The Last Of The V8 Interceptors

Last year I picked up this ...

... and in the space of an hour or so, converted it to this.

To the casual eye there's no denying the inspiration, but it still irked me that it wasn't as close to the iconic car from the film as it could be. So the other day I hacked it about a bit more.

I removed the large spoiler on the back, trimmed it down and attached it to the roof above the auxiliary fuel tanks. I then built a smaller spoiler to attach to the rear of the vehicle. Finally I used card to create some more distinctive headlamps.

The result is still not exactly like Max's car, but given that the car has a different appearance in each of the three films in which it appears I'm not too concerned. To me it looks better than it did before, even if the fuel tanks aren't quite right.

With the car remodelled, I thought I would give it an outing. I added in one small change. The games I played over the weekend showed that there was a slight flaw in the way things worked if the pursuing vehicles got in front of the target. In the original Machinas chase rules there are an unlimited number of reinforcements that can appear during the course of the game, triggered by the random events. I allow vehicles which get in front of the target to extend the length of the chase, thus increasing the chance that the reinforcements will appear. However in the setup I am trialling for MOAB, the number of pursuers is fixed, so if they get ahead of the target it has less effect. Vehicles can drop back, it's true, but it's fairly easy for the target to prevent this, thus leading to a situation where they can happily sit behind their pursuers knowing that eventually time will run out. It doesn't make for a very interesting game.

My thought was to allow the lead vehicles to set the pace of the chase, albeit in an abstract way. If the pursuers can get one or more vehicles ahead of their prey then they can slow the chase and eventually halt the target, forcing, in game terms, a win. The target should be given an incentive - a strong incentive - to try and either stay in front, or to pass or destroy vehicles in front of it.

To this end I have added the following::

"The pursued vehicle starts with a Chase Momentum of 1D6+6. At the end of each turn roll a die for the pursued vehicle. If the pursued vehicle is not the lead vehicle, and didn’t attempt a pass or a drop-back during the turn, then subtract the score from the Chase Momentum. Otherwise add the score to the Chase Momentum. If the score drops below 0 then the target has been brought to a halt and is captured."

Now the pursuers have the option of winning the chase by getting in front of their target, and staying there, whilst the target has to balance sitting tight, and building up bonus dice, with making some attempt, from time to time, to pass or engage its pursuers. Letting a fast motorcycle get in front of you is now very bad, unless you have a cunning plan for passing it.

So on with the game. I put Max in his V8 Interceptor, and randomly rolled to see which particular pair of ne'er-do-wells would be chasing him today. It turned out to be the spiky ram-car Rock Lobster and the gun-car Mr Apollo.

The chase began ...

Rock Lobster prepared to move in for a bash, but a wreck on the road caused the driver to swerve and the chance was lost.

Rock Lobster evaded the wreck.

And so did Mr Apollo.

Rock Lobster tried again ...

... but Max held him off, throwing some scrap metal across the road and causing Rock Lobster to fight for control.

Rock Lobster settled in behind the Interceptor in order to build up some momentum for another attack.

Another wreck on the road!

Mr Apollo was force to abort an attack to avoid it.

He swerved off the road for a while ...

... then back on, lining up his grenade-launcher for a shot.

Max saw him coming, and swung the Interceptor across the road, spoiling the shot.

Mr Apollo closed in again ...

... but this time Max floored the accelerator and the Interceptor easily kept a safe distance between himself and his pursuer.

The pursuers tried a new strategy. Mr Apollo would continue to try lining up a shot, whilst Rock Lobster would pull ahead to control the pace of the chase. Once he was ahead, Rock Lobster's spikes would make trying to pass him a risky proposition for Max.

Mr Apollo closed up again ...

... but Max held him off, and more scrap metal spikes almost saw Mr Apollo lose control.

But Rock Lobster was closing up on the other side; its driver pushing the car to its limits.

But it wasn't enough; the Interceptor's powerful engine kept it ahead, and more scrap metal caused Rock Lobster to drop back. Demoralised, both cars broke off the pursuit.

ROAR! Max speeds off into the sunset.

This game just shows how random Machinas can be. Max rolled two wrecks on the road in the random events phase, both of which prevented his pursuers from lining up attacks. However he also rolled the Reinforcements event three times which, in a normal chase would have brought on three extra pursuing vehicles but in this game merely increased the chance the the current vehicles would stay in the chase. As it was, on the last turn they each needed a 5 or better on 2D6 to continue the pursuit. They both rolled a 4.

You'll notice that, after designing and writing up a new rule, I never got to use it. So I guess it will get tested on Saturday.