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Coming Summer 2008!
Back to the basics of old-school science fantasy gaming.
What is Mutant Future?
I like to think of Mutant Future as a “next generation” retro-clone. We’ve taken the rules from Labyrinth Lord, stripped them of the most obvious fantasy elements, and injected back in rules inspired by classic nuclear post-apocalypse science fantasy games.
Naturally, we ended up with a mutated clone.
Mutant Future is an old-school science fantasy game. You won’t find hard and fast rules for every situation, but you will find a solid and simple game system. Mutant Future lets you whip up characters in a hurry so you can get to the fun part, adventuring in the wasteland of the post-apocalypse future.
The mutant future is a dangerous place. Life has mutated and evolved to survive in a spidergoat-eat-two-headed dwarf world. It isn’t just animals that are more deadly. Some plants have mutated to be sapient, mobile, and others wait patiently in one place for fresh meat.
What Mutant Future Isn’t
There is going to be a lot of confusion on this point, so we’ll try to clear it up here. Mutant Future is not a direct clone of a particular game. Some elements of Mutant Future are heavily inspired by old-school and newer games alike, but the core system is from Labyrinth Lord. So while Mutant Future is not any more innovative than any other retro-clone, it is more like Frankenstein’s Monster in that it takes an old-school infusion of rules from Labyrinth Lord, classic science fantasy rules, and additional material from more recent open game content. In many ways Mutant Future is the best realization of the concept of open game content. We’ve taken a great deal of open game content terms and text, stirred it all together and made something old yet new.
What this means is that Mutant Future is probably fairly easily converted to older science fantasy games, but it is not designed to closely emulate their rules. Mutant Future is designed more to emulate their “feel,” while taking advantage of the solid rules we already have with Labyrinth Lord.
How will Mutant Future be available?
We’re following the same model we used for Labyrinth Lord. The electronic book will be free, and print versions will be available through Lulu.com. Print versions will include paperback and hardcover versions.
In addition, Mutant Future will have a free third-party trademark license for publishers interested in supporting this game. The terms of the license will be very open, just like the Labyrinth Lord license. All of the text of Mutant Future, except for the trademark “Mutant Future,” will be designated open game content.
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