What is this game?

Flickin’ Cars With Guns is a tabletop physical dexterity game for 2 or more players that can take as little as 10 minutes to play.
But first let’s back up by clarifying what is a tabletop game. Tabletop games are a lot like boardgames you may have grown up with, like Monopoly or Clue. The difference is they aren’t limited by a board, and instead use any flat playing surface you have. In this case, a kitchen table. Or go wild and use your dining room table. Maybe a folded up card table. Or maybe just an open area on your floor.

Now for the next definition: physical dexterity game. Generally these types of game use reflexes and hand-eye coordination over pure dice rolling, card drawing, or other mechanics for resolving conflict. Think of Jenga compared to Battleship. In the case of Flickin’ Cars this means you as a player will physically “flick” the car to maneuver it around the table.

The theme of the game is cars with guns. That means shooting at each other is inevitable. Shooting is done using 2 six-sided dice (D6s), which I’m sure almost every household has kicking around. Shooting also needs a way to tell distance between cars, so a measuring tape is required.

And finally there are the cars. The game was originally designed with Hot Wheels cars in mind, which are 3″ long and 1″ wide (generally), and tend to roll really well when pushed. You could use the less expensive Matchbox cars as well. Or go insane and play with old Micro Machines (although they tend to spin around and are hard to control) or upscale the game and hurt your fingers flicking 1:35 scale models or bigger.

Once you have your cars, dice, and measuring tape you use the rules of the game to drive around and try to blow each other up. The rules are a single page, so very easy to pick up and learn. You can print a handful of rule sheets, grab your childhood Hot Wheels collection, and play a quick, casual, and (most importantly) fun game with friends.

The rules cover how to setup the game, how to flick the car, what to do if a car is flicked/pushed off the table, how to succeed at shooting an opponent’s car, what to do if you crash into an obstacle, and even a few variants to spice up the game and improve replayability.

The original idea came to me while hanging out with a bunch of friends over a weekend. I had brought a few games, one of which was Cars Wars 5th Edition, so I had plenty of Hot Wheels kicking around. But the main table had become a mess with glasses, plates, and other debris from hanging out. I imagined cleaning up the table, explaining the somewhat complex rules, and painstakingly using the turning template to move cars around. There were some friends who were casual gamers, and although they liked the Hot Wheels I didn’t think a full blown game of Car Wars would suit them.
So when I got home I started brainstorming a dexterity game that could be explained in a couple of minutes, even to non-gamers. I wanted the game to be playable with common household items, with very little setup but with plenty of “no way!” moments. Also the rules needed to be simple enough to grasp even after a few beers. I’m happy to say Flickin’ Cars With Guns fulfills and exceeds all this criteria!

Now after a sales pitch like that don’t you want to grab the rules and try the game? Yes, yes you do! So head on over to the Rulebook page and get the latest free PDF! And if you like the game or have anything to say about it, feel free to leave a comment.