ARBBL

First try at Gaslands Refuelled with the added fun of having to play live online.

3x3 simple 'Knot' loop with a few gates. A buggy and car each both armed with machine guns. Starting simple.

Even before the first gate mayhem ensued with tailgating collisions and out of control vehicles.

My car driver had no idea how to drive his new vehicle. It slid and spun its way around obstacles falling way back in the race.

Simons buggy sped forward after his car took out my buggy. Wrecked even before the first gate.

Having seen his team mate crash out my car proceeded to slide and spin his way forward, past Simons car and hot on the wheels of his buggy.
First shot took a chunk out of the bodywork but the next shots didn't even chip the paintwork.

Through the second gate my car slid and spun firing at the buggy but lost control trying to do too much. Somehow I collided with the buggy causing his driver to lose control.
Both vehicles slowed so that they could get back under control.

The buggy had only one hull point left as it sped towards the last gate. It only had to touch the line.
My car sprayed bullets every where trying to get the last hit.

The buggy crossed the line, driver screaming with joy. Simons team had won. But wait the fans were not screaming for joy.
The last push to get the buggy across the line was caused by the explosion of its petrol tank as Mikes cars machine guns ripped away the remining hull point.
The buggy came to a halt in a burning wreck 6' past the gate.

Simons fans went wild as the win was confirmed for the late buggy driver. The driver was alive when he crossed the line.
A wins a win which ever way.

Impressions of the game system itself? Fun?

Fun? I think so. I really enjoyed it and from my perspective it played better than I anticipated. Probably due to the fact that despite losing 50% of his vehicles, Mike was never out of it, there were always options to scupper your opponent. I really thought he'd get me after he wiped me out after gate 3 and it was only at the end of the final run into the finish we realised that even if he killed me the reaction would send me across the line to win. Albeit in a flaming coffin of destruction. But hey, drivers are replaceable...

Interesting mechanics around how much you actually push things to stay ahead or catch up - something that caught me out and caused me to wipe-out close to the finish. You are a little dependent on the roll of the dice, but that's no different to a lot of games. I never had the opportunity to fire any weapons, but they seem reasonably balanced. It will be interesting to try some weapons that pack a bigger punch. What was noticeable was the impact (quite literally) that the different weight classes have - clearly ramming lighter stuff (at least from my perspective) is the way to eliminate it!

The ruleset is relatively simple and fairly intuitive, although the rulebook seemed a little hap-hazard in it's layout (certainly while trying to move cameras, keep track of gears/hazards etc and learning the rules at the same time!). It would only take a couple of games to fully get your head around the fundamentals. It's not overly taxing, the templates work well but I think that having a reasonable set of scenery and obstructions ensures it's not too repetitive and you need to think ahead and consider what opportunities you might be giving the other team.

I think that there is some reasonable depth to it, certainly with different vehicle types, audience participation and importantly sponsors and perks - all things that we'll have a bit of a laugh learning. It will be interesting to see if there are any 'power set-ups' or whether it remains fairly balanced. Nice to see that there are a variety of scenarios and some suggestions for a campaign season.

Next week we've decided to set a points limit and have relatively free rein to choose vehicles and loadouts so it should be interesting to see a variety and how they stack up against each other.

Will be interested in Gaslands when we can (finally) get back to the hall. Have both the original rules and Refuelled, but never actually read them through as the guy that was into it came to club once then disappeared (will have to recover my cars from the club cupboard! ).

Unfortunately I'm not interested in playing online.

Tom wrote:Impressions of the game system itself? Fun?

Yep. Definitely fun.

You need to take a gamble now and then.
Sometimes it is better to take the bad dice result and the hazard that goes with it to get the better vehicle position.