Mutant Space

Gaming the Apocalypse
Back in the 1970's when my friends and I wanted to roleplay something a little different from White Box swords & sorcery one of the popular choices was TSR's Gamma World. Gamma World was a post Apocalypse game about mutants, lost technology and survival in a broken world. The mechanics were close enough to White Box that transition was easy and the science fiction elements made just about anything imaginable playable. It was an era of Star Trek, Planet of the Apes and The Six Million Dollar Man, and Star Wars and Mad Max were just coming around so inspiration for a variety of sci-fi scenarios involving intelligent animals, cyborgs and a trashed world setting was not lacking. We have some fond Gamma World gaming memories involving a giant intelligent bunny rabbit, a huge oven and malfunctioning security robots.

Much has changed since then, but gaming in a post Apocalypse setting is still fun. Mutant: Year Zero is a role-playing game from Modiphius set in a broken Earth after everything has fallen apart and there are vast areas of radioactive wasteland and humans are mostly mutants as a result, i.e. post Apocalypse. The setting is an Ark, or enclave of what passes for post Apocalypse civilization. The ancient elder - a surviving pure-strain human imparts wisdom pertaining to the old days, but the elder is dying, the Ark's supply of canned food is running low and someone will soon have to brave the zone - the area outside - where you may catch The Rot, be attacked by other mutants or various hostile animals and even plants. You grab your salvaged equipment and prepare yourself to leave the Ark... Mutant: Year Zero has one of the most engaging backstories I have read recently.
Another '70s game we occasionally played was the original black box Traveler from GDW. Traveler is a well known game with a loyal following even today. I describe Traveler as a space game where you explore, carry cargo and make money and occasionally fight. At least that is the way we played it. Like most RPGs Traveler can support many styles of play. The thrill of space games for me is discovery of something imaginatively fresh and alien. I like the surprise of exploring a setting that until then was unimaginable while playing a character that is familiar enough for me to identify with. I also enjoy plausible science...i.e. it passes the sniff test.

Coriolis: The Third Horizon is another RPG from Modiphius. Corilois is described by the authors as Arabian Nights in space. The setting is an area of the universe which has been cut-off from the rest of space and Coriolis is the central space station. Exploration is the name-of-the-game here, both exploring the 30 or so systems in the "pocket universe" and personal exploration through spiritual mysticism. Mysteries and intrigues abound and the group of characters can take one of several group career paths (smugglers, traders, prospectors, corsairs, rebels, etc) and involve themselves in the setting in as many (or few) ways as they like. I think of Coriolis as a "space sandbox". The game system is basically the same as that used in Mutant: Year Zero. Attributes are a single digit and the player rolls a number of d6's usually equal to the adjusted attribute score. Sixes are successes and extra sixes allow for bonus effects. The space ship rules are on the simple side, which I prefer. Ship combat provides roles for most if not all of the crew members, so it is unlikely that any player will feel left out.
Both Mutant: Year Zero and Coriolis are setting rich games sharing a common system engine. Both are beautifully illustrated and full of atmosphere and mood. Modiphius Entertainment has a new game book out titled Tales From The Loop which also uses the ENie Award Winning rules system from Mutant: Year Zero. The setting for Tales From The Loop is a weird 1980's techno-magic connected to a Gravitron Loop. Players take the role of curious teenagers who explore the mysteries connected to the Loop. Together the three games using a common system presents me with a nice selection of modern alternatives to the traditional fantasy RPG.