Most likely the first new genus to emerge in the post-poc, they’re not just limited to being mutated humans.
A lamentable, but inevitable, by-product of the radiation-filled apocalypse, mutations took root immediately. Some of the unfortunate survivors of the bombs befell an even more unfortunate fate, physically changing before the eyes of their terrified peers. For some, the change was more insidious, infecting DNA and unborn children, resulting in abnormalities in future generations. As soon as the world became post-apocalyptic, the mutants came into existence.
As widespread as the effects were, mutants never suffered the rejection that one might expect; certainly not the disdain and distrust levelled at Thalborn and Viechkind species. While not truly ‘accepted’ as human, especially by purists and groups like the Vanguard Militia, humanlike mutants are generally permitted to live in otherwise exclusively-human settlements. Their numbers, however, are never great. Approximately one in three mutants are sterile, so they remain a fairly fringe minority in the communities.
Mutation, as a condition, is not limited to humanity. In the couple of centuries since their flash evolution, mutated offshoots have been observed among almost every Thalborn and Viechkind genus. The attitudes each individual species takes to mutants of their own varies greatly, some reviled as standard, some lauded as the advancement of their kind. The world is a dangerous place in which to live... Sometimes night vision or an extra arm can really help.
+2 and a +1 to different stats, one of which must be RES.
Select another genus and species that is not immune to mutation. Your appearance is based on that species, but you gain none of their features; your mutated physiology overrides it. You are also visually distinct enough that people of that genus recognise you to be a mutant.
Your body has undergone horrific, deforming alterations that have fundamentally changed your cells; inside and out. For whatever else may come of these changes, they seem themselves resistant to unwelcome tampering.
You have The Glow on all Body Checks.
‘Once a mutant, always a mutant’ goes the cautionary idiom. While that may be true, such an alternative lifestyle does carry its own share of rewards; in particular your body is slightly less prone to debilitating outcomes when mutating further.
You get +2 on all rolls on the Mutation Table, and start with two Mutation Slots.
Between the required boost to RES and The Glow on Body Checks, mutants are very survivable. Their bodies have already been through a lot, and that’s prepared them for tough times. Naturally tanky, mutants make great frontline fighters. That said, they can adapt to suit most any role.
By far the most common kind of mutant seen...if only because they’re easy to spot. An overt mutant is one that goes through life with their nature plain to see, dealing with any prejudices or fears associated with what they are. These days most mutants are born to mutant parents – whether the parents knew they were mutated or not – and more often than not exist within a society that has grown to tolerate, if not accept, them.
The form an overt mutant’s physical manifestation can take is greatly varied; perhaps an unusual hair colour, eye colour, or skin tone...perhaps an unsightly throbbing bulge on the side of their neck. Who can say? Like all matters of genetics, born mutants usually share physical traits with their parents, but when radiation is a factor this is by no means guaranteed. If the particular mutant is the start of a new line, willingly transformed or not, then there’s no telling what form they’ll take.
You are different. Changed. Mutated. Perhaps you were born this way, perhaps this change was forced upon you sometime in your life. Whatever the circumstances, you are unlike those around you and this has already manifested physically.
You start with two extra Mutation Slots (in addition to the ones from Your Lifeblood, for a total of four extra), and you must immediately make two rolls on the Mutation Table.
At Lv6, you gain two additional Mutation Slots and must immediately make two rolls on the Mutation Table.
As they start with two mutations right from the off, there is an inherent random element to the overt mutant. Genetics are a lottery, and mutants are playing that with pocket aces...whatever that means. It’s a good idea to base your physical appearance on the mutations you roll, only adding extra limbs and the like when you actually gain them. That keeps it logical, balanced, and allows you to physically change as you continue to gain mutations.
It’s said that many mutants exist in complete secrecy, passing through settlements and hidden among communities without ever being discovered. That’s totally true. Not that big a deal either, frankly. Repressed mutants are those born, some would say luckily, without any outward sign of their nature. They might only barely be a mutant, just enough to cross the genus line, or it’s entirely possible that the corrupted DNA skipped them somehow.
Whether a repressed mutant sees themselves as belonging equally in two worlds, or belonging in neither, they are a connecting point between branching heritages. Some could even be unaware of their true nature, assuming they’re the exact same as their normal-seeming parents, living their whole lives oblivious. What role the repressed mutant takes in society is entirely up to them, their options wider than they are to most people around them.
Whether you’re only distantly related to a mutant, the beginning of a new, divergent branch, or simply got lucky in the mutation lottery, you do not bear the physical traits of your kind. You’re certainly not a ‘pure’ specimen of your ancestral species, but you do carry some of their traits.
Choose a single trait from the genus or species you selected from which to mutate; you have that trait as if you were of that species. People of your unmutated genus also do not recognise you to be a mutant, unless you gain a physical mutation that would make it obvious.
A possible idea for a repressed mutant is to outwardly claim to the other players (but not the GM, obviously) that they are the species on which they’re based. Whether you choose to do that or not, repressed offer a balance between the hardiness of a mutant, and the unique abilities of another species.