OHT's Mutant Epoch Thread (IE Hog Heaven)

[One Horse Town]

Taken delivery of the hub rules (why they can't be called 'core rules' i don't know) and my inner chart-lover has done a little sqwee of pleasure. I've not got much to post at the moment, but i'll use this thread to post my thoughts on the game, probably go through full character creation and take it section by section.

It'll take a while, because although it's a manageable 240 odd pages, it's dense - oh, and it has charts coming out the wazoo! This does not worry a seasoned Rolemaster fan like myself, but it could intimidate some people before they actually start reading the thing.

Me, i love it, and it's chock full of evocative little b&w illustrations.

Watch this space for a full character generation. I'm tempted to carry on with my cyborg guy, but in the interests of full chargen, i'll start again and take it step by step.

[One Horse Town]

Well, i've spent the evening perusing as much as i can and it looks pretty awesome. I'm sure it's not going to be for everyone though, there are some things in there that seem very woolly, even to me, and i'm far from a crunch-meister. The Appearance stat seems to suffer generally in this game, but i've yet to find anywhere discussing exactly what effect that has. Then again i've read bits and scanned it. By the looks of the layout of this thing it could take me 4 weeks to find tucked away in a paragraph or table somewhere.

I've successfully rolled up a character though, which is complete bar outfitting. I'll try to post more about chargen and the various options tomorrow. All you need to know right now is that my guy is basically a minotaur - or in ME talk a Cow (Water Buffalo) Bestial Human. His stats are crazy compared to the cyborg guy i half completed.

I'll also say that i couldn't imagine trying to make head or tails of this book if i didn't have a hard copy. I wouldn't recommend the pdf option.

[One Horse Town]

So, the book opens with an overview of the setting and a few ideas to mold it into a terminator type future where machines have won a war over humans, alien invasion, or demonic portals. I personally think the default PA setting is interesting enough without going all Rifts on it. Then there's a brief bit on how to play, being a GM and dice. The usual guff that luckily only takes up 3 (rather dense) pages. Then we're onto the Character Generation chapter with a full-page illustration of a mutant woman with a massive crab-claw arm packing a pistol.

The chapter starts with a step by step guide to chargen, which runs to 15 steps...

Step 1 - Character Type This determines what your 'race' is. I put race in inverted commas because they are all basically either human, altered humans, or contain human DNA or are artificial beings modeled on humans. The checklist suggests that beginning players role randomly for type in order to start playing quickly and to (in theory) not have a more complex character to take care of as a starting player - yes, the random character type table has 3 different columns. The first for beginner players, the second for experienced players and the third for expert players. This might seem a bit preachy, but tbh i see the sense in it. You roll a d100 and cross-reference the result to see what type your character is.

Types are pure-stock humans, clones of various types, bioreplicas of various types, trans-humans (genetically improved pure-stocks), cyborgs, bestial humans (genetically crossed humans and animals), ghost mutants (outwardly normal humans with mental mutations - kinda psionicists), and mutants, from mild, to typical, to severe and freakish. The beginner column does not allow freakish mutants and only a 2% chance of a sever mutant, otherwise everything is on the table.

So, i roll, and get a 58. Cross-referencing that result on the beginning player column, i see the result is Bestial Human. I'm a furry!

More later.

(Note: I should probably point out at this stage that the game is predominately a percentile system. Although it uses all the other dice for associated rolls, the basic mechanic is d100.

[Spike]

As I recall this is a Modiphous product?  If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?

Or am I mistaken?  Don't make me go to Goggle!

[One Horse Town]

As I recall this is a Modiphous product?  If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?

Or am I mistaken?  Don't make me go to Goggle!

No, it's a one-man-band effort. Outland Arts which is basically William McAusland who used to illustrate some of the DCC products.

[One Horse Town]

So, we know that my guy is a Bestial Human. but the book doesn't tell you when or where to look at your type. Instead it goes straight onto...

Step 2: Trait Rolling. Traits (otherwise known as stats) can be produced by rolling randomly in order, rolling randomly and assign, a combination of the two, or point buy - for beginners (and i'll keep it this way anyway) it suggests roll randomly in order. Now, we get to roll d100 8 times for our Traits. You might think that being a % system, that the result of your roll would be your Trait. Wrong! There is the Trait Value Determination chart where you cross-reference your d100 roll to find out what your Trait score is. You might think this is crazy, but there is definately method in the madness, as the higher you roll, you actually get a set value with a random addition, such as 40 + d20, 80 + d20. In this way, you can get Trait scores above a hundred, when you only roll a d100.

Your Traits are Endurance (which are your actual hit points) Strength (self-explanatory), Agility (same), Accuracy (hand-eye coordination, adds to your Strike Value, otherwise known as chance to hit), Intelligence (Well duh!), Willpower (strength of mind, useful in resisting certain effects), Perception (This is kinda both quickness and perception rolled into one as it affects your Initiative) and lastly Appearance (which appears to do nothing other than give an idea of how ugly/good looking you are by normal human standards - more on this later).

Now then, it's in the blurb for step 2 that i find out that Bestial Humans don't even use the Trait Value Determination chart the same as everyone else - they use a mix of that and the method contained in the Type write-up for Bestial Humans.

I need to look up my type before rolling my stats! I find the type section half way through the character generation chapter, randomly stuffed between castes (previous job, a bit like WFRP's careers) and skills. I find here that there are a whopping 33 types of bestial human and i need to (you guessed it) roll a d100 to see what type i am. A roll of 29 results in Cow (page 27) - kinda glad i didn't roll cockroach. I also see a massive table with all the bestial human types on it and how they roll their Traits. Its a mix of roll as normal using the chart found earlier in the book and just adding a set (or random) amount to the Trait value already rolled on that previously found chart...

Yeah, a bit of a pain and illustrates why i would find a PDF awful.

Anyway, i rolled Traits as directed, noted down age, lifespan, DV (defence value) move, weight and height (more rolls). Jesus, my Water Buffalo guy is 230kg and 9 feet 2 inches tall - no wonder he has an Appearance Trait of 6...

I also need to look at the Cow entry on page 27. There it describes what you look like and also contains unique bits and bobs for your type only. My guy gets a horn attack (which is triple damage and better SV when i can charge 6 metres).

Now, i thought i was finished with my type, but then i thought i'd better read the general bestial human entry at the beginning of the entry.

Lucky i did! I find i've got a 33% chance of d3 prime mutations, d2 minor mutations, and a 1 in 10 chance of a Flaw mutation. I roll it. My boy has some mutations. As it happens 2 prime and 1 minor, with no flaw.

I think i'm now done with step 2 (i'll put my character sheet up at the end). Although it turned into a bit more than simply Trait rolling.

Oh, nearly forgot, Bestial Humans all get the Wilderness Survival skill, as their bestial nature gives them advantages and those nasty pure-bloods kick them into the wilds a lot.

More tomorrow, where i'll be generating my Caste

[Moracai]

As I recall this is a Modiphous product?  If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?

Or am I mistaken?  Don't make me go to Goggle!

You are probably thinking of Mutant: Year Zero, which incidentally is what I have prepped to GM for one of my two groups. MYZ looks nothing like Mutant Epoch, nor Mutant Chronicles, nor Conan. The basic resolution in it resembles Arkham Horror. Basically a d6 pool where sixes are successes.

As for Mutant Epoch, I downloaded the free 120+ page quick start guide, glanced at it for a good four minutes or so and decided that it really isn't for me. Somehow I am reminded of MYFAROG or FATAL or some other mutant game I forgot the name of, by it. A work that is done by a lone dude who is stuck to whatever era he started roleplaying in, and stayed there.

[crkrueger]

Random generation Mutant Tables, gotta love it.  I can imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth already of the "Can't Design Your Own Mutant to .00001 Tolerance Point Buy" crowd.

Heh.  Already begun.
[popcorn]

[One Horse Town]

Somehow I am reminded of MYFAROG or FATAL or some other mutant game I forgot the name of, by it.

Erm, no and no. or at least so far.

I will say this though, it has a lot more slavery and prostitution than your average RPG. The morality of the setting seems a bit ropey at first glance, but that's the easiest thing to purge. I've heard that the Bestiary One expansion is a bit dodgy, with some of the critters basically wanting to eat you, kill you, or mate with you, not necessarily in that order. I'd find that too squicky if it is as common as i've seen (i think someone said that a troubling amount of the monsters can mate with humans - seems a little obsessively weird for me, if true).

[One Horse Town]

Random generation Mutant Tables, gotta love it.  I can imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth already of the "Can't Design Your Own Mutant to .00001 Tolerance Point Buy" crowd.

Heh.  Already begun.
[popcorn]

d1000 tables, mate.

[One Horse Town]

So, stung into reading the character type write-ups, yeah, there's definitely a master-race vibe from pure-stock humans - but, there's also a master race vibe from androids later in the book, and some mutants. Basically, everyone thinks they're best and not to blame for the current predicament - or about 50% of each type of human is, the other 50% make up the Free-towns and the majority of adventuring types, so although there's a bit too much detail for my liking on how uber alles all these guys are, the assumption is that you're not one of those and as you're adventurers, much more cosmopolitan.

It kinda puts me off getting the setting books though, as i really like chargen, the rules, the mutations and implants etc. I'll most likely just make my own setting and use the non-setting sections of the line for my own purposes.

[crkrueger]

To be honest all kinds of random mutants with viable "non-bubbling pool of slime mutations" that are mixtures of various species but can't reproduce seems kind of odd to me.

The standard animal-human hybrid present in the Mutant Genre always seemed to me like it was exactly that...somehow the mixture of human/animal genes, perhaps due to Eugenics, CRISPR/cas9 getting mixed with the gene editing capabilities of Flu viruses, whatever,  some form of science run amok.  No conventional radiation exposure is going to produce viable mutants.

So if all the mutants are basically mixtures of Terran Species DNA, why can't they be allowed to reproduce by the mechanism of the same agent that created them to begin with?

If this wasn't a crazy science accident, but some form of Rapid Hyper-Evolution kicked off like in Darwin's Radio then it could explain both the interspecies viability as well as the increased sexual urges as all the metaspecies are being driven to evolve.  Or maybe the agent of mutation was one of those STDs that increases libido.

Once you start getting into the science of how Buffalo Man and Cucumber Girl can be adventuring together, the bumping uglies part kinda presents itself naturally without the author being a Creepazoid.

[One Horse Town]

I don't think the author is a creepozoid. He's a completist from what i've read so far, so he's presenting things that i wouldn't normally care about either as a writer, player, or GM. Easily purged, as i said, but a bit of a bind to read.

[One Horse Town]

So, onto Step 3: Caste. This is basically your previous career and like character type, there are a few of them, running the gammut of several slaves to several military careers. You roll on a table (d100) with your character type cross-referenced with all the Castes. My guy rolls Draftee. This is basically the lowest rung on the military ladder. My water buffalo was drafted against his will into a militia (fair enough considering his fearsome mien). Shame, as it's pretty weak in the skills department. Looking up Draftee, i see that i add d3 to my Endurance and Strength stat and start with 1 warrior skill and d2 miscellaneous skills (i roll 2). My starting equipment is Modest (outfitting comes later).

Right then, below the Caste stat modification table is the starting skill table. Skills are split into 4 catagories - Criminal, Warrior, Educated, Miscellaneous. I roll a d100 and look along the warrior table, finding that my water buffalo 9'2" 230kg guy has Riding 1! Great-horses exist in this setting that can carry 4 normal humans sized riders, so i presume that i was plonked on one of them. My 2 misc skills turn out to be Gambler 1 and Unarmed Combat 1. Next i look up the Draftee write-up to see what kind of trouble i'm in - quite a lot, i ran away from the militia. I have to roll a d100 to determine whether the militia was from my home town or one i visited later. It's my home town and there's a bizarely specific (which is becoming the obvious norm) 73% that if i return to my home town that someone will turn me in for summary justice. The entry says there's a 28% chance i can read and write (i can) and if so, a 33% chance i can do maths (i can also do that).

That's it for Caste. Luckily, as a bestial human i couldn't roll whore or kitchen slave, but i could have done with a better military background. Never mind, next up is random gender (i choose male rather than roll), height and weight (which i've already done through my character type), which hand is dominant (right) and what my swimming ability is (i can't swim), then my age (which again has been specified in my type section).

That takes us up to step 9: mutations, which i'll cover later, as i have a few of them.

[One Horse Town]

Step 9: Mutations and Implants. This is the main section of the character generation chapter. Here we get to generate the mutations that hamper/make our mutants and the implants that improve/weigh down our cyborgs. My guy is neither of those! However, the instructions in the Bestial Human section led to my character having 2 prime and 1 minor mutations.

I can safely ignore the implant section that comes later and also the intro blurb on mutants, 'cos i'm not one technically. Instead i head straight over to the Prime Mutation Table and get to roll a d1000 baby! The ME home site has a handy dice roller app that is downloadable on it which has a d1000 roller, so away i went.

My first roll resulted in Mind Crush! My boy has a Ghost Mutant (ie Psionic) mutation, luckily not resulting in another reduction to Appearance. Now Mind Crush can be used at a range up to Willpower stat x 3 in metres (nearly 150 metres in my case) and 3 times a day per Rank of the character (starting at Rank 1, 3 times a day). The victim must make a Hazard B Intelligence check or suffer 1d20 points of Endurance damage and 1d6 points of Inteligence damage. The Int damage is the killer, especially on mutant animals and the like with poor Int stats. When Int reaches zero you lose consciousness. Nice mutation!

Next up i roll...Project Image Another Ghost Mutant power! This is basically Mirror Image. I can create 4 duplicates of myself that vanish when hit, duplicate my movements etc. Usable twice a day per Rank. So basically i can create an illusion of 4 extra 9'2" water buffalo badasses that do what i do. Quite a cool scare tactic that might tip the scales in my favour in some situations.

I'm happy with my mutations. I've got a Psionic Water Buffalo!  

I also have to roll a minor mutation, which are generally pretty harmless. Mine is having violet coloured blood - which considering i'm an intelligent, psychic water buffalo doesn't really amount to much!

Step 10. Name character. I decide on 'Cud'.

Next up, 'Modest' starting equipment.