Mutant Future adventure: Ware of the brain Lashers

An adventure I made, check and/or download it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OVA2zy4dkIzbKpNEoQUImokJ0-g204ckY393xK_gSFA/edit

My player went through the Brain lasher powered portal in Mine of the Brain Lashers. I had to make somethng beyond the portal in one day. This is what I did.

The adventure is compatible with Mutant Future, Gamma World and other similar science fantasy post-apocalyptic games. With minor tweaks you can naturally run it with any system or setting.

Basically this is one of the first adventures I've "published". And this I made 100% for myself and my player but thought that why not share it? Sharing is caring, right?

So enjoy!

And if you got time please share your comments.

[MF] Trog from Fallout 3

If you haven't played Fallout 3 DLC "The Pitt", there be spoilers!

Trog is a common name for humans that have become infected with the Troglodyte Degeneration Contagion (or "TDC"), and slowly degenerated into scampering troglodytes who fear the light.
More information and source: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Trog

Trogs!
Picture from: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com

TROG STATS FOR MUTANT FUTURE

Trog
Regular Trogs are the most common type of Trog. These are larger than Trog Fledlings, but are still vulnerable to damage.

No. Enc.: 2d6 (2d8)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120'/40'
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1 (claw)
Damage: 1d8
Save: LV 2
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: *

Trog Fledling
These Trogs are the smallest and weakest of the Trog family, however they are still quite fast and may overwhelm an unaware party (surprise 3 in 6).


No. Enc.: 3d6 (3d8)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150'/50'
Armor Class: 9
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: 1 (claw)
Damage: 1d6
Save: LV 1
Morale: 6
Hoard Class: *

Trog Brute
Trog Brutes are only slightly larger than regular Trogs, but have double the health. They have more powerful attack than their normal variants.


No. Enc.: 2d4 (3d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120'/40'
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1 (claw)
Damage: 2d6
Save: LV 4
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: *

Trog Savage

These Trogs are the most powerful and strongest Trogs. They are encountered rarely. Although only slightly tougher than Trog Brutes, Trog Savages have powerful melee attacks. They appear to have reddish skin color.

No. Enc.: 2d3 (3d3)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120'/40'
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 2 (claw, claw)
Damage: 2d8
Save: LV 6
Morale: 11
Hoard Class: *

HOARD CLASS
Trog have special hoard class. One possible item per Trog. Roll Artifact Table (page 107). Only results 69-00 count. If you roll 01-68 Trog has no loot.

Things happen when they sleep

http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/fantasy/wallpapers/camping.jpg

d20 chart what happens when characters sleep:

1: One of the character feels stinging pain in his back. Closer inspection reveals a treasure map tattooed on his back.

2: Some fae are tricky pranksters. Characters overslept in the fae magic. They wake up 6d6 decades later.

3: When they wake up for an unknown reason they have swapped bodies. So now that perky little Elven archer lady has to live in his fellow barbarian's body until they find a way to get things back as they were.

4: An owl accompanies the party after the night. It doesn't seem to be bothered by daylight hours at all and will follow the party in distance. This owl is actually super intelligent. He might be their guardian, just making sure they don't mess up anything the owl is guarding or it might be a spy.

5: All the magic-users spells are switched in his spell book. Randomly determine the new spells he has now. If there is no magic-user in party, all items of a random character are switched to something else. Dagger to spoon, backpack to foundation cream, rope to warhammer...

6: All characters recall horrible nightmares. Their hair's turned white.

7: Little zombie baby has crawled to sleep with them. They woke up in its horrible demanding scream. Instead of BRAAAAIIINS the zombie baby yells MOOOMMMAAAAA.

8: The rainstorm is horrible and everything is flooding. Now they aren't resting on solid ground but in a fast-flowing and dangerous river. Loosing equipment and staying unharmed is hard.

9: Panty-bandits raid the party. Instead of being interested in valuables they are after the panties. They are extremely nifty in stealing panties without alerting the victim. But someone might wake up his pants down...

10: Earth trembles but it is not an earthquake. It's actually the pack of vegetarian dinosaurs running for their lives not to be eaten by [T-Rex, pack of velociraptors, or similar carnivorous predator]. And characters' camp is on their path. Grab what you can and take cover or be mushed.

11: Characters are dreaming of an unicorn. What a nice dream. Except it ends as goblins slaughter it and bathe in its blood, cook its meat and make a relic of its horn. When characters wake up they hear a magical horsey shreak in distance.

12: Horrible insects have laid their eggs on characters' skins. Itching, papules, rash, fever ensured. Most horrible thing is when the eggs hatch and under your skin hundreds of maggots crawl eating their way out.

13: A shooting star so bright that characters even if eyes closed are blinded. Those who sleep for 1d4 days. Those who are eyes open (guarding the camp for example) 3d6 days.

14: What ever was surrounding the characters (woods, rocks, barn) has moved 1000ft. away when they slept. It's actually intelligent lifeform(s) what didn't like characters in/near it.

15: Where they sleep it's an old cemetery buried in soil, moss, undergrowth, built over... Try to sleep in ghost activity!

16: When they wake up there's duplicates of the party. Same equipment, same face, same personality. Who's who when both know they are originals!

17: One of the party members has died in unknown reasons. Now he's a ghost following his living fellow members. Does he enjoy his new ghastly benefices or are they trying to find out a way to get him back into the books of the living?

18: Drank or not all feel hungover. 3 penalty for rolls for next 1d8 hours. The reason is unknown, maybe they just didn't sleep well.

19: The moss grows really fast. So fast it has covered the characters and their equipment. It is extremely painful to take the moss off by ripping it* so there has to be another solution. But it might get some reactions walking around as a mossy figure.
*As much moss must be ripped off as character has CON. 2d8 damage per equivalent of one CON point moss ripped away.

20: What a pleasant night. You had dreams of all the adventures in the past and adventures to become. Gain enough experience points for your next level!

__________________________________________

Original post by +Venger Satanis at http://vengersatanis.blogspot.fi/2013/04/things-happen-while-they-sleep.html

He wrote this in his blog so I contributed:
Tobie Abad was inspired to create his own "why they sleep" table.  Check his out because he came up with some awesome stuff!  If we had a couple more gamers in on this, we could forge a collaborative d100 "why they sleep" random table.  Who's in?

Falloutifying Mutant Future

I love Mutant Future for its simplicity. It is easy to understand for the players and simple to run for the Referee. Still playing Fallout 3 video game I cannot but think about adding something from it to MF. Because as simple as MF is it is super easy to modify.

Would I use Falloutified version of Mutant Future in my gaming table? I don't know. The reason is I love how simple Mutant Future is so why should I add things to make it more complicated? Just for fun? Maybe I would use Fallout styled system for Fallout styled setting (recreating Fallout game for tabletop) but otherwise I'd just stick with basic Mutant Future.

Still, here are some thoughts and changes.

Note: If I would use these ideas these would need serious re-writing and field testing. These are just thoughts how to convert some aspects of Fallout system to Mutant Future. I say again: I love Mutant Future for its simplicity. That's the point of MF. To be simple and fun!

Sometimes making extra rules, modifications, more options it just ruins the fun of the game. You forget why the game was fun when you focus on rules, extra rules and special rules. As long as you just get to roll some dice in fun adventures it's usually enough. The older I get the quicker I want rules resolution to be. I don't want to read days after days hundreds of pages of rules and mechanics. I want to grab a game, read it a hour or two and be ready to go!

ABILITIES

I think the core six abilities work well enough. You could replace those with Fallout abilities (get rid of the Luck). First is MF second is replacement from Fallout.

Strength - Strength
Dexterity - Agility
Constitution - Endurance
Intelligence - Intelligence
Willpower - Perception
Charisma - Charisma

See, no difference. Except with Willpower and Perception. Does Mutant Future need Perception? Not necessarily. Willpower is essential for mental attacks though. In Fallout 3 there are seven abilities so for Falloutified Mutant Future the abilities might be:

Strength (Mod. to damage)
Perception
Endurance (Poison save mod., Radiation save mod)
Charisma (Reaction adjustment)
Intelligence (Technology mod., Initiative)
Agility (AC mod.)
Luck/Willpower (Mental attacks and "wild roll" for luck etc.)

Roll 3d6 seven times in order.

SKILLS

In Fallout 3 there are skills what Mutant Future lacks (roll d20 under attribute to success). This needs no modification, only adding a feature. Only tricky thing is combat oriented skills. In Mutant Future your to-hit is determined by your level (+ modifier from STR or DEX to roll). So this needs some work. More about this in "Combat" section of this post.

So, the skills you got are (derived skill in brackets):

• Barter (CHA): Proficiency of trading and haggling.
• Big Guns (END): Proficiency at using "unortodox weaponry"
• Energy Weapons (PER): Proficiency at using energy-based weapons
• Explosives (PER): Proficiency at using explosive weaponry
• Lockpick (PER): Proficiency at picking locks
• Medicine (INT): Proficiency at using medical tools and drugs
• Melee Weapons (STR): Proficiency at using melee weapons 
• Repair (INT): Proficiency at repairing items
• Science (INT): Proficiency at hacking terminals
• Small Guns (AGI): Proficiency at using conventional firearms
• Sneak (AGI): Proficiency at remaining undetected and stealing
• Speech (CHA): Proficiency at persuading others
• Unarmed (END): Proficiency at unarmed fighting

As you can see, most of the things in skills are covered in Mutant Future. Combat and technological tasks. Sneaking, lockpicking etc. can be covered with roll under ability. Speech? Roleplay it and use reaction modifier... Does Mutant Future need skills? Not at all. But if your player wants more character development the skills are nice touch and an extra option to go for.

SKILLS IN CHARACTER CREATION

Fallout 3 has pain-in-the-ass mathematics in its rules. So calculating skills is a bitch. The formula is:

2 + Stat x 2) + [Luck / 2]

If you want to calculate those initiative values like that... you're welcome. I'd just cut some corners and just make initiative value what the deliered ability is. So if your Intelligence is 16 your initiative values of Medicine, Repair and Science are 16. I think that's close enough.

So your first step is to calculate or just write down the initiative skill values. After that you "tag" three skills. The skills you "tag" get +15.

That's it.

LEVEL ADVANCEMENT AND EXPERIENCE

In Mutant Future when you level up you roll dice to see in what you get better. Get rid of that. You now got some skill points to share and a perk. Here's a list of perks in Fallout 3:
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_perks
Choose one perk per level. See the requirements. You need to modify those and some perks fit video game better than a tabletop game.

At a level up you also can distribute 10 (13 if well educated perk) + INT / 2 skill points.

You get XP and other character advancements from:

1. Killing enemies. Check xp chart in Mutant Future
2. Loot. Check MF for details
3. Quests. This is new. Mutant Future gives you exp from killing and looting, now additional option is questing! Depending on the quest you'll get 10-150 exp. 150 should be earthmoving! Grande finale of big campaign. Quest experience points should be treat for players.
4. Skill books! Yes. Amongst the loot there might be skill books what give +1 to a skill associated to that book. HERE's some inspiration for skill books found in Fallout 3.
5. Quest awards. Some quests might award characters with special abilities or skill bonuses. You might consider some special quest related perks to be given. But don't give these too much. These should be extra special treats!

COMBAT

This needs thinking. In Fallout you combat with skills. In Mutant Future with character level. How to make this more Fallout? Or less.

I haven't thought this enough so here's just suggestions. Don't know how the game balance works compared to both originals. You could either:

a) Ditch the combat skills and keep non-combat skills. Character now gets INT / 2 skill points per level (+3 if well educated) as there are less skills involved.

b) All characters attack as 1st levels. Always. Add +1 to d20 roll for every full 10 of combat skill. So if you got Big Guns 27 you roll d20 + 2 when shooting.

AC will be the same. Armor + AC modifier.

If you go full skill based combat you need to work things out. To hit opponent is equal to your skill as %. So if your combat skill is 69 you roll d100 under 69 to hit. Armor is now DR (damage reduce). So if you hit, roll damage and reduce armor of it. Minimum damage is always 1.

The huge converting problem in this method is AC in Mutant Future. The smaller the number is the better the AC is! So you'd have to convert all armors and monster ACs... You could make a convertion list though. It might be:

AC 9 = DR 0
AC 8 = DR 2 OR 1 OR 1
AC 7 = DR 4 OR 2 OR 3
AC 6 = DR 6 OR 3 OR 4
AC 5 = DR 8 OR 4 OR 6
AC 4 = DR 10 OR 5 OR 7
AC 3 = DR 12 OR 6 OR 9
AC 2 = DR 14 OR 7 OR 10
AC 1 = DR 16 OR 8 OR 12
AC 0 = DR 18 OR 9 = OR 13

I'd also rule damage dice to be exploding. So you roll highest result you roll again and add.

I'd also rule that natural 20 (on d20) or 1-5 (on d100) are critical hits dealing double damage.

CRITICALS AND BOTCHES

Using d20 if you roll 1 it's a botch. Things don't just fail but go really wrong. Also if you are using an item it's condition grade is decreased by 1. Using d100 results 1-5 are a botch.

Using d20 if you roll 20 it's a critical success. Things go really well (see combat for combat rolls).

Saving throws are not affected by criticals and botches. Only skill uses are.

RADIATION

In Mutant Future radiation damages you. In Fallout 3 there's points for radiation and effects based on those points in a scale up to 1000 and beyond. Do you want to book keep it? Be my quest.

If you don't want to keep Mutant Future radiation rules replace it with this:

Characters have Radiation gauge of 100. They take radiation like in Mutant Future rules but instead of taking damage they add their radiation gauge. When they get enough radiation there's some effects:

• 0-19: No effect
• 20-39: Minor radiation poisoning (-2 (-10%) END)
• 40-59: Advanced radiation poisoning (-4 END (-20%), -2 (-10%) AGI)
• 60-79: Critical radiation poisoning (-6 END (-30%), -4 (20% AGI, -2 (-10%) STR)
• 80-99: Deadly radiation poisoning (-6 (-30%) END, -6 (-30%) AGI, -4 (-20%) STR)

The scale is good but the effects are dull. I'd modify those. It's too much bookkeeping to calculate attributes. I'd say that END based are hitpoint loss. AGI is to AC, STR is to damage).

Also it could affect skill use. Every 1 point of attribute loss by radiation is -10% to skills.

So if you are suffering Advanced radiation poisoning your END based skills are at -20% and AGI based skills at -10%.

You can heal radiation with special cyrine or treatment from doctor who has capabilities to treat radiation.

INVENTORY

I think Mutant Future inventory covers weapons well enough. Also other equipment are well covered. The items you need are chems. There are some in Mutant Future and most important are RadAway and Rad-X.

RadAway decreases your radiation by 15.

Rad-X gives you bonus to Save versus Radiation (roll twice for example).

TECHNOLOGY ROLLS

There's rules for technology rolls in Mutant Future. Use them to discover new technological properties of special equipment. When character has identified the item he can use skill to use it (Science for computers for example). Repair skill is different.

Replace Mutant Future's optional Repairing Technology rules with this:

To repair a broken item roll your repair skill. Modify the repair skill by Complexity class of the item:

• Complexity class 1: No mod.
• Complexity class 2: Repair skill / 2
• Complexity class 3: Repair skill / 3

Roll modified repair skill. If d100 result is under you successfully repair the item. If not, you don't repair it.

Some items might be repaired without tools, some need tools and some spare parts. It's up to Referee to decide what the repairing needs.

Usually it might be a good idea to use a similar item to repair another. Take the condition grade of the item you repair and the condition grade of the item you use as spare parts. You improve the condition grade of the repaired item by the condition grade of spare part item's condition grade / 2 (minimum 1).

So repairing condition grade 4 assault rifle with condition grade 3 assault rifle you get +1 (3 / 2 = 1,5 = 1) to the weapon being repaired. The spare parts item will be lost. No condition grade can rise higher than 5.

Optional rule:

The maximum condition grade you can repair an item is based on your Repair skill.

• Condition Grade 1: Repair skill 1-20
• Condition Grade 2: Repair skill 21-40
• Condition Grade 3: Repair skill 41-60 
• Condition Grade 4: 61-80
• Condition Grade 5: Repair skill 90-100

CONDITION GRADE

Items wear down and you need to repair them (above rules). Use Mutant Future condition grades. Every time you botch your roll using an item or in armors get hit by critical attack the item's condition grade is decreased. When the condition grade is 0 the item is nonfunctional and must be repaired.

WHAT ELSE?

Are there any other rules and system conversions needed to make Mutant Future like Fallout?

[Mutant Future] Cover!

Combat got tactical, combatants are behind different natural covers. Walls, rocks, behind the windows, bushes etc. How does it affect?

In my opinion it is too much trouble to add or decrease numbers from D20 to-hit roll so it affects AC. It's easier that way.

• Partial Cover 25%: AC -2
• Half Cover 50%: AC -4
• Full Cover 75%+: AC -6

Partial cover might be behind a rock waist down.

Half cover might be behind a window shooting.

Full cover might be laying low behind a bush.

[Mutant Future] Critical combat hits!

Last time I played Mutant Future, I pulled these out of my hat:
http://cradleofrabies.blogspot.fi/2013/04/playing-mutant-future-pulling-rules-out.html

Now playing again, and wanted combat more lethal. In Mutant Future characters have more HP than in your average old-school game. Starting HP is HD x STA (roll HD equal your Stamina value). You don't get extra HP every level though, it's random what you get when you level up...

Anyways, this would work with any other game also using D20 (and why not any other game what works somehow similarly).

Critical Hits

1. When you roll highest result on your damage die (for example 1d8 damage result 8) roll again and add together. Also known as "explosive die".
2. If you roll same number you need to hit (Thac0 stuff), you get x2 damage. This is a critical hit. So if you need 13 to hit your opponent, you hit him good. Weapon damage 1d8+1 would be 2d8+2.
3. Natural 20 always hits and in addition you get an extra attack to same opponent!

Playing Mutant Future, pulling rules out of my hat

Mutant Future is super simple. The rules are basically:

Roll to hit.
Roll damage.
Roll to save.
(Optional rule: Roll below ability if you try stuff).
And also technological rules.

But what if something happens not covered in rules? Generally that's where roll ability steps in. But here's some rules I used in this game session, I pulled out of my hat during the gameplay.

Sneaking And The Guard
Character tries to sneak and avoid guard's vision.
Player rolls 1D6 + Dexterity modifier
Referee rolls 1D6 + guard's Intelligence modifier

Higher roll wins (stay hidden versus spot). Draw? Didn't happen (character won so guard didn't spot him) but maybe roll again or something.

Sneak Attack From The Behind To Slice Throat
AC 9 (unarmored), roll to hit but D20 x2. If the result is high enough (double what needed) the opponent is dead. Bloody but silent. If hit 2x damage. If a miss 1x damage. If you roll natural 1 sucks! Guard notices you!

Great Quality Sniper Rifle
If you can aim and your target is not aware of you, you either:
Get +4 to d20 roll or x2 damage (sniper rifle damage is d12 so roll 2d12 if you choose damage bonus).

Save game in tabletop?

Sometimes I have played with a thought that if roleplaying games had a save game feature. Kinda like fate (or-what-ever) points you earn as a group and can use to save game. Then you can kick-in-the-door approach, see what's beneath, die and "load game" for a better approach (for example).

Or before epic battle you use save game. Just because if the dice screw the epic battle (TPK) you can re-try it.

Just an idea I have had sometimes when I play video games. But what do you think?