Wrecksters

Wrecksters! started because my sister gave me a challenge.

She thought a lot of tabletop games were too complicated for younger kids, and she wanted to know if I could make one simple enough for fourth graders to understand and still fun enough that everybody else at the table would want to play it too.

So I made a free car game.

Not a racing simulator. Not a game where you calculate tire wear, fuel usage, suspension angles, or anything else that requires a spreadsheet. Wrecksters! is about going fast, making turns, hitting things, and occasionally realizing that maybe you should have slowed down before you got there.

The basic rules are simple. Your car has Speed, Handling, and Damage. You move it, you make turns, and when things go wrong, you deal with the results. Turning is handled with a simple template in 45-degree steps, so nobody has to guess angles or argue about whether somebody cheated a turn by a few degrees.

You can slow down and make things easier on yourself, or you can keep pushing the car and hope it works out. Most of the fun comes from people deciding they can probably get away with one more stupid decision.

Sometimes they can. Usually they can’t.

There are two main ways to play. Race Mode is exactly what it sounds like. Get around the track and cross the finish line before everybody else. The problem is that everybody else is trying to do the same thing, and cars have a habit of getting in each other’s way.

Wreck Mode uses the exact same core rules, but you forget about the finish line and put everybody in an arena. The last Wreckster still running wins. I didn’t want players learning an entirely different game just because they moved from a track to an arena, so the movement, turning, handling, collisions, and Damage all work the same way.

The game is meant to be easy to teach and quick to get on the table, especially for kids who have never played a tabletop game before. That does not mean there are no decisions. You still have to judge your speed, decide when to back off, work out whether you can make a turn, and figure out whether smashing into the car beside you is worth whatever happens next.

Wrecksters! also does not require a pile of expensive miniatures or terrain. Use toy cars, miniature cars, printed cars, or whatever you already have. Make a track out of tape, cardboard, terrain, or anything else that works. The point was always to make something people could actually play without needing another hobby just to prepare for the hobby.

My sister’s original challenge was basically to make it simple enough that kids would not get buried in rules.

That turned out to be a pretty good rule for the whole game.

You need some cars, some dice, a track, and at least one person who is absolutely certain they can make the next turn without slowing down.

That person is usually about to wreck.