Rallyman GT – First Thoughts
I have zero interest in motor racing. No judgement on people that do, it has just never grabbed me. When Jamie grabbed a game called Rallyman GT from the games library at Tabletop Scotland, my heart sank a little. However conventions are a great time to try lots of games so he, Iain Chantler (old co-host) and I strapped in.
Rallyman GT is a relatively simple game, somewhat obscured by an oddly laid out and confusing rulebook. The mechanisms focus on a pile of dice. The number of dice you can deploy on a turn depends on the tires you are using and the weather. We played the easiest version of the game giving you access to all the dice possible.
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You lay out these dice on the track, showing your route and how fast you will take it. Black Gear dice can be placed in sequence, rising or falling. White drift dice allow you to pass through a space at the speed of your last gear dice. The red brake dice allow you to rapidly change speed, going from 5 to 2 by spending two of them, for example.
Why would you want to rapidly brake? Corners require moving through at certain speeds, forcing you to take risks if you want to get into the lead. If you want to overtake someone, you have to be in an equal or higher gear, forcing you into moments of breakneck speed, and daring braking. If you fail to enter corners at the correct speed, you can spinout, potentially losing you a whole turn!
Dice are placed. You choose the risks to take. Now you have to choose how to drive. Will you go ‘Flat Out’? Doing so means rolling all the dice at once, but Focus tokens are your reward. If you choose to drive more conservatively, you roll dice once at a time and can use focus tokens to lock dice in, preventing them being rolled.
You are looking for a blank or a number on each dice. Every danger symbol you roll brings you a step closer to spinning out. 3 of these guarantees it. This can cost you movement, make you lose a turn, even damage your car. My experience of the game so far is that even when you do spin out, you know it was a consequence of your choice. It doesn’t feel unfair.
The box comes with a load of hexes and suggested tracks. You can play multiple laps, have wider and narrower tracks. There is a lot of variety in that box, if you can find it. The publisher no longer exists but the game is available to play on Boardgame Arena. I haven’t tried it on there but suspect the game will lose something in the translation. Rallyman GT is a game that revels in the rolling of dice. It wants you to grit your teeth as one lands, to pump the air as you go flat out and don’t crash. You need to feel the weight of the dice, the anticipation of their landing, and the noise from everyone else round the table as fortunes rise and fall.
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