By Norman McMullen, NOVA President
It has been 12 years since a little-known chapter called NOVA entered into the AADA. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but things have changed during that time. I’ve lost count of how many chapters and champions have come and gone. Or of all the supplements sent through the printing process. Gee, how many times has Sunday Drivers1 been printed?
At times NOVA members may seem to be high and mighty, but don’t be fooled; each of use is human and have our faults. Yes, we’ve been through the wringer and had our butts kicked several times. There were duelmasters who were blind and indifferent. When we show up for the Worlds we know there’s going to be trouble. Why, because our reputation precedes us. Being the oldest AADA chapter does carry that price and we will continue to pay for it.
Maybe Scott Haring was having a bad day when our application arrived. I don’t know, but we became an official chapter on April 15, 1985 (a date known to all tax payers). That date has a different meaning to NOVA members, and we celebrate with a party featuring ice cream cake.
Over the years we’ve seen several Car Wars editors: Ladyman, Haring, Beeman/Ellinger, Searle, Oines, and McCubbin. New vehicles were introduced: helicopters, trucks, buses, trikes, tanks (4 times), hovercraft twice, jet skis twice, and airplanes twice.2 The magazine changed from Spacegamer, to ADQ and to Pyramid. It’s amazing what we’ve all seen and done. The fictional Elmay, for example, is now today’s e-mail. Some of the first cars were electric-powered and now they’re on the road for good. What’s next?
I’ve seen Car Wars go from being a joke game (rhyming with Star Wars) to it’s height in the mid-80's to its low in the early 90's. From plastic bags to huge boxes, one set of rules to one book. It’s been crazy at times trying to keep things straight. I sometimes laugh at SJG for being themselves.
We’ve had challenges and made them. Take for instance the famous River City challenge. It’s a pity they disbanded before they could face us. We had dueled SAS Zebra and the Ground Zero Rads. Zebra was utterly destroyed while the Rads had an even duel. We thrown down the gauntlet against anyone, but remember you face over a decade of design experience. We have killer designs from Division 5 to 100. Our last club championship featured Division 5 designs that will destroy every other car out there. Care to give us a shot? We’re fair game.
We had our craziness at times, including the infamous transforming vehicles, mock ARF attacks, the Maniacs adventures and others. You can’t just expect us to fight in the arena or highway each week. At GenCon we ran a Godzilla/Monster event the last few years and its a blast. Destroying cities, tanks, aircraft, and helicopters is such fun. No average car can take down a tank in one shot, but Godzilla can.
We only have one World Champion at the moment, Mike Garrity, the 2043 Racing World Champion. We had several second and third place holders in both Worlds. We even lost a sure win due to stupid duelmasters and players. Never ram in a racebody. In Car Wars they confetti at most race speeds. But hey, no hard feelings.
Over the years NOVA has probably found more rule loopholes then anyone else. We found these during game play: the mineflinger being called a large bore weapon and the burst effect of a mine counter being measured from the side of a counter. They are definitely wrong and NOVA has corrected them.
Car Wars is hopefully on its long-awaited return to popularity. After all it’s been through it deserves to come back. NOVA has been through it all and it isn’t over yet. We will probably still be around when Car Wars is toast. Like the Energizer Bunny we keep going and going.
Drive Offensively!
1 Sunday Drivers has been reprinted five times. Once in Spacegamer, Pocketbook, as Crash City, East Midville and Midville.
2 Tanks were featured in the Massacre at Midville article in Spacegamer, Tanks for the Memories in Dragon magazine, failed supplement Tanks in Car Wars and Car Wars Tanks. Hovercraft by a guy in California and Car Wars Boats. Jet Skis - by a guy in California and Car Wars Boats. Airplanes in ADQ as Microplanes and Aeroduel. Buses in Spacegamer (as the EM-50) and Truck Stop.