Books Galore!

Woots! Kevin has been running a bunch of auctions on eBay for a while and recently there have been a few AtB items on the list. As a matter of fact, last week I won a copy of the 2nd Edition Book and all of the 1st Edition Books. All signed!!!


Now he's got an After the Bomb proofreader copy up for bid that I'm hoping to get too.


As if that weren't enough, before the auctions went up, I had ordered an After the Bomb® Supplement Bundle from Palladium's online store. So I now have three copies of all the AtB books, 1st and 2nd Edition. Now I just need to get more people around where I live interested in playing this setting...

Addendum:
I was outbid on the proofreader. It was one of those last minute outbids, which tells me that I should have been watching the auction in the last hour before it's end. Nuts. :(

TD:ATB Adventure Redux

You may remember that a few months back I was working on a two part adventure that combined AtB and Transdimensional TMNT - Project Daleth and Sky High. Well, I'm going to go back, fix them up, and re-post them.

I had always know that there was something missing in the first part and didn't much care for the way I had designed the layout of the project facility. Then there was the title, Daleth (Etymology: Hebrew dāleth, from deleth - door), which I'll probably change to Project Gateway.

As for the second part, I felt that it felt too rushed and was missing an interesting way of helping the characters track down the team of scientists that escaped through the trasdimensional gateway. To fix this I will be adding some hardware (gizmos) in the first part of the adventure.

More later...

That's One Big Croc!

The Last Darkness wrote:

So im creating a character/possible NPC mildly inspired by the greatly feared and dreaded "Gustave" Crocodile.
I rolled up Mutant Crocodile, Guerilla Fighter.
Now I sold attributes for bio e ending with a speed of 8.
At character finesh I was size lvl 20 which has me have to reduce speed by -10.

Im not sure how to interpret this, would spd go into the negative, remain at least one or is 3 the minimum you can go?
Im hoping to improve this with proper skills like running but im stuck on this issue as ill either be at -2 Spd, 1 Spd, or 3 Spd before I take skills.
Any advice would be helpful or better yet a Cannon Ruleing

I'd say that the character has become too big and is now "physically disabled". So unless you can get your speed (Spd) to 1 or better through skills, I'd say you need to reevaluate how you build your character unless you want him to move around in a Mac truck sized wheelchair.

However, if Darkness spends his BIO-E wisely he can still create a powerhouse of a character with a Speed that's greater than zero. Let's take a look:

Crocodiles start with 30 BIO-E and a Size Level of 15, and Darkness wants a Guerrilla Fighter that's a size level of 20, still able to walk around on it's own power, and probably trick it out a bit to be one mean mother [Shut yo' mouth!]...

First we will increase it's Size Level by 5 to 20. (-10 Spd) which costs a total of 25 BIO-E (Totals: Spd Bonus -10 / Remaining BIO-E = 5)

Next we take "Really Big & Slow" for some bonus BIO-E but at a cost of -6 Spd. (Totals: Spd Bonus -16 / Remaining BIO-E = 15)

Luckily the Guerrilla Fighter background comes with +2 Spd and +10 BIO-E. (Totals: Spd Bonus -14 / Remaining BIO-E = 25)

We are still hampered with a sizable Speed deficiency, but if you spend 10 BIO-E for Extra Speed you can pick up a whopping 17 to 27 [+(2D6+15)] Spd to counteract our handicapped speed. (Totals: Spd Bonus 3 to 13 / Remaining BIO-E = 15)

Now we can boost that a bit more if we spend 5 more BIO-E to pick up Alligator Quick Run which not only gives you a +4 to Speed but allows you to DOUBLE your normal speed for "quick dashes" up to 200 feet! (Totals: Spd Bonus 7 to 17 / Remaining BIO-E = 10)

So this, at best, would leave you with a Spd modifier of +7 to 17 and 10 BIO-E to spend on Natural Weapons, Animal Powers, or Psionics before you even start taking vestigial traits.

Now if you want to buy the best Teeth, Natural Armor, and Strength it will cost you another 55 BIO-E, in which case you would need to pass on the Quick Run power (which still leaves you with a positive Spd modifier) and take all the Vestigial Traits (15 + 40 = 55 BIO-E).

Hope that helps anyone else who might be interested in building big characters.

[IN THE NEWS] Scientists Create ‘Mighty Mouse'

Not satisfied with a "Super Mouse", a team of University of Tokyo researchers genetically engineered a mouse that does not fear cats, simply by controlling its sense of smell.

National Institutes of Health
Knocking out a gene in the brain’s fear hub creates mice unperturbed by situations that would normally trigger instinctive or learned fear responses, researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have discovered. The findings may lead to improved treatments for anxiety disorders (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/anxietymenu.cfm), they suggest.

Fear memories are so essential for survival that they are easily formed and rarely lost.

Scientists now think that what they learn from these mice could be used to develop new anti-anxiety agents.

Story Links:
http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/dec2005/12162005mice.htm
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/nov2005/nimh-22.htm

Mutants Of The Rising Sun

Unknown_Nobody on the AtB/TMNT Forum started a thread when his players showed interest in visiting Japan in the After the Bomb setting, but was perplexed since there was little to no information on the location.

While most have suggested that he make it a neo-feudal or cyber-punk setting, while I suggested that he, "create your own Japan setting to fit the tastes of yourself and your group. If history is any indicator, I would imagine finding some pretty weird... stuff. Do some real world research and go from there, or just base it on some anime or manga."

Then the topic of human/mutant hostility came up. I figured that since in most of the other areas where the human vs. mutant struggle is key, the humans are the bullies, maybe you could do something different with Japan:

Maybe you could do a 180 and have the humans in Japan subjugated by the mutant animals. Where the mutant animals have taken the Japanese fear of Tengui, Obake, Bakemono, or other creatures from Japanese folklore. It could be that after the bomb, the mutant animals were able to convince the human survivors that they were indeed the incarnation of these spirits and had come to punish them. Some may do it due to their hatred or mistrust of humans, others because they are trying to protect [the humans] from themselves.

This would be more in keeping with the feel of the region, IMHO, and players could play the heroic mutant or human trying to bring justice back to the lands.

After that I decided to come up with a name and graphic for such a setting...