The Misadventures of Hareng Rouge

This series of posts will look at Patron AIs in Mutant Crawl Classics. I’ll provide a short overview of Patron AIs and the eight on offer in the core rulebook. I’ll examine each, looking at mechanical impacts and strengths and weaknesses, the Patron’s diegetic role in the game – the sorts of stories and interactions they drive – and I’ll consider which are Patron’s are useful, or not, for which roles. Lastly I’ll explain which Patron AI’s I would pick for myself and why.

Patrons exist in the game to provide a coherence to mechanical powers and to provide narrative structure to the game world. Invoke them often, but at your peril.

What Are Patron AIs

In Mutant Crawl Classics Patron AIs are the Gods of Terra AD. They are mad. Artificial Intelligences left behind after the Disaster. Driven insane by the massive changes and the loss or corruption of their original purposes. Each seeks to restore or repair the world based on their own ideology and will harness Pure Strain Humans, the character class of Shaman, to help them in their self-imposed and deeply idiosyncratic mission. They exemplify the maxims that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and that power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. They are the source of the wetware for Shaman characters, their spell-like powers flow from their relationship with Patron AIs.

Deigetically they exist to provide power structures for Shaman characters, to provide quests and problems for Shaman characters and through that game play hooks for the party. They force characters and players to pick a side, pick a faction, pick a point of view and then pick a fight with the opposition.

Parallels with Dungeon Crawl Classics

Patron AI fulfil a similar role in Mutant Crawl Classics to the role of Deities and Patrons in Dungeon Crawl Classics. There are eight Patrons in the Dungeon Crawl Classics core rulebook and nineteen Deities. In Dungeon Crawl Classics Patrons and Deities do slightly different things in slightly different ways, mechanically and deigetically. In Mutant Crawl Classics there is no Cleric class. The Shaman is the class that interacts with the technologically divine.

What is decidedly underdeveloped in Mutant Crawl Classics is the range of wetware available. Each of the eight Patron AIs comes with an individual Invoke Patron wetware and three different wetware programmes, for a total of eight Invoke Patrons and twenty-four wetware programmes, of which each Shaman can only really access three. Wetware in the core rulebook only runs to Level 3. In Dungeon Crawl Classics the equivalent section runs to about 200 pages I reckon. Mutant Crawl Classics is a bit under cooked. Fortunately, someone has done the hard work of filing off the serial numbers for lots of the Dungeon Crawl Classics spells to convert them to wetware for use in Mutant Crawl Classics in the really very good and excellent as well Enchiridion of the Computarchs.

Relationship Between Shamans and Patron AIs

A first level Pure Strain Human may elect to become a Shaman. To do so they undertake a quest to find the method to bond with their chosen Patron, or perhaps their Patron finds them. They then invoke the Patron Bond by rolling on a table with the result determining how close the relationship with the Patron is and consequently how much borrowed power the Shaman has access to.

You should burn all the Luck and Glowburn all you’re the stats you can to increase your result on the Patron AI Bond.

The Shaman is expected to be a faithful and sincere servant of the Patron. Lean into the fiction. It will make the game more fun. Overuse of the Patron’s powers may, in some cases, absolutely will, result in Patron Taint. Patron Taint is a marking of the Shaman with the long-term effects of the Patron’s power. The scorch marks on the electric cable. The bobbles on an over washed woollen jumper. The tomato and oil stains on a kitchen apron. The Patron has used you and you have been marked.

Patron AI as Campaign Drivers

Pick a Side: your Patron AI will be part of an alliance of Patron AIs with a similar goal. They each will have their own individual goals. Each Patron AI has allies and foes, clients and opponents. Pick a Patron, pick a side and expect a fight to come and pick you.

Take on a Quest. The Patron AI is your Patron, not your friend. They want something from you and if you want something from them, they will expect you to go and do them a favour, undertake a Quest, find and solve a problem for them, or for one of their other Clients. Get busy if you want to get ahead.

Pay a Debt. You start the relationship with a debt to your Patron. Just by noticing you they have favoured with you and that favour is not free. Every time you use a wetware programme the debt increases and the likelihood of the debt coming due today increase. Eventually you will have to pay the piper.

That is to say with great powers come great requirements to engage with the game world in some way. Patron AIs and their network of clients and foes and allies, their Questing opportunities and the debt peonage they invoke are great tools for the Judge to push game opportunities in front of the players.

The Patrons

There are eight Patrons in the core rulebook

Achroma – a neutral rational God of Technology. Borrowed powers focus on technology and mind control. Achroma favours balance.

GAEA  – an orderly Goddess of Weather who seeks to repair Terra AD and restore the climate. Borrowed Power focus on using the elements in combat.

HALE-E – a neutral Goddess of Illusion and Story who seeks viewers over all. Borrowed power focus on mind control, combat support and buffs.

Hexacoda – an orderly God of Security and Portals. Borrowed powers focus on controlling doors, traps and security systems.           

Mangala – a chaotic God of War in its rawest form. Shoot first ask questions later. Borrowed powers focus on weaponry.

ME10 – mad God of Resurrection. Borrowed powers focus on mind control, combat support and reviving the dead.

Tetraplex – a chaotic God of Knowledge who seeks new data. Borrowed powers focus on knowledge with combat buffs to offence and defence      

UKUR – neutral God of Travel. Borrowed powers focus on mobility, both tactical and strategic, with combat buffs and some healing.

They are grouped into the following alliances

Mainframe of Order – GAEA and Hexacoda

Grid of Net Neutrality – Achroma, HALE-E and UKUR

Matrix of Entropy – Mangala, ME10, Tetraplex

Analysis Table

This table summarises the mechanical areas where each Patron AI has an effect. Those with a smaller range of effects usually have deeper impacts. Usually breadth or depth balance. Usually.

The effects are generally deigetically consistent. The story matches the mechanics and the mechanics and the story match the character and the game play opportunities that flow from the powerful Non-Player Character. You can choose a Patron  AI based on their mechanical niche or their story niche and find they support each other. Whether you prioritise character abilities or narrative opportunities is up to you.

	Achroma	GAEA	HALE-E	Hexacoda	Mangala	ME10	Tetraplex	UKUR
Enemy Debuff							Yes
Tech Control	Yes
Tech Wreaker	Yes	Yes
Mind Control	Yes		Yes			Yes
Area of Effect Attack		Yes			Yes
Ranged Attack		Yes	Yes			Yes		Yes
Melle Attack
Defence	Yes	Yes	Yes				Yes	Yes
Combat Support			Yes	Yes		Yes
Disarm Foes		Yes
Combat Buffs			Yes		Yes		Yes	Yes
Weaponry			Yes		Yes
Doors	Yes			Yes
Traps				Yes
Mobility								Yes
Battlefield Mobility								Yes
Healing								Yes
Revive						Yes
Utility			Yes			Yes
Knowledge							Yes

What do I mean? Short explanations of each mechanical category.

Enemy Debuff – reduce the combat effectiveness of foes.

Tech Control- allow the player to control or understand technological Artifacts of the Ancients, robots, non-Patron AIs and tech gear.

Tech Wreaker – destroy or damage or render inoperative technological Artifacts of the Ancients, robots, non-Patron AIs and tech gear.

Mind Control – control minds or influence behaviour.

Area of Effect Attack – a damage effect that effects an area, rather than targets.

Ranged Attack – a damage effect directed from a distance against specific targets.

Melle Attack – a damage effect directed from close range / touch against specific targets.

Defence – improve the defences of the player character, increase Acs.

Combat Support – some allies are sent to help you in a fight

Disarm Foes – removes weapons from the foes.

Combat Buffs – improves player character combat effectiveness by increasing to hit or to damage rolls or adding attack dice or attacks.

Weaponry – give the player character a weapon.

Doors – opens or closes doors, or other similar security devices.

Traps – detects or disarms traps, or other similar security devices.

Mobility – allows the player characters to move strategically, to go from place to place.

Battlefield Mobility – allows the player character to move in combat, for example, flying, moving faster, having extra movement.

Healing – removing damage from the player character or their allies

Revive – brining characters back to life after death

Utility – a variety of useful effects

Knowledge – being able to find out things or know them.

Conclusion

Patron AIs are one of the defining ideas of Mutant Crawl Classics. They are not simply a source of powers in the way that spells are in many fantasy roleplaying games. A Patron AI is a faction, a worldview, a source of obligations, a provider of quests and, occasionally, a problem in its own right. The borrowed powers are useful, but the real value of a Patron lies in the opportunities and complications it creates. A Shaman who serves GAEA should see the wasteland differently to one who serves Mangala. A client of Tetraplex will pursue different goals to a follower of UKUR. The mechanics encourage those differences, but it is through play that they become meaningful. The Patron AI system gives Judges a ready-made set of conflicts, alliances and motivations that can drive an entire campaign while ensuring that the strange technological gods of Terra A.D. remain active participants in the story rather than distant background lore.

What Next?

Over the next eight posts I will examine each Patron AI individually. We will look at their personalities, goals and alliances, analyse the mechanical strengths and weaknesses of their wetware programmes, consider the kinds of campaigns and characters they support, and explore the sorts of quests and obligations they are likely to impose upon their followers. We begin with Achroma, the rational god of technology and balance, whose gifts of technological mastery and mental influence make it one of the most versatile Patrons in the game.