Disclaimer

Free League Publishing sent me a free copy of the Mutant: Year Zero core rulebook to review for my blog. While I am very happy for the opportunity, I won’t let it sway my opinions. Make sure you also check out my reviews for Dragonbane and The One Ring.

Table of Contents

What is Mutant: Year Zero?

Mutant is a tabletop roleplaying game about mutants at the end of the world. The game runs on the award winning Year Zero system which is a D6 system where things happen on 6s and 1s. Six is good and one is bad. There are no modifiers. Instead, stats and gear tell players how many dice they need to roll. More dice generally means better odds. Finally, Mutant is a survival game where the world is harsh, people have powers, and starvation is always a bad roll away.

Hook

Before the fall of civilization, Earth existed in a constant state of conflict. War broke out across the globe, quickly turning nuclear. Those smart and rich enough quickly found shelter in secure underground bunkers while others fled into the safety of space. Everyone else either died in the first wave, or had to rot away in the fallout. As the Earth became toxic, many began to mutate and develop powers.This was the next stage of evolution of man, but one that also marked its end. Mutants are sterile, and while there are tales of powerful folk that roam the wasteland, the population is aging towards is final days.

Some survivors band together and form flourishing communities known as arcs in an attempt to recapture what they lost, others turned to the harsh wasteland and let it transform. You were fortunate enough to grow in one of these arcs, and spend your days working towards a common goal. As the years go by, resources start to dwindle and the world becomes a harder place to live. Eventually, you and a promising group are tasked with going out farther than the usual patrol in search of anything that will extend your time on this planet. What secrets will you uncover beyond those walls? What will you bring back? Can humanity ever be saved, or are you merely surviving till your final days?

Gameplay

Mutant is a very easy game to pick up, but has enough depth to keep players engaged. The survival mechanics give players agency, without ever feeling like a chore. The mutation mechanic adds fun flavor that players can explore through their character, and it makes for some fun and interersting interactions. If you’ve ever wanted to be Xmen at the end of the world, pick up Mutant Year Zero.

Resources

Resources at the end of the world are limited. Players will need to spend their time constantly hunting for food, water, and other materials to survive the harsh dying world around them. Resources like food and water are expended every day for survival, but they are also used for healing. Rationing this precious resource keeps a high level of tension for the players. Players can choose to be at full health for the next encounter at the risk of starving to death. The system is streamlined so the bulk of the game is focused on the game rather than resource management, but you can make it more hard core if that is fun for you.

In Mutant, bullets are the most valuable resource after food and water. While players don’t need bullets to survive the wasteland, they are useful currency when it comes time to trade for better gear or materials. Bullets are also used for guns, and no one wants to be short a bullet in an important gunfight. Players will constantly need to weigh the benefits of trading away their bullets, and that will make for some difficult decisions.

Rot

The world rots away under the effects of the lingering radiation. While there are a few clean and hospitable areas left on this planet, there are pockets of deadly radiation spread in between. These areas give players rot points that slowly kill them. The only way to get rid of rot is to rest in a clean area, but those may be far in between during an adventure. The best bet is to avoid rot all together, or find some rot protection over time. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way forward is through a puddle of rot, and sometimes the only drinkable water is contaminated. The problem then becomes finding ways to mitigate the rot, and live with it.

Mutations

You can’t have a Mutant’s game without cool mutant powers, and this book has a very good selection of them. The DM can allow players to choose their mutation or roll for them at a table. I prefer rolling because that randomness gives the game its flavor. Survivors in this world wouldn’t have been able to choose their powers, neither should your players. That said, I’ll let a player choose their mutation if they have a fun idea that won’t kill the fun for anyone else.

As you would expect, mutations give players abilities they can use in and out of combat. Every player gets a mutation point per mutation at the start of each session that rolls over to the next if not used. Mutation points are the resource used to power the mutation. Because mutations are so powerful, this limit is used to balance the game. If the player could use their mutation as much as they wanted, things could get out of hand. Mutations can also backfire. They can explode or work as intended. They can also further mutate the user, leaving them weaker but with a cool new power to use.

Combat

Combat does not get any simpler than in Mutants. Attacks succeed on 6s and fail on 1s. Additional 6s give the user extra boons like bonus damage or the ability to disarm. Additional 1s can mean the weapon breaks, leaving its user defenseless. Weapon and gear do break in this game, and players will need a skilled craftsman for repairs, or enough bullets to buy the replacement.

What makes combat deep is the health and cover system. The way health works means that players will need to think carefully before rushing in. They may not have the resources to heal back, or they can get an injury that affects their performance. Learning how to effectively use the environment in combat is extremely important. Effectively finding cover in a gun fight or exploding a barrel can easily mean the difference between life and death.

Leveling

I love the leveling system in Mutant because it is streamlined and accessible. Players will need to answer the following questions:

1. Did you participate in the session? (You get 1 XP just for being present.)
2. Did you perform a Day’s Work for a project in the Ark?
3. Did you explore at least one new sector in the Zone?
4. Did you sacrifice or risk something for your PC buddy?
5. Did you sacrifice or risk something for the NPC you want to keep safe?
6. Did you sacrifice or risk something to mess with the NPC you hate?
7. Did you sacrifice or risk something to reach your big dream?

Players get 1xp point per yes, and they level up when they earn a total of five. Leveling means players will get put a point into a skill of their choice or pick up a new talent. This system not only eliminates the guess work you would see in something like D&D, and it allows players to customize their character. Personally, it forced my players to act in ways they wouldn’t normally because they wanted an XP point. Where in a D&D campaign they wouldn’t care if the NPC died, they went out of their way to keep them alive and get to know them. I was not ready to RP as much as I have in Mutant, but I am not complaining.

Other Mechanics

There are other very cool mechanics that make this game unique and fun to play, but I don’t want this post to get too long. I pulled out the most notable that set it apart from other systems I’ve played, but also the systems I’ve liked the most. While I do not currently run a hardcore survival campaign, its nice to play something more bleak and I’ve been enjoying the story that has come from it.

Review

Mutant Year Zero is easily one of my favorite TTRPGs. I love how accessible the game is. It is easy to learn, and this is important for table of busy dads. Mutant also has some fantastic flavor with the mechanics that make for a good story.

Quality

I did get a copy of the physical book, and it is beautiful. The printing is high quality with vibrant colors, and the book is very high quality. I love the comic book style art. It gives the game its distinct personality and the book looks fantastic on my table.

The cover is phenomenal. I love how it draws the attention to the survivors combing a burning crumbling city for danger and supplies. Their nonchalant expressions suggest that they’ve grown used to the wreckage, and remain unfazed by the apocalypse. The worn mismatched outfits fit the flavor of the world, and the colors tie it all together. I love that each character has a hint of their ability showing. It is just enough to make a statement about their power, while still evoking curiosity. Are these good guys? Bad guys? You’re going to have to play and decide.

Story

The corebook has a prewritten adventure, and it is a very good place to start if you’re a beginner or just need a little help. The adventure offers a solid mystery with an interesting hook to get things rolling.

The players start at the arc, with an aging leader and dwindling supplies. They are sent out in search of more, but find hints to the fabled Eden. Eden is a place of abundance, populated by the most brilliant minds to find a cure for mutation. Some say the cure exists somewhere within its walls, the trouble is finding it. Others say its all a cruel joke told by those too dumb to realize it is all over. As fate has it, your players find themselves chasing a legend, and what they find isn’t what they expected.

Adventure

What I like most about how the adventure is written is that it gives players to tell their own story around the main goal. The adventure outlines a meta story, fills it with important NPCs and location, and sprinkles enough clues to create agency. The gamemaster players have the freedom to do what they want. I’ve never had my players more invested in the world building, because we were building our world. We had a session where we just talked about the fake mutant animals that existed in the one zone and creating bits of random lore that carried throughout the campaign. I love that I was not tied down by a dungeon crawl because it allowed us to tell some very cool stories.

Most importantly, I love that my players liked the meta story enough to keep playing through it. I’ve ran modules where I stopped using the source material because my players wanted to do something different within that world. I wasn’t ready for them to start asking questions about Eden and actively working towards it because of how much time we spend messing around in character.

Roleplay

This is one of the games where my players got into unique characters. I think the random mutation forced them to play a character they wouldn’t usually which was very cool to see. It might also help that I ran this game with theater of the mind using Alchemy RPG. The official module for Mutant is fantastic. Maybe the lack of math and battle maps gave players the room to get creative with their roleplay. Whatever the answer, it was a lot of fun.

Theater of the Mind

You can get as fancy as you want with Mutant. You can use maps with intricate terrain and figures, or load up your favorite VTT and do it digitally. Run this game in whatever way is most fun for your table. The system will work no matter what. At my table, we run games through theater of the mind. I’ll use maps here and there, but I like the focus to be the story and the current format works for us.

As a theater of mind game, Mutant is a fantastic system. The year one system makes checks and combat easy to manage, and the mechanics give enough depth without needing much outside aid. If all you have is the rulebook, some dice, and a dream, you are ready to run Mutant Year One.

Survival

Do not be intimidated by the survival aspect of this game. Run this game as hardcore as it needs to be for your table. I run a casual table and would frequently forget to manage resources. There wasn’t enough scarcity, and I didn’t deduct enough resources. I did break weapons and give players rot points, but I wasn’t running the game as intended. That said, the game never felt like it lost any of the survival element. Players were still cautious with their decisions, and scavenging when they could. My campaign, as silly as it was, was still a survival campaign. I like that freedom.

Conclusion

If you want to run a survival campaign with cool mutant characters and have a good amount of freedom to tell a cool story, pick up your copy of Mutant Year Zero. This has become our favorite, and it is going to be hard to switch to anything else. You can pick up your copy of the Mutant Year Zero rule book on the official Free League Publishing website, or on DriveThru rpg if you want to go digital.