Thursday, February 28, 2013

Mutants In The News — "Mini-Mutants Amok" Edition


It's no secret 'round these parts that I've loved and collected mutant toys in all their glory since I was a wee one, but Lego just released just about my favorite mutanimals of all time as part of their Legends Of Chima line.

The Villains:  Crawley, Winzar, and Razcal

I mean, just look at that art.  Makes great Mutant Future or Gamma World portraits, right?

And thanks to a certain someone having some spare birthday loot, here's how they look in person!

Freaktastic Four Forever!!!

(The batty-man is from a different series entirely, but he's always welcome to hang with his fellow evil animals.)


Razcal

Crawley, and his Claw Ripper

DC's lawyers want to talk to you, Vampire Bat....

Razcal's Glider

Winzar's Pack Patrol

I love how the vehicles look all creature-iffic.

And last month, our friend Brutorz Bill challenged some brave souls out there to stat up a mighty Chima vehicle for Mutant Future...and I accept!  Once I get my hands on the set, I'm TOTALLY gonna blog-ify it.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

"L" is for "Lepterran"


Lepterran  ("Mothman")

No. Enc.:  1 (1d3)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  60' (20')
         —Fly:  180' (60')
Armor Class:  6
Hit Dice:  9
Attacks:  2 or 1 (2 claws, or 1 weapon)
Damage:  1d8 / 1d8, or by weapon +2
Save:  L9
Morale:  8
Hoard Class:  VII
XP:  4,500

Lepterrans are lithe, 8' tall, asexual humanoids with massive wings made up of scaly feathers / feathery scales.  Their feet end in prehensile claws, with which they manipulate objects and wield weapons.  Wriggling clusters of tentacles obscure their mouths, and their red eyes burn with malevolence.

Five times per day, a lepterran can discharge a 25' radius cloud comprised of shimmering, microscopic shards that seemingly have no effect on any caught within.  However, 3d8 hours after exposure, all inorganic objects (armor, weapons, artifacts, robots, architectural structures...even Android PCs) exposed suffer Class 6 poison damage.  [The Mutant Lord should determine the specific effects on characters' possessions.]  And the damage is cumulative—if, say, the lepterran discharges 3 times on the same targets, the final damage roll is 18d6!

A lepterran can metamorph into a waterfowl (heron, stork, crane, flamingo, etc.) of similar size and mass, and attack 3 times per round with beak (1d10) and 2 claws (1d6 / 1d6), and fly at 180' (60').

Mutations:  Chameleon Epidermis, Energy Ray (Any), Metamorph, Reflective Epidermis (Electricity), Toxic Weapon ("Crumble-Cloud")




Monday, February 25, 2013

"C" is for "Cugaro"


Cugaro

No. Enc.:  1d6 (2d8)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  150' (50')
  —Swim:  45' (15')
Armor Class:  5
Hit Dice:  4
Attacks:  1 or 3 (weapon, or 2 claws, 1 bite)
Damage:  by weapon, or 1d6 / 1d6 / 1d8
Save:  L4
Morale:  9
Hoard Class:  VII, plus 1 weapon
XP:  465

The cugaro (both singular and plural) are sentient, semi-aquatic felines that dwell in marshy areas and murky ruins.  With webbed paws and snorkel-like organs that elongate up to 5' long, they are well-suited to prowling waterways, and can stay submerged indefinitely.  Cugaro Surprise on 1-4 on 1d6.

Cugaro possess vast mental powers, and are skilled in telekinetically manipulating objects and artifacts.  Each individual always has a favored weapon, and wields it as much as possible over teeth and claws; they're civilized, you see.

The cugaro fancy themselves as collectors and caretakers of Ancient knowledge.  In the Hugeston, Wrexus area, a large tribe of cugaro have claimed a grounds of a ruined university as their own.

Mutations:  Aberrant Form ("Snorkels"), Enhanced Vision (Night Vision), Mind Thrust, Neural Telekinesis, Neural Telepathy, Quick Mind



Friday, February 22, 2013

Gunspoint: A Wretched Dive Of Pondscum And Villainy

It's a bounty of polyhedrals, because in addition to my new Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign, I've relaunched my Mutant Future game for The Woman and some of her work chums.

Welcome, y'all, to the baleful bayous of Hugeston, Wrexus!



The swampy, mucky, sludgy campaign centers on Gunspoint, an Ancient shopping mall converted into a ramshackle fortress / trading hub / shantytown / sinmonger's paradise. Pole-powered barges, trilobison-drawn rafts, and rickety airboats traverse the Sandy Jack river, bringing staples and goods (particularly the illicit kind) from far and wide.

Adventure abounds around Gunspoint!  The closest point of interest is The Scareport, a once-bustling travel hub now awash in decrepit wreckage and freakish "living lights".

To the east lies The Queen's Wood.  Who—or, more accurately, what—The Queen is remains utterly unknown, as none who have seen her have survived the experience.  Her ever-expanding army of Mutant Humans and Mutant Animals shake down the locals, demanding larger and larger tributes...with the implied threat She will overrun the landscape.  The ruined Drearbrook Mall taunts scavengers with its promises of riches beyond imagining.  (But if that's the case, why hasn't The Queen claimed it as Her own...?)

Going northward are two key villages that supply food to the region.  Walled Den, home to The Craw, provides fish and aquacultural staples, and the citizens of Gone-Woe farm and ranch on their relatively pristine and healthy lands.  

Illis and Grieveland are communities that just can't catch a break, as there's always some disease, predator, and/or random disaster that afflicts them.  The current rumors about their worries are the most ridiculous yet, involving cyclopean chickens and renegade robots....

And speaking of renegade robots, no one dares venture too far north into the dead forests of Huntsvile.  A giant, headless, humanoid statue warns all to stay away, lest rampaging security-droids drag you screaming into the bowels of the region's numerous Ancient-but-not-so-ruined prisons....

The savage Wooded Lands take up much of the west.  Crypress, a secluded monastery for the "Brotherhood Of Thought", is the only settlement on the fringes.    Like Drearbrook, the ruined Woebrook commercial mecca lures the greedy and the foolhardy.

The Blank Zone is a mysterious area avoided by all, as no one who enters ever returns...and those who insist they actually arrived from there have no memories of the place.

To the south of Gunspoint lie the most dangerous regions.  The Downtown is an expansive sunken city where the skeletons of Ancient skyscrapers jut from polluted waters.  With its labyrinth of submerged governmental buildings, museums, banks, Fortune 500 companies, and nightspots of old, who knows what wonders lie beneath the surface...? And then there's the Blastrodome complex, a "mega-maze" with as many legends (involving gladiatorial games, subterranean slavers, monstrous trucks, cloned rock-gods, great beasts, and bloodthirsty cults) as corpses littering its grounds.

The Slime Barony is home to sentient fungi who prowl the swamps astride monstrous mounts and worship the powers of all things atomic.  Any who enter their lands must pay tribute or convert to their arcane beliefs, or suffer the consequences.  Only the Crules in the verdant Scareland are mighty enough to stand up to the Slime Barons' wrath.

Fearlake houses the crumbling husk of the NASTAR space program.  Rumors persist that the ruined center holds the keys to traversing the spaceways...assuming the wolves don't get you first....

The waters poisoned beyond all belief, The Burning Sea is a fiery graveyard of slagged ships and spewing petrochemical plants.  But many insist there are riches within the fiery tides, and they're plundered by the mutation-riddled pirates that call Graveston home.


Here's a list of random words / phrases / people that tie into to the morass-y majesty of Gunspoint and its territories:

) gator raiders
) "N-R0N, The Thing That Should Not Exist"
) "The Psych Ward Psions"
) slicksand
) "Slakewood, The Oasis Of Blood"
) "The Star-Old's Brewery"
) "Satan's Cerebrums, The Science-Bikers"
) Exxon Honda, a.k.a. "The Kingpin Of Corruption"
) "The Monstrose"
) "The Aquarium"
) diesel demons


The first real session is tomorrow.  (Last week, they rolled up characters and got a feel for the system by blasting a school of adorably toothy shunks.)  Stay tuned for updates!!!

Mutants In The News — "Tripping The Light Rat-astic" Edition

Through the wonders of cerebro-implants, scientists have given rats the ability to "touch" and "see" invisible infrared light.

"This was the first time a brain-machine interface has augmented a sense in adult animals," says clearly mad scientist.  "We could create devices sensitive to any physical energy...magnetic fields, radio waves, or ultrasound."

AWESOME.



Sunday, February 17, 2013

Mutants In The News — "Massively Mutated Onslaught RPG" Edition

When I was 15, the greatest video game I had ever played on my Apple IIe was Wasteland. There were mutants and clone-vats and 'borgs and Las Vegas and AWESOME.



It was also the worst, because I got all the way to the verrrrry end...and found out that, weeks prior, I'd discarded The McGuffin Key to make room for a medkit or a shotgun shell or something trivial.  I was utterly, completely boned, because I couldn't enter the final map.

I had never, ever been burned by a game like that before...so to show it who was boss, I started over, and played straight through over the course of a day-night-day or two.

So.  Freaking.  Annoying.


So much caffeine.  So much parental griping.


Anyhow, there's a new browser-based game that seems right our collective alleys, called Mutant Badlands.  It's in Open Beta now, and looks kinda dandy.  I've played all of five minutes, and in that brief time, I butchered some cannibal-mutants, rescued a trussed-up damsel, and found a wrench in some rubble.

If that isn't The Platonic Ideal of a post-apocalyptic game, I dunno what is.


Here's a video!


And here's some promo art.  Snazzy!






So go kill some irradiated freaks, and tell them Ol' Justin sent ya!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

"D" is for "Desolation Whale"

Desolation Whale

No. Enc.:  0 (1d3)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  0' (0')
  —Swim:  150' (50')
Armor Class:  5
Hit Dice:  25
Attacks:  1 (ram)
Damage:  8d6
Save:  L9
Morale:  10
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  16,000

Covered in lesions, tumors, and fungal growths, the incandescent desolation whales plow through the toxic seas in near-constant agony.  They often attack ships and waterborne structures (underwater bases, oil platforms, abandoned oceanliners, etc.) in blind rage.

Brainwhales have tried time and again to tame and/or enslave desolation whales, but to little success.  The beasts are just too savage to control.

Mutations:  Dermal Poison Slime, Echolocation, Energy Ray x2 (Any)


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Radioactive Review — 'Wisdom From The Wastelands #16: Robots, Part 2'




Like Part 1, Wisdom From The Wastelands:  Robots, Part 2 is chock full o' goodness.

Levitating cinemas.  Gravitic generators.  Portable suns.  Mechanical menaces a'plenty, like Tree Eaters and Mad Laboratories and Marine Hunters and Nightmarebots.

I think my favorite bits pertain to behavior:  the robots act in X fashion if they're non-aware lunkheads just doing their tasks, but do Y (where "Y" usually equals "goes bugnuts, with ensuing hijinks") if awakened and sentient.  I don't think I've ever seen prior post-apocalyptic robot guides make such distinctions, and I love the flavorful details.

Rounding out the issue are 8 new accessories, including a new locomotion class and weapon.

The core Mutant Future rulebook has 7 pages on robots.  With these two 5-page WFTW issues (and a third already out...review pending!), Derek Holland and his Skirmisher posse have single-handedly tripled the game's robotic content.  And it's all gold.

Great, fun stuff.  Buy it here.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

"M" is for "Molewrath"


Molewrath

No. Enc.:  1d4 (4d10)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  105' (35')
  —Burrow:  45' (15')
Armor Class:  7
Hit Dice:  15
Attacks:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)
Damage:  1d12 / 1d12 / 4d6
Save:  L8
Morale:  10
Hoard Class: 
XP:  6,900

The surly, desert-dwelling, 20' long molewraths spend their days excavating massive den complexes centered around clusters of nutrient- and moisture-rich mutant tubers.  They sometimes burrow up into outposts, dragging sentient plants to their dooms.

Being immune to temperature extremes, toxins, diseases, and radiation, molewraths make hardy steeds.  Many humanoid races (Crules, Waste Witches, Gheelids) ride them imperiously into battle.

Rumors persist about sentient "molewrath queens" that direct their nests telepathically.

Mutations:  Gigantism, Reflective Epidermis (Cold, Fire/Heat, Radiation)




Friday, February 8, 2013

Radioactive Review — 'Wisdom From The Wastelands #15: Robots, Part 1'



Mini-Review:




Longer Review:

Wisdom From The Wastelands #15:  Robots, Part 1 features 8 all-new robots and 11 all-different gadgets with which to outfit them.

I figgered I'd read it all as far as post-apocalyptic 'bots go (I mean, how many permutations on the word "deathbot" are out there, anyway...?), but the descriptions are so evocative—and effortlessly, casually so—that I was struck with at least a dozen campaign ideas.  And they just kept on flowing afterwards.

Man, I was EXCITED after finishing WFTF #15.  Just totally got the itch to start up my game again.  It's that good.

Because I want you to give The Esteemed Derek Holland and The Skirmisher Publishing Crew your money, I'm going to be vague about the specific contents.  But here's some random quotes that really got me jazzed:

"Hunters do not know if they have food for the table or spare parts for their artifacts until they butcher their game."

"Now they wander the wastes, collecting and protecting everything that relates to their exhibits."

"Some nations became so desperate they created [them] for government and military officials, and designed deathbots for everyone else."

"Most...have become dictators of flesh and metal communities...."

"Some rule, some serve, and some serve ungrateful or poor customers to their next customers."

"The rest have gone insane...and cause their students to also go insane."

And here's two words from the weaponry section that should make any Mutant Lord giddy: Phase.  Rocket.



Hands down, WFTW #15 is my favorite issue of the series so far.  It eschews the usual dry crunch of the line and heaps on the flavor.

Why haven't you bought it already?

"T" is for "Taktoc"


Taktoc

No. Enc.:  1d4 (1d6)
Alignment:  Neutral or Chaotic
Movement:  150' (50')
Armor Class:  4
Hit Dice:  4+2
Attacks:  4 (4 tentacles) or 1 (weapon)
Damage:  1d4 / 1d4 / 1d4 / 1d4, or by weapon
Save:  L4
Morale:  8
Hoard Class:  XIV
XP:  515

Taktocs are 8' tall, terrestrial cephalopoids that favor humid, verdant environs.  Ornery (WIL 13+1d8) creatures, they wage war with their own kind as often as they do Pure and Mutated Human settlements.

Each taktoc possesses 7 facial tentacles.  The 4 shortest shred food with razored nodules, while the 3 longer, trunk-like appendages manipulate Ancient weapons and artifacts with ease.

Taktocs communicate through a complex series of whistles, tentacular gestures, and shifts in body coloration.  It's should come as no surprise that most encounters with them go horribly, horribly awry.

Mutations:  Body Adjustment, Disintegration, Increased Balance, Increased Willpower, Optic Emissions (Gamma Eyes)