Mutant Chronicles

"Greed, violence, war... Thus has it always been, thus has it always be...Corporation against corporation, humanity against the dark powers...The Dark Legion, the Brotherhood...Our technology turned against us...War without end...Amen. How did we get to this place? What evil brought us here? Can we be saved? This dark history of humanity is told in the Mutant Chronicles. "

– Upturned Tables' intro to the Complete First Chronicle.

Mutant Chronicles is science fantasy setting created by Target Games in 1993. It is best described as Shadowrun IN SPAAACE set in our solar system. It borrows some inspiration from W40K. It has megacorporations, cyberware, cyberspace, XBAWKS hueg guns, swords (heck, even chainswords!), shoulderpads, mutants (duh), religious fanatics, demons, magic... And it is pretty grimdark too.

Originally it was only a RPG, then became a card game (Doomtrooper), wargame (Warzone, similar to Warhammer) and several desktop games. There is even 2008 movie adaptation directed by Simon Hunter, but completely derped… basically they just used the name of the franchise and several characters. But hey, it has Ron Perlman, John Malkovich, Thomas Jane and Sean Pertwee, which is quite awesome if you ask me.

Human factions[edit]

Capitol: Megacorp heavily based on the USA. Media masters, strong airforce. Their homeland is Mars.
Bauhaus: Megacorp based on Germany, Italy, France and Russia. Best quality products, strong tanks. Extremely xenophobic. Their homeland is Venus.
Imperial: Megacorp based on the British Empire. Very aggressive and expansionist. They have no homeland, but have enclaves across the whole Solar System, mainly in an Asteroid Belt. They are good in exploration and colonization. Such as They are also directly responsible for fucking up big time by releasing the Dark Legion upon humanity. Good job guys!
Mishima: Megacorp primarily based on Japan. Basically, weaboo in space. They do not tolerate any Shamfur Dispray! They have Samurais, ninjas, yakuza, katanas, power armors, mechas, Ki powers… yay! Their products are of cheap and shitty quality. Their homeland is Mercury.
Cybertronic: Newest megacorp, most technologically advanced. Pioneered the return of electronics and cybernetics. Full of robots, cyborgs, and a hybrid Internet/Matrix/virtual reality simulator known as 'Subreality'. Their HQ is primarily on Luna, but have branches on other planets.
Brotherhood: The defacto religious order of the setting. Essentially a Catholic rip-off. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! It is based on the teachings of the First Cardinal, who was like the Emperor – he helped humanity to rise from age of technological apocalypse and kick some Dark Apostle ass. Now, the Brotherhood has banned AI… but Cybertronic don’t give a single shit about this. Their de facto homeland is Luna. Brotherhood has very good relationship with Bauhaus (First Cardinal was born there) and Imperial (they both hate Cybertronic and Imperial feels responsible for freeing the Dark Legion in the first place), average relationship with Capitol and quite bad relationship with Mishima (they have their own spiritual concepts). Cybertronic is considered as heretical organization with ties to Dark Legion.
Cartel: Inter-corporation "peace organization" very similar to the UN in real life. It's purpose is also to fight the Dark Legion. Armed forces consists of Doomtroopers, super-elite warriors equipped with best weapons and wargear. They're mostly tasked with policing the Megacorps to ensure they don't blow each other up in a full-scale war.
White Star: Commies. Based on and in control of Earth after all the corps and their populations left. Does not want them on their property and has to deal with the other savages that live on it.
Tribes of Earth: Techno-barbarian cadres based on Earth who don't fall under White Star's influence. Significantly weaker than the megacorps, but that won't stop them from trying! Some of the more larger bands are the Sons of Rasputin (white Russians to White Star's reds), the Crescentians (Muslims), and the Lutherans (Protestants to the Brotherhood's Catholics.)

Dark Legion[edit]

The Dark Legion is an infernal army from beyond, awakened on the 10th planet Nero (Pluto was still considered a planet back then). It has five demonic leaders, the Dark Apostles, and consists of undead creatures, mutants, demons, aliens from other planes and dimensions, heretics and murderous rogue machines. Luckily for all mankind the Apostles hate each other to death and will as soon fight among themselves as rally against humanity.

Algeroth: Master of Dark Technology and Lord of Destruction - the most visible manifestation of the Dark Legion and the most 'conventionally' military minded of the apostles. His answer to everything is 'send a giant horde of cyborg monsters to shoot and yell in its general direction'.
Ilian: Mistress of the Void, Weaver of the Dark Symmetry - Unrivaled mistress of magic and seduction. She was the first apostle and is, at least in theory, the leader of all Dark Legion forces in the solar system.
Semai: The Betrayer, The Speaker of Lies - He uses his puppets within the human factions to bring about the evil of the Dark Legion, in the form of strife, unrest, espionage, sabotage, disinformation or simply guerrilla warfare.
Demnogonis: Prince of Pestilence and Lord of Decay - As his titles suggest, he thrives on every form of filth and decay, from the carpet of rotting dead on a battlefield to the sewers of a metropolis. Unsurprisingly, his armies are composed mostly of undead monstrosities carrying a host of otherwordly dieases.
Muawijhe: Lord of Insanity and Nightmares - His followers are crazy sect leaders, lone gunmen and every psychotic malcontent, but also horrible creatures that can drive you insane just by looking at them.

From left to right: Demnogonis, Algeroth, Muawijhe, Ilian and Semai.

Warzone[edit]

There are four editions of game so far (5e SOON).

1st edition: Good ol' game.
2nd edition: Fluff was heavily changed for some reason.
3rd edition: aka Ultimate Warzone. Come with one hueg rulebook which has HORRIBLE layout.
4th edition: Current edition. Models are 3D-printed from resin. Design updated to modern standards.
5th edition: With the Death of Warzone Resurrection (4e) it has since been picked up by Res Nova and is currently in development.

RPG[edit]

There are three editions of game so far.

1st edition: The one which started it all...
2nd edition: Basically, only minor rule update. Compatible with 1st edition.
3rd edition: Current edition. Contains some fluff update/modifications.

Gallery[edit]

Despite the introduction of the Dark Legion, scenes like this still frequently play out between the corps' PMCs.
God bless Paul Bonner.
Imperial Hurricane Walker from 4th edition of Warzone.
Description of chainsword in the 3rd edition of Warzone. I see what you did there. The "88" part is a possible reference to the Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale.
Field medic Iron Lady from 4th edition of Warzone and concept art of Terran Medic from StarCraft. Any similarity is purely coincidental.