HOW'S MY DRIVING?
It's 2003. You and your friends have packed yourselves into the only car anyone owns and have taken to the open road! A cross-country road trip you will never forget.
Around midnight, in the middle of a stretch of empty highway, you are suddenly jolted back from highway hypnosis as a rusty white van nearly runs you off the road. The van aggressively swerves back and forth across both lanes before speeding off into the distance.
Its only identifying markers are the words "FREE CANDY" sprayed on the side and a bumper sticker that says..
WATCH THE ENNIE NOMINATED ACTUAL PLAY ON YOUTUBE!
Check out this amazing actual play by THE PANIC TABLE
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HOW'S MY DRIVING is a classic horror action-thriller where you take on the roll of a group of friends on an ill fated road trip - from hell.
DIRECTLY INSPIRED BY:
Daggerheart by Darrington Press | a hack of its core Duality Dice system is the backbone of this game.
Keep Driving by YCJY GAMES | a game about road trips that is also an action RPG. Really great indie videogame.
Duel directed by Steven Spielberg | a faceless driver relentlessly pursues a commuter on a long drive.
Scream directed by Wes Craven | a self-aware slasher film that turned a silly costume into an iconic killer.
Mad Max: Fury Road directed by George Miller | frenetic, stylized car chases where the story unfolds in the action.
GAME FEATURES
QUICK TO TABLE, FUN TO PLAY
You are being chased by an unkillable slasher villain, you can stop him but only long enough to back on the road. Grounded characters and lots of horror movie genre emulation. Perfect for one-shots.
CLASSIC TROPES
Pick from 10 different horror movie archetype, including: THE BADDIE, THE GEEZER, THE JACKET, THE LOVERBOY, THE GROUP MOM, THE DUDE, THE VIRGIN, THE FIXER, THE KID, THE MUSCLE
2d12 NARRATIVE DICE SYSTEM
A hack of the Duality Dice from DAGGERHEART, your DRIVE DICE grant you FUEL and and your GM FEAR, narrative currencies that create a dynamic tug of war of the narrative .
NO HIT POINTS
Anything that could kill you - will kill you. Instead if you would get you must either: Spend a FUEL POINT, Reduce your FUEL DIE, or Increase THE SPEED LIMIT to narrowly escape death.
ROAD RAGE ROAD TRIP
Between narrative beats of horrific danger as small moments built to emulate the downtime of a long car trip across an empty landscape. Pick out your ride and pack it with gear you need to survive.
A REAL PHONE NUMBER
In order to start the game, one player must call in some dastardly driving and leave a voice mail. I PROMISE NO ONE WILL ANSWER
Includes THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING
Includes a sequel adventure based on THE PANIC TABLE'S volume 2 actual play of HMD that take you out of the safety of your car and throws you into a liminal mall crawl.
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Words & design by Jack Panic | DNGN CLUB GAMES 2025
PSX Style Assets by PIZZA DOGGIE
NO AI was used in any part of this project.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
COMMUNITY COPIES
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
PLEASE TAKE A COPY FOR ANY REASON
If you can't afford to purchase a copy (or would like to give it a test run before buying) please feel free to take a copy! If you enjoy the game, please leave a review!
Development log
- Layout fixes1 day ago
- NEW PDF! HMD+TYFS15 days ago
- VERSION 5.1 is liveMar 03, 2026
- Version 4.1 is liveFeb 28, 2026
- Version 4 is live!Feb 07, 2026
- Major Update!Oct 27, 2025
- CHARACTER ID CARDS NOW LIVE!Oct 06, 2025
- Version 2 is live.Oct 05, 2025
Comments
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Quick rules question: if I summon the Driver, does the Chase CD restarts, or only restarts when the Driver appears due to cumulative rolling with fear?
hi again:) a question about the speed limit - when does it increase, apart from when the players influence the speed limit by increasing/decreasing it? Does the DM do it whenever or is there a certain moment when it increases on its own (ex. After the players leave the STOPS)?
yes great question, the driver has a move called "NEED SPEED" which allows you to spend Fear to increase the Speed Limit while driving!
But depending on the moment (say as part of your reaction to a player Failing with Fear) you could spend a fear to increase the speed limit.
got it! thanks so much!:)
hi! I’m gonna DM your game in two days, and I’m confused about how the GM gets the first Fear Points before summoning the Driver? Does the GM start with some number of fear points (ex. X Players = X Fear Points) or gets fear points with time, and the first summoning of the Driver is free?
Hello! The players start the game by calling the phone number, the GM then gets Fear equal to the number of players. Hope this helps! Let me know how the session goes!
OHH okay, thanks so much! I must’ve somehow missed that part
no worries, always here to help!
Quick question about the Driver's Terrify move. It says "The GM makes a ROLL against the current speed limit". Which dice are used for this roll? Can't quite grasp it. Thanks!
good question! it is a bit unclear. In general all the drivers moves piggyback off the Kill move. So a d20 + a bonus dice as described there. Hope that clears it up!
Awesome! Thanks, will be DMing
can you explain fuel points in more detail
Fuel points are a narrative currency the players generate anytime the D12 they have designated as their "Fuel Die" is higher than their "Fear Die" when making a an action roll.
They can be "spent" to :
Hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!
A question about ride damage.
The text says:
When your ride takes damage
* Mark a tally & roll its ride die.
* On X, reduce the ride die size by one step. X = the number of tally marks.
So ... if there were 2 tally marks, you'd reduce the die size if you rolled a 2, but not if you rolled a 1. Correct?
There must be something missing here. When do these tally marks get cleared? What happens when the # of tally marks is greater than the ride die size?
Yeah, I can see how thats a bit unclear. The intent is that the range increases with each tally. So if a car had 3 tallies, X would be 1-3. a car with more tallies than its dice size is totaled (ie better find a new ride).
This is great input, Ill reword that in a future update!
Tally marks could be cleared by taking the car into a mechanic, which would cost Fuel points per the GM's discretion .
Any kind of recommendations when it comes to VTT to host this road trip? Seems like there's bupkis for roll20 / Foundry VTT / etc. - but would love some simple option that can hang with rolling the fuel / fear dice, etc.
Since HMD uses the Daggerheart dice resolution as its core mechanics, I would recommend using the dice roller on Heartofdaggers.com . It wont be perfect but you can at least roll as a group that way.
Anyone else having trouble with the phone number? When I try to call it just hangs up.
Perhaps the mailbox is full , I'lltroubleshoot it
Cool thanks! Great game
I'm planning to play this with friends in a setting similar to the Supernatural TV Series, I can't wait!
(update 4.1's page 20 has "The Pastic Bagman", to be corrected?)
Awesome! Let me know how it goes! (Noted and will be fixed in a future update)
4.1. yet another update.
Gonna have a bigger one soon, lol.
"CD 4, ticking down each time you roll with fear."
What does this mean? The only roll mechanic described involves roling both Fear and Fuel simultaneously.
"Each FEAR roll reduces FUEL DIE one size step."
What does this mean? What is a "FEAR roll"? It isn't defined anywhere.
"... if more FUEL was rolled than FEAR ..."
What does this mean? The only roll mechanic described involves roling both Fear and Fuel simultaneously.
great question and a big oversight on my part to not better explain!
when you roll the drive dice, whichever of the two dice is higher indicates if you roll with FEAR or FUEL.
Example: If the speed limit is 10 and your total roll (with mods) is 9, you fail. if your Fuel die is higher, you "failed with fuel" and gain a fuel point. Alternatively , if your fear die was higher you would "roll with fear".
which ever was your the higher of the two is what you "rolled with."
This is monumental part of the verbiage that i forget to include and will update soon... which would have been awful since this is going to print soon, lol. ( i was 100 percent sure i had it on the page, and was shocked when i reread it just now and it wasn't there).
As a thank you for finding this blunder, pick another game from my catalog and email me at dngnclub@gmail.com and I'll send you a download code as a thank you..
Thank you again, Jules. The game has been updated and the clarification has been added to page 6.
Speaking of going to print soon, FYI page 20 labels the Driver as "the pastic bagman", which I think is supposed to be "plastic".
Thank you! Luckily I have an editor taking a pass it it before it get printed, so hopefully all my typos will be caught. (But email me and I'll send you a download code, too lol)
DM-ed my first session of this game last night and I LOVED it so much. the system is so well done, not to mention the aesthetics and it was so insanely fun!!!!!
That's fantastic! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know, comments like this fuel me for months!
Hello! Again, nice work here! I'm planning to DM it for sure. A question about stretches. I'm trying to imagine how those parts are played, what it would look like. Assuming, for example, 5 stretches, I'd like to ask you if you thought of it as each passenger taking 5 rolls to try to earn FUEL POINTS (or SPEED LIMIT for the driver) and players narrating how does it look like, or any other way you imagined it. Not so much the system aspect, but more so how to play it narratively. If there is any kind of recording of a playtest, all the better! Thanks again!
The concept is that these parts of the game require the players to "pass the time" like one would on a road trip. Each person describes a vignette and makes a roll.
In Practice, hey are generating either fuel or fear each roll.
The trick here is that the GM can introduce a complication via the driver appearing or by introducing a traffic stop (which counts as a STOP towards the players goal) one they have enough FEAR. So even though they might have 5 stretches , if the pacing start dip - attack them.
Give them a moment to rest, flesh out their characters and relationships - and when they get comfortable - BOOM , THE DRIVER returns to kill them. Rinse and repeat.
And we are plannig on doing an live AP for it soon!
Oh! I did saw the summoning of the driver and complications but didn't quite understood that could or maybe should make a GM intrusion during the stretches ("The GM can invoke these anytime"). Right, I get it now! Thanks again, as usual! 🙂Also, I would love to check an AP, so, I will stay tuned. Thanksssss, best
Why do the PASSENGERS would like to increase the SPEED LIMIT during stretch? I about to DM this and got my doubts on that. Don't know if the SPEED LIMIT on his own would rise a lot with my two players, maybe if the players have some sort of convince to have more SPEED LIMIT
Raising the speed limit makes less stretches between stops, so there is a rare instance that it MIGHT be useful to passengers. But most of the time they will probably opt to lower it.
Remember that the player can choose to raise the speed limit if they would take damage.
Youe main job as the GM is to constantly apply pressure to the passengers, via the environment, NPCs, and the driver!
Sure thing! And thanks for your reply. I may even increase SPEED LIMIT as a measure of pressure and tension growing up, narratively I mean. Thanks again for your quick reply! And again, really good material, the mood is instantly there
You got this! As long as everyone is having a good time- you're doing it right!
Yeah! I DM The Gast Station and was awesome, and now this, looks dope! Just a quick rules question: does "roll with FEAR" means, "when the FEAR DIE is the highest on a roll". Thanks for all the great material!
Awesome! This game is very much a spiritual sequel to THE GAS STATION (as a matter of fact, my intent is that you use it as a PIT STOP).
And to answer your question, yes!
Thanks for the kind words - let me know if you have any more questions.
Sure! And yes, clearly the mood and feeling of The Gas Station here. Thanks for the clarification, already reading V2!
first the Gas Station and now this.. you're on a roll man. best graphic design on itch.
Thank you so much! very kind!
This is so cool!
Thank you! Your stuff is so good, thank you for letting me use it! This project was originally about a haunted resort but when I saw your kidnapper van - everything clicked and I rewrote the whole thing lol
Thank you even more! That's a big shift, haha
Gotta chase that inspiration!
This seems pretty interesting! I REALLY like the idea of actually calling a real phone number during the game, that's sick! Interested to see how it works in-game! ❤️
There is always the rare chance I might answer in character
Might turn this as an Actual Play, if you have any assets/overlays, fonts, hex codes, etc. It would be greatly appreciated. 😊
Cool, I'll throw together something when I get some time!
Awesome!
Any updates on this?
Not yet, should have something in the comingwl weeks. (Swamped with deadlines)