Wild Card Mutation Table by Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer You can never have too many mutations, right? This table is meant to fill the "gap" between the Major Mutation table and the ordinary mutation table. Some of the mutations are as bad a a Major Mutation, but some aren't. It's a lot more random. Also, more of the mutations are mixed bags, with some small benefit as well as a disadvantage. This table is designed for those times when you want the character to risk being seriously mutated but without guaranteeing it. Marshals may want to give players who draw a Black Joker during character generation the chance to get a mutation from this table instead. The potential problems are greater in some cases, but so are the potential rewards. Clubs 2C: Your hero is constantly tortured by visions of the final end of all the cites of Earth. Every night, he gets to see buildings, women, and children disintegrate in the face of a bomb blast. Your hero has Night Terrors and a Deathwish. His sense of malaise may infect his loved ones, as well. At the Marshall's discretion, anyone the character cares about may pick up a Deathwish over time. 3C: Your character is just plain unlucky when it comes to taking wounds. Add to this to the fact your character's head is unusually large, making it an excellent target. Whenever hit location for a wound to your survivor is rolled, add 3 to the roll, making a head shot that much more likely. Anyone who specifically targets the head finds it easier to do so, gaining a +2 bonus (minus the usual penalty for head shots). 4C: Your character is a jinx. When the character's adrenaline is pumping (such as during combat), everyone on the character's side (except for your hero) suffers a -2 to all their rolls. You also cannot give Fate chips to other players while this is going on. A Geiger counter will show the character emits radiation while the jinx effect is in place, which is about the only indicator as to what's happening. This assumes anyone even notices their bad luck. An Incredible (11) Science: Nuclear Physics roll (with a well-stocked lab) combined with an Incredible (11) Academia: Occult roll will reveal that your waster emits a particular brand of supernatural radiation that causes the jinx effect, sort of a low-grade unconscious curse. 5C: Your hero's blood is a thick, tarry substance that doesn't clot well. She takes double Wind from bleeding and all attempts at healing (natural and supernatural, even just stopping bleeding) are at a -3 penalty. 6C: Damage causes your waster's ears to ring. Your waster takes a -4 penalty to any Stun checks 7C: Your waster's natural bodily fluids -- blood, sweat, mucous, you name it -- reek of rotten flesh. That's a -4 to any Mien-based roll the character can make against someone with a sense of smell if they're anywhere near or downwind from the hero. Your character also attracts carrion-eating animals in droves. The superstitious might take those vultures circling overhead as a bad omen... 8C: All of your character's hair falls out and never grows back. Also, a strange birthmark appears on his forehead and on several parts of his body vaguely in the shape of the letter A. The total effect makes the character Ugly As Sin and potentially unpopular with Sykers who've returned from Faraway (see Brainburners to find out why). If your waster has this mutation and the Jack of Spades mutation below, he has hair everywhere but his head. 9C: Cosmetically, your character looks like a rotting corpse, giving him a Terror rating of 7. He could easily be mistaken for one of the Walking Dead, and is certainly Ugly As Sin. On the upside, due to your character's rubbery, pain-deadened flesh he cannot be stunned in combat, halves all Wind loss due to wounding (round up). 10C: Your character's flesh is deadened to pain, and it feels sort of rubbery to the touch. He cannot be stunned in combat, halves all Wind loss due to wounding (round up), and is considered Thick Skinned. JC: Dead things simply don't bother your character. Perhaps her neural synapses were fused in some strange way. Gain a +6 bonus to Guts checks involving any form of Walking Dead, zombies, or plain old dead bodies, no matter how gruesome. Their stench doesn't bother her, either, gain a +4 to any appropriate Vigor checks as well. Someone with the Seven of Clubs mutation above does not have a Mien penalty dealing with your character. QC: Whenever there is a chance your character will pick up a Coup, don't bother rolling Spirit. Your character gets the Coup. If multiple people with this mutation have the potential to get the same Coup, they roll Spirit between them to see who gets it. Your character has a slightly ashen quality to her skin, but otherwise seems quite normal. KC: Your character's eyes are slitted, just like a cat's. This doesn't help your waster see in the dark, though on the other hand it doesn't prevent her from being Purty, as it can look sort of cute and exotic. The real effect of this mutation is your hero now has nine lives. Whenever your character is about to die, make a Fair (5) Spirit check. If your character succeeds, somehow she survives, probably through a sudden upsurge in her metabolism that heals all her wounds, though possibly through some sort of arcane coincidence. However, she can only avoid death nine times, after which her eyes turn grey and she dies like anyone else. All is not lost, though, for if she's out of lives or she fails the Spirit check to survive, she can make an Incredible (11) Spirit check and come back as a Harrowed. If she fails that final Spirit check, she gets to draw to see if she's Harrowed as normal. AC: If one looks into your hero's eyes, one can see that his irises are shaped like skulls, with strange double pupils serving as metaphorical eye sockets. This does not affect your survivor's vision, and the effect is fairly subtle, requiring someone to make a Fair (5) Cognition check while looking directly into your mutie's eyes to even notice it. There's some sort of spiritual marking as well, however. Manitous like your hero. This is generally beneficial, in that Walkin' Dead and other manitou-powered critters attack your character last and the character gets a +2 bonus to resist any negative effect involving manitous, as their hearts aren't in it. Of course, this means that manitous will try to talk to and corrupt your character, and some harmless "play" (i.e. scaring the bejesus out of your mutie) isn't out of the question. The biggest benefit of this is that if your character dies, he comes back as a Harrowed automatically, no card draws needed, with two extra levels of Harrowed powers. If a Harrowed character acquires this mutation during play, he gains two levels in any power of his choice, either increasing a current power or gaining a new one, even if he doesn't have a disposition for that power. The +2 bonus against manitous counts both for Dominion checks for Harrowed and to casting hexes for Hucksters, by the way. Hearts 2H: Your character is always hungry due to an overactive metabolism. Your character is Scrawny and if food is visible to your waster, or he can smell it, he must make a Hard (9) Spirit check or immediately start wolfing it down. Once the Spirit check is failed, he continues eating until physically pried away from the food or the food is gone. Finding out the food is rotten or irradiated won't stop him, though it'll certainly make him sick. Your waster cannot carry food with him because he'll always eat it all before the day is out. 3H: Your survivor produces (and is constantly covered with) brown, sticky sap, which comes out of what looks like open wounds in her body. (Actually, they're special sap glands.) Washing doesn't help. This makes her Ugly As Sin and aside from making it tough to get in and out of her clothes, reduce your character's Nimbleness and Deftness by one step, as your waster's always sticking to herself, not to mention her muscles are strangely rigid. The sap is not sticky enough to be an aid in climbing or grappling, though she doesn't have to worry about that map blowing away in the wind (though she does have to worry about getting rid of that map later). 4H: Your waster is now covered with a whitish-green fungus. Yup, that's Ugly As Sin and don't try to get rid of it, as it's integrated itself into his nervous system and he'll die without it. This is the sort of fungus that likes growing in dark places; your waster takes 1d6 Wind for every hour in sunlight or under a bright light, and this Wind cannot be regained until he spends at least an hour in total darkness. 5H: Your character has gigantic, useless insect wings (which buzz strangely and uncontrollably when he eats) and multifaceted eyes. Once again, that's Ugly As Sin and because the human brain isn't used to taking the sort of input multifaceted eyes put out, your hero's at a -2 penalty to any Cognition based rolls that involve sight. 6H:Your character has an unusually long, pointed tongue and can only live on spinal fluid. That's right, spinal fluid. One dog-sized animal provides enough spinal fluid for a day's worth of nourishment. Anyone watching the character eat must make a Hard (9) Guts check or lose their lunch. Let's just say it isn't pretty and it involves the tongue. 7H: Your waster has no teeth and a very tiny mouth. She can only stomach liquids. She's Scrawny as this makes it tough for her to keep herself well-fed, and even if she is getting the right nutrition her body doesn't seem to process it right. 8H: Your character's teeth are yellow and pointed, though not sharp enough to be used as a weapon. She can only digest raw, uncooked meat. Also, human flesh is unusually nutritious; eat one arm, and your character won't have to eat again for a week. Assuming your hero doesn't partake of human flesh on a regular basis, she's Scrawny. Other meat just isn't as good. 9H: Your character is covered with mouths. Nearly every surface of his body has a sharp-toothed maw on it, all of which are capable of eating. Your character isn't just Ugly As Sin, he has a Terror rating of 7. On the plus side he can digest nearly anything organic with no ill effect (as long as it isn't irradiated), and by merely touching someone he can do STR + 1d8 damage. Munch, munch. 10H: If it's organic, and it isn't irradiated, your character can eat it. Also, your character has a nose for food; add +2 to any Survival check that involves finding food. JH: Your character is Ugly As Sin, considering he's covered with leaves and dark black berries. On the plus side, the berries are edible. Your survivor can't live off of them (they make him sick), but his friends can. In fact, the berries are so nutritious that only a couple make up a full meal. As long as he's been eating something else regularly, divide your hero's Vigor die type by 3 (round down). This is the number of people he can feed every day. The berries spoil quickly when picked, and more grow only if the current crop is picked, so one can't "store up" food this way, but as long as your survivor eats that day, his friends have something to eat as well. QH: Your hero's skin is covered with bright, swirling patterns. Rather than being unattractive, they're somewhat hypnotic. As long as at least some of the character's skin is visible, her Mien die type is considered to be 2 steps higher. Plus, as long as the patterns are visible, members of the opposite sex have to make a Fair (5) Sprit check in order to attack her if she hasn't attacked first. She can also turn off the effect, making her skin the color of obsidian, which gives her a +4 bonus to Sneak in dimly-lit and dark areas. Your survivor also smells faintly of opium, though this has no game effect. KH: Your survivor can tell, simply by sniffing something, whether it's edible, poisoned, rotten, irradiated, tainted, or all of the above. Additionally, by following his nose, he can find the closest viable food source (Marshall's call) within a five-mile radius. On top of this, your survivor stores food and water very efficiently. He doesn't even start starving until a month has gone by without food and/or water, then he starts starving as normal. AH: Your mutie has developed a special gland that makes her digestion of food disturbingly efficient. She's Scrawny, but she only requires one day's worth of food per year. She can even eat one big meal at the start of the New Year and it'll be stored for her all that time. Plus, her highly-efficient use of energy means she only needs to sleep 2 hours a day. Diamonds 2D: Your character is a parasite. Reduce your survivor's size by 3 steps (minimum of 1), and the hero's mouth can form into a sucker-like organ, which he can use to drain blood from anyone whose skin it touches. Anyone who experiences this only feels a mild sucking sensation (your mutie has enzymes like a leech) and loses 1 Wind per minute from slow blood loss. Wind lost this way comes back only 1 per day, as the enzyme-laden blood takes a while to replace itself. You have to drink one average human body's worth of blood (12 Wind) a day (animal blood counts for half), or suffer a -1 Trait penalty to all your Trait and Aptitude rolls for each day the hero goes without. If the penalty ever reaches -14, your character collapses and dies. This is the only food your survivor needs or wants, as he can't hold anything else down. 3D: Kafka has nothing on you. Reduce your waster's Size by 2 steps (minimum of 1) and she's Ugly As Sin, since your character now looks like a humanoid cockroach (complete with two extra non-working arms), though the hero's chitinous exterior isn't strong enough to count as armor. Rotten food smells and tastes delicious to people with this mutation, and it may require a Spirit check to resist scarfing the stuff down at the Marshal's discretion. Unfortunately, such food still makes your waster sick. 4D: Your waster's immune system has developed a new "defense". Every time your happy mutant succeeds in a Vigor check to avoid catching a disease, everyone within 100 yards (farther, if there's a wind) of you must make the same Vigor check or avoid catching the disease (even if the disease is supernatural or isn't normally contagious) as special airborne "spores" are shunted through tiny pinholes in your mutie's skin. These spores contain the disease. The Vigor check has to be made even if the mutie's companions were exposed to the same disease source initially and passed their original check, as the spores count as a separate "attack" of the disease. Also, if the hero has the Ailin' Hindrance, whenever he has to make a Vigor check at the start of a game session he ejects spores as well, potentially infecting his companions with an Ailin' Hindrance of the same severity if they fail a Vigor check at the same TN as the mutie's Ailin' TN, though the symptoms of the Hindrance so gained may be different. (The mutie might be anemic, but the spores might give out allergies instead. Whatever makes sense to the Marshal) Only someone in a completely sealed environment suit is immune to this effect, as the spores can enter through the skin as well as the lungs. It takes an Incredible (11) Cognition check to notice the spores being ejected (there's a very tiny sound) and a Incredible (11) Medicine: General check (with appropriate equipment, including a microscope) to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately, all this activity on the part of the mutie's immune system is very tiring. Every time the mutant ejects spores, he is at a (cumulative) -2 to all Vigor checks that do not involve disease for the next 24 hours. 5D: Your waster no longer has any limbs, though he can spend 1d4 Wind to extrude a pseudopod which works just as well as a limb, up to a maximum of 2 "arms" (pseudopods capable of fine manipulation) and 4 "legs" (pseudopods capable of locomotion but no fine manipulation). Extra "legs" provide no benefit, except possibly for "kicking". Any given pseudopod lasts for an hour or until absorbed, during which time the Wind loss for extruding it cannot be regained. Anyone watching you extrude a limb must make a Fair (5) Guts check as it's not a pretty process. 6D: Your waster is Ugly As Sin and Obese, seeing as she looks like a giant melted pudding. However, she can absorb and digest food through her skin. This doesn't do any damage in combat, but anyone she touches must make an Fair (5) Guts check as they feel the outer layers of their skin get digested. 7D: Reduce your waster's size by 1 step (minimum of 1) and the hero is now Ugly As Sin, since he now looks like a giant, humanoid rat. On the plus side, your waster get a +2 bonus to Cognition rolls involving smell. 8D: Again, Kafka has nothing on you. Reduce your size by 1 step (minimum 1) and your waster is now Ugly As Sin, since he looks like a giant, humanoid cockroach. However, you can digest any non-poisoned organic substance (such as rotten food, but not irradiated food) without getting sick on a Fair (5) Vigor check. Anyone watching you do this may need to make a Fair (5) Guts check, however. Oh, and your survivor can smell around corners with his antennae, for whatever good that does you. 9D: Your waster is covered with crawling, flying insects at all times. They avoid your eyes and mouth and other orifices, allowing you to function somewhat normally. Yes, this counts as Ugly As Sin, not to mention a Terror rating of 7. You can't get rid of them, as they live inside (and are generated by) your body, which is honeycombed to accommodate them. Luckily (or not, depending on your perspective) the mutation also makes the sensation of the insects crawling in and out of one's body a pleasurable one. As long as they are on your body, you can ignore one level of wound penalties. If your adrenaline is going (during a fight or while scared), the swarm can be ordered to attack someone or something. The focus of this attention is automatically blinded (assuming they use eyes to see) and must make a Hard (9) Guts check. Also, most people will have to make a Hard (9) Vigor check to avoid throwing up when the insects swarm over them, losing an action and 1d10 Wind. 10D: Your character is very healthy. Add +2 to any Vigor checks. JD: Green-robes love a character with this mutation. The character can, at will, emit an intense flash of radiation. (In combat, this takes 2 actions.) Anyone in a 5 yard radius of the character must make a Hard (9) Vigor check or mutate on the spot. Mutants are not immune, gaining another mutation if they fail the Vigor check, though at the Marshall's discretion a Doomie may gain a miracle the first time he's exposed to such an intense application of the Glow. The only disadvantage is the mutant with this power has to make the Vigor check as well (at a lowered TN of 5), or gain another mutation. A Doomie (and only a Doomie) with this mutation can avoid making his personal Vigor check by spending 3 Strain instead, though the player has to decided whether to spend Strain before the Vigor check is made. QD: Your character is damned healthy. Your Vigor die type goes up 2 steps. KD: Your character's DNA is very hardy and resistant to change. Any time the Marshal draws on a mutation table after character generation, he must tell you the mutation you're about to get. If you spend 1d10 Wind, you don't mutate. This Wind is not the same as the Wind from radiation loss and can be regained in the normal way. This mutation has no effect on the Wind loss from radiation. AD: Your character has an odd sleep cycle now. He is awake for 24 hours, 7 days a week, with no ill effects... for two weeks. Every third week your character spends in hibernation. During this time, the character doesn't need to eat, but he can't be woken up, either, even if he takes damage. (The two week period the character stays awake can be extended by taking amphetamines, with the attendant problems that implies.) During hibernation your character covers himself in a chitinous black cocoon that counts as 3 levels of Armor (Cracking the cocoon does not kill the character, but may expose him to attack.) After hibernation (or after an hour, in the case of bits chipped off the cocoon), the Armor softens so your waster can get out, but someone with the appropriate skills can turn the stuff into some weird-looking armor that's equivalent to boiled leather. Every time your character finishes hibernating, pick 5 cards from any combination of mutation tables you want (5 from the regular one, or 3 from the regular one and two from the Major Mutation table, or four from this one and one from the regular mutation table, or whatever). Then, you must choose one of the five mutations you've just drawn (Black Jokers count as at character generation, and the Ace of Diamonds from this table counts as the Red Joker). Your waster has that mutation until he hibernates again, at which point the process starts over again. (The upshot of this is: Chances are your character has a different super-power every three weeks or so. If he has this mutation multiple times, then he's going to have multiple powers every time he hibernates. Yes, this means your mutie's appearance may vary widely over time.) Spades 2S: Your character thinks that guns and other weapons talk to him. In a sense, they do. It's kind of maddening, but sort of interesting as well. Their whisperings always seem to be on the edge of making sense. Your character likes guns, and collects them when he can. Your character is Mean as a Rattler and Tainted, as the first level of the flaw listed in The Junkman Cometh. If your character is already Tainted, he is now one level further down the road to megalomania. 3S: Guns don't like your hero. Whenever your character misses with a firearm or other modern weapon, it jams. If the hero goes bust on a roll involving a modern weapon, the weapon explodes in his hand. Also, he has a tougher time dodging bullets. Add +2 to the TN of any Dodge attempts on the hero's part, and any chip spent to negate wounds from firearms and other modern weapons count as one lower. (That is, a white chip has no effect, a red chip counts as a white chip, etc.) Red concentric rings -- some sort of rash -- appear on your character's skin when she's stressed. 4S: Your character has a second mouth on his chest. It's no good for eating, and one can cover it with a shirt, but it screams constantly and incoherently. It cannot be made quiet, showing amazing strength in the face of being sewn up and incredible regeneration powers in the face of the tongue or voice box being removed. The only way to shut it up is to take a maiming wound to the torso, which only a Harrowed can survive. While it's carrying on so, add +2 to the TN of any task requiring concentration on the part of anyone else (your character's used to it). Also, subtract -8 anytime the character tries to Sneak and sound is a factor. 5S: Your character's skin is bright green, and his ears are pointy. This combined with a generous portion of warts makes your hero is Ugly As Sin. Welcome to the world of the Gremlin-kin. Anytime your hero tries to use a technological device with moving or electronic parts, including a gun, roll d20. On a 19 or 20, the device explodes, damaging your waster as the Marshal deems appropriate. This can be especially dangerous when trying to use a car. 6S: Congratulations, waster. Your mutie now has ears that would make Dumbo proud. Too bad they're no good for anything. Your character is Ugly As Sin and must take a -4 penalty to any Cognition roll involving hearing. 7S: Your character looks like a humanoid cow, or a bull, as appropriate. That qualifies as Ugly As Sin and overactive hormones make your character Randy to boot. On the upside, you can gore someone with your horns on a successful Fightin': Brawlin roll, doing 1d4 plus your Strength in damage. 8S: Your waster's skin is scrawny, with a skull-like appearance to his head and a metallic sheen to his body, with odd angles here and there. From a distance, those who are familiar with them could easily mistake your survivor for an Automaton. The upside is your waster's skin is slightly hard, counting as Thick Skinned and giving the hero two points of light armor (Armor -2). 9S: Your character looks, for all intents and purposes, like a Wormling. That's not just Ugly as Sin, that's a Terror rating of 7. Your hero can spit acid just like a Wormling, however. The acid has a Speed of 1, Range Increment of 2, ROF 1 and does 3d10 damage. (Take the shootin': spit aptitude for that one.) Your character can also do STR+2d10 with her claws, due to their acid tips. Your character is immune to Wormling acid, though real Wormlings can tell she's a fake. (She smells different.) Of course, good luck convincing anyone that your waster isn't evil, and the acid your character drips will burn through concealing clothing in no time, though armor should last for a while. 10S: While fighting (or fleeing) someone inside a rad storm your character felt a surge of supernatural strength, and had a vision involving some Templars burning a village because it didn't pass the so-called "test of worth". If your character doesn't have an Arcane Background, he's now an Anti-Templar, free of charge, even without the appropriate skills (see The Last Crusaders). He has an intuitive grasp of what the Anti-Templars claim to be about, though how he feels about that is up to him. If the character is already an Anti-Templar, he automatically gains a Greater Reward for any power he has. If he's already got all the Greater Rewards for his current powers, he gains a power of his choice at Level 1 and the Greater Reward for that power. If the character is a Templar, he gains the ability to use the chip powers associated with the Reckoners, though he gains Corruption points just like an Anti-Templar if he does so, and he'd better hope Simon doesn't find out. If the character has some other Arcane Background, he also gains the ability to use the Reckoners' chip powers like an Anti-Templar, but every time he uses one of the powers there is only a 50% chance of gaining Corruption like an Anti-Templar (draw a card, if it's black, then your mutant gets a Corruption point). Corruption points can be removed in the "usual" way, by spending a Legend Chip. JS: Pick a Syker power from the main rulebook. Your character can now use that power as if he had a Blastin' of 3 (which cannot be increased) and a Strain equal to his Vigor die type. This Strain comes back at a rate of 1 Strain for every 2 hours of rest (meditating doesn't help), unless the character is already a Strain-using spellcaster, in which case their normal Strain pool is used to fuel the power and he regains Strain as he normally does. Oddly enough, the character doesn't lose any hair. If the character is already a Syker, he gains a power of his choice from the main rulebook, or the Overkill Edge (even if he didn't fight in the Last War), and his hair starts to grow back! The mutie mind freak can now use syker powers with a full head of hair. At the Marshal's option, the hair may be of a strange color, like purple. If the character has this mutation and the Ace of Spades mutation below, the character is a Greenie with hair. QS: You character is well-liked by gun spirits. He just "smells" right to them. (In fact, he always smells very lightly of napalm. One has to be right on top of him and make a Hard (9) Cognition roll to notice.) Your character gains a Level 4 Gun Browser (see The Junkman Cometh), even if your character is not a Junker! A Junker who gains this mutation acquires the Browser Sprit at Level 5. Regardless, guns never jam or explode in your character's hand. KS: The character can lay her hands on a piece of technology, spend a chip, and bathe it in a radioactive glow, repairing it instantly. (Everyone within 3 feet of your hero or the item being "healed" except for your survivor must make an Easy (3) Vigor check or mutate from the intense radiation.) The item is suddenly in perfect working order, despite lack of tools or parts. Fuel, power, and/or ammunition are not provided, however, and the item is only just as clean as it needs to be in order to work. As long as the item is at least 50% intact, it can be fixed this way. The chip that needs to be spent is determined by the Marshal and depends on how complicated and/or dangerous the item is. Fixing a flat tire is a White Chip, while fixing a hunting rifle is a Red Chip, a car is a Blue Chip, and a tank requires a Legend Chip. Junker-built items cannot be fixed this way, though the bath of spiritual energy is pleasurable to the spirits inside such machines. AS: Well, your waster's body hair has fallen out. All of it. And it's never growing back. However, this is a good thing, because the character has become a Greenie (see Brainburners). This happens even if the character already has an Arcane Background; it's one of the few situations where one can have two Arcane Backgrounds. If the character is already a Syker (but not a Greenie Syker), she gains one power either from her specialty or from the main rulebook, plus she gains the ability to spend chips to increase her Blastin', just like a Greenie does. If the character is already a Greenie, she gains a power from the main rulebook and the Overkill Edge, as if she'd fought through the Last War. Red Joker: You can choose your hero's mutation from any on the list. Black Joker: If this card was chosen during character creation, choose any Deuce as the mutation. It's bad, but at least you get some choice. If the card's drawn during play, the mutation's fatal, and very messy. Your survivor now isn't. He might still come back from the dead as a Harrowed, but expect to be freakish looking if he does.