Looking back through the folders on my drive I found this document from 2001. It's mostly complete so I'm publishing it now for old time sake. (There appears to be a strange bit of formatting after opening this Word 97 doc in the latest edition of MS Word and then copying and pasting it into a Google Doc. Ah well that just gives it character.)
LOW TECH VEHICLES
Most duelists live in fortress towns or other high tech
areas and thus have never seen a vehicle older than 20 years outside of a
museum. However in the vast wastelands
that make up most of America these “antique” vehicles are often the only mode
of transport available. In many
devastated rural areas ancient gas burners with chunks of metal welded to them
and an old surplus M-60 shoved under the the
hood are the best means of defense the locals have.
This article will look at the different styles of
substructures these vehicles are built on as well as “old style” plastic armor. Metal armor, alternate fuels, and weapon
mounts have been covered in past articles and will not be addressed here. Old gas engines and power plants are also covered
in another article.
Vehicle Substructures
Vehicle substructures come in three types: Modern tech level
8 flexibodies, tech level 7 unibodies, and tech level 5 and 6 frames. Each type affects the vehicle’s weight,
handling, and damage absorption capabilities.
Flexibodies:
This substructure is found on all modern vehicles. It combines “memory metals” with
therma-plastics to create a lightweight structure that can absorb collision
damage and continue to remain road worthy.
Here’s how it works. The substructure is set up like an arch around
which all the vehicle components are hung.
When the vehicle is involved in a collision the kinetic energy from the
crash is instantaneously transformed into thermal energy by the advanced
compounds found in the substructures memory metals and therma-plastics. As these compounds absorb this thermal energy
they become flexible and bend out and away from the point of impact. When the input of kinetic energy ends these
compounds cool off rapidly and the memory metals resume their former shape,
thus insuring no loss of handling class.
The downside to this substructure is that the vehicles armor
and components must absorb all of the damage from a wreck as the substructure
folds away. Heavily armored vehicles handle
this with ease, while lightly armored vehicles are often demolished.
Unibodies:
Unibodies begin to replace frame substructures in the last half of the
twentieth century. As the name suggests
the frame and body are one. This type of
structure made the car lighter and allowed the substructure to prevent more
collision damage from reaching the interior than frames. The downside to this is that unibody cars
were rarely driveable after even a minor hit.
Frames: This
was the first major substructure available.
The body and all components were attached to a heavy metal frame beneath
the vehicle. This means the vehicle
weighed more, but the vehicle’s frame often survived a collision in driveable
condition even if the occupants didn’t.
Game rules
Flexibodies:
These are the types of substructure found on all modern Car Wars
vehicles. They are all wheel drive and
all wheel steering drive by wire machines.
Unibodies:
These are TL 7 substructures.
They tend to be two wheel drive and lack all wheel steering. They cost 75% of the vehicle body price and
weigh 1.5 times as much as a similar TL 8 body.
Their chassis and suspension can take the regular modifications with a
maximum handling class of three. Because
these vehicles only have 2 wheel steering they may perform no bend greater than
D4 or drift steeper than D1. All other
maneuvers are as for regular Car Wars vehicles.
These vehicles can be purchase with all wheel steering at a cost of $200
per wheel. This ups the maximum bend to
D5 and allows the vehicle to perform D3 drifts.
It also allows their maximum handling class to be four.
Unibody vehicles are sturdier than flexibody vehicles and
their chassis can carry an extra 10% more weight than flexibodies before
modifications.
Collisions: When a
unibody vehicle receives collision damage the substructure itself takes damage
before internal components. This tends
to protect the occupants, but seriously degrades the handling of the vehicle.
All unibody vehicle’s
substructure absorbs collision damage at a rate of 1 substructure hit point for
every two full points of damage done.
(See the table below for the amount of hit points each body type has).
The vehicle’s handling class degrades as this damage is taken. For every ¼ of substructure hit points
destroyed the handling class of the vehicle goes down permanently by 1
level. When all of the substructure
points are destroyed the vehicle is undriveable, handling class goes
immediately to minus six and a control roll must be made just as if a wheel had
been lost. The vehicle will decelerate by 10 mph per turn and no maneuvers
including braking or accelerating are possible.
In a collision a
unibody substructure takes damage before armor or internal components until 3/4
of its hit points are gone. Damage
is then divided evenly between the remaining substructure hit points and the
armor if there is any, or if not, the internal components of the vehicle, with
any leftover damage points taken by the substructure.
Example: A unibody
luxury body has 12 substructure hit points.
If it received collision damage of five points it would lose two
substructure hit points. The last point
of damage would not affect the vehicle in any way and would be discarded. If
the vehicle again received three points of damage one more hit point would be
lost. The vehicle is now down 3 hit
points which is ¼ its total hit points and its handling class drops permanently
by one. The car is once again hit, this
time for twelve points collision damage.
The first ten points reduce the substructure hit points by five. Since the unibody has now suffered damage
equal to ¾ of its substructure hit points (a total of eight hit points of
damage) the handling class drops by two more levels and the last two points of
damage will be divided between armor/internal components and the
substructure. The vehicle has armor left
so it takes the damage. If no armor had been left on that side an internal
component would have been damaged. The
last point of damage goes to the unibody and since this substructure is only
damaged by two full points it is discarded with no effect. If there had been two remaining damage points
instead of one, both would have gone against the substructures hit points and
reduced it by one more.
Unibody vehicle bodies
|
Body Style
|
Cost
|
Weight
|
Substructure hit points
|
Maximum Load
|
|
Subcompact ^
|
225
|
1250
|
4
|
2,530
|
|
Compact
|
300
|
1950
|
4
|
4,070
|
|
Mid-size
|
450
|
2400
|
8
|
5,280
|
|
Sedan
|
525
|
2550
|
8
|
5,610
|
|
Luxury
|
600
|
2700
|
12
|
6,050
|
|
Station Wagon
|
600
|
2700
|
12
|
6,050
|
|
Pickup*
|
675
|
3150
|
16
|
7,150
|
|
Camper*
|
1050
|
3450
|
16
|
7,150
|
|
Van*
|
750
|
3000
|
16
|
6,600
|
^ Subcompacts are the
exception to the weight rule. They weigh
only 1.25 times as much.
*This type of vehicle usually had a frame instead of a
unibody, but there were a few out there so I’ve included them here.
Frames: These
are TL 5 to 7. They are almost always 2
wheel drive and lack four wheel steering.
They cost ½ the price of TL 8 vehicle bodies and weigh twice as
much. Their chassis and suspensions can
take regular modifications with a maximum handling class of 3. Because these
vehicles only have 2 wheel steering they may perform no bend greater than D3 or
drift steeper than D1. All other
maneuvers are as for regular Car Wars vehicles.
These vehicles can purchase all wheel steering at a cost of $200 per
wheel. This ups the maximum bend to D4
but does not allows the vehicle to perform D3 drifts. It does allow their maximum handling class to
be four.
Frame vehicles are sturdier than both unibody or flexibody
vehicles and their chassis can carry an extra 20% more weight than flexibodies
before modifications.
Collisions: All frame
vehicle’s substructure absorbs collision damage at a rate of 1 substructure hit
point for every three full points of damage done. (See the table below for the amount of hit
points each body type has). The vehicle’s handling class degrades as this
damage is taken. For every 1/3 of
substructure hit points destroyed the handling class of the vehicle goes down
permanently by 1 level. When all of the
substructure points are destroyed the vehicle is undriveable, handling class
goes immediately to minus six and a control roll must be made just as if a
wheel had been lost. The vehicle will decelerate by 10 mph per turn and no
maneuvers including braking or accelerating are possible.
In a collision a
frame substructure takes damage before armor and internal components until 1/3
of its hit points are gone. Damage
is then divided evenly between the remaining substructure hit points and armor,
then internal components of the vehicle with any odd damage points taken by the
armor or internal components.
Frame Vehicle Bodies
|
Body Style
|
Cost
|
Weight
|
Substructure hit points
|
Maximum Load
|
|
Subcompact ^
|
150
|
1,500
|
3
|
2,760
|
|
Compact
|
200
|
2,600
|
6
|
4,440
|
|
Midsize
|
300
|
3,200
|
9
|
5,760
|
|
Sedan
|
350
|
3,400
|
9
|
6,120
|
|
Luxury
|
400
|
3,600
|
12
|
6,600
|
|
Station Wagon
|
400
|
3,600
|
12
|
6,600
|
|
Pickup
|
450
|
4,200
|
18
|
7,800
|
|
Camper
|
700
|
4,600
|
18
|
7,800
|
|
Van
|
500
|
4,000
|
15
|
7,200
|
|
Ten wheelers
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cabover
|
5,250
|
6,000
|
21
|
18,000
|
|
Longnose
|
6,250
|
6,400
|
21
|
19,800
|
|
Tractors
|
|
|
|
|
|
Std. Cabover
|
6,000
|
7,000
|
21
|
12,000
|
|
Std Longnose
|
7,000
|
7,400
|
21
|
13,200
|
|
Sleeper Cabover
|
8,500
|
7,800
|
21
|
14,400
|
|
Sleeper Longnose
|
10,000
|
8,200
|
24
|
16,200
|
^ Subcompacts are the exception to the weight rule. They weigh only 1.5 times as much.
Stiffened frames: Any vehicle with a frame
substructure may have it stiffened for an extra $200 dollars. Stiffened frames take less damage in jumps
(see jumping below). They also cause
collision damage to be divided equally between the frame and vehicle armor and
components throughout the entire hit point life of the frame instead of
starting after the frame has suffered 1/3rd damage.
Burst effect weapons that strike a vehicle with a unibody or
frame substructure do full damage to the armor and/or exposed components of the
vehicle and half damage rounded down to the substructures hit points. Example:
A unibody vehicle hit for nine points from a recoilless rifle would take
nine points to it’s armor or exposed components as normal. Four points would also go to the substructure
of the vehicle regardless of whether the armor was breached or not.
Miscellaneous
Repairs: Frame
and unibodies substructures are ridiculously difficult to repair. Each substructure hit point takes 4 hours to
repair and is a very hard job for a mechanic. This type of repair can only be
attempted in a full garage. As the
substructure points are repaired HC increases accordingly. Substructures may not be jury-rigged. Substructures
that have been reduced to 0 hit points may not be repaired. Substructures can only be repaired, never
replaced.
All wheel drive:
This may be added to unibody or frame vehicles that aren’t equipped with
off-road suspension at a cost of $200 per wheel. Vehicles without all wheel drive suffer an
extra D1 from all road/off-road conditions.
Off-Road Suspension:
This is available to both unibody and frame vehicles at 5 times their
body cost. Frame vehicles with this
modification have a handling class of one worse than they normally would OR
suspension with (i.e. frame vans with OR suspension have a HC of 0 while OR
frame subcompacts have a HC of 2 and the other frame vehicles types with OR
suspension have a HC of 1). Vehicles
with OR suspension are automatically assumed to have all wheel drive at no
extra cost.
Unibody and frame vehicles without OR suspension that go off
road suffer damage to their substructure hit points as well as underbody
armor. Thus when a 2 or 3 is rolled the
vehicle loses one point of underbody armor and one full point from it’s
substructure hit points.
Weapon Damage: When unibody or frame vehicles are hit by
weapon fire the vehicles armor takes damage first. Once the damage goes internal there is a 1-2
chance on 1d6 that the damage will pass completely through the vehicle’s
interior without causing damage, on a roll of 3-6 determine internal damage as
normal. Damage that passes through the
interior will still damage the opposite side armor on the way out.
Armor
Vehicles with unibodies or frames have a minor bit of
protection built into them versus weapons fire.
Whenever one of these vehicles is fired on, roll 1d6. On a 4,5, or 6 one point of damage is stopped
by the car body. This “armor” point is
non-ablative and can not be removed by collision or explosive damage. It is
only checked for after all other armor has been breached. It offers no protection from collision damage
what so ever.
Example: A unibody
luxury with 3 points of metal and two points of plastic is hit by 8 points of
weapons fire. Three points of damage are
absorbed by the metal armor and two of the points remove the plastic
armor. Three points will go internal,
but there is a chance that the vehicle body itself will stop 1 of these
points. The vehicle owner now rolls
1d6. If he rolls a 4, 5, or 6 on 1d6 he
stops one of the three points and the other two go on to do damage. If he rolls a 1, 2, or 3 all three damage
points go internal.
Old ablative armor: Ablative vehicle armor first
became available in late TL 7. It weighs
twice as much as it’s TL 8 equivalent, but costs only half as much. It is available in all types except for laser
reflective.
Cost for this armor depends on the tech level of the
campaign. In a TL 8 campaign such as Car
Wars it costs half as much as it’s TL 8 equivalent. (See my article on tech levels for the cost
in lower tech campaigns). Repairs are
done at $25 per point.
Roll Cages: Protect internal components as normal,
but do not affect substructures in any way.
Ram Plates: Frame and unibody vehicles may not use
ram plates.
Jumps: Frame and unibody substructures take collision
damage after jumps no matter what side the vehicle lands on. Stiffened frames subtract 15 mph from any
collision damage applied to frames only.
Rolls: During
rollovers frame and unibody vehicles suffer damage to their substructures every
time the tires do, taking the same amount as the tires. This damage is considered collision damage
and thus is halved when applying it to unibodies or 1/3 when applying it to
frames.
Tires:
Vehicles of TL 7 or less can use puncture resistant, heavy duty and
standard tires without any negative effect.
Solid and plasticore tires may be used, but decrease the handling class
of the vehicle by one. This is due to
the lack of advanced suspension designs.
