Mostly because I'm tired of looking at it and need some critical feedback, I'm releasing the beta of my Master Mundane Mutation generator aka the Mutant Maker. There's still a ton of work to be done. But I explain it in the document. It's a 42-page document with hundreds of mutations. Please enjoy and please give feedback.
Introduction
Welcome to my Master Mundane Mutations Generator a.k.a. The Mutant Maker
(version Beta)!
Many, many, many moons ago, my junior-high D&D friends and I decided to dip into Gamma World with our existing characters. I don’t believe we ever got past the initial Session Zero/Intro to the adventure, but it got me to thinking about merging the two games into one, a la Thundarr the Barbarian, and I began generating ideas for the hybrid game.
By far, the most extensive development (and most fun) was creating my Mutant Generator. Created on Dot Matrix paper reams supplied by my mom, complete with dark green and light green alternating lines and perforated printer feed holes, I came up with a pretty thorough list, or so I thought at the time.
The first inspirational source was the demon generation Tables in the original AD&D DMG, and of course, Gamma World. However, I wasn’t the one who owned Gamma World, so I had to recreate what I remembered. Two visual inspirations were my Mighty Man and Monster Maker kit, and my sister’s Fashion Plates. These toys were especially useful for a creative person who can’t draw. The replaceable parts of Head, Torso and Legs in both toys inspired how I organized both the Tables and the Character Sheets.
My siblings were my play-testers for the Mutant Maker, usually while on road trips, and I found out recently that they always had lots of fun coming up with bizarre looking characters. (As the oldest sibling, frequently in conflict with the younger three, this particularly tickled me.)
The Hybrid Game Setting eventually became the basis of a Short Epic Poem that I had written for an English project, which became the basis of my first attempt of writing a SF novel (still in progress). But its roots are definitely Post-Apocalyptic RPG.
The original Tables are long gone, but in a recent online discussion about Science Fantasy Gonzo / Wahoo versus Science Fiction Mundane / Gritty post-apocalyptic gaming, I realized that there weren’t any Mundane Mutations Tables out there. To me, most Mutations read like Psionics or comic book super- powers. Mind you, I’m not against Gonzo; I just wanted a way to create Mundane physical variants.
It was time to recreate my Mutant Maker – especially given the resurgence of interest in the RPG genres of Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian futures. As in nature, diversity is a key to survival! Eventually I might tackle the Gonzo Mutations (and treat them as inborn Psionic abilities).
So I started remembering...
Then I started generating. And generating.
Then I started researching. And researching. And researching.
Then I started editing. And editing. And editing. And editing.
And now you have the Beta version before you.
On with the show!
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