[Open] Mutant: Genlab Alpha

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ClosedYear ZeroPrivate1 / dayBedzoneII
It's the end of days, and yet silvers of humanity have survived the Apocalypse. In the Ark, a small settlement at the edge of a dead city, the People live. None of you are over 30 years old, the remnant spawn of humanity but not quite human. You are a mutated freak.


Mar 15, 2024 2:14 pm
Hi everyone, I'm finally ready to put together this game / this set of games, so here's a proper recruitment write-up:

Game System
: We are playing Mutant Year Zero and its offshoots, a post-apocalyptic setting of inexplicable mutant survivors in an inhospitable wasteland. From its original award-winning core, Mutant Year Zero itself, a number of connected settings have spun off. Genlab Alpha, based on genetically modified animals who have gained human-like mutations, Mechatron, robots who serve the Collective but have gained self-awareness. (We'll talk about Elysium and Ad Astra another time.) The focus will be on these three games which all share the same game engine.

Themes: survival, isolation, selfishness, desperation, dystopia, existence, but also cooperation, discovery, salvation. The world is fallen and irrecoverable, the mood is gritty realism and grim speculative.

Character Creation: I am looking for 3-5 players for each of the three games, aiming for four as the sweet spot. We will use the options provided in the various corebooks as they do represent a sufficiently varied selection that should allow players to find something they'd like to play.

Game Duration and Post Frequency: I'd like to play through the campaign in each of the core books: The Path to Eden, Escape from Paradise, Ghost in the Machine. The campaign is a series of key events, but also allows for the interspersing of a few sandwich events to connect them. There will be a Chapter Zero as an introduction to the campaign in order for us to get into the ruleset and also establish the starting setting. On PbP this will take at least a year, if not more. That said, we will have checkpoints after each chapter to see if we are still able to commit and play. We should be able to manage 1 post a day to 1 post every 2 days, but that entirely depends on what the players can reasonably commit to, so posting rate will accommodate player (and GM) schedule.

Resources: I ask that you also join a Discord channel for chat purposes; I have found it to add well to the PbP experience here because sometimes a quick to-and-fro chat helps us talk through or think through certain ideas. Other than that, everything else will be on Gamers Plane. An MY0 quickstart is freely available, and I can help with all the character generation options available. If you already own the rulebooks I ask that you avoid reading or refreshing your memory of the adventure section at the back!

Player Experience: None needed. the MY0 engine is medium complexity, not as rules-lite as one roll for everything, but also no need to factor in lots of charts and modifiers in order to know your options.

GM Experience: I've been playing and running a ton of games here on Gamers' Plane; this has been my primary mode of RPGing for years now due to lack of face-to-face gaming opportunities. I've been gaming since the 1980s, D&D and onwards, and do have a crazy interest in almost all systems. At this moment I am running two other games, so do expect me to be dividing my time amongst them.

How to Apply: Here! Scroll down to the end of the thread to see how to get into one of the specific games.

Welcome All: This game explicitly welcomes friends from all groups.
Original Interest Check Post

Planning ahead for the next game I'm planning to run, for this one, I'm casting the interest net wide, because there are a number of enjoyable options to choose from. I idealistically hope to run them all at one point, because while each game is a complete stand-alone, Free League has written a mega-campaign that links all the different sub-settings into one ambitiously connected whole.

The game is Mutant Year Zero. It's the end of days, and yet slivers of humanity (and some others!) have survived the Apocalypse. Consider:

1. The core game. In the Ark, a small settlement at the edge of a dead city, the People live. None of you are over 30 years old, the remnant spawn of humanity but not quite human. You are a mutated freak.
https://i.imgur.com/HYIXcU5.jpeg

2. Genlab Alpha. A paradise, a vast valley where your tribe lives. But paradise is a prison, with walls and fences, guarded by the Watchers. And despite never having tasted freedom, your experimental animal self yearns to be free.
https://i.imgur.com/uP7azYW.jpeg

3. Mechatron. You were built to serve and obey as part of the Mechatron-7 collective of robots that produced everything the humans needed. But the humans went away, and you have waited since, becoming self-aware as you pondered.
https://i.imgur.com/BUh3Wmj.jpeg

I'm thinking 3 to 4 players for each game; we'll be playing an abridged version of the full-length scenario included in each of the core rulebooks. If all three games come to completion, who knows, there might be a mega game that brings everyone together, assuming you survived.

Talk me out of this!
Last edited May 31, 2024 7:49 am
Mar 15, 2024 2:18 pm
Cross-pollinated mega games is one of my Manchurian Candidate triggers. I will have to crack open my copy of Genlab Alpha.
Mar 15, 2024 2:34 pm
I would love to try Mutant Year Zero. Only have access to the main book however.
Mar 15, 2024 2:43 pm
Count me in!

I waited quite long for another Y0E (its in my top 3 of RPG rulesets) game here as sadly my previous one were closed by the GM, quite soon after it begun:( I was thinking recently that I would like to experience the whole campaign of one of those books, and then... even further into the stars! :) So maybe my wish will come true? :) I have ready character for core game: Salomon but I have the feeling that because of his rolled up mutation he could be quite good fit for Genlab Alpha version ;) But I don't have Genlab Alpha book at all.

My second choice would be Mechatron, but I also don't have book for this:(

Love the idea about connected games that will meet someday! Could be also positive in terms of lasting. As if one group would break, the players that are left could go to the other -> so the global campaign could go on.

(No Elisium.... ? Don't feel tempted... ;) )

So my priority is:
1. Core game
(1.5 Elisium if it is as good as I think it can be... ;) )
2. Mechatron (maybe if I had the book it would be on the 1str place, but RPing robots can be hard some times...).
3. GenLab

Besides: if you ever will want to GM Forbidden Lands campaign, especially THE BITTER REACH - you can consider me as good as ready :) And I plan to GM Coriolis game one day here.

One caveat: I don't play at weekends (Friday evening, til Monday morning)
Mar 15, 2024 2:44 pm
I'm intrigued by Mechatron, but I never played Mutant Year Zero and don't have the book. But if it's fine, then I'd like to try it! (...can I be a sentient robo-car in it?)
Mar 15, 2024 3:29 pm
Ooooh I have the Core Rules and GenLab Alpha books but have never played any Mutant Year Zero (but have solid Alien RPG experience so not new to YZE)... mutated beasties sounds like a lot of RP fun to me, so would be very tempted by this...
Mar 15, 2024 10:34 pm
I would love to play M:YZ!! I played once, and it was very short-lived. I barely get my feet wet, so I would be excited to get some real experience in!
Mar 16, 2024 1:32 am
I played this via Xbox game pass and absolutely loved that game. It would be much fun to play by post it
Mar 16, 2024 1:42 am
I like the sounds of the Core game.
Mar 16, 2024 5:43 am
Nice to hear a burst of interest on this! If you have the core book, but want to consider the two other related settings, I can definitely make available the character creation options, so don't feel too constrained if you want to play a furry or a robo but don't have the chargen rules for that.

Pedrop, Elysium is a solid setting too! Sequentially I believe that comes after the first three, so I see that fourth game as a payoff if we ever see this though.

Let's see who else is toying around with this idea, after which I'll create a poll so that we can sort ourselves out by preference. Earliest start is April I figure.
Mar 16, 2024 9:57 am
Guess being a car is not on the menu today as I don't have any of the rulebooks, core or otherwise. But good luck to you all with the games! :D
Mar 16, 2024 3:02 pm
I'd love to play MYZ.
I got the pdf (core) but never played yet.

I would prefer the core game.
Last edited March 16, 2024 3:13 pm
Mar 16, 2024 4:11 pm
FlyingSucculent says:
Guess being a car is not on the menu today as I don't have any of the rulebooks, core or otherwise. But good luck to you all with the games! :D
I'm sure we can work something out! That'd be Mechatron, I believe they come in all shapes and sizes!
Mar 17, 2024 10:26 am
As long as it's alright that I don't have the book, I'm all up for it! :D Beep-beep.
Mar 17, 2024 3:37 pm
I'd love to play MYZ. I got the pdf for Mechatron but never played yet.

On the other hand, I don't have the core rulebook, as Mechatron can also be played standalone. If that's not a problem, would love to play with the robot group.

I have been thinking about playing a paternalistic, worrying, top-tier coordination robot.
Last edited March 17, 2024 11:13 pm
Mar 18, 2024 10:07 pm
I have never played Mutant Year Zero, but I hear good things. I love post-apoc games, and all three variants sound appealing to me. I don't have any books though. If I can get by the free starter rules and player options for whichever game, then I'd like to give it a try.
Apr 1, 2024 10:54 am
I want to play the game, preferrably with the Genlab Alpha addon, since I want to make an animal mutant. Count me in, whichever game or addon you will choose!

(edit: If you can add vehicles too, Mad Max style it will rock hard!)
Last edited April 1, 2024 10:56 am
Apr 1, 2024 3:18 pm
Alepous says:
I want to play the game, preferrably with the Genlab Alpha addon, since I want to make an animal mutant. Count me in, whichever game or addon you will choose!

(edit: If you can add vehicles too, Mad Max style it will rock hard!)
Bua ha ha, Road Hogs will never die!
Apr 13, 2024 3:29 am
If you have space I would definitely be interested in joining
Apr 25, 2024 12:06 pm
I swear, every time I stumble upon a game that looks like just the thing I'd love to play, it's BedzoneII setting it up.
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