One of the things I like about X-Wing is the simplicity and elegance of the maneuver templates. This got me thinking of some new ways these could be used to give a different gaming experience in the form of a racing variant. Here the emphasis is on speed and outmaneuvering your opponents around a course to cross the finish line first.

In keeping with the Star Wars theme it will be loosely based on pod racing dynamics as seen in Episode I. All this means is that as the pilot you control speed, and how much you want to overheat your engines to go even faster! I also wanted to use as many of the game components in the core set as well as the miniatures themselves to stand in as their atmospheric racing equivalents. The setting therefore could be based on demilitarized versions of the ships, stripped of weapons and shields. Instead they have repulsorlift drives that propel them at high speeds a few feet above the ground while still performing in a similar way to their space traveling counterparts except they have traction and can lose control at high speeds.

In this first post I will take a look at creating the raw attributes of the racers based on their X-Wing stat cards. The key attributes are:

Speed

Acceleration

Braking

Boosting

Handling

Cooling

Repairs

Damage

Cooling and Repairs refer to onboard systems that are used to control engine overheating and some self-repair mechanisms that can be used during the race. The other attributes should need no explanation!

Speed

Each racer has two speed categories: cruise speed and flank speed and these are both determined by using their maneuver dial.

Cruise Speed = the maximum straight forward speed on their dial. Add +1 if they have the Barrel Roll icon. (K-turns do not count for this)

Flank Speed = the number of different green maneuvers on their dial (not counting Left and Right versions separately) + their Cruise Speed.

Acceleration

All racer's start with a value of 2, they receive +1 if they have the Boost icon.

Braking

This is equal to their "Hull" value.

Boosting

This is equal to their "Attack" value.

Handling

This is equal to their "Agility" value, they receive +1 if they have the Evade icon.

Cooling

This is equal to their "Shield" value +1.

Repairs

All racer's start with a value of 1, add +1 for each of the following: Astromech, System or Target Lock icons.

Damage

This is equal to their "Hull" value.

Using these simple rules we can create the racing version of the ship designs. Let's look at two likely candidates: the A-Wing and the Interceptor.

A-Wing

Flank Speed 11

Cruise Speed 5

Acceleration 3

Braking 2

Boosting 2

Handling 4

Cooling 3

Repairs 2

Damage 2

TIE Interceptor

Flank Speed 10

Cruise Speed 6

Acceleration 3

Braking 3

Boosting 3

Handling 4

Cooling 1

Repairs 1

Damage 3

If we add up these numbers then they both total 34 points and overall they both have fairly similar types of performance as you might expect. You may also have noticed that both can potentially move at speeds far beyond the normal limitations of a single maneuver template and this will be covered in another post. In the meantime you may like to determine the attributes of some of the other ships. At the moment the focus is on small ships but it may be possible to use large ships with some minor adjustments.

A round of play will be divided into a Planning Phase, Movement Phase and an End Phase.

Planning Phase

In X-Wing a maneuver is secretly selected and assigned to a ship. These are then activated in ascending order of Pilot Skill. A similar system will be used for this racing variant but with some important differences.

Instead of assigning a maneuver dial each racer secretly selects their speed for the round. This will be based on their previous round's speed which can then be modified by using either their Acceleration or Braking attributes.

Racers are then assigned an action if they have no stress. These will be either focus, evade or a new one called repair.

The order of activation is determined once the speed of each racer is revealed with the following initiative priorities:

• Highest Speed
• Highest Pilot Skill
• Highest Maximum Speed
• Lowest Points Value of Racer

Example: An A-Wing and Interceptor reveal their speed as 8 this round and both have a PS of 5. The A-Wing will activate first as it has the higher flank speed.

Movement Phase

The speed of the racer will determine how many maneuver templates can be used. A player must declare what templates they will use before any are placed.

Speed 1 to 3: 1 template

Speed 4 to 6: 1 or 2 templates

Speed 7 or more: 2 or 3 templates

The following restrictions are used:

• No template may be used more than once in the same move.
• Once a template is placed it cannot be changed.
• Each template must be placed in series aligned with the previous template.
• All templates must add up to the assigned speed.

Here is an example of a move of a speed 9 A-Wing:

This creates a new dynamic and puts the emphasis on the player controlling the racer to correctly guide their racer around the course. The types of maneuvers attempted will not necessarily be automatically successful. Attempting tight turns at high speed is hazardous after all!

Having the order of activation based primarily on speed also creates uncertainty in who will activate first.

All maneuver templates are divided into three different classes:

• All straights are green maneuvers.
• All banks are white maneuvers.
• All turns are red maneuvers.

Red maneuvers give stress according to the following formula:

Racer's Speed - Red Maneuver Value = Stress

Example: A TIE Interceptor moving at speed 7 performs a 3 left turn. They will receive 4 stress performing this maneuver.

Racer's can roll a number of green maneuver dice equal to their Handling value. They can spend focus and evade tokens while making these Handling checks. For each evade result they will reduce the stress received by a red maneuver by 1.

Likewise green maneuvers can remove stress. They will reduce the stress by a number equal to their own value. So the longer the straight the more stress can be removed.

There are more detailed rules for potential control loss and making passing maneuvers but for the moment I think I have at least given you some clues as to what I have been working on.

The original inspiration came from a topic I saw on this forum regarding a pod racing set of rules. Once I saw this I was intrigued and then when I saw that there were some very nice pre-painted models for these at a compatible size with X-Wing I decided to give this a go myself.

I have now finished these rules, or at least I am now up to the playtesting stage. At present I have made up rules for:

• 19 unique pod racers.
• 20 different modifications
• 10 Skill upgrades
• 8 "Dirty Trick" upgrades
• 33 custom damage/critical cards