Mutant Space Cowboys.pdf

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Mutant Space Cowboys: A Time Travel Game

By John Frazer

Table of Contents

Introduction

Page 2

Creating Your Cowboy

Page 3

Resolving Actions

Page 5

Combat

Page 6

Chronoskimmers

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Running the Game

Page 10

Dealing with Time Travel

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The Setting

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Introduction

Far above the planet Clymexia, a Behemoth class starship slides through the

chronoluminiferous ether. The fabric of space and time distort around it, a miracle of technology,

possessed by few, and understood by fewer still. Inside, a man paces, bothered by an

unidentifiable something. In a previous century, they might have called it “conscience,” but for

Herr Grodz, “conscience” was an unfamiliar word. He was a cyborg, created to carry out the will

of the Galactic Grand Emperor, and no force in this universe or any other, could stop him from

doing his duty.

The planet of Clymexia was a peaceful world. Its people were primarily farmers and

simple craftsmen. They obeyed the law, paid their taxes, and saluted the Emperor. Unfortunately

for them, that wasn’t enough. His Most High Celestial Eminence demanded absolute loyalty, and

when the citizens of Clymexia refused to be relocated to another sector to make way for the

Transdimensional Conduit, they ceased to have any value to the Empire. Herr Grodz would do

his duty. He would eliminate them.

Dynamos deep within the bowels of the ship whirred to life. Driven by a fusion reaction,

they would generate the massive amounts of electrical power necessary to activate the Oblititron.

The citizens of Clymexia had precisely six minutes to live.

Time passes; T-minus 3:00. The generators thrum with an ominous power. More time

passes; T-minus 1:30. Herr Grodz’s aural filter kicks in, protecting him from the deafening noise

coming from the ship’s reactors. The sensor’s tiny alarm was lost under the shrieking wail of the

charging Oblititron, but its blinking red light was not. Some object, within one AU, was

generating a chronetheric field. That could mean only one thing: company.

At that moment, T-minus 0:45, the Behemoth class starship shook and rattled. It didn’t

feel like a collision. It felt more like the ship’s walls were collapsing from within. Herr Grodz

spun around, and was stopped cold in his tracks. Somehow, the intruders have managed to

materialize their ship in the middle of his bridge. With one well-aimed shot from his lazon pistol,

the be-Stetsoned creature blasted the main control panel to smithereens. Then, with a tip of his

hat, he stepped back into his improbably placed ship and vanished for parts unknown.

Deprived of control protocols, the Oblititron’s dynamos took on a new sound. It was a

sound all aboard recognized from their training. The generators have entered overload . . .

Meanwhile, the grateful citizens of Clymexia waited to welcome their savior, but for

Duke Starseed, the deed was thanks enough.

Welcome to the world of Mutant Space Cowboys , where saving planets is all in a day’s

work. Within these pages, you’ll not only find rules to create your own Mutant Space Cowboy,

but also spaceships, time travel devices, weapons, sidekicks, and enemies. So strap yourself in,

and get ready to defend the underdog from the forces of greed, tyranny, and injustice.

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Creating Your Cowboy

Characters in Mutant Space Cowboys are painted in broad strokes. They don’t have lots

of subtle or unusual abilities. You won’t see them lounging around old Earth, politicking and

scheming in the center of the Galactic Empire. You won’t see them hacking into computers or

picking locks. You certainly won’t see them hiding or sneaking around. Space Cowboys are an

adventurous and straightforward breed, and Mutant Space Cowboys are doubly so. To them, the

best solution is the most direct solution. Kick in the door, shoot the bad-guy, and tell those

stuffed shirts exactly what you think of them and their rules. It’s the cowboy way.

That’s not to say that all Mutant Space Cowboy characters have to be exactly the same.

Look to the variety of movie-western characters as inspiration: the callow youth, eager to prove

himself, the drunken gunfighter whose seen too much bloodshed, and the adventurous soul,

always wanting to see what’s over the next hill (or on the next planet) – the differences between

these characters are both obvious and significant, but the two traits they all share, an independent

spirit and a compulsion to do the right thing, are what makes them cowboys.

So, the first thing to think about when you create your character is what sort of person

you want your cowboy to be like. Does he love the itinerant life, or does he want nothing more

than a homestead to call his own? Does he like to fight, or does he dread every time he has to

pull his gun? Does he have any family? Any enemies? Any former lovers, partners, or rivals that

he might run into? Does he crave attention, or prefer to work anonymously? Does he enjoy the

solitude of deep space, or does he crave companionship on his long journey between the stars? Is

he an idealist, or does he just to live day to day?

Answering these questions can go a long way towards defining your character, and

separating him or her from those of the other players. There are two additional things to keep in

mind as well: 1)All Mutant Space Cowboys characters share the same five basic abilities, so,

unlike many other roleplaying games, you can’t count on a character’s skills to make him or her

unique. 2)All Mutant Space Cowboys characters should at least be somewhat heroic. You might

play a bandit who refuses to kill unarmed men, a gruff old man that, despite wanting nothing

more than to be left alone, finds himself dragged into helping people, or a person who fits the

“hero” mold precisely, but any way you choose to make your character, he or she should always

be willing to stare down evil in a pinch.

Now that you have an idea of what you want your cowboy to be like, it’s time to decide

what sort of mutations she has. It can be anything, but you should try to aim for something that

makes for an evocative character description. Start with the cosmetic details like skin color,

presence or absence of fur or scales, etc. If you want more substantial mutations, like legs that

will allow you to jump higher, or antennae that allow you to see in the dark, you’ll have to buy

them with virtue points.

You get five virtue points to spend on you starting abilities and mutations. You can get

extra virtue points by taking negative mutations. Consult the following table.

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Virtue Cost

Virtue

Description

-4

Deafness

-3 survival rating when avoiding ambushes. The character

has difficulty communicating with other characters.

-3

Phobia

Add an extra difficulty class to all contests in the presence

of your phobia.

-2

Ability Penalty

Add an extra difficulty class to all contests with a given

ability.

-1

Night Blindness

Add an extra difficulty class to Pistols contests in the dark.

-1

Vehicle Ineptitude

Add one difficulty class to Pilot contests with a given class

of vehicles (spacecraft, riding, cars, or planes).

-1

Weapon Ineptitude

Add one difficulty class to Brawl contests when wielding

melee weapons

-1

Ability Cap

Your maximum rating in a given ability is decreased by one

-1

Small

You have one less health level than normal

-1

Vulnerability

The damage rating for a given type of weapon (plasma,

lazon, particle, unarmed, or melee) is increased by one

Cosmetic Mutations Any number of changes to your appearance that have no

concrete game effect

Night Vision

Any increase to Pistols difficulty class due to darkness is

reduced by one

Spring Legs

The difficulty class for Stunts contests involving jumping is

reduced one.

Martial Artist

Add one to your effective Brawl rating when fighting

unarmed

Claws

Your damage rating in unarmed combat is increased by 1

Increased Ability

Increase the rating of one of your abilities by one

Thick Skin

Increase your effective survival rating by one when resisting

damage.

Large

You have one extra health level. Tentacle

Tentacle

You have a dexterous tentacle. You can hold items, but it’s

not as effective as an extra arm.

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Ability Aptitude

Decrease the difficulty rating for all contests involving a

given ability.

Sonar

Difficulty classes are not increased by adverse vision

conditions.

Extra Arm

You have one extra arm.

Wings

You can use your Stunts ability to fly.

Vacuum Adaptation Your character can survive in the vacuum, by winning a

contest against a difficulty class equal to the number of

minutes you’ve been exposed to vacuum.

Extraordinary Luck

Once per game session, you can automatically win a single

contest.

Invulnerability

You take no damage from one type of weapon (plasma,

lazon, particle, melee, or unarmed).

You can take the same virtue more than once. In that case, the effects are cumulative.

Characters have five abilities, Pistols, Pilot, Stunts, Brawl, and Survival, that each start

out at rating zero. The maximum rating for any ability is five.

Pistols: You use the pistols ability whenever your character fires a gun, shoots a bow and arrow,

or throws a rock. You also use the pistols ability for quick draws.

Pilot: The Pilot ability governs the operation of all sorts of vehicles, not merely spaceships and

airplanes, but also riding animals, sailing boats or submarines, and driving cars.

Stunts: This ability is a catchall for the wide variety of cool cowboy stuff you may want to do.

Whether it’s jumping from a second story balcony to tackle a person below, or hanging from the

edge of a cliff, the stunts ability is used for all physical, non-combat related activities. It also

covers the use of lassos, both rope and electromagnetic.

Brawl: This covers all close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat, both armed and unarmed. Boxing,

wrestling, swords, spears, axes - all use the brawl ability.

Survival: In addition to keeping you alive in the wilderness and allowing you to set and detect

ambushes, this ability represents your character’s skill in watching his back in combat. It also

represents the ability to resist and avoid damage from weapons, poison, and disease.

Resolving Actions

For the characters to accomplish any action with a chance of failure, or any action that’s

opposed by another character, they must make ability contests. At its most basic, an ability

contest is a game of rock-paper-scissors. If the player wins, his character succeeds at the action.

There is one slight complication, however. A player can use his ability rating as “retries” or

“tiebreakers.” If the action is particularly difficult, or opposed by another character, the action

will have a difficulty class. The difficulty class reduces the player’s effective ability rating by its

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