Team Oxracers, Ep. 3: The die is cast (and so are the engine components)
Previous post (including a link at the bottom to who my team is inspired by)
Upon arrival, the first thing Jane does is put the Kando on the hoists in her garage to inspect it top to bottom.
“How are you going to modify it?” wonders Mary after Jane had her first intensive look around (and underneath) and had taken some notes.
“I have my ideas of course, but first, we need to make some rolls, of course. Techpool and quality.”
Michael enters the room with a die and instructions in hand. “I brought you something.”
“Thank you.” Jane picks up the paper from Michael and reads: "Make two separate rolls for each engine and trim component. The first one determines techpool: 1d6+1 with five as the maximum. The second one determines quality with 1d6-1 as the maximum. " She thinks for a second. “Nice. So everything above 4 is max techpool, or, in other words, a 50% chance for max techpool. And quality is linear.”
“That works.” Michael is happy for a change. “Now roll something good, please.”
“Engine family first… Four. And another Four.”
“So that’s a… +5 in engine family techpool?” Michael wonders after some quick calculations in his head.
“Yes, the maximum. And up to +3 in family quality”, Jane confirms. “Next, bottom end. Five! Another +5 techpool. And a useful one. And Three for Quality. Not great, but have to do.”
“Aren’t Seongu engines these weird undersquare ones?” wonders Michael.
“Yes. Engine architecture dating back decades. I think they initially cut a pre-war I6 in half or something and stuck with it. You can’t rev it - so it’s gonna be a turbo for us, one way or another.” Jane rolls again. "Two. And Three.“
“So +…3 for top end techpool?”
"Yes. Which isn’t that important for a turbo… which is next. Three… and Four!“ Jane announced.
“+4 turbo techpool and +3 quality, not too bad. Next is… Fuel system?”
“Yes. A Five! Gonna be useful for reliability. And… Yes! Six!”
“Nice. Critical success! What does that mean?”
Jane has to consult the sheet of paper again. “You can make a somewhat unrealistic choice.”
“And what would that be?”
“I don’t know yet. But I’d be happy just about the +5 quality option for fuel system. Always important. Looked pretty good under the hood, too, so that works out.”
“Last is exhaust?”
"Yes. And… a Two. And Four. Bummer. I like exhaust stuff for cheap quality. “
Meanwhile, Corazon has entered the garage as well, just in time to silently observed Jane rolling and Michael commenting on success and failure of the engine components. Mary meanwhile has moved to a workbench on the opposite side of the garage to draw what looks like large letters on half-transparent paper.
“Okay. Now chassis. Techpool first. One!” Jane exclaims, more enthusiastically than appropriate for the roll.
“Oh no!” Corazon exclaims. "Critical failure!“
“That means…” Jane reluctantly glances at the sheet of paper next to her. “You have to set techpool to +2 or lower and quality between -2 and 0 so that the sum of the two is 0 or lower.”
“Oh no”, Corazon repeats, clearly too quickly after Jane’s statement to be able to properly understand the quite convoluted rule. “And the chassis is the most important part of the car.” He states the obvious.
“Further”, Jane continues. “You cannot change any settings compared to the base car, unless stipulated by the rules for the challenge, or unless you roll a critical success for that component later on.”
“So we are stuck with McPherson fronts, Torsion rears?” Michael asks increduously.
“For the time being, yes. And we are stuck with the rust that’s I’ve seen on the chassis, as well, of course.”
Is that what the Oxracers will have to roll with?
Corazon and Michael exchange worried glances.
“If I am not mistaken, we are also going to be severely constrained by the ET limit”, Jane adds. “Chassis is expensive. So this was the worst possible time for the first critical fail.”
“Carry on!”, commands Corazon, undaunted.
“Nah, I think I’ll need a break for a while. Think I’ll have a good second look at the engine in the meantime.”
“Most things I can live with”, Michael mumbles while Jane is off to lower the Kando from the hoist. “But not the chassis failure, that’s going to suck!”
Meanwhile, Mary at the other end of the garage ponders where to place certain letters of their sponsorship for maximum effect…
OOC: Could that be an idea for a future challenge? People roll 1d6 on techpool and quality and have to work with that? Sounds like a bit of a nightmare to organise though…
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