2e Tuesday - Hoops

That's right, Gamma World 2d edition... what 2e did you think I meant?  Every Tuesday I will pick one of my favorite monsters from the fully illustrated bestiary included in the 2d edition Gamma World Basic Rules Booklet and convert it to Mutant Future.  Today's monster is...

Hoops (Floppsies)

No. Enc: 1d20

Alignment:  Neutral

Movement: 180' (60')

Armor Class: 9 (or by armor value)

Hit Dice:  11 + 2

Attacks:  1 (weapon)

Damage:  by weapon

Save:  L10

Morale: 6

Hoard Class:XVI (see Hoard Note below)

Hoops, also known as Floppsies, are 7 1/2' tall bipedal humanoid jackrabbits capable of leaping twice as far as a human.  They are of average intelligence (3-18) but they have exceptional willpower (12-18).  While not inherently evil, they are extremely enamored of technological artifacts and would think nothing of stealing that cool looking gizmo from a party member.  If expecting danger they will usually be geared up for the occasion, wearing studded leather or chainmail armor and wielding swords and spears.  Hoops are very social creatures, and all possess the ability to link minds with other Hoops to plan coordinated actions.  Hoops also possess the bizarre ability to turn metal objects into rubber by touch, affecting up to a 3' radius per touch.  They can also (much less reliably) turn such rubber objects back to their original forms (base 50% chance, less 10% for each hour that has elapsed since the transformation down to a minimum of 10% after four hours).  Hoops use this ability to render objects that they covet useless, hoping that their owners will discard them so that the opportunistic rabbit-men can scavenge them later for their own use.

Hoard Note: The Mutant Lord should roll for the hoard possessed by the Hoops before using them in an encounter, giving each Hoop a 30% chance of having one artifact rather than rolling just once for the whole group to have a 30% chance of having five artifacts.  The total number of artifacts is still limited to five, so large groups will have several members without artifacts (and small groups may have individuals with more than one artifact).  A Hoop with an artifact has a 20% chance of knowing how to use it, and will do so as appropriate. All groups have one gizmo as per the XVI hoard class.

Mutations:  Metaconcert, Neural Telepathy, Special (Rubberize Object)

I decided I had to do the Hoops because Gamma World had a very noticeable gonzo element to it, and the rubberizing rabbits seem to personify that aspect of the game quite nicely.  I love that a race of man-bunnies known as Floppsies manage to look so badass!  I also imagine that these guys could really piss a party off with their rubberizing ability.  I decided to include the chance to turn rubberized objects back to metal because it seemed in keeping with the Hoops' obsession with artifacts.

There are several challenges facing anyone converting Gamma World creatures to the Mutant Future.  Two of the seemingly more straightforward elements of a monster's stat block, the HD and Movement, are handled differently between the two games.  Gamma World uses a variety of different dice for monster HD, while Mutant Future uses the d8 exclusively.  This is why you will see more HD entries in the form X HD + Y HP in these 2e Tuesday entries; for example, the Gamma World Hoops/Floppsies have 15d6 HP, giving a range of 15-90.  By  turning that into 11 + 2 I generated a range of 13-90, which is as close as I could come using the d8.  Movement is even more complicated, because Gamma World uses a tripartite system that divides movement into Slow, Fast and Normal rates, and these can vary considerably - in the case of the Jagets, a mutated jaguar now inhabiting a cheetah-like ecological niche, its slow speed is half that of the Hoops, its fast speed is identical, but its normal speed is four times faster!