Road Rage

Late last year I tried some experiments with Machinas. I found it to be a bit slower than I wanted (and there were other quibbles I had). So I jotted down a few ideas. Last weekend I decided to try some out.

Movement is greatly simplified, although it retains a degree of relative movement that is the main characteristic of Machinas. In my rules, each vehicle rolls one D6. If it rolls greater or equal to its speed (or handling on turns), it can move forward one space (sideways movement is free). This means that I can roll movement for all vehicles at one time, which speeds up the game turn immensely.

For this experiment, I pulled out some 6mm scale vehicles I purchased from Microworld. I am a bit disappointed that the vehicles from the Denizens pack (like the orange car below) are out of scale compared with the Hot Rods and Cars pack. As you can see, I haven't finished painting.

Below I set up a chase (the orange car is not involved). Three raiders (red) are chasing a Courier (blue). The raiders have (from front to back) a car, hot rod, and trike

The Courier pulls out ahead of the trike and hot rod, but the car keeps pace. It rams the Courier, who just manages to maintain control.

Ramming involves a simple opposed die roll. The loser then rolls on a results table, with the possibility of a momentary loss of speed, damage to the vehicle, or a crash.

The raider car pulls up next to the Courier, who sideswipes him. The raider temporarily loses control.

And returns the favor.

By this time, the Courier reached the end of the board. I moved him back to the middle of the board and all other vehicles the same amount of spaces back. Any vehicles that got pushed off the board as a result dropped out from the chase.

This only left the car. Throughout the chase it had also been taking shots at the Courier, causing damage. Gunfire was a simple D6 roll. In this final turn, the Courier reached its damage limit and crashed.

Overall, it was enjoyable, although it needs some tweaks. I liked the movement system - quick and easy. However, the trike and hot rod fell back early and were never in the fight. I'm thinking of adding a turbo boost rule. Perhaps a bonus roll if you roll a 6. So there would be a potential to move 2 spaces a turn.

I'll have to try some more games, and finish painting the cars.