Straight to Hell is a drag race-style Gaslands Refueled introductory scenario for up to six players. It is meant to be played in 2 hours and features up to six players racing straight toward their objective: the finish line at the far end of the map.
This post provides:
- Scenario rules
- Optional Rules
- Car Templates
- Printable maps
Convention Blurb
Guns. Gas. And only one way to go: Straight!
Learn how to play Gaslands Refueled in this introductory session. All you need to do is get from Point A to Point B without crashing into a wall, sliding into an obstacle, or getting blown up by a competitor. How hard could that be?
Everything you need to play — dice, cars, templates, etc. — will be provided.
Scenario Overview
Straight to Hell is meant to be run in a 2-hour slot. It’s a teaching scenario, in which players learn how to accelerate, shoot, and turn. It uses one car per player to keep things moving (we find that two cars per player slows things down considerably).
We typically run it on the first day of the convention (at MEPACon, Ken runs it Friday afternoon or evening). This provides an intro adventure that:
- Gives the GM a chance to remember the rules
- Provides a low-risk entrance into the game
- Sets up more advanced scenarios later in the weekend
Scenario Rules
In Straight to Hell, up to six players drive lightly armed buggies – each with forward facing machine guns – toward the finish gate at the far end of the map.
Along the way are two obstacles representing the map’s two gates. These obstacles just out into the course just far enough to force the players to make minor maneuvers to avoid them.
Vehicle weapons go live after the first gate. Players whose cars are destroyed are knocked out of the game and become spectators.
Optional Rules
- Turrets: Add turrets on the gates that activate when the first car is taken out. Give the driver of that car control of the turret.
- Respawns: If a players’ buggy is destroyed, they re-spawn at the last gate they passed. Note: this slows things relative to the base scenario (which runs faster as few cars are in the race).
Maps
The maps were created using Inkarnate. They are meant to be printed on 11×17″ paper. The default layout is:
You can lengthen the course by adding more straights.
Playtest Notes
- As an introductory scenario, it helps to have another experienced Gaslands person present to help guide people. We recommend running a Session 0 with friends before running the event at a con, and having one of those friends sign up for the event.
- Typically, we facilitate the event rather than play in it. While Gaslands doesn’t need a game master/referee, in an intro scenario, it helps to have one person dedicated to moving the game along.
- Gasland Refueled uses funky dice – six siders with icons for “shift”, “slide”, and “hazard” on them. While you can use regular d6s and a reference chart, the game goes much faster if you buy and use one or two sets of Shift dice (Example: Shift dice on Etsy).
- Gaslands is all about risk versus reward. Players need to get into higher gears so they can go faster and take more actions … but going faster increases the chances of wiping out. New players struggle with this, and don’t want to upshift. Encourage them to do so, or the game will drag (and not in a fun drag-racing way). This is where having an experienced player helps; they model what happens when you upshift. Once people see how it works, they get over their hesitancy.
Actual Play Photos
