Creation of Non-Mutant Humans

While After the Bomb was created primarily with idea of playing mutant animals in a post-apocalyptic setting, there are some people who may want to play the game as a non-mutant human.

We know they exist--primarily in the Empire of Humanity, so why not offer them as a playable species. In the Second Edition release, humans were included in the species chapter for players who wanted to play a mutant human, but nothing for non-mutant humans. The following steps should be used to create a non-mutant human:

Non-Mutant Human Creation Steps

Step 1: Attributes & Bonuses
Follow the rules for rolling attributes as they appear in the book.

Step 2: Background Education & Skills
You can use the backgrounds that appear in the books (just ignore any BIO-E bonuses) or the backgrounds created by Fubarius that appear in the previous posting. Alternatively, you can also use the education tables that appear in Heroes Unlimited if you want to create a character from before the Crash. Usually these characters are pretty old unless preserved by cryogenics or some other twist of fate.

Step 3: Hit Point & SDC
There has been some discussion as to what the base SDC for a non-mutant human should be in AtB. Typically "Average Humans" have 12 SDC, but historically Player Characters have been "above average". For this I'd put academic characters at 1D6+12; athletic characters 1D10+12.
If you want to run a more powerful game, I'd use a base SDC of 30 to 35.

Step 4: Choose an Alignment
Same as always.


Step 5: Round Out Your Character
While this step is entirely optional, complete tables for rounding out a character can be found in most of the contemporary Palladium settings. What I present here is a truncated version.

Size Level
01-12% Short: Size Level 7
13-30% Below Average: Size Level 8
30-50% Average: Size Level 9
51-75% Above Average: Size Level 10
76-00% Tall: Size Level 11

Age
01-25% Teenager: 14-19 years old (13+1D6)
26-50% Twenties: 20-29 years old (19+1D10)
51-75% Thirties: 30-39 years old (29+1D10)
76-85% Forties: 40-49 years old (39+1D10)
86-90% Fifties: 50-59 years old (49+1D10) Reduce Spd by 10%
91-95% Sixties: 60-69 years old (59+1D10) Reduce Spd by another 10%, Reduce PS, PP, PE by 10%
96-99% Seventies & Eighties: 70-89 years old (69+1D20) These characters were born before the Crash or soon after. Reduce Spd, PS, PP, PE by another 10%, Reduce skills by 10%, Modify perception rolls, initiative, combat bonuses, and number of attacks per melee by -2.
100% Nineties and older: These characters were born before the Crash and should use one of the contemporary Palladium settings to generate their education/occupation (I prefer the "Occupations & Skills" section found in Beyond the Supernatural 2nd Ed). Reduce all physical stats by half, and mental attributes by 20%.

Ethnicity
Since there is a high likelihood of mixed ethnicity, your roll only indicates your characters dominant ethnicity. Roll again, or choose, to determine your secondary ethnicity.
01-25% Anglo
26-45% African
46-55% Arabic
56-65% Asian
66-80% Hispanic
81-90% Indian
91-95% Indonesian
96-00% Native American

Human Character Backgrounds

[Human Backgrounds written by: Fubarius (AtB Forum @ Palladium Books); posted with permission]

Human Renegade
Your average Empire of Humanity citizen doesn't have a whole lot of contact with your average mutant (except mutant dogs and the occasional slave of course). Your typical soldier on the other hand comes into contact with them all the time, though usually through the sights of their weapon. Every so often one of those soldiers realizes that maybe these upright walking and talking 'animals' might just be, well, people too. They also realized that trying to exterminate these 'animals' is, well, wrong. Due to the constant indoctrinization and propaganda of the EoH these attitudes rarely happen to new recruits. But after a campaign or two here, a purged village or two there, these attitudes start to creep in causing the once loyal soldier to leave the Empire of Humanity and become a renegade.
Apprenticeship: None.
Primary Skills: Hand to Hand: Expert, Running, Climbing (+5%), Wilderness Survival (+5%), Land Navigation (+5%), W.P. Pistol, W.P. Auto and Semi-Automatic Rifles, W.P. Sub-Machinegun, W.P. Energy Rifle, one Ancient W.P. of choice, Literacy (+15%), Basic Math (+10%), four Military skills of choice, and a total of two skills selected from Rogue or Technical.
Secondary Skills: Choose any 10
Special Bonuses: +5 BIO-E (for animal abilities or psionics only, more may be gained through the usual measures), +1d4 PS, +1 PE, +1d6 Spd, +3d6 SCD (plus the usual bonuses for a mutant human)
Money: The character HAD a sizable nest egg, 2d4 times 10000 EoH credits, but they were all confiscated the moment he deserted. So far he's only managed to scrape together 1d4 times 100 bucks.
Equipment: A nearly worn out EoH uniform (might work for a disguise, but not for very long or under close scrutiny), a set of civilian clothes, two modern weapons of choice (EoH Energy weapons are available with GM approval), EoH Flac Jacket (AR 11, SDC 80).
Relatives & Connections: May have a few friends in his new life. In the EoH he might have a close firend or relative who might provide assistance, but most humans will consider him a traitor.


Human Exile
You were an average citizen of the Empire of Humanity, going about your daily life with out a care in the world. Well, except for the growing population of monsters taking over the world, or so the news reels say. But then on that fateful morning something horrible happened that turned your world upside down. You pissed off the wrong person. Or you got convicted of a crime. Or they discovered you weren't "pure" enough by whatever standard they decided on that week. No mater the reason why the effect is the same, they kicked you out or you fled before they could kill you. So now you're living with the 'monsters' and trying to find a way to survive.

Reason for exile:
Note: do not use the bonuses for Mutant Human. Use the following instead.
1-20% You're an aspiring politician and your more powerful rival decided his chances of re-election was better with you gone. +2 MA, +1 IQ, +3 PB
21-30% In a fit of passion you committed a capitol crime (murder, rape, kidnapping, treason, etc) but managed to escape before your scheduled execution. Note: for good alignments the crime might have been justified (say having to kill a high ranking official in self defense), but the death sentence was still given for what ever reason. +1 MA, +1 ME, +2 PS, +2 PE
31-50% Falsely convicted of a crime. You are totally innocent but can't prove it (yet). You feel that if you can clear your name you can rejoin the Empire. But until then you're making do the best you can. +2 ME, +2 IQ, +2 PB
51-60% You worked as a researcher, accountant, technician, etc for the government, and now you Know Too Much and have been deemed a security liability. Luckily you found out about it before they could arrest you. You have 1d4 government secrets that many groups would kill for. +3 IQ, +2 ME.
61-70% Wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe you took the last donut in the cafeteria, maybe you laughed at the wrong joke, maybe some high up official just wanted to flex his political muscles, or maybe he didn't like the shape of your ears, but all you know is that one night some soldiers stormed into your bed room, tied you up, and threw you out the front gate with no explanation as to why. +5 BIO-E, +1 IQ, +1 ME, +1 PB.
71-100% Not 'normal' enough. During the latest purge they determined you weren't 'pure' enough (though they didn't mind the last 8 purges). Fortunately since you could convince them that you're 'mostly' human they couldn't kill you so they just kicked you out. +10 BIO-E, have at least one vestigial disadvantage (your choice), +1 IQ, +1 MA

Apprenticeship: None.
Primary Skills: Basic Math (+15%), Advanced Math, Literacy (+15%), Writing, History, Computer Operation, 2 Pilot skills of choice, 2 Domestic skills of choice, and a total of 6 skills combinedl from Medical, Scientific, and Technical.
Secondary Skills: Choose any 10 (Note, can only chose Hand to Hand Basic)
Special Bonuses: See above.
Money: The character HAD a small nest egg, 3d6 times 1000 EoH credits, but they were all confiscated the moment he you left. So far you've only managed to scrape together 1d4 times 100 bucks.
Equipment: A set of clothes, 1 simple ancient weapon scrounged up somewhere (club, knife, chain, staff, etc), 1d4 small high tech devices you managed to hide on you when you were exiled, and some basic survival gear you managed to trade for (matches, a blanket, etc).
Relatives & Connections: May have a few friends in this new life. In the EoH you still have a few close friends or relatives who might provide assistance, but most humans will consider you a traitor.

Attribute Checks

A player over on the AtB message boards asked about how people go about resolving attribute checks. Here are a few suggestions I have:

Option 1) Have the player multiply their attribute(s) by 3 and the result as a percentage to roll against. I cut off attributes at 30, so if you have an attribute high than that this probably won't work.

Example: Rocky is a bear with a PS of 21 and is trying to tear a door off its hinges. Multiplied by 3 you get 63. Rocky now has a base chance of 63% to tear the door off.

Option 2) Give the task a difficulty target and have your character add their attribute score to a 1D20. If the roll exceeds the target, they succeed.

Example: Rocky is trying to rip another door from its hinges. The GM assigns the task a difficulty of 30. Rocky needs to roll a 9 or better to successfully tear down the door.

Option 3) Use the character's attribute scores as a points pool to perform actions that you feel would otherwise strain them. These points would heal back at the same per-day rate as SDC. This would add a sense of stamina to all stats - Mental and Physical.

Example: Rocky isn't all that smart (IQ 9), but he is really straining to figure out the answer to a riddle. The GM might offer to charge the character 1 IQ for a small hint, or 3 IQ for a bigger hint.

Birnbaum asked:
A character (size level 2) was riding a mutant grasshopper (size level 15), when the grasshopper does one of his enormous leaps, there might be a P.S check (or P.P check) to see if the pc gets bucked off or not.

Option 1) Take the character's PS (or average the characters strength and prowess (i.e. PS+PP/2)) and multiply it by 3. Use that # as the target of a % roll, just like checking a skill. You might also want to penalize the character for the size difference; say -1% per size level.

Option 2) That's a really big grasshopper compared to the character. I'd probably give the task a base difficulty of at least 25 or 30 (that's what I figure a character of that size would need to stay on such a large mount). Again you could average the character's strength and prowess.

Option 3) It's going to take a lot of effort for such a small character to stay on the back of the grass hopper. Let's say we charge the character 1-3 PS for every minute he rides the "hopping" grasshopper. Riding a walking grasshopper won't cost him anything, only when it starts hopping. Depending on the character's PS, they will tire out pretty quickly.

Of course you could also combine any of these methods as you like as well.