Gamma Knave
I recently read a couple posts on Orbital Crypt about an open-table sandbox game of Gamma World 2e and it set my brain on fire. I've been a huge GW fan since forever, and the idea of a West-Marches-style campaign is that kind of setting is incredibly cool.
So now I'm thinking about trying it myself.
Unfortunately, as much as I love GW as a concept, no specific edition really seems like a good fit for both sandbox play and my gaming scene. GW 2e worked great for kripto, but some of its old-timey mechanics—like weapon-vs.-armor matrices—would be non-starters for us. My own first Gamma World was 3e, and I've got fond memories of it, but it's honestly a mess.
The version I know best is actually 7e (that's the one based on D&D 4e), and while it's absolutely loads of fun, it's just not the kind of system I'd use for a sandbox game. Like D&D 4e, it's really best for pre-planned set-piece fights. And, honestly, the very goofy PCs that make 7e's character creation such a blast just ain't really the vibe I want for a sandbox.
Anyway, I'll skip through the rest of the Gamma World edition history and the various spin-offs and spiritual successors, and just declare that none of 'em felt right.
So, at the moment, I'm considering adapting Knave 2e for Gamma-World-style play.
Part of my motivation is just my own tendency to get way more excited about hacking a system than using anything out of the box. Another reason is just the fact that Knave is so simple that it's got plenty of room to bolt on more bits (such as mutations and high-tech gear). The focus on items and inventory is nice, since GW is very much about scavenging cool equipment. Also Knave's armor system—where each individual piece of armor you wear contributes to your AC—seems perfect for a post-apocalyptic setting.
Setting
On the topic of setting, though: Naturally, I don't want to just use any actual edition's version of Gamma World the place. My love of GW isn't about arks and badders and Far-Go and the Brotherhood of Thought. It's about mutants with cool powers and random physiologies, unpredictable feral robots, weird animal people, half-understood ancient devices, and societies of varied tech levels living in the ruins of a greater civilization.
The big change I want to make is to just get rid of the radiation. For real, I want to take the gamma out of Gamma World! I just can't forget what I know about how radiation actually works. I can't use radiation as an environmental hazard knowing that, if it's intense enough to harm you in the short term, it's already killed you in the medium term.
Anyway, Gamma World basically requires that radiation work like some kind of magical cosmic energy from a Silver Age comic book, so I figure I'll just replace it with magical cosmic energy from a Silver Age comic book. It can burn, it can blast, it can turn you into a monster or give you superpowers, and it can reshape animals into people. It glows in a bunch of different colors. It's got Kirby crackle. People have lots of different names and explanations for it. I'll probably have to settle on something myself, but I ain't pinning it down right now.
My other big change is slightly odder: I'm throwing in Kaiju. The planet is dotted with giant monsters of wildly varied appearance, and most of them are curled up underground in something like hibernation. As they sleep, their presence infects and poisons the landscape around them, xenoforming the environment and giving rise to whole ecosystems of smaller beasts. Each giant is like the exemplar and apotheosis of a different set of cool alien monster characteristics, and the creatures that spread out from their lairs are all different variations on those themes.
(This bit is inspired by a bunch of connected ideas, from the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu mythos to Dan Brereton's Giantkiller comics to the cataclysmic dragons of Iron Kingdoms. A much more recent connection, though, would be the "B.U.R.G.L.A.R.s" posts that Rise Up Comus has made about a setting that reshapes The Hobbit into Roadside Picnic. Definitely some ideas worth stealing there!)
The apocalypse of my Gamma World knockoff might not even have a big war behind it: Maybe the giant monsters and the mutation rays were enough to destroy civilization.
The planet itself might not even be Earth. I'm not interested in doing the old post-apoc trope of famous landmarks being repurposed or reinterpreted. I know, that's undeniably a classic bit! But I'm thinking of this the way I would a fantasy setting: Its relationship to our world isn't important.
I also really want to keep it clear that the old world—the one that got apocalypsed—was way more advanced than our own. People aren't going to be armored in football gear and wielding parking meters as clubs. The ruins and remnants are going to be space ports, robots, hover cars—things that will be unfamiliar to the players, just as they're mysterious to their characters.
System
This is still an idea that's just gradually taking shape, but I've been messing around with some mechanics. For the most part I've just been writing up lots of mutations, and that's also forced me to add some rules to support those. I might also add advantage/disadvantage later, but right now I'm refraining.
Healing
If you have wounds, anything that would heal you clears those first (starting with the most recent one) at a rate of 1 wound per 3 HP of healing. Once your wounds are healed, then healing can restore your HP.
Psychic struggle
A lot of mutations are mental powers that let the mutant psychically attack another creature. This may require a psychic struggle check in which the attacker rolls their INT or CHA (whichever they prefer) and the target (or targets) roll their WIS or CHA. On a tie, the attacker wins.
Temporary Hit Points
Damage removes any temporary Hit Points you might have before affecting your regular HP or inflicting wounds. Temporary HP disappear when you rest.
Mutations
And here's where I've really gone overboard. I think I've got 90 mutations at the moment. Right now, the plan is to add 10 defect/drawback mutations for a nice 1d100 table. The vast majority of these were based on mutations from the first four editions of Gamma World, although I did end up renaming a lot of them. For example, "the Gamma Eye" became "Hex Gaze".
I sorta changed the way the mental/physical divide works. I threw 'em all into one list together, and just marked powers that specifically interface with other minds as "psychic", while things like Telekinesis and Pyrokinesis became regular superpowers of vague mechanism (Gravitic Control and Thermal Control, respectively). In a couple instances, I've got psychic and non-psychic versions of the same power: Do you create illusions by projecting hallucinations into others' minds, or do you do it by generating images with actual light? It's an important question in a setting with robots! The "psychic" distinction also exists for situations like possessing another creature's body and taking all of your psychic powers with you.
Oh, and I ignored all of the plant-specific mutations. I'm just not into plant people. It always felt to me like Gamma World, edition on edition, has spent a crazy number of words on supporting what seems like a really niche setting element. I ain't gonna bleed for Sheesh the tree person.
Anyway. Here's what I've been spending all my time on lately.
- Additional Arms
- Altered Size
- Alternate Form
- Aquatic Adaptation
- Beguilement
- Body Control
- Body Mimic
- Burning Touch
- Carapace
- Chromatophores
- Climbing Adaptation
- Confusion
- Corrosive Touch
- Death Field
- Density Control
- Directional Sense
- Domination Grasp
- Dual Brains
- Elastic Body
- Empathy
- Energy Absorption
- Energy Negation
- Fear Projection
- Flaw Perception
- Force Field
- Force Globe
- Force Hand
- Freezing Touch
- Gas Cloud
- Genius
- Gravitic Control
- Gravitic Flight
- Heightened Ability
- Heightened Precision
- Heightened Sense
- Heightened Speed
- Hex Gaze
- Infravision
- Intangibility
- Intuition
- Kinetic Negation
- Levitation
- Life Leech
- Life Support
- Light Generation
- Magnetic Control
- Mass Mind
- Molecular Disruption
- Molecular Sense
- Natural Projectiles
- Natural Weapons
- Object Teleportation
- Paralyzation
- Photonic Illusions
- Photonic Invisibility
- Photosynthesis
- Planar Portal
- Possession
- Power Aura
- Power Blast
- Psychic Blast
- Psychic Call
- Psychic Illusions
- Psychic Invisibility
- Psychic Reflection
- Psychic Shield
- Psychometry
- Reflexive Displacement
- Regeneration
- Repulsion Field
- Restoration
- Shapeshifting
- Shock Touch
- Skeletal Enhancement
- Sonar
- Sonic Blast
- Spinnerets
- Stunning Pulse
- Supercharge
- Telepathy
- Teleportation
- Tentacles
- Thermal Control
- Tough Hide
- Toxin
- Toxin Immunity
- Transfusion
- Ultravision
- Vocal Mimic
- Wings
Additional Arms
You have 1d4 more arms than is typical for your species. You have 1 additional action per round which can only be used for simple physical actions such as weapon attacks.
Altered Size
Roll for your size.
| 1 | Tiny. About 3' tall, 25 lbs. -2 STR, +2 DEX, -2 CON, +2 AC, +5 on checks to sneak and hide, half movement rate, require only half rations. |
| 2–3 | Small. About 4'10" tall, 100 lbs. -1 STR, +1 DEX, -1 CON, +1 AC, +2 on checks to sneak and hide. |
| 4–5 | Large. About 7'6" tall, 400 lbs. +1 STR, -1 DEX, +1 CON, -1 AC, +2 on checks to jump and climb. |
| 6 | Huge. About 12' tall, 1,600 lbs. +2 STR, -2 DEX, +2 CON, -2 AC, +5 on checks to jump and climb, double movement rate, require double rations. |
Alternate Form
You have two different physical modes with different appearances and capabilities.
Choose which of your mutations are available to both forms. (If you assign this mutation to the primary form only, this will be a one-way transformation.) For each mutation that only the primary form has, roll a new mutation for the secondary form.
If you want, one form can swap your STR and DEX scores.
You can switch from one form to the other once per day. This takes 1 round, doesn't affect your equipment, and restores all of your HP (but doesn't heal any wounds).
Aquatic Adaptation
You can breathe water as well as air and you get +5 on checks to swim. You can see clearly underwater, and in dim light as if it was bright light.
Beguilement [psychic]
You constantly project a psychic field that makes living creatures subtly reluctant to harm you. In combat, your foes will treat you as their lowest-priority target.
Body Control
You can overclock a bodily capability of your choice for 1 turn. Doing so doesn't cost an action, but causes you 1 direct damage for each time you've already used this mutation today.
Potential effects include the following.
- Hearing. You can hear the movements, whispers, and even heartbeats of all creatures within 200'.
- Touch. You gain +5 on checks to understand or manipulate objects you touch. This applies to picking locks, examining artifacts, breaking down doors, etc.
- Sight. You can see in dim light as if it was bright light, and in bright light as if you were using a spyglass or magnifying glass.
- Smell. You can detect and trace faint odors, potentially allowing you to track by smell and revealing the presence of dangerous chemicals.
- Strength. You gain +5 on STR checks to lift things, break things, etc.
- Endurance. You gain +5 on CON checks to resist poison, cold, etc.
- Reflexes. You gain +5 on DEX checks to dodge traps, etc.
- Speed. Your movement speed is doubled.
Body Mimic
You can transform yourself into a perfect biological copy of another living creature. To do this, you need to remain in physical contact with the subject for 1 minute, and they need to be willing, unconscious, or somehow subdued. Once transformed, you gain the subject's physical traits, lose your own physical traits (except for this mutation), and keep your mental traits (Hit Points being a mental trait). Clothing and other possessions are not copied. You revert to your own form at will, or when unconscious or dead.
Burning Touch
Once every three rounds, you can subject a target to searing heat, inflicting 2d8 damage with a touch. You take only half damage from heat (including fire, lasers, plasma, etc.).
Carapace
You have a hard shell that gives you 5 armor points and doesn't take up item slots. Armor points from worn armor don't stack with this mutation.
Chromatophores
You control the color of your body, allowing you to quickly blend in with your surroundings (as long as you're mostly naked) and add +5 to checks to remain hidden. You might also use this mutation to disguise yourself, send visual signals, etc. Using this mutation doesn't require an action.
Climbing Adaptation
You can climb any solid surface at your regular movement speed, even upside down. You need at least three limbs to climb, but only two to hang on. You gain +5 on checks to grab and grapple.
Confusion [psychic]
You can psychically disorient a living creature within 50'. You engage your target in a psychic struggle and, if you win, the target behaves randomly as long as the effect is maintained. Roll for their actions each round.
| 1–3 | Remain in place and do nothing. |
| 4–5 | Flee in a random direction. |
| 6 | Attack a random target. |
You can use your action each round to maintain the effect until you end it or something breaks your concentration.
Corrosive Touch
You can secrete a caustic chemical that does 1d6 damage as a melee attack. It can also be used to slowly dissolve various materials.
Death Field
Once per day, you can release a pulse of malignant energy. All other living creatures within 60' must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or be reduced to 1 HP. You then fall unconscious for 1 turn.
Density Control
You can increase or decrease your own density, scaling your size up or down while keeping the same weight.
Roll to determine what kind of change you can create.
| 1 | Density increase. You expand to twice your normal height and eight times your normal volume. Your AC increases by 5, but your movement speed is halved. |
| 2 | Density decrease. You collapse to half your normal height and one eighth your normal volume. Your movement speed is doubled, but your AC decreases by 5. |
| 3–4 | Either one. |
You can end the change at any time, or maintain it for up to 1 hour. You have to wait another hour before using this again.
Directional Sense
You can sense magnetic north and have heightened spatial awareness. You can always retrace your path, find your way back home, and locate any place you've been in the past 2 days.
Domination Grasp [psychic]
When you maintain physical contact with a living creature for 3 rounds, you can engage them in a psychic struggle. If you win, you take control of their body for as long as you remain in contact. If they win by 10 or more points, you fall unconscious.
Once you have control of a target, they move along with you and you can use your actions to make them act on your behalf. Your control lasts until you fall unconscious, you take 3 rounds to deliberately disengage, or you're separated by force. If you're forcibly separated, you both take 1d6 direct damage. If one of you dies, the other takes 1d10 direct damage and falls unconscious.
You can simultaneously control as many creatures as you have grasping limbs.
Dual Brains
You have a dual-segmented brain or a whole extra brain (and possibly a whole extra head). You have 1 additional action per round which can only be used for mental actions such as activating psychic mutations. When you make a check to use or resist a psychic effect, roll twice and take the better result.
Elastic Body
Your flesh and bones are malleable and resilient. Your limbs can stretch up to 10' and you suffer only half damage from smashing or crushing attacks. You can slowly squeeze your body (but not necessarily your equipment) through openings as tight as 6".
Empathy [psychic]
You can sense the presence and emotional states of living creatures within 100'. You also detect physical sensations like pain and hunger, as well as intent to harm or deceive. This is about as precise as hearing for gauging direction and distance.
Energy Absorption
Roll a random energy type.
| 1 | Cold | 4 | Kinetic energy |
| 2 | Electricity | 5 | Psychic energy |
| 3 | Heat | 6 | Sound |
When subjected to harm by this energy type, make a CON check vs. the damage it would inflict. On a failure, the energy harms you normally. On a success, you aren't harmed by the energy, and regain HP equal to the harm it would have done. If you have no wounds and are at maximum HP, you gain temporary HP instead.
Energy Negation
You negate damage to yourself from energy-based threats, suffering only half damage from effects like fire, lasers, electrical shocks, sonic blasts, etc.
Fear Projection [psychic]
Once per day, you can psychically induce fear in all living creatures that can see your face, forcing them to check morale twice and take the worse result. PCs exposed to this effect become engaged in a psychic struggle with you, and flee from you for 1 turn if they lose.
Flaw Perception
You reflexively spot the weak points and stress lines of creatures and objects. Your attacks do 1d6 additional damage as long as you can properly perceive your target and aim your attacks. You gain +5 on checks to destroy things.
Force Field
Once per day, you can generate a protective energy field around your body and equipment. It has 10 HP, and takes damage that would otherwise hit you. It lets light, sound, and gas through, so lasers, sonic attacks, and poison gas aren't affected. Neither are psychic effects. It blocks non-gasseous chemical agents and radiation, but isn't harmed by them.
As long as your force field still has HP, it regains 5 HP at the start of your turn. If it runs out of HP, you suffer any leftover damage and the force field is destroyed. It also disappears after 1 hour or if you fall unconscious.
Force Globe
Once per day, you can generate a 10' sphere of force up to 50' away. You can't place it around yourself. It both protects and confines anyone inside it. It has 20 HP and takes damage from both incoming and outgoing attacks.
It lets light, sound, and gas through, so lasers, sonic attacks, and poison gas aren't affected. Neither are psychic effects. It blocks non-gasseous chemical agents and radiation, but isn't harmed by them.
As long as the force globe still has HP, it regains 5 HP at the start of your turn. If it runs out of HP, any leftover damage goes through and the force field is destroyed. You can deactivate it at will, and it also disappears after 1 hour or if you fall unconscious.
Force Hand
You can manifest a hand, tendril, or other grasping appendage out of force energy. It functions as a normal limb, but has a reach of 30', a STR equal to your CHA, and a DEX equal to your INT.
Freezing Touch
Once every three rounds, you can drain the heat from a target, inflicting 2d8 damage with a touch. You can also create a 10' region of darkness around yourself at will.
Gas Cloud
Once per turn, you can emit a chemical cloud that fills a 30' radius around you, then disperses after 3 rounds. You're immune to your own cloud's effects (except for Opaque). Most of these effects only apply to living creatures.
Roll for your Gas Cloud's effect.
| 1 | Caustic. Blindness and 1d6 damage each round a creature is in the cloud. If they fail a CON check vs. your level + 11, they remain blinded for 1 turn. |
| 2 | Hallucinogen. Wild visions and delusions while in the cloud. Targets will react unpredictably, potentially fleeing, freezing, or attacking randomly. |
| 3 | Opaque. Obscures vision. |
| 4 | Paralytic. Targets that fail a CON check vs. your level + 11 are paralyzed while in the cloud. |
| 5 | Stench. Targets must exit the cloud immediately. |
| 6 | Toxin. 1 direct damage each round a creature is in the cloud. |
Genius
Roll for the realm of your genius.
| 1 | Economic. When bartering, you can roll twice and take the better result. |
| 2 | Mechanical. You gain +5 on checks to examine or repair machines. |
| 3 | Military. You gain +2 on attack and damage rolls with weapons. |
| 4 | Political. When you're able to communicate at the beginning of an encounter, you can make another reaction roll and change the other party's reaction to the new result if you prefer it. |
Gravitic Control
You can generate gravitational fields to attract, repel, drag, lift, or otherwise manipulate objects of up to 500 lbs. within 50'. The lighter the object, the faster you can move it, and you can sling small items as weapons.
Gravitic Flight
You can fly and hover with precise control at up to your normal movement speed for a total of up to 60 minutes per day.
Heightened Ability
Roll a random ability.
| 1 | Strength | 4 | Intelligence |
| 2 | Dexterity | 5 | Wisdom |
| 3 | Constitution | 6 | Charisma |
Increase that ability by 3.
Heightened Precision
You gain +2 on ranged attack rolls, and suffer no penalty for range, cover, elevation, firing into melee, etc.
Heightened Sense
Roll for which of your senses is enhanced.
| 1–2 | Hearing. You can hear the movements, whispers, and even heartbeats of all creatures within 300', as well as ultrasonic and subsonic frequencies. You're virtually impossible to ambush. |
| 3–4 | Sight. You can see in dim light as if it was bright light, and in bright light as if you were using a telescope or microscope. You never suffer penalties on ranged attack rolls due to distance. |
| 5–6 | Smell. You can detect and trace faint odors, potentially allowing you to track by smell and revealing the presence of dangerous chemicals, as well as a forensic amount of detail about creatures or objects you examine. You're very difficult to ambush. |
| 7–8 | Taste. You can chemically analyze anything you taste, detecting toxins, drugs, disease, etc. from even harmlessly tiny drops of material. |
| 9–10 | Touch. You gain +5 on checks to understand or manipulate inanimate objects you touch. This applies to picking locks, examining artifacts, breaking down doors, etc. You can function in the dark by feeling air currents and body heat. |
Heightened Speed
Your movement speed is doubled.
Once per day, you can accelerate your body for 1 turn, gaining an extra action each round and +5 to checks requiring reaction speed. Entering this state doesn't require an action. After doing this, you must rest for an hour or take 1 direct damage.
Hex Gaze [psychic]
Once per turn, when you make eye contact with a living creature, you can engage them in a psychic struggle. If you win, your target falls unconscious for 1 turn. If your target wins, they're momentarily stunned and can't move or take actions for 1 round. If they win by 10 or more points, they're not stunned, and you take damage equal to your target's level. Using this mutation doesn't cost you an action.
Infravision
You can see the lower side of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the infrared rays emitted by hot objects and the microwaves and radiowaves emitted by advanced machines. This is extremely low-resolution vision, but it's enough to let you see a blurry, human-sized heat glow at about 100' in total darkness. Nearby fires or radio transmitters will completely temporarily blind your infravision, but won't stop you from seeing regular light.
Intangibility
Once per turn, you can become intangible. In this state, the physical world doesn't interact with you at all. You pass through normal matter, you're immune to all non-psychic attacks, gravity has no hold on you, and you can't breathe. In this state, you continue moving at the same speed and in the same direction as you were at the moment you activated the mutation. You become tangible again at will or when you fall unconscious.
Intuition [psychic]
You're subconsciously aware of the intentions of living creatures within 40' of you. You gain +2 to attack such creatures, and they suffer -2 to attack you. You're virtually impossible for living creatures to ambush.
Kinetic Negation
You decrease the force of incoming physical attacks, suffering only half damage from effects that inflict harm by smashing, cutting, piercing, etc.
Levitation
You can decrease or reverse gravity's effect on yourself, or on a creature or object of up to 500 lbs., causing the subject to rise or fall by 30' by using an action. An unwilling subject can try to slip free of your grasp.
Life Leech
You can enter a state where you continuously drain the life energy from those around you. While this mutation is active, every living creature within 30' of you loses 3 HP per round and you regain HP equal to the amount drained. You can maintain this state indefinitely by using an action each round. Once you end it, you can't use it for the rest of the day.
Life Support
You have no need for food, water, or air.
Light Generation
You can emit light as a steady glow that illuminates your surroundings like a torch.
You can also expend your light in a single flash that blinds all creatures looking at you within 30' for 6 rounds. After that, you can't use this mutation for 1 turn.
Magnetic Control
You can generate magnetic fields to attract, repel, drag, lift, or otherwise manipulate ferrous metal objects of up to 1,000 lbs. within 50'. The lighter the object, the faster you can move it, and you can magnetically launch small items as weapons.
Once per day, you can create a magnetic shield around yourself, deflecting all ferrous objects for 1 turn. Once you do this, you can't use this mutation's other function for the rest of the day.
Mass Mind [psychic]
While in physical contact with a sapient creature who knows you well, you can add your INT or CHA to their psychic struggle checks as attacker and add your WIS or CHA to psychic struggle checks they make as defender. They can aid your psychic struggle checks in the same way, if they want. You can link with up to INT + 2 allies this way. All creatures involved in the link are subject to the same effects if they fail the psychic struggle.
Molecular Disruption
Once per day, you can attempt to disintegrate up to 250 lbs. of matter. To do so, you must be in contact with the target for 1 minute. Living targets must be willing, unconscious, or somehow subdued. You then make a CON check against this table.
| Material | Difficulty | Material | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Textile | 3 | Plastic | 9 |
| Flesh | 4 | Ceramic | 10 |
| Bone | 5 | Stone | 11 |
| Leather | 6 | Glass | 12 |
| Rubber | 7 | Metal | 13 |
| Wood | 8 |
You can destroy all matter within the target object of a difficulty equal to or below your roll. Regardless of the result, you are reduced to 1 HP and travel at half speed for the rest of the day.
Molecular Sense
You can sense the structure and material properties of anything you touch, the effect extending 1' from the point of contact.
You gain +5 on checks to understand or manipulate objects you touch. This applies to picking locks, examining artifacts, breaking down doors, etc.
Natural Projectiles
You can launch quills, teeth, stones, or some other kind of small, physical projectile from your body to attack targets within 20'. Roll 1d20 + 5 to determine the maximum number of projectiles you contain. When you use this mutation, you expend from 1 to 5 projectiles and add that number to your ranged attack roll. You inflict damage equal to the amount by which your attack exceeds the target's AC. You regrow 2d10 projectiles per day.
Natural Weapons
You have claws, sharp teeth, spines, or some other kind of natural weapon. Your unarmed attacks do 1d8 damage.
Roll 1d10 to determine your natural weapons.
| 1–2 | Bite. 1d10 damage. -5 to attack targets that aren't restrained or subdued (unless you don't walk upright). |
| 3–5 | Claws. 1d8 damage. +5 on checks to climb. |
| 6–7 | Horns. 1d6 damage, or 2d6 with a running start. |
| 8–9 | Spikes. 1d6 damage. Also inflicted on creatures that grapple you. |
| 10 | Tail stinger. 1d4 damage. Enemies can't flank you for an attack bonus. |
Object Teleportation
Once per turn, you can teleport an inanimate object you can see of 20 pounds or less.
Roll to determine how you can do this.
| 1–5 | Receive. Teleport an object within 50' to your hand. |
| 6–10 | Send. Teleport an object in your grasp to a point within 50'. |
| 11–12. | Move. Teleport an object within 50' to a point within 50'. |
If you try to teleport an object held by another creature, they can try to pull it out of your focus before it vanishes.
Paralyzation [psychic]
You can psychically paralyze a living creature within 50'. You engage your target in a psychic struggle and, if you win, the target is paralyzed as long as the effect is maintained. You can use your action each round to maintain the effect until you end it or something breaks your concentration.
Photonic Illusions
Once per turn, you can create holographic images within 40'. You can create up to your level in separate images at once. As long as you stay within range, they'll last for up to 1 turn, but won't act, react, or move in anything more than a superficial, repetitive way unless you use an action to consciously manipulate them.
Photonic Invisibility
Once per day, you can bend light around yourself, making yourself invisible, along with everything that you wear or carry. In this state, you're unaffected by light-based phenomena such as lasers, and your view of the world around you is dimmed. You can maintain this effect for up to 1 turn.
Photosynthesis
You gain energy from the sun, regaining 1 HP per hour spent in direct sunlight. If you spend 3 hours in the sun, you don't need to eat for the day.
Planar Portal
Once per day, you can open a 10' × 10' gateway to another plane of existence. This can either be a plane with which you're already familiar or a completely random one. It lasts for 3 rounds.
Possession [psychic]
Once per day, you can project your mind out of your body to take over the body of a living creature within 50'. If you succeed in a psychic struggle against them, you gain control of their body and your body falls into a coma. If you fail, you're stunned for one round as you find your way back to your own body. If you fail by 10 or more, you stay in a coma until the next day.
When you've succeeded in possessing a target, you keep your mental traits and gain their physical traits (Hit Points being a mental trait). You can transfer back to your body at any time, as long as it's within 50'. If your stolen body dies with you in it, your mind is gone and your real body remains comatose.
Power Aura
Roll a random energy type.
| 1 | Cold | 4 | Heat |
| 2 | Electricity | 5 | Plasma |
| 3 | Force waves | 6 | Sonic vibrations |
You can erupt in a constant fountain of this energy, doing 1d6 damage to everything immediately near you. You're immune to that kind of energy while the aura is active, but your allies and possessions aren't. Activating your aura requires an action, but maintaining it doesn't. It lasts until you deactivate it or fall unconscious.
Power Blast
Roll a random energy type.
| 1 | Cold | 5 | Heat |
| 2 | Disintegration rays | 6 | Laser beams |
| 3 | Electricity | 7 | Plasma blasts |
| 4 | Force blasts | 8 | Sonic waves |
You can project this kind of energy from your hands, eyes, mouth, etc. as an attack, doing 1d8 damage to a single target within 60' or 1d6 damage to everyone immediately in front of you.
Psychic Blast [psychic]
You can enter a psychic struggle with a living creature within 50'. If you win, your target takes 1d6 damage. For every 5 points by which your roll exceeds the target's, they take another 1d6 damage. If the target wins by 10 or more points, you take damage equal to their level. After you use this mutation, you can't use any psychic mutations for 1 round.
Psychic Call [psychic]
Once per day, you can send out a psychic call to summon a living creature of a particular type with which you're familiar: a species of animal, a person belonging to a certain group, or even an individual. If a relevant target is within 1 mile, they will become aware of your location and feel that they have been called there. Sapient targets can ignore the call. Non-sapient targets will make their way towards you at a reasonable pace and, once they arrive, you can engage them in a psychic struggle. If you win, they will follow your psychic commands for 1 turn.
Psychic Illusions [psychic]
Once per turn, you can create illusory creatures and objects with visual, auditory, and olfactory components. All living creatures within 40' of you (yourself included) will experience these illusions. You can create up to your level in separate illusions at once. As long as you stay within range, they'll last for up to 1 turn, but won't act, react, or move in anything more than a superficial, repetitive way unless you use an action to consciously manipulate them.
Psychic Invisibility [psychic]
Once per day, you can influence the minds of all living creatures within 50' to disregard your existence. This hides you from all of the affected creatures' senses. If you do anything to draw a target's attention, you need to win a psychic struggle with them in order to remain hidden. You can maintain this effect for up to 1 turn.
Psychic Reflection [psychic]
You can instantly mimic any psychic effect used on you, repeating it against its source. You can also imitate the surface thought patterns of those around you, allowing you to avoid standing out in a casual psychic inspection.
Psychic Shield [psychic]
When you defend in a psychic struggle, you can roll twice and take the better result. Allies in a Mass Mind link with you also gain this benefit.
You're aware of any creatures with psychic abilities within 100'.
Psychometry [psychic]
You can sense traces of the history of any inanimate object you touch. The impressions you get will often be fuzzy and incomplete. Older events will be faded or completely lost, but repeated or emotionally charged events will be clearer.
You gain +5 on checks to understand objects you touch. This applies to examining artifacts, etc.
Reflexive Displacement
Once per turn, when in danger of physical harm, you reflexively teleport away to a randomly chosen—but always safer—location within 200'. If there's no safer place within that range, this mutation doesn't activate. You don't need to be aware of the danger or the destination for it to function, and it doesn't require an action.
Regeneration
You don't need sleep or a safe haven for your wounds to heal, just food. For each ration's worth you eat, you clear 1 wound by the next day. You can also fully regrow lost limbs and recover from other severe damage over time.
Repulsion Field
Once per day, you can emit a field of repelling force. In this state:
- Your AC vs. physical projectiles increases by 5.
- Physical melee attacks do half damage to you.
- Gas, dust, and loose objects are pushed away from you.
You can maintain your Repulsion Field for up to 1 turn.
Restoration
Once per day, you can boost your own life force in order to instantly do one of the following.
- Restore all of your Hit Points.
- Heal all of your wounds.
- Clear all poisons for your system.
- Cure yourself of a disease or parasite.
- Regrow a lost body part.
Shapeshifting
You can reshape yourself into an approximation of any kind of animal you've seen (human being a kind of animal). You can't change your size or pass as a specific individual. You gain the subject's physical traits (except for internal mutations or paranormal powers), lose your own physical traits (except for this mutation), and keep your mental traits (Hit Points being a mental trait). Your clothing doesn't change. You revert to your own form at will, or when unconscious or dead.
Shock Touch
You can emit electrical shocks, harming anything in contact with you. This does 2d6 damage and doesn't count as an action, so you can do it when making a melee attack and even deliver shocks through conductive weapons. It takes a round to build up a charge, so you can't use it two rounds in a row.
Skeletal Enhancement
You suffer only half damage from bludgeoning attacks, falls, and other forms of smashing or crushing harm. Your unarmed attacks do 1d6 damage.
Sonar
You can perceive physical objects around you regardless of visual conditions, up to a range of 100' (with greater fidelity for closer objects). Constant noise or physical obstructions can interfere with this ability. You gain +2 to melee attack rolls.
You can hear into the ultrasonic range, and other creatures with ultrasonic hearing can hear your sonar pings.
Sonic Blast
Once per turn, you can emit a destructive burst of sound. This does 3d6 damage to all other creatures within 10', 2d6 damage to creatures within 20', and 1d6 damage within 10'. Affected creatures are deafened for 1 turn and brittle objects are shattered.
Spinnerets
Once per turn, you can cover an adjacent area of up to 20' × 20' with tough, sticky, flammable webbing.
Stunning Pulse
Once per day, you can release a pulse of electricity that strikes all other creatures within 100'. Living creatures and robots that fail a CON check vs. your level + 11 are stunned for 1d6 rounds and can't move or take actions. Living creatures that fail by 10 or more fall unconscious. Robots that fail by 10 or more are deactivated until repaired.
Supercharge
Once per day, you can enhance one of your other mutations or other capabilities for 1 round. You can double any numerical value of a mutation (range, damage, etc.) or use a mutation that has already been expended by previous use. Alternatively, you can also increase one of your abilities by 5.
Telepathy [psychic]
You can transmit your thoughts into the minds of living creatures of your choice within 300', and receive thoughts they deliberately project at you, allowing communication without a shared language. You can also read the surface thoughts of a target if you succeed in a psychic struggle against them.
Teleportation
Once per turn, you can teleport yourself to a location within 5 miles that you can see or are familiar with. You can attempt to teleport to a less certain location by making an INT check, taking 5d6 damage on arrival if you fail.
Tentacles
You have 1d6 tentacles in addition to your regular limbs. They have a reach of 10', and can carry and manipulate objects with slightly less dexterity than hands: good enough to swing a sword, but not enough to fire a bow and arrow. You gain +5 on checks to grab and grapple.
Thermal Control
You can drastically alter the temperature of a point in space at a distance up to 80' away.
Roll to determine what kind of change you can create.
| 1–5 | Cold |
| 6–10 | Heat |
| 11–12 | Cold or heat |
When you use this mutation to freeze or burn a creature, they can attempt to dodge the effect. Your first successful attack does 1d6 damage, and each successful attack after that increases the effect by another d6 up to a maximum of 5d6 damage, resetting when you spend a round without using this mutation on that target.
Tough Hide
You have scales or extremely thick skin. This gives you 2 armor points, doesn't take up item slots, and stacks with armor points from worn armor.
Toxin
You produce a poison or venom. If you have Natural Projectiles or Natural Weapons, it's a venom applied via that attack. Otherwise, it's a contact poison secreted from your skin. Roll to determine the toxin's effect.
| 1 | Damaging. Victim must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or suffer 1 direct damage, repeating this each round until they succeed. |
| 2 | Debilitating. Victim suffers -1 to STR and DEX for 1 turn. This effect stacks. |
| 3 | Hallucinogenic. Victim must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or suffer wild visions and delusions for 1d6 rounds, potentially fleeing, freezing, or attacking randomly. |
| 4 | Lethal. Victim must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or die in 1 day unless treated. |
| 5 | Paralytic. Victim must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or be stunned and unable to move or take actions for 1d6 rounds. |
| 6 | Soporific. Victim must succeed on a CON check vs. your level + 11 or fall unconscious on the following round. |
Toxin Immunity
You suffer no ill effects from poisons, venoms, and other chemical toxins. Caustic chemicals and infectious agents affect you normally.
Transfusion
You can heal other living creatures at the cost of your own health. To do so, you must maintain physical contact with the subject. For each round that you heal them, they regain 2d10 HP and you lose 1d4 HP. Once you stop, you can't use this mutation on that creature again for the rest of the day.
Ultravision
You can see the higher side of the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet rays and various forms of radiation. You can also shed ultraviolet rays at will, allowing you to see in otherwise dark environments as if by torchlight. This glow is invisible to creatures that can't see the ultraviolet range.
Vocal Mimic
You can perfectly reproduce sounds you've heard recently, imitate voices, and hear in the subsonic and ultrasonic ranges.
Wings
You have a fully functional set of wings. As long as at least half of your item slots are empty and you have a space of at least twice your height in diameter to maneuver in, you can fly at up to twice your normal movement speed. You cannot hover or maneuver precisely.
What's next
I've gotta do those defect mutations and make an actual table. Also, I really need to collapse the waveform on my character creation rules: I've got a loose writeup at the moment, but it's still fuzzy. Same deal with character advancement rules. Ooh, and I really oughta make a table for random cosmetic mutations! Frankly, that should probably be another 1d100 job, god help me.
After that, I'll think about statting up some gear, maybe some monsters. Or, alternatively, I could think about real worldbuilding stuff.
