Motorcycles & Offroad: No Motocross?

[archhealer]

I just noticed that, at least in the T20 Rules, motorcycles are really crappy offroad. No dirtbikes?

Does anybody else have any house rules they use for this? I mean, a vehicle with two wheels is easier to drive and a bit faster (As compared to it's max speed) than most vehicles with four (Unless the four-wheeled vehicles are specifically for offroad use).

I've considered a couple of possibilities, incluidng allowing agility to affect offroad speed, as well as maybe counting two-wheeled vehicles as having two drivetrains for determining offroad speed. Just curious how you all handle it.

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Dirt bikes would rule on a Mars like planet with low Grav... excellent notion!

 

[archhealer]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying! I'd love to hear Tjonslo's input on this, he seems to be the vehicle expert.

 

[veltyen]

I'd certainly consider dirtbikes to have multiple drive trains compared to road bikes. Instead of extra wheels its buried in changed superstructure and suspension rather then more rubber.

Modern roadbikes aren't that great off road. Argueably better then modern road cars, but that is already taken into account by the much greater maximum speed.

 

[tjoneslo]

I'll plug Traveller's Aid 3 (On the Ground) for the answer to this question. If you read the rules on adding extra wheels (each pair of wheels adds +5kph to top offroad speed.

In TA3, I add the option of instead of adding additional wheels, make the existing ones larger. The calculations are the same. (volume, cost, new top speed, etc), but just fewer wheels.

TA3 also has a note regarding the use of dirt, gravel or stronework roads. Dirt roads are limited to 1/2 top speed or twice off road speed which ever is higher. I'd also count relatively smooth open ground as "dirt" road, giving vehicles with offroad capability a significant boost.

 

[archhealer]

Gah I forgot all about just making the wheels bigger; and In my head I was getting confused by mixing up the rules for how much of the vehicle volume can be used for turrents with other systems. I was (subconciously) restricting the size of the DT by the size of the vehicle... but there's no reason a vehicle can't bt 80% or more Drivetrain...