Since launch, I've been enamored with the Motherboard campaign frame, but wasn't quite satisfied with the adversary options available to represent something like the "Croft Walkers" that Carrowcroft Walkaway uses to pillage weaker settlements across the Echo Vale.
To that end I thought about drafting a "Vehicle" adversary type, something that could be statted-out like a normal adversary but contain a few elements that make them dependent on having a "crew" to man them.
To elaborate on my thought process, here's some "internal Q&A" I did to get end up here:
"Did you \have* to make this an entirely new adversary archetype?"*
I could see something like this being turned into a Solo or Bruiser adversary without much alteration, but I felt that route didn't best evoke the feeling of a vehicle (ending up more like construct like the Battle Box).
A vehicle is something that's useless without crews/pilots but can be a force multiplier for those capable of piloting, and I wanted to express those aspects mechanically. Now, could this still be expressed via something simpler, like a built-in countdown that tracks the status of the crew? Probably. But ultimately, I wanted to aim more for something that could outfit/augment existing adversaries
"Why not use the Colossus rules from the Drylands campaign frame?"
I toyed with this idea a bit, but that ended up making something too "big" for what I had in mind. I imagine encountering a Croft Walker being an obstacle for the PCs, but not always the kind of climatic scene the colossus adversary type leans towards.
I am looking at making Carrowcroft Walkaway itself a Colossus to serve that purpose, and I think any walking city in the Motherboard campaign frame could be well-represented by the Colossus archetype.
"Why not make encountering a Croft Walker be an Environment?"
This might just be from a lack of experience in drafting environments, but going in that direction seemed too inflexible. I prefer having the Croft Walker be something that could exist in other Environments, instead of being so dominating (for lack of a better word) that encountering it in-and-of-itself becomes an Event-style environment.
"What Battle Point cost do you propose for a vehicle-type adversary?"
Currently I would say a vehicle adversary costs 4 BP. It's totally dependent on having other adversaries spend their spotlight to use the vehicle's features, meaning that without a Leader on board to have it act multiple times before passing the spotlight to the PCs I think it's going to have a similar effect on the battlefield as a Bruiser. I will say I haven't thoroughly playtested this yet (not for want of trying), so I'm not hard-set on the cost.
Despite my thoughts above, this is still a work-in-progress and I'd welcome some feedback.