Genlab Alpha it’s a Standalone game which can also be used as supplement For Mutant Year Zero by Free League Publishing. Genlab Alpha transports players inside Paradise Valleya setting rich in life and resources that contrasts with the devastated landscape of the Mutant Year Zero contaminated zone.
Paradise Valley’s prosperity, however, is only a facade. At first glance it may seem like a paradise separated from the outside world by the mountain range at its edge, but a careful eye will notice enormous barriers and electrified fences that divide the valley into habitats guarded by terrifying robotic sentinels, the Watchers.
The Observers are nothing more than the operators of a research facility once controlled by humans. They maintain the directives of their former masters and exploit the inhabitants of the valley to carry out the research objectives of the facility.
The resistance
The inhabitants of the habitats are Mutant Animals gathered in tribeeach of which venerates and fears the Watchers. Members of the tribes are constantly monitored and sometimes captured for experimentation. This climate of terror pushes some of them to attempt to escape the valley, but each attempt fails, causing heavy repercussions from the Watchers on the tribes themselves.
The players are members of the resistancea movement of mutant animals who wish to escape the yoke of the Observers. The members of the resistance belong to one of the nine types of animals present in the valley: Dogs, Cats, Rats, Bears, Monkeys, Rabbits, Badgers, Reptiles and Moose. Each of these types of animals is centered on one of the Mutant Year Zero Feature Bonuses and presents innate abilities relative to their species. For example, the group of Monkeys, consisting of Orangutans, Gorillas and Chimpanzees, rely on their intellect and possess excellent motor skills and ability to communicate about dangers.
No longer simple beasts
The inhabitants of the valley, after the cycles of experiments to which they were subjected, began to become more similar to human beings, abandoning most of the feral instincts of their ancestors. Not only have they developed new social roles (archetypes)but they have also established hierarchies within tribes (social rank). Roles within these animal communities, as in Mutant Year Zero, specialize in one of the four main attributes: Strength, Agility, Ingenuity and, unlike the base game, they do not use Empathy to communicate with each other like mutants, but rely onInstinct to solve social problems.
Each role represents the capabilities of an individual and indicates his social background. Within a tribe, decisions are made by the highest ranking memberoften a elder or the alphaproposing new narrative elements tied to exile and the rise to power.
The choice of animal species and social role, combined with factors such as the character’s age, defines his specialized Feats and Skills, as well as the number of attribute points and Skills available, along with the social position within the tribe, relative to a table in the manual. The new archetypes introduced in Genlab Alpha are: the Scavenger, the Healer, the Warrior, the Hunter and the Seer.
The Healer introduces new survival elements that enrich the value of acquiring natural resources during exploration. Thanks to his knowledge, he can heal from trauma the allies and combine the collected herbs in medicines and alcohol.
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The hunterlike the Healer, is a survival expert capable of build trapsrudimentary ranged weapons such as bows and slingshots, but not only: by hunting animals he can obtain skins and use them to make armor.
The Rummager He is an explorer specialized in collection It is in the transport Of objects. His abilities accentuate this tendency, granting bonuses in researching, transporting, and storing resources.
The warrior it’s a master blacksmith and a valid one fighter. His skills allow him to create melee weapons, manage groups of enemies and master his instruments of death.
The Seer represents the class dedicated to the support and use of supernatural abilities. Among its powers we find the visions of deathwhich can alter entire meetings risking heavy repercussions, the propheciescapable of providing bonuses on tests, and the totem making to increase the bonuses from prophecies.
The Laws of Heaven
Genlab Alpha maintains the game rules of Mutant Year Zero, enriching the technical sector with some improvements, such as the quick resolution of the launch on initiativethanks to a high parameter of Agilityand the introduction of the Animal Powersused as a counterpart of the Mutations present in the base game.
The challenges are resolved by exceeding the required threshold via multiple successes during the launch of the D6 dice. Everything is fine success is defined by obtaining 6 (or the radioactive symbol on dice purchased separately), while the failure critical, or obtaining 1 (infection or explosion symbol on dice sold separately), is only applied when a player re-rolls the dice pushing his alter ego beyond the limit.
The failuresas in the base game, allow you to recover Feral points and mutation pointsor the resource needed to activate Animal Powers and Mutations. Accumulating points is not a pleasant experience for the characters: each failed test and die with the failure symbol causes a trauma on the challenge statistic, which can then be recovered through the use of resources such as food and water.
The traumas I am bad luck on characteristic attributes and lead to the reduction of such parameters. If an attribute reaches zero as a value, the state of ruptureforcing the player to make a throw of D66 on the table of critical woundswhich can lead to the loss of your character.
United for Freedom
Genlab Alpha by Free League Publishing It is a great standalone game with plenty of survival elements and, at the same time, an excellent supplement for Mutant Year Zero, complete with new classes and the addition of animal species (races), which ensure a marked variety in character creation.
The manual features an exciting story in the form of a campaign to introduce players to Paradise Valley and standardize the presence of mutant animals in the wasteland, so that they can later combine mutations with animal powers, previous archetypes from the base game with animal species bonuses, or create mutants with the new classes introduced in the expansion along with their talents.
The illustrations of the manual follow the same comic book style as the base game, depicting the tribes and the environments rich in natural elements that distinguish Paradise Valley. Overall, Genlab Alpha manages to enrich the universe of Mutant Year Zero, guaranteeing hours of exploration and excitement for newcomers and experts in the post-apocalyptic survival genre.
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