House Rules for Vehicles

Moving Beyond Normal Speeds

·         Players may attempt to force a vehicle to go beyond its normal combat speed.  Roll Average against the appropriate Vehicle, Pilot, or Boat skill for 150% speed.  Roll Difficult for 200% speed.  Roll Formidable for 250% speed.  Roll Impossible for 300% speed. This can be applied to Combat Move or Travel Move (though separate rolls are required for each).  Rolls are required per phase for Combat Speed, or per period for Travel Speed. Outstanding Success doubles the Travel Move increases, but increases Combat Move speeds by only 10%. Catastrophic Failure doubles the chances of breakdown for Travel Move increases, or gives a 50% chance of something in the vehicle’s drive train breaking (rendering the vehicle immobile until it is fixed), or possibly a track breaking or flat tire if the GM is generous, for Combat Move increases. 

Movement with Damaged Tracks and Wheels

·         Note that a broken track will still only allow the vehicle to move in a circle at best, and the non-tracked side will dig into most ground surfaces.  A vehicle with a flat tire – well, that will depend upon how many tires go flat.  On an 8-wheeled vehicle, one flat tire will have no short-term effect, but on a 4-wheeled vehicle, Combat Move could be slowed by as much as half, or one third in the case of run-flat tires.

·         No Travel Move is possible for a vehicle that has thrown a track.  Combat Move is shown above. On 8-wheel vehicles, Movement on an 8-wheel will slow by 5% per wheel lost, up to 2 wheels.  If 3-4 wheels are lost, slow the Travel by 25% per wheel.  After that, the vehicle is immobile.  If the vehicle has run-flat tires, halve all penalties, and if more than four wheels are lost, the vehicle can still travel at half movement.  

For 6-wheel vehicles, the vehicle is slowed by 25% if two center wheels are lost, or 15% is one center wheel is lost.  Lost front or rear wheels render the vehicle immobile if the front or rear wheels are lost.  Again, if run-flat tires are on the vehicle, penalties are halved, and the vehicle can move at half speed if the front or rear wheels are flat.

For 4-wheel vehicles, one flat tire will cause the vehicle to lose 75% of its speed, or slow the vehicle by 30% if the vehicle has run-flat tires.  Two flat tires will render the vehicle immobile, or reduce the vehicle to half speed if the vehicle has run-flat tires.  Three or four flat tires will reduce the vehicle’s movement by 75%, but only if the vehicle has run-flat tires.

Now, these speed reductions are short term.  For multi-wheel tires, if the front-end or rear-end tires go, the vehicle can still make a run for it at up to 80% Combat Move, but each phase, the driver must make a Formidable roll against his Vehicle skill.  Failure means that the rims are irrevocably damaged and the vehicle comes to a stop until the tire(s) are changed. Catastrophic Failure means that the vehicle crashes.  Outstanding Success has no effect. Run-flat tires mean that the vehicle can keep going at 100%, with additional Driving rolls not being required for this sort of dash.  The driver of a vehicle with run-flat tires can even make rolls for additional Combat Speed.

However, run-flat tires don’t last forever.  They get hot, fast, and can even start smoking or catch on fire.  Every hour that a vehicle travels on run-flat tires, there is a 50% chance that the vehicle cannot travel anymore on its run flat tires, and the vehicle becomes immobile.  Reduce this to 25% for one or two of the center tires flat on a 6-wheeled vehicle, or 50% on a 6-wheeled vehicle with two front or rear tires flat.  For 8-wheel vehicles, this chance is 10% if one or two center tires is flat, 25% is 3-4 center tires are flat, or 50% if one or two of the front tires is flat.  Penalties are cumulative.

You can force a tracked vehicle to move if the drive sprocket or the rear roller is damaged or even blown away.  This is done by shortening the tracks on the vehicle (i.e. removing some of the treads) and connecting the tracks to the remaining roadwheels.  This is known as short-tracking. Short-tracking takes a Formidable: Driver or Difficult: Mechanic roll, and takes 30 minutes. If the drive sprocket is not available, the vehicle is slowed to 15% of its normal speed if one drive sprocket is gone; if both are gone, short-tracking won’t work.  If the rear roller is gone, movement is reduced to 25%, or 10% if both are gone.  Driving a vehicle in this state is very difficult for the driver.  In Combat Move, an Impossible roll must be made per phase; failure means that the short-track is thrown, and Catastrophic Failure means that the remaining drive sprocket is damaged and vehicle becomes immobile (until fixed).  In Travel Move, the driver must make a Formidable roll one per hour, with the same results as above. In Travel Move, the driver incurs an additional level of fatigue per period he drives a short-tracked vehicle.

·         Virtually all vehicles can carry cargo (or external or internal stores for aircraft), but this is going to slow a vehicle down.  The vehicle will slow by 0.05% per 100 kg of cargo carried.  Fuel consumption will also increase; add 0.05% to fuel consumption per 100 kg of cargo carried.

• Either Intrusion or Mechanic may be used to hotwire a ground vehicle.  Roll Average: Mechanic, or Formidable: Intrusion.

• Free mired vehicle: Average: Combat Engineer or Difficult: Construction.  Vehicles mired in swamps or deep mud are one level harder.  If using a recovery vehicle with a winch of the proper strength, make it two levels easier.  If proper tools are not present (may range from chains and ropes to logs), make it one level harder.

Standard Vehicle Hull Roof and Floor Armor, and MRAPs

·         Standard armor for armored vehicles is equivalent to the armor of the lowest armor face, divided by two.  However, the minimum AV for the hull roof and floor is 2, unless otherwise listed.  MRAP hulls can have various hull floor values, but such hulls are always considered to have Spaced armor for the floor and the damage to occupants, internal components and equipment, and the suspension is considered to be 25% less than it might otherwise be.  MRAPs can be thrown over on their side by mine explosions, but often all that is required to make the vehicle operational again is to right it.