Wacky Races - Gaslands Style!

 

Our second March meeting saw me get the chance to drop the "Wacky Races" vehicles I had acquired into the "Gaslands" setting.

As a reminder, "Wacky Races" was a late 60s cartoon, set round an improbable, but amusing, set of races between a cast of characters from humans to horror/fantasy creatures. The characters, including anthropomorphic individuals, crewed a variety of vehicles ranging from cars to tanks and planes.

Luckily I managed to find six players who were willing to give this homage to a children's cartoon a go. In fact some of them were quite keen.

The characters and vehicles were represented as close to the cartoon equivalents as I could manage within "Gaslands" rules. Each vehicle had a couple of special weapons, upgrades or perks that were selected in an attempt at matching their "flavour" in the cartoon. As it was Gaslands, I gave everyone guns. I doubt Hanna and Barbera would have approved.

Only one player had a strong preference for a character, so Jason played the "Ant Hill Mob" in the Bulletproof Bomb. A random selection for the remaining five players, led to the Convert-a-Car (Colin), Arkansas Chuggabug (Lawrence), Army Surplus Special (Bob), Turbo Terrific (Chas) and Mean Machine (Paul), lining up on the grid.

The standard warnings that, "If you touch a template, you are using it and if it isn't legal, the player to your left picks a legal template for you instead" and "no shooting before passing the first race gate. If you do, two machine gun turrets on the gate fire on you" were issued. As usual, virtually no one was listening.

With the Pole Position token going to Lawrence, it was a case of "and they are off." That didn't go so well, with a collision in the first Gear Phase, with Lawrence's Arkansas Chuggabug. A further crash at the back of the grid, left Chas's Turbo Terrific actually behind the starting grid. In the straight approaching the first Gate there were two more collisions, including Lawrence ramming the tank! The Convert-a-Car was left facing backwards and the Turbo Terrific was still not over the Start Line. All was fine and dandy for the Bulletproof Bomb though, as Jason cleared the Gate, leaving the others in his wake.

The Mean Machine crossed the first Gate and promptly used his "Oil Dropper" to ruin everyone else's day. This resulted in the Arkansas Chuggabug and the Convert-a-Car wiping out, whilst the Turbo Terrific arrived just in time to be shot up, get wiped out and then wrecked. Good to see a professional racing driver in action.

Taking the first corner proved tricky, with the Arkansas Chuggabug and Mean Machine ramming each other, before the Chuggabug collected a piece of scenery. I was beginning to wonder if Lazy Luke was legally blind.

Bob obviously thought the track was for plebs and made good use of the Army Surplus Special's off road abilities, by taking the direct route to the next gate. This allowed Bob's tank to be laying in wait and give the several competitors the good news with his cannon as they passed by. In trying to avoid this, Colin's Convert-a-Car left the track and headed into the rough.

Having "re-spawned" at the last gate passed, Peter Perfect was racing past the wreck and back markers (it must have been a little strange passing his previous self burning in version one of his car, but Chas looked unphased). He then failed to take the second corner and made friends with a concrete barrier. Meanwhile Bob opened fire on the Bulletproof Bomb and a combination of handling issues and lack of hull points wrecked it.

The Turbo Terrific now rammed the Army Surplus Special (er, it's a tank Chas), losing half his bodywork in the process. Bob seemed to think the scratches on his tank would polish out.

With the Ant Hill Mob re-spawning at the 3rd gate they had just passed, they shot into the distance.

With a clear road ahead for the Bulletproof Bomb we called it a day.

Results:

First Place - The Bulletproof Bomb

Second - The Army Surplus Special

Third - The Turbo Terrific

To be fair, it could all have changed had we had more time, not least as the track was set up in a loop and the Bulletproof Bomb would have to cross all the other players again on the way to the chequered flag !

Many thanks to Paul, Lawrence, Colin, Bob, Chas and Jason for taking it all in the spirit which it was intended.

Vince

Gaslands Tournament

 

September's meeting saw me running a day campaign to Osprey's excellent rules, "Gaslands Refuelled.

The rules cover races in a post Apocalyptic world. Following a catastrophic war, governments have fallen and major corporations are in charge. The remaining population is fully employed working themselves to death for these businesses. The corporations subscribe to the "bread and circuses" philosophy, feeding the people's physical needs with a subsistence diet. Their need for entertainment is fulfilled by televised motor vehicle races, with a liberal dose of fun with firearms thrown in for good  measure. The rewards for the winners are fame, prestige and cans of fuel. The losers aren't so lucky.

Four players rose to the challenge of racing for the television special. It was to be a series of three races, the last being a "Saturday Night Special".

Chas, Mark C, Rob and Tom drew up on the start grid, piloting a pick up truck, a performance car and two cars respectively. The pick up had a crew of three rednecks, the performance car just the driver and the cars a driver and mate. Each crew member started proceedings with just a pistol.

The announcer reminded participants that it was a six gate race, with drivers having to pass each gate in order. Firearms were not permitted to be used before gate two was passed. In case anyone forgot sentry guns on the first and second gates would remind them.

Each turn was conducted over six gear phases, with only cars in the current or higher gear, able to participate in each round. Each turn the gear phase reset to one and cars raced through the gears again.

Any car wrecked, was respawned at the last gate it had past on the following turn. It only had half its original hull points however.

The movements of vehicles is governed by movement templates, with certain templates only being able to be used in certain gears. Some templates give free gear shifts or hazards. The final position of the active vehicle being modified by the rolling of a number of dice, up to the vehicles handling characteristics. The dice bear "shift", "slide", "spin" and "hazard" symbols, with a "shift" being capable of being or cancelling any other symbol or shifting the vehicles gear up or down ready for the next gear phase or the need to slow for obstacles. Players can "push it" and reroll any or all of their dice, at the expense of gaining a "hazard". Hazards are also gained for collisions, which may be mitigated by attempts to avoid being rammed.

Any vehicle acquiring six "hazard" symbols is "wiped out". Any vehicle losing all hull points is "wrecked".

Gaslands has one strict rule: If you touch a template, you are using it. If you pick an illegal template, the player clockwise of you picks a legal one for you to use. Throughout the game I never bothered to check the legality of any template picked, as the other players loudly let me know every infringement and enthusiastically picked the worst possible template for the offender to use.

The first game was a learning experience, with Chas learning he couldn't drive, but he could burn. Rob learnt bullets and obstacles hurt and everyone else learnt that Tom likes shooting.

Mark got shot up and crashed, but he stayed out of trouble for long enough to win, with Tom second. There was no third and fourth, as Chas and Rob's vehicles were burning out on the track.

Between races, those that were still alive picked up victory points and spent their "cans' on better weapons, armour and other upgrades.

Mark and Tom lined up on the grid for the second race, as Rob brought in a new crew and Chas drafted in three new cousins for another pick up. This time Mark had a minigun, Tom a combat laser, Rob an HMG and Chas a shotgun and pistols. Things were hotting up.

The same rules applied and everyone shot off the line. There was some bumping and ramming, but Tom could not resist his fancy laser and burnt a line down the side of Mark's performance car. The sentry guns reminded him of the rules as he raced on.

The lead changed back and forth, with Rob and Chas trailing a little, but Tom vied with Mark for first across the line.

Mark relied on staying out of trouble and driving carefully. Rob and Chas rearranged the scenery and Tom shot at everyone. The result was as before: First place to Mark, Second Tom, Third Chas and well, yes, elsewhere, Rob.

For the "Saturday Night Special" Rob had run out of people willing to get in his next car, but the rest spent their winnings with gusto. Now Mark had a turreted minigun, Tom had added armour to his car and Chas had some tasty looking rednecks with shotguns.

Mark raced off the line and into the lead, minigun spitting fire. Chas shot off into the barrier, with a little help from Tom, who himself became wedged in a stack of wrecks. Sorting themselves out, Chas and Tom did "donuts" in the width of the track. Combat laser and shotguns wearing both sides down. 

Mark, meanwhile, drove gently down the track, carefully choosing his racing line. Tom and Chas broke off their fight to try and stop Mark, but it was too late and he crossed the line triumphant.

A good day campaign, played in the right spirit. Many thanks to Chas, Mark, Tom and Rob for playing and putting up with me cranking the rules.

Vince