ProtoDrive

The Brief

ProtoDrive is an in-development TTRPG all about street racing and the dramatic lives of the drivers who do it. 

ProtoDrive is Powered by Lancer, with adaptations to make roleplay more impactful to gameplay and deep changes that transform the mecha building & combat mechanics into a robust system for customizing cars & racing them at ludicrous speeds.

The Vibe

Lights dance between the trees in bright white, yellow, and red. Harbingers of the speeding chariots of modern times.

In a flash of light and sound, these amalgamations of force and speed pass through the forest like ghosts, briefly filling the emptiness with life, but passing on just as quickly.

Darkness floods back in as the grumbling metal and plastic beasts disappear, and silence reigns once more. This race had no human audience, but the winner was obvious nonetheless. By morning, everyone will know who came out on top, and the loser will have to do something to regain their standing.

They’ll have to win the next one!

The World

This is still Earth, but different. Maybe it’s not our Earth, but it’s close enough that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that. Things aren’t quite contemporary, but it won’t feel like it’s hundreds of years from now, either. Sometimes it might even feel like a slice of the past, but let’s call it fifteen minutes into the future. The world of ProtoDrive is full of wonders that could happen “soon,” but not before we figure a few things out and make the world a better place for everyone in it.

The key difference for the characters involved in ProtoDrive was a new set of international laws that made it so things like connectors, couplings, and other parts, both electronic & mechanical, were required to be truly universal.

While a good change overall, what’s important to most drivers isn’t that reducing waste around the globe was a net gain for everyone or that right-to-repair gave a bit of power back to the people. Those problems have faded into the past and become distant memories.

Instead, what’s important now is this:

With universal compatibility comes infinite options for customizations, making it much easier to turn your car into something truly special.

Inspirations

ProtoDrive is inspired by so many things that it would be impossible to provide an exhaustive list, but here are a number of media sources that will give you a feel for the kind of fun the game is aiming to provide:

 LANCER, Initial D, Speed Racer, The Fast & the Furious, Mario Kart, Forza, Death Race 2000 & 2050, Mad Max, and all of the TTRPG chase scenes that never got proper support from their systems.