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Winging It! Using Vehicles in Your Game
41 Plays1 month ago
Vehicles don't just get your characters from place to place, they can be storytelling resources of their own, settings, even the characters' home. Daryl, Nick, & Robert throw around some ideas for using vehicles in your games to drive the story (pun intended).
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Transcript
Introduction to 'How We Roll Gaming'
00:00:03
Speaker
D20 Radio, your game is rolled.
Meet the Hosts: Daryl, Nick, and Robert
00:00:17
Speaker
How We Roll Gaming is dedicated to spreading enjoyment of great role-playing games. We hope to bring you insights into games you may not have played, tips to be a better game master or player, and share stories of momentous events at our tables.
00:00:29
Speaker
Every game is a new story to tell. I'm Daryl. I'm Nick. And here's Robert. And this is how we roll.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome back to the How We Roll Gaming Podcast, everybody.
Life Updates: Allergies and Holidays
00:00:47
Speaker
ah we hope that everyone has had a good couple of weeks since our last episode dropped. How about you guys, Nick, Robert? have Have you had a good couple of weeks since we were? A bit. It's been a bit rough for me. I've been having a rough night sleeping, and the do the change in the summer always has allergy problems. But otherwise, doing fine.
00:01:11
Speaker
I've been doing good as well. Definitely understand the allergy thing. It really hit me yesterday, but I've only had to and work half a day this week. So this is I'm actually on the second part of my four day weekend. So I'm enjoying that. Oh, four day weekend.
00:01:26
Speaker
Previous day was ah Juneteenth. And also happy, happy summer. We're in the summer solstice. Today's the summer solstice. yeah Yeah. As we record this. Yes.
00:01:38
Speaker
And it certainly feels like summer. Yes, it does. I mean, we're being mild for summer so far. For summer. In Texas. not on Oh, there's there's no wood for me to knock I got wood.
00:01:53
Speaker
There we go. got Heat-wise, yes. Infinity, though, that's gone up. And yeah I guess ah Avatar Aang is trying to meet up with with the his previous incarnation if we're going by the Avatar rules.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yes.
What are the plans for Free RPG Day?
00:02:10
Speaker
Tomorrow, is as we record this again, is free RPG day. And I have taken a look at all of the goodies, and I have my prioritized list of what I want to get. Hopefully car doesn't... The vehicle you're going in doesn't break down like earlier this year.
00:02:34
Speaker
Don't put that out there. Right, Nick. And that was that was free comic book Comic book day. And um when the tow truck got out there to jumpstart my friend Dave's car, he's like, well, let me go ahead and try it.
00:02:51
Speaker
And it started right up. After us sitting out there for an hour, hour and a half. That won't happen next time. This time. I am taking a quick look at at my list of my priority stuff that I want
Quirky RPGs: Monty Python and Merchandise
00:03:08
Speaker
to get.
00:03:08
Speaker
At the top of my list, I want the Arkham Horror one-shot that they're putting out. um Then next on the list, there's a quick start for the Monty Python RPG that Steve was telling me about at the post-con dinner for Gamer Nation Con.
00:03:27
Speaker
Wait, is it like the It's a Monty Python RPG. No, it's Monty Python. Okay, that opens up a whole lot of cans of worms. I can play a Frenchman and be there always before you.
00:03:43
Speaker
He backed the Kickstarter, so he had everything coming. I've seen a few pieces of it um in the store. ah like they They have... um How overpowered is the Lumberjack?
00:03:56
Speaker
I don't know. I haven't seen stats for a lumberjack, but they have not really a dice tower, but a dice thrower to, to roll dice.
00:04:06
Speaker
That looks like the catapult that launches the cow in Holy grail. Um, I actually, it might be pretty Holy grail focused. I want to say that Steve said that, uh, one of the add-ons that you could get was also a pair of plastic coconuts to bang together, to make the horse sounds.
Media-Inspired RPG Sessions
00:04:25
Speaker
Um, But they have a quick start of that for Free RPG Day 2. Hang on, what what is the full name of this game? It is a very Python-esque name.
00:04:38
Speaker
gotta have the Spanish Exquisition, we gotta have like the the Ministry of Silly Walks has to be thing. We need a rabbit boss fight. Oh no, mean i mean i the Black Knight has to be a thing.
00:04:53
Speaker
So I started out the Black Knight... I statted out the Black Knight and the Rabbit and the Knights Who Say Knee in Genesis last year for my Genesis Star Trek one-shot at Gamer Nation Con.
00:05:08
Speaker
Because my one-shot um it was Star Trek. They were on the holodeck. The theme was Lord of the Rings. They were playing Lord of the Rings.
00:05:18
Speaker
And um when they rolled a Despair... the the program glitched and they found themselves in Holy Grail.
New RPG Releases and Previews
00:05:27
Speaker
Sounds a good idea. And so they, you know, they encountered the Black Knight. They encountered the Knights Hussein Ni.
00:05:35
Speaker
They encountered the Rabbit. And so I statted them out. Okay, I have found it. So the the title is Monty Python's Co-Curricular Medieval Reenactment Program.
00:05:53
Speaker
That is very appropriate. And program is P-R-O-G-A-M-M-E. Oh. So, yes.
00:06:04
Speaker
So it does look like it is very, very heavily Holy Grail influenced. But yes, I i want to pick that up. um There is another G.I. i Joe Transformers crossover adventure called Shock and Mayhem.
00:06:20
Speaker
I've been informed about that because I'm on on the Renegade ah Games Discord. There is a preview for the Marvel Multiverse RPG Avengers sourcebook that's coming out.
00:06:34
Speaker
You're definitely getting that. Complete with... It looks really... I mean, the sort that you shared with me from YouTube, like, yeah, that kind of got me back interested into it.
00:06:48
Speaker
Well, and the preview one-shot for Free RPG Day also includes a Thunderbolts adventure in it. And they've released the PCs, the pregens, online already. Wait, are these or are these the Thunderbolts asterisk? They are the current incarnation of the comics Thunderbolts, which is heavily inspired by the lineup of Thunderbolts asterisk ding.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah. Which is coming out on Digital Ants. I can't that because we aren't sponsored by by Disney Marvel
Free RPG Day Strategies and Car Troubles
00:07:31
Speaker
yet. I mean, we can mention that it's coming, just we don't get paid for We just can't say we're being sponsored by But, my man you know I I did finally, a month or so ago, get my deluxe starter box for the Marvel Multiverse RPG.
00:07:50
Speaker
Oh, it finally came? Yes. Yes. You've got to bring over so we don't look at it. I will. I will bring that over. um And then Modiphius has hard copies of three of their quick starts that are free to that have been free to download. There's a Fallout quick start and a Star Trek Adventures second edition quick start.
00:08:16
Speaker
um I want to get those simply because i have the digital of the Star Trek one I think I printed out the fallout one for myself. but Well, and on their website, you can order hard copies of them, and they're only like $3 or $5, which is totally reasonable. when Shipping for them is like $10. Yeah, so like I just printed out that ah at at the at the local FedEx Bingo's.
00:08:47
Speaker
So i I plan to pick those up. And there's a couple other things that if I can, great. um I'm sure that like the pin of Hank the Ranger from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon is one per kit.
00:09:02
Speaker
So I plan to be at um my Mini War when he opens and see if I can get that pin too. See if he'll give me the pin.
00:09:15
Speaker
If so, you you'll you' don your brass knuckles, and if there's a kid that has it, you will. I have never seen a kid in my mini-war.
00:09:28
Speaker
Oh, okay. on One time. One time, too. That's fair. yeah um And then... I just thought it was stopping by. And then um i also, know, depending on what his ah free RPG day giveaway policy is, you know ah the three of us are going to go, me, Stephanie, and Xander.
00:09:48
Speaker
And ah if he has it limited to one per person, then as soon as we leave there, we will head down to Common Ground and hope that it's not like they were during their anniversary sale on Free RPG Day.
00:10:05
Speaker
And if it doesn't go your way, all three of you will take out your baseball bats. Yes, we'll all pull out our Lucille's.
00:10:16
Speaker
I'll pull out our Lucille's. No, because on free comic book day, um my friend Dave and I were at Zeus Comics, which is in the same shopping center as Common Ground Games. Common Ground Games, great store.
00:10:27
Speaker
Love it. um They have started a membership program in the last couple of years that... During their anniversary sale, their doors open an hour early for their members.
00:10:40
Speaker
And in the past, by the time we have left Zeus around noon, 1230, there's been no more line ah for Common Ground to get in. um They open at 10 for their members and 11 for um general public.
00:10:58
Speaker
And for the viewers at home, I'm just joking. Daryl would win her to fly. And then the this year, when we left Zeus at 12, 1230, the general line was still down past the one or two stores on their end of the shopping center and around the corner of the end store.
00:11:27
Speaker
So if we end up going to Common Ground, I'm hoping that we don't run into that sort of situation. All right. Well, cool. I think it'll be fine. Yeah, we should be fine.
00:11:38
Speaker
We should be fine. And we'll have fun with Lawrence's one of our, he's on our clone wants sister. So basically two is running a special one thought for us.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yep. I, I will unfortunately be missing it because, you know, run around town to get free stuff shenanigans, but... But you did assist in it to use your printer.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yes. But... That's what I have planned for this weekend. and that's Other than that, week just kind the work week has been kind of a
Spotlight on Story Told Podcast and Daggerheart RPG
00:12:18
Speaker
bear.
00:12:18
Speaker
And I know that Robert's gearing up, getting ready to move. Yeah. And so I'm sure that is taking up a lot of time and energy. don't know why I'm not Going anywhere Saturday.
00:12:31
Speaker
still looking for We're hoping for a and really going to have a maybe we not a house party, but are you going to like it do a cool video for us to see the new place?
00:12:43
Speaker
I'll take pictures. How about that? That'll work. That'll work. That'll do. about it
00:12:51
Speaker
But be before we dive into our topic, ah a little D20 radio network business to take care of. It wasn't long ago that we spotlighted the Story Told podcast here on the show.
00:13:08
Speaker
But their latest episode is pretty timely to the RPG space that we wanted to circle back to them. And I've actually had, you like i just said, been a pretty busy work week um since they released their latest episode.
00:13:22
Speaker
But I'm really looking forward to to listening to it because they're discussing Daggerheart, the new system release from Critical Role's Darrington Press.
00:13:34
Speaker
I've heard a lot of great things about
RPG Storytelling Mechanics
00:13:36
Speaker
Daggerheart in the short time that it's actually been on the shelves in its final version. it's the final version. Neat.
00:13:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah. it It's on shelves, and it is selling like hotcakes, apparently. I wouldn't doubt it, especially after Vox Machina. yeah yeah with With every new thing that I hear, the more I'm interested in checking it out.
00:13:58
Speaker
um like I was watching a Bob World Builder video about it the other day. core like $55. It's a set with full rulebook.
00:14:09
Speaker
That's pretty good. like fifty five but it's a box set with thef full core rule but um and i feel very good Like 300 page core rule book and a few hundred cards that are involved in the game. And I forget what all else is in it, but it's one of those. Yeah. Everything that's inside this box, it's, it makes it an incredible deal.
00:14:40
Speaker
Um, So I've been looking forward to hearing more about it. Everything that I hear about it sounds awesome. So everyone out there can join me in giving ah the latest episode of the story told to listen and get their thoughts on what looks to be the new big game in the neighborhood.
00:15:01
Speaker
Sounds like something that we should all take a look at at some point. Oh yeah. And I mean, ah no No lie, if I end up at Common Ground and have to make a purchase to get some of the free stuff, if they've got Daggerheart in stock, I'm probably going to grab it.
00:15:17
Speaker
I try to make a purchase whether I'm required to or not. um but That's only fair. like i Back when I did like free RBG and free Comic Book Day, I was like, I gotta buy something. Yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker
Because it's usually a discount. Even it's just like a single issue or something. yeah so You would leave your abode, Nick? It's just me. It feel right to me. he's like oh yeah ah Leave a place with this stuff for free.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, and and that's part of ah part of why stores do it. So um you know if ah if I end up at Common Ground, I'm going to buy Daggerheart. I know what I want to get at my Mini War when ah when I stop by there, presuming he has it in stock, because Star Trek Adventures released a um released a new book for second edition, of a technical manual.
00:16:20
Speaker
And so and he carries Star Trek Adventures. So if he has the technical manual, I'm going to get the technical manual. If I end up at Common Ground, provided they have Daggerheart in stock, I'll grab Daggerheart.
00:16:33
Speaker
But I think we should get into today's episode. What's today's episode? ap Today's episode is vehicles and using vehicles in your game.
00:16:46
Speaker
um And just for funsies, we call it winging it. Yep, and this is a topic near and dear to all our GM hearts. Yep, and I am the first to admit that except as moving sets, I am awful at incorporating vehicles into my game. So I will be drawing important information ah from this episode as well as just being part of the discussion.
00:17:20
Speaker
Honestly, like I gave some helpful ways to discuss it in three different categories. So let's start with category one.
00:17:31
Speaker
Vehicles with players. This is basically where you give players their own vehicles or they get it. Or and sometimes in some of my campaigns, I've had someone start with a ship.
00:17:44
Speaker
I do this and especially star Wars tells you you, know, they can start with a base of operations or they can start with a ship. Take it even start with a squadron of ships, depending on the campaign.
00:17:57
Speaker
Cause it's Star Wars. You can't kind of need one of those. so Yep. It's kind of part of the, but again, like vehicles and players are very important to a lot of stories to be told. Like think like, uh,
00:18:15
Speaker
Speed Racer in the Mach 5 and Luke Skywalker in in his X-Wing. Or heck, Mad Max. It's all about vehicles.
00:18:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes a character and a vehicle are kind of one of the same. Like, you can't separate Han Solo from the Millennium Falcon.
00:18:40
Speaker
You can't separate Luke from his X-Wing. And there's an example, without going into spoilers of what your other two categories are, Nick, there's an example that kind of fits all three yeah categories that you have, and that is the beloved USS Enterprise.
00:19:04
Speaker
Oh, yeah, definitely. that Honestly, yeah, we can elaborate that more in the and the third act. Of our discussion. Or is more personal. I've been through this week. Playing the Warhammer 40k. Rogue trader game.
00:19:22
Speaker
And that's all about. Having a ship. And going places. Because you didn't have that ship. You couldn't go anywhere. And it's kind of the status symbol of my character. As a rogue trader. But again. There's a multiple of rules.
00:19:36
Speaker
the Across different systems. On how to.
00:19:41
Speaker
work and play with a vehicle some of them are good some of them are bad some of them are ugly some of them we make up yes but i feel like the main factor is like i feel like maybe coming in from a player's perspective it's more interesting ideas like how do you how does a player connect with their vehicle well i that Part of that is going to depend, again, on the kind of campaign that you're running.
00:20:15
Speaker
what Not just the setting of the campaign, but the the flavor of the campaign. So we're I'm going to go back to our tried and true Star Wars.
00:20:29
Speaker
There's a couple of different ways that a player could look at a vehicle. Because the Millennium Falcon is transportation. The Millennium Falcon is also a setting.
00:20:42
Speaker
And the Millennium Falcon is also kind of a fighter. It's a combat platform, for want of a better term.
00:20:53
Speaker
So how... It can house and it can move quite literally the characters to one location to another. And in a story sense, it's also symbol.
00:21:07
Speaker
And in in some ways, it's also its own character. Oh, yeah, definitely. By characterizing. um If you've ever watched episode five, yeah, it's got a personality.
00:21:21
Speaker
Episode five and and solo moment of silence for l three Yep, but I will say, like, one of the things that I've tried to do with earlier groups before you guys were the standard...
00:21:36
Speaker
Back in the in the dark times of the Group 1, 2, and 3 era, my hardest difficulty was to like, so you're going to name the ship, right?
00:21:49
Speaker
It's like, well, we're going to trade up to a better ship. It's like, but you're going name the ship that you have right now, right?
00:21:58
Speaker
Always name your ship. That first ship is like your first car, your first... everything. It's like, it has like, yeah, it's, it has its rust. It has its problems.
00:22:15
Speaker
But she may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts. In a way, a ship, in a way, a ship, at least in Star Wars is like your first real accomplishment, or at least a good thing I go back to is the Old Republic MMORPG.
00:22:32
Speaker
For every one of the character stories you do, the big first act accomplishment is you get your ship. And now you have a way to go anywhere, but it's also like, I have my ship now. I am now a Star Wars character.
00:22:46
Speaker
it's it's a big and It's a big story beat. like It's usually after like a whole planet worth of a story encounters. Which is another point with players.
00:22:58
Speaker
A vehicle can also be
Vehicles as RPG Objectives
00:23:00
Speaker
goal. First and foremost. First and foremost. True. um For instance, if we look at our Cyberpunk campaign, there's Nick's relationship with his car.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yep. Again, I, as a nomad, I do start with a vehicle. And I got to customize it per the rules.
00:23:25
Speaker
But also, I have damage with it is connected to my nomad clan, so I have to do some extra jobs to fix it up after a, after some, uh, rough patches.
00:23:42
Speaker
Yeah. One one draw RPG in the face, but it's part of the storyline. It's part of like, I'm a nomad and nomads are defined by vehicles.
00:23:55
Speaker
And like, they'll help help. so It'll be cheaper for them to fix it than going to anyone else. But I do have to do a little bit more work for them in the background.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, in that type of setting, that works, because Cyberpunk is not like other campaigns. I think even the guy who made it literally said it's like, Cyberpunk is basically a living simulator in the Cyberpunk world.
00:24:25
Speaker
And yeah, you have a vehicle, but That vehicle also requires upkeep, which is going to burn some of your money. Like, say if someone else's character that had a vehicle, one, they'd have to pay for it.
00:24:37
Speaker
And two, they wouldn't have a place to, as part of the mechanics of the game, to more easily fix it up. It would cost way more money.
00:24:50
Speaker
And that's another thing as far as the goal. Like, if in the campaign... One of your players wants to save up enough money to get a vehicle. That can be a great purpose in what they're doing is I need money because I need i want this vehicle and it costs this much amount of money.
00:25:08
Speaker
Going back to Star Wars is like, okay, so you have a starship. It's like, us they're like we need a better starship. But you got your options. You can either upgrade your ship or upgrade to another ship.
00:25:26
Speaker
But for those costs, credits. So you gotta do jobs. You gotta fix things up and get ready to either do you wanna upgrade what do you have or do you wanna upgrade to something else but doesn't have as much that you already put into it.
00:25:46
Speaker
Or you if... the vehicle is your PC group's primary means of transportation, of getting from place to place and effectively venture adventure to adventure, it can also become a roadblock and story generator if, say, their vehicle is impounded.
00:26:10
Speaker
Or a key component is broken and only certain people have any means to fix it. There's a multiple of the stories. i I saw this discussion on, um I believe it was Tabletop Empires Discord, where someone was trying to come up with a Star Wars session for their players inspired by, and this is a beautiful illustration of this kind of thing, the Firefly episode out of gas.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And we're trying to figure figure out how to make that translation. And several of us were like, okay, well, you know, life support is failing.
00:26:55
Speaker
Well, how does, how does that translate mechanically? We came up with ideas for it and it's like, and how do I prevent the problem from being solved by just a mechanics role?
00:27:07
Speaker
a good mechanics role. i was like, well, you have to have the right part. Like Mal says in that episode, you catalyzers and nothing part till you ain't got one. And so when I say like, would say like, okay, you're out of hyper matter.
00:27:23
Speaker
Guess what? You got, you got, guess what? It's the classic idea. Like we're out of fuel and well, yeah, You could jog that way or jog that way, but you have to go get the fuel and do you have the money for it? ah and Oh, and one of the suggestions that I made in that too is, you if you have a part that's completely fried and beyond repair, the mechanics check using the Star Wars system, for example, is upgraded at least once by default.
00:28:02
Speaker
Because you're trying to get your ship running without a vital component. And again, you are, as I get going back to like the fact that you are going to the DM side, like you're the arbiter of that. It's like, how important is this part and how much do you want to keep them here?
00:28:23
Speaker
So it could be like, oh, you could smack it a few times. and fix the part. Or it could be like, oh, it's it's it's impossible. Well, and the the way I see it, based on its name, if we're using the Firefly inspiration, if you go with the Catalyzer, the Catalyzer is the starter.
00:28:45
Speaker
Your car's going nowhere without a starter. Yeah. And it can also be like, defined it as harder than usual, because you may be on an out-of-the-ways place where those parts aren't really available.
00:29:01
Speaker
so good try And you could also try to fix it using your example of the starter being like, okay, you can try and fix it, but if you mess up, it's it's it's done.
00:29:15
Speaker
It's even worse. and like you You could have fixed it, but guess what? If you make one mistake... Boom! is It is done.
00:29:26
Speaker
and You want to risk that? The the players can risk that. In the out of gas scenario, it's not even a matter of you're in a place where that part is hard to come by.
00:29:40
Speaker
You're adrift in the middle of space. You gotta figure that out. and and that would And that could be a cool segue into boss where like the horror, oh, abandoned ship type of position. Or a scavenger ship trying to like, oh, this ship is adrift and it's like, well, they're going to take it. It's like, they don't care if there's people on board on there.
00:30:06
Speaker
And all of which for anyone out there who hasn't seen the episode of Firefly that we're talking about, every single one of those things happens. Yes. there at once.
00:30:20
Speaker
that The Serenity, that the ship, has two shuttles. ah Two short-range shuttles. And one of the crew members is injured on top of that. So we didn't even mention that.
00:30:34
Speaker
So the captain of the ship sends the two the crew in the two shuttles flying in opposite directions hoping to find help.
00:30:46
Speaker
While he waits on the ship with a distress signal going, trying to find help. It almost goes wrong. Life support is failing.
00:30:59
Speaker
the The ship that get to gets and responds to the distress signal has a catalyzer.
00:31:11
Speaker
They try to kill him and take the ship. Big old Murphy's Law. Issue upon issue keeps piling on top of it. So now Mal is injured from a gunshot wound from successfully fighting off these raiders who were going to steal his ship.
00:31:30
Speaker
And yeah hes he now has the catalyzer, but he's wounded. and oxygen is nearly out, and he's not the mechanic. he The mechanic, before leaving, roughly showed him where it went and how, with the damage it had, it didn't even fit in place.
00:31:54
Speaker
Because he's like, Kaylee, can't you just put it back? She's like, no, look! And showing him that it that the one that they had that's damaged doesn't fit anymore.
00:32:06
Speaker
And narratively, you can you can bake some of that kind of thing in by saying, oh, well, your ship is an older model and or it's modified so much that you can't use, there are no more or you cannot use a stock component, a factory component.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, it can be, yeah, definitely one of those, oh, you modded this too much to where simple component isn't going to work for your ship. Yeah. Yeah, you know if if i you know I can't walk into a GM parts store and get a starter because you have modded your engine too much.
Strategic Elements of Ship Layouts
00:32:45
Speaker
i read the yeah I mean, the Millennium Falcon is basically cobbled together with duct tape hopes and dreams. Yes. The duct tape is peeling off.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, episode five is just Millennium and Falcon saying, I don't want to. Exactly. Exactly. And so we're like it's hard regardless of there's like four droid brains, like breaking down the Millennium Falcon is like that thing just wants to die. It's probably somewhat sedent.
00:33:16
Speaker
And the regardless of system and regardless of setting, you can do all of those kinds of things with it. If you're in a Mad Max setting, the car breaks down in the middle of the wasteland.
00:33:31
Speaker
There's no parts. And the starter has exploded. Or in Cyberpunk, your stuff has been wrecked and you're in a place and you're in a city where everyone's going to jack up the prices.
00:33:45
Speaker
That's just, that is just truth in that world. All you need this, it's like $30,000, $30,000 eddies. And if you leave the car, you're going to find it Cinderblocks.
00:33:58
Speaker
on cinderblo yep So Jason Todd's around. He didn't even get it on Cinderblocks. He tried. No, he had the Batmobile on Cinderblocks. Batman came back, he saw it, and he laughed.
00:34:13
Speaker
yeah and But it comes up to the one person out there who got that reference. I got it. and And then vehicles aren't just goals or places or tools.
00:34:25
Speaker
Because they are guys anyone who's played an RPG knows there's also vehicle combat. If you get into it. our experience is we know it can have a good set of rules and a bad set of rules.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yep. We're not necessarily talking about explicit rules, but like let's talk about how vehicles can be a combat in combat can be terrain.
00:34:56
Speaker
Yes. So that's Takes us back to, know, once again, there's our beloved USS Enterprise. Mm-hmm.
00:35:08
Speaker
Man, how many times does that thing get attacked? Almost every episode. I started counting, and um I ran of toes. Almost every episode, but almost every episode, it is also terrain, because while there are stories that take place on planet surfaces...
00:35:29
Speaker
Every episode, just about, has story that takes place on the ship. And in some of those, the layout and and terrain of the ship factors in.
00:35:46
Speaker
ah The episode of the original series that introduced Khan, Kirk's familiarity with the Enterprise layout versus Khan's relatively lesser information and knowledge of the layout of the Enterprise plays into it.
00:36:05
Speaker
ah you know you If you have a large ship like that, you have places that the crew that's there every day knows the ins and outs of the hiding places, the ah maintenance crawlways, things like that, that anyone coming aboard the ship that isn't familiar with it doesn't know.
Vehicles as Dynamic RPG Environments
00:36:25
Speaker
There's an entire...
00:36:28
Speaker
like This is more like a thing that like GMs can use. like Every location out of a vehicle can become an encounter moment.
00:36:39
Speaker
yeah Yes, and two good examples are and in most of our campaigns, we all love a good train fight. We're on a train on a moving train fighting people and then At least in Star Wars, sometimes you have people on the train with these magnetic boots so they can walk on the side and shoot it at you from a weird angle.
00:37:00
Speaker
You definitely can't do that. You'll just fly off the train. yeah ye Or the train goes through a tunnel, so you've got duck or get inside the train somehow or your goodbye head. And then you're still in the train, in that also and also encounter. And some people outside the train. it's like It's a continuously, for lack of an accent, quite reasonably, it's a literally like f every single encounter is like moving from layer to layer.
00:37:32
Speaker
And, of course, the final one, which is a good example, because you this was something in your co-op game that you both did. that dang victory-class Star Destroyer.
00:37:45
Speaker
Well, to be fair, in part, that became so much terrain because you were all doing far better than you frankly should have in a team of half a dozen people stealing a capital ship.
00:38:04
Speaker
Definitely. But as far as terrain-wise, you guys did great. The size of a continent. Yeah, you guys did great, though. You would. Elevators start working. You'd close doors, turn off the air. you just kept making a train after a train.
00:38:20
Speaker
get like, our example is we are talking about a victory-class Star Destroyer, which is a massive starship. And though they had a pretty good plan but and did way better than we anticipated. Yeah.
00:38:37
Speaker
We did make sure that we used every aspect of the fact that this is a large starship with redundancies, control systems, security systems, and crew.
00:38:51
Speaker
And a maze-like interior. Yep. And it was fun. Still it wasn't. No, even even when we were annoyed by the situation, it was still fun.
00:39:06
Speaker
It was so fun, but it's like, we, the fact that like, the ship was a classical dungeon, despite it being a vehicle.
00:39:19
Speaker
Very good point. You have to understand the fact that like, the size of the vehicle does matter. It's like, a large enough vehicle could be itself a whole dungeon and a classical like, game sense.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yeah. And going back to Star Trek as an example, there's an entire episode of Next Generation with that concept where the Enterprise is empty for a routine maintenance particle sweep by an energy beam that will kill anyone that it touches. Standard maintenance.
00:40:02
Speaker
And Picard goes back to get something from his quarters at the last minute, only to discover that there's a team of people who had infiltrated the starbase that was doing this, who plan on stealing the Enterprise.
00:40:18
Speaker
And so Picard single-handedly makes use of his knowledge of the terrain to stop these people from stealing the Enterprise.
00:40:30
Speaker
And it also has kind of a ticking clock thing, because that energy sweep is going from the fore to the aft, or the aft to the fore, whichever.
00:40:41
Speaker
ah and And he has to stop them so that he can get through their communications cutoff to let the Starbase know you need to stop this because there's living people on here.
00:41:00
Speaker
And I have something to add to ah the... Going back to the Mad Max example, the the war rig from Mad Max for Fury Road.
00:41:11
Speaker
It is a full environment where we have multiple like like on the rig, in the rig, even in the like the like guts of it. like ah we We say that even more in Furiosa than we do in Fury Road.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah. ye And then, good example and something that might come up in. future, Avatar The Last Air Render and Legend of Korra had vehicles.
00:41:41
Speaker
one In Avatar, it was the giant drill attacking Ba Sing Se. They were both on it. Had to go inside it to sabotage it. And then Legend Korra, giant mecha. The Colossus.
00:41:53
Speaker
The Colossus that they had to cut in and then fight their way up to sabotage it. Again, like, vehicles can be also giant set pieces, but also that does fit it in with, like, the idea of them being environments.
00:42:06
Speaker
Yeah, and the easy example, it may be big, but still a ship, so Death Star. Yes! Honestly, that's what I'm going for. Like, and matt The domestic people always like make the joke of, like oh, the Death Star is flat because we're able to like like have a whole flight scene on it. No, it's the size of a moon, so it is small parts of that would look like the planet.
00:42:38
Speaker
It had just occurred to me that a lot of times you hear vehicles and you do think, Spaceships, cars, things like that. Mechanical, truly mechanical things like we think of.
00:42:54
Speaker
But vehicles are even in D&D. If we're going to go with another multimedia example, think of the carriage during the heist scene in Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves. Or just wagons, ah classic gladiatory chariots.
00:43:15
Speaker
A stagecoach robbery. Yeah, or
00:43:21
Speaker
Animals can be vehicles if you can ride them. This and i And that does more for like personality stuff, because now that's a living, breathing creature that your player may have a connection with.
00:43:33
Speaker
Definitely only in that one. can't Can like tame or like have been already used? There's vehicles... And if your character lost that vehicle...
00:43:46
Speaker
That's basically someone killed their animal. And I've seen people get like really upset about that. and I'm surprised we haven't mentioned this, Nick. there There is one subset of vehicles with players.
00:44:00
Speaker
Vehicles as players. Because we do have a G.I. Joe Transformers campaign. Yes! The Transformers, the PCs, are vehicles.
00:44:14
Speaker
Well, some of them. Some of them, and they've I do like that though it's always been kind of uncomfortable for all of you. It's like, am I driving? I'm driving.
00:44:26
Speaker
Am I riding you? Because it that that popped into my mind, because at first I was thinking, well, you know if any word anyone were to port over, say, Knight Rider an RPG, is Kit a vehicle, a PC, or an NPC? Yeah.
00:44:44
Speaker
And then I was like, oh wait, oh, oh, Kit's just scratching the surface. There's Autobots. There's Autobots. That's very unique vehicle combat.
00:44:56
Speaker
It's just like, feel like that's one of the few things that the, uh, but Again, I do love the Renegade D20 concepts. it I have more problem with how their books are formatted. But it's like I will say that they... was like Oh yeah, it's all the same It's like... Yeah, the you they're all player characters.
00:45:23
Speaker
And so are the NPCs. So like there's two Transformers in the same scene. They are... characters so are the characters inside them and they each individually activate but yeah that's basically good way of vehicles as terrain and now we can talk about the easy one vehicles as a home base or a location right So, yeah, vehicles as locations and home bases. Well, I've been using it as an example the whole episode, but... a Spoiler alert! I think he has an idea.
00:46:04
Speaker
wonder what that could be from.
00:46:08
Speaker
The Enterprise is... you It's the pure definition vehicle a location. I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the fanfare!
00:46:22
Speaker
I didn't know we were in a Star Trek episode. I mean, you know we we can be No. ah can We can be. way you have You don't have the book yet. Yeah, I do. it Where's the z everybody but the new book it's a Gene Roddenberry money?
00:46:41
Speaker
it going to come to my account now? No. oh It'll come the same time the George Lucas money comes. But yes. Daryl is correct, because one thing a vehicle is really good at, but and especially if it's bit if it's a large vehicle, it's your home base or it's a location you're going to.
00:47:02
Speaker
It's a location you're going to or it's a location that you're at. you know the The Enterprise... We're currently doing a a campaign in a large console in our Star Wars game. yeah you know the The Enterprise is the location where they work. It's the location where they live.
00:47:24
Speaker
It's the location where they have R&R. And thanks to the holodeck, it's any location they want it to be. yep And of course, we've used it a lot.
00:47:38
Speaker
Star Wars. Ships are very fine as locations as well. The Death Star. Giant capital ships. The Executor. ah hot and A hot pleasure barge that you're stuck on?
00:47:51
Speaker
All locations. And working as a home base. There's, again, the Enterprise. It's their mobile home base. The far orbit as campaign we're doing right now with me and Daryl.
00:48:06
Speaker
Or in a and a different universe. A Walking Dead campaign where you don't actually live in a um like a land community. You live on a A giant ship.
00:48:19
Speaker
A giant cargo ship. A giant cruise ship. Something that just is nomadically moving around. and it And it doesn't even have to be large. If we go back to Firefly. Serenity is their home base.
00:48:32
Speaker
The Millennium Falcon. your hang yeah animals Dale's RV. Yeah. So there are. any play Any vehicle can become.
00:48:43
Speaker
a place of community and structure for the players. A place of familiarity where they all come back together and formulate their plans and figure out what kind of shenanigans they're going to get up to. and where they hey where you're done with body Where you're done with the big quest, now it's time for basically video game version of of Downtime.
00:49:15
Speaker
Talking to each other, spreading the story. Good story moments here and there. ah Decompressing in their own rooms because they have rooms. They have places that they can be like or like meet up with each other in each other's rooms. and Be like.
00:49:31
Speaker
Asking personal questions, decompressing, creating more strong bonds between the people doing a story thing that we like.
00:49:42
Speaker
Story. What's that? And then you at that same moment, that allows you to, if you're so inclined, turn that character building, story building moment into the next plot line, the next crisis, because maybe that's when the catalyzer blows.
Versatility of Vehicles in RPGs
00:50:05
Speaker
Yep. Or it's when, oh, you're stuck in a tractor beam going back. Or when d the ship is attacked and they have to defend their home.
00:50:18
Speaker
It's their home. Yeah, it's not just defending you know a target from Marauders. they ah They are home invaders. or like tout the home invaders or like Or like you Far It can be a place of mystery and intrigue with...
00:50:37
Speaker
oh There's all these weird murders happening everywhere. We've got to get to the bottom of this. There's all these weird murders happening everywhere, and we totally don't care about the red herring care character that you carefully crafted, and and we forgot about, and admitted we forgot about in the last episode.
00:50:58
Speaker
Right, who was that again Wasn't space we like it wasn' she? dare we didn say they There's lots of things that can happen when the vehicle is a location or a home base.
00:51:12
Speaker
And it it's not necessarily the player's vehicle that is a location that is important. The Death Star, like you said, that wasn't the PC's home base.
00:51:26
Speaker
That wasn't the PC's location. Like, heck, that could be an... and Somehow, it definitely could work. It could be an entire campaign of just on the Death Star.
00:51:41
Speaker
Or, I'm going back to Firefly again, and Robert mentioned trains. There's a reason why the second episode of Firefly was literally titled The Train Job.
00:51:57
Speaker
Because it it used... the train as terrain and also as a an objective location. Going back to Robert, we used a train job.
00:52:13
Speaker
Yep. but as a As a fun encounter environment on Ordman Hill. And the beautiful simplicity of the train job episode is The train starts out as an objective location, becomes terrain, and then ends up being transportation that gets them to another location where further complications to the story happen.
00:52:44
Speaker
because if We did the same thing. yep we basically had it derailed as well. It's like, oh. run We introduce story elements, so progressing the plot, but also the we use it as a fun environment for the players to engage in.
00:53:07
Speaker
In Firefly's train job, it that next hurdle was a moral quandary, because on the train, they discovered that their objective to steal was medicine that the town that the train takes them to desperately needs because the entire town is sick including the women and the children ours was revealing like some subtle background details of what's going on and rescuing Poe Dameron
00:53:47
Speaker
Yeah, we put some clues in there too. So you you then, if you follow Firefly's narrative example, you present your PCs with a quandary.
00:53:59
Speaker
Do we give up on... Actually, they had stolen the medicine, but two of them got stuck on the train. So they had a moral quandary. Do we give the medicine back And incur the wrath of the homicidal crime lord that hired us for this heist?
00:54:23
Speaker
Or do we leave the women and the children to die? Easy answers. We were like basically like giving examples for like future story beats.
00:54:41
Speaker
And just using it as a big... action set piece yep because that's the beauty about vehicles they can be anything you want it to be yeah and again like as you start all we've discussed right here is like our basically our examples of it but like yeah We've just been tossing out
Prospective RPG Campaign Ideas
00:55:09
Speaker
story ideas and just things to hopefully inspire people as they're both writing and playing a game to look at how vehicles can be implemented as more than just vroom vroom. Vroom vroom.
00:55:29
Speaker
All vehicles can have a good purpose and can be used from the daintiest motorcycle industry. to the largest hovercraft carrier. for For lack of a better term, I know it's a bad example of of storytelling, but I'll at least say that the Fast and Furious movies know how to use vehicles to move the story forward.
00:55:56
Speaker
Family. That's all I know. That's all I know about Fast and Furious. Family and cars. Vroom vroom family. That's all I know. the The cars move fast and they make action sequences that are cool.
00:56:13
Speaker
And sometimes you just need a cool action sequence. Yeah, and of course, if if you want to make a vehicle that encompasses all three, like the Enterprise, more power to you.
00:56:23
Speaker
But you don't have to. The bigger the vehicle, the more complications come with it. But the more story opportunities do come Especially if you get into action with the big ones.
00:56:38
Speaker
And the mechanics of all of this is obviously going to vary from system to system and the type of vehicle that you're dealing with. That's a whole nother discussion.
00:56:49
Speaker
Or two, or three. We're describing agnostic as an idea of like exactly the storytelling of vehicles.
00:57:00
Speaker
Yeah, if we want to get into mechanics... That's a whole different talk for later. And if you guys want us to do that, maybe put that in the comments.
00:57:11
Speaker
I know Nick and Daryl have a lot of grievances with a specific. Specific IP way of doing vehicle combat. And. And we we have a guest that we could invite back on to discuss those ins and outs of that particular system.
00:57:29
Speaker
But I know he's also working with, ah he's offered Tabletop Empire to go on and have that same discussion. So I don't want to steal their thunder because they're friends of ours.
00:57:41
Speaker
Yes, but what I am saying, like, we're talking about a...
00:57:46
Speaker
From a narrative perspective. If you want to include vehicles. There's so many ways. To incorporate them. There's chase scenes.
00:57:57
Speaker
There's. Big like home scenes. as like the player homes. There's. There's just so many ways. You can use large. There's plenty of encounters you can have on a ship.
00:58:10
Speaker
And. just Just because it's become kind of a running gag in the last few episodes, there's another way that you can use the cars. Shake it up.
00:58:24
Speaker
Sorry, I just, I had to. That is fine. We know you did. We know. it's Basically, this wasn't a, here's how you should do things.
00:58:34
Speaker
Here's some ideas. And think about things. how fast the idea of like a vehicle can be used. Yeah. And these are just like three big categories.
00:58:47
Speaker
Vehicles can go into as tools. Rain locations. And I'd say these might be the big three might even be the only big, big ones.
00:59:00
Speaker
Categories that could be, be expanded to like in infinite the amount of like Manusa. Exactly. Yeah, and if if there's response, we can go into some of these in greater detail down the line and you examine, say, you know a not necessarily Star Trek itself, but a Star Trek-style game where you are the crew of a starship.
00:59:29
Speaker
A better ah crew of a large Star Wars ship. or and eight Or in Cyberpunk, you're a nomad family, but youre but your vehicles are sea vehicles, so you're basically on the water all the time going from port to port.
00:59:50
Speaker
We can examine all of those. i can know i only have I already have two campaigns. I can't do a third one. Not right now. I know Dallas is landlocked, but I want that.
01:00:03
Speaker
Well, when Nick opens his Great Britain one, there's a lot of water over there. Yes, there's much more water there. We've already talked about that, and spoilers! That's not a spoiler, I just gave you an idea.
01:00:17
Speaker
yeah no, ah he didn't know about my Great Britain. Yes, he did, Nick, because you've told all of us about it. and We've even talked about the world itself.
01:00:30
Speaker
Nick! yeah we We need to start picking on Nick now, Robert. Oh, dude, that means we're ending the assassin. Well, Nick did have this thing where he, in his Great Britain one, he's going to use a certain IP about magical people as one of his gang ideas.
01:00:51
Speaker
Oh.
01:00:53
Speaker
it oh they're big i' be that i do we're big My interest in it then now just went down. or or do we get to beat these people up who are fans of this property?
01:01:08
Speaker
You get to beat them up there again. Okay, my interest just went back up to where it was. Above where it was. there Didn't we say that we need to ah cut things down now that you started picking on me?
01:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, probably. guess it's It's probably time. It's time for me to say, check out our website at howwerollgaming.com.
01:01:34
Speaker
There you'll find links to all of our socials, information about our current campaigns, ways to contact us, links to past episodes of the podcast, and tips and tricks on how to pick pick on Nick.
01:01:49
Speaker
I guess it's my turn. You can also directly support the show through Patreon. Just go to patreon.com slash how we roll gaming and you'll see our different membership tiers starting at just $2 a month with special recognition on our Discord server and IRT is giving you on air credit and discounts on our new merch store and you can even put in few sentences on how you want us to pick on Nick.
01:02:11
Speaker
And speaking of the new merch store, as we record and release this episode, there are just a few days left in June 2025 to get our limited edition Roll With Pride flag shirts and magnets and to take 20% off of... Really good.
01:02:26
Speaker
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01:02:48
Speaker
Finally, if you have any questions you'd like us to answer, talk to you guys' cover, or submit your own RPG Glory stories soon as an email at podcast at howwerollgaming.com.
01:03:08
Speaker
Or if you just want to pick on Nick, you can send emails like that, too. Yeah, you can send weight more ways for us to pick on Nick there, too. but Speaking of RPG glory stories, join us next time for our next installment of RPG glory stories as we gather some of our players' favorite glory stories from all of our campaigns.
01:03:26
Speaker
It's going to be fun. we we mean We might have a story about how one of us broke Nick again. Yep. Stories of picking. Oh, that that should be one of our RPG glory stories.
01:03:39
Speaker
Glory stories of picking on Nick. We do have some options there. Yes, I mean, we have stories about breaking Nick. Yes, but I can mute you. Yeah, and you can't really share your own story because I know you pick on yourself, but that loses the point.
01:03:56
Speaker
Yep. ah Anyway, Nick, we love you. We pick on you because we care. It's the sibling rules. We pick on you because we can, but if anyone else does it, they're in for a world hurt.
01:04:10
Speaker
If anyone else does it, we ride at dawn.
01:04:15
Speaker
Honestly, I believe that, especially especially with Stephanie. Yep. But until that next episode with our next round of RPG Glory Stories, thank you once again for listening to the How We Roll Gaming podcast. We hope to see you back again for that next episode.
01:04:33
Speaker
But until then, Daryl. I'm Nick. And I'm Robert. And this is How We Roll.
01:04:44
Speaker
This episode of the How We Roll Gaming podcast is copyright 2025, How We Roll Gaming, LLC. All games and associated intellectual properties are copyrighted their respective owners, and How We Roll Gaming makes no claim of ownership by discussing them here.