Suppose you are doing a Car Wars campaign with the Cepheus Light set of rules. Another great book to accompany your game is the excellent post-apocalyptic Cepheus Atom rule book, a rules-light version of a science-fantasy Gamma World or Mutant Crawl Classics setting.
Suppose your game leans heavily into post-apocalyptic themes, such as scavenging wastelands, survival, and barter with groups of survivors. In that case, this is a perfect digest-sized book to add to your library. This game also has Gamma World-style mutations, mutant monsters, and exposure to mutation-causing contaminants.
Our game was a mix of magic, superheroes, war themes, sci-fi, and gonzo post-apocalyptic maniac insanity. Different areas of the world were almost like classic post-ruin theme parks; some were super science, some were superheroes, some were like Mad Max, others Gamma World, some Death Race, primitive areas, some like Rambo vs. the Soviets, and some mutated animals. Our game was this wonderful mix of crazy but loosely related 1980s after-the-bomb-style insanity and action-movie tropes.
In our world, Detroit, Fort Wayne, and Toledo were the triangle of destroyed, barbaric, mutant-filled mayhem that was impossible for everyone to traverse, and they just did their own thing. Grand Rapids and Toronto, along with most of Michigan, were also in this destroyed, ruin-filled, toxic blast zone area of savage mutants and ruined cities.
The more Car Was area was Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Pittsburgh. Along with Midvale because we loved that place. Between Midvale and Pittsburgh are oil wells; if I start this game again, those will be a major focus.
The "Car Wars" part of the world was just a few areas left with roads and civilization. There were also destroyed parts, uncivilized areas, mutants-and-mayhem, Mad Max, and 1950s sci-fi enclaves worldwide. There were Land of the Lost-style areas with barbarians and dinosaurs, much like the Savage Land-style superhero theme comics, and there is also another excellent game in the 2d6 sphere called Barbaric 2E.
If areas of the world were sufficiently barbaric and isolated, they may have degenerated into violent tribes. This is more like a "Thundarr the Barbarian" feeling and has a magic power source. Parts of the world can be different, and the people there accept that and see their way of life as the proper reality. If there is a savage area of Michigan where people ride dinosaurs, that is how it is. One of the problems with the OG Car Wars was assuming "everything will be like normal America," which was a significant theme problem with the AADA Road Atlases.
In our world, there were areas where everything was turned on its head, and it wasn't this modernist, 20th-century American throwback. Like the new Planet of the Apes movies, there were parts of the world that were not the same, nor would they ever be.
Also worthy of mention (but not digest-sized) is the entire Sword of Cepheus game, or as a more traditional fantasy game based on the 2d6 system, the Westlands game.
Westlands is highly underrated. I would not use this as a Car Wars resource but more as a parallel fantasy reality to Car Wars. Where Sword of Cepheus is more dark magic and talismans, Westlands is more traditional fantasy. Westlands is an awesome 2d6 fantasy game, complete and more like a full OSR implementation.
Cepheus Deluxe deserves mention as another game to pull from, especially talents. Where Barbaric 2E and Sword of Cepheus are digest-sized games, the others are full-size books and do not have that "small book" feeling I want for Car Wars. If it is a digest-sized game, it is in my Car Wars world. Big-book games are their own worlds.
This also includes the 1950s-based Solar Sagas game for retro-1950s style space adventures, based on the sci-fi digest game Quantum Starfarer. This makes my high-tech enclaves (like NASA, non-oil Houston, Vandenburg, and a few other isolated space enclave futurist cities) a more Fallout-style pre-ruin enclave that shuns the regular Car Wars world and explores near space to try to leave Earth's madness behind. These places existed in our world, and they were highly isolated since they focused on off-Earth activities and did not share much with anyone.
Car Wars was the glue that loosely held the world together. Savage fantasy mutant areas existed in the wilds, and superheroes lived in fortress cities. Oh, and there is also a 2d6 Cepheus digest game for that, and out superheroes were often accused of ignoring the outside world (which they did). Fallout-style enclaves were more interested in living their own way and leaving the planet. it all worked together wonderfully as a gonzo post-apoc game with Mad Max cars, mutants, sci-fi, and superheroes. The evil Soviets kept trying to destroy the world like classic Cold War enemies. The world was factionalized, and people believed in their way of life.
This wasn't the AADA Road Atlas world at all. It was closer to the Umerican setting in a wasteland future with strongly themed factions with their own outlooks, lands, goals, beliefs, and even technologies. Parts of the world were mutant strongholds, while others had savage magic. Parts were isolationist retro-future enclaves, while others seemed like superhero comics. The glue holding our setting together wasn't DCC; it was Car Wars and a 2d6 Traveller-like role-playing game.
There are many fun 2d6 games out there, and they are just as good as many d20 games. They mesh well with both Car Wars and Battletech, and they are a unique alternate reality in the gaming sphere worth checking out.
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