Mutant Humans (LegacySPORE)

In LegacySPORE, human mutants should be created as mutant animals, using the general rules update from After the Bomb second edition.  Instead of using the human description there, however, use the statistics presented below.  This plays off the mutant animal rules while still preserving aspects of the old method of creating human mutants.

As part of this rules update, options available to mutant animals are also expanded.

New Options for Mutant Animals

Add the following options to all other animals.

Human Features

Looks: The following options are available to non-human mutant animals:

[Partial -2] BIO-E for Androcephalic.  Androcephalic characters have bodies and limbs with no human looks, but heads—particularly faces—with full human looks.  Sphinxes are androcephalic mutants (often with the winged flight super ability).

[Partial +2] BIO-E for Hybrid.  Hybrid characters have legs and feet with no human looks,  but torsos, arms, and hands with full human looks.  The head has partial human looks—though often appears human-like with bestial traits (ears, nose, horns/antlers, etc.).  Fauns and harpies are hybrid mutants.

[Full -2] BIO-E for Zoocephalic.  Zoocephalic characters have heads with no human looks, but bodies and limbs with full human looks.  The deities of ancient Egypt were zoocephalic mutants.

In LegacySPORE, the only way a mutant animal can gain the traits of another animal is to select those traits as super abilities (such as Animal Abilities, Winged Flight, or the like)—BIO-E cannot be spent to develop such traits.  Using a priority system to maintain balance, all characters have the chance to develop super powers and/or psionics.

Endowment Power Category (Revised Heroes Unlimited)

Endowed heroes are characters—ordinary or heroic—who have gained the extraordinary ability of transforming into a more powerful form.  Stereotypical, an endowed hero is weak or frail in their “normal” form, and they transform into a hulking, glorious hero under particular circumstances.  However, examples of heroic characters transforming into godlike beings are also common.

While heavily based on Mystically Bestowed characters, Endowed heroes replace the following power categories & sub-categories:  Enchanted Weapon, Enchanted Object, Mystically Bestowed, Empowered, Imbued, and Symbiotic (the latter three from Powers Unlimited 2).

Three factors govern an endowment:  Source, Focus, and Trigger.  By combining these in different ways, there is great variety in endowments.

Source of Endowment

The reason for a hero’s endowment determines the powers that are gained; it may also have a minor effect on the appearance of the character’s heroic alter ego.  Choose or roll on the table below.

Universal bonuses that apply to all endowment types are:
+2d6 to P.S. (minimum 20)
+1d6 to P.P. (minimum 18)
Multiply Spd. By 2d4 (minimum 24)
+ 3d4x10 to S-HP
These bonuses only apply when the character is transformed.

SPORE: BIO-E For Everyone!

Anyone who has tried to play the mutant animal rules from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness in Heroes Unlimited knows that there is a major power imbalance between those mutant animals and the other power categories.  This was somewhat alleviated in that game's second edition successor, After the Bomb--but I play revised-era Palladium rules (mostly out of preference, though partly for financial reasons).  So, I have come up with my own solution:  Give all characters BIO-E, mutant or not.

This method changes the way BIO-E is used, but not what it represents.  BIO-E is still used to purchase humanoid traits, natural weapons and armor, animal powers, and animal psionics.  It is also used to purchase any attribute modifiers associated with a given animal type.

Many of the house rules I use for the SPORE settings are drastic variations on the originals; what follows is a simplification of concept copatible with revised-era palladium rules as published.  Details used in my LegacySPORE campaign will be different because of other rules changes.

Starting BIO-E

The average human can be described in mutant animal terms as follows:

• Size level 10, 45 BIO-E
• No attribute modifiers, 0 BIO-E
• Full human biped, 10 BIO-E
• Full human hands, 10 BIO-E
• Full human looks, 10 BIO-E
• Full human speech, 10 BIO-E
• No natural weapons or armor, 0 BIO-E
• No animal powers, 0 BIO-E
• No animal psionics, 0 BIO-E
• Base Animal BIO-E:  85