Formule De Race and Series Rules for Series Two

Formula De Race and Series Rules for Series Two

Original By Tim Trant, with ideas from Carl Schnurr, Brian Bankler, and The General Staff game club. Series One rules are here.

Updated by Dallace Unger, Jr. on November 5, 2001.

Series Length

The championships will be determined after a season of races, each on a different track. I will be the Track Marshall (the race umpire).

Car Construction

Each team must decide on the distribution of its Construction Points before the first race of the series. All races will be three lap races, each team has 24 points to allocate between the eight car categories and its drivers. The second car in a two-car team is simply a duplicate of its first design. Allocations cannot be changed once the series is underway; a team must race the same car on each of the different tracks in the series.

Driver Points: maximum of one Driver Point, usable once per race, costs 1 Construction Point
Brakes: one car Brake Point costs 1 Construction Point
Bodywork: one Bodywork Point costs 1 Construction Point
Engine: one Engine Point costs 1 Construction Point
Road-Holding: one Road-Holding Point costs 1 Construction Point
Fuel: one Fuel Point costs 1 Construction Point
Tires: one Tire Point costs 1 Construction Point. A car may have no more than 8 Tire Points.
Qualifying: spend 1 Construction Point to improve the car's chance of a good starting grid position. Details below.
Pit Crew: reduce the number of Movement Points required to complete a pit stop by 2 (for a three-lap race) for each Construction Point spent here. A pit stop still takes a minimum of one Movement Point to complete.

Race Duration

A standard race will be three laps of the circuit. Starting grid position will be determined by die roll.

Race Preparation

Players will collect chips or modify a car status sheet to indicate the proper number of Points each of their cars has at the start of the race. Car construction points may not be adjusted after the start of the series.

To set up the race do the following in order:

Determine the initial wether conditions.
Determine grid positions and pit choice.
Determine tire type and if high downforce wing setting is being used.

High Downforce Wing setting

This is not adjustable after the race has started, and has the following effects:

any move which ends in a corner may be reduced by 1 space if desired
maximum movement roll result in 4th gear is 11
maximum movement roll result in 5th gear is 18
maximum movement roll result in 6th gear is 26

Qualifying

Normal method

Each player makes a d20 roll for each of his cars, and the cars are placed in order of increasing die score (lowest first). Ties are broken with an additional roll(s). Pit assignments are then chosen in REVERSE order of qualifying position (the car at the back of the grid chooses first, etc.). Two d20 rolls are made for a car which has a Qualifying Point, and the player may chose freely between the two numbers.

Weather

The weather for a race is determined first, before the cars are set up and starting positions are determined. A d20 is rolled and the result is compared to the weather ratings for the track. If this initial weather roll is within the range for either dry or rain, the entire race is run under that condition.

If the initial weather result is "variable", the race begins under dry conditions and an additional weather roll is made three times per lap when the leading car enters particular track sections (which will be set by the Marshall before the race begins, at approximate one-third lap points, with the last check being just before the pit entrance). These checks continue until two consecutive die rolls fall into the same weather range (either dry or rain), after which the weather stays in that state until the end of the race. Until that second-in-a-row roll, the weather switches (if necessary) to match the latest roll, or stays the same if the latest result falls in the "variable" range (although this also zeros the count for two-in-a-row).

Rain Effects: (adjust the chance of the event happening)

+1 on collision checks
-1 on engine damage checks
+1 on road-holding checks

Movement

Cars move in order of position, leading car first. The following points are considered when deciding whether one car is "ahead" of another:

if two tied cars are in different track sections (one in a straight, the other in a corner), the car in the leading section of track moves first;
a car on the inside of the current or next curve moves before a tied car on the outside;
a car on the track section(s) adjacent to the pits moves before any car(s) in the pit lane;
all cars in pit lane move before any cars stopped in a pit; and
cars stopped in a pit move in order of least number of movement points required to exit the pit.

Movement is done in the following sequence:

The owner of the car determines the base number of movement points which the car will have to expend this turn.
This number may be adjusted by a number of optional effects (e.g. expending an Engine Point, taking the benefit of Soft Tires and/or a High Wing), thus determining the car's "voluntary" movement.
All "penalty" movement (due to Rain, Road-Holding and/or Bodywork Damage, etc.) is assessed at one time based on the car's position when it has completed all of its "voluntary" movement.

For instance, a car in the rain with zero Bodywork Points which ended its move in the last space of a corner would gain four more movement points (and have to pay for a four-point corner overshoot) even though the Bodywork penalty alone would be enough to move the car into the following straight. Generally, the effects of one penalty cannot be used to gain a benefit or reduce the effect of a different penalty.

Lane changes within a corner are allowed as long as they follow the arrows which are printed within each corner space. A car moving within a straight must move each game turn in the most direct manner possible from its starting space to its end-of-turn space; this will generally restrict a car to at most two lane changes per move on a straight, unless some lanes are obstructed by other cars. Debris does NOT block a lane. Zig-zag lane changes may not be used in order to move a car fewer spaces than it would otherwise be able to travel. In all cases moves most follow the shortest possible route in number of spaces.

Cornering

In order to pass through a corner without penalty, a car must end its turn within the boundaries of the corner the number of times specified within the yellow flag. A car may reduce the required number of turns by one, in which case it pays a penalty in Tire Points determined by the number of movement points it expended that turn beyond the corner boundary; a car loses one Tire Point per point of overshoot, and a car with Soft Tires loses two Tire Points per point of overshoot. A car which fails to spend even the reduced number of turns in a corner, or which enters a second corner without stopping in the previous one, crashes and is out of the race.

A car spins out if a cornering penalty requires it to expend one more Tire Point than it has remaining. The car loses any Tire Points which it did have, and is faced backwards in its final movement space. Next turn it is faced forwards again and moves away in 1st gear.

A car crashes and is out of the race if it is required to expend two or more Tire Points more than it has remaining. The crashed car does not leave any debris behind on the track.

Blocking

Use the rules in the rulebook with this addition:

If the car is eliminated it leaves debris in its final space.

Collisions

A car which ends its move within a corner must check for a collision with each car in an adjacent space also in the corner. Two adjacent cars each roll 1d20, and a result equal to or less than the corner number (the number in the yellow flag) indicates the loss of one Bodywork Point for that car which leaves debris in that square. A car which is required to lose a Bodywork Point when it has none left leaves debris in its space and is eliminated from the race, and if none of the adjacent cars lost a Bodywork Point in the same check they must check again, with the lowest roll losing one Bodywork Point.

Zero Bodywork penalty - If a car has lost all its Bodywork Points its movement each turn is adjusted; if it has already completed the required number of stops within the current or most recent corner the final movement point is expended without producing any movement for the car, and otherwise (if it has NOT completed the required number of stops for the current corner) its move is increased by one movement point. (Generally this means that a car will lose a space of movement on a straight, but gain a space in a corner; however a car overshooting a corner will still have to take an extra space.)

A Debris marker is placed in a car's space whenever it loses:

a Bodywork Point,
takes Engine Damage due to a failed check, or
is eliminated due to Bodywork damage or Swerving.

A car may receive Road-Holding damage due to moving into a space which contain debris. A car which moves into that space must check with a 1d20 roll: a result of "1" - "4" ("1" - "5" during Rain) means that the car loses a Road-Holding Point. A car which is required to lose a Road-Holding Point when it has none left is eliminated from the race.

Zero Road-Holding penalty - As with Bodywork Points, a car with no Road-Holding Points has its movement adjusted exactly as for the complete loss of Bodywork Points. If both Bodywork and Road-Holding Points have been reduced to zero, the car's movement is adjusted by two movement points instead of one.

A car's move is not complete until after all collision checks caused by its move are complete. If its last point of Bodywork or Road-Holding is lost in the last space of a car's move, it must still immediately make the additional penalty move.

Engine Damage

As per the normal rules, except that only the car currently moving must roll and the car is only eliminated when the number of engine points goes below zero.

A player may voluntarily use up a car's Engine Points in order to increase a turn's effective movement die roll. One Engine Point may be expended (per turn) in order to increase a movement. The amount is dependent on the gear the car is in.

Gear Extra Movement

1st or 2nd 1

3rd or 4th 2

5th or 6th 3

Tires

Use the rules in the rule books.

Pit Stops

Pit lane may only be entered by a car which will make a pit stop. Any time a car could possible enter the pit lane in the current gear it is in, he most announce whether he intends to or not. At that point the play may not shift up a gear to move into pit lane unless he is in a gear below fourth. If by shifting up the player could enter the pit lane he may not. If the player does not roll high enough to enter the pit lane he may change his mind on the next turn following the above rules.

There is no restriction on the number of cars which may occupy a space in pit lane at one time; pit lane is considered to be infinitely wide. A car may only stop in its particular pit area, multiple cars may stop in the pit at the same time. When you enter your pit area all unused movement points are lost. The player must choose been between a quick pit-stop or a normal one.

A quick pit-stop can only replace 4 points of tires (not changing tire type nor does it refreash soft tires) and then goes to step 1 and rolls 1d20. On a 1-10 make a 3rd gear move immediately (the car is in third gear at this point). On 11-20 move out next turn in 4th gear.

A normal pit-stop replaces all tires points and can do repairs. A car that does a normal pit-stop without repairs will leave the pit on the next turn in 4th gear or less. A player make use two pit crews to speed up the pit-stop. If he does this he will roll 1d20 as if the pit-stop was a quick one.

If replacing 1 point of Bodywork or Road Holding the player will roll on the next turn to leave the pit as if the stop were a quick one. A player replacing 2 points will roll to leave the pit the turn after next.

Pit Crews have the following effects:

One quality Pit Crew chip can be used to reroll a pit roll. (Only one reroll is allowed.)
Two Pit Crew chips can be used to remove one lost turn. This means you could repair 1 point of damage if you had 2 pit crew points and still roll to leave the pits on the same turn. A bad roll could only be avoided if you had a third pit crew point however.

Driver points may not be used for Pit Rolls.

Driver Injury

The condition of the driver must be checked whenever a car is eliminated from the race. One d20 is rolled (add 3 to the roll if the car was eliminated due to Engine Damage), and if the result is greater than or equal to the car's current gear number the driver is uninjured. Otherwise, a second d20 roll is made:

Driver Injury Result (d20):

If the number rolled is less than the gear number, the driver cannot race for remainder of the season. In this case a final d20 roll is made, and if this is also less than the gear number the driver is killed in the crash.
If the number rolled is between the gear number and 10 (inclusive), the driver misses 1 race due to injuries.
If the number rolled is between 11 and 15 (inclusive), the driver misses 2 races due to injuries.
If the number rolled is 15 or greater, the driver misses 3 races while he recuperates in hospital.

If a driver is killed or injured that team cannot bring in a replacement driver (and car) until the next race. If a driver is severely injured (removed for the rest of the season) or killed during a race, the race is stopped when all cars have had their move for the current game turn. The race is over, and if at least one full lap had already been completed full points are awarded according to current position; otherwise the current positions are used to determine the starting grid for a restarted race of one less lap, with only the Tire Points of each car restored to the original values.

Expending Driver Points

A player may choose to re-roll a car's die roll by expending one of that driver's Driver Points. Any roll made by that player and concerning that particular car or driver may be re-rolled. The second result must be accepted, even if it is worse than the initial roll, and cannot be re-rolled again.

Finishing Results

The first six cars to finish a race earn points towards the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. 10, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point are awarded respectively to the first through sixth place finishers towards both Championships.

The first three finishers earn 1/2 of a Driver Point each, and in addition everyone who finishes the race also earns 1/2 of a Driver Point. Driver Points earned in this way are lost when expended but may be carried from race to race until they are expended (unlike those which are purchased before the series begins with Car Construction Points, which are available for each race but may NOT be accumulated).

The series Drivers' Champion is the one who has won the most Drivers' Championship points when all the races have been completed, and the Constructors' Championship is the team with the most points. Ties are broken in favour of the driver or team which has the most first place finishes, or second place finishes if there is still a tie, etc.