CGD1 Brainstorm: Racing

I like "hidden information" games, and I don't think this has been done in a racing game (well, not a published one - I've done a couple myself!)

But if you didn't know who "owned" each car until one of them won, that might add a whole level of interesting tactics to the game as you try to "knock out" the other cars without giving away your own identity.

There was a shareware game I used to have on my Macintosh called 1000 Miles or something like that. It was really a card game where you play cards worth miles, or you play hazards to jack opponents or repair cards to fix hazards. There were "Speed Limit" cards which limited the Miles cards you could play...

It was really fun and I liked it a lot. At one point I drew out the cards on a piece of paper with the distribution so I could make a deck and play it IRL with someone rather than just against the computer, but I never finished.

Anyone ever seen that one before?

- Seth

That is the french themed parker brothers game "Mille bornes" i have a copy and pulled it out last year for the first time since i was young. It was much more fun to play as a child. The game is to random. When you win you don't feel like you have accomplished anything.

Don't think i am trying to get the randomness discussion going again. I am not! :wink:

I like that to. like on your turn you advance your car to the next terrain space, and deal with whatever's in it. It may be clear, it may be, say, slippery (oil spill) where you need to make a check with modifiers based on Tire upgrades and/or Driving Skill stats and/or other stats. Then you take whatever other actions might be available. Finally you play a terrain card on an opponent, or on each opponent.

At some point (either right after you play the cards, or maybe at the beginning of your turn) you replace the cards in your hand.

Some Terrain cards might say things like "Uphill: Do not advance next turn." Then you maybe turn the card over to indicate you've lost the movement and can move off it normally next turn. Another card could be "Shortcut: Replace the Terrain card in front of you with the top card of the terrain deck" or maybe "Roadblock: Lose your next turn." where again you turn it over on what WOULD be your next turn, to indicate it's been done.

You'd probably HAVE to play a card in front of EACH opponent, to ensure people have road to drive on, then you could OPT to play a card in front of yourself- something like "Pit Stop: Select an Upgrade card and place it in the appropriate slot on your vehicle" where Upgrade cards are like Sticky Tires or High End Suspension" which confer bonuses in certain terrain. Maybe "Supercharger" cancels the penalty of "Uphill"

- Seth

I like the racing theme (with guns!), also the implied simplicity is nice. It would make a good choice as a first game to design but I'm worried about luck/chaos in a card game like that.

Your going in the right direction Krosse. I am think that speed should be consistent so if i am at 120 MPH and my opponent is at 60 MPH There is no chance that i am getting passed unless i wreck or spin out. So there will have to be a mechanism to handle that or the game will be frustrating. :idea: I propose a base movement rate per speed column modified by a chart roll. Did i Hear some one say "Terrain" how about making this a Baja. Some other things we might want to look at are a few issues for racers in the real world including drafting, fuel consumption and tire ware. The latter two making pit stops necessary so it's not just peddle to the metal.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head:

Cars could have 'fuel cells' or whatever- a pile of tokens from which some are removed each turn. The amount depends on how fast you are going and how heavy your vehicle is.

Say there are 3 weight classes for example, Heavy, Medium, and Light. And say there are 3 or maybe 4 'gears'- 1 is the slowest, 4 is the fastest. Perhaps a Light car in gear 3 would 'use up' 4 units of fuel, while a medium car in gear 4 would use 6. Basically 1 unit per gear, and an additional 1, 2, or 3 for the weight class.

Now the distance travelled per turn would depend on the gear, and probably ought not be linear- the higher your gear, the more fuel you use, the faster you go, but the incremental acceleration from gear to gear should probably be smaller from 3 to 4 than it is from 1 to 2.

Players would start with a particular number of these fuel counters. Maybe the same amount, or maybe it depends on the car- for example there could be different (hopefully balanced) car templates, each with specific information like how much movement per gear, how much fuel consumed per turn in each gear, how much fuel to begin with, and what kind of maneuverability or special stuff the car has.

Stopping in at the pit would replenish your fuel. There could be a 'running on fumes' rule where if you are out of fuel counters, your speed is X (where X is a small amount) rather than Zero, so you don't HAVE to stop for gas if you don't want to.

The Pit would also let you upgrade stuff like Tires or Engine (one that uses less fuel per turn). If this were a crosscountry race like Cannonball Run or Death Race 2000 then the pits and upgrades would become more important and useful- not as much in a quick race. Though in a combat race-to-the-death maybe the Pit could also restock ammo (there'd be a no-shooting-the-guy-in-the-pit rule of course).

Ok, that's about all I can think of offhand.

- Seth

I haven't been reading this thread very carefully, but my initial thought on this subject is that car racing games have already been done, and so have car racing/combat games. Not necessarily a deterrant, but again, an uphill battle in treading original ground.

I had an idea for a racing game based on running (which I admit would appeal primarily to me, since I ran Cross Country in school...) where movement was card-based, and you did "training" to get certain cards. (so, if you did certain kinds of workouts, ex "sprint" workouts, you would have cards that would allow for occasional bursts of speed, whereas if you did "long runs", you could increase the total number of cards you could play, etc).

I'm not actually sure whether I'm sufficiently ambivalent to my idea that I'm willing to throw it out for the group to actually use, so much as to say that "car racing" has been done, and done well, ditto horse racing, canoe racing ditto cars with guns. Are there other kinds of races that could be approached? Is there a way that this theme can be combined with one of the other ideas? Why not "race to the center of the Earth"? Maybe a player has to balance trying to be the first one there with producing good discoveries along the way, or something. My concern would be, again, that this kind of thing has been done in Goldland, but some way of combining ideas might make everyone happy AND give a new twist on pretty standard themes...

Just my thoughts...

-Jeff