Starwars Podrennen und andere

Hi!

Ich habe einmal noch Podracer gesucht und bin dabei auf folgende Regeln fuer ein Podrace gestossen.

Ich hab mir die Seite heruntergeladen, aber ich weiss nicht mehr woher ich den Link habe, also hier der Text.

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A Gamer's Guide to Podracing
by Mike Kelley
with stats assistance from Armage Bedar and Brian White


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Only a place as rough and reckless as the Outer Rim Territories could create a sport so dangerous that it makes swoop racing look tame. This is the sport called podracing, an extreme contest of both piloting skill and technical prowess that has recently gathered a large following throughout the Rim. While many planets have small podracing clubs, only 8 have officially sanctioned the races. "The Crazy Eight", as they're known among race fans, span a huge spectrum of terrain, from the seering deserts of Tatooine to the snowy caverns of Ando Prime to the tropical swamps of Baroonda.
All of these planets are, of course, located in the Outer Rim. The sport is barely known in the Core and has been banned by the Republic. Even in the Rim, however, podracing in many ways is still an outlaw organization. It often attracts a very gritty breed of ruffians and cutthroats, drawn to the few actual rules and the big payoffs for winning certain races. At the same time, the ranks of the racers are a diverse and eclectic bunch, with a culture full of vastly different and conflicting styles of piloting and pod design, not to mention attitude.

The pods themselves are typically scavenged from components of other vehicles; no two are alike. While commercial manufacturers are now beginning to introduce high-perfomance parts built especially for racers, most pods are still hand-built out of junk. Traditionally, the sport has its roots as a weekend hobby of bush mechanics on Tatooine, repairing and mounting old turbines discarded from starships onto broken down speeders. In fact, it is a Mos Espa mechanic named Phoebos who is generally considered the father of modern podracing. Phoebos has been credited as being the first to mount up a cockpit pod with repulsor-lifts and attach it via Steelton cables to a pair of ramjet engines, thus creating an unbelievably fast vehicle which became known as a Podracer.

Today, podracing is becoming a major sport, with top racers taking on big-money sponsors and three seperate levels of competition arrising to take in the ever-growing pool of talent. The Amateur Podracing League is the original organization, where the galaxy's top racers from each isolated club first gathered to face off for bragging rights and glory. As the sport started to gather a crowd, though, some of the racers branched off into the Semi-Pro League, which hosts events that charge admission for spectators and much higher entry fees for racers, with the money raised going to build more elaborate tracks and substantial cash awards for victors. Most recently, the Galactic Podracing Circuit has formed, with full corporate sponsorship for races and drawing huge turnouts and holovision coverage throughout the Outer Rim Territories.

The three major leagues all race in 7 track circuits, which run on set schedules that are announced at the beginning of each season. Besides these, there are invitational races held throughout the year which draw large crowds and high-profile racers alike by putting up very large prizes for the winners and laying out exciting new courses.

Don't be fooled by the leagues and circuits, however. The sport of podracing is still very much a loose, open-class organization. The same top professionals on the GPC tour can often also be found racing on the classic old courses of the Amateur league. Conversely, anyone with a pod to race and can prove that they have the skill to race it can get entered into virtually any competition, all the way up to the GPC championship race on Boonta's Eve. There are "weekend racer" clubs on all of the eight podracing worlds, and especially on Tatooine, where kids as young as eleven and twelve can be seen blasting through the curves right next to the galaxy's best pros.

Predominantly, the top racers are non-human. With harrowing twists and turns and speeds reaching up to 900 kilometers an hour, modern podracing requires a certain amount of dexterity and reflexes that the majority of humans simply do not possess. That isn't to say it is impossible, though. The much-publicized story of human boy Anakin Skywalker winning last year's Boonta Classic is proof-positive of that. This kind of wild unpredictability is what really gives podracing its unique character.

Anatomy of a Pod Race

A typical podrace is a three lap competition around a carefully laid-out and marked course, with a start/finish line inside a large arena. Grandstands are often positioned at key vantage points through the track as well. Besides this, many major events also have video coverage from both fixed and roving cameras (holovids can be rented at the venue for a small fee). Lap times are usually in the 1 to 3 minute range, though the longest tracks have average lap times of 5 minutes or more.

For several days before the actual races, there are preliminary rounds where racers can test the performance of their pods (including any recent modifications). New competitors and racers that did not place in the top six places in the previous race are often required to perform in qualifying races in order to race in the finals. Avid podracing fans often come early to take in the prelims and stay at the track all weekend.

The average pod race has between twelve and sixteen racers all navigating the track at the same time, beginning in what's called the Starting Grid: four racers in the front row, three in the second tier, and four more in the 3rd, with the remaining racers filling in the back row. For most races, starting order is determined by the fastest times in the preliminary rounds. For championship races, the racers' records from through the season are used. It is the privilege of the event's host to signal the beginning of the race.

Once the flags go down, all hell breaks loose.

Through the track, the racers are challenged by any number of natural and artificial obstacles, including narrow tunnels, hairpin turns, rock-strewn fields and sudden drop-offs and ramps that send racers airborne. Through it all, the contestants also have to contend with each other; ramming and reckless flying are perfectly legal, and commonplace. The only things that really are illegal are mounting actual weaponry on your pod, or purposefully hitting a fellow racer with the intent of killing him. Even then, these rules are not well enforced.

Those who managed to survive the three laps are placed according to their overall times, and the top three finishers are awarded prize money, eventually returning to the repair bays to prepare for the next race.

Podracing Skills

Like swoops, racing pods are a unique type of vehicle and require unique skills; in this case, podracer operations and podracer repair. Most racers have both. Not only are they constantly (even obsessively) tinkering with their machines, but they're the ones that might have to make a quick fix or adjustment in mid-race.

Creating Your Own Podracing Course

Rather than using the Crazy Eight, some GMs will want to design their own podracing course to challenge their PCs. This can be done a number of ways.

Of course, you could always lay out a scale map with gridmarks or hexes to represent distances, but that can be a lot of work. Also, it's unlikely that you'd want to roll out every single twist and turn in the track. More likely, what you'll want to do is write out a few key challenges that the racers will have to go through, and run through these segments in the usual fashion, with verbal description and dice rolls. If they negotiate the course well, move them up in the field; if they do poorly, drop them a place or two.

Generally, the challenges are going to fall into 3 categories: Straightaways, Turns and Jumps.

Straightaways. In these relatively clear sections of the track, this is where the characters will try to pass or ram other racers, make on-the-fly repairs to their own pod, or do any number of other devious things that PCs have been known to think up. It might be good to divide these straightaways up into an exact distance to limit the number of actions, or 'manuevers'. These manuevers can run exactly like simplified combat rounds.


Straightaway Lengths
Short (less than 250 meters) - 1 manuever
Medium (250 to 500 meters) - 2 manuevers
Long (500 to 750 meters) - 3 manuevers
Very Long (750 meters to 1 kilometer) - 4 manuevers

Ramming. In straightaways, a character may declare that they want to use a manuever to ram into another racer, intent on damaging their pod or knocking them off-course. This can be a simple opposed skill roll (making sure to factor in Manueverability), with an opposed Body roll if the ram is successful. To give the rammer the advantage in the damage roll, you could pool the dice from the skill roll into the damage. Ex: Tirog, who has 4D in Podracer Piloting and has a pod with 3D Manueverability and 3D Body, declares a ramming attack on a rival NPC. The NPC has 5D skill but 2D Manueverabilty and 2D body. Tirog decides he wants to pool 1D from his attack to his damage, and rolls his skill dice [4D piloting + 3D manueverability - 1D pooled], versus the NPC's skill [5D piloting + 2D manueverability]. Tirog rolls a 21. The NPC rolls 19. A hit! The two racers crash together in a shower of sparks! For damage, Tirog rolls his racer's Body, plus the pooled dice [3D body +1D pooled]. The NPC rolls his Body [2D] to resist. Tirog rolls 15. NPC rolls 6. Smash! The NPC's podracer is heavily damaged.


Ramming Mishaps - If a one comes up on the wild die during ramming, Roll 1D:
1 or 2 - Swerve. Roll skill versus Moderate difficulty to avoid hitting the wall.
3 or 4 - Cut-off. Forced to pull back behind your opponent.
5 - Smash. Pinned between the opponent and the wall. Roll Body versus opponent's Body + the Wall Damage.
6 - Tangle. Control lines tangled. Must make a Difficult skill roll to untangle your pod from your opponent's.
Turning. Going through a turn in the track is simply a matter of rolling the character's skill versus a set difficulty. For a series of turns (two or more in quick succession), you could require the character to make multiple rolls at that difficulty, each one essentially being 1D harder because of Multiple-Action Penalties. If a player wants to perform some other action while navigating the turn, MAPs would apply there as well (making it very difficult, but still possible if they're burning CPs). A player that fails the piloting roll slams into the wall and roll Body damage versus a set damage for the terrain.


Turning Difficulty
Very Easy - slight swerve in the track (15 degrees)
Easy - smooth turn (30 degrees), avoiding a small obstacle
Moderate - average turn (45 degrees), a turn cluttered with debris
Difficult - a tight turn (60 degrees), an average turn on a steep slope
Very Difficult - a sharp turn (90-150 degrees), a tight turn with poor conditions
Heroic - a tight hairpin turn (180 degrees)
(*Note: If the turn is in a narrow or wide section of the track, add or remove one level of difficulty, respectively.)
Terrain Damage From Missed Turns
Fence - 1D
Metal Barricade - 1D+2
Guardrail - 2D
Smooth Wall - 3D
Rock Wall - 4D
Jagged Rock Wall - 4D+2

Damage Effects
Controls Ionized: -1D to next roll
Lightly Damaged: -1D to manueverability or -1/4 to speed
Heavily Damaged: -2D to manueverability or -1/2 to speed
Severely Damaged: see below

Blown energy binder. Engines take off on seperate vacations. Make a wish.
One engine breaks off. Hang on for a wild ride.
Engine fire. Explodes in 1D rounds unless shut down. If shut down, drop to Cautious speed.
Pod spins out of control. Slams off the wall, through a fruit vendor's stand, etc...
Power system failure. Pod sputters and skids to a stop.
Catastrophic break-up. Character has 1D rounds to bail before the pod tears itself to bits.
Jumping. Jumps can be played similarly to turns, a skill roll versus a set difficulty. If the character misses the skill roll they could lose time, land on another racer, crash into the ground or an obstacle causing serious damage. GM's call.


Jumping Difficulty
Moderate - A short gap in the track, a jump out over a clear area.
Difficult - A medium-sized gap, a jump uphill or into a narrow landing area.
Very Difficult - A large gap, a blind jump or a jump into a tunnel.
Heroic - A huge gap, a uphill jump into a narrow space or from an odd angle.

Except as modified above, all of the usual rules for vehicle movement - speeds, collisions, etc - apply normally.

Important Tips

As you probably know, "chase mechanics" rarely work well in any gaming system. In particular, I've always had a hard time in D6. While D6 has the bonus of simplicity, simply counting up the dice for each roll ends up taking the most time out of the entire process. Before trying to run a pod race, or any chase scene for that matter, I highly suggesting experimenting with the rules somewhat, doing what you can to try to strike a balance between fairness, realism, speed and fun.

First of all, try to reduce the number of dice rolled any way you can. Rolling 7D to 10D for every single roll is going to get tiring very quickly. One method could be to put in a Dice Sacrifice mechanic... say, a player can gain 20 kmph of speed for every D he sacrifices from his Podracing skill.

Speaking of speed, you could also try bringing back 1st Edition speed codes. I've always found that rolling dice is much easier than having to deal with actual distances and speeds.

Also, instead of trying to keep track of where all racers are on the track, try simply keeping track of where they are in relation to each other. Write down a number of boxes on a sheet of paper to represent where the characters are currently ranked (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc), moving backward and forward through the ranks as the race goes on. That way you can focus on only the racers that are close by the PCs at any given time.

And whatever you do, don't try to roll for every NPC racer on the track. A 3-minute race could take all night. Shifting them around at random and remembering to knock a couple out from time to time will get you about the same result, without all the work.

Above all, just try to keep it smooth, and be ready to fudge through some parts if they're bogging down the action. KISS. Have fun with it. You know the slogan... "Two Engines. One Champion. No Limits."

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Also dass ist mein Beitrag dazu.

lg
Elmar

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von Elmar - am 01.04.2003 06:31