Mutant: Year Zero goes back to the origins of the Mutant franchise: role-playing after the Apocalypse. In this game, you play as one of The People – heavily mutated humans living in The Ark, a small and isolated settlement in a sea of chaos. The outside world is unknown to you, and so is your origin.

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.

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 256 page full colour hardcover core book contains everything you need for hundreds of hours of play. Some of the contents:

• A fast and effective character generation system, using archetypal roles such as the Crusher, the Gearhead, the Fixer, the Dog Handler and the Chronicler.
• Unstoppable but highly unpredictable mutant powers, such as Flame Breather, Insect Wings, Human Magnet, and Pathokinesis.
• A skill and conflict system that makes you push yourself to the limit, and beyond. The rules system highlights two main themes: mutation and resource management. Every bullet counts!
• Rules for developing the Ark (“base building”) and exploring the Zone (“gridcrawling”).
• A rich story generation system, helping the GM instantly create threats to the Ark as well as locations and events in the Zone.
• An illustrated bestiary of humanoids, mutated monsters and Zone phenomena.
•  An extensive collection of artifacts for the characters to find in the Zone.
• Five complete and ready-to-use “Special Zone Sectors”. These are scenario locations with NPC’s, backstory and suggested events. These Special Zone Sectors, which each come with an illustrative map, can be placed anywhere in the Zone by the GM.
• A campaign outline, called “The Path to Eden”, including backstory, NPC’s, player handouts, and a campaign finale described in detail.

Modiphius and Free League Publishing have launched a pre-orderfor Mutant: Year Zero and those who sign up will also get a bonus double-sided 42×55.8cm map of the New York and London Zones for £34.99 / $54.99. There’s also a starter bundle for £49.99 / $79.99 which gets you the core book, poster, dice set and free card set.

Expansions

A series of expansions are already in development. The smaller expansions, called Zone Compendia, will each contain illustrated adventure locations in the Zone, extra mutations, artifacts, rules, and more. The major expansions will each focus on one new playable class: mutated animals, robots, then un-mutated humans. Each major expansion includes a campaign letting you play the origin story of the class, and then introduces the class into the game and into the Zone. We expect to release the first expansion for Mutant: Year Zero in early 2015.