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hm...it seems to me that you could add zombies to ATB if you handled it right. perhaps a nano-plague. organic nanites that infect a person, and slowly "ingest" him/her by disolving their tissues to make the raw organic goop the nanite use to assemble more nanites. the nanites replace the tissues of the person, highjacking it's nervous system to turn it into a dangerous moving weapon. once the body has too little tissues left to function, the nanites "melt" off the remains and form a puddle of inert material that only needs to touch living tissue to activate again. (would probably look alot like the end of indiana jones and the raiders of the lost ark...)

some pre-crash labs idea of an ideal weapon. perhaps each "generation" of nanites have built in lifespan before going dead, limiting the danger of spread. and there would probably be some chemical treatment that would protect people or allow treatment of infected persons.

Here's a fun link...
5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen
(caution, adult language warning, TV MA).

not everyone likes the idea of magic in ATB

glitterboy2098 wrote:not everyone likes the idea of magic in ATB

I've been thinking of removing the psionics from the next AtB game I run. As for the magic in Avalon, I just ignore it.

macksting wrote:That must suck. I suppose they could play some other game and call it "After the Bomb" anyway.

No reason you couldn't just use the mutant animal creation guidelines from AtB and the background tables from any other Palladium game: Anthro-Robotech, Anthro-Beyond the Supernatural, heck even Anthro-Advanced Recon.

macksting wrote:That must suck. I suppose they could play some other game and call it "After the Bomb" anyway.

oh wow, i never knew the ATB setting had to include magic. wow, funny me, thinking all this time the game didn't have magic until MiA, and that ATB2 is quiet on the subject.




having read MiA (ugh, the worst setting book for ATB.), i prefer to ignore the athurian stuff and see their "magic" as just another type of mutant psionic.

Ok, I'm seriously thinking of starting a "Buy macksting a copy of AtB2" fund. Anyone want to contribute?

macksting wrote:Seriously, man. You can play a game which isn't Wujcik's AtB by removing the magic, or even the psionics.

Mutants in Avalon was written by James Wallis, not Erick. Never asked him what he thought of MiA, but the fact that Magic wasn't included in the second edition book should probably give you an idea.

macksting wrote:AtB2 doesn't officially recognize AtB1 sourcebooks?!
What the hell was he thinking?

Chill. First edition sourcebooks are recognized in the second edition book. Interestingly enough, in the section on Europe, the British isles are not included except as a side note in the SAECSN (France) section:

see the Mutants in Avalon sourcebook for details about SAECSN, as well as new mutant animals, druids, and the various kingdoms and conflicts in the British Isles

macksting wrote:If AtB2 doesn't validate existing AtB books, it's essentially a whole other setting.

Well, seeing as how Second Edition is a retcon of First Edition, technically it is a whole other setting.

macksting wrote:Edit: Hold! Hold up...

and that ATB2 is quiet on the subject.

AtB2 doesn't officially recognize AtB1 sourcebooks?!
What the hell was he thinking? Not validating material written before the loss of license, simply, in many ways leaves their material invalid! No SAECSN? No Australia or Zone? No Jakarta?
Jesus. That sucks. If AtB2 doesn't validate existing AtB books, it's essentially a whole other setting.
"They finally really did it! You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

sheesh buy the book already. ATB2 does recognize previous sourcebooks. sorta. one of the sections is a world overview, including summaries of the regions covered by the previous sourcebooks, as well as areas never covered before (antartica, the artic, asia, ect)
it expands on the preexisting stuff to a degree, too. though not indepth. the previous sourcebooks are sorta grandfathered in, largely because newer version haven't been written.

what it doesn't talk about is magic. one way or the other. it is implied (particulalry in the bit about the 'shamans' of the artic) that something magic-like exists. but then again, animal psionics are also magic-like. so it could be magic, it could be sufficently advanced tech, it could be just some really powerful form of animal psionics.

Fubarius wrote:Ok, I'm seriously thinking of starting a "Buy macksting a copy of AtB2" fund. Anyone want to contribute?

I thought that too, but then I came to my senses.

It would be cheaper to just have a "Macksting's Rant" thread for him to vent his frustrations towards Second Edition. Besides, as a AtB1 purist, I doubt he'd enjoy it (no offense Mack).

macksting wrote: At that point, you may as well remove the option of "partial hands" and "partial biped," give everybody full speech, hands, and hips, remove the extra nipples and just make the game straight-up furry.

Actually, AtB2 adds many useful things for less mutated characters. Hand to Hand: Bullfighting for one. No, not fighting like a matador, fighting like the BULL. Charges, two legged kicks, automatic body block (instead of automatic parry). All kinds of fun stuff for those characters without hands and bi-ped. It's designed mostly for large hoofed and horned animals, but a little tweaking an it can function for large clawed predators and even small sized creatures (I'd switch the auto body block to an auto dodge for a quadra-ped squirrel for example).

macksting wrote:it was a footnote to Rali, who wants to remove the psionics from the setting.

I only said I might remove it from the next game I run, not that I want to remove it from the setting in general. I'd like to run a pure post-apocalyptic sci-fi story. Kinda like a post-Twilight 2000 game with anthropomorphic characters.

It's no stranger than wanting to add zombies to AtB.

I a way, I could see a good way tomintro zombies into AtB2, simply by using the Big Death as a backdrop. There were plenty of 'prankster plagues' being used when the EGG system came out for mass-market availability, so someone would cook up a zombie-making virus very easilly. The pranksters got caught (either by the authorities or by their own creations) & a vaccine quickly manufactured to prevent the plague from spreading, but not shortly afterwards, the Big Death hits. Some samples are preserved in some hidden lab & forgotten about.
Flash-forward to the ATB2 setting. Someone stumbles across the lab in a scavenging party (Most likely the Empire of Humanity, but really anyone could do) & accedentally releases it. A town goes quiet & the Cardanian govt. hires the group to investigate.

BookWyrm wrote:There were plenty of 'prankster plagues' being used when the EGG system came out for mass-market availability, so someone would cook up a zombie-making virus very easilly.

That's a great way of introducing zombies in a game.