One Steppe Beyond!
A road rally game of junky vehicles and janky friendships
Play Time: 1–2 hours | Players: 3–5 (+ optional Road Marshal) | Tone: Comedy → Contemplation | Note: This game deals with exhaustion and frustration; use safety tools and check in after heavy scenes.
YOU ARE A CREW DRIVING JUNKSTERS ACROSS TRANSISTORSTAN
Your crew can share one vehicle (cooperative), split into rival teams (competitive), or play solo with an NPC co-driver (one player per car).
Choose crew roles: Driver • Navigator • Mechanic • Diplomat
Choose a number from 2 to 5: This is how you approach problems.
- Lower numbers: BODGE. Bending the world until it squeaks but moves—force it, improvise, jury-rig with duct tape and audacity.
- Higher numbers: FAITH. Trusting the unknown, choosing connection over control, letting the road answer for you
What makes your character the star of the road: An engine whisperer • Can sell ice cream to Inuit • Always has the perfect singalong ready • Can find their way without a map • Never needs to make pit stops (don’t ask) • Or make up something roadworthy
Pick your vehicle:
- Combloc Relic – 1987 Lada with character, rust, and an active Party membership card.
- Converted Van – ex-postal “bread loaf” (miàn bāo chē) that still delivers trouble.
- Franken-Jeep – three incompatible models welded together with hope.
- Microbus – optimistic paint, pessimistic engine, pragmatic brakes.
- Compact Car – sponsored by three defunct brands; runs best when ignored.
- Peacenik HiLux – already outlived one regime, and probably this one too.
Give it a quirk: Leaks blessed oil • Horn plays hymns • Vociferously allergic to [pick an element] • Thinks it's a boat • Smells of regret • Previous owner still visits in dreams
WHEN TO ROLL
Roll 1d6 when the outcome would meaningfully change the story, cost resources, or create complications.
Routine actions and color narration happen automatically. Don't roll to start the engine or read a map—roll when the bridge is out or the map contradicts reality.
To succeed through BODGE, roll UNDER your number.
To succeed with FAITH, roll OVER your number.
Rolling your number EXACTLY counts as a success and grants +1 Style Point total (not per die).
Roll an additional 1d6 if the situation fits your star quality. Add another die if you have help.
Succeeding with just one die is enough to move you along, save that resource point, or turn that complication into something mirthful. Narrate how you got by, with additional successes providing extra glitter to the tale.
If the failure came from a Bodge attempt, it usually costs Durability; if from Faith, it usually costs Bond. The group can instead choose Fuel when the road itself exacts the price.
SHARED RESOURCES
DURABILITY: ☐☐☐☐☐ (the car's structural integrity)
FUEL: ☐☐☐ (gasoline, diesel, hope, yak milk)
BOND: ♥♥♥ (trust between crew members)
LOSE RESOURCES WHEN:
Durability: Mechanical failure, crashes, failing all rolls when Bodging, sacrifice to save crew
Fuel: Crossing between legs (-1 automatic), detours, helping rivals, getting lost
Bond: Blame, arguments escalating, selfish choices, refusing to compromise
RESTORE RESOURCES THROUGH:
Durability: A successful repair roll, legendary bodges, checkpoint mechanics
Fuel: Hospitality from locals, checkpoint refueling (costs a story), scavenging, miracles
Bond: Reconciliation scenes at camp (spend 1 Style Point to restore 1 Bond), shared meals, acts of sacrifice
AT ZERO:
0 Durability: The junkster gives up the ghost. Hitchhike with rivals to repatriation spot. Role play a "Funeral for the Machine" to end the rally with dignity and +3 Style Points.
0 Fuel: Stranded until rescued by locals or rivals. Costs time and pride.
0 Bond: Crew splits. The rally ends. Some friendships couldn’t survive the road.
THE RALLY
The journey unfolds in three legs, each with its own costs, goals, and perils.
Hazards are short narrative beats framed by the Road Marshal or agreed upon by players—an obstacle, a misunderstanding, a mechanical failure, or a moral dilemma.
For each leg, face three hazards. Each hazard is a brief scene: describe the setup, roll to overcome it, pay one resource, and narrate the cost.
After resolving a hazard, the crew decides which resource took the hit—Durability, Fuel, or Bond.
Each leg also brings a rival encounter: another team on the road, helping or hindering your progress. Narrate the outcome together before pressing on.
LEG 1: IRON PLAINS
"The honeymoon ends when the asphalt does."
Mood: Optimism meets reality. Mistakes are educational, laughter comes easy.
Goal: Reach Crankshaft checkpoint
Hazards: Bridge out • Mirage junction • Shepherd's toll
Automatic: -1 Fuel when entering leg
LEG 2: GLASS MOUNTAINS
"Where optimism goes to die, and friendship either deepens or shatters."
Mood: Thin air, thin patience. Altitude amplifies everything.
Goal: Reach Echo Pass observatory
Hazards: Brakes fade on descent • Yak traffic • Altitude sickness
Automatic: -1 Fuel when entering leg, -1 Bond when exiting leg (altitude's strain on crew trust)
LEG 3: BLUE DOT STEPPE
"Where the journey becomes the destination."
Mood: Meditative, philosophical. The horizon lies about distance.
Goal: Reach Blue Dot City
Hazards: Navigation by faith • Fuel mirage • An honest reckoning
Automatic: -1 Fuel when entering leg
RIVALS
- The Gear Apostles — Zealots who believe machines have souls, preach at every fuel stop
- Team Tax Haven — Rich dilettantes treating rally as "authentic hardship safari"
- The Dust Sirens — All-woman punk band recording album on the road
- The Academic Detour — Professors collecting folklore and questionable data
- The Film Crew — Documentarians who manipulate drama for better content
- The Spare Parts — Last year's winners running the same half-car again
When rivals appear, roll 1d6:
- Leg 1: 1-6 = They help (offer parts, share fuel, provide information)
- Leg 2: 1-3 = They help, 4-6 = They complicate (arrive first, create obstacles)
- Leg 3: 1-2 = They help, 3-6 = They complicate (sabotage, block passage)
A crew member with relevant star quality (e.g., Diplomat) may roll Bodge/Faith to turn a complication into neutral or helpful interaction.
CHECKPOINTS
Between each leg of the race, there’s a checkpoint to catch your breath.
Arrival: Describe your car's condition. Mark -1 Fuel (road tax/checkpoint fee). Then restore all Fuel boxes (a full tank for the next leg). Describe the refueling scene—who you got it from, what it cost in stories or favors.
Rest & Repair:
- Roll BODGE or FAITH to repair through cleverness or Zen. Success restores 1 Durability.
- Meal time: Restore 1 Bond if each crew member describes one moment from the leg or the team makes a FAITH roll.
- Sleep in actual bed: Team makes a BODGE roll to snag luxurious lodgings; success restores 1 Bond.
Rival Interaction: Quick scene—trade parts, exchange stories, form temporary alliances or rivalries
Local Wisdom: Roll 1d6 on region's wisdom table (or Road Marshal improvises):
- "The road teaches. Your job is to listen."
- "Every breakdown is a conversation. Be polite."
- "Share your tea, share your luck."
- "Mountain forgives honest mistakes. Never forgives prideful ones."
- "Journey changes the traveler more than traveler changes journey."
- "Rally ends when story begins."
Departure: Road Marshal frames next leg's opening hazard
THE SOUNDTRACK
Once per leg, during a hazard or rival encounter, the crew may roll a 1d6 and name a song for the moment. On a 6, gain +1 Style for the epic montage.
Suggested soundtrack: Ry Cooder, Calexico, Agitation Free, The Dirty Three, The Skatalites, any CD-R labeled "ROAD MIX 2003"
THE VENDING MACHINE
At Blue Dot City, a single vending machine blinks in the empty square, selling "Celebration Cola" for coins from countries that no longer exist.
Every team, regardless of arrival order, attempts to buy one. The machine never works. It has never worked. But the attempt matters.
Each team describes their method—pooling currency, trying to charm the mechanism, accepting the impossibility. Then they share a story about the distance between wanting and arriving.
All teams gain +1 Style for the attempt.
The machine has never dispensed a can. But every team's attempt becomes part of Blue Dot City's mythology—another story about the gap between destination and journey.
STYLE POINTS & ENDINGS
Earn +1 Style for:
- Sacrificing resources to help rivals without expectation
- Creative bodges that become legendary stories
- Perfect rolls (equal to your number)
- Moments that define your crew's character
At a Checkpoint, Spend Style Points:
- 1 point to restore 1 Bond through reconciliation scene
- 2 points to restore 1 Durability through inspired repair
Automatic Style:
- Reaching Blue Dot City: +3 Style
At journey's end, count ALL Style earned (including spent points):
5-8 points: PILGRIMS: You arrived changed. The destination was never the point.
9-12 points: RACERS: You competed with honor and survived with style.
3+ points: WANDERERS: You transcended the destination entirely.
All endings are valid. Some stories measure distance in kilometers, others in transformation.
DESIGNER'S NOTE
You’re not fixing cars; you’re fixing the space between people.
This is a game about motion as medicine, about keeping going when everything rattles and the map stops making sense. It’s about laughter as the only working tool left in the kit.
You’ll tell stories of crews who push failing machines across impossible distances, discovering that what breaks most often isn’t the engine but the silence between them. Every repair, every argument, every wrong turn becomes an act of belief — in each other, in the road, in the idea that there’s somewhere worth arriving.
Influences: Lasers & Feelings (John Harper) · The Straight Story · Top Gear Specials · Paris, Texas · The Mongol Rally · every road trip that changed someone
(A Wes Anderson version of the Wacky Races, with Bill Murray as Dick Dastardly, would not be far off.)
"Some arrive. All are changed. The road remembers everything."