Take to the wastes and ruined roads of a post-apocalyptic world with your own fleet of autos to smash, shoot, race, and loot your way to victory. Gaslands covers a range of vehicles from bikes and buggies to war rigs and helicopters! All the traditional road war weapons are present, oil, spikes, machineguns, and rockets as well as higher tech options from the 125mm Tank Cannon to an Arc Lightning Projector! Grab the rulebook and a handful of Matchbox cars to get playing.
How to Play Gaslands
1. Grab some toy cars, stat them out on a sheet of paper, and choose your scenario
2. Each turn, you start from Gear phase 1 and advance to Gear phase 6. If your car is in that Gear or higher, then you get to move.
3. Pick a maneuver template that is legal for your Gear. Permitted Gears are printed on each of the template. Put it down right in front of your car. If you touch a template, you must use that template. No takebacks!
4. Throw some skid dice. You can roll skid dice equal to or less than your car’s Handling. Shifts are good. Hazard are bad bringing you closer to a wipeout. Slides and Spins are situational, but generate hazards, so watch out.
5. Spend your skid dice. Spent Shifts let you move to higher and lower gears, clear hazards from your car, and can be used to cancel Hazard, Slide, and Spin results from your roll. Hazard symbols are bad, each uncancelled one gives you a hazard token. Slides and Spins give you more maneuverability, but each generates a hazard token as well. Don’t get 6 hazards on your car, you’ll wipeout!
6. Move the car along the template until it clears the end. If there’s any vehicles or obstructions in the way, you’ll collide. This is good for War Rigs and Tanks, but bad for little buggies and bikes.
7. If you’re not in contact with a vehicle or obstruction at the end of your move, then each crewman may fire a weapon on the vehicle or blaze away with their handgun. Targets get a chance to evade. If they don’t, they take damage. Too much damage will cause your car to become a wreck and you won’t be able to play with it again this game.
8. Check to see if someone has won the game! In a Death Race you’ll need to pass through gates in order the fastest, in a Zombie Bash you’ll need to run over the most zombies, in the Arena of Death be the last car moving. Different scenarios have other ways to win.
Things you’ll need to play
The Rules – Gaslands Refuled is the current edition, with more content and some minor weapon and point cost rebalancing. You can use the original Gaslands book if you find one cheap. You just won’t have as many options.
Bikes, Cars, Trucks, and more – Gaslands really doesn’t care which scale you’re using. Your cheapest and most plentiful option is to grab Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars that you think are cool, but you can also use 15mm wargame vehicles or get really detailed with 1/87 (HO), 1/76, and 1/72nd model kits. Mix and match to taste. Add weapons, crew, and repaint to reflect your vision of the aftermath or don’t. It is all up to what you want.
Maneuver Templates – Copy the ones from the back of your rulebook. Download and print from the Gaslands website. When your paper starts falling apart, find a set cut from hard wearing acrylic. It’ll last longer than your cars do.
Tokens – Just like the Maneuver Templates; copy from the rulebook, download from Gaslands, or grab a pack of laser cut acrylics.
Pole Position marks player 1
Dice – A fistful of six sided dice. You’ll use them for skid dice and attacks. When you want to upgrade, grab a set of custom cut Skid Dice from Etsy.
Terrain – Starting out, improvise! Decks of cards stack to make buildings, soda cans are storage tanks, and flip a few cars over to make barricades. Just like your cars you can get Hot Wheels roads and buildings, raid other toy sets, or get some dedicated Gaslands terrain from miniature manufacturers; historical wargame building, sets of jersey barriers, shipping crates, and more.
Play Space – Gaslands “officially” uses a 3 x 3 foot play area, but you can use any kitchen table. Just tweak your setup areas and go!
Author’s Note: This article originally appeared on fantasygames-southbend.com on September 2019. It has been edited to remove links.
I’d like to thank Laser Craft Workshop for providing templates, tokens, and terrain when this article was originally published. Building shown are part of their North Afrika line.
