Disclaimer

I was sent a free copy of Mutant: Year Zero core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very grateful for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. These will be my honest impressions of the game.

What is Mutant: Year Zero

Mutant: Year Zero is an RPG about surviving the end of the world. After humanity has been descimated by plague and war. Those left on this dying planet have developed strange mutations and must fight to survive. Factions have formed, some creating new life on the ruins of the old cities, others roam the Zone in search of survival. You are one of the lucky few to venture into this rotting landscape in search of a new way to survive. What secrets will you uncover? What stories will create?

Why Session Zero?

After taking a short break for life events, our play group got back together for a new campaign, and a new system. We were all excited to be back together, and even more excited to start our new adventure. I’ve learned the importance of hosting a Session Zero before the start of a new campaign over my short life as a game master. Session Zero is the space where the group can talk about rules and expectations (because we all have the right to a safe space to roleplay), and create our characters.

I like to have my players create their characters together because we’re a play group of busy dads, and I don’t want to give them homework. Since I am always jumping between systems and platforms, my players always have questions, and it is nice to have a space where we can learn things together. It also helps break the ice as they start planning their characters. Some players come with ideas and building takes seconds, others will take their time to do it during the session. We have fun talking about different mechanics and characteristics.

After we create our characters, I like to slowly introduce mechanics. I give them a space to Roleplay to help them get into the space, I through some checks and a bit of combat to give them a taste of what is to come. Depending on how long the planning session takes, I try not overwhelm my players with too much content on the first day.

I used to skip session zero and go strait into the first game. I’ve learned that having that space where we can jokes around, answer questions, and build our characters gets us ready for the upcoming adventure and gets us started on a strong note.

Impressions

Setting up for our Mutant campaign was easy. The book lays the character creation process clearly, and using the official Alchemy RPG module made things even easier. Most of my players created their character from scratch, but one of my players edited one of the premade characters. How balanced each method is yet to be seen. The most exciting part of character creation is rolling for the mutation. Mutations are random and permanent in this game, and that first gamble of the game shapes a players identity. At least it did at my table.

I very much appreciate how each player focused on a different part of the book. One was more interested in the lore, another the mechanics, and together we were able to answer most questions. I found the more we talked about the game, the more excited we grew. My players are itching to use their mutations and explore this new world, and I can’t wait to run it for them.

I am running the included Path to Eden adventure, and so far, I’m hooked. The lore is interesting, and I like that it gives me the freedom to create the adventure I want between the meta narrative its left for me. I will need to do a bit more digging, but so far, we are happy with the system. Stay tuned to see if that changes.

You can pick up the Mutant: Year Zero Core Rulebook on the official Free League Publishing website.