10 MILLION AD

It’s been ten million years since the humans left this Earth. Polluted, exhausted, spent they left it. Runaway greenhouse gases, acidic oceans, pits and scars and mountains of waste. 
While the humans floated through the ether, held in stasis in their hermetic capsules, frozen in time, the Earth has endured. She has lived on, transformed, evolved. And in ten million years we have evolved – the Sapiens, the new masters of this old planet.
We are as diverse as we are intelligent. We are resourceful and adaptive. This Earth is not one the humans would recognize, but it is our home. And now, we must defend it.
After ten million years, the humans have returned.
They have come to make a new home on a new Earth, to settle and expand and consume.
But we cannot let them.

CHARACTER CREATION

In 10 Million AD, you play the role of the Sapiens – the new inhabitants of Earth, the product of 10 million years of evolution after the human exodus. 
Sapiens take innumerable forms. They can be mammals, cephalopods, insects, even a sentient colony of single-celled organisms acting as one mind, or a brainless creature given intelligence by a parasitic brain fungus.

Creating a character is very simple and proceeds in 3 steps:

1.	Pick Descriptors
Descriptors are brief statements (they can even be just one word) that describe your Sapien. Are they warm-blooded? Arboreal? Do they have fine manipulators, or an electro-chemical sensory organ? Maybe they communicate via chromatophores, or have a well-developed social structure. 
Descriptors can take nearly any form you can think of!
The descriptors will serve as your Sapien’s defining traits. When you perform an action, consult your descriptors to determine if you deserve a bonus. Do you have echolocation? Give yourself a bonus when using your Sensory System in the dark!

2.	Describe Your Appearance
The next step is to describe to the other players what you look like. So you’ve decided you can brachiate. Do you have long, articulated arms like an orangutan, or do you swing from tree to tree using barbed tentacles? 
Is your skin covered in a thin layer of mucous or a fine coat of hair? How many limbs do you have? How many eyes? It’s completely up to you!

3.	Pick Nicknames
Not all Sapiens communicate in the same way. Some use vocalizations, some may use gesture or visual signaling or even chemical excretions. Communicating can sometimes be difficult.
While you may have a name given to you by your people, it may prove difficult (or impossible!) for other Sapiens to articulate. Some Sapiens may not have a name at all! 
Use this time to pick appropriate nicknames for each other. Try descriptive nicknames that capture your fellow Sapiens’ defining characteristics, like 8-eyes, mouth-beak, or leaf-nose.

THE SYSTEM
The system of 10 Million AD is built upon a few basic principles: always move forward, be descriptive, and player agency.

Always Move Forward: every action has a consequence. There should never be a time when a character succeeds or fails and then nothing happens. If a character succeeds, they may find themselves in a new situation, dealing with new challenges! If they fail, there will be a consequence. Maybe they cause their fellow Sapiens to become endangered, or inadvertently trigger a new problem altogether.

Be Descriptive: what happens in the game world is created by you, so be descriptive! 

Player Agency: unlike other games, the Game Master does not roll dice or dictate when players act. It’s up to the players to decide what they will do, when they will do it, and to make all their rolls themselves. It’s up to the GM to decide what the consequences of their actions will be and to move the story forward.
There are no turns; players simply decide what they want to do, and then do so.

The core mechanic of 10 Million AD is simple. To perform an action, just roll 2D6, and compare the result to this chart:

10+	Great Success! You accomplish what you set out to accomplish.	
7-9	Marginal Success. You accomplish your goal, but at some cost, or with a complication.	
6-	Failure. You fail to accomplish your goal, but you receive a mutagen.	

If you feel you have a Descriptor that is relevant to the challenge at hand, suggest to the GM that you should get a bonus. If the GM agrees, you can roll an extra die. Roll 3D6 and add the two highest dice.

MUTAGENS
When Sapiens come into contact with humans and their technology, they can be altered in unpredictable ways. Humans have harnessed exotic forms of energy and generate a lot of potentially mutagenic waste.
Whenever you fail at a task, you may take a mutagen. These can be pennies, gems, or any other counters you have on hand.
Mutagens can be spent to grant yourself a bonus die or for other effects. You may not spend more than 1 mutagen at a time.

ACTIONS
There are 5 basic actions, each based on a different physiological system.

Aggression
Aggression is used for fighting, damaging, or overcoming with violence. You can also use Aggression for posturing or to intimidate.
Typical effects of Aggression:

10+: you damage your opponent!
7-9: you damage your opponent, but there’s a complication. A typical complication is that you also take damage from your opponent, but other effects are possible (up to the GM).
6-: you take damage and gain a mutagen.

Culture
Culture represents your ability to learn facts and skills and to use them in novel situations.

Sensory System
Your Sensory System is used to detect things and people, to take stock of your surroundings, or to avoid being surprised.

Social Cognition
Social Cognition is your ability to relate to other intelligent beings, including other Sapiens and humans.

Survival Instinct
Your Survival Instinct keeps you alive. Use it to avoid danger, defend yourself, or even keep others from harm.

VIOLENCE
Damage is measured in lines, which are descriptions of the damage. Potential lines could include gash, broken bone, burn, or poison. Stress is a special type of damage line that can be recovered easily, through short rest.
A Sapien typically can only take 5 lines of damage before they become incapacitated.

Natural attacks (attacking with the limbs, beak, mouth, claws, etc) deal 1 line of stress. Simple attacks (attacking with a spear, bow, knife, etc) deal 1 line of damage. Energy attacks (attacking with a human energy weapon) can deal either 1 line of damage and 1 line of stress or 3 lines of stress.