I'm going to have a car chase in my feng shui adventure tomorrow and I was hoping to get a few good ideas for mechanics. I own no suplements, so if there are rules in there that you can restate that would be great too.
rightn now I'm thinking:
Opposed driving checks between vehicals. winner either closes with the vehical or pulls ahead (depending on intent) by a number of meters equal to twice the difference in outcome.
when the vehicles are in close proximity, combat can take place. make initiative checks when the vehicals are within range and dont have too much stuff (like civilian cars) in between.
The guns skill is capped at the skill of the drivers drive skill for all characters in the vehicle.
"Here's a basic overview of vehicle combat [from Golden Comeback], without stepping on too many IP toes...
Basically, every vehicle has a Pep score, which is just a modifier to the PC's Drive stat. It also has a Wreck score, which is like damage. When the Wreck is reduced to zero, the driver starts making checks to keep the car from ... uh, wrecking.
Wreck is a simplified Damage score. Instead of doing their regular listed damage to vehicles, most firearms do one point of Wreck damage, shotguns do two, and special effects such as Blast schticks may do a point or two more.
Chase rules are simple, too. Whoever rolls highest on their Drive score is the leader that sequence, and three consecutive Drive successes allows the leader to 'escape' the chase if he chooses (leaving the other cars in the dust).
Add car stunts to your liking, and voila, instant chase and vehicle combat scenes! They work well for spaceship dogfights, too. "
[color=darkblue]My advice is don't mess with technicalities such as meters pulled ahead or anything so specific. Not necessary to worry about exact distances. Whoever rolls highest on their Drive check is the Leader for that sequence, which gives +1 AV to attacks and Drive rolls for everyone in that car. You really don't need to add anything more complicated than that, unless you're really into doin' math each round.
I tried those rules from Golden Comeback. I didn't like them. It seems to be rather complicated to introduce the concept of wreck damage and extra
wreck-ratings for certain weapons. Even worse some types of weapons allow adding the outcome, while others don't.
What worked better, at least for me, was treating vehicles like characters
and races like fights.
"Named Vehicle"
give it hitpoints and toughness/armor, depending of it's type:
type: hitpoints (toughness)
motorcycle: 5 (5)
medium sized car: 10 (8 )
big truck: 50 (10)
tank: 100 (12, may not be very realistic, but it will work for the game)
IMPORTANT: don't see these values as laws engraved in stone.
Vary them to the appropreate dramatic feel and pacing you want to
achieve.
the AV to hit the vehicle is the drivers AV + a specific vehicle modifier
(for those you can use the values given in Golden Comeback)
Another tip: The fewer vehicles involved, the tougher make them.
It can be alot of fun, taking them out piece for piece. (Think of
fallig off doors, exploding mounted weapons, burning engines...)
Unnamed Vehicles:
Depending on their number/type go with one of these possibilites:
Give them a certain ammount of hitpoints, but no toughness,
so you can quickly calculate, how much is left of them.
Alternatively just use the outcome rule for mooks.
Think of mooks on motorcycles as common mooks on wheels.
Winning the chase:
Here you can play by the rules in Golden Comeback. But you can
also define certain conditions for a successful escape, etc.
Like "destroy the black limo" or "get to the other side of the river,
though all bridges are guarded"...
Famous examples for "Named Vehicles":
That old Mark IV tank in Indana Jones and the last crusade. This is
definitly a tough one. Named characters sat in it and it gave our hero
alot of trouble.
The rusty truck in Spielbergs "Duel" or the truck from "Raiders of the
lost Ark" (Spielberg definitly knows how to make vehicles important
parts of the action)
Actually, there's a Named Vehicle in one of the Marked for Death scenarios (long out of print). A Buro attack helicopter... can't recall the name, "Roscoe" I think?
This was way before the Golden Comeback vehicle rules. I've seen it done both ways... the GC rules are a bit more abstract but fairly quick if all you want to do is move things along to the next fight scene. Treating each vehicle as a named character will probably make the chase scene longer, as keeping track of damage is a little more involved.
I've also heard very excellent things about how Spycraft handles car chases... I think they use a deck of driving maneuvres or something? It sounded a little similar to the GC vehicle rules, so you might be able to port over at least the abstract stuff fairly easily.