Vehicle+Rules

The following rules govern the use of vehicles in combat.

Vehicles, like characters, are located inside zones. Characters who share a zone with a vehicle may use their action to enter that vehicle, acquiring an appropriate aspect in doing so. This may or may not require a roll, depending on the circumstances. Some vehicles are large enough to contain entire zones. This does not significantly affect the rules that govern them.

Characters in vehicles are either drivers or passengers. Each vehicle may only have one driver, but the maximum number of passengers depends on the vehicle. The driver must take a supplemental action each turn in order to operate the vehicle. If he does not, then he becomes a passenger and the vehicle has no driver. Simply ignore any rules that reference the driver in that case, or assume a value of 0 for his skill when that is not possible.

Characters inside a vehicle must remain inside that vehicle unless they take an action to leave it (and remove the relevant aspect). Since vehicles have set locations, this often means that a character inside of a vehicle is stuck in their zone. However, the driver of a vehicle may move the vehicle a number of zones equal to the result of a Driving skill check each time he takes an action. When a vehicle moves, everyone inside moves with it.

Vehicles provide armour and can be used as weapons like other equipment. The armour applies to everyone inside, but the vehicle can only be used as a weapon by the driver. Attacks with vehicles use the Driving skill.

All those inside a vehicle may have their skills limited by the Driving skill of the driver. GMs should use their discretion when determining if a skill is modified or not. In addition, the driver can substitute his Driving skill for the defence skill of anyone inside the vehicle against melee attacks made by those outside the vehicle.

Each vehicle has two statistics not possessed by most equipment. These are Durability and Maneuverability. Maneuverability modifies the driver’s Driving skill for all purposes. Durability dictates the difficulty to hex (or otherwise sabotage) a vehicle and that vehicle’s stress capacity. Some vehicles also possess the equivalent of Toughness powers and/or innate armour.

Vehicles can be attacked just like characters. They defend against attacks with their driver’s Driving skill. They take stress and consequences just like characters. The effects of a vehicle’s destruction upon its inhabitants are highly variable and should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Living mounts may also be treated as vehicles. Use Survival instead of Driving in that case. A mount’s Maneuverability is equal to its Athletics skill, and its Durability is equal to its Endurance skill.

If a character’s mount is another character, then things are simpler. A character must take an action to mount/dismount from another character and so gain/lose a relevant aspect, as above. They cannot move as long as they are mounted, as above. And they may substitute their mount’s Athletics for their own when defending against attacks. Ignore everything else printed above.