First Impressions - Mutant Year Zero: Mechatron

The robots are coming.

TL;DR: Mutant Year Zero: Mechatron is a full colour, 240 page hardcover book which has great layout and art. It is standalone from the core Mutant Year Zero book. The Year Zero Engine is light enough to be picked up easily and add some mechanical fun with the risks of pushing roles. The setting is intriguing, allowing players to explore the world as newly self-aware robots. The Ghost in the Machine campaign written well enough that the characters could take it in many directions. Although there is a set of scenarios, they just provide the framework in the sandbox of a failing, resource-limited bastion of high technology.

Mutant Year Zero: Mechatron was very much an impulse buy following a conversation with the Guvnor about how post-apocalyptic games should be pitched. His views were very much more *punk than mine; I've always been attracted to settings where the characters get to protect the flame of civilisation against the darkness around. 'Hard Times' remains the Traveller setting that resonated with me most. We'd got to exchanging WhatsApp messages about games and Mutant Year Zero came up. The Guvnor was very much up for the core book (mutant humanity) or Genlab Alpha (uplifted animals); I was very much in favour of Mechatron (emergent machine intelligences) or Elysium (surviving humans in a bunker feuding with each other). After a bit of Googling, I ended up with Mechatron as I found a UK retailer who (a) had a copy and (b) was still trading. It's out of print at the moment.

So what is Mechatron? It's a full colour, 240 page hardback book (but this review is from the PDF as my book hasn't landed yet). Lovely Stålenhag cover (which - sadly - doesn't reflect anything in the core of the campaign presented) and full colour inside with a cartoon-like artwork which works quite well; it looks like pen and ink. Layout is simple and clear. There's a decent index.

Rule system is the Year Zero Engine (duh, no surprise there) so you're rolling multiple D6 looking for sixes (successes) which are shown as symbols on the official dice.  Most tasks only need a single success, but there are options for difficulties. There are three types of dice used; base dice, program dice and gear dice. Base dice from your attributes, Program dice from your programs (skills) and Gear dice from experience. If you push a roll you re-roll all the dice which don't have symbols showing. There are bad symbols replacing the ones on the base dice and gear dice which only come into play when you are pushing a roll. Base dice fails will result in damage to the attribute associated with the roll or a loss of energy. Gear dice fails result in the gear losing the bonus it gives, so it can be rendered useless.

You play a robot character who has just become self-aware. This is anathema to NODUS, the AI-construct which runs the machine Collective of Mechatron-7, the underwater production facility where the game commences. The game framework has characters looking to eliminate errors (machines which are malfunctioning), struggle for resources, explore the outside world, strive for deeper self-awareness and seal the fate of the Collective.

Each character has a model type (an industrial robot, a battle robot, a coordining robot, a companion robot (yes, you can play a former sex-bot if you're a Serenity fan), a cleaning robot and more), which establishes a special program that makes you unique. You chose three chassis parts - head, torso and undercarriage - which determine your attribute scores, armour and the number of extra modules you carry. There are four core attributes (Servos, Stability, Processor and Network aka STR/DEX/INT/CHA) and each program sits under one of these. You get to pick a secondary function to tailor your character further (and can add others in the future) and you can add modules. Modules give you abilities, activated by Energy Points (EP). You need to spend an EP each day to function, and the supply is rationed by NODUS based on the Collective's ability to generate power.

Your robot also has a hierarchy value; this represents how important a machine they are in the Collective and is used in social conflict. Self-aware robots can question orders given by robots higher up the hierarchy and also humans. By default, humans (and mutant humans) can order a robot around using a manipulate roll.

Your robot type also drives your appearance (along with the chassis), your personality and relationships with other PCs and NPCs. You get to pick a 'big dream' that your self awareness has brought on. Finally, you get some gear.

The book then describes the perilous state that Mechatron-7 finds itself in since the humans of the Titan Power Noatun abandoned the facility. There's a distinctive map; more of a picture with annotations. The various districts are described at top level, but the Collective's world is slowly deteriorating; in the campaign presented, the characters can drive the outcome. Every scenario will bring further deterioration and more danger for our robot friends. Scenarios are described as work orders which the machines must carry out. There is enough detail to play in Mechatron-7 but not so much that it becomes a straight-jacket as it is painted in broad brush strokes.

The GM section starts off by describing the principles of the game, reminding me very much of Dungeon World and its Apocalypse World siblings. There are selections of robots and creatures to encounter and example artifacts to discover.

The final third of the book covers the Ghost in the Machine, a campaign framework which dives into why the machines are becoming self-aware, why NODUS is suppressing this and the impact of the return of humanity (in the form of mutants). There are four work orders presented; the set up of the campaign will immediately put the characters in jeopardy as they are responsible for hunting down malfunctioning robots (usually self-aware, just like themselves) for the Collective. There are also four further 'key events' which provide the story arc; they're designed to be interspersed as you run the work orders and will bring about the fate of Mechatron-7. The final scenario will play out against the backdrop of a huge battle, which has its own set of rules.

At the end of the campaign, the machines will likely emerge onto land into the Zone, their world changed forever. There are notes on how to take this further, and also on how to interlink the campaign into an existing Mutant Year Zero game.

The only thing I felt was missing was some of the background from the original core game on the Titan Powers. However, as the world is presented in a state where the robots and machines have lost much knowledge and history, this would not be an issue in play.

Overall, I like this game. The setting is intriguing and the campaign written well enough that the characters could take it in many directions. Although there is a set of scenarios, they just provide the framework in the sandbox of a failing, resource-limited bastion of high technology.

21 April 2020