TEXT: the Infected
  By Eric Provost
  
  Introduction .........................................................................1
  Before the show............................................................2
  Motivation Cards .......................................................... 3
  Scenes ..........................................................................................4
  Resolving Conflicts..................................................4
  The GM’s Dice ...................................................................... 5
  Important NPCs ............................................................ 6
  Becoming infected ....................................................... 8
  Adressing and Resolving
  your Goal................................................................................ 8
  Acts ................................................................................................ 9
  Appendix I: Motivation
  Cards ...........................................................................................10
  
  1
  Introduction
  Welcome to my second edition of the Infected.
  Thanks for checking it out.
  What you’ve got in your hands here is a
  simple but powerful little role playing game.  It
  plays out from start to finish in perhaps four or
  five hours.  During that time you’ll find yourself
  deep in a struggle between the things your
  characters desperately need to turn their lives
  around and the people they are willing to
  sacrifice to get there.
  In these stories our protagonists are at a
  crucial juncture in their lives.  They’re just now
  preparing to turn their lives around for the
  better.  Problem is, there’s a deadly infection
  going around, turning everyone they know and
  love into monsters.  Will your character fix their
  life?  What kind of monster will they become
  while they’re trying to make that fix?
  I expect that the game will play well with
  three to seven players.  Playtests to date have
  had exactly four players in them.
  My first inspiration for this design was
  zombie movies.  But, as the game grew and
  transformed, I realized that it’s a great system
  for playing out all sorts of monster movies.
  From The Lost Boys to The Thing, any movie
  where the people eventually become one of the
  monsters can inspire play.
  The rules are pretty simple and you’ll need
  only a few items to play.  The system uses six
  sided dice exclusively.  Half of the dice need to
  be visually distinct from the rest. Call these the
  ‘infected dice’.  You’ll need a copy of each of
  the Motivation Cards  (a ‘deck’).  You’ll need
  two copies of the NPC Card and five tokens for
  every player except the GM.  The GM will need
  a single copy of the GM’s Record Sheet.  And
  finally, everyone will need a pen or pencil.
  
  2
  Before the show
  Once you’ve gathered up your players, all the
  tools you’ll need to play, and the obligatory
  munchies are on the table, you’ll want to
  distribute and discuss a few things.
  Distribute
  � Randomly distribute one Motivation Card to
  each non-GM player.  Players should take a
  peek at their card and talk about what the
  cards are for without revealing what card
  they’ve received yet.
  � Each player stacks five tokens on or near
  their Motivation Card.
  � GM places four infected dice in their pool
  for the first act.
  � Each non-GM player places two blank NPC
  Cards in front of them.
  Discuss
  � Establish the setting and film style.
  Collaborate with the players to determine
  where and when the story is going to take
  place.  Will it be a modern day story set in
  the hills of West Virginia?  Or perhaps a
  sweeping tale of plague infesting dozens of
  cities across Europe during the Renaissance.
  Primarily for flavor, settle on a film style.
  Will it be a black and white ‘50s noir flick?
  Perhaps a smart cult classic?  Or maybe
  something that you imagine might come
  from the imagination of Romero and
  Tarentino’s love child.
  � Finally, establish what kind of origin the
  infection has.  Choose one of three
  categories;  Industrial, Natural, or
  Supernatural.  An industrial origin for the
  infection implies that either the works of
  mankind or their side effects have created
  the infection.  A natural origin might be
  something like a mutant strain of tape worm
  or a madness-inducing bite from a rabid dog.
  Supernatural origins might include a
  vengeful god casting his punishment on
  mankind or maybe the results of an ancient
  curse.
  The nature of the infection
  You’ll have plenty of leeway for narrating
  how the infection manifests in your game, to
  include the symptoms and what the monsters
  look and act like.  However, there are some
  guidelines that you’ll need to follow.
  While the infection often originates
  somewhere else, it can always be transferred
  from one person to another and from a monster
  to a healthy person.
  The symptoms of the infection are always
  drastic and frightening, never subtle.  As the
  infection sinks deeper and deeper into it’s
  victims slowly transform into monsters.
  
  3
  Motivation Cards
  For this playtest document, motivation cards
  each have a description of a scene on them.
  Eventually I’d hope to have some killer artist
  draw or paint out those scenes for me, maybe
  adding some cryptic and inspirational images to
  my ideas, but for now, we deal with the little
  snippets of text.
  Your card represents what’s fucked up and
  wrong with your character’s life.  Feel free to
  interpret the card wildly.  Then, consider what
  your character is going to do to fix what’s
  wrong with their lives.  Don’t tell anyone what
  either is yet.  You’ll have plenty of opportunity
  to show them during the show.
  Change is good
  The reason why you’re not going to tell
  anyone what your character’s goal is until it
  happens is that it’s ok for that goal to morph and
  change over the course of the story.
  On the other hand, you’ll probably be doing a
  lot of foreshadowing of your goal along the
  way.
  Those tokens
  You’re probably wondering just why you
  stacked up those five tokens next to your card.
  They represent all the shit that’s standing
  between your character and fixing their life.
  You’ll be trying to get rid of all of them before
  the story ends.  Check out the chapter on
  Resolving Conflicts for more details.
  
  4
  Scenes
  A movie is composed of many scenes, right?
  Well, that’s what our story is composed of too.
  Players take turns framing scenes.  Framing a
  scene is just like setting a stage in a play.  Be
  sure to tell everyone where the scene will take
  place, what time of day it is, and who’s there.
  As a rule, your character should almost always
  be in the scene when it’s your turn to frame.
  More show, less tell
  Whenever possible, give us narration that
  shows us what’s going on.  Don’t just tell us.  If
  your character is going through a deep
  emotional struggle between her faith and her
  lust for her son then we want to see how that
  struggle shows up on film.
  Worst comes to worst, you can always narrate
  a voice-over for your character, having her
  explain exactly what’s going on in her head, but
  I suggest using this technique as a last resort.
  Painting a picture in our imaginations will have
  a much stronger effect on play.
  Resolving
  Conflicts
  At some point your character is going to
  object to something that someone else is doing
  or someone else is going to object to what your
  character is doing.  And someone’s going to try
  to do something about it.  That’s when we’ve
  got ourselves a conflict.
  Conflicts are resolved with a roll of the dice.
  The more dice you have to roll, the more likely
  you are to get the conflict to come out how you
  want it.
  You start with one only one die, representing
  your character’s ability to get things done, but
  you have two different ways to gain more dice.
  By narrating important NPCs into the scene
  helping your character.  Or by becoming
  infected and invoking the monster within you.
  Everyone rolls their dice at once.  Each side of
  the conflict adds up their best two dice, and the
  side with the highest total wins the conflict.  In
  the case of a tie, the GM wins the conflict even
  if he wasn’t previously involved.
  Infected dice cheat
  Whenever you roll a 1 on an infected die, treat
  that 1 like a 6.  In fact, just go right ahead and
  move that die so that the 6 side is up instead of
  the 1 if you like.
  
  5
  Narration
  The winner of the conflict gets the buck-stop
  for narrating how everything comes out.  This
  doesn’t mean that only one person is permitted
  to speak while narrating how the conflict comes
  out, it means that the responsibility for the
  narration and the rights to the last word pass to
  that one particular person.
  In the case where more than one player is on
  the same side of a winning conflict those players
  should collaborate on how things turn out.
  What not to do
  Don’t try to metagame the stakes of the
  conflict.  Just keep narrating what your
  character is doing, and maybe what the NPCs
  are up to, until another player objects to what’s
  going on.  Let the conflicts come out
  ‘organically’ that way.
  If no one reacts to something you’d hoped
  would turn out to be a conflict then you’ve got
  two options.  The first is to try to turn up the
  heat a little bit.  If none of the players are
  concerned that your character is trying to steal
  auto parts maybe they’ll care when you reveal
  that you’re stealing the parts from another PC’s
  girlfriend’s car.
  Failing that, narrate an important NPC as
  being in conflict with your character and then
  hand that NPC Card over to the GM.
  The GM’s Dice
  The GM also gets a single die to start out each
  conflict.  Instead of reflecting the ability of a PC
  to get things done, the GM’s die reflects the
  outside forces that are preventing the PCs from
  accomplishing what they want to get done.
  The GM can get NPC dice pretty much just
  like any other player, but he gets his infected
  dice in a somewhat different manner.
  At the beginning of each act (check the
  chapter on acts) the GM gets a certain number
  of infected dice in a pool.  When the GM draws
  infected dice from that pool for a conflict he
  uses those dice up.  They’re removed from play,
  which helps move the story forward.
  The GM’s infected dice, and the number he
  rolls, reflects the situation the PCs are in
  compared to the infected and monstrous NPCs
  they are in conflict with.
  When escape from the infected or monsters is
  plain and simple roll 1 infected die.  When
  escape is apparent, but probably difficult roll 2
  infected dice.  But when there is no obvious
  escape and it’s unlikely that the PCs have much
  chance to survive roll 3 infected dice.
  
  6
  Important NPCs
  You know those two blank NPC cards sitting
  in front of you?  Well, at any time you can write
  the name of an NPC into that blank space there,
  effectively declaring that this particular NPC is
  important to the story.
  Now, if you’ve narrated any NPC who’s been
  written down on one of those cards as helping
  you in the conflict at hand, then you can put that
  NPC back in front of you and they’ll (usually)
  give you an extra die or two for the conflict.
  Let’s look at just how many dice an NPC will
  give you.  Take a peek at that column of
  numbers on the card.  There’s a number on the
  left and a number on the right.  The numbers on
  the left get bigger as you go down the column
  and the numbers on the right get smaller.
  The number on the left is the number of dice
  that a non-GM player gets if this NPC is helping
  them in a conflict.  The number on the right is
  the number of dice that the GM gets if the NPC
  is under their control.
  After resolving a conflict, cross out the line of
  dice that got used in this conflict.  Work your
  way down the columns.  Don’t ever cross out
  the +3/+0 block, no matter how many times the
  character is used in a conflict.
  Ownership
  Once you’ve put a name on one of your blank
  NPC cards, they no longer belong to you.  NPC
  cards that aren’t currently involved in a conflict
  should be placed in the middle of the table,
  within everyone’s reach.
  If there’s ever a conflict over who gets to use
  a particular NPC in a conflict, such as a time
  when the NPC appears to be helping more than
  one PC, use the following three steps to
  determine who should have the NPC placed in
  front of them for their use.
  � If the NPC is Infected or Monster, then the
  GM wins.  The infected just can't be trusted.
  � If neither player is the GM then the NPC
  goes to the player who would otherwise
  have fewer NPCs.
  � If both players have the same number of
  NPCs, then the contested NPC should go to
  the player who first narrated the NPC into
  the conflict.
  
  7
  Pushing a conflict
  If your PC is in the scene and you have at
  least one NPC helping you, then you can push a
  conflict.  If you don’t currently have any NPCs
  helping you then you may narrate how one
  enters the scene to help you out in order to get
  the push.  Each conflict may only be pushed
  twice, yielding a maximum of three rounds of
  conflict.
  To push a conflict into a second or third
  round, first declare the push.  Then narrate how
  events in the conflict are changing and give
  everyone a chance to do the same.  This
  narration should reflect the die results of the
  current round.  Then everyone picks up their
  dice again for another roll.  Anyone who wants
  to use their infected dice in this new roll must
  include more narration about the monster within
  them, even if they already did so for the
  previous round or rounds.
  Your success and failure in the second and
  third rounds of a conflict have an effect on the
  NPCs that are helping you.  If you are on the
  loosing side of the roll in either the second or
  third rounds of the conflict, then all of your
  helping NPCs are hurt.  If you are on the
  winning side of either of those rounds, then all
  BUT ONE of your NPCs are hurt.
  The first time an NPC is hurt, circle Infected
  on their card.  Due to the events of this conflict,
  they are now hosting the infection and will
  eventually show the symptoms.
  The second time an NPC is hurt, even if it’s in
  the same conflict as the first time, circle
  Monster on their card.  They are no longer
  human.  May not even be alive anymore.  They
  can’t help you anymore.  When a monster NPC
  appears in a conflict their card is always placed
  in front of the GM.
  NPCs in front of the GM are never hurt.
  
  8
  Becoming
  infected
  Your character begins the story free of the
  infection.  Almost inevitably he or she will
  contract it.  It gives you power.  The power to
  become a monster. The power to take what you
  want and need through inhuman means.
  Whenever you lose a conflict where any one
  of the opposing players rolled more infected
  dice than you had available to you, you’ll gain a
  single infected die.  If you ever have three or
  more infected dice then your character has
  become a monster and can no longer address or
  resolve their Goal.
  You may roll your infected dice when your
  narration includes your character embracing
  their transformation into the monster.  This
  transformation may be mental, physical, or
  emotional, but it’ll be apparent to everyone that
  your character is loosing what makes them
  human.
  If you roll your infected dice, you must roll all
  of them.  You either imprison or release the
  monster inside you.  You do not keep it on a
  leash.
  Adressing and
  Resolving your
  Goal
  At the beginning of any conflict you can
  declare that this conflict could bring your
  character closer to achieving their goal.  This is
  called addressing your goal.  Signify the address
  by taking a single token off of your card and
  putting it up with your dice. If you win the
  conflict then the token is removed from play.  If
  you lose the conflict the token is placed back on
  your card.
  Alternately, you can declare that the current
  conflict will resolve your goal.  You only get to
  do this once per story, so don’t make this
  decision lightly.
  If you have any tokens left on your card when
  you make this declaration then the GM has to
  get involved in the conflict, even if he wasn’t so
  before hand.  The GM gains one extra die to roll
  for each token you still have remaining on your
  card.  Too many tokens will effectively
  guarantee that you’ll lose your most important
  conflict.
  
  9
  Acts
  There are three acts in this game.  The acts are
  here to provide us with a bit of help in pacing
  out our story well.  To do this, we tie the GM’s
  infected pool to the acts and we have a bridge
  between the acts.
  The Bridge
  Between the first and second and the second
  and third acts the GM should provide a little
  bridge of narration.  Something to change the
  tempo a little bit.  Sort of cleanse the palate, if
  you will.
  I’d like to try having the GM narrate a few
  sentences worth of events and scenery in which
  our PCs are absent.  Something where the
  horrors are not present.  Imply a new
  relationship or introduce a new NPC.
  As you can see, this bit is pretty flimsy right
  now.  Making it awesome is high on my design
  to-do list.
  Regulation of the GM’s pool by Act.
  At the beginning of each act the GM places a
  particular number of infected dice into his pool.
  For the first act it’s four dice, and we’ve already
  accomplished this in our pre-story prep.  For the
  second act it’s seven dice and four the third act
  it’s eleven dice.
  Also, the number of dice the GM may draw
  from his pool for any conflict is capped by the
  Act.  One die in the first act, two in the second,
  and three in the third.  Remembering that PCs
  can only die when they receive their third
  infected die, we see that PCs can only die in the
  third act.
  Regulation of the Act by GM’s pool.
  After any conflict that uses up the last of the
  GM’s pool, the conflict is over.  Assuming that
  each player has had at least one opportunity to
  address their Goal.  If the GM uses up his pool
  and one or more of the players have not yet
  addressed their Goal, then the next scene should
  either address those Goals, or those players
  should pass and the next act should begin.
  Final credits
  After the last scene of the third act, the GM
  should ask the players to collaboratively discuss
  what scenes, if any, run across the screen during
  the final credits.
  Pacing Caveat!
  The GM’s pool of infected dice should be
  placed where everyone can see it.  Keep an eye
  on that pool.  You don’t want to be surprised by
  the end of the act, or by the end of the story, if
  you have a great idea for a scene just waiting to
  come out.
  
  10
  Appendix I:
  Motivation Cards
  Misunderstood Maestro
  An unseen painting is observed by several
  figures.  All but the artist are reacting in horror
  or revulsion.  The artist beams with pride at his
  work.
  A man in chains
  Wrapped in thick chains and tied to an anchor,
  the subject seems to almost be whistling as he
  sinks to unknown depths.  Bright fishies watch
  on with disdain.
  Missing Pieces
  Image shows a man standing next to a child at
  the beach.  Only the image is cut like a jigsaw
  puzzle and there’s a piece missing where the
  child’s face and the man’s heart should be.
  Another missing piece conceals the identity of
  the location.  A third shadow hints that another
  person may have been cut out of the picture.
  Mouse and Raven
  The two figures sit across from a game of
  backgammon.  The raven blathers on, chatting
  about who knows what.  The mouse quietly sips
  at his lemonade, obviously interested in
  something else.  The raven is preparing to cheat
  at the game, switching the dice.
  Cast Out
  In the foreground we have a young woman
  crying, her face buried in her hands.  Growing
  naturally from her back is a set of colorful
  butterfly wings.  In the background are three
  mean-looking goths.  Each looks defiant and
  each makes a different dismissive gesture to the
  foreground girl.
  Martyr
  A woman sits in a throne.  She looks sad and
  off-camera.  Her flesh is pierced in many places
  by spears, held by off-scene attackers. The
  spears pierce her heart, her womb, and her head.
  Her hand loosely holds the spear in her heart.
  Triumph and Impatience
  Father holds up newborn over his head,
  looking up at it with awe.  Child had radiant
  glow around him.  Mother sleeps with a smile
  nearby.  The specter of death studies a clock
  reading 11:55.
  Keeper of the Monkey
  A screaming baboon perches atop our
  subject’s head.  The monkey hurls cigarettes and
  needles at a nearby crowd of preteens.   The
  subject holds the beast’s leash.  One of the
  preteens holds up her hand to block the barrage.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/The Infected/The Infected Corebook.pdf