MUTANT: Year Zero – Roleplaying At The End Of Days by Tomas Härenstam is a role playing game supplement published by Free League Publishing. This is the core book for the Mutant: Year Zero system.
The supplement is available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG for $24.99 and is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed, although it was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. The primary PDF has 280 pages with two pages being the front and rear covers, two pages are maps of the Big Smoke and the Dead Apple, three the front and rear matter, four the Contents and two the Index.
The first part of the supplement is the Player’s Section. 01 is The People at the End of Time and starts by briefly explaining what a role playing game is, what the players do and that their characters are the protagonists, though they may have influence over their people and what the Gamemaster does. Following this is a section on the different things that characters could do, from fighting for supplies to projects to improve their Ark to exploring the Zone and searching for Eden. Character sheets and dice are explained – MYZ uses only d6s, but has some special d6s that can be used, even though regular ones will work – along with the Card Deck, which contains Threat Cards, Mutation Cards and Artifact Cards. Finally, there are some general details on playing
02 Your Mutant covers the player characters, the mutants. Characters have different roles and they are all young adults. The different attributes are Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy and 14 points are distributed between them. All but one attribute has a value of 2-4, that final one is the key attribute, as determined by the role, and this is 5. Skills, talents and mutations are briefly covered here, and in more detail later, then relationships with other PCs and dreams. Gear is covered with heavy and light items and tiny items, and grub, water and booze. Both mutant and Ark can be developed.
The roles follow. Each has its appearance, which can be chosen or created, talents, choose one, relationships to PCs and NPCs, that can be chosen from a list or again developed, the same with big dream and starting gear. The Enforcer is a physical type, Gearhead works with technology, Stalker is a hunter of the Zone, Fixer is the person who can get what you need, Dog Handler is accompanied by a dog, Chronicler maintains knowledge, Boss runs things and Grunt does the heavy lifting.
03 Skills covers these. 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 mutation. 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 eight of them, one for each of the eight roles. The specialist skills may only be taken by their appropriate role.
04 Talents covers these. Talents can affect how a skill is used and each of the eight roles has three talents to choose from, as well as a longer list of general talents any role can take. Characters start with one talent and more can be learned through the use of Experience Points.
05 Mutations covers these, superhuman powers wired into the mutants’ DNA. These can be activated by the use of Mutation Points and how MPs are gained is covered. Mutations can also misfire when used, with various, typically bad, effects. There are 31 different mutations and the effects of each are covered; each mutation has three listed uses.
06 Conflict and Trauma starts out 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 mutations, seeking cover, getting or picking up items, drawing weapons, aiming and reloading guns and using items. 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, vehicles and explosions are covered.
07 The Ark covers the home of the mutants. This starts with options for creating the Ark and its location on the Zone map. The Ark is made in the ruins from the Old Age, such as an aeroplane wreck, gated community, prison, oil rig and many more. A rough map of the Ark is then drawn – it may be easiest to choose a ruin for which you have a map – and important NPCs and other NPCs are created; some likely were created during character creation. Population is under 200 and Arks have different development levels for different areas; food supply, culture, technology and warfare.
Projects can be undertaken to improve the Ark once it is there which, when and if completed, add benefits. A list of projects is given. PCs can help determine which project to undertake, but if they are absent from the Ark, the GM can choose one. Arks have a Dawn Vault of scavenged technology and finally attacks on the Ark are covered.
08 Zone Travel starts with two examples, the Big Smoke and the Dead Apple (London and New York) giving an overview of each. How to travel across the zone follows, with rules for exploring, supplies and time taken. Arks can undertake Zone expeditions and how these are handled is next. There are details on finding artefacts and on handling, and surviving, the Rot, which eventually kills.
The second part of the book is the Gamemaster’s section, and it begins with 09 Your Job as Gamemaster. This starts with the principles of the game and setting, then moves onto a list of events for the Ark, followed by events for the Zone. There are d66 tables for generating both randomly. It moves on to running the first session, preparing sessions, NPC creation, with tables for random generation, and playing them, and dealing with the opposition and resources.
10 Threats Against the Ark describes 25 different threats that the Ark could face, with a random table for rolling them, should the physical Threat Cards not be owned. Each threat has different options, so can be played out differently when used.
11 Creating the Zone has some random tables for generating the contents, from rot to ruins to inhabitants, of some sectors randomly. These are designed to allow what’s in an “ordinary” sector of the Zone quickly, but there are also special sectors that are described in greater detail. Sectors that PCs have already explored may be safer than new ones.
12 Ruins in the Zone describes in greater details ruins from tables in the previous sector, giving about a paragraph on each.
13 Threats in the Zone has the inhabitants that characters can encounter described in more detail, which includes Beast Mutants, who are covered in MUTANT: Year Zero: Genlab Alpha, as well as monsters, other mutants and potentially dangerous phenomena.
14 Artifacts covers the most valuable items that characters can find. These are not ordinary pieces of scrap, instead having bigger bonuses. There are 50 artefacts, described in more detail, and several these are metaplot items that give clues towards finding Eden.
15 Special Zone Sectors describes five different Zone Sectors that can be placed anywhere. Rather than the contents of these sectors being rolled randomly, they have been fleshed out, with maps, that also come in full page player versions, and inhabitants. Some of the sectors are linked to Threat Cards.
16 The Path to Eden is an adventure and starts with some background information that covers the end of the world and explains how the Mutants came to be, as well as mentioning three Titan Powers; Noatum, Mimir and Elysium. Metaplot items can be found in the Zone that lead to Eden, the origin of the People. Once these are found, the characters can find, and explore, Eden. This is followed by an example of how to create new metaplots, with two examples.
The final eight pages are character sheets, ark sheets and zone logs in colour and greyscale.
There are also a number of supplementary PDFs; a two page ark sheet, a four page character sheet, a two page nexus sheet, a two page zone log, a three page PDF of clues to Eden, a five page PDF of Eden handouts, a five page PDF of player maps showing special zone sectors and Eden, The Big Smoke, a one page map, The Dead Apple, a one page map, and a four page PDF of zone maps having the Dead Apple, the Big Smoke, a blank crumpled page for a map and a page lacking that background also for a map.
MUTANT: Year Zero – Roleplaying At The End Of Days in Review
The PDF is not very well bookmarked with only most of the major sections linked. The Contents is to a similar level of depth. The Index is much more thorough, but is not itself bookmarked nor hyperlinked. Given the size of the supplement, navigation is very poor. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are many pieces of custom colour art with a distinctive style, up to full page in size. Presentation is very good.
This could be considered to be the foundational game for the Year Zero Engine, which isn’t complex but may need a bit of preparation to understand. It’s also a game that will be easier to play with the Year Zero dice. Normal d6s will work just fine, but will also require more looking up to check which results would have been the symbols until familiarity is gained. Similarly, the other extras, such as the cards, are not essential, but they may be appreciated. Still, it’s possible to play without buying any of the special extras.
It’s not quite as lethal a game as it could be, but character death is still possible. Characters can become Broken easier than they can die, and being Broken can then lead to death at the hands of an enemy, but the Broken stage does make it easier to avoid outright death.
The setting isn’t described in great detail. There are a couple of Zone maps for two areas, plus the special Zone Sectors, but much of the world can be built randomly whilst exploring it. Or a group could take a map of another area, perhaps their own, and explore that.
There are two main aspects to the game; the player characters and the Ark. The Ark is important and the characters do influence what happens to it, but it’s also full of NPCs with their own motivations and goals, and those motivations and goals may not align with those of the characters. Building and developing the Ark is essentially a game within the game and has its own benefits.
Overall, this is an interesting post-apocalyptic game. The characters have special powers from being mutants, but they also have problems too. These might be solvable, and the included adventure does cover the primary metaplot of the game. It will definitely be an idea to look into developing more metaplots and other adventures, though. MUTANT: Year Zero – Roleplaying At The End Of Days is an interesting game and can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply