The Gecko Gang

Welcome back Travellers, Agents, and Survivors!

Here on the blog, we're still talking about Mutant World, and some of the creatures our heroes have to face during their adventures.  Today, we're talking about the Gecko Gang!

Who or what are the Gecko Gang?  Well, they are a rival group of post-apoc survivors, except these guys are mutant lizard men.  They wander the wasteland doing whatever odd jobs they can find:  bounty hunting, mercenary work, irreputable errands.  They aren't very picky.

There are five of them.  They stand about seven feet tall.  I started off thinking it would be kinda funny to have a rival band of lizard men all modelled after the Gecko from those insurance commercials, you know the guy!  But he didn't look mean enough, and I kept thinking of a head with a wide maw and bulging eyes, more like that purple guy from Monsters Inc.

But then I was drawn back to my D&D past, and I realized what I needed was something closer to this troglodyte drawn by Willingham in the B/X Basic Set.  Yeah, that's more like it!  Tall, and sleek, and mean, and strong.  Yeah...


So then I had to figure out how to differentiate between them  Should they have stripes?  Spots?  Combs?  Spikes?  Stegosaurus plates running down their spines?  Of course, then I realized I could just differentiate them by color.  It's an old fashioned cartoon trick, multiple characters that would look alike except for being different colors.  You know, like Donald Duck's nephews:  Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  


And their names, of course, which are all bastardized derivatives of giant movie monsters.  Gazillo, the yellow one, is the leader of the group.  The blue one, Gidoro, prefers hand-to-hand combat.  Gwanji, the red one, is the group's sniper.  The green one is Gorgi, and he ain't afraid to hunt down a beast, no matter how big it is.  Gam is the orange one, and he comes outta nowhere to help ya when ya need it the most!


Assuming, of course, that you're on his side!  If you're not...well, that's a different point of view!


But YOU can experience the adventure along with our heroes in

Mutant World #2

Scourge of the Sundered Sands

Available Now!
to Kindle and Kindle Unlimited!





Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Maulers

Greetings Treasure-hunters, Adventurers, and Survivors!

We're still talking about Mutant World, here at the blog.  Today we're going to talk about the mutant beasties that our adventurers face in the first story:  the Maulers!

Now, astute and learned readers will probably recognize that this adventure is basically a dungeon-crawl adventure in a stylized, fantasy post-apocalyptic world.  I've already explained the RPG influences, so that shouldn't be too surprising.

Anyway, this future-dungeon is a ruined shopping mall, so I reasoned that the people living there must be mall-ers.  But I had the good sense to change it to "Maulers", so it wouldn't be a straight-up joke.  ...Yet the pun is still there.

So, who and what were the Maulers?  Well, it was the first adventure, and thinking about role-playing games, your first adventure usually pits you against a relatively weak creature.

Kobolds immediately sprang to mind.  

I have a soft spot for D&D kobolds.  I first saw them pictured in the B/X Basic Set.  This pic by Erol Otus defined kobolds for me.  Back then, they were this weird little dog men.  Cunning and cowardly, but sadistic.  These brutal little dog men are now my default setting; these are what I think of when I think of kobolds.

In later editions of D&D somebody changed them.  Nowadays they are some sort of midget lizard man, with some sort of a connection to dragons.  This always annoyed me, because I thought they were fine the way they were.  But hey, what can ya do, right?

But suddenly it occurred to me:  they are a weird cross of dog and human.  That could just as easily be a type of mutant race in my story!  Hey, if Thundarr can have Moks, I can have kobolds!  Sure, I can't call them kobolds, but aside from that, they can basically be the same!

"Oh sure, they're cute now.  But they're gonna get mean, and nasty somehow, and there'll be a million more of ém!"

It really wasn't that big a change.  Mostly just in their costumes, props, and some weapons.  They can still be cunning.  They can still be cowardly.  They can still be sadistic.  They can still be subjugated and compelled to work for some stronger...

WHOOPS!
Sorry!  Almost gave away a vital plot point!   

But YOU can experience the adventure along with our heroes in

Mutant World #1

Mistress of the Mutant Maulers

Available Now!
on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited!





Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell