BOYL 2021 - Death Race '96

[Nine Ball]

Greetings all.

Assuming that Bring Out Your Lead 2021 goes ahead (and we tackle a couple of logistical issues of our own) it will feature a Dark Future game by the name of Death Race '96. This will be a circuit race (of sorts) using a bespoke 8'x4' board and feature plenty of Dark Futury nonsense. As it stands, a table has been booked all day on the Saturday and the game can (currently) accomodate up to six players at a time. Exact rules (etc.), including how long a single game will take are still being finalised but that sort of thing is of little importance at this point. It is envisaged that multiple games will be run over the course of the day as long as there are people who want to play.

The point of this message is simply to let people know that anyone who is interested in having a stab will require 'teams' of three suitably modelled vehicles. Again, do not worry about the specifics of armament and the like at this stage - looking the part is what matters. Vehicles should not exceed 40mm (45mm at the absolute extreme) in width and something like 35-40mm in height. If they do, it might not be the end of the world and each team can probably accomodate one vehicle that exceeds these dimensions safely.

If anyone has any questions then just ask.

Moderators, feel free to punt this into a BOYL 2021 sub-forum if and when such a thing comes into being.

 

[Nine Ball]

A couple of teaser pictures:





Still work to be done but we are well on track (pun mostly intended).

For anyone who is interested, the rules being used are a slightly modified version of the Dark Future Tournament rules. Modified to add a little more character but still avoiding the complexity of the full rules. There are also a few 'added extras' which we have included to spice things up a bit but these will remain under wraps for now.

Current planning is for each race to feature six(ish) players but if we want to get truly nuts, up to twelve can be accomodated at one time.

Having played Dark Future before may not be of any help and having not played it at all will be no hinderance. Simplicity, fun, and a healthy dash of chaos are the main aims of these rules.

 

[Nine Ball]

A little glimpse at the sort of finely balanced and entirely sensible event cards that will be used for this game.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Do you get bonus points for interacting with him in some interesting (possibly violent) way?

 

[Nine Ball]

I could not possibly comment on this being a distinct possibility.

 

[twisted moon]

looks good. if i make it along, i'd certainly be interested in participating. tobcon's been cancelled again this year, so i might be able to make it.

 

[Nine Ball]

There was some empty advertising space around the circuit but luckily we have managed to secure some top-class sponsors for the event.

 

[Nine Ball]

Behold, the monstrosity:



Still work to be done but that should give you a pretty good idea of things.

We had intended to try and invite Richard Halliwell to come and take part in this mad celebration of his work but, unfortunately, we have just learnt he has passed away. As a result, we are going to investigate adding a little something extra as a tribute of sorts.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Hey, Bolt Thrower'll be playing my town! How cool is that!

Do I have to wait until after the apocalypse? Given the year(s) we just had I think we may be about there.

 

[Nine Ball]

You forget that when Dark Future was made it was set in the dark future of then distant mid 1990s so that tour has already future-happened.

 

[twisted moon]

that board is a marvel.

 

[Nine Ball]

Thank you. It is a touch rough and ready up close but hopefully it will prove sufficient to play a 30 year old game of cars on! Speaking of which,let us have some insights into the rules.

As a note, all of the considerations we have put into the modified rules for this race were driven by two considerations: i) The game needs to be fun and ii) it wants to be quick and simple - no bogging down looking up rules.

Regarding vehicles:

We intend to have a load of vehicles with us that people can make use of but should people want to bring their own then there are some considerations:

The dimension restrictions in the opening post of this thread. These are not necessarily game-breaking restrictions should people have converted vehicles that exceed them but certain aspects of the race might become a bit more 'interesting'.

Do not worry about making vehicles around concepts such as small & fast or fat & tough with gameplay in mind. The vehicles will be using a common profile* for most of the characteristics so aesthetics should dominate any design considerations.

The main design feature that will matter is weaponry. How many guns there are on a vehicle will have an effect on gameplay.

*The reason for this common profile is that using different profiles tended to put too much emphasis on a decision that players might make totally blind before the game even began and which could potentially handicap them unfairly. We wanted the games to be decided as a result of i) player choices informed by the state of the game in progress and ii) people doing bonkers things because it sounded like a good idea at the time. To make up for the lack of variety in vehicle profiles we have cooked up a sort of winds of magic type of system which will give players some variable bonus effects at certain points throughout the game. An example is included below.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Dang it! I did not realize that. Ah well. I guess I missed my chance with the last apocalypse.

 

[Nine Ball]

Heh.

You will have to see about blasting ...For Victory over the P.A. as you play then. Get that authentic mid-90s feel.

 

[EricF]

Wow how did I miss this when you posted it. What a board! The spiral down through the cliff is great. In fact the whole thing is wonderful, you've got the vibe spot on.

 

[Nine Ball]

Thank you.

Hopefully the board will be enough to provide the setting, the events and rules we have bodged together will provide some atmosphere, and the players will provide the action.

A further point on weapons:

Aside from the variety in killing power they provide, the main impact of weapons on vehicles will be to reduce the damage/HP of the vehicle they are mounted on. I.e. mounting bigger or more guns on a vehicle will reduce its damage/HP by a greater amount.

It is intended that just before a race, players will work out what the weapons modelled on their vehicle count as from a list we have cooked up (a modified version of the list from the Tournament Rules) and how many they want to have active for the race. The list is designed to be fairly accomodating of designs and with the option to not have to use everything which has been modelled, players should not find themselves pidgeon-holed or forced to field a vehicle in an adverse configuration.

Obviously, a healthy amount of making things up on the fly will accomodate any particularly weird, wonderful, or outlandish additions people may have on their vehicles.

 

[Nine Ball]

In the dark future of the mid-'90s there are only tyres. Lots of tyres.



Some dimwit suggested that there should be some tyre walls on certain sections of the track. This sounded great during the planning stages. The laborious task of casting a truckload of tyres has been somewhat less great...

Drifting, skidding, or getting shoved into a tyre wall is a lot less harmful than hitting most of the other obstacles around track but they will slow vehicles down.

 

[symphonicpoet]

Oh, the puns that are suggested by this amplitude of vulcanized goodness!

Also: Do you plan to model the mutant space mosquitos that will grow in this environment? You could have random swarms of them attacking passersby for certain amounts of damage.

 

[EricF]

Oh, the puns that are suggested by this amplitude of vulcanized goodness!

Also: Do you plan to model the mutant space mosquitos that will grow in this environment? You could have random swarms of them attacking passersby for certain amounts of damage.

Wonderful wasp goodness: The Waspquito from Heresy.

Those tyre stacks , wow. I just keep wondering about actually painting them all! Dark blue-grey with a heavy wash perhaps, or maybe a black ink? I did my Squat trike tyres grey with GW contrast black over them, but the amount you have requires proper bulk painting. Black with a drybrush I guess is the other obvious option. Anyhow can't wait to see a photo of the board with accessories and a few vehicles.

Makes me nostalgic for the 3D space hulk boards I made for a GW Games Day many years ago when they (not sure if they still do) had club run games and we made a habit of doing "old" games. I cast loads of plaster tiles and wall supports for that and I remember the huge piles of white stacked up waiting to be painted. Mostly painted the night before driving to the event!

 

[Nine Ball]

No mutant space mosquitoes from the 4th dimension unfortunately. Well, not yet at least... There is a bag of 1/64 scale ducks sat around here from an idea which never came to pass though.

There are plenty of other weird events lined up - just do not want to leak too many ahead of time. Got to keep people on their toes on the day after all.

Thank you for the painting ideas for the tyres. Some of them are going to end up being a bit more, how shall we say, 'lively' because they are going in an area of the track which is already quite dark and would just blend in if they were black.

Something that someone else asked: why tweak the rules for this game?

The full Dark Future rules are quite involved. This is great if all the players know what they are doing (psychosis! kudos!) but is less helpful for a quick pick-up-and-play event like BOYL. Hence our taking the Dark Future tournament rules as a basis and then tweaking things with the aim of introducing/retaining as much chaos as possible whilst reducing the burden on players and the amount of time spent doing things other than racing. It is hoped that the reference sheets we have made, coupled with a quick brief at the start, will make it nice and easy for people to understand how things work.