Speed Racer-ish game?

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Simlasa

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I was looking at a display of Hot Wheels the other day and remember that I'd been wanting to find/play a futurisic racing game.
I can't think of any modern car racing games besides Gaslands... and most of the older ones I know of are also aimed at Mad Max (or Deathrace) style action.

In particular, I'd like a game that was more centered on racing than combat... lighter spirit... and no guns/missiles on cars. Kind of like the Formula 1 boardgame from Waddingtons... but wilder, more scifi, like Speed Racer and his supercar. Also with more flexibility and RPG elements (I could go for a not-Speed Racer RPG with a fun racing system).

So, a system for creating high tech race cars, new tracks and random events... and a campaign system for running race circuits.
Maybe something with stats for pit crew and drivers... borderline RPG personal drama effecting driving skills.

Not that there would be no conflict at all... Speed Racer was full of cars forcing others off the road or pulling nasty tricks... but it wasn't Gaslands.

Any thoughts on this? Could Gaslands be easily tweaked to such a thing?

EDIT: It occurs to me that this might best be handled by some mecha combat/RPG system... like Mekton, but focused on cars/racing.

 
Formula D is a racing game. Car Wars had Duel Track, where the cars were lightly armed and the engines ran on gas.

In one of my sf campaigns they had Track Shocker Racing which looked a lot like Speed Racer but the track was electrified and the cars didn't carry power supplies.
 
I know of Formula D but never played it. I do like the old Formula 1 game.
Car Wars hadn't occured to me, and there is a GURPS version of it as well... wrong vibe but that could be tweaked.
I'm imagining, 'What if Gerry Anderson had made a show about futuristic racing?'

I tried to watch a bit of the live-action Speed Racer movie last night... but it annoyed me, various reasons.
 
The best racing mod for car wars and battle cars was Turbo fire. It had rules for endurance racing where combat was occasional.

Not exactly what you want but maybe worth finding a copy.
 
You could look into Machinas from Two Hour Wargames on Wargames Vault.

As written it is for some combat but that can be ignored entirely.

A neat idea from a mech game I can't now recall was that to reflect a pilot letting off steam, they had a vice they must act on between battles you could shoehorn in.

The system is simple enough to add on another system or replace parts as required.

EDIT: the system works by grouping the cars into a pack. The cars all move together and jostle for position, so no car is ever truly left behind (except for damaged cars)
 
You could look into Machinas from Two Hour Wargames on Wargames Vault.
I actually have a copy of that, bought when I was a fan of all things THW. I never got around to reading/playing it, so I'll have to go check it out!
 
Duel Track for Car Wars might be an option if not too crunchy for you. Car Wars had rather good mechanics for vehicle movement and Dual Track played up the racing aspects with the auto duel aspects taking a back seat. They added rules for things like pit stops for fuel and tire replacement, aerodynamics, tire quality etc. As I recall they even included some pure race options in the scenarios. Being Car Wars vehicle design still played a major role, so you could easily leave in the dirty tricks weapons like paint sprayers, oil slicks, spike droppers, ram plates and such.

GURPS Autoduel surprisingly for GURPS toned down the vehicle design elements which could be a good or bad thing depending on your wants.

Another somewhat obscure one is Autoduel Champions, a weird crossover between SJG and HERO. It was actually quite well done and in my opinion included the best vehicle rules that have existed for the HERO system.

Sounds like something Clash Bowley would write.

Actually surprised he doesn't have something like this already, it seems right up his alley.
 
There's also the Rallyman series of games. It's all about racing; no combat. However, most of the RPG like elements you are looking for won't be there. And as far as I know there's no car design. There is an expansion with campaign rules, though.

I have played Gaslands as a straight racing game. I didn't feel like it was too simplified. You still have gear selections and picking a line, as well as deciding when to push. The decision to push and then potentially fail is the player's decision (usually), so it still worked well. If you want to discourage collision, you could houserule that any collision causes too much damage to continue, or set a very low damage threshold if you don't want it too punishing.

I vaguely remember racing rules in Heavy Gear 2nd edition, although I could be wrong. As Heavy Gear has a robust vehicle design system and it's already an RPG, there's a chance it may check most of your boxes. There is definitely mecha racing in Heavy Gear Badlands Rally. I have never played it though, and I don't know how compatible it is with RPG created vehicle designs.
 
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