Post-Apocolypse Research Vehicle (PARV)

Background:
One a upon a time, the petty arguments of man over land, resources and, mainly, ideology, finally caught up with his unwieldy use of technology. A long forgotten trigger led Man down the dark path of ultimate bloodshed and the world was finally cleansed in unholy fire and engineered plagues and the use of terrible and forgotten weaponry.

Out of the ashes grew a new world, radically changed and altered by the force of the destruction. Survival meant change and the new world was bizarre and frightening. Over time, some mutations grew into their own rightful place in the world. To some, this meant adaptation. To other it meant a corruption of the true human bloodlines. And more wars began and ended in a cycle unlikely to ever be broken.

At the edge of a large desert, a small village fights for survival against the elements. This village, Omic is a collection of humans and mutants who have come together to live in harmony over the decades. However, the last few years have been tougher as the harmful glow winds and plasma storms have become more frequent. The desert itself has begun to encroach upon the farmlands.

A band of adventures has come together to traverse the desert to seek either the cause of the change or help that may lay beyond the farthest anyone has traveled. It is on this quest that the band found a small series of buildings cut into the stone face of a blasted mountain. There, they discovered the remains of a think tank on human survival. Inside, they found plenty of food and water and a giant land vessel of the ancients.

PARV (Post Apocalypse Research Vessel) - A titanic vessel for work in a post-apocalyptic world. Powered by two fusion generators, this behemoth was designed to operate in just about any environment as a mobile base for scientists to study a reshaped world for extended periods of time. It contains power, food and medical supplies for months on end. They also anticipated that anarchy might become the law of the land, and thus outfitted her with state-of-the-art defensive weapons (TL6).

This band of stalwart adventures has figured out how to drive the PARV and plan on taking it back to their village in hopes of saving their people.

However, a group of Blood Warriors, ragged bands of thugs that wander the desert, have picked up their trail and descended upon them just as they drove the PARV out across the desert.

A running battle begins.

Setup:
A large table top. At the facing end of the table (e.g., the direction the vehicle are going) several quarter plates should be set. Ideally, the entire end, in one column would have quarter plates running across it, like a finish line for the racers. These will be used to detail oncoming obstacles.

In the middle of the battlefield is the giant PARV.

The Blood Warriors start out at the back in whatever formation they desire.

Objective:
Game lasts X turns. The Blood Warriors must control the PARV at the end. Secondary Goal could be to simply destroy it.The Omic Villages must control the PARV at the end.

PARV (Post-Apocalypse Research Vessel):
This is really a small base on wheels. I'm thinking that it should have multiple levels inside and out, so parts of it should disassemble to reveal an interior. The interior should have multiple small rooms; Lab, galley, bunks, computer area, a tiny mech area, ideally with a small rover vehicle. The whole thing should be at least the size of two baseplates. Maybe bigger. I do picture at least a partial flat top - maybe for landing a small flyer. The outside should have lots of ways for people to hook on and get aboard. Sort of reinforced cage around the main part of the PARV. This would allow lots of handholds and footing on the outside.

There needs to be some gunnery stations about the vessel as well, but they should have some blind spots. Plus, the adventures get negatives to operate them. It should come down to the decision to either use a weapon you're not familiar with or go outside on the roof and shoot with your trusty Hawkeye special. This, of course, leaves you vulnerable to the Blood Warrior attacks.

PARV: RAN
The PARV runs on many computer systems. Of the them, the one concerned with here, is the Radar Assisted Navigation (RAN). This is a front or top-mounted device that scans around for debris and obstacles that may hinder the PARV as it tears across open plains. As long as it's functional, no obstacles will appear in the PARVs path. If, however, it is damaged or knocked out, then the PARV become susceptible to On-Coming Obstacles (see below).

Blood Warriors:
Typical Mad Max fair here. They're brutal and plentiful. Their vehicles should be light and speedy with weapons mounts from the movies. The should have chains and grappling hooks as well. The PARV has way too much mass for them to slow down, but they can board it. Most of their weaponry should be small arms to machine guns with a special or two extra they've picked up from the desert.

Speed and How It's Simulated:

This game is a little different in that all combatants are already moving at a fast rate of speed. While it would be nice to actually have a long hallway to depict the length of travel, in most cases this cannot be true. So, we simulate this by assigning rates of speed relative to the PARV. The PARV remains stationary, but is considered to be moving 20" per turn. Other vehicles are considered to be moving relative to the PARV. So a dune buggy traveling at 22" per turn, is really moving 2" per turn (22 - 20 = 2). If you are moving slower then you must move backwards the relative value. A vehicle moving 18" per turn, moves backwards 2" relative to the PARV.

In all other respects, each vehicle which is considered to be traveling its full speed. So all normal vehicle rules apply as for turning, stopping, crashing (So, you hit something, you do it 22" not 2").

On-Coming Obstacles

Because everyone flying across the desert, there's a significant chance that something substantial will appear on the horizon giving the players only a turn or two to react. This debris; big rocks, boulders, whole rocky outcroppings; can appear intermittently and, often without notice, because you're watching the battle and not the road.

Let's assume 10 Zones of quarter plates across the end, numbered from top to bottom. The middle two plates should align with the PARV. These plates, No. 5 and 6, will never have debris appear, unless the RAN stops functioning, hence the dotted lines to indicate smooth sailing for the PARV [This is more Off-The-Cuff (OTC) Charting on my part]

Random Obstacle Appearance Chart

Each turn, roll a 2d10.

01-60 = Nothing
61-70 = 1 Zone
71-80 = 2 Zones
81-90 = 3 Zones
91-00 = 4 Zones

Now roll a 1d10 to determine what zone debris will appear in, using the numbers in the figure. While RAN is running, any roll of 5 or 6 is empty and is not rerolled or replaced. (See, RAN can be sort of double edged sword for the Blood Warriors.) Zones that are contiguous might have larger rocky outcroppings, but should not have the ability to drive in between.

I feel like there should be a further chart detailing what kind of rough terrain is encountered. Even if it's just random, like:

01 – Small boulders
02 – Large boulders
03 – Slick Mud
04 – Heavy shrubs
05 – Sarlac Pit
06 – Cute Baby Ducklings

Obstacles move backwards at the same rate as the PARV is moving (A and B in the Figure). If a vehicle occupies that space or anywhere in between, the driver does get some reaction rolls, but collisions can occur resulting in groovy explosions and much hooray!.

Keeping On-Track:
The PARV is a lumbering beast and can't really navigate all that well. So, there should be some serious penalties if the driver wants to deviate from the straight, computerized course. It does need a driver, but as long as RAN is running, it's smooth sailing as far as natural formations go. The intervening Blood Warriors are another matter. If the driver wants to try to crush a small vehicle, swipe a truck or ram something, then he has to override RAN.

This has a two-fold effect. First, a Random Obstacle Appearance Chart roll and a Control Roll.

If the driver wants to deviate the PARV's course, then for every 2" of deviation, a turn of rolls on the Random Obstacle Appearance Chart does *not* exempt the PARV from it's smooth sailing status and obstacles can appear. In other words, if Timmy wants to run down a biker and swerves the PARV 4" to the right, then for the next 2 turns, when the Random Obstacle Appearance Chart is rolled, any debris appearing in Zones 5 or 6 is NOT considered empty and can result in damage and/or more swerving to avoid it. This can lead to a cascade event wherein the PARV player is constantly swerving to avoid more and more debris.

The Control Roll should be made on any deviation greater than 2" in a single turn. If the driver fails the control roll, the PARV is out of control for the next turn. It will randomly execute a 1d10: 01 – Turn 2" Right
02 – Turn 2" Left
03 – Turn 4" Right
04 – Turn 4" Left
05 – Continue Straight
06 – Turn 6" Right
07 – Turn 6" Left
08 – Turn 8" Right
09 – Turn 8" Left
10 – Roll 1d10 Damage Table

Units unprepared for a sudden turn (especially units that might be outside, on top of the PARV) should probably roll against falling off or stumbling around. Appropriate negative modifier should be applied to those units firing weapons to and fro the PARV as it swerves around.

Damage Roll

This is 01 – Steering Damage
02 – Tracking Damage
03 – Wheel Damage
04 – Wheel Damage
05 – Braking Damage
06 – Acceleration Damage
07 –
08 –
09 –
10 –

Other Optional Rules

The Weather:
There are two types of weather that are worth noting. Sand Squalls and Phase Winds. Weather could be generated randomly (i.e., whenever someone rolls a number twice in a row; Create a 1d4 chart, etc.) or you could draw a map detailing the entire journey and place "weather events" about ("Valley of the Phase Winds").

Sand Squalls drives vast amounts of sand and fine debris around the battlefield reducing visibility and hindering movement. Inside the PARV, it's a cozy time, but outside it's not so nice. RAN can see through Sand Squalls and, therefore, does not need to slow down or change course.

A sand squall will last 1d6-1 turns (with a minium of 1)

Phase Winds are mutated weather from some of the superweapons used in the Apolcopypse. They're are short gusts of cold plasma that shoot around the atmosphere, usually in warm, dry regions like a desert. No one knows why. Like lightening, they randomly hit people and things in an effort to get to the ground.

Striking a living unit, they do 1d6-1 damage and move on. Anyone touching a victim of a strike, also takes 1d6-1 damage. The real damage that Phase Winds do is to electronic equiptment. Any unhardend electric equiptment takes 4d6+2 damage, effectively wiping out comptuers, robots and complex system like the RAN.

_{ALL WORKS © WAYNE MCCAUL. BRIKWARS © MIKE RAYHAWK.}