Mutant: Year Zero
Publisher Description
We walked among the gaping ruins and rusty car wrecks, monuments to the fall of the Ancients. Naphta had been taken by a Deathworm and the Rot had driven Hugust insane. We had no grub left and there was only rotwater to drink. But we had to keep going. We had to find Eden. We could not return to the Ark empty-handed, the fate of the People rested on our shoulders. Suddenly, Franton, the insect-like Stalker leading our way through the wasteland, stopped. “Zone-Ghouls”, he hissed, drawing his scrap rifle. I inhaled, ready to spew out a cascade of flames at anyone who dared come close. In the next instant, a chilling shriek rose from the ruins around us.
Mutant: Year Zero takes you to the world after the great Apocalypse. Humanity’s proud civilization has fallen. The cities are dead wastelands, winds sweeping along empty streets turned into graveyards. But life remains. Among the ruins, the People live. You are the heirs of humanity – but not quite human anymore. Your bodies and minds are capable of superhuman feats. You are mutants.
Mutant: Year Zero, First Edition - Rules SummaryCollapse
Character Creation [ edit ]
The Ark
Before character creation begins, the GM must create the campaign's "Ark" (the refuge from which the characters are based), which like a character has game stats (eg. Technology or Food Supply). Two pre-generated arks are provided (for New York and London), or the GM can develop their own custom Ark.
Roles
Once the Ark is done the players begin character creation by selecting one of eight Roles for their character. These are similar to classes in other RPGs, for instance Boss (leader), Gearhead (repairman), or Stalker (ranger).
Attributes and Skills
Next the player assigns 14 points between the four Attributes of Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. Every Attribute must have at least two points, and no Attribute can go above four, except for the primary Attribute for the character's Role (which can go up to five.
Next the player assigns ten points among their skills. There are twelve skills (eg. Endure, Fight, Know the Zone, or Heal), plus each Role has a unique skill (which they must put at least one point into). No skill can have more than three points.
Talents and Mutations
Next the player picks from one of three Talents from their Role, and gets their gear (determined by Role). Finally the character determines their mutation, either by drawing them from a deck or via a roll. Mutations are fairly powerful, but require spending Mutation Points. A player can opt to get a second mutation in exchange for reducing one Attribute to 1.
Core Mechanics [ edit ]
To perform an action in Mutant: Year Zero a player rolls a number of d6s equal to the number of points in the corresponding Attribute, plus the corresponding Skill, plus the Gear Bonus of any Gear used. In order to succeed they need to roll at least one 6, with multiple 6's indicating a greater degree of success.
Pushing
If the character is unhappy with the result, they can "push" the roll, which lets them re-roll any non-six results. However, if they roll any ones on the re-roll, they face a negative result from pushing.
If the die that rolled a one was a gear die, that piece of gear has its rating lowered by one. Otherwise, the player suffers a point of "trauma to the corresponding Attribute (if an Attribute is reduced to 0 by trauma the player becomes incapacitated).
Combat [ edit ]
Initiative is determined by having all players roll a d6 and add their Agility score (with some mutations and Talents also offering initiative bonuses). The GM then does the same for the NPCs, and any NPCs with the same initiative score share a roll and act together. Unlike in most games, a combat turn is not a fixed amount of time, but can instead range from 10 seconds to several minutes.
Turns
On a turn a player can take one action and one maneuver. An action could mean rolling a skill check or using a mutation power, while maneuvers can involve moving, drawing a weapon, etc.
Movement notably does not use a fixed movement amount. Instead, the distance between a character and their enemies is expressed in "range categories", such as arm's length, near (a few steps away), short (within 20-30 yards), etc. Each movement maneuver let's the character move one range category.
Attacking
To attack a character uses a Fight skill check (for close combat) or a Shoot check (for ranged). For ranged attacks cover and the distance from the defender can add penalties to the roll. If the attack succeeds, the target suffers the weapon's damage, plus extra damage for any extra 6's rolled on the attack. Instead of dealing extra damage a player could opt to have other side effects, such as knocking the target's weapon out of their hand.
Trauma
Mutant: Year Zero has four types of injuries or "trauma": damage (which lowers the character's strength), fatigue (which lowers agility), confusion (which lowers wits) and doubt (which lowers empathy). Weapons are the main source of damage, while the other injury types happen in the course of the game (eg. a 1 on a die roll when pushing causes a point of trauma). If any attribute is lowered to 0 the character is "broken" (the exact details of that depend on which stat was broken).
Armor can help reduce damage: when a character wearing armor is attacked they can make an armor check, and each 6 rolled reduces a point of damage. However, each 1 rolled results in damage to the armor itself.
