Night Drifters
The street racing drama RPG By Will Uhl
For 3-5 friends over 1-3 sessions
MerryMancerGames.com - Discord.gg/KfhWxpe - patreon.com/willuhl
The Basics
Night Drifters is a role-playing game about teen
drama and street racing. One person is the Game
Master, who describes the scenes, awards stats, and
keeps the narrative moving forward. Everyone else
is a player controlling a player character.
Character Creation
You’re an urban teenager with a fast car, attitude,
and enough time to get in trouble. Pick your
character’s name and your car’s color.
Pick three stats - they all start with 2 points. Each
stat has three aspects. In Everyday scenes, you’re
rewarded for playing to your aspects.
Fire: Passion, Rage, and Chaos
Power: Strength, Brutality, and Endurance
Ice: Determination, Apathy, and Selfishness
Speed: Agility, Stealth, and Impulsiveness
Love: Attraction, Temptation, and Tragedy
Money: Ego, Glamour, and Control
Night: Betrayal, Trickery, and Plotting
Pick two of the below relationships. Fill in blanks with
the name of another player character. If possible,
don’t use the same name twice. Discuss with the
other players to decide what these mean for your
character’s history. Keep it simple but suspenseful.
I’ve studied ______’s style for a long time.
_____ used to be my lover...
_____ could be useful...
_____ stole my true love away from me.
I can’t afford to let _____ ignore me.
_____ has disgraced me on the road before.
I desperately want to impress _____...
I blame _____ for that wreck in the past.
_____ has something I crave.
I’ve heard stories about _____... could they be true?
Remember, as a teenage street racer, you’re pretty
far from perfect. Get mad, act rash, and don’t look
back. Night Drifters is fuelled by player conflict - if
you can up the tension between player characters
(wooing their crush, spreading a nasty rumor,
trashing their new paint job), do it. The more conflict
and tension, the more the races matter.
Jérémie Leboulanger (Order #28810046)
Everyday Scenes
Everyday scenes depict the player characters going
about their dramatic teenage lives. There should be
at least 3 Everyday scenes before the race begins.
When a player makes a show of introducing one of
their stats to a scene, the GM awards them a point
in that stat. This can happen once per stat per scene
for each player.
Examples: Asking someone out for +Love; ignoring
adoring fans for +Ice; flashing a glitzy outfit for +Money.
When you amp up the drama (and the stakes of the
race) with one of your stats , that stat gains 3 points.
This can happen once per scene per character.
Stakes can be material (e.g. money, car parts,
territory) or abstract (e.g. status, love, a favor).
Examples: Blackmailing a player for +Night; goading a
player into racing for +Love; hitting the fire alarm right
before the race for +Speed.
When you try to change the course of a scene in a
way that would diffuse drama, lower the stakes of
the race, or make your life easier, the GM will ask
you to spend a point of a relevant stat.
Example: Evading the principal with +Speed; shaking off
that gin with +Power; bribing an officer with +Money.
If you want to interfere with someone else changing
the course of a scene you’re in, describe how you’re
changing the scene instead. Each side takes turns
betting points until everyone except one backs out.
Example: X, Y, Z all want to change the course of a
scene to give themselves the upper hand. They all bet
one point, then two. Z backs out after two, but X and Y
bet three. Finally, X bets four and Y stops. Z loses two
points, Y loses three, Z loses four and changes the scene.
Race Scenes
At the start of each race, each participating player
goes over what they’re putting on the line. Everyone
must agree that the stakes are of roughly equal
value, amping up the stakes if necessary. Races are
winner-take-all — losers get nothing.
 Race courses are made up of multiple legs. Each
leg has a hazard rating from 1 to 3: 1 is light, 2 is
moderate, and 3 is extreme. When you approach
a hazard on the raceway, pick a stat and explain
how you will overcome the hazard using that stat.
Then spend at least as many points as the hazard
rating, and roll a six-sided die (d6) for each point
you spend. Every racer rolls at the same time. Every
die that rolls under 4 is a failure. Unless you have
the fewest failures, remove a point from the stat for
each failure.
Whoever ends the race with the highest combined
number of remaining stat points wins. In the event of
a tie, the tied characters must agree on a tiebreaker
challenge. When you lose a race, you may replace
any stat at zero with a different stat from the list.
If you don’t have enough stat points to meet the
leg’s hazard rating, roll for the points you have. If
you roll all failures, you crash. Choose what emerges
unharmed: your body, your car, or your reputation.
Once you have the basic premise for the game’s
story, learn the player characters and figure out
how they relate to each other. When that’s done,
start the first everyday scene.
Start with a scene involving everyone that establishes
the upcoming race, then feel free to splinter off into
scenes involving only some of the characters as
you show them arguing, plotting, dating, ignoring
responsibilities, partying hard, and gearing up.
Introduce non-player characters to amp up the
drama and create tension between the players.
The difficulty of races should be roughly proportional
to how many points each player has in their stats.
Since players have a 50% chance to lose a die every
roll, players should have at least half as many total
points as the race’s total hazard ratings.
Example: This race has four legs: one at hazard rating
1, two at 2, and one at 3. The total hazard rating is 8.
Player characters should have 4+ stat points total.

Running Night Drifters
Get a rough idea for the story, optionally by using
the table at the bottom of the page. Remember: do
not introduce other drivers. Players are each others’
antagonists and allies. If there is an outside force, it
should complicate races, not compete in them.
Name what the hazards are instead of just giving
them a rating - whether it’s a narrowing straightaway
or a hairpin cliffside turn, make it feel alive. Tell your
players to describe how they attempt to navigate the
race’s hazards, and have fun describing how their
attempts succeed or fail depending on their rolls.

Story generation - pick one item per column (or roll 3 dice) to kickstart the story. In a city...
near a mountain, summer vacation begins, but a storm is coming...
on oceanside cliffs, winter break begins, but foul play is afoot.
under heavy construction, the top racer in the area retires, but the police are on patrol.
near a massive canyon, a mysterious figure puts up a and the prettiest student at your
staggering prize for the next race, school has a thing for the best racers.
in a distant future with turbo-cars racers from another city want to see and strange car parts are appearing
and floating, magnetized roads, what you got, on the market.
on a chain on islands, a forgotten road is rediscovered, and everyone’s coming to watch the
next race.

Hazard table - pick an item on the labelled column to quickly get a race hazard.
Light hazards (1) Moderate Hazards (2) Extreme Hazards (3)
A fallen tree blocks part of the road A pitch-black tunnel A hairpin turn with no guard rail
The road narrows A civilian car is driving towards you Something huge is falling in the way
The road gradually banks Debris is falling onto the road The road is (mostly) on fire
The road is littered with debris Someone’s standing in the road There’s a railroad crossing ahead and
a train will go through in moments
The road crests, creating a hill The road is covered in ice/oil/wet leaves A ramp/jump
A pile of something light, like leaves The road zig-zags or rolls up and down Forced detour through a construction
or cardboard boxes site/sewer/building/down a cliffside

Jérémie Leboulanger (Order #28810046)