GFA18 - Scribing Runes in MCC

This is the last of my Gongfarmer's Almanac 2018 articles that deal with Mutant Crawl Classics. (Don't worry, it's not the last one overall, coming next are some materials for DCC Westerns.) This time, I was thinking about ways to bring a little more DCC magic into MCC. In my image of the Terra AD setting, technology takes the form of discrete technological artifacts, but it also takes the form of sites and locations. Some of these are deadly, acting like traps, but others represent powers that characters can use (and re-use) if they can get to the right place. Ideally, there should be multiple "right places" for any given effect, but you can't just activate any effect from any where.
 
I really want to give a shout out to Karim for the great art accompanying this piece. Because he was volunteering his time and talent to GFA18, he would have been totally within his rights to simply look at my draft and then draw whatever he wanted inspired by it. Karim when above and beyond though; he essentially volunteered to give me the true commission experience. He drew preliminary sketches, revised them based on my comments, check the revisions with me, then made the final versions. All the pieces went through some revision, but this one went through the most. I had described something a little like David Langford's "blit" where a parrot-like image drives people insane, except ... what I described didn't really work visually. Karim came up with the idea of the parrot as a mechanical pop-up, and the effect as a beam, and it's fantastically weird, and it just ... works. (Plus check out the gross detail on the disintegrating guy! It's off the hook!)
 
Keith Garrett edited this piece, as he did the others in this series. You might have recognized the narrative example from my previous article as being lifted from Star Trek First Contact. The example here is probably harder to recognize. It comes from Jasper Fford's novel Shades of Grey. The whole community structure and set-up of that novel would, I think, make for a pretty good entry-level scenario for MCC.
   

Art by Karim

 
In a world without literacy, all writing seems like magic. Some writing is much more magical than others, however. Some writing issues commands that its viewers have to obey, even if they can't actually "read" it. The DCC spells runic alphabet (mortal) and runic alphabet (fey) represent a set of procedures that characters can memorize by rote in order to enact wetware-like effects without direct intervention by the patron AIs. The DCC spell make potion even provides a list of procedures characters can follow to issue wetware-like commands to themselves.
   
Characters can only learn runes one at a time, they can never memorize an entire runic alphabet at once. Characters learn a rune by making a technology roll, including their usual artifact check bonus. A character must make a technology roll equal to the rune's original minimum spellcheck in order to memorize it. Once a character has memorized a rune, they can inscribe it any time by making a technology roll equal to the rune's spell check. The rune's complexity is equal to twice its spell level (so mortal runes are complexity 2 and fey runes and potions are both complexity 6). If the alternative technology roll described earlier is used, then characters' technology die is also their spell check die, and can continue to improve even after they memorize the rune. If the bard class described earlier is used, bards roll +1d on technology rolls to learn and scribe runes. Most characters can memorize a number of runes equal to half their character level, while bards can memorize a number of runes equal to their level.
  
A rune might represent ancient machine code. Writing the code might issue a command-line instruction to a patron AI's satellite mainframe, and activating the rune might represent the satellite compiling and executing the code via the AI's operatives and resources planetside. Or, a rune might represent ancient logins, passwords, and database entries. Writing the rune might fill in a webform maintained by the nanites ambient in the atmosphere all over Terra A.D., and activating the rune might represent the nanites submitting the entry as a new row in a cloud database. Or, a rune might consist of images that exploit flaws in the image-processing centers of the human brain to produce almost unavoidable effects, as described by David Langford in his "blit" and "basilisk" stories. Learning the rune might represent learning to accurately reproduce the image without suffering its effects. Inscribing might consist of drawing this image, and activating it might represent fully revealing the image to its victim's visual cortex. Depending on the judge's interpretation, inscribing a rune might require access to a functioning ancient computer terminal, special paints or stencils to craft a nanite-readable barcode or QR code, or protective eyewear to shield the scribe's own optic nerve from the rune's effects.
  
Example: Jane has been press-ganged into leading Tommo and Violet into an abandoned ancient city to collect spoons and other artifacts. Near the edge of town, she spots an Ancient screen and keyboard, attached to a machine that accepts rectangular leaves and returns metal pebbles. First she types in the command to make the monitor display a particular shade of green that relieves the injuries she suffered on the road (make potion "healing", technology DC 18, Complexity 6). When Tommo and Violet demand that Jane repeat the procedure, she enacts the second part of her plan, typing in a command to display a coruscating pattern of red-and-green static that causes Tommo and Violet to hemorrhage to death on the spot (runic alphabet (fey) "pain", technology DC 16, Complexity 6). Jane returns home telling a story about how Tommo and Violet "were eaten by a carnivorous plant."

GFA18 - Alternative Technology Check for MCC

I wrote some alternate rules for making technology checks in Mutant Crawl Classics for the 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac. My goal was to make a mini-game out of learning to use technology. As I state below, this is too complex to use for every piece of technology the characters find. My purpose for creating a mini-game is so that, in a sandbox game, the process of mastering an important, campaign-changing piece of technology becomes both a reason to "quest for it" and a spur to new adventures. Players have an incentive to go looking for instructions, tools, and parts to help boost their technology rolls, and the ability to master (or even mass-produce) the tech creates new opportunities that wouldn't be available otherwise. The fact that progressing up the table typically involves the device breaking or becoming temporarily unusable a few times means that judges can give their players fairly powerful objects without fear of them immediately breaking the game. Players can use the power a few times without much trouble, but if they want to use the power of the artifact to remake the campaign world, they're going to have to work to make that happen.
   
Keith Garrett edited all my MCC-related writing in the GFA18, but he had a lot more to do for this piece than any of the others. His advice and help resulted in something better and more clear than what I initially wrote. Karim did the art for this and all my MCC pieces. 
 
   

Art by Karim

   
 
DCC uses d10 skill checks for untrained characters and d20 skill checks for skilled characters. Thieves begin the game casting spells from scrolls using a d10 (as untrained with magic) but as they gain levels, their dice-type improves, one step at a time, modeling the learning process. This alternative to the MCC technology check uses thieves' spellcasting improvement as a model and applies it to denizens of Terra A.D. learning to use Ancient technology.
 
When characters first encounter a new piece of ancient technology, they roll d10 + Artifact check bonus + Intelligence modifier. As they learn to understand the artifact, their dice-type can improve. Characters need to be very smart or very lucky to operate a new artifact successfully, or do anything at all other than break it. But each success has the chance to lead to new insights, allowing characters to eventually gain mastery over each new piece of technology.
 
Technology level and complexity: The tech level sets a limit on the who may attempt to use an artifact. A character cannot make a technology roll for an artifact whose tech level is higher than the limit set by their Intelligence--unless their character level is equal or higher to the tech level (for example, any 7th-level character can attempt to use alien technology, even if their Intelligence is lower than 24. Most 6th-level characters can't attempt to use such a device, however; they can't even fumble and break it). Characters don't need to make technology rolls for objects from their home culture's tech level or lower.
 
(Stone-age technology is TL 1, mechanical devices are TL 2, electronic and modern computing devices are TL 3, near-future tech is TL 4, far-future tech is TL 5, technology indistinguishable from magic is TL 6, and advanced alien technology is TL 7).
 
The complexity of an artifact is subtracted as a penalty from the technology roll.
 
Progressing and re-rolling: As characters roll on the table below, the technology die they roll (starting with d10) can only increase, never decrease. If a result indicates that further rolls should be made using a technology die that's lower than the character's current ability, ignore that portion of the result.
 
Characters can also continue to study and master ancient technology that is currently non-functional or broken. If a result indicates that the artifact activates, but the tech can’t activate because it needs repairs, or it has run out of ammunition or power, then it doesn’t activate, ignore that portion of the result.
 
Each successful result on the table below is intended to eventually force a re-roll. Each entry describes how long a character can use the artifact before they must make another technology roll. For example, on a result of 17-19, the artifact functions for 1d3 game sessions before it breaks and needs minor repairs. Once that happens, the character must make a new technology roll, even if they can make minor repairs without needing a new tech roll to learn how--they still need a new technology roll because the result demanded it.
 
Classes bonuses: As noted in their character descriptions, some characters have an affinity for certain forms of ancient technology. Sentinels also add their artifact bonus die to technology rolls for weapons and armor. Healers roll +1d on rolls related to medical artifacts and devices. Rovers receive an additional bonus to understand ancient doors, locks, traps, and other security systems. These bonuses still apply to the technology roll as well as to Intelligence checks related to learning or using the technology.
 
Assisting and teaching: One character must volunteer to be the primary technology user; that character makes the technology roll using their current technology die for that object. Up to three characters may assist, if they have sufficient intelligence. Both the technology user and all assistants may expend Luck to improve the technology roll, and all assistants suffer the consequences of a poor roll. To serve as an assistant, a character must have a minimum Intelligence of 13 (or Int modifier +1). A technology user can have two assistants as long as one assistant has a minimum Intelligence of 16 (or Int modifier +2), and three assistants as long as one has a minimum Intelligence of 18 (or Int modifier +3). Add the Intelligence modifier AND the Luck modifier of each assistant to the technology roll, along with any expended Luck.
 
When a technology user teaches another character to use a piece of technology, the student must roll a d20 to make a DC 10 Intelligence check, modified by their Artifact check bonus, to learn what the teacher knows. On a natural 1, the artifact is permanently broken and inflicts maximum damage on the student and the learner. On a successful Intelligence check, the student may now roll the same technology die as the teacher.
 
Describing technology: Until characters have attempted to use an artifact and begun to unravel its secrets, they should receive only an "abstract description" as explained in the MCC rules. Once they have a d12 or higher technology die, they have earned the right to a "literal description."
 
Judging advice: This alternate rule is intended to create a mini-game out of learning to use ancient artifacts. As such, it is probably too cumbersome to use with every artifact the characters find. Instead, I recommend using different approaches depending on the nature of the artifact. Trinkets and other extremely simple artifacts might work automatically. Single-use artifacts might still allow a d20 technology die from the very beginning. Learning to use one artifact might grant a bonus - or even allow the characters to use the same technology die - for any similar objects.
 
 
Table: Artifact Check Results
 
1     The artifact breaks irreparably and inflicts maximum damage (or 1d6, for artifacts with no damage listed) to all characters within a range of 10' (or further, if applicable based on the artifact).
 
2-3   The artifact breaks and needs major repairs. It inflicts 1d3 damage on the user and all assistants.
 
4-6   The artifact breaks and needs minor repairs.
 
7-11   The artifact doesn't function, but isn't broken. However, a piece is missing, a part is knocked out of position, a control is on the wrong setting. The device won't activate until a DC 12 Intelligence check makes it functional again.
 
12-13   The artifact activates for one use, but its operation is still not understood. Another technology roll must be made before it can be used again. Further technology rolls use a d12 technology die.
 
14-16   The artifact activates and is minimally understood. It can be used for 1d3 uses, then another technology roll must be made before it can be used again. Further technology rolls use a d14 technology die.
 
17-19   The artifact activates and its operation is basically understood. Additional ammunition or power sources can be used to reload the artifact if they're available. The artifact can be used for 1d3 game sessions, then it needs minor repairs and another technology roll must be made before it can be used again. Further technology rolls use a d16 technology die.
 
20-26   The artifact activates and its operation is well understood. Minor repairs may be attempted with a DC 12 Intelligence check and the correct tools and materials. The artifact can be used for 1d4 game sessions, then it needs major repairs and another technology roll must be made before it can be used again. Further technology rolls use a d20 technology die.
 
27-33   The artifact activates and its operation is precisely understood. Minor repairs may be attempted without rolling a check. Major repairs may be attempted with the correct tools and materials and a DC 12 Intelligence check. The artifact can be used for 1d6 game sessions, then it breaks irreparably and needs to be replaced. Further technology rolls use a d24 technology die.
 
34-35   The artifact activates and its operation is precisely understood. Major and minor repairs may be attempted without rolling a check. A duplicate artifact can be constructed with the proper materials, parts, and tools and DC 12 Intelligence check. The artifact can be used for 1d8 game sessions, then it breaks irreparably and needs to be replaced. Further technology rolls use a d30 technology die.
 
36+     The artifact activates and its operation is precisely understood. Major and minor repairs, and even the construction of a duplicate artifact can be attempted without rolling a check. No further technology rolls are needed for this object. It can be operated at-will, and no greater understanding can be achieved by examining it. The technological principles underlying the artifact can be understood by making a DC 24 Intelligence check. Once these principles are understood, new artifacts can be designed by following those principles, using correct materials, parts, and tools, and a DC 12 Intelligence check.
 
 
Example: Lily is a post-apocalyptic scavenger, familiar with TL 3 automatic firearms. When Lily meets Jean, a time-traveler from the far future, she steals Jean's fazer-pistol and threatens to shoot Jean with it unless someone explains why cyborgs are attacking. Jean promises to protect Lily, and manages to persuade her to return the pistol unfired. Curious to know what would have happened, Lily's player rolls d10 and adds Lily's Intelligence modifier (+0 for Int 12) plus her artifact check bonus (+2 for a 1st level Rover), subtracts the fazer-pistol's Complexity (-6), and gets a total of 0. Jean says "It was set to overload. If you had shot me, it would have exploded and killed us both." Feeling embarrassed, Lily says "It was my first raygun." Later, they find a hard-light hologram of a 1920s machine gun, and Lily is able to use it without making a technology roll at all. Together, Jean and Lily repel the cyborg invasion!

GFA18 - MCC Ranger

This is the last of my three 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac pieces about adding additional human classes to MCC. The original DCC Ranger was written by Raskal and published in CRAWL! no 6: Classic Class Collection. Rather than presenting the complete class, I offer suggested modifications needed to make the Ranger work in the Terra AD setting. My concept for rangers in the post-apocalyptic second Stone Age is pretty similar to their concept in other games, I think. Unlike the bard and paladin, they didn't need much re-imagining. Instead, what they needed were rules tweaks to account for the different weapons technology, different monster ecology, and different wilderness available in Terra AD. Keith Garrett edited this and the other pieces in this series, and Karim provided the art.
 
 
MCC Ranger
Rangers in the world of Terra A.D. are very similar to their counterparts in the Ancient world. They are tough wilderness warriors, living at the fringes of tribal areas. They train to survive in wilderness areas and act as guides to those crossing dangerous regions. They excel at martial combat against their favored enemies, and have a keen expertise in stealth and survival.
 
Archery expert ranger path: When firing into melee, the ranger can ignore the 50% chance to hit an ally engaged in the fight. In addition, the ranger can perform Mighty Deeds of Arms as a DCC warrior when fighting with a blowgun, sling, shortbow, or longbow.
 
Two-weapon expert ranger path: The ranger can fight with two one-handed weapons as though their Agility was 16 (although staff and spear are one-handed weapons, the ranger can only effectively wield one weapon of such size at a time; the second weapon must be smaller, such as a dagger or club). The ranger can perform Mighty Deeds of Arms as a DCC warrior when fighting with two weapons.
 
Wilderness skills: Rangers train to survive in both hostile natural environments and the very hostile, very un-natural environment of the ruins of ancient cities. Although their skills are still mostly only relevant out-of-doors, they function as well amidst Ancient ruins as they do in the wastelands. For example, rangers can climb sky-scraping ancient buildings as easily as they climb other steep cliffs, find water dripping from the tap of abandoned plumbing just as they find natural springs, and hide in alleyways as easily as they do behind natural outcroppings.
 
Rangers are considered trained in the following skills, and receive a bonus to skill checks equal to their class level plus their ability score modifier: Climb (Agility), Find and neutralize natural/Ancient traps (Agility), Sneak and hide (Agility), Strider (Agility), Survival (Personality).
 
Favored enemies: At 1st level, the ranger must choose one type of favored enemy from the following list: androids, cyborgs, devils, holograms, manimals, mutants, plantients, robots, slimes, horrors (creatures with a mutation check bonus special property). At 3rd, 6th, and 9th levels, the ranger can choose another favored enemy, so long as they've fought that enemy before.
 
Darwinian luck: Pure strain humans are very lucky as a species. Rangers regenerate spent Luck at the rate of 1 point for each 24 hour period.
 
AI recognition: Because of their close resemblance to the Ancient Ones, all pure strain humans (including rangers) gain a natural +2 to AI recognition rolls.
 
Archaic alignment: Rangers may begin as members of either The Clan of Cog or The Curators alignments.
 
Artifact check bonus: Rangers have a natural affinity for understanding the artifacts of the ancients, resulting in an added bonus to their artifact checks. Rangers use the artifact check bonus recommended for DCC clerics and thieves. Lvl 1-2 ACB +3, Lvl 3-4 ACB +5, Lvl 5-7 ACB +7, Lvl 8-9 ACB +9, Lvl 10 ACB +10

GFA18 - MCC Paladin

My second 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article about additional pure-strain human classes re-imagines the Paladin. The original DCC Paladin was written by Jose Lira and published in CRAWL! no 6: Classic Class Collection. Rather than presenting the complete class, I offer suggested modification needed to make the Paladin work in the Terra AD setting. My vision of paladins for MCC is that they're fanatics devoted human purity and/or to the Patron AI satellites. The bits about pantheons and alignment, I think, really drive home both how nasty paladins are and how different they are from other characters in MCC. My occupation list and starting equipment list both imply a certain amount of inequality and animosity between pure strain humans and other character types; paladins embody this attitude to the extreme.
   
To avoid just making bards and paladins into lesser shamans, my goal was to sort of divide the patrons in half, give one set to the bards, the other set to the paladins, and leave GAEA for the shamans alone. I didn't quite achieve that, because while paladins start out invoking one of the security-related patrons, alignment restrictions prevent them from adopting the other two security satellites. Instead they'll eventually learn wetware related to other, non-security patrons in the same Pantheon, and thus slightly overlap with bards at higher levels. Keith Garrett edited this and the other pieces in this series, and Karim provided the art.
 
 
MCC Paladin
Paladins in the world of Terra A.D. are fanatics who revere the patron AIs. They are martially skilled and train rigorously to serve their pantheon. They wield a small bit of wetware programming and are living agents of the AIs.
 
Choosing a pantheon: At 1st level, a paladin selects an alliance of patron AIs to worship: either the Mainframe of Order, the Grid of Net Neutrality, or the Matrix of Entropy. At 2nd level, a paladin selects a specific AI to serve, while remaining loyal to the pantheon as a whole. This patron will grant the paladin access to wetware programs of terrible power, including the program Invoke Patron AI. Because of their role, paladins almost always adopt security-minded patrons, especially HEXACODA, ACHROMA, and MANGALA. At higher levels, a paladin may adopt additional patron AIs from the same pantheon, but they always maintain an affinity for the first Orbital God they served.
 
Archaic alignment: Paladins adhere strictly to their alignment and devote themselves to their pantheon's cause. Their devotion to the patron AI's principles is absolute. Paladins may begin as members of The Clan of Cog, The Curators, and they are the only player characters who may be members of The Gene Police archaic alignment. In addition, paladins adopt the ancient systems of thought that form the basis of the patron AIs' philosophical alignments: Law, Neutrality, and Chaos.
 
Smite: Paladins can empower their weapons against those deemed unworthy by their AI patrons. Instead of their regular attack bonus, paladins can add their Smite Die to their attack and damage rolls when attacking mutants, manimals, plantients, and horrors (any creatures with a mutation check bonus as a special property).
 
Magic: Like shamans, paladins can run wetware programs granted them by their AI patrons. Paladins add their Personality modifier to their spell check, and may use glowburn by consuming radioactive substances while running a program. Rather than risking disapproval like DCC paladins, MCC paladins risk patron taint from spellcasting.
 
Holy deeds: Rather than risking disapproval like DCC paladins, MCC paladins risk patron taint when they perform holy deeds.
 
Lay on hands: Paladins have the power to channel ambient atmospheric nanites controlled by their patron to heal the wounded. Unlike DCC paladins, MCC paladins can use this power to repair robots and holograms, though only those that are aligned with the correct AI pantheon. Because of the differences between repair and biological healing, all AIs count as "opposed" for the purposes of determining the holy deed result. All pure strain humans count as "same", mutants count as "adjacent", manimals count as "opposed", and plantients cannot be healed. The paladin must physically touch the wounds and concentrate for 1 action.
 
Fallen paladin: Each day an MCC paladin receives any patron taint, they gain one point on the Fallen Paladin table. As with DCC paladins, using their holy powers in ways that contradict the will of the patron AIs risks incurring additional points directly. Like DCC paladins, these points do not reset each day, and must be erased by paying real sacrifices to atone and be redeemed in the eyes of the AI patrons.
 
Darwinian luck: Pure strain humans are very lucky as a species, but paladins sacrifice much of this when taking on a patron AI. Paladins regenerate spent Luck at the rate of 1 point per 7-day period.
 
AI recognition: Because of their close resemblance to the Ancient Ones, all pure strain humans (including paladins) gain a natural +2 to AI recognition rolls.
 
Artifact check bonus: Paladins have a natural affinity for understanding the artifacts of the ancients, resulting in an added bonus to their artifact checks. Paladins use the artifact check bonus recommended for DCC warriors. Lvl 1-4 ACB +2, Lvl 5-8 ACB +6, Lvl 9-10 +8.

GFA18 - MCC Bard

Although I'm not trying to break my writing into its smallest publishable units, I thought the next article from the 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac would blog better in three parts. My alternate character creation rules for Mutant Crawl Classics result in more pure-strain humans than the MCC rules. Because of this, I recommend adding more human classes. 
   
The original DCC Bard was written by Jose Lira and published in CRAWL! no 6: Classic Class Collection. Rather than presenting the complete class, I offer suggested modifications needed to make the Bard work in the Terra AD setting. My vision of bards in Terra AD is that they're lore-collectors who inadvertently become hackers, because the old stories they learn let them reprogram the machines that run the world. Bards get access to the non security-focused patrons, and leave GAEA as someone who only Shamans can invoke. Keith Garrett edited this and the other pieces in this series, and Karim provided the art for the series.
 
 
MCC Bard
Bards in the world of Terra A.D. travel and perform, giving hope and comfort, recording events and tragedies, remembering the fallen and lost, inspiring others to greatness.
 
Magic: Unlike shamans, bards are dabblers who do not serve the AI patrons; they hack them. Their inquisitive nature and tendency to collect odd bits of lore and old tales exposes them to the ability to access, download, and run wetware programs by spoofing logins, falsifying credentials, and phishing older passwords that still check out.
 
Because of the way that bards access wetware programs, they cannot use glowburn as shamans do. Bards access wetware without the patron AI's knowledge, utilizing a series of callbacks, backdoors, scheduled tasks, scripted replies, and automated responses to run their programs in the background of an AI's consciousness. These procedures are memorized by rote and not fully understood by the bards who use them. As a result, bards learn wetware programs completely randomly. When a bard reaches a level to acquire a new program, the player rolls to determine which program the bard has learned to access (see below). Re-roll if the bard already knows the program.
 
Table: Bard Wetware Program Selection

• Level 1-3: Roll 1d8: (1) Biological ark; (2) Invoke HALE-E; (3) Invoke ME10; (4) Invoke TETRAPLEX; (5) Invoke UKUR; (6) Nanogram; (7) Query; (8) Sightblinder.

• Level 4-6: Roll 1d6: (1) EM spike; (2) Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation; (3) Memory worm; (4) Polygons; (5) Scripted illusion (from CRAWL! 6, by Yves Larochelle); (6) Ventriloquism

• Level 7-10: Roll 1d4: (1) Attune with artifact; (2) Restore backup; (3) Trans-replication; (4) Virtual reality

 
Lore: The lore roll can be used to remember the purpose or function of an artifact, but not to remember its operation or improve the artifact check.
 
Darwinian luck: Pure strain humans are very lucky as a species. Bards regenerate spent Luck at a rate of 1 point for each 24 hour period. Unlike DCC bards, MCC bards do not apply their Luck modifier to talent checks or lore rolls.
 
AI recognition: Because of their close resemblance to the Ancient Ones, all pure strain humans (including bards) gain a natural +2 to AI recognition rolls.
 
Archaic alignment: Bards may begin as members of either The Clan of Cog or The Curators archaic alignments.
 
Artifact check bonus: Bards have a natural affinity for understanding the artifacts of the ancients, resulting in an added bonus to artifact checks. Bards use the artifact check bonus recommended for DCC wizards and elves. Lvl 1-2 ACB +6, Lvl 3-4 ACB +8, Lvl 5-7 ACB +10, Lvl 8-9 ACB + 12, Lvl 10 ACB +14.

GFA18 - Alternate Plantients for MCC

My fifth 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article (and this is the last one I'm numbering, I swear) is a list of alternate plantient appearances for Mutant Crawl Classics. Like my alternate manimals, this is a follow-up to my earlier thoughts about MCC's plantients and to my post about Future Evolution. You may notice that common farm and yard plants get top billing here. For some of the plant types, I listed very common types as suggestions. For others, there were either too many options (I don't want to list every kind of flower I can think of, what could possibly be the point of that?) or too few (does anyone really have multiple strong images of ferns in their head, and need a table to help them decide which one to imagine now?) I think the player should be allowed the leeway to describe their plantient looking the way they want - which could include, for example, choosing to look like a pine cone instead of a pine tree if they rolled a 14. As with my other posts in this series, Keith Garrett made it better with editing, and Karim made it better with art.
   

Art by Karim

 
Table: Plantient Body Type
Roll 1d6: (1) Human body-plan with plantlike features; (2-4) Human-plant hybrid or anthropomorphic plant; (5-6) Sentient plant with roughly human-sized body, opposable thumbs, fine manual dexterity, and terrestrial locomotion.
   
   
Table: Plantient Subtype (roll 1d24)
 
1     Cereal grain - Roll 1d4: (1) rice; (2) wheat; (3) corn; (4) oats.
 
2     Leafy vegetable - Roll 1d3: (1) celery; (2) lettuce; (3) greens.
 
3     Underground - Roll 1d3: (1) bulb such as garlic/onion; (2) root such as potato/carrot; (3) rhizome such as ginger/lotus.
 
4     Vines - Roll 1d6: (1) berry/grape; (2) melon; (3) pea/bean; (4) tomato/pepper; (5) squash/gourd; (6) flowering/leaf.
 
5     Herb - Roll 1d4: (1) basil; (2) mint; (3) rosemary; (4) lavender.
 
6-7   Flower
 
8     Grass
 
9     Cluster of shoots - Roll 1d5: (1) asparagus; (2) sansevieria; (3) reed; (4) bamboo; (5) birch.
 
10     Bush/shrub
 
11     Fruit tree
 
12     Tropical - Roll 1d4: (1) palm; (2) coconut; (3) pineapple; (4) banana.
 
13     Leafy deciduous tree - Roll 1d4: (1) permanent spring flowers; (2) permanent summer green; (3) permanent autumn colors; (4) foliage progresses each time plantient gains level.
 
14    Pine conifer
 
15    Fern
 
16    Carnivorous plant - Roll 1d2: (1) flytrap; (2) pitcher plant.
 
17     Cactus or succulent
 
18     Seaweed, sponge, or coral
   
19     Fungus - Roll 1d3: (1) mushroom; (2) toadstool; (3) morel.
 
20     Moss, wort, lichen, or mold
 
21     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 once on this table and 1d20 once on the Mutant Appearance table.
 
22     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 once on this table and 1d20 once on the Manimal Subtype table (the character is still considered a plantient).
 
23     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 twice on this table.
 
24     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 twice on this table and 1d24 once on the Mutant Appearance table.

      

GFA18 - Alternate Manimals for MCC

My fourth 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article is a list of alternate manimal appearances for Mutant Crawl Classics. By now, I'm sure every MCC referee has their own list of alternate manimals, but consider this my hat thrown into the ring. In my view, a good list has two characteristics - first, it's inclusive enough that no one reading it immediately thinks of an animal they want that isn't on the list (and if someone really wants a specific animal? don't make them roll, just let them have it), and second, it's exclusive enough that it doesn't include any animal that you have to look up before you're able to imagine it. Ideally the list is also weighted in some way that certain general broad types of animals more common than others (and also so that, for example, me knowing 10 times as many dog breeds as cat breeds doesn't mean that dogs are 10 times more common than cats). This is a follow-up to my own earlier post about manimals in MCC. This is also an example of me trying to apply some of the ideas in Future Evolution, so farm animals, pets, and urban pests are more prominent than animals that, say, only interact with humanity in our zoos. Keith Garrett edited all my articles about MCC for the 2018 GFA, and Karim provided all the art for this series.
   
   
Table: Manimal Body Type
Roll 1d6: (1-2) human body-plan with animal features; (3-5) human-animal hybrid or anthropomorphic animal; (6) sentient animal with roughly human-sized body, expressive face, opposable thumbs, and fine manual dexterity.
   
   
Table: Manimal Subtype (roll 1d24)
   
1     Primate - Roll 1d6: (1) gorilla; (2) chimpanzee; (3) orangutan; (4) baboon or mandrill; (5) monkey; (6) australopithecus.
   
2-3   Carnivorous mammal - Roll 1d12: (1) small-breed dog; (2) large-breed dog; (3) coyote, wild dog, or jackal; (4) fox or wolf; (5) tasmanian devil or thylacine; (6) hyena; (7) domestic cat; (8) bobcat, leopard, panther, puma, or cheetah; (9) tiger or lion; (10) ferret, weasel, or badger; (11) bear; (12) dire wolf, sabretooth tiger, or cave bear.
   
4-6   Herbivorous mammal - Roll 1d16: (1-2) cow; (3) bison, buffalo, auroch, gnu, or yak; (4-5) donkey, mule, pony, or horse; (6) zebra or giraffe; (7) pig; (8) warthog or boar; (9) sheep or goat; (10-11) deer, antelope, or gazelle; (12) elk or moose; (13) alpaca, llama, or camel; (14) hippo or rhino; (15) elephant; (16) woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, or mastodon.
   
7-9   Omnivorous mammal - Roll 1d20: (1-2) mouse or rat; (3) mole; (4-5) chipmunk or squirrel; (6-7) hamster, gerbil, or guinea pig; (8) pika, marmot, capybara, or wombat; (9) beaver or otter; (10) groundhog, prairie dog, or meerkat; (11-12) rabbit; (13) kangaroo; (14-15) opossum, raccoon, or skunk; (16) red panda, tanuki, or lemur; (17) panda bear, koala bear, or sloth; (18) hedgehog or porcupine; (19) anteater, armadillo, or pangolin; (20) megatherium or glyptodon.
   
10-11   Amphibian or reptile - Roll 1d10: (1) frog or toad; (2) salamander or newt; (3) iguana or lizard; (4) gila monster, komodo dragon, or goanna; (5) gecko or chameleon; (6) turtle or tortoise; (7) snake; (8) alligator or crocodile; (9) tyrannosaurus or velociraptor; (10) brontosaurus, stegosaurus, or triceratops
   
12-14   Bird or avian - Roll 1d24: (1) chicken or turkey; (2) duck, goose, or swan; (3) pigeon; (4) canary or parakeet; (5) cockatoo, toucan, or parrot; (6) cardinal, robin, or bluejay; (7) songbird; (8) hummingbird; (9) raven or crow; (10) eagle or hawk; (11) owl; (12) condor or vulture; (13) peacock; (14) pelican, spoonbill, or stork; (15) seagull or albatross; (16) penguin; (17) puffin, auk, or dodo; (18) flamingo; (19) iris, heron, or crane; (20) ostrich or emu; (21) bat; (22) kiwi, platypus, or echidna; (23) moth; (24) pterodactyl or archaeopteryx.
   
15-17   Fish or aquatic - Roll 1d20: (1) goldfish or clownfish; (2) salmon, carp, bass, or trout; (3) catfish or plecostomus; (4) sardine or anchovy; (5) puffer or blowfish; (6) lionfish; (7) swordfish, sawfish, or hammerhead; (8) piranha or shark; (9) manta or eel; (10) porpoise or dolphin; (11) seal, manatee, or walrus; (12) whale; (13) seahorse; (14) seaslug; (15) starfish or urchin; (16) jellyfish, octopus, or squid; (17) oyster or clam; (18) lobster, crab, or shrimp; (19) handfish or coelacanth; (20) placoderm, ichthyosaur, or plesiosaur.
   
18-19   Insect - Roll 1d16: (1) flea or tick; (2) cockroach; (3) mosquito; (4) spider; (5) fly; (6) ant or termite; (7) bee or wasp; (8-9) beetle; (10) grasshopper or cricket; (11) mantis; (12) scorpion; (13) worm, snail, or slug; (14) caterpillar, centipede, or millipede; (15-16) butterfly.
   
20     Protist - Roll 1d14: (1) amoeba; (2) paramecium; (3) dinoflagellate; (4) yeast; (5) algae; (6) diatom; (7) radiolarian; (8) streptococcus; (9) staphylococcus; (10) virus; (11) bdelloid rotifer; (12) tardigrade; (13) nematode; (14) slime mold.
   
21-22   Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 once on this table and 1d20 once on the Mutant Appearance table.
   
23     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 twice on this table.
   
24     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 twice on this table and 1d24 once on the Mutant Appearance table.

     

     

I organized these more according to bodyplan and appearance rather than actual genetic lineage, which is why dinosaurs are being counted as reptiles instead of birds, while bats are counted as birds rather than mammals.

     

Umm ... I'm preeetty sure they are ...

     

GFA18 - Alternate Mutants for MCC

My third 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article is an alternate list of cosmetic mutation for mutant characters (or whenever else you need one, like if your starting equipment includes an animal). I've previously discussed my concern with MCC's mutations, and this was an attempt to create a list that accomplished what I said I wanted. While I didn't want the list to be too long, I also didn't want anyone reading it to immediately say "but what about ... ?" as their first thought after reading it. I also tried to organize it so that the mutations get weirder the higher numbers you roll. Keith Garret edited this article, and Karim drew the art that accompanies the whole series in the GFA.
   
   
Table: Mutant Appearance (roll 1d24)
   
1-3   Skin Color - Roll 1d10: (1) bright red; (2) neon orange; (3) lemon yellow; (4) neon green; (5) bright blue; (6) purple; (7) snow white; (8) metallic (roll 1d2: (1) golden/bronze/brass; (2) silvery/leaden/steel); (9) translucent/invisible; (10) outré (roll 1d5: (1) infrared; (2) ulfire; (3) dolm; (4) jale; (5) ultraviolet).
   
4-5   Skin Texture - Roll 1d10: (1) mottled, spotted, or striped; (2) banded or segmented; (3) lumpy, warty, or wrinkly; (4) covered in fur or feathers; (5) covered in quills or spines; (6) covered in scales (roll 1d4: (1) fish; (2) amphibian; (3) reptilian; (4) pangolin); (7) chitinous; (8) shifting pattern indicates emotion; (9) inorganic material (roll 1d3: (1) metallic; (2) stony or rocky; (3) crystalline); (10) sheds completely once/day.
 
6-8   Eyes - Roll 1d8: (1) one; (2) three; (3) slitted or barbell pupil; (4) unnatural iris color (roll 1d6 on skin color subtable); (5) solid white or black; (6) glowing/fiery; (7) compound insect; (8) eye stalks (roll 1d2: (1) short stalks growing horizontally from temples; (2) long stalks growing vertically from forehead).
   
9-10   Mouth - Roll 1d10: (1) special diet of inorganic material; (2) sharp fanged teeth; (3) metallic or crystalline teeth; (4) manimal muzzle; (5) beak or duckbill; (6) extra long neck; (7) strange tongue (roll 1d3: (1) black; (2) forked; (3) extra long); (8) 2d4 pairs of facial appendages (roll 1d4: (1) cat whiskers; (2) tiny tentacles; (3) catfish barbels; (4) insect pedipalps); (9) horrible mouth (roll 1d4: (1) insect; (2) leech; (3) throat pouch or sac; (4) oversized with unhinged jaw); (10) two mouths (roll 1d3: (1) two rows of teeth; (2) second mouth below original on oversized chin; (3) second alien pharyngeal mouth emerges from throat).
   
11-12   Head - Roll 1d10: (1) pointed elfin ears; (2) manimal ears; (3) elongated nose; (4) manimal nose; (5) neanderthal brow ridges; (6) alien bone structure of forehead; (7) antennae; (8) manimal horns; (9) acephaly (no head, face on torso); (10) bicephaly (roll 1d3: (1) 1d3 extra faces on head; (2) 1d2 extra human heads; (3) 1d2 extra manimal heads).
   
13-15   Hair - Roll 1d8: (1) unnatural color (roll 1d6 on the skin color subtable); (2) otherworldly color (roll 1d4+6 on skin color subtable); (3) permanent impossible hairstyle; (4) glorious waist-length beard; (5) made of quills; (6) made of feathers; (7) made of petals or leaves; (8) hairless revealing oversized or oddly-shaped skull.
   
16-17   Arms and Hands - Roll 1d10: (1) three or four fingers per hand; (2) six or seven fingers per hand; (3) clawed fingernails; (4) manimal paw; (5) webbing between fingers; (6) pincer instead of hand; (7) giant hands or child hands; (8) elongated arms with second elbow; (9) extra arms (1d2 additional pairs); (10) tentacles (roll 1d2: (1) arms replaced by tentacles; (2) hands replaced by mass of tentacles).
   
18-19   Legs and Feet - Roll 1d10: (1) six or seven toes per foot; (2) hands instead of feet; (3) manimal paw feet; (4) hooves instead of feet; (5) bird talon feet; (6) flippers instead of feet; (7) backward bending knees; (8) elongated legs with second knee; (9) legs fused into single appendage; (10) tentacles (roll 1d2: (1) legs replaced by tentacles; (2) feet replaced by mass of tentacles).
   
20     Bodily form - Roll 1d8: (1) vestigial tail; (2) manimal tail; (3) decorated spine (roll 1d3: (1) sawtooth spikes; (2) sail crest; (3) bony plates); (4) serpentine; (5) spherical; (6) trilateral symmetry (arms and legs come in groups of three instead of pairs); (7) centaurian (four legs, upper body unaffected); (8) geometric body (roll 1d4: (1) cylinders and spheres; (2) cubes and rectangles; (3) pyramid; (4) dodecahedron).
   
21-22   Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 twice on this table (if the same type is rolled twice, the mutant with have an asymmetric body that incorporates both appearances).
   
23     Multiple mutations - Roll 1d20 and 1d24 on this table (cumulative. If another result of 21+ is rolled, the mutant will have three or more mutations).
   
24    Multiple mutations - Roll 1d24 twice on this table.

GFA18 - Alternate Trade Goods & Equipment for MCC

My second 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac article is an alternate starting equipment table for Mutant Crawl Classics. I wanted a longer list than the original to establish the "common" items that provide guidelines for "pricing" items for barter. (The price in c refers to the "cred value" or each item, although again, I would envision this as credit for bartering, not cashing out.) Circuit boards get a special shout-out from other possible trinkets because my paradigmatic mental image for MCC is a cavewoman discovering an intact green computer circuit board in an ancient trash pile. Keith Garrett edited this article, and Karim drew the perfect art.
   

Art by Karim.

   
Table: Additional Beginning Equipment
01-02   Sharpened stick+, 1d3/1d5, 1c
03-04   Wooden staff, 1d4, 3c
05-06   Wooden spear, 1d6, 6c
07-09   Wooden club, 1d4, 3c
10     Wooden greatclub*, 1d6, 10c
11-13   Stone dagger+, 1d4/1d10, 3c
14     Stone axe, 1d6, 10c
15-16   Stone spear, 1d8, 21c
17     Warclub*, 1d10, 28c
19     Greatspear*, 1d12, 36c
20     Blowgun and 1d12 darts+, 1d3/1d5, 4c
21-22   Sling, 1d4, 2c
23     Shortbow and 1d12 arrows*, 1d6, 30c
24     Longbow and 1d12 arrows*, 1d8, 52c
25     Bundle of 1d6 darts, 1c
26     Bundle of 1d6 arrows, 5c
27-28   Bison horn headdress, +1AC, 10c
29      Antler headdress, +1AC, 10c
30-31   Leather shield*, +1AC, 10c
32     Stretched-hide tower shield*, +2AC, 20c
33-34   Heavy woven cloak**, +1AC, 10c
35-36   Fur cloak**, +2AC, 20c
37-38   Hide armor**, +3AC, 30c
39     Leather boots, 20c
40-41   1 lb Fresh meat, 2c
42     1 lb Dried meat, 4c
43-44   1 lb Fresh fruit/vegetables, 1c
45     1 lb Dried fruit/vegetables, 2c
46     String of 1d6 fresh fish, 5c
47     Chicken, 5c
48-50   Waterskin, 1c
51     Leather rucksack, 2c
52     Woven back-basket, 2c
53     Clay bowl, 5c
54     Clay jar/jug, 10c
55     Clay pot/urn, 15c
56-57   Unfinished fur pelt, 5c
58-59   Unfinished leather hide, 5c
60-61   Unfinished woven cloth, 10c
62      Woven blanket, 20c
63-64   Flint firestarter, 5c
65-67   Bundle of 1d3 resin-soaked branches (as torches), 3c
68     Bundle of firewood, 3c
69     Sheaf of 1d6 blank birchbark pages, 10c
70-71   50' Hide cordage, 5c
72     50' Hemp rope, 10c
73-74   Knapping stone, 5c
75     Bone awl and stone scraper, 10c
76     Bone needle and sinew thread, 10c
77     Flint fishhook and 10' sinew line, 5c
78     Waterproof air bladder (from adult bison), 10c
79     Conch shell horn, 25c
80     Lyre, 50c
81     Shell necklace, 20c
82     Bone necklace, 10c
83     Bear claw necklace, 20c
84     Small bag of seashells, 40c
85     Small bag of colorful rocks/gemstones, 50c
86     Jar of paint/dye, 35c
87     Radioactive "sick rock" necklace (+1 radburn/glowburn, wearer gains DCC corruption once/level), 50c
88     Mutant bodypart trophy necklace, 50c
89     Manimal pelt trophy cloak**, +1AC, 100c
90     Dried plantient trophy shield, +1AC, 100c
91     Small circuit board, 50c
92-93   Small Ancient trinket of judge's choice, 50c
94     Large circuit board, 100c
95-96   Large ancient trinket of judge's choice, 100c
97     Wolf pup - 1d3 bite (HD 1d4, matures DCC common wolf at 1st level), 50c
98     Elk calf - 1d4+2 slam (HD 3d6, matures to DCC horse at 1st level), 100c
99     Spider-goat kid 2d3 slam (HD 4d4, matures to MCC capropod at 1st level), 100c
00     Telepathic pet ear-mouse - 1d3 bite (matures to DCC neutral wizard's familiar and bonds with owner at 1st level), 250c
   
   
Notes
* Characters using two-handed weapons use a d16 on initiative checks. Shields cannot be used with two-handed weapons.
   
** Characters wearing a woven cloak or fur cloak roll a d8 Fumble die. Characters wearing hide armor roll a d12 Fumble die.
   
+ These weapons are particularly effective when used with the element of surprise. A ranger or rover who succeeds in attacking a target from behind or when the target is otherwise unaware with one of these weapons uses the second damage value listed. All other characters and other attacks use the first value.
   
Characters who eat fresh food do not need water for the day; character who eat dried food need a separate water ration. However, fresh food is subject to spoilage.
   
   
In retrospect, I wish I'd specified that anything that provides armor (horned headdress, shield) adds +1 to your fumble die, in addition to the increase from wearing cloak or armor. (And really, the antler headdress or tower shield should probably add +2.) Oh well, consider that an optional house rule. 
     
I should probably also write a list of very basic services and their cred value as well. In a way, the goods are like services, in that they're the end-product of someone doing the work to make the finished good. I suppose it's as Marx said, that all capital is just concretized labor, just in a more immediate sense than we're typically used to seeing today. The most common service you'll pay for of course is extra guards, porters, and foragers to accompany you on your quest.

GFA18 - Alternate Character Creation for MCC

My first article for the 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac is an alternate genotype and occupation table for Mutant Crawl Classics. I wrote it as a follow-up to my own earlier post about wanting more occupations besides "hunter" and "gatherer" in MCC. This article was edited by Keith Garrett, and the wonderful art that accompanies it in the GFA18 was drawn by Karim. 
   

Art by Karim

   
Table: Character Genotype & Occupation
01     Human animal trainer - club, wolf pup*
02     Human artisan - club, clay pot of ochre paint and hide painted with pictorial history of tribe
03     Human brewer - club, skin of beer
04     Human butcher - flint handaxe, leather sack with 1d12 lbs of dried meat+
05     Human canoe maker - stone dagger, canoe
06     Human chieftain's assistant - warclub (as polearm), bearskin cloak (+2 AC) and bear claw necklace
07     Human cord maker - stone dagger, 50' of hide cordage
08     Human dreamseeker's apprentice - staff, cracked holo-crystal that projects staticky softlight image of AI# and fetish doll depicting AI from image
09-10   Human fisher - harpoon (as javelin), 10' sinew line with flint fishhook
11     Human flamebearer - stone spear, clay urn of glowing embers
12     Human fletcher - shortbow, 1d12 flint arrows
13-14   Human flintknapper - flint handaxe, 1 lb of flint
15-16   Human forager - wooden shovel (as staff), trinket of Ancient technology##
17     Human fowler - stone dagger, 1d6 chickens
18-19   Human gatherer - stone dagger, basket with 1d6 lbs of fresh plants++
20-21   Human guard - stone spear, 1d6 torches
22     Human healer - obsidian dagger, bone needle and sinew thread
23     Human herbalist - club, 1 lb of medicinal/psychotropic herbs
24     Human herder - staff, elk calf**
25     Human horticulturist - stone garden hoe, basket with 1d12 lbs of dried plants++
26-27   Human hunter - stone spear, leather sack with 1d6 lbs of fresh meat+
28      Human lorekeeper's apprentice - club, hide drum and blanket sewn with pictorial history of tribe
29     Human orphan - wooden spear (as javelin), stone fetish of former tribe's patron AI#
30-31   Human potter - club, 1 lb of clay
32     Human scout - stone spear, piece of signaling quartz
33      Human shaman's assistant - dagger, divination bones and antler headdress (+1 AC)
34     Human slave - sling, necklace of broken circuit boards and tattered remnant of cloak painted with circuit diagram
35     Human stargazer - spear, glass lens and piece of meteoric iron
36-37   Human tanner - club, hide armor (+3 AC)
38-39   Human weaver - stone dagger, blanket
40     Human wheelwright - stone hammer (as club), wooden pullcart
41     Mutant canoe maker - stone dagger, canoe
42-43   Mutant fisher - harpoon (as javelin), 10' sinew line with flint fishhook
44   Mutant flamebearer - stone spear, clay urn of glowing embers
45   Mutant fletcher - shortbow, 1d12 flint arrows
46-47   Mutant flintknapper - flint handaxe, 1 lb of flint
48     Mutant forager - wooden shovel (as staff), piece of Ancient technology##
49-51   Mutant gatherer - stone dagger, basket with 1d6 lbs of fresh plants++
52-53   Mutant guard - stone spear, 1d6 torches
54     Mutant herder - staff, elk calf**
55     Mutant horticulturist - stone garden hoe (as mace), basket with 1d12 lbs of dried plants++
56-58   Mutant hunter - stone spear, leather sack with 1d6 lbs of fresh meat+
59-60   Mutant orphan - wooden spear (as javelin), stone fetish of former tribe's patron AI#
61-62   Mutant potter - club, 1 lb of clay
63     Mutant scout - stone spear, piece of signaling quartz
64-65   Mutant slave - sling, necklace of broken circuit boards and tattered remnant of cloak painted with circuit diagram
66-67   Mutant tanner - club, hide armor (+3 AC)
68-69   Mutant weaver - stone dagger, blanket
70     Mutant wheelwright - stone hammer (as club), wooden pullcart
71     Manimal animal trainer - club, wolf pup*
72     Manimal butcher - flint handaxe, leather sack with 1d12 lb of dried meat+
73     Manimal cord maker - stone dagger, 50' of hide cordage
74-75   Manimal fisher - harpoon (as javelin), 10' sinew line with flint fishhook
76-77   Manimal flintknapper - flint handaxe, 1 lb of flint
78     Manimal fowler - stone dagger, 1d6 chickens
79-80   Manimal guard - stone spear, 1d6 torches
81     Manimal healer - obsidian dagger, bone needle and sinew thread
82-84   Manimal herder - staff, elk calf**
85-87   Manimal hunter - stone spear, leather sack with 1d6 lbs of fresh meat+
88-89   Manimal tanner - club, hide armor (+3 AC)
90     Manimal weaver - stone dagger, blanket
91     Plantient brewer - club, skin of beer
92-93   Plantient gatherer - dagger, basket with 1d6 lb of plants++
94     Plantient herbalist - club, 1 lb of medicinal/psychotropic herbs
95-96   Plantient horticulturist - stone garden hoe (as mace), basket with 1d12 lbs of dried plants++
97     Plantient fletcher - shortbow, 1d12 flint arrows
98     Plantient potter - club, 1 lb of clay
99     Plantient scout - stone spear, piece of signaling quartz
00     Plantient weaver - stone dagger, blanket
 
 
Notes
* As DCC common wolf, -1d HD and damage, matures to full stats at 1st level, 50% chance of cosmetic mutation. If multiple in party, roll 1d6 for each: (1-2) wolf pup (as DCC common wolf); (3-4) puma kit (as DCC dire wolf); (5) bear cub (as DCC owlbear); (6) alligator (as DCC giant lizard).
 
** As DCC horse, -1d HD and damage, matures to full stats at 1st level, 50% chance of cosmetic mutation. If multiple in party, roll 1d8 for each: (1-2) elk calf (as DCC horse); (3-4) bison calf (as DCC warhorse); (5-6) goat kid (as DCC donkey/mule); (7) giant ant (as DCC giant worker ant); (8) beehive (as DCC insect swarm).
   
+ Roll 1d10 for meat type: (1-2) deer; (3-4) rabbit; (5-6) game fowl; (7-8) fish; (9) boar; (10) edible insects. Each lb of meat counts as 1 ration. Characters who eat fresh meat do not need water for the day; characters who eat dried meat need a separate water ration. However, fresh meat is subject to spoilage.
 
++ Roll 1d10 for plant type: (1-2) berries; (3-4) tree fruit; (5-6) leafy vegetables; (7-8) root vegetables; (9) nuts; (10) mushrooms. Each lb of plants counts as 1 ration. Characters who eat fresh plants do not need water for the day; characters who eat dried plants need a separate water ration. However, fresh plants are subject to spoilage.
   
# Roll 1d8 to determine patron: (1) GAEA; (2) HEXACODA; (3) ACHROMA; (4) HALE-E; (5) UKUR; (6) MANGALA; (7) ME10; (8) TETRAPLEX.
 
## Roll 1d20 for technology type. Results 1-9 are 50 cred trinkets, results 10-18 are 100 cred trinkets, results 19-20 are invaluable trade objects:
(1-4) small computer circuit board;
(5-7) cell phone: hand-sized "black mirror";
(8-9) garage-door opener: handheld plastic rock with metal clip, single button causes red light to blink when pushed; (10-13) large computer circuit board;
(14-16) tablet: head-sized "black mirror";
(17-18) remote entry key fob: small plastic rock with metal ring, four buttons make sounds and cause red light to blink when pushed, roll 1d4 for sound each time: (1) "Beep!"; (2) "Beep-beep!"; (3) "Beeeeep!"; (4) "Whoop-whoop-whoop! Whoop-whoop-whoop!";
(19) c-cell power cell;
(20) circuit board acts as universal replacement part, allows re-roll of any artifact check or AI recognition check, if re-roll is successful then circuit board can be used again, otherwise it’s lost.

Peter Ward & Alexis Rockman's Monsters I Want to Fight - The Future Evolutionaries

Future Evolution, written by Peter Ward, illustrated by Alexis Rockman, is not another After Man or another The Future is Wild.
  
Instead it's almost the antithesis.
  
Ward and Rockman don't imagine a future without humans or without our livestock and pets, where the remaining wild animals have re-inherited the Earth. They don't imagine a future full of new cool-looking megafauna, a return to 20-foot tall rodents and 100-foot long lizards.
  

Fig 1 - Possible future cladogram (bottom to top) - original dandelion, cactus-like, aquatic, arboreal, carnivorous, epiphytic. painted by Alexis Rockman

  
Ward posits (and Rockman paints) a future that is grounded in the likely continuation of both the human species and the current human civilization. The future they foresee is one of increasingly smaller and more isolated "island" habitats, where small ecosystems are separated from each other by impassable and inhospitable lines of building and infrastructure, where the farm and the garbage dump are at least as common of habitats as the forest and the prairie.
  
Their future is mostly full of small animals. There is, quite literally, no room in the world they see us building for animals even as large as the horse and the cow. Speaking of, their future is also mostly full of animals descended from livestock, from pets, from parasites and pests. They foresee us remaking a world that will have no room for today's wildlife, except in zoos, where they will be preserved as evolutionary dead-ends. Their future does see a re-proliferation of species, a branching out and diversification to re-fill all the abandoned ecological niches. But they predict that the progenitors will all be plants and animals that are connected to humans, the ones we raise, the ones that thrive because of or despite us. Many children, but few parents. A solipsistic world, where everything that exists lives because its ancestors had some connection to humanity, where everything disconnected from us has died out. (As I said, this future is virtually the opposite of Dougal Dixon's After Man, although it shares some similarity with the core conceit of Man After Man.)
  

Fig 2 - Possible future cladogram (bottom to top) - timber rattler, walking, pygmy, millipede, giant, flying, swimming types. painted by Alexis Rockman

   
They build their future world on eight principles, about how previous mass extinctions (and post-extinction recoveries) have gone, how the current ongoing one might be different and why.
  
For gaming purposes, most of these principles are irrelevant. But a few strike me as useful, especially if you move from the implicitly post-apocalyptic Dark Age setting of original D&D to the explicitly post-apocalyptic future world of Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World or Mutant Future or Crawling Under a Broken Moon or Mutant Crawl Classics.
  
"4. The modern mass extinction is different from any other in Earth's long history."
   
"Global terrestrial biodiversity will fall to end-Paleozoic levels because of continued extinction and the functional removal of barriers to migration."
   
"5. All mass extinctions have been followed by a recovery interval, characterized by a new fauna composed of animals that have either survived the extinction or evolved from such survivors."
   
"In this case, the recovery fauna is already in place, and consists mainly of domesticated animals and plants, as well as "weedy" species capable of living amid high populations of humans."
   
"6. There will be new species yet to evolve."
   
"Many of these new species will be the result of jumping genes, as DNA from organisms created under laboratory conditions by biotechnology firms escapes into the wild."
   
"Others will be mainly small species adapted to living in the new world of spreading cities and farms. The new animal and plant species will thus evolve in the niches and corners of a world dominated by Homo sapiens."
   
"The rules of speciation have changed: few large animals will evolve as long as humanity exists in large numbers, and as long as our planet remains divided into innumerable small islands."
    
"7. Our species, Homo sapiens, can look forward to both evolution and long-term survival. Of all the animal species on Earth, we may be the least susceptible to extinction: humanity is functionally extinction-proof."
   
"8. There will never be a new dominant fauna on Earth other than humanity and its domesticated vassals until we go extinct - and if we succeed in reaching the stars, that may never happen."
  

Fig 3 - Possible future cladogram (bottom to top) - original crow, vulture, raptor, shoe bill, wading, honey-eating, ratite. painting by Alexis Rockman

  
So how can we translate these ideas into game-able advice? (Aside from placing the twenty-five "future evolutionaries" specifically pictured here into your game?)
  
You don't need to go as far as eliminating every wild plant an animal from your games. But I would say that, if you want your game to feel like it takes place in a future where the planet has been indelibly marked by humanity's fingerprints, one way to show those marks is to increase the prevalence of monsters derived from domesticated animals, increase the prevalence of domesticated plants as set-dressing, beyond what you would ordinarily consider. And if you want your game to feel suitably post-apocalyptic, one way to do that is to have fewer progenitor species giving rise to more variant descendants, showing that there was a bottleneck, a great extinction, that everything that now lives evolved from what little survived.
  
A future where the players travel through a jungle of thousand-foot tall trees before finding a clearing where an army of tiger-women is fighting an army of polar-bear-men feels post-human. So much time has passed that we are forgotten, the fact that we ever existed at all is irrelevant.
   
But a future where the players travel through a forest of hundred-foot-tall cornstalks and fifty-foot dandelions, before finding a clearing where calico-housecat-women fight lamb-boys or teddy-bear-robots? Where they discover that their path though the forest is being cleared by a 10' cube-shaped pig? Where the corn-and-dandelion forest gives way to a Christmas-tree-and-Halloween-pumpkin forest? Or where all the forests are islands, surrounded by oceans of pavement? That's a future where the presence of humanity is still felt, where it is inescapable, suffocating.
  
Whether or not the players meet any humans, the fact of human existence is still obviously the dominant force shaping the world. If the humans they do meet have only stone-age technology, if they are trapped in a world their ancestors made that they can no longer reshape or even comprehend, that drives home just how apocalyptic the apocalypse must have been. The world might be post-apocalyptic, but it is not post-human, certainly not post-the-relevance-of-human-civilization.
   
Numenara posits a world where neo-medieval humans live among the relics of incomprehensible super-civilizations. But most other post-apocalyptic games imagine a nearer-term future, where it is essentially our civilization that has become the incomprehensible forebear to the survivors, and where a great deal of dramatic irony derives from the fact that what is incomprehensible to the neo-stone-age humans who live there is perfectly comprehensible to us. Peter Ward's and Alexis Rockman's ideas provide some insight for building a world like that.
   

Fig 4 - Possible future cladogram (bottom to top) - pig, genetically engineered, rhino-like, aquatic, pygmy, giraffe-like, garbage eating. painting by Alexis Rockman

Mycetes-Thrax Spellburn

Below are my spellburn results for Mycetes-Thrax. I was inspired by the description of glowburn in Mutant Crawl Classics, where shamans ingest radioactive substances to overclock the processing of their wetware programs.

One idea I'm trying out is removing the flexibility to choose which ability score is sacrificed (for most of the entries). Typical spellburn results suggest that whatever the caster has done can be represented by her choice of Strength, Agility, or Stamina loss - but I thought I might be able to imagine more evocative results if I tied each one directly to a specific ability score.



SPELLBURN (MYCETES-THRAX)

1 The caster inhales a handful of soporific spores. She becomes exhausted and lethargic, expressed as temporary Strength loss. The caster must sleep for 12 hours tonight.

2 The caster inhales psychotropic spores or ingests hallucinogenic fungi. Motion swirls, colors glow, and she perceives objects doubled or tripled, expressed as temporary Agility loss. The caster cannot read for the rest of the day.

3 The caster ingests a handful of toxic fungi. She gags, sweats, weeps, and vomits, expressed as temporary Stamina loss. The caster cannot eat or drink for the rest of the day (and gains no benefit if she does.)

4 The caster receives a blessing from Mycetes-Thrax. The caster improves her spellcheck result by 2 for every 1 point of spellburn. Her skin blossoms with tiny flesh-colored mushrooms that easily snap off at the base, expressed as her choice of temporary Strength, Agility, or Stamina loss. The number of mushrooms is equal to the spellcheck increase (double the ability score loss.) Any other character who eats these mushrooms heals 1 hp for each, but is afflicted by temporary narcolepsy, illiteracy, or nausea, as above, depending on the caster's choice of ability score loss.

Alternate Mutations for MCC

The Mutant Crawl Classics core rules have tables for determining mutant appearance, manimal subtype, and plantient subtype. Each table takes a similar form, roll 1d30 to pick a category of mutation (skin color, skin texture, eyes, etc for mutant appearance; primate, canine, feline, etc for manimal subtype; deciduous, conifer, fruit-bearing, etc for plantient subtype) then roll again to choose a specific mutation from within that category.

There isn't necessarily a problem with any of these tables, but I do worry that there may be slightly too few specific options within each category, and that the categories for manimals and plantients leave some obvious choices out. (I also wonder about some of the mutant appearance charts. Is there a meaningful difference between hands that "are comprised of tentacles" and hands that are "absent, replaced with tentacle fingers?" What if someone's sole mutation is to have 2 arms or 2 legs, which is a serious possibility on the "Body" category subtable?)

Partly, this concern is practical. Tables with too few choices risks producing too many repeats, and because each MCC game begins with 4 characters per player, this risk is greater than in other games. (Reading the Random Esoteric Creature Generator and then reading Island of the Unknown shows what this risk looks like.) It doesn't matter if the mutants at one table look like the mutants at another, but it does matter if some of the supposedly unique mutants at one table look like others at the same table. (If mutants are supposed to belong to distinctive types, rather than being individuals, then this isn't a problem at all, but I think that the mutants are supposed to each be unique.)

The other part of my concern is creative. I don't claim to have imagined every type of mutation, but it seems there are some obvious possibilities left out. Many of the mutants depicted in the art of the book, for example, cannot be created following the tables, which seems like another missed opportunity.

In the future, I'll write my own tables, but for now, here are three alternative tables based on the mutations in the Crawling Under a Broken Moon zine and the Umerican Survival Guide. These tables provide categories of mutation without offering specific types within each category. One way to use these tables would be for the player and judge to decide together what the mutation looks like. Another way would be to follow up by rolling on the CUaBM or USG mutation tables, which provide chances for a number of possible abilities related to each category. One caveat here would be that these tables were originally written for a world where mutations are less common than in MCC.

The first table provides alternative mutant appearance results. The second provides alternative manimal subtypes. The third provides alternative plantient subtypes.



Mutant Appearance (roll 1d24)
  1-2    Extravore (digestive abnormality)
  3-6    Extra limbs
 7-10    Cranial abnormality
11-14    Dermal abnormality
15-18    Ocular abnormality
19-20    Aggregate features (roll 1d3, 1 granite, 2 iron, 3 crystalline)
21-22    Weaponized features (roll 1d6, 1 claws, 2 spines, 3 fangs, 4 horns, 5 club fist, 6 spikes)
   23    Roll 1d20 once on this table. The mutant has two mutations of this type.
   24    Roll 1d20 twice on this table.



Manimal Subtype (roll 1d20)
  1-2    Avian (bird-like)
  3-4    Bovid (cow-like)
  5-6    Canine (dog-like)
  7-8    Crustacean (crab-like)
 9-10    Feline (cat-like)
11-12    Piscine (fish-like)
13-14    Amphibian (frog-like)
15-16    Reptilian (lizard-like)
17-18    Testudine (turtle-like)
   19    Roll 1d16 twice on this table.
   20    Roll 1d16 once on this table and 1d20 once on the Mutant Appearance table.



Plantient Subtype (roll 1d12)
 1-2    Tree-like
 3-4    Bush-like
 5-6    Vine-like
 7-8    Flower-like
9-10    Fungi-like
  11    Roll 1d10 twice on this table.
  12    Roll 1d10 once on this table and 1d20 once on the Mutant Appearance table.

Characters I Want to Play - Alternate Occupation Tables for MCC

The Mutant Crawl Classics core rules provides separate tables for starting occupations (hunter or gatherer) and character genotypes (pure-strain human, mutant, manimal, or plantient).

My first thought when I saw this was that there was no reason to separate these tables. One of the interesting things about Dungeon Crawl Classics' starting occupations table is that it determines both the character's race (human, dwarven, elven, or halfling) and their occupation with one roll.

My second thought was that I could use the occupation lists from DCC #79: Frozen in Time or from Mystic Bull Games' The Tribe of Ogg and the Gift of Suss to replace the minimalist occupation list in MCC proper.

Below are three tables providing alternate occupations and genotypes for MCC characters. The first table uses only the occupations originally found in the Mutant Crawl Classics rules. (In all three tables, I preserved the frequency of the original genotypes.)

01-16    Human hunter - wood spear (1d5)
17-32    Human gatherer - leather bag
33-49    Mutant hunter - wood spear (1d5)
50-66    Mutant gatherer - leather bag
67-77    Manimal hunter - wood spear (1d5)
78-88    Manimal gatherer - leather bag
89-94    Plantient hunter - wood spear (1d5)
95-00    Plantient gatherer - leather bag



The second tables uses the occupations found in Frozen in Time. The pure-strain humans have occupations that went to humans in the original table. Only pure-strain humans can start as lore-keeper's assistants, shaman's assistants, or as stargazers. The mutants have occupations that went to both humans and demihumans. The manimals and plantients have only those occupations that originally went to demihumans. Manimals are weighted more heavily toward dwarven and halfling occupations, while plantients are weighted more heavily toward elven occupations.

   01    Human artisan - club & clay pot of ochre paint
02-03    Human butcher - flint cleaver (as hand axe) & side of mammoth meat
04-05    Human brewer - club & skin of beer
   06    Human canoe-maker - dagger & canoe
07-08    Human cord-maker - knife (as dagger) & hide cordage, 50'
   09    Human fire-bearer - spear & clay pot of embers
10-11    Human fisherman - harpoon (as javelin) & flint fishhooks, 12
12-14    Human gatherer - knife (as dagger) & basket of vegetables
   15    Human healer - club & bone needle and sinew thread
   16    Human herbalist - club & herbs, 1 lb
17-19    Human hunter - spear & animal pelt
   20    Human lore-keeper's assistant - club & divination bones
21-22    Human orphan - club & weird trinket from former tribe
23-24    Human potter - club & clay, 1 lb
   25    Human shaman's assistant - club & herbs, 1 lb
26-27    Human slave - club & strange-looking rock
   28    Human stargazer - spear & piece of meteorite iron
29-30    Human tanner - dagger & hide armor
31-32    Human weaver - dagger & fabric, 3 yards
   33    Mutant artisan - club & clay pot of ochre paint
34-35    Mutant butcher - flint cleaver (as hand axe) & side of mammoth meat
36-37    Mutant brewer - club & skin of beer
38-39    Mutant canoe-maker - dagger & canoe
40-41    Mutant cord-maker - knife (as dagger) & hide cordage, 50'
   42    Mutant flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
   43    Mutant herder - staff & elk calf
   44    Mutant fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
   45    Mutant scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
   46    Mutant fire-bearer - spear & clay pot of embers
47-48    Mutant fisherman - harpoon (as javelin) & flint fishhooks, 12
49-50    Mutant gatherer - knife (as dagger) & basket of vegetables
   51    Mutant animal trainer - club & wolf pup
   52    Mutant fowler - sling & feathered cape
   53    Mutant healer - club & bone needle and sinew thread
   54    Mutant herbalist - club & herbs, 1 lb
55-56    Mutant hunter - spear & animal pelt
57-58    Mutant orphan - club & weird trinket from former tribe
59-60    Mutant potter - club & clay, 1 lb
61-62    Mutant slave - club & strange looking rock
63-64    Mutant tanner - dagger & hide armor
65-66    Mutant weaver - dagger & fabric, 3 yards
67-71    Manimal flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
72-76    Manimal herder - staff & elk calf
75-76    Manimal fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
77-78    Manimal scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
79-83    Manimal animal trainer - club & wolf pup
84-88    Manimal fowler - sling & feathered cape
   89    Plantient flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
   90    Plantient herder - staff & elk calf
91-94    Plantient fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
95-98    Plantient scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
   99    Plantient animal trainer - club & wolf pup
   00    Plantient fowler - sling & feathered cape



The third and final table uses the occupations found in The Tribe of Ogg. The role of shaman's apprentice is again reserved for pure-strain humans. There were no occupations specific to the demihuman ooloi in this adventure, so as in the first table, all genotypes draw on the same list of occupations.

01-04    Human fisher - spear & string of fish
05-08    Human flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
09-16    Human gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
17-26    Human hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
27-28    Human shaman's assistant - club & fetish object
29-32    Human tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
33-36    Mutant fisher - spear & string of fish
37-40    Mutant flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
41-51    Mutant gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
52-62    Mutant hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
63-66    Mutant tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
67-69    Manimal fisher - spear & string of fish
70-72    Manimal flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
73-78    Manimal gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
79-85    Manimal hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
86-88    Manimal tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
89-90    Plantient fisher - spear & string of fish
91-92    Plantient flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
93-95    Plantient gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
96-98    Plantient hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
99-00    Plantient tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides


 
At some point I might try my hand at writing my own alternate occupations table, possibly with slightly modified genotype ratios - but for now I just wanted to make something to facilitate picking occupation and genotype in a single roll, and something that utilizes the two already-existing stone-age occupation tables from DCC.