[4e] Autoduelling (also, my return to GURPS)

[mlangsdorf]

I'd probably use a 5x or 7x scale for personal weapons (putting the assault rifle at a 5d or 7d weapon) and 12x for vehicle weapons - which puts the standard MG at 6dx2, same as a 0.50 BMG. That would also to some extent preserve the distinction between the hand weapons that can damage vehicles and the ones that can't. But 7x for everything is fine.

I think your ideas for HT are sound. I would suggest increasing HT by 1 for a heavy chassis and by 2 for an extra heavy chassis, and then reducing it by 1 if the vehicle's curb weight is more than 90% of the maximum and by 2 if it's more than 95% of maximum. The typical Car Wars Luxury that weighs exactly 6600 lbs would be HT 10, because all the components are stronger, they're pretty heavily stressed. You might want to do a similar thing with engine PF: you can run an engine to the limit of its performance, but if you do, it's not going to be as robust as an engine that is a lot larger than needed for the load.

[Chris Goodwin]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I'd probably use a 5x or 7x scale for personal weapons (putting the assault rifle at a 5d or 7d weapon) and 12x for vehicle weapons - which puts the standard MG at 6dx2, same as a 0.50 BMG. That would also to some extent preserve the distinction between the hand weapons that can damage vehicles and the ones that can't. But 7x for everything is fine.

Hopefully I can find decent weapons in GURPS 4e resources. I haven't picked up High Tech yet. Once I have more to look at than what's in Basic, I'll be able to make a better comparison.

I think your ideas for HT are sound. I would suggest increasing HT by 1 for a heavy chassis and by 2 for an extra heavy chassis, and then reducing it by 1 if the vehicle's curb weight is more than 90% of the maximum and by 2 if it's more than 95% of maximum. The typical Car Wars Luxury that weighs exactly 6600 lbs would be HT 10, because all the components are stronger, they're pretty heavily stressed. You might want to do a similar thing with engine PF: you can run an engine to the limit of its performance, but if you do, it's not going to be as robust as an engine that is a lot larger than needed for the load.

I was already looking at chassis strength. Current to max load ratio is good as well; I hadn't thought of that.

+1 to HT if the vehicle's primary driver has Mechanic (Cars) at 14 or greater. :) (Or if it's generally well taken care of.)

HT rolls required for every X amount of wasteland or off-road driving. HT rolls required after combat, with penalties based on how much damage the vehicle took. HT rolls required after failing a control roll by greater than Stability. Bonuses to HT rolls if the vehicle is thoroughly checked out by a mechanic prior to an operation, or has an extensive pre-flight checklist.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

Hopefully I can find decent weapons in GURPS 4e resources. I haven't picked up High Tech yet. Once I have more to look at than what's in Basic, I'll be able to make a better comparison.

You'll probably want Ultra-Tech too, for lasers, and some of the advanced medical technology I seem to remember from Car Wars.

[Gigermann]

I'm about to start an Autoduel campaign as well. I'm not going to bother converting CW>GURPS, though; mostly planning to use it as is. For vehicle combat, I'm currently debating whether to keep CW to-hits+skills or use GURPS skill rolls—I haven't decided yet. Damage to vehicles can stay with CW for the most part; conversion is only necessary for personal effects, in which case it will probably use the Occupants Hit stuff or find an equivalent weapon as appropriate.

But yes—you will definitely need Ultra-Tech.

The Autoduel Atlases had some GURPS versions of CW vehicles which can be used as a guide if you're going to attempt a conversion, you'd just then have to convert to 4e a bit.

Here's the wiki (very WIP at the moment)

[Chris Goodwin]

This isn't necessarily to run or play in a game, it's more because that's the shiny bauble the squirrels of my gamer ADD have found. But it's also to play in a game, if it comes down to it. To that end, I'll be doing it all in GURPS, using GURPS stats, GURPS skills, GURPS combat, and so on.

I've got the 3e versions of High Tech and Ultra Tech. It occurs to me that I might only need the weapons lists from the 4e versions... I know that I've got GURPS treatments of Gold Cross, and generally of braintaping and cloning, and I don't think there's a whole lot that's Car Wars specific in how it works in CW.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Chris Goodwin

I've got the 3e versions of High Tech and Ultra Tech. It occurs to me that I might only need the weapons lists from the 4e versions....

HT for 4e is a huge improvement over the 3e version even if most of the stats for rounds with"-- mm NATO" in their names haven't changed much. If nothing else there are a _lot_ more weapons in the 4e version.

Then there's more defenses and survival gear and pretty much everything else too. It's absolutely a gold standard for game books researched from the Real World.

[Chris Goodwin]

I hope it's okay to necro my own thread. :)

I've been poking at this a bit more lately. I am finding the Size, Speed, and Range Table (SSRT) to be ridiculously useful, so much so that I'm wishing classic Car Wars had its own version.

I think I'm just going to go with multiplying all Car Wars weapon damage values by 7 to get GURPS values. That seems the most workable. I got in on the recent GURPS Bundles of Holding for Space and Fantasy, but not the base one that had the tech books! So I'm just going to limp along with those values.

The GURPS Basic Set has its own ways of handling high speed movement and maneuvering; entities, including vehicles, have a turning radius equal to current velocity divided by Basic Move. Except vehicles don't have a Basic Move; the suggestion in the Vehicles section is to use Acceleration in place of Basic Move, which doesn't quite work. I'm giving vehicles a Turning Radius Divisor, which I may need to call something else for abbreviation's sake, but it's going to be (8 - vehicle's SM) + Hnd. So a van (elongated box 5 yards long, so SM +3) with Hnd -1 would have a turning radius divisor of 4, while a sports car (same SM, Hnd +1) would have a divisor of 6. Higher numbers here mean quicker turns. And making a turn sooner than you "should" based on your turning radius calls for a Control Roll.

Slapping down turning keys and making maneuvers in 15 degree increments is more like Car Wars, but it's also more fiddly. Still I might do that. (When we played GURPS Autoduel back in 1986, we used phased movement and turning keys, which worked seamlessly.) A not-yet-abandoned idea is to consider 15 degrees of turning to be equivalent to a velocity change of 1/6 the vehicle's current velocity, and making a Driving Roll with penalty based on that net velocity change on the SSRT. (Seriously, is there a Cult of the SSRT, and if not how do I start it?) (As an example, a four wheeled passenger vehicle at 100mph, therefore 50 yards/second, attempts a 90 degree turn. This is the equivalent of a net 50 yards/second velocity change, so that would necessitate a Driving Roll at -8! Another example, a four wheeled passenger vehicle at 40mph, therefore 20 yards/second, attempts a 15 degree turn; this is 3 yards/second, or a Driving Roll at -1.) Note that the vehicle doesn't actually change velocity, it's just that velocity vectors mumble mumble high school trig and physics were more than 35 years ago.

For those who are curious, the document is here. Comments are greatly appreciated!