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Old 11-24-2021, 04:38 PM   #1
Racer
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Default RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

Hope to do a couple of weeks traveling in the Spring - first trip since early 2019 .

My friend is borrowing a rather nice RV with automatically extendable pods to increase internal space when stopped .

Any ideas how this could be stated in the game ? It would cost a fortune ( friend has well off family & they got it cheap as previous owner never used it & left UK ) . I can't recall any online pages having similar hi tech accessories .
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Old 11-24-2021, 06:37 PM   #2
svawter
 
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

Quote:
Originally Posted by Racer View Post
Hope to do a couple of weeks traveling in the Spring - first trip since early 2019 .

My friend is borrowing a rather nice RV with automatically extendable pods to increase internal space when stopped .

Any ideas how this could be stated in the game ? It would cost a fortune ( friend has well off family & they got it cheap as previous owner never used it & left UK ) . I can't recall any online pages having similar hi tech accessories .
Nice pull! I don't think anything in the rules even comes close to this! I would think it would be some accessory that takes X spaces when retracted but gives 3X spaces when extended, taking 60 seconds and requiring some kind of bracing/kick stand type thing as well... As you say, lots of cost, some extra weight...
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Old 11-25-2021, 08:23 AM   #3
adm
 
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

Also note the loss of interior space when retracted, similar to a pop up turret.
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Old 11-25-2021, 10:06 AM   #4
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

It would be of dubious benefit to the usual sorts of CW vehicle as I can't conceive a combat advantage. You would need extra armour, it would make the vehicle an even larger target and usually you want the space for components and you would be losing them rather than gaining any.

On that basis I would allow them as a fluff addition. Just specify the extra space provided (the 3:1 rule doesn't sound excessive). Add mechanism to actually deploy the thing (just use the stats for a winch).

If you wanted you could argue that the sides of the extended pods require additional armour (at the same cost and weight as the unmodified vehicles). As there are an extra 4 sides per pod (F,B,T,U) this would be the biggest impact. Targeting the side pod from the front or rear (and top and under) would hit these locations randomly. You would need to work out how frequently based on the size of the pods compared to the main vehicle, but if you assume the pods each extend out half the width of the vehicle then you have a 50/50 chance of hitting the front/rear of the pod instead of the front/rear of the vehicle. If you skimped on armour here it might be significant.

Lots to think about.

Last edited by swordtart; 11-25-2021 at 10:34 AM.
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Old 11-25-2021, 02:12 PM   #5
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

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Originally Posted by adm View Post
Also note the loss of interior space when retracted, similar to a pop up turret.
This was the first problem I thought of when I saw this. :)
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Old 11-25-2021, 04:26 PM   #6
swordtart
 
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

Since these can only be deployed when stationary and the main purpose is to provide additional living space (to move about in) you would also need to consider the loss of utility of those sides.

An easier way of looking at it might be to modify Passenger Accommodations. When stowed the side rooms take half the space required for Passenger Accommodations. So you could have a single berth which would only take up a single cargo space when closed up but opens up to a standard single berth.

The additional flexibility should double the price, but the weight needn't be significantly different if the rooms are operated manually (taking 10 minutes the crank into place and to recover). Alternatively a motorised system ($500, 100lb, 1 spc, 1DP) can be installed that will deploy and retract it automatically in under a minute.

The fact that the vehicle will be undriveable until the rooms are retracted is a sufficient balance in my opinion. If you are caught with the rooms deployed the fight will be over before you can retract them.

Last edited by swordtart; 11-26-2021 at 03:57 PM. Reason: Because sometimes English is my second language :(
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Old 11-26-2021, 02:21 PM   #7
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

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Originally Posted by swordtart View Post
The fact that the vehicle will be undriveable until the rooms are retracted [....]
Um....

<- looks around furtively; slinks quietly out of room ;)
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Old 11-26-2021, 04:26 PM   #8
kjamma4
 
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

Quote:
Originally Posted by svawter View Post
t takes X spaces when retracted but gives 3X spaces when extended
Not sure why it wouldn't be 2:1. The room is a box and it takes up X spaces when retracted. When extended, you have X spaces in the box and X spaces where the box once was.

To be honest, you have to account for the mechanism to extend so you probably get less than 2:1.
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Old 11-27-2021, 03:16 AM   #9
swordtart
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

It depends if the extended space is for both sides. If it is a box within a box within a box configuration you could get around 3X (before you take any mechanism into account).

But I am inclined to agree 2X is more plausible.

I did think of a niche combat use for this. If you had 15ft van trailer it has 30 spaces. In theory you can fit in 30 passengers in cramped seats, however you need to consider that would need to be packed in and I would be loth to allow 30 of them to fire from a 1" x 1/2" counter.

My rule of thumb is you can have as many peds as you can fit on the counter and in this case it is 8. Even if you required the roomy 2 space passenger accommodations you still have theoretical space for 15 people of whom only half have anywhere to go.

Of course that 1" x 1/2" counter is also 3/4" high which is 11.25 ft. Once you take into account ground clearance (3ft?) there isn't much space to move and having a second tier of people able to fire is a bit of a stretch, but you could maybe justify packing them in like sardines for transport purposes.

But now the value of the expanding sides becomes apparent. If you deploy out the sides and make your counter 1" x 1" (the 2X expansion I am considering default) that allows 16 ped counters to be placed on the counter and all but 4 of them are in contact with an exterior side. That seems entirely credible.

We have always assumed that 2 spaces of passenger accommodation includes the space required for the passenger themselves. I am not sure you can say the same about expanding accommodation. Clearly you need to use the pre-expanded space as the limit on who can be accommodated, but probably not all of that either.

As normal Passenger Accommodations take up 2 spaces and allows 1 passenger who would normally take up 1 space it seems fair to say 1 space is all the accommodation itself. So you could fit 15 people in the van comfortably in travel mode of which only 8 have firing ports. Once deployed 12 have firing ports and 3 are in the centre ready to replace casualties (or maybe provide support functions like fire fighting, medical assistance or handing our reloads).

As such it might make a useful deployable bunker for protecting road works and the like.
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Old 11-27-2021, 09:25 AM   #10
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Default Re: RVs with extendable side 'rooms' .

It is fun to think about these RL things in CW terms. I find it kind of amusing that this question has not been addressed before, since towable RVs have around forever. Motorized RVs as busses were explicitly included early in CW.

RAW states that passengers (in a semi-trailer) take up two spaces. I could not find any mention of passengers having limited arc of fire.

Three and four space Pop-up Turrets (and Cupolas) for busses and semi-trailers is also RAW. I would argue that settles the question as to what game mechanics to use.

From RAW, an empty deployed pop-up turret is just extra space at the cost of weight and money. Empty undeployed (i.e., concealed) larger pop-up turrets cost weight and money and the additional two spaces per. No need to account for a winch. No need to worry over additional armor facings.

With RAW, there is a limit of two turrets per roof (for busses and semi-trailers), and the player needs to designate which is lower or higher. At least one of the two losses a front or rear arc.

The rules do not address the context of using a pop-up turret for passengers firing only hand weapons, but the implication is that all passengers could use a single turret (for their hand weapons). They weigh and cost more, but for personnel-oriented pop-up turrets, it would be less ambiguous (using RAW) to use the statistics for cupolas instead, and equip each with a smaller vehicular weapon.

The analog for an RV slide out is a side-mounted pop-out turret. From RAW, that would put the limit at two per side, and have implicates for arc of fire.

OP is a question about game mechanics for something in RL. But in game terms it boils down to a question if pop-up turrets with additional (and significant) limitations might be granted some advantage to make up for those significant limitations. The simplest answer is: No. RAW works quite well enough as-is. Visualizing pop-up turrets in a loose semi-trailer as RV slide-outs is mostly just flavor text.

Last edited by beetle496; 11-27-2021 at 10:02 AM. Reason: found roof limit for turrets on trucks
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