Car Wars

First, some explanation. Steve Jackson Games's Car Wars is not a roleplaying game. It's a board game. Honestly. But when I was about fourteen or fifteen, we played using some of the campaign rules to the game, that allowed you to continue using the same character and/or same car through repeated tournaments and combats. We spent so much time with this, running so many tournaments and so many "stories" that it became something of an RPG, at least as much as any game I played with I was fifteen involved roleplaying.

The setting is post-apocalyptic America, where casual violence has become more the norm than it even is today, and where the professional sport of autoduelling exists; drivers enter armed and armored automobiles in arenas and blast away until only one remains (like demolition derby, with guns). But outside of these arenas, many people drive cars like this around, especially in the most dangerous parts of the country and the world.

Car Wars, in the style I played it, had a feel similar to that of films like Mad Max. The world is dirty, barbaric and violent, and you're just trying to stay alive in it. It's an enjoyable game, very much a beer & pretzels game like Battletech. It isn't really a good RPG (though rumor has it that GURPS Autoduel, which uses Car Wars' setting is still around, and that there may be a revision on the way), but if you're just looking for a way to blow an evening, there are certainly far worse ones.