Each player controls a duelling team or corporation. Each team begins the season with $750,000 capital, 20 team members - characters - (excluding mechanics, medics, and ancillary personnel - each team is assumed to have sufficient staff to function effectively, as per a present-day Formula One team), and 3 randomly-selected vehicles with no vehicle costing over $100,000 (representing assets of the team members). Each character starts with 1d6 skill levels and $100 X 2d20, with which to purchase personal equipment, such as body armour (highly recommended) and hand weapons. Personal equipment cannot be bought using the team budget, and items must only be used by the team member who owns them - no pooling of personal resources!

Each event has a certain amount of prize money (or ‘pot’), based on the cost of fully entering the event. The prize pot is calculated as the Division Rating (Div.), multiplied by the number of vehicles, multiplied by 2 less than the number of teams entering, ie:-

Prize pot = No. vehicles X Div X (No. Teams - 2)

Unlimited events are considered to be Div. 100 + (D20 * 10) [i.e. Div 110 to Div 300] per vehicle.

This prize pot is split between the first three placed teams, as follows: winner - 60%, 2nd place - 30%, 3rd place - 10%. There is a 20% chance per event (determined afterwards) that a survival bonus will be on offer, with all surviving, conscious entrants receiving a $100 X 1d6 bonus. Victory bonuses, of 2% of the prize pot value, are paid to the winning team members. Vehicle kills earn the person(s) responsible (if they survive) 2% of the killed vehicle’s sale price.

A victory scores 5 points, second place 3 points, and third place 1 point. These points are then used to determine league positions, with kills for and against used to further split teams in the event of a tie. After each event (from the 3rd event onwards), the team at the top of the league receives a $4,000 bonus (shared equally if more than 1 team in top position). The team at the top of the league at the end if the season (i.e. the league champion) is awarded an additional $10,000 bonus.

In terms of combat, a vehicle kill is defined as a vehicle which can no longer cause damage - i.e. no longer able to move and unable to bring harmful weapons to bear. Killed vehicles remain the property of the team that bought/built them. The person(s) responsible for a kill can be those indirectly responsible. e.g. If a vehicle is hit by gunfire, and as a consequence, crashes into a wall, killing the driver, the vehicle which fired the crucial shot claims the kill. A vehicle ‘killed’ as a result of losing control due to a manoeuvre cannot be claimed as a kill by anyone (it’s referred to, legally, as ‘death by mis-adventure’ !). Surrendering to another combatant is classed as a kill to the character(s) surrendered to.

Each team is restricted to 20 members per season, all of whom must be defined at the start of the season. Anyone intentionally killing a pedestrian unprovoked (i.e. a pedestrian that has not fired a hand weapon or in any way attempted to cause harm to another participant) will be banned from the following 1d6 events. Pedestrians may fire in self-defence and still retain ‘unprovoked’ status, but any provocative action makes them an ‘open target’, allowing any other participant to fire at him/her without being banned.

Skill points are scored as normal, with the possibility of any heroic/exceptional play being rewarded (either financially or by increased skill bonuses), with such decisions made by democratic votes at the end of the combat. Any character ‘chickening-out’ of combat will lose 1 skill point in each relevant skill. This only applies to those intentionally leaving the field of combat in a perfectly working vehicle. Those characters choosing to surrender/exit combat after taking damage (with the intention of preserving their vehicles and/or characters) and vehicles out of control will not be penalised. Any vehicle leaving the combat by exiting the map ceases to take damage as soon as the vehicle/character is totally out of play, whether rolling, on fire, or whatever, due to the combat area being completely surrounded by special foam-sprinklers which immediately put out fires and prevent rolling damage. Most arenas, however, are surrounded by walls, preventing such accidental exit.

It is in the players’ own interest to validate any stock vehicle bought, making any slight modifications to correct any design illegality before the combat begins. Vehicle designs do not have to be viewed by other players prior to combat. During the battle, any character able to see another player’s vehicle may ask for a description of any weapon ports, armour conditions, etc. that the character may be able to see. Concealed weapons, exact number of armour points, etc. do not have to be announced - statements should use similar descriptions as: large-bore projectile weapon, dropped weapon, etc. (see table in Compendium for weapon types), with armour condition described as: none (the vehicle started with no armour in the stated location), breached, damaged, undamaged. The player can be more descriptive, but any such descriptions must be accurate (e.g. stating that armour is badly damaged when it is almost intact is not permitted - and could result in the vehicle being disqualified).

After a combat, the winning vehicle (or a randomly selected winner if multiple winning vehicles) will be verified, in a similar manner to the post-race checks at Formula One events. Any player may request the inspection of any other players’ vehicle designs, should there be any doubts over their legality. Any vehicle found to be illegal (whether totally outside the rules - e.g. too heavy - or in breach of certain conditions - e.g. too expensive for the particular event - will be disqualified, after confirmation of illegality by a second player. Any such disqualification will result in the team being fined the value of any vehicle ‘killed’ (not simply damaged - must have been killed), payable to the owner of the ‘killed’ vehicle. In addition, any points/kills accrued to the illegal vehicle will not be added to the team’s scores.

Vehicles may be bought, modified or built from scratch at any time during the season. No verification of new designs is required, although the design may be verified after an event, as detailed above. As the teams are assumed to have a full complement of mechanics and all necessary equipment, there is effectively no delay for such construction/modification work.

The following rules are in effect for all events. Certain events (listed below) will have additional rules, detailed within the event description.

• Blast effect rules, and area effect weapons versus multiple targets.
• Compendium control and crash tables, with 5 phase movement.
• Critical hits using new Critical Hit Table.
• Minimum grenade delay of 1 second (unless using impact fuse).
• Car Trailers count as a vehicle in their own right. Truck Trailers and Sidecars may be added, unless otherwise stated, at the user’s discretion.
• Speed modifiers as per the compendium, including orientation of firing vehicle and target.
• New top speed calculation rules, together with rules for exceeding top speeds.
• Personal encumbrance - for personal movement outside vehicles only. Personal equipment does not count towards either the weight limit or value of the vehicle in which they are used. NB: The use of items’ weights is in addition to the 6 grenade-equivalent rule.
• Handling class is regained at the end of a turn by rolling 1d6 and adding any reflex bonus.

This WWW page was designed by Deepdale Systems Limited, copyright 1997-2001. All rights reserved.