Project: Death Race – a Robot Viking Original Game
Always signal 30 feet before firing your autocannon.
The editors at Robot Viking are hard at work on the first original Robot Viking game, a tactical game of automotive combat using Matchbox/Hot Wheels scale cars. Project: Death Race is intended to be a fast-paced, exciting game that allows players to perform the types of insane stunts usually reserved for Hollywood car chases. Robot Viking readers can take part in the development process, as we’ll be posting alpha and beta rule sets for comment and play testing.
Update: Download the alpha rules now and run your own playtest!
I know some of you are saying, “Original game? This has been done before.” It certainly has, with the most obvious inspiration being Steve Jackson’s classic Car Wars. Indeed, Car Wars has even been done at Matchbox car scale, including Rogue Judges’ giant 3D Car Wars variant, pictured above. But the rules for Car Wars have always been…well, unwieldy. That’s not even considering the rules for making custom cars. I have a headache just thinking about it. Beyond Car Wars, there are only a handful of science-fiction car combat games out there, and we think Project: Death Race (just a working title, by the way) will present a fast yet tactically interesting game that gives players lots of options for customization without the use of advanced calculus.
The most unique thing about Project: Death Race is that we’re designing it as if it were a collectible miniatures game. All cars and car modifications will have point values, and a given game will have a point limit. You can freely and easily swap out machine guns, targeting computers and ablative armor as long as your car stays within the point limit. This is accomplished with stat cards. Your basic “stock” car will have a card that explains the basic attributes: speed, handling, point cost, etc. It will have no weapons and only basic armor. Each modification will have its own card explaining how it affects the car it’s installed on and how many points it costs. So for a 100-point game, you might use your 50-point car, add a 20-point supercharger to increase speed, a 15-point armor plate, and a 15-point gatling gun. We’re even going to make templates for the cards, so you can design your own cars and weapons using a point derivation formula. Since this won’t actually be a collectible game (maybe someday), instead of buying booster packs, you’ll get your own cars at any toy store. Repaint them, modify them with extra model parts, and even take a photo to place in the template so your card represents your actual car.
Creating rules that are simple, yet still interesting has been challenging. We have a basic framework, but it needs to be refined and tested to see if we’re on the right track. The alpha rules should be available in a few weeks – we’ll post them for open playtesting and reader comment. Once the rules are in a workable shape, we’ll start thinking about backstory and possibly even adding RPG elements to the game. For now, we have a vague setting involving a near-future dystopia ruled by mega-corporations that sponsor bloody automotive death matches to boost television ratings and increase interest in the brutal military weapons they develop and sell to whatever dictator has the most cash.
So why am I announcing the game now, when the alpha rules aren’t even ready? To give everyone time to go out and buy some toy cars, of course.
Related posts:
January 21st, 2009 2:16 PM
Anyone remember the Computer game Zephyr? Where you flew hover tanks for a specific megacorp to see which company got the lion’s share of the world’s dwindling resources for a year. Sort of reminds me of it, I also loved the quote “Generacorp, not your average company.”
January 21st, 2009 2:29 PM
With a little greenstuff and elbow grease I’ll have the greatest Mini Cooper of Death to ever exist.
January 21st, 2009 2:46 PM
Looking forward to this. I have the Car Wars books sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust because they just aren’t quick and fun enough for my friends.
January 21st, 2009 3:51 PM
Who cares if the rules aren’t ready, all I need to hear is miniatures that only cost 99 cents! The biggest thing keeping me out of miniatures is the ridiculous price for figures that are no bigger than your thumb.
This also has the potential for being a really great party game, if it is pretty quick to get into.
January 21st, 2009 4:25 PM
This just makes me want to run out and get some cars to mod.
As far as a story, everything is better with clones! In this dystopia, the vehicles are driven by the copies of the best drivers (as to not threaten the lives of the originals). The viewing public is aware that the drivers are disposable (like when their armor can’t prevent an RPG), but the credit for driving and fighting skill goes to the original. This would allow the story to hinge on a world where the original becomes famous based on the deeds of the copies. Perhaps one of the copies gets tired of doing all the grunt work, kills their original and tries to pass themselves off as the original.
Just a thought. I think I’ve been watching too much BSG.
January 21st, 2009 6:02 PM
I’m so raiding my son’s collection.
January 21st, 2009 6:06 PM
The prospect of it all already has me eyeing my kids’ Hotwheels collections with a newfound interest.
i.e. “well don’t you think that your Lamborgini would look even cooler with dual chainguns huh buddy? Don’t worry you’ll get it back and it will be even better than new.”
January 21st, 2009 6:20 PM
Huh. It’s just another collectible car game.
Yehuda
January 21st, 2009 7:55 PM
So, I’m in. I know at least one person who’ll try to learn this with me.
January 22nd, 2009 7:31 AM
Brilliant – I’ve still got GW’s Dark Future hanging around (minus miniatures sadly), so the roads from that will be perfect.
January 22nd, 2009 11:29 AM
Play tests will begin as soon as Saturday.
January 23rd, 2009 1:08 PM
I’m totally in. Off to buy cars now!
January 26th, 2009 9:39 AM
I can’t wait to see it! I had been working on a similar game off and on for a while. My version actually broke it down into a few different kinds of vehicles; motorcycles and other light vehicles, cars and pickups, buses and semis, and monster trucks. Each had pros and cons over the others with variable point costs and weapon/equipment load outs that varied.
And to make it more pickup game friendly, the race courses and obstacles were all made from crap you could find around the typical home. Masking tape was used to mark off the course. Cotton balls were pulled apart for smoke. Bits of card stock and card board were walls and ramps. Aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and wax paper were things like water/ice, oil slicks, and other random things. It was pretty fun. Never finished it though.
Most of my inspiration was from F-Zero and the old SNES game, Rock ‘n Roll Racing. It was goofy.
January 27th, 2009 7:24 PM
Being a long-time fan of Car Wars, I’d be very interested in helping alpha and/or beta test this system. I’ve a local group of 3-6 gamers that I can probably convince to help playtest.
Given the recent release of “Death Race” on DVD, there may be some trouble getting the copyright to use the same name. If I can think up any alternate title, you all are more than welcome to use it.
In the meantime, off to raid my Warhammer 40k bits and my collectible Hot Wheels!