GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay

LokRobster · 03-23-2017, 10:14 PM

Ok, I was on the road for 2 months and somehow missed this completely.

Jan 14, 2017 GURPS Autoduel 1st Edition PDF announced

What's good:
1. Great background on the Classic Age of Car Wars and Autoduel America.
2. RP elements and campaign ideas: Lone Wolf, Clubhouse Blues, etc... they're all here. If you've read any of the 7 Road Atlas & Survival Guides, you'll find references to the campaign styles described in this book. The 2nd Edition GURPS Autoduel dropped those particular details.
3. Interesting base look at converting CW to GURPS... see Notes.

What hasn't aged well:
1. GURPS 1st Edition weapons did not scale vehicular weapons to 'modern' 4e GURPS at all... off by a factor of 10 for some high RoF guns; I'd ignore weapon stats.
2. Armor, PD and DR, to convert to 4e you'd increase DR to make up for PD being gone (unused stat); and multiply by 10ish or more to get armor that can stand up to today's high tech weapon stats.
3. Ok ok just scrap the vehicle stats altogether.

Notes: I believe a game-able alternative is to run Car Wars stats in the Cars, and GURPS stats in buildings, social situations, survival in the wastelands, plot stuff, etc. In the Car, your dude becomes a vehicle component and "Vehicle Operation (Car/TL8) - 13" becomes "Driver+1" in Car Wars; use the conversion rules (sidebar, pg69) to get your Car Wars stats.

The book spends a lot of pages moving CW to GURPS movement rules, recreating Crash Tables, damage allocation, that sort of thing. A TON of work went into this conversion and while I find it interesting, I doubt I will ever play the vehicular combat that way. However, the role play aspects and details make the book totally worthwhile for me. I actually prefer it to GURPS Autoduel 2nd Ed, if you've read through that one.

Anyone looking to add more RP to their Car Wars will enjoy this retro offering. Thanks again SJGames for posting it up! I still find it fun to read and browse through periodically; I was reading it (an ancient copy I got off eBay in 2007) during a break at work the day before I ran across the post announcing the release.

LokRobster · 03-23-2017, 10:24 PM

Apparently I missed it twice that week and never noticed (until now)...
Marsh posted it in Digital Releases too!

Blue Ghost · 03-25-2017, 01:50 PM

I hope I don't sound like I'm criticizing either CW or GURPS, but how come there isn't a CW RP module that uses the CW engine?

ColBosch · 03-25-2017, 02:19 PM

There is! Look in the Car Wars Compendium. It's super-basic, but is there.

Blue Ghost · 03-25-2017, 04:02 PM

I'll have a look. Thanks.

owenmp · 03-26-2017, 01:02 PM

LokRobster,

Wow. Thank you for the heads-up.

The article, "GURPS Designer's Notes," published in ADQ 4/4, is a helpful companion to GURPS Autoduel, First Edition.

Warehouse 23 - Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 4
http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...mber-4-slash-4

Blue Ghost,

The Car Wars supplement, L'Outrance, has a short section discussing ideas for Car Wars campaigns using Car Wars character generation rules. The Corporate Car Wars rules in L'Outrance were originally presented in ADQ 4/4.

Tony Kontes has several sets of rules for Car Wars roleplaying on his blog. Although they are not published by SJ Games, the rules are very useful.

Boneheadz Command Center
http://boneheadzcommand.blogspot.com

Blue Ghost · 03-27-2017, 12:26 AM

Cool, thanks again.

josephrey · 04-05-2017, 12:50 PM

I was just gonna download the book, but noticed there are two editions. The first edition as referenced above:

http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...-first-edition

And a second edition:

http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...assic-autoduel

I've never delved into the RPG Gurps aspect of the Car Wars world, so am not familiar with either book, but it sure sounds like I should only buy the second book, as it contains everything in the first plus some extra?

(Though, the strange difference in file size has me wondering what's up as well. The first is a 101-page PDF at 73MB, and the second is 130-page PDF at 10MB.)

Thanks in advance!

Buzzardo · 04-05-2017, 01:40 PM

Differences in image compression can lead to wildly different file sizes with no visible difference in the book. I bet you want the second edition.

josephrey · 04-05-2017, 03:02 PM

(Downloaded the second edition, all looks fabulous!)

03-23-2017, 10:14 PM	#1
LokRobster Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Republic of Texas; FOS	GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay Ok, I was on the road for 2 months and somehow missed this completely. Jan 14, 2017 GURPS Autoduel 1st Edition PDF announced What's good: 1. Great background on the Classic Age of Car Wars and Autoduel America. 2. RP elements and campaign ideas: Lone Wolf, Clubhouse Blues, etc... they're all here. If you've read any of the 7 Road Atlas & Survival Guides, you'll find references to the campaign styles described in this book. The 2nd Edition GURPS Autoduel dropped those particular details. 3. Interesting base look at converting CW to GURPS... see Notes. What hasn't aged well: 1. GURPS 1st Edition weapons did not scale vehicular weapons to 'modern' 4e GURPS at all... off by a factor of 10 for some high RoF guns; I'd ignore weapon stats. 2. Armor, PD and DR, to convert to 4e you'd increase DR to make up for PD being gone (unused stat); and multiply by 10ish or more to get armor that can stand up to today's high tech weapon stats. 3. Ok ok just scrap the vehicle stats altogether. Notes: I believe a game-able alternative is to run Car Wars stats in the Cars, and GURPS stats in buildings, social situations, survival in the wastelands, plot stuff, etc. In the Car, your dude becomes a vehicle component and "Vehicle Operation (Car/TL8) - 13" becomes "Driver+1" in Car Wars; use the conversion rules (sidebar, pg69) to get your Car Wars stats. The book spends a lot of pages moving CW to GURPS movement rules, recreating Crash Tables, damage allocation, that sort of thing. A TON of work went into this conversion and while I find it interesting, I doubt I will ever play the vehicular combat that way. However, the role play aspects and details make the book totally worthwhile for me. I actually prefer it to GURPS Autoduel 2nd Ed, if you've read through that one. Anyone looking to add more RP to their Car Wars will enjoy this retro offering. Thanks again SJGames for posting it up! I still find it fun to read and browse through periodically; I was reading it (an ancient copy I got off eBay in 2007) during a break at work the day before I ran across the post announcing the release. __________________ Our decades-old & rarely updated CarWars blog & Hotwheel conversion tutorial: North Texas Autoduel Association Last edited by LokRobster; 03-23-2017 at 10:17 PM. Reason: the inevitable typo

03-23-2017, 10:24 PM	#2
LokRobster Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Republic of Texas; FOS	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay Apparently I missed it twice that week and never noticed (until now)... Marsh posted it in Digital Releases too! __________________ Our decades-old & rarely updated CarWars blog & Hotwheel conversion tutorial: North Texas Autoduel Association

03-25-2017, 01:50 PM	#3
Blue Ghost Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Spinward Marches	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay I hope I don't sound like I'm criticizing either CW or GURPS, but how come there isn't a CW RP module that uses the CW engine?

03-25-2017, 02:19 PM	#4
ColBosch Join Date: May 2007	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay There is! Look in the Car Wars Compendium. It's super-basic, but is there.

03-25-2017, 04:02 PM	#5
Blue Ghost Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Spinward Marches	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay I'll have a look. Thanks.

03-26-2017, 01:02 PM	#6
owenmp Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Bellevue, WA, USA	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay LokRobster, Wow. Thank you for the heads-up. The article, "GURPS Designer's Notes," published in ADQ 4/4, is a helpful companion to GURPS Autoduel, First Edition. Warehouse 23 - Autoduel Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 4 http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...mber-4-slash-4 Blue Ghost, The Car Wars supplement, L'Outrance, has a short section discussing ideas for Car Wars campaigns using Car Wars character generation rules. The Corporate Car Wars rules in L'Outrance were originally presented in ADQ 4/4. Tony Kontes has several sets of rules for Car Wars roleplaying on his blog. Although they are not published by SJ Games, the rules are very useful. Boneheadz Command Center http://boneheadzcommand.blogspot.com __________________ Michael P. Owen Seattle Washington Autoduel Team https://www.seanet.com/~owenmp/swathome.html Twitter: Car Combat Central https://twitter.com/carcombat

03-27-2017, 12:26 AM	#7
Blue Ghost Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Spinward Marches	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay Cool, thanks again.

04-05-2017, 12:50 PM	#8
josephrey Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: on the road!! check out www.chingchingwong.com to see where we currently are. :)	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay I was just gonna download the book, but noticed there are two editions. The first edition as referenced above: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...-first-edition And a second edition: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/...assic-autoduel I've never delved into the RPG Gurps aspect of the Car Wars world, so am not familiar with either book, but it sure sounds like I should only buy the second book, as it contains everything in the first plus some extra? (Though, the strange difference in file size has me wondering what's up as well. The first is a 101-page PDF at 73MB, and the second is 130-page PDF at 10MB.) Thanks in advance!

04-05-2017, 01:40 PM	#9
Buzzardo Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Austin, TX	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay Differences in image compression can lead to wildly different file sizes with no visible difference in the book. I bet you want the second edition. __________________ Play *Ogre*? Want an interactive record sheet? Want a random dungeon? How about some tables for that? How about a random encounter?

04-05-2017, 03:02 PM	#10
josephrey Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: on the road!! check out www.chingchingwong.com to see where we currently are. :)	Re: GURPS Autoduel 1st Ed; Car Wars Roleplay (Downloaded the second edition, all looks fabulous!)