Differentiating Pure Strain Humans

[gentleman john]

I have came across a number of human-types when doing research for GW/MF.

Primitives are people who have been reduced to simple technology.

Now those sound more like the Nymphoid Barbarians of Dinosaur Hell.

City-Dwellers are people who have settled the wastelands in better use of technology or even better use of (altered) natural resources.

Sounds like these might make good all-purpose survivors.

The Eloi (or Nymphoids) are people who have been sheltered from the disaster.

"Capricon 31. Year of the City 124. Lastday. Carousel."

Sleepers/Time-Displaced are people who have appeared into the future, from their own time.

Always good for any setting.

Gladiators/Neo-Spartans are people who only knows war and conquest.

Good for roving bands of Last War-riors and other crazies. Like this lot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Company_%28comics%29

Once again, thanks to all the people who are putting forward ideas. I may be able to salvage something from my notebooks.

[capheind]

Are you using pre-gens? Because if so then you can just give them a little paragraph backstory and reinforce that in OSR style play the rules aren't everything. Do you really feel they need mechanical differentiation, or could they just be played differently and your rulings based on each characters backstory. I'm not saying that the existing recommendations aren't good (they certainly are) just that if your goal is running it BTB for a con game to promote MF then its easier to go with flavor over optional rules.

[gentleman john]

Are you using pre-gens? Because if so then you can just give them a little paragraph backstory and reinforce that in OSR style play the rules aren't everything. Do you really feel they need mechanical differentiation, or could they just be played differently and your rulings based on each characters backstory. I'm not saying that the existing recommendations aren't good (they certainly are) just that if your goal is running it BTB for a con game to promote MF then its easier to go with flavor over optional rules.

And herein lies the problem.

I am using pre-gens, but to compensate for this my style is to allow the players to customise their characters as far as possible. So, sticking with MF as an example, the last game I ran of this had the PCs as aliens creatures come to 21st century Earth for some hunting. I rolled up the characters (8 for a group of 6) and gave them the basic background. They chose the characters and developed their own personalities for them and reasons why they decided to join a hunting party on Earth. Now, this was relatively easy given the fact that there was a gamut of everything apart from PSHs in that party. The players could look at the characters and get an immediate handle on what their characters could do and how they were different from each other. The rest came from them.

Conversely, I had run a prior game where the PCs where all Mutant Plants in a space ark. However, as each plant had different abilities, then the players were able to find a role in the party quite easily. Again, the players could impose their own personalities on the plants and play the game they want to.

The upshot of this is that the players don't have to worry about whether they have the right mix for a party. They create the right mix during the game. As a referee I hate imposing my views of how the adventure should go. If I start giving PCs special background, then I feel I'm imposing them. Besides, if a player wants to have secrets, I don't like putting them up for everyone else to read. Paranoia GM habit that I've never kicked.

Like I said, it's personal prejudice that stops me from writing character bios, no matter how brief. Not that your idea does not have merit, it's just not one I would feel comfortable using.

[capheind]

Well in that case you could just give them differing equipment lists and let them make of it what they will. As a few others have pointed out the mechanical differences between different types of Pure Strain humans come from their usage of Technology (be it advanced or primitive). Why does their PC have a gun and the others have crossbows? Why does one PC have a Keycard (is it treated as a holy symbol or does he have some idea what it really is and what it does?). The cheesy canadian classic Starlost (everyone knows Starlost right?) consists of a team of mechanically identical PSH's, one has a key-tape-chip-whatever, one has a crossbow, and one... well one is a woman (ok terrible example), not really alot of deep characterization on that show but you get the idea.

[gentleman john]

Must admit - hadn't thought of that as I like to let players choose their own gear. However, for some of the situations I'm thinking of, that would work. Certainly for the "Genesis of the Daleks" inspired setting, it would help the PCs so long as I don't go for cookie-cutter loadouts. For the "Nymphoid Barbarian" it would be rather difficult, given the low technology (spear, bow, club, etc) involved. For the "Castle Brass" game, it might help due to the sheer range of technology possible.

However, I will still have to translate that into some kind of mechanical advantage.

[Malcadon]

Gladiators/Neo-Spartans are people who only knows war and conquest.

Good for roving bands of Last War-riors and other crazies. Like this lot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Company_%28comics%29

Once again, thanks to all the people who are putting forward ideas. I may be able to salvage something from my notebooks.

Believe it of not, the "Gladiators/Neo-Spartans" idea came from Zardoz, with a mix of the real-life Spartans, and the Cimmerian culture from Conan. Basically a prude warrior race.

I would included Friends of Entropy as an example, but they are more of a cult that play-out like Thuggies (think Temple of Doom), instead of warmongering bands of raiders presented in later editions--which annoys me to no end, as bandits are a dime-a-dozen, but they are a cult that wants to return the world back to a more natural state, by removing all intelligent life.

Oh yeah, don't forget the "Cryptic Alliances" (or "religions" in MF) found in Gamma Would helped round-out the setting, by adding a mix of conflicting ideas and factions. Just don't make the same mistake of 2nd ed GW, by lumping them into huge territories, as most of these groups work best when scattered across the map, or working from the shadows of more established communities.

[Eldrad]

Just remember that the average human with average CON of 10 has 50 hit points on average.

Humans have evolved into something badass!

The average peasant can take grenade damage and keep on coming at you.