Interview with Colin Chapman of Radioactive Ape Designs

Courtesy Radioactive Ape Designs

I recently chatted with Colin Chapman about Radioactive Ape Designs' ENnie-nominated RPG, Atomic Highway (Best Rules).

Michael Tresca: Tell us more about Radioactive Ape Designs.

Colin Chapman: Radioactive Ape Designs (R.A.D.) is basically a one-man show, that one man being me, Colin Chapman. It's literally as small as you can get; one guy's drive and vision, supported by a handful of friends and freelancers. It came about because, after freelancing on dozens of rpg books for other publishers, I couldn't ignore the urge to do my own thing any longer. It was put together on a shoestring budget and a dream.

MT: Tell us about Atomic Highway.

CC: Atomic Highway is a cinematic but brutal post-apocalyptic roleplaying game heavily inspired by the sorts of post-apoc media that feature highway battles, armed cars, and leather-clad heroes. It doesn't concern itself with the struggle to survive so much as the high-octane conflict and adventure. It uses the V6 Engine system, which is is designed to be straightforward, quick playing, and easy to learn with just enough of a twist to keep it interesting.

MT: How does the system work?

CC: The core of the entire system includes attributes, skills, resolution, and fortune.

• Attributes such as Muscle, Nimbleness, and so on are rated 1-5 for adult humans, with 2 being an Average adult. The attributes spell out MUTANTS, which is the sort of touch you see throughout the game.
• There are only 20 broad Skills (such as Shoot), and these are rated 1-5. They break down as: 1 Novice, 2 Competent, 3 Professional, 4 Veteran, 5 Master.
• Rolls are only made in the V6 Engine when the actions being attempted are challenging and important to the adventure. Simply put, there’s no point rolling otherwise; it wastes time better spent getting on with the game. When attempting an action you roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the Attribute used for the action, aiming to achieve a result of 6. You use your character’s Skill level as a finite number of points with which to "bump up" the results of one or more dice to achieve the desired result of 6. You can split the Skill levels your character has however you want among the dice results. So, if they possess the appropriate Skill at Master level (5) you could add 2 points to one result, and 1 point to each of three others; or 1 point to each of five results; or all 5 points to a single result, or however else you want. Every result of 6 is a Success, whether naturally rolled on the dice, or “bumped up” by Skill levels. More Successes are better.
• Fortune is a number of points that a Player or Game Master can spend to improve their character’s chances, using them to Gain Extra Successes, Tweak the Plot, Reduce Injury/Damage, and so on. The nice thing is, Fortune flows thick-and-fast, and you get awarded it for instances of Cool Dialogue, Cool Descriptions and Stunts, Creative Thinking, and so on. That means that the very acts that make the play itself more exciting and fun are rewarded, and the points can then be immediately spent to better ensure the cool actions described actually happen.

MT: What makes Atomic Highway different? 

CC: It was designed to get away from the Everything And The Kitchen Sink gonzoness that was typified by Gamma World and so many other post-apoc rpgs, and hew more to post-apoc action cinema. There are some gonzo elements (entirely modular and easily ignored), and the Irradiated Freaks supplement is purely focused on those elements for people who want that level of wild and wahoo in their games, but that's not the core thrust of the game. 

It was also designed to be quick and easy to play, with some tactile elements, and explains what roleplaying is with a comic strip instead of the usual boring block of text. Most folks can have a complete character ready to use within 5-10 minutes 

MT: What type of player will be attracted to Atomic Highway? 

CC: Anyone who...

• ...loves films such as Mad Max 2, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Death Race, The Book of Eli, Escape From New York, and Escape From L.A.
• ...values speed and excitement of play and ease of character creation over a lot of mechanical crunch and complexity.
• ...likes the sound of rules that are routinely called "intuitive".
• ...likes RPGs that don't necessitate the use of miniatures and battlemats to play.
• ...thinks that many legacy systems such as encumbrance, strict ranges, strict movement rates, etc. aren't necessary to play.

MT: Anything else you would like to add? 

CC: I just want folks to know that I really appreciate the support and love they've been showing AH and R.A.D. I never anticipated any of this, and it has been truly humbling and exciting.