[Inconnu]

Trying to figure out how to include the fact that one does more damage with a lance when, y'know, you are traving at ~75mph. Perhaps increase AP (or as i aptly put it it to my gm, PP(Person Piercing--Also reduces Body dice for resistanc.))
On the other hand, you have a nearly guaranteed Surprise test at the least.  Or maybe even guaranteed surprise.

[Lethe]

Why would you have a guaranteed surprise? Doesn't make sense at all. Surprise is even impossible unless you are on a stealth bike.

Also since its hard to aim(straight attack direction) defender should get +6 to defend (just need to take a step aside, unless in a narrow alley). You are attacking from a moving vehicle gives you a -2 to attack. Then like a ramming you need to resist half damage yourself or get thrown off the bike, and make a crash test or get thrown off the bike. Therefore you might get an additional +4DV and -4AP, or something like that. Have fun trying and not looking ridiculous.

[crisses]

Not to mention that there's not many "lances" in Shadowrun -- but the same principle could be used with swords, clubs, etc.

It would be so easy to step out of the way at the last second.  Now you have a bike rider who has only one hand on the bike, the bike can't compensate without more lead-time, etc.

And yeah, stealth is hard when your motor is going VrrrrrRRRrrRrRrrrRRRrrRrrrum.  You'd have to quick-draw, not have the weapon ready, and the person would have to be caught off-guard i.e. not know that someone's coming after them, walking near traffic perhaps on a busy street, and approached from behind, or something similar.  Or perhaps busy in AR/VR....something that would drown out their knowledge of The Meat World...

[CitizenJoe]

This is another "79 caliber pistol" thread.

[Critias]

Go-gangers wacking people with sticks (or swords, or whips, or lances, or chains, or whatever) from the back of their bikes is cool.  It's been in SR for quite a while, particularly the artwork (at least one cover I can think of).  I don't have any problem with people trying it, because it's awesome, it's the sort of thing plenty of gangs do, and there's a whole sport basically built around it (yay, Combat Biker!).

But that doesn't mean it needs to do some mechanically goofy nonsense like take away the damage resistance pool someone gets from Body, or -- somehow -- apply a surprise test at all, much less an automatic one.

Personally?  I'd make the attacker roll Reaction or Agility + (Melee Skill) or (Pilot Ground Vehicle Skill), whichever was lower, to make the attack.  If you want to be awesome at stabbing someone from the back of a motorcycle, you've got to be good at stabbing and good at riding, to pull it off.  I'd apply the vehicle's Handling as a die pool modifier, whichever attack roll they were making.  I'd apply the by-the-book Superior Position (+2) and Charge Attack (+2) modifiers (but that also means someone who saw them coming could use the Defender Receiving a Charge option).  Then, I'd call for a Crash Test (threshold 2) after the attack, to see if they can maintain control of their bike (and their body) after hitting someone.

So the end result would be several positive modifiers to a melee attack roll -- +4, at the very least, and often a +6 because many motorcycles have good Handling scores -- which is nothing to sneeze at, especially combined with the fact that you're on a motorcycle and (often) your target isn't, so you can do some zany hit-and-run stuff that'll really ruin their day.  The downside is that you've got to be good with melee and good with a bike to pull it off, and if you screw up or get unlucky, you've got pretty decent odds of wrecking yourself (because, well, you should, this is dangerous).

Motorcycle-wielded weapons don't need some insane AP modifier, or some silly PP modifier made up for them, or anything else that will let them take out a Citymaster in one shot or blow up a dragon on a ride-by.  Melee weapons can already get very, very, respectable damage totals compared to firearms, we don't need to turn a motorcycle into a force multiplier that means they can cut the world in half on a good roll.

[crisses]

This is another "79 caliber pistol" thread.

In a way, yes -- if you don't want to participate or read the thread, then don't

It's not like it's a thoroughly stupid question like the 79 caliber pistol may have been....  though I'm not sure where the lance came from   Actually -- a "lance" is much safer than trying to run someone down with the bike itself.  Motorcycles don't have a front bumper meant for ramming people. One could affix a "lance" to the front of one's bike I guess -- but motorcycles aren't forgiving beasts.  They're more like ice skates or inline skates and you have a very delicate balance between falling over and momentum.  Hit just about anything and expect to lose skin on the pavement -- if you still keep your brain in your skull.

A hand-held lance gives you the opportunity to at least either lose the lance or your arm/shoulder rather than control of the bike.  Only a chance, though, since real control of a motorcycle (at least in the 20th century) at any speed, with any obstacles, requires 2 hands.

Sometimes I'm asked something and I don't really know the answer.  This isn't one of those questions although he talked with me in the car about it after he had already posted....  The questions are honest, it's not trolling just to bug people.  And in a perfect world -- in real life -- if you bonked someone over the head with a baseball back from the back of a moving motorcycle it WOULD sure as heck do more damage (momentum being one of those laws of physics and all...).   I've been trying to explain the difference between real life vs. game balance.  I still haven't dug up the ChartMaster weapons book (i.e. RoleMaster™ RPG) to show the difference between "realistic" vs. something like Shadowrun which I put in the category of "Playable".

[The Big Peat]

Personally, I would consider it extremely unlikely that some guy travelling at 70mph on a motorbike could ever be said to be a surprise attack.

If I were to implement rules, they would

a) Call for some sort of pilot groundcraft check as part of the attack
b) Give some fairly hefty penalties to  hit
c) If it does hit, the effect should be pretty devestating. Ruling that it counts as a called shot (-4 to hit, +4 to DV) would be a fairly effective quick and dirty way of doing it.

[Angelone]

Jousting off of bikes is a big part of combat biker, gangers also do it. I seem to remember rules about it somewhere.

[CitizenJoe]

Lancebikers use 2 meter by 5 cm diameter blunt lances in Combat Bike.  They also ride Harley Scorpion equivalents.  There's no specific rules on damage or anything.  There are rules on equipment, scoring and track layout though.  It is described in Shadowbeat, which is I think a first edition supplement.

[Stahlseele]

It also means immediate crash test for the biker and the biker takes same damage as the hit person or so . .

[JustADude]

Here's how I'd do it for motorcycles:

• Roll a melee attack test with the appropriate weapon skill and modifiers to hit the target. If it hits, continue on. If it misses, make an immediate crash test.
• Add the vehicle's Body to the rider's Body and calculate Ramming damage.
• FOR THE TARGET ONLY: Add the net hits and the weapon's DV and AP Modifiers to the attack.
• Resolve as you would a standard vehicle ram; crash test + attacker (not his vehicle) resists half the unmodiefied damage.

[Crash_00]

I think it could easily just be made into a ramming test, but it shouldn't be dependent on the vehicle's body really. I'd say that the easiest route would be to assign a Body stat for the lance and use that for determining ramming damage, then add the ramming damage directly to the lance's damage.

Then make the attacker make a crash test (and of course the defender if he's on a bike) and resist half damage. Optionally the attacker can lose the lance to take a quarter damage.

It goes without saying that if you successfully do enough damage to cause a knockdown, the other person should automatically crash if they were mounted.