Babes and Bitumen
I've been thinking about some alternate ideas lately. It's an annoying habit that I have.
When I'm meant to be working on something, I inevitably start thinking about something else.
When I tried to create Bunraku nights for the Cyberpunk Revival Contest, my mind spontaneously generated FUBAR as a side project (which has now reached over 1000 downloads)...and now that I should be refining Walkabout, my mind has taken a wild turn into a completely different genre.
What would roleplaying be like if it developed from slot cars and model race tracks rather than wargaming with toy soldiers? Instead of stories about dungeon exploration, a game might centre around a big race. Buying gear in town might instead become upgrading a vehicle, and haggling with the thieves guild might become negotiation with corporate sponsors.
The intrigue would still be present with different race teams developing animosity toward one another. Relationship maps could be drawn up for the individual members within a team.
Betty the mechanic likes Janet (the team's "media liaison") due to a one night stand a few months back, but he doesn't like Roxy (the team's "ace driver") because she's reckless on the brakes and keeps burning out the clutch.
It doesn't need to be an all female team, I just thought that might boost up the soap-opera angle, and it's makes for a catchy game title.
Is it an option worth pursuing?
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Comments
But none of that goes with your proposal, to derive an RPG from slot cars rather than wargames. Perhaps you could adapt Major Wesely's approach by having characters with goals other than "win the race" but which are racing-related.
My original thoughts were for something like Mordheim or Necromunda. But instead of a skirmish-level battle game (half a dozen to a dozen figures), it's a skirmish-level racing game.
Start with a bunch of rolls setting up your car for the race, with different types of crew members contributing different benfits to those rolls.
Proceed to a turn based racing game, where players literally race model cars around a track. Using a set of movement templates specific to their vehicle and the upgrades they've made. (In a "Death Race" version of the game the cars might even be loaded with weapons).
Finally, determine the fallout from the race, do you gain new sponsors from placing well, do you get back-door advantages from achieving specific non-winning goals during the course of the race (eg. Make sure team X suffers a crash, never let your car drop below half of it's structural integrity, successfully sabotage an opponent's vehicle, infiltrate an opposing team with a spy...etc).
So while your suggestion certainly doesn't match the original proposal, it has crossed my mind a couple of times.