Die Race 2000

Again, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the November GDS. It was a fun competition, and provided quite a lot of great feedback for each of the game submissions.

I have made some modifications to my entry based both on participant feedback, as well as some functionality which I had cut for my original submission to fit within the word-count and time limit constraints. I wanted to post a complete game for the competition, and did not have much time for playtesting and tweaking the additional functionality before-hand.

List of changes: (many of which are still up in the air)
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Supplies: I have wanted to add additional functionality to the game in the form of different types of items that you could draw and use. For the submission, I limited myself to bare bones fuel & bombs. But as I mentioned at the end of the submission, I already had future plans for these additional supplies.

Cards: I do really like the simplicity of just drawing dice and using them, however to add the supplies I would have to have multiple distinguishable dice, and players would have to remember the funtionality for each one. For this reason, with these additional supplies, I feel the game would be better as a card game which uses dice when making a sprint. I have not really finalized any of the supply cards, but have I many possible ideas listed below the updated rules. Please look them over, let me know what you think of each, and any additional suggestions you may have. (Also cards would cut down on the manufacturing costs vs so many dice.)

Terminology: Some of the terminology has also changed in the game due to the addition of supplies. For example, you shouldn't really store your supplies in your fuel tank.

Turn Options: @Corsaire had some particularly interesting feedback suggestions. One of which was to give the players two turn options where they could either draw or sprint in each. I liked that idea a lot, and have incorporated that change into the rules below.

Other changes being considered:
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When to roll: @Corsaire also suggested the idea of rolling at the time that you draw the fuel. It makes for a more deterministic game, but I am not yet sure whether or not I feel that is a good thing for this game. (Even if I stick to the dice only game.)

Tie breaker: @anonymousemagic suggested an alternate tie breaker condition of the tied players continuing to draw for the fourth bomb. This is a possibility. However, I see the last bomb as a sort of "going out in style" bonus. Plus it means that the game ends when it ends.

Feedback to feedback:
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With all the great feedback from the competition, I have many responses, but I will save those for a separate post, and focus on the current game changes only for now.

Die Race 2000
(By Dan Isaac 11/2013 – Version 1.1)

A press-your-luck game for 2-4 players; where you scavenge for supplies and fuel to fill up your vehicle for long sprints, while timing your sprints to keep your fuel from being wiped-out in an explosion.

Components:
Scoring track (ranging from 0-199) – “wasteland”
A unique score marker for each player – “vehicles”
Deck of supply cards – “supply deck” (contains “supply” and “fuel” cards)
About 6 standard (d6) dice – “sprint” or "fuel" dice

Other terms:
An area for each player to store their unused supplies and fuel - “stock pile”
A common area for discarded and used supply and fuel cards - “scrap yard”

Determine the starting player and player order. Place all of the vehicles on the wasteland at position 0. Shuffle the supply deck and place it in the middle of the table. Begin the race.

Each player will have the ability to perform two actions on their turn. The actions can be any combination of the following choices:
- “Scavenge”
- “Sprint”

* Note: You may perform the same action multiple times on your turn. However, performing a second sprint on your turn would most likely be less than optimal.

At any time between actions, (or in some cases during a sprint) any player may use a special ability from one of the cards in their stock pile. This does not count as an action for the turn.

When scavenging, the player draws a card from the top of the supply deck, looks at it, and (if it is not a bomb) places it facedown in his stock pile.

However, if the player drew a bomb, he must immediately reveal that card and place it in the scrap yard. All players must then take all cards from their stock pile and place those in the scrap yard as well. If this was the third bomb drawn, the game ends immediately.

* Note: Each player may look at the contents of their own stock pile, or the scrap yard at any time.

If the player wishes to make a sprint, he reveals some number of cards from his stock pile, determines how much fuel those supply cards are showing, and rolls that number of fuel dice. He then chooses a value and calculates his sprint distance as follows:
Sprint Distance = (Chosen Value) * (Number of dice showing that value) * (Number of dice rolled)
For example:
A player rolls four dice and gets the values 1, 3, 3, & 5.
He chooses a value of 3.
He therefore scores… 3 * 2 * 4 = 24 movement points.
That player’s vehicle is then advanced that number of spaces into the wasteland, and the revealed supply cards are placed in the scrap yard.

After the game has come to an end, the player who has made it furthest into the wasteland wins the game. However, if there is a tie for first place, then regardless of their position in the wasteland the player who drew the final bomb wins the game for “going out in style”!

Supply Cards:
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In addition to the four "bomb" cards, and a large number of basic "fuel" cards, the supply deck will also contain a number of specialty fuel and supply cards. Some ideas for these cards are listed below:

* Note: Card Names, and details are not necessarily the final versions.

NitrousOxide – add one to any of the three multipliers before calculating the score for your current sprint.

NitroMethane – (Fuel +2) Roll two additional dice when making a sprint with this card.

NitroGlycerine (Dynamite) – discard this card to force target player to discard half their stock pile cards (rounded down) [or perhaps just 2 or maybe 3 cards]
[alternate] – Should it be their choice or random?

???? – (Fuel +1) This die is not discarded when a bomb is drawn.

Solar Fuel Cells – (Fuel +1) after rolling to score a sprint, return this card back to your stock pile rather than discarding it.

Fire Suppression Unit – retain up to two (three) cards in your stock pile after a bomb is revealed. You may choose whether to retain this as one of the cards.
[alternate] – retain up to half your dice from your tank after a bomb is revealed.

???? - When this card is in your stock pile, you may reveal it when you choose to scavenge. If you do so, then return this card to your stock pile, and draw two cards together for your one action. This card may not be used more than once per turn.

???? – Discard this card to take two additional actions this turn.

???? - return any number of cards (of your choice) from the discard pile, back into the supply deck. The game still ends after the third bomb is drawn, regardless of whether any were returned to the supply. After returning the chosen cards, add this card to the discard pile.

???? - discard this card to reroll any number of the dice used in your sprint