Statting a Killer (Literally) Semi Truck

[admiralducksauce]

Hey all,

Eventually I'll get to run another DFRPG session for my group (everyone's so busy this time of year), and I'm thinking about throwing an evil semi at them.  They're all monster-hunting bikers, so I'm trying to combine the vibes from Christine, Duel, and Road Warrior (and other car chase/horror-auto movies from the 70s/80s).  My problem is I have no idea where to start statting out an evil sentient semi truck.

The PCs are generally armed with shotguns at best.  If they were set on getting some heavy weaponry, I think that'd be a neat time-sensitive and sufficiently dicey proposition, so I'd be inclined to have something like C4 or a LAW rocket or RPG potentially kill the semi.  They can't kill the driver; there IS no driver.  Tricking it and luring it seems a valid tactic as well, like in Duel.  But let's say they do want to slug it out, Mad Max style, and try to take out its tires?  What if they steal a cement mixer or fire engine and kamikaze it into the evil semi?  Are there any guidelines either in the rules that I'm missing or stated somewhere else that could help me out?

[Blackblade]

Something like this?

[MijRai]

Supernatural Toughness, Strength, and Speed. Hulking Size. A modified Living Dead to represent a lack of healing without an autobody shop and the scariness of a self-driving car. Stunts to do Fists attacks and athletics dodges with Driving. You get the idea.

[devonapple]

The PCs are generally armed with shotguns at best.  If they were set on getting some heavy weaponry, I think that'd be a neat time-sensitive and sufficiently dicey proposition, so I'd be inclined to have something like C4 or a LAW rocket or RPG potentially kill the semi.  They can't kill the driver; there IS no driver.  Tricking it and luring it seems a valid tactic as well, like in Duel.  But let's say they do want to slug it out, Mad Max style, and try to take out its tires?  What if they steal a cement mixer or fire engine and kamikaze it into the evil semi?  Are there any guidelines either in the rules that I'm missing or stated somewhere else that could help me out?

There are guidelines for designing opponents (scaling the opposition) in the GM section. Depending on the challenge you want to provide, you add up however many Refresh points your group has spent on their Powers and Stunts, and then use that as a baseline for buying this monster truck its powers, spending more or less as you prefer the challenge to be.

I'd say give the monster truck Hulking Size, and maybe a Stunt or two to cover its increased land speed (giving it Inhuman or higher Speed would grant other bonuses which might not be appropriate).

The Driving skill has a section on dealing damage with a vehicle, but there aren't any detailed rules about intravehicular combat, so you'll want to just handle that as you see fit, allowing opposed Driving checks to place and fight off Maneuvers (such as Against the Rails, Under the Gun, Pinned, Blown Tire).

[Bruce Coulson]

The original story of the genre is "Killdozer", by Theodore Sturgeon.  (Great story, btw.)  In the story, the protagonists were trapped on an island...

Hulking Size (duh), Superhuman Strength, Stamina, Toughness and Speed (at least).  Catch should fit your story needs; possibly 'Holy Stuff' or something more obscure...

Fists (for ramming), Alertness, Athletics, Endurance...  Other than Intimidation, no real need for social skills...

Aspects:  Freaking Huge, I'm a Semi!, Unstoppable, I Fear Nothing...

Some really nasty spirit/demon from the Never-Never (not fae; too much iron).

The above is tough, armored, regenerates, can absorb consequences, and should be a fearsome-enough opponent.  But it's not that smart or manueverable, so it can be tricked.

As for guidelines; whatever makes a dramatic story.  If your players can steal a cement truck and manage to make the rolls to ram (don't make it easy for them to get to a construction site or the truck; the kill-semi isn't a genius, but it could figure out what they might be looking for and try to cut them off)  maybe it works...or maybe the semi, battered but still functional comes rumbling out of the debris field...  At a guess, a speeding truck would be a weapon:4

Hope this helps...

[crusher_bob]

Various forms of attempted vehicular homicide are normally weapon: 5.  Though this should probably not be combined with giving the truck supernatural strength too...

[zerogain]

Oh goodness... I just had flashbacks to KITT vs. GOLIATH...

I think you've pretty well got a fair bit of advice up above.  I especially like the Living Dead variant power, but on top of that unless the players are going to get said heavy duty weapons then I would not give the evil truck any special Toughness beyond maybe some Armor.  Perhaps you could say Armor:2 representing it's impressive size and large amount of damageable real-estate, but similar to a Red Court Vampire you could put a small catch in there and say "No armor on tires".

Now I'm not sure how you aim for a vampire's belly in the game, whether or not it's a maneuver or you just say (input anyone?), but that seems to work.

Beyond that your zones for any engagement are going to have to be a lot bigger, and you'll be using a lot of the chase mechanics.  As far as "aiming for the tires" or what have you, that isn't an instant blow-out until they do enough stress to inflict a physical consequence.

Lastly since this is sentient, I am assuming a spirit rather than a computer?  And if a computer I'm assuming you don't have any hexers or are not playing with those rules?  Also if it's a spirit you can get away with bending the rules of reality a lot more, especially if someone boards it and tries to attack it from the inside.  Maybe it spawns wire tentacles and such to physically bludgeon or try to electrocute the intruders?

[crusher_bob]

As for aiming at the belly, I'd say it's something like starting a grapple.  You have to have an aspect based leg up on them before you can do it.

[admiralducksauce]

Good advice all over, thanks guys.

I was even considering that due to the nature of any combat from the backs of speeding vehicles, any attack would have the same prerequisites as a grapple - a successful maneuver that puts an Aspect on the target like "clear shot at the tires" for the bikers or "right on your bumper" for the truck.  Car chases with guns shouldn't relegate the actual chase to the back burner, and I hope that requiring maneuvers like this will spark more creativity and keep it from turning into a "I shoot the truck" snoozefest.  I like the Catch being the truck's tires, that works well.

Maybe the only actual grapple would be if they somehow boarded the cab and tried to steer the thing.  I'm not keen on having the semi shapeshift or anything, but if PCs were on or in it, it's a lot tougher than them.  It wouldn't think twice before barreling through a mall to get them off or slamming into freeway traffic to shake up or hurt the guys inside.  I mean, it's likely going to be doing that anyway - part of the challenge is that it's not about the PCs vs. this truck, it's the PCs trying to stop the truck from hurting people.  Or at least it should be IMO.

As an aside, I had this vision of someone going for the gas tank (because it's kind of obvious) and blood spraying out from any bullet holes in the tank.  That'd be pretty cool.

[zerogain]

Darn it, Admiralducksause, darn it all to heck ;-)

Now I want to do something like this in MY game...  How supernatural are you planning on this being?  I had this thought that the demon-spirit running the rig might actually be in an artifact lodged somewhere in the truck's cab.  That way someone has to actually get on board.

You could show this off by having weak-spots, when hit and shredded, become demonically twisted somehow.  Maybe the gas tank starts bleeding when it's hit or something like the injuries heal but with some sort of metalized flesh rather than metal...  Sorry if I'm going too far on this but I just keep coming up with these ideas.

[Bruce Coulson]

If you go with the 'Living Dead' power, perhaps a Feeding Requirement for repairs?

It has to run down and 'consume' other vehicles to get the raw materials.

[ralexs1991]

Darn it, Admiralducksause, darn it all to heck ;-)

Now I want to do something like this in MY game...  How supernatural are you planning on this being?  I had this thought that the demon-spirit running the rig might actually be in an artifact lodged somewhere in the truck's cab.  That way someone has to actually get on board.

You could show this off by having weak-spots, when hit and shredded, become demonically twisted somehow.  Maybe the gas tank starts bleeding when it's hit or something like the injuries heal but with some sort of metalized flesh rather than metal...  Sorry if I'm going too far on this but I just keep coming up with these ideas.

remind me never to get into your car O_o

[admiralducksauce]

I like the Feeding Dependency idea a lot (thinking of the Duel truck with all the license plates-as-trophies).

I had this thought that the demon-spirit running the rig might actually be in an artifact lodged somewhere in the truck's cab.  That way someone has to actually get on board.

Maybe the truck's shifter knob is the offending evil focus, like a tiny skull.  Honestly, for my game I'm going to leave it mysterious and probably take the best idea my players have as a declaration or something.  Maybe they'll rationalize it like a Bob the Skull thing, a spirit possessing a device.  There are magic swords, magic bullets, why not a magic truck?  Who says a golem needs to be humanoid?  Maybe it's a Horse of the Apocalypse, gotten loose from its rider.  I'm hoping though that I can make the situation frantic and dire enough to where they don't have time to do too much smartphone googling or library visits.

I like that it's something weird even for the supernatural community.  It's a big black truck and it's here to wreck your shit.

[Vryce]

Could make the island have a auto junk yard... they Spirit/Fae/Demon/whatever keeps jumping from auto to auto growing bigger as the "Good Guys stop it" or lots of Little auto minions.  a mini copper hunting people down.. lol

[devonapple]

Could make the island have a auto junk yard... they Spirit/Fae/Demon/whatever keeps jumping from auto to auto growing bigger as the "Good Guys stop it" or lots of Little auto minions.  a mini copper hunting people down.. lol

Reminds me of the Junk Titans in "Star Wars: the Force Unleashed."