Tank RPGing

The single biggest issue with RPing tank crews is that you have one of two paths:
>each PC is a member of the crew of one tank
This only works in a group with really good cohesiveness and willingness to make character-driven games that are mostly roleplay and dialogue, with action and combat being low on the scale of what defines the characters. It can be boring to be a Loader, for example, in combat. Unless the GM is also really good at making you feel like you're going to die and gets the adrenaline going. Which should be happening anyway.
>each PC is the commander of an individual tank and the crew are NPCs
Lots of work for the GM to flesh out and play 12-16 other people that the PCs regularly deal with. Players would make all rolls in-combat but outside combat it would be really tough to run. Ideal for team-based skirmish RPGs where there is less out-of-combat stuff going on and the focus is on teamwork and fighting in pitched battles against an enemy squad or objective.

or
>everyone is driving their own single-user tank because Science

This is more tabletop oriented, but looks fun as fuck.

Mechs and fighters have 1 person = 1 unit.
Tanks you're either playing as crewmembers or commanders with a crew

I remember watching this on the SciFi channel back in the day. They censored the shit out of that scene. Also, they used crews too. Bonaparte had two people in it, and most of the standard tanks had 3.

>try to make a system for tank shit with a buddy
>he loses interest
>I start overcomplicating the rules
>shit just dies
>my dreams of fucking around in a proper RDF/LT, ADATS Abrams or the General Electrics proposed M247 prototype will never be real
I swear to fuck with my final draft for combat shit was like 10 rolls per shot

>aiming roll (modifies shot roll)
>loading roll (determines initiative)
>shot roll (attack roll)
>glance check (basically enemy armor save)
>damage roll (damage to enemy tank/crew)
This is all you need.

Yeah it went waaaaaaay deeper into the shit, up to a point where it reached being able to miss even if you passed the check, and hitting if you failed it. If the thread is up when I wake up I'll post the whole retarded process

Only War, Battletech, GURPS.

It's best if each player gets their own tank with either crew or extensive automation. Trying to be a crew with players leads to the loader getting bored, and the driver and gunner getting tired of the commander bossing them around.

There is the hammer slammer rpg, based on traveller.

Wow, yeah, 5 rolls you have to d every time you decide to attack, and they are always the same roll to boot.

Sure won't get fucking tiresome.

You missed the third option

>Each PC is the commander of an individual tank, and the crew are underling PCs

Players make all rolls inside of combat. Outside of combat the narrative focuses on the commander's club, and thus players are free to flesh out and have interject the rest of their crews as much or as little as they would like to.

Less strain on the GM, players get crews they're happy with, and the burden of equipping and using crew falls upon the players.

I've seen this accomplished in Only War by essentially subbing out the player statline to all of the crew, to simplify rolling in combat, and then treating that crew as a player controlled formation with the commander PC as the controller in those few occasions when they have to do fighting that isn't in vehicles.

Okay it's time for the wildest dice ride you've ever witnessed
That was baby mode, watch this

>stats&rolls based on Only War
>your accuracy stat is determined by your vehicle's gun that's being used, and your gunner's aim stat
>depending on the level of your gunner, your aim was rolled between 1d10 and 4d10
>now it's time to aim
>you had 5 different vehicle sizes, tiny, small, normal, large and special
>tiny had just 1 aim zone (-10 to hit total, no zones), small had 3 (2 hull, 1 turret, +0 to hit the hull, -10 to hit specific hull part, -10 to hit the turret), normal had 5 (3 hull, 2 turret +10 to hit the hull, +0 to hit specific hull part, -10 to specific turret part, +0 to hit turret), large (4 hull, 3 turret, +20 to hit the hull, +10 to specific hull area, +10 to hit turret, +0 for specific turret part), and special varied between vehicle, you could have something that had small size hull and no turret (Swingfires or Hummvees)
>then you had your gun that had a deviation stat, which was adding or subtracting degrees of success on your shots depending on the number
>deviation was also affected by ammo, you had 5 main ammo types, AP, SC, HE, Squash and Missile, and then ammo modifiers like Sabot or Fin Stabilized
>you choose your aim zone, whether you aim for the tank in general (which was a +10 on top of whatever the sizes were), or a specific zone, you roll a d100, and add DoS from deviation
>then if you succeed you roll on what you hit on a table
>said tables were dependant on whether you fired from the front, both sides, rear or angle between those
>depeding on what you chose to shoot, then on between 1 and 4 sub tables for that to determine what you hit
>if you missed you roll a d8 for every degree of failure to see where your shot deviated, it means a miss could still be a hit
>then it was a penetration roll, affected by angling and armor composition vs shell type
cont. in next post

Pretty much this. While it's fun to work as a team, who honestly wants to roll dice to pretend you're reloading a cannon?

If each player controls their own tank and it's assumed they're the commander of their own respective crews, maybe not bad.

But each player being an individual crew member? It'd kind of suck.

Hammer slammer is supposed to be pretty rad.

Hell on Treads?

It might be worth considering simplified tank rolls, especially in a sci-fi setting. All you really need, gameplay-wise, is a driver, a Gunner, and an engineer/radioguy. One player controls movement, one controls combat, and one does all the miscellaneous support stuff like repairs or calling in airstrikes or whatever. Maybe give them a mounted mg so they're not totally useless in combat.

>so your pen roll worked like this
>base dice type based on your gun caliber (eg. d12 for 120mm)
>modifiers due to shell quality, type, angle at which you hit the tank (between +0 and +3 modifier, no sitting and measuring actual angle, just a template with 3 zones), armor points, distance (AP only) and armor composition
>then after resolving that roll a couple of things would happen
>if the shell was AP, even if it was no pen, crew rolls a toughness save, and then tech save for modules against spalling, they get a +10 for (every armor point that was left unpenned times armor composition effectiveness against AP)
>if the shell was SC and no pen, nothing happens
>if the shell was HE and no pen, roll against spalling damage, same as AP, but only +5 for every degree
>if the shell was Squash and no pen, it's HE but -10 for every bit penned
>for missiles it's SC unless the missile was Thermobaric, then it's Squash
>missiles would follow different aim rules but I never got around to that
>if the shot was AP and penned, it's +0 to spalling save, and module/crew member that was hit rolls at -20 for himself
>SC and pen, crew/module rolls save for himself at -40
>HE and pen, spalling save for entire crew and modules at -20
>Squash and pen, spalling save at -40 for everyone
>HE and Squash had shit pen to balance that
>only NOW you roll damage to the actual tank
>AP and SC had to pen to damage the tank, damage based on shell caliber, armor composition once more and sub types of shell (sabot, fins etc.)
>HE and Squash didn't have to pen, damage was dependant on how much they got through the armor, which was a flat -X for every armor point remaining
>now you resolve effects of module damage, most aren't huge, like -10 to aim if your gunner sight gets damaged, -20 if destroyed
>while ammo/engine fires was pretty much being FUCKED
>this was per every shot in combat, including autocannon bursts
>still didn't cover missiles and artillery
And I probably won't, peace

Only War, Twilight 2000, Albedo
Could be worse, you could want a naval modern/sci-fi rpg (there's Polaris, but meh).

I think it's doable if you make an excel sheet where you imput all your variables and it lists the possible results depending on your roll.

>Twilight 2000

Ages ago me and my buddies played an awesome tank campaign in TW2k - seeing how far towards Blighty we could roll in our Chieftain before it gave up the ghost. Trailed by a trusty Land Rover and Bedford 4 tonner that we tried to fill with every kind of spare part for the inevitable tank breakdown.

>Twilight2000
One of the best campaigns I ever played was in that game. Went from Kalisz to Warsaw, back into Germany and then the big boat home to the US.
Went from MD back to our hometown (there were 5 of us, all from the area) and went thru pic related

>pic related

Make thread about tanks. Use picture of a wheeled Light Armored Vehicle. MFW

maybe he meant "tank" as in the MMORPG archetype

Take great care user, you're drifting into rolemaster/FATAL territory

Check out the movie The Beast if you want to see how a 1 Tank crew could be an rpg. It's set during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

Great movie

What to you want in a tank campaign, Veeky Forums ?
For me, the appeal is mostly having the party vs. the rest of the world, being completely independant and having to forage to keep your tank running, exploring the world... and moving down puny humains with high-caliber phallic imagery.

(Pic semi related, polish NRBC detection vehicle on MT-LB chassis)

>>glance check (basically enemy armor save)
>Not determining the position of impact and the angle of incidence between projectile and armour in order to calculate effective armour thickness then comparing to armour penetration capability of round.
Peasant.

Seriously though, if you aren't looking at the particular bit of amour getting hit and the angle that it's being impacted at then you aren't even trying.

I always kinda want to make a modern/near-future setting where the tanky class is literally guys in one person tankettes.

2 different phases. One is rough driving in Jobar , blowing up random buildings, providing fire support, dodging rockets, complaining about side armor falling off.
Second about bonding with comrades, drinking tea, smoking hookah, fighting with shabiha, arguing about what Russian meme boxes actually do.
So like Night Witches but with tonks and not mandatory gay.

I kind of like the idea of doing a warfare campaign with more cheerful tones, ala Advance Wars. Lots of colorful characters in an equally colorful tank, teaming up against some obviously sinister badguys. Some elements of Valkyria Chronicles or Hogan's Heroes in there two where they'll sometimes have to leave it to go sabotage stuff or fight on foot, but I like the appeal of the players having a steadily rolling home base.

>assuming the check doesn't take into account attack angle, facing, and other concerns
Feh. Off with you.

now to find a way to play a super-heavy tank.
I'm talking hovertank with multiple secondary turrets, AA guns and internal crew quarters and their own galley.

play as the gunnery sergeant for the forward section and rain death on the enemy from within a mobile bunker. :D