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

[Chris Goodwin]

I'm now looking at GURPS again after a long time away. (Short version: 4e came out right after HERO 5e, and at that time in my life I could only focus on one generic system. HERO won. Now the stars are right again and I can look into GURPS again.)

And, autoduelling. I have both versions of GURPS Autoduel, and both 3e GURPS Vehicles books, none of which I have any intention of using for this. :) I also have a large GURPS 3e and prior library in general, and a large Car Wars library.

The idea is to do conversions of vehicles from Car Wars into GURPS stats, and to do all combat and campaigning and whatnot using GURPS mechanics. GURPS 4e is making that pretty easy; to the extent Car Wars generates real world stats for vehicles (top speed, acceleration, weight capacity), I can convert them to the units GURPS is expecting and roll with those. (Pun not intended.)

Most of the other stats are pretty easy to gauge, either with a more or less direct conversion from Car Wars or pretty easy to eyeball. Handling is Car Wars HC - 2. Stability is based on the vehicle type; generally 4 for cars, 2 for cycles. ST/HP comes from the vehicle's max load, probably from whichever is lower between that of the chassis and that of the power plant.

For weapons and DR, I'm going to use a 7x scale. I'll use GURPS 4e sources for weapons; multiplying Car Wars DP values by 7 generates really close GURPS numbers for HP/DR, close enough that I feel no need to tweak them. (Interesting to note, a Car Wars character with 3 DP is rendered unconscious by taking 2 DP of damage, which corresponds to 14 points in GURPS.) GURPS DR with the Ablative modifier works exactly like Car Wars plastic armor, and Car Wars metal armor can be treated as GURPS semi-ablative without any problems.

I'm having a slightly harder time pinning Vehicle HT down. I get that it represents overall reliability, but Car Wars doesn't really focus on that much except for the occasional roleplaying adventure with its own rules. I'm poking around a bit with starting with a base of 10, tweaking it up or down based on overall vehicle features (for instance, standard tires would be worth -1 to HT; running an old internal combustion engine would be worth -1 HT) but I'm not quite satisfied with that. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I'll post more as it occurs to me.

[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.