Car wars

[Saitou_Hajime]

Who remembers that little black box with the title car wars across it from Steve Jackson games

[Christian]

Back in the day I was a fanatical CW guy. Hell, we even ran a Boy Scout Commando campaign based upon the rules in one of the Autoduel Quarterlies. In my opinion, ADQ was one of the best gaming publications of all time.

[reptile2k1]

Originally posted by Saitou_Hajime
Who remembers that little black box with the title car wars across it from Steve Jackson games

You mean the one that is standing in my bookshelf right between the Aliens box (board and adventure game) and the box of first ed. german CoC?

[AJFixer]

Originally posted by Saitou_Hajime
Who remembers that little black box with the title car wars across it from Steve Jackson games Remember? Hell, i've still got that little black box, along with Sunday Drivers (before it was changed to Crash City) and Truck Stop. Awesome game.

[Christian]

Originally posted by AJFixer
Remember? Hell, i've still got that little black box, along with Sunday Drivers (before it was changed to Crash City) and Truck Stop. Awesome game.

Man, we fought many an "Amateur Night" duel using the truck stop map.

Good stuff.

[Saitou_Hajime]

Ah yes such a interesting game I love that game. ADQ was great, it was so great that i bought a huge amount of it at a gaming auction for 3 dollars just so I could read over it again. Car Wars was my first 'rollplaying game' and in some ways even my first roleplaying game. i still have tons of stuff sitting around for it. Too bad the chances are very good that I never get anyone to play it again.

[NPC_lucid]

I still have the original set somewhere. Heck, I still have the original Orge somewhere as well as The Fantasy Trip stuff.

They make a GURPS Car Wars too but I haven't read it or played it.

[Saitou_Hajime]

Originally posted by NPC_lucid
I still have the original set somewhere. Heck, I still have the original Orge somewhere as well as The Fantasy Trip stuff.

They make a GURPS Car Wars too but I haven't read it or played it.
now haveing Orge is impressive!

[access.denied]

How about posting about rpgs here and boardgames on Tangency?

Just a thought.

[Tharkun]

Originally posted by access.denied
How about posting about rpgs here and boardgames on Tangency?

Just a thought.

Tangency talk about everything but RPGs (well supposed to anyway).

[Caelic]

Y'know, in a weird way, I'd say that Car Wars actually transcended boardgame and made it into the realm of (at least pseudo-) roleplaying game.

Think about the sheer volume of background material churned out for Car Wars. Think about how seriously some of the players nurtured their alternate- persona drivers. Heck, what's the point of having rules for cloning if the game's only a boardgame? You lose a driver, you make up a new one.

But Car Wars drivers could get better as time went on (hence, rudimentary character-advancement rules.) Players were encouraged to interact in-character through the ADQ (hence, at least elements of roleplaying.)

It's an interesting question: at what point does a game actually become a roleplaying game?

[Blackberry]

Plus there was the book Autoduel Champions, one of SJG's first RPG products, about using Champions characters in Car Wars or using Car Wars for Champions vehicles.

[David Johansen]

It is out in a new edition again you know? Not bad, not quite as crunchy as the old game, and released in a bit of an odd format, but not bad.

The great thing about CarWars was how much you could do with that little box. The new game doesn't include bikes or vehicle design yet. I think the overall format, with the little books is okay, but they forgot to put in everything that made CarWars great. Just to sell a supplement later.

Oh yeah, ogre is currently in print too.

Johansen

[Mikey Boy]

Originally posted by Saitou_Hajime
Who remembers that little black box with the title car wars across it from Steve Jackson games
It was a great concept for a game; unfortunately, the mechanics were totally inappropriate for the game. Tracking movement and actions in 10-second segments, with all the tactical planning that inevitably occurred, totally destroyed the feeling of high-speed vehicle destruction derbies that the game should have had.

Designing cars for the game was way more fun than actually playing it.

Anyone know if SJG's current version of the game solves the problems the original had?

Mike

[NPC CAR WARS FOREVER!!!!!!!!]

Car Wars rocks. This game is beyond cool.

[Dirk Desiato]

Yes, the new version only has THREE (3) phases per turn! The scale has been multiplied by 3 so 15' = 3". Movement is much easyer and the game plays verry well. The BIG diference is the current focus of the game. Less on creating cars and more on playing the game. All car designs are pregen, and the vehicle design ruls have yet to be released. The game is easyer to get into costing about $5.00 or so (about how much the original pocket box was...) for a pack of 2 cars.

[Teflon Billy]

I really liked Car Wars at the beginning, but as time wore on and more and more supplemts were released, the games realistic mechanics simply served to show why people *don't* fight with cars.

Metal Armor, Guided missiles, tracks instead of tires...it became a game of tank warfare.

I was at a tourney where we were given a budget and a couple of hours to make cars....the winner made a compact pulling a trailer filled with linked guided missiles. Idon't think he ever moved his car...just fired all the missiles, drove them to the targets, did his damage and won.

I preferred the games we played where it more resembled the Road Warrior :)

But it's sort of like the high level D&D situation...it all becomes about the Magic Items (or in this case, the cool compnents).

I mean, there's a reason people fight battles from inside tanks

[Christian]

Originally posted by Teflon Billy


I was at a tourney where we were given a budget and a couple of hours to make cars....the winner made a compact pulling a trailer filled with linked guided missiles. Idon't think he ever moved his car...just fired all the missiles, drove them to the targets, did his damage and won.



Heh. I once made a car that towed a balloon using variant rules in an issue of ADQ. The balloon was equipped with an RL or something that allowed me to attack the vulnerable roof armor of my opponenents.

[inscrutable hahn]

Originally posted by Christian
In my opinion, ADQ was one of the best gaming publications of all time.

I currently have several back issues (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100725) available if you're interested.

[unodiablo]

My d20 group just started playing Redline, and it's brought back soooo many good memories of the old Car Wars games of my high school years... The emphasis now is more on the characters than the cars, and it's so Road Warrior-meets-Italian Spaghetti Western that I can hear Sergio Leone mixing with car crashes every time we play.

The feats in the game are pretty cool too, the 'Redliner' in the group always seems to come gunning in with the car just when needed, with the critical MG burst, while the Walker and Maurader keep them pinned down and away from their cars.

My favorite ADQ was the issue with Crossbow & Chassis, the low tech version of Car Wars (more Road Warrior-like, once again). I still have that issue, plus the Halloween issue with the Zombie-filled town adventure...

I think I'm going to go watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome now... :)

[Crimsoncat]

I just sold all my car wars stuff. I had the original black boxes also. I remember buying Truck Stop the day it hit the shelves. I had all the arena and I loved off-road battles and using Trikes.

I still have my Ogre black box and the supplement they put out for it.

Ahh the good Ol' days.

[thele]

Has anyone played the CAr Wars card game? or Battle Cattle Card game?

I was hoping to find a review somewhere...

`LE

[SirCabhán]

Moved to Other Games Open...

Sir Cabhán.

[Malenfant]

Originally posted by thele
Has anyone played the CAr Wars card game? or Battle Cattle Card game?


I played Battle Cattle at a convention once. It was reasonably fun for one or two games, but I thought its replayability value sucked - I lost interest after game three or four. Presumably the Car Wars game plays the same, since it has the same rules but with different clothes.

[Blinky]

Car Wars was an excellent game. Ogre, though, is just about the best board game ever. It's still available, and conveniently includes the G.E.V. sequel/supplement in the same box.

I still have Battlesuit somewhere; a game set in the Ogre universe, but you control individual soldiers. Very cool, as I recall, but the map was big and would blow around outside during recess.

[Bradford C. Walker]

I miss Car Wars. I still have all of my stuff, including the ADQs where my stupid junior-high BS letters got published.

[J. Roberts]

Originally posted by Bradford C. Walker
I miss Car Wars. I still have all of my stuff, including the ADQs where my stupid junior-high BS letters got published.

My comp copy of Vehicle Showcase is one of my prized possessions (sad, huh?). I was shocked that one of my vehicle designs was printed; I didn't know it was accepted until I saw it in print. Then I actually grumbled for days afterward that they screwed up the design by moving some of the armor around (who the hell armors their top or bottom?).

[Robovski]

Originally posted by J. Roberts
Then I actually grumbled for days afterward that they screwed up the design by moving some of the armor around (who the hell armors their top or bottom?).

Depends on if you expect ramps or mines.

[Bloodcat]

I almost picked up the Car Wars card game, but the anime wanna be artwork irritated me (im sick of anime now. Really. Not everything needs to be Japanese. It ruins it, like how too much sugar turns a great coffee into a sick inducing semicaffinated mess..), and I wanted to see how the new "cheapie" Car Wars stuff is. (There is another thread here in OGO about the new one..)

[kjamma4]

Damn newbies. The ORIGINAL Car Wars came in a plastic zip-loc baggie, not a black box.

Although I agree with the comments about the game getting out of hand with the ever escalating technology, you can still have a fun game if you limit yourself to just regular vehicles (nothing larger than a van, no trailers, no non-AADA weaponry).

The new version pretty much blows since they tried to dumb the game down as their way to simplify the game. Not having rules to construct your own vehicles was a big mistake. However, they did introduce one rule which I really like. Instead of having a movement chart you need to consult to determine when you move, you simply move one inch per phase for every 10 mph of your vehicle's speed. Makes it easy to teach to newcomers.

This change has actually made me dig out my old books to play a game. I just bought a load of Hot Wheels Mini Coopers to play an "Amateur Night" game with some veterans and new players alike. Should be fun.

[Wakshaani]

Originally posted by Teflon Billy
I really liked Car Wars at the beginning, but as time wore on and more and more supplemts were released, the games realistic mechanics simply served to show why people *don't* fight with cars.

Metal Armor, Guided missiles, tracks instead of tires...it became a game of tank warfare.

I was at a tourney where we were given a budget and a couple of hours to make cars....the winner made a compact pulling a trailer filled with linked guided missiles. Idon't think he ever moved his car...just fired all the missiles, drove them to the targets, did his damage and won.

I preferred the games we played where it more resembled the Road Warrior :)

True, the Road Warrior appeal is nice, and it can be a LOT of fun to zip around, trying crazy maneuvers while pulling out teh dakkadakka, but, there was also some fun in being the weirdo.

I've got a Division 10 Subcompact around here somewhere, the Texas Armadillo, which was just a hoot. about 18 points of metal armro on all sides but teh bottom, a single machine gun, and a spare clip of ammo for it. Could barely move, but the durn thing was a tank and a half. It just sorta puttputtputted around teh arena, nice and slow, taking little dinks out of people. Wound up being teh last one alive most games, simply because everyone else'd have enough armor shorn off that the single MG would finally start hitting the important bits.

Interesting lil' machine.

-- Wak

[Robovski]

Amusing waswhen I dragged a trailer into the arena and left it in the middle to await the right moment.

Some curious types drove thier cars near and I triggered the kamibombs...

Mind you, it wasn't so good for salvage on a cost/benefit analysis.

[Qusoor]

I spend hours designing cars. We did a small campaign (it was hard to run an antagonistic campaign in Car Wars--the losers kept getting annoyed, even with larger and larger budgets. From this I learned that money is no substitute for knowing what was going on).

The thing that really caught my attention was the concrete-filled shopping malls whose parking lots served as courses.

I think it actually helped my driving. When I read the rule about something 20 x the weight T-boning a smaller vehicle, and you "pick the smaller car up and drop it from three inches above the surface. This is the car's new position." I diecided I was never going to fuck with a tractor-trailer, ever.