Vehicle And Mount Rules

Vehicle Rules

Vehicles are not a huge part of this game, but for the cases where you do have cars, motorcycles, tanks or other machines going at it, especially in the Sea of Chaos, it can be useful to have some basic rules to determine how they work. This page goes into detail about those rules and explores everything you need to know about vehicles.

Vehicle Profiles

All vehicles have a profile, which details everything you need to know about them. All profiles contain the following: Wounds, Toughness, AP, Speed, Handling, Crew, Traits, Elemental Affinities, and Weapons.

  • Wounds. Vehicles have wounds just like people, split into Light, Heavy and Deadly. These work the same as normal, except no stress is generated when a vehicle loses wounds, and the injuries are different.
  • Toughness. Vehicles have Toughness, which work just like they do with people, with TB reducing damage.
  • AP. Vehicles have AP, which works just as it does with people, reducing incoming damage.
  • Speed. This is a number that acts exactly like Agility Bonus in terms of calculating how far the vehicle can move.
  • Handling. This determines how well the vehicle handles. It's a single number, and you add that many advantages to Operate tests with the vehicle. If the number is in the negatives, then you apply it as disadvantage instead (so -2 is 2 disadvantages).
  • Crew. This is how many people can fit into the vehicle, as well as listing different roles if any. There's always one Driver, who handles all the operate tests. The Gunner(s) handle weapons, and the rest are passengers.
  • Traits. Vehicles can have traits, just like people. These work in the same way. Vehicles also have a small pool of traits specific to them.
  • Elemental Affinities. Vehicles can sometimes have elemental affinities, which work exactly as they usually do.
  • Weapons. Vehicles sometimes have weapons integrated into them. Weapons need to be operated by one of the passengers, and can be fired using either Melee (for melee weapons), Ballistic (for ballistic weapons) or Operate (for any). Some weapons need a dedicated gunner, whilst some can be operated by the Driver.

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Vehicle Actions

Vehicle actions aren't too different from normal. Namely, you can do anything you'd normally like to do- you can spend a move to either move the vehicle or yourself, and spend an action to attack or whatever else you might like to do. However, there are some tweaks.
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Operate Tests

Throughout this section, you might find references to having to make an Operate test. This is the Operate skill, with application of the chosen focus as normal, with Handling applied as an advantage or disadvantage. If you fail, then you simply do not perform the needed action. However, if you fail by 3 degrees or more, then your vehicle spins out of control, which is outlined later.
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Vehicle Movement

The Driver, on their initiative, can choose to move the vehicle. This works exactly like a Basic Move, moving up to Speed*2 metres.

They can also choose to 'Run', moving Speed*4 metres. However, if a driver made a vehicle Run, then the vehicle has too much momentum to stop easily; in their next turn, they must move at least their Speed in metres; if they wish to move less than this they must make an Operate test to really hit the brakes.

Vehicles have a facing- ie the last direction they moved (unless they reversed). If they wish to turn, they can turn freely, however, for larger vehicles (size 4 or more), vehicles must spend a number of metres of movement equal to their Size every time they wish to turn 90 degrees.
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Crew Movement

You can move freely in or out of a stationary vehicle as part of your normal move. You can also freely swap crew positions whilst in a vehicle, although movement only happens once a round and weapons can only be fired once per round.

Leaving or entering a moving vehicle is much harder and requires an Acrobatics (Balance) test with a disadvantage. If you fail, you count it as falling, with how far the vehicle moved on its last movement being counted as falling distance. If the vehicle Ran, then you take an extra disadvantage to the test (for a total of 2).

You can try to leave a vehicle as part of an evasion test, but doing so takes an extra disadvantage to your test, with an extra if the vehicle Ran.
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Vehicle Attacks

Vehicles can attack in various ways.

  • Firstly, if a vehicle has on-board weapons, then the crew in charge of that weapon can fire it. If a crew position has multiple weapons, they can fire any of them, or all of them with the All-Weapon Attack action.
  • Secondly, the Driver can ram targets with the vehicle by driving into them and making an Operate test. If this hits, it deals damage equal to the vehicle's Toughness Bonus plus its Size trait, with DoS added as normal- all targets may try and evade as normal. This attack always counts as having the Knockdown quality, too. If the target is the same size, or larger, than the vehicle, then this stops the vehicle's movement and inflicts Collision damage on the vehicle too.
  • Finally, any passengers can attack targets with personal weapons, so long as they're in range.

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Attacking Vehicles

Attacking vehicles is the same as attacking any other object. However, the driver can't use Dodge- instead they must use Operate to dodge attacks. This doesn't make a vehicle go out of control.

The hit locations for vehicles are different. Instead of head, body, arms and legs, vehicles have Cockpit, Chassis, Weapons and Motives.

  • Cockpit: This is where the crew pilot. Cockpits are hit location 1-10 and count as a weak spot.
  • Weapons: These are the weapons of the vehicle. For the purpose of vehicle injuries, the damaged weapon is chosen randomly, unless the attack was a called shot. Weapons are hit location 11-30, and if the vehicle has no weapons, then hits here go to the chassis.
  • Chassis: This is the main hull of the vehicle, and covers location 31-70.
  • Motives: This is the part of the vehicle that moves, such as wheels or treads. It covers location 71-100.

You cannot target crew members, unless the vehicle is Open Topped. Even then, the member counts as being in Full Cover.

Vehicles can suffer physical ailments, but not mental ones.

Like other things, vehicles have Light Wounds, Heavy Wounds and Deadly wounds, and once it loses the Deadly wound, it dies, and the crew must bail out with a Dodge or Anticipate test; if they fail, then they all take a single hit from the killing attack, plus the vehicle's size in damage. Vehicles have their own injury chart, as seen below:

Heavy Wounds Left Injury Effect
Cockpit
3+ Jarring All crew members suffer 5 stress.
2 Exposure As above, but the vehicle's top tears off and now counts as open-topped.
1 Harm As all above, but the attack punches through and hits a random crewmember.
0 Mass Harm As all above, but instead of hitting one crewmember, it hits all of them as debris mixes in.
Weapons
3+ Off-Kilter You suffer a stacking Disadvantage to all attack tests with vehicle weapons.
2 Weapon Jam As above. A randomly chosen weapon jams.
1 Weapon Dead As 3+. A randomly chosen weapon is destroyed.
0 Weapon Explodes As 3+. A randomly chosen weapon detonates, dealing a single hit to the vehicle.
Chassis
3+ Shearing The vehicle loses 1 AP.
2 Structural Damage As above. The vehicle takes a stacking Disadvantage to toughness tests.
1 Engine Damage As all above. The vehicle now counts hits to the Chassis as a weak spot.
0 Structural Collapse As all above. The vehicle loses half its toughness.
Motives
3+ Spinning Out The vehicle goes out of Control.
2 Control Damage As above. The vehicle's Handling drops by 1.
1 Crippled Movement As all above. The vehicle counts all movement as Hindered unless you pass an Operate test first.

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Special Vehicle Situations

There are two special situations vehicles might find themselves in: being Out of Control, and Collisions.

  • Out of Control: The vehicle has spun out of control. It moves in a random direction- roll a Scatter Dice, adding the vehicle's Speed to the distance travelled. If the vehicle rolls a 5 for direction then it flips onto its roof, causing a single Ram hit to all occupants; if it rolls a 0 then it keeps going in the same direction. A vehicle can only spin out of control once per round.
  • Collision: If the vehicle hits an object that is as large as the vehicle or larger, then the vehicle comes to a full stop and suffers damage equal to the object's Size, plus the Toughness Bonus of the object (if the object doesn't have a TB, then another number, such as AP or something else, can sub in). The driver reduces damage by Degrees of Success or increases it by Degrees of Failure, if the collision was caused by one of their tests. If there was no test involved, then they test Operate now.

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Mounts

Some animals, like horses, can be ridden. Alternatively, some Shadows are willing to let one ride them. This section governs how to handle mounts.

Firstly, Mounts, being living creatures, have their own profiles. However, when you are mounted on a creature, you both act on your own initiative, not the Mount's.

On your initiative, you gain a move and action as normal. However, when you move, you move using the Mount's Agility or locomotive trait, not your own, and use Operate (Mounted) in place of Acrobatics. Mounting or dismounting takes an entire Move, unless you use an Acrobatics (Leaping) test to make it a free; however, if you fail that test, you either fail to mount the animal (if trying to mount), get stuck and fail to dismount (if trying to dismount) or fall to the ground heavily (if you fumble).

You may act as normal, including with attacks. Aura attacks do not hurt your Mount. Whenever you act, you may as a Free Action allow your Mount to use a spell, art, or attack, using one of its weapons and its own statline, skills and talents. However, if your mount has multiple weapons and you wish to use more than one, then you must spend your action on an all Weapon attack, although you yourself make no attacks.

Attacks against you hit you, unless they hit your legs, in which case they hit your Mount instead. If your Mount is crippled, falls or dies due to an attack, you are sent flying and must make an Acrobatics (Leaping) test to land safely next to it; if you fail, you take falling damage equal to 10m times the size of the Mount. When evading attacks whilst mounted, you use Operate (Mounted) in place of Acrobatics (Dodge).

If a Mount has spells or arts, you may activate them using your action.

Mounts do not test for ailments- instead, you and the Mount find the best resistance score between the two of you and roll on behalf of both.

Mounts with the 'Bestial' trait are animalistic, and often react poorly to being hurt. Whenever they lose a wound, the rider must make an Operate (Mounted) test, or a Survival (Animals) test, or an Authority (Command) test; on a failure the animal goes out of control and stampedes, either away or towards the source of danger depending on their personality! The rider must cling on for dear life (or try leaping to safety as above), and at the start of their turn may repeat the above test as a Free Action to soothe their mount.
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