PLAYER ANCESTRY: CACOGEN

Cacogen are the descendants of those unfortunates who were left to weather the great Collapse upon the ruined surface of Urth. Necessity is the mother of invention and so, warped by radiation and preyed upon by biotech monstrosities and crazed thinking machines, the cacogen developed in a million different forms. Each individual is genetically unique, gifted in surprising and disturbing ways. Cacogen outnumber true-kin by ten to one, and believe they are the true inheritors of Urth. 

Cacogen are, of course, the mutated humans of Vaarn. They get a variety of strange mutations at character creation, which can be helpful, a hinderance, or just weird.

Roll four d20 to determine your basic physical features:

	Body	Face	Hair	Clothing
1	Tall	Sallow	Black	Rags
2	Short	Lively	Brown	Animal Skins
3	Frail	Cruel	Red	Rough Tunic
4	Muscular	Wrinkled	Blonde	Nomad’s Attire
5	Fat	Scarred	Grey	Worker’s Attire
6	Thin	Frowning	White	Herdsman’s Attire
7	Skeletal	Pale	Shaved	Slave Clothing
8	Hunched	Greasy	Topknot	Servant’s Livery
9	Lopsided	Wide	Green	Shabby Attire
10	Lithe	Narrow	Orange	Colourful Attire
11	Gnarled	Sharp	Glowing	Priest’s Robes
12	Squat	Hungry	Fungus	Clerk’s Uniform
13	Bloated	Haunted	Purple	Hegemony Garb
14	Gangly	Jolly	Yellow	Soldier’s Clothing
15	Child-like	Round	Cloud-like	Flamboyant Attire
16	Tanned	Mournful	Burnt	Musician’s Attire
17	Translucent	Child-like	Braided	Veiled Attire
18	Crystalline	Peaceful	Greasy	Gaudy Clothing
19	Chunky	Sleepy	Matted	Elaborate Clothing
20	Injured	Branded	Long	Expensive Clothing

Roll four d20 to determine your name and personality:

	Name	Drive	Demeanour	Failed Career
1	Arda	Craves Drug	Abrasive	Actor
2	Bollo	Craves Drink	Arrogant	Assassin
3	Breen	Religious Mania	Assertive	Bandit
4	Conch	Seek Revenge	Charismatic	Beggar
5	Crab	Pay off Debt	Daring	Charioteer
6	Dancer	Pilgrimage	Decadent	Cook
7	Doss	Escaped Slave	Eloquent	Cut-Purse
8	Hust	Fleeing the Law	Extravagant	Fence
9	Jal	Collect Debt	Hedonistic	Gambler
10	Lask	Craves Arcane Knowledge	Impulsive	Gladiator
11	Lip	Craves Fame	Irritable	Gravedigger
12	Olm	Craves Wealth	Melancholy	Hangman
13	Pirrip	Missing Family Member	Paranoid	Organ Thief
14	Poucher	Missing Friend	Quiet	Monk
15	Pree	Hates a Rival	Religious	Servant
16	Uz	Unrequited Love	Romantic	Sin-Eater
17	Whistler	Forbidden Love	Scholarly	Singer
18	Yaz	Craves Power	Stern	Soldier
19	Yoss	Create Art	Vain	Spy
20	Zem	Carnal Lust	Volatile	Thug

Last but not least, roll d100 to determine the nature of your mutation. You are encouraged to do so up to three times:

	Mutation	Description
01	Acid Blood	Your blood is acidic.
02	Adhesive Touch	Your hands and feet stick to sheer surfaces.
03	Albino	Your body has no pigmentation.
04	Antlers	You have antlers like an elk or moose.
05	Armour	Your body is protected by natural armour. Add +2 to your AC.
06	Backwards Head	Your head is backwards.
07	Backwards Legs	Your legs are backwards.
08	Beak	You have a bird-like beak for a mouth.
09	Bioelectrical Generation	You can generate jolts like an electric eel.
10	Bioluminescence	Your body can produce a faint glow.
11	Body Barbs	You have sharp barbs on your body.
12	Bristles	You have thick coarse bristles for hair.
13	Bulbous Eyes	Your eyes are enormous.
14	Chameleon Skin	Your skin matches its surroundings.
15	Claws, Crab	One or both hands are crab-like claws.
16	Claws, Retractable	You have retractable feline claws.
17	Clubfoot	One foot is larger and heavier than the other.
18	Compound Eyes	Your eyes are like those of a fly.
19	Crest, Bone	You have a large bony crest on your head.
20	Crest, Feathers	You have a crest of feathers on your head.
21	Crown, Bone	You have a crown of bone on your head.
22	Crown, Coral	You have a coral-like crown on your head.
23	Crown, Eyestalks	You have a crown of eyestalks on your head.
24	Cyclops Eye	You have a single eye.
25	Detachable Head	Your head can detach from your body and move of its own accord.
26	Detachable Limb	A single limb can detach from your body and move of its own accord.
27	Dorsal Fin	You have a fish-like dorsal fin.
28	Echolocation	You can ‘see’ in pitch-blackness using echoes.
29	Extending Limbs	Your limbs can extend to abnormal lengths.
30	Extending Neck	Your neck can extend to an abnormal length.
31	Extra arms	You have d6 more arms than normal.
32	Extra fingers	You have d6 more fingers than normal.
33	Eyestalks	Your eyes can extend out of their sockets on stalks.
34	Fangs, Venomous	You have a poisonous bite.
35	Feathers	You have feathers instead of hair.
36	Frog Tongue	You have a long sticky tongue that can grab small objects.
37	Fur	You are covered in fur.
38	Gills	You have gills and can breathe in water.
39	Gliding Membranes	You have gliding membranes between your arms and torso.
40	Goat Legs	You have the legs and hooves of a goat.
41	Headless	You have no head; your face is on your torso.
42	Heat Vision	You can see heat signatures.
43	Heightened Eyesight	You have extremely sharp eyesight and can see details at long distances.
44	Heightened Hearing	You have extremely sharp hearing and are difficult to surprise at night.
45	Heightened Smell	You have extremely sensitive smell-receptors and are difficult to surprise at night.
46	Hook, Climbing	You have hook-like protrusions on your limbs that allow you to scale sheer surfaces.
47	Hopper	You have a single, powerful leg.
48	Horns, Devil	You have devil-like horns.
49	Horns, Goat	You have goat-like horns.
50	Horns, Rhino	You have a single rhino-like horn.
51	Horse Hooves	You have the legs and hooves of a horse.
52	Huge Beard	You have a gigantic, fast-growing beard that cannot be shaved off.
53	Huge Head	Your head is enormous.
54	Humpback	You have a hump like that of a camel, which stores water.
55	Ink Ducts	You can spray out ink like a squid.
56	Kangaroo Pouch	You have a torso-pouch like a kangaroo’s.
57	Leaves, Scalp	You have leaves instead of hair.
58	Long Face	Your face is extremely long.
59	Long Limbs	Your legs or arms are extremely long.
60	Long Neck	Your neck is extremely long.
61	Long Tongue	Your tongue is extremely long.
62	Malleable Body	Your body is rubbery and malleable; you can fit into very tight gaps.
63	Malleable Face	Your face is malleable; you can imitate that faces of others given time.
64	Mane, Hair	You have a lion-like mane of hair around your neck.
65	Mane, Tendrils	You have a mane of thin tentacles around your neck.
66	Multiple Eyes	You have d6 extra eyes.
67	Multiple Heads	You have d4 heads.
68	Multiple Legs	You have d6 extra legs.
69	No Ears	You have no external ears; just holes.
70	Patterned Skin	Your skin is striped or spotted.
71	Pleasant Fragrance	Your scent is pleasing to all.
72	Poison Injector	You have a poison injector somewhere on your body.
73	Powerful Jaws	Your jaws and teeth are incredibly strong and can bite through metal.
74	Prehensile Feet	Your feet can grip objects like hands; you are a great climber.
75	Prehensile Hair	Your hair can grab objects and manipulate them like hands.
76	Scaly Skin	Your skin is thick and scaly; add +1 to your AC.
77	Silk Production	You can produce strands of silk like a spider.
78	Skeletal Frame	Your body is incredibly skinny and light.
79	Slug Body	You have a single slimy tail-foot and leave a trail of mucus.
80	Small Stature	Your body is child-sized and will never grow larger.
81	Snout	You have a snout-like, animalistic face.
82	Strangely Hued Eyes	Your eyes are an unnatural colour.
83	Strangely Hued Hair	Your hair is an unnatural colour.
84	Strangely Hued Skin	Your skin is an unnatural colour.
85	Tail, Club	You have a club-like, heavy tail.
86	Tail, Prehensile	You have a long, strong tail that can grip objects.
87	Tail, Scorpion	You have a segmented tail with a venomous stinger.
88	Tentacles, Arms	You have tentacles instead of one or both arms.
89	Tentacles, Hair	You have tentacles instead of hair.
90	Toxic Flesh	Your flesh is toxic when eaten.
91	Transparent Skin	Your skin is transparent and your muscles and veins can be seen.
92	Triple Jointed	Your limbs have an extra joint.
93	Trunk	You have an elephant’s trunk.
94	Tusks	You have tusks like a boar.
95	Vestigial Wings	You have vestigial, unusable wings.
96	Vocal Mimic	You can perfectly mimic other voices or sounds.
97	Warty Skin	Your skin is thick and warty. Add +1 to your AC.
98	Webbed Digits	Your hands and feet are webbed.
99	Whiskers	You have sensitive whiskers like a cat.
00	Wings	You have wings that allow you to fly freely.

Finally, I want to use the generator tables to create a character ready for play. I roll for physical appearance: tall, wide face, brown hair, clerk’s attire. For name, personality, and failed career I roll: Uz, missing friend, scholarly, Sin Eater. Finally for mutations I roll ‘detachable limb’ and ‘club foot’.

From this I think we have a pretty clear picture of Uz: she is a wandering scholar who used to find work as a Sin Eater, someone who would ritually eat a meal on the graves of the dead to take their sins into herself. Her mutations suggest to me that her club foot is detachable in some way; perhaps she uses it as a weapon to defend herself. I imagine it being rather heavy and thick with keratin. I wonder for what reason her friend is missing, and why she moved away from her work as a Sin Eater. The two must be connected somehow…