...And Then It Became a Favorite

I did a "Road Warrior" and "Car Wars" style campaign with Cypher System, and it became one of my all-time favorite games. Once I understood how it worked, everything fell into place naturally. It felt like the best d20 game ever invented.

I even invented my own vehicle combat system, a "monster versus monster" system featuring specific light, medium, and heavy weapons, each with its own special effects. A "battle delivery van" was a level 5 vehicle with 15 hits, with a medium weapon rocket launcher up top (4 hits, heat shells that ignored 2 points of armor), and twin machine guns up front (light weapon, but with one ease factor). The van had 2 points of armor.

A simple "battle cycle" was a level 2 vehicle (6 hits), one point of armor from the front and back, and a machine gun up front (light weapon).

This all operated on a "vehicle scale," so those weapons did not do that much to characters; you could count the lightest vehicle weapon as a heavy and go up from there by two points per level. Hand weapons were all treated at a level down and given a hindrance.

Other vehicles were just treated like monsters, and the game played as usual. Vehicles didn't have stats or pools; they just had hits. If a passenger car were normal and unarmored, it could be rated a level 2 vehicle, as it would go down quick and be cannon fodder.

In GURPS, I would break out spreadsheets and design them, or use the closest equivalent in a sourcebook. In Car Wars, I need to create these or use stock vehicles. In any other game, I would be sorting through vehicle combat rules and taking forever to run these battles. In Cypher, I would come up with an enemy car, give it a level, a weapon, maybe some armor, and get playing.

It was easy and fun.

Another fantastic aspect of the system was its speed. I could complete an entire full day of adventuring for my driver in about 30-45 minutes and feel satisfied. This involved multiple combat encounters, role-playing segments, exploration areas, oracle rolls, and NPC interactions, as I played solo. I accomplished a lot, and the tension continued to escalate as my driver's resources dwindled.

Vehicles could have "vehicle cyphers" as well, which were cool, like single-use drones, nitrous systems, homing missiles, road mines, tracking beacons, and other cool toys. If you found a new one, you bolted it on your piece of junk car and got back on the road.

Vehicles could also have artifacts, like computer systems, unique and rare weapons, or other highly sought-after toys and gear. These are depleted as usual.

This was my first time playing the system seriously, and I was able to mod in a relatively complex new system that worked perfectly. I modeled it after "what worked well in the game," and everything was fine. Outside the car, my driver acted as a typical Cypher character. Inside the car, I switched to "Cypher Vehicle Scale" and kept playing.

Were things "a step abstracted?" Yes, they were, but when you think about it, everything in pen-and-paper role-playing games is abstracted. What is an 18-strength, anyway? It is simply a number with a meaning attached to it, based on a scale provided by the game. The same with a "level 4 battle car."

No other game achieved this level of complexity so easily.