More Mutants!

Sadly, this has nothing to do with the X-Men, but everything to do with Earth Delta, Lizard’s still-ongoing attempt at Gamma World style adventuring for D&D Fourth Edition. As with prior articles, this is a “work in progress” sample, as I had some extra time this weekend and chose to use it writing about mutant turtles (but not, I will note, teenage ninja mutant turtles… though it ought to be very possible to write up on using Earth Delta, come to think of it…)

This article has just monsters, since they’re the most useful to people playing WOTC’s version of Gamma World, but for those who care, I have been constantly expanding tech items, mutations, and tweaking rules here and there as I go along.

The monsters in this section represent more examples of “spreadsheet design”, and by that I mean “I have a spreadsheet showing all monsters by role and level, and I’ve been looking for gaps”. In a perfect world, there will be at least one of every role for every level, and I’m slowly approaching that, but I’m also trying to push forward to get the higher level monsters done as part of my goal to get to Paragon Tier complete. This means there’s still a few gaps in the lower level monsters, and I managed to fill in one of them. So, if you’re wondering why there’s a level 1 lurker mixed in with the level 14 and 15 monsters, that’s why.

Also, in a perfect world, I’d have the CSS needed to display the monsters in a prettier format than a crude cut-and-paste from Word. I can cut them into a separate PDF and attach that, but I’m not sure it’s useful to many readers (this assumes I have any readers, a dubious premise) and I’ve found that any kind of extra step, such as “click here to read”, is often too burdensome for the Twitter age. So, until I actually publish the next full draft of the Mutant Manual, I am going to ask that you bear with me.

What do you get when you cross a rattlesnake with a turtle? I don’t know, but it’s biting me!

I guess you had to be there.

Rattlerocks are minor pests that tend to be found in desert wastelands, often near smaller ruins, where the rubble gives them ample places to hide. (At the start of most encounters, a DC 20 Perception check will be needed to notice them, assuming they are in a rocky area.) They will wait patiently for someone to come near, and then attack with their sudden snap. If hurt, they will withdraw to a rocky area, use their shelter ability and attempt to hide, and then wait for another enemy to draw near.

Ratmen are well-known for their love of scavenged gadgets and their often insane tendency to modify them. Buzzbrains have taken old vibroweapons, fairly common in the ruins, and have actually used crude surgery to attach them to their own nervous system and muscles, causing them no small measure of madness. The buzzbrain is in nearly constant motion, and is eager to leap at any nearby enemy and attack them. When badly injured, their instability increases, to the point where they begin to leave reality entirely, madly attack whatever enemy is nearest.

The Cataclysm left behind not just human corpses, but countless partially-destroyed robots. A little bit of patient tinkering and a lot of duct tape and glue can get many of these hunks of junk to be at least partially active once again. Rubblers and ratmen are particularly known for having a handful or two of such robots on hand, especially where they’ve formed semi-permanent communities. These shamblebots, as they are known, provide some measure of protection from minor enemies and can serve to distract and delay opponents. A typical horde of shamblebots will consist of many different models of robots; DMs may want to give some special abilities to distinguish them, or roll a die when they are encountered:

Since minions normally are identical, it can be best to identify individual shamblebots with a d6, with the number facing up indicating which power or modifier they have. Of course, it’s also possible to just use them as-written. A DC 15 Technology check will identify all shamblebot variants in sight, except for Rigged To Blow; the check for that is DC 30. If this check fails, the bot is misidentified as a random other type.

Construction robots were used on a variety of jobs, often in tandem with smaller, more specialized robots and human overseers. The theta-class bots were bleeding-edge, incorporating the most advanced gravitic and force technologies available to perform a variety of tasks. Some have gone a bit nuts and keep “building” insane constructions from whatever random junk they can find, sometimes forming buildings of sufficient strength that other creatures will lair in them. Some have been reprogrammed or convinced to work with various other individuals, and some seek work on their own, either as actual builders or as powerful combatants.

Violet skyblobs are known to normally live high in the stormclouds above extremely irradiated areas, such as the glowing pits which formerly held fusion reactors, but they descend earthwords during times of great storms. They constantly pulse and flare with strange energies, and they live by draining the life force of other beings. They normally attack by flaring until a target is blinded, then engulfing it and flying off, draining its life until it is a withered husk, then returning for more. As the violet skyblob feeds, it grows ever more powerful.

A violet skyblob resembles its cousins in basic form, but it is filled with swirling and crackling bolts of plasma, bathing the landscape in waves of purple and lavender light.

Common Mutations

Some violet skyblobs mix their plasma tendrils with physical stings. Whenever the violet skyblob makes a tentacle lash attack, roll 1d6; on a roll of 1-3, it uses the following power instead: