Mutant Epoch, Redux

I still have my set of Mutant Epoch books out, and I like this game. No other game is quite like it, and this is a mix of Aftermath, Gamma World, Rifts, Mutant Crawl Classics, Umerica, Ashes Without Number, and Mutant Future. While it has that Fallout feeling, it is not Fallout.

It is more like a strange comic book you pick up in the 50-cent bin, and then you are furiously trying to dig through all the bins to find as many of these stories as you can. The game is a story generator, encompassing character creation, gameplay, and the eventual end of every character. The land is more twisted, blasted, wrecked, and utterly unrecognizable than any of the above games. The game feels dirty and grimy, filthy and stained with all sorts of mutagens and industrial waste.

Every character is a new story to unfold.

The world is a mix of broken concrete, mutated plant life, toxic rivers, carnivorous plants, and renegade AIs that turn life into killer cyborgs. Underground complexes stretch for miles deep into forgotten, underground military bases. The ruins of civilization stretch for thousands of miles, seemingly intertwined with survivor and mutant communities everywhere. A seemingly normal town could all be androids, cannibals, or cannibal androids with fish implanted in their heads for brains.

The world is more insane than you can imagine.

It feels like a blend of classic After the Bomb and TNMT, with a healthy dose of gritty survival and danger. And danger can come at you from any angle. I feel more unnerved and unsafe in the world of Mutant Epoch than I do in any other post-apocalyptic game, and that says a lot. Even Mutant Crawl Classics, which is a fantasy world feeling at this point, or Mutant Future's madness. Even Aftermath's world of flattened landscapes, falling buildings, knife-wielding gangs of bears with grenades, and underground facilities filled with killer robots does not feel like the omega threat level of Mutant Epoch.

With other games, I feel the safety rails there. There is this "safe assumption" with many post-apocalyptic games that lulls you into that comfortable, medieval, semi-fantasy feeling. Mutant Epoch starts off unhinged, the art is strangely unnerving, and I pick up the books of the game with a wariness and sense of unease that only the original Aftermath game gave me.

The game feels dangerous.

This is not a cozy game, where I'm held by a hand, a pillow is fluffed behind my neck, and cute plushies pile on me, all while I'm given a warm cup of drug-induced cocoa. I am not being fed the opiates of nostalgia, which only cause depression, despondence, and dependency. Many newer games, including D&D 2024, heavily rely on this notion of mental safety, where the game should never offend or challenge anyone, and causing discomfort or pain is considered socially unacceptable and a vile insult to humanity. We use an X symbol to indicate anything that causes us discomfort.

We need to make our games more accessible and safe for the dwindling audience who play them. For no other reason than vanity and to feel like we did something when we did nothing. You want a more accessible game? Put 100,000 copies in libraries, and make the entire system free for anyone to use.

No more pain! No more discomfort! It is everyone else's obligation to protect me from the world. The notion of a right of ultimate protection teaches us to become incredibly vain and selfish. Crawling into the corporate womb of false comfort ensures a life of mental slavery and physical subservience. They sell us fake identities and replacements for ourselves in our games, and then expect us to take those shells into the real world as our branded selves.

I get on my treadmill and lift my weights every day, and I feel pain. I get tired. My body fights me. I feel discomfort and hurt. I don't like it, nor want to do it.

But I do.

I take discomfort and pain into my life so I can be a better person for it. While those in the world seek to bury themselves in their cozy and coffin-like cocoons, I am living life. I am bringing pain and discomfort into my life to purposefully make it a better experience.

Bringing this back to gaming.

I am not afraid of complicated games, nor games that involve some work to play - if they bring value through those systems. I am not afraid of games that upset me or challenge me. I do not cringe at the chainmail bikini or bare-chested barbarian, nor act offended like this was the worst travesty that I have ever seen. I don't grandstand my outrage on social media for likes and attention.

I also enjoy games that evoke a sense of unease and discomfort. It is like eating a spicy food that causes pain, but you appreciate the heat and flavor. The sensation awakens your senses. Surviving the pain and supposed danger makes you feel alive again. My tastes and worldview expand, and I am a stronger, more centered and grounded person for challenging myself.

Mutant Epoch is one of those games that make me uncomfortable.

That's why I play it.