Rigging & Vehicle Mechanics
How vehicles play at the table — the six vehicle ratings, the Control Test for driving, Vehicle Control Rigs and the Control Pool, vehicle combat run as a chase of opposed Position Tests, shooting from and at vehicles, crashing, ramming, and drones. Sources: SR2 core Vehicles and Combat pp. 104–107 and the GM Screen vehicle tables; Rigger 2 (FASA7906) for the deep rigging system.
SR2 core keeps vehicles deliberately light — the book itself says "Shadowrun is not a vehicle combat game." What follows is the complete core loop, enough to run a chase or a getaway. A rigger (a character with a Vehicle Control Rig) plays this far better than a meat driver. The full subsystem — vehicle design, drones on autopilot, sensors, ECM — lives in Rigger 2.
// THE VEHICLE — SIX RATINGS
Like a character has attributes, a vehicle has ratings on its own scale. (SR2 p. 104)
- Handling
- The vehicle's maneuverability — and the Target Number for every test to control it. Lower is better: a Handling-3 sports car is far easier to push than a Handling-5 truck. Often written as two numbers (on-road / off-road).
- Speed
- Two numbers, cruising / maximum, in meters per Combat Turn (~3 seconds). Multiply by 1.2 for a rough km/h when you're just travelling.
- Body
- Structural ruggedness and rough size. The vehicle rolls Body to resist damage.
- Armor
- Protection against weapon damage. Half the Armor (round down) is added to Body on the vehicle's Damage Resistance Test.
- Signature
- How hard the vehicle is to detect electronically/thermally. Higher = stealthier.
- Autopilot / Pilot
- How well the vehicle drives itself when nobody's at the wheel (and how well it follows a rigger's standing orders or a drone's programming).
// DRIVING — THE CONTROL TEST
You only roll when something tricky happens — a jump, a hairpin at speed, threading traffic, dodging. Roll your Vehicle skill (Car, Bike, Motorboat, Rotorcraft, etc.) against a Target Number equal to the vehicle's Handling + situation modifiers. Cruising down an empty road needs no roll. A failed control roll can cost you control — see Crashing. (SR2 p. 104–105)
| Situation (Vehicle Operation Table) | TN Modifier |
|---|---|
| Complex controls | +1 |
| Unfamiliar vehicle — non-stressful | +1 |
| Unfamiliar vehicle — stressful | +3 |
| Large vehicle of its type | +2 |
| Very large vehicle of its type | +3 |
| Bad conditions (rain, night, light damage) | +2 |
| Terrible conditions (storm, ice, heavy damage) | +4 |
| Rigger jacked in (control rig) | − (VCR rating × 2) |
Jazz throws a Handling-4 sedan around a corner at speed in the rain (+2). TN = 4 + 2 = 6. She rolls her Car skill 5 → two dice beat 6 → 2 successes: clean. Had she scored 0 successes, she'd lose control and have to make a Crash Test.
// RIGGING — JACKING INTO THE MACHINE
A Vehicle Control Rig (VCR) is cyberware that lets a rigger jack a cable from their datajack into a vehicle and become it — steering, sensing, and shooting with thought. It's the single biggest force multiplier behind the wheel. (SR2 p. 104)
- Lower target numbers
- Being jacked in subtracts VCR rating × 2 from every control/Position/Crash test (see the table above). A VCR-2 rigger is at −4 to every TN.
- Reaction & Initiative
- The rigger uses their own (cybernetically boosted) Reaction and extra Initiative dice while controlling the vehicle, so they tend to act first.
- Control Pool
- While jacked in, the rigger gains a pool of bonus dice to spend on vehicle tests (Position, Crash, control), refreshing each Combat Turn — much like Combat Pool. (Exact size & the drone-subscription rules: Rigger 2.)
- Drones & RPVs
- A rigger can run drones (remote-piloted vehicles) by jacking in remotely through a rigger/remote-control deck, or leave them on autopilot following commands ("guard the door," "follow that car"). Only one vehicle can be under full direct control at a time.
Cobra takes that corner jacked in with a VCR-2. The rigger modifier is −(2×2) = −4, so TN = 4 + 2 − 4 = 2 — and he adds Control Pool dice on top. He effectively can't fail, and acts on a fat Initiative.
// VEHICLE COMBAT — THE CHASE
SR2 abstracts vehicle combat as a chase. Each Combat Turn every driver declares an intent — Flee, Pursue, or Fight — and makes a Position Test: roll Vehicle skill (+ Control Pool) against a Target Number equal to your Handling + terrain. Compare net successes to see who gains position. (SR2 p. 105–106)
| Terrain | Position Test TN modifier |
|---|---|
| Open (open road, clear sky/water) | +0 |
| Normal (city streets, light traffic) | +1 |
| Restricted (heavy traffic, woods) | +2 |
| Tight (alleys, dense obstacles) | +4 |
- Pursuer beats fleer → the gap closes; each net success shifts range by a chunk of cruising speed.
- Fleer beats pursuer → the gap opens; pull far enough ahead and you can attempt a full Escape Test.
- Close to within 1 meter and you can ram.
- A go-gang bike (Handling 3) chases the team's van (Handling 4) down a Normal street (+1).
- Bike Position Test: skill 5 vs TN 3+1=4 → 3 successes.
- Van Position Test: skill 4 vs TN 4+1=5 → 1 success.
- Bike nets 2 → it closes two range increments and is in firing range next turn. The van's only hope is to win a Position Test back, reach Tight terrain (alleys, where its bigger TN hurts less than the bike's exposure helps), or break line of sight.
// SHOOTING FROM & AT VEHICLES
Gunfire resolves like normal ranged combat. Personal weapons use Firearms; vehicle-mounted weapons use Gunnery. Speed, range, and a moving platform add the usual modifiers. Then the target vehicle resists the hit. (SR2 p. 107)
- Vehicle Damage Resistance
- The vehicle rolls Body + ½ Armor (round down) against the weapon's Power. Every 2 net successes the attacker scores stages the Damage Level up one step (Light → Moderate → Serious → Deadly), tracked on the vehicle's own Condition Monitor.
- Serious damage → control loss
- When a moving vehicle takes Serious (or worse) damage, the driver must immediately make a Crash Test or wreck.
A samurai fires an assault rifle (Power 8, base 6M) at the chasing bike (Body 1, Armor 0) and scores enough net successes to stage it to 6S. The bike resists with Body 1 + ½(0) = 1 die vs TN 8 — almost certainly keeps the Serious, forcing the rider into a Crash Test.
// CRASHING
A Crash Test is triggered by Serious damage or a lost control roll. Roll Vehicle skill (+ Control Pool) vs Handling + terrain; fail and you crash. Crash damage scales with how fast you were going. (SR2 p. 107)
| Terrain | Crash Test TN mod |
|---|---|
| Open | −1 |
| Normal | 0 |
| Tight | +2 |
| Restricted | +4 |
| Speed (m/turn) | Crash Damage |
|---|---|
| 1–20 | Light |
| 21–60 | Moderate |
| 61–200 | Serious |
| 201+ | Deadly |
The crash's Power is roughly the vehicle's cruising speed ÷ 10. Passengers then resist the hit with their own Body (armor that covers impacts can help). (SR2 p. 107)
The bike (now at Serious damage, cruising 65 m/turn) blows its Crash Test. Speed 65 → Serious crash. The rider resists a ~6S hit with Body — and probably eats pavement.
// RAMMING
Win a Position Test down to 1 meter and you can ram. The attacker rolls their Vehicle skill to connect; the victim makes a Crash Test to stay in control. Ram damage scales with the rammer's Body and the speed difference — a big, fast vehicle hitting a small one is brutal, and both sides can take damage. (SR2 p. 106–107)
A Body-5 armored limo rams the Body-1 bike. The limo barely notices; the bike takes a heavy hit and almost certainly crashes.
// GETTING AWAY — THE ESCAPE TEST
A fleer who is pulling ahead can attempt an Escape Test to break off the chase entirely. Open ground favors the escape (a big negative modifier); tight terrain makes it harder to shake a tail. Succeed and you're gone. (SR2 p. 107)
| Terrain | Escape Test TN mod |
|---|---|
| Open | −4 |
| Normal | −2 |
| Restricted | 0 |
| Tight | +2 |
- This is SR2 core's whole vehicle system (pp. 104–107) plus the GM Screen control-modifier table — enough to run chases, getaways, and the odd ram. It's intentionally abstract.
- Deliberately omitted (it's Rigger 2 territory): vehicle design/customization, the exact Control-Pool and drone-subscription math, sensors/ECM/ECCM, signature-vs-perception, and remote-deck jamming.
- Every vehicle in the builder and on the gear pages is statted in the fuller Rigger 2 format (Handling, Speed, Accel, Body, Armor, Sig, Autonav, Sensor, Cargo, Load).