Re-Purpose Circus Maximus for OSR Race Rules

The BFRPG Rom’Myr Dying Earth campaign has presented the possibility of live racing on mildly domesticated mounts. I looked towards my ragged copy of Circus Maximus from Avalon Hill for inspiration. More like just rip-off their tables and apply them to the OSR mechanics of BFRPG.

I’ve never been a fan of the game. While chariot racing in Ancient Rome sounds hella cool, it never translated for me or my juvenile friends on the table into anything exciting. But I’ve kept it nonetheless all these years for that fateful day. The day when I may need to adjudicate a race that the PCs are participating in. This particular race is a Dero Race but the rules can be used for any type of live mount or any type of track you have in mind. For Dero racing you are looking at 20’ at the shoulder, six-legged pachyderms. Being extremely large, and not want the race to take a whole afternoon, I’ve decided on a “horseshoe” shaped track. I then broke up the race into three parts; the start, the turn, and the stretch. Now with Avalon Hill’s map board for guidance, I abstracted the track on an excel spreadsheet so precise position can be established throughout the race.

Skipping all the fiddly bits I’ve added, here are the base rules. At its core there are only two stats to track. Points in your Speed Bank and your jockey’s rating. How a character’s individual attributes will be affected during a race will have to be adjudicated by the DM as she sees fit.

Race rules in case it comes to that; Dero Racing

• Roll d10 or d20 to establish your Dero’s speed for the turn. Rolling a d20 costs a point from your speed bank.
• Breaking to reduce speed costs a point from your speed bank no matter how much speed you are shedding.
• If you go over the posted speed limit through a turn you need to roll on the blowing the turn table. When racers are side by side they may make a jockey attack or dero slam. Either one, both or none are all legal. This is settled with a contested roll on d20’s. Roll on the appropriate tables to find out the results of successful attack. Racers can make as many attacks as they want but can only attack from any square once. Unless the racers are side by side than additional attacks can be made as long as the racers want. The racer who’s turn it is can disengage at any time. Making an attack costs a point of speed for the turn.(edited)
• Your speed bank is your constitution score. These points can also be spent one-for-one for additional speed in the turn.
• The jockey is assigned a rating from +4 to -1. This rating can be added to the turn speed and attacks, a negative rating must always be added.
• This is determined by the DM. It is the DM’s job to assign final odds and establish every jockey’s rating at post time.
• Blowing the Turn; subtract the lane’s posted speed limit from your turn speed. This is the number of crash points. Roll 3d6 for that column and check results. The jockey’s current rating score is subtracted from the roll.
• Attacks; a defender can avoid the attack by sliding back one and spending 2 points from their Speed Bank.
• A Dero Slam; the attacker rolls 3d6, adding his current jockey rating and subtracting opponents. The resulting number will tell who is injured in the slam on the Slam Chart. Then roll on the Damage Effect Chart to find out how many points are subtracted from their speed bank.
• A Lash Attack; each racer rolls 2d6(+/- jockey rating) and the attacker’s total is subtracted from the defender’s total.

All the charts referenced are just the Circus Maximus tables re-purposed for my particular race. It is real easy to reskin results on these tables with your own for unique flavor, and should be done! I am not worried about the race being balanced or fair. Its use is to give a tool to give turn by turn results of all the racer’s actions. And I only intend to use it if the PCs are personally involved in some way. This level of detail is in no way necessary if they are only spending a casual day at the track trying to win big. In those instances Rock, Paper, Scissors or a random d6 roll can give winners and losers quickly. I wouldn’t worry about odds. Whether a racer is 2-1 or 12-1, rolling randomly for a winner makes it feel like gambling (since anyone can win) and resolves the race quickly. It is only when everyone wants to hang on every turn and bloody move on the sands and drive home a winner should these rules be used.