Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars

[Manchu]

Just some pics from a recent 3-player game.

[mikedemana]

First that I have seen of this skirmish game. Any chance you can do a little review of it for us? 

Mike Demana

[BZ]

I just purchased the game last week and I must say, its awesome (however not completely flawless)! Your terrain seems to be very fitting for the setting!

First that I have seen of this skirmish game. Any chance you can do a little review of it for us? 

Mike Demana

There are already some unboxing and how-to-play videos about it on Youtube, and I just wrote a little pros/cons review on Boardgamegeek, if you are interested:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3317496/mutant-year-zero-zone-wars-short-review

[Manchu]

@Mike

Resolution uses a dice pool. Most basically, you roll a number of dice equal to the character’s relevant stat. You succeed by rolling at least one 6; additionally 6’s can count for extra damage, for example, on attacks. Meanwhile, you normally gain M Points for any 1’s you roll — which is what you need to spend to activate your characters’ powers. These powers (generally, mutations) are the main gimmick in the game and add a lot of spice to the otherwise straightforward mechanics.

The next gimmick would be the fragility of equipment. When you use weapons and armor you can also add more dice to your pool, of a different type: 6’s are still successes but 1’s now count as damage to the piece of equipment you’re using. So equipment can (and in my experience frequently does) break during gameplay; but you can also generally scavenge some new equipment during gameplay. So this also kind of adds to the post apocalyptic genre feel. You can push your attack rolls (re-roll whichever dice haven’t already rolled 1’s or 6’s), which means you can score more successes or M Points — but you may also break your equipment faster.

The final gimmick I’ll mention is there is a deck of cards that represent the unpredictable and dangerous nature of the Zone in which the game takes place. Generally, you need to take a Survival skill test: fail and something bad happens to the character that just acted; pass and you can choose who that bad thing happens to. But there are also many other wacky Zone Effects, such as crazy monsters appearing to make trouble for the rest of the game.

Activation is based on drawing tokens from a bag, so playing with 3 or 4 people is pretty easy.

@BZ

Thank you, I like the relatively verdant vision of post apocalypse in Mutant Year Zero. As opposed to an Australian desert wasteland or an American urban ruin, the boreal Swedish setting is really fresh.

Here are some more pictures:

[BZ]

Resolution uses a dice pool. Most basically, you roll a number of dice equal to the character’s relevant stat. You succeed by rolling at least one 6; additionally 6’s can count for extra damage, for example, on attacks. Meanwhile, you normally gain M Points for any 1’s you roll — which is what you need to spend to activate your characters’ powers. These powers (generally, mutations) are the main gimmick in the game and add a lot of spice to the otherwise straightforward mechanics.

The next gimmick would be the fragility of equipment. When you use weapons and armor you can also add more dice to your pool, of a different type: 6’s are still successes but 1’s now count as damage to the piece of equipment you’re using. So equipment can (and in my experience frequently does) break during gameplay; but you can also generally scavenge some new equipment during gameplay. So this also kind of adds to the post apocalyptic genre feel. You can push your attack rolls (re-roll whichever dice haven’t already rolled 1’s or 6’s), which means you can score more successes or M Points — but you may also break your equipment faster.

A small correction: the equipment damage and the M-points for the rolled 1´s only apply, if you push the roll. We played it wrong int our first two games, but I hope that now I understand it correct (because the rulebook has some flaws...).
And you can repair tha equipment with a simple (or complex?) action and a survival roll (every 6 repairs one damage point).

Thank you, I like the relatively verdant vision of post apocalypse in Mutant Year Zero. As opposed to an Australian desert wasteland or an American urban ruin, the boreal Swedish setting is really fresh.

Here are some more pictures:

Where are your modular (looking) ruins from?

[mikedemana]

Thanks for the run-through of the rules. It does sound interesting. I'm headed to a big convention this week (Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio). Maybe I will look into them there.

Mike Demana

[Manchu]

@BZ

Oh so 1’s (M Points on yellow dice, Breaks on black dice) on the initial roll do not count?
My understanding was they do AND any symbol results (1’s or 6’s) on the initial roll cannot be re-rolled on the push.

@Mike

Let us know what you think.

[BZ]

@BZ
Oh so 1’s (M Points on yellow dice, Breaks on black dice) on the initial roll do not count?
My understanding was they do AND any symbol results (1’s or 6’s) on the initial roll cannot be re-rolled on the push.

As I remember, yes (i dont have the rulebook with me at work...). So if you roll at the inital roll this:
1y (yellow), 2y, 3y, 6y, 1b (black), 2b, 6b
If you dont reroll, you will have 2 hits (6y and 6b), and thats it.
I you choose to reroll, you have to set the 1s and 6s aside (1y, 6y, 1b, 6b) and reroll the remaining dice (2y, 3y, 2b). Your reroll is this:
1y, 4y, 6b (and the set aside dice from the initial roll 1y, 6y, 1b, 6b)
So now you have 2 M-Points (2x1y), 1 damage on the weapon (1b), 3 hits (6y, 2x6b).
And that is why you should always choose to reroll, if you fight without a weapon. If you dont have blacke dice, you cant get negative effects either.

[Manchu]

Ah thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. So you set aside the symbols from the initial roll because the 1’s on both sets of dice will apply, in addition to any further symbols rolled on the push, ONLY if you decide to push.

This is really eye-opening for me: knowing some (but not all) of what you gain (or suffer) before pushing makes the decision to push or not much more interesting.

[BZ]

Yeah, the rulebook is really not the best... A little more visualisation and a lot more tidying up with a quick reference sheet for all the possible actions would help a lot.