TEXT: VEHICLE CREATION  
  The directions that follow are useful for creating your vehicle step by step, however if you 
  want to randomly generate your vehicle in part or in whole jump to Appendix A for methods 
  to do that. 
  1.
  Choose the look of your vehicle, and name its model and manufacturer. 
  2.
  Choose your vehicle’s Load, but you don't detail what gear it has at this time. 
  3.
  Create 4 Quirks for your vehicle. 
  VEHICLE LOOKS 
  Note that a vehicle in Beam Saber can be anything from a mech to a dump truck to a fighter 
  jet to a tank. The rules and looks can work for any machine that is piloted by a person. Here 
  are some suggestions for how to describe your vehicle’s look. 
  ●
  Mobility: bipedal, quadrupedal, flight, hover, wheeled, treads, anti-grav, rotor 
  ●
  Arms: none, humanoid, tentacle, industrial, hardpoint, wings, ornate 
  ●
  Hand: none, industrial, human, tentacle, weaponized, ornate 
  ●
  Core: armored, armed, light, bulky, practical, massive, ornate 
  ●
  Head: none, armored, armed, hi-tech, ornate, practical 
  ●
  Cockpit: sealed, open, armored, spacious, cramped, homey, customized 
  ●
  Shell: organic, hard light, ceramic, alloy, plastic, crystal. 
  ●
  Style: ornate, practical, improvised, custom, fashionable, sleek, powerful, artistic 
  
  VEHICLE LOAD 
  Load ​is the equipment that a vehicle has been outfitted with. It’s an abstraction of 
  how much of the vehicle’s resources are occupied by its use. Resources such as 
  weight, balance, bulk, and computing power. A vehicle has access to all the general 
  vehicle gear and their class and squad’s specialist vehicle gear. 
  At the start of the first mission decide if the vehicle is carrying a Light, 
  Medium, or Heavy Load. 
   
  ●
  A ​Light​ vehicle is faster and less conspicuous giving it improved Effect 
  when those features are advantageous, and has a max Load of 3. The 
  advantage of taking a Light Vehicle is that it will be faster and stealthier than 
  others, but it will have less versatility due to its lower Load. Light Vehicles 
  are smaller allowing them to fit into places that others cannot, such as 
  building interiors, or small caverns and tunnels. 
   
  ●
  A ​Medium​ vehicle looks like it’s geared up for trouble, and has a max Load 
  of 5. Medium Vehicles seek to strike a balance between the two doctrines 
  represented by Lights and Heavies. As their size is between the other types 
  they often have access to the same options, but may require an Action Roll 
  where smaller or larger Vehicles could automatically succeed.
   
   
  ●
  A ​Heavy​ vehicle is slower and looks like it’s ready for war, thus giving it 
  decreased Effect when those features are a problem, and has a max Load 
  of 6. Heavy Vehicles have a great deal of versatility as they have double the 
  Load of a Light, but this makes them less agile and more obvious. Heavy 
  Vehicles larger than others meaning they can frequently reach places others 
  cannot, and are also often out of reach for enemy operators. 
   
  
   
  There will be times where the size of a Vehicle is important, such as trying to 
  reach a person on a rooftop. In these situations remember that the fiction is 
  important, so what is possible and what succeeds without an Action Roll can vary. If 
  a player really wants to take advantage of their Vehicle's physicality, they should 
  make Quirks (see page ??) related to its size and shape. 
  Your vehicle has undeclared Load slots equal to your selected max Load. 
  During a mission you can say that your vehicle has an item as part of its Load by 
  writing the gear over a number of undeclared slots equal to the item’s Load. Some 
  items will be Load 0 and don't fill any Load slots. 
  Changing the gear that a vehicle is equipped with is an involved process, 
  even for vehicles with quick release hardpoints or hands. Many pieces of gear have 
  components that are integrated with the internals of the vehicle or communicate with 
  its computer systems necessitating extensive calibrations and testing. Plus there’s 
  the need to requisition the gear itself. 
  Once a Load slot is declared it can only be changed back to undeclared 
  during Downtime by spending Materiel equal to the number of slots occupied by the 
  gear, but this change doesn’t require an action. Additionally Vehicles never change 
  their Load category (Light, Medium, or Heavy), except as a possible benefit from an 
  appropriate Long Term Project. If a consequence destroys a piece of gear it isn’t 
  removed from the Load slot and continues to occupy the same Load slots but as 
  useless “junk.” 
  QUIRKS 
  Quirks ​are the unique qualities a vehicle possesses that a pilot familiar with it can use to 
  their advantage. However these Quirks aren’t wholly positive and if all of them are applied 
  without maintenance the vehicle will suffer a Breakdown.  
  CREATING QUIRKS 
  Every vehicle starts with 4 Quirks that the pilot is already familiar with. These first 4 Quirks 
  
  are likely common to that model of vehicle. Up to 4 additional Quirks (for a total of 8) can be 
  gained by filling the Upgrade track with the Upgrade downtime activity, and these ones are 
  unique to this specific vehicle.  
  Each Quirk has 2 descriptors that determine when the Quirk can be used. These descriptors 
  show how the pilot can push their vehicle in ​just​ the right way to get more out of it than 
  designed for. For example a vehicle might have “Roaring Fast” and can be pushed for more 
  speed or noise. When selecting your descriptors make sure that at least one of them can be 
  interpreted as a disadvantage because struggling due to your Quirks provides XP at the end 
  of the session. 
  If a player discovers that a Quirk isn’t a good fit for their vehicle they should speak with their 
  GM about changing it. If the Quirk is bad because it’s rarely used and the player feels that a 
  new one would be more useful, just change it and consider it no different than its previous 
  version. If the narrative has changed the vehicle’s nature making the Quirk no longer 
  applicable, then describe what changed, how it changed, and just change the Quirk. 
  EXAMPLE QUIRKS 
  ●
  Ominous Appearance 
  ●
  Flexible Structure 
  ●
  Slow and Heavy 
  ●
  Military Workhorse 
  ●
  Fixed Hardpoints 
  ●
  Blinding Boosters 
  ●
  Splintering Carapace 
  ●
  Mighty Clumsy 
  ●
  Light Footed 
  ●
  Common Parts 
  ●
  Redundant Systems 
  ●
  Aggressive Targeters 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Blades in the Dark (PbtA) [multi]/Forged in the Dark (Games built from BitD)/Beam Saber - V0.51/Sheets & Others/Beam Saber - VEHICLE CREATION V0.51.pdf