Quick-starts are a 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 two. 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 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.
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The Swyvers Quickstart is introduces the rules light roleplaying of guttersnipes, rogues, grifters, charlatans, shysters, and chisellers on the make in filth and detritus of The Smoke, where it is always wet, foggy, smoky, and dirty, whether that is above ground or in the extensive Midden that runs deep under the sprawling metropolis. The Player Characters—or Swyvers—are desperate and dirty, but have to deal with corrupt officials, looming war, rogue sorcerers, monsters below and nobs above.
It is an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game. It is an eighty-seven page, black and white book.
The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is superb, capturing the grubbiness of the setting.
The Swyvers Quickstart requires an edit.
Technically, the Swyvers Quickstart is not a quick-start. It is an extensive exert from the core rulebook for Swyvers and there are missing an important number of elements usually found in quick-starts.
How long will it take to play?
The Swyvers Quickstart can provide multiple sessions of play, although it does not include an actual adventure.
What else do you need to play?
The Swyvers Quickstart requires five six-sided dice and a standard set of polyhedral dice.
A standard deck of playing cards is also necessary.
Who do you play?
There are no ready-to-play Swyvers given in the Swyvers Quickstart.
How is a Player Character defined?
A Swyver has three stats—Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength—and a chance of being literate (though the player needs to explain why in under five seconds!) and starts with a few coins, a trinket, and a personality trait.
How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Swyvers Quickstart and thus Swyvers, uses two types of rolls—Competing Rolls and Saves. The rolls are made on pools of six-sided dice which can be adjusted in size to reflect the difficulty of the task. The aim is roll a total equal to, or less than, the appropriate attribute or a target number set by the Game Master.
In addition, a Swyver can have skills, for example, lockpicking, drinking contests, clipping and counterfeiting coins, or evaluating goods—stolen or otherwise, but mostly stolen. Each level adds increases the value of the attribute when using that skill.
There are also rules for chases, the random consequences of carousing, researching marks for cons, creating stooges and putterers (putterers are apprentices that a Swyver can train) and the possible revenge if they are abandoned, and fences and offloading stolen goods.
The rules for advancement highlight how Experience Points are gained from the sale of loot ‘conveniently’ found and for expenditure on carousing, research, and training a putterer. Of course, like other activities, these have associated damagers of their own.
How does combat work?
Combat in the Swyvers Quickstart involves a roll of two ten-sided dice to beat the Defence Value of the target. A roll of two tens by a player means that his Swyver has automatically killed the defendant, but is a standard attack by an NPC. A roll of two ones is a fumble and requires a roll on the ‘Critical Miss’ table.
Defence Value is determined by the weapon a combatant is wielding. So the Defence Value if a combatant is ‘Shooting’ or ‘Unarmed’ is six, but twelve if wielding a ‘Medium Weapon + Shield’. Armour soaks damage, the amount determined randomly, whilst weapon damage is dependent upon quality. Ropey weapons roll damage twice and take the lowest value; decent weapons roll once; and mint weapons roll damage twice and take the higher result.
There are notes on how to ‘Fyte Lyke a Swyver’. Essentially, a quick and dirty guide to fighting and not getting killed. Fighting fair will get a Swyver killed.
In other words, combat in Swyvers is brutal and meant to be that way.
How does Magic work?
Magic in Swyvers is uncommon, though rumours of witchcraft are not. Casting magic involves playing Blackjack to obtain a score of between seventeen and twenty-one. Results of sixteen and below indicate a failure, whilst results of twenty-two and above are critical failures—and there is a nasty table for that. With more understanding of magic, a caster can match the right card suit with the right Hippocratic Humour to gain extra spell effects if the spell is successfully cast, enhance it with spell components, and even gain an inkling of demonic forces behind what magic can be cast in The Smoke. The included grimoire is full of grim and ghastly spells.
What do you play?
There is no adventure in the Swyvers Quickstart. As an excerpt from the Swyvers rulebook, what it includes instead is a combined guide to The Smoke and set of procedural tables to enable the Game Master and her players procedurally generate the city. This starts with the city in broad details before focusing upon a district. The tables enable to the Game Master to determine the power and nature of the ruler of The Smoke, power and nature of the church, commonly supposed facts about the war going on, and districts and their features and qualities, including rumours and opportunities—the latter for every ‘good’ Swyver to take advantage of, random encounters, and some absolutely great street names!
Since Swyvers are anything but honest, so there is a list of crimes and their punishments. Plus a guide to making bribes and dealing with the watch and detectives. A watchman may make a Swyver’s lfe a misery, but a determined detective can be positively bothersome! Tables are provided to enable the Game Master create both and add quirks to bring them to life.
Below The Smoke is The Midden. First, the Shallow Midden and then the Deep Midden. Entrances to the former can be found all over The Smoke, the latter can only be accessed via the Shallow Midden. The dead are are entombed in the Shallow Midden, whilst the Deep Midden is where secrets are hidden and the call of the sea can be heard...
Although the Swyvers Quickstart does not include an adventure, there is nothing to stop a Game Master from using the content of the tables in the excerpt to create adventures.
Is there anything missing?
The Swyvers Quickstart is not complete, since it is truly not a quick-start, but a rulebook excerpt designed to give a taster of the full book. Aside from the lack of an adventure, the excerpt is missing a list of ready to use names and unlike other Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying games, there
Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Swyvers Quickstart are far from difficult to prepare. The Game Master will need to create content herself, but this process is supported by the festering feast of details and descriptions included in the book. Thus the Game Master will need to come up with a plot, some NPCs, and more, which will take longer than preparing a typical quick-start.
Is it worth it?
Yes. The Swyvers Quickstart is a scrumptious feast of vile vagabounds, dastardly deceivers, and pernicious pilferers whose grotty shabiness and unscrupulous shadiness as told in a series of Dickensian penny dreadfuls. And as appalling and as awful as those penny dreadfuls are, there is a fascination with this wicked world that means that the Swyvers Quickstart is begging to be played and demanding that you roleplay the snot out of these tricksy little bastards.
Where can you get it?
The Swyvers Quickstart is available to purchase and download here.
