DS: Walkers

In article <20030207011009.11384.qmail@web20308.mail.yahoo.com>, Brian
Bilderback <greywanderer987@yahoo.com> writes
>First let me reiterate that I am a Battletech escapee
>and thus a little hard on mecha.  I for one like the
>restrictions placed on them in DSII regarding
>increased signature.
>

You may find this interesting from my DS5W then:-

Walking Vehicles

DSII has pretty reasonable rules for Walkers, although it falls into the
'excellent in all terrain' trap that seems to come from nowhere except
companies trying to develop these white elephants (recent legged
vehicles seem hardly better than when first tried out in the late
sixties). Honestly, human legs are known to be bad in mud, snow, ice and
wading in water. Why should mechanical ones be any better? People fall
over often but can usually cope with this. Will a 'Mech'? A certain Mr.
Lucas showed us how Mechs really don't want to fall over, especially if
being stupid enough to 'run'. All that kinetic energy will do something
nasty. A Walker is going to methodically plod, not run. How can any
ground vehicle be better than Grav? Ground pressure is a problem,
careful design of feet can mitigate this, but then you don't have slim
nimble legs to thread through trees anymore and I suspect such a foot
could be disabled easily with machine gun fire. A man wearing snow shoes
isn't nimble, even though he has great ground pressure. Of course, with
Grav technology you can mitigate this, but why put legs on a Grav
vehicle? All those subassemblies and joints can be armoured, but never
as well as a front glassis plate. A walking vehicle will have shot traps
galore. You are never going to be able to mount as much equipment on a
walking vehicle as you can a more conventional one. In short, walking
vehicles are possible but never as good as the alternatives. Oh, and we
don't see them in B5. Observant players will notice the abysmal combat
characteristics of walkers but for those that insist and wish to hand
victory to their opponents.

Walkers should be constructed as detailed in DSII pages 14 and 52, with
the following exceptions.

Combat Walkers should be considered erect and mostly bipedal. Transport
walkers usually have four or more legs, a more conventional appearance
and be a more rational choice.
Signature is one higher than the Size Class of the Walker. Walkers are
easy targets so go heavy on the Stealth technology.
Maximum Armour is one less than Size Class. Side, Rear, Top and Bottom
Armour is determined as for any normal vehicle. A combat walker that
takes a Mobility hit cannot fire any weaponry. It has fallen over. Other
walkers that take a Mobility hit must make a Quality Roll with a Target
of four. Failure means they too have fallen over and must take the
consequences.
Infantry walkers can only mount Class one weaponry. Combat and Transport
Walkers can mount Class one weapons as desired but other weapons are
more restricted. Maximum turret weapon Class is  two less than the
walker Size. Maximum 'arm' weapon Class is one less than the Walker
Size. Maximum Weapon size is equal to the walker size. Missiles are
exempt from these additional restrictions however. Walkers aren't good
at absorbing recoil, not optimally designed for mounting weapons and
have to keep their weight down.

Movement
Infantry walkers use mechanised movement characteristics and have an MV
of four which costs 80% of BPV. All other walkers have a speed of six,
or eight if enhanced. They certainly cannot run. Walker movement costs
100% of BPV or 120% if Enhanced. Walking vehicles have much more trouble
than other vehicles when faced with the possibility of Miring. In
conditions where a walker might be subject to Miring, it rolls a Quality
die. If the roll is less than or equal to the walkers Size Class then it
is immobilised as the damage Chit. A walker that Mires must roll again.
A second Mire result means that the Walker has fallen over or is up to
it's neck in something. If it survives the fall, it still counts as
destroyed as it will require disproportionate effort to recover and may
have taken substantial damage. An AEV or ARV will be required to 'pull
out' a mired walker, but it requires time outside a scenario and the use
of an ARV to recover a 'double-mired' walker. Walkers may not self-
recover from miring.

	Walkers
Easy	N/a
Normal	Open, Roads
Poor	Hills,	Sand, Cultivated, Light Scrub, Rough, Rivers/Streams at
a ford
Difficult	Light woods, Dunes*, Urban*, Swamp*, Open water*
Impassable	Mountains, Dense woods

* A Miring roll is always required at the mid point of movement.

Falling Over
A hazard glossed over in most Mech games. To resolve a fall, draw chits
equal to Size Class, with Red and Special Chits valid. If the walker
survives this abuse, it will need the assistance of an ARV of equal or
greater size to regain it's feet.

Cheers
-- 
Symon Cook (founder member of Camros)(The Campaign for Real Operating
Systems).
.....
"You fertility deities are worse than Marxists," he said. "You think
that's all 
that goes on between people."

Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light. 1971.