Impromptu Mutant Future

Tags

hamlet of blixter, mutant future, mutant settlement, one year in the savage afterworld, play reports, wizardawn

With our OD&D campaign on hold recently, I’ve been looking for games to run for two players with little to no prep work. One Sunday afternoon in late June, with but three hours before our weekly session, I looked at my gaming shelf and on a whim pulled out Mutant Future, Goblinoid Games’ post-apocalyptic retro-clone.

I had not run or played it before, but always wanted to. “Hmm, why not?” I thought. Looking for a quick scenario to embellish, I pulled out a recent acquisition,  Tim Snider’s One Year in the Savage Afterworld and started flipping through it. I found a humorous scenario  featuring bowling-pin wielding Pig Men. I also had a PDF copy of a tournament scenario I had downloaded, Gimme Shelter. Some ideas started to form in my head, but I needed a base of operations for the PCs, so of course a visit to Wizardawn was in order.  After playing with the Mutant Settlement generator for a bit, I settled on the Ruined Hamlet of Blixter. I fleshed out a few locations and made some scenario notes. In particular, I wanted supplies and weapons to be scarce, so I trimmed the generated equipment lists at the various shops. Lastly, I needed some pregens. I generated ability scores, hit points and mutations for a few characters, typed them into google documents, and was (hopefully) ready. When our session started, the players picked Jax the Mutant lizard (with chameleon epidermis), and Berrus the Mutant Human. Berrus had a couple of nice beneficial mutations, psionic flight and damage turning, but one big drawback, phantasmal damage. The latter caused him to take double damage from any successful hit, so he would have to be careful once the bowling pins and bullets started flying.

Ruined Hamlet of Blixter

I started by plunking the mutants (who were new to the Hamlet) into (where else?) the local watering hole, the Growling Porcine, run by Rotk the mutant dragonfly and his family. Berrus and Jax had no time to enjoy their Mole Burgers and the local delicacy, Rat on a Stick, however.. Yelling could be heard outside, along with a loudly approaching vehicle. Jax and Berrus went outside to investigate, Jax blending into the surroundings and Barrus taking flight.  Within several minutes, a green, rusted-out pickup truck roared into town past the Growling Porcine. Four Pigmen leaped out. They were wielding oddly shaped white clubs with a red stripe and the letters ‘AMF” stenciled on them. ‘AMF’, ‘AMF’ they cried as they began clubbing and dragging the hapless residents back towards the truck. Berrus interrupted the festivities with his bow, he was joined by the Hamlet Constable, Nyseld, a mutant human female with small, purple feathers all over her body. She drew a revolver and began to take shots at the intruders. Meanwhile, Jax had snuck into the truck cab and decided to try running down Pigmen.

He was successful on his first try – one PIgman was squashed against a stone wall, even as the others dove out of the way. The remaining three Pigmen proved to be a bit tougher than expected – two went down with a fight at the hands of Berrus and Nyseld, but one managed to jump into the truck cab with Jax and began pummeling him, as Jax struggled to fight back in the enclosed space. Barrus finally skewered the Pigman from the truck bed, plunging his sword through the glass. The fight was over – but both Jax and Berrus were wounded.  To show her appreciation for helping the Hamlet, Nyseld led the way to the local doctor, a robot named Frimost. There she purchased two stimshots for Jax and Berrus, and offered them use of the Pigmen’s truck. They gratefully accepted, and, feeling better, started exploring the Hamlet shops. In the weapons shop, they were introduced to the proprietor, a friend of Nyseld named Zabd. He told Jax and Berrus of an abandoned bomb shelter from ages past, which reportedly contained a cache of weapons. If they would go and retrieve the cache, he would let them have first pick, plus any other valuables they recovered. He also offered to give them enough gas to make the 20-mile trip south, and provided a map of the shelter location. Jax and Berrus conferred and accepted the offer, setting out the next morning.

To be continued…

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