MadMax34 Turning Templates from Things from the Basement

I have been playing around with the Mad Maximillian 1934 car combat rules for a little bit now as the past two posts can attest to. I am enjoying the game very much. One thing I wanted to do was assemble the little turning template that comes in the rules, but the only way I thought it would be durable enough would be to print it on card stock, laminate it, THEN cut it out and punch it so it could rotate.

Yeah, I could do that. OR I could send www.thingsfromthebasement.com a few bucks and get a very durable laser cut wooden one of my very own. Or maybe two. So I did that instead.

There’s not a lot to this thing. Two pieces ; one with an arrow going IN and another with an arrow going OUT. There are graduations on the template itself which will effect how many fate and fortune dice to roll. The template starts off on this single sheet. Punch out everything carefully. The top circle (as show) will overlay the bottom one. The two tiny bits and the inner circle are there to keep the spindle rotating nicely. You may want to be sparing with the glue here, you don’t want the two main circles to bond together accidentally or the template is worthless.

Once you build the spindle out of the two tiny bits (that make a kind of stand up X together, you put the small circle on top of that (very sparingly with glue) making sure the top circle and bottom circle can rotate.

At the end of that drill, you have this. The bottom circle rotates and indicates where your turn is going to be and how risky it is. Coloring the areas on the edge of the wheel to match how it is depicted in the rule book is a bonus that I recommend. Green is no danger, Yellow is some danger, Red is dangerous!

In my mind, this is the Cadillac option, if you’ll pardon the car pun. It’s durable, inexpensive and works like a charm. Not nearly as large as I thought. A very handy option indeed.

Here is a time lapse photograph of a template in use. The Three Wheeler moves forward 4 and attempts a slight left hand turn, sufficiently into the yellow zone to be risky.

And there you have it.  That’s from Things from the Basement (URL up above).  I think it’s worth the tiny investment.  I got two!