Driving ground vehicles and spaceship construction

[choiboy51]

I've been going through the latest Pioneer Preview and it's great. But I was wondering why there was no skill for driving ground vehicles, unless that is supposed to be under Heavy Equipment. The skill description states that Heavy Equipment covers large vehicles that are bigger than a car. But what if you wanted to have a fast race across the lunar or Mars surface using a rover (similar to the lunar rover battle in the movie Ad Astra)? How does that get resolved?

Also, I probably missed it in the updates for the Kickstarter, but are there going to be construction rules for spacecraft and where? I was hoping I could build a later-stage deep space explorer spaceship like the Discovery or the Endurance, or even earlier versions of the Expanse's Epstein drive, so that early outer planetary missions could be undertaken.

 

[rinku]

Launch is very much concentrating on Phase 1, so I'd expect mature spaceship construction is intended for a later product.

As far as driving regular cars... I get the impression that it's so automated and universal that it's in the same zone as skill at operating a mobile phone. Professional skill covers anyone that drives for a living; Navigation covers getting to where you want to go. In almost all circumstances, driving skill is a moot point. But you can certainly add it, as with other skills, if that's going to be important to YOUR campaign.

So a moon buggy chase? Probably just DEX or INT checks. The autonomous rovers just have Navigation and Perception.

You could also use Remote Operator. It's maybe counter intuitive, but the skills required to drive a vehicle remotely are probably similar enough to those to drive while sitting in it.

 

[Limpin Legin]

But what if you wanted to have a fast race across the lunar or Mars surface using a rover (similar to the lunar rover battle in the movie Ad Astra)? How does that get resolved?

What It's Like Driving on the Moon

Charlie Duke on driving where there is no air.

www.roadandtrack.com

 

[rinku]

Good post, LL. And underlines that experience in driving on Earth probably doesn't carry over to driving on Luna or Mars as much.

I think I'm good to go with my idea of using Remote Ops. Piloting is another possibility, especially if the vehicle has flight capacity. It could be one of those tasks where more than one skill can be used, including no skill.

 

[Limpin Legin]

I think I'm good to go with my idea of using Remote Ops. Piloting is another possibility, especially if the vehicle has flight capacity. It could be one of those tasks where more than one skill can be used, including no skill.

I would go along with Remote Ops for remotely controlled vehicles, and then Heavy Equipment for vehicles that you sit in to operate.
(Although, note: "Heavy" is a bit of a misnomer when talking about a zero-g environment.)

Pilot is a good one, like you say, if vehicle has flight capacity.

Then there is the issue of that "Nice Car" mustering out benefit - how would you use that, while stationed upon Earth? Possibly use the DEX and INT characteristic checks you mentioned earlier, as there appears to be nothing else.
Except the rulebook says "driving home" is an example of an Simple Task Difficulty, but gives no skill to roll under - if indeed, a roll is made at all.

 

[rinku]

Even skilless charcateristic rolls have difficulty levels.

I think it's fairly clear that normal vehicle operation on normal roads doesn't require a check most of the time. And if is required, it's probably a Navigation check anyway.


So driving home doesn't normally require a check. But if you have to be home before 6pm, you may need to make that Simple Task roll.

Interestingly, in the difficulty examples, only Simple mentions driving. All the others refer to operating aircraft or spacecraft. Which adds some weight to Pilot being the skill used for all vehicle operations.

However.

ANY Referee that feels extra skills are needed for their campaign should add them.

 

[Limpin Legin]

Yes, the skills and characteristics game-mechanic is the same in Pioneer and Traveller.

What is different is that there is no skill for driving under pressure, in Pioneer - that limits some possible scenario ideas that might take place while still on Earth. Especially so, when considering the fact that a "Nice Car" is a potential mustering out benefit - players are going to want to use their car, whether it is a nice one or not, and whether they are under pressure or not.

The only case presented is driving while the Pioneer is NOT under pressure.

 

[rinku]

Okay...



That explicitly says to use Pilot for control tasks. Even on the wheeled vehicles that don't fly.

However, the context is not Earth-bound vehicles either. But I feel the original question about how to do a moon buggy chase is answered right there. It's Piloting skill.

 

[choiboy51]

I did find this task under the Heavy Equipment description on page 59 of the latest draft of the Pioneer rules (it wasn't there in the Preview version):
Drive a Lunar Rover in Rough Terrain: Average (8+) Heavy Equipment check (DEX)
I guess that means that Heavy Equipment is the skill. Though it is a bit misleading in the description that the skill deals with vehicles larger than a car. Unless the Lunar Rover they are speaking of is the size of a large truck.

 

[rinku]

One of them is. The other is the size of a small one, 18 tons and 6 tons respectively.

The Cart is the vehicle that's small, open, and comparable to the Apollo era lunar buggy.

I checked the earlier (April) version of the rulebook and that example was in that one too - I couldn't see any differences between the April and May versions for anything discussed above.

But a good get about that Heavy Equipment task example.

 

[Michael S]

Pilot is a good one, like you say, if vehicle has flight capacity.

On Luna most small rovers would have flight capacity, once. If you hit that crater lip just right!