Ground Vehicle Engine S.D.C.

[Mantisking]

I've been working on ideas for the Vehicle Creation System lately. One of them is a table listing the S.D.C. of all the different engine types. At first I based it on Speed Class and had a different value for each level. Too unwieldy.

Then I stumbled across the note at the bottom of the left hand column on page 148.

(Both 8 and 9 will shoot through a car's engine block.)

Tissue Damage Rating (T.D.R.) level 8 does 5D10+6 damage for a mean of 33.5. T.D.R. level 9 does 6D10+6 for a mean of 39. Average the two and you get 36.25. So, I came up with the following.

Speed Class 0 engines have 12 S.D.C. Engines from Speed Class 1 to Speed Class 16 have 36 S.D.C. Engines from Speed Class 17 to Speed Class 24 have 60 S.D.C. Engines of Speed Class 25 and 26 have 108 S.D.C.

Questions, comments?

[Guest]

well, the obvious, why shoot the engine when tires/drivers are more tempting targets...heck even the gas tank...

but then I get back on topic, a high revving, finely tuned engine such as the type you would need to get a car up into the higher speed classes would certainly be made of strong stuff, in the block anyways...

but as you get farther from the combustion chambers things need to resist less and less stress...

a .45 to a cylinder head will effectively kill an engine

a 9 mm could punch a clean hole right through an intake manifold, killing compression, and stopping the car

a .22 could sever hoses, puncture radiators, or even lodge itself in a battery, would would not be a good thing...

if you actually got a rifle round through the body work accurately enough to hit a cylinder wall though, best case the engine dumps fluid out the side, one cylinder stops hitting, and the balance gets thrown off, lunching the connecting bits...

worst case, the cylinder detonates, fracturing the other cylinder linings, and the whole things comes apart explosively...


I wouldnt say an engine would have much more than 100 S.D.C. they are made to contain forces, and transform them, not withstand impacts...

much easier to armor the engine bay anyways...

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

overthink.
this is all covered very simply in the book.

[Mantisking]

Originally posted by RoadWarriorFWaNK.
Overthink. This is all covered very simply in the book.

I don't think so. What if you don't want to use the Optional Critical Damage Table? What if a player decides to shoot through the engine block with a Model 87 Barrett? How much damage does the S.D.C. of the engine "siphon off" before the round goes into the crew compartment?

[RoadWarriorFWaNK]

i throw out an arbitrary number. If they dont argue, it sticks. if they do argue, i ask them what they think. if what they think takes too long to tell or is lame, i go back to the arbitrary number.
you can use that formula to GM anything!

[Guest]

thats what Im saying..

a cast iron block, lower compression 4 banger has more material between the cylinders, and less stresses...

the 627 HP 6.0 V-12 in the mclaren F1 is finely tuned, and under alot of finely balanced stresses...

a gun shot might take out a cylinder in a 4 banger, which could limp around on 3 pots...

but that would throw the balance off in the highly tuned raceworthy V-12, which could cause the whole thing to fly apart catastrophically.

[Mantisking]

Originally posted by macksting.
Personally, I'm thinking that higher speed classes, despite the engine oftimes being made of tougher stuff, might have more delicate engines; the materials might need to be strong but thin to get the cylinders in and out and mobile fast enough to drive a the car at, oh, two-hundred miles per hour.
I have absolutely no idea how durable a NASCAR engine is when compared to a VW's four-banger; no clue which can take more actual impact. However, my bet is the VW four-banger is more likely to keep running, even if it can't move with only three cylinders. And after all, SDC is a measure of when an object stops functioning, right?

Originally posted by Colonel Angus.
Thats what I'm saying. A cast iron block, lower compression 4 banger has more material between the cylinders, and less stresses. The 627 HP 6.0 V-12 in the McLaren F1 is finely tuned, and under alot of finely balanced stresses. A gun shot might take out a cylinder in a 4 banger, which could limp around on 3 pots. But that would throw the balance off in the highly tuned raceworthy V-12, which could cause the whole thing to fly apart catastrophically.

Which is why you combine the Engine S.D.C. with the Critical Hit Table. This gives you an amount for total destruction of the engine, and a list of side effects in case of a lucky shot.