‘A paint scheme typical of the Knights of Darkness, aNorth Carolina gang which clas (on their vehicles. This intorceptor belongs to descent from a number of focal ritualistic 5 “Cajun Jack” de Boursin, @ Louisiane r ‘secrot societies. The preterance fora single river tured Op working from New Or {arge weapon over # aumber of smal ‘The smilartiesto racing colours are obvious. is typical Paramiltary touches are favoured by many outlaw gangs, especially in remote areas. Camouflage paint schemes. and gung-ho slogans are a common combination. This ‘example comes trom the Spiders from Mars, ‘operating in western Iowa, ‘This veteran bikes typical of many lovingly-m used by gangs and law-abiding cizene ake. Athough the ‘on both sides of Plasmet fairings bk itso fe unarmed, the rider will almost always be both protection as well a5 reduced drag: typical wall-armed and able to handle most kinds of trouble. mament is twin machine-guns.> CONTENTS ~ SUMMARY, TERMINOLOGY << ‘A game turn in Dark Future only represents a few seconds of ‘realtime’, and because of the pace of the game, most encounters will be over in around a dozen turns. But even within the limited time span of a turn, an awful lot can happen and vehicles can manoeuvre and fire several times. To simulate this in detail, te turn is further sub-divided into phases. There are a maximum of six phases to a turn ‘depending on the speed of the fastest vehicle (see p12) = the faster the cars are moving, the more phases there are in @ tum (up to a maximum of six). In each phase, ‘any vehicle in play may move forwards, provided itis going fast enough. ‘As well as moving forwards during a phase, drivers are allowed to perform one action. Actions are required to manoeuvre, adjust speed and fire, Turns ate always at least one phase long. In the unlikely event of all the vehicles in play being stationary, the turn still lasts for one phase, - ORDER Each turn consists of up to six phases. Each phase should be executed in the following sequence. Phasing Die The caller sets the phasing dio ‘Actions and Moves Each driver is allowed one action and, if they are going fast enough, a move, (see p12), TURN SEQUENCE ; ~~ @ —<_! THE PHASING DIE. ~= The large die provided with this set is used to record the phases in each turn. One player should be given the die. ‘This player is referred to as the caller and Is responsible {for seeing that the turn and phase sequencing rules are all observed. ‘The die is placed with ‘one’ uppermost for the tumn’s first phase. Once all vehicles have moved, taken hazard rolls, ‘and fired, the player with the die announces the end of the phase. The die should be turned over to ‘two’ and the second phase begins. The caller carries on overseeing the phases until the end of the turn, when the die Is reset to ‘one’ for the start of ‘the new tum’s first phase. Always keep the phasing die well out of reach during @ ‘phase, otherwise someone always picks it up and rolls it for a hit or @ hazard roll, People are like that, you know. OF PLAY = Drivers take their actions and moves in descendng order ‘of speed, in miles perhour (eg, a driver at 7Omph acts and moves before a driver at 66mph). The driver declares the action, moves and then executes the action before play moves onto the next fastest driver. Drivers take their actions and moves in the following sequence 11 The player declares which action the drivers going to use, Drivers are allowed one action per phase, and may choose from: Manoeuvre (p13), brake/accelorate (p16 & 16) ram (p17), shoot (p22), regain control (p17) and reverse (p17) 2 Provided the vehicle is going fast enough, it moves forwards and executes manoeuvres and brake! accelerate actions If the driver is braking or accelerating the vehicle's speed track should be adjusted immediately after the model has been moved. ‘The player now takes any hazard rolls required for the manoeuvres, driving round curves, and or suffering passive hits (see p30). TURN SEQUENCE 4. Ifthe driver has declared. shoot pessives action (and has neither panic breked nor ost control as a result of failing a hazard rll), he may now place passive markers, 1ce down on the track. 5 If the driver declared an ordinary shoot action he may ‘now fire (again, provided he has neither panic braked nor lost controll Drivers are not obliged to fire at this stage, they may stil change their mind and not fire. Drivers who do ‘choose to use the shoot action may check the fire ‘corridor and measure the range. Once they've started ‘checking the range and fire corridor, the driver is, ‘committed to fring. Target vehicles suffering damage or critical hits, are forced to take hazard rolls immediately Drivers of vehicles not going fast enough to move in the ‘current phase are allowed an action, again in descending ‘order of miles per hour. However they are restricted to using ‘shoot actions with direct fire weapons, or using smoke, S0 they ignore steps 2, 3 and 4 of the sequence above. Drivers of stationary vehicles (le, ones at Omph) are also allowed an action, although again they are only allowed to shoot direct fire weapons orlay smoke. When there are ‘two or more stationary vehicles, the drivers should roll a dice to determine the order in which they declare and take their actions. Endphase ‘After all drivers have taken their actions and moves, the caller declares the end of the phase. If there aren't any vehicles travelling fast enough to take a move in the next phase, the turn ends. The caller resets the die to 1, forphase ‘Tof the next turn. r= o > THE GRID = For your first few games, we suggest you lay out the track according to the diagrams given with the example Scenarios (p87-89). Initially, while you are stlllearning the rules, you will find it easier to conclude these games when one of the cars crosses the ‘finishing line. Once ‘you've got the hang of the basic mechanics, however, you Gan introduce the rules for track generation (p74). These Create a ‘rolling’ track -sections are removed from the back ‘and added to the front as the cars speed along, ‘The straight sections of track are marked with a grid of small rectangles called lanes. The lanes are divided at regular intervals into spaces. y LANES & SPACES eT J »| af —|—_} 4 a ~_—T —{ | 4 a | Ponce tt A Cars should be placed so they occupy two lanes in the same space. The diagram below shows a car on a straight Section - the shaded area is its contact zone, used for working out whether or not a manoeuvre results in a Collision of a crash (see p52). hh CONTAET ZONE a MOVEMENT ~« harm oranoeuie wuld reedtnaca contact zone a rear onto veiis cli focara ee ee caer as emia toes See ae ote thas ais erored ors ly Corre and bends nave a curved gr Care shoud til Se anal wat ney accu ens esas! the gre aoe a ea a soroe ogy dtnedanon he et gan tox one aie nee aan ee aera coon esky dace 5 ' p a q ad . & CARS ON ‘EVEN’ LANES. A ‘When a car is on @ pair of lanes with uneven spaces, it should use the dividing line on the outside for judging its position andits moves, The diagram shows @ car moving Onto the uneven lanes of a curve - the vehicle is, moved forwards to the dividing line on the the outer, right- hand side, vy . " + * 4 » + y+ x 7 t 4 fe. MoviNe ONTO UNEVEN LANES. a Dateline: AMERICA North America, 1996. The glorious United States of America. God's own country. Honest. Life here is not good. It’s fast and it's cheap, andithas a tendency to ‘turn real dangerous when you least expect it. But for the right people the rewards are immense. Think about it. Someone, somewhere, must be profiting from all the chaos. It is a time of heroes and anti. heroes, of upholders of the law and renegades from it. On theDECLARING ACTIONS = Before moving, each player must state which action they intend to use during the phase. ‘The rules on actions are semi-abstract. They represent the telatively short period of thinking time over any given tuen, ‘A turn represents only a few seconds: in such a time it 's very dificult to plan many actions oF react to new events. Only one action may be taken per phase. Drivers who have lost control of their vehicles cannot perform any actions at all - they are too busy trying to regain controll The ‘one action per phase’ rule has a lot of important implications. The first is, of course, that itis impossible to manoeuvre and fire in the same phase. ‘The complete range of possible actions and their effects is outlined below, and detailed in the relevant rules sections later in the book. There are seven different actions: Manoeuvre: either drift (ie, change lanes), or U-turn (ie, turn through 180°), ‘Accelerate: increase speed by up to the vehicle's current acceleration characteristic (p18) Brake: reduce speed by up to the vehicle's current braking characteristic (see p'6). Reverse: travel backwards without changing facing, Regain Control: attempt to keep the vehicle on the road and in the game! Ram: compulsory action when colliding with other vehicles or making an intentional sideswipe (see p17). Shoot: either fire at an opponent, or use a passive counter measure (mines, oil, smoke, etc. - see p22). ‘The player must state which action is going to be used before moving the model. Players can opt not to use any action at all. In this case the model simply moves forward, at a steady speed, Drivers declaring shoot actions must state whether they are shooting passives or ordinary weapons. Drivers shooting ordinary weapons must say which one they're going to use. Drivers deciaring accelerate or brake actions have to give the acceleration or braking in mph. Drivers declaring a manoeuvre must state Which one they are. going to attempt highways, Sanctioned Operatives pursue renegades from the new privatised justice. in the company boardrooms, computer jockeys and market terrorists plot takeovers and financial killings. In the shattered filth of the NoGo areas, black marketeers sell dreams and temporary freedom - for a price. The pleasures they sell are manufactured by the corporations, surreptitiously passed down the line from their secure Policed Zone factories. The addicted streetscum buyer feels he is in control. The black marketer with the tell-tale bulge in his coat believes he is in control. The middleman with the nervous tic is certain he is in control. SPEED FACTOR ‘The movement rules use a simplified system of measuring vehicle's speed - called its speed factor (SF). The speed factor of a vehicle equals its speed in miles per hour, divided by twenty and rounded up to the nearest whole number. ‘The following table summarises this rule: ~