Tags
deadEarth, deadOttawa, Goblinoid Games, House Rules, Mutant Future, Palladium, Post Apocalyptic, postaday2011, RPG, TMNT, turducken of stupid, Weird
In the creation of the deadOttawa campaign for deadEarth, I needed five varieties of mutated animals to fill specific niches in the setting. I needed a pair of predators, a sled-dog, a pack animal, and a food or herd animal.
I rolled for the base animal types using the tables from Palladium’s awesome classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. I get 2 Dogs, Mountain Lions, Otters and Crocodiles.
Crocodiles!
Right off the bat, I’ve got mutant crocodiles running around in my nuclear winter wonderland. I love it. Without any other consideration, the Crocodiles are one of the predators of course – hiding in snowbanks, lunging out and eating post-apocalyptic babies. Let’s roll a few Radiations for them…
- 137 – Skipping Rock. Every round of swimming increases the difficulty of all skill rolls while swimming by 1D6. So these crocodiles can swim, but not for long. Awesome, crocodiles that can barely swim! No wonder they hide in snowbanks instead.
- 657 – Possession. 40 Skill Points. Opposed Resolve roll to take control over the target for 2d6 rounds. Even more awesome, crocodiles that take over their prey and make them wander towards their friends. Awesome Combo! Fortunately it costs 40 skill points, so they can’t do it often.
- 969 – Slippery. Skin secretes a slippery oil. +2d6 Escape and on maneuvers involving grabs, holds and so on. -1D6 hide (shiny skin).
Ok, I’ll run with this. Big oily psychic crocodiles that lurk in snowbanks, waiting for easy prey to wander past. They escaped from a petting zoo after the apocalypse and have been reproducing like crazy. Let’s make them bright red. They are known as Inquisitors or The Inquisition. Because no one expects the Spanish inquisition! That’s an awesome predator, way better than the typical non-irradiated wolves that I used in the first encounter.
Since most of you don’t actually play the awesomeness that is deadEarth, I’ll also rebuild the Inquisitor Crocodiles as a Mutant Future monster.
Inquisitor Crocodiles
No. Enc: 0 (1d4+1)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90′ (30′)
Swim: 90′ (30′)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 1
Damage: 2d8
Save: L3
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: None
Aggressive hunters, Inquisitor Crocodiles look like shiny, bright red versions of their unmutated kin. Unlike their kin, they have adapted to living in cold environments and tend to hide in snow banks or other natural cover in order to disguise their brilliant red colouration. They are covered in a heavy slimy coating that makes them difficult to attack with most natural attacks (bare handed, grappling, constricting and similar attacks are at -4 to hit the Inquisitors).
While Inquisitors can swim, they cannot do so for long. Each round of swimming reduces their swim movement rate by 10′ and they suffer a -1 on all attack rolls until they stop swimming. After 9 rounds of swimming they will be unable to move any further and will drown.
Inquisitor Crocodiles are truly frightening because they can possess their targets to make them wander into easy ambush environments. They have a WILL stat of 2D6+4, and can only use this ability once per week. They will take over someone and have them wander practically into the jaws of another member of the pack before returning to their own body to join in the meal.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
This sounds awesome!
Makes me wish I were still in Ottawa (the live Ottawa) to perhaps play in deadOttawa. I can just see the Rideau now mostly dry and dangerous to travel due to the inquisitor crocs – a trip to the Bywater Market would definitely be a bit more challenging than what I remember.
I would personally set up a safehouse at the locks. If I remember the layout it would be a great place to fortify and a band of survivors would have easy access to the river and the flats. An easy trip across to Gatineau to forage and a quick path to the top of Major Hill to observe the area – as long as the crocs could be encouraged to vacate the area.
All of that? Stolen for my game.
Love the locks as a strongpoint. I’ll call it the Lock-Up.
I’m running a one-shot game of deadEarth in just over a week. Well, we’re creating characters, at least. Hopefully enough characters will survive for an actual game to then happen 🙂
Assuming we actually get a chance to test the rules (and that my players don’t kill me just for inflicting this on them), I’ll be shamelessly stealing these crocs.
Good luck with that. One thing I didn’t post is actual deadEarth stats for these critters… I should probably look at the critter stats for the existing deadEarth critters in the GMs guide and extrapolate from there.
So I’m looking for a decent, fairly simple post-apoc rpg to run a one-shot for a gaming group in our hometown, similar to what you’ve done with deadOttowa. I’ve been following for a while and wondering if deadEarth fits the criteria above. Mostly looking for simple. Does DE have the ability to be simple? If not, got any good recommendations?
*deadOttawa*
No, deadEarth has no way to be simple. It is a retardedly complex game with the only saving grace being that you can make fun of it as you play it.
If you are familiar with Fallout, there is a free Fallout RPG out there. Otherwise it really depends on what kind of systems you are familiar with. For wild and wahoo and still pretty simple, D&D Gamma World works. I play most of my post-apocalyptic games using either 1e, 2e or 3e Gamma World, although many others swear by 4e Gamma World (which is quite solid and simple).
I’m also posting the stats for these critters in Mutant Future format, which is basically a 1e Gamma World retro-clone (and you can get the art-less version for free from Goblinoid Games).
I LOVE using crocodilians as base stock for mutants…particularly since my Mutant Future campaign is set in the swamps surrounding Houston. I’ve got howligators filling the major “pack predator” niche.
I love them too, but for the absurdity since my game is set in the perpetual frozen tundra that Canada has become due to the nuclear winter.
Somehow, my estranged father and I bonded over this post by writing a song together about the ‘strange crocodiles in Ottowa’
Thank you.