Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Roleplaying experiences without a GM in Car Wars?

swordtart · 01-15-2019, 04:01 AM

Enemy AI is pretty easy. Just set them an objective and be honest and assess the fight phase by phase from each vehicles perspective to achieve that objective. If you decide actions per phase it in reverse reflex order then your decisions will be more honest as you reduce the effect of opponents second guessing courses of action (since you know all of it). You can still implement the actions per phase in vehicle speed order.

e.g. If Car 1 wins the reflex don't even consider what they might do, decide (and preferably resolve) the lower reflex first and then respond to that.

Objectives ideally should be driven by the plot rather than randomly as it makes decision making more robust. If you randomly decided the bandits are trying to kill the hero at some point you will need to decide how aggressively they will prosecute the attack (i.e. do they break off if they loose their front armour for example). If this is driven by the plot (e.g. bandit 1's child was killed by the hero) the answer is a lot easier to determine (in this case Bandit 1 may fight to the death, but once he is dead the remaining bandit's mission becomes one of salvage and they will break off one there is credible risk that they will be killed or injured).

As for deciding encounter distances, there was an article in ADQ about it (2d6 +mods inches if memory serves). Don't think of this as representing when you first see your opponent, rather when you first realise that they ARE an opponent (rather than some innocent party just trying to pass).

There are a few programmed adventures in ADQs that give more advice.

01-15-2019, 04:01 AM	#3
swordtart Join Date: Jun 2008	Re: Roleplaying experiences without a GM in Car Wars? Enemy AI is pretty easy. Just set them an objective and be honest and assess the fight phase by phase from each vehicles perspective to achieve that objective. If you decide actions per phase it in reverse reflex order then your decisions will be more honest as you reduce the effect of opponents second guessing courses of action (since you know all of it). You can still implement the actions per phase in vehicle speed order. e.g. If Car 1 wins the reflex don't even consider what they might do, decide (and preferably resolve) the lower reflex first and then respond to that. Objectives ideally should be driven by the plot rather than randomly as it makes decision making more robust. If you randomly decided the bandits are trying to kill the hero at some point you will need to decide how aggressively they will prosecute the attack (i.e. do they break off if they loose their front armour for example). If this is driven by the plot (e.g. bandit 1's child was killed by the hero) the answer is a lot easier to determine (in this case Bandit 1 may fight to the death, but once he is dead the remaining bandit's mission becomes one of salvage and they will break off one there is credible risk that they will be killed or injured). As for deciding encounter distances, there was an article in ADQ about it (2d6 +mods inches if memory serves). Don't think of this as representing when you first see your opponent, rather when you first realise that they ARE an opponent (rather than some innocent party just trying to pass). There are a few programmed adventures in ADQs that give more advice.