The AT-RT was manufactured together with the AT-ET. In the history of miltary walkers of the Empire, these two walkers were the Empire's first attempt for a two-legged medium walker, quite soem time before the events of Hoth. Both walkers are the driect predecessor of the well-known All-Terrain Scout Walker (AT-ST), which was the result of the the two variants. Both walkers were designed for souting and renaissance duty, and thus are known as the Scout-series of Imperial walkers. But unlike the later AT-ST, these walkers were equipped with superiour gyro systems allowing them to run faster and giving them a better manueverability, but making these walkers taller than the standard.
As being designed for speed, the AT-RT and AT-ET did not feature a large weapons complement and were both equipped with only one heavy laser cannon, which was front-mounted. This "weak point" induced the Empire to make a compromise between speed, maneuverability and weaponry - the AT-ST, being more compact and featuring more weapons. Besides its role of scouting the AT-ST was also able to provide flank cover for larger walkers like, the AT-AT.
Originally being developed even before the AT-RT, this walker is even taller and more maneuverable. However, when moving at top speed through very difficult terrain, the walker loses its stability and is at risk to lose balance, being deadly for cre, passengers and walker. Yet, the AT-ET's advantage is its gargantuan head, having space for a complete squad of troopers and one metric ton of scouting equipment (including tents, weapons, hand scanners etc.). As the weight of the large head would have been too heavy, it only features light armor. That's why the AT-ET is usually sent out in groups and accompanied by some AT-RTs.
The walkers' superiour gyro systems are very tall, thus the walker's heads are very high above the ground. To safely bring the troopers to the ground, the walker moves as near as possible to the ground (allowed by the highly maneuverable gyro systems). Then the crew uses either rope ladders to go down the remaining distance to the ground, or they use jetpacks, which are carried by each walker. The jetpacks reveal another advantage: When the troopers are equipped with jetpacks, they can help to cover a much larger area for scouting missions.
The superiour gyro system of the AT-ET tends to fail when moving at top speed on difficult terrain (the gamemaster has to decide what a difficult terrain is in his opinion, for example rocks or swamps). This malfunction of the leg construction causes a loss of maneuverability. When the maneuverability is lost completely, and the walker is still moving, it will fall over.
Role one additional D6 for every piloting operation of the AT-ET. In case that this special die comes up as a "1", this implies a leg failing and the maneuverability goes down -(1D+1):
Once the walker has fallen over, roll 2 D6 to calculate the number of crew members who survived the fall, and their wound status. See the table:
| 1st D6 | Effect of 1st D6 (number of survived crew members) |
2nd D6 | Effect of 2nd D6 (wound status of crew) |
| 1 | none | 1 | dead |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | heavily/mortally wounded (immediate medical assistance is required to safe the crew, inable to act) |
| 3 | 4 | 3 | moderately wounded (crew is inable to act efficiently, first aid required) |
| 4 | 6 | 4 | moderately wounded (crew is inable to act efficiently, first aid required) |
| 5 | 8 | 5 | lightly wounded (crew can still operate, only minor wounds, med-kit is sufficient) |
| 6 | all | 6 | not injured (crew has taken no damage) |
| Source | |
|---|---|
| Stats: | Christopher Deck |
| Illustration: | Al Williamson, Classic Star Wars |