Random Gear Genetator for Mutant Future

In the desolate wastelands of Mutant Future is still possible to find some artifacts of the ancients.

Roll 1d20 for each table and choose the noun and adjective that best match (each result offers two of each). The first table shows the basic item, and the second table shows what makes that item unique. The details of the item and its mechanics can be worked out in seconds.

Noun Table
1. Axe, Bandana
2. Batteries, Binoculars
3. Canteen, Cloak
4. Compass, Crossbow
5. Crowbar, Duct tape
6. Gas mask, Gauntlets
7. Geiger counter, Goggles
8. Grapling hook, Grenade
9. Handcuffs, Helmet
10. Knife, Ladder
11. Lantern, Map
12. Medikit, Motorcycle
13. Multitool, Radio
14. Rope, Rucksack
15. Shield, Shovel
16. Signal flare, Sledgehammer
17. Sleeping bag, Solar charger
18. Stove, Syringe
19. Telescope, Tent
20. Thermos, Water filter

Adjective Table
1. Abrasive, Acid-resistant
2. Anti-gravity, Anti-radiation
3. Automatic, Bioenhanced
4. Bioluminiscent, Bulletproof
5. Camouflaged, Compact
6. Corrosive, Cybernetic
7. Electronic, Explosive
8. Filtering, Fireproof
9. Grafting, Heavy-duty
10. Holographic, Insulating
11. Magnetic, Mutagenic
12. Nano-weave, Night-vision
13. Portable, Prosthetic
14. Quick-draw, Radiating
15. Radioactive, Reflective
16. Self-repairing, Silent
17. Solar-powered, Sonic
18. Space, Telescopic
19. Temporary, Thermic
20. Toxic, Versatile

Example: I rolled a 1 and a 12, meaning “axe, bandana” and “nano-weave, night-vision”. You could make a nano-weave axe, a nano-weave bandana, a night-vision axe (which might not make a lot of sense, unless…) or a night-vision bandana.

Nano-weave axe: If this axe causes a deep wound (6 points of damage on a d6), the victim is invaded by nanomachines that attack her central nervous system; for the next 2d4 rounds, she takes 1 additional point of damage, and each round she must make a saving throw vs. stun attacks or she is paralyzed until the nanomachines disintegrate (at the end of the 2d4 rounds). If she ends up with 1 hp, the paralysis is permanent.

Night-vision axe: An axe made of an unknown alloy that makes it transparent. Allows partial night vision when looking through the blade.

Nano-weave bandana: A protective nanofabric that provides a -1 AC bonus.

Night-vision bandana: When worn over the ears with this bandana, it allows the user to “see” in the dark like a bat, through sound.

Now you roll and share your results here (or in your own blog, maybe).

Mutant Future | Creatures from the Sonora Desert

For my new Mutant Future campaign, I’ve created some creatures inspired by the folklore, flora and fauna of Arizona and Sonora, as well as the Mayan peninsula. Here are some of them.

Death Buzzard: A gigantic vulture with a human-like skull head. It will eat your organs and even your items. [AL N, MV Fly 120’ (40’) Walk 90’ (30’), AC 7, HD 4 (18hp), #AT bite, DG 1d10, SV L4, ML 11, Hoard Class: 6, Mutations: gigantism, killing sphere.]

Dtundtuncan (aka the bird of evil): A blind large black bird with a huge, blood-red beak. Its empty, milky eyes make it look as if it has no soul. He eats children and small animals, and will attack adults if food is scarce. The dtundtuncan is a solitary hunter. [AL C, MV Fly 120’ (40’) Walk 90’ (30’), AC 7, HD 6 (36hp), #AT claw/claw or bite, DG 1d4/1d4 or 1d10, SV L6, ML 12, Hoard Class: 4, Mutations: gigantism, night vision, unique sense (feels warm blood).]

Flesh Butterfly: Large flying fox (human-size megabat) with human-like intelligence that feeds only on the nectar of the blue agave flowers, from which they obtain water and nutrients. It talks in a high pitch and sings with beautiful, deep voices.

• Brood: [AL N, MV Fly 120’ (40’) Walk 60’ (20’), AC 9, HD 2 (8hp), #AT 2 claw/claw or 1 bite, DG 1d4/1d4 or 1d6, SV L2, ML 9, Hoard Class: none, Mutations: echolocation]
• Mother: [AL N, MV Fly 120’ (40’) Walk 60’ (20’), AC 9, HD 2 (10hp), #AT 2 claw/claw or 1 bite, DG 1d4/1d4 or 1d6, SV L2, ML 9, Hoard Class: none, Mutations: echolocation, force screen]

Toad of Blight: A 2 ft/60 cm tall toad, poopy brown in color and full of peroxide oozing warts. When threatened, it shoots a stream of peroxide aimed at the target’s eyes or hands (if they are holding something metal, like most weapons). The target must make a Saving Throw vs. Stun Attacks, on a failure he will be blinded for 1d4 days or the weapon he holds in his hands will suffer almost instantaneous rust, rendering it permanently useless. Eating its fresh heart produces altered visions of the origin and destruction of the world (for 1d4 entire hours), and doubles the XP obtained for defeating it. [AL N, MV 60’ (20’), AC 9, HD 2 (9hp), #AT peroxide stream, DG special, SV L2, ML 9, Hoard Class: none, Mutations: gigantism, toxic weapon.]

Xolotl, the Underworld Dog: An enormous black hairless dog. The front half, from head to torso, has been replaced with a cluster of blisters and pustules filled with infectious pus. These wretched creatures seek human contact, aren’t aggressive, but are carriers of various diseases. An almost invisible but odorous miasma surrounds the dog; anyone within 30 ft/10 m must make a Saving Throw vs. Poison, modified according to disease: (1d6) 1: Flesh Eating Bacteria, 2-4: Rabies, 5-6: Superflu. [AL N, MV 90’ (30’), AC 9, HD 0 (2hp), #AT miasma, DG special, SV L0, ML 6, Hoard Class: none, Mutations: none.]

Mutations and diseases are explained in the manual. There’s a free version here. Once the hex map is complete, I will share it here as well, including, I hope, complete write-ups for every creature (it will take time, I’m slow and have a long PS4 backlog, a tall book pile and only 24 hours each day).

Dtundtuncan artwork by: LADAIbarran2001

Mutant Future. Random Generator. Settlements

A settlement generator for my Mutant Future campaign. For your convenience, get the table as a PDF.

Roll 1d6 for each column. Further details are up to the referee.

AI Weirdness’ Quarantine Houses | A small town for Mutant Future

Janelle Shane is the best friend of the Mutant Lord (the name of the referee in Mutant Future). In her latetst blog entry, she trained some robots to build quarantine houses, among which, intergallactic and future houses shine!

Let’s say your party is travelling the post-apocalyptic wasteland and suddenly arrive into Stardust Valley, idyllic little ghost town lost in the world of ruin. Only four houses remain, the rest have been devastated by some unknown force. I might or might not revisit this and further develop as a mini-setting or something.

Page numbers are given for Mutant Future, and in one case, for Advanced Labyrinth Lord, to find the information necessary for some concepts. Quick stats are given but it’s better to read the full entries in the books for special rules and full explanations.

Mutant Future uses the next abbreviations:

AC = Armor Class
MV = Base movement in feet per turn (combat movement in feet per round of combat)
HD = Hit Dice
SV = Saving Throw as a player character of a certain level, usually Fighter)
ML = Morale

House 1

Superhuman Intelligence: AC 7, MV 120’/150′ (40’/50′), HD 10, SV level 10, ML 9, see Mutant Future (p. 66) for full stats and damage. A Cephalopoid with Intelligence 22 (+35 to tech rolls, p. 11). Her name is Bibi and her passion are wargames, which she plays with Bernard. Usually, Cephalopoids have a saving throw value of 5 (or 3, but that’s a typo in the book), but in this case, it’s 10, because Bibi is not a stupid monster.

Android: AC 5, MV 120′ (40′), HD 10, see Mutant Future (p. 130) for complete stats and rules. Bernard, the interpreter bot, knows what happened in Stardust Valley and its people, but won’t say unless he thinks whoever asked is willing to help.

Cybernetic Limb: In a wooden chest. It can be attached to a forearm or leg and it can be used as both a melee weapon and a firearm. As melee, it functions like an energy baton (p. 111), and as a firearm, like a machingun (p. 110). It’s a functional limb, but it needs a Power Beltpack or Backpack (p. 117) to operate as weapon as well as limb. Bibi will give it as a reward if someone helps somehow.

Battle Tank: Parked behind the house, a rusty Citroën 15 G Saloon (80 mph) with a Robo-Turret (p. 132) mounted on top. Weapons: 2 machineguns and a grenade launcher (p. 110).

House 2

Hot Tub: It’s actually a natural warm pond. Similar to a regeneration tank, if someone submerges in this tub, will heal as follows. If they have more than 50% of their total hit points, they recover the total; if they have 50% or less, they only recover half of their actual hit points. It can only be used once a day per person.

Sasquatch: AC 6, MV 150′ (50′), HD 4+4, 2 Claws (1d6/1d6), SV Level 8, ML 8. See “Yeti” in Advanced Labyrinth Lord (p. 196) for his complete stats. This monster lives happily here, taking warm showers and playing with his bike. He might be interested in joining the party as a link-boy, but the referee needs to roll low on reaction (p. 45). If you want to, you can use a monster from Mutant Future instead, perhaps a morlock.

Penny Farthing: A simple bike, rusty but resistant (it has been used by the yeti for a while without breaking).

Eggos: AC 9, MV 90′ (30′), HD 1, 1 Bite (1 hp), SV Level 1, ML 7. Eggos are little creatures that resemble eggs with a face, two feet and two arms. Eleven of them live in the attic, where the yeti can’t reach (there’s no ladder or stairs). They eat bugs and fungi and attack when feel threatened.

House 3

Advanced AI: When entering this house, a metallic, synthetic voice greets you, then asks you to leave. It won’t answer any questions, it’s a simple recording. The actual AI, called Zari, can be talked to though a cerebral connection (cerebral jack). It will tell explain that his is the lab of Dr. Frederik Yung and that access is restricted. It can’t defend though, so it’s a simple relic of the past.

Cerebral Jack: On a desk, there is a strange machine with a helmet attached to a cord. If someone puts the helmet, they are “transported” to the cyberspace, where they can chat with the AI.

Cloned Organs: Inside vats and containers, there are dozens organs floating in a yellowish liquid. They are all dead and in descomposition, except one cybernetic eye, which can be attached to one’s empy socket (Bibi can do it), to get a +1 to all rolls that would benefit from a better sight, such as ranged attacks, surprise and trap detection.

Extraterrestrial: AC 5, MV 120′ (40′), HD 9, SV level 9, ML 9. See Mutant Future (p. 63) for full stats and damage explained). In a separate container, there is an alien (Brain Lasher) chained and in stasis. It will awake if the characters mess with the control of the container. It will be hostile but only because it wants to escape, who knows how long it has been there.

House 4

Hoverboard: Basically a floating skateboard wich can move at 240′ per turn (double the speed of a human) but it has only 6 hit points. See Mutant Future (p. 132) for more about vehicles.

Extendable Arm: It’s a mechanical 10-foot-pole with a left hand on one end and a left gauntlet-like mechanism one the other that allows the hand end to move just like the hand operating the gauntlet.

Avocado: Mutant Plant, shaped as avocado. Dead. Someone (or something) really strong seems to have smashed it.

Plasma Rifles: 2 plasma rifles (p. 114) hidden in the cupboard, behind broken cups and glasses.

***

Well, that’s for the Mutant Future houses, but, how about Stars Without Number or Traveller houses? That, my friend, it up to you.

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Building a dungeon | James Maliszewski’s guidelines and something else

I followed James Maliszewski’s guidelines when I made Slime Bugs for my Mutants & Mazes campaign. I have failed to follow some of his insightful suggestions ever since, but on creating that adventure I learned a good deal of stuff that I have used ever since.

These are James’s guidelines, I steal them from Grognardia and put them here for quick reference. [I’ll add a few comments between square brackets.]

1. Environmental hazards — slippery floors, rooms that flood, narrow ledges over steep drops, rooms that are excessively hot or cold, rooms or corridors filled with poison (or otherwise magical) gasses, etc.
2. Combat encounters should generally be with baseline (or near-baseline) monsters with difficulty enhanced by the circumstances of the encounter (i.e. monsters have set up ambushes, monsters forcing the PCs to fight in unfavorable surroundings, teams of similar (or dissimilar) monster-types working together, etc.) rather than through templates or class-leveling.
3. At least one encounter that if played as a straight combat will totally overmatch the party, but which can be avoided or circumvented by some clever means.
4. At least one puzzle, trick, or obstacle that requires the players to figure it out, rather than being solvable by a die-roll. [If they can’t solve the puzzle the adventure should not stop, there whatever is beyond the puzzle should not be essential to complete the dungeon; alternatively, allow a roll but only after they have tried and failed. Also, add clues scattered through the dungeon, including one in the same room the puzzle is.]
5. At least one item, location, or creature that causes some kind of significant permanent effect (permanently raise/lower stats or hp, permanently change race, gender, or alignment, permanently grant or take away magic items, etc.) determined by a random roll on a table — with possibilities for both good and bad effects, depending on the roll. [Maybe something like this?]
6. At least one item of treasure that is cursed or has other detrimental side-effects on the owner/possessor.
7. Some sort of “false climax” where inattentive players will think they’ve won the adventure and either let their guard down or go home, while clever players will realize this couldn’t have really been the climax. [Also, there can be a well hidden chance to end the dungeon earlier, even from the beginning. I used it here and my group discovered how to do it but refused to. It has to do with a sacrifice and an eye.]
8. At least one disorienting effect, teleporter, mirror trap, [swiveling] floor, or maze like monster, up is down too.
9. An area where resources are an issue. Wet torches or wind blowing them out. Oxygen low or having to hold your breath to swim [through] a tunnel.
10. An area that has items of value, but they are too large to transport, or cause someone to have his hands full at an ambush.
11. A creature that appears to be something it is not. Some examples: Lurker above, mimic, [cloaker], wolf in sheep’s clothing, doppelganger, gas spore (perhaps my favorite), etc.
12. One encounter (no more, no less) that makes absolutely no logical sense, that the DM completely leaves up to the players’ imagination to explain. [Always a favourite of mine, specially ultra-futuristic science or weird, outer technology.]

One doesn’t have to include all 12 in every dungeon, but consider that each element adds to the final result, and in big dungeons, the more the better (otherwise it can end up repetitive or boring soon.)

Some of these elements can be combined, like a creature that appears to be something it is not and a trick/obstacle for the players to think through it. In the case of Slime Bugs, these two elements inspired me to create the infamous “petrified cube”, or the gasslime trick/trap I included on The Goddess of the Crypt.

Some additions I want to include in (all?) my future dungeons and adventures:

1. Lots of things to interact with. You know, levers, buttons, ray guns that cause random effects.
2. Replacement adventurers. Prisoners or lost adventurers than can join in in case a PC dies. I made this supplement for Into the Odd.
3. Things (traps, tricks, monsters, spells, npcs) that break the rules. You know, monsters that hits automatically, peasants than cast spells without following magic-user or cleric rules, anything.
4. Things than don’t do a thing but look intriguing and make PCs waste time, triggering random encounters.
5. Rooms outside time and space or, at least, outside the main dungeon.

Magick Is Free

Here you can find and download what I have written.

Adventures

• I bring you Shelter 15! A “nuclear bunker quasi cold-war interpretation”* It’s a small dungeon for your post-apocalyptic games, written for Death is the New Pink and Into the Odd.
• The Hidden Shrine of Setebos: An expedition for Into the Odd, consisting of a 2 level dungeon plus one extra level, a bestiary, and more. Aldo you can get in from itch.io.
• A new 30 Minute Dungeon, Obsolete Sewer Radiopasteurization is another small highbrowpunk adventure.
• A little highbrowpunk adventure for LotFP, The Underworld Heart. It won’t cost you anything, only your soul.
• Goddess of the Crypt, a weird working class fantasy expedition for Into the Odd. This small dungeon combines subtle Egyptian and Mayan themes, weird fiction, non-Euclidean geometry and a touch of gonzo oddness. Also available from Itch.io (where you can give me a copper piece or two, if you will.)
• The God’s Bathhouse. A 30 minute dungeon based on this challenge.
• Slime Bugs. I made this dungeon for my Mutants & Mazes on the end of time campaign, which is a hybrid between Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future. I hope you enjoy it.

Tools, supplements

• Here’s some New Weird Magic Spells following the rules in both Vaginas are Magic! and Eldritch Cock.
• The Magic Laboratory, house rules for creating magic-user labs and research new spells and other magic-related activities.
• Here’s A Tome of Weird Artifacts, a collection of black metal bands and magick masks and weapons fot your OSR games. It’s free but you can tip me if you want, but please don’t feel you have to. I’m not here for the money, I’m here for blood and souls.
• ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous Guideline to Character Creation, both a blog entry and a PDF for your convenience.
• Random Enemies Table. If you need some bandits, city guards, werewolves or squid cultists for your players to kill and rob, this table will help you assigning their main stats and some quirks.
• Referee Table. This table will allow you to track many elements of the game, specially in a dungeon crawl. Every 3 turns, make a random encounters check; mark a circle each turn; 6 turns make an hour; 8 hours make a watch; lanterns light for 24 turns, candles for 12 and torches for 6. All that is in the table and more.
• Running (and basically understanding) Silent Titans is not easy task! Here’s how you run the mini-game “Mouse Box”.
• Another Fool For Your Adventures! A supplement for Into the Odd. This book is a collection of Replacement Adventurers, for those times when a Player Characters dies and you need a quick replacement but don’t have the time to think about a concept.
• This is how Sneak Attacks works in LotFP.
• Simple grappling rules. Grappling is a nightmare, but these rules turn the nightmare in a fun tavern brawl. Enjoy throwing peasants against tables and holding a city guard while your friends kick his ass.
• Bushcraft in the dungeon. Some tables to find food in a dungeon, the effects it has to eat them and the effects food deprivations has on the characters. It includes “The store of the underworlds”, and a spider from Mars.

Fiction

• The Country of November is my book of short fiction and it’s cheap.

Bestiary

• Spectral Slüg. “You can not have a meaningful campaign if strict slüg quotas are not kept”. (Some Mad Wizard)
• Cerlak’s Horrid Counselor. This monster was made for the Harry Clarke project.
• Giant Lich. This monster was made for the Harry Clarke project.
• Tyger in The Night. A William Blake inspired monster for B/X Essentials/Domenwood.

Playlists

• The Incubus Club – Esoteric Enterprises. Music for my Esoteric Enterprises campaign.
• Grieving of the Wÿrd: Music for the Wëird Fäntasy Röleplaying Gäme. Non-vanilla fantasy soundtrack.
• Hill Cantons – Music for the Slavic acid fantasy OSR setting. Labyrinth Lord + Lysergsäure-Diethylamid. Exploring The Hill Cantons? This songs set the tune. First songs: Marlinko. Next ones: the Dunes.
• Veins of the Earth | LotFP dungeon crawl. Atmospheric music and soundscapes for those insane adventurers and thieves that go underground looking for treasure and fame and only find terror and death. This selection was inspired by Patrick Stuart’s excellent Veins of the Earth supplement for Lamentations of the Flame Princess (get it!).
• Beneath grey skies of falling ashes. Death, Black & Brooding Metal to set the mood in any brutal, grim and violent cosmic horror, weird fantasy or sword & sorcery campaign, like Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Xas Irkalla, Zweihänder, Mörk Borg (there’s also an official playlist). Bleak and depressive like realising you will die. Because fuck you, that’s why!