Classic RPG Mutant Chronicles goes noir gumshoe in mystery-focused Luna City Blues
Moon-based mysteries.
Everything old is new again, according to the rules of nostalgia, but there’s more than a wistful yearning for 1990s’ era tabletop gaming behind the new incarnation of Mutant Chronicles. Two seasoned designers plan to revive the Swedish title in a dystopian setting and with detective-based adventures at its heart.
Mutant Chronicles: Luna City Blues is an upcoming tabletop RPG that the designers called “an investigative, rules-light mystery” experience in a press release. Crowdfunding on Kickstarter in 2024, the project will modernise the rules and world of the RPG first created by Swedish studio Target Games back in 1993, making this endeavour a 30th anniversary celebration of sorts.
Players will explore the Noir-inspired colony on Luna City, appropriately situated on the moon and one of society’s largest population centres after humanity fled the resource-depleted earth to colonise other planets and our solar system’s asteroid belt. Such a massive city is rife with crime, corruption and would-be heroes working on the edges of the law to administer some small bit of justice.
Designer pair Mikael Bergström and Gabrielle de Bourg have teamed with licenser Necromakina to create a straightforward and modernised conception of Mutant Chronicles rules that focus on storytelling - facilitators will have a toolbox specifically designed to help them create mysteries. While the press release didn’t offer any concrete details, the team promised to still “pay homage” to how longtime fans have played it for decades and not toss out the creative baby with the bathwater.
“Mutant Chronicles was the game that got me into role-playing games to begin with! It has inspired many of my previous projects and getting the chance to work on this and bring a new version of the game to life is a dream come true,” Bergström said.
“It’s great fun to be a part of this project,” de Bourg said. “I hope to bring a new perspective, and see how we can make the game as interesting for newcomers as possible!”
The creative team boasts quite a few notable RPGs in the portfolio - Kutulu, Tales from the Loop, Vaesen, Call of Cthulhu and the recently released Dragonbane. Bergström will act as the main writer while teammate Gabrielle de Bourg offers additional writing alongside project management.
If you’re wondering if Mutant Chronicles shares any DNA with Free League’s Mutant: Year Zero RPG (and the wider Mutant brand that includes video games, wargames and at least one independent film adaptation), Chronicles came first and was meant to intentionally appeal to an international audience. It was one of the first tabletop titles translated into English and last received an update when Modphius published the 3rd Edition rules in 2015.