Mutant Future, GM by Walkerp
Mutant Future is that weird, weird game that came out of labyrinth Lord publisher Goblinoid Game. Contrary to Labyrinth, Mutant Future (MF) is not so much a retro-clone of Gamma Worlds (or it’s predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha) but rather a new game built on Labyrinth’s engine.
From my very rapid review of the rule book, the engine is exactly the same as LL, with a new Character Generation system (Human, Plant and Android, add random mutation and shake). Instead of magic items, you get technological artifacts. I assume there are rules for Radiation damage and I would say that’s basically it.
We each generated PCs randomly. I created Edward-209, Replicant Synthon (think the dr in Alien) with white, ancient looking skin and needing to eat all the time (which we played as having power cells drain very rapidly). So yeah, I had rolled a PC with 3 disadvantageous Mutations, 16 Int and 50 HP.
The session was a weird one. It was called Walrus Jack Murder Dome and it dripped with Mad Max potential. WalkerP (an occasional contributor here and friend of mine) explained to us that the adventure would be free-form. He then gave us each one rumour (mine was that there was a large stockpile of Power cells somewhere around the Murderdome).
I won’t spend the whole post describing the game as Walkerp and I spoke at length about it. Suffice it to say that I think it met a classic case of miss-communicated expectations between players and GMs.
From my point of view, I had a solid, yet pretty much harmless android teamed up with a flying, Obese Hippo, a piece of super-powered brocoli with Cancer (player walked out one hour into the game) and a double-tailed Furrie that could teleport.
At that point my game plan was “avoid risk, find the power cells, steal them and run”.
After having talked with the GM, I learned that his expectations were more in the line of “Players learn that Walrus Jack has a cache of goodies and that people around want to see him fall… so they spend character after character trying to kill everyone in the way and leave with the stash”
That’s not what happened and I’m also taking some artistic license here, Walkerp had a rich setting and the mission was probably more complex that I present it. The problem is that for the first 2/3, players and GM were unable to fulfill their respective expectations. I must say that I too thought about walking out. I’m an impatient player and I need to see my motivations played for to enjoy a game, my critical point is the 0ne hour mark.
But Walkerp was a friend and I’ve often been surprised with how games turn out. So I stuck around, and I’m glad I did.
Things opened up after a short break at the 2h30 point. The GM shared that things didn’t go as he hoped and we opened up sharing our expectations and explaining why we couldn’t progress in the adventure (turns out we vastly overestimated the power base of the Walrus).
Walkerp then did something brilliant that saved the game, he pulled on all our goals hard and put a timer on them.
Walkerp: Okay, Ed-209 (I’m not sure he ever got the reference) you will run out of powercells and you’ll die soon if you don’t find a stable source.
This… was what I needed, incentive.
We ended up planning a Mission Impossible heist and we pulled it off beautifully! And we were happy with our session!
Here’s a secret to all GMs. No matter how sucky you feel an adventure has become, you can always save it by making sure the last hour is awesome for all players. Make sure you drop something on the players so cool, so stimulating that they’ll be willing to forget the time spent before trying to work out the mystery you were sure they’d solve in 10 minutes.
Just don’t do it too often, you’ll lose your campaign.
So thanks to Walkerp for a good game.
As for the system, I don’t like it so much. Labyrinth Lords represents a version of D&D I walked away from 20 years ago. I know I’ll start sounding like James Mal, but the pureness of S&W gets gunked up by so many little things. Things that stayed in later versions of D&D that I just don’t care for.
So I’ll give this game a pass, glad I tried it though.
Swords & Wizardry, French Group
I had a smaller group than Friday night (4 players instead of 6) and we ended up with a far less brutal death toll (only 2 PCs died IIRC).
The game was as fun as always and I really decided to go to town with Improv. Here’s a few highlight.
- I solved the 1 spell Magic-User problem. When the player asked me which Magic Missile she could take (the 1d6+1 roll to hit version or the 1d4+1 always hit version) I gave her a third choice: a wand-based at-will 1d4+1 roll to hit version. She loved it! That house rule made it into my ‘always use’ pile.
- In an empty room, I invented a Demon vs Angel frieze on the wall. When one player searched it, I rolled a one and said that a demon’s eyes were following him. When he pressed on the eyes (pearls), they dropped into the wall and rolled out from a Demon’s mouth near the floor.
- When the wizard looked into the empty eye sockets, I told her that there was something stuck in there. When she reached out to pry it out, I told her about an audible click and a cloud of Acid gas poured out of the demon’s mouth. She made her save for half damage. (Mwa HA HA HA!)
- At the end of the session, the party was being attacked by Giant Rats, 2 PCs were KOed and one PC was outside the room.
Player: Can I grab them both and leave
Me (being evil): No you have to chose one
Player: I grab the dwarf, he’s lighter.
Me: Okay, but the other other one had the map (I grabbed the map) and the light so how do you exit?
Elf: I can still see right?
Me: Sure
Elf: Then we exit the room, turn right, then left then left again.
Me (Impressed): You are at the entrance, you survived the dungeon1
Afterthoughts
It was a good weekend. I saw some old friends and I met some new ones. The Con was modest, 2 gaming rooms, a small seminar room and a Dealer’s room. Yet the quality of gamers was pretty high and the list of invitees, present company excepted, was impressive.
Meeting Luke and Rob was icing on the cake. I wish I had met Vincent and Joshua too but there will be other cons and our paths will cross again, they, doing their Indie stuff from without and me from within. 🙂
I will be part of next year’s program for sure. Thanks to the organizers.
I strongly agree with the importance of the end of a game; had many good starts that got overshadowed by bogged down mid and late game. Always keep about 5 “awesome” things handy that can happen at any time.
I also agree that the spell limit is a bit too brutal, but I feel like it should partially stay there. Maybe roll a 1d6 and remove a daily charge on every 1?
If I were to ease up on the limit without introducing mana points I’d probably do this. (Now that I think of it, it makes spellcasters fairly Space Hulk-y; great weapon but potential for jam and gruesome gory consequences.)
Great recount Chatty! I’m jealous of your dinner/lunch date with Luke and Rob.
I loved the evil Acid Cloud. Good job!
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@Trabant: The way I handled it was to allows the MU the at-will eldritch dart and one classic level 1 spell (she chose Sleep).
@wrath: I loved the Acid Cloud too… it was so appropriate!
No comment on the substance. Just wanted to let you know that the heading confused me. I thought this was a guest post by WalkerP until he started talking about himself in the third person… 🙂
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In one of my D&D 3.5 games I’m experimenting with free level 0 spells. That basically means always Light, always Acid Splash, always Cure 1hp – lots of interesting effects.
For a game such as S&W you could have a 1hp always hits blast (look like the Star Wars imperator and needs just as long), and a candle finger – not very cool to fight in, but better than nothing, minor illusions that would confound a goblin, that kind of thing.
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Thanks for the write-up and review, Chatty! I really enjoyed having you as a player and hope I get the chance to do it again, despite the way the scenario went. I’m still trying to figure out why it went wrong. I knew that it was going wrong during that long, dull and frustrating middle period. Your verbal feedback afterwards really helped a lot to see how it went wrong, so thanks for that. But the why of it I’m still struggling with. A lack of prep was definitely a part of it, but there was something more having to do with me going against my normal style during a time when I’m not GM’ing regularily enough to be taking risks for the first time at a con like that. I also think that maybe I like the chargen rules for Mutant Future a lot more than the combat rules. I’m still processing!
The con was overall a blast and I feel bad that I didn’t deliver as well as I got, but selfishly speaking, that’s a pretty fun con when you can say that! 🙂