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

The End of the World As We Know It

Hey, hey and whattaya say!

How ya doing?  Great to see ya!  So glad ya stopped by!  How's the family?  How's work?  Sorry to hear that.  What's that?  What have I been working on?  Well, since ya asked...

Right now I'm working on a series of stories to post up on the Kindle Store at Amazon.  It's a science fantasy adventure series that takes place is a weird post-apocalyptic world.  What's weird about it?  Well, nowadays post-apoc is full of zombies, mine isn't.  Why not?  Well, I'm a child of the 70's and 80's, and when I was a kid, the post-apocalyptic world had more than just zombies.  Let me explain...

I think the first time I was exposed to the idea of a post-apocalyptic world was in the Saturday morning cartoon show Thundarr the Barbarian.  

Thundarr was a Conan-style barbarian in a ruined world full of mutants, magic, and super-science.  Thundarr was armed with his trusty Sun-Sword, a lightsaber knock-off.  He had two stalwart travelling companions:  Princess Ariel, an enchantress and daughter of a wizard; and Ookla the Mok, a burly cat-man mutant.  

Thundarr and his companions travel around the ruined country fighting against evil Wizards and their legions of Robots and Mutants as they try to enslave tribes of un-mutated human survivors.  

Each episode had weird mutant animals, ruins of identifiable landmarks, and machinery powered by magic.  The humans always lived in ruined buildings or primitive huts, while the evil Wizards always had a hi-tech stronghold.  There were very few guns (if any) but there were some magic wands that shot laser bolts, uh, I mean bolts of magic I guess.


The next time I encountered the concept of the post-apocalypse was in a catalog of other products by TSR Hobbies.  It was a small catalog booklet that came in my sister's D&D boxed set.  It was in this catalog that I first learned of the existence of the Gamma World Role Playing Game.  

Sadly, I never got play Gamma World.  I never even got to own any of the books,  But I learned what I could about it, it was full of mutant people, mutant animal-men, mutant animals, mutant plants, and robots galore!  Mutants; whether they were human, animal, or plant; were capable of having terrible deformities and/or weird powers.  Apparently characters start off with primitive medieval-style weapons, but through their adventures can find and use more advanced weapons, armor, vehicles, and random little appliances that you don't know how to use.  

It sounded VERY Thundarr.  I was entranced.  

Of course, today all these old supplements are available as digital downloads.  Also, there are new games, like Mutant Future, which are based and heavily inspired by the old Gamma World game.  I'm proud to say that I own an actual physical copy of Mutant Future, and that I have collected several digital files of past versions of Gamma World...and it's all I thought it was and more!  But you know what?  I still haven't played it!

But that's not all!  Like I said, I was a child of the 70's and 80's, and that means "post-apocalyptic" was an actual genre in the movies!  Thanks to this slew of cinematic treats, we all knew that a post-apocalyptic world would be Terrible And Silly!  But we'll wait and talk about that next time!  Until then I wish you...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell