[These are based on the Scout Walkers in the films 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'The Return of the Jedi', and not like Mechs from the popular game 'Battletech'. Just to make things clear! They do not have arms and cannot jump.]
Walkers are highly experimental, and are to be found only in the hands of major corporations or crazed experimenters. While they do have some military potential, the military hasn't gone for them, and thus they are very rare. The costs represent their value vs other vehicles, and not actual construction costs.
They consist of a torso (built a lot like a car), and then underneath they have two large armoured legs. This assists in moving, and while walkers are generally slower than cars, they have greater potential for where they can go. Or at least that's the theory...
Walkers are construction a lot like cars. They require a frame, powerplant, armour and weapons and crew.
Frames:
| Armour |
|---|
| Type | Cost | Weight | Load | Spaces |
Cost | Weight | Leg DP | Turrets
EWPS | Height |
Counter | HC |
|---|
| Small | $10,000 | 1,600 lbs. | 7,300 lbs. | 14 | 16 | 8 | 7 | 2 space | 1" | 3/4"x3/4" | 2 |
| Standard | $12,500 | 2,000 lbs. | 9,500 lbs. | 17 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 3 space | 1" | 3/4"x3/4" | 2 |
| Large | $16,000 | 2,500 lbs. | 11,000 lbs. | 22 | 24 |
12 | 15 | 4 space | 1.25" | 1"x1" | 1 |
Frames may not be modified in any way (no CA, streamlining or chassis modifiers), and includes legs, body and basic stuff.
Powerplants: Walkers use Truck powerplants, although for purposes of this, the power plants give an amount of power factors equalling (Max. Load - 10,000).
Armour: Walkers have 8 armour locations. The main torso has the standard six (left, right, front, back, top, underbody), and then each leg must be armoured (or at least is recommended!). Leg armour is bought at normal armour costs/weights.
Accessories:
Certain things won't work in walkers. Any accessory that affects a vehicles handling and manoeuvrability (such as spoilers, active suspension) or top speed (overdrive) will not work. This does include streamlining.
Turrets may only be top mounted, although walkers may mount a sponson turret front, and sponson turrets may be made universal (to allow firing straight up or down).
EWP's need not match each side of the walker, and they may be fired individually if desired. However if a mismatched pair fire, or a single pod fires, then it is a D1 hazard.
Acceleration:
Power factors less than half the weight: No movement
Power factors half the weight, but less than the weight: 5 mph
Power factors equalling the weight of greater: 10 mph
Top Speed:
Use the following formula:
(150 * PF) / (PF + Weight)
Walkers basically move like cars, being able to perform bends (of up to 60 degrees only) and drifts.
They have the added advantage in that as they use legs, they aren't in constant contact with the ground. This can make a difference with certain dropped weapons and obstacles.
A leg only reaches about 7' off the ground, but the feet are only considered to be in the front 1/2" of the counter. Thus when the walker moves, whatever is from the tip of the counter of the previous position, to the base of the front 1/2" of the new position is considered stepped over (if within 7' of height).
For example in straight line movement with a small walker. It moves forward one inch, and as the counter is 3/4" by 3/4" it will step over an area of 1/2".
When doing manoeuvres you'll have to be a bit more fancy!
Walkers may move in reverse at normal speeds.
Walkers, due their large wide feet are not as effected by debris and obstacles as normal cars are. They only suffer a D1 hazard for obstacles, and a D0 for debris.
A walker is considered to have Off road suspension (military?) at no extra cost.
| Walker Control Table |
| Die Roll | | Effect |
|---|
| 2 or less | | Trivial Skid * |
| 3-4 | | Minor Skid * |
| 5-6 | | Moderate Skid. Each leg takes 1 DP damage. Roll 1d3+5 on the leg buckle table. ** |
| 7-8 | | Moderate Skid. Each leg takes 1 DP damage. Roll 1d6+2 on the leg buckle table. ** |
| 9-10 | | Severe Skid. Each leg takes 2 DP damage. Roll on the leg buckle table. *** |
| 11+ | | Walker tumbles and falls! Each leg takes 3 DP damage. *** |
A walkers large feet are also its downfall when it comes to dropped weapons, it means that they cannot avoid them as much as they might like, and thus a walker has a -1 to set off any dropped weapons (or whatever is less favourable for the walker, thus mines are set off on a 1-5).
A walker doesn't use wheels at all, instead it has a set of legs underneath.
The DP of the legs is treated as metal armour and may armoured normally (which is considered universal protecting the individual leg from attacks from all directions).
They are the weak point in the walker design.
If a leg is down to half damage, then this can effect a walkers movement. Roll on the leg failure table whenever the walker moves at more than 3/4 speed.
If a leg is down to 3/4 damage, then make a roll whenever the walker moves at greater than half speed.
Note all rolls are made per turn!
| Leg Buckle Table (2d6) |
| Die Roll | | Effect |
|---|
| 2 | | Leg buckles and snaps. Walker topples over |
| 3 | | Leg buckles, D3 hazard and leg takes 1d6 points of damage |
| 4 | | Leg slightly buckles, D2 hazard and leg takes 1 point of damage |
| 5 | | Leg slightly buckles, D1 hazard |
| 6 | | Groaning noises from the leg, but no effects |
| 7 | | No effect |
| 8 | | Groaning noises from the leg, but no effects |
| 9 | | Leg slightly buckles, D1 hazard |
| 10 | | Leg slightly buckles, D2 hazard and leg takes 1 point of damage |
| 11 | | Leg buckles, D3 hazard and leg takes 1d6 points of damage |
| 12 | | Leg buckles, and the walker topples over. |
If the walker topples over, then it may not get up again without some sort of assistance from a large crane.
If a leg is destroyed through combat means, then the walker will topple, and it will generally topple away from the direction of its good leg and in the direction it was travelling (if possible).
Some examples:
If the leg was destroyed while the walker was going forward, then it topples forward.
If the leg was destroyed while the walker was going backwards, then it topples backwards.
If the right leg was destroyed by gunfire from the right side, then it topples to the right (if stationary) or at a 45 degree right/forward angle if moving forward
If the right leg was destroyed by gunfire from the left side, then it topples to the right side (if stationary) or at a 45 degree right/forward angle if moving forward.
If the vehicle topples and still has momentum, then it scraps along the ground, decelerating at 20 mph per turn and receiving 1D damage to the side being scraped until it stops.
Use common sense!
If a walker falls over takes 1D damage to the side impacting the ground, and each internal component takes 1 point of damage is a 1 or 2 is rolled on a d6 (roll for each component). Any EWPs on the falling side get ripped off.
If involved in a collision, then the legs are the only target that can be hit. If a ram occurs from the side, then only one leg will be hit, but if the ram was from the front or back, then both legs are hit and ram damage is divided between the two legs.
To be able to operate a machine like this, the skill Walker is required, which functions like any other driving skill, although solely relating to walkers. Without this skill, there is no chance at all of being able to operate a mchine like this, let alone perform any sort or movement.
A walker has standard fire arcs.
Being up high though means that it can usually shoot down on things. Consider the weapons on the walker to be 3/4" high (or 1" for the large) for body mounted weapons, and the height of the walker for top turrets.
The walker does have a blind spot in that it may not fire directly under (unless equipped with underbody mounted weapons). Not even universal sponson turrets may fire directly under, although they may fire directly down at the counters edge.
The other thing about being high is that anyone within 1/2" of the walker (and with weapons able to target upwards) may target the underbody of the walker!
| Targeting Modifiers |
|---|
| Legs: | Small/Standard: | -2 from the side, -3 from front/back |
| Torso: | Small/Standard: | +0 from the side, -1 from front/back |
| Large: | +0 from the side, +0 from front/back |
A walker has the extra combat advantage of being to twist its torso up to 30 degrees per turn, to a maximum of 45 degrees each side. While the torso is twisted, the vehicle still moves in the original direction (thus you might want to consider putting a direction arrow on the current facing of the torso so that the counter can represent the walkers movement). This will have a bearing on new fire arcs and locations able to be hit.
It gives no hazards to the walker if it faces one direction and moves in another.
Walkers may not ram as such, nor may they perform such attacks a kick. However they may perform a Stomp attack. When the walker ends its move it may step on anything that is 5' of less under it. Alas this does include pedestrians and motorbikes. Bikes are hit automatically, pedestrians are only hit if the driver makes a driving roll. The damage these unfortunates take is equal to the ram damage of the speed of the walker, halved.
The walker itself only takes 1 point (if the target was a pedestrian and then only on a roll of 1 or 2 on a d6), or 1d6 points if the object was a motorcycle.
If the walker walks into another vehicle, then it is considered a normal ram against the relevant SIDE of the target, but only half damage is inflicted and received.
A stationary walker may make stomp attacks against targets underneath it.
Due to the fact that walkers have legs which move independently, there is that chance of a person or motorbike being able to drive between the legs and not colliding with the beast. Referees are urged to consider this, and pedestrians should be able to make it unless the walker is deliberately trying to stomp them, while cyclists should make a very good biker roll!
Note: All designs give 200 lbs per crewmember for personal gear.
Scout Strider:
Small walker, small truck plant (w/PCs and SCs), driver only, no cargo, VMG (f), 2 smart linked MGs (in 2 sponson turrets, l,r), hires computer. Armour: F38, B25, L30, R30, T25, U25, left leg 35, right leg 35, HC 2, accel 5 mph, top speed 65 mph, weight 7,294 lbs, cost $38,688
Long Strider:
Regular walker, small truck plant, driver and gunner, no cargo, twin charged particle laser (w/ motion compensator in universal sponson turret, front), 2 VMG's (linked, in 2 EWPs, l,r, with ten points armour each), IRSS, searchlight (f). Armour: F40, B20, L30, R30, T25, U20, left leg 30, right leg 30, HC 2, accel 5 mph, top speed 50 mph, weight 9,485, cost $56,675
Charged particle lasers can be found in ADQ 10/2
Easy Strider:
Large walker, medium truck plant, driver, gunner (in uni cupola w/VMG), TL (f), 2 linked HR (f, w/2 three space rocket magazines with 6 HR, all with LGL to TL), cyberlink (for gunner to VMG). Armour: F45, B25, L40, R40, T30, U25, left leg 35, right leg 35, HC 1, accel 5 mph, top speed 70 mph, weight 10,990 lbs, cost $62,850
