Stating a Plane

[CottbusFiles]

Hello DFRPG-Fans

on the next session the party will find attend a party on an old german airport that is now a museum for old planes.
I have planned the session two be 50% roleplay with people at the party and 50% action as one of the old planes will attack everyone on sight.

Reason for that is an army of Spirits of Technology (especially Mass Destruction) trying out their powers for the first time. They are adept at controlling technology and altering or improving it. Besides their ability to controll technology they also gifted on of the museums staff with incredible technological knowledge and "magic" (it mainly works like the WAAAGH!!! - field of Warhammer 40k Orks. Making technology work because they think it does)

But how do i stat out a freaking plane ? I'm thinking about using the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_190 )

I want it to at first drive arround on the ground, shooting at people and giving the PCs opportunity to jump on it. Than it will take to the sky and begin to fire from the air.

My group consist of a Werecat and two Evocators on refresh level 7. I want to make it hard for them. The werecat character said that she is considering changing her character so i can provide her with a good death scene.
I think the spirit will make the plane resistend against hexing, maybe giving it an own Stress Track for that...

Do you have any ideas ?

[EdgeOfDreams]

Stat it exactly like you would a flying monster with a ranged attack.

High guns, endurance, athletics, Inhuman or better Toughness, the Wings power, Inhuman or better Speed, etc.

Exact power level is gonna depend on your group.

[EdgeOfDreams]

Oh, and possibly Hulking Size as well.

[EldritchFire]

Per page 334, creating an opponent at "equal opposition" requires you to "Use  a  main  NPC  with powers equal to the group’s total spent refresh on powers."

So if you have 3 characters at 7 refresh, I'll assume that they kept 2 refresh for themselves. So that means we need 15 refresh worth of powers to make it a challenge.

[-1]Wings
[-1]Claws - representing blades on the wings
[-2]"Breath Weapon" - Mounted Guns
[-2]Hulking Size
[-2]Inhuman Speed
[-2]Channeling - Different uses for weapons (Zone attacks for bombs, etc)
[-4]Supernatural Toughness
[+2]Catch of Only vs magic (It's old, hexing doesn't work as well)
[-1]Supernatural Sense - Detect Life
[-1]Cloak of Shadows - Being possessed by spirits melds you to the shadows
[-1]Demonic Co-pilot


P: OOOOO O(OOOO) Armour:2 vs magic, 4 extra boxes only usable against magic
M: OOO
S: OO
For skills:
+4: Guns, Athletics
+3: Stamina, Discipline
+2: Conviction, Awareness, "Fists" (for physical attacks)
+1: Intimidation, Survival, Investigation, Empathy, Lore

High Concept: Possessed WWII Fighter jet
Trouble: All Thumbs...well, no thumbs
Other Aspects: Demonic Blazing Guns, Bombs Away!, etc.

How's that look?

-EF

[sinker]

Personally I'd cut the claws (it's a little weird but it's easy enough to use breath weapon to represent that as well) and maybe give them a power refinement for channeling (I know it's not RAW, but to quote iago bad guys cheat).

[WillH]

I would drop breath weapon and channeling. It has actual guns. You don't need to pay refresh for equipment. Besides breath weapon sucks. Those guns should be weapon three or four, not the two you get from breath weapon, and they definitely shouldn't have their ranged limited like breath weapon. You could probably drop claws using the same logic, but I kind of like.

I could see going with channeling instead of actual weapons, to simulate the spirit taking over and attacking through the plane. Then take some refinements for item slots to use as focus items.

[Becq]

You might want to consider using a larger aircraft like a bomber, instead of a fighter.  Bombers tended to have multiple gun turrets; this would allow you to attack multiple party members in different directions.  If you do this, you might want to use an idea that ... well, somebody (I don't recall who) on this forum suggested for making more challenging enemies, and that is to stat it as multiple foes that share the same body.  In this case, you'd have one 'main' bad guy (the aircraft body) who is VERY tough and could move around and do slam attacks or wings slashes or whatever you decide on.  In addition, there would be a couple of 'secondary' bad guys representing the turrets.  They can each, independently, make attacks with their weapon.  And even though they are 'part of the aircraft', I'd make it so that they are targetable independently (aimed shot!) and more easily damaged.

So they fight might start off with the aircraft charging random party members (maybe make these awkward attacks, requiring a maneuver to line up and allowing the characters the opportunity to maneuver out of the way), while the guns either target different random characters or do sprays.  The players maneuver out of the way of the big guy while destroying the turrets.  Once the turrets are out, the aircraft takes to the sky ... and perhaps starts dropping bombs.  These should be fairly inaccurate, but do some hurt if they hit.

As for your werecat's last hurrah ... well, the scene I have in my mind her clawing her way onto (or even into) the bomber as it takes off, then confronting the spirit inside (or just inflicting damage to the frame from within).  This might serve to distract the bad guy (helping the bombs miss more) and dealing damage that bypasses its toughness (The Catch: attacks from within?).  She will, of course, die in the resulting crash, but will be instrumental in taking the thing out.

[Sanctaphrax]

An attempt at vehicle combat rules can be found here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,24744.15.html.

It may or may not be helpful.

[ZMiles]

Be careful about designing planes, particularly bombers. Planes can often move several zones out of the range of PCs, giving them no options except for running and hiding. If you have PCs that don't have a really long range attack and can't fly, they might be completely unable to battle the plane unless it's limited to fly low down for some reason

[Silverblaze]

Just have a skilled combatant inside firing a weapon: 4-6 weapon(in the case of large calibre guns or bombs [bombs technichally could range much higher but for general balance I'd say around 6]).  If the plane is possessed then use the former entries.