Hovercraft

Hovercraft use fans to blow air under the vehicle. This air pushes the craft up off the ground, in effect providing a cushion of air for the vehicle to ride on. Ducted fans are used to provide thrust in order to drive the craft, often the lifting air is taken by diverting part of the jet stream from the thrust fans. The fan's thrust can usually be vectored sideways or downward and the fans can be reversed to decelerate or back up.

Hovercraft have a nearly frictionless contact with the ground. As a result, they are blown about by any wind and tend to drift off the sides of hills. They can be difficult to steer - without airfoils or wheels to provide direction you need to vector the thrust into your turn and you do not neccessarily face the direction you are travelling when turning. Advanced control systems helps a bit with this, but does not entirely correct for it. This can be particularly bothersome at high speeds. On the plus side, the low friction means they can go very fast, and they are very easy to parallel park.

The efficiency of the air cushion is improved by using a "skirt," or flexible barrier that extends below the frame of the craft to help trap the air under the vehicle. If too much of a gap opens between the skirt and the ground, the air gets out and the hovercraft loses lift. As a consequence, hovercraft are not capable of crossing rugged ground (or even cattle gratings). They can cover any flat surface without penalty, however - road, lawn, snow, sheer ice, swamp, or calm open water are all the same to a hovercraft.

By vectoring additional thrust downward, a hovercraft can gain extra ground clearence to negotiate low obstacles. This is rather fuel inefficient, however, and deprives you of forward thrust for maintaining speed or accelerating. There is an additional hazzard: if the craft's Basic Move is greater than ten times the local gravity (in g's), the hovercraft can put out enough thrust to actually become airborn. Since hovercraft are not made for flight, this usually results in rapid loss of control and, to put it in technical terms, "Uncontrolled flight into terrain." For every second airborn after the first, make a control roll at -1 to both Handling and Stability to avoid loss of control. Still, given the hovercrafts' tendancy to drift and slide away from its indended direction and high maximum speed, a panicked hit to the jump button has saved many a driver.

Hovercraft

TL	Vehicle	ST/HP	Bulk	Hnd/SR	HT	Move	LWt	Load	SM	Occ	DR	Range	Cost	Hit Chart	Notes
9	Passenger Hovercraft	34	26	-2/3	11f	5/100	1.6	0.6	+3	1+4	3	600	$30K	1
9	Scout Hovercraft	46	33	-2/3	12f	5/80	3.5	1.5	+3	1+7	4	600	$70K	3	[1]
9	Racing Hovercraft	32/27	24	-1/3	10f	8/250	1	0.2	+3	1+1	3	1000	$150K	2
9	Light Transport Hovercraft	40	33	-2/3	11f	3/80	3	1	+4	1+7	4	800	$40K	3
9	Hoversled	38	27	-2/3	12f	5/80	2.1	1	+3	1+1	4	500	$30K	4	[1]
9	Medium Hover Trasport	58	41	-3/3	11f	3/70	7	3	+4	1+2	4	1000	$50K	5
9	Hover Bus	60	47	-3/3	11f	3/70	13	7	+6	1+66	3	400	$150K	6
9	Heavy Hover Transport	75	56	-3/3	11f	3/70	34	24	+5	1+2	4	2400	$90K	7
9	Touring Hoverpod	25	17	-1/3	11f	8/120	0.5	0.2	+1	1+1	4	400	$15K	8
9	Sport Hoverpod	22/17	15	0/3	10f	10/280	0.4	0.1	0	1	3	200	$25K	8
9	Offroad Hoverpod	25	17	-1/3	12f	8/100	0.5	0.2	+1	1+1	4	300	$15K	8	[1]

Notes
[1] Higher flight "ceiling" allows traversal of somewhat more rugged ground.

Hit Locations:

• Body - Treat as torso hit.
• Vitals - Treat as vitals hit.
• Fuel - HT roll on a major wound or worse to avoid catching fire. Roll at -3 for burning damage.
• Propulsion - Treat as leg hit.
• Payload - Takes damage as if homogenous. Passengers can only be hit if they are sitting there. Smaller or larger passengers may have a different chance to be hit (GM's discretion; a child in a passenger car may only be hit on a 1-2 on the d6, a bear in the back seat on 1-5). If cargo is occupying a passenger's place, it may be hit instead (GM's discretion, depending on how large cargo is compared to hit location).
• Cargo - As payload, except no passengers can sit there.

Hit Chart 1

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	Driver	Driver
	6	Payload	F. Pas.	F. Pas.	F. Pas.
	7	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	8	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 2

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	5	Propulsion
	6	Payload	Driver	Driver	Driver
	7	Payload	F. Pas.	F. Pas.	F. Pas.
	8	Propulsion
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 3

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	Driver	F. Pas.	F. Pas.
	6	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	7	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	8	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 4

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	Driver	Driver
	6	Payload	F. Pas.	F. Pas.	F. Pas.
	7	Cargo
	8	Cargo
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 5

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	Driver	F. Pas.	F. Pas.
	6	Cargo
	7	Cargo
	8	Cargo
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 6

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	Pas.	Pas.
	6	Payload	Pas.	Pas.	Pas.
	7	Payload	Pas.	Pas.	Pas.
	8	Payload	Pas.	Pas.	Pas.
	9	Propulsion
	10	Payload	Pas.	Pas.	Pas.

Hit Chart 7

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Cab	Body	Body	Vitals	Driver	F. Pas.	Payload
	2	Propulsion	Fuel
	3	Cargo
	4	Cargo
	5	Cargo
	6	Cargo
	7	Cargo
	8	Cargo
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

Hit Chart 8

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Propulsion	Tires	Tires
	2	Propulsion
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	5	Driver
	6	Driver
	7	Driver/Pas
	8	Driver/Pas
	9	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	10	Propulsion

Hit Chart 9

	1d10	Location	1d6
			1	2	3	4	5	6
	1	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	2	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	3	Body	Vitals	Fuel
	4	Propulsion
	5	Payload	Driver	F. Pas.
	6	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	7	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	8	Payload	R. Pas.	R. Pas.	R. Pas.
	9	Propulsion
	10	Cargo

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