Thunder Road: Vendetta

Taking old-style games and giving them a visual and mechanical overhaul is what publisher Restoration Games specialises in, and here they turn their attention to the 80’s racing shoot-em-up Thunder Road. In Thunder Road: Vendetta, there’s two ways to win: make it over the finish line, or be the last racer standing.

The race-track is made of a series of boards: there are only three out on the table, but if the leading car would ever make if off the front board, the board furthest back is removed (along with any racers on it!) the two remaining boards slide back and a new one is added to the front. So in theory the racetrack is as long as you ever need it to be, functioning like a kind of cardboard travelator.

Each player has three cars (small, medium, large), three matching dashboards, and four dice. At the start of each round everyone rolls all of their dice and then everyone takes turns assigning dice, one at a time, to their dashboards and moving the corresponding car that number of spaces along the track. If there’s an opponent car in front of you when your movement is complete, you can shoot at it: rolling a special die to see if you hit, and doing damage if so. Anyone taking damage reveals a damage chit, which may send them reeling across the track – or off it. Any vehicle taking two damage is rendered inoperable: you cannot move it until it’s repaired: turn the vehicle to face backwards and flip the dashboard face-down. Finally, dotted around the track are possible obstacles that you can risk hitting, or go around. Going around slows you down, of course, especially if your cars enter the muddy parts of the track: each space here costs two movement instead of one!

As cars are weaving about the track, firing at each other and perhaps sliding on oil or hitting wrecks, they may also – accidentally or otherwise – collide. This is called slamming and there are special dice to deal with it. We won’t explain it here but it’s a very simple procedure that can occasionally backfire on the person who caused it!

We mentioned inoperable cars needing repairs, so how do you go about that? As previously mentioned, you’ve three cars but four dice. Your additional die can be spent either coasting – move a car of your choice a single space, regardless of the die value – or as a command. You can only command once per round, and happily the four options at your disposal are listed on the command dashboard: any numbered die can be spent sending your chopper into attack someone (and the chopper can go above any empty spot on the track!). If your die is numbered 1-3 you can spend it as nitro to boost the movement of one of your cars. If it’s 3-5 you can drift: ignoring a first slam upon moving and wiggle through traffic instead of hitting it. And you can spend a 6 die to remove a damage chit from a car: this is the only way to get an inoperable car running again!

There’s one or two other things to consider – like how if all your movement is on tarmac you get some bonus movement! – but that is more or less the game. As soon as the first player is eliminated – all their cars destroyed – a finish line is added to the track, and the first player to reach it wins. Failing that, if there is only one player still in the race, they win instantly!