Mutant: Genlab Alpha is a role playing game supplement published by Free League Publishing and an expansion for Mutant: Year Zero.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG for $24.99 and is also available in physical form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was obtained at a reduced price during a sale. The main PDF has 248 pages with two being the front and rear covers, four being the inside covers at front and back, each being a two-page spread with a map of Paradise Valley, two being the front matter, four the Contents, two the Index and two the Kickstarter Backers.
Player’s Section is the first part of the book and starts with 01 Prisoners in Paradise. Opening text explains that the mutant animals live in a prison paradise, where Watchers experiment on them and resistance is rising to the Watchers. This then gives an overview of the game; much of the information is of a type familiar to anyone who has played an RPG before. This also explains that all the rules needed to play animal mutants and that the core engine is the same as in Mutant: Year Zero, that the games are compatible but that there are differences when playing animal mutants. This also states that the book can be used just to introduce animal mutants into a regular MYZ game. The section also explains what the PCs are doing, if they are playing in the Paradise Valley campaign, the tools needed to play and different types of play.
02 Your Animal is on creating a character. The first thing to do is determine animal type and species. Each tribe is an animal type, which determines key attribute, animal powers and how lost Instinct is recovered, and species is an actual species in that tribe that has no game effect. Eight of the nine tribes – types – live in habitats. Role is the task that a specific animal does, and when they arrive in the Zone, the new roles in this supplement become available to mutants and vice versa. Animals can have lab names, which fall into different categories of famous humans, with a number, divided by type, or resistance names who have ditched the traditional names.
Character appearance and age are determined, the latter divided into three broad categories which affect the attribute points, and animals have the same attributes introduced in MYZ. A brief overview is given on skills – again, age affects the points to assign – along with overview on talents and animal powers, the last requiring Feral Points to use, similar to how mutant powers work in MYZ. Things such as a character’s dreams, relationship with other PCs and NPCs, their gear and their den are covered, then how experience is used to advance a character. An example character sheet follows.
After this are the five roles, each of which is given an overview, appearance options, one of three talents to choose, options for relationships to PCs and NPCs, suggested big dream and starting gear. Healers heal, Hunters hunt, Warriors fight, Seers look into the future and Scavengers find useful items.
03 Skills covers these, and like MYZ there are twelve basic skills, with levels from 0 to 5, and it starts with rolling dice. To check a skill, a number of dice are rolled, equal to the Skill Level plus appropriate Gear Dice for using the right tool. If no successes are rolled, something goes wrong. Rolls can be pushed, where any dice that didn’t come up with three symbols, or 2-5 on Base and Gear Dice or 1-5 on Skill Dice. Pushing dice is usually only done when a roll is failed, and doing so risks fuelling feral rage. Skills may also be opposed. The twelve skills are then described, detailing them, failure, success and stunts, which can be chosen when multiple successes are rolled. After the basic skills, the specialist skills follow. These are described, and work, the same way, and there are five of them, one for each of the five roles. The specialist skills may only be taken by their appropriate role. Overall, skills work identically to how they do in MYZ.
04 Talents covers these. Talents can affect how skills are used and each role has three different talents. There are also general talents available to all and a sidebar states that the general talents in MYZ can be used as well by animal mutants, and vice versa.
05 Animal Powers describes the various abilities that the animal mutants have from being an animal. There are 21 different animal powers and each is only available to one or more animal species. The powers are described, though they are pretty much as might be expected.
06 Conflict & Trauma starts by taking a look at combat. Characters roll for initiative, which isn’t influenced by skills and cannot be pushed. There are a variety of different options in combat; moving, attacking, using animal powers, seeking cover, getting or picking up items, drawing weapons, aiming and reloading weapons and using items. Animal mutants can also have dominance conflicts with each other. Range isn’t given precise measurements; instead, there are five range categories from arm’s length to distant. The categories affect what may be done in combat. Another form of conflict is social conflict, in which a character attempts to manipulate another. Different types of weapons, the effects of trauma, critical injuries, conditions, the effects of different things and explosions are covered.
07 Paradise Valley is the players’ overview of the setting. It explains how the animals live in tribes, divided by types, and packs; packs are individuals who may be related or may be just friends, and pack structure can vary by tribe. Eight of the tribes live in habitats; the ninth does not. Hunting, food, travel, the ability to speak, the myth of the humans, Watchers and rites give an idea as to what life in the valley is like. How the Watchers treat the animals is covered, which is not great and includes raiding habitats and abducting animals to experiment on. Some of the animal mutants, most notably the Dog Tribe, collaborate with the Watchers. An overview is given of the geography of Paradise Valley, along with overviews of all eight habitats; five are described in greater detail in 12 Secrets of Paradise Valley.
Gamemaster’s Section is the second part of the book, starting with 08 Your Job as Gamemaster. This explains what the GM will be doing and the fundamental principles of the game. The PCs are intelligent animals, but they are animals, and the game is not a farce. This is followed by a history of Paradise Valley, including the apocalypse, the creation of Genlab Alpha and the events leading to the current situation. Finally, this section explains that though the supplement is written as the story of the animals’ revolt against their creators, as detailed in 11 Escape from Paradise, the story can continue in the Zone or be expanded with side adventures.
09 Watchers & Monsters is the bestiary, and a bit more, section. Watchers are the robotic servants of the cybernetic being that controls Genlab Alpha, and includes Abominations, animal mutants that have undergone biomechatronic modification. There are different types of Watchers and each comes in different versions. Monsters are the mutated beasts found in the wilderness, which vary in danger. Finally, the bit more is phenomena, hazards of different types that don’t move.
10 Artifacts covers the most valuable items that characters can find. These are not ordinary pieces of scrap, instead having bigger bonuses, and are different to the ones in the core rulebook. There are 28 artefacts, described in more detail, with two of them playing an important role in Escape from Paradise. Artefacts are even rarer than they are in the core game, and the majority are already in someone’s possession.
11 Escape from Paradise is the campaign this supplement is built around. The characters are part of the Resistance to the Watchers and, as well as undertaking different adventures and tasks, will also be running the insurgency. The insurgency changes depending on their actions and the resulting actions of the Watchers, dividing the campaign into PC and insurgency actions, making it two different types of campaign. If the PCs are successful, the Watchers will be defeated and the animals will be free of Paradise Valley.
12 Secrets of Paradise Valley describes five of the eight animal tribes in the valley in greater detail. Each of the five locations has important inhabitants, including the leader, detailed, along with a map of the location, though this is more a drawing than a map, some important locations, some of which have proper maps, supplies the tribe has, a selection of typical animals, what will happen if the tribe is visited and, in some cases, potential events.
13 Genlab Alpha describes the actual lab itself. The current state of affairs is given along with major features and various locations, finishing with what happens if and when the characters are captured and how they can escape.
14 The Road to the Zone is after the Escape from Paradise campaign is finished. The animal mutants can leave the valley to enter the Zone. Travel can be played out, using the rules from Zone Compendium 1: Lair of the Saurians, or passed over. The animals can meet the human mutants and there are possible events given. The arrival of the animal mutants will also cause changes; new roles and talents are available, bullets are added for creating animal mutants, artefacts from Paradise Valley are shuffled into the main deck and new projects for Arks where animals mutants live are possible. Finally, there is a short list of gear available in Paradise Valley.
The four supplementary PDFs are a Watcher Sheet and a Resistance Sheet, for keeping track of these, both single page PDFs in two versions, one being printer-friendly, and a two-page colour map of Paradise Valley, with one page having a side-on view up the valley and the other maps of eight animal tribe homes.
Mutant: Genlab Alpha in Review
The PDF is bookmarked, but not to any great depth. The Contents only covers the chapters. The Index isn’t as thorough as it could be. Overall, given the length of the book, navigation is poor. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are many colour illustrations, up to full page in size at the beginning of chapters. Presentation is good.
The game is compatible with MYZ as stated, and mechanically it is almost identical. Much of the mechanics in the players’ section is near enough identical, but will still need reading through for the differences; animal mutants have different abilities and access to different things than human mutants. Vehicles, for instance, aren’t covered because there’s only one vehicle described in the entire book.
Like MYZ and other games based on the Year Zero Engine, this is not as deadly as it could be, but character death (or worse, at the hands of the Watchers) can definitely happen. Though the game does use the MYZ dice and card decks, the dice can be replaced with ordinary d6s and the cards are not essential, though they may be appreciated.
Paradise Valley is described in more detail than the Zone, because it is all enclosed within fences and there aren’t new places to discover; it has more in common with a handful of Zone sectors. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for expansion. Again, like MYZ, there are two main things; the characters and the Resistance.
Genlab Alpha is, for all intents and purposes, a single campaign, Escape from Paradise. This campaign could be expanded with side adventures and other events, but there is a single main quest to complete and, once complete, the valley is left. At this point, this supplement becomes an expansion for MYZ, if playing in the Zone, with some of the new material carrying over; that specific to Paradise Valley does not. Mutant: Genlab Alpha is an interesting expansion to MYZ, though perhaps more limited in scope, and it can be found by clicking here.
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