Maximum Speed

An abstraction of both speed and acceleration, a vehicle’s speed characteristic dictates how fast it moves relative to its environment and what maneuvers are available to the pilot. The listed speed is the maximum value at which the vehicle can travel. Vehicles can travel at speeds lower than their maximum listed value.


Effects of Current Speed


When using vehicles, you should always track their current speed. A vehicle may be operating at any speed from zero to its maximum. Vehicle maneuvers can be used to accelerate or decelerate (see Maneuvers on page 226).


Additionally, while a vehicle’s current speed is 1 or higher, certain other effects apply to it (see Table III.2– 14: Vehicle Speeds in Structured Encounters).


Steering


Each round, a vehicle moves a certain distance based on its current speed. The pilot’s job, in theory, is to control this momentum so as to keep the occupants alive.


When your character is piloting a vehicle, they must steer the craft. At the beginning or end of their turn each round, you must have the vehicle move a certain number of range bands based on its speed, as detailed in Table III.2–14: Vehicle Speeds in Structured Encounters.


A vehicle generally goes where the pilot wants it to as part of this movement. However, given that player characters are known for attempting to ignore such petty constraints as safety manuals, road signs, and consideration of the laws of physics, you can always require the pilot to perform the dangerous driving action (see page 227) to reach their intended destination (if doing is possible). Zigzagging through obstacles, turns harsher than ninety degrees, and anything involving safe embarkation or disembarkation without coming to a full stop should almost certainly require the pilot to use this action. If the pilot fails, you, the GM, determine the final position (and condition) of the vehicle, but at a minimum it should veer off course, and at worst, it might suffer a collision with one or more intervening objects. (see collisions)


If a vehicle has more than one pilot, steering only occurs on the turn of the first pilot to act each round. If a vehicle has no pilot who can steer it, it still moves—but it does so at the end of the round, and you determine its location and any objects it might hit along the way.


Collisions


There are occasions when vehicles will run into the terrain around them, or into another nearby vehicle. In these cases, there are two possible types of collisions: glancing blows (minor collisions) and head-on hits (major collisions). Collisions can be mitigated by ship’s or vehicle’s defenses.


In the case of a minor collision, all vehicles involved suffer a single Critical Hit (see Vehicle Critical Hits, on page 231). Subtract the vehicle’s defense times 10 from the rolled on Table III.2–19: Critical Hit Result, on page 230. If the result is reduced to zero or less, the vehicle’s shields or other defenses have nullified the collision entirely, and the Critical Hit is canceled.


In the case of a major collision, all vehicles involved suffer a single Critical Hit as well. Subtract the vehicle’s defense times 5 from the Critical Hit result. If the result is reduced to zero or less, the Critical Hit is canceled.


At your discretion, some particularly large vehicles might be able to ignore collisions with very small vehicles. However, larger vehicles have a harder time avoiding collisions with terrain features.