Monday 4 May 2015

Expo Awards Day 3 - Mutant Year Zero


So, the world ended, there’s not much left of anything, food’s running out, there is no brighter tomorrow, it’s down and it’s dropping fast…

Welcome to Mutant: Year Zero

Modiphius’ latest release is a departure from games they’ve done before, it’s not about big damn heroes, crossing the multiverse or punching Cthulhu out, it’s a story of day to day struggle in a world that’s gone bad.  The players take the part of those who are left following the cataclysm that ended the world as they knew it, but they’re not the same as the people who once inhabited that world, they’re changed, they’re different…

They’re Mutants…



The background to the book is covered in less than two pages, and in any other game, this would be a woeful lack of material to work with, but that’s where this game comes into its own. The whole point of this game is to look to the future, not wonder what happened in the past, it’s about finding hope in the dark places, keeping your own people alive, and trying to find some measure of safety in a world gone wrong. 

It jumps straight in with Character Creation,  all the players are mutants, each of them given a single (random) mutation that is theirs to use.  It’s entirely possible that characters will end up being something that their players did not at first envisage, but that works with the way the game is set up, if there were elements of choice in anything the players were doing, it would take away something from the feel the game gives.


System is D6 based, certain numbers yield certain results, either good or bad, and multiple dice colours are used to represent the different influences on the dice roll.  Each game starts with the threat of the week, rolled randomly by the GM and then worked up from there.  If the characters succeed, their successes can affect what happens the week after and these successes can be used to build the world around the characters.



In terms of artwork and Layout, there’s good atmospheric pieces throughout, the front cover clearly sets the scene, as do the maps on the inside cover, there’s no repeated artwork throughout the entire book and most of the scenes depicted convey well the idea that’s being pushed.  Full colour throughout with high production values that justify the £35 price tag.



The system does come with optional dice and cards, but the judges looking at this were using regular dice and the tables within the book rather than the optional extras

And on to the Judges comments

There’s a feel to it unlike anything else I’ve played, I can see that it’s not about the character but about the community, you don’t get attached to goodies and treasure in the same way…

Not sure about the long term playability of it, but it’s been great as an isolated game…

I like that’s it’s always forwards, there’s no pause in the game, no respite, it drives itself and it makes you hang on to try and steer it.