[Other] Under A Blue Moon [Mutant Future]

[Seeks]

Game Name Under A Blue Moon [Mutant Future]

Game System Other Roleplaying Games

Theme Post-apocalyptic, paranormal, shades of survival-horror, character-driven narrative (PC and NPC), discovered lore

Flavour Fallout in a mid-00s retrofuture, but magic and monsters instead of rads and mutants

Plot Summary Pretentious Quote For The Campaign “The moon is a loyal companion." "It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light." "The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.” - Tahereh Mafi, "Shatter Me" Premise The end of the world didn't come from a nuclear holocaust, the robots didn't take over, and zombies aren't the only things that now go bump in the night. In one week from Hell itself -- for all anyone knows, anyway -- the unseen and otherworldly forces of our speck in an uncaring cosmos shut out the light of mankind. Electronics suddenly shorted out, with much of them never turning back on. A discreet but inexplicable mutative trend kept under wraps (despite the feds' best attempts to hide it) manifested out of control, killing and disfiguring many worldwide. Monsters thought make-believe and other night terrors came forth, proving to survivors that the human race was no longer an apex predator. All under the pale light of the moon, now stained blue in the skies of a planet soaked crimson with those who died in the cataclysm. The year is 2067, so says your local tech cult, in a region once called Western New York, in a land once called America. Over twenty years since the Moon Fall, that arcane apocalypse, had happened. Survivors have cut their own swath of society in the rapidly-overgrown ruins of the age before. But those with pure blood are no longer the only people on Earth -- people and creatures changed by the arcane sometimes dwell among them. Technology once taken for granted has become treasured, especially if it still worked. The sudden plummet of the world population meant everyday supplies helped those who lived get by. Until, of course, those prepackaged goodies began to dwindle. And don't forget about those monsters. Those freaks of supernature are still around. And may be getting more active as the nights go by. Throw in your inevitable raider gangs and the occasional cultists, foaming at the mouth and armed with real and deadly powers? Yeah, good folk might have their work of survival cut out for them. Even worse is when your own community is in peril. Like what's been going on in your home village. Whether you've grown up here or it's a place you now call home, doesn't matter. People are getting sick from whatever contagion the devil himself is cooking up these days. Some kind of sleeping sickness that even scavenged meds won't cure. On top of that, the folks in town are getting antsy from a strange new radio signal, one that sometimes interrupts the airwaves of the local (and only) music station in your neck of the woods. Seems the elders are rallying together a couple bands of explorers to investigate these troubles, but they aren't sugarcoating it. If you went along, you could be a big damn hero. Or die. C'est la vie. If it means keeping your fellows alive, nothing you can't handle, right? Rules We're playing "Mutant Future", an OSR game based off old-school Gamma World. If you know D&D -- whether or not it's Advanced -- you'll do just fine. In an attempt to make the game more palatable and less "rocks fall, everyone dies", I've got house rules to add. The official free version of the game's rulebook can be found HERE, and it only lacks some of the fancy artwork from the "full" print. For now, stick to the first three sections of the book to get a gist of your characters. Game rules are on sections 4 & 5, but more GM-sensitive info for now can be found beyond. Players: 3~6. Posting Rate: Twice per week, if possible. Open to negotiation. Play Style: Leaning more roleplay than roll-play, but I like a good balance of both! Tone: Kinda like an "Iron Age" comic book -- kinda dark, but also very rule-of-cool. Starting Level: 1st, but levels don't matter near as much in MF. Preferred Races: Pure Strain Human, Mutant Human / Animal, Android (Basic). I won't fault you if you wanna play any other Android or a Mutant Plant, though! Number of Characters: One main, and at least an idea of a backup. I don't intend to be cruel about character death, but it's still a risk. I'm also cool with letting you swap characters at certain points where it'd make sense. House Rules Ability scores are 4d6 (keep highest 3) each, and you pick the order they're in. Starting gold (or "prez", as per the setting) is 150 gp per character. If your max HP rolled is below the average you should have, default to the average. This is still an AD&D-adjacent game, and there's plenty of ways to boost damage output. You'll need them. For instance, a character with CON 12 would default to 48 HP if they rolled anything lower. Mutant Animals pick two mutations, and have a d6 natural weapon of choice. Mutant Humans pick three mutations. Mutant Plants still get two plant mutations, and one human / animal mutation. These are "free" mutations; see below. Androids start with three beneficial mutations of their choice (as per vanilla rules), but cannot start with any extras as detailed below. You may pick up to five mutations total, but for every one past your starting three, I will offer you choices of drawbacks that you must choose from. These will likely be based on the powers you want, so choose wisely. ;3 Pure Strain Humans have more wiggle room for their "heirlooms" (see below), to balance them against mutant players being able to pick their powers. Each character starts with a low-powered artifact or two, known as an "heirloom". This can be a primitive firearm or basic armor suit (as opposed to blasters and high-tech armor), a few consumables (weaker grenades and drugs), or certain gizmos and assorted junk. A list of examples from Section 7 will be added later on, but nothing too crazy for the start. These will be worked with for applicants as desired or needed. I am using On page 36 in MF, static across all characters; max is 160 lbscarrying weight and encumbrance, if only because of the genre. But if you have a positive STR modifier, add +20 lbs to your capacity for each +1 (for instance, a +2 gives +40 lbs). We'll be using death saves a la D&D 5e. Drop to 0 HP and needing death saves, instead of dying outright"Save or die" is also closer to "save or start bleeding out"... in most cases. Can't resuscitate someone (or suck instant-death venom out of a wound, for that matter) when one has been vaporized, right? Please, for the love of Atom, feel free to flavor your faux-medieval starting weapons and armor as stuff that would fit the world that ended for a postmodern America. Nothing that steps on the toes of guns or high-tech armor, of course. But it's not hard to pretend a short sword is a machete (or a long sword is a crummy katana from a mall), studded leather armor as motorcycle armor, and so on. Application Character Name: (can even be a moniker to make your PC seem tougher than they feel) Race: (include specific type if Mutant Animal / Plant or Android) Mutations (if applicable): (leave it blank, be silly, etc if a normie) Concept: (one good sentence of what your character is like) Heirlooms: (can be a generic "shopping list" for the genre, or specific items from the rules) Virtue: (optional; one positive personality trait in a word or two) Vice: (optional; as above, but negative trait instead) Biggest Fear(s): (optional; one or two things for... reasons >:3) Backup Character Idea: (optional; can be related to your main in some way or not) My "Appendix M" Inspired by the famous Appendix N from old-school D&D, here's some media to help convey the inspiration and feel of Under A Blue Moon... Cartoons and Movies: Especially its original novellaA Boy and His Dog, Castlevania Netflix series, Thundarr the Barbarian, Wizards. Music Bands: Avenged Sevenfold, Blue Oyster Cult, Disturbed, Evanescence, Gunship, Linkin Park, Metallica, Puddle of Mudd, Saliva. Any 90s and 00s hits will do, too. Video Games: Especially the Igavania entriesCastlevania, AKA, a Gamma World roguelike with the serial numbers filed offCaves of Qud, Dark Souls (yes really), Fallout (duhhh), Metroid, Parasite Eve, Wasteland (also duhhh). I will be available to answer any questions, and work with players on fitting their ideas into the setting. And of course, no rolls yet please.

[zevonian]

Good to see a Gamma World style game being offered here. Have you had a chance to run this system before?

[Seeks]

Unfortunately, I have not ran GW before, unless you could the d20 Modern edition (6e, I think?). I've ran D&D before though, even a session or two of old-school stuff. I've read over Mutant Future before, front-to-back, a few times before. Figured if I wasn't going to get my gonzo wasteland fix as a player as soon as I'd liked, may as well run it. Besides, Mutant Future was made to be compatible with an AD&D clone, Labyrinth Lord (more or less), a type of game I already know.

At the rate this ad is going though, I can't see this offering making a difference. To be fair, this is already a weird take on a post-apocalyptic game anyway, a genre that isn't everyone's cup of tea. And if I tried to describe my qualms with running Gamma World without it being a free retroclone, you'd be here all day and I'd develop carpal tunnel.

I'm probably being a pessimist, but I'm starting to think that a) RPGX isn't fond of old-school RPGs and b) I should've stuck to an interest check first. Still, it's only been a day or so. Here's hoping.

[zevonian]

We've got OSR players here, and post-apoc players as well.

I appreciate you providing a drivethrurpg link to the free rulebook. Character creation section looks short and concise. Would you say character making is quick once a player comes up with a character concept?

[Dylan Scott]

Not familiar with the system but got a little experience with D&D and downloaded the rules, working through them now and seeing what it inspires. Hope you'll accept this as a place holder for an application shortly?

[Seeks]

Originally Posted by zevonian

Would you say character making is quick once a player comes up with a character concept?

I would agree there. The only thing that seems daunting might be the number of mutations for someone completely new to the game. Analysis-paralysis and all. The core game made it more straightforward where it's all randomized. That said, a character concept does make things easier, and I'd be more than happy to walk anyone through character creation. Heck, I'd considered a "Mutant Shuffle" idea where I would offer (optional) reward to those who embrace the randomness of rules-as-written.

Originally Posted by Dylan Scott

Not familiar with the system but got a little experience with D&D and downloaded the rules, working through them now and seeing what it inspires. Hope you'll accept this as a place holder for an application shortly?

Absolutely. Thank you for the interest, and lemme know if you need any help, advice, et cetera!

[Dylan Scott]

Application Character Name: Nyx Race: Mutant Human Mutations: Know Direction, Increased Sense of Sight, Increased Sense of Hearing, Increased Sense of Smell, Bizarre Appearance (Multiple Feline Features) Concept: Alleycat and Scavenger, if it can be found in the post-fall world, she can find it Heirlooms: TBD Virtue: Slow to trust but loyal to a fault when you gain it. Vice: Atavistic Appetite (Food in general, Steak in particular, rarer the better - want to convince her to do something she shouldnt? feed her) Biggest Fear(s): Not that she would ever admit it, but she fears rejection from the village. portrays a facade of being an independent and tough as nails survivor, carefree but deep down she is a housecat at heart and this is her home. and Spiders (why do they need so many eyes? and legs? what are they planning?) Backup Character Idea: Work in Progress

[zevonian]

@Seeks - what would be the equivalent of Mutations for an Android? Are there such things?

Also, thumbs up for Thundarr the Barbarian as a reference point.

@Dylan Scott- I like your character concept. Seems like a good fit for this game world.

[Seeks]

Originally Posted by zevonian

@Seeks - what would be the equivalent of Mutations for an Android? Are there such things?

Also, thumbs up for Thundarr the Barbarian as a reference point.

@Dylan Scott- I like your character concept. Seems like a good fit for this game world.

Mechanically, the game handles mutations for Androids the same as for mutants. Thematically, it's on the GM and their players to flavor how this makes sense. I could see a Replicant just being a mutant (or in this case, magical technically), but a basic Android or a Synthetic would run into trouble with some powers. That said, the rulebook also states that the GM could also judge some mutations as unavailable to Androids, as they wouldn't make sense without being organic.

tl;dr Pick whatever makes sense to you, and justify it as you can. I'm pretty lenient about most things within reason. ;3

And yes, Thundarr is fantastic. I used to have a DVD set of the series, just two or three discs. And agreed too, Dylan's character fits pretty well to this setting and I am grateful for that!

[Sic Transit]

I'm not usually much of an OSR player, but the quasi-Gamma World setting is pretty novel, and this certainly looks like it's wanting for more applications. Also, reading through the rules caused me to have a bit of inspiration. So... this may or may not be a great idea, nor a long-lived one. But here we go!

Application Character Name: Omen Race: Dog (Mutant Animal) [d6 bite attack] Mutations: Neural Telepathy, Possession, Teleport, Unique Sense (Friend of Man) My take on how the "Friend of Man" sense would work is sort of inspired by A Boy and His Dog's Blood's seeming ability to detect people, allowing Omen to detect the presence (and ideally location, or at least distance/direction) of Pure Humans within a pretty generous radius. Maybe like a mile? And the same for Mutant Humans within a much smaller radius, like 500 feet or so (or less)? Concept: One part Blood from A Boy and His Dog, one part demon dog from Ghostbusters. Good boy. Virtue: Loyalty... when earned, anyway Vice: Indifference. It's just really hard for even an unusual dog to care about most human concerns. Fears: Abandonment, starvation. Heirlooms: Um, Omen's a dog. I have no idea. I guess if someone wants to clad him in beast barding...? Backup Character: Punt on this for now. No one in the settlement is ever going to complain about the presence of a friendly dog, especially one that looks like a dog ought to, rather than one of those weird wasteland things. Even if the perennially scrawny animal is a black hole for food. The thing is, though, no one's quite sure where the dog came from, or even when he arrived. At some point, people just noticed he was there, and he's been around ever since. And there have been enough just plain weird things that have happened with that dog around, it earned him his name. Some were the sort of happenstances to put the more superstitious residents' teeth on edge, but sometimes his presence has seen things worked out better than anyone expected. One time, a young boy had gotten separated from a hunting party in bad weather; he was feared lost, but... somehow found his way back to the settlement. He didn't remember anything about where he'd been or how he found home, but he was certain he'd seen that scrawny dog out there in the wilds... Anyway, sometimes things work out for the best, and sometimes they don't. That's how omens work, right? Omen, too. The truth, of course, is another matter. Omen's a mutant, although he doesn't look it. He can touch someone else's mind, and can carry on a conversation that way that's no less intelligent than most of the local humans. He can actually speak, too, if the need arises, but unless he's desperate to communicate with someone beyond the range of his telepathy, he's loathe to do so. He's a loyal animal, and loyalty and secrecy go hand in hand. Very few people know that he's a mutant, or anything other than just a hungry old dog, really. Even fewer know that he can slip between the spaces of the world, moving anywhere from feet to leagues with a single step... or that he can push with his telepathic abilities, shoving someone else's mind aside as he takes over their body. That's how he saved that kid, after all. Omen sensed where he was, knew that wasn't where anyone was supposed to be. He borrowed the boy's body, then took a "long step" back to right outside the settlement; all he had to do then was snap back to his own body. The boy was found by others and saved, and Omen padded back through the storm, the collective humanity of the settlement (and its supply of food!) a beacon to guide him. Given the nature of his gifts, and how badly he would struggle to survive without human assistance, it's quite likely that Omen was created somewhere. But he has no memory of his origins, save that, at least for some amount of time, he did live with other humans, somewhere else, before he... came to be at this settlement. It's not much of a personal history, but it doesn't really concern him. Worrying about what can't be helped is a human trait, after all. And Omen is just a dog.

[Seeks]

Sic, omigosh, that idea for your character is so cool! I can see why you're apprehensive of such an unorthodox idea for a D&D-style game, but I love this concept for Omen. Besides, the rules aren't super-specific on what a mutant animal actually is; they can be more than just furries, for instance, as far as I can tell. After all, I did reference A Boy And His Dog as part of the inspiration.

[Dylan Scott]

@Sic, amazing concept. going to be very interesting seeing how Nyx and Omen get along considering the similarities and drastic differences

[Drachenspirit]

Grip Character Name: Grip Race: Mutant Human Mutations: Ultraviolet Vision, Aberrant Form: Extra Parts = 2 extra arms, Increased Physical Attribute: Increased Constitution: The character receives Constitution x2 in extra hit points, and receives +2 to all saving throws versus poison, Damage Turning, Force Screen, Know Direction Concept: Smash and Grab Raider - Bodyguard, muscle Heirlooms: 4 near identical weapons, or two sets of 4 Virtue: Means what she says - she can always be taken at her word Vice: weakness for trinkets and toys. If it winds up, she'll "wind up" with it. She'll sell all but her last meal for a new one. Biggest Fear(s): Being outcast/shunned. Being bound - she has to have her arms free or she will freak out/panic Backup Character Idea: Barb - see below "Get a grip." Can you lend a hand" "Round of applause from Grip." "Bet you never lose at 'Gimme five, up high, down low, too slow." Hold this. And this. And this..." Any joke about her additional two arms and she's heard it. Being six foot two inches tall you'd think folk wouldn't say such things to her and think they could get away with it. But, Grip actually challenges people to come up with new ones when she passes their way again. A time or two, some crude ones have had her in people's faces giving threats, but those times are rare. As long as it's in good fun, she's smiling too. However, no one, and I mean no one that knows of her underestimates her. She has an uncanny ability to avoid getting shot at in any manner, or being struck by close up implements, blades, or bare fists. Add to it that she can pretty much see in the dark and never gets lost, she's the ultimate raider and pilferer of that which she or someone else paying the right amount needs. Running with her, is usually a better idea than crossing her. To date, her favorite "plan/response" to a dumb idea is to give someone the bird x 4, and then keep her options open.   Barb Character Name: Barb Race: Mutant Human Mutations: Energy-Retaining Cell Structure, Epidermal Photosynthesis, Ability Boost, Control Weather, Intellectual Affinity (Martial Affinity), Neural Telepathy Concept: Barbarian type in touch with Nature Heirlooms: TBD Virtue: Protect the Clan - Risk it all for the Clan Vice: Drinking and being quiet in a fight Biggest Fear(s): Destruction of Clan

[Drachenspirit]

Love this concept.
Incidentally, I randomly rolled for everything she's got. If I were choosing, I wouldn't have went with Damage turning & Force screen, but it's staying as I love randomness.
And it ain't easy to find decent character pics that have 4 arms.

[Drachenspirit]

Question. Are you going to put up a link to roll for Attributes once the Forum is live, or just wait until characters are chosen to make rolls?