Vehicles
A fast set of wheels is necessary for many missions. The vehicles below are a selection of some of the more common options in a city.
A vehicle’s qualities are measured by certain statistics. Some are self-explanatory, such as the Hit Points of damage it can take before being rendered inoperable or the Armor Class that must be hit with a melee or ranged weapon in order to damage it.
Speed is a combination of the vehicle’s overall speed, maneuverability, and capability for handling bad terrain. It’s added to any vehicle-related skill checks the driver might make with it.
Armor indicates the vehicle’s general toughness and resistance to damage, as explained in the vehicle combat rules.
Trauma Target is the vehicle’s target number for Trauma Die rolls by weapons capable of inflicting Traumatic Hits on such a vehicle.
Crew is the maximum number of people the vehicle is intended to carry, including the driver. More might be wedged into a truck bed or strapped to a roof rack, but they are very likely to be thrown free during sharp maneuvers.
Power and Mass measure the amount of additional fittings that can be mounted on the vehicle. Added hardware takes up electrical and computing Power, and it can’t be fitted without enough free Mass.
Size is the general size class of the vehicle, whether small-sized like a motorcycle, medium like a car, small helicopter, or SUV, or large like a flatbed truck or tank. Some vehicle fittings can only be installed on vehicles of a certain size or larger.
Hardpoints are the number of Heavy weapons the vehicle can mount in its factory configuration. Vehicle combat is detailed in its own section, but every gun requires a gunner, and even a jacked-in driver is hard-pressed to shoot and drive at the same time.
| Vehicle | Cost | Speed | Armor | Trauma Target | AC | HP | Crew | Power | Mass | Size | Hardpoints |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motorcycle | $1K | 1 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 3 | S | 0 |
| Micro Flyer | $3K | 0 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 4 | S | 0 |
| Car | $5K | 0 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 30 | 5 | 3 | 7 | M | 1 |
| Truck | $7.5K | 0 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 35 | 2 | 3 | 14 | L | 1 |
| Helicopter | $50K | 3 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 20 | 6 | 4 | 9 | M | 1 |
| Tank | $500K@ | 0 | ** | 12 | 18 | 40 | 3 | 8 | 15 | L | 3 |
| APC | $60K@ | -1 | * | 10 | 16 | 30 | 16 | 5 | 14 | L | 1 |
| GEV | $100K@ | 1 | * | 10 | 16 | 30 | 3 | 6 | 10 | L | 2 |
| CASRA | $200K@ | 2 | 10 | 10 | 18 | 35 | 2 | 7 | 10 | L | 2 |
| Dropcraft | $1M@ | 3 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 40 | 13 | 8 | 12 | L | 2 |
@: This vehicle cannot be obtained without a suitable Contact or related adventure
*: This vehicle is immune to anything short of a Heavy weapon or one that can inflict Traumatic Hits on vehicles.
**: This vehicle is immune to anything the GM thinks could not reasonably harm the tank in question. It can suffer Traumatic Hits from a weapon if the GM thinks it reasonable for the weapon and circumstances.
Motorcycle:
Fast, cheap, and nimble, both gangers and operators find these vehicles handy for making escapes down alleys and over terrain that larger vehicles can’t navigate.
Microlight Flyer:
One of a class of featherlight aircraft, a flyer is woven of the lightest, thinnest, strongest materials available at its price point, and can provide cheap aerial recon or transit over rough terrain for its single occupant. Such flyers are light enough to be broken down into components that can be easily transported by a pickup truck.
Car:
An urban luxury, private cars are for the middle class and better, or those rough-edged slum entrepreneurs who are clever enough to keep some salvaged hulk running. This vehicle class also includes small pickup trucks and SUVs.
Truck:
More commonly found among corp employees, these flatbed trucks, delivery vans, panel vans, and other large work vehicles earn their keep in a hundred ways each day.
Helicopter:
A typical civilian helicopter, used for elite transit between city districts or the quick dispatch of personnel to some hotspot. Their ability to weave through the obstacles of urban high-rises is sometimes valuable when evading hostile pursuit.
Tank:
A military classic, this model is relatively low-tech but more than enough to deal with any civilian vehicle. Tanks are seldom found in urban areas without a protective screen of infantry to keep hostiles with demo charges or rocket launchers from getting uncomfortable close.
APC:
Armored personnel carriers are often custom-built for city law enforcement, the better to dump a squad of cops where they’re most needed. The mounted weapon on most of them helps pacify a hot zone before the occupants dismount.
GEV:
Ground effect vehicles have evolved considerably from their 20th-century ancestors, and their armored pneumatic skirts and high-efficiency engines can send them over terrain that might defeat a tracked tank. The sacrifice in armor weight is generally deemed acceptable, given the usual opposition these vehicles face.
CASRA:
The “Close Air Support Rotorwing Aircraft” of corporate R&D comes in a half-dozen different configurations, from multirotor helicopters to rotor-in-wing strike craft. Light and vicious, they’re favored by city SWAT teams who need military-grade firepower capable of maneuvering through city airspace. When a CASRA shows up, minigun rounds are seldom far behind.
Dropcraft:
One of a family of armored military air transports, dropcraft are used when a squad needs to be inserted under heavy fire. Thick armor, a heavy gun, and VTOL engines combine with considerable loitering ability to make an excellent tool for pacifying corporate enemies.
Repairing and Running Vehicles
Fixing a vehicle requires a Tool Rack fitting or a suitable workshop. A bike might be repaired on a sidewalk, but an APC is going to need heavier equipment.
Vehicles that have been reduced to zero hit points have been totaled and cannot be cost-effectively repaired. Lesser damage can be repaired at a rate of 1 point per day, plus the technician’s Fix skill and Drive skill. A would-be repairman must have at least Fix-0 or Drive-1 skill to repair a damaged vehicle.
An Ace Driver or Roamer pays nothing to repair vehicles, being able to scrounge free parts here and there. Others need to pay $200 per vehicle hit point repaired.
A vehicle’s fuel and maintenance costs are generally minor, and can usually be ignored. If the PCs are going to be spending long periods of time away from gas stations, however, a GM is justified in making them take some measures to ensure a fuel supply
Vehicle Fittings
To add a fitting, the vehicle must have enough free Power and Mass to support it; a bike with 1 Power and 3 Mass can’t mount more than 1 total Power and 3 total Mass of fittings. It must also be of an adequate minimum size to support the fitting.
Installing or removing a fitting usually takes a day or two of work in a suitably-equipped shop. The price for such work is included in the fitting cost. A given fitting can normally be added only once.
| Fitting | Cost | Power | Mass | Min. Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Sensors | $8,000 | 1 | 0 | S |
| Afterburners | $5,000 | 1 | 2 | S |
| Armor Plating | $5,000 | 0 | 3 | S |
| Cargo Space | None | 0 | 1 | S |
| Crash Pod | $2,500 | 0 | 2 | M |
| ECM Emitter | $10,000 | 2 | 0 | M |
| Emissions Cloaking | $10,000 | 1 | 2 | S |
| Extra Durability | $5,000 | 0 | 4 | M |
| Extra Passengers | $2,500 | 0 | 2 | S |
| Field Portable | $1,000 | 0 | 2 | S |
| Ghost Driver | $2,500 | 1 | 1 | S |
| Hardpoint Support | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | M |
| Jack Control Port | $5,000 | 2 | 0 | S |
| Limpet Mount | $5K/$10K | 0 | 3 or 6 | M |
| Living Quarters | $8,000 | 0 | 4 | L |
| Medbay | $10,000 | 1 | 2 | S |
| Offroad Package | $5,000 | 1 | 3 | L |
| Power System, Small | $1,000 | +2 | 2 | S |
| Power System, Medium | $5,000 | +4 | 3 | M |
| Power System, Large | $10,000 | +8 | 5 | L |
| Sealed Atmosphere | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | M |
| Smuggler’s Hold | $1,000 | 0 | 1 | S |
| Targeting Board | $2,500 | 1 | 1 | M |
| Tool Rack | $2,500 | 0 | 2 | M |
Advanced Sensors:
The vehicle is equipped with night vision, infrared sensors, and short-range radar good up to twenty kilometers of airspace. It can be driven safely even in pitch darkness.
Afterburners:
Once per scene, as an On Turn action, boost the vehicle’s Speed by 1 for five rounds.
Armor Plating:
Increase the vehicle’s Armor rating by 3 points. Medium vehicles can apply this fitting twice, and Large ones can apply it three times.
Cargo Space:
This fitting can be taken multiple times. Each time it adds 50 kg of protected cargo space for Small vehicles, 500 kg for Medium ones, and 2 metric tons for Large ones.
Crash Pod:
If the vehicle crashes, the occupants can each reroll one failed crash save. If they make any of their saves, their HP can’t be reduced below 1 point by the crash.
ECM Emitter:
On a successful hit roll by a headshot pod, rocket launcher, or other long-range guided projectile, the driver can make an opposed Int or Dex/Drive skill check against the attacker’s combat skill. On a success, the attacker must reroll their hit roll and take the worst result.
Emissions Cloaking:
Once per day, for one hour, the vehicle can become almost invisible to infrared or radar. This cloak becomes useless if the vehicle is visually spotted by defenders.
Extra Durability:
The vehicle’s maximum hit points increase by 25%, rounded up.
Extra Passengers:
Small vehicles add 1 Crew, Medium ones add 2, and Large ones add 4. This fitting can be taken multiple times, and any vehicle amenities such as crash pods or living quarters extend to these additional Crew as well.
Field Portable:
Only Small or Medium vehicles can take this option, allowing them to be broken down into easily-portable parts packages. Small vehicles turn into 30 items of Encumbrance and Medium ones into 150. Disassembly takes 30 minutes for a Small vehicle and 3 hours for a Medium one, with reassembly taking four times as long.
Ghost Driver:
The driver can order the vehicle directly or by radio or phone to go to particular places at particular times or perform other simple, direct actions on a given schedule. The onboard expert system can handle traffic-related challenges, but has no real intelligence to process more complicated problems.
Hardpoint Support:
Additional power and structural support enable the addition of a hardpoint.
Jack Control Port:
The vehicle is wired to be controlled through a plugged-in cranial jack as well as a conventional wheel. While jacked in, the driver need only use a Move Action to control the vehicle rather than a Main Action.
Limpet Mount:
An entire second vehicle can be mounted with this fitting, Medium vehicles taking Small parasites and Large ones taking Small or Medium. Adding a mount for a Small vehicle takes up 3 Mass while a Medium one takes 6. Modifying a vehicle to be mounted adds 10% to its base cost, but it can be launched even while the parent vehicle is underway. These parasite vehicles are destroyed if the parent is; otherwise, they take only half the damage the parent takes.
Living Quarters:
Basic, cramped quarters are provided for sleeping, sanitation, and cooking for all crew. Permanent living in a vehicle costs and counts as a slum lifestyle, though occupants with the Ace Driver or Roamer Focus can treat it as middle-class for the same price.
Medbay:
Surgical tools and medical support are provided for up to one critically-injured patient at a time. A medbay counts as an emergency clinic for purposes of treating Major Injuries, if someone with at least Heal-0 is available to tend to the patient.
Offroad Package:
While any modern vehicle can handle abandoned roads and mostly-flat terrain, this package includes winches, tire armor, chassis reinforcement, and other upgrades needed to go through all but the most impassible terrain.
Power Systems:
These fittings add extra Power in battery capacity and computing support at the cost of an additional Mass burden.
Sealed Atmosphere:
For up to two hours per day the vehicle can seal itself entirely from the outside atmosphere, with internal air tanks and positive pressure to keep out external toxins. At all times it can maintain a comfortable interior temperature in any terrestrial climate. Aircraft do not need this fitting to function normally at high altitudes.
Smuggler’s Hold:
This fitting can be taken more than once, and adds 10 kg of concealed cargo space in Small vehicles, 100 kg in Medium ones, and 400 kg in Large ones. It can be detected only by taking the vehicle apart or by an acute, careful inspection with a difficulty 12 Wis/Notice or Wis/Drive skill check.
Targeting Board:
A single unified targeting board allows one gunner to manage up to three vehicle weapons instead of the one gun per gunner that would usually be allowed.
Tool Rack:
Any vehicle can carry a toolkit in the trunk, but this rack is equipped with welders, heavy tooling, winches, and room for up 40 HP worth of spare parts. It can repair any vehicle and can be used as a makeshift workshop for related efforts.
Vehicle Weapons
Vehicles with hardpoints can mount weaponry, provided they have the spare Power and Mass to support the guns.
A vehicle can mount a number of weapons equal to its hardpoints. Each weapon takes up a certain amount of the vehicle’s Power and Mass, just as a fitting does; the heavier and more computationally-demanding the weapon is, the greater its demands.
Some weapons also require vehicles of a certain size in order to support them; no one is mounting an autogun on a motorcycle when the recoil alone would be enough to send the bike skidding.
While most professionals prefer to mount heavy weaponry on their rides, it’s also possible to mount smaller guns, such as rifles or shotguns. These weapons make minimal demands on a vehicle’s structure, but still require at least a Medium-sized vehicle to provide a stable firing platform.
Each mounted weapon can carry one normal magazine’s worth of ammunition. A loader can reload a vehicle weapon’s magazine as a Main Action.
Vehicle weapons each require a gunner, and any attacks made by the weapon are made with the gunner’s attack bonus and Shoot skill.
Shooting at enemy vehicles requires targeting the vehicle’s Armor Class and overcoming its Armor with the weapon’s damage. Armor is subtracted from any damage the weapon inflicts, after multiplying for Traumatic Hits. Shooting at targets on foot requires hitting their usual ranged AC.
Mounted weapons don’t take a hit penalty for firing from a moving vehicle, but passengers who are blazing away out the windows take up to a -4 circumstance penalty to such efforts.
Vehicle-Only Weaponry
These weapons are too large and bulky to be mounted on anything but vehicles or non-portable drones
| Weapon | Dmg | Range | Cost | Mag | Attr | Enc. | TD | TR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drone Cannon | $2d8! | 200/1,000 | $5,000 | 10 | Dex | N/A | 1d10 | x3 |
| Headshot Pod | $4d6! | 1,000/2,000 | $20,000 | 1 | Dex | N/A | 1d20 | x4 |
| Main Tank Gun | $4d12! | 1,000/3,000 | $100,000 | 1 | Dex | N/A | 1d20 | x4 |
| Mounted Autogun | $3d8#! | 500/2,000 | $15,000 | 10 | Dex | N/A | 1d12 | x2 |
| Shrieker Gun | $2d6^# | 100/400 | $10,000 | 1 | Dex | N/A | - | - |
@: This weapon requires an applicable Contact to buy, being generally illegal for open sale
#: This weapon can fire to suppress if fixed to a vehicle or stationary firing position
^: This weapon’s damage is always non-lethal, unless desired otherwise
!: This weapon can inflict Traumatic Hits on vehicles and drones
Drone cannons are heavy semi-automatic weapons too bulky for human portability. A round of firing costs $100 worth of ammunition.
Headshot pods are a family of guided missiles meant for mounted deployment on vehicles or large drones. They always target AC 10 to hit, but require two full consecutive rounds of aiming at a visible target to get a target lock on them and prime for firing on the third round. Any bystanders within 5 meters of the impact take damage as if from a frag grenade. A headshot pod missile costs $2,000.
Main tank gun attacks always target AC 10, and anyone within 10 meters of impact takes 1d20 damage if not behind heavy cover. They cannot be mounted on aircraft or anything smaller than a tank. Each round costs $1,000.
Mounted autoguns are a drone cannon’s big brother, for larger platforms. Each round of firing costs $100.
Shrieker guns are sonic cannons used for crowd control and non-lethal suppression. While highly effective against unprotected targets, military-grade ear protection or the integral dampers in cyber-ears are sufficient to render the weapon useless.
Vehicle Mods
Vehicle mods generally require both Fix and Drive skills to build, install, and maintain. Vehicle mod costs are expressed as percentages of the vehicle’s base cost, not including any fittings or weapons. Unless specified otherwise, a vehicle mod can be installed only once on any given vehicle.
| Mod | Skills | Cost | Special Components |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augmented Armor | Fix-3/Drive-1 | 25% | 1 |
| Drone Hub | Fix-1/Drive-0 | 10% | 0 |
| Extra Seating | Fix-0/Drive-1 | 10% | 0 |
| Integrated Magazines | Fix-1/Drive-0 | 10% | 0 |
| Personalized Controls | Fix-1/Drive-2 | 20% | 0 |
| Power System Upgrade | Fix-2/Drive-2 | 25% | 1 |
| Q-Cladding | Fix-1/Drive-2 | 20% | 0 |
| Reactive Defenses | Fix-2/Drive-2 | 25% | 1 |
| Reinforced Chassis | Fix-2/Drive-1 | 25% | 1 |
| Remote Sensors | Fix-1/Drive-0 | 10% | 0 |
| Supplementary Tanks | Fix-0/Drive-1 | 10% | 0 |
| Ultralight Components | Fix-2/Drive-1 | 20% | 1 |
| Upgraded Speed | Fix-2/Drive-3 | 25% | 2 |
Augmented Armor:
Increase the vehicle’s Armor rating by 3 points.
Drone Hub:
Install a housing that can hold a portable drone on Small vehicles or a non-portable drone on Medium or larger vehicles. The drone can be deployed while the vehicle is in motion. Onboard signal encryption adds +2 to the difficulty of hacking any drone controlled by someone in or adjacent to this vehicle. This fitting can be installed twice on Large vehicles.
Extra Seating:
Increase the maximum Crew size by 1 for Small vehicles, 2 for Medium, and 4 for Large.
Integrated Magazines:
Mounted weapons gain one extra built-in magazine for Small vehicles, two for Medium, or four for Large. Reloading one vehicle magazine takes a Main Action.
Personalized Controls:
The vehicle’s controls are designed for the idiosyncrasies of a specific driver. Once per scene, as an Instant action, they can add +1 to a Drive skill check. Anyone else takes -1 to drive the vehicle.
Power System Upgrade:
Increase the Power rating of the vehicle by 2 points for Small vehicles, 3 for Medium, and 4 for Large.
Q-Cladding:
Disguise the vehicle as another vehicle of the same general type, and hide its mounted weaponry. Replacing the disguise after weapons are deployed takes five minutes.
Reactive Defenses:
Increase the vehicle’s Armor Class by 2 points, but subtract 2 points from its Armor, if it has any.
Reinforced Chassis:
Increase the vehicle’s maximum HP by 25% of its base, but subtract 2 Mass from its maximum.
Remote Sensors:
The driver’s smartphone or headware can tap the vehicle’s sensors as an On Turn action, getting audio and visual from it if no special sensors are installed. This signal can reach up to two kilometers.
Supplementary Tanks:
The vehicle can operate for up to three days of normal driving without refueling.
Ultralight Components:
Increase the vehicle’s maximum Mass by 2 points for Small vehicles, 3 for Medium, or 4 for Large. Its maximum HP decreases by 20% of its base, rounded up.
Upgraded Speed:
Increase the vehicle’s Speed by 1, but lose 20% of its maximum Mass, rounded up.