Home brew mutant future campaign

A long time ago I ran a brief Mutant future campaign for some friends.   I had done a PILE of prep with locations factions etc, my intention at some point was to release it.  At the time I think everything that I wrote I was "going to release", which was a silly thought.  I decided I'm going to release it here, over the course of a few blogposts.  Hopefully I can get a bit more indepth into the world I created.  Here's the start of it. 

The adventures take place in the frozen wastes of Manitoba.  I had condensed a map to add in a few towns that we have been to in IRL and the city I'm in.  The starting point village was the town of Gimli (which has a lot of Viking roots).  There is a statue of an Icelandic adventurer in the town.  I ended up modelling the starting village inhabitants around Icelandic culture, the God's they believed in, etc.  I decided that the ancients had passed down books from Libraries with the information that they started to incorporate.

From wikipedia

Gimli is notable for its Icelandic culture and celebrates this locally unique heritage throughout the year and the community of Gimli.^[23] A popular sight in the town is the pier which extends from the downtown shoreline out onto Lake Winnipeg and features the Gimli Seawall Gallery, a cement wall 977 feet (298 m) long featuring 72 murals which depict the history and stories of the community.^[24]

The town was basically surrounded by a half ring dike of old cars (similar to new vegas), the rest of the town was protected by the north shore of frozen Lake Winnipeg.  

I had made the decision that the inhabitants of Gimli were a bit further advanced than what Gamma World suggests (basically tribesmen).  They had access to solar power, and had an underground farming community.  One of the biggest needs from the village was obtaining more solar panels and maintaining the current infrastructure.  Trade was in goods scavenged, water, food and other necessities.  

Faction wise, there was the "brotherhood of steel" basically, the RCMP.  Or at least skewed facsimile of the RCMP.  These were the peace keepers and protectors of the lands.  They were also obsessed with technology and hoarded it (Like the brotherhood).  Most of the RCMP were mutated animals, being led by a Polar Bear (Because Canada).  

Close by was also the "Collector", who is an exact duplicate of the Collector from Guardians of the galaxy.  Another person obsessed with tech, and wonders of the ancient world.  He pays big caps for items.   The collector's base was an old military installation that had been retrofitted.  Upon a hill surrounded by fences, security droids, machine gun installs, etc.  An elevator would get you down into the lower levels.  The only way to get in was by invitation.  The PCs were tasked with smuggling tech out of Gimli to the collector.  Of course the town is guarded by the watchful eye of the RCMP.  

The children of the atom (another rip off! well hey it's my game so whatever).  These people are actually pure breeds that live underground away from the harsh elements.  Their entire culture is based around be completely slammed.   In their community they grow mushrooms and other mind bending drugs and waste their time pondering philosophy and the cosmos. 

Pure Alliance; direct from the Mutant Future book, these people are obsessed with capturing pure breed humans and experimenting on them.    

Slavers:  Slavers hunt the world looking for all manner of humans and the like to work in mines, be shipped off to fighting pits.  They have an uneasy alliance with the Pures and sell off any pure breds they find.  

The Big Bang! 

I hadn't quite decided on the year, but it wasn't in the far distant future.  Maybe 2050 everything went for shit.  What happened was that the Cern super collider had an accident, a catastrophic failure.  Preceding the utter destruction of the collider sent the world into chaos, warning systems for nuclear weapons went on the fritz and launched because of the huge earthquake that happened.  The world was turned upside down.  Manitoba was hit with Soviet and American nukes, one of the largest bases is just south of Manitoba in North Dakota.  Winnipeg the largest city in Manitoba is a complete wasteland.   In Winnipeg is a disease control laboratory (true).  During the events, the lab was destroyed and diseases went amuk, creating Zombies and other unnatural combinations.  What is left of the city is a nightmare. 

The adventure started off with the PCs being tied to a cart by the Slavers.  The RCMP fight off the slavers and release the PCs.  They send them off in the direction of Gimli.  In the cart is a large container with weapons and armour (a nice little random table with starting equipment). 

Location wise: 

Not far from Gimli in real life is an army base, A abandoned hydro electric dam with Morlocks, An old mine in a small town, Further away is a bigger army base filled with all kinds of nasty mutated things, A crashed airplane filled with Convicts from the south (likely being dropped off in the wastes of Canada).  

This was the basics.  A lot of it was very fallout inspired as that is one of my only real references for post apoc.  

The Metallic Room

The hero's have worked their way thru the megadungeon, in search of treasure and the evil mage who rules the surrounding lands with an iron fist.  The campaign has stretched on for a few months.  Everyone is tired of fantasy, orcs and goblins.  Deep within the dungeon they start to feel an emanating presence, almost a low ring as if to pieces of metal were stuck together.  This ring gets louder in their ears as they get closer to a large metal door.  Odd? All of the doors in the dungeon have been made of wood, and most have been in terrible shape.  This door stands out, because its a door unlike anything that has been seen before. 

The thief grabs the handle and tests it.  Everything seems to be okay, no traps, and it's unlocked......

The hero's slowly enter the room and find a very strange sight indeed.  The torch light casts shadows over a ring of metallic chairs in a circle.  A large computer screen shows an above shot of what the PCs are doing.  The dwarf scratches an itch on his left arm, and to his surprise the monitor shows that.

What is this weirdness, is it some trick by the evil mage?

The wizard pulls a feather and a string from his sleeves, and casts a spell. 

"There is no magic in this room, but I fear for what it really is.  Truth is stranger than fiction" comments the wise sage.

Peering closer to the figures in the chair the dwarf realizes with utter horror that it is in fact the heros!

They are hooked up to a large machine in the floor, cables run the length of the room. 

The mighty warrior whose arms are bigger than his brain, immediately walks up to his doppelganger and pulls the plug. 

He opens his eyes, and breaths.  He is in a large metallic room, surrounded by machines.  The rest of his compatriots are nearby in the same circle of chairs.  Thru a plate glass window he spies a tall greenish skinned double headed woman wearing a lab coat.

The PCs are now in a bunker, the fantasy world was a dream.  They wake up to the harsh reality that they live in the wasteland. 

Goslin - Mutant Future Creature

Goslin - Mutant Future Creature 
No. Enc.: 2d6 (8d10)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (Fly 240')
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 3 (Acid/Wings)
Damage:  Acid 1d8, Wings 1d6/1d6
Save: L5
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: II
XP Value: 800

The Goslin, or "Goosemen" of the Northern wastes are a mutant cross breed of Humans and Canadian Geese.  The upper torso of the Goslin is that of a Goose, with a long neck and large heavy wings, the lower half has legs and feet of a human.  The Goslin's are evil creatures that hunt humans and non humans alike, they are particularly protective of their young.  In combat they will beat opponents with their large wings, and spit acid every 4 rounds (1d8).  The Goslins make their homes along iced water and streams.  They are semi intelligent, proud, and somewhat easy to outsmart.  As an escape they will fly away to live to fight another day.  They have developed a cold mutation over the years, so that the weather does not affect them, unlike their ancestors they do not fly south for the winter.  They tend to hoard shiny things.  Under no circumstances should adventurers get between the Goslin and their young.

Mutant Future - Session 2 - "Did you say cats or caps?

"Did you say cats or caps? because I don't want to be paid in cats!  This is how pretty much every single negotiation went last night.  2 of the characters are deaf.  At some point I think I will pay them in cats, just for the sake of a laugh.

The characters started off in the small village of IMLI.  The players decided that they would make the delivery to the Whiz.  They did not however know exactly where the Whiz's place was located.  After a brief discussion with Newman (the pawn shop owner) they headed to the local watering hole for a much needed drink.

As it was still a bit early and they are to meet newman later into the evening.  At the tavern they met a nice fellow with rather large toes (just two of them), he told them that he was a furrier and that he would be reasonable money for furs.  Specifically Raboxxen fur!  He then went on to explain exactly what a raboxxen was (to the horror of the players!).  They players had murdered a few giant ferrets and decided to sell them off to the furrier.  Except one, which the android cut the head off and put on his head as a hat.  (I think he's chaotic, if he isn't he know is).

The bartender Bob (a mutated brown bear) was asked about the surrounding area, specifically the lake.  He told them that he doesn't oft go to the lake, but he knows there's ruins along the west side.  The entire lake is frozen.

At which point one of the players gave him the "International symbol for peace", and replied with "Peace be with you". (I'm guessing this is going to be the "safe travels" in the game.)  Below is the international symbol.

Prior to leaving the bar the players noticed one of the MPs having a drink and then leaving before them.  It was about the time to leave and find newman, so the players wandered outside of the gate.  I had originally intended to have the MPs shake them down about where they were going, and then I thought about NPC knowledge vs gamesmaster knowledge.  The PCs started out towards the edges of the forest, where they were supposed to meet Newman late at night.  As they were walking they here a "HEY!" in the distance behind them.  It's one of the MPs and rides up to them to ask them what they are doing (and not in a shakedown kind of way).  The PCs tell him that they are on a hunting trip, however one of the PCs slips up and says "we are going to meet the whiz", which is what I was kind of hoping for.

I decided to have the player roll me a charisma check, on a fail the MP would have overheard the part about whiz.

*note the MPs are tech whores, and the Whiz is a tech hoarder.

The conversation goes along, and the mp wants to go hunting with the PCs, of course this won't work as they are not going hunting.  The MP challenged the PCs to a contest to see who could out hunt who.  3 days time they are supposed to meet in IMLI with their kills (Raboxxen).  They split up and the PCs make their way to the edge of the forest.  They meet Newman, and he gives them the tech.  It's a large duffel bag made of metal, with a keycode on it.  The PCs will be unable to get into it.

Newman tells them the general whereabouts of the Whiz's location, and then buggers off back to town under cover of night fall.

The PCs decide to travel thru the night as well.  They hear screams off in the distance, and investigate.  They find 2 children tied to a tree, surrounding the tree are Chicken Wolves (who look very hungry).  The PCs fight off most of the chicken wolves (they failed a morale check and left for easier prey).  The children are cut down, and the players here there story.

They come from a village not far away, they were to be sacrificed to the Light God.  They were found to be non-radiated and not welcomed among their people.

The player's decide to help them, or at the very least keep them.  The players are aware of the Pure Alliance and think they can get a tidy payoff by selling the children, bunch of evil bastards.

Its at this point the players have to roll for rad poisoning, as they have unknowingly been in the middle of a radiation zone.

The next day they stumble onto a small town, with a post office and a mine and not a helluva lot else.  The players go to check out the door to the post office, and joke around (out of character) about Mimics.  I tell them the door is locked, and they ask the door specifically if its a mimic.  I decide you know what? fuck it, its a mimic!  Battle ensues!

When the mimic is killed, its banished back to a fantasy world with a pair of old work boots that were sitting out front of the post office.  (Reminder to add this to a fantasy campaign at some point!).

There's not a helluva a lot in the post office, but the players find a map to a few points of interest including a rangers station, and RCMP station and a Spa called "Lakewood Spa & Country Club".

They decide to sleep thru the night at the post office, and get going around mid day.

The next morning they decide to make their way towards the Spa.  Eventually they find it, although its a very weird situation.  Everyone is asked to save vs radiation (save vs spell?).  Some of the players can see a nice lake, greenery, a little river trickling in the distances.  The players who were successful noticed a weird flickering in the image.  A player who failed his save moves forward and bangs his head right into the steel wall.   At this point a disembodied voice says "thank you for your patience, the Whiz is out at this time, please leave a message at the beep!".

From behind some old trees steps a robot named Nucleus, who proceeds to pay the players for bringing the tech.  As well he tells them of a lab near the "giant crater" and an old military base that might be worth checking out.

And so ends session 2.  We covered a LOT of ground.

d20 post-apocalyptic side quests

1.  Local furrier needs raboxxen fur for clothing.
2.  Travelling book salesman wants to complete his set of encyclopedias.
3.  Solar panels are needed for water treatment plant.
4.  Gang of motorcycle bandits has taken over community gas station and claimed it as their own.
5.  Sinkhole opened up outside of village, revealed a series of complex hallways underground.
6.  The annual mushroom growing contest is happening! and you have been selected as a judge!
7.  The population of a small town has been entirely replaced by clones, the originals are nowhere to be found.
8.  Local cartographer needs an escort, will pay well.  (Cartographer has anterior motives)
9.  Small clinic has been burned to the ground.  Investigate.
10.  River dam was destroyed flooding a nearby village.  Find culprit and repair dam.
11.  Rumours that an ancient flying machine was located in the forest.
12.  New religious cult has appeared and become quite popular, find out why.
13.  Locals have started glowing in the dark recently.
14.  Corpses of villagers have been found early in the morning, with their throats ripped out by teeth.
15.  Five black helicopters flew over the local village, they went in a westerly direction and were slowly descending.
16.  A good source of water is needed for crops.
17.  A strange monument is being built outside of town, no one knows anything about it.
18.  An expedition has been planned to locate other towns to trade with.
19.  A courier is needed to sign a peace treaty with another local community.
20.  Strange lights appear in the sky every Wednesday.

Image courtesy of Old Book Illustrations. 

Toonie Tuesday!

Hey everybody!  I've been awfully quiet, on the blog and social media.  It's not you, it's me.  For some very odd reason, the act of "thinking about RPGs" has just been turned off latetly.  (must read more books!).  I am going to guess that it is because of the following:

1.  Summer is around the corner, and while I'd love to be rolling dice, I also want to sit in a lawn chair and enjoy the sunshine for the week of summer we get.

2.  I've been playing in a band, which is taking up a lot of creative brain power.

3.  I've been putting myself under the gun to create things for my mutant future campaign, which has been leaving me frazzled.  (speaking of I gotta draw a few maps before thursday).

Looks like we will be playing session 2 of our mutant future campaign this week.  I have a pile of locations ready to go! And it seems more keeps flowing every night (I work really well under the gun!).

I noticed in my facebook memories that yesterday last year was session 1 of our curse of strahd session!  Which is kinda neat.  Somehow our players are still alive????  Which I find odd.

(as ususal my posts are a bit A.D.D.)

Anyways, I'm being creative, just not being socially creative and sharing things.  For the most part because whenever this campaign is over I'm going to put it out (And it seems my focus is always on it).  It's going really well.  I find there is a lack of Mutant Future products out there, adventures and settings.  This is going to be a little bit of both.

Thus far its obviously a home campaign, but should be relatively easy to tweak and "re write" for mass consumption.  I've been smart about taking my hand written notes and transferring them to a google doc right away.

Last night I finished up a short little dungeon filled with Morlocks.  They are in a desolate cave.  (I will post more about it later, as some of my players are readers).   After reading the brief description on the Morlocks I noticed they have a "Technological affinity", which gives them bonuses on tech weapons because they spend the time to figure that out.  I instantly thought, "They are tweakers!".  Well they are technically intelligent, albino, cannibal tweakers.  

1d6 Morlock Tweaker Lair Oddities. 
1.  Large 15 foot metallic head made from rusted found metal.
2.  Converted solar powered school bus completed with laser cannons.
3.  Server farm built from old computers, filled with ebooks from a library
4.  A home theatre built from found theatre screens & equipment. Cartoons are on continually.
5.  Portable home made radiation scanner created from found tech including a geiger-counter & drone.
6.  Small airplane in a state of disrepair, engine parts and pieces all over the floor.  Large book sitting on wing "Air mechanics for dummies".

Anyways, that's what is up with me! (It's toonie tuesday at KFC tonight.  WOOO!)

Picture courtesy of https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/illustrations/lame-monster/ 

If you haven't heard I released a pile of maps for FREE! You can check em out here: 
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/211644/Wards-Warrens?src=newest

Session 1 - Mutant Future - I'll never sleep well again

Last night we reconvened the old school group to play some Mutant Future!  I have been so excited to run this.  Now that I have had the opportunity to, I have a few thoughts on the game.

On monday evening, my wife and I created a character for her.  She decided on a mutant plant.  One smart thing she did was not decide on exactly what type of plant she was until after we finished rolling up mutations.  She decided that she was a cactus named "ouch!" because that's what happens when people touch her (she is covered in thorns).  Character creation took a little while the first time around (more time than just regular old school D&D).  Last night we got together with the gang and created everyone elses characters.  I wound up with another mutant plant (Juce the apple tree), a mutant human, a mutant animal Komodo dragon (arrfllahgh!) and a android SPAH (which stands for something super entertaining that I can't remember off hand).  All of the rest of character generation went reasonably quickly, as none of them were allowed weapons whatsoever.  So there wasn't the long shopping trip like usual.  It seemed like a bunch of the players managed to get the "Immune to cold" mutation, which kinda sucks for me, oh well.

The premise of the adventure is nuclear winter, 150 years in the future in Manitoba, Canada.  The players are strapped down to a slave wagon and are promptly rescued by a group of royal Canadian mounted police (humanoid polar bears, cuz right!).

The polar bears leave them to their own devices.  They loot the bodies of their captors, and find a hex map, a note for delivery of slaves to the "pure alliance" plot thread, and a key.  The key we will get to.

The slave wagon was being hauled by 2 spider goats.  Cue "I'll never sleep again!" being yelled by one of my players.  I even included some fun sound effects like hissing "bah" noises.

The players decide to set off in the direction of the polar bears that rescued them.  After a few hours they catch up with them.  The apple tree throws a apple at one of them to get their intention.  The MP's introduce themselves, discuss a few plot threads and then decide to camp with the group for the evening.  They build an igloo.

Random encounter checks.... nothing.

The next morning the players decide to go back towards the slave wagon, as there is a small town near there.  It is at this point they realize they are in Manitoba.  The town is called Gimli

walking past the slave wagon, they notice a scavenger looking thru it, kicking a metal box on top of the wagon (which they previously didn't notice).  They scare off the scavenger and take a look at the box.  One of the players uses a mutation to blow the box open.  Inside they find their old equipment, leather armour, some backpacks, rations, and a few pen caps.  I have each player roll 1d6 for a starting weapon.

1.  Dagger
2.  Club
3.  Short Bow and arrows
4.  Spear
5.  Short Sword
6.  Sling and 20 stones.

NOTE:  The currency in my game was going to be CAPS, however every time i said "caps" the players thought I said "pencaps".  So from hence forth, pen caps is going to be the currency. 

The players make their way towards Gimli, they find the gates of the town built out of old cars.  In a beaten up old apartment building a guard stands duty.  A large evergreen tree mutant holds a semi automatic rifle.

Most of the inhabitants of Gimli live underground where it is a bit warmer.  As I only had so much time, I created only what I thought I would need.  a tavern and a shop.  I used actual names of locations in Gimli.

The players decide to check out "Riverside Pawn" and find a large burly proprietor named "Newman!" He has a pair of glasses, with one broken lense and is quite frugal with his prices.  Anything in the game book that is 10 GPs and under is available for sale.

Newman is in need of some delivery men and women to bring some tech to a guy named "whiz" who lives in the forests to the east of the town.  The caveat is that the tech needs to be secreted out of town, so that the tech hungry MPs don't get their hands on it and confiscate it.  Newman gives the players a few hand grenades and some old school muskets as payment.

He also talks to them about how the political atmosphere has become a problem in town.  The current mayor's rule has been called into question by the MPs that live in the area.  Due to his overwhelming mutations he hasn't been making good decisions.

After a brief stop at the tavern "Dockside Inn", and a bit of information gathering we called it for the e evening.

Now I have some more writing to do.  I didn't have enough time to sit and create every single hex, so I am going to have to do that.  Now that I know which direction they are going.

Thoughts on the game.

I decided to use descending AC and roll under ability checks.  I was a bit hesitant because I thought the players might have an issue with it.  They roll with the punches no problem.  What I did find however is that I need to create myself a games masters screen.  I know there is one out, but I'll just work on it myself.

A few things were a bit of a problem for me:

Monster saving throws - I need a chart

The mind attack matrix was problematic.

Any attack with a mutation? Obviously if its a mind attack I roll up the willpower of the baddy and have the player either A.  roll over that for it to take effect, or B. use mind attack matrix.  I had considered doing an opposed roll, but seemed more problematic.

If its a physical mutation attack, i wasn't sure if it should be automatic? or if its should be a regular attack roll?

I think what I'm going to do is create a basic saving throw table for monsters based on HD.  Regardless of what type of saving throw it neesd to be.  That will make it easier for me.

Other than that I thought mechanically the game went very well!