What the heck is going on with Car Wars?

[Mahdimael]

I'm in agreement with almost everything here. My problems, as a new player, were:
-overwhelmed by the amount of rules, especially with regard to vehicle construction (plastic/metal armor, ammo types, etc).
-general unavailability of products. Some things, like the compendium, are easy. Others, like the Uncle Al books, or Tanks, were nearly impossible to find. Less of a factor now that the Internet is around, but still problematic.

If I had to design the game, I would have three products at launch

1. New compendium. Contains rules for cars, rigs/buses, cycles and trikes. Cut out page like 5th edition with counters in the back. Easy to use reference tables in the back as well (nothing worse than having to thumb through the book for a common rule with new players).

2. New "Uncle Al's Vehicle Accessories". Contains the rest of the Car Wars stuff- i.e. the ammo types, the different armors and rules for them. This should be considered an optional supplement, and any future products should be designed with this in mind. So if you create a book of scenarios, you create them using only rules from the compendium, and then have a section that details optional rules for the scenarios. By publishing this, older players can still use the items they have for years, and newer players don't have to jump into the advanced stuff until they're ready.

3. "Big box" set. This would include both of the books listed above, as well as more counters, road/track pieces, dice, and maybe some quality laminated record sheets. Price should be slightly lower than the price of 1 & 2 together. This set would be the definitive set for players- everything needed in one box to play.

Finally, the other book I would suggest would be a single worldbook that describes the world in detail. This would give players that want to run campaigns the ability to do so without having to worry about whether or not they're straight on the setting.

Originally Posted by Jolly Crims

I have to agree that I too felt the old rules were just fine. I'll tell you what the next version of Car Wars should be:
Rules from the old compedium on only cars, trucks, cycles and trikes. Eliminate 50% of the weapons and 75% of the accesories.
Bring it up to Hot Wheels scale (which was the really cool bit about the new rules)
Include a lot of background info for roleplaying.
Have slick art.

the only real problem with the old rules is that there started to be way to much of it. All it needed was paring down so you didn't freak out new-comers and didn't turn off the regulars with all the new freaky car setups.