Saturday Morning Gaming: Racing Around a Board Game

I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is to find a decent game for more than 4-5-6 players (that isn’t, you know, an Uno variant) and so when I find a board game that works for 7 or 8 folks, I’m fit to bust. I’ve mentioned The Captain Is Dead as a board game that is fun (if only for one session) for 5-7 players but I have recently played another:

Formula D plays up to *TEN* players.

The game is pretty simple: You and up to nine of your friends are racing in the Big Race. Roll a regular d20 to find out who is in the pole position, then start throwing specialized dice (seriously: do not think “I already have a full set of D&D dice”… they won’t work for this game) dice that represent how fast you go based on the gear you’re in. First gear is a d4 that has only the numbers 1 and 2 on it. Second gear is a d6 that only has 2-4. Third gear is a d8 that only has 4-8. Fourth gear is a d12 that has 7-12. Fifth gear is a d20 that has 11-20. And Sixth gear (you’re not going to use this one that often) has a d30 that goes from 21-30.

You can only upshift once per turn so, when you start, you are very likely to only be rolling a d4 and you’re only going to go 1 or 2 spaces.

Well, why not just go as fast as you can? Well, the answer to that is curves. There are curves on the track that will regulate your speed. The curve, you see, has a rule that says that you have to end your turn within the curve somewhere. You can’t just blow through it. Well, technically you *CAN*, but your car will take damage if you do… and if your car takes too much damage, then you’re out of the game. On top of that, there are curves that will ask you to stop twice while you’re driving through it. And there’s even this one particularly awful curve that makes you stop *THRICE*. And the curves are only but so big.

More than that, when you’re on a straightaway, you can dodge and weave on the track. In the curve? You have a lot less maneuverability. You might be limited to going straight or changing lanes in only one direction. You could even be limited to moving into the square right ahead of you. What if there’s a car there? Well, then you (and they) take body damage… and likely leave a hazard on the track. Speaking of which, if you finish your turn next to a co-player then you’ll find yourself having to roll for rubbing damage. Don’t roll low! You’ll take damage and drop some hazards on the track. But do your math right (and with a little luck) you can draft the car directly in front of you. No damage and give yourself a bit of a speed boost.

The curves are *ROUGH*. You’ll probably want to figure out a way to end your turn in the first square of a curve and then, if it’s a mere one stop, you’re good, you can upshift your next turn and go as fast as you want. If it’s a two-stop curve and you’re going too fast, you can downshift twice (instead of once) and take damage to your gearbox. And you can measure the risk. How much more tread do you have on your tires? Well, maybe you can blow through the curve a little bit. You’ll do the math and figure out that you can do fine so long as you don’t roll a 12. And, whoops, of freakin’ course you roll a 12.

And so you weigh risk and gauge reward and you try to pass the guy in first. But not *TOO* fast, there’s a curve coming up.

The game has unexpected depth to it. If you just go around the track once, you’re likely to have a game that lasts about an hour (even if you’re playing with 6-7 people) but you can make it so that you’re going around the track multiple times. Add pit stops and give yourself tire hit points back. Deal with hazards on the track from previous wrecks. Heck, check out the flip side of your generic racer and see how there are named racers who have different stats (some have a lot more tires at the cost of other traits on the car like the transmission or the brakes) and who have special abilities to do stuff like throw a single hazard onto the track or have a single re-roll on a die per lap. But if you’re only playing for one lap, you don’t really need to experiment with the alternate characters.

There is one major complaint that I have with the game (and, seriously, I can’t believe that events conspired to allow me to see this particular start). The first thing you do on your first turn of the game is roll a regular d20. If you roll a 1, you stall out and lose your turn. If you roll a 20, you can immediately upshift and start your speed with the 2nd gear die instead of the 1st gear die. When we played, we had both someone who rolled a 1 and someone who rolled a 20.

The person who rolled the 1 was in last place for the entire game (well, until she passed the wreck of a couple of people). The person who rolled the 20 was in first place for the entire game. I’d probably have a house rule that said “yeah, that’s too powerful, we ain’t doing that”.

But, other than that? Holy cow, that game was *FUN*. Car noises were encouraged and it was fun to do collaborative math with the group. “Should I downshift for this particular curve?” “Well, let’s look…” and you start counting squares and doing odds and figuring out that you can make it, so long as you don’t roll a 12.

And, whoops, of freakin’ course you roll a 12.

It’s a lot of fun and, most importantly, it’s a lot of fun and can handle seven players.

So… what are you playing?