Any suggestions on the reasonable cause for Mutations!?

Greentongue · August 03, 2007, 01:05:43 PM

I'm planning a Post Apoc game set on a colony starship and wonder what other people think would be a reasonable source for Mutations!
Yes, from a Sci-Fantasy viewpoint.

I have one I feel is reasonable but, would be interested in how well it aligns with what other people would use.

Thanks for your opinions.
=

jrients · August 03, 2007, 01:08:26 PM

If I needed a plausible cause for mutations I'd probably look a nanotech. Nannite gene reassemblers with faulty or incomplete programming could be loose on the ship.

TonyLB · August 03, 2007, 01:11:30 PM

Military grade retroviruses are a decent explanation, too.

ghost rat · August 03, 2007, 01:15:44 PM

Perhaps the ship was at one point caught in a radioactive meteor shower. Some of the meteors became embedded in the outer hull, giving creatures within sporadic doses of rads.

Or maybe as the result of a design flaw, certain vital ship systems started producing toxic byproducts after a period of years. The systems can't be shut down because the ship would explode, or decompress, or whatever, and it can't be repaired because the flaw goes all the way back to the original design.

Brantai · August 03, 2007, 01:17:59 PM

inbreeding?

Sosthenes · August 03, 2007, 01:50:42 PM

Alien DNA-like substances. IM IN UR BASE PAIRS...

Pseudoephedrine · August 03, 2007, 02:32:16 PM

Cosmic radiation. It's a classic.

Nicephorus · August 03, 2007, 02:42:19 PM

A virus or parasite/symbiote would work. A parasite might be useful to the host if that gives the parasite more resources. You could have extra limbs and thing that are actually other entities attached to your body.

The same mutations could also affect behavior. There has been some research showing that diseases and parasites alter the host's hormones and chemical balance in ways that are beneficial to them but detrimental to the host.

Koltar · August 03, 2007, 02:42:31 PM

Quote from: GreentongueI'm planning a Post Apoc game set on a colony starship and wonder what other people think would be a reasonable source for Mutations!
Yes, from a Sci-Fantasy viewpoint.

I have one I feel is reasonable but, would be interested in how well it aligns with what other people would use.

Thanks for your opinions.
=

To keep needed crewmembers alive longer a slightly "mad" scientist did experiments on them to improve their lifespans - and results backfired on him, killed him....then had offspring.

- Ed C.

HinterWelt · August 03, 2007, 02:43:10 PM

Quote from: GreentongueI'm planning a Post Apoc game set on a colony starship and wonder what other people think would be a reasonable source for Mutations!
Yes, from a Sci-Fantasy viewpoint.

I have one I feel is reasonable but, would be interested in how well it aligns with what other people would use.

Thanks for your opinions.
=

For Future Skein I am using Nanites for one form of genetic manipulation and genetically engineered viruses for another. Essentially both work the same way but one is passed to your children making them a "breed" and another is random based on exposure.

Good luck!
Bill

Gunslinger · August 03, 2007, 03:27:38 PM

This could be a race that was previously human but had been genetically engineered to a point they are no longer the same species. The reason it was done was so the inhabitants could easily adapt to whatever colony they eventually found. Due to their makeup any natural occurence could trigger a mutation.

TonyLB · August 03, 2007, 03:29:49 PM

Or, more (potentially) sinister: The mutations are anything but ... they are planned evolutions that are occurring as the colony ship approaches its destination.

Of course, the people who made the plans are long dead ... and the changes are scary. How far do you trust your progenitors? Were they looking out for the best interest of everyone? Or were they only concerned for getting the end product of their evolutionary scheme on-planet ... perhaps at the expense of every generation that was born before?

beejazz · August 03, 2007, 03:42:33 PM

A new gene becomes predominant (for whatever reason... maybe as simple as that this particular genetic disorder is now survivable thanks to modern medicine) that leads to heightened transcription errors in offspring.

phasmaphobic · August 03, 2007, 04:02:51 PM

Quote from: PseudoephedrineCosmic radiation. It's a classic.

Absolutely. If you can't go with Gamma Rays... I can't even complete that statement, it feels so wrong.

Silverlion · August 03, 2007, 05:41:47 PM

I think people have made all the good suggestions. Mutagens vary across the board but a combination might be at work.

Altered genome for various reasons making mutation more likely.

Retroviruses programmed to make improvements, or with psychometabolic effects. (Sort of "wish fulfillment" disease)

Hard radiation (gamma rays) exposure.

Chemical exposure (perhaps a food additive, more likely a medication)--for example the various pills they talk about on television "can cause birth defects if HANDLED by pregnant or nursing women." suggest pretty extreme effects for medications. Perhaps a slow alteration from something that tested safe for a dozen generations of lab mice (splenda you say?)