I'm new to the board here, so I hope I'm not covering something that's already been discussed extensively.


I've long despised a lot of the Shadowrun rules, if only because they can bog you down as a GM. Naturally, a speedy system is needed for smooth game play. The Combat System is pretty fast, the Magic System could be tweaked slightly, the SR3 Matrix System is great but what were they thinking when they made the Vehicle Combat System!

I've found the SR3 Vehicle Combat System too bogged down by rules and mathematics to run quickly. This is not to say that math scares me (if it did I wouldn't be an SR fan...and a longtime SR GM), however, has anyone come up with a simplified method to run Vehicle Combat?

It's been a while since I've played SR2 -- let alone thumbed through the book -- but I do recall that it was a tad smoother, if only because it was less detailed.

Can anyone assist in either doing a full overhaul of the Vehicle Combat System or even help tweak it so that I can effectively employ Vehicle Combat in my runs?

Thank you,
Fifty

Rigger 3, page 80.

The optional movement rules in R3 seem to be the way to go - i tried to use the core rules and just got confused. They only seem to work in chase situations.

Has anyone had any success using the core vehicle rules - i'd be interested to hear how you handle it.

While i'm at it the ECM rules appear to be a bit underpowered considering almost everyone uses signal amps to crank their flux thru the roof (thus the ECM never does much - the WASP with the ECM 1 is pretty pointless). I might try just using ECM ratings as simple modifiers - such as a vehicle with ECM 2 adding 2 to it's Sig. Eccm acts as a 'negafier' against the ECM. Just a thought.

Has anyone had any success using the ECM rules?

If it comes up in my games, I'll just rule that Signal Amplifiers do not increase the Flux of Sensors, ECM, ECCM, ED or ECD. Considering how insanely cheap and small they are, it makes more sense to me that SigAmps only increase the Flux of Radios etc.

ECM increasing Signature... That may well work, as long as it does not work against actually spotting the vehicle, only against targeting/locking on. It will change the balance quite a lot, but I doubt that will have significant effects on how vehicle combat plays out.