Advice for "simple" racing mechanics in an rp

[Ersa93]

So I’ve been craving a racing rp for a few years now, with a focus mostly on the racers themselves and not so much the races, though I still want those to have an impact. I thought that using dice would be a good and fair way to determine what happens during a race, but I wanted to do a bit more than “roll the dice to see if you win or what place you get”.

My main goal is a system that’s not too crunchy, but still gives the feeling of vehicle stats mattering and adds a bit of chance. The players can add more descriptive flavor text based on what happens in the roll. Since I’m fairly inexperienced in this field, I would appreciate advice on simplifying, balancing, or tweaking to make this better.

Racing System (using a d10):

Dice Value meaning:
1-3: Complete Failure
4-6: A little success
7-9: Mostly success
10+: Full success

Stats and their meaning:

Think of level values themselves as stat bonuses to add onto a roll.

Turbo Acceleration Level (TAL): How fast the vehicle can go when the acceleration is hit; the higher the level, the quicker you can go in the less amount of time; stat doubles in the last lap

Turbo Acceleration Level
+1-Takes a while to affect vehicle speed
+2-Takes some time
+3-kicks in almost right away

Durability Level (DL): How many hits the vehicle can tank; the higher the stat, the more hits you can take.

DL Level 1: 30 HP
DL Level 2: 40 HP
DL Level 3: 50 HP

Durability Level (must be opposite of TAL unless TAL is a 2)
+1- made of tinfoil
+2- can take a few hits
+3- practically a tank

Handling Level (HL): Reaction time of the vehicle to what a driver does; the higher the level, the better you can take sharp turns and avoid obstacles.

Handling Level
+1-not good at sudden turns
+2- handles turns okay
+3- turns on a dime

Three possible actions a player can do:
-Accelerate (d10+ TAL)

1-3: Speed doesn’t increase enough to make a difference
4-6: Speed up to almost catch up to next higher-ranking vehicle
7-9: Speed up to be neck-and-neck with higher-ranking vehicle
10+: Overtake next higher-ranking vehicle, take an additional action

Attack (d10 + DL)

Damage dice: d10

1-3: Miss
4-6: nudge opponent; opponent rolls Handling with advantage to see if any damage is taken
7-9: hit opponent, sending them into a slight serve, opponent rolls Handling to see amount of damage is taken
10+: smash into opponent, sending them careening out of control; opponent rolls Handling with disadvantage if they remain in control, take an additional action

-Maneuver (avoiding obstacles, avoiding another vehicle, etc.) (d10 + HL)

1-3: Maneuver fails, take damage from hitting obstacle/barrier/vehicle
4-6: Maneuver succeeds, but not without a hitch, take half damage
7-9: Maneuver succeeds, take no damage
10+ Maneuver succeeds, take an additional action

If this works fine, I might play around with giving players the opportunity to upgrade vehicle stats to increase their bonuses more via temporary equipment. Like I said, I don’t want this to get overly crunchy.

Thanks a bunch for your help. Even if this rp never happens, I can put this in my back pocket and use it for future endeavors. Feel free to ask any questions if something’s unclear.

[Yankee]

@Ersa93 Ohoooo... I have been (very) slowly and steadily working on something similar to this, so I will give my two cents.

A very simple system I've found and liked (and mentioned in post linked) is called "Gravity Rip." It works with only two real stats (weight and acceleration), and very simple dice rolling. Here is a PDF for the system assuming I figured out how to use google drive correctly. Its pretty straightforward, I like it.

I know there are a couple of other TTRPG systems designed around or modified to include racing (or chase sequences which could be adapted). Another that comes to mind is called "Final Lap," and though it uses a deck of cards that could be shifted over to dice fairly easily I think.

There is also the very simple "dice pool" type of system you could use, which is sort of similar to what it looks like you might be thinking? It's a d6 type thing where you roll as many die as you have points in a stat. 1-2 is fail, 4-5 is success, if you have more successes than failures you succeed in your action. So someone with, say, 7 points in Acceleration rolls 7d6, and as long as they have 4 successes they're good to go.

The system you laid out is pretty simple and easy to understand though! Can't get easier than a single die and a mod. I think it would be fun to play. Considering players rolling against each other, it looks like aggressive actions/attackers are favored slightly, which can work in an RPs favor if you don't want passive racers. My thoughts right now are how would ties be handled? Like let's say Player 1 rolls 10+ accelerate but Player 2 rolls 10+ attack versus them. Do all actions happen concurrently or would you prefer an order/stack to follow? Also just on a separate note from playing a lot of TTRPGs lately, disadvantage is pretty, uh, well disadvantageous lol. Maybe too hard of a penalty, when the defending player doesn't have a chance to stop or avoid the attack, only recover from it.

Personally, since just looking at numbers and figuring things out isn't my strong suite, I would do some test play with your d10 system and see if it feels good. And then make changes based on that. If it turns out that potential players aren't succeeding enough it might not be fun (though to me, writing frustration and near wrecks would be just as fun as succeeding haha). I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on how to determine the vehicle's stat levels. Point buy, rolling, etc.?

[Ersa93]

@Yankee Ooh, I should've known there was a system for racing out there somewhere. They look interesting, but probably a bit more than the mini-game feel I'm going for. But thanks for suggesting them to me.

Considering players rolling against each other, it looks like aggressive actions/attackers are favored slightly, which can work in an RPs favor if you don't want passive racers

Yeah, I was afraid it favored attackers too much. I wasn't aiming for any particular type of racer since I kind of want players to use the driving style they think their characters want to use. I might have to brainstorm that particular section a bit more, maybe change the 7-9 range to dealing guaranteed half-damage and make the 10+ range guaranteed full damage. I'm dropping the disadvantage for sure. I might also try to incorporate some sort of defense stat based upon the Durability Level.

Personally, since just looking at numbers and figuring things out isn't my strong suite, I would do some test play with your d10 system and see if it feels good. And then make changes based on that.

I was actually planning on hold an "exhibition" match for that very purpose. And then if I have to make tweaks, I can always say that the racing committee decided on new rules or guidelines.

I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on how to determine the vehicle's stat levels. Point buy, rolling, etc.?

Since I'm trying to encourage people to make a vehicle that matches their character's driving style, I'm not sure. Maybe it'll be assigned stats, like you can have a plus one in one stat, a plus two in another, and then a plus three in one of them. I'm mostly trying to prevent people from making an OP machine and just pancaking the competition while traveling at top speed and dodging everyone.

Do all actions happen concurrently or would you prefer an order/stack to follow?

I think before each race begins, everyone roles for pole position and then the action order goes from lowest roller to highest. I might add the option to react to direct things like attacks. But it also might depend on how complex the players want to make it. Might be something to work out during playtesting.

[BrokenPromise]

Depends how much you want the writing to matter. If you just want to have some choices dictated by dice, a simple d6 system like what "Age of Sigmar: Soulbound" or "Shadow Run" use will work fine. This is more or less the dice pool type of systems Yankee already covered. As the GM, you can look at every development during a race and determine how difficult it should be to overcome. Maybe make yourself some charts to determine how difficult some common tasks are. Then make a more general one to give everyone an idea what to expect. Maybe an easy task takes just one success, while mid ones take three, hard is five, and nigh impossible is seven or higher. These numbers are going to depend on a lot of other factors to work right. AOS:S generally considers a roll of four or higher to be a success while SR requires a five. SR also has you rolling more dice most of the time. There are some other cool gimmicks you can use too. Like in SR, if half of your dice turn up ones, you "glitch" which is a sort of mixed success where there's a complication. Maybe you successfully shove a car off the road, but you get your fender stuck in their doorjam and it gets ripped off. Because glitches are tied to the number of dice, you're less likely to glitch if you have a huge dice pool.

If you want something more complicated, systems exist. Just be aware that as you add more rules, the role play will start to become more of a game. Players will become more competitive and will likely be motivated to perform well over making interesting developments. Maybe a game is what you're looking for, in which case I would go for more complex rules.

[Ersa93]

I might try the dice pool first and see if that works. I mostly just need a way to help decide what happens during a race because to me, that's hard to do fairly with just pure narration when there's multiple people involved.

[Ersa93]

So I reworked the system a bit using a dice pool. Tell me what you think.

Racing Machines go VROOM Ver 2.0 (dice pool):

Basic gameplay:

Roll a pool of d6s.1-3 is a failure, 4-6 is a success. All 1s resort in a malfunction of whatever stat was rolled for one turn. All 6s result in a bonus action.

Vehicle Stats and their meanings:

The vehicle level values are how many d6s you get to roll.

Turbo Acceleration Level (TAL): How fast the vehicle can go when the acceleration is hit; the higher the level, the quicker you can go in the less amount of time

Turbo Acceleration Level
1-Takes a while to affect vehicle speed
2-Takes some time
3-kicks in almost right away

Durability Level (DL): How many hits the vehicle can tank; the higher the stat, the more hits you can take.

DL Level 1: 32 HP (Can take 2 max hits from a DL 3 vehicle)
DL Level 2: 54 HP (Can take 3 max hits from a DL 3 vehicle)
DL Level 3: 64 HP (Can take 4 max hits from a DL 3 vehicle)

Durability Level (must be opposite of TAL unless TAL is a 2)
1- made of tinfoil
2- can take a few hits
3- practically a tank

Handling Level (HL): Reaction time of the vehicle to what a driver does; the higher the level, the better you can take sharp turns and avoid obstacles.

Handling Level
1-not good at sudden turns
2- handles turns okay
3- turns on a dime

Three possible actions a player can do:
Accelerate: Number of dice rolled= TAL Stat
Failure: Don’t gain speed
Succeed: Zoom time; opponent gets a reaction chance

Attack: Number of dice rolled= DL Stat
Failure: Miss
Succeed: roll damage dice; opponent gets a reaction chance

Damage dice: Number of dice equal to DL

Taking damage: Subtract damage dice value from opponent’s vehicle HP

Maneuver (avoiding obstacles, avoiding another vehicle, etc.): Number of dice rolled= HL Stat
Failure: maneuver is unsuccessful
Succeed: maneuver is successful

Reaction chance: Players can roll 1d6, failure means no reaction can happen; success means you can try to mitigate some of what your opponent did.

Reactions:
If your opponent chooses Attack:
Tank It!: Roll 1d6: On a success, decrease damage done after hit by opponent by subtracting DL; failure take an additional 1d6 of damage.
Retaliate: Roll 1d6; on a success, damage the attacker by 1d6; on a failure, cause 3pts of damage to yourself.

If your opponent chose to accelerate or maneuver:
Bump: Roll 1d6 to see if you bump them. If failed, you take 3pts of damage. If successful, they take 3pts and have to roll handling to see if they can pull ahead or remain neck and neck
Block: Roll 1d6; a success means you prevent them from passing you; a failure means they clip you and go on ahead. Take 1d6 of damage.

[Yankee]

Seems really straight forward to me! So example of play with the new system would be like...

Player 1 has TAL level +3, so they roll 3 extra d6 to accelerate past the pack. 4d6 resulting in rolls of 2, 4, 4, and 5. They have three successes versus one failure, and no bonuses or malfunctions, so they succeed in their action. Player 1 writes their post out in more detail and ends with them accelerating past Player 2.

Player 2 rolls their 1d6 reaction to maneuver in front of Player 1 and stop their advance. They roll a 2, so they fail and take chip damage. They write their own post on their attempt and failure, their character's frustrations, etc.

Repeat for each player, then move on to next round/lap.

Do I more or less have it?

If you're happy with it, I think this is a very easy to understand dice system. To help you establish it a little more, I have some quick questions for you.

1. If a player is rolling an even number of dice and gets the same number of successes as failures, how would you handle that? Would it count as an overall success?
2. For damage, especially reaction damage, is the d6 rolled again or would it use the same roll as the reaction? Like in the example above, would Player 2 take 2 damage or would they roll again to see how much damage they took?
3. How do malfunctions and bonuses interact with each other? Let's say if Player 1 rolled 1, 4, 4, 6. My assumption is that they would succeed, go farther than normally possible because of the 6 (like maybe move up 2-3 places instead of just 1), but their vehicle sustains some damage from being pushed too hard because of the roll of 1?

Over all though, I think this will work well for a simple system that players flesh out the results of with their writing.

[Ersa93]

Yes, the turn would go something like that. Though you would need to roll 1d6 to see if you can react. If you fail, you can't do anything. If you pass but fail on the actual reaction, that might be when you take chip damage. Or you can forego reacting entirely.

1. If a player is rolling an even number of dice and gets the same number of successes as failures, how would you handle that? Would it count as an overall success?

I made a typo and put + number of dice when I meant that it's just that number of dice. So someone with a TAL of three would roll 3d6. As for same number of success and fails on say two dice (say a 1 and a 5), take the success.

2. For damage, especially reaction damage, is the d6 rolled again or would it use the same roll as the reaction? Like in the example above, would Player 2 take 2 damage or would they roll again to see how much damage they took?

They would roll again to see how much damage they took. (ex: Player 2 succeeds on the ability to react roll, but fails on the actually reaction part and gets damaged so they roll 1d6)

3. How do malfunctions and bonuses interact with each other? Let's say if Player 1 rolled 1, 4, 4, 6. My assumption is that they would succeed, go farther than normally possible because of the 6 (like maybe move up 2-3 places instead of just 1), but their vehicle sustains some damage from being pushed too hard because of the roll of 1?

So in the example you gave, the six means they succeed and get to take a bonus action (either accelerate again, attack, or handling). But on their next turn, they'll only get to roll 2d6 for their turn (it could be flavored as the turbo overheated and doesn't work as well for a bit)

[Pilatus]

I have thought about this for a long time and could never really think of a way to make it work. It either becomes a tedious game of dice and stats or it goes nowhere. There's just no way to effectively make racing the centerpiece of an interactive story- at least not one that I found appealing as someone who follows a lot of racing.

Judging by the replies and the system you have in mind, it seems like you are looking for something maybe closer to car combat which may work with what you have put together. Depending on what you want in your story, racing has a lot of variables: the weather, track temp, driver ability/fatigue, tire performance, car type. The list goes on and on and that is what always kept me from really considering it. Once you start putting stats on one thing, it just leads to another.

The best advice I could give is that you'd have to be fairly discerning in your recruiting and then see how much dice the players are interested in before you invest more time. Depending on the interest you get, go from there. Some people are going to want to write more and some are going to want to roll more. The only thing that ever really felt "fair" to me was to roll for the true variables in any race: the weather, caution flags and mechanical failures. There are others, but those apply no matter the discipline. To determine a "winner" and assuming most drivers/cars are somewhat evenly balanced you could let the players just roll maybe three times (race start, halfway point and finish) for who has position and then let the writing take it up from there.

It's a rabbit hole for sure, so good luck to you.

-P