Jeffro’s Car Wars Blog

We played the third of our series of 14 planned Amateur Night games this weekend. Last session, in the first round of the 4 on 4 Killer Kart events, we’d disliked the way that the teams drove in formation for the first several seconds. In the second game we’d disliked the way that ramming became the key tactic.  By taking note of several easily missed rules and moving to the Amex Proving Grounds arena, we hoped to get a more interesting and cinematic event. It turned out that the rules changes would overcompensate somewhat, resulting in surprisingly large impacts on the tempo and tactics of the game. But even with power plants getting set on fire almost every turn, the game would still take almost 3 full hours to play out.

The Amex Proving Grounds is a single map sheet sized arena with four corner sections and a central cross shaped area with a TV bunker in the middle. We agreed to enter in pairs in the four gates with each vehicle heading into a corner. I thought this would result in four separate dog fights in each corner, but what happened was that all four pairs kept driving right past each other to meet up with a second head on pass against a second vehicle. (I actually made a silly error on the first turn– I ended the round with two of my cars unable to target their opponents. This essentially gave the enemy drivers a free shot; this didn’t turn out to me significant, though.) Because of this style of opening, we essentially had a dry “die rolling competition” during the first few turns.

One of my opponent’s cars took a tremendous amount of damage in these first few seconds and caught fire due to power plant damage. Lucky shot! On the other side of the arena, two cars met at 30 mph. (Under these rules, the sweet spot for any weapons fire is the sides of the cars. With only three points of armor there on the Killer Karts, you have a chance of taking out the car with a single hit!) The two cars traded shots to the sides at point blank range. I turned to the right sharply to head towards the TV bunker and the other cars. My opponent immediately turned the same direction and pulled right next to me. I think the very next turn he went ten miles per hour or so and ended up half an inch ahead of me. I went 5 mph and pivoted toward him, getting a chintzy free shot in with some slightly heated discussion about how exactly this should have played out. The next second, I stopped while he pivoted. The second after that, I went in reverse and got in another free shot in.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, two high speed passes were going down. All four vehicles took power plant damage and we all had to check for vehicular fire. Each of us lost a car because of fire! I angled two of my surviving cars against one of the survivors and did minimal damage while taking a lot stray hits. Our SMG armed pedestrians left their flaming wrecks after taking a point or two of fire damage to their body armor. They braced themselves against the arena walls and fired at enemy vehicles. These were essentially free shots doing a point or two of damage– the peds weren’t worth targeting if an actual car was in arc. (My opponent said several times that he actually felt safer out of his car!)

My pink Killer Kart (the one that scored the first lucky kill) hurtled across the arena and took a point blank shot at the enemy vehicle that had been pinned early on in the game. A point blank hit through the side resulted in another vehicular fire. The single point of fire damage at the end of the turn was enough to knock the driver unconscious. We agreed that the driver had somehow managed to throw himself out of the car even though it didn’t make much sense. Other than him, the event was fairly safe. (Playing some of those overlooked rules makes for amateur night events with much higher survival rates.)

This left three vehicles on my team to take down the remaining car. A lucky shot by even the pedestrians could kill one my cars, though, so we still had to carefully play out each phase for a few more seconds. I regrouped and repositioned for the final shots. The yellow Killer Kart that had gotten tangled up in the low speed dog fight got the lucky shot that knocked the last driver unconscious. This would be the only kill that was not caused by vehicular fire.

The rules changes had a tremendous effect on the game. We’d agreed not to reset handling tracks each turn. This eliminated the annoying D6-right-angle-maneuver-every-single-second approach that we’d seen in our second Amateur Night event last session. We also drove slower– and as a result, no one died due to a wipe out on the crash table. Any time we did an extreme maneuver, we had to go straight for a full second afterwards in order to get back in full control. This leads to combats that are less like a WWI dog fight and more like a series of high stakes “jousting” engagements.

The other big rules change was to play the 1 in 3 chance of vehicular fire each time the power plants took machine gun or submachine gun damage. This ruling would obscure all other tactics in the game. At the same time, it actually increased the chances of the duelists to survive the event. If your car caught fire, you simply got out of your car. This led to many a pedestrian picking up a prestige bonus even after effectively being taken out of the game.

There were a few minor rules that we still managed to mess up this time. We were probably adding back the reflex bonus to handling status each turn when we should only have been adding back the HC of the cars. Also, it’s -2 to hit the side of a vehicle when you’re not in that side’s arc. (We’d been playing just a minus one penalty.) Finally, to prevent the argumentative simultaneous action type arguments like the one we had this game, we should move vehicles going the same speed in the order of their reflex roll results– with ties being broken before the beginning of the event. (Oh yeah, and we need to fix that infamous missing column five on our speed/range chart.)

The only tweaks I’d suggest for the next game would be to possibly a) Move the useless top and under Killer Kart armor to the vulnerable sides, b) Give the drivers the use of a portable fire extinguisher (along with their BA and SMG) for the duration of the event, c) Use a larger and asymmetrical two map-sheet sized custom arena, and/or d) Possibly switch the ammo to just ten shots of high density rounds. We should also comb back through the Compendium 2e for any other obscure rules that we should try to remember. We should test out the entire set of rules one more time… and then we should lock it all down for the next four duels. These radical changes from one game to the next have to stop!

We are steadily moving our game to a more-or-less “by the book” Compendium 2e approach. The only real difference is that we’re using a GURPS style combined speed/range modifier. (We feel that the official 2e rules for this give way too much of a bonus for high speeds. Our rules give more of a flavor like the original pocket box rules: -1 per full four inches (more or less) but with an extra -1 or -2 due to higher speeds. The biggest difference in the new rules is that you don’t always get a sure hit anymore on those point blank shots– unless your target is a “turtle”….) The only house-rule that came up for discussion during this game was to change the d6 roll to check for fires to a 2d6 roll with different targets for each weapon in the game: MG’s should be less effective than 33% and should certainly be less effective in starting power plant fires than, say, an RR. Also, Lasers should be less effective than flame throwers.

Here’s the results for my four winning characters which all have base level skills in Driver, Gunner, and Handgunner:

“Green”– Elroy McKnightridge
Prestige: 3
Gunner Skill Points: 1
Handgunner Skill Points: 1
Notes: 3/7/08 Amex Proving Grounds (KK)– Vehicle caught fire after two high speed passes against enemy Killer Karts.

“Yellow”– Arnold Schlamer
Prestige: 5
Kills: 1
Driver Skill Points: 1
Gunner Skill Points: 2
Handgunner Skill Points: 1
Vehicle: Killer Kart with 1 hit to power plant, 1 hit to front armor, 1 hit to right armor, and 2 hits to left armor.
Salvage: Killer Kart with 2 DP left on MG, 1 DP left on power plant, and no front, left, or right armor left.
Notes: 3/7/08 Amex Proving Grounds (KK)– Through devious rules lawyering and general sliminess, Arnold managed to “pin” an enemy Killer Kart. He effectively got two free shots at his opponent, even though it was a teammate the put in the killing blow. Arnold did however get the final lucky shot in that ended the event.

“Blue”– Buck Lescynski
Prestige: 5
Kills: 1
Driver Skill Points: 1
Gunner Skill Points: 2
Vehicle: Killer Kart with 3 hits to power plant, 14 shots left in MG, 2 hits to right armor, and 3 hits to left armor.
Notes: 3/7/08 Amex Proving Grounds (KK)– Buck set an opponent on fire during his second pass in the event. He failed to get any decisive hits in for the rest of the event.

“Pink”– Marla Zuckerton
Prestige: 7
Kills: 2
Gunner Skill Points: 3
Vehicle: Killer Kart with 12 shots left in MG, 3 hits to front armor, 1 hit to right armor, and 2 hits to left armor.
Notes: 3/7/08 Amex Proving Grounds (KK)– Scored first blood in the event by setting an opposing car on fire with a lucky shot. Crossed the arena at high speeds to nab a kill out from under her teammate, Arnold Schlamer.

In addition to improving our game with a couple of well placed house rules, I imagine we could stand to benefit by playing a few more of the “official” ones…. Playing amateur night duels, we had cars that would take several hits from machine gun fire slowly whittling away at the power plant and ther driver’s body armor DP’s. This was especially frustrating if you were rolling one’s and two’s for damage. With chances to set the car on fire and consequences for getting wounded, both of these outcomes will be less likely to be shrugged off! Another thing was that we were perhaps a little overzealous with our rams. We might not have been if we cut the damage back like we were supposed to and also slapped a chance for concussion on the duellists, too. (Page numbers below are from Compendium 2e.)

1) Subcompacts and light-weight Compacts only do two thirds damage in rams. That includes Killer Karts and Stingers! [p 13]

2) Head-on, Rear-end, and T-bone collisions can cause concussions. Take the amount of speed change for each vehicle and divide it by 10 (rounding up.) In T-bone maneuvers use the ramming vehicle’s speed change for both vehicles. Roll two dice for each crewman. If the result is less than this target number, then they are unconscious for a number of seconds equal to the amount by which they missed the roll. [p 14]

3) Debris is produced when a vehicle takes more than 10 hits of damage. Don’t forget these when collisions occur! Hitting debris is a D1 hazard and does 1d-3 damage to each tire. Debris can only be hit once per phase; starting the turn on top of debris does not trigger damage or hazards. [p 15]

4) A vehicle takes a D2 hazard if its driver is wounded. (Hits to body armor do not count as wounds.) [p 31]

5) Wounded drivers have all skills at -2. [p 31]

6) A vehicle has a 2 in 6 chance of catching fire on any turn that its power plant takes damage from weapons fire. Roll at the end of the turn to check for this. If the vehicle catches fire, each occupant, component, and armor facing takes a hit of damage on that turn and on all subsequent turns until the fire is put out. Body armor protects against burning damage. [p 31-32]

7) Immediate medical attention can generally save the life of duellists knocked down to zero DP. Duellists that go to negative DP must roll 5+ to stay alive. To keep you alive, a paramedic must roll 8+ with -1 per negative DP and a bonus of up to +3 for the quality of his equipment. The paramedic roll must be made at the arena and every 15 minutes during transit to the hospital. Once at the hospital, the character must roll 2 dice and get result greater than the negative DP amount in order to survive. (A roll equalling the negative DP amount results in crippling.) The character must stay in the hospital one week plus one additional week for each negative DP at a cost of $3000 per week. [ADQ 4/4]

On that last rule there, we were playing a somewhat more forgiving rule for our last two games that we shamelessly pilfered from GURPS 4e. We declared that immediate medical attention could automatically bring back anyone that goes down to -2 DP. For every full -3 DP’s a character drops, he has to make a “health roll” of ten or less on three dice. (Missing that roll by one or two results in a crippling injury.) Characters that drop to -15 are too mutilated to have a chance of coming back into the game. We also played that hospitalization costs are paid for by sponsors. I haven’t decided which way I prefer better, yet. I think I would like the characters to have a better chance of staying in the game after going to negative DP’s, though. Amateur night characters certainly wouldn’t have the cash to pay for hospital bills the way that the ADQ article described…. (I thought we were insured?!)

As Kizan requested, here is an alternative speed range chart in text format so that you can cut and paste it into the spreadsheet of your choice.  These modifiers grant additional penalties for hitting speeding targets while maintaining the original flavor of the game.  On average, to-hit mods tend to be more or less in the same range as in the classic pocket box rules.  (The original rules added a whopping -6 to-hit on top of the standard range modifiers– this contributed greatly to making rams much more viable than direct fire weaponry.)  See the previous posting for a jpeg image of the same chart.

The original Deluxe Edition is Car Wars at the height of its craze under the guidance of Scott Haring. The crash table is harsh, but driver skill makes a big difference. There’s enough equipment to be interesting, and the movement chart is 10 phases.

Compendium Second Edition adds gas engines, lots of fancy equipment, boats, hovercraft, and better character rules. It moves to a 5 phase movement chart, fixes problems with gas engines, adds additional features to electric engines, and fixes major rules headaches introduced by laser guidance link, speed modifiers, spoilers & airdams, vehicle range, and top speed formulas.

Compendium 2e looks identical to Compendium 1e except that 2e has “Second Edition” written on the front just below the car (see picture to the left.)  There are black box Deluxe Editions that came out with Compendium 2e inside and some extra bonus supplements. That’s the coolest release. If you want to go faster than 100 mph, go with Compendium 2e– it’s the most comprehensive edition. If you want John Nowak style gritty “road warrior” type action, Deluxe Edition is all you need, though.

The newer 5th edition stuff has really large turning keys and a streamlined 3-phase system that is very fast playing– duels between 6 players reportedly go much quicker. They are still in stock at Warehouse 23, but are reviled by fans because of the lack of a design system. It think its as fast as they could make the game without moving to a clicky base system. It is perfect if you want to play with Matchbox car sized minis.

The Car Wars Pocket Box is mostly a curiosity now…. It has several systems just glossed over and all of them were expanded into “advanced rules” later. You will wreck if you try to fight at high speeds!!

In computer lingo… pocket box is the Beta, the first deluxe edition is the 1.0, the first compendium is a 2.0, the second compendium is a 2.4, and then the fix for the ramplates and the jumping falling rules and the measuring = a fire action rules constitute a significant service pack.

The biggest problem with Compendium 2e is out-of-control ramplates and game-altering speed mods. For a faster game consider dropping speed mods altogether and use the patch for the ramplate rules. Also… look at the rules for Driver Skill and Crash Table Rolls and come to a agreement regarding how to work that… and maybe just go whole hog and give a flat HC bonus for Driver skill instead of using it as a silly/strange reflex roll bonus. (Also, the Incendiary rules from 5th edition are REALLY fun.) 

Keep in mind that these finer points of the rules only matter in highly competitive duelling events– if you’re just using the system for combat in a role playing game, these details can safely be ignored.  However, the reverse cannot be said for most rpg combat systems: they can’t generally be used to play out intricate free for alls to determined the baddest player of a bunch.

Compendium 2e represents a huge amount of iterations in the development - playtest cycle… unmatched by many games.  It is a thing of great beauty… and certainly the greatest gaming book ever published.

After taking a close look, there are quite a few key rules that changed in Car Wars between the version 3.0 pocketbox rules and the Scott Haring Deluxe Edition revision.  Most of the big changes that came later had to do with making advanced versions of the sections of rules that were originaly just glossed over: the collision rules, the incendiary rules, the grenade rules, the encumbrance rules.  All of these subsystems would later get supersized into advanced editions, but its often the little things that have the bigger impact on the flavor of a game.

Debris was a much bigger deal in the early version of the game: it caused a D2 hazard instead of the D1 of the later editions.  And almost any collision could cause a whopping D4 hazard to both parties.  These two rules can make it a lot harder to keep all four wheels on the road!

Perhaps the biggest change is in the Crash Tables.  I didn’t notice this back when I reviewed the development of the key  maneuver rules, but the Crash Table was originally a 1d6 affair even up to the Deluxe Edition.  (It wasn’t until the first compendium that they switched to a 2D6 table.)  This can obviously have a huge effect on the outcome of your crashes; it makes the soul-numbing “Roll and Burn” a much more likely event!  On the other hand, if you are using the Deluxe rule of subtracting your Driver skill from your Crash Table rolls, then skill can go a long way toward ameliorating the problem. 

I’ve played by the Compendium 2e rules religiously for the past while, but this discovery makes me think that the original relex roll system and the “1d6″ crash tables with subtracting driver skill are a satisfactory approach to running the a game.  There was still room for improvement… but I don’t think that Compendium 2e had the best solution anymore: they clearly dropped the ball when they moved Driver Skill back to being practically meaningless in a crash.

When I got the Compendium 2e, I didn’t expect to ever need another revision to the rules again.  It turns out, though, that there’s quite a few good ideas that came later on.  Here are a few of the major rules changes that occured after Compendium 2e:

In ADQ 9/1, new AADA regulations required all competing vehicles to be able to travel 150 miles at their cruising speed.  Reflex rolls began to be set at 4 for all competitors.  (This of course made Driver skill much more important– level one and two each would increase the HC of the car by 1 automatically!)  Also, ADQ&A notes that anti-vehicular ammo (and various other odd “old school” equipment) ceased to exist.

ADQ 9/3 printed rules to fix the out-of-control oil gun action.  It no longer received the +4 bonus for targeting the ground and it made a smaller counter.

ADQ 10/1 printed the much needed rules from Uncle Albert’s Catalogue from Hell to fix Ramplates and Jump Jets.

Finally, ADQ 10/2 printed a new AADA ruling that measuring distances would be counted as a firing action.  (As a side note, this issue also featured a Backfire by David Searle that proposed a new system for creating a gas engine of any size, though I doubt they ever became official.)

Pocket Box / Zip-loc Baggie Edition (1981)

(p 3) Your vehicle’s Handling Class is equal to its base design HC plus a bonus of up to 2 for your reflex roll at the start of the game.  Note that you can loose your reflex bonus if your driver is injured!

(p 6) Your Handling Track is reset at the end of each turn.

(Control Table)  If you fail a control roll, you simply roll 2d6 1d6, add a speed modifier, and check the appropriate Crash Table.

Deluxe Edition (1986)

(p 10)  Handling Class is determined as above, but a vehicle can have a maximum HC of 5 and a minimum HC of -3.

(p 9)  The Handling Track is not reset at the end of each turn, but is rather bumped up an amount equal to the vehicle’s base HC (not including reflex roll bonuses!) plus the driver skill.  It is adjusted upward by at least 1 if this total is negative.

(p 9)  Crash table rolls are determined as above.

GURPS Autoduel first edition (1986)

(p 48)  There is no Handling Track!  The first maneuver of the turn is made by rolling against the Driver skill.  The second is at -2.  The third is at -4.

(p 51)  Note that there are not two crash tables (one for maneuvers and one for hazards) as in classic Car Wars.

(p 50)  If you fail your driver skill roll, you roll one die and add the amount by which you missed your roll.  If you had made a critical failure by rolling a 17 or 18, then you roll two dice instead.  This determines the crash table entry you use.

(p 46)  Also note that phased movement is not used in this edition.  A sidebar suggests adopting the 10 phase movement chart from classic Car Wars.  Also note that the sequence of play is determined by each character’s move score– vehicle speed is no longer the key factor in determining movement order!

The Car Wars Compendium (1989)

(p 7)  HC was determined as in the Deluxe edition, but the maximum HC was increased to 7.  [I presume this killed the HC 9's that were advertised for Dueltrack??]

(p 5)  The Handling Track is adjusted at the end of the turn just like the Deluxe edition.

(p 9)  Crash table rolls are determined as in the Deluxe edition with a 2d6 roll, but you also get to subtract your driver skill.

The Car Wars Compendium Second Edition (1990)

(p 5)  HC is determined as in the first Compendium.

(p 5)  The Handling Track is adjusted as in the first Compendium.

(p 10)  Crash table rolls are determined as in the first Compendium, but you also add the difficulty of the maneuver or hazard!  Note that this rule more or less cancels out the bonus for driver’s skill that was given in the first Compendium.

(p 6)  A new rule is added that says that weapons that are fired on the same phase as a maneuver subtract the “D” from the roll.

Fifth Edition (2002)

(p 3)  In a bold gesture, HC is now determined by adding the vehicle’s base HC to the driver skill.  No more reflex rolls!!

(p 3)  The vehicles Handling Status is simply reset at the end of each turn– just like the pocket box edition.

(inside front cover)  A streamlined flow chart replaces the two seperate Crash Tables of classic Car Wars.  Driver skill has no bearing on the rolls here– you just add your speed modifier, plus 4 if you are on ice, and plus 2 if you are on oil.

————

Also, please note my previous post on the development of the Sequence of Play.

 [Updated to fix errors and links. 1/30/07]

I was looking over the rules of the original pocket box game last night and was surprised to note that the vehicles get their Handling Tracks reset to full at the end of each turn/second.  I thought this was a new thing that came out in the 5th edition, but this “new” thing is really just the “old” thing!  In the original game, the only thing Driver skill got you was a bonus on your reflex roll.

Back in the day, we always played by the Deluxe edition rule that your Handling track was adjusted upward at the end of the turn by the total amount of your HC plus your driver skill.  In the Compendium, this rule was again changed and the bonus for driver skill was subtracted from crash table rolls.  Apparently all versions of Car Wars reset the Handling tracks to full at the end of the turn EXCEPT for Scott Haring’s Deluxe edition rules. 

I’ll double check this later– the rules on handling are spread out to at least two different sections in each edition, so it’s hard to pin this sort of thing down in just a cursory look.  Whichever version of Car Wars you’re playing, be sure to go over this rule carefully.  Each edition of the game has subtle differences and everyone may have a different notion about how the driver skill is supposed to work!

The first guide is probably one of the best resources for getting a picture of what the roads of the Car Wars future history are like. As of 2034, there were at least 5,000 examples of each of the Guides’ car, trike, and cycle designs on the road! The descriptions of the vehicles also provide a lot of hints and details regarding what the vehicles in ther years leading up to 2034 were like.

Here’s a summary of some of the info we can glean:

Cycle Concepts’ best selling design was the Road Miser which debuted in 2028. The Rocket Road Miser began production in 2032. Cycle Concepts also produced the Spider, the Tornado, and the Maxi.

Crane’s most popular design was the Popper. If the FOJ wasn’t available until 2033 (ADQ 1-1), then the Hawk could not have been produced until that date. Crane also produced the Santa Cruz, and the Mantis.

Mystic Motor’s Aquarius was the first of their best selling “Zodiac” series. When we assign dates for other vehicles in that line, we’ll have to remember to place them as being later on. The Guide also describes the Taurus as well. (Perhaps the designs should debut in the same order as the signs of the Zodiac?)

Wheeler Motors’ Scrapper should not be available until 2033 because of its use of the CTS (ADQ 1-4).

The Guide does not tell us the name of the company that produced Samson’s vehicle designs, but we do know that the Flash was his first model. The Samson used a FOJ, so it probably should not appear on the roads until 2033 (ADQ 1-1).

The Gazelle comes in a pre-2033 model and a later model. The Guide also mentions Courier Services’ Tomcat and Amex Combat Autoworks Slasher. (The Guide also neglects to reveal the Company that produced these three cycles.)

Building a Comprehensive Vehicle Design Canon in the Face of Evolving Rules

Steve Jackson came out with Uncle Albert’s Catalogue From Hell… why didn’t he ever come out with the AADA Vehicle Guide From Hell? And why in the 5th edition did he just scrap all of those perfectly good designs?

Well… there are many reasons behind the decision, but there’s actually a technical reason that quickly puts the brakes on any such proposal.

If you go through all of the old car designs… and if you rebuild them from scratch according to the Compendium Second Edition Rules… you will find that as often as not, the totals for cost, weight, and top speed end up not matching.

There are numerous reasons for this: some equipment was either changed or left out of Compendium second edition, rules for top speed changed a couple of times, and then there are the typos and errors…. Sometimes it’s clear what the mistake is from the context, sometimes not. Sometimes old designs that came out at exactly $15,000 cannot be made to do the same under consistent and revised rules no matter how much fiddling you do.

In other words, it’s a major headache to go over all of this stuff– and the numerous errata that were published don’t always settle the issue!

How do we keep the new game from ending up this way?

Actually, Scott Haring has this by the tail:

“In the course of testing the new Vehicle Design System, we ran every design already published for the new edition of Car Wars to make the sure the new system didn’t make any designs invalid.”

Every time you alter the design system… you have to go back to the entire canon of vehicle designs… and make sure that you haven’t broken anything.

That’s a lot of work. (By the way, that’s the same principle behind Unit Testing Frameworks that we use in software development.) The process can be automated, though, so there’s no reason not to do it.

The development of the old Car Wars game was so dynamic and so… uh… bold… that a set of canonical designs never got established. The available gadgets changed so fast that no one would ever use a design more than a year old.

Because of the way the new system is marketed, Steve Jackson cannot afford to ever invalidate the current 5th edition designs. It is one of the things that I like best about 5th edition: that there is a set of standard designs available. Of course, by buying half of the currently available material (my pal bought the other half), I have quite a bit of cash sunk into 12 glossy colorful laminated vehicle record sheets.

Steve… Scott…. Please don’t break the new canon of Vehicle Designs. And once the new design rules are released, please don’t break them either. You guys seem to be onto this allready– please don’t compromise it!

I don’t regret what happened in the good old days…. There was a lot of stuff that needed to experimented with and tinkered with back then. It’s all part of the development process. With the 5th edition, you all have demonstrated that you learned a great deal during the past 20 years… and going forward with the new system, we just can’t afford to alienate those that have allready bought in.

Of course… breaking the game can be tolerated a little easier if you offer killer economical “Compendium” type releases later on…. But there are other alternatives that should be considered first… especially if they don’t involve me throwing out my glossy laminated vehicle record sheets! (They are pretty. Much better than SFB and Battletech!)