A review copy of “Various Vehicles” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: William Bosley
One of the more exciting components from Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus were the Mad Max-inspired Infernal War Machines, which included expanded rules on handling these unique vehicles.
Various Vehicles is a series of supplements that apply those rules, along with new statblocks, to more commonly found vehicles such as wagons, carts, and carriages.
At the time of this review there are four Various Vehicles supplements available: Carriages, Wagons, Carts, and Chariots (with Sleds apparently coming soon). I reviewed Carriages and Carts for this review. Both supplements are around a dozen pages long, and feature nearly the exact same rules.
The rules include action stations, grappling vehicles, caring for draft animals, mishaps, repairs, crashing, and vehicular exhaustion. I love the use of exhaustion to portray a vehicle’s wear and tear over time.
Mishaps are the most interesting and creative new rule. Each vehicle has a Mishap Threshold, a number that’s twice their Damage Threshold. When they take that much damage from a single source, or the driver fails an ability check by 5 or more, the DM can roll on a a new d20 table.
The Mishap table includes locked steering (can only drive straight), dragging components (blinding the driver), or a damaged axle (everyone on the vehicle has disadvantage). The worst (or best) result is the entire vehicle flipping over in an epic crash.
Each mishap (other than crash) has a repair DC, allowing the owners to repair the vehicle as an action mid-chase, or over time, choosing to fix the mishap or restore hit points on the vehicle.
With all these interesting vehicle rules I would’ve loved to see something on high-speed chase sequences, but the supplements remain squarely focused on the vehicles themselves.
Each supplement also lists several unique statblocks for their vehicles. Who knew carts came in so many different varieties, from the common cart (both heavy and light varieties) to the combat cart, which includes deployable cover, 60 hit points, and an AC of 19.
The statblocks are fun yet practical – though I would’ve loved to see zanier stuff like mounted crossbows, or rules for outfitting, customizing, and mounting your own armaments and modules.
With the rules being the exact same for each supplement, it’s a big misstep releasing the different vehicles as separate products on the DMs Guild. The only difference are the statblocks, and that alone isn’t worth buying and searching through multiple supplements. I would’ve vastly preferred a single Various Vehicles supplement that featured the different vehicles with the all-encompassing rules.
Pros:
- Rules for driving, repairing, crashing, and vehicular exhaustion.
- D20 table of driving mishaps.
- Lovely Western art style.
Cons:
- Multiple supplements should be combined into one bigger product (the rules are the exact same for each vehicle type).
The Verdict: Various Vehicles effectively applies the expanded land vehicle rules from Descent into Avernus into more practical, every day wagons, carts, and more.
A review copy of “Various Vehicles” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using affiliate links for shopping and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 