Car Wars as a Convention Game and Newbies

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by MattV

I'm torn as of to run Car Wars as a convention game or how to show new people to Car Wars.

The scenario where a person signs up for a Car Wars game and has never played before and ends up either rolling in the first 10 minutes or doing some long looping turn that keeps them out of the action for most of the game makes me wince.

I've run a few games at cons and there is always at least one person that just isn't in the action.

Anyone know how to avoid this??

Other than keeping the number of vehicles high and the relative size of the arena on the small end... there's not much else.

The donut shape of Armadillo forces people to make a quick decision (left or right?) and can keep people from ganging up, say, on the fat nerdy kid that looks like easy pickings. (That last is the best argument against having a totally wide open start position where everyone can shoot at every one else.) On the other hand... donut means that you are much more likely to have an odd man out.

To prevent the quick newbie wipe out... run cars with Accel. 5 and starting speeds of 30 mph. Gripping hand is... fast speeds mean less time for any potential odd man to spend in isolation! (Also... better chance of a player altering any bad position they might have started with... but not without the risk of a wipe out....)

So... my net net suggestions are:

• Single map sheet sized arena like Double Drum or Rubberway...
• 8+ vehicles on the map...
• Acceleration 10 all around!