The Guy Who Loves Car Wars Even More Than Me

I called the editor of CWIN the other day. And I thought I was a Car Wars addict– this guy is obsessed with violent vehicle material in all of its manifestations…. It amazes me every time I talk to him.  It’s crazy talking to someone that knows about every single supplement… and remembers every single letter to Backfire….

One thing he mentioned… there do exist original Australian versions of Mad Max and Mad Max II. It always bothered me that they dubbed over Mel Gibson lines, but it never crossed my mind that I could get the real thing…. We both agreed that Tanks was ultimately disappointing even though it was the first thing we wanted in 1984. We both lamented the drop off in role-playing content that occurred with the departure of Scott Haring. The increased focus on arena dueling hurt the game– and the dilution of the Uncle Alberts catalogues with boat equipment was a real bad move. The move to making the Vehicle Guides just a bunch of designs instead of a representative selection of what you could expect to find on the roads was a real downer. The Road Atlases were incredible, though. But Autoduel Champions poisoned the game with some pointlessly silly equipment that became “official” and spawned more stupidity. I always loved the choice of granularity in the rules, but the game’s inability to handle “Chassis and Crossbow” well was a problem. Messing with the simplicity of the game is tricky, though: at some point you just might as well get some real military miniatures rules and go at it if that’s what you want.

As it stands, the game is great for adventuring through a deadly future inhabited by many demented folks that are ready to engage in random acts of violence. While our tongues were never far from our cheeks, we were still serious about our fun. There’s only so much “realism” or silliness that you can add to the game, though….

2034: Badlands Run (spoilers)

We played the infamous Badlands Run adventure from ADQ 2/2 last night.  It was 5 hours of nonstop autodueling action.  We played more in line with the original 3rd edition pocket box rules, so there were lots of cars crashing and burning.  It didn’t take a lot of space as we only needed a few road sections to run the game.  Phased movement was unnecessary and we didn’t even need to use our turning keys, so things went quickly.

My player played his characters from last year’s 2033 campaign.  In those sessions, we played Convoy from ADQ 1/1, Road Duel and Pack Attack scenarios from the original pocket box, a weird role-playing session that culminated into a freaky Truck Stop variation of Pack Attack (with “magic” rules thrown in), and a slightly modified version of the classic Sunday Drivers game.  That would make this the seventh session for the campaign– with no shortage of Car Wars material in sight!!

My player took his Moose that he’d won from the Road Duel and also the two luxury sized vehicles that he’d designed for the Convoy scenario. He made no modifications to them in spite of all the new equipment that had come out in Uncle Albert’s in “recent” months.

One question that came up in the game was how long it would take to get armor repairs if you were in a hurry.  I played that the PC’s could generally get 5 mechanics to work on a car even if it was Sunday morning– but the players would have to pay double the standard rate for patching armor whether a mechanic was successful or not.  I played they were skill level 2 and could each successfully repair armor on  roll of 5 or better.  Hiring 5 mechanics for an hour by PC’s in a hurry costs $1500– but this trick only works in fortress towns.

Don’t read any further if you intend to play this scenario!!!

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The insane tire wear rules from Convoy were dropped by the designers of Badlands Run. The scenario retains a similar rumors set-up. The final stretch of road forks just as in Convoy– with really bad things occurring if you try to take the short way. My player could see that coming from a mile away even without the hints in the rumors….

The “Gang of Thieves” were complete wimps. Like stock Vigilantes could do anything to $80,000 worth of PC firepower?! Rusty Pinkerton was a much tougher opponent. His tactics were very sound relative to the salvage gang… but by the time (2 seconds!) he realized things were going against him, his powerplant was on fire due to a shot from a laser! Still, the car he’d targeted had lost just about all of its side armor– both left and right! In the encounter that required the special counters from the mailing cover, it was all worth it just to see the look on my player’s face. The scenario was fairly harmless, though, except for to the guy in the station wagon!!

The rock throwing encounter was devastating. The Moose was completely demolished in that encounter and there was nothing the players could do. Also, the final ambush from the Hussar and the Iron Horse was unstoppable. Point blank shots from a pair of MG’s, a pair of HR’s, and an RR will send even the toughest car into a flaming roll. Fortunately the van carrying the VIP was equipped with a fire extinguisher– the players could still get him to San Francisco with only moments to spare. (Point blank tire shots were not very good for the ambushers….)

This was a very tough adventure with little room for miscalculation on the player’s part. I’d hate to see this game played with the helicopter coming out at the end!