Firing Penalties and Bonuses

The driver of a moving vehicle must subtract 3 from his to-hit roll with any hand weapon Gunners or passengers subtract 1 Pedestrians or stationary characters fire at the listed values In certain situations, pe- destrians may get bonuses for firing from

a non-moving position Firing from inside a moving vehicle is not considered station- ary, but firing from a stopped vehicle is

 

Grenades

Grenades come in a number of types, but all share some similarities They have a simple time-delay switch (1 to 5 seconds), and an activation switch Setting the time- delay takes 1 second, but they can be set ahead of time Changing the time delay also takes 1 second The timer may be replaced with an impact fuse, which sets the grenade off the instant it lands

To throw a grenade, simply start the timer by pressing the activation switch, and throw it The grenade will go off at the end of the turn in which the timer stops If you set the timer at 1, it will go off at the end of the turn after the turn in which you press the switch Grenades fired from launchers are automatically activated upon firing

Thrown and launched grenades take exactly 1 second to reach or impact their target; if you fire a grenade launcher in turn 1 on phase 3, it will hit the ground on phase 3 of turn 2 The to-hit roll is not made until the grenade touches down

The to-hit roll for a thrown grenade is 9 or better on 2 dice But that’s misleading, because even a successful roll will not put the grenade in the exact square you were aiming for, unless you roll a natural 12 On a 12, the grenade lands in the exact 1/4” square you were aiming for Any other die roll is a miss of one degree or another

Any grenade toss that is less than the best possible (a 12), will deviate from the intended target This deviation has two components – Direction and Distance Or, to put it another way, which way did it go, and how badly did you miss?

Grenade Direction Table

Roll 1 die, and consult the following:

1 – Off to the right 2 – Off to the left

3 – On line, but short 4 – On line, but long

5 – Off to the right, and long or short (roll randomly)

6 – Off to the left and long or short (roll randomly)

Grenade Distance Table

How far the grenade lands from the intended spot depends on how badly you missed your to-hit roll If your grenade was both off line and long/ short, roll sep- arately for each distance

Made your roll or higher but rolled less than 12 – 1d−3 1/4” squares in each di- rection called for by the direction roll

Missed by 1 – 1d−1 (treat a 0 result as 1) squares in each direction called for

Missed by 2 – 1d+1 squares in each direc- tion called for

Missed by 3 – 2d−2 (treat a 0 result as 1) squares in each direction called for

Missed by 4 or 5 – 2d+3 squares in each direction called for

Missed by 6 or more – 3d squares (8 squares minimum) in each direction called for

 

If the line of flight for the grenade is diagonal to the grid lines, just remember that each square is 1/4”, and use a ruler to determine the final location of the grenade Example: George thinks an enemy ve- hicle is about to slip out a side alley, so he wants to toss a grenade into the open area where the alley intersects the street George picks a target square and rolls the dice He needs a 9 or better to hit, but rolls an 8 Not bad, but a miss Next George rolls on the Direction Table, and gets a 5 – off to the right, and either short or long He assigns “evens” to long, and rolls another 5 – indi-

cating the grenade came up short, too Next, George consults the  Grenade

Distance Table – “missed by 1” means the grenade is off by 1d−1 squares in each di- rection called for by the first set of rolls, rolled separately George’s grenade is both to the right and short of his intended spot George rolls a 2, then a 3 – so the grenade ends up one square (2−1) to the right, and two squares (3−1) short of the intended target

If a grenade hits a large solid object – like a building or a car – while in flight, it will bounce 1d−1 squares and stop. The direc- tion it bounces is determined by the angle at which the grenade hits the solid object If the grenade hits the object squarely, it bounces straight back toward the thrower If it strikes at an angle, it will bounce off at the

same angle, away from the thrower Gre- nades with impact fuses will not bounce; they will blow up at the point of impact

The maximum range for a thrown gre- nade is 5”, and standard range penalties apply – that is, if your intended spot is 4” to 5” away, there is a −1 penalty to hit, and if your intended spot is less than 1” away, there is a +4 bonus If your intended spot is less than 1” away, you cannot miss by more than two squares in any direction In no case can a grenade end up behind the thrower – if the distance “short” is greater than the dis- tance first attempted, place the grenade at the thrower’s feet A thrower may place a grenade in his own or any adjacent square without having to roll at all

A grenade may be thrown from a moving vehicle at −2. There is no “automatic hit” for adjacent squares, but the +4 point-blank bonus would apply A grenade dropped or thrown from a vehicle could go in any di- rection A roll of 2 or 3 indicates disaster

– the grenade is dropped inside the vehicle and rolls under the seat – or something equally nasty

 

Grenade Types

A wide variety of grenades are available for the discriminating duellist When car- ried, they are all 1 GE each

Concussion Grenade – $40 Does 1 point of damage to all pedestrians and exposed cyclists in a 1” burst effect radius, but has an additional effect on people within a 2” radius Roll 1 die:

1, 2 – Victim unconscious for 10 minutes 3 – Victim unconscious for 1 minute and stunned (unable to operate vehicle or weap-

on controls) for 2 more minutes

4 – Victim unconscious for 10 seconds and stunned for 2 more minutes

5 – Victim stunned for 30 seconds 6 – Victim stunned for 10 seconds 7 or more – No effect

Characters inside a vehicle with intact armor between them and the blast are safe from the effects Characters with a building, wall, or other solid object between them and the blast add 5 Characters in a doorway or window, or in a vehicle which has breached armor between them and the blast, add 3 to their roll

Explosive Grenade – $25 Does 1d damage to all vehicles within a 1/2” burst radius Does 1d damage to pedestrians in a 2” burst radius

Fake Grenade – $5 Looks real, but is only plastic

Flaming Oil Grenade – $75 Creates a 1/2” × 1/2” slick of oil which ignites after 1 phase, just like a standard FOJ slick

Flash Grenade – $150 Any person within 2” of a flash grenade when it deto- nates (night only) is blinded for 1 second Effects are doubled if the victim is wearing LI goggles Naturally, if a character can- not trace line-of-sight to the grenade, he is immune to its effects For this purpose, smoke and paint block line of sight

Flechette Grenade – $20 Does 1d damage to all pedestrians and exposed cy- clists in a 2” burst radius No damage to tires or vehicular components

Foam Grenade – $30 If this grenade is thrown within 1/2” of a fire, it puts out all fire in a 1” square area on a roll of 1 on 1 die If it goes off successfully when inside a car, it puts out all fire in that car, but only in that car The foam grenade can also be used offensively, because it blocks visibility like paint when used on a target vehicle

Impact Fuse – $50 per grenade This replaces the timer and causes the grenade to explode on impact

Paint Grenade – $20 Creates a 1” × 1” paint cloud that is standard in every other way Also available in colors

Smoke Grenade – $20 Creates a 1” × 1” smoke cloud that is standard in every other way Available in a variety of colors

Tear Gas Grenade – $30 Creates a 1” × 1” cloud that lasts one minute Effects on weapon and laser fire are the same as for smoke Unprotected pedestrians and cyclists must roll once each turn they are in a cloud Multiple rolls don’t produce cumulative results – just apply the worst result rolled so far:

1– Victim is unconscious for 5 minutes

2-4 – For 1 minute, victim is −6 to hit with any weapon, and can only crawl at 3 squares per turn

5-6 – Victim is −2 to hit with any weap- on for this turn and 3 more turns

Thermite Grenade – $100 Does 1d damage to all targets (including vehicles)

within a 1/2” radius; has a burn modifier of 2/1

White Phosphorus Grenade – $75 Does 1d damage to pedestrians, half dam- age to vehicles, within 1/2” of the blast It creates a 1” × 1” smoke cloud on detona- tion; fire modifier 2; burn duration 1

Buildings

Breaches and Collapsing Buildings A building is targeted at +10 to hit It’s big and doesn’t move (so the +10 takes

the “stationary” bonus into account) Each building has a DP value indicating the strength of its walls Any weapon doing at least this much damage will produce a “breach ” Lesser damage has no effect

Example: A building has 10 DP A weapon result of 10 points of damage or more will produce a breach at the affected spot However, any number of smaller hits may accumulate without causing harm – there is no need to keep track of building damage that does not create a breach A breach, once created, is identical to a door or window for game purposes

When a building accumulates breaches equal to its DP value, it will collapse (A DP 4 building falls after four breaches The DP 10 building mentioned above will take ten breaches before it collapses) It does not matter where the breaches are When a building falls, it creates rubble (see below) The fall of a building does not affect nearby buildings – even those with which it shares a wall However, a breach in a common wall will affect both buildings

Everyone and everything inside a falling building suffers as many dice of damage as the building has DP For example, a 6 DP building will do 6d damage to anyone and anything inside

Cars will take this damage to their top armor If any top armor is left after the col- lapse, people inside the car will be safe – trapped, but safe They won’t be able to get out for as many turns as the building had DP They’ll still have to deal with the rubble as pedestrians after they escape from the car

Some buildings will have two differ- ent DP numbers, with the second one in parentheses The first number will be the

number of damage points required to create a breach, and the second will be the number of breaches needed to collapse the building For many buildings, this will be the same number – and only one number will be used But for some buildings, it’s not logi- cal An example is a barn – only a few dam- age points will create a single breach, but it will take lots of breaches to collapse it A barn like this will be described as having 4(15) DP – it only takes 4 damage points to create a breach, but the barn won’t collapse until 15 breaches are made When a build- ing with two DP numbers collapses, use the first to determine the amount of damage it does, etc (see above)

When a building collapses, it becomes rubble No vehicles may enter rubble Pe- destrians may move through rubble at one square per second – moving only on Phase

1 of a turn Rubble takes up the same squares that the building did

Rubble continues to block line-of-sight between roads, just as if the building were still there If the firer or the target is in an elevated position, rubble can be sighted over, however A pedestrian in rubble can fire as though the rubble was not there; he is considered “braced” and gets the +1 bo- nus to hit A pedestrian in rubble may be fired on, but the attack is at −4.

Collapse of a building will also scatter debris When something collapses, take a dozen debris counters and drop them over the disaster site from a height of one foot, redropping any that fail to land on the street

 

Cover

A line of sight may be traced through any door, window, or breach Therefore, a pe- destrian may stand inside a building and fire out He must, however, be adjacent to the door or window for this LOS to be traced

A pedestrian leaning around an edge of a door or window presents a very small tar- get Therefore, although he may be fired at, he has the protection of the wall He is not likely to be hit unless the wall is breached

Example: A pedestrian is leaning out a window, looking for a good shot, when a duellist with a laser tries to take him out The duellist needs an 8 to hit, and gets it The wall has 6 DP The duellist rolls 10 points of damage with his laser The wall

takes 6 points (breaching it); the other 4 go to the pedestrian If the wall had not been breached (if it had 12 DP, for example), the pedestrian would have been unhurt

However, a very good shot can go right through a door or window If the roll to hit is at least 2 better than needed (in the above example, if the duellist had rolled a 10), then both the pedestrian and the wall take full damage

 

Height Modifications

Situations may arise where duellists in cars want to shoot at pedestrians on roof- tops; or a pedestrian gun battle may involve exchanging shots across a street into build- ings Firing at any target that is on a higher level than you is at a −1 for every ten feet of height difference Firing downward is at no penalty, but throwing things (like grenades) is at −1 for every ten feet of height differ- ence Each level of a multi-story building is assumed to be ten feet high Some heights

– a third-story rooftop, and fourth floor or higher – cannot be hit by regular vehicular weapons on street level, unless the firing vehicle is farther away from the target than the target is high Universal turrets and hand weapons are the only way to fire on them

 

Missed Shots

In most cases, a missed shot rockets off into the stratosphere, never to be seen again In a scenario involving buildings, this is clearly inappropriate A missed shot fired horizontally goes in a straight line until it leaves the map or hits an obstacle, like a building If another vehicle or pedes- trian is in the exact line of fire, you can roll to hit, taking into account any additional range penalties and another −2 because you weren’t aiming at him When a “miss” does hit something, it does standard damage

For shots fired upward, roll 1 die On a 1 or 2, the shot hits one story higher than in- tended; on a 3 or 4, it hits two stories higher; on a 5 or 6, it misses the building entirely

For shots fired downward, a miss will overshoot the target by 1 to 6 inches

If you try to put a grenade through a window and miss, the grenade lands at the base of the building below the window you were aiming at

Characters

Car Wars characters are identical in many ways They all take up 2 spaces as vehicle crew members, and they all have 3 damage points and weigh 150 pounds Characters can be differentiated in three categories: skills, prestige, and wealth

Skills

Many different skills are available for characters Some of these skills (Driver, Gunner, Cyclist, and so on) are useful in any Car Wars game Others (Fast-Talk, Street- wise, etc) will be important only in cam- paigns with a heavy roleplaying element

When a player wants to try something that isn’t covered by any of the skills in use in that campaign, the GM should fall back on “roll 2 dice and pray ” In other words: Require the player to roll 2 dice The higher the roll, the better the result

A character with a skill at the base level can use it with no penalties or bonuses Most skills can be attempted, at a penalty, even by those with no training; see below With extra training and experience, a character with a skill at base level (for ex- ample, “Driver”) can improve it to “Driver

+1,” and eventually “Driver +2,” “Driver

+3,” and so on In the course of adven- tures, a character will gain “skill points ” Some skill points can only be spent on particular skills, while others can be spent on any skill

 

Beginning Skills

When first creating a character, you get a few base skills automatically Each char- acter starts with base-level skills in Run- ning, Climbing, and Area Knowledge for his home town

Each character also gets a total of 30 skill points to spend as you wish Each base level skill acquired during character creation costs 10 skill points Each addi- tional skill level costs 10 points up to Skill

+3 Higher levels aren’t possible with the beginning 30 points

You can spend the 30 beginning skill points to acquire three base level skills, or you can get one skill at base level and a second at +1 You could even sink all 30 points into buying one skill at +2, but your character would be pretty one-dimension- al You can also use some of your initial skill points to improve your Running skill

 

Earning Skill Points

Every time a character drives a vehicle into combat and survives, one skill point is earned toward increasing the ability for that vehicle – Driver, Cyclist, etc (Combat is defined as an incident in which a vehicle exchanges fire with foes) The driver of a vehicle that scores a “kill” in combat gets an additional point toward that vehicle skill A “kill” is scored when an enemy ve- hicle can no longer move or fire, either because of a direct attack, a  crash  dur- ing combat, surrender of  the  occupants, or other circumstance The occupants do not have to die Killing a pedestrian does not count as a kill (A bully hiding behind armor should get no credit for zapping a relatively harmless pedestrian with a la- ser!) If a vehicle can no longer move, but still has operable weapons, it is not a kill

unless and until it is forced to surrender If the crew abandons a vehicle or sur-

renders, that counts as a kill If a damaged vehicle escapes to safety, that does not

Entering combat as a pedestrian is worth a general skill point (see below) If a pe- destrian kills another pedestrian (or knocks him out), he earns a point for the skill used in the combat; scoring a kill against a vehi- cle is worth 5 points! If you are firing hand weapons from a vehicle, no skill points are awarded except, possibly, as a referee award for heroic or miraculous shots!

Use of other skills, as per the skill de- scriptions, can earn points toward improv- ing those skills If no specific rules are given for a skill, the referee should simply award a point whenever it is used success- fully in a combat or stress situation

General Skill Points

In addition to the specific points award- ed for skill use, the referee should award general skill points at the end of an ad- venture These points may be applied for any skill, or saved to acquire a new skill at base level Some suggestions for general skill point awards:

Winning an arena event: +3 Surviving an arena event: +1 Conspicuous bravery: +2

Risking your life to save a teammate or friend: +2

Using an unusual tactic: +1 Escaping an ambush alive: +1

Successfully knocking out a vehicle so it can be salvaged: +1

Winning a highway duel: +1

Winning a highway duel when you’re outnumbered: +2

Completing a mission or adventure: De- pends on the length and complexity of the task, but anywhere from +5 to +15 would be appropriate

This list is far from complete Spectac- ular escapes against overwhelming odds, brilliant tactics, or just plain lucky breaks could be situations worth extra  skill points While the players and even specta- tors are welcome to offer suggestions on how many points should be awarded, the referee’s decision is final