The year is 1976. Disco lives, afros are huge, and the US of A is 200 years old. What better time for a coast-to-coast road race with the new d20 Modern vehicle rules?
Drawing on sources like The Dukes of Hazzard, Cannonball Run movies, and the Activision computer game Interstate ‘76, Thunderball Rally is the third d20 ‘mini-game’ to be included in the new Dungeon/Polyhedron two-in-one format. Previous outings have given us ‘Shadow Chasers’, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-like campaign setting that showed off the new d20 Modern character classes; and a reworked D&D3e version of the classic Spelljammer setting with a spaceship combat system that worked something like a cut-down version of the Star Wars Revised system. Now it’s the turn of the d20 Modern vehicle rules.
The Setting
The basic concepts of the setting are simple: it’s 1976, and the PCs are participants in a road-race from Manhattan, NY, to Long Beach, CA. Racers can do whatever they deem necessary to win the race, trophy and $500,000 prize, so long as they use they use their own vehicle, and don’t attract undue attention to the race. The race is sponsored by the Sicilian mob, and there’s no second prize.
The main action and interaction of the game will happen along the way, in the form of encounters with other racers, the cops, and people the PCs meet on the road; natural or unnatural hazards; and getting the PCs and their vehicle to California under their own steam. There are a good number of example encounters to get you started and spark all sorts of other ideas. GMs are encouraged to steal shamelessly from other sources, and a short-list of movies to check out for such inspiration is given at the end. It’s recommended that players at least watch Cannonball Run before playing.
The way the equipment section is written, there’s also a lot of scope for vehicle combat in a 70s road-warrior style, no doubt inspired by games like Interstate ’76 and Vigilante 8. A Dukes of Hazzard game is also eminently possible with just the rules presented here. Another interesting idea might be to add in fantasy races from standard D&D (easily done, thanks to the d20 system’s modularity), for a Shadowrun-esque 70s game (Shadowfist is heading in this direction with an upcoming expansion). On top of that, the references to Every Which Way But Loose in the artwork and the movie’s inclusion in the ‘Filmography’ virtually beg for rules for orangutan PCs…
Interestingly enough, there’s also a surprising amount of historical information on the period included here. Most of it’s in chapter 6, ‘Hitting the Streets’, but there are little tid-bits scattered throughout.
This setting is screaming out to be used by a GM immersed in the spirit of the movies it’s inspired by. Using appropriate theme music is very, very highly recommended too.
Style and Presentation
This game setting certainly has style. As you’d expect in Polyhedron/Dungeon, the art and layout are top-notch, with only a few minor flaws. My personal favorite pieces of art are the PC class portraits on pages 24, 26 and 28, and the picture at the bottom of page 23. All of these are by an artist whose signature I’m afraid I can’t decipher, but his/her realistic style certainly works for me. The rest of the art is nice, but most of it is cartoony, and one or two pieces even seem inappropriately so. I know the cartoon style isn’t for everyone, so there’s the warning.
Provided in the vehicle combat chapter are some very clean-looking vehicle templates (pgs. 53-58) to copy and use with a battle-map or similar. One picture is provided for each vehicle for which rules are given. I would have much preferred these on the cardstock sheet included with the magazine, but I can understand the limitations of the split format. Still, it would’ve been nice to have these neat vehicles instead of the very generic fantasy art on the monster tokens printed instead.
The layout is, for the most part, easy to read, laid out in a standard three-column magazine format, rather than the more traditional two columns used for many RPG books (and the Dungeon portion of the magazine), and with page headers and footers featuring a very period stars-and-stripes design. Side-boxes are picked out in an orange/yellow gradient, and there are little silhouettes scattered amongst the text that add a nice mud-flap-chic touch. My one problem with the layout is that sometimes the faded-out US map used as a background on every page sometimes isn’t faded-out quite enough. This occasionally distracts from the text, and makes it a little difficult to read.
Rules and System
Thunderball Rally uses the d20 system, as outlined in the D&D3e Player’s Handbook and Game Master’s Guide. These books are listed as essential, though I seemed to get along fine with just my Star Wars Revised book. Since many of the rules in here are taken from the upcoming d20 Modern, I expect you could use that just as easily.
Now, I’m not a fan of the d20 system as a generic, good-for-everything rules system. However, there are certain styles of play for which it is appropriate. The style of play intended for Thunderball Rally seems to be one of them.
The PC classes seem fair enough, however there’s the usual imbalance in number of feats available to certain classes. This seems to be balanced by the skill points and other class features available to other classes, so it all evens out in the end. Character creation is simpler than that for a D&D3e character, without several of the aspects used in that game, but there’s still a lot of scope for creating interesting and entertaining PCs. However, there are only three PC classes presented. This seemed to me like a big limitation at first, but then I figured ‘Hey, how many different classes would I really want in a cross-country road-race?’. If a creative GM or player can come up with something not covered by the three classes here that would be appropriate to the game, it’s relatively easy to knock up a Prestige Class that covers it.
There are no penalties whatsoever for multi-classing. This is a welcome change for me, and I sincerely hope to see it carried through into the final version of d20 Modern. This seems to be following a trend toward broader base classes and more opportunity for multi-classing in newer d20 material, which will add a lot more flexibility to the system.
Defense replaces Armor Class in Thunderball Rally, calculated by the formula 10 class bonus Dex bonus size bonus anything else. Again, this is much like SW:R.
New to the d20 system, and presumably to be used in d20 Modern when it is released, are Action Points. These seem to be a less effective but more numerous equivalent to Force points in SW:R. Characters start with 1D4 1, 2 or 3 Action Points, and these can be spent to affect attack rolls, skill or ability checks, or saving throws, each one adding 1D6 to all the PC’s d20 rolls for the rest of the round. It’s unclear whether this D6 roll is made for each d20 roll, or made once when the Action point(s) are spent and applied for the rest of the round. There’s also a mechanism for using Action Points to assist another PC’s actions.
A few new skills are included to allow PCs to drive the vehicles that are the game’s centerpiece, make and use various explosives, repair their vehicles and give medical treatment to each other. There’s also a list of new Knowledge specialties that work just like the basic ones. The rest of the skills PCs might need are in the PHB, and there’s a list of those that are class skills for each class.
There are a decent number of new feats to cover driving and navigating, modern weaponry, and one or two miscellaneous useful ones. Among the other useful ones are Circuit Hero and Circuit Heel, similar to Fame and Infamy from Star Wars Revised (and more on that in a moment); Influence, which works like the SW:R version; and Extra Action Points, which is just what it sounds like. Any Dukes of Hazzard fan will also want the Window Dive feat, in order to make best use of the General Lee. As with skills, the rest are in the PHB.
Thunderball Rally makes use of the Reputation rules as detailed in SW:R. PCs have a Reputation bonus that gets applied to certain social checks at the GM’s discretion, and certain things will add to or reduce the PCs fame. Characters can be either famous or infamous (famous for good stuff, or famous for bad stuff, basically), or just plain well-known. Notes on situational differences in the character’s bonus are also given. This is definitely a great addition to this style of game, as a crack driver could become renowned for winning races, or universally scorned by the people of a small town for causing massive property damage when he last came by.
Personal combat rules are just like D&D3e, with a few additions: Attacks of Opportunity with modern ranged weapons can be made against any opponent within 10ft. of a character, so long as the opponent is within their field of vision and firing into a melee incurs a -4 penalty. Handguns also draw Attacks of Opportunity from opponents not targeted by the weapon, while 'longarms' (rifles, etc.) are just like normal ranged weapons, and draw AoOs from everyone. There are also rules to cover single-shot weapons, autofire, reloading and concealing weapons. The weapon listings themselves are brief, though the listings for grenades and grenade-like weapons include dynamite, Molotov cocktails, fragmentation and smoke grenades, as well as the dreaded white phosphorous variety.
The vehicle and vehicle combat rules are truly the heart of this game. The details are extensive, though they will almost certainly be expanded in the final release of d20 Modern. Numerous stunts are detailed, including the mandatory ‘bootlegger reverse’ and ‘up on two wheels’. The ‘rolling screen’ stunt, allowing a car to hide behind another vehicle will no doubt elicit memories from numerous films and TV shows, while those who’ve seen The Fast and the Furious will want to try out the ‘check the axle’ stunt: driving under the trailer of a big rig. There’s a section on stopping a car you’re not actually inside (by any means necessary), as well as ramming and collision rules, pursuit rules and vehicle weaponry.
A large number of descriptions and stats for different types of vehicles are given, ranging from Economy Cars – Volkswagen Beetles and AMC Gremlins – to Muscle Cars – Ford Mustangs and Dodge Chargers. A few of the more exotic vehicles, like armored cars, limousines, and police cruisers and interceptors are also covered. Personally, I would have loved to stats for the Shelby Cobra, but that’s mainly because I’m a Gunsmith Cats fan. Fortunately, rules are also given for converting other vehicles to the game based on their real world statistics. This is truly a godsend, as there are hundreds of different vehicles players will want to use in the game, and many won’t be content to use generic stats for the basic type of the vehicle.
Vehicle equipment and weapons are described in detail, with a variety of accessories. As mentioned above, many of these seem obviously inspired by computer games, and some, such as a turret-mount for a vehicle weapon, are just impractical in most realistic modern games (“No officer, I didn’t know mounting an autocannon turret on my van was illegal…”).
Finally, GM notes and rules for attracting the attention of the authorities are included, as well as a way to determine the winner of the race. This last seems very much like a side-note to the rest of the game, and well it should be. This game is very much about showing that the journey is often far more important than the destination.
Thunderball Rally will serve as excellent inspiration to anyone considering a retro-70s game of any kind, as well as a good introduction to the new d20 Modern vehicle rules. It almost seems like there’s more content crammed into these 42 pages (not counting advertising) than there really should be. This is great value for anyone who can’t wait for the release of d20 Modern to start their free-wheeling hi-octane motorhead campaign, and will also appeal to anyone wanting a light-hearted alternative to most modern (or near-modern) games. Anyone who is also on the lookout for good D&D3e adventures should definitely pick this up, as the combined value of Thunderball Rally and the Dungeon content is well worth the cover price.
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