Let's talk Dark Future

Let's talk about Dark Future! Why is Jeff White so obsessed with it? What's the gist of gameplay and whatnot? Surprisingly BGG doesn't have a lot of info on the game.

I think someone here said they had a pdf of the rules.

VonTush wrote: I think someone here said they had a pdf of the rules.

Impossible.

I just pulled up the pdf I had kicking around (not one sourced from Pete) and it is 220 pages long!

Now, it has the rules for White Line Fever and then a half dozen or so articles/rules so it is fluffed up with a lot. Is it really that good of a game? The most I know about the game is that I've opened the pdf, flipped through some pages but that's about it.

Is the game really 220 pgs good?

Many reasons why I love it:

* Cool GW art (Carl 'Thrud' Critchlow!)
* Cool setting (the novels by Kim Newman are great)
* Cool 20mm models that are easy to paint
* Plays with hot wheel cars that are easy to convert and paint (and cheap!)
* Has crazy GW charts to roll on - a must!
* Vehicle builds and customization
* Vehicles take damage by checking off boxes and certain boxes reduced speed/weapons/cause crits/etc. - I love this pencil and paper mechanic and miss it. Silent Death is similar.
* Easy campaign system
* Easy to build scenarios
* Besides Thunderroad (too light for me), it actually represents the road warrior flick. All vehicles barreling down the same direction while jacking each other. Most other car combat games are in arenas and move more like tanks....pass. This is straight ahead highway dueling, Toe-Cutter!

My favorite game to scratch build and paint for, but my second favorite GW minis game to play (after BB, but before Mord)

All around, it just fires my imagination and I simply dig it.

Is an actual base set needed to play? For the board sections and templates?

It uses cardboard tracks though? How is movement determined? Is it in inches like a minis game or move via spaces like a board game?

Do you actually need the pedestrian minis? Do dudes get out of their cars and run around and fight?

All you really need are the road pieces, particularly the corners. If you can replicate those you're golden.

The spin out template is easy to reproduce as is the range ruler...but that range ruler is just so cool!

ka-pow! Boom!


I like to play DF in a series of three scenarios and the winner of the last scenario is the winner of the mini campaign/session. as players win each scenario they get a little bump.

Scenarios I made and dug where essentially:

1) Graboid Hunt - Think Tremors. A few of these critters would appear on the road in place of, say a dead tree terrain piece, and the first to kill x many would win.
2) Death Race - create an oval loop and the first to complete three laps wins - every good post apoc setting needs some sort of sportevent (thunderdome, snake vs slag in efny) for the wasteland muties to cheer on.
3) Take out the tanker. Tanker appears after so many road sections and the car to take it out wins.

I usually have a player choose an op car or an equivalent number of renegades and/or bikes and not straight up ops v renegades.

Movement is on the road spaces like a boardgame. Again, think Thunderroad. if you're so many boards behind you'll be left. You can substitute counting spaces for the range ruler (like the throw template in BB).

If your car gets wrecked you can get out on foot and shoot at others as they drive by (until they leave you behind). Or like in the circus maximus type scenario above there's plenty of room for pedestrians to move around and engage with vehicles as they fly by around the track. It's awesome.

Sounds cool. Now I'll totally have to dig around and try and find a copy of the rules.

How would you rate the rules difficulty to the game? Pretty on par with the other Golden Age GW Games? Meaning core is pretty simple and the detail is in the chrome and exceptions/special rules?

I've never played Thunderroad.

Is it 220pgs hard? No.

In fact, you can do without the WD issues (campaign racing, pedestrians, etc) and White Line Fever (trikes, sidecars, new weapons, etc) and the core book is standard GW of the era fare. lots of fluff, art, pictures, charts, charts, charts.

As far as the gameplay, I gotta be honest, you don't make many decisions. You're pretty much always moving forward so: Speed up, slow down, swerve left, swerve right, stay straight....maybe do a quick 180. So, there's not many more decisions than thunderroad.

Its classic GW 'narrative driven'. So, you make your decision then start rolling on charts. Hit in the front left...check the front left car chart, result of driver being hit...roll on the driver chart, result that driver lost control...break out the spin template...

So where a game like BB where the time is spent on the front end of a turn (the player takes into account several factors and having plenty of decisions to make) and the result is quick to follow (a die roll)...Dark Future is the opposite. Make one of a few decisions...then start checking charts. So, you've got to be into that sort of thing.

So, if you have the charts out and handy you're good. The only other thing that would help speed up play (like it needs it) is putting to memory the initiative ranges. Basically, cars move in order of speed ranges, so someone needs to call these out.

I could see the reasons the game didn't do well might be:

1) GW couldn't continue to make sales on models because players went straight to toy cars.
2) Players probably found the actual choices too few to make and the game felt more random than any sort of intentional decisions. Why put in all the work for so little 'game'?

Those are my guesses, but as a guy who liked DQ and Talisman I'm fine taking a ride. Getting to do a little post-apoc modeling is a bonus.

So, I could see the argument that there may be some 'better' games of this type out there, but for me, this has the total package and is a lot of fun.

Edit: maybe the game did fine and simply ran its course... I have no idea to be honest. I was just speculating on why it doesn't seem to have the traction of say a manowar.

We played more Car Wars, but I did love the miniatures in the game and the inspirational White Dwarf modelling articles.