Forums of the Megaverse®

Hey there! Ho There!

Firstly, as a conversation starter, what do you guys/gals think a good hovercycle recommendation might be for a full conversation cyborg?

2ndly, I'm wondering about mods for a hovercycle. I have an engineer running in this campaign and they are starting to hit a point of unbalancing. They modded 4 laser rifles onto gimballed mounts to the front of a hovercycle. They programmed a computer to be a combat computer to do targeting. Then attacked a laser pointer and used thermal imaging to see which targets are tracked. They are using eclips for the source of lasers. Really cool little setup, and it was interesting to roll it out.

The problem is... they have 4 laser rifles on gimbals mounted to the front of a fast vehicle. haha it's like 24d6. Blowing away just about everything. I just wanted to start a dialog about what other GM's might do or how they would encourage modifications. Maybe a good idea of how to set a precedent for modding vehicles.

PS: Feel free to link me some other threads. Thanks ahead of time!!

Nothing wrong with such an idea in Rifts, that's why Glitter Boys, SAMAS, and Dragons exist.
I have a friend who, in a game he was playing in, convinced the GM to allow him to re-armor his character's Mountaineer ATV. The party was in Free Quebec and the armor used was Glitter Boy, making for an extremely hardy vechicle.

Any of the NG "Turbo" hovercycles are stated to be good for borgs: the NG-480 Turbo, the NG-357 Magnum Turbo or the NG-488 Cobra Turbo if you're allowing "combat hovercycles".

See the bolded portion - I'd assign penalties to speed and handling because of the added guns. Many of the hovercycles in the NG2 book and others already include such penalties for extra weapon systems. Take a look at the kind of penalites they assign and create you own for this modification. I'd personally lean towards harsher penalties as this is a completely new modification and not just adding weapons to an already existing mount. Additionally, as your gimball is on the front of the cycle see also the penalties on the NG-480 Turbo for being 'nose heavy'. Maybe they can work out a way to compensate for this?

Badass. Thank you for the guidance. I'll make sure to encourage mods. Thank you guys/gals!

Actually I'd assign penalties in this case for the extra weight from armor, weapon systems, or any other modification that would add significant weight/mass (so fuzzy dice or streamers I wouldn't worry about impacting performance to much, but mounting an L-20 probably would).

Depending on where they place the weight/mass of the modification, it can impact the center of gravity which would impact handling, if not speed (since most vehicles have some margin form cargo capacity). It might be a good idea also to reduce the cargo capacity of said vehicle.


Something else to keep in mind is what you consider reasonable and why. Sure a player could mount 4 rifles on a powered gimball mount on the nose of the vehicle, but how are the rifles laid out (4x1 or 2x2), and how that effects operations both for the pilot (might the design/placement impair operator field of view and impose piloting penalties) or the guns (just because you fire 4 guns doesn't mean all 4 beams have to hit with all 4 beams, so reduced damage).

If you find it balancing don't forget there are various degrees of laser resistant foes you could send at him/her/them. Against a Glitterboy you'd be doing effectively 12d6, IIRC Impervious to energy also negates laser attacks, the Psi-Slinger (IIRC) in New West reduces laser damage, there are other OCC/RCCs and equipment with similar features to. Now you probably can't use this all the time, but it is one way to balance things out a bit.

Software, or at least complex software (like the player has in play), could have bugs in it that don't become apparent right away (ex. the F-22 when it first crossed the International Date line revealed a bug, heck look at how often you have to patch an operating system or other program for security. So maybe the automated system has trouble tracking fast (or slow) moving targets or "dancing" targets that move around alot, maybe the hardware on the gimball(s) involved here aren't as fast as advertised/believed. Maybe the system has trouble dealing with high number of targets. The sensors can be jammed/disabled (even temporarily, don't forget magic can offer stealth), or what about hacking (not just technological, but also magical or psionically).

Don't forget to that imitators are also possible. If a PC has something figured out, then it is reasonable that NPCs will to once they know something is possible. So they could find themselves facing quad (or whatever) setups on other vehicles. They might also find themselves dealing with people coming prepared with some counter measure(s).