Podracer rules. (Erly draft version)

[Ravenarchon]

Hey all. Hope this is the right forum. I'm working on an idea for podracer rules and I thought I'd share what I had so far and get some imput if anyone's up for it.

I looked around both this and the tools forum, and went back through all the pages, and didn't see anything about racing or podracing. If anyone's already done something like this, point me at it and I'll take a look.

Basicly I'm doing this for two reasons. 1. Because I thought the podracing scene in episode 1 was flipping awesome. Say what you want about the movie, but I <3 the pods. 2. Because in general I've been trying for a while to make racing rules that could encompass a whole session of a game, and not just a chase mechanic for like one speeder bike chase through a canyon or something.

Lastly I should say this is just an erly draft of my latest idea, and I still need to read the core book through again (since it's been a while since my last read), so some of the rules might be... off.

Anyway here's what I have so far.

Ideas for podracing mechanics.

The basis of this system involves trying to make a deeper and more involved racing mechanic so that it can become and entire session unto it's self, not just one quick encounter between fights or action scenes.

The Track.

The track is divided into 'Steps'. Each step is a stretch of the track. The GM can add hazards and challenges to each Step in the track, and over the course of the race as each racer reaches them in turn, they'll react to whatever's in the step. These hazards can also be effected (for example the piloting difficulty may be higher), based on the number of steps the pod gets in the round they move into the step with the hazard (in order to show it being harder to react to things when going faster).

The Engines.

The core of the system. Podracers have a normal move and speed like all speeder scale units, but they also have a die code for their engines based on a conversion from the afore mentioned speed. They also have boost systems which can enhance this die code, but at a higher cost. For example a pod engine such as 'Xerotech 1337 Turbodine Impeller" might have a die code of 4D, with boost of 2D.

The way this works is at the beginning of each round of the race all the racers roll their engine code. They then move up a number of Steps on the track based on the result of this die code. For example if the racers roll 15, 4, 23, 10, and 25 respectively, then they may move up say 3, 1, 4, 2, and 5 steps respectively. Keeping track of the Steps and which Step a racer is in allows the GM to track who's passing who and where they are in relation to challenges like sharp turns and jumps, and things of that nature.

The Boosts.

The racers also have the option of adding their boost to their roll. The boost is directly added to the pod's engine die code when rolling to move steps at the start of a round. So if an engine has a die code of 4D and a boost of 2D like the above example, then normally you would roll 4D for the engines, but with the boost you'd roll 6D, possibly giving you the needed edge to pass someone even when they're already ahead of you.

The Risk.

One should be careful when using the boost however because with the boost comes some risk. Whenever the boost is used it causes the engines to overheat based on the result of the engine + boost roll, and the current coolant systems used. For example if you roll 4D engine code + 2D boost and the result is 18, then that may cause a Moderate overheat. When your engines overheat you do a body check against the overheat (in this case Moderate difficulty), and add your coolant die code (another new component) to the body check when making this roll. If you fail the roll your pod is damaged one or more steps depending on how much you failed the roll by (as if it was hit by a weapon).

If you boost more then one round in a row then the difficulty increases by an amount for every additional turn. For example on the second turn the new difficulty from the resulting engine roll may be +5, or one difficulty higher (for example difficult instead of moderate). This continues to go up for every turn you continue to boost.

Repair.

Another new component is the repair system. Episode 1, and the resulting podracer video games showed that apparently one can repair their pod even while driving. You can not repair and boost in the same turn as the engines can't be taxed while they're repairing. Repairing involves making repair checks to fix the podracer as per the normal repair rules. This counts as an action during your turn so any resulting pilot checks with take the normal additional action penalty.*

*I'm unsure about this section as I can't remember the repair rules off the top of my head at the moment. So pod repair may have to be done differently.

Modifications.

I don't remember how normal vehicle modifications work, but the idea I have at the moment is that you can do checks (repair maybe?), and pay money to add pips to existing systems. Like bring the engines from 4D to 4D+1. The higher the die code for any system already is the harder and more expensive to upgrade it another pip.

Other then these changes it would mostly play out like a normal piloting/chase scene. Pilot rolls to avoid crashes and dodge things etc etc. If tracks are designed well enough I imagine a race could take up a whole session with players planning out to take the next turns, and timing their boosts for straight sections and stuff like that.

Wut'chall think? Seguestions/recommendation are welcome.

[Zarash]

Looks good but you lost me on the movement. I would do opposing rolls. For example if 5 different people are racing I will throw out random dice codes here, player 1 has 3d, 2 has 4d, 3 has 4d, 4 has 5d, and 5 has 6d.

Now they all roll to move player one rolls 10 with 3d, 2 rolls 14 with 4d , 3 rolls an 8 with 4d , 4 rolls 18 with 5d , and 5 rolls 15 with 6d.

So this ends up with a 10, 14, 8, 18 15. Take the highest roll and subtract it from the lowest. So player 4 has the highest roll and player 3 has the lowest. Now take 18-8 = 10 so player 4 moves 10.

Now you can do the rest but how we are doing this is a bit different as the highest player moves 10 first. Now we can take player 1, 2 ,3, and 5 and figure out their moves.

Move the 4th players pod 10. He had the highest roll. Player 1 rolled a 10 so 18 - 10 = 8. Now player 1's pod will be 8 behind the 4th players pod.

Player 2 rolled a 14 and 18-14= 4 so player 2's pod is going to be 4 behind Player 4's pod.
Player 3 rolled an 8 and he is the slowest so actually his pod will not move at all.
Player 5 rolled a 15 so 18-15 =3 so player 5's pod is going to be 3 behind player 4's. This may or may not work just going to have to test it out.

You maybe can have them use the boost only 1 time per lap and only let a player roll his boost if he rolled lowest score and add the boost on to his roll after he has rolled. So if someone is really lagging behind and they have not used their boost they can do so. Only a player with the lowest roll can use their boost or something to that effect.

[Ravenarchon]

Hmm... That seems to overcomplicate it some, requiring subtracting everyone's roll from each other and stuff. It's basic math but doing it every round to figure out who's moving where could get tedius. Maybe.
It is an interesting idea, and I was looking for more ways to make it seem like the players were actually rolling against each other.

Anyway I guess I should explain better how my idea for move worked. Basicly either there would be a set check for this, or it could vary by track, but the amount you move in a round is directly related to how well you roll with the dice on you engine check. For example if you roll 1-5 you may move 1 step, 6-10 would be 2, 11-15 would be 3 steps, and so on.

In this example it basicly boils down to: start of each turn everyone rolls their engine's die code (plus boost if they want), and for every multiple of 5 their total exceeds they get to move 1 more step.

The rolls aren't exactly opposed because in reality the other person's speed doesn't effect yours in a race, even tho you are trying to go faster them him. Going faster yourself doesn't make him any slower.

Also I really don't want the gaps to get to large, because generally races (especially dramatic ones), everyone is about a stones throw from each other. Having one person move 10 steps, and another person move none at all may create a gap, that the second person can never recover from. Especially if it happens twice.

Still thanks for the imput and I will onsider this or perhaps something like it. I was looking for ways to make the opposition of the other players have more effect on each other.

[Zarash]

Ahh ok I follow you on the movements now. If I can think of anything else to help I will post when I can.

[Luwingo_Spince]

I know their is a D6 adventure that had speeders in a large arena almost like a huge demolition derby. It might have some rules you could use.

Plus I remember it had some pretty cool obstacles you could use.

I wonder if anyone knows which adventure I'm thinking of....

I'll have to check my books

[DarthMortis]

It's interesting that you posted this at the time you dide, because me and some friends were just talking about this at our last game session. I'll keep an eye on this thread and see if I can help out any with any kind of suggestions.

I was thinking that Dex might be required to race in a pod race, because Anakin said "I'm the only human who can do it" not sure if that's the exact quote, but yeah. Maybe there should be a minimum Dex score you need, like 3D+1 or so, and if you have sense it adds to your Dex attribute for this purpose only.
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"I believe the Jedi are weak so they give up their emotions. I believe the Sith are weak so they give up to their emotions. I lay somewhere in the middle, not afraid to keep my emotions, but afraid to lose myself in them." - Daroth Mortanis

[Ravenarchon]

Well glad to see some people have interest in this other then me. I've been working on it a bit more and I have some new ideas I think.

Podracing I think (as DarthMortis said) should be a DEX skill instead of... MECH is what most piloting is right? The podracers are fairly archaic even by SW standards in terms of technical requirement. It seems to rely less on slave control and computers and more on two handle bars and the pilot's twitch reflexes.

Also I was thinking non-force sensitive humans should get -1D to their skill. Because humans don't have the senses or extra limbs required to pilot as well as other races in most cases. I may use some other way to handicap it. Like DarthMortis's idea of having a minimum requirment of DEX over 3D.

Secondly I was thinking of how I was doing the engine check, and I decided it seemed a bit odd to roll a check for the engines. Are the engines getting diferant amounts of power each round or something? Anyway instead I'm thinking maybe the check difficulties for how many steps a pod can move should be engine based (each engine has it's own 'step chart'), rather then based on the track, and you roll your pilot check against the engine's step chart to see how many steps you move.

This shows the pilots ability to get the most out of his engines, and cut corners, and powerslide, and use the breaks at the right times. That sort'a thing. It almost means the pilot himself matters as much in the speed as the engines do. Which I like.

The boost system would then be a number of dice you could add to your pilot check, with the coolent system comming into play from there as per my original idea.

Anyway I've got some good ideas for how this would all come together. I'm hoping to write up a detailed page soon for like 'Podracer Rules v 0.1a' or something.

[Gry Sarth]

Here's the topic I started after playing a podrace, hope it's useful:

http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=497

Some comments on what you've written. I think you're basing your system too much on the Racer video game. I don't personally think that's the way to go, those mechanics were created for an arcade game, RPG should be more "realistic" than this. As far as what we see in the movies, podracers don't have boost systems, and you can only perform some very small and specific repairs while in motion. Plus, I think moving the driving skill from MEC to DEX is really going against the system. In D6 good pilots have high MEC, and that's it. Regarding speed, I think rolling for your speed every round creates a very erratic movement that isn't very reflective of how a podrace goes. If the pod is fast and the pilot can handle it, then it will go fast every turn, it should be speeding up and down based on luck.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Whill]

I think that pod operation should be an advanced skill with multiple prerequisits. It should be a Mechanical skill and the primary prequisit should be repulsorlift op. So then the first rule is that if you don't have the (A) pod operation skill you can't fly them at all. Period. And you have to have a min repulsorlift of, say, 5D. So operating a pod would use your repulsorlift op + your pod op, and the difficulty #s should be high.

Normal max Dex for humans is 4D. I think another prerequisit of having the advanced pod op skill should be having a 4D+1 Dexterity. This would correlate to the dialogue in the movie that Anakin is the only human who can do it, and that above normal "reflexes" are needed. That dialogue implies that humans cannot normally do it at all, but Force-users can enhance their attributes. So if human and not a Force-using, you can't fly pods. 4D+1 can be min Dex to even have the mechanical pod op skill, and the only exception in if force-sensative. And if our D6 interpretation of any of the pod racing aliens seen in the movies have a max Dex of less than 4D+1, simple solution: raise their max Dex to that so the species allows for having a Dex higher than than the max Dex for humans.

And the same (advanced) pod operation skill could be added to repulsorlift repair checks for in-flight repairs and juri-rigs.
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[Ravenarchon]

Whill: I had actually been considering recently making podracer an advanced skill based around repulsor ops, but I hadn't really considered adding DEX in that way as a prereq. I wanted DEX to effect it somehow, but I hadn't thought about that exactly. Hmm... I think I may go with something like that. Maybe have the prereq be 4D+1 OR Force Sensitive + high repulsor ops. Kind'a like you were saying.

Gry: That does actually look like it worked pretty well. I do have a question about it tho. If sounded like you guys each played several pods. And that several of them did fall totally behind. Would this same system be as exciting if you only controlled one pod? I'm not sure why it wouldn't be, but something about it seems that way. Tho my idea could have that same issue.

I don't know, you guys might be right. I could be over thinking this. Maybe the real skill in making a podrace scene exciting wouldn't be rules based, it would simply be in the GMs skill to make an exciting course to run through. Hmm... Maybe that's it right there. The key to making a good podracing system could be all about the course. I shall have to give this some more thought.

[Gry Sarth]

To answer you question, yes, playing just one pod in that sort of race IS very exciting. If I remember correctly, the two NPCs I was controlling quickly fell behind r were destroyed, so I was left to control just my own character for at least half the race and it was awesome. Actually I think it would be best if everybofy controlled just one character and left the rest to the GM, however that can be a little taxing on the GM...

And I think you're right. Don't get too bogged down in rules. The simpler the better. Just create an interesting track, with some visuals you can show your players. Create some interesting critical points and then just have fun with the descriptions. Rules wise all that's important is that the players feel that they have to risk it they want to win, and that if they risk it they have a good chance of ending up a stain in the wall.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[DarthMortis]