zero Hit Points
When a vehicle hits 0 HP, it stops working. It may continue rolling if the momentum isn't stopped by an obstacle. The person in the vehicle who has the lowest Luck ability score makes a Luck Check. If it succeeds, the vehicle needs repairs. If it fails, the vehicle explodes in 1D3 rounds, causing HD x D6 in damage, in a radius of 1/2 HD x 5-ft.
Chases & Maneuvering
I found no need to go into complex details here, chases and maneuvers are treated as attacks (1D20 + 1/4HD + Agility Modifier). Avoiding obstacles on the road are increasing DCs or Reflex saves adding 1/4HD from the vehicle.
Conclusion
This doesn't give us the most realistic rules for vehicles, but it makes things easy to grasp (vehicles have monster stats) and works well in relation to regular combat rules. Vehicles are easy to generate, with the monster stats based off of Hit Dice, easily modified to make each vehicle feel unique in a hurry.
For fun, we can stat out vehicles from Mad Max: Fury Road and use them in the game (Furiosa's War Rig, Immortan Joe's Gigahorse, Max's Interceptor, a few typical war boy and buzzard rigs). I'll work on these and share these in the future.
Another thing that would be cool: creating a Vehicle Extractor in the form of the Monster Extractor. Roll dice, generate random vehicles, now that would be fun!
How would YOU stat out these rigs using these 'vehicles as mounts' guidelines?
For fun, we can stat out vehicles from Mad Max: Fury Road and use them in the game (Furiosa's War Rig, Immortan Joe's Gigahorse, Max's Interceptor, a few typical war boy and buzzard rigs). I'll work on these and share these in the future.
Another thing that would be cool: creating a Vehicle Extractor in the form of the Monster Extractor. Roll dice, generate random vehicles, now that would be fun!
How would YOU stat out these rigs using these 'vehicles as mounts' guidelines?
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