Mutant: Year Zero

Playing time 2-6 h

Ages 12+

Players 3-6

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Roleplaying At The End of Days

Of course the world ends. It was always just a question of time. When it’s all over, Earth is still. Nature invades the ruined cities. Winds sweep through empty streets, turned into graveyards. Yet life remains. In the Ark, a small settlement on the edge of a dead town, the People live. You are the spawn of humanity, but not human anymore. You are twisted funhouse images, mutated freaks. Your bodies and minds have incredible powers, but you are unstable. Fragile. None of the People are over 30 years old.

Except the Elder. Your leader, but not like you. One of the Ancients. He has always warned you: Stay on your guard, stay in the Ark, or the Rot will get you. Or worse. So far, you have obeyed him. Chased off every stranger who came close to the Ark. Few dared to go out into the Zone. That is what the Elder calls the outside world.

But the safe days are over. Food is running scarce, and the fight for what’s left is turning violent. You hunger. Factions are forming, bosses on top and grunts at the bottom. In the middle, fixers who try to turn a profit from anyone and everyone. And the Elder is dying. You’re on your own now.

It’s time to venture out. To explore the Zone, to search for artifacts, for knowledge. To build, grow the land, seek out others, create a new civilization on the ruins of the old. Seek your origin. Maybe, one day, you will find Eden of the legends, the Ancients’ haven in the middle of hell. That’s where salvation and truth await, the stories say.

Maybe it’s all fairytales. It doesn’t matter. You have no choice. This is the beginning.

“Probably the best post-apocalyptic RPG on the market. Full stop.”
RPGNet review

“My players and I had a blast playing and can’t wait to get back to the Zone.”
Brian Ennis, The British Fantasy Society

“A better and more stylish balancing act between nostalgia and innovation the Swedish RPG scene hasn’t seen in a very long time.”
The Boningen gaming blog

“The rules support and create campaign play. Intrigues start, threats arise, opportunities and challenges appear, without the GM having to make it all up.”
The Fenix gaming magazine

Silver ENNIE for Best Rules 2015

The Game

Mutant: Year Zero has two major game environments, each with its own style of play:

The Ark, your home in the dawnworld. A nest of intrigue and Lord of the Flies-style power struggles, it’s far from a safe haven. But it’s the only home you know, and just maybe the cradle of a new civilization. The game rules let you improve and develop the Ark in the areas of Warfare, Food Supply, Technology, and Culture. It is up to you, the players, to decide which projects to embark on.

The Zone, wastelands outside the Ark. You will venture into the Zone in search of food, artifacts, other mutants, and knowledge – not least about The People’s own origin. The game includes two maps of example Zones; London and New York and a plethora of tables and other tools to let the GM populate its sectors with mutants, deadly monsters and bizarre phenomena.

Where in the world the Zone and the Ark are located is up to you – why not play in a post-apocalyptic version of your own home town? The modular approach of this game lets you place all of the campaign material wherever you like.

The setting

Mutant: Year Zero takes you to the world after the great Apocalypse. Humanity’s proud civilization has fallen. The cities are dead wastelands, winds sweeping along empty streets turned into graveyards. But life remains. Among the ruins, the People live. You are the heirs of humanity – but not quite human anymore. Your bodies and minds are capable of superhuman feats. You are mutants.

Expansions

Mutant: Year Zero is just the beginning. The first major expansion Mutant: Genlab Alpha expands the rules to cover mutated animals and exploring the background of these mutants in a full length campaign. Mutant: Genlab Alpha is a complete stand-alone game, you only need the book to play but can also be combined with Mutant: Year Zero. Mutant: Mechatron is the second major stand-alone expansion, covering robots and machine beings, complete with a full length campaign. Finally, Mutant: Elysium completes the quartet of stand-alone games in the Mutant universe, exploring the story of the humans of the Old Age who survived the Apocalypse in vast underground enclaves.