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So it finally came - Harmageddon. This was the very end of civilization on Earth.......
.....but it did not happen as some people had expected it. First it came creeping slowly. It wasn't the bomb that delivered the first blow to the arrogant primates known as "Homo sapiens". Instead it was virus - a manmade one. It was a thing created in lab somewhere in Arizona around 2060. Somehow the disastrous disease, following the path of the virus, broke out for real in China a few years later. Over a Billion humans died the years following the first major outbreak. No known medicines could stop the onslaught of the plague. The fabric of civilization broke down as entire cities, regions and in some cases even countries were wiped out. The remaining few took to the streets and anarchy followed.
By the year 2075 the prognosis seemed clear enough for everyone - humanity was about to be extinct. The remaining governments and power structures convened at a secret location and began discussing a salvation program. The idea was to create closed enclaves where humans could live in ptotected environments free from the virus. These enclaves were often placed in underground complexes and with great distance from each other so that if one enclave was contaminated the rest would continue to thrive. The enclaves worked out well at first, but as time went by resources and energy ran out within the enclaves. In the meantime about 50% of all life forms on Earth died out as a result of the plague.
The Enclave Wars
The Enclave turned on each other in a desperate attempt to find basic resouces for survival. What began as skirmishes ended up in full-scale nuclear holocaust and most enclaves were wiped out. The few remaining ones had to end their strife and second world-wide meeting took place. A new bold plan was presented. It was known as Eden II. The idea was to create life forms that were resistant against the plague and in some extent the radiation. A new ecology was to be created through genetic manipulation. The new mankind would then re-enter the new Earth. At first all went well. Humans as well as plants and animals were re-introduced to the Earth's surface. Then disaster struck again. In 2103 the remaining Enclaves went to war once more for reasons unknown. This times none of the enclaves survived. The nuclear weapons used created a cloud of radiation that covered the Earth. The new mutated species had an unstable genetic pool and the radiation changed those who managed to survive the contamination. This created a new Earth beyond mankind's control. Non-mutated humans that survived the War found themselves sharing the world with mutant humans, intelligent mutant animal life forms, mutated plants, scattered remains of the Old World's technology and much much more.. This is the brave new world you are about to enter....this is the world of Mutant.
The background of the role-playing game Mutant and copyrights matters
This game is in essence not my homebrewed construction. It's is based on a Swedish game named "Mutant" that was published in the early 80's by a company that is best known under the name Target Games. This company later on published a number games for an international public audience. The best known ones are Kult and Mutant Chronicles. Target Games folded a few years ago and the copyright matters are a bit unclear. However I wish to state that Mutant at least were a registered trademark of Target Games. Furthermore I have no wish to gain any commercial benefit from any of the material published on this site. The game itself is in a sense a distant relative to the perhaps more known game "Gamma World" published by TSR. Just like in Gamma World you will find yourself in a weird mix of mutant post-apocalyptical environments, weird mutated life forms and quite a lot of action. However I myself find the role-playing component most intriguing so you can expect intrigues, conspiracies and mind-puzzles. As for game technicalities what I have done is to translate rules from Swedish into English. The aim is to create a working game for PBeM role-playing. Thus I have made a few changes in the rules. Hopefully it will work fine anyway. So have fun and do feel free to enter a world that is quite different from our own.