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  © 2020 Parts Per Million Ltd 
   
   
  MUTANT:YEAR SOLO 
  Solo Role-Playing Rules 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Introduction. Too many games get bought and then doomed to sit forever on a 
  shelf: too many games, too little time. With solo rules, no game goes unplayed. 
  You can play pretty much any time, anywhere. All you need are your MY:Z 
  rules, 3d6, and this booklet. 
   
  by PETER RUDIN-BURGESS 
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  2 
   
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  CREDITS 
  Written & Developed by Peter Rudin-Burgess 
   
  Cover art by VVictor 
   
  Interior Art by Danny Springgay, Blackhart, VVictor 
   
  © 2020 Parts Per Million Limited. 
   
   
   
   
  © 2019 Cabinet Licensing LLC. MUTANT and 
  related logos, characters, names, and distinctive 
  likenesses thereof are trademarks of Cabinet 
  Licensing LLC unless otherwise noted. Used with 
  permission 
  under 
  the 
  Community 
  Content 
  Agreement for Free League Workshop. All rights 
  reserved. 
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  SECTION 1 
  INTRODUCTION 
  There are so many ways to consume role-
  playing games today. The foremost will always be 
  sat around the kitchen table with friends. As we all 
  seem to get more time-starved and groups break up 
  as people move away, there has been a move 
  towards online play, both forum play by post or 
  virtual tabletop. Even those can be hard to schedule. 
  A four-hour game session is just that, a solid four 
  hours you have to set aside when the other players 
  are all free at the same time. 
  Solo play is another option. It is a form of the 
  hobby that is growing in popularity. There are three 
  popular forms of solo play. The first uses very 
  detailed sets of random tables, frequently using 
  percentile or d100 dice. The second form is the 
  dedicated solo game. Ironsworn is an example of 
  this, where the game has been designed from the 
  beginning to be played with or without a Game 
  Master [GM]. The third option is to use a 
  lightweight GM Emulator. In the case of the 
  detailed random tables, the very act of having to 
  break out of your game to consult a myriad of tables 
  can shatter the suspension of disbelief and drag you 
  out of your game. Playing something different just 
  because you don’t have a GM is not the right 
  solution. If you want to play Mutant:Year Zero, then 
  you should play Mutant:Year Zero. 
  These rules are designed to be that light touch 
  solo play ruleset. 
   
  HOW DOES SOLO PLAY WORK? 
  In its purest form, a role-playing follows a basic 
  cycle. The GM describes a scene and asks, “What 
  do you do?” you may ask a couple of questions to 
  clarify your understanding, then you describe your 
  character's actions.  The GM resolves any conflicts 
  and then describes the consequences of your 
  actions, describing the updated scene. And so the 
  game loops through its cycle. 
  Without a GM, you could just imagine a scene 
  and your character’s reactions. The problem is that 
  you would always know what would happen next. It 
  would be less of a game and more just daydreaming. 
  Solo rules are often called GM Emulators as 
  they try and reproduce what the GM would do. It is 
  a bit of a misleading label as the real purpose of the 
  rules is not to completely emulate the GM but to 
  provide you with prompts to your imagination to 
  take your character's adventures into new and 
  exciting directions. 
  The cornerstone of solo play are the questions 
  you would typically ask the GM. They broadly fall 
  into two categories; closed questions have answers 
  generally Yes/No in nature. The second category of 
  questions are much more open. They cover topics 
  like “What are they talking about?” which a yes/no 
  answer is not going to help with. 
  These two simple mechanics and a couple of 
  other useful rules are finally cast in such a way as to 
  feel like they are part of Mutant:Year Zero. 
   
  ASK YOUR QUESTIONS 
  You need to ask the questions that are best for 
  the game and not the questions that are best for 
  your character. It would be very easy for your 
  character if there were no guards or sentries when 
  they want to break into somewhere or if there were 
  plenty of friends about when they were under 
  attack. The universe is not run for your character's 
  convenience. Quite the contrary, in a Mutant:Year 
  Zero, the universe is run to throw challenge after 
  challenge at your character. 
  In our examples, we are going to use one solo 
  adventure so you can see how the adventure 
  progresses and how the rules, questions, and 
  answers all integrate. 
  The most straightforward questions are the 
  ones that have a yes/no answer. Adventures that 
  only had binary yes/no challenges would very 
  quickly get a bit boring or predictable. What these 
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  rules give you are a range of answers that have 
  extreme negatives at one end and absolute positives 
  at the other and shades of grey in between. Imagine 
  you are alone out in a Zone, and you find a metal 
  canister. The natural question is, “Can it be 
  opened?”. It could be that it is locked, and the lock 
  is so corroded that it is going to take serious tools to 
  open it. At the other end, there could be no lock at 
  all. Those are your extremes. In solo play, we call 
  those “yes and…” and “No and…”. 
  In between these extremes, we have plain yes 
  and no answers and two others. “Yes but…” and “No 
  because…”. 
  The dice roll you make is not going to tell you 
  precisely what the answer means. That is your task. 
  You consider: the adventure so far, the sort of 
  experience you want to have, and the result you 
  rolled. With those three factors weighed in, you can 
  typically come up with a descriptive answer that 
  moves your story forward. 
  “Yes and… the hinges look in good condition as 
  well.” 
  “Yes, but… the lock looks pretty weak. 
  “No, because… there is a padlock on it.” 
  “No, and… the lock is a corroded mass.” 
   
  NOT TOO MANY QUESTIONS 
  It is tempting to ask a lot of questions about the 
  world to get a precise understanding. All that does 
  is make your game grind to a halt. It is better to aim 
  for a single question or, if necessary, one or two 
  follow-ups if the result was not what you were 
  expecting. 
  If you got an answer that does not make sense, 
  then chances are you already know what the right 
  answer should have been. In that instance, go with 
  what you feel is right. 
   
  WORLD BREAKING QUESTIONS 
  It is possible to ask a question that would break 
  the world. Regardless of how unlikely the chances 
  of the answer being a yes, there is always a chance. 
  “Did I wake up with $1,000,000 under my pillow?” 
  is an example from our world. 
  The rule is that you should ask the questions 
  that are best for the game and not the questions that 
  are best for the characters. 
  If the question makes no sense, don’t ask it. 
  YES IS BEST 
  You could ask a question that asks, “Are there 
  any guards?” or in the same situation, you could 
  ask, “Is the way clear?” they have the same effect, 
  but a Yes result has dramatically different 
  implications for your adventure. 
  It is generally accepted convention in solo play 
  that the Yes answers are in the player's favor, and 
  the no answers are negative. 
  It makes no real difference which way around 
  you have it, but it is much easier to always stick to 
  the same structure because the likelihood of an 
  event happening changes the way that a roll is 
  made. 
  When you ask a question, you grab six dice and 
  throw them. The more nuclear symbols you roll, or 6s, 
  the more you walk up the scale of ‘Yes’s.  
     
   
  Yes, but… 
   
      
  Yes 
   
   
    
  Yes, and… 
  The same is true for the biohazard symbols take you 
  down the No path. 
    
  No, because… 
   
   
  No 
   
  No, and… 
  What we count is the net number of 
   and 
   
  assuming they would cancel out one for one. 
  Example: You throw three dice and get: 
  , 2, 4. That gives you a net of 1 
  , 
  , 2, 
   there would have been no net result. 
  ,
  ,
   would also have been a net of 1  
  , 
   
  NO RESULT 
  If you get no symbol results or they cancel out 
  to a null result, then you have possibly the most 
  exciting effect. This is called a Complication! 
  A Complication! is a change in circumstances 
  that renders the original question no longer 
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  relevant. Complication!s can be big or small, 
  positive or negative. In the case of our metal 
  canister, if it suddenly started to spurt out dark 
  yellowish-green smoke, it would make the question 
  of whether you could open it of somewhat 
  secondary importance. It could be that we found a 
  flare, a smoke signal, it could be a toxic gas, or it 
  could be something that wasn’t intended to do this, 
  but it had deteriorated dramatically over time. 
  Complication!s can be dramatic, they can be an 
  excuse to introduce an NPC or even bring back a 
  villain that you thought was dead (if you don’t see 
  the body then you can never really be sure!). 
  Complication!s are never nothing if you cannot 
  immediately think of what could change, think of 
  what would make the adventure more exciting or 
  move 
  the 
  story 
  forward. 
  Think 
  about 
  the 
  environment, what other people are doing, what 
  other events could be unfolding. 
  LIKELIHOOD 
  Somethings are more likely to happen than 
  others. The chances of guards being armed is pretty 
  high; the chances of enemy guards being married to 
  your sister are pretty low. 
  The way we deal with this is the best or worst of 
  two. 
  If you think the result is more likely to be a yes 
  than a no, you roll the six dice twice and take the 
  best result. 
  If you think the result is likely to be a no, you 
  roll the dice twice and take the worst set of results. 
  If the event or question is probably 50/50, then 
  just roll the once. 
  NOT A SKILL TEST 
  These rolls do not replace the core skill 
  mechanics from Mutant:Year Zero. Do not ask a 
  question to see if you can sneak past a guard; make 
  your skill test. They can be used to inform the skill 
  test. A question can tell you how alert the guards 
  are, for instance, but the Sneak test is still a Sneak 
  test. 
   
   
   
  Open-Ended Questions 
  Open questions are a way of adding details to 
  things like the contents of books, conversations, or 
  characters' motives. You will roll 2d6 and read them 
  as 2-12 and then roll them again as a d66. Comparing 
  the results, you will get a word pair that you will 
  need to interpret. Along with the word pair, you 
  need to take into account the sort of adventure you 
  want to have, the story so far, and the setting, just 
  like you would a yes/no question. 
  2-12 result 
  2 
  Brutal 
  3 Strong 
  4 
  Constructed 5 
  Mental 
  6 
  Plotting 
  7 Technical 
  8 
  Intuitive 
  9 
  Strange 
  10 Personal 
  11 Social 
  12 Emotional 
   
   
   
  D66 Result 
  11 Praising 
  12 Taking 
  13 Breaking 
  14 Healing 
  15 Delaying 
  16 Stopping 
  21 Lying 
  22 Exposing 
  23 Haggling 
  24 Imprisoning 25 Releasing 
  26 Blocking 
  31 Harming 
  32 Adversity 
  33 Killing 
  34 Creating 
  35 Betraying 
  36 Agreeing 
  41 Abusing 
  42 Spying 
  43 Attaching 
  44 Carrying 
  45 Opening 
  46 Ruining 
  51 Tricking 
  52 Arriving 
  53 Proposing 
  54 Dividing 
  55 Mistrusting 56 Deceiving 
  61 Cruelty 
  62 Trusting 
  63 Assisting 
  64 Caring 
  65 Failing 
  66 Exciting 
   
  Our character is trying to overhear the 
  conversation of a couple of brutish looking thugs in 
  a flee pit bar down in the bowels of the Ark. We roll 
  the first 2d6 and get 3 + 5, 8, which gives Intuitive. 
  Rolling the dice again, we get 2 + 3, 23, which gives 
  Haggling. “Intuitive + Haggling”, the two thugs 
  have an item on the table, they don’t know what it 
  is, but they are sure it is worth more than they were 
  paid. It was stolen to order, but now they are trying 
  to guess how much they should be demanding. 
  It is not unusual for open questions or even 
  Complication! results to introduce entirely new 
  plot lines into your adventure. If the above results 
  had been 6 and 61 “Plotting + Cruelty” that really 
  sounds like something terrible is going to happen to 
  someone. 
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  You can use open-ended questions to put words 
  into NPCs mouths and motivations behind their 
  actions. 
  NPC Reactions 
  Not everyone you meet will be your friend, and 
  conversely, not everyone is going to pull a weapon 
  and try and kill you. 
  Just as you decided how likely something is to 
  happen, you select the most likely demeanor of 
  NPCs you meet. You should use the situation, the 
  story so far, and the setting to decide this. You then 
  roll a d6. 
  Roll 
  Friendly 
  Neutral 
  Hostile 
  1 
  Talkative or 
  gossipy 
  Not 
  interested in 
  talking 
  Attacks 
  without 
  warning 
  2 
  Wants to 
  trade 
  Wants to 
  trade 
  Threatens or 
  harasses 
  3 
  Offers help 
  or advice 
  Requests 
  tribute or 
  payment 
  Demands 
  tribute or 
  payment 
  4 
  Needs a 
  favor or has 
  a job 
  Requires  
  support or 
  has a job 
  Denies access 
  5 
  Has a lead or 
  a clue 
  Tries to trick 
  or deceive 
  Tries to cheat 
  or deceive 
  6 
  Offers direct 
  assistance 
  Pursuing 
  unrelated 
  objective 
  Pursuing 
  counter 
  objective 
   
  There are some entries in this table, such as “needs 
  a favor” or “pursuing counter objective” that may 
  well introduce new unrelated plotlines into your 
  story. 
  Usually, it will be evident if an NPC is going to be 
  friendly, neutral, or hostile. There is no need to roll 
  for that. You can use the current situation and any 
  history they may have with your character if 
  applicable. 
  Objectives are the NPC's own goals. Unrelated 
  objectives just mean that the NPC is going about 
  their own business. It is possible that they could still 
  have useful information, but they are unlikely to 
  accept an offer to join with you in your mission. A 
  counter objective is something that is directly 
  working against you. It could be that they are trying 
  to find the same thing you are but for their benefit, 
  or maybe they want to destroy what you need to 
  find. 
  Denying access can cover a whole host of 
  situations from just being uncommunicative, not 
  sharing information, being passive-aggressive to 
  having some reason to detain or block your 
  character. 
   
  RECORD KEEPING 
  There are two aspects to record keeping. The 
  first is your journal. Some players can imagine a 
  scene, make a couple of question rolls, and then 
  write up an entire scene like a chapter in a book. 
  Most people are not like that! 
  My journal is little more than a bullet point list 
  with a record of critical questions I asked, the 
  answer, and my interpretation. I list the main 
  actions of my character and NPCs. To anyone else, 
  it would not make any sense at all because all the 
  color and action took place in my imagination. I 
  could never publish one of my ‘actual plays’ of a 
   
   
  SURVIVING SOLO 
  Surviving a game designed for a 
  group of mutants on your own is hard. To 
  give you at least a fighting chance you 
  should develop your mutant with a 
  starting pool of 25XP that can be spent 
  before the game starts. 
  All the normal restrictions apply for 
  spending these bonus XP as would apply 
  to a normal character. 
  Solo play works best if you only 
  control a single PC rather than an entire 
  party. You will still meet and interact with 
  NPCs but play the game through the eyes 
  of your one PC. 
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  solo game, although these are popular in solo play 
  groups.  
  What and how much you write as a record of 
  your game is an entirely personal choice. I find it 
  easier to stay in character if I am not having to stop 
  and write too much. On the other hand, it helps to 
  have some kind of record for when you want to pick 
  up a game again at a later time. 
  The second aspect of record-keeping is using 
  some useful lists to keep your campaign in order. 
  The most popular lists are frequently a Scene List, 
  NPC List, and Plot List. 
  SCENES 
  Solo games often run in scenes. You can 
  typically identify when a scene starts and ends by 
  when you have skipped a block of time. If you cut 
  out something that was going to be of no interest or 
  did not add to the game, then the previous scene 
  ended, and the next has begun. By the book 
  Mutant:Year Zero usually works in sessions, but as 
  a unit of storytelling sessions may not be that useful 
  when you can pick up and put down a solo game at 
  any time. A scene, in contrast, is generally much 
  smaller, you can play many scenes in a single 
  session, they usually have a location, and they can 
  have semi-fixed NPCs. If you return to a place, you 
  are likely to meet some of the same NPCs, or if you 
  want to find a particular NPC, then returning to the 
  scene where you last met them is often a good 
  starting point. 
  Your scene list should contain a very brief 
  summary of the action in the scene, its location, and 
  any key NPCs involved. It can be helpful to name 
  scenes after they have finished, as if they were 
  chapters in a story or episodes in a season of TV 
  shows. 
  NPC LIST 
  Chapter 9 of the core rules has plenty of tables 
  for creating quick NPCs and for generic stock NPCs. 
  Use these to your advantage, so you do not lose a lot 
  of time creating NPCs on the fly.  I have collected 
  those tables from the different chapters of the core 
  rules into Section 2 of this booklet as a quick 
  reference. Your NPC list can contain a very brief 
  description of the NPC, where you met them, and 
  significant events that involved them. 
  You should be able to cross-reference your 
  NPCs and Scenes, so it is useful to make a note of 
  which scenes they have appeared in. 
  PLOT LIST 
  This list is, by far, the most exciting list. You need to 
  start with at least one plot, and Chapter 9 of the core 
  rules has a pair of handy random tables for creating 
  Ark plots and Zone plots. In addition, you will find 
  that you will create a lot of potential plots that you 
  don’t have time to follow up. An overheard 
  conversation may suggest that something is going 
  to happen, a yes/no question may have thrown up 
  an unexpected result or a Complication! may have 
  diverted you from one storyline to another. 
  All of these unfinished plots go on your plot list, 
  and you can link them to relevant scenes and NPCs. 
  HOUSEKEEPING 
  At the end of a solo session, you can spend a few 
  minutes looking over your plot list and try to see if 
  any plots could be related. Maybe they have a 
  location in common, or an NPC. If you find a 
  connection, take a highlighter and group them. 
  Take a minute to think about what could be 
  happening in your world behind the scenes. Have 
  you had more than one instance of sabotage in the 
  Ark? Is a particular place appearing to have more 
  than the expected number of criminal patrons? 
  Grouping your plots where there seem to be 
  natural connections helps build a more vibrant 
  world in which your character exists. One in which 
  events are happening even when you are not 
  focusing on them. 
  These hidden plots can also serve to inform 
  some of your solo questions and answers. If an NPC 
  is pursuing a counter objective, you may well know 
  exactly what that objective is because it has been 
  building up for a long time. 
  There are some handy record sheets for 
  recording these lists in Section 3 of this booklet. 
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  PROGRESS CLOCKS 
  Progress Clocks are not a natural part of 
  Mutant:Year Zero. A progress clock is a really 
  simple shorthand way of tracking events that are 
  happening in the background or ‘off-camera’. 
  What it looks like is a quickly sketched circle 
  divided into segments. 
  As your adventure progresses you may create 
  things that could continue to progress even when 
  you are not there. Take for example, guards on 
  patrol. Just because you have sneaked past them, 
  doesn’t mean they no longer exist. They may well 
  stumble upon where you cut a fence or forced a 
  door. 
  For these sorts of things progress clocks provide an 
  easy way to keep track. 
  I will use the guards on patrol example to explain 
  how to make a clock and how to use it. 
  A clock can have a minimum of two segments, 
  dividing the circle in half, but no upper limit, 
  although eight is probably more then enough. In 
  our example we decide that the guards are pretty on 
  the ball, so we give the clock four segments, 
  dividing it into quarters. 
  Every time we do something that has the potential 
  to alert the guards or could be discovered later, 
  such as a broken lock, cut fence, or failed Sneak test 
  we fill in a segment in the clock. Once a clock is 
  completely filled in it is considered to have counted 
  down and the event attached to the clock happens. 
  In this case the guards have discovered my 
  intrusion, the alarm is raised. 
  There is no end to the number of clocks you can 
  have running at any time. Some will never count 
  down. I could have sneaked in and out and never 
  raised the alarm. If the guards were really on the 
  ball and alert, the clock could have just two 
  segments. Guards that really didn’t care could have 
  eight segments and you would probably have to hit 
  one with a baseball bat to get their attention. 
  Some clocks can reflect real ‘in game’ time. If you 
  have been given 24hrs to come up with a ransom 
  you can count down an eight segment clock every 
  three hours. 
  You could have a Morlock plan that is going to hit 
  your Arc in three days. A three-segment clock will 
  keep track of where you are in that evolving plot. 
  Clocks can give you a sense of urgency to a game, 
  but they can also work at a background level. 
  When you are keeping track of unused plots on 
  your story list. If you connect two, you can add a 
  clock to the connected plotline. How many 
  segments will depend on your ideas for the plotline. 
  Moving forward, if you connect another loose end 
  to the same plotline you can now advance the clock. 
  This creates and world in which your character may 
  stumble into something that is well advanced and 
  on the verge of completion, to then save the day, 
  that had started out as a casual, off the cuff idea, 
  several months ago in your gaming. 
  You can make and discard clocks in seconds, you 
  just need your sketched circle, and a label so you 
  remember what it was all about when you return to 
  your game next time. 
  Before you start a session, it is worth glancing over 
  the clocks you had running at the end of your last 
  game. Just so you are aware of everything that could 
  be hanging over the character. 
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
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  SECTION 2 
   
   TYPICAL NPC STATS 
  Role  
  Strength  
  Agility  
  Wits  
  Empathy  Skills 
  Enforcer  
  5 
  3 
  2 
  2 
  Intimidate 3, Fight 2, Force 1 
  Gearhead 
  2 
  2 
  5 
  3 
  Jury-Rig 3, Comprehend 2, Scout 1 
  Stalker  
  2 
  5 
  3 
  2 
  Find the Path 3, Shoot 2, Sneak 1 
  Fixer 
  2 
  2 
  3 
  5 
  Make a Deal 3, Manipulate 2, Move 1 
  Dog Handler 
  3 
  4 
  3 
  2 
  Sic a Dog 3, Shoot 2, Sneak 1 
  Chronicler 
  2 
  2 
  4 
  4 
  Inspire 3, Comprehend 2, Heal 1 
  Boss 
  3 
  3 
  2 
  4 
  Command 3, Shoot 2, Fight 1 
  Slave 
  4 
  4 
  2 
  2 
  Shake it Off 3, Endure 2, Fight 1 
  No Role 
  3 
  3 
  3 
  3 
  Level 2 in one skill 
   
   
   
  RANDOM GENERATION OF NPCs 
  Enforcers 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Hugust 
  Hulking posture, ape-like arms, grunts 
  Stop fighting and build something 
  instead 
  Brass knuckles 
  2 
  Ingrit 
  Short and stocky, hoarse voice 
  Beat up anyone in her way 
  Bicycle chain 
  3  
  Lenny 
  Wiry, skinny and muscular 
  Live another day; there is nothing else 
  Spiked bat 
  4  
  Marl 
  Fat and with a wheezing voice 
  Torment others and hear them scream 
  Scrap knife 
  5  
  Nelma 
  Grotesquely tall, abnormal face 
  Please the Boss 
  Scrap ax 
  6  
  Rebeth 
  Weathered and scarred, hissing voice 
  Show who’s strongest 
  Scrap pistol 
   
  Gearheads 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Quark 
  Skinny, spiked hair, always smiling 
  Find Eden and the truth about the 
  People 
  Scrap pistol, Gear 
  Bonus +2 
  2 
  Lambda 
  Old blue coveralls, tools in every 
  pocket 
  Recreate the technical marvels of the 
  Old Age 
  Scrap pistol with 
  three barrels 
  3  
  Loranga 
  Bald, extremely dirty, kind 
  Build things to help others 
  None 
  4  
  Naphta 
  Burn-scarred skin, googles, smells of 
  smoke 
  Blow stuff up 
  Flamethrower 
   
  5  
  Tetris 
  Wears a headpiece made of scrap, 
  mumbles constantly 
  Create a device that controls the 
  minds of others 
  None 
  6  
  Zippo 
  Wears a coat adorned by scrap 
  Build a colossal scrap sculpture in the 
  Ark 
  Bicycle chain 
   
   
   
   
  
   
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  Stalkers 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Danko 
  Always wears a gasmask, never 
  speaks 
  Go farther into the Zone than 
  anyone 
  else 
  Scrap rifle, Gear 
  Bonus +2 
  2 
  Franton 
  Scarred face, brags a lot 
  Be revered as a hero by the People 
  Scrap pistol with 
  two barrels 
  3  
  Hammed 
  Dead eyes, coughs from Rot 
  damage, smells of booze 
  Walk into the Zone and let the Rot 
  take him 
  Scrap spear 
  4  
  Jena 
  Camouflage gear, constantly fiddles 
  with her gun 
   
  Stalk a victim for days and then kill it 
  Scrap rifle, weapon 
  damage 3 
  5  
  Krin 
  Skinny and wiry, always on her guard 
  Keep out of trouble, avoid others 
  Bow, Gear Bonus +2 
  6  
  Tula 
  Wears a torn raincoat, pulls an old 
  shopping cart 
  Find something worth fighting for 
  Slingshot 
   
   
  Fixers 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Abed 
  Bald and pudgy, always smiling 
  Make the deal of a lifetime 
  Scrap knife 
  2 
  Denrik 
  Unnaturally handsome, shiny hair 
  Make others feel good and take 
  advantage of it 
  None 
  3  
  Fillix 
  Stares at others’ gear, kleptomaniac 
  Collect a large stockpile of grub 
  and gear 
  Scrap pistol, Gear 
  Bonus +2 
  4  
  Jolisa 
  Skinny, large staring eyes 
  Abnormally interested in artifacts 
  and scrap 
  Bicycle chain 
   
  5  
  Lula 
  Abnormally short, talks constantly 
  Swindle the last bullet from 
  everyone else 
  Scrap pistol 
  6  
  Monja 
  Wheezing voice always wants to 
  trade something 
  Become a Boss one day 
  Scrap knife 
   
   
  Dog Handlers 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Anny 
  Chews on a root, spits constantly 
  Find someone other than her dog 
  to care for 
  Slingshot 
   
  2 
  Brie 
  Black bangs cover a deformed eye 
  Kill anyone who comments on her 
  appearance 
  Scrap knife 
   
  3  
  Finn 
  Greenish, rough skin, mostly drunk 
  Forget his sorrows 
  Baseball bat 
  4  
  Jony 
  4 Face shaded by hood, silent and 
  aggressive 
  Leave the Ark and find a better life 
  Scrap ax 
   
  5  
  Krinnel 
  Only talks to her dog, never to 
  people 
  Give her dog something good to 
  eat 
  Bow 
  6  
  Montiac 
  Crew cut, irritable and violent 
  Beat up anyone who speaks ill of his 
  dog 
  Brass knuckles 
   
   
  Chroniclers 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Astrina 
  Red mohawk, sees good in everyone 
  Find a hero who can save the People 
  Scrap knife 
  2 
  Danova 
  Wears a dress from the Old Age 
  Understand what the Elder needs, 
  and make it happen 
  None 
  3  
  Hanneth 
  Black bangs, silent, takes notes 
  constantly 
  Rise from the misery and dedicate 
  her life to study 
  None 
  4  
  Maxim 
  Skinny and weak, aged beyond his 
  years 
  Write the story of how the People 
  finds Eden 
  None 
  5  
  Silas 
  Unnaturally pale, translucent skin, 
  sad 
  To make the Ark evolve into an 
  advanced society 
  None 
  6  
  Victon 
  Boyish, reddish complexion, always 
  happy 
  Become the hero in the story about 
  the People 
  Scrap knife 
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  11 
   
  x 
  x 
   
  Bosses 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Brictoria 
  Cold eyes, scarred face, crew cut 
  Turn the People into an army and 
  conquer the Zone 
  Scrap rifle, Gear 
  Bonus +2 
  2 
  Gunitt 
  Short, skinny, wears a top hat 
  Collect large amounts of artifacts 
  Scrap pistol with 
  three barrels 
  3  
  Cristor 
  Tall and skinny, fiery eyes 
  Topple the Elder and establish 
  equality in the Ark 
  Spiked bat 
   
  4  
  Marlotte 
  Cool and detached 
  Develop the Ark and lead the 
  People to a better life 
  None 
  5  
  Mohamin 
  Legless and is carried around by 
  Slaves 
  Rally more followers and leave the 
  Ark with his cult 
  Scrap knife 
   
  6  
  Oscartian 
  Extremely fat, can hardly move 
  Get rid of all rivals and take sole 
  power in the Ark 
  Scrap pistol, 
  weapon damage 3 
   
  Slaves 
  D6  
  Name  
  Appearance  
  Goal  
  Weapon 
  1  
  Dink 
  Silent and observant, bitter and 
  treacherous 
  Find someone to use to get free 
  None 
  2 
  Eria 
  Arms and legs like logs, grim 
  Toil away without complaining 
  None 
  3  
  Henny 
  Dirty, always hums on some melody 
  See the bright side of things 
  None 
  4  
  Hent 
  Massive body with knobby skin, 
  hunchback 
  Work and suffer until death sets him 
  free 
  None 
  5  
  Lin 
  Wiry and grumpy, fights a lot 
  To take her aggressions out on 
  anyone 
  None 
  6  
  Wilo 
  Skinny and weak, a dreamer 
  To escape from the Ark and never 
  come back 
  None 
   
  Random Names (D66) 
  11 
  Abar 
  21 
  Leodor 
  31 
  Alix 
  41 
  Margot 
  51 
  Amala 
  61 
  Natara 
  12 
  Octane 
  22 
  Benso 
  32 
  Plonk 
  42 
  Doda 
  52 
  Rasper 
  62 
  Edin 
  13 
  Elona 
  23 
  Tegra 
  33 
  Emdor 
  43 
  Vabb 
  53 
  Ergom 
  63 
  Sagabet 
  14 
  Rutger 
  24 
  Felin 
  34 
  Torry 
  44 
  Gerber 
  54 
  Vang 
  64 
  Gros 
  15 
  Hild 
  25 
  Oslo 
  35 
  Iridia 
  45 
  Piro 
  55 
  Jol 
  65 
  Max 
  16 
  Makron 
  26 
  Juperia 
  36 
  Landon 
  46 
  Kaska 
  56 
  Lard 
  66 
  Kim 
   
  RANDOM THREATS 
  The following table is an extension of the table found in the core rules. It can be used as a prompt to get 
  your first adventure rolling. Alternatively, it can be used to add another layer of detail to an ongoing game. 
  You can use the provided descriptions; those in italics are new and described below; those in the regular 
  script are detailed in the core rules. 
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  12 
   
  x 
  x 
   
  RANDOM Threats Table 
  THREATS AGAINST THE ARK 
   
  11 
  Boss vs 
  Boss 
  21 
  The Last 
  Drop 
  31 
  The 
  Mysterious 
  Ruin 
  41 
  Starfall 
  51 
  The 
  Zone 
  Quakes 
  61 
  A Brutal 
  Deception 
  12 
  A Child of 
  the People 
  22 
  Lost 
  Treasure 
  32 
  A New 
  Kind of 
  Beast 
  42 
  The 
  Wanderers 
  52 
  Boss 
  Murder 
  62 
  A Failing 
  Faith 
  13 
  The 
  Derelict Oil 
  Rig 
  23 
  The Man 
  on the 
  Beach 
  33 
  The Other 
  People 
  43 
  The Zone 
  Cult 
  53 
  Child of 
  the 
  Zone 
  63 
  Strange 
  Artefact 
  14 
  The 
  Helldrivers 
  24 
  Missing 
  Person 
  34 
  Project 
  Sabotaged 
  44 
  Zone Fever 
  54 
  New 
  Ways 
  64 
  A Rising 
  Tide 
  15 
  The 
  Hunger 
  25 
  Murder 
  in the 
  Ark 
  35 
  Revolution! 
  45 
  Zone-
  Ghouls 
  Attack 
  55 
  A Rabid 
  Dog 
  65 
  Mutiny 
  on the 
  Ark 
  16 
  The Killing 
  Machine 
  26 
  Mutant 
  Messiah 
  36 
  The 
  Sinkhole 
  46 
  The Zone 
  Monster 
  56 
  Evil 
  Twin 
  66 
  Re-Roll 
   
  New Threats 
   
  BOSS MURDER 
   
  Is this the start of a factional war or just a 
  venting of frustration? 
  One murder is not 
  remarkable, but when a second boss is killed, it 
  could be the start of something darker? 
   
  CHILD OF THE ZONE 
   
  From out there in the zone, a patrol brings back 
  a child. Where did it come from? Who are his 
  parents? Is someone looking for it? If only you 
  could ask the child, but it is so terrified, it is not 
  talking to anyone! 
   
  NEW WAYS 
   
  The Ark has spawned its own faction of political 
  agitators that want to change the way that things are 
  run around here. Nothing seems to be to their 
  liking, and they have been agitating for change if 
  they get what they want then maybe it is time for 
  new leadership. 
   
  A RABID DOG 
   
  There is a sickness spreading through the Ark’s 
  dogs. 
  They 
  are 
  being 
  driven 
  crazy 
  and 
  uncontrollable. When a handler gets bitten, it is not 
  only his dog that is uncontrollable! 
  If the Ark cannot trust its guard dogs, then is it 
  safe?  
   
  EVIL TWIN 
   
  At first, the boss was just acting odd, and then 
  the boss was acting downright evil. Today the boss 
  is her old self again. Things are getting odd, and it is 
  like working for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Or is it? 
   
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  13 
   
  x 
  x 
   
  A BRUTAL DECEPTION 
   
  The last patrol was ambushed in the Zone, and 
  only one person survived. They said that they were 
  attacked by mutants but not ones that live here but 
  our in the Zone. 
  This is the second patrol that has been lost 
  recently. It is as if they are being targeted. 
   
  A FAILING FAITH 
   
  A new faith or religion has swept through the 
  Ark. People gather to give thanks for what they have 
  and pray that they will be found worthy of finding 
  Eden. Some say that this new religion is a good thing 
  offering support when people are losing hope. The 
  more skeptical see it as the strong manipulating the 
  weak. 
  When the clerics of this new religion end up 
  dead, things take on a darker complexion. 
   
  STRANGE ARTEFACT 
   
  The last patrol brought back a new machine 
  they found in the Zone. What it does, no one knows, 
  but since the Fixers got it working strange things 
  have started happening to those that have spent a 
  lot of time around it. 
   
   
  A RISING TIDE 
   
  The lower levels of the Ark were never pleasant, 
  but since last week the lowest floor has been 
  underwater, and the level is rising day by day, inch 
  by inch.  
  There is a lot of essential gear down there, and it 
  cannot be lost to this rising tide of water. Someone 
  has to find a solution.
   
   
  MUTINY ON THE ARK 
   
  The elders are dead or in prison. A ruthless 
  gang has taken control and is now calling the shots. 
  The old order has been thrown into chaos as the 
  game start to put their people in the critical 
  positions of power. Do you join the mutineers or try 
  and restore the old order? 
   
  THE ZONE 
  The random tables in Chapter 11 Creating The 
  Zone are more than adequate for solo play. What I 
  recommend is that you spend a few minutes 
  creating your Zone before you start play. Add it to 
  your journal so you can refer back to it. As with the 
  Ark, you want it to be consistent between solo 
  sessions. 
  ADVENTURES 
  In my experience, some people struggle to get 
  started with solo play. In a regular game, the GM 
  will be there to feed you a plot hook, or if you are 
  floundering, a kindly NPC will make a useful 
  suggestion, or a patron will simply give you a job to 
  do. You don’t get those things in solo play. 
  Solo play tends towards ‘sandbox’ play. You get 
  to explore the world, and you will discover 
  adventures all around you. The Open-Ended 
  Question tool is set up so that people are not talking 
  about their laundry or what their dog had for 
  dinner. 
  Eavesdropping 
  on 
  suspicious-looking 
  characters is an excellent way to generate 
  adventures, but it still leaves the problem of where 
  to start. 
  What I suggest is to take a leaf out of novelists 
  accepted best practice and drop your character into 
  a high adrenaline first scene. In most role-playing 
  games, the first few minutes are about the 
  characters meeting and sorting out their roles in 
  the group. You do not need to do that, so throw your 
  character in at the deep end. 
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  14 
   
  x 
  x 
  That could be quite literal. Your character was 
  going about their day to day duties when a dark 
  figure threw them over the railings of the Ark. 
  Or how about the first thing your character 
  knows is two bullets punching holes through the 
  door behind them? Then a third ricocheting of the 
  rail beside their hand? 
  How about starting your adventure with your 
  character face down in a muddy puddle? Add a boot 
  on the back of their neck, deep in the Zone? 
  All of these type of opening scenes immediately 
  dispel the issue of ‘where do I start?’. The action 
  started before your character even open their eyes. 
  You now have to react. 
  WHAT MAKES SOLO SPECIAL 
  I have used many different media for role-
  playing. The best is nearly always the group of 
  friends around a table. Very little beats that. Forum 
  play by post, when done well, is exceptionally good 
  in that you have as many words as you need to 
  describe your actions. I have never developed my 
  character's persona better than in play by post, 
  using body language, mannerisms, and movements 
  in the narrative alongside my words and deeds. The 
  weakest has been live streaming and VTT, which 
  has the immediacy of all being together, but the 
  technology gets in the way. We are a long way away 
  from the real virtual tabletop experience.  
  Solo play is the only time you know that how the 
  GM sees an NPC or a location is precisely how you 
  are seeing the same NPC or location. NPC accents 
  are perfect every time. The adventure will be 
  exactly what you enjoy playing because it is being 
  run by you, for you. Solo play is non-compromising. 
  With your dice in hand, you can play whenever and 
  wherever you like. 
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  15 
   
  x 
  x 
  SCENES LIST 
  Game: 
  Location 
  Action 
  NPCs 
  Entrance/Exit 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  16 
   
  x 
  x 
  NPC LIST 
  Game: 
  Name 
  Location 
  Description/Talents/Mutations 
  Skills 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  `Mutant Year: Solo 
   
   
  17 
   
  x 
  x 
  PLOT LIST 
  GAME: 
  Who? 
  What? 
  Where? 
  Connections?  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Solo/games/Mutant Year Zero - Solo Rules.pdf