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Game
Tips
Speeding
Up Solo Play
Thanks to Paul Hardin
After
trying out the game I implemented a few rules in an attempt to improve
its solitaire playability. When qualifying I roll three dice for
my car. To decrease the game time and speed up the action, I also
decreased the number of laps associated with sprint races to half
keeping the fuel/pit requirements. Finally, I like the idea of keeping
track of ten different cars so I created a rule where the top six
qualifiers participate in the race. Qualifying positions seven through
ten are recorded as finishing positions for the race in that order.
This keeps the race time to approximately thirty minutes. The final
rule I implemented is allowing either the car that won the last
race or the car with the most points (e.g., if I won the last race)
to qualify with three dice. This process develops a rival and adds
to the excitement during the season. Last night I completed my first
race and it was exciting. I entered the pits right behind the leader
ready to take advantage of the situation when a yellow flag appeared.
Everyone lined up for the last lap. I tried to overtake in the first
turn but lost the challenge and I was out of the driving lane (i.e.,
-1 space). The leader took advantage of this situation and put some
space between us. I caught up eventually and was able to challenge
right before the finish line. I won the challenge and the race.
Since he had led a lap as well as the most laps he got 185 + 5 +
5 = 195 points. I got 190 points for the victory. Looks like I have
a true rival to watch out for in the next race. The time took thirty
minutes. I love Indy racing as well. I have found ten Indy cars
(scale 1:144) but they are not as finely detailed as the NASCAR
cars I have. I’m still searching.
Race
Order and Track Order
Due
to the possibility of being lapped by the lead cars and the field
spreading out widely, the field is often moved by track order rather
than race order. Race order is the order of the cars as they are
in the race. For example, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, . . . The
Track order is the order in which the cars are around the track.
With lapped cars mixed up with leading cars, the track order for
the above example may be 1st, 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 6th. Confusing? Well,
it’s not that hard to understand, and after you run a few laps
this will become more evident. The track order example given merely
indicates that the 5th and 6th place cars are a lap down or more
to the leader, but they still share the same race track as the cars
on the lead lap. Therefore, they become mixed in with the lead cars,
and create a need to distinguish track order from race order.
How
Fast and Slow can a Car Drive
The
fastest a car can move will be the track maximum (MAX). The slowest
a car can move on the track is 1/2 of the minimum (1/2 MIN). This
will usually occur when the car has been damaged. This is also the
speed of the pace car when the field is under a yellow flag. An
example of when your car would move 1/2 MIN is when you crash. For
example, let’s say your car crashes in the first turn and is
stranded nearly a full lap away from the pit entrance. The car will
conduct it’s track movement turn as the other cars will. However,
the driver will NOT roll the MIN-MAX Dice and will simply move the
car 1/2 MIN each track movement turn until the car arrives in the
pit area. The race for that car would then be over, but do not forget
to mark the car down for completing that lap if you are using race
log sheets, which would be its last.
Keeping
Track of What Lap the Cars Are On
Keeping
track of which lap a car is one can get confusing, but it is really
quite simple to figure out. At the beginning of a race, all drivers
will be on lap ONE until they cross the S/F line for the first time.
At that point they will be on lap TWO. Looking at the position of
the car on the track and the number of the car on the race log sheet
(if you are using it), the lap the car is on can easily be figured
out. Let’s say you are in the middle of a race and the field
is well spread out. Car #1 is in the third turn and has not been
marked for completing that lap. Locate car #1 on the race sheet.
The last time car #1 was marked was for completing lap 32 in 5th
place. This means the car has almost completed lap 33. This is an
easy way to determine how many laps down a car is as well.
Lapped
Cars
Lapped
cars can seem to be complicated, but once you get the comfortable
with bookkeeping, it is really quite simple. In a short race of
around 10 laps, lapped cars rarely become a thing to deal with.
The race log sheet really handles the lapped traffic well since
it is easy to view how far back the driver is by looking at the
track position and the last lap completed on the race form. Again,
it is important to remember that all cars are moving at the same
time in reality, but you will be moving cars one at a time by either
the track order or the race order. Occasionally you may pass a car
that is nearly a lap down and only a few spaces in front of you
on your driver turn, but if that driver hasn’t moved yet then
you didn’t really pass the driver. In addition, on that driver’s
turn they will not have to stop to challenge you since you were
not yet in front of them. To add to the confusion, if that driver
rolls a track movement that is less than you moved, your car will
have to be moved back to challenge the driver since you were not
yet in front of them. This will be confusing at first, but after
running a few laps these things become second nature. This is why
it is sometimes beneficial to move the cars in a track order starting
with a car that has the most clear track in front of their car.
Another technique to keep track of who has moved and who hasn’t
when you are dealing with lapped cars is to place the moved cars
just off the track to indicate that they have moved. When all the
cars have moved, they can be placed back on the track. Also, always
make a note of which driver starts the turn because when all the
cars have moved, you will end up back at the car that began the
track movements. This will help you to recognize that the track
movements are over and challenges can then begin. If there are no
challenges to be completed, simply begin another track movement.
In this example with you as the leader and the driver nearly a lap
down, if the driver would have moved before you did then it would
be very easy to determine if you were catching up, stopping to challenge,
or falling back without being confused by who was in front of who
prior to the move. These type of situations are not common, but
in the thousands of test laps we have done, they DO happen.
Qualifying
Card Setup Section
We
apologize for any confusion in this section. This was a typography
error, and this section was supposed to be omitted as there is NO
Qualifying card. The qualifying lap times are now printed directly
on the track, so there is no need for a qualifying card layover
as outlined in the handbook. Follow the instructions printed on
the track for qualifying.
Qualifying
Ties
An
optional way to determine tie breaks is by using a roll off. Thanks
to Tim Pepper for bringing this to our attention. Again, this is
an optional rule to use during qualifying. Rather than giving the
tie breaker spot to the first car to arrive at the marked lap time,
determine tie breakers by having a roll off between the tied cars
using the 10 sided challenge dice. For record keeping of lap times,
you can add a tenth of a second to the loser's lap times
When
a Car Moves 1/2 of a Track Roll
If
an incident requires a car to move 1/2 of their track roll, the
cars behind DO NOT have to stop and challenge. We apologize this
was not addressed in the handbook.
Increasing
Track Incident Odds For Longer Races
You
may notice a lot of DNFs in short races. If you plan to run longer
races, you may wish to increase the odds of having Track Incidents.
One way to do this is to require that a driver must roll TWO double
TIs or TWO 0s (in challenges) to make an incident occur. Another
way to up the odds for a TI would be to increase the minimum track
movement dice roll to THREE and make an incident occur only when
THREE TIs are rolled.
When
to Mark a Car Down as Completing a Lap in the Pits
If
you downloaded the Race Log Sheet and use it to track your races
rather than the Lap Counter Pawns, this will be an issue for you.
Usually, when cars pit, it is best to mark them down as completing
the lap as soon as they enter the pits in the order they enter the
pits. If a car is on the track at about the same distance from the
S/F line, mark down the car on the track first because realistically,
they are traveling at a faster rate and will cross the line first.
Be careful to mark down everyone for completing their lap and don't
mark anyone down twice. This could create a driver to magically
lose or gain a lap!
Cars
Coming Out of The Pits on a Yellow Flag
If
you have cars in the pits and on the track when a yellow flag comes
out, it may be confusing as to which driver rolls first because
drivers in the pits could stand to gain a lot if they move before
the cars on the track, which must stop at the CAUTION FLAG LINE
UP line. When the caution flag comes out, the pits are closed. Any
cars that are in the pits and going back onto the track about the
same time as the leaders that are approaching the CAUTION FLAG LINE
UP line are required to stop at the end of the pits and wait until
all of the cars on the track have lined up and gone by. If there
are many cars in the pits, the are required to line up in the pits
and wait behind the car that arrived at the end of the pits first.
It really doesn't matter who rolls or moves first.
The
Black Flag Track Incident
Here
is another Driver's Handbook error. You may notice that when you
merely drive your car into your pit stall and immediately return
to the track, you may pass cars on the track! To fix this unrealistic
dilemma, simply make the black flag a 10 second pit penalty. When
this happens, move your car exactly as if you are making a pit stop.
However, rather than covering the entire row of clocks, move your
car ONLY to the 10 second clock and return to your pit stall.
Alternate
Challenging Method
Thanks to Ashley Salmon
My
friends and I played last night for the first time, and saw how
easily the lead car/s can leave the rest of the pack because of
cars in the pack have to stop and challenge cars in front, so we
modified the challenge rule somewhat. So, here it is. If car 94
is 10 positions behind car 24 (24 has already moved), and 94 rolls
a max, he moves up beside car 24 and challenges right then and there.
If car 94 wins the challenge, he proceeds to move 3 more spaces,
but if 94 looses the challenge, then he stays beside 24. Seems to
work pretty good.
RA
Games Note: Without yet trying this mode of play, it seems like
that would allow more passing within one turn, which may at times
be unrealistic
However,
we had a similar rule at one time, which we called a momentum pass.
The comparison to real racing was that if a car had exited a corner
badly they would not carry much speed down the straight (as if a car
was rolling from a -1 or -2 space). A car that was rolling behind
them at full speed would be able to pass with ease down the straight,
in real racing. However, the game made you stop. So, we made a "3
space" or "momentum pass" rule in which a driver coming
up behind a slower car GO RIGHT BY without challenging if their roll
would carry them to a point where there were 3 spaces in between the
two. This rule is not included in the current rules because the 3
space situation rarely happens. It became a problem in the more realistic
rules however because accumulating car damage created many slow moving
cars that had been in accidents and were just putting around, and
they ended up being lapped every 3 laps or so.
Moving
Half The Track MIN During Yellow Flags
Thanks to Chris Saguisag
On
a yellow flag, moving at 7 spaces (rounding down) gets you to the
green flag line exactly, while moving
8 spaces has you short by a few spaces, and then you overshoot the
line.
Or is this irrelevant, and you go back to green flag racing after
you CROSS the green line?
Sometimes
track incidents require you to move your car 1/2 the track MIN when
the MIN is an odd number. If this happens, you are to simply round
up. For example, if the MIN is is 15; half of the MIN would be 7.5,
so round up to 8 spaces.
That's
just a lucky coincidence that you landed right on the green restart
line moving 7. The way we do restarts is to move the field 1/2 MIN
and end the last yellow flag track movement with the leader on the
green restart line regardless of how many spaces the car moves.
That will end the yellow flag track movement. The next track movement
turn, everyone can return to rolling full speed. Actually, what
we do on yellow flags during short races where no one is pitting
is just line the cars up on the green restart line as soon as all
the cars have caught up to the tail of the field.
Speeding
Up The Race Through The Turns
Thanks to Dennis Bounds
Here's
a way to speed up the game through the turns. When
two cars are even through the turns, instead of rolling a challenge
dice,
the car that's on a blank spot always moves before the car on a
-1 or -2
spots.
It makes sense to me.
RA
Games Note:Thanks for the tip. We'll share it with other RASC drivers
on the web, and we'll try it out too. My first thought about it
is that it would eliminate a lot of challenges and chances to pass
other cars. It makes sense that a car in the racing line would have
an advantage over cars not in the racing line. However, if they
were always allowed to win challenges then there wouldn't really
be any reason to even have the -1 and -2 spaces because no one would
ever tread there, and the spaces should rather be marked with X's
to indicate you aren't allowed to drive there at all. Before trying
it out for myself, I kind of like the way the driver's are allowed
to try a pass out of the racing line. The majority of the time they
are going to lose because of the minus spaces as in real racing,
but sometimes they might pull off a pass out of the racing line
as in real racing. I also kind of like the frustration for the driver
in the racing line who gets passed up high then has to slow down
on the straights because the car that passed them is rolling slower.
Anyway, thanks again for the tip, and we'll try it out. Other RASC
Drivers, we would like your comments on how you like this challenge
tip. e-mail us
How
Many Dice to Roll After an Incident
Thanks to Bill Benedict
When
the double TIs are thrown and the result is a movement modifier
and you re-roll to find what movement a car makes, should the person
re-roll the same number of dice they rolled the first time, or can
they now have a freebie 4-dice roll since further TIs don't count?
OH, good question. If it were me operating the race, I would have
to use a gentleman's rule and allow only the same amount of dice
be rolled on the re-roll.
Another
Alternate Challenge Method
Thanks to Bill Benedict
I
saw the test rule you guys posted about a momentum pass where if
one car's movement would leave it with 3 spaces between another
car, it was allowed to pass without challenge. I like the idea of
the rule, but like you said that case rarely happens and frustration
levels were high last night whenever the lead car of a pack rolled
MINs and the cars behind got MAXs. I think using that rule, but
with 2 spaces between might make for more interesting racing. A
car with lousy momentum (rolling a MIN) could get passed by a car
rolling a MAX with a great run. After watching the Coca-Cola 600,
it's quite possible to get a run on another car without the first
car being able to prevent the pass. Perhaps a good middle-ground
for this rule would be to subtract 2 spaces of movement from the
passing car for the ability to make the pass without a challenge.
I think I'll try that variation (subtracting 2 spaces of movement
for a momentum pass) tonight on my gaming group to see how it goes.
If that would leave the cars side-by-side, then the challenge would
still have to be made.
RA
Games Note: So, a trailing car would subtract 2 spaces from their
roll ONLY if they were approaching a slower moving car, and they
would not have to challenge if their modified (-2 from their roll)
carried them past the slower car. For example, if two cars had just
challenged and sat side by side - the lead car rolls a MIN (10),
and the next car rolls a MAX (13), they would move 13-2=11 and move
one space ahead of the lead car. Of course, this rule would not
force any driver to subtract from their roll if they were not approaching
a slower car. For example, in the above example, if the lead car
rolled a MIN(10) again, and the chasing car also rolled a MIN(10),
they would NOT move only 8. This rule would only be used if there
stood a chance for a momentum pass.
Sling
Shot Drafting
Thanks to Bill Benedict
The wording on slingshot drafting uses the words "they"
and "their" implying that possibly both cars get the draft
bonus, but I ruled that only the rear car got this extra space in
the spirit of it being a "slingshot"
move. Was this correct?
Yes.
Only the rear car is allowed to move an additional space forward
when sitting behind another car prior to a track movement.
Pack
Drafting
Thanks to Bill Benedict
On the regular draft, say you're in a 3-wide pack of cars all eligible
for the drafting bonus, and after challenges the cars look like
this:
>+---+---+---+
>| A| B| C |
>+---+---+---+
>|D |E | | ---> direction of travel
>+---+---+---+
>| F | G | |
>+---+---+---+
Cars A and B won their challenges, so they can draft ahead with
C. Since cars F and G were both 2nd in their challenge, could they
also draft forward? If so, could D and E then also come along? I
think in a big pack situation like this, it may be advantageous
to do the drafting movement first, then the challenges since no
one lane is going to pull out ahead of another.
We
call this situation a "pack draft". All of the cars draft
forward one space after the challenges. The challenges are done
prior to the drafting because it is unknown if it will be a pack
draft until after the challenges are completed. So, in your example,
if G had lost to E then D,E,F, and G would not be able to draft
forward. This would allow A to draft up and challenge E. So, drafting
prior to challenging would eliminate this possibility for A.
Finishing
a Race
Thanks to Bill Benedict
What if the last track movement puts two or more cars on the same
square after they cross the Start/Finish line? Do they then make
a challenge to see who wins? Can the cars ignore -1 and -2 spaces
in this last challenge since they realistically were making this
challenge at the line and not into turn 1 or 2? This seemed the
most logical to me and it's how we decided 3rd-5th place in our
Memorial Day 5-lapper at my in-laws' last night.
On
the last lap of the race, the first car to cross the S/F line is
the winner and so on. So, if there was a 3 wide challenge at the
exit of turn 4 on the last lap, the winner of that challenge would
be the winner of the race if their next track roll carried them
across the S/F line. We have never carried cars past the S/F line
on the last lap to determine the winner.
Yellow
Flags for Track Incidents
Thanks to Bill Benedict
When a wreck or blown engine result from double TIs, should a caution
flag be thrown? How about for a spin?
In
this version of RASC, the only thing that brings out the caution
is the Caution Flag Incident. Originally, we had rules where the
caution flag came out when incidents or impact occurred. However,
they were taken out to speed up the game. We are compiling our many
realistic out takes to make available as an add on package, which
should be ready in a month or so.
The
BUMP Incident
Thanks to Bill Benedict
If there is no car behind you, should a "Bump" result
still give +1 to movement?
That
incident was designed as a "good" one, which originally
only took place only during challenges. When we combined the track
and challenge incidents, we wanted to leave that one in, but it
wasn't relevant during track movements. So, we simply made it a
+1 rather than take position. It wasn't supposed to be interpreted
as a bump from behind, but I see how you would see it that way,
and I apologize for not making that more clear. When you're not
challenging and get the +1, It can be interpreted as a good shift,
good entry, or good exit off a turn to give your car an extra push.
So, to answer your question, yes, it is always supposed to be valid
when rolled.
If
you have any tips you have learned from playing RASC, please e-mail
them to us, so we can share them with fellow RASC Drivers.
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