The Mutant Epoch Expansion Rules
-
* Long time followers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of
William McAusland's RPG The Mutant Epoch. He recently released the
long-awaited...
Monday, July 30, 2012
Menace From The Wasteland: Mutant Future Adventure Module Released!
Well, here's a nice Monday surprise! Clay McGrew of Paper Brain Games has announced the release of his new Mutant Future adventure module: Menace From The Wasteland!
This 35-page sandbox-style adventure tasks a team of future mutants to investigate and assist an idyllic family farm on a remote river plain. There are 10 maps of the surrounding area and several interesting locations to visit and explore as the players try to thwart the dangers and threats to the peaceful farmers. Strange new creatures lurk in the forbidden ruins. Shrill screams echo through the forests. Multifaceted eyes leer from the swamps. There's a lot here to keep the PCs busy! (And, yes, I'm being deliberately vague to steer clear of spoilers!)
Menace From the Wastelands is currently available as an electronic PDF for $3.99. You can get your copy at Drive Thru RPG and RPG Now.
Labels:
Game Design,
Mutant Future,
Products
Friday, July 27, 2012
Happy Gary Gygax Day!
July 27 is Gary Gygax Day, celebrating the guy who got this whole mess started. Gary would have been 74 today. Celebrate by chucking some dice, and make a donation to the Gygax Memorial Fund while you're at it! (Click the banner to be taken to the site.)
"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."
—Gary Gygax
"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."
—Gary Gygax
Labels:
Fluff/Inspiration,
in memorium,
personal
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Savage Menagerie: Gallows
No. Enc.: 1 (1d8)
Alignment: None
Movement: None
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 4
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d6/1d6/Special
Save: L3
Morale: None
Hoard Class: VII
A Gallows is an air-breathing, tree-dwelling cephalopod. An adult Gallows is a rather large creature, with a body mass roughly 15 feet in diameter, having between 7 and 12 tentacles (1d6+6) when fully grown. Upon birth, a Gallows will drop out of the tree holding its parent and slither slowly along the ground to another nearby tree. It will then climb up into the top-most branches of its new home, entangling itself in the boughs, where it will spend the rest of its life.
Although seemingly passive, a Gallows is an aggressive hunter, using its many tentacles to “fish” for prey. A Gallows drapes and dangles its tentacles across the tree’s lower branches, where they look like common vines. When a mutant gets too close or walks under the tree’s branches, the Gallows will attack with 1d4 “vines,” lashing out to ensnare its victim. Each tentacle does 1d6 hit points of damage when struck.
If a victim is successfully hit on two consecutive attacks, the second tentacle has wrapped around one of the victim’s limbs, immobilizing it. The Gallows then receives a +2 bonus to hit its snared prey on future attacks. However, a Gallows’ preferred tactic is to snare its prey around the neck, pulling them off the ground until they strangle to death. On a third consecutive successful attack, the Gallows has wrapped a tentacle around the victim’s throat, automatically strangling them for 1d12 hit points per round until dead. Once a victim is dead, the Gallows lifts the corpse into the tree where it begins to feed. There may be coins and small items scattered around the trunk of the tree from the Gallows' previous victims
A small grove of vine-draped trees may be the lair of a pod of Gallows and should be avoided at all costs.
Mutations: none
Alignment: None
Movement: None
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 4
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d6/1d6/Special
Save: L3
Morale: None
Hoard Class: VII
A Gallows is an air-breathing, tree-dwelling cephalopod. An adult Gallows is a rather large creature, with a body mass roughly 15 feet in diameter, having between 7 and 12 tentacles (1d6+6) when fully grown. Upon birth, a Gallows will drop out of the tree holding its parent and slither slowly along the ground to another nearby tree. It will then climb up into the top-most branches of its new home, entangling itself in the boughs, where it will spend the rest of its life.
Although seemingly passive, a Gallows is an aggressive hunter, using its many tentacles to “fish” for prey. A Gallows drapes and dangles its tentacles across the tree’s lower branches, where they look like common vines. When a mutant gets too close or walks under the tree’s branches, the Gallows will attack with 1d4 “vines,” lashing out to ensnare its victim. Each tentacle does 1d6 hit points of damage when struck.
If a victim is successfully hit on two consecutive attacks, the second tentacle has wrapped around one of the victim’s limbs, immobilizing it. The Gallows then receives a +2 bonus to hit its snared prey on future attacks. However, a Gallows’ preferred tactic is to snare its prey around the neck, pulling them off the ground until they strangle to death. On a third consecutive successful attack, the Gallows has wrapped a tentacle around the victim’s throat, automatically strangling them for 1d12 hit points per round until dead. Once a victim is dead, the Gallows lifts the corpse into the tree where it begins to feed. There may be coins and small items scattered around the trunk of the tree from the Gallows' previous victims
A small grove of vine-draped trees may be the lair of a pod of Gallows and should be avoided at all costs.
Mutations: none
Labels:
Game Design,
Menagerie,
Mutant Future
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Gen Con Labyrinth Lord Society Meet-and-Greet Reminder
A reminder that the First Annual Labyrinth Lord Society Meet-and-Greet will be held during the Gen Con "Stink"! Swag to be had, pick-up games to plan, and plenty of other games and merriment will be going on!
Wednesday, August 15 at 6 p.m.
Location: Union Station :: Grand Ballroom
Wondering where we'll be? Just be on the lookout for this nifty banner supplied by Gobinoid Games! (Thanks again, Dan!)
Also, it's been brought to my attention that there will be an OSR booth again this year! Booth 1359 in the Dealer's Hall will be offering a wide selection of retro-themed products from many publishers. There will also be a white board available for folks to post info about pick-up games and other spontaneous events at Gen Con!
Labels:
Events,
Gen Con,
Labyrinth Lord Society
Sunday, July 15, 2012
30 Days To Gen Con And Counting...
We're now one month away from the biggest gaming convention in North America. I'll be attending this year again, running Mutant Future (including the long-awaited Thundarr game!) as well as live blogging each day during the event. I'll also be representing the Labyrinth Lord Society at the "STINK" as well as playtesting a not-yet-announced RPG for any folks interested. Add in any games I'm either running or playing, and I've got a pretty full schedule. In fact, here's what it looks like as a pictogram:
Stay tuned for more information to come!
Stay tuned for more information to come!
Labels:
Events,
Gen Con,
Mutant Future
Friday, July 13, 2012
Unlucky Day, Unlucky Critter
"Happy" Friday the 13th everyone! On this most unlucky of days, I thought I'd quickly dip into the archives and resurrect a Mutant Future creature to torment your PCs with.
Labels:
Game Design,
Menagerie,
Mutant Future
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Issue 15 of Wisdom From the Wastelands Now Out
Issue 15 of Wisdom From the Wastelands has been released. The Mutant Future-themed supplement is now released in a bi-weekly format.
Issue 15 - Robots Part 1: Robots are just as important to Mutant Future as biological creatures. They can be antagonists, sources of information, or even slave labor. This is the first of four robot-themed issues, and presents eight new robots, as well as several new weapons and accessories. Only a few of the robots in this article have precise dimensions; the examples here are intended as types, not specific models. Mutant Lords are encouraged to customize their machines, and provide fine details to fit their settings..
The issue is only 99 cents and available at Drive Thru RPG.
Labels:
Game Design,
Mutant Future,
Products
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Furtive Faction: Suburbanites (Nuclear Families)
Group Goals and Beliefs: To live life the way it was prior to the Apocalygeddon. To live in suburban dwellings with other Nuclear Families. To congregate at neighborhood “block parteez” and “bar-bee-kyoos.” To strive for the “Merkin Dream.”
Identifiers: Suburbanites are usually found dressed in 1950’s retro fashions. (Dresses and heels for the women; sweater vests and slacks for the men.) Everyone is either wearing a pearl necklace or has a pipe clenched in his (or her!) teeth. There’s a cheerful grin on the face of everyone.
Group History: The problem with life in the Mutant Future is that everyone BELIEVES there’s a problem – or so think Suburbanites. They feel that, if everyone goes back to living in a manner similar to what it was like BEFORE the Apocalygeddon, then life will eventually return to “normal” – radiation levels will plummet, the skies will become blue again, crops will flourish, mutations will eventually vanish, and prosperity will one day return. Taking their cues from unearthed Civil Defense pamphlets and videos from the 1950s, Suburbanites go about a daily pantomime of what life was like in the Ancient days. Rarely encountered individually, numerous “families” of Suburbanites are usually found in the ruins of a bombed-out neighborhood, reenacting their own glorified version of The Good Ol’ Days. Pure human, mutants, even androids and plants will be found in these conclaves. Men will push their (non-working) mowers around yards. Women will busy themselves in the kitchen or “vacuuming” the house. Children will play on twisted, rusted swingsets in the backyards or sit quietly as they watch a non-functioning TV. The men have all taken one of three names: Bob, John, or Henry; the women are all Carol, Barbara, or Sally; all of the kids answer to Champ or Sport.
Game Information: Suburbanites should be played as the typical 1950s suburban family transplanted to the ruins of the wastelands. They will NEVER break character; to acknowledge the world as it truly is will be admitting defeat. This group delusion MUST be maintained at all costs. Visitors are usually referred to as “Cousin Oliver,” “Uncle Joe,” or other familial moniker. Suburbanites may actually possess some working Ancient tech that they will protect at all costs as “proof” that their way is revitalizing the world. If the neighborhood is threatened, Suburbanites will retreat to a fortified underground “bomb shelter” – the first thing they restore upon moving in – where they will wait until the threat has passed. Just as the original Burb Dwellers did. (In fact, some Suburbanites could be descendants of survivors from the original Apocalygeddon!)
Labels:
faction,
Game Design,
Mutant Future
Monday, July 2, 2012
Savage Menagerie: Polonium Ivy
Alignment: None
Movement: None
Armor Class: 9
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: Special
Save: L1
Morale: None
Hoard Class: None
Polonium Ivy appears as a thin, reddish-brown vine covered with the triple-leaved clusters. These leaves are a brilliant orange in color mottled with small black spots. Polonium Ivy -- a mutated off-shoot of an Ancient strain of poison ivy -- can be found growing in a variety of places: snaking up a tree trunk, in leafy bushes in fields and forests, or even as a single solitary plant that has infested a village garden.
Polonium Ivy is coated with a highly irritating oil that causes a blistering rash to spread wildly over any area that comes into contact with it. If someone comes into contact with Polonium Ivy, they should make a save versus Poison. If they fail, they have been exposed to the Ivy's oils and the rash immediately breaks out on the affected area. This rash itches and burns with a white-hot intensity that is impossible for the victim to ignore. The mutant will wildly scratch at the irritation, suffering a -2 penalty on all saves versus DEX, INT, and WIL, as the victim remains completely preoccupied by the irritation. They will also suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls to hit in combat, whether hand-to-hand or ranged, until the rash clears up. This rash will last for 20 days minus the victim's CON score. (A mutant with a CON of 15 will suffer from the rash for 5 days; a CON score of 11 equals a 9-day rash; etc.) The rash is not contagious and cannot be spread via contact with another mutant.
The other hazard to watch out for in relation to Polonium Ivy is that it is mildly radioactive. Polonium Ivy's radiation class falls between 1 and 4 (roll 1d4 when first encountered). Fortunately, the radiation emitted is at a low level, even though it may be of a high intensity. Anyone exposed to Polonium Ivy radiation only needs to make a save versus Radiation once a day rather than per round. If there is a village with many new mutations erupting throughout the populace (as well as an unexplained intense rash suffered by everyone), PCs should be on the lookout for a patch of Polonium Ivy.
Mutations: toxic weapon, energy emission (radiation)
Labels:
Game Design,
Menagerie,
Mutant Future
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)