Welcome to the world of
MUTILATOR: SURVIVAL IN THE WASTELAND
(A roleplaying game concept currently in playtest)

You are a member of a motley group of outcasts with no home and no family but each other. In this desolate wasteland you will find gory, painful death around every corner. Bands of roving mutant cyborgs patrol for easy marks to fill their bellies and gas tanks. Radiation storms and acid rain force savage tribes to squabble with knife and gun over burned out hulks. Creatures that were harmless before the Time of Reckoning have become gigantic mutated monsters with laser eyes and acid breath. Deathbots from the Old Wars adhere to their programming of relentless organic extermination.

In the Wasteland death is a way of life!

Mutilator: Survivors of the Wasteland is a post-apocalyptic setting inspired by The Road Warrior, Fallout, Gamma World, and of course, the Mutilator short films:

0. GAME SYSTEM

Spaceship Zero rules (a percentile based system) with concepts & themes borrowed from Gamma World. An understanding of the Spaceship Zero rules is necessary to grock the rules concepts described below, so go buy a copy if you haven’t already. You can order it through your local game shop, it’s published by Green Ronin, makers of Mutants & Masterminds. Plus it won an ENnie award.

00: BACKGROUND

Few know that your tribe leader, Sister Killbeard, founded your colony on a legacy of theft and betrayal. A dozen years ago she stole a relic of the Ancients from the Nunnery-Dome in Citytown and travelled south with her band of outcasts to the Gamma Zone. In her hubris she dreamed she would find the legendary Mutilator and live like a post-apocalyptic queen. After a year of fruitless searching she settled down with her group over a natural gas well. Now the settlement is gone, Sister Killbeard is dead, and you are charged with returning the artifact to the betrayed forebearers in Citytown – if they, and it, still exist.

QUICK CHARACTER GENERATION GUIDE

1. Choose your character type (normal human, cyborg, mutated human, or mutated animal)
2. Roll your 4 attributes (Brawn, Brains, Balance, Bravado) according to your character type
3. Roll or choose age, gender, race (where applicable)
4. Calculate your starting Skill Points
5. Spend 300 points on skills, cybernetic powers (if you’re a cyborg), natural animal abilities (if you’re a mutated animal), and random mutations. (Maximum 75 for any skill including mutations and natural powers)
6. Name your character and beg your GM to give you some equipment, maybe even a weapon and/or armor.

I. CHARACTER TYPES

Players can choose three types of characters.

PURESTRAIN HUMANS represent the baseline of the four attributes (Brawn, Brains, Balance, Bravado) and have the highest amount of skills (such as Disguise, First Aid, etc). Only humans can have CYBERNETIC PARTS (see below).

MUTATED HUMANS generally have a higher Brawn and Bravado than purestrain humans, but have a lower average Balance and Brains. Mutated humans trade in their skill points for MUTATIONS (see below)

MUTATED ANIMALS can be any non-human animal that travels with the group. They are not necessarily as smart as humans, nor do they necessarily travel as quickly. These are choices the player must make when they create the character. It is possible for a player to create, for example, a mutated sloth that is no smarter, faster or stronger than a normal sloth, which may be seen as other players as more a liability to the group than an asset. As such the player should apply some strategy during character creation if they want to maximize character usefulness. The flip side is of course that ‘hopeless’ characters can be fun to play, and useful for other characters as a meat shield until its inevitable gruesome demise.

Choose:

1. Purestrain human (cybernetic limbs optional)
2. Mutated human
3. Mutated animal

II. ATTRIBUTES

Unlike the standard rules of Spaceship Zero, rather than assign a pool of points into the four attributes, in Mutilator attributes are randomly rolled using various nerdy dice, as below. Players of mutated animal characters choose what animal they wish and roll on the size table of their choice (there’s no hard delineations between size categories – use common sense e.g: small for chihuahua, armadillo or reef squid; medium for any man-sized animals like komodo dragon, domestic hog, or saint bernard; and large for rhino, giant squid or ostrich). That’s right, because they are mutant animals they don’t have to pick an appropriate size for the animal chosen. If you want to play a giraffe the size of a mouse or a spider the size of an elephant, do it!

Purestrain Human

BRAWN 3d6+2 (5-20)
BRAINS 3d6+2
BALANCE 3d6+2
BRAVADO 3d6+2

Mutated Human
BRAWN 4d6-2 (2-22)
BRAINS 2d10 (2-20)
BALANCE 2d10 (2-20)
BRAVADO 3d6+2 (5-20)

Mutated Animal, small
BRAWN 1d10
BRAINS 2d8
BALANCE 4d6+1
BRAVADO 1d16

Mutated Animal, medium
BRAWN 4d6
BRAINS 2d8
BALANCE 4d6
BRAVADO 3d6+2

Mutated Animal, large

BRAWN 5d6
BRAINS 2d8
BALANCE 3d6
BRAVADO 3d6+2

III. AGE Roll 1d20 and add 11;
GENDER (OPTIONAL – Choose if you don’t feel comfortable with rolling)

01-04 None (asexual)
05-08 Both (hermaphrodite)

09- 58 Female
59-00 Male

RACE (Optional)

01-57 Asian

58-72 African
73-85 European
85-93 Latino/S.American
94-00 Other

IV. ARCHETYPE SKILLS & POWERS (CYBERNETICS & MUTATIONS)

FIRST, double each Attribute score (Brawn, Brains, etc). These numbers are the amount of starting scores in your skills. So if you have a Brawn of 10, all your Brawn-linked skills (Endure, Heave, etc) start at 20. If you have a Brains of 16, all your Brains-linked skills (First Aid, Hide, etc) start at 32.

THEN, distribute your Character Points: All character types (humans, mutants, animals) get 300 Character Points. These points are SPENT ON SKILLS, MUTATIONS, CYBERNETIC POWERS and ANIMAL ABILITIES. NOTE that although skills are out of 100, SKILL SCORES CANNOT EXCEED 75. 

FOR PURESTRAIN HUMAN CHARACTERS, the player can distribute a maximum of 200 of his 300 skill points in up to 6 cybernetic powers, such as a range attack, increased strength (Brawn), armour, etc. Use the Deadly Effectiveness, Range, and Armour Effectiveness tables below.

For example, the player Geiselbert decides he wants his cyborg to have laser eyes and a cybernetic hand that has medical tools, a computer interface tool and a flail. With his 200 points he puts 75 skill points into Weapon: Laser eye (consulting the Deadly Effectiveness Table a score of 75 gives his laser a damage bonus of +40); he adds 50 skill points to his First Aid skill; he adds 50 skill points to his Technical skills; and with the remaining 25 points adds 25 points to his Weapon: Melee skill (when using the flail) with a damage bonus of +20.

All skill points not spent on cybernetic powers are then distributed to skills.

FOR MUTATED ANIMALS

Assume that your animal has a human morphology (anatomy) with superficial animal characteristics, just like a teenage mutant ninja turtle (heroes in a half-shell). The player can spend up to 200 skill points on “natural” assets. This means you are essentially converting a human form into a normal animal form.

For example, Deanna the player is making a mutant pangolin. In Step II above she decided to make the animal “medium-sized” or about the length and mass of a man. She also keeps the default Move Rate score of a human as well. But she wants her pangolin to have scales, claws, and a long sticky tongue just like a pangolin, so she distributes 200 points in to these powers the same way a human character can do with cyborg powers as described above*.

Any skill points not put into these natural assets can be spent on skills, but they can also be spent on “unnatural” assets and defects, by rolling RANDOMLY on the Mutations Table below, giving some unexpected powers (or defects) to an already weirdly mutated animal.

Bonus skill points to spend on natural assets can be gained by choosing some “natural defects” (aka disadvantages). The maximum bonus skill points you can gain from trading in on natural defects is 100 points.

For example, a normal pangolin does not have opposable thumbs and could not open a door or use a gun. Deanna could talk with the GM about how many skill points a defect like that would be worth (probably around 75 or so), and if she’s willing to accept the fact that her mutant pangolin will never be able to use skills like Technical Build & Repair, First Aid, Lockpicking, Pilot, or normal Weapon skill, she could take that 75 skill point bonus and add it to her pool. She could go a similar route by reducing her Move Rate, Brains and Brawn to that of a regular run-of-the-mill pangolin, sacrificing the advantages of these humanoid attributes and making her mutated animal more closely related to a normal natural cousins. In doing so she can consult the table below on Converting Attribute Points to Skill Points and gain more bonus skill points to spend normally.

(As mentioned above, having an unusually sized animal does not require any change in Skill Points. You choose the size of your animal before you roll attributes, even if it’s a diminutive elephant or a Rodent Of Unusual Size.)

MUTATED HUMANS have 300 Skill Points just like the other character types, but they can spend all of their points on mutations and none of them on skills, if they so choose (although it is wise to at least put a few important skills like Endure, Survival, Backbone and a Weapon skill up to score of 50 or so). Mutated humans do not choose any powers like mutant animals do – all mutations are rolled randomly. They can however, add bonus points to their Skill Point pool when they roll Defects (Mutations noted with a (D) beside the name), but no more than 150 Skill Points can be added this way. Additionally, mutated humans can have no more than 10 mutations, and that includes defects. Since all mutations are random, it’s possible to roll up a mutant with 10 defects and no assets, but in such a case you’d have a mutant with 450 Skill Points to put into kick-ass skills like Weapon: Pistol/Rifle, Backbone, Hide, etc, and that’s not a bad consolation, is it?

Example: Player character Mike rolls as follows:

SENSITIVE TO RADIATION (D) and rolls an Efficacy Level of 63. This is a DEFECT so it gives him an extra 63 Skill Points rather than drawing from his starting 300 skill point pool. Total skill points is 363.
SILK PRODUCTION – EL 87. Total Skill points now 276
HEIGHTENED METABOLISM (D) – EL 60. Again this is a defect so it adds 60 points to his Skill Point pool. Total skill points now 336.
REDUNDANT ORGAN: TRACHEA – EL 82. Total skill points 254.
SENSITIVE TO RADIATION (D) is rolled again! EL is 34. This EL 34 would be added to the EL 63 of the mutation rolled originally for a total of 97, except that you cannot add more than 150 skill points to your pool from defects, and the total of the EL from the defects so far (including Heightened Metabolism) adds up to 157 points. So the EL of his Radiation Sensitivity mutation is reduced back down to 90 total and the extra 7 points are ignored. Total skill points is 281.
BLINDNESS (D) – EL 22. Sad that Mike got another defect but can’t gain any Skill Points for it. But at least the EL doesn’t come out of his Skill Point pool. Total SP is still 281.
HORNS – EL 71. Total SP is now 210.
MALFORMED MOUTH (D) – EL 100. Poor Mike. Total SP still 210. Mike could stop rolling mutations at any time, but he’s holding out for something awesome. His next roll is:
GLIDING MEMBRANES – EL 30. Total SP is 180.
EXTRA LIMB (ARM) – EL 75. Total SP is 105
TUMORS (D) – EL 04. Since any defect with an EL less than 10 can be ignored, Mike rolls again.
CLAWS (PINCERS) – EL 48. Total SP is 57.
Mike now has ten mutations, so he can’t roll on the mutation chart any more. The remaining 57 Skill Points must be spent on actual skills. Mike’s sad character has the following mutations: 1. Radiation Sensitivity, 2. Can produce silk out of glands in his mouth, similar to Spider-Man only more gross, 3. Heightened metabolism makes him much hungrier than normal, 4. A redundant trachea, handy if he ever gets shot in the neck, 5. minor vision loss, 6. Some wicked twisty horns on the top of his head, 7, A completely misshapen mouth that makes talking and eating a serious problem, 8. Membranes between his arms and legs that can allow clumsy gliding ability, 9. An extra arm on his left side that’s almost as dexterous as his normal arms, 10. Pincers on his right arm that makes fine work with that hand challenging but delivers a nasty wound in close combat.

V. MUTATIONS (roll d100)

For each mutation roll 1d100 to get an “Efficacy Level” (EL) score for that asset or defect. Any score of less than 10 can be increased to 10 (in the case of asset) or ignored (in the case of defect). Consult The Deadly Effectiveness Table to convert the EL score into a meaningful bonus or penalty to the appropriate skill(s), remembering that skill scores cannot be increased above 75 unless the GM gives the okay.

If you roll a mutation twice, simply roll a second EL for the mutation and add them together. Exceptions are noted.

01-cracking joints (D) penalty to Sneak
2-rubber bones
3 thin skin/bleeder(D) – add 1d10 to all damage. Penalty applied to First Aid.
4 extreme hair/fur OR no hair – penalty to Endure in hot climate. Fumble +1-10.
5 blindness (partial/full) (no eyes, degenerate eyesight)(D) – Penalty to See skill.

6 hyper-growth (D) (choose nails or teeth. If you roll this twice, you may choose the alternate on the second roll)
7 heightened metabolism (always hungry)(D)

8 weak (penalty to Brawn-based skills)

9 malformed Mouth (speech impediment) (D) penalty to Persuade skills

10 obese (D) penalty to Move Rate, Dodge Bonus, Climb, Jump, sometimes Endure)

11 tumors (D) (roll on hit location each time you roll this mutation) Penalty to Persuade Skills

12-13 choose
14 shakes/spasms/seizures(D)
15 albino/light sensitive(D) – Penalty to See in bright light (daylight, etc).
16 parasitic twin(D)

17 poor respiratory (D) Make Endure check each check after the first 1 round of combat or strenuous activity. (Endure skill cannot exceed 75)

18 massive growth (elephantitis) – roll hit location and EL each time you roll this mutation; penalty to Persuade and 1-6 skills.
19 chronic pain (D) Penalty to all Bravado Skills and Brawn skills. Can be reduced with drugs (&/or First Aid check)
20 poikilothermic. Penalty to skills when temperature is less than 30 Celsius.
21-22 slow (D) Penalty to Move Rate, Jump
23-24 (D)reduced Brains (D) Penalty to all Brains skills
25-26 sensitive to radiation (D) (+% damage, chance for mutation)
27-28 (D) missing limb(s). Roll hit location (reroll torso, head) each time you roll this mutation.
29 deformed/useless extremity (D) – roll hit location and EL each time you roll this mutation.
30-31 Cosmetic deformity (ugly) (D) – penalty to Persuade skills except Intimidate.

32-33 choose

34 porous skin (keep wet) (D) – Make Endure check when dry or suffer penalties to physical skills.

35 stench (D) Penalty to sneak, Persuade skills
36 reduced endurance (D) Penalty to Endure
37 choose
38-39 larger/taller/wider/Monsterism – see Size Difference chart p68 and Creature Dodge Bonus chart p133
40-41 smaller/thinner/shorter – see Size Difference chart p68 and Creature Dodge Bonus chart p133
42 swimmer/webbing/flipper(s) – bonus to Swim skill
43-44 resist radiation – bonus to Endure vs Radiation
45 telekinesis – see Range table, bonus to Strength Bonus as per Deadly Effectiveness Table.
46 adrenaline Boost
47 Scent/tracking
48 padded feet
49 gills

50 tentacles

51 tremorsense
52 photosynthesis

53 dual brain (like redundant brain but better)
54 empath
55 leech damage
56-59 extra limb. Roll hit location each time you roll this mutation. Rolling torso, abdomen or head means you have a tail.
60 quills
61 wings/gliding membranes
62 psychic attack
63 drain heat
64 strong (Bonus to Brawn skills)
65 sonic scream

66 increased Balance (bonus to Climb, Fisticuffs, Sneak, Throw, Jump,
67 spring legs/”frog” legs. Bonus to Jump skill

68 Ink Sac

69-70 carapace/scales/exoskeleton
71 acid/poison bite/sting
72 poison sweat

73 enormous or extra eyes (choose one or the other, if you roll this mutation twice you have extra eyes that are enormous) – bonus to See skill.

74 echolocation
75 enhanced taste
76 Hearing, Improved (Big ears); Sensitivity to sound – bonus to See Skill (but you take extra damage from sonic attacks)
77 x-ray vision
78 Hearing, Impaired (no ears, subcutaneous ears)

79 Low light vision OR thermal vision (choose one, if you roll this mutation twice you can choose both or just enhance your first choice)
80 chameleon skin

81 claws OR pincer. You can choose one or multiple limbs. Increases Damage Bonus for hand to claw combat, but also reduces skill in any work that requires fine manipulation. On EL 75 or higher, the claws are retractible and there’s no penalty to fine manipulation.
82 horns OR antlers (choose one, if you roll this mutation twice you can choose both – i.e. a rhino-like horn plus moose-like antlers – or enhance your first choice)

83 increased healing
84 immune to poison
85 immune to natural fear
86 telepathy
87 electric field generation (like eel)
88 psychic healing
89 silk production (No range unless rolled a second time)
90 molting/shed skin
91 glows/bioluminescent
92 other new body parts (trunk, antennae…) If you roll this mutation multiple times you can choose additional body parts or enhance the first choice.

93 redundant vital organ(s) (1 heart;2 stomach;3 lung; 4 trachea; 5 brain; 6 uterus/gonads – roll on this chart every time you roll this mutation)
94 independent eyes (chameleon) Reduce penalty to attacking multiple targets; + half% to See score.
95 weird skin (roll 1d10: 1-2 transparent skin; 2-5 unusual colour; 6-10 unusual texture – roll on this table each time you roll this mutation)
96 psionic immunity
97 mental control/hypnosis/trance
98 detect life/detect psionics
99 harmonious pheremones
00 Choose!

THE DEADLY EFFECTIVENESS TABLE

01-10: +10
11-30: +20
31-60: +30
61-80: +40
81-94: +50
95-00: +60

THE RANGE TABLE

01-20: 20′
21-30: 30′
31-40: 40′
41-50: 50′
51-60: 60′
61-70: 70′
71-80: 80′
81-95: 100′
96-00: sight

THE ARMOUR EFFECTIVENESS TABLE

Divide percentage by 2 and round DOWN to the nearest 10. If less than 10 round up.

01-39: 10
40-59-20
60-79: 30
80-99: 40
100: 50

CONVERTING SKILL POINTS TO ATTRIBUTE POINTS (AND VICE VERSA)

It’s easy: 1 Attribute Point is worth 5 Skill points. Reducing your Brawn by 10 gives you 50 skill points, for example.

Adjusting your Move Rate is slightly different. Each point of MR is worth 2 skill points.

MUTILATION TABLE:

TORSO/STOMACH

0-7 superficial scarring
08-11 junk mutilated
12-14 junk explodes
15-22 massive blood loss (disemboweled)
23-30 muscle mutilation
31 make something up
32-36 clavicle fracture
37-41 sternum fracture
42-46 ribs fracture
47 make something up
48-52 clavicle broken
53-57 sternum broken
58-62 ribs broken

63-67 clavicle shattered
68-72 sternum shattered
73-77 ribs shattered
78-81 lungs damaged
82-85 spine severed partial paralysis
86-89 spine shattered total paralysis
90-94 stomach explodes
95-97 heart punctured
98-00 chest explodes

ARM/HAND

0-7 superficial scarring
08-11 digits mutilated
12-14 digits explodes
15-22 massive blood loss
23-30 muscle mutilation
31 make something up
32-36 hand fracture
37-41 radius/ulna fracture
42-46 humerus fracture
47 make something up
48-52 hand broken
53-57 radius/ulna broken
58-62 humerus broken
63-67 hand shattered
68-72 radius/ulna shattered

73-77 humerus shattered
78-81 hand severed
82-85 hand explodes
86-89 arm severed below elbow
90-94 arms lost below should
95-97 arm explodes
98-00

LEG/FOOT

0-7 superficial scarring
08-11 toes mutilated
12-14 toes explode
15-22 massive blood loss
23-30 muscle mutilation
31 make something up
32-36 foot fracture
37-41 shin fracture
42-46 femur fracture
47 patella broken
48-52 foot broken
53-57 shin broken
58-62 femur broken
63-67 foot shattered
68-72 shin shattered
73-77 femur shattered
78-81 foot severed
82-85 foot explodes

86-89 leg severed below knee
90-94 leg lost below hip
95-97 leg explodes
98-00

HEAD

0-7 superficial scarring
08-11 ear(s) mutilated
12-14 ear(s) explode
15-22 massive blood loss (throat)
23-30 muscle mutilation
31 nose mutilated
32-36 jaw fracture
37-41 neck fracture
42-46 skull fracture
47 make something up
48-52 jaw broken

53-57 neck broken
58-62 skull broken
63-67 jaw shattered
68-72 neck shattered
73-77 skull shattered
78-81 voice damaged
82-85 eye(s) explode
86-89 teeth shattered
90-94 brain damage
95-97 head severed
98-00 head explodes

VI VEHICLES

VII EQUIPMENT