Our Car Wars RPG

Back when we played Car Wars - and this was pre-GURPS, we wanted to play this as a role playing game. We wanted to keep the original Car Wars combat system intact, the damage scale, the 3 DP people, the 2d6 to-hits based on weapon type, the phased turns, and the +0 to +6 skill system.

There was no better fit than the original Traveller.

This worked incredibly well, and we did the UDPs for our characters, kept the DRM and applied those as modifiers to rolls to the Car Wars to-hits, and even used the Traveller skill system (modified using the Car Wars skills). If you had a high END DRM, that added to your character's DP. STR DRM added to personal melee damage. Handgunner skill plus DEX DRM was your to-hit modifier. Ability scores were straight 2d6, place in the attribute of your choosing. Social Standing got converted to Charisma.

It was simple, easy, converted right over to the original rules, and it worked incredibly well. Characters translated perfectly over to tabletop play using the phased turn system and counters. You could play verbally without a map. We added in some of the cool Traveller skills like Communications, Computer, and others.

We used an XP system taken from Autoduel Champions where you got 1-3xp per adventure, it cost 10 xp times the new skill level to raise a skill (10 for level 0), and 10 x the new ability score to raise an ability. This worked perfectly and gave us character advancement.

We used a universal DRM table of:

• 1 = -3
• 2-3 = -2
• 4-5 = -1
• 6-8 = +0
• 9-10 = +1
• 11-12 = +2
• +1 per 2 every points higher

And those were all our changes.

How Did it Work?

This was our first non D&D RPG. Our very first session was my brother's character sitting in a bar (the Mondo Bar in Midville), and our first "encounter" was the sounds of a car combat driving by outside. I was the referee.

He heard that, he didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do, and the cars drove by blazing away and barreled around the corner in a screech of tires and hail of gunfire. His character wasn't even involved, wasn't targeted, and didn't get shot at or hurt. His character stood on the sidewalk as the sounds of battle echoed off in the distance.

My brother looked at me and blinked. "Wow. What do you do when that happens?"

I shrugged. "I guess that happens in Car Wars all the time. Do whatever you want."

Coming from pre-scripted D&D modules, this was our first "sandbox" moment, and our eyes were opened. We never knew who those two cars were or why they were fighting, nor did he seek to find out. He got busy earning money and taking transportation missions on his armored bus, and the world was this cool, dynamic, interesting, sometimes random, and crazy place where real people tried to make a living and find their way through a hellish, post apocalyptic landscape of the Rust Belt in 2050.

No other RPG came close to this experience, even GURPS Autoduel. Having a system that worked with the game's original tabletop wargame rules was a perfect fit, and this campaign lasted for many, many years with those rules.

That basic Traveller book was the key, and I can't think of two better games that worked so well together - yet were so different. And that original Traveller set of rules is so flexible and fun it can practically do any genre.