Superheroes don’t just appear out of nowhere, okay some do, but there are a number of iconic vehicles in the pantheon of superheroes. This series will explore vehicles for individual heroes and teams.
To begin the series we dive into the Superjet, from Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, to Justice League’s Javelins, Avengers Quinjet, and X-Men’s Blackbird. There is a great legacy of flying transports, so let’s dive in.
There are some, like the Invisible Jet that only seat one or two heroes, but for the most part these tend to be team transports. For the purposes of this article, we should probably consider jet to mean the engine not the fighter, with the notable exception. That doesn’t mean the superjet is defenseless, to the contrary they often have some offensive capabilities.
Vehicles In Metahumans Rising
In Metahumans Rising, heroes only need to select the Vehicle option from the Tools Boon if they plan to use it in action scenes. Meaning that it takes a more active role in the narrative than simply moving the heroes from point A to point B. Players may want to create the specs for a personal or team vehicle, as a “just in case” option. However, once the players start actively bringing the vehicle into the narrative as a Tool for action scenes, it’s time to actually spend some points.
When selecting a vehicle the player starts with a Background Character adding two Templates, generally Tough and one other. Additional instances of the Vehicle selection allow the player to add more Templates. All Vehicle Costs will be listed as a the Tools Boon, assuming the fight Major Boon, only 1 Selection is made for Vehicle, and all additional instances of Tools are dedicated to Vehicles. This allows the hero to have other Tool options. If the hero only has a Vehicle, reduce the cost of the Vehicle by 1 Major Boon.
The Basics
The F-35 Lightning II, a modern fighter jet is 15.7 meters, with a wingspan of 11 meters. This is effectively a Close Range increment in size, being that fighter jets are sleek, and meant to carry only one or two people, let’s call this a Minor Mob, while it takes up a lot of room, someone could maneuver around it. Team jets will need to be larger. Although, this is more of a height issue over length or width, giving the passengers room within the get. Depending on the size this can be represented as a Typical or Major Mob.
Let’s turn to speed. Looking at the F-35 again, we see an upper speed of Mach 1.6 or 1975.68 KPH, they are breaking the sound barrier. However, a dogfight is more likely to happen at around 600 to 900 KPH. In either case, there will need to be something to represent the speed of jets in combat. To do this, let’s create the Mobile Template which allows a Background Character to move 1 Range Increment per instance.
Base Personal Jet (Classic Super Jet (Minor Mob) + Devastator + Mobile (4) + Shooter + Tough + Advanced + Cluster)
Basic Rolls 12 + 3d6
Stamina 18
Defense 18 Dice 4 Armor 8
Offense Air to Air Missile Battery 18 Dice 4 Range Long Damage 15 Note: Cannot be fired at Targets within Close Range.
Offense Air to Surface Missile Battery 23 Dice 4 Range Edge of Combat/Close Radius Damage 18 Note: Cannot be fired at Targets within Close or Short Range, must be fired down.
Offense Gatling Gun 23 Dice 4 Range Long Damage 12
Mobile: Can move 3 Range Increments and attack in the same turn.
Notes Turning Radius: Making a 180 Turn uses all 3 Range Increments.
Cost: Tools Boon Vehicle + 8 additional Instances of Vehicle = Tools MA5
The personal jet reflects a supersonic jet, with a variety of offensive options. Of course, these can be removed, customized, or otherwise tweaked to fit a hero’s needs. Adding of Sneak (or multiple instances of Sneak) to represent cloaking or invisibility for example while additional instances of Cluster can make for improved air to surface strikes. The example jet gives three different attacks, but players might want to simplify this into a single weapon like a sonic oscillator or high intensity lasers to better fit their characters and / or campaign.
The Team Jet
Working from the base jet above, it’s easy to trade speed for size, dropping a level of Mobile and increasing the jet to a Typical Mob. It’s still fast, but a dedicated fighter jet is faster. Go even bulkier by dropping the Mobile to 2 as a Major Mob.
