STOP THE PROJECTOR!!! BRACE FOR BREAKING NEWS, THREE DECADES IN THE MAKING!!!

In 1982, an astonishing oviporous onslaught such as the world had never seen unleashed The Most Amazing Atomic Antagonists Of All Time...but we were ill-prepared for their  malevolent majesty.  They returned to the wastelands from whence they came, forgotten and forsaken.

But, lo!  All the portents have proven true...as from the irradiated ashes, they arise again!!!

For here, in 2012, in coincidental conjunction with their 30th anniversary, comes...

MARVELOUS METAL MINIATURES MOST MUTAGENIC, MIGHTY, MONSTROUS, MALIGNANT...AND MODERATELY MONOCULAR!!!

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Want to add rampaging radioactive reprobates to your gaming table?  OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

Friends, they have 'em all!

BLASTING BUGGITES!!!

RAMPAGING RABBITOIDS!!!

AND, LAST BUT NOT LEAST, THOSE FANTASTIC FUTURISTIC FOES MOST FREAKISH AND FOWL...

CALAMITOUS CYCLOPEAN CHICKENS!!!

& POLYPHEMIC FEATHERED FIENDS!!!

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Friends, you CANNOT let these pass you by!  THEY MUST BE YOURS, TODAY!!!

Don't walk—RUN!!!—on over to Interloper Miniatures' Indiegogo page, and give them all your filthy lucre.  And don't let paltry personal budgetary concerns like "shelter" and "sustenance" and "schoolkids" deter you, either...YOU HAVE A KIDNEY YOU AREN'T USING, SO SHADILY SMUGGLE THAT SUCKER WITH A QUICKNESS!!!  NO EXCUSES!!!

PLUS, THE STRETCH GOALS ARE INSANE, WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR MORE BIRDS, PIGS (or, more correctly, PIGSTRONAUTS!!!), ANTEATERS, AND APES!!!  MAKE THESE HAPPEN, PEOPLE!!!

Be sure to tell them that A Field Guide To Doomsday sent you!!!

Let's Go To Gamma World. Meet... The Albilope.

Albilope

No. Enc.:  2d6
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  180' (60')
Armor Class:  8
Hit Dice:  6
Attacks:  2 (1 bite, 1 gore)
Damage:  1d6 / 3d4 + special
Save:  L3
Morale:  9
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  1,820

With its snow-white fur and glowing pink eyes, the sleek, graceful albilope stands out on the plains of the Mutant Future...but don't mistake it for easy prey.  An albilope's foot-long, y-shaped, serrated horn delivers wicked injuries that inflict an additional automatic 1d4 damage each round due to excessive bleeding (which can be stanched with proper first aid).  And while they usually feed on vegetation, albilopes viciously chase down and devour vulnerable targets.

Albilopes are thought to be the first creatures to evolve an immunity the Vampiric Field [see p. 31 of the Mutant Future Core Rules] Mental Mutation.  [Anti-Vampirism actually induces the Albinism Disability in its possessor.]

Mutations:  Albinism [D], Optic Emissions (Bright Eyes), Reflective Epidermis (Cold, Radiation), Unique Mutation ("Anti-Vampirism")

—

Not-The-Designer's Notes:  The Albilope appeared in 1982's Famine In Far-Go, which was designed by Michael Price, and developed by Price and Michael J. Richie.  Illustration provided by the enigmatic Darlene.

Not-The-Designer's Notes Addendum:  The original text from FIF-G described the Albilope as being slender...yet the resulting picture made it look like a husky caribou.  I went with sleeker, daintier, and un-shaggier for my version.  Furthermore, I just made it completely immune to radiation, instead of the complicated "double its effective CON against radiation" from the source material.

Let's Go To Gamma World. Meet... The Bulo

Bulo

No. Enc.:  0 (2d4)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  150' (50')
Armor Class:  5
Hit Dice:  14
Attacks:  1 (1 bite, or 1 butt + trample)
Damage:  1d8, or 1d10 + 5d6
Save:  L7
Morale:  11
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  7,800

Except for the matted violet fur, the massive bulos look amazingly like their Ancient bison ancestors.  They are foul-tempered, territorial, 7-foot-at-the-shoulder beasts that roam the plains of the Mutant Future, and fear little from predators.

Bulos favor Charging when head-butting, which leads to a cascade of misfortune for the target.  A successful Charge does double the normal damage, and knocks the victim prone (causing them to suffer a -2 To Hit during their next attack round)...which then grants the bulo a follow-up Trample at +4 To Hit for 5d6 damage.  And, perhaps most devastating effect of all, the victim's possessions risk being damaged or destroyed:  75% for fragile items, 50% for Ancient artifacts (including weapons and armor), and 30% for "standard" weapons and armor.  [The Mutant Lord should modify the item specifics, and overall chances, as they see fit.]

In addition to their thick skulls and muscular frames, bulos are able to absorb damage from physical blows or injuries (their Accumulated Resistance).  And they possess the freakish ability to transform into one of 3 flying insect-like creatures:  a blaash (a radioactive moth), a blight (a light-manipulating, bat-winged worm), or a cal-then (a metal-rending beetle).

Mutations:  Accumulated Resistance (Kinetics), Metamorph (x3)

—

Not-The-Designer's Notes:  The Bulo appeared in 1982's Famine In Far-Go, which was designed by Michael Price, and developed by Price and Michael J. Richie.  Illustration provided by the enigmatic Darlene.

Not-The-Designer's Notes Addendum:  Rest assured, I'll get around to statting-out the blaash, blight, and cal-then.

"E" is for "Easter" (or, "G" is for "Gallus-Gallus")

We here at A Field Guide To Doomsday have made no secret of our affection for all things Ol' School Gamma World.  And for me, nothing says "OSGW" ("osgwa"?) like the 1982 1e module, Famine In Far-Go.

FIF-G was the first module/supplement to an rpg I ever acquired (which was convenient, since my very first rpg happened to be the Gamma World 2e boxed set).  I can still remember the occasion:  it was a dreary and rainy Saturday, and instead of plopping down for cartoons, I was dragged way-too-early to my aunt-n-uncle's furniture-retailer-slash-Zenith-TV-repair-shack in Beautiful Downtown Willis, TX (which, at the time, consisted of a Dairy Queen, and not much else...hell, you had to drive over 10 miles away just to get to the Piggly Wiggly).  And if that wasn't bad enough, we then went to a lakeside timeshare presentation where my dad proudly received some Real, Genuine, 110% Authentic Faux-Gold Presidential Coins...enclosed in their own frame!  WITH REAL CARDBOARD BACKING!!!

At the end of that agonizing day, we stopped off at the longggggggg departed Gierspeck & Roper bookstore, where I could pick out one thing.  

Famine In Far-Go beckoned, and I read it all the way home...and re-read it about another half-dozen times that weekend.

I was a bit confused by the presentation, because the art wasn't as polished as my 2e boxed set, and the  rules parts were "off" (I didn't grasp the hows and whys behind different editions, you see).  And the new monsters seemed EXTRA FREAKY when compared to the core bestiary.

Albino buzzsaw-horned antilopes?  Purple bug-morphing bison?  Weather-controlling be-jetpack'd moose?

And nothing was weirder than the belligerent chickens known as the Gallus Gallus 5/13s. They were hideous AND hilarious, and possessed mostly detrimental mutations, and lived in an atomic robo-factory.

AWESOME.

I fell in love with those ridiculous chickens...but have never gotten the opportunity to do anything with them...

...until now!

I hereby present my favorite official Gamma World monsters, adapted for Mutant Future from the original text.  I claim no credit for their majesty.

Happy Easter, everybody.

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Gallus-Gallus

No. Enc.:  1d6 (2d6)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  120' (40')
Armor Class:  7
Hit Dice:  7
Attacks:  1 (bite or weapon)
Damage:  1d4 or by weapon
Save:  L7
Morale:  9
Hoard Class:  VII, XIX
XP:  2,890

Encountered in Ancient automated hatcheries and food processing plants, the beings known as the Gallus-Galluses are corpulent, squat, 4' tall avians with cyclopean visages and patchy yellow-orange feathers.  They are cunning, deadly, and malignant, and bent on the total domination of all other life forms.  Pure Humans incur the greatest of the Gallus-Gallus' wrath, based on the treatment of domesticated chickens in The Time Before.

Gallus-Galluses lack depth perception, and suffer -1 To Hit in melee combat, and -2 at range. They make up for this deficiency with their chameleonic abilities, Surprising on a 1-4 on 1d6 and gaining +2 to Initiative.  They are also particularly vulnerable to all known toxins, suffering a -8 to Saving Throws Versus Poison.

Each Gallus-Gallus tribe has a suffix designation based on some arcane numerology known as a "batch number".  The mightiest and most infamous of these perfidious poultry-people are the 5/13s, who raid settlements and drag all Pure Human captives back to their high-tech lairs for "rendering"....

Mutations:  Chameleon Epidermis, Frailty ("No Depth Perception") [D], Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer), Mind Thrust, Poison Susceptibility [D] (x2)

—

Not-The-Designer's Notes:  Famine In Far-Go was designed by Michael Price, and developed by Price and Michael J. Richie.  Illustrations provided by Jim Holloway, Jeff Easley, and Timothy Truman(!).

Not-The-Designer's Notes Addendum #1:  The text from FIF-G says the chicken-critters are 4' tall, but the illustrations clearly show them as being larger, based on the scale of backgrounds and furnishings.  I can only assume the pics depict bigger, badder versions....

Not-The-Designer's Notes Addendum #2:  I excluded the "Complete Mental Block" Disability from the original version, which prevented the Gallus Gallus 5/13s from perceiving a particular kind of robot...a robot which happened to be in their lair in abundance.  "Specific Robot Blindness" was just too goofy, even for me.  Feel free to add it in again.