Johannes replied to me:
> The train crashes into something, what damage does it do, and what
damage is
> done to the train? Though AFAIK Gurps Vehicles crash rules are pretty
basic,
> so you hardly need more then a general train as guideline.
The damage it does doesn't depend on the fact that it is a rail vehicle. A
similar ground vehicle would do the same danage.
> Someone shoots at a train with a given weapon, either intentionally
or not, in
> what shape will the train be. Again you hardly need more then a
general train,
> unless someone intentionally targets a train with a locomotive, that
is small
> or fragile enough for their bazooka, which is an exotic situation.
There also
> might be sniper fire at specific components of a train.
For a steam engine, any serious hole in the boiler, cylinder or pipe
will wreck
it. The firebox and smokestack are required to keep the fire going.
Structural
elements are, well, structural. That leaves the cow-catcher and the
sides of
the cab as disposable parts.
Diesel and electric engines are not built with weapons fire in mind, either.
> How long will a train ride take between 2 points, in a given setting?
In a
> historic or quasi historic setting, you will need more the stats of
historic
> trains, and building them would be an academic exercise to get something
> with Vehicle rules, that has the same stats. In a lot of sf settings the
> background/flavour will dictate the speed of the trains and again
we are
> at an academic exercise. That leaves sf settings, where you are already
> commited to some technology, but are free to adjust travel times or
> distances between stations to the results train designs.
The same thought made me design space freighters first for any SF
setting. If
I have the transport cost, I can try and describe a planetside facility.
Are
the ground vehicles custom jobs where every kilogram counts, or standard
Earth-based designs?
> The pcs try to McGyver a damaged train going with components of other
> vehicles or similiar. Like the electric train is not going because there
> is a power outage, but we could use the energy cells from all thoose anti
> grav vehicles here. How far do we get with that? Most GMs would design
> the train for there adventure in that case, rather then designing a fleet
> of trains, when creating the background, just to have them ready.
I wrote a maglev track inspection/repair vehicle for that reason, back in
2008.
> The pcs might operate a train in a wild west like region, where bandits
> will try to stop the train, and at stops at backwater stations, they can
> be usefull outsiders (like they are the only person in town to have a
> good alibi, so they should make the investigation). Actual train stats
> will be needed seldom, but you still might want them, if the train is
> such a central feature of the campain.
The PCs are the crew of an armored train, in some brushfire war. They are
very mobile with substantial firepower, so they get all the odd jobs.
"What happened to Firebase 42?" "Who are the traitors in the main repair
depot?" "Spearhead the assault on the southern junction."
> The overall theme i see, is that required stats are either very general
> (you can use pretty much any train of any TL as approximation and get
> good results) or very setting specific or derived from a setting
> parameters. So it does not go that well with the vehicle of the weeks
> aim of many generic vehicles.
I'm making not just generic vehicles. My vehicles are a pretty good log
of the voyages of our Traveller Far Trader, and I also take requests if
they interest me ...
But it takes time to turn a first draft into a proper writeup with color
text and all. I only do that if I think that people are interested. Seems
that trains are not very interesting.
Regards,
Onno
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