(Double-Click to read) To My Fellow Red, White & Blue Racers,

Thanks for checking out this little experiment of mine for the wildly enjoyable Red, White & Blue Racin'! After completing 3 full seasons of stock car action, I started brainstorming about ways I could spice up the drama over the course of multiple, continuous seasons of stock car racing. Some of you dedicated and hardcore PlaayGames guys may notice some similarities from other Plaay board games in this idea. I thought of teams and drivers building up their reputations over time and thought: what could I use to portray these changes? From drivers like Jimmie Johnson rising from little-known rookie to becoming a 7-time Champion or guys like Morgan Shepherd slowly fading out of the spotlight over time. And seeing teams like Hendrick Motorsports starting as a small operation and becoming a powerhouse organization, I wanted to find a way to replicate this in some fashion on the tabletop.

Well, the first thing I thought of were the TV and grudge grades from Plaay's Face to the Mat. The concept of the wrestlers' changing popularity and behaviors over the course of multiple events inspired me to try and apply that to RW&B! As a diehard NASCAR fanatic, who has watched religiously for the better part of 20 years, I have seen race car drivers as well as teams in real life both gain and lose notoriety over the course of the years. Stock car racing is very much like wrestling to a certain degree and is a sport of momentum. So, I went to work writing some notes. To make a long story short, I came up with these charts as well as implemented a simple economic system that will also help (or hurt) teams' and drivers' growth.

This is the project I have come up with. It is the concept I have so far and it is open to improvements or adjustments. I wanted to be able to share this with the Plaay Community if anybody wanted to try to add something to their RW&B experience. There are no strict rules or guidelines to use this and you can make your own personal tweaks to make this fun for you! You can create your own drivers, teams, grades, points systems and budgets. What I did personally, I created driver and team cards using plain index cards you can pick up at any office supply store. I cut the driver cards to about the same size as the traditional RW&B cards. On the driver cards, the only thing I added was a place for a TV Grade. For the team cards, I noted the team's name, its bank account, its reputation grade and the cars in its stable. I also gave the cars their own separate qualities, gas pedal ratings, brake pedal ratings and qualifying trophies. Just to add a little parity to the game. If you've watched NASCAR, you'll know that some cars are better than others, and will sometimes improve the performance of the guy who's driving it. Some perfect, present examples of this would be drivers like Matt DiBenedetto or Aric Almirola. When in below-average equipment, they were not competitive drivers, but when they were given an opportunity with better-funded, higher-quality equipment, they became playoff-caliber drivers. I wanted to simulate this by giving cars their own separate qualities. To decide if I was looking at the card of the driver or the card of their racecar, I stole a decider die from History Maker Baseball to make the decision for me. It has worked very well in creating a more in-depth racing experience!

So, to sum this up, if you choose to give these charts a try, I would like to thank you for your interest! You can add the reputation and TV grades to your already-existing RW&B cards or you can do what I did and create your very own set of drivers and teams! How you use these charts is up to you, but what I do is roll two d6 dice in the "offseason," in between racing seasons for each team and apply the chart results to what the team rolled. Once I make those adjustments, I commence the new season. Think of this as the pre-game or pre-tournament charts from History Maker Baseball or History Maker Golf except for RW&B Racin'! Feel free to use these charts however you feel is the most enjoyable way and if you have any suggestions to improve this concept, feel free to email me at gojeffgo@optonline.net. Make sure you edit the email subject to include "Red, White & Blue Racing," so that I know you are contacting me for questions or ideas about these charts.



Again, thank you for your interest and remember to keep the rubber side on the asphalt!


Sincerely,
Ryan M.