I've been thinking about a design for a rally race card game and i'm not sure if this idea has been used before or how well it would work. The funny thing is that I don't play too many racing games and this is the second one i've come up with :). Without going into too much detail here are the basics:
Each player has there own deck of about 20-25 cards made up mostly of different turn cards and straitaways.
The track of each stage is made up of random track cards laid out in a line. Each track card is a type of turn or a straitaway with a speed value. Players on their turn move from one track card to the next by playing a card from their hand. The degree by which the card they play differs from the track card dictates the penalty in time or damage the player incurs. For example the track card is a hard right turn and the player plays a regular right turn and incurs a 10 second penalty (+10 s chit). Another player has to play a slight left hand turn and incurs a 1 minute penalty plus a damage card. A time penalty is also incurred by how much slower your car's speed is below the speed value of the track card. Remove speed penalties you have by racing faster than the speed value of the track. The lowest time at the end wins.
The twist is that braking and accelerating is controlled by varying your hand size. Speed is inversely proportional to hand size. To slow down I draw cards from my deck to increase the likelihood of properly navigating the track. To accelerate I discard cards from my hand. Speeds range from 0 to 5 and handsize from 6 to 1. So speed= 6-handsize.
There are 3 stages and a short deck building phase before each. There are also hazard cards that the players seed on the track cards.
So my questions are:
Is this a unique spin on a racing game?
What problems or issues do you see in the hand size mechanic?
Does this sound like it would be fun?
Any suggestions are welcome :)
However, despite the relatively simple calculation (6 - hand) I could anticipate players getting confused or making mistakes. "I've got 4 cards so I'm going speed 4, right?" "No, you're going speed 2." "But when I had 3 cards you said I was going speed 3..."
To make it more visual, give players 3 cards and 3 "speed tokens" (the speed tokens are placed on the table in front of them). On your turn you can discard a card to gain a speed token, or discard a speed token to pick up a card.
Hope that helps,
kos
thanks for your input. I agree a visual aid would help. I was planning on each player having a current speed reference card to help keep track of your speed. The card would have speed numbers on it in the formation of a shifter diagram. Players put a small token on their current speed and move it to the next position when they change speeds (like shifting). Would that be sufficient?