2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 12: Mutant Future

In the 2021 Character Creation Challenge I created characters for two Goblinoid Games systems. Apes Victorious (think Planet of the Apes with the serial numbers filed off) and Starships & Spacemen (think Star Trek with the serial numbers filed off). I was impressed by both works which used OSR style D20 rules for the game. For this year’s challenge, I am using Mutant Future from the same publisher for the Day 12 entry. This was Goblinoid Games entry into the post-apocalyptic genre were you can make characters that are mutated plants, animals or robots.

The character creation steps start on page 10 of the book. The first is to generate the abilities. Mutant Future has the standard six abilities that you find in the OSR except that Wisdom has been replaced with Willpower. According to the conversion guides in the back of the different Goblinoid Game books, the two attributes are the same. As with most OSR style games, I can generate the abilities by 3d6 down the line, 3d6 and select where they go or 4d6 and drop the lowest die. Since I have no Mutant Lord (aka game master) I’m going to go with the later since we haven’t done that in a while. This character, let’s call him Carath, is a mutant human and started with the stats of STR 16, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 10, WILL 12, and CHA 10. I rolled a 5 for the character’s starting hit points.

The next step was to roll for mutations which can be good or bad depending upon the roll. There can be 1d4 physical mutations and 1d4 mental mutations. I ended up with 3 physical mutations and 2 mental mutations. For my physical mutations I rolled Shriek (beneficial, once a day I can let out a horrible sound that will affect everyone in a 10′ radius), Vision Impairment (drawback, not totally blind, but something that effects the eyes. I’m going with severe light sensitivity) and Energy Ray (beneficial, a type of blast of energy that does damage. After rolling, Carath can shoot heat beams). Rolling for the mental mutations I ended up with Know Direction (beneficial, pretty self-explanatory) and Temperature Control (beneficial, since I already have heat ray, let’s stick with the heat theme).

Starting gold is 3d8x10 and I ended up with a total of 140 GP. Carath has studded leather (a workers protective jacket), a shield (it was a piece of industrial steel that he fashioned into a shield) so his starting AC is 3 (after DEX adjustment). For his weapons I selected a war hammer (an industrial tool) and a dagger (an industrial knife). He has a backpack, bedroll, crowbar, flint & steel, trail rations (8 days worth), a waterskin, candles (not a fan of large fires), a large sack and a guard dog named Squire (a faithful companion that Carath had raised from a pup).

Since the savings throws were not filled in yet, I found the section in the book for them and wrote them down. I think this character is done.

Carath was raised in a community of mutants that lived in the various tunnel levels under a heavy industrial complex just outside a ruined city. He was content living in the safety of the undergrounds when a rival (with whom he had argued with the night before) was found murdered. Despite protesting his innocence, Carath was banished from the community. Taking some equipment and his faithful dog, Squire, Carath is now searching for a new home. He has heard rumors of a mutant friendly place called “the Valley”. Is this place real, or just another tale told by the passing merchants. Carath was setting off to find out.

Afterthoughts:

I can see myself playing or running this game. I could even see myself homebrewing for this system. Since it was based off of OSR fantasy, it was pretty simplistic and easy to set up. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t any type of firearms or “modern” armor to select for starting equipment. It felt like I was making a fantasy character. I had to describe some of the items in a post-apocalyptic terms.

I’ve always loved how Goblinoid Games has decorated their character sheets.

Additional Notes:

On one of the RPG message boards, I had a reader respond to my Star Frontiers entry. Apparently they had never heard of the game and was glad to be introduced to it. So I know I’m doing some good out there. I love it when I hear that a player has been introduced to a new game.

Coming Up Next:

Krom am hate you, but me want make Ork! 2nd Edition character

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