How would you Update After the Bomb to fit in 2011?

[gaby]

Tell me How would you update After the Bomb?

What would you chance in the Mutant Animals?

What would you chance in Mutant Animals,s abilities?

[glitterboy2098]

i'd probably leave it more or less as it currently is.
the main thing i'd add would be a chart/table for adding oddities to your mutants, like adding wings to non-winged spwcies, odd colors, etc. to reflect that modern genetics has shown that custom engineered "from scratch" DNA can be added ot creatures to create things nature never came up with. in the ATB world, these studies would eventually allow for alot more variety of chimera's in the game...something the current game doesn't really have rules for.

[Rali]

I'd make all animal powers and abilities available to all animal species, thus making it easier to make new chimera. The difficulty would be in scaling costs, but that could be worked out with some testing.

I might go with a more simplified base animal species list for faster character generation, but still include a large selection of purebred, chimera, and throwback templates which would continue to have limited customization available after selection.

I'd make the backgrounds more generic so they would apply better to any location in the world.

Solidifying the game world setting, making it more generic, or just tying it in with Heroes Unlimited (Fur Unlimited?) would also be a benefit to marketability the game.

I'd even consider dropping the name "After the Bomb" since it doesn't apply much to 2nd Editions history or mechanics.

Finally, I'd make Doc Feral more pivotal to the games background/setting.

[Rali]

Definitely add Unmanned Robotic Combat Vehicles. Maybe include autonomous combat vehicles?

[gordyzx9r]

I would go back to the old school version and lose allot of the stuff in AtB2. Have the "bomb" take place around the late '80s to early '90s.

[Mechanurgist]

I'm not sure adding a lot of chimerics to the mix would enhance the game. Part of the appeal is in playing animals that actually exist in our world, but are anthropomorphized into more ... jesus christ, gordy, your animated gif is distracting the heck out of me. Where was I? ... more sympathetic forms with human manners, appearance and behaviourism. Creating weird Hawk-Leopards and Ferret-Whales doesn't appeal to most people, who would rightly view them as ugly monsters (cf. Owlbear). It's more fantasy fare anyway.

I would keep the animals as they are but update the weapons, equipment and locations. Add more standard NPCs (Cardanian soldiers, Empire rangers, Filly mercenaries, etc.). Throw a bit of the original game's humorous puns and wit back in. The game is not meant to be taken entirely seriously.

[Mechanurgist]

I'd also integrate and simplify the character generation steps for skills, creating a single unified Training process that resembles the Lifepath in Cyberpunk 2020. This could provide for all the possibilities of backgrounds, apprenticeships, educational degrees, etc. without the complexity and with far more flexibility.

After the Bomb also needs more detailed rules for salvaging, repairing, jury-rigging, reconstructing old technology from ruins/junkyards/labs/cities. And some rules for how animal scientists might re-invent certain technologies based on branch points and similarities or recovered fragments.