Formula De


 
   
 
     
     
 

NORM'S NOTES

Norm LaBarge

 
   
 
     
   
     
 

I have had several customers ask me if I had ever played a game called Formula De, de pronounced day.  They had asked me because they knew that I am  a formula one racing fan and Formula De is a French made formula one racing game.  Now I have played and modified several racing games but had never encountered Formula De. More frustrating than that was that I asked several suppliers and they had not heard of it either.  I wondered to myself is this game might be something only encountered at major gaming conventions.

On one of the recent open gaming nights at Norm's Hobby, John Kenny, one of the semi regulars, brought in one of the tracks and rules to Formula De.  I was able to play in the first of three games that night.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would have played more but I wanted others to be exposed to the game.  I knew I was sold on it.

The format of the game is similar to Speed Circuit with a lot less writing involved. The plotting for each turn involves deciding which gear your racecar is going to be in.  Each gear is represented by a die from 4 to 30 sides.  The dice are not standard 1-4 or 1-30 but have a variety of numbers to represent different gear ratios.  So the 4 sider has only ones and twos  to represent first gear and the 30 sided die, 6th gear, has 21 to 30 repeated on the 30 sides with varied frequency.  So you can not roll a one in 6th gear.

To control speed in the corners each corner is distinctly marked with a red border and then beside it is a little flag with a number, 1 or 2, to represent how many times your racecar must end a turn in that corner.  This proved to be a very effective way to control the cars and represent the feel of a formula one race.

Two wonderful things happened that night.  Everyone who played Formula De that night had a wonderful time and there was much talk about playing again.  Even the possibility of running a full season was discussed.  The other great thing that happened was that with the game in front of me I was able to see who made it we are now able to order it.  In fact it should be in the store by now. In fact when I ordered the game I was able to find out that new dice are currently being tested with differing frequencies of the number spread on the die.  This to better represent different ratios of gears used for a sixth gear in modern racecars.

See you at the races, good luck, and great racing. 

Norm