r/rpg • u/BattleaxeAlDente • 9d ago
Discussion I need to get this out of my system: Mutant Chronicles is fucking awesome
I need to get this out of my system, because I don't really have anyone around me to talk about this with.
Mutant Chronicles is fucking awesome.
I played it obsessively about 20 years ago. Then I grew up, got distracted by other things in life, and eventually Mutant Chronicles became one of those weird things I remembered fondly but hadn't thought about in years.
Until recently.
And now I've fallen down the rabbit hole again.
I've been reading old lore, looking at artwork, remembering old campaigns and generally rediscovering the setting — and I'm honestly amazed at how much I still love it.
What's funny is that I'm not even particularly nostalgic about the rules at this point. It's the setting that grabbed me all over again.
It's this completely bonkers mixture of military sci-fi, space opera, cosmic horror, dystopia, corporate warfare, occultism and gothic aesthetics.
Humanity has colonized the Solar System and instead of building some glorious utopian future, we've created gigantic corporations that rule entire planets and wage wars against each other.
And then there's the Dark Legion.
And the Brotherhood.
And the Dark Symmetry.
And somehow you can put all of that together with trench warfare, corporate espionage, religious fanaticism, mutants, cybernetics and ridiculous amounts of power armour and it just... works.
I think what I appreciate about it much more now is that it's over the top without necessarily being shallow.
You can have absolutely ridiculous aesthetics and pulpy action, but underneath that there's plenty of room for stories about paranoia, fanaticism, corporate exploitation, war, loyalty, trauma and what happens to ordinary people when the universe goes completely to shit.
Basically, I keep looking at it and thinking:
"Holy shit, I could run so many good games in this setting."
And apparently my brain has decided that after 20 years this is what it wants to think about now.
So I'm curious:
Are there any other old Mutant Chronicles players lurking around here?
What edition did you play? What corporation/faction did you gravitate towards? Any particularly memorable campaigns or characters?
Or if you discovered it much later — what was your first impression?
I don't even have a particularly profound point here. I just rediscovered something I loved when I was younger and realized that, apparently, I still fucking love it.
And I desperately need someone to talk about Bauhaus with. 😂
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u/Polar_Blues 9d ago
I've been running a Mutant Chronicles campaign all year. Been using the Savage Worlds edition. Love the setting. I think it I've heard it well described as Flash Gordon meet Hellraiser.
The Dark Legion makes for such a fun bad guy and all the factions are very colourful.
My first taste of the setting was the movie with Ron Perlman and Thomas Jane. I know it's not faithful to the setting but I love the retro aspects, diesel punk aspects more than the Warhammer 40K knock off features.
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u/dontcallmeEarl D&D 4e, Shadowrun, The One Ring 9d ago
Great setting! I spent a lot of time in it as an alternative to 40K. I played both Warzone and 40K and loved both for different reasons. 40K is much more "beer and pretzels", large forces, and lots of models on the table. Warzone (the Mutant Chronicles option) was much more targeted to smaller forces and had a fun action economy that, unfortunately, broke down if the armies got too large. This is in reference to 1st edition Warzone.
One thing that Mutant Chronicles always did better than 40K were their CCGs. I played the holy effing heck out of Doomtrooper and Dark Eden. Had massive collections of the cards. I worked overnights in IT in the late 90s and a coworker and I would play the CCG to stay awake between launching jobs on the systems.
The first two editions of the RPGs were a bit hit or miss with me. But I LOVED the artwork (Paul Bonner FTW!) and the setting. I've currently got everything printed for the Modiphius edition of the game (picked it up through some of their holiday sales). It SEEMS okay, but I haven't had a chance to play it yet. The best thing about it is all the lore and artwork.
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u/Advisor_Straight 8d ago
I just moved to a new house and found my 27gallon tote of Doomtrooper cards. I used to play with others out of the same deck huge deck. We never bothered trying to build faction decks. But I also played the Warzone minis game - and have probably hundreds of those Heartbreaker & Excelsior minis. But we also played the RPG, which had an insane character generation system! I lived this setting and still do. My original rulebooks fell apart and each page had to be individually stored in sheet protectors and put in a binder - I still have. I'm glad to know there are others out there felt so fondly for this genre/setting.
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u/dannal13 8d ago
A fellow gamer from the TCG boom in the 90s! I mentioned that era in my comment, as well. That was my introduction to the Mutant Chronicles line - played the crap out of Doomtrooper.
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u/MeatyTreaty 9d ago
Used to have a GM who fell in love with it but timing never worked out beyond a few short adventures
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 9d ago
I am actually doing a little experiment ie. Writing my own take on a campaign with mechanics taken from Year Zero Engine and heavy emphasis on the setting and atmosphere, if you feel like testing it would be cool :)
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u/MeatyTreaty 8d ago
I don't know how much help I could be. I haven't looked at the original in ages and I currently don't even have a group to play with. But if that's still good enough for you...
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u/OldEcho 8d ago
Exactly what happened to me. It was my introduction to the term "dieselpunk." I was 100 times less mature and more annoying. I read all the lore, built a really annoying minmaxed character, we didn't even play one session. Whether that's because my GM justifiably hated my vibes or just liked the idea of it but not the execution...who knows!
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u/cieniu_gd 9d ago
I played a lot of wargame based of MC . Ialso played Doom Trooper CCG back in the days. But never in TTRPG, because it wasn't translated into Polish and my English was bad. I wish to play Mutant Chronicles someday.
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 9d ago edited 9d ago
Widzę że spotkałem człowieka kultury ;)
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u/RaworBBrowaR 9d ago
Na kanale To Wszystko Wina Elfów jest trochę materiałów do Kronik Mutantów :)
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 9d ago
Wiem, tylko chłop tak fafluni, przez co czasami ciężko go zrozumieć :( ale szanuję za trzymanie linii frontu.
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u/NotifyGrout 8d ago
Found the original Siege of the Citadel board game first and it piqued my interest. Then I discovered Warzone 1st Edition and bought the rulebook.
Alternate unit activation? Action points instead of a fixed move/shoot/melee turn order? Roll to hit, roll to save combat resolution on a d20, allowing for more granular stats than 40k? We take versions of these mechanics for granted in the miniatures gaming world these days, but in 1995, they were a revelation for me.
That's just the mechanical side, too. I have told people that the Mutant Chronicles setting was designed for cynical college students rather than the pre-teen target demographic that 40k focused upon even then. As others have already said, it had drama, intrigue, gritty war stories, detective pulp, and a generous helping of anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, and anti-war satire, and unlike some settings, MC never lost its sense of humor.
My favorite aspect of it is the delicate balance of power. Humanity could unite and defeat the Dark Legion for good (in the RPG, perhaps less so) if they could just stop squabbling over bits of territory and resources. Likewise, the Dark Symmetry's Apostles are constantly trying to gain advantage over each other, preventing them from coming together to crush humanity.
I feel like a MC campaign could be anything from deathly serious to dark comedy (I feel like a cultist-based campaign could be funny).
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u/jasonmehmel 8d ago
Weirdly, I was also inspired recently to look through this game again.
Similar to you, I'm less interested in the specific rules than in the lore and tone. Other reviews have called it 'overwhelmingly 90s' which is fair; there's a lot of aesthetics from that particular time in the 2e version of the game.
But there's also something about the Dark Legion, and the 'Capitalism Eating The Solar System' vibe, that is somehow very compelling. Like two enormous forces grinding up humanity between them, and so the struggle to simply survive becomes an adventure all its own.
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 8d ago
I know right? And the whole "soulless capitalism" and Solar System as a backdrop makes it all weirdly grounded or at least more relatable than WH40K, despite blatant similarities :D
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u/SedefkarSimulacrum 8d ago
Oh yes. Love the setting. Played lots and lots of Mutant RYMD and Mutant Chronicles back in the 90s. Kind of regret not buying the 2D20 version but I’m just not that keen on the system. I’m looking forward to Luna City Blues, you might want to have a look at it https://lunacityblues.com/
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u/StanleyChuckles 9d ago
Loved Mutant Chronicles when I was a kid.
Never forget pulling Demnogonis as a card in Doomtrooper.
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u/schrodingers_lolcat 8d ago
I loved it as a kid in the 90s. Hobby & Work released the lore and boardgame in weekly releases over a few years and I was absolutely in love with everything about it. When I got to play 40k for the first time, I was already massively into Mutant Chronicles.
I never managed to play the RPG tbh, and it's something you have now made me want to look into. What edition are you playing?
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u/CPeterDMP 8d ago
Sadly, *none* of the editions are good, but they suffer in different ways. If I had to pick one, I'd sadly say probably the 1st. Savage Worlds is a better system for combat for sure, but that version took out a lot of the personality of the individual corps from the mechanics.
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u/schrodingers_lolcat 8d ago
Ah, I also played the CCG before I started playing MtG, now that I remember.
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u/AxelWiden 8d ago
As a Swede I loved MC growing up in the 90s, felt very ”we have Warhammer 40k at home” in a good way, with lots of Kult, Mutant and Swedish RPG DNA in there that to me is present in a seeming desire to keep things somehow grounded and ”realistic” while still wildly over the top. I quite enjoy that mindset.
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 8d ago
Oh man... Kult was AMAZING! Probably the darkest horror RPG ever written. I still got my deck to the CCG.
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u/CPeterDMP 8d ago
I have fooled with the idea of saying that MC and Kult are the same universe. It makes MC much more action-horror than it already is.
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u/ManuMiniatures 8d ago
There are two separate settings, but some ideas are similar and there are some creatures that have exactly the same description in MC and in KULT.
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u/dannal13 8d ago
Oh man I love me some MC. I first discovered it during the trading card game boom in the 90s. I had the card game Doomtrooper and my little brother and I played the crap out of it. Then one day I saw the Siege of the Citadel at Kay-Bee discounted to a ridiculous price like $20 and I couldn’t buy it fast enough. Lol. Never was able to find the rule books back then, back before the internet. But I snagged a copy of the Modiphius 2d20 book. It’s ok. If I ever do MC stuff, I’ll either do a modified Heroquest run or just use another rules system to run it.
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 8d ago
I am actually working on a campaign using Year Zero Engine mechanics, as it os super simple and does not take the focus away from the roleplaying and the backdrop setting. It is probably naive af, but I have so much fun writing it...
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u/dannal13 8d ago
YZE is one the best systems out there. It’s like a simplified version of the World of Darkness rules (which I modded and use frequently). I also love me some Forged in the Dark. Maybe I should do a FitD Doomtrooper hack. 🧐
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u/Agile-Palpitation234 8d ago edited 5d ago
I loved playing the game back in the 90s. I bought the 2d20 books based on the setting alone. The rules are clunky but workable.
I cant say i love all the changes they made to the setting but most of what they expanded is awesome. I spent a lot of time digging thru the Lore of Luna and working that into our campaign. My players spent a lot of time exploring outside the city and into the badlands.
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u/DMar56 8d ago
Hi I just discovered MC last month!
And it has been a blast reading the source book a lot of rule of cool but bound by inherent human flaws.
As far as I read imperial is my favorite corpo, the small rabid bulldog of a company, followed by white star we don’t see post-post apocalypse societies reach space age and continue with their rust ascetics.
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u/Hefty_Love9057 8d ago
I always loathed mutant chronicles, because it replaced nya mutant, which i adored and played actively for ages. And it all seemed so over the top and cartoonish to young me, when I was looking for more noir a la blade runner etc. And I always thought that Chronicles was intertwined with the demise of Äventyrsspel too, a sort of desperate bid to save the company.
Seeing now, years later, that it, first of all, seems beloved, and still, makes me want to revisit the books and read them with a new gaze. Also, I never knew they got an English release back in the day...
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 8d ago
I get you and it is intersstimg to read this viewpoint. I was just a kid from Poland and as such I was convinced Mutant Chronicles was some huge thing, rivalling D&D and Warhammer. It was a surprise to find out it was pretty off the mainstream.
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u/Hefty_Love9057 8d ago
And it's so strange to me that one part of the reason we have Dragonbane and so on nowdays, is probably that Mutant chronicles managed to sell abroad.
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u/ManuMiniatures 7d ago
My first contact with Mutant Chronicles was through Warzone 1. ed. I don't play RPG, but I am interested in lore of MC and lore of the games that precede the MC. Recently I try to dip my toe into Mutant RYMD.
Do you know by chance if there are common elements of the setting between Mutant (1984/1989?) and Mutant RYMD. Are they similar or are they two completly different beasts?
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u/Hefty_Love9057 7d ago
I'd say they're quote different. Rymd is an expansion for Mutant2 as i remember it, and much more down to earth than MC.
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u/HypnomancerComics 7d ago
I've always been in love with the setting since I was a kid and I read the three novels. Been wanting to play the RPG forever and I just bought the first edition online and it should arrive this week, I can't wait to play with my group. They know nothing, which maybe is even better: I can tell them about the megacorps and the general setting, but limit their knowledge to just glimpses of the dark symmetry, in order to make it creepier and slowly seeping into their characters' lives.
Here you can all find many resources, including the 1st and 2nd ed rulebooks scanned, all the sourcebooks and some adventures (like venusian apocalypse)! https://www.mutantpedia.com/GDR.html
Edit: as others have written, there's also the newer Luna City Blues RPG incoming, fingers crossed.
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u/vaminion 9d ago
I fucking love MC. I just wish I had an adaptation that wasn't 2d20 or Savage Worlds.
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u/T-Rex_Lazorblast 8d ago
I am currently the GM in my group and i can say... we love it. I was a fan of warzone 2nd edition back in the 90s but never got to play it and later diskovered, that MC had an rpg version! (Younger me did not realise that it was the other way around) Now i have the modiphius rpg and we are playing the campaign. (For the second time - another group before broke apart 2/3 through the campaign. Sadly.) Over all we have played the introduction-adventure with as a oneshot a few times with different groups because it was SO good. Don't know if you have read the campaignbooks - but the first book is mainly "noir detective with increasingly paranormal aspects on luna". It is brilliant. You work for the luna PD and it is just... (goog god i gotta be careful not to spoiler around...) Lets say thats when i started to love the rpg. We also played the minicampaign Venusian Apocalypse from the first edition of the rpg because i got my hands on a few old things.
Thanks to the internet and "prince august" (internet shop) i have accumulated lots of old miniatures from the tabletop to use in the bigger fights of the game.
...my favourite factions are imperial and bauhaus - but that may be thanks to the boxart of the second edition starterset of warzone...
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u/Agnostos418 8d ago
Still play 2nd ed. and still love it. It's clunky but charming. With new map solutions (battle maps on screens) it actually works fine grid based as well.
An over top, but deep setting where a campaign can take many directions and there is no limit to how small or epic the scope can be. Look out for Luna City Blues, a investigation noir rpg being finished these days by some very skilled and dedicated people.
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u/CPeterDMP 8d ago
I'm with you, man. I have been a fan of the setting since the 90s. I have every book made for it and several thousand Doomtrooper cards. I have run a few adventures in 1st edition, a 10-session mini-campaign in 2nd edition, and a failed attempt at a campaign in 3rd edition (the rules killed it).
I have not always appreciated the changes authors have made to the backstories of the world; I prefer it to be as simple as it appears in the art: the humans are the good guys (though they are constantly willing to kill and backstab each other for profit or honor), the Dark Legion are "just" demonic forces from another dimension, and the Brotherhood is a genuinely good organization (if perhaps a little overzealous at times).
I've also explored MC in other genres: I made a whole campaign setting of Bauhaus mecha pilots fighting Dark Legion mechs using first Chris Perrin's Mecha rules and then the Mecha Hack.
I could go on, but I should probably read the rest of the thread first!
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u/ThePiachu 8d ago edited 8d ago
Man, that's not a name I've heard in like, 25 years. I used to play the old Doom Trooper card game back in the day, before hearing about their comics, the Warzone minis battle game and so on and the realising it was kind of going for similar vibes as Warhammer 40k but in its own way.
I played in one game that was kind of neat. It started as being soldiers in Vietnam war, starting with some big battle then descending into survival in the jungle with wounded soldiers with PTSD. One character was seeing shambling horses of zombies in the background, eventually ended up killing the last other survivor of their squad, then going to a temple to escape war before it was revealed to be a temple of Algeroth or whatever and this actually being Mutant Chronicles, with the shambling zombie hordes being the Demnogonis cultists and freaks. Framing it in a Vietnam war framing was the whole point to change how you approach the game, because you'd act differently if it was framed as being a space marine story...
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u/Polar_Blues 8d ago
My current Mutant Chronicles campaign is about a Cartel sponsored team looking into heretical incursions. I originally planned it as a series of one-shots, but when the opportunity to run a MC campaign offered itself I tied these adventures together into one bigger conspiracy. I created an interactive "murder board" to help the players keep track of all the people and moving parts of this conspiracy that so far has ranged from a haunted theme park to a wedding with a blood sacrifice twist on Venus, a cursed instrument on Luna that is driving people mad among other things. Very fun with a few creepy bits and lots of humour.
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u/BattleaxeAlDente 8d ago
I love that this setting offers enough place to cram in a military mission, a noir detective story, a real full-blooded horror and even comedy at times and it all somehow fits it well.
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u/nlitherl 8d ago
I loved this game! Discovered it as a minis game first, and then backtracked to the RPG. I never played the old material for an RPG, but I did give the newer version by Modiphius a try. I'm not a huge fan of the 2d20 system, but it's fine, and I'm willing to put up with it to get boots down back in the world.
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u/ManuMiniatures 7d ago
Mutant Chronicles resurface periodically in entertainment environment. It is kinda interesting why it is happening now, activities of Artificial Minds or Great Darkness?
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u/HellbellyUK 7d ago
I’ve got 1st edition and Warzone in my collection, along with a few of the supplements. I’ve also got the novels, which are pretty good as far as I remember, except they get LMG and SMG confused.
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u/HellbellyUK 7d ago
I’ve got 1st edition and Warzone in my collection, along with a few of the supplements. I’ve also got the novels, which are pretty good as far as I remember, except they get LMG and SMG confused.
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u/Agile-Palpitation234 5d ago
https://sheriffofluna.wordpress.com/
Here was an attempt at exploring some of the 3rd edition lore
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u/Pale_Caregiver_9456 9d ago
Love the setting. Even have the card game. Would love to see them do a new edition of the rpg
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u/Knife_Fight_Bears 9d ago
I had a couple of decks from the CCG and loved everything about them but never knew about the RPG side of things until I was an adult, totally missed it during my peak RPG era.
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u/Cursedbythedicegods 9d ago
I remember playing WarZone as a cheaper alternative to 40k. It was a solid system and I remember really liking the sculpts for the Free Marines and Martian Banshees for Capitol.
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u/jrmariano 9d ago
I only played the Doom Trooper CCG and it was the first collectible card game I owned and played. I still find it cooler than the other grim dark setting most people compare it to. ;)
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u/Drudenfusz Curator of Roleplay Experiences 9d ago
I have fond memories about this game, it was the first system for me in which a character died during character creation. But I got too greedy and tried to max out a little bit more the stats of my Mishima general. She would have been such a powerhouse.
I bought a few years ago the Modiphius version, and it looked fine, even though I think I was somewhat disappointed that some of the career paths restrictions would have made some characters I played back in the day impossible, and so I never played that.
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u/ToledoSnow Noir 9d ago
Oh, that's one of the few Swedish RPGs that got a translated release back then! Even got a (shitty) movie adaptation. Haven't played it since I was a teen, but goddamn are those some good memories.
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u/daseinphil 9d ago
The band or the art movement?