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Furious Roads is a PWYW minimald6 roleplaying game by Marcus Burggraf inspired by the latest Mad Max adventure. It does not so much as file off the serial numbers so much as it scratches them a little. This is fine by me.
The core of the game are its terrific random tables, which ensure every game is different. And since I'm all about stuff like that, this is a natural fit. And we'll even use some randomizers during play to make things even more unpredictable. So let's start!
We need a hero(ine) about whom to tell a story. Is this character a man?
(2[d10]) No
Okay, the character is a woman. She'll need a name, so I'll pop over to Behind the Name and scare something up. One sec.
Got it. The generator there gave me five options and I picked Ness. Short for Vanessa, according to the site. Is can also be a variation on Neas or Neasa, which come from Irish mythology. These things didn't influence my decision, but they're kind of cool regardless.
So what's Ness's thing? The game begins with attributes, which can be generated or you can just assign a predetermined set of values. We'll do that because the hard work is already done for me.
That gives us the following:
• Brawn -- 2
• Deftness -- 5
• Cunning -- 3
• Grit -- 4
• Allure -- 3
• Stuff -- 1
These seem like good numbers. Ness is quick and resourceful, but not strong or gear-heavy. When you think about it, Max Rockatansky is much the same way. Outside of his car, what does he have? Not a whole heckuva lot. In The Road Warrior he doesn't even have shells for his shotgun.
Furious Roads calls its characters "crazies," and every crazie starts at level two with a "type," which is sort of a loose class. Let's see what type Ness is.
7 = 4[d6]+3[d6]
It seems Ness is a Scamp. Scamps are described as, "Raised by no one, barely human survivor from the wild." Clearly we're talking about The Feral Kid sort of thing, but I'm not interested in playing that. I'll take a different approach, which can be reflected in the Traits and Gear the character gets.
Traits
• vicious fighter
• in the right place
Gear
• bag of nasty tricks
Right now I'm seeing a character kind of like Molly Ringwald's Niki in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. Except, you know, not quite as whiny. She's not big and brawny, as we saw earlier, so she relies on traps and tricks to keep herself alive. But get her in a corner...
Every piece of gear has a breaking point, determined by the roll of a single die. Let's check on that bag of tricks.
1 = 1[d6]
That's actually the best you can get. Whenever you use a piece of gear as part of a task, if the roll is equal to or lower than the breaking point value, that value increases by one. So we're looking good, Ness.
And so it begins. Where is Ness? What is going on? Who's there? Let's find out with those awesome tables.
A threat...
6 = 3[d6]+3[d6]
Determined slavers! Always bad news. And they want to...
6 = 2[d6]+4[d6]
Eat Ness. Oh, dear.
So what if we say these slavers sell the best stock and eat the rest? If they can't be sold, a person can at least be dinner.
The slavers wear...
7 = 5[d6]+2[d6]
Bondage armor. A classic.
And they're...
3 = 2[d6]+1[d6]
Eating grub.
Okay, I'm not sure what this means in the context of the game. I'm going to guess this is what they're doing as we join the action, but it's possible Burggraf means something else. We'll go with it.
Where is all this happening? We get an initial location and a detail about that location. The first part is determined by 2d6 and the second by 1d6. I'll roll them all together.
12 = 1[d6]+6[d6]+5[d6]
We begin in an area of wandering dunes. And according to the tables, "there is a lot of good stuff here to scavenge!" Which makes sense if this is a slaver encampment. Maybe that's how Ness ended up here in the first place, watching the cannibal slavers consume their "grub."
CAN SHE ESCAPE!? We already have a central dramatic question, I guess.
But we need a supporting cast of survivors to liven things up. Burggraf suggests rolling three times on the appropriate tables. Like locations, these are determined by three dice. I'll roll the whole set together.
13 = 5[d6]+2[d6]+6[d6]
14 = 5[d6]+5[d6]+4[d6]
14 = 4[d6]+5[d6]+5[d6]
So this gives us the following:
• Polecat -- Weak: They are not cut out to survive this hellish place
• Tyrant -- Bad Guy: They have an unclear but very nefarious agenda of their own
• Waster -- Wounded: They are wounded and in desperate need for help
I think we just got our central villain and a sidekick. A "polecat" in Furious Roads is like those insane "witness me!" guys from Fury Road. So imagine that for the time being. A lithe, nimble alternative to Rictus Erectus.
The waster is a fellow prisoner, you think? And if they're wounded, they're certain to become dinner. Which makes me wonder if Ness is one of those characters with a heart of gold, like Max himself.
But the tables don't stop there! We get names for these characters!
5 = 2[d6]+3[d6]
6 = 2[d6]+4[d6]
8 = 6[d6]+2[d6]
11 = 6[d6]+5[d6]
4 = 3[d6]+1[d6]
2 = 1[d6]+1[d6]
• Sprog Fury
• Count Eater
• Imperator Chain
Heck, I don't think we could have done much better here. Count Eater (perfect for a cannibal) and his sidekick, Imperator Chain. And the wounded companion survivor/prisoner, Sprog.
Oh, and we know something about these characters, too, especially Chain. We know he's weak, but he's clearly physically strong. That makes his weakness internal. Maybe he's not as vicious as Count Eater would like. Some tension there, whether visible or invisible.
And lastly the gang of slavers needs a name. One more roll!
6 = 4[d6]+2[d6]
Slicing Crew? I dig it.
And there we have it. Furious Roads is underway with a small cast of characters, some initial drama and the stage set for action. Catch you next time.
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Furious Roads is a PWYW minimald6 roleplaying game by Marcus Burggraf inspired by the latest Mad Max adventure. It does not so much as file off the serial numbers so much as it scratches them a little. This is fine by me.
The core of the game are its terrific random tables, which ensure every game is different. And since I'm all about stuff like that, this is a natural fit. And we'll even use some randomizers during play to make things even more unpredictable. So let's start!
We need a hero(ine) about whom to tell a story. Is this character a man?
(2[d10]) No
Okay, the character is a woman. She'll need a name, so I'll pop over to Behind the Name and scare something up. One sec.
Got it. The generator there gave me five options and I picked Ness. Short for Vanessa, according to the site. Is can also be a variation on Neas or Neasa, which come from Irish mythology. These things didn't influence my decision, but they're kind of cool regardless.
So what's Ness's thing? The game begins with attributes, which can be generated or you can just assign a predetermined set of values. We'll do that because the hard work is already done for me.
That gives us the following:
• Brawn -- 2
• Deftness -- 5
• Cunning -- 3
• Grit -- 4
• Allure -- 3
• Stuff -- 1
These seem like good numbers. Ness is quick and resourceful, but not strong or gear-heavy. When you think about it, Max Rockatansky is much the same way. Outside of his car, what does he have? Not a whole heckuva lot. In The Road Warrior he doesn't even have shells for his shotgun.
Furious Roads calls its characters "crazies," and every crazie starts at level two with a "type," which is sort of a loose class. Let's see what type Ness is.
7 = 4[d6]+3[d6]
It seems Ness is a Scamp. Scamps are described as, "Raised by no one, barely human survivor from the wild." Clearly we're talking about The Feral Kid sort of thing, but I'm not interested in playing that. I'll take a different approach, which can be reflected in the Traits and Gear the character gets.
Traits
• vicious fighter
• in the right place
Gear
• bag of nasty tricks
Right now I'm seeing a character kind of like Molly Ringwald's Niki in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone. Except, you know, not quite as whiny. She's not big and brawny, as we saw earlier, so she relies on traps and tricks to keep herself alive. But get her in a corner...
Every piece of gear has a breaking point, determined by the roll of a single die. Let's check on that bag of tricks.
1 = 1[d6]
That's actually the best you can get. Whenever you use a piece of gear as part of a task, if the roll is equal to or lower than the breaking point value, that value increases by one. So we're looking good, Ness.
And so it begins. Where is Ness? What is going on? Who's there? Let's find out with those awesome tables.
A threat...
6 = 3[d6]+3[d6]
Determined slavers! Always bad news. And they want to...
6 = 2[d6]+4[d6]
Eat Ness. Oh, dear.
So what if we say these slavers sell the best stock and eat the rest? If they can't be sold, a person can at least be dinner.
The slavers wear...
7 = 5[d6]+2[d6]
Bondage armor. A classic.
And they're...
3 = 2[d6]+1[d6]
Eating grub.
Okay, I'm not sure what this means in the context of the game. I'm going to guess this is what they're doing as we join the action, but it's possible Burggraf means something else. We'll go with it.
Where is all this happening? We get an initial location and a detail about that location. The first part is determined by 2d6 and the second by 1d6. I'll roll them all together.
12 = 1[d6]+6[d6]+5[d6]
We begin in an area of wandering dunes. And according to the tables, "there is a lot of good stuff here to scavenge!" Which makes sense if this is a slaver encampment. Maybe that's how Ness ended up here in the first place, watching the cannibal slavers consume their "grub."
CAN SHE ESCAPE!? We already have a central dramatic question, I guess.
But we need a supporting cast of survivors to liven things up. Burggraf suggests rolling three times on the appropriate tables. Like locations, these are determined by three dice. I'll roll the whole set together.
13 = 5[d6]+2[d6]+6[d6]
14 = 5[d6]+5[d6]+4[d6]
14 = 4[d6]+5[d6]+5[d6]
So this gives us the following:
• Polecat -- Weak: They are not cut out to survive this hellish place
• Tyrant -- Bad Guy: They have an unclear but very nefarious agenda of their own
• Waster -- Wounded: They are wounded and in desperate need for help
I think we just got our central villain and a sidekick. A "polecat" in Furious Roads is like those insane "witness me!" guys from Fury Road. So imagine that for the time being. A lithe, nimble alternative to Rictus Erectus.
The waster is a fellow prisoner, you think? And if they're wounded, they're certain to become dinner. Which makes me wonder if Ness is one of those characters with a heart of gold, like Max himself.
But the tables don't stop there! We get names for these characters!
5 = 2[d6]+3[d6]
6 = 2[d6]+4[d6]
8 = 6[d6]+2[d6]
11 = 6[d6]+5[d6]
4 = 3[d6]+1[d6]
2 = 1[d6]+1[d6]
• Sprog Fury
• Count Eater
• Imperator Chain
Heck, I don't think we could have done much better here. Count Eater (perfect for a cannibal) and his sidekick, Imperator Chain. And the wounded companion survivor/prisoner, Sprog.
Oh, and we know something about these characters, too, especially Chain. We know he's weak, but he's clearly physically strong. That makes his weakness internal. Maybe he's not as vicious as Count Eater would like. Some tension there, whether visible or invisible.
And lastly the gang of slavers needs a name. One more roll!
6 = 4[d6]+2[d6]
Slicing Crew? I dig it.
And there we have it. Furious Roads is underway with a small cast of characters, some initial drama and the stage set for action. Catch you next time.