Vehicles in the world of Shadowrun provide very much the same function they always have, providing a means of expedient transportation. In the context of shadowrunners in the Sixth World, vehicles provide an exciting component that can be used to enhance a scene, or provide the entire backdrop or context of an exciting chase, fraught with imminent danger. When a scene centers on vehicles, the primary theme is speed. Vehicles are moving fast, the situation is changing fast, and the rules should resolve fast. To this end, the vehicle rules for the Shadowrun focus on resolving vehicle scenes with the same sense of pace.
Vehicles in Shadowrun are defined by a set of statistics that determine their in-game capabilities.
Handling represents the vehicle’s agility and responsiveness. This value is the base limit for Vehicle Tests made where maneuverability is the most important feature.
Speed represents the maximum velocity that the vehicle can achieve—its top-end speed. This value is the base limit for Vehicle Tests that emphasize raw speed.
Acceleration defines how quickly a vehicle is able to change its current speed and close the distance between it and another moving target. The value represents the maximum number of Range Categories that the vehicle can move in a single Combat Turn.
Body represents a combination of structural integrity and size of the vehicle and its resistance to damage. Larger vehicles tend to have more open spaces that are not as high risk when being attacked. Body is used as part of the dice pool that vehicles use for resisting damage, just like a metahuman character.
Armor represents a vehicle’s “toughness,” its ability to take a hit and still function. This does not necessarily represent metal plating attached to the vehicle, but a general resistance to incoming attacks due to the vehicle’s structural integrity snd strength. Armor is the second value (with Body) that forms the dice pool that vehicles use to resist damage.
Pilot is a rating defining the capabilities of the builtin computer piloting system with which all vehicles in the Sixth World come equipped. For any vehicle not being actively piloted by a metahuman, this takes the place of all Mental attributes and Reaction for any tests the vehicle needs to make.
Sensor is a rating representing the suite of information- gathering or detection devices that are built into every vehicle in the Sixth World. Sensor acts as the limit for Perception and other detection tests using the vehicle’s systems.
As most vehicles are a bit less squishy than metahumans, they have a Condition Monitor equal to 12 plus half their Body (rounded up), they ignore Stun damage (though electricity-based attacks are considered Physical Damage to vehicles), and any attack where the modified DV does not exceed the Armor of the vehicle does nothing.
Drones are a different story and have a Condition Monitor equal to 6 plus half their Body.
When it comes to getting from point A to point B, the top speed a vehicle can achieve is not as important as the driving skill, economy, local laws, and traffic between the two points. Because of this, long-distance travel speeds are listed here as an average for different modes of transportation. These speeds are broad average categories, especially for aircraft; gamemasters who want more precise information for their game can investigate real-world equivalents for top speed or cruising speed.
Foot: Moving on foot comes in two speeds over a long distance, walking and hustling. Walking is exactly that and averages about 5 kilometers per hour. Walkers and other foot traffic can travel in a relatively straight line from one point to the next in most urban and flat rural areas if they want. In the mountains or over rough terrain, the movement rate is between half and a quarter of normal. Hustling is faster but gets tiring. Double the overland speed but add in Damage Tests due to Fatigue (p. 172)
Bicycle: As odd as it sounds, traveling by bicycle is not that uncommon in downtown areas or in the barrens of larger cities. Riders can average about 25 kilometers per hour but are usually limited to streets and flat terrain. Bikes can be used off-road but only manage a quarter of the speed. Riding a bicycle for long periods or in uneven or rough terrain can cause Fatigue (p. 172).
Ground Craft: Up until the invention of GridGuide, travel in a ground craft could be a crapshoot. Accidents, construction, variable speed limits, and traffic congestion all made getting from one spot to another take a lot longer than one would expect. With GridGuide, which is in place in most major cities and on most major highways, travel averages 80 kilometers per hour in urban environments and 120 kilometers per hour in rural or cross-country routes. Since ground craft require roads, most of the time these travel rates can be applied using real-world mapping tools (Google Maps, Mapquest, TriPlanner, etc.) and calculating driving distances.
Watercraft: From rafts to super carriers there’s an almost endless variety of craft designed to move on water. Man-powered craft such as kayaks and canoes average about 3 kph in still water but only make a quarter of that when paddling against a strong current—or quadruple that when paddling with the same current. Small powerboats cruise at around 25 kph, larger powerboats cruise around 65 kph, and speedboats can cruise around 130 kph (cigarette boats go even faster, hitting cruising speeds of 200 kph). Yachts cruise at around 60 kph, and larger ships like cruise ships travel at 35 kph. The most important factor to consider when figuring out water travel times is the body of water. Rivers are rarely straight, which means travel distances will always be longer than the linear distance between points, and everything but the smallest lakes have some sort of current—the gamemaster will have to decide how those help or hinder boating runners.
Rotorcraft: Helicopters and tilt-wing aircraft usually have the advantage of flying as straight as the crow. These vehicles average around 220 kph cruising over open terrain. In urban airspace rotorcraft speed drops to about 140 kph, but the distance between locations is linear. In rural airspace tilt-wing craft can get up more speed and can increase their overland speed to 300 kph. The limiting factor for most rotorcraft is fuel.
Aircraft: Travel by air is broken down into three very broad categories, with a fourth category that only exists for purposes of determine long-distance travel times on a more commercial scale. The three broad categories are prop planes, small jets, and large jets. The fourth category includes semi-ballistics and suborbitals, but no one really flies those—they just guide their fall. Almost all planes, with the exception of VTOL craft, need an airfield or long stretch of flat ground to take off or land. Once aloft, they travel point to point in a linear path. Prop planes average around 250 kph for flight time between airstrips. Small jets average about 1,000 kph over long distances. Most are capable of much faster speeds but burn way too many liters per kilometer of expensive jet fuel to be practical for long-distance travel. Large jets, such as commercial airliners, average around 800 kph over long distances.
When a character is piloting a vehicle in non-combat, or everyday situations, no test is required (unless the character is Incompetent, and then hilarity ensues). However, characters in Shadowrun often find themselves in dangerous or extreme situations with vehicles. When that happens, the character controlling the vehicle needs to make one or more Vehicle Tests. When making a Vehicle Test, a character rolls Vehicle Skill + Reaction [Handling] Test. The threshold of the test is determined by the difficulty of the task being attempted. Gamemasters should use the Vehicle Test Threshold Table below as a guide.
Additionally, the terrain in which the vehicle is traveling modifies the threshold of the vehicle test. Apply a modifier to the threshold based on the Terrain Modifier Table at right
The dice pool for the Vehicle Test can also be modified to reflect conditions other than the terrain that could interfere with the pilot’s ability to do her job.
Piloting in thick fog, dense smoke, or heavy rain can limit the time a pilot has to react to incoming events. Apply the proper modifier from the Visibility column on the Environmental Modifiers Table (p. 175). These modifiers are mitigated and neutralized in the same way for vehicles as for other circumstances.
It can be hard to pilot in the dark. Apply modifiers from the Light column of the Environmental Modifiers Table (p. 175) to the Vehicle test. These modifiers are mitigated and neutralized in the same way for vehicles as for other circumstances.
If you don’t see it coming there’s not much you can do about it. Pilots who are surprised get no Vehicle Tests against anyone who Surprised the pilot to respond to actions that come out of nowhere.
Pilots apply their wound modifiers to Vehicle tests.
Busted vehicles just don’t handle well. Apply the vehicle’s damage modifier as a penalty to Handling.
If the pilot is driving with the aid of Augmented Reality, increase the limit of any tests by 1, and if the pilot is driving using Virtual Reality, increase limits by 2. If the pilot is equipped with a Control Rig and is controlling the vehicle while Jumped In, decrease the threshold of tests by the rating of the Control Rig (to a minimum of 1).
Crashes should be a rare and beautiful thing in Shadowrun combat. They could be white-knuckle moments when a player fears his character won’t survive the next few seconds, or the sudden elation of seeing a long-shot dodge pay off, sending the bad guys spinning into oblivion.
Crashes occur during Ramming actions (see Ramming, p. 203), when the driver on a collision course fails a vehicle test, or whenever the gamemaster says so. We know that last sounds arbitrary, but vehicle combat is fluid and fast—things change in a heartbeat, and only the gamemaster can know when the uncontrolled vehicle hits a wall, another car, or a cybered troll and goes crunch.
Vehicle crashes are rare, and though they can be spectacular in many cases they do not involve a lot of damage. When a vehicle crashes, it and any passengers must resist damage equal to the Body of the vehicle. This damage is resisted by Body + Armor – 6 Ap. The damage is Stun if the vehicle’s Body (the base damage) is less than the character’s Armor, and Physical if the Body of the vehicle is equal to or greater than the character’s Armor.
Crashes are mentally traumatic as well. Any character caught in a crash must make a Composure (4) Test, taking a penalty to their actions equal to how many hits they missed the threshold by, for a number of Combat Turns equal to the same number.
In standard tactical combat, a vehicle is treated as an extension of the driver. This happens whenever the mode of transportation is mixed between vehicles and pedestrian combatants, such as the start of a getaway or a drive-by shooting. Movement is based on the movement rate (see Movement Rates Table, below) of the vehicle as determined by its Speed rating on the chart. Initiative is resolved as normal.
Movement rates for vehicles are slightly different than those of metahumans. The driver of the vehicle can adjust her movement rate with the required action to control the vehicle or during her Action Phase but chooses the movement rate at the beginning of each Combat Turn instead of moving by Initiative Pass. The gamemaster should use their own discretion when determining just how quickly a car can change speeds between Combat Turns.
Drivers must spend at least one Complex Action in each Combat Turn driving their vehicle, or the vehicle is considered uncontrolled at the end of the Combat Turn.
Uncontrolled vehicles are unstable platforms; all characters apply a –2 dice pool modifier to all their actions if they are in an uncontrolled vehicle. If the driver does not make a Vehicle Test to regain control of the vehicle in one Combat Turn, one of two things happens. First, if the vehicle has a Pilot rating, the vehicle’s autopilot kicks in and takes the necessary Complex Action to drive the vehicle. If this happens, the autopilot system begins driving with the flow of traffic. Second, if someone has disabled the Pilot program or the vehicle does not have one, it continues to travel in its last heading and is unable to defend against any incoming attacks.
It takes no actions except for slowing down, or if the accelerator is locked, maintaining speed until the gamemaster says it crashes. Vehicles being controlled by GridGuide or an autonav system are considered under the control of their Pilot program.
In most cases, using any on-board vehicle accessories (sensors, vehicle weapons, etc.) requires spending a Complex Action (though there may be some cases where only a Free or Simple Action is necessary, such as turning on/off Sensors or ECM, arming missiles, and so on).
When a combat situation involves two or more parties that are all in moving vehicles, the Chase Combat rules are used instead of the standard combat rules. Highspeed vehicle chases are incredibly fluid, with the participating vehicles constantly varying speed and position. To simulate this, the Chase Combat rules abstract a great deal of the movement involved in order to focus on the action of the chase scene. A Chase Combat Turn has the following steps:
Distance between vehicle (or vehicle groups) in Chase Combat is measured in Chase Ranges. Chase Ranges do not represent an exact or constant distance, but rather a bracket or parameters between which the precise distance varies from second to second as the vehicles jockey for position. The ranges between vehicles can be tracked on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis if precision is required, or vehicles that are coordinating their movements or otherwise acting together can be grouped and assumed to all be at the same range for faster resolution. When making a test to Change Range for vehicles grouped in this manner, one vehicle should be selected to act as the leader for the group.
There are four Chase Ranges that correspond to each environment, as seen in the Chase Ranges Table, p. 204.
Chase Environments define the kind of area in which the current Combat Turn of the chase is taking place. The gamemaster determines when the environment changes. A Chase Environment can either be Speed or Handling.
A Speed Environment is a place where the movement of the vehicle is not significantly inhibited, making maneuvering minimal and high speeds possible. This could be a major highway, open field, calm waters, or clear skies. In this Environment the maneuverability of vehicles is much less important than raw speed. These environments can potentially have very long sight lines (especially on water or in the air), meaning the quarry’s lead may extend beyond the 300-meter extreme range, but the pursuer is still back there and in sight.
A Handling Environment is a place where space is limited and quick reflexes and maneuverability are more important than speed. In Handling Environments, top speed is almost never an option. Typical environments of this nature are winding residential streets, rocky foothills and canyons, a crowded harbor, or flying at street level through a city. These tight environments should also be considered when determining modifiers for passenger actions between vehicles because pedestrians, other vehicles, buildings, and a myriad other things can get in the way of a clear shot.
A driver may perform any of the following actions on their turn, as long as the target vehicle is within the Chase Range specified. All Chase Actions are Complex Actions.
When involved in a Chase Combat, passengers in any of the participating vehicles may take individual actions. However, performing any sort of attack on targets outside of a vehicle while it is maneuvering unpredictably or moving at high speeds is very difficult. If you attempt to attack a target outside the vehicle while using a weapon not mounted to the vehicle, you suffer a -2 penalty to all attack rolls.
When a vehicle is attacked in combat, the driver rolls his Reaction + Intuition as the defense part of the Opposed Test. Drones roll their Pilot + Autosoft [Handling]. See also Rigging and You, p. 266 for tests performed while jumped in.
Whenever a vehicle is hit by an attack, it resists damage as normal, rolling Body + Armor. If the attack’s modified DV is less than the vehicle’s modified Armor, no damage is applied. Note that since many vehicles have large Body dice pools, gamemasters are encouraged to use the trade-in-dice-for-hits rule (4 dice equals 1 hit) to simplify tests. Your average tank, for example, will automatically get 4 hits on a Body Test through that trade in, so there is no point in rolling unless the tank needs more than 4 hits.
Called shots against vehicles follow the same rules as for Called Shots, p. 195. Another option, however, is available to the attacker if the called shot succeeds. The attacker can choose to target and destroy any specific component of the vehicle: window, sensor, tire, etc. The gamemaster determines the exact effect of this called shot based on the DV inflicted. In most cases, the component will simply be destroyed. Shot-out tires inflict a –2 dice pool modifier per flat tire to Vehicle Tests. Note that the attacker is calling a shot at the vehicle and not a passenger (see Damage and Passengers below for rules on targeting passengers).
The rules presented here are primarily for land, sea, and air combat on a close scale with conventional (a.k.a. shadowrunner level) weapons. Air-to-air combat and long-distance naval warfare will be covered in future books; generally, though, action should be focused on shadowrunner and street-level action. If you really feel the need to have a large-scale, long-range combat, use these rules and extend the ranges out to those for assault cannons and missiles. Make sure everyone involved understands the added danger of a ram action when flying 5,000 meters in the air (if that was something they somehow overlooked).