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Characters
Character Generation and Type
Generating
characters is accomplished through a series of 16 steps,
some random, some by the players choice, a few steps are quite
involved and require several rolls and a bit of
explanation while others are very easy, such as when players
pick a name and gender for their new character. Most steps
require little more than a single roll on a table to
determine dominant hand, swimming ability and whatnot, while
establishing a character’s ‘type’ is handled by a random
roll from a selection appropriate to the gamer’s own RPG
experience, or, the Game Master can assign a type or even
allow players to pick a character type once they become
familiar with the game and setting.
A
character ‘type’ can almost be viewed as a person’s race,
however in truth, all organic characters contained in the
The Mutant Epoch Hub Rules core book stem from
human ancestry, either by breeding or DNA sampling. The
available types contained in the Hub Rules are:
Pure Stock Humans
(unmutated humans)
Clones (copies of
specific humans, born either in machines as adults or
surrogate mothers)
Trans-humans
(humans enhanced at pre-birth and selectively bred)
Bioreplicas
(custom, bio-engineered beings, using human-themed DNA and
grown instead of born, emerging as adults)
Cyborgs (humans
with nervous system augmentation and assorted implants)
Ghost Mutants
(aberrant humans with no visible mutations)
Mutants (from the
mildly deviated to freakish horror mutants)
Beastial Humans (Also referred to as Mutant Animals and
are a late addition to the Hub Rules book, having previously
been slated for addition in the Expansion Book. Beastial
humans are half human, half animal and allow players to
generate characters such as humanoid alligators,
chimps, frogs, otters, cougars, moose, badgers, rats, eagles
and many more species.)
We've added a few
sample character sheets from our current
campaign. Click to download a 150 dpi PDF character sheet
for review. Once the game is launched and available for
sale, and the main full web site is up and running, there
will be a vast number of ready to play characters and NPCs
available for members of the
society of
excavators.
 
Many other
characters types will be offered in Outland Arts’ The Mutant
Epoch dedicated electronic magazine titled Excavator
Monthly, as well as the upcoming Expansion Rules book,
which will add androids, parasites, abominations, grafters,
the rebuilt, mutant animals and digital beings as new
character types.
The
actual generation techniques used for character creation
vary depending on the type of character being made. Pure
stocks, synthetic humans (clones, trans-humans and
bioreplicas) are quick to generate while cyborgs and
extensively mutated individuals take longer to roll up due
to the vast assortment of mutations and implants available
through random determination. Regardless of the character
type, and including creatures, robotics and many plants, the
same eight traits are almost always used for The Mutant
Epoch.
The 8 basic
traits are:
Endurance
Strength
Agility
Accuracy
Intelligence
Willpower
Perception
Appearance
These traits are
most often determined by a d100 roll on a table, which uses
a synthetic bell curve to usually get traits in the average
range for an adult human, however, allowing for the
occasional inferior trait, or, the remarkable and
exceptionally high values from time to time. Traits improve
slightly during rank gain, but can also be permanently
decreased through accidents, illness, combat or other
hazards. Endurance is used as the individual character’s
toughness, ability to take damage, survive deeper levels of
injury and incapacitation, and resist toxins.
Rank Gain
People change,
especially when pressed to their limits, exposed to new
experiences, immersed in battle, and forced to use all their
skills, strengths, wits and guile in a daily struggle to
survive. Many traditional role playing games, including the
Outland System have some sort of leveling mechanism. In The
Mutant Epoch RPG, going up in rank is helpful, but the
alterations to the character are more subtle than other
RPGs. For example, when going up in rank, from 1st
to 2nd, one’s character doesn’t suddenly double
his or her endurance, even though that PC’s endurance trait
does automatically increase per rank due to the fact that
the surviving individual becomes tougher. Other traits and
skills can improve through random results on a bonus table,
with each character type rolling with different odds of
gaining benefits.
Gaining ranks is of
course beneficial and desired, but the rules encourage a
more realistic, life-like feel than other RPGs. For example,
being of 7th rank doesn’t make the character
practically invincible, and a well placed bullet or sword
blow could still kill a character, especially if a critical
strike is rolled.
In short, we wanted
to avoid the ‘sword and sorcery’ super hero style of gaming
which afflicts so many RPGs.
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