Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.
Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.
Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine is the quick-start for Maggot Machine, a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game set in the 1994 when the world was ruined by Maggot Machines, acid reign began to fall, and mankind was driven deep into the UnderLand when they still pray that they will remain undiscovered.
It is an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game of post-apocalyptic horror.
It is designed to be played by four players, plus the Game Master.
It is a thirty-two page, 6.49 MB full colour PDF.
The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent, reminiscent of SLA Industries, Second Edition from the same publisher.
The themes and nature of the Maggot Machine Roleplaying Game and thus the Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine, specifically the horror and its bloody nature, means that it is best suited to a mature audience.
How long will it take to play?
Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine and its adventure, ‘Journey into LightHell’, is designed to be played through in a single session.
What else do you need to play?
Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine requires six six-sided dice per player.
Who do you play?
The Player Characters in Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine consist of four Guild Knights which make up a Brigade. The four pre-generated Player Characters consist of two Scrappers and Clashers. Slashers rely on stealth, caution, and experience to creep through the long-abandoned streets and buildings of LightHell in search of lost artefacts. They are noted for their conical helmets. Crashers are the muscle of the Guild Houses, sent out alongside Scrappers to protect them. One of the two pre-generated Scrappers grew up a Sewer Pipe Orphan and wields a fire sword, whilst the other was a Child of the State and can easily traverse rough terrain. One of the two pre-generated Clashers was raised in luxury as Guild Spawn and is a One Person Rumour Mill who can more knowledge of a building to be scavenged, whilst the other is a LightHell Mongrel, a foundling from the surface above, who as a Trusty Canary, can first detect the first traces of the poison winds and the distinctive rotten whiff of Maggot Machines.
How is a Guild Knight defined?
A Guild Knight has six stats—Agility, Cunning, Might, Movement, Presence, and Wyrd. The latter is used to power Weird Abilities. The pre-generated Guild Knights have stats ranging between two and four.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine uses a dice pool system. Rolls of six allow an extra die to be rolled. Rolls of one can simply be rerolled. Once this has been done, all results of one are removed and the remaining dice results compared. Each die of the Reactive Character that is higher than the Active Character’s dice cancels that die, and removes it from the Active Character’s pool. At the end of the process, whichever of the Active Character or Reactive Character has any dice left, they score Victory Points equal to the remaining dice. Victory Points will deal damage in combat, but can mean the winner completes a task faster or better.
How does combat work?
Combat in Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine uses the same dice pool system. Might is used as the Active/Reactive stat for melee combat and Agility is used as the Active/Reactive stat for ranged combat. Once Victory Points are determined, a Soak roll is made for armour. Any roll of four or more reduces the Victory Point total by the amount rolled. Any Victory Points remaining are inflicted as damage. If the damage is inflicted by the Reactive Character, the damage is halved.
Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine does not include the full combat rules. More detail and more tactical options are covered in the core rulebook.
How does ‘Wyrd’ work?
Wyrd is used to active Wyrd powers and gifts. Only one Guild Knight has an ability which requires Wyrd points to be spent.
What do you play?
In Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine, the scenario is ‘Journey Into LightHell’. The House of Wire sends the Brigade from the UnderLand into the LightHell to deal with a Maggot Mite infestation at Sterafill Stop and make repairs to the warning system installed on its rooftop. The Guild Knights discover a map of the immediate area indicating possible danger, but are expected to explore and scavenge the area for artefacts and useful items to bring back to the UnderLand. The area is infested with Maggot Mites, Stab Merchants, and worse, although there is some delightfully grotty, grubby, and British salvage to scavenge…
The background suggests some politics between the Houses of the UnderLand, but this is not explored in Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine.
Is there anything missing?
Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine is complete.
The core rules presented in Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine are very easy to prepare. That said, the dice mechanics are not immediately easy to grasp and will take a slight adjustment getting used to because dice of a lesser value are being cancelled rather than the same value.
Yes. Infestation: An Introduction To Maggot Machine is easy to prepare and run in a single session. It portrays a grim and grimy future with a British grottiness in which it is always 1994, whilst hinting at more to come in the core rulebook.
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