A few recent posts to Dueling Debate and a section of CWIN 02.02 have brought up a problem that has plagued the Car Wars system for several years now: The hazards due to weapon fire do not affect Handling Class significantly. Variant rules were introduced which increase the difficulty of those hazards, thereby providing more danger and excitement. In my opinion, however, the fact that weapon fire hazards seem insignificant is because of a larger problem: Handling Classes (of non-racing vehicles) are too high.
Back in the day of HC 2 and HC 3 vehicles, getting nailed by a pair of HRs was dangerous not only because of the damage, but also because you would likely take two D3 hazards. Now, with the ease of obtaining an HC 5 or 6 vehicle, such hazards are virtually negligible; even if you drop into negative HCs, you will recover most if not all of it at the end of the turn. In that same turn, you can probably pull off an extreme (D4+) evasive maneuver without losing control. Boooring... The way I propose to fix this situation is to eliminate the HC bonus from Reflex Rolls.
Q. Alright, so how does this really help?
A. In tournament dueling, most everybody's reflex roll will result in a final HC of 4 or 5 (see Note 1 below). Eliminate this and HCs are back down to a reasonable 3. All of a sudden, all hazards and maneuvers become significant again. Now there is a chance of failure when taking a tight corner to evade an opponent. Isn't danger and excitement what Autodueling is all about?
Q. But aren't there some other good uses for Reflex Rolls?
A. Yes: The total Reflex Roll is also used to resolve order of movement in tight quarters. I don't propose to change this at all; you still make your Reflex Roll (modified by Driver skill bonus) at the beginning of combat, but you don't get any HC bonus from it.
Q. Out of all the ways to boost HC, why did you choose to eliminate Reflex Rolls?
A1. Because the resulting HC bonus is too easily obtained. You get it for free while all other HC bonuses require expenditure of money and/or weight. The Reflex Roll bonus is not at all indicative of the player's design skill.
A2. Because they are arbitrary. Having important game mechanics (such as HC) being strongly influenced the result of a single die roll is silly. A bit of bad luck by one player will result in all of his opponents having HCs that are 33% to 66% better than his own. That is enough to let a badly designed vehicle beat a superior one. Car Wars is a game of skill, and allowing a single random die roll to have so much impact on the game seems wrong.
A3. Because they are easily removed from the system without side effects. No other part of the system relies on the HC bonus from a Reflex Roll, so all other game mechanics are left intact. Additionally, its removal does not affect any existing vehicle designs.
A4. Because if you really want an HC 4+ vehicle, you can still have one. Go buy a spoiler, airdam, active suspension, radial tires, or slick tires. An HC bonus due to one or more of these items is justified and deserved, since the player has to spend his resources (money & weight) to get it.
A5. Because they are an historical holdover with questionable modern benefit. I don't know exactly why Reflex Rolls were part of the game in the first place, but I have a theory: Someone invented the idea of Driver and Gunner skill, but there was only an obvious use for the Gunner skill bonus; Reflex Rolls were invented to give a use for Driver skill. Nowadays, Driver skill affects Crash Table rolls and HC recovery, both of which are more useful and realistic ways to incorporate the skill. See Note 2, below, for an alternative theory.
Q. Why not put a fixed limit back on HCs instead?
A. Lots of reasons: It isn't realistic. It renders a large number of vehicle designs inefficient. A fixed limit completely eliminates what little parity there is between racing bodies and "normal" bodies.
Q. What about racing vehicles? Their HCs are not too high, even with the result of a Reflex Roll added in.
A. First off, I must admit that I don't play racing scenarios, so take this with a grain of salt. If you are having trouble taking hairpin turns in an HC 9 or 10 racing vehicle (which likely also gets the -D1 maneuver bonus for a spoiler/airdam combo), then by all means slow down! I bet Jeff Gordon has to. Now if I am wrong about that (which I might well be), then perhaps racing vehicles need to have their base HC increased by a point or two in order to offset the loss of the Reflex Roll bonus.
So try a few duels without the Reflex Roll's HC bonus and let me know if this brings an appropriate amount of danger back into the game. If I get any interesting responses, I'll add them to this page.
Note 1: To be fair in tournament play, Reflex Rolls are fixed at four plus Driver skill bonus. With the amount of maneuvering that must be done against skilled players, only a fool would not have a Driver skill bonus of +1 or more. This results in an immediate and free HC bonus of 1 or 2, which typically results in an HC of 4 or 5. This is the start of the excessive HC territory.
Note 2: Here's an alternative theory as to why Reflex Rolls were invented: Life with HC 3 vehicles was fun for a while, but somebody got the bright idea that racing might be fun, and they wanted to see what an HC 4 or 5 vehicle could do. It would probably have been difficult to simply eliminate the maximum HC rule back then, so perhaps Reflex Rolls were invented to occasionally allow cars to have really good handling.