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THE CORPORATE APPROACH TO CAR WARS
BY: MAD AL LOUD
CANADIAN AUTODUEL ASSOCIATION
ORIGINALLY IN: AUTODUEL QUARTERLY, VOL. 4 NO. 4
COPYRIGHT 1986, STEVE JACKSON GAMES
PUT INTO TEXT FORMAT BY: JIM SPRING
Recently the head office of the Black Death Autoduel Association
(our local subgroup of the CADA) has been swamped by requests for
an outline of our corporate duelling system. This is a complete,
year-round tournament system, allowing recurring characters and
the continuity of a campaign, without the headache for the
referee. It is the result of feedback generated over a thousand
hours of play.
Within the corporate system, games are pre-arranged according to
a schedule. You, as president of your corporation, must balance
your budget and (hopefully) show a profit at the end of the year.
Can you manage your team to total victory this year or will you
be another smear on the asphalt?
The corporate concept is structured around a few important ideas.
First, each member of the club has a team of characters. Each
character has different strengths and weaknesses, depending on
how you want to set up the team. These characters must be kept
alive, because you might not be able to afford to hire a new
player until next season, one will stand above all others in
terms of development, prestige and wealth. Who will be the
duelist of the year?
Second, a schedule is drawn up and distributed to every player
with a corporation. This schedule sets the date, time, place,
and format of the duels in advance so that players will arrive
ready to play. This alone has been responsible for cutting the
average length of most duels at BDAA by about two hours.
Attendance is also improved as people plan around the schedule
and make the time to be there.
Third, and most important, each corporation scores for
participation and attendance. Points are awarded for first,
second, and third place in each event, with bonus points for
attendance; someone can see at a glance who runs the top
corporate team. These standings promote additional
competitiveness among the players as they battle it out for the
championship.
SELECTING A NAME
A player may choose any name for his or her corporation, and
these names often reflect the personality of the player. Some
examples from the BDAA include BAAMaco, MAXXON, ROARING RIGS, and
O.P.E.C. (Organization of People Expecting large amounts of
Cash). At the time of this writing, there are 11 registered
corporations in the BDAA.
CREATING CHARACTERS
OK, you have a name -- now you need a team. No problem. Each
corporation can employ up to 18 characters per year. This limit
is established so that the president of the corporation (you)
will feel a certain amount of responsibility to keep your
characters alive and not waste them in suicidal pursuits.
Second, it prevents such refereeing nightmares as having a few
players enter the arena with a platoon of pedestrians with hand
weapons. Third, it allows concentrations of the development of
individual team members as duelling pros.
The characters in your corporation have received the finest
training possible. Each new character starts their career with
100 skill points! This is a significant difference from normal
Car Wars and is one of the most important features of corporate
play. Only the finest duelists survive long enough to make it to
the professional arena as members of a corporate team -- the
additional skill points represent experience already gained
climbing the ladder to stardom.
All the skills mentioned in Deluxe Car Wars are used. The are
Driver, Trucker, Cyclist, Pilot, Gunner, Handgunner, Mechanic,
Running, Paramedic, and Martial Arts. There are only two
restrictions to remember when allocating your 100 points. Each
character must have at least five of these skills at base level,
and no more than 40 points can be spent on any one skill (so the
maximum skill level is +3). Starting prestige is 0, and so is
starting cash. The corporation can pay to provide hand weapons,
body armor, and other personal equipment, as well as basic living
expenses.
CHARACTER SHEETS
Each character should be kept on a neatly laid out sheet which
can be updated. Not only does this provide a handy reference,
but it's also a place to record the history of each character.
In actual use, each player would record the performance of their
character after the game. Any money awarded must be written down
here or it mysteriously disappears. The date of the game and a
small description of the event should also be recorded. Any new
skill points earned are recorded on this sheet, too. At the end
of the duelling season, characters are transferred to new sheets,
ad are ready for the next season.
The example <which I have not included> shows the infamous Mad
Fred Lincoln after several duels. Note the section where each
game date and description are recorded. Each vehicle kill (VK)
is also noted with the game in which it occurred.
Note the skills section. In the Trucker category, Fred has one
skill point, which he earned in the August 10 bus duel when he
tried to drive his team's bus after the driver was killed.
Although he suffered the HC penalty for not having the skill to
begin with, Fred was able to earn one point just for trying it.
Each personal item that Fred owns is recorded in the Belongings
category. It is possible for a character to own more than he/she
can carry, but the sheet must make clear which items are carried
into combat, and which are left behind.
A running total of the character's cash is kept on this sheet as
well. Not the $250 expenditure -- Mad Fred bought his own body
armor after a previous set was badly damaged. Also note that the
first set was scratched off the sheet when it was no longer
usable.
STARTING CAPITAL
Each corporation starts with some working capital. In our
group's case, it's $250,000. This money will be used to build
vehicles, repair damage, purchase hand weapons, and provide Gold
G\Cross Coverage for your key team members. In addition, the
money can be used to buy characters from other teams -- just like
in professional sports today. If you run out of money, you go
bankrupt -- a dirty topic that will be discussed alter.
A central balance sheet should be set up to show all money that
flows through your corporation. It should record the date of the
transaction and the amount. It is vital that this sheet be
accurately maintained.
USING CORPORATE MONEY
Corporate money comes from only one source -- prize money. Prize
money is awarded for a first, second, or third place team finish
in an event. Note that each character who survives an event in a
conscious state will receive survivor money, but this amount is
awarded directly to the characters and is recorded on the
individual record sheet. Any other sort of prize is recorded on
the Corporate Balance Sheet.
Corporate money can only be used for a few specific items. New
vehicles may be purchased, and old ones can be repaired. Body
armor and hand weapons can be bought for team members, and Gold
Cross coverage can be arranged for any or all members of the
team. loans can be made to other corporations, and bets can be
made between groups as well. You can also buy characters from
other teams to replace dead members, but you cannot replace
injured members. You can fire team members, too, but they cannot
be replaced until the end of the season. You cannot buy members
to exceed the 18 character limit, either.
SETTING UP A SCHEDULE
Let's assume that you and several of your friends have now set up
their corporations. Next you need a schedule. One person in the
group (the president, if your club is that structured) should be
in charge of setting the schedule and determining the events.
The events should be of the type that all the players can afford
to play in (no $500,000 events if only on e corporation has that
much money), and should be scheduled so that at least three
corporations can participate. You can name any arena or track,
any combination of vehicles, any number of characters, and any
sort of special rules you want.
USING YOUR TEAM
You should now have your team of characters created, your game
schedule set, and your balance sheet prepared. Time to fight!
You've decoded to enter the duel coming up next week. The
schedule says:
Arena Event
$20,000 -- 2 Cars
Armadillo Arena
First, you should choose the characters you want to use int his
event. Then, you should select two cars whose total cost does not
exceed $20,000. There are two ways to pay for these cars:
Use Corporate Money. In this case, the cost is deducted from the
Balance Sheet, and the cars become the property of the
corporation if the survive the event. The corporation can the do
what it wants -- pay to have it repaired, sell it for salvage, or
just keep it in inventory as is. It cannot be used by any of
your characters for non-corporation purposes.
Use a Character's Money. In this case, an individual character
buys the vehicle out of his or her own personal savings. (It's
not likely that an individual will have the money for this until
late in a season -- remember, the corporation cannot loan money
to a character.) Even though the purchase price may be lower,
use the original price for determining eligibility for the even.
When a character buys a vehicle, the cost is deducted from his
character sheet, the vehicle is added to the personal belongings
list, and the car is his to use outside the arena, if he wishes.
Also, the individual is responsible for ammo and repair costs --
the corporation cannot pay those for him.
CORPORATE EVENTS
Corporate events are those in which three or more corporations
are involved. At the BDAA, we have a schedule which is put
together three months in advance, with a duel about every other
week. The events range from cycle only arena combat right up to
the ever-popular $300,000 Gasso Invitational Rid Duel, usually
held in July. We also try to include some specialty evens like
low-tech combat, slalom events, death matches, off-road chases
and the like.
CORPORATE SCORING SYSTEM
At the end of each duel, points are awarded to each corporation
that participated. First place gets 5 points, second place gets
3 points, third place gets two points, and all other participants
get 1 point. This system encourages attendance, because even
teams that get eliminated early come away with something. At the
end of each duel, complete corporate standings are updated, so
everyone can see where they stand.
CORPORATE PRIZES
Corporate standings and individual prestige are well and good,
but corporate autodueling is a business -- as a corporation
president, you're in this for the money. Your characters already
know that you can't last forever on the highway, and you can't
make a very good living out of driving courier jobs all your
life. The corporate arena is a perilous land of opportunity
reserved for the best of the highwaymen.
The total cash pot for any given event is very easy to calculate.
It's the total number of teams participating times the team
budget. If five teams participate in a $30,000 event (for
example), the total cash prize is $150,000.
Only the top three finishing corporations get any money. The
first place team gets 50 of the pot, second place gets 30%, and
the third place team gets 20%.
In addition, all characters who are not killed or knocked
unconscious get "survivor's money." This is not a great amount,
only $1,500 per character ($3,000 if the total cash pot exceeds
half a million dollars), but it gives characters a chance to
improve their personal equipment without tapping corporate funds.
A character who surrenders or leaves the arena while the duel is
still on also receives the survivor's money.
VICTORY CONDITIONS
Special victory conditions can be set up for any event. But for
standard arena battles, we use a formula that takes into account
not only how many kills a team racks up, but how many of a team's
vehicles and characters survive the battle.
The formula is a weighted one. Vehicle Kills are worth 50
Victory Points (VPs) number of surviving vehicles are worth 30
points, and number of surviving characters are worth 20 points.
Each participating team will get some percentage of the available
points in each category. In the two survival categories, it's
simply a matter of percentages. If you entered an event with two
cars and one survived, you would receive 50%of the available 30
points -- 15. If you entered the event with 5 characters and 3
survived, you would receive 60% of the available 20 points -- 12.
The Vehicles Killed category is a little more complicated. The
team with the top number of kills gets a 100% score, good for the
entire 50 points, and the other teams get a percentage based on
the ratio of their kills to that top number.
Example: Four corporations (A through D) enter an arena event,
with each corporation entering three vehicles and five
characters. At the end of the event, they finished like this:
Corporation A: 2 kills, 2 surviving vehicles, 4
surviving characters.
Corporation B: 3 kills, 1 surviving vehicle, 2 surviving
characters.
Corporation C: 0 kills, 1 surviving vehicle, 3 surviving
characters.
Corporation D: 2 kills, 1 surviving vehicle, 3 surviving
characters
In the Vehicles Killed category, B set the pace with 3 kills, so
they get the full 50 points. A and D both got 2 kills, so they
get 2/3 of the 50, which is 33 (always round to the nearest whole
number). C got 0 kills and 0 points.
In the Surviving Vehicles category, A gets 2/3 of 30 -- 20
points, and the other 3 corporations get 10 points (1/3 of 30).
And in the Surviving Characters category. A leads with 4/5 of 20
points -- 16; C and D receive 3/5 of 20 -- 12; and B gets 2/5 of
20 -- 8 points.
Totalling the scores, we get:
Corporation A: 33+20+16 = 69 points
Corporation B: 50+10+ 8 = 68 points
Corporation C: 0+10+12 = 22 points
Corporation D: 33+10+12 = 55 points
Even though Corporation B scored the most kills, A won the match
by keeping more vehicles and characters alive. This tends to
keep people from engaging in suicide attacks and throwing away
people and equipment.
CORPORATE BANKRUPTCY
Unfortunately, there are some teams that just can't keep their
collective heads above water. Bankruptcy is the technical term,
and it occurs when you run out of money. If the budget for the
next event is more than the money you've got left, you have a
couple of options. You can enter the event underbudgeted, and
take your chances against more powerful foes; or you can skip the
event, and also raise money in other ways, including selling off
equipment, selling characters, or making side bets.
If you do go bankrupt, you can start again with a brand new
corporation immediately. This new corporation does not get any
characters, however; you'll have to bid on the "free agent"
characters that used to belong to the bankrupt corporation.
Minimum bid is $5,000, and the other corporations may join the
bidding if they have room on their rosters.
YEAR-END OPTIONS
At the end of the season (around early April for us), we hold a
meeting of the BDAA. This meeting has a number of purposes,
including recognizing the corporate champion of the previous
season. But the most important event is the Player Trading
Session.
In the Player Trading Session, corporations can swing any deals
t\among themselves that they wish, trading players and money in
any combination. In addition, corporations may cut unproductive
or unwanted players. These cut players are bid on in an action,
with the money going to the team that cut the character (the
corporation that cut the character may not bid on him). Any
empty roster spots at the end of all this may be filled with
100-skill point characters, as detailed at the beginning of this
article.
PRESTIGE ROLLBACK
After a year of play, it's quite possible that you may have
players with a ridiculously high amount of prestige. This can be
a small problem as it gives older corporations a distinct
advantage over a new corporation. After one such season, the BDAA
devised a system which will "roll back" a star's prestige.
Instead of carrying over a character's prestige from the previous
season, determine his new prestige by the following formula:
+1 for each vehicle kill
+2 for being an ace
+4 for being a double ace or better
+1 for every event participated in
+1 for every year experience
-1 for every time the character died
Example: Mad Fred Lincoln has a prestige of 75 at the end of the
year, making him a very popular duelist. During the off-season,
though, the inevitable whispering about Fred being "over the
hill" starts up, and with Fred out of the public eye, his
prestige will drop.
But Fred has had a very impressive career. He's got 24 vehicle
kills (24 points), which makes him a quadruple ace (4 points).
In his three years (3 points), he has fought in 28 events (28
points) and had to use Gold Cross services four times (-4
points). His new prestige entering the next season is 55.
I hope you have as much fun with this system as we have. Happy
duelling!
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