Differentiating Pure Strain Humans

[gentleman john]

I am putting together some ideas for Mutant Future games for the next round of gaming cons in my part of the world, and I'm having a problem. Not with ideas for scenarios - I have a few notebooks of various ideas - but with Pure Strain Humans. The ideas I currently have rely on parties mainly made up of PSHs. Now, while the odd PSH in a party is a good idea, whole parties of them tend to look ... well, samey.

I know the obvious solution: give them some sort of role. However, given these are con games I need something to put down on the character sheet to give the players an instant idea of how there character is mechanically different from the 7 other PSHs on the table. I have experimented with transplanting character classes from LL, but then I may as well be playing LL with lasers. I have thought of putting on NWPs as per the D&D Cyclopedia, but that does not truly reflect the basic MF rules. So, I thought I would consult the hive and see what, if anything, other referees have done in similar circumstances.

(FYI, the game ideas I am currently working on are based on Genesis of the Daleks, Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell, and the Chronicles of Castle Brass. PSHs dominate in these settings, hence why the parties will be mainly PSHs.)

[capheind]

Well whats wrong with LL with Lasers? Mutant Future is basically LL ramped up and assuming a race-as-class for all races, if you want to assume a human baseline than maybe what you want to do is blend LL and the Mutants and Mazes section of MF. Or you could Houserule something akin to the profession system from AD&D 1st ed. where PC's have a field of knowledge outside of just being pure strain humans. What level of tech are the PSH at?

[Malcadon]

A while ago, I posted this, if it is at all useful to you.

[Agrippa]

Maybe you want some thing like sniderman's Time Displaced, sorcerer or barbarian races. Would anything like those work?

[RAD Colin]

Derek Holland's blog also has several character roles for MF play that could conceivably be restricted to PSHs.

[gentleman john]

Gentlemen -

Thanks for the suggestions. I shall have a look at them and see if I can incorporate any of them into the adventure ideas I have. Reading through them, some of them may just hit the sweet spot. I'll give them a try before I take the adventures out and see what happens.

[gentleman john]

Well whats wrong with LL with Lasers? Mutant Future is basically LL ramped up and assuming a race-as-class for all races, if you want to assume a human baseline than maybe what you want to do is blend LL and the Mutants and Mazes section of MF. Or you could Houserule something akin to the profession system from AD&D 1st ed. where PC's have a field of knowledge outside of just being pure strain humans. What level of tech are the PSH at?

To answer your first question, I specifically wanted to do MF for a con game. I've been doing a lot of LL; about 40% to 50% of my con games are LL and it gets good responses. I've tried MF a couple of times in the past and have decided it was time to do it again. I didn't want to introduce too many houserules as I know that there are some people who will go and buy a game based on what I have done, so I want to try and keep things as close to the spirit of the rules as printed. That way, people don't get disappointed. New "racial types" could work fine, but introducing a non-existent skill set goes beyond the pale for this imo. As I said, what I need is something that distinguishes the characters straight away when somebody is looking at the character sheets in the 15 minutes between start time and gaming. I work on the principle that if I can't explain the game, the setting and the characters within those 15 minutes, then the game is way too complicated for a con.

FYI: this latter is a personal prejudice. During a con, our group once watched a certain well-known game writer explaining his published setting to a group of people who had been given seats in his game as a major door prize. The slot was four hours long. It took the afore-mentioned writer over an hour to explain his setting (including 100 years of history), explain the races being used in the game, explain the characters and tell the players what their motivations were! We came to the conclusion the writer was more of a director than a referee. No names. No pack drill.

To answer your next question, the PSH tech varies wildly depending on the setting - and sometimes within the setting. To explain further:

In the "Genesis of the Daleks" inspired setting, the PSHs would have technology ranging from WW1 to blasters, depending on what they had got hold of. The idea would be that they were survivors of a very long war, where every weapon in the book had been used. I wanted to differentiate between the guys with guns and the specialists. I might have had a couple of low-level mutants in to provide variety.

For the "Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell" inspired setting, the PSHs would be primitive tribesmen, with higher technology being almost mythical. The setting would not allow magical healing, so the higher HP levels of MF would be necessary (either that or use very high level LL characters). Again, I would have liked to have put in some immediately obvious differentiation so that the character roles were obvious from the get-go. After all, if everyone has a spear and leather armour, it just comes down to a stat-swinging contest.

As for "Chronicles of Castle Brass" setting, we are again looking at wide variation in technologies. If you've never read the Hawkmoon books by Michael Moorcock, then think of armoured adventurers on horses, travelling in a shattered Europe inhabited by god-machines and mutants, armed with swords and lances that shoot laser beams, fighting against armies of mad British invaders in masks who worship the gods Jhone, Phowl, Jorg and Rhunga. Now add in mad techno-sorcerors and the forces of Law and Chaos. The only problem is, devastating attacks with no healing magic available - unless it is strange rays from incomprehensibly ancient machinery.

I will admit my problems are self-inflicted and come more from the settings that I intend to use than the rules. However, part of the fun is showing what can be done.

[Atomic Ray]

It all sounds good to me.

I was a little thrown off from your original post as to what you were looking for, but it seems the follow up posts helped you find your target.

I do like the idea of the party being mostly or all PSH for a convention because it requires thought to succeed rather than which power to use.

For your regular games, using PSH, this comes up often.

With the variety of your settings it is harder to pinpoint a particular direction but as noted from a couple other posts and references to other threads, I also tend to grant PSH particular stat boosts, better opportunity for education/training, equipment/wealth, etc. are all pushed.

Basically if we were talking LL it would be like the mutants start off at 1st level and the PSH starts off at 3rd/4th level with experience related stuff included.

So it comes down to Advanced Character or Mutations/Powers.

By the by...loves me some Daleks.

The old school ones though.

The new ones are fine to watch on TV but the near unstoppable nature is defeating...I like the idea of a squishy mutant in a can...a mini tank of sorts

[Malcadon]

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. They may play-out like your over-to-top Sword & Sorcery barbarians, or play-out like Native Americans who are steeped in customs and tradition. They have an advantage in the wilderness, but they tend to treat high-tech artifacts as magical artifacts.

City-Dwellers are people who have settled the wastelands in better use of technology or even better use of (altered) natural resources. They have sightly better equipment then primitives, and have the advantage in the marketplace. As NPCs, they make-up soldiers, tradesmen, and the like, but as PCs, they would usually be broadly skilled men and woman.

The Eloi (or Nymphoids) are people who have been sheltered from the disaster. They are weak and hedonistic, but are highly beautiful. They are at a huge disadvantage in the wilderness, and the only real advantage they might have is the pity and sympathy of others.

Under-Dwellers/CHUDs (cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers) are humans who are slowly developing into Morlocks or feel it better to live underground. They like the dark, but are not as dependent on it. They have a major advantage in dark, underground places, but they suffer a huge stigma among the Surface-Dwellers.

Sleepers/Time-Displaced are people who have appeared into the future, from their own time. It might be through a cryogenic capsule, a crashed spaceship, a broken time-machine, an opening through space-time, or anything else dreamed-up by the players. This is a great way to introduce new players into the game, as they are both thrown into the strange world with a modern mind-set. They have an advantage with technology, but but are not used to the strange, new environment that awaits them.

Gladiators/Neo-Spartans are people who only knows war and conquest. They care little for crafting and trading, but for fighting and plunder. They are great fighters, but they have little or no social skills.

[gentleman john]

So it comes down to Advanced Character or Mutations/Powers.

Pretty much my thinking.

By the by...loves me some Daleks.

The old school ones though.

The new ones are fine to watch on TV but the near unstoppable nature is defeating...I like the idea of a squishy mutant in a can...a mini tank of sorts

Near unstoppable? The talk over this side of the pond has been that the Daleks have been overused and are too easy to defeat. They have been given a rest, of sorts. I hope that Mr Moffatt does not overdo it with the Weeping Angels.

Meantime, have a Special Weapons Dalek (aka the Abomination).