This writeup by Age of Ravens on Mutant: Year Zero piqued my interest. Particularly all the mechanics and play around the Ark. There's a Let's Play thread on here where someone praises the hell out of this game as well. There's a free preview on Drivethru that I'll download and never read unless someone gives me a reason to do so.

Anyone played this sucker? Thoughts? Will it scratch that GW itch?

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It's a beautiful book, with nice resources (cards, dice, maps, etc) in it's overall package. It feels classy to touch with it's matt cover and good quality paper. The illustrations are outstanding in capturing the atmosphere. It's easy to read, without the verbosity of some game books, and few groups would have difficulty grasping the game quickly, I think.

The system is a simple dice pool system with '6' being the target, but is made more complicated by rolling a pool made up of three different colours - each representing Attributes, Skills and Equipment. I'm not sure I'm really keen on this, but the notion is that if you roll '1's - which have convenient symbols on the official dice something bad happens accordingly. They aren't as bad as Star Wars narrative dice, as you can get by with normal D6s (of varying colour) but I'd have preferred the simpler take on this dice pool system used in Tales of the Loop myself.

Character generation is familiar in feel to the recent crop of Apocalypse World games, insofar that you get to choose a variety of statements from archetypes in order to flesh them out a bit, for characterisation, motivation, etc. Each character is a mutant - the actual mutation effects being determined by drawing from a deck of cards, and you don't have full control on when they will impact either. You can also draw from a Threat and Artefact deck during the course of play which, along with a map actually makes it easy for a GM to pick up and play.

There is a fair amount of competition these days for post-apocalyptic gaming, with a lot of titles to choose from. This remains a good choice though, and is well supported.

I have read the book but haven't played it yet. Form what I can tell It's a solid rpg rules wise and l like the mechanics. If you like post apocalyptic/fallout it's a good choice.

I looked at it, but couldn't find a reason why it would replace Gamma World (1e or D&D 4e versions) or Waste World. If I didn't have those games, perhaps Mutant: Year Zero would have caught my attention more.

Quote from: Voros;974478Anyone played this sucker? Thoughts? Will it scratch that GW itch?

It depends on the way you see GW. I find Mutant Year Zero to be far more harsh and unforgiving. To make it short, the world and the rules are about entropy. The rules make sure that your gear and your body will slowly, but surely, decay. The more powerful your mutant gets, the more he degenerates.

It works very well in play but it's not the kinda of atmosphere I look for in my games though.

To risk an odd comparison with books, if Gamma World is Hiero's Journey, Mutant Year Zero is closer to Roadside picnic

Quote from: Spinachcat;974510I looked at it, but couldn't find a reason why it would replace Gamma World (1e or D&D 4e versions) or Waste World. If I didn't have those games, perhaps Mutant: Year Zero would have caught my attention more.

Mutant Year Zero's tone is very different... It's a lot less gonzo. And the setting takes itself pretty seriously. That's not to say you couldn't play a serious Gamma World game of course - but in general.

As for the game itself, it's pretty good. I like the vibe... Your characters have to leave the ark not just to get supplies but tensions are rising inside. So there's a nice bit of political intrigue already set up.

The mechanics are pretty decent. My only real complaint is the metaplot (I don't want to give out any spoilers). Not that it's not interesting but you characters are always influenced by it (even if they don't know it). To be honest, I'd dump it myself and let the characters be free to roam, and create their own agendas.

Another thing is that the world is very dangerous. I mean, that as your characters go out and explore they will get exposed to toxins ad this will eventually kill them. There is no cure... However, this can lead to gaining more mutant powers, etc.

Quote from: The Exploited.;974524Mutant Year Zero's tone is very different... It's a lot less gonzo. And the setting takes itself pretty seriously.

Have you seen the Genelab Alpha spinoff?!

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What bothers me enough to give it a pass is that everyone is a mutant.

I'm not sure that's the post apocalypse game I want.

Nothing wrong with that per se. Cup of tea innit.

Pretty good game. Mix of old-school hex crawl and PbtA, in a well realized setting and beautiful book. The problem for us are the mutations. Since you gain them randomly you may end up with useless stuff for your role, or obfuscating other players roles.


@Trippy Hippy, that's an optional supplement. The corebook felt pretty non-gonzo for us, as Exploited says. There is also a robots/machines only supplement, if I ain't mistaken.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;974529Have you seen the Genelab Alpha spinoff?!

There are some elements that appear a little gonzo but that is not the game's tone.

The main game is full of fairly gonzo mutations. Your character may look almost indistinguishable from a normal human... or may look barely human at all. Hell, you might even have wings and fly (or hover at least). Despite some of these seemingly gonzo trappings you're not running around doing wacky things. Really you're grubbing around in the dirt for survival, fending off vicious predators (human or otherwise), becoming increasingly sick, and all the while your home is facing pretty dire times. The most gonzo element, the use of your wild mutations, gives you short term benefits but long term problems. It's a grim tone overall.

Genlab Alpha is a standalone game (set in the same world though) and looks a bit like The Wind in the Willows with Parka jackets, hiking boots, hunting rifles, and handguns on the surface. However, you live in a pretty scary compound and in small societies with very rigid, and unforgiving, social structures. Test those social structures too much and your friends and family will turn on you. They might just bully you a bit but, if you're unlucky, they're going to try and tear you apart. Literally. Also, the innate abilities that come from being an uplifted member of your species work against you like Mutations do in the standard game. In the short term you can gain a benefit from them but you risk becoming feral, and losing control, in the long term.  Then there's all the robots around the place that will try to kill you if they spot you. It's more like Watership Down meets The Road, with ocassional shades of the original Terminator movie.

I've just got the Alpha version of the Mechatron game, which  covers robots, and it looks a little gonzo too. I've only skimmed it but I think the average player group will end up looking something like C3PO, R2D2, and Wall-E. No doubt it'll play in a much grimmer fashion than that would suggest! I expect physical corrosion and software corruption to play a part.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;974529Have you seen the Genelab Alpha spinoff?!

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I have! But I held off buying it, to be honest... As I'm not all that into the mutant animal concepts. I bought quite a number of their other (mini) supplements which I really like. Even if you never played the game as intended they have some great ideas to mine from. I'm really looking forward to the robot supplement.

Although, at the moment if I was going to play a Post Apoc game I'd probably go with Other Dust. I really like it... Has a dark tone as well in case you've not seen it.

Quote from: kobayashi;974519To risk an odd comparison with books, if Gamma World is Hiero's Journey, Mutant Year Zero is closer to Roadside picnic

Sold and sold.

Other Dust looks good too.

I'm running the Genlab Alpha campaign now and... it reads better than it plays.

(some relevant(?) digression coming up....)

Mechanically speaking the system is pretty light and simple and whiffy.  Expect characters to fail.  A lot.  PC, NPC, doesn't matter.  When you -do- get hit, expect to either live just fine or explode; healing is pretty easy.  Domination/Rank is made out to be this big thing, but expect to figure out what that means for your group yourself.  There's a power that will let your (Seer) PCs kill anyone, anywhere, anyhow, so don't get attached to any NPCs.  The campaign is really short and linear, but can play a -lot- longer than it looks (my mistake, I admit, was in thinking "oh, we can wrap this up in 12-18 sessions", which put time pressures on me).  Gear/Artifacts -can- break, but tend not to.

The Power Gamer of the group made a frightening build off of an Elder Seer Ape, with lots of Domination and Scrying.  He used his high Rank to get Scavengers and Hunters in his tribe to give him armor and weapons; nothing -too- fancy as they could mass make the stuff he wanted through their -own- powers.  His first advancement was that "auto-kill" power.  I don't begrudge a power-gamer for investing time in learning the rules, even if its to better exploit them (in an honest manner!), but I have found the game to be progressively "unfun" as a GM for reasons I don't fully understand.  Some I blame on myself, but not all of it.

It -is- a fun read though!  And I've thrown in all sorts of side stories about earlier experiments before the war ("wait, there's a Crow tribe?!?!"), psychic warrior experiments ("so -that's- where the Role powers come from!"), and a greater emphasis on "lieutenant" NPCs for the PCs to face in small doses ("it's the Observer DA-D33!").  Still though, I think it needed another round of proofing ("why is the Bear leader's helicopter in Badger lands?") and playtesting.

I wrote a review of the game here:

https://www.rpggeek.com/thread/1740376/radioactive-stone-soup

It's not as detailed as the Age of Ravens one, but it compares it a lot to other games you might know. Hope it is useful.

Thanks! Much appreciated.