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WRITTEN BY CARMEN CERRA & ED TEIXEIRA

ARTWORK BY PAUL KIME

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MACHINAS – DEATH RACES IN THE WASTELAND

© 2014 Carmen Cerra - Ed Teixeira - Two Hour Wargames 3/15/2014

TOC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE 1

INTRODUCTION 1

How Many Players 1

Non-Player Cars 1

Word of Advice 1

Cards, Counters and Models 1

GETTING STARTED 1

The Board 1

The Racing Oval 2

Tracking the Location of the Pack 2

Tracking the Lap 2

TRACKING THE CARS 2

The Pack 2

The Leader 3

The Wall 3

Spots 3

Lanes 3

Spots and Lanes 3

Stop! 4

THE DICE 4

Counting Successes 4

Auto-Successes 4

Reading and Adding the Dice 4

1/2d6 4

How Many D6 4

BONUS DICE 5

Gaining Bonus Dice 5

Before the Race 5

During the Race 5

Losing Bonus Dice 5

Non-Player Bonus Dice 5

ATTRIBUTES 5

Savvy 5

Tech 5

Speed 5

Attribute Values 5

Zero Value 5

Maximum Value 6

Starting Attributes 6

SIGNATURES 6

TRICKING YOUR RIDE 7

Car Feature 7

Weapons 7

Defensive Measures 8

THE CAR 8

Building Your Car 8

Weight Limit 8

Your Dashboard 8

Entry Cost 9

Varying Entry Costs 9

Using Entry Cost 9

VEHICLE TYPES 9

Car Damage 9

PLAYING THE GAME 9

Number of Laps 10

The First Turn 10

TURN SEQUENCE 10

Phase One – Challenge 10

Phase Two – Random Event 11

Phase Three – Passing 11

Resolving the Pass 12

Multiple Passes 13

Racing on the Inside 13

Wide Pass 13

Free Pass 13

Dropping Back 14

Phase Four – Pack Movement 15

SHOOTING 15

Firing to the Rear 15

BASHING 16

OUT OF CONTROL 16

WRECKED CARS 17

Avoiding Wrecks 17

Injured Drivers 17

Damaged Cars 18

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MACHINAS – DEATH RACES IN THE WASTELAND

© 2014 Carmen Cerra - Ed Teixeira - Two Hour Wargames 3/15/2014

TOC

SHOULDER DRIVING 18

OBSTACLES 18

NON-PLAYER CARS 18

BRIEF HISTORY 19

The Oppenheimer 19

The First Infernals 19

The Circus Acceleratus 20

Festival of Saint Machinas 20

The Oath of the Brother Pilots 20

Machinas is Your Game 20

THE CAMPAIGN GAME 21

RACING TEAMS 21

Building the Team 21

LOCALES 21

The Wastelands 21

Towns and Settlements 21

The Cities 21

Circus Acceleratus 21

Why No Minimums? 22

NP DRIVERS 22

NP Signatures 22

NP CARS 23

Which Driver to Which Car? 23

CAMPAIGN LENGTH 24

FAME 24

Using Fame Points 24

Total Fame 24

Falling on Hard Times 24

CHAMPION 25

SALVAGING PARTS 25

Using the Salvaged Parts 25

THE WASTELAND 25

Racing Versus Cruising 25

CHASE 25

Goal 25

Forces 25

Terrain 25

Deployment 26

Special Instructions 26

Mapping the Highway 26

Escaping 26

Entering the Chase 26

ADDING YOUR GAMES 26

TEAM ROSTER 27

RACE DAY 28

RACING TABLES 29

Passing Table 29

Shooting Table 29

Bashing Table 30

Out of Control 30

INDEX OF TABLES Bashing, 30

Car Damage, 18

Car Feature, 7

Defensive Measures, 8

Driver Injury, 17

NP Cars, Car Features, 23

NP Cars, Defensive Measures, 23

NP Cars, Weapons, 23

NP Driver, In the Circus Acceleratus, 22

NP Driver, Signatures, 22

NP Driver, the Cities, 22

NP Driver, the Towns and Settlements, 22

NP Driver, the Wasteland, 22

NPC Position, 10

Out of Control, 30

Passing, 29

Shooting, 29

Signatures, 6

Vehicle Types, 9

Weapons, 7

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MACHINAS – DEATH RACES IN THE WASTELAND

© 2014 Carmen Cerra - Ed Teixeira - Two Hour Wargames 3/22/2014

1

PROLOGUE

The roar of the engines drowned out the roar of the

crowd. 100,000 voices could not hope to match the

committed voice of the Infernals. For this was the

final race of the Machinas at the Circus Acceleratus.

As the Brother Pilot waited for the start he recited the

Oath.

“I will endure to be hurled, to be rolled and to be

flipped by wheeled metal. And to be shot by gun,

burned by flame and exploded by missile. Blessed is

Saint Machinas! Blessed is The Oppenheimer!”

INTRODUCTION

Traditional racing games are all dice and mice. This

means players roll dice and move their vehicles from

square to square around a track for a few laps and call

it racing. As the race progresses some players fall

further and further off the lead until they reach a

point in the game that they cannot win. This makes

for boring stretches of movement interrupted by short

bursts of action.

And it often takes a long time to run one race.

What is needed to recreate the drama and action of

real life racing is a different approach.

And that's what Machinas brings to the table.

HOW MANY PLAYERS Machinas is best played with two to four players. As

long as each player has a car there really is no

maximum number of players. When playing with less

than four players each player can run more than one

car (1)

in a race, or add Non-Player Cars (page 18)

that will be controlled by the game mechanics.

The minimum number of cars in a race is up to you.

We recommend four but you can choose to run more

or less if desired.

(1) Note that when we refer to car we are speaking about

the Driver as well as the actual vehicle regardless of type.

NON-PLAYER CARS Non-Player cars are those that are added to the race

but are controlled by the game mechanics instead of a

player. It doesn’t matter who moves the car or rolls

dice for it as the game mechanics dictate how it will

act and how many d6 to roll.

WORD OF ADVICE

Be sure to read the rules one section at a time and If

you have a question about the rules just keep reading

as the answer will be coming along shortly.

But if you can’t find the answer just check out the

Two Hour Wargames Forum link below for answers

to your questions.

http://site.twohourwargames.com/forum/index.php

It’s a very active forum and you can expect an

answer within 24 hours.

Now let's get started.

CARDS, COUNTERS AND MODELS Machinas can be played in a variety of ways. You

will need one car for each player. They could be

counters, cards like those used in our Machinas Deck,

or any scale models. As we do not use a board any of

these will work. Sometimes when we use the term

car we refer to the car and Driver.

In addition you will need markers or coins to track

the pack and number of laps being run.

GETTING STARTED

In this section we'll get you started on your way

towards your first race. We’ll be covering races in the

Circus Acceleratus (page 21), a closed course used

for organized racing. Later in the book, in the

Campaign rules (page 21), we’ll cover open road

racing through the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland. But

regardless of which racing you prefer the less are

similar, if not the same.

THE BOARD The first thing you may have noticed is that there's no

board in Machinas. Don't worry, you won't need one.

Everything you need to race is provided on the

Machinas Racing Card. This will give you the

information you need to run a death race as well as

providing the inside wall for the cars to race against,

more on this later. On the Racing Card you will find

the following info:

Random Event Table - The list of Random

Events that can occur during the race.

Players refer to this table during the Random

Event Phase (page 11).

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