Adrenaline Dice
I love the Mad Max films.
Their action scenes are gritty, senseless, depraved and violent. Chaos
rather than competence wins the day; the heroes are more lucky than skilled.
Adrenaline dice are a sub-system of vehicular combat that
promote chaos and mayhem. Players roll the adrenaline dice at the beginning of
each segment of combat (turn, round, whatever your system calls for.) Each instance of doubles on the adrenaline
dice allows the player to call for another driver to make some kind of
roll. It can be a save, a driving roll,
whatever. It has to be narratively
consistent (no whales dropping from the sky) but it can be a result of anything
that makes sense within the narrative framework of a post-apocalyptic world
(including mutant creatures erupting from the ground, pits opening under the
combatants, and the sudden appearance of dangerous road debris.)
The player rolls a number of d6’s equal to the sum of his
driving skill and the Speed score of his vehicle. (Speed here refers to an abstract number from
one (a tractor) to three (a motorcycle) that abstracts the acceleration and
handling of the vehicle. This idea comes
from Stars Without Number and Other Dust, in which vehicles can be improved by
adding to their speed score.) In games
where skills are usually between zero and four, this means that better drivers
in better cars are luckier than rabble in rat rods. So be it.
If our hero, (let’s call him Max), is an exceptional driver
(+4) and is driving a fast, black car with a speed of four, he will roll eight
d6’s at the beginning of each turn. Each
instance of doubles will enable Max to narrate a check or save by one of his
opponents. Failure on these checks or
saves usually means death or at least a crash that takes a vehicle out of the
scene. These crashes can provide the
means for another check or save, if the player has enough adrenaline double to accommodate
them. The purpose of these checks and saves is to create a sense that no one is
in control of the combat once it starts; NPC’s also get adrenaline dice and can
provoke other combatants to make checks and saves as well.
A faction of NPC’s would have only one adrenaline pool. If a boss with a +2 to driving in a ground
car +2 had four henchmen +1 on motorcycles +3, he would roll eight adrenaline
dice. Each NPC should not have his own
adrenaline pool; NPC’s of a type can contribute their common scores for driving
and Speed.
Since RPG’s often have player characters as passengers, they
passengers also get roll Adrenaline dice (which are a narrative device and not
a measure of anything.) Passengers can use their driving, Luck, Shooting, or
whatever else would contribute to the likelihood of violence in a vehicular battle
to total their adrenaline dice. A
passenger with a Luck save of +3 would roll three adrenaline dice.
These rules should be adaptable enough to use with many
kinds of games; the Speed scores of vehicles can be assigned on the spot. I welcome feedback on these rules, and I’d
love to hear from anyone who uses them in a game. Have a lovely day!
