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Last weekend we decided to try out a special X-Wing mission as an experiment: Star Wars Racers! I wanted it to resemble the pod racing, and I also pilfered a lot of ideas from games like Mario Kart and Micro Machines. After some deliberation over the best way to make the race track, I decided just to draw it directly on the table using pastels. That gave us plenty of flexibility with the design, and kept everything nice and 2D for manoeuvring (and it was reasonably easy to wash off after the game). The track is divided at regular intervals by check-points, it also includes some dangerous short-cuts, and I scattered special pick-ups around, which ships can acquire by manoeuvring over them. The pick-ups were mostly Evade Tokens and Shield Upgrades, but I also placed some Ordinance Tokens in hard to reach places, which let you acquire a random Bomb Upgrade. There were also some stress and Ion tokens scattered around as hazards.
The race track before the game
Special Rules -One ship only, but no points limit, -Each racer may take an additional Modification and Elite Upgrade, -The edge of the track represents an obstacle, -If you partially* overrun an obstacle, you do not lose your action, and may move your ship off the obstacle and reset it facing forwards. You must still roll for damage. -If you fully overrun an obstacle then your ship is destroyed. -If your ship is destroyed (for any reason), then you miss a turn, and may redeploy it from the last check-point. All your shields and upgrades are recovered, but not pick-ups. -You may Boost and Barrel Roll onto obstacles, but it counts as an overrun,
*A ship is considered to have partially overrun an obstacle if part of the base or movement template intersects the obstacle. If the whole base, or the full width of the template (at any point) intersects an obstacle, then it is considered fully overrun, and the ship is destroyed.
The Racers
Keyan Farlander B-Wing B-Wing/E2 Engine Upgrade Nien Nunb Advanced Sensors Ion Cannon Daredevil Push the Limit Flechette Torpedoes Proton Torpedoes
The Inquisitor TIE Advanced Prototype TIE/v1 Twin Ion Engine Mk II Stealth Device Push the Limit Lone Wolf Homing Missiles
The Game
Spoiler:
The racers on the starting line
Keyan Farlander moved first, and took an early lead after some awkward manoeuvring by the Inquisitor (it turns out fast manoeuvres are riskier than anticipated). However, being in front isn't such an advantage either when you're getting hammered with laser fire from behind.
Negotiating the hairpin
Into the hairpin bend, Farlander took the turn wide (collecting a shield upgrade), and managed to Daredevil around the corner. The Inquisitor took the turn too tight, and ended up having to Barrel Roll backwards to give himself more space, rolling straight over the Stress hazard.
B-Wing Barrel Rolls onto the Ordinance pick-up
Into the next bend, Farlander misses the shortcut, but manages to Barrel Roll right, and collect the ordnance... He draws Cluster Bombs!
Farlander's ship is destroyed by Quiz
But before Farlander has a chance to use the Bombs, the Inquisitor destroys his ship with Homing Missiles. Fortunately for Farlander, he is just passed a check-point, so doesn't lose too much ground. The Inquisitor overtakes, but ends up having problems when he overruns an Ion hazard.
From there it's neck and neck, with the ships bumping more than once, Farlander blasting Quiz from behind, finally manages to strip his Stealth Device... Turning onto the long straight, Farlander manages to hit Quiz with the Ion cannon, and then seizes the opportunity to overtake, pulling a stright 4 with the help of Nien Nunb, he narrowly passes the drifting Quiz, glancing off the canyon wall and taking damage.
Farlander manoeuvres through the short-cut and grabs the ordinance
Around the next corner, Farlander finds a sneaky shortcut. He then barrel rolls over the Ordnance pick-up (collects a Seismic Charge) and uses Push the Limit to boost into the final bend.
The Inquisitor, having recovered from the Ion Cannon hit, starts to catch up, hammering Farlander with laser fire.
Quiz is ambushed with Seismic Charge
Farlander struggles to negotiate the bend, unable to shed his stress, but manages to drop the Banana Skin Seismic Charge right into the Inquisitors path. Quiz tries to boost away, but isn't quite fast enough and gets caught in the blast, taking him down to one hull point.
So close, and yet so far
Farlander, now on his last two hull points, makes a dash for the finish, but Quiz manages to destroy the B-Wing, millimetres from the finish line. Quiz appears to have the game in the bag, but he isn't quite straight as he approaches the finish-line, and ends up just short. He tries to use his action to Barrel Roll over the line, but ends up colliding with the canyon wall destroying his own ship in the process.
Keyan Farlander, having reset from the last check point, has an open run at the finish line, which he boosts over to victory!
Victory!
Final Thoughts This game was so much fun, I think we're gonna have to play it again some time (perhaps with more players). Piloting is really difficult in such a confined space, and I may have made the course a little too narrow. You should probably allow enough width for ships to be able to Barrel Roll easily. Ironically, fast ships probably aren't the best (at least in our game). We rarely got a chance to use the long straights, and having a good selection of 1 manoeuvres was kind of important for fine control. If I were doing it again, I would probably make the track much wider (generally), but throw in a few narrow areas to challenge player's skill in intermittent places, rather than having the whole track be narrow and challenging.
Being in front means that you get shot an awful lot, so having lots of Evade Token pick-ups that the leader can easily grab is probably a good shout. Pilot skill is also quite important for that reason, and it can be awkward to fly behind high PS pilots, as they're always in your way (probably somewhat thematic).
This message was edited 15 times. Last update was at 2016/07/18 14:50:40
They call me Griff wrote:Smacks, this is an awesome idea! I'm going to try it out with my group for sure with a few modifications. Thank you for sharing
If you do try it out, be sure and post back here. I'd love to hear how it turns out.
