Epic battle

My head is still spinning. We had our regular Mutant Future game today. Fifteen player characters and NPCs in the adventuring party. Just when I expected them to run, the players dig in resolutely and FIGHT! A reinforced platoon of mutant 'human mercenaries assault their prepared positions. Supporting dragoons make a nuisance of themselves, sniping and harassing.

The result: three solid hours of good old fashioned combat and killing. The final tally: six dead characters and the reinforced platoon of attacking mutant mercs scattered and fleeing. The butcher's bill proved a heavy price indeed.

Two things everyone learned today with a definite emphasis:

First, friendly fire, ISN'T. Mutations harm friend and foe when badly used. Today's use of Killing Sphere came close to wiping out the party as well as the attacking point squad. Reminded me of a wayward arty strike landing on your own positions.

Second, snipers kill from a distance. One of two pure human player characters found out the hard way. I guess he should have been paying more attention and asking why the Mutant Lord was still counting initiative when every enemy in sight appeared to be dead....

Oh well, happy times....

Rain rain and rain

It's seven in the morning and the sky is pouring. By this I mean forty days and forty nights variety of tropical torrential rain. It's been like this since the other day. What many people take for granted is the appalling state of urban drainage we have here after years and years of corruption and neglect. Every little bit of rain (which is pretty much unavoidable this time of the year) results in flooding. This gets to your car, your house, your things and pretty much brings everything to a standstill.

I have a meeting with a minor government agency in a flood-prone area and I'm having doubts even if my SUV will survive the trek. Oh, and did I ever mention the traffic jams that will inevitably result? They are giving out anti-pneumonia shots in the office and boy, do we really need this stuff the way things are turning out here. Somehow I keep wondering if people should really be living like this.

Times like this I feel that living in the third world is an adventure in a medieval fantasy world. At least it isn't post apocalyptic..yet.

Maybe this is why my recurring inspiration for my current mutant future game has a lot to do with tropical rain and jungles.

I can't wait for the week to end so we can proceed to session 6 of the Southeast Asian Mutant Future. Upon a player's urging, I cobbled together the MF encumbrance rules as written with the elegant point system found in Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing thereby (hopefully) simplifying things in this regard. we'll see soon I guess.

In the midst of a lot of stuff

Life has been very busy and exciting of late. I have so little time to update my blog and I am very much aware of the fact that I have a tremendous backlog in terms of after-action reports and other related musings. Between work, family life and the occassional gaming session, my days and nights are jam-packed, but I have so far stayed true to my personal commitment to thrive and not just to live.

Events are catching up with my wife and I and decisions have to be made soon. I'm just so thrilled to move on with our lives after waiting for the right thing to happen.

On the gaming front, I'm happy to note my Southeast Asian Mutant Future campaign has been progressing into its fifth session by last Sunday. I've been scribbling down my copious notes and will be posting the account of our mutant ne'er-do-wells who are now in the midst of trying to break into their default starting town which is besieged by Moro Mutant Pirates. They recently just survived the Re-Energizers module and are currently dodging freelance mutant marauders allied to the Moro Mutants. It certainly isn't easy for them they have to keep moving while lugging 120 pounds worth of scavenged radioactive batteries which they are trying to smuggle into the surrounded defenders of Barrio Santo Cristo.

Keeping in consonance with the tenets of old school gaming, I lifted the restrictions on characters each player can field. With our NPCs, the party is now up to 15 effectives and counting.

I plunked in the 'Shields Will Be Splintered' houserule, as well as some handy houserules by fellow Mutant Lord Malcadon on increased melee combat plusses due to Strength. Adding some sniping rules and other assorted bits on firearms all served to turn the game a tad deadlier. Judging from the players' reactions, the verdict so far is that Mutant Future is one deadly game.

I'll be making an effort to post more, given the constraints of real life always hanging over me. What little free time I have is often eaten up by reading up all those interesting bits from other people's blogs.

Have a great week everyone!

Mutant future episode 2 - no fatalities

We just finished our second episode of this season's Mutant Future (Southeast Asia edition) amidst a tropical late afternoon downpour. Yes, that was fun. Nothing beats an afternoon with friends around the gaming table. The intrepid mutant adventurers are halfway through RE-ENERGIZERS, a Mutant Future adventure module I recently purchased and downloaded. So far, it played out well as a balanced and well thought of scenario. It was also very easy to take, adopt and plunk into my homebrew gameworld. Yes, RE-ENERGIZERS rocks!

My house rules expanding the slug throwers found in the MF rules as written appear to work fine- making gunplay very much reminiscent of FALLOUT TACTICS, which was my intention in the first place. Of course so far, it's been the players using their firepower against mutant fauna. I'm sure things will get suitably sanguinary when they run up against opposition with a modicum of intelligence similarly armed and inclined as they are.

Man, it is so hot here. I hear the weather hit 38 or 39 Celsius last week.

Even if I'm tired and hungry, I'm real happy. And more than ready to face the work week. Bring 'em on guys....

Back to gaming!

We just had our return to Mutant Future game yesterday. It was a blast. i'm still enjoying the feeling of having ran a great game with good friends. I'll be posting a report soon. More good news means we'll probably gaming again this weekend.

It's been such a long time I've forgotten how great all of this can be!

The Newest Addition to this Mutant Lord's Arsenal

I just managed to purchase and download my pdf copy of Mr. Raggi's Random Esoteric Creature Generator. I'm only in the first few pages but I can see how this product is going to go very far indeed in enhancing my next Mutant Future game. With everything moving in accordance with our plans, I hope to be gaming on May 22. Good times seem to be just around the corner!

Hijacking the jumpstart attempt at running a new game

One thing GM-ing has taught me is the value of player buy in. The fact that your players have this starry-eyed look of expectation whe you tell them what you plan next means they are hooked.

I've been mulling a more Hawkmoon-esque Mutant Future game in the coming weeks and started the actual task of jotting down my ideas just to make them simmer and stew. In the process of doing this, I seem to have been hijacked again along my original path. This has happened before so I am not really bothered. My ultimate end in the proposed upcoming game is a gradual decline of technological civilization on Earth during the course of a drawn out struggle which savants of a later more civilized age will refer to as the Tragic Millenium.

The thing is, I seemed more drawn for now to run a game at a point in the TM when technology and civilization is still somewhat formidable but falling catastrophically fast.Having to explain how I envision this to some of my more new school players I described the feel of this attempt at a Mutant Future to be Fallout Tactics meets Planet of the Apes and a dash of the X Men. Well, this got their attention.

Next, I decided to try a different tack. I decided to set the game in the place I call home. This means hot, tropical beaches, a lot of native slang, crumbling ruins near fortress gothic churches all set in a place once referred to as the Pearl of the Orient Seas. Other things of interest include local warlords (we never seem to lack those even today), mutant water buffalo, overgrown rice paddies with mutated carnivorous flora, mangrove swamps aplenty, a resurgent ultra-fanatical religious order which would put the Knights of Genetic Purity to shame, fortified towns cobbled together from the floating hulks of ancient tramp vessels (clustered around a beached inert SSN Boomer as the town hall), and rain - lots and lots of it as climate change is slowly but surely sinking our land beneath the waves.

I'm presently tweaking the MF rules to allow more and deadlier slug throwers in keeping with the tradition of Fallout Tactics. Knowing my players they'll be demanding this. Maybe it's the legacy of playing too much Twilight 2000 in the past. So yes, guns, guns and more guns. At least until they come upon some serious energy weapons (I do believe that's what happened in Fallout Tactics too).

Another thing that provided me with unexpected fun is how I get to use the current slang and subculture here and turn it on it's head when crafting the background. I know my old language teacher will probably maul me what with my bastardizing a lot of Tagalog for this game, but heck, this can be fun!

I do recall that the original Gamma World had a lot to do with satirizing Western culture. So maybe I'll do a little of that as regards the culture over here with Mutant Future and see how it pans out.

By the emails I've been getting from my prospective players, I do believe I've latched on to something promising here.

Real life ruins

I was lucky to have been able to join a company outing last week to an island south of Luzon. Mindoro hosts a pretty decent place called Puerto Galera which is known for its beaches. I managed to join up with a hiking group from our company and ended up trekking through a forested and hilly area to a place called Aninuan Falls. I believe the closest translation from Tagalog would be 'Falls of the Ancestors'.

Being rather out of shape after an extended bout of chronic respiratory infections, I found the pace climbing up the hills rather tiring. I did not help that my companions just recently completed a 17-hour mountain trek near Subic Bay. In any case, I luckily made my constitution check and survived the trek over rather challenging terrain.



Completing the trek was worth it as a wonderfully secluded and refreshing natural waterfall greeted us at the end.

What really got my attention was a group of ruins off to one side of the small lake formed by the cascading stream of water. This appeared to be the concrete and rebar foundations of some long crumbled bridge. The bridge itself seems to have eroded away long ago but the supports are still evident.



The structure does not seem to be a contemporary or near-contemporary construction. I'm betting it was set up during the American Commonwealth period, sometime in the 1920s or 30s.



For some reason, the upper portion seems like it was blown up. I have to do some more research on this. Maybe this was blown up by guerillas who were fighting the japanese between 1942-1945. Or maybe it was the work of some communist rebels who were quite active in the area in the 1980s. Then again, maybe I'm just letting my imagination run away from me this time.

Even more intriguing is how the locals managed to use some of what remained of the crumbling concrete supports as a frame for a hut they managed to cobble up.



Seeing all this through a roleplaying umpire's eyes gave me an idea how the survivors of the Mutant Future could set themselves up in terms of shelter amidst the Ruins of the Ancients. Seeing concrete ruins all moss-covered and crumbling is one thing but beholding them up close is quite an inspiration for a gamer!

Also, I do believe I'll be paying more attention to those ability checks from now on when I'm adjudicating wilderness movement and exploration. Most of the terrain we traversed was boulder-strewn dried river beds. Apart from being out of shape, I had all I could do by just keeping my attention on the ground. Tripping and falling on the rocks is not a nice thing to happen to a trekker. And yes, difficult terrain tends to slow down travel. Having a trail to follow is such a Godsend when you're traversing jungle terrain in them thar hills.

Where in the World?

The last incarnation of my MF game was set outside Earth. The world had two moons and was a terraformed garden planet before the Interstellar Federation from which it's colonizers originated from collapsed and died. This time, I'm setting it on Earth, somewhere in the not too recent future.

Earlier, I mentioned my preference in setting the game amidst a Hawkmoon-esque feel. The action of this particular Mutant Future happens a lot longer after the last planet-busting weapons were detonated. Instead of one big mad minute where everyone who had something worth shooting let loose and trashed the world, we had a long, extended spate of unpleasantness which led to the End of the World as We Know It. In Moorcock's books, this extended time of unpleasantness was called the Tragic Millennium. While there were various times of reconstruction and recovery, the ultimate end after this era was the gradual erosion of technological civilization giving way to the quasi-medieval world of the wasteland.

Now that I've more or less determined the 'how' and 'when' of the setting, what remains to answer is the question where the action takes place.

The Hawkmoon novels picture a Europe composed of a patchwork of squabbling principalities ruled by petty monarchs. And one big bad Dark Empire. This sort of fits my gaming model but I decided on moving the game to North America. With a big landmass with so much space to play in, amidst interesting and varied terrain, I feel that this pretty much meets my demands. One of my inspirations is the old Gamma World module Legion of Gold. The feel of that game setting really doves into how I intend to run this coming incarnation of MF. A lot of sword-wielding feudals ranged against the new barbarians amidst the ruins of the Ancients. Mutants? Yes, quite a lot, but this time, I'll be dialing down the gonzo-weirdness factor a bit.

Other influences include Richard Adams vision of horse clans and steppe warriors duking it out with knights from extant kingdoms such as Pitzburk. I see the new world as a bit warmer, what with all the havoc caused by the Tragic Millennium and the resulting climate change that followed. Lands previously considered relatively cold north of the Canadian border are now pleasantly warmer. Hence, I'm imagining massive rain forests with corresponding mega mutant flora and fauna in places like Virginia. I believe Sterling Lanier's Heiro novels suggested something like this in their version of the mutant future.

Jumpstarting the game (or so it is hoped)

After the longest time, I hope I'm on my way to starting up a game with some semblance of regularity. I was supposed to run a Mutant Future session this afternoon but practically all of my players bugged out. I guess I'll be putting the time to good use by reading up on some inspirational material and more solid prep.

I don't know if Roger Zelazny's Damnation Alley qualifies as inspirational material. I'm enjoying it though. I can't believe I have not read this book a long time ago. I remember watching the movie as a kid but I guess the special effects tech of the 70s would have been pathetically Insufficient if they decided to run the movie straight by the book.

As to solid prep, I have reams and reams of hex paper here and pages of notes. Last week's extended stay in the beach left me a lot of time to just muse about the setting of my MF game this time around. I'm leaning towards a world feeling more like the post-disaster kingdoms from Moorcock's Hawkmoon novels, than Kirby's after-diasater Kamandi.

I'll let the ideas stew a bit more and see what happens.

As an aside, anyone know a source of downloadable hex paper with individually numbered hexes?

Episode Eleven - Dungeon Crawl

ML’s note: I had a general idea of some plot to spring on the group but as things would turn out, my players had their own ideas. Not that I’m complaining- it was a fun game: lots of role-playing, conflict, interaction and high-grade bantering all around. We finished at about 12.30 a.m. and Doc Ben-g had to be in the hospital at 8 in the morning (ouch!). I found the session a bit disjointed and the group disorganized- but hey, I’m only the Mutant Lord.

It’s really as much my players’ game as it is mine!

When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, they were holed up the lowest holding chamber of the automated artifact that was once Research Station Gamma in a forgotten age.

They make ready for what they fear is another attack by the guardian ‘bots of the station. The gigantic double doors roll soundlessly to the side. Weapons are raised and a pair of utility ‘bots roll soundlessly inward supported by a globular construct they’ve never seen before.


ML’s note: For want of a close image-analog, I described this somewhat like a larger version of Darth Vader’s interrogation robot from Episode 4.

Sounds of firing and combat filter in from outside and are muffled.

“What is going on?” muses Zed. Shai adds that it sounds like another fight is in progress in the levels above.

The utility ‘bots seem harmless at first. Then Ratchet tries to fool around with one and narrowly escapes getting brained by a mop. All hell breaks loose as the group breaks into a free-for-all, putting down all their attackers. The utility bots’ globular back-up proves tougher to kill but soon ends up similarly as a mass of fused circuits and burning parts.

Knowing that they can’t stay in place all day, Shai orders an armed reconnaissance to the upper levels. Zed, Shai, Link Seyz and Marcus head upwards by rail-car in search of the missing Orua. The android mechs Ratchet and Mirage stay behind with Kyoshi to salvage the wrecked ‘bots. They find that the globular construct is not a robot but a sophisticated vehicle piloted by some geneered dwarf para-human. It was once called a Mini Advanced Field Operative [MAFO] during the Age of the Ancients.

In the rail-car, the recon party surveys the upper levels of the Station and sees it damaged and littered with broken ‘bots. Also, there are many torn and burned bodies of attackers – humanoid pigmen of fearsome countenance. Suidoids! The place looks like it was attacked by Suidoids but these were beaten off.

“Looks like we’ve stumbled into some fight,” muses Shai.

As the rail-car goes higher up the structure, the recon party sees Orua looking down at them from what appears to be the sixth tier within the central column. She also has three humanoid plant-men in tow.

Arriving at level six, the recon party are glad to meet up with Orua. She claims she doesn’t remember much but claims to be able to talk to the ‘brain’ that controls the whole place. She introduces her vegetive humanoid friends as the ‘Xodal’ (they all answer to that name).

ML’s note: Her new-found friends are Vegepygmies – humanoid plants I picked up from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Perfect for intelligent plant mutants.

The Vegepygmies are wary of Orua’s newly-arrived friends. The say the fauna are dangerous – particularly the artificial one (meaning Link, the Android). Despite Shai’s attempts at desperate peacemaking and negotiation, the argument ends badly and a disturbed Link Seyz goes into overdrive mode and shoots one of the Vegepygmies. He is tackled by his companions; both Shai and Orua just barely restrain the others from piling on and trashing the Android.

Shai eventually makes peace with them and as a sign of good faith, hands over the laser pistol of their dead friend Max. Talk turns to humans. “Who’s a human?” asks a Vegepygmy.

“I am,” answers Shai confidently.

Override protocols kick in. Long dormant systems come to life. Link Seyz and his original Terminator- series protocols come to fore. He looks around with new purpose – and finally understands his true nature.

ML’s note: Much of this was fun and loose role-playing. Trust my players to turn this into another intriguing plot hook that drives the story onward. This is when I learned to apply something I read from an improv-gaming book: say yes often, and just let go…

Eventually, they return to the holding chamber at the lower levels. Nobody posts guard at the portal and everyone is busy checking out the stuff scavenged by Kyoshi and his Android buddies from the wrecked ‘bots. Putanesca is thrilled to meet fellow plant mutants.

The stay-behind party did well and managed to salvaged 2 stun pistols, 2 car battery-sized Radioactive Batteries from the utility ‘bots and a working Plutonium Clip from the MAFO. Mirage and Ratchet fairly beam with pride after successfully jury-rigging the stunners to run off the Rad Batteries.

Then, it happens: Link Seyz finally gives in to his prime directives as a Terminator- and attempts to shoot Shai in the back. The group manages to prevent this in the nick of time and end up piling on the Android. They cobble up metal binders to secure his arms and wrists. All the while, the Vegepygmies grow convinced just how crazy and unstable the Fauna can be. Particularly the ugly artificial one. Link Seyz vows to make pumpkin soup out of the pygmies.

As the group is engaged in their private brawl, another janitor ‘bot comes in and begins to clean up the mess on the floor.

ML’s note: The group was surprised as no-one bothered to keep watch. Tsk, tsk. Bad dungeoncraft.

The ‘bot is trashed by Ratchet and Mirage who are eager to try out their newly juiced-up stunners on a moving target. But this is not before it radioed for assistance.

Still engaged with the ruckus with the Terminator, they are attacked by 2 MAFOs responding to the janitor droid’s distress signal. The fight that follows is vicious as it is unexpected. The MAFOs have gravitic boosters and sport plasma pistols. Williis, Shai’s Rat mutant retainer is killed by a plasma bolt. Orua is badly injured by a sizzling blast.

Mirage and Ratchet use the stun pistols effectively on the MAFOs. These are immobilized but at the price of burning out both jury-rigged weapons.
Putanesca changes shape and forms a living mass of creepers. She lassoes one of the stunned, floating MAFO down to the ground. The group piles on and with great difficulty, manage to get it open. Kyoshi finds what he expects to see: a stunted mutant dwarf in a ‘pilot’s’ seat. He violently twists the neck of the dwarfish para-human ‘pilot’ and takes its place at the controls.

He tries to figure out the controls. It’s a tight fit as he is in leather armor while the para-human was naked and just wired in place. He winces at the notion of stains on the seat he now occupies.

ML’s note: I remember a resounding “Eeewwww!” from everyone in the game table.

While the party is engaged, Link Seyz tries to attack Shai again but fails. He is pulled away and the party argues what to do with him. Shai learns from the Vegepygmies that there are supplies at the top of the tower and perhaps a way out. They claim they were stunned in the desert and flown in by their captor droids in a flying ship that landed on the tower’s roof.

They all agree to keep Link restrained and to swiftly ascend to the top so they can find a way out.

ML’s note: I’d have thought things would be easier if the party came together and figured what to do first but as they would have it, some active role-playing still came first.

The other MAFO comes to life and attacks again. Otiis, Shai’s second mutant retainer is killed by a burning plasma bolt. Kyoshi believes he has the measure of his MAFO but sends it zooming out of control. It hits the wounded Vegepygmy and kills it. Its laser pistol-armed companion considers shooting him but again, cooler heads prevail at the nick of time. It was an accident, they claim.

Kyoshi pops the lid and mumbles “ooops”, shrugging sheepishly.

They fire back destroying the other MAFO- wrecking it so that nothing remains for salvage.

The party (much as who remains) piles into the rail car and ascends. They encounter more ‘bots going down to the first level and heading out the exit. The Station appears to be in the process of being sealed. Other droids are cleaning up the detritus from the earlier battle. They are left alone by the ‘bots.

Finally they arrive at the top. It is a huge circular structure honeycombed with chambers, corridors and rooms. There is so much to see, so much to do, they can’t make up their mind where to go.

ML’s note: Later on, my players told me that this game gave them so many options, they felt like they were literally free to do whatever they wished (and could follow their wishes)- explore the place, loot the rooms, bash ‘bots, and so on. I took this as a compliment. At least I knew I wasn’t railroading people in this one.

They decide to explore the rooms. After a while they end up in a large cavern-like garage. Looting the place, Marcus finds a backpack with something like a box inside. They keep it for future use.

Xodal, one of the remaining Vegepygmies, points out an elevator lift platform in the garage and they take it up to the roof deck level. They are standing on the level below the roof of the Station. Above is empty space and then the dome of the hollow shell of the ‘mountain’ above them. They can see for hundreds of feet around enclosed by the shell.

They find an entrance and a lobby into the structure. Not being able to agree the party splits up again.

Shai asks Putanesca to form tendrils (she’s gotten quite good at this already), and together with the Vegepygmies, they climb the roof. Kyoshi flies on ahead and finds a parked aircraft on the other side of the rooftop level. It enclosed by walls. They make for it.

Meanwhile, Orua goes inside the structure. She is attracted by a holographic waterfall on what should be the far wall of the lobby. As she touches it, her hand disappears beyond it and a metal hand suddenly grabs her. She is forcefully pulled her inside the hologram.

Her remaining companions follow cautiously. Perhaps it is the knowledge that the ‘bots tend to tote plasma guns. They see a security ‘bot carrying an unconscious Orua- floating away.

ML’s note: The party had surprise but didn’t attack. Maybe they remembered what happened to Max (and the two Rat mutants…)

They keep following. It enters a door. They follow find it is an elevator. It takes some time to figure it out and when they do, it goes down one level. They are in a passage filled with doors leading into dormitory rooms. More salvaging and looting- Zed finds two cigarette lighters and an artifact that looks like a bracelet with tiny gem-like buttons under a tiny metallic grille. They decide to figure it out later when they have the time.

Marcus was keeping watch in the passage and sees the door at the end of the open. This time it’s a utility droid- carrying the still-unconscious Orua exiting from the room. It disappears down the corridor.

They know they’re back in the labyrinthine center of the structure but they have little aught choice.

They just have to keep following the ‘bots.

Final note: Pardon my writing style if it seems I'm rather disjointed in posting this one. Apart from the fact that this was a pretty loose game, I'm still not 100% operational as I write this.

Have a good week ahead of you all!

Mutant Future A-B-C: B is for Bomb

Bombs. They come in many types, shapes, sizes and levels of lethality. Ever since the very first black powder-and-wick charge cobbled together in the distant past, things got a lot noiser and never were quite the same. What does this mean for the Mutant Future?

Bombs are iconic objects any post-apoc scenario can never have too little of. From the in-your-face, almost real and terrifying duck-and-cover stories of the seventies and the eighties (amongst which Threads, The Day After and The War Game stand out the most) to more exotic tales of mass-die backs such as that found in the Omega Man (redone lately as I Am Legend), the Bomb has always played a central role in the destruction of Life And The World As We Know It, thereby paving the way to a Mutant Future.

In all likelihood, Bombs are the main cause of turning a green planet into the ruined wasteland where adventurers, mutants and critters struggle to survive. Skynet turned humanity's considerable arsenal and brought about Judgment Day. The terminators that followed were only produced to finish the job already started by a considerable rain of nukes.

Bombs don't necessarily equate to nuclear devices of high explosives. The various hellish payloads available are legion, evident in the technology tables of the Mutant Future rules. If you can think of something really lethal to humans and their ilk, chances are you can design a bomb around this.



Most intriguing is the concept of the leftover Bomb after the apocalypse has occured and swept all away with it. Every good Mutant Future sandbox will never be complete without that intact missile silo just waiting to be stumbled into by a band of intrepid adventurers from the wastland. There is also the idea of a Bomb as God - something attributed with awesome powers worshipped by a cult of survivors after its original reason for existence has since been rendered irrelevant. Perhaps the most gripping example of this is the Alpha Omega Nuclear Device worshipped by the surviving mutants in old NYC in Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

Ideas/Applications to the Mutant Future- The different Bomb and Explosive types in page 120 of the Mutant Future rulebook can be readily expanded into a chart of its own, featuring strategic-level bombs with a few original ones added on for variety. Such a random table designed around these types of bombs can look like this:

01-15 Bio Toxin
16-25 Concussion
26-40 Mutation
41-50 Negation - the closest thing to the EMP Burst which saved Neo in the Matrix
51-65 Plasma (the closest analogue of a nuke)
66-80 Radiation
81-90 High Explosive (very large versions of the demo-packs mentioned in the rules)
91-100 Psibombs

The latter are of a class of weapons developed by the Ancients right up to the Final War. Along with Psionic Mind Shields, Neural Disruptors and Madbombs, psibombs use electromagnetic impulses which duplicate the effects of a concentrated Mental Blast, liquifying a target's brain synapses. Tactical and strategic applications of this weapon include flushing out all living beings within a target area (much like a neutron bomb is used) leaving the real estate, structures and equipment found there pretty much intact.

A typical small Psibomb would be grenade sized and, upon activation, projects a psionic blast within a 100' radius. Any creature possessed with at least a rudimentary intelligence (including normally non-sentient creatures such as beasts of burden and farm animals) must save against Stun or suffer 2d10 damage.

[this was adapted from the Psibombs used in David Brin's Startide Rising, although in that novel, the bombs were used as signalling devices]

Along with this is a following random table for groups or missions associated with the bomb generated from the table above. Put together, the rolls from both table would produce interesting results:

Group/mission associated with the bomb(s)

01-20 Worshippers- Depending on the kind of bomb generated, this leftover from a bygone age has become the object of worship of some faction or race in the wasteland. For instance, Radiation Bombs would, in all likelihood, be worshipped by the Irradiated or mutants. On the other hand some pure strain humans (fanatics) may worship High Explosives (or nukes) –perhaps have Androids as the priestly class who attended to their ‘God’. Just don’t have a warrior ride on a bomb as it hurtles at the enemy as we saw in Dr. Strangeglove.

21-35 Users – Androids who remain from the old days or mutant animals/regressed humans who are still carrying out the defense orders of long dead governments in some forgotten silo. Quite dangerous as they may take it upon themselves to unleash the Ancient WMD upon the world.

36-55 Defuse the thing! – The player characters have a chance to shine here: given a job to defuse a bomb- this is a ‘race against time’ type of adventure. Failure can be catastrophic not just for them but maybe for the world.

56-70 Recover the thing! - Similar to what's above, the mission here is to recover the bomb- by a merchant guild, a warlord, a cult or government. Maybe a bit of double-crossing involved too.

71-85 Bomb as an enemy – Maybe some master-type monster has a bomb inside him and killing it outright (unless from very far away) will not solve their problem immediately. This will call for a lot of creative thinking on the part of the players.

85-90 Bomb as a dungeon – Here, the dungeon is wired. Maybe it is a central computer/cyborg brain core wired to explode if shut down. Again, this calls for imaginative handling on the part of the players.

91-100 Bomb as a character – as in various SF stories, a bomb is within a character (whether knowing or unknowing). In a extreme case, this could be a one-of-a-kind mutation for an Android character.

Episode Ten (Part Deux) - Into the Blackness and Beyond

Our story:

The survivors from the first group return to Ratsputin’s grounded airboat and link up with the rest of the party. They find Link Seyz awake, aware and apparently fully functional. Link Seyz feels fine –none of that fuzzy half-awareness he had always felt for as long as it could remember. It tests out decision trees and logic synapses long unused. Things test out fine, but there appears to be something vitally important he should be remembering….

“Oh well,” he remarks. “I’ll get to that later…”

Shai fills the rest in on the harrowing fight at the metal mountain and they are shocked to learn that Max is dead.

Together, they set off once more across the wasteland of crunching, glassy sand as the two moons, silver Aleph and green Bast hurtle across Cygnet Delta’s alien sky. Upon reaching the sandy hill forming the base of the metal mountain, they reacquire Orua’s trail and find themselves at a sandy cliff-wall. Zed and Albus brush aside the sand end predictably find the same greyish metallic-hued wall of seamless material behind it. Orua’s tracks end right at the wall.

Upon closer inspection by Mirage, the android finds the last footprint abruptly ending seemingly under the wall itself. Kyoshi and the androids attempt Words of Power learned from their Ancient Lore but nothing disturbs the quiescent seamless wall.

Then, Shai appears to make a fateful decision and, without looking back, resolutely walks into the wall. To everyone’s great surprise, a black disturbance forms when he touches it, and the its seamless surface turns insubstantial, like a black bubble – and he disappears inside it. After much muttering and doubting, the group follows- one by one.

To all there is a momentary feeling of coldness- a numb heart-stopping emptiness through a sea of black, and then they are through. The Androids, on the other hand, feel like an ‘On/Off switch’ was suddenly flicked inside for a moment.

Before them is a great hollow space, hundreds of feet wide are it is high. It is as if they stepped into the inside of a gigantic, seamless, metallic-grey egg. The familiar night sky above Cygnet Delta is replaced by the glossy inner surface of the hollow encompassing the dome above them. The desert sand below their feet is different – there are patches of hardy grass and stunted plants. The smell of moisture is in the air and the ever-present reek of burnt rubber and copper is missing. Under the eerie twilight of the dome about a few hundred feet before them is an even stranger artifact.



It is a building in the likeness of a gigantic mushroom, almost three hundred feet high. There is a great central cylinder rising up from the ground crowned by a disc-like platform of durable grayish stone. They see structures, buildings and machinery built on the platform suspended above. The central cylinder has several massive orbs constructed at intervals rising from the ground until the platform itself. Blinking lights are emplaced on numerous places throughout the structure. It is obviously some temple dating back from the Age of the Republic.

ML’s note: Traveller players will have probably recognized the structure already. All I can say is three words for this: Research Station Gamma.

After recovering from his shock, Shai curtly commands the party to move forward, weapons at the ready. There appears to be an entrance at the ground-level orb visible from their location. They reach the orb but find only a small square panel to the side, at shoulder height. A transparent square and coin-thin slot appear beneath it.

They scrutinize the panel for a while whereupon Zed hits upon an idea. He reaches into his pack and pulls out a small, wafer-thin card of ancient synthetic material, given to him by the Mayor of Jeffton during one of their previous adventures. The blue card with red stripes fits perfectly into the panel’s slot. He inserts it and waits.

ML’s note: I was glad someone had the gumption to remember to properly use the different artifacts they began to accumulate from past adventures. Doc Ben-g caught on very fast!

There is a humming sound and a sharp buzzing. They hear locks disengage and machinery in motion within the orb. The surface before them irises inward smoothly and opens a gateway into the structure.

Entering, they move deeper into the structure. There is an ever-present hum of machinery, all-so-faintly. There is bright artificial light from glowing panels on the ceiling and it is cold compared to the barren wastes outside. Exiting through another irising gateway, they find themselves in the inside of the central cylinder of the structure.


ML’s note: I always imagined the hollow central pylon to look somewhat like the inside of the central cylinder-shaft of Bespin Cloud City in the Empire Strikes back- somewhat like this.

There is a small glass-walled car built on rails running up and down the central cylinder. They check it out and upon entering, Link Seyz finds a wooden stick with a roll of torn cloth wrapped around it. Unraveling it, he finds a stylized smiley drawn on the cloth.

“Orua,” he says. “It’s her sigil. She was here.”

They climb aboard the car but it does not respond to the card inserted by Zed. Shai, being a pure strain human, lays his right palm on the glass square atop the control panel. There is a buzzing sound and the car activates. It moves downward, spiraling ever so lower into the structure until they find themselves in the subterranean levels.

“I don’t like this,” mutters Marcus, drawing sword and dagger.

The car abruptly stops and a disembodied voice enjoins them to “disembark”.

They leave and find massive sealed circular hatches before them. Shai, Kyoshi and three Androids puzzle out the controls and sometime later, they pass beyond the hatches. They find themselves inside a large globular chamber. The ground is rocky and muddy. The walls cannot be glimpsed. Instead, there is a grayish, cloudy sky above from which constant sheets of sleet and rain are pouring. The walls are likewise not evident- instead, they glimpse far-off hills and valleys.

“What is this place?” asks Link Seyz.

They are surprised by a startled squeak from Otiiss. The rat points his rifle to the right, finger twitching on the trigger.

“A cat- a big one!” he yells. “Over there to our left .”

No-one sees anything. Kyoshi, on the other hand approaches a nearby rock after spotting a large furry black and white rabbit. No one else sees the rabbit.

Otiiss fires, but there is nothing to hit. Kyoshi looks around the rock but there are no rabbits.

As the hatches behind them hiss shut, there is a loud carnivore roaring off to the side. The party forms a skirmish line, weapons are drawn. Then they see a shimmering in front of a wall to their side – something large and furry on four legs begins to leap at them, its hide changing chameleon-like. It moved fast!


ML’s note: this is a special random encounter I rolled up. Basic critter is a Sabre-tooth Tiger with upped hit dice. I threw in a few mutations such as Increased Willpower, Chameleon Epidermis, Dual Brain and Quickness. Upon initiative check I won easily!

The feral cat bounds forward and slams into Marcus, pulling him under and repeatedly laying away with teeth and claws. Everyone else piles in and the fight becomes a desperate melee. Albus and Zed are also badly mauled by the time they dispatch the critter.

The ever pragmatic Shai orders Williis and Otiiss to break out the knives and start dismembering the carcass for meat. Food security for the party, he reasons, is still not certain- and food is food.

ML’s note: I didn’t see that coming but trust Justin to turn his kill into rations. Still, it made sense considering they were in the middle of a desert with 3 days of rations left.

While the others keep watch, the rest cut away the meat from the kill.

Then, there is a sharp buzzing and a warning siren in the air. The disembodied voice starts up again – calling for an alert, enjoining all to stay calm and that assistance is on the way. At this, they make ready for another attack. They can’t get the hatches open again.

With not long to wait, the hatches clang open and pull back. A few man-sized robotic forms begin moving into the chamber. The adventurers take up ambush positions, readying themselves for yet another fight.

Episode Ten (Part One) - Robots!

Game held on 5 February 2010

Dramatis personae:

Zed - mutant human (Doc Ben-g)
Albus - mutant human (Doc Ben-g)
Marcus Truman - pure human (JY)
Max Plissken - pure human (Nikos)
Putanesca - mutant plant (Prin)
Kyoshi - mutant human (Matt)
Link Seyz - basic android (Patton)
Orua - autistic pure human (Mika)
Mirage - basic android (Henry)
Ratchet - basic android (Henry)
Shai - pure human (Justin)

Williis - mutant animal- Rat (de facto henchman of Shai)
Otiiss - mutant animal- Rat (de facto henchman of Shai)

Our story:

The party finds itself encamped in a broad expanse of desert as the bloody, rosy sun is disappearing beyond the far west. Orua has turned up missing, the stark imprints of her footprints trailing off to the sandy rise about a mile away in the distance.

A decision is swiftly made to divide the party. Zed, Albus, and the pure strains Max, Shai and Marcus shall be dispatched after Orua. Putanesca and Kyoshi will remain behind along with Mirage and Ratchet, who are still busy restoring Link Seyz’s working systems after they underwent a sudden forced reboot recently. The Rat Otiiss is armed with a Martini-Henry and put on guard duty.

Shai leads the search party which collared the hapless Rat mutant Williis as the group’s scout. Perhaps being very much aware of the fact that a good scout is normally a dead scout, Williis sets upon his task without much ardor and with evident poor grace, whereupon the others bully the hapless Rat into compliance.

Orua’s tracks continue up to the sandy rise far off in the desert. Here, the sandy ground gives way to immense mounds of sand seemingly piled on top of one another, forming a sloping hill hundreds of feet in the air. Everyone is edgy after tromping through crunching sands which, when trod upon, give off a smell of copperish-burnt rubber.

At the base of the hill, the party stops for a short rest. Orua’s tracks continue to their right and disappear around the sandy hill’s base. Being the best climber, Zed agrees to climb the hill, making for the crown which, for some unknown reason, gleams with a shiny metallic sheen in the pale moonlit glow of Aleph.

ML’s note: Zed has the Increased Balance mutation, so he scales the hill without mishap.

Upon gaining the peak, Zed is surprised to find it covered by a dun-colored metallic dome, much like that of the top of gigantic egg. The surface is seamless and smooth. It vibrates subliminally and is hard as granite. Repeated blows don’t even scratch it. Looking around, he finally surmises that the sandy hill he is on is not really a hill, nor is it made of sand. It appears that the hill is, in truth, a giant dun-colored, metallic-seeming, egg-shaped dome, sunk into the ground. It is merely covered with accumulated layers of earth, rock and sand.

The rest of the group are alerted to this and they confirm Zed’s discovery by spotting certain large cracks in the hillside from which the same dun-colored, metallic surface can be seen beneath the sand.

ML’s note: at this point, a possible encounter was called for, and, as luck would have it, a one was rolled – indicating a wandering critter.

Williis is the first to notice they are not alone. From somewhere in the rocks nearby skitters out four many-legged creatures of similar metallic hue, sporting numerous feelers, antennae and limbs- each the size of a largish hound. Weapons are raised but all are reluctant to fire. The creatures appear to be constructs of some sort, with probes which shine a dull reddish glow. Two appear to be scrutinizing Williis while the others are approaching the rest.

“What do we d-do?” mutters the nervous Rat, tail and whiskers a-twich.

Shai orders everyone to stay put, but as the constructs begin to pull out probes with brushes and pointy tips, the group’s discipline gives way to a wild round of gunfire! Two of the constructs are destroyed instantly, riddled with rifle bullets and the occasional laser beam. The adventurers shift their fire rapidly and dispose of the other two just as swiftly, taking no damage.

Then, Zed alerts them from high up above – he sees two large constructs which seem to materialize straight out of the smooth surface of the hillside. These ones are larger and meaner looking: drum-like bodies with formidable steel limbs and rotating turrets on their tops. They levitate a few feet from the ground, and speed towards the adventurers on the ground amidst a droning hum.

“Blast ‘em!” yells Shai, whereupon the party opens up with rifles, shotgun, lasers and Albus’ trusty plasma pistol. Although they concentrate their fire on the nearest one, who takes hit after flaming hit, the robot plods on ominously – and both fire back with energy weapons that spit blinding, bursting fire! Marcus is hit more than once and, suffering grievous burns, drops prone while desperately topping off his scattergun.

ML’s note: While the smaller critters were pesky Exterminator Bot-types, the newcomers were Assault Bots (both from the Mutant Future rulebook), up-armed with energy weapons and fitted with grav lifters instead of robotic legs. The 30-hit dice Assault Bot gives you a LOT of hit points to spare despite the weight of fire being dished out by these desperate players.



Soon, one of the robots is a sparking, smoldering wreck, twitching on its side. As the other begins to float away, the group charges it – and Max takes energy beam fire twice! This is too much even for the indomitable wasteland warrior, and he is promptly killed. The others reach the robot and begin piling on, raining blows with sword and clubbed rifle. Shai leaps unto the robot’s flat top, activating his Warp-field Sword and hacks away at the robot. They discover that the robot becomes unstable on its floating field of force as it is buffeted with blows. It is soon destroyed as well.

Now they begin to wonder if they should turn back – their opposition is stronger than expected. Max is dead and Marcus, badly damaged requiring extensive healing from their scavenged Healing Pack, draining it of precious charges. They finally decide just to come back for the rest of the party – it seems they’ll need every fighter this time and still try find Orua.

Mutations, mutations, mutations, mutations and even more mutations

One of the things that really attracted me (and continues to do so) to Mutant Future are the mutations. I adore tables and tables of mutations of all kinds. I guess character generation of mutants becomes a sort of 'game within a game' for me much like the character generation procedure was in the old classic Traveller rules.

I remember Jeff Rients' blogpost wherein I read of his experience in cobbling up pages and pages of mutations from all sorts of related games in his Mutant Future game thus allowing really off-the-wall mutants for his players. Jeff had a subtable connected to other mutation tables which empowered his players to come up with something even more than the original choices in the Mutant Future rules as written.

Needless to say this really captured my imagination as I firmly believe that you can't have too many random choices for your mutants (random choice being one of the strengths of the game in Mutant Future).

Doing the same thing with my available gaming materials, I drew up a list of possible sources for lists of mutational powers I plan to add to the existing ones in my ongoing game. These include the following:

1. Creatures of the Wasteland by Derek Holland and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

2. Gamma World rules, 1st edition

3. Metamorphosis Alpha rules, 1st edition

4. Assorted codices from the Warhammer 40k 3rd edition (including Witchunters, Daemonhunters, Marines and Imperial Guard) - for pysker powers

5. Fading Suns d20 Character Codex (mutations for the Changed, including such nasties like Caustic Puke)

6. Classic Traveller Book 3 (psionics)

7. Material from Warhammer's Slaves to Darkness

8. The Dead Earth player's book which literally has hundreds of mutations (which are quaintly termed as 'radiations')

9. Omegaworld by Jonathan Tweet, which appeared on Polyhedron Magazine issue 153

10. Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition Players Handbook (the appendix that deals with psionics)

I know this list is not exhaustive yet, but I've a feeling that with these additional choices of mutations, my upcoming games are going to be even more intersting in the coming days. I expect the mutants, both player generated and npc-ed to be even more wild, unpredictable and far out.

And who knows, maybe even more deadly as well.

Xps for game session dated 5th February 2010

Here are the xps the survivors of last Friday's game garnered: 1,587 pts for each surviving character. The two Rat troopers are now semi-willing henchmen of Shai the pure human strategos so they each get 1/2 share of a regular member of the adventuring party.

ML's note: xps seem to be flowing in fast, but considering the opposition, I'd say this is just about right.

Exprience Points for the last game (29th January session)

This is a rundown of xps for all players for the game session of the 29th of January 2010. Each of the 11 surviving characters gets 2,567 experience points. This takes into account a Mutant Lord awarded bonus of 500 xp for the group for what I observed as excellent teamwork which led the group to survive the last battle without any fatalities. Good show guys!

We resume on Friday night, February 5, same time, same place.

Episode Nine (part two) - Thrilling Air Adventures

The group now finds themselves in a dilemma- their orders clearly stipulate that they are to defend the cave entrance at all costs. However, by the sound of it, the cave complex is already being infiltrated by the enemy. After a hurried conference, it is a agreed that everyone is to take up defensive positions nearer to the cave entrance, while Ratchet, Mirage and Max climb down into the Mine to conduct recon.

By now, Putanesca and Kyoshi join the party from the Air Boat hangar and confirm that the Rats appear to bent on abandoning the place.



As everyone crouches down with their weapons trained down the bloody trail, a shadow passes them swiftly, accompanied by a thrumming mechanical sound. They look up and catch a glimpse of a large contrivance cobbled together with string and canvas over a stretched frame. It is a two or three winged aircraft with a large rotating propeller in front. They clearly see the leonine mutant pilot hunched over the cockpit, in his furred leather helmet and flyer’s goggles. The craft swiftly rises and disappears far behind the cliff above. From afar, there is a sound of a machinegun being fired repeatedly.

Max and the two Androids rappel down the shaft and find themselves in a familiar stone chamber with a steaming pool of water – the same place where the Mutant Puccini met his untimely and gruesome demise from the Brain Lashers HERE. The place is littered with corpses of Rats and all manner of discarded gear. Echoes of gunfire and the sounds of combat reverberate from further down the tunnels. If anything, they seem to be getting louder.

The Androids anxiously rush to the erstwhile central chamber where their former masters, the Brain Lashers, set up their command center. They find the place a mess. Scattered equipment and garbage are scattered everywhere. Ratchet arrives at the inner sanctum where the Regen Chamber HERE was left behind by the group after taking down all the Brain Lashers. Alas, it is but a pile of spare parts, having been gutted and cannibalized by Ratsputin and his ilk. Making the best out of a pointless situation, the Androids fill their packs with useable parts and technological odds and ends. Being natural tinkerers, they reason that these spare parts may always be worth their weight in gold when the time comes.

Max alerts them to ever-nearing sounds of approach of the feline mutants. The Cats are using grenades and automatic fire to clear the outer chambers of the Mine and are getting dangerously closer by the minute. Together, Max and the Androids climb back up to the cave entrance. The party then agrees to make for Ratsputin’s Air Boat.

They make it to the Air Boat seemingly with only minutes to spare, as the metallic saucer-like craft is rising from the ground with a thrumming sound. Putanesca leaps into the closing hatch and finds Ratsputin frantically engaging the controls, attended by two of the sorriest looking Rats in his force. She screams for him to hover, and Rasputin, after momentarily fixing her with a calculating gaze, halts the Boat’s ascent. Putanesca uses her Chameleon Metamorph mutation and takes on the shape of a large resilient stringbean (!) thereby providing the party with a rope-like ladder of sorts to gain entrance to the rising craft.

The Air-Boat rises above the crater lips of the mountaintop and zooms off into bloody redness of the setting sun.

They are cramped and crowded within the Boat’s confines and all they could do is look out the many windows along with craft’s sides. There does not appear to be any exists as the hatch they entered through has blended seamlessly to the wall. Below, they see the mountain receding in the distance. The lesser Azure river is evident, as is Krat’s floating fortress, Cat-tamaran, still pounding away at the Mine, with its armed complement of Cats doubtlessly mopping up the remaining Rat resistance.
Kyoshi could not resist watching Ratsputin deftly manipulate the controls on the craft’s dashboard using his long sinewy fingers and pink, ribbed tail as well. Without warning he leaps atop the dashboard pulling a lever here and pushing a button there.

“Watch it!” squeaks Ratsputin, but it is too late. There is a muffled bang within the craft, followed by disturbing groan amidst the hum of its drives. Then, Ratsputin has all he can handle, trying to right the bucking craft, all the while aiming curses and invectives at the diminutive mutant. With difficulty, the Tech-Rat manages to right the bucking craft and fly it straight on.

Link Seyz is the first to see the ominous approaching shapes from the aft porthole.
What appear to be blips from afar resolve themselves as attacking biplanes. Four of them, in V formation bearing the sigil of Captain Krat are gaining on the Air Boat. Ratsputin sees this and once more cursing vehemently, struggles to get the Boat to speed up even faster. Unfortunately, it is apparent that planes are gaining fast.
Mirage sees what look like orbs of flame shoot from the planes racing almost lazily towards the Boat. Then, there is a thump and another ominous mechanical groan as the orb makes contact with the Boat’s hull.



ML's note: This scene is another attempt on my part to up the Kirby-esque-ness of the game. In case you're wondering, the nearby panel is from Kamandi issue no. 7 which features Mutant feline pilots in biplanes. I left out King Kong this time, but I found the idea of Lion pilots too precious to resist!


“Tracers!”, screams Max. “Everyone get down!”

Everyone is thrown about haphazardly as Ratsputin puts the Boat through desperate aerobatics to escape the planes’ fire. They hear the staccato sound of machinegun fire through the Boat’s hull, but the planes outpace them. Like blood-mad sharks, the Lion pilots circle the stricken Air Boat. They feel the Boat losing altitude.
Up front, there is a muffled hiss and Ratsputin’s pilot seat is encased in a web of resilient film. He violently tugs a nearby switch and then both Rat pilot and seat disappear through a deck hatch which irises shut.

“Damn,” curses Max. “The Rat ratted out on us”.

Kyoshi and Ratchet take the controls and through combination of skill and not an insignificant measure of luck, manage to bring the stricken craft under control. As it descends, the Lions break off their attack, with the last one doing a final pass. Putanesca and Link Seyz see the feline pilot momentarily alongside the Boat giving them the finger as a final parting gesture.

ML’s note: Or should I say ‘the paw’ instead of ‘the finger’? We never really figured that one out.

Down below, they see what looks like a vast expanse of desert rolling beneath the Boat. At the western horizon is an expanse of green and what appears to be water, but their Boat doesn’t look like it will make it that far. Orua sees some sandy mountains below them, with gleaming metallic objects on the summits. The craft is put down nearby. To their surprise, it lands itself gently without any mishap.

Stepping out, they are struck by a wash of desert heat and the ever-present smell of sulfur-like sand. Indeed, in the distance to the south is a gleaming topped hill standing out amongst the giant sand dunes marching wave-like in the desert. Orua looks fascinated as it catches the crimson glow of the setting sun.

Evening comes and the party makes camp in the rising wind of the desert. Everywhere, the sand is granular and metallic, making a distinctive crunching sound when walked upon. Shai takes stock of their existing supplies and commandeers the two remaining and demoralized Rats.

In the meantime, Kyoshi and Max have been busy discussing how to return Link Seyz, to his “natural” synthetic state, having convinced themselves that their sentient constructed companion is suffering from delusions that he is human. They hit upon a plan and immediately endeavor to carry it out. Max takes Link Seyz aside and repeatedly warns him that “everything Kyoshi says is a lie”. Immediately, Kyoshi sidles up to Link Seyz and earnestly attempts to convince him that he, Link Seyz, is human. They keep this up without let up, and Link Seyz eventually feels he is losing his mind.

ML’s note: It seems both Nikos and Matt are at it again, in their attempts to play mind games with their Android friend. The session now revolved on a lot of role-playing and tech rolls – all of which were improvised. This was never really touched on in the rules, but it seems that all these attempts to re-boot their fellow Android is taking the game to places I never figured it would go….

As Aleph, the silver moon rises in the skies of Cygnet Delta, Link Seyz feels likes his head is going to burst. He is palpitating, he can’t breathe. To make matters worse, certain words of power are being called out by his companions sibilantly and continuously. Eventually, the camp is shaken by Link Seyz primal shriek as the he collapses bonelessly to the sand. He is turned over to Mirage and Ratchet, the Android techs who appear to know what to do to restore their shut-down brother to his former operative condition.

In the glow of a campfire, the group has a peaceful meal – the first one for the entire day of slaughter. Link Seyz is still inoperative – lying still like a human in a coma. Mirage and Ratchet are attending to him while the others take stock of their provisions. Shai says they have three days of food and water.

It is then that they notice Orua is missing. A hurried search fails to turn up the young human. All they find are her footprints – leading away from camp and heading out in the distance. It seems Orua has headed out towards the sandy dune-like hill in the distance.

The one with a metallic top gleaming in the pale silver light of Aleph.

Episode Nine (part 1) - The Thin Red Line

Dramatis personae:

Spielmeister – Mutant Lord

Putanesca- Mutant Plant

Kyoshi – Mutant Human

Link Seyz – Android

Ratchet – Android

Mirage- Android

Marcus Truman- Pure Human

Max Plissken – Pure Human

Zed- Mutant Human

Albus- Mutant Human

Orua – Autistic Pure Human

Shai – Pure Human

Last session:

After hurriedly being picked up on Ratsputin’s air boat, the characters return to the Mine and are plunged in the thick of a ferocious assault by Captain Krat’s Panther mercenaries.

Our story:

The airboat descends swiftly into the crater. Everyone sees Rats scurrying about agitatedly below. Ratsputin skillfully sets the airboat down and steps out, nervously followed by the party. It is soon made clear from the Rat troopers that Captain Krat’s offensive has succeeded and the Panthers are almost within the Rat warrens of the Mine. Ratsputin sends off his Rat officers with terse commands and speaks to Shai earnestly, with his eyes a-gleaming.

“We have to hold off the Panthers from the cave entrance. We need time to organize a defense. This is why I flew out to collect your entire party – we need help holding the cave entrance up on the cliffside.”

Reluctantly, the party agrees to buy the Rats time.

Ratsputin, accompanied by his entourage of harassed Rats, as well as the adventurers, exit from the crater into a narrow pathway hanging from the mountainside. They climb gingerly downwards until they arrive at a familiar cave entrance. Ratchet, Mirage and Shai immediately recognize their surroundings – as they are back to where they first made contact with the Rats. Zed, Marcus and Max confirm that they have been here before: as this is the secret entrance they discovered into the Mine of the Brain Lashers .

Everywhere, the rumbling sound of artillery can be ominously heard.
Bloody and disheveled Rats rush to and fro from the cave. Ratsputin and his officers try to get things organized. Mirage sees a line of scrawny Rats shuffling forward towards an officer standing beside a pile of weapons. Every other Rat gets a rifle thrust at him and a handful of ammo. The next one in line gets a handful of ammo and an unsheathed bayonet. As the line moves on, the officer repeats a shouted litany, which, to Mirage, sounds like this:

“Every other Rat gets a rifle. When the one with the rifle gets killed, the Rat following him picks up the rifle and shoots!”

“This doesn’t look good,” mutters Max darkly. Ratchet and Mirage can only grimly nod in agreement.

The Rats, with their ears hanging limply and tails dragging heavily behind them, are bullied by Ratsputin down the trail leading away from the cave. They disappear from sight around a wooded bend.

“Here,” says Ratsputin urgently. “You’ll have to hold the line here and by the Great Mikhii- don’t let them get into the cave!” With that, he returns to the trail leading to the sky boat hangar taking Putanesca and Kyoshi with him.

ML’s note: After conferring with my players, we agreed to take Matt and Prin’s characters out of play first as they were still unfortunately delayed due to car trouble.

Ahead of the group is a low wall of rocks which the Rats appeared to have set up earlier in an attempt to fortify the area. After a hurried conference, Shai and Max direct everyone to the wall which, at least, gives them partial cover from frontal attacks. Everyone has managed to pick up a rifle from the weapons and ammo left behind by the Rats. Unfortunately, the rifles come in various calibers and makes – and ammo is in short supply.



ML’s note: To be exact, I rolled for what they managed to scrounge up and came up with six single-shot lever actions and two magazine-fed semi-automatic battle rifles. Antique equivalents (to borrow a Classic Traveller term) of these guns were Martini-Henry rifles and M14s, respectively. Curiously, Henry managed to identify the single shooters ahead of everyone else – could it be due to the rifles’ name? One thing that really appeals to me in Mutant Future is the randomness factor – I tend to do a lot of dice-rolling to come up with something when I’m not sure what I should give the players. The sheer unpredictability of the random rolls is really part of the fun!

They didn’t have long to wait. After a while, it seemed that all the firing stopped. It was deathly quiet- like the calm before the storm.

Link Seyz angrily broke the silence by alerting the group to Orua, who wandered off during the lull, towards the cave entrance. Then, it was too late for the Android to lead River back to the wall as the Panthers began their attack.

They came at them at a run – black Panthers roaring their blood thirsty cries with claws and fangs bared for the kill. Leading them is a four- armed Leopard officer in a steel cuirass. Brandishing a sword-like weapon with a glowing blade of coruscating energy, the mutant officer can be seen chivvying his cats forward.

“Let ‘em have it!” cried Shai, firing away with his M14.

The group cut loose with rifle fire, felling a few from the attackers’ front rank. Despite this, the assault continues ferociously as the cats appear to be caught up in a blood-mad frenzy. Soon, they close the distance half-way to the wall, firing from the hip. Shai curses as his M14 jams up. Then, Link Seyz’s M14 is also out of action. Much to Ratchet’s consternation, his modified musket also fails to fire.

ML’s note: For some reason, my players came up with an inordinate number of natural ‘1’ die rolls, indicating a ‘fumble’ on an attack roll. This, I translated into a high incidence of weapon malfunctions. Who knows, maybe the Rats got gypped into accepting a batch of bad ammo and powder! It was also at this point when I managed to score the needed die roll allowing Orua to slip into ‘Serenity -savant’ mode for 4 melee rounds.

With the nearest attackers only a dozen feet from the defenses, Orua picks up a rifle and blasts the nearest Cat off its paws. She drops the empty gun and picks up another, blasting way at the next closest target.

ML’s note: Patton, who was playing Mika’s character first, seemed to hold true to the adage that the best reload is another loaded gun!

Then, the Cats are reinforced. The group hears the thundering sound of hooves and are aghast to see Krat’s Jackalope Dragoons bounding forward to reinforce the attack. They count at least six Panthers in crimson jackets, strapped to ornate saddles, bounding into combat riding giant horned mutant rabbits, with lances couched.

ML’s note: The Jackalope Dragoons made a brief appearance in this episode, but now, they are the enemy.

The Jackalopes are nothing like any warsteed encountered by the adventurers thus far. They are astounded at the mutants’ prodigious leaps which carry them over the defensive wall and into their rear! Now, they have enemies at their front and behind.
With nothing else for it, they decide to let loose with all their firepower. Zed’s plasma pistol, two lasers, an auto-firing AK47 and Marcus Truman’s pump action shotgun are brought out and fired like there was no tomorrow- adding their weight to the fire being dished out by the Rats’ rifles. To these are added the mutations of the party’s mutants and androids- but the enemy keeps coming on!

Shai grabs Max’s rucksack carrying the blocks of C4 previously issued by Captain Krat HERE. Max confirms there are no detonators, whereupon Shai hurls it with all his strength at the oncoming attackers.

“Blast it with the plasma!” yells Shai at Zed, hoping that the electrical discharge riding along the plasma bolt detonates the lot.

Zed takes careful aim at Shai’s improvised demo charge which is now sitting in the midst of a wave of roaring Cats. He fires, and, although his shot hits true, merely vaporizes Max’s rucksack and its contents.

“Fakes!” screams Shai with consternation. “The bloody felines passed us a bunch of fakes!”

ML’s note: Sooner or later, my players were bound to find out that the good Captain seemed to have his own ideas by passing off some disguised play-dough on them. Funny thing is they never even bothered to ask me about blasting caps or detonators that should have come with the C4. Maybe that should have alerted them to the true nature of the goodies.

“Try this, then!” yells Max, hurling the ancient, seemingly unreliable hand grenade salvaged from the Buggem’s lair. Although dangerously unreliable, the frag goes off with a blast, downing a Jackalope and two Panther infantry.

By now, fighting is at deadly close quarters but the group is still fighting from protected positions. Again and again, the concentrated fire of the energy weapons blow away many of the dragoons from their rabbitoid chargers. In the ensuing melee, Shai breaks ranks and leaps from the stone wall straight at the four-armed mutant Leopard officer. So swift was his attack that the mutant is surprised, providing Shai and opening for a well-aimed vicious cut. Moments later, standing over the headless corpse of the four-armed mutant, Shai bends to retrieve the officer’s Warp Field Sword.

So desperate is the fight that both Link Seyz and Ratchet’s built-in mutations kick in and allow them to perform prodigious feats of strength. Both Androids grapple with the bull-sized Jackalopes and bring these down crashing to the ground.

ML’s note: Link Seyz and Ratchet respectively called up their Ability Boost and Body Adjustment mutations allowing them to doublet their already considerable Strength scores, whereupon they started wrestling with the Jackalopes.

However, the Cats have a final card to play. The Dragoons’ commander had been, until now, content with laying down harassing fire with his automatic shotgun. Now, she was revealed to have a further mutation – Plane Shift! She begins concentrating, and in the midst of the melee, opens a hazy, shifting tear in the fabric of reality.

ML’s note: Quite frankly, I left the Planes of Existence known by the mutant Panther blank when I pre-generated this NPC. I then rolled on Kid Monster’s excellent 75 Random Plane Shift Destinations found at the Goblinoid Games' Mutant Future Forums in July 2009, which I had been saving up for just the right occasion. Rolling on a d100, I randomly came up with this result:

“92: Nurr’Gar’Rak’Ki (Alien Dimension) A Brain Lasher homeworld. The surface of this (possibly once Earth-like) world is a blasted, desolate waste of jagged black glass, roamed by Lasher tripods and nasty alien monsters. Underneath, the planet is riddled with millions of miles of tunnels, which at their deepest levels lead to one of the vast and terrifying cities from which these horrors rule their plane-spanning empire“

Imagine my surprise at arriving at this result. Considering that the cave entrance being defended by my players, was, until recently, the Mine of the Brain Lashers, the opening of a trans-planar gateway to the homeworld of the Brain Lashers, was an awesome coincidence! As you could imagine, the resultant maniacal cackle of the Mutant Lord raised the hackles of not a few of my blissfully ignorant players. Armed with this most intriguing result, I proceeded to run with the ball…

My thanks goes out to Kid Monster for such a wonderful and useful random table. Using this actually served to push the fun factor of the game even higher!

Ratchet and Mirage are the first to notice the horrible things lurking on the other end of the planar gate. Another well-aimed plasma bolt blasts away the mutant Panther but her gateway remains open. Orua, lapsing back to autistic mode, is fascinated by the alien vistas on the other side of the gate and walks towards the undulating tentacle-faced humanoids who beckon to her.

With a scream of horror, Link Seyz grabs Orua and pulls her back swiftly, while their companions open up with a fusillade of beams, bolts and bullets at the Brain Lashers closing in from the other side of the gate. Two of the alien abominations are felled by their fire, but the third is concentrating on a mental attack. Luckily, it is killed by a plasma bolt from Zed’s weapon which is critically running out of juice.

ML’s note: Now it can be told – the third Brain Lasher had that rare (5%) variety of the Ancestral Form mutation which allows it to regress targets down the evolutionary path. Again, I rolled on the spot for the three critters and the last came up with a “05” on a d100 roll. What a night of fantastic dice rolling this proved to be! Lucky thing they plasma-ed it when they did – it was altogether possible that one of the humans or mutant humans could have been reverted to a dim-witted Homo Erectus if that last Brain Lasher lived to get off a mental attack…

At this, the tear in the fabric of space-time snaps shut!

The attackers broke off their assault shortly thereafter, having sustained horrendous casualties. Our heroes did not pursue, being content to hold the line at the stone wall. They suddenly found themselves standing in a blood-stained field littered with bodies of their slain foes. Many are wounded but none so grievously as Ratchet who suffered quite a large loss of 6 hit dice of damage.

Of their Rat allies, they see nothing. The firing has just about stopped but they feel that their foes are regrouping somewhere nearby for another push. They also notice that ominously, smoke has begun to rise from the cave entrance they were detailed to defend. Echoes of gunfire and explosions could also be heard from within.

Now, it appears that the Cats have broken through to the lower levels of the Mine through another entrance.

Mutant Future A-B-C: A is for Android

Androids are the embodiment of living anachronisms (another ‘A’ word) so apt in the universe of the Mutant Future. Amidst the chaos and regression to primitivism in a once-fruitful wasteland walk the Androids who form a link to the forgotten wonders of a technological past. Androids in the different versions of existing Mutant Futures have come in all shapes and sizes, in varying dispositions and temperaments.

Some Androids take the role of healers or mentors, doing their share in rebuilding society. They can be found in enclaves of remaining civilization, no matter how strange this have evolved from its origins.


Rem, from the post-apocalyptic universe of Logan’s Run (the TV series) is one of these. Such Androids make great non-player characters, hopefully, on the side of the player characters. Their knowledge of the Ancients’ science and history goes far to give their allies an edge over the opposition.


On the other end of the spectrum are the killers, the destroyers and (most often) the baddies. The ubiquitous Terminator, of which several makes and models were made, is a prime example.


Nothing quite beats the effect of the glowing red eyes of the T-101. There’s something about the other-than-human malevolence contained in those artificial eyes…



Mimetic Polyalloy T-1000


The T-X

The T-101 could best be considered as the classic Basic Android in the Mutant Future rules as written. The subsequent T-1000 and T-X could be more advanced models in terms of sophistication and technology level. The shape- changing ability of the T-1000 and the T-X, and, to a lesser extent, their regenerative powers, are an example of how “mutations” granted to Androids during character generation can be characterized. In effect, they are not exactly mutations per se but more of design upgrades and functions.


Less well known but somewhat rather more disturbing is Box from Logan’s Run (the Movie). Others may argue that Box is more of a Cyborg but he would nonetheless make an excellent and colorful Android adversary for any group of Mutant Future adventurers. Imagine going up against a deranged yet highly creative ice sculptor with a penchant for watching his subjects copulate and then eviscerating them slowly. Box and its ilk are often found in extant pockets of technology which, tragically, have long ceased to function in the manner for which they were built. In the case of Box, our stainless steel friend spends his days in what appears to be an automated food synthesis factory wherein it is no longer clear if its finished products are still being consumed by its intended consumers.

Going even farther in time we have Androids who wander the waste as mercenaries and….assassins.

My personal favorite is Necron 99 from Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards.


The mutant wizard Blackwolf, Lord of the Land of Scorch made good use of Necron 99’s cold killing skills until it got zapped by Avatar, Blackwolf’s brother. Necron 99 ends up being ‘reprogrammed’ by Avatar and takes on the name of Peace (personally, I’d take the name Necron 99 to Peace any day).


There’s something about Necron 99’s beady yellow lidless eyes (much like the T-101's red ones). Here he is along with Blackwolf's mutant assassins.

Couple that with a very intimidating looking rifle and a quaint mutated two-legged horse and you’ve got the perfect synthetic wasteland warrior.


This excellent sketch by Undead Celt makes it look like Necron 99 is carrying a modified M-14!

The Mutant Future shows that Androids can go well with mutants, the remnant of technological enclaves and, of course, guns. Stuck in the low-tech present, they are a fleeting link to the vanished high-tech past.