Using Vehicles

[Uthred]

I recently purchased the SW ruleset for FG. There are quite a few things that are different from others I have used that I will eventually need to familiarize myself with, but right now I was wondering if anyone could explain how you are supposed to use the vehicles. I was hoping to be able to assign tokens to vehicles, and move them to the combat tracker to simulate battles and chases, but none of that seems to work. Other than holding vehicle stats, what are these items used for?

Also, is there any documentation for using this ruleset? It would have been cool to have it included in the library. Any links that may help?

Thanks!

[ddavison]

I don't have an answer on the vehicle usage for you but there are several tutorials up on YouTube for Savage Worlds if you search for Fantasy Grounds Savage World. We plan to link these directly to the site in the future.

[Doswelk]

... but right now I was wondering if anyone could explain how you are supposed to use the vehicles. I was hoping to be able to assign tokens to vehicles, and move them to the combat tracker to simulate battles and chases, but none of that seems to work. Other than holding vehicle stats, what are these items used for?

That's what Vehicles are used for, the combat tracker only handles NPCs, which I have never seen as an issue in a vehicle combat/chase as on the map I put the vehicle tokens and on the combat tracker the characters/NPCs perform their actions as normal.

[Uthred]

Doug - thanks for the info. I will check out You Tube.

Doswelk - thanks for the reply, but I still don't think I completely follow. I get that the NPCs and PCs can be placed on the CT and still roll their skills, but how do you resolve that to vehicles placed on a grid? It sounded like you just place tokens on the map for the vehicles, but not from the CT, but then how do you track wounds, etc. on each of the vehicles? Especially if one or more of the NPC vehicles are Wild Cards?

Sorry for being so dense; it took me awhile to figure out vehicle chases for SW to begin with, now trying to figure out the best way to handle it in FG and keep it fun and engaging for players.

[mac40k]

First of all, there are two sets of rules. For the regular vehicle rules, you would use vehicle tokens on a map like you would PC tokens, although you may want to change the scale of the map since vehicles move much further than PCs. Here, speed, acceleration, turning radius, etc. all come into play. The chase rules are much more abstract and don't use an actual map, just a series of range bands. You use counters to represent the vehicles on the chase track, but turning, accelerating, etc. are all abstracted through the chase rules. Either way, since it is the PCs (and NPCs) who act in turn, they get placed on the combat tracker, the vehicles they occupy don't. Yes, this means that if you need to track damage to vehicles, you'll have to do that in the notes of the vehicle entries.

[ronnke]

The way I handle vehicles in the GURPS ruleset is to make a new entry in the combat tracker, then attach the vehicle token to be used. I can then use the tracker to record turn sequence and HP, etc. It is not elegant, but it works well enough. I have not played a game with the SW ruleset but it should still work the same.

[Uthred]

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions! I guess I was hoping for more functionality in regards to the vehicles in FG other than just stats and damage rolls, but so be it.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the chase system in SW, so I was hoping to run a battle with vehicles using a map and tokens as you would a usual combat. I'm basically doing something similar to what ronnke suggested; I add the PCs and Personalities to the CT, only I change the tokens to vehicles and drag them to the battle grid. I then roll skills from the NPC sheet and roll damage from vehicle weapons from the vehicle sheet. This way I can still assign wounds and such on the CT and the players can target the opponents.

PS: Many thanks to Doswelk for the excellent video tutorials; they were a great help in many regards.

[Doswelk]

The way I handle vehicles in the GURPS ruleset is to make a new entry in the combat tracker, then attach the vehicle token to be used. I can then use the tracker to record turn sequence and HP, etc. It is not elegant, but it works well enough. I have not played a game with the SW ruleset but it should still work the same.

It should indeed, I have to admit with our games vehicles only tend to be used in chases rather than full combat hence the above had not occurred to me d'oh!

[amerigoV]

I am Necro-ing a really old thread as I am not finding anything newer here or on YouTube. So this is what I am doing for SWADE and I am curious if this is the current level of functionality or am I missing something.

Currently I have a crew on a spaceship. There are a couple of actives roles the crew has in combat (piloting, and two weapon stations). Whats seems to work best is this.

1. Duplicate the ship for each role (eg - SS Ship (pilot), SS Ship (Gunner), SS Ship (Missiles))
2. Assign a PC to each of these roles in the associated vehicle
3. Put that respective vehicle in the PC's inventory under Vehicles.
4. When combat occurs, use the CT to bring in the PCs, then the Vehicles via the menu button
5. Group the vehicle with the PC (so the SS Ship (pilot) is now under the Pilot PC, etc)
6. In combat, the player decides to do something non-ship, they have their character in the tracker (maybe an alien boarded during the fight to the Gunner is now in regular combat -- or maybe one of the PCs needs to support the Pilot).
7. If they decide to do something with the Ship (gunner fires), they End turn for themselves and it moves to their assigned part of the ship. They can target enemies. They go under Inventory to open the ship/combat and do their thing. They can even link it to the hot bar for ease.
8. Looks like the Bennies are shared between the entries since its in their inventory, so that functions nicely and both count down (if the Pilot Soaks a hit, both the PC and their associated ship drop 1 in Bennies)
9. As GM, I use the Pilot's Ship for the combat itself (wounds) and manually adjust wounds and such to the other instances under the SS Ship (Gunner) SS Ship (Missiles). So in this case if the ship is hit for 2 wounds (post soak, if Ace) and the critical hit is Distracted, most of that is automatic to SS Ship (pilot) and manually added to SS Ship (Gunner) SS Ship (Missiles) so their actions reflect the right penalties

As a suggested improvement - it would be nice if Vehicles were treated like Allies as a start. That would at least eliminate a step or two (if an Ally, the extra CT entry comes in under the assigned PC. For vehicles, you have to bring in the PC first, then the Vehicles, and then group them. You would still have to duplicate if multiple roles and maybe if there is a Vehicles section it just assigns that PCs stats automatically. Just some thoughts (I suspect people do not use a ton of vehicles, but on the other hand if FG makes it easier then people might use them more - Chicken-Egg-Sandwich situation).

If I am missing something (a better way!) I would love to hear it!

(note: one could put everything under the Ship - but its not the best situation for the PCs as that puts everyone under the same action card. Its better for the PC to get their own action card as draws out the Jokers, which usually favors the PCs)