Based on an idea by @BannedByAndroid
I thought that since some people seemed to like this idea, I could as well host the pilot round. I had thought out a ruleset but as usual, I thought too much and overcomplicated things so I decided to mainly use Banned’s ruleset, though I have an idea of a couple of additions.
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Each character must be played for at least 3 rounds. That’s because I feel like it won’t be any “journey” with less than 3. One round would only be a CSR ripoff, two rounds not enough to build a story. Three rounds feels like the absolute minimum needed to build up a story about someone’s car life. Of course, more rounds are both allowed and encouraged.
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About threads and naming. My thought is that all the parts of JOC1 can be held in one thread, then when moving to a new character we post a new thread for JOC2 etc. About naming, my idea for a standard is that we name the first entries for JOC1 “JOC1A-yourname”, then for the next round “JOC1B-yourname”, “JOC1C-yourname” etc. and then when we change character it becomes “JOC2A”, and so on.
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Of course we don’t need to start with a teenager with a fresh license. Some people might have taken their drivers license later in life, some might have bought their first car many years after their license etc. - be creative there, just keep in mind that there should be room for at least three vehicle purchases in that person’s life.
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Turnaround times. I don’t think that they should be so heavily regulated, but I feel that many people buy new cars after between 3 and 10 years. Sure, there is cars that are traded after six months, as well as ones that are being kept for 30 years, so all I can say is - if you are moving too far out of what could be considered “normal”, just have a believable reason for this, not “duhhh aliens confiscated his new ride after 2 months so now he needs a new one again”.
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Not a rule, but keep in mind that people change over time. If you don’t like the character’s current needs and personality, see it as a challenge to change him/her in a realistic way in the next round. Also, maybe the vehicle chosen may affect the brief next time? (For example: “I thought a sports car could be fun but the lack of practicality was so much of a hassle so the driving experience could not make up for that” - hence maybe a sedan in the next round?)
All of this (or if you want to add or remove something) is open for discussion until friday the 28th of may, 10 AM (GMT+2).
PART 1A
FARNHAM, SURREY, ENGLAND
MAY OF 1980
Meet Keith Phillips. 17 years old and obsessed with the 50s and early 60s culture as it was portrayed in the movie American Graffiti. With that in mind, he wants his first car to be an extension of his personality. He is very much into the custom and hot rod culture going on in the UK at the moment (which, ehm, was a little bit different and sometimes weird, OOC info), and also the bass player in the (at least at the moment far from famous, to say the least, but grandma has pretended to like what they are doing) rockabilly band “Howlin’ Coyotes” he has together with his friends. With that said, his dream car is at least at this time a 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible. So probably that is what he well be getting, right?
Eh…not quite, since there’s some small details behind this. We’re in the UK and not in the US when you still can find them quite easily. If he found one, he would never be able to afford it. If he would be able to afford it, he would never afford to fill up the tank in a way that a gas guzzling V8 would be begging for. He’s a teenager, and like most of them, he has no money.
So, what he is looking for is something much more economical, that still has a style that would not make him laughing stock. Something that maybe could be made to look cooler with some small tweaks (though he is looking into a stock vehicle, he wants to do any modifications himself) since he has read a lot of motoring magazines and been inspired by the custom cars there. Something that would not be shameful in front of the…ehm, girls. Maybe not the most PC standpoint, but that does not take away the fact that it is what most 17 year old boys think of most of the time and it does not matter that the girls themselves are not as faschinated about their shitboxes as 17 year old boys think, because in their head it is the truth, haha. Something that would fit him and be a nice extension of his personality. That does not mean that it has to look like a shrunken 50s land barge (in fact, it can as well end up as silly in his eyes if it tries too hard), but it is still worth keeping in mind what he likes.
THREE STAR PRIORITIES
Style - see above
Purchase price - yes, there is a limit but the lower the better since money is tight.
Fuel economy, service costs - being able to afford to run the thing is also a priority.
TWO STAR PRIORITIES
Comfort, driveability, sportiness - This is going to be a daily driver and should also be pleasant as one. Should not either bounce, spin out or bore you to death.
Reliability - He does not want to spend the few pounds he have on a lemon that makes his life miserable.
ONE STAR PRIORITIES
Practicality, safety - He is too young to think about such boring sensible things yet, but on the other hand, if it is a tie between two cars otherwise, being better in those areas still might be the dealbreaker.
YEAR, CAR TRIM: 1946-1970
YEAR, CAR MODEL, ENGINE FAMILY, ENGINE VARIANT: Car trim year or older
NAMING CONVENTION: Car model/trim: JOC1A-yourname / Make and model. Engine family/variant: JOC1A-yourname/ Name of engine
MAXIMUM PRICE: $12000 AMU (yes, this is used cars but old enough to have lost so much value that I don’t bother to have any used car calculations, they probably will have lost a similar amount anyway)
MAXIMUM ENGINE ET: 70
MAXIMUM TRIM ET: 70
FUEL: Regular leaded
INTERIORS: Not needed and won’t be judged, they were never exciting in cheap cars from the era anyway
REALISM: Unrealistic engineering or styling might result in a bin, that includes, but is not limited to, race parts, semi slick tyres etc.
ADVANCED TRIM SETTINGS: Allowed for resizing transmission tunnel to make a better interior.
SUBMISSIONS OPEN: Friday the 28th of may, 10 AM (GMT+2).
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE: Friday the 10th of june, 5 PM (GMT+2). PM me the .car-file and put an ad/description in the thread before that.
Also, sorry if this is too unrealistic in some way, but I didn’t want to do yet ANOTHER Swedish round so this is kind of outside my comfort zone.
Here is a video that could serve as a little inspiration.
