My New Year’s resolution: Clear the backlog of RPGs that I owe reviews on and that starts with Justice Velocity from Polyhedra Games. Why do I owe them a review? Because Clipper Arnold, the designer and writer of JV, provided a complimentary review copy of the game.
WHAT IS JUSTICE VELOCITY?
“Justice Velocity is an action movie themed tabletop role-playing game for 3+ players. Inspired by action movies like the Fast & Furious franchise, Rush Hour, or Bad Boys and anime like Initial D – Justice Velocity puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s an exercise in collaborative storytelling that puts the stakes of a race or the fate of deadly computer viruses up to your players’ skills, abilities, and the roll of the dice.”
Adrenaline, jokes, ‘plosions, and popcorn plots, that’s the baseline for this world. It’s the era of the muscle car and street racing, there’s a wrong only you can right, and a bad guy from your past, but there’s no physics to hinder your action set pieces, so get out there and save the world for your family!
WHAT’S UNDER THE HOOD
In this game, your character is no slouch. You’re a superhero behind the wheel, not one with a cape. Your character has five base statistics: Power, Dexterity, Personality, Will, and Intelligence. You get twenty points to spend on those statistics with a minimum stat of one and a maximum of six. To give you an idea of how much better your character is than an NPC, they only get fifteen points for base statistics to your twenty.
For non-opposed actions, you roll 2d6 adding one of five results and any skill specialty to the result and compare it to a chart that sets easy at 8 and hard at 15+. For opposed actions, it’s a roll off, though your character may have an edge since you’re an exceptional specimen. To help make your rolls, you can cash in Octane Chips to add your Will score to any roll. Double sixes are a crit, double ones are a critical failure.
While there are no classes, there are archetypes with stat and ability recommendations. Nothing that will impair your ability to craft your character, just recommendations. Leveling is not a factor in this game; however, at the GM’s discretion, you can gain points to spend on improving base statistics, aptitudes, and other stats.
Want to bypass character creation and get from zero to sixty? Pages 16 to 22 include seven pre-generated characters to grab and dice. For the PCs to face off against, there are four sample enemies.
Combat is in rounds that are divided between each side’s offense, the Attack Phase, with the other side getting defensive rolls. This keeps players engaged even when it’s the enemy’s turn.
BUT THIS IS ABOUT CARS
Justice Velocity is, as the inspirational material suggests, about cars and racing and explosions. While vehicles feature in most modern RPGs, they can become more rules-focused than fun. JV manages vehicles in a different way that keeps them engaging but does not make them overwhelming. To start, the vehicles “are far from a realistic rendering.” These are action tools, not options to run out for groceries. The vehicles have stats: ACC (acceleration), STR (steering), HP (hit points), DR (damage reduction), and NITROUS (a d6 boost to your ACC roll). You’ll add their results to yours as you roll for maneuvers and chases. Cars can have upgrades that are realistic like a stereo system that enhances the PC’s Personality rolls while in the car to suspension systems that help on different types of surfaces to roll cages and more. These options make the rides feel like your whip as opposed to a simple stock set of stats.
Racing gets some of the most detailed rules of the game. Position-based racing covers NASCAR-style competitions where the leader may be in the middle of the pack of racers because they started further back at the beginning of the race. There are rules to cover that and keep it organized without being a mess of paperwork.
These are Fast & Furious stories so let’s get to the car combat and stunts. There’s a section discussing how to combine the racing and combat. Despite suggesting racing maps in some detail, this isn’t a miniatures style RPG which leaves a great deal of room for theater of the mind and discussions around the action. Positioning (Ha!) the story is the key to making this work.
WHO ARE YOU RACING/FIGHTING?
Corporations, street gangs, the mob, you could face all of them in JV. The game is setup to start as big or small as you want. Keep it simple and fight for the roads or go worldwide and fight for whatever MacGuffin is needed to save the world. In this 76-page book filled with black-and-white images under a stylish cover that implies perps, pecs, and pedal to the floor action, you’ll find that you can judge a book by its cover. This is a game of moves and constant motion. No downtime, just enough dialogue to get to the next action set piece. For a game like that, the villains are important as they drive the story, and this suggests that all options are open for business.
SHOULD YOU BUY JUSTICE VELOCITY?
Over-the-top, hi-octane racing and explosions! If that statement will ignite your gaming table then you’re looking for Justice Velocity. If you want to tell stories of dramatized street racing, Justice Velocity is ready to roll. If you want to be the crew that steals the show and gets away in slick rides, JV is equally at home adjudicating those narratives. If you’re gaming to save the world from the driver’s seat of a muscle car, that’s Justice Velocity!
WHERE TO FIND JUSTICE VELOCITY?
For more information, try Polyhedra Games’ website. You can pick up a PDF and/or POD copy of Justice Velocity from Polyhedra Games at DriverThruRPG. If you’re interested but want to try before you buy, there’s the Justice Velocity: Quickstart Guide at DriveThruRPG.
TOTAL ASIDE
There’s an anecdote in the JV book that’s worth quoting:
“I once heard of a GM who would pull out a D20 and spontaneously strike players with meteors form the heavens if they looked at their phones for more than a count of 7 seconds. He seemed kind of like a jerk…”
Clipper Arnold is talking about losing player’s attention, but his story made me laugh because he’s right, that GM is kind of a jerk. For my mileage and Clipper’s, we’d suggest trying to find a better way to engage your players than punishing them.
NOTE: This article includes affiliate links to DriveThruRPG. As a DriveThruRPG Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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