So I'm making a Mechanic Armorer support guy for a new game. Guy's from Texas originally. Little bit of Cyber, figure a Data Jack, maybe a new hand from an equipment failure crushing his hand.

Was figuring it'd be perfect for him to have a Tractor Trailer, could have his workplace in the trailer, and has one big fuck engine that he could stereotypically work on every 2 days. Problem is, I'm not finding any decent examples. Where would I find a big rig, and what's a good way to reasonably afford such a vehicle?

Arsenal, p110. Nordkapp Zugsmaschine. 90K for the cab, another 20K for the trailer. You'll have to talk to your GM about how many extra modification slots the trailer has, above those of it's 6 body. Because really, it should have 30+ of them.

Hmm. If we take the Zug and add walker mode, how quickly will we get a call from Hasbro?

We wouldn't. We already got away with it in our sister product.

[img]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5124/5372081148_812b5425f2_o.jpg[/img]

How the hell did this get past Legal???

Depending on how big a work-space you are toting, you could also do a Roadmaster or Citymaster with a supped up engine.


you do realize that the blimp that picks up TREES to process them in mid-air has only 36? And you have to create hardware basis from an empty trailer, unlike the Zug itself, which has a reinforced frame.

Mostly because it really doesn't look that much like Optimus Prime, unless you specifically paint it up to make it do so.

I'd appreciate it if you could hold off on having a Big Rig, a Citymaster, or a Roadmaster. Funnily enough, the group already has one of each. Granted, the Roadmaster is an early 2060s vintage that has a blown engine and only moves under the influence of a Possession spirit at present, and the big rig is stolen and needs to be cleaned of RFID tags before you can safely drive it, but...

Well, a mechanic would have no shortage of things to work on, and that's even without heading out into the junkyard to find some really vintage car you think you can resurrect.


You also wouldn't really need to buy any Shops, since the Crazy Prepared old guy who owns the junkyard bought a Shop of literally everything. While I might let you cram a Facility into a big-rig's trailer if it unfolds Optimus Prime style, that would probably be too expensive.

Besides, I thought you were gonna have a horse? You'll need a horse trailer with that.

As an LTA, most of it's volume MUST remain filled only by it's lifting gas. IOW, most of it has to remain EMPTY.

Not so, a full sized trailer. A trailer that could hold two Body-10 cars (e.g., Mercury Comets), just by loading them nose-to-tail, with room to spare.

...

Sometimes, I strongly prefer the SR2/SR3 vehicle construction/modification rules, where a vehicles durability was not the ultimate limit in how much volume of special hardware you could cram inside. (Even the authors of Arsenal seem to have realised that in some cases, Body is not a particularly good metric to use for that - hence why Drones have 4 slots, regardless of body ...)

Also, I miss the Bergen super-tractor-trailer thing. A house on wheels, hauling a line of warehouses-on-wheels. With crew space in each module, complete with galley, and I think the cab even had a (very small) sickbay / medical bay.

The what now? What the hay is that out of? It sounds awesome!

It's a rolling pirate ship!

So, we have normal sea pirates, sky pirates, submarine pirates, and now, land pirates.

Yarrrrr, matey!

Rigger 3 i think.

Nordkapp-Conestoga Bergen; from the First or Second edition RBB, I believe.

I actually found a PDF with the statblocks for, well, EVERYthing up through SR3. The Command module was Body 8 / Armor 6 (and in SR4 terms, I think you'd at triple both of those), fully legal but with an availability of 38 (and period of 38 days per roll), and an MSRP of 750,000 ...! The cargo modules were Body 8, Armor 3, costing 227,000 and muchmuch more available than the command modules, at 10 and 10 days.

Basically ... you know the monster-huge dump trucks they use in open-pit mining operations? Like the one pictured here: http://www.freighttruck.org/2011/09/16/dumptrucks/#more-942 ...?

Take that. Remove the gigantic bucket, replace it with (essentially) a double-wide RV at the level of the driver's cab. That's the command module.

Each cargo module is like that, but with a smaller engine, no driver's cab, and no RV module (though there is a passageway, a bunk-bed like crew sleeping compartment, and a head squeezed into it) ... instead, most of the volume is taken up with cargo space.

...

Now, chain 5 or 6 of those cargo modules together, behind a single command module. And don't bother looking for roads ... just reasonably flat terrain. POOF, you have a container ship ON LAND.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qPbtqWowNg

I think the Bergen showed up in either Rigger 2 or Rigger 3. Hell, it may well have been in both.

Can't be assed to dig out the books and check tho

Man...

Were any images of this behemoth ever published? Because now I'm getting ideas.

Just because something didn't make it into the 4e book doesn't mean that all extant examples poofed out of existence.

Something tells me that such a huge target is just ASKING to have missile fired at it.

That and parking must be hell.

~Umi

The critter?
Yes, i think there were some . .

Something that big probably shrugs off missles as if thy are firecrackers . .
As for parking?
If there isn't a parking space where you drive, there will be one once you stop.

http://home.arcor.de/wolfgang_haag/html/sh...dkapbergen.html

The little image on the right, I remember clearly - so it's a direct scan from whichever book it came in originally.

Note, the wheels are a full 10 or 12 feet in diameter. There's a LADDER to reach the driver-side door.

It's basically this:
http://www.freighttruck.org/wp-content/upl.../Dumptrucks.jpg
with 3 axles instead of 2 and pulling trailers of it's own size instead of having a huge loading back in the back.

Yeah, that's basically what I said upthread. That, and it has a built-in double-wide RV for the crew.

...

These things were literally conceived as "container ships" for the wide-open, flat spaces of eastern Russia, Mongolia, and so forth.

Waitaminute! That's the Nordkapp Zugsmaschine from Arsenal! Only it's not statted out as a land ship, but as a big rig.

Yeah, they re-used much of the older art in the newer SR4 gear books and simply gave the stuff other numbers it seems . .

Well, bloody hell! Why in the nine did they do THAT?!? There was existing, ordinary-18-wheeler art for SR already, they could have used for the Zugmaschine ... which is definitely not statted as a "moving office block", like the Bergen was.

...

Respect for Catalyst: dwindling.

Talos heretic!

Just kidding. Fuck the Thalmor, seriously.


Anyway, I have no idea. If I had to guess, someone had a huge folder full of images bereft of context, saw it, didn't 'get' the ladder was a ladder up to a massive vehicle's cab, and thought it was just as big rig with an unusual, cool look they could use.

Take into consideration a lot of the old art and items have gone through, what, three companies? More?

Lots of stuff being packed up and mislabeled in boxes and such.

Isn't that exactly what I said?

Yeah, but I get the feeling some people need things spelled out with all the...

Never mind, I shouldn't be posting right now.

I disagree strongly with Pax... a standard box trailer would only have 6 body. Body does not only indicate size but also how tough something is build... a structure built out of metal will have a much higher body score than an equivalent structure made out of wood.

It's little more than sheet metal plus some framing... they're not exactly the most rugged structures on the road... compared to the cab with it's engine, transmission, etc. they're tinfoil.

If you wanted something more, at that point you're more or less building your own trailer from scratch. Your better route would be to do something like take a citymaster as a template, give it 'limited maneuverability' since it doesn't move on it's own but instead is drug behind the zugmachine. I'd still consider a seperate vehicle for damage purposes and NOT lump the two into one for balance reasons and problems within the RAW.

You could even end up with a flatbed carrying another vehicle.

It's probably best in all situations to not consider the combined tractor trailor a single unit except for maneuverability and speed restrictions. Damagewise... probably best to consider them two seperate targets and vehicles.

Here's part of the reason why... you have a zug + trailor... you consider them a single target... target is attacked and takes damage... you now take off that trailer and put on another one... where is the damage? There's no rules to handle how each of them take damage or how it's split between the two.

On the other hand if they're two vehicles which only share a maneuverability/pilot response for the defense test to avoid getting hit but soak damage independently... it makes a lot more sense... as it's possible to trash the trailer and it's cargo without trashing the tractor unit... or vice versa (if you're trying to hijack the cargo). You know exactly how the damage is split between them at all times as well.

You're talking smart, real smart, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. You're also pretty damn spot-on about splitting damage and counting the trailer as a limited maneuverability unit.

Wait, where are the space pirates?

In space, presumably.

There's been Matrix Pirates for years. It's the ASTRAL Pirates you have to watch out for.Here's their captain.

You mean the Space Pirate's captain, right? Because he doesn't seem like an Astral Pirate, much less an Astral Pirate captain.


... What do Astral Pirates steal, anyway?

Astral Loot?

I never said the trailer should have more actual body ... just, more room for modifications.


SR4 however, does exactly that. The Trailer doesn't have a separate body of 6. Instead, it ups the Tractor's body by 6.

I agree with you that it's not a good approach. Unfortunately, it is the RAW's decision.

Souls. Karma. Emotions. Luck.

Ok, if that's the space pirate captain we have nothing to worry about.

They do have a funky theme though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkjWyPC9Sm4

PAX,

RAW or not... the combined vehicle rules for any tractor-trailer are woefully incomplete.... that's all I'm saying.

The rules for any kind of trailer are pretty bad or nonexistent... excepting sidecars for bikes.


If you hitched a uhaul trailer behind your Rover 2068... it wouldn't make sense to treat them as a combined vehicle. There is no RAW to say how exactly that's handled with a tractor-trailer combo.

The vehicle rules are pretty much uniformly "pretty bad or nonexistent". Just another group/GM decision.

Yes, I was agreeing with you.

still not as big as a tree. Certainly not as long, and I doubt the plant is purely linear. Western Red Cedars, which are native to places like Seattle outreaches, grow to up to 200 ft long and 20ft spread. Body determines carry, if I recall. Also, the space needed for lift is dependent on the gas, assuming gas is the only variable for lift at that.
As has been said, the rules for 4th ed are pretty nondescript. We back-referenced 3rd ed vehicle books for similar items in our group. As it appear you have? a roadmaster and tractor-trailer, have you considered a small plane? You can get a Tundra-9 if you truly break the bank at character creation, or you can get a yellow jacket without having to use Born Rich and In Debt.

I just wanted a decent rig. If I wanted the best min/max possible, I wouldn't be playing a fucking mechanic.

So what?

I'm talking about "volume in which to put vehicle modifications". Not whether or not ic can carry a full-blown fraggin' redwood.

Body is not SIZE. Body is structural resilience and strength.

Honestly, modification limits should NEVER have been tied to Body. Never, ever, ever.

The group already has a big rig. If you want something unique, perhaps the Mostran KVP-27T? It's on Page 111 of Arsenal, and it's.....

Wait, what? Body 8? Did they mis-type "18," there, because if a Hermes delivery van, which from all appearances is smaller, slimmer, and less sturdy, is Body 17, then that big beefy hovervan - described as a combination of a delivery van and mobile general store for wilderness areas - should be at least an 18.

Well, that's nice and enigmatic...

I think I'm gonna have to say that the hovercraftvan is Body 18. It makes it a sane purchase for a Shadowrunner.