A thread for discussing and sorting out the fine detail of this family.

My reaction to the flavor text on the front of the playbook is that they are more about modifying humans, trying to speed up our advancement as a species adapting to the present environment.  The specific abilities don't all mesh with that, but here are my initial thoughts on how to fit it all together:

If the ecosystem had to change in strange and unexpected ways to survive the Fall...
Reach 2     Grasp 0    Sleight -1

Doctrine - Sculpting a New Humanity: When your Family creates or tames a new species, they inherit one of its minor or cosmetic traits

Lifestyle - Settled: Your Family’s farms and facilities are extensive, and can work on the creation of multiple new Surpluses simultaneously.

Traditions
Populace - a wide variety of humans (as much as the population allows)
Style - analytical, but certainly not afraid to get their hands dirty
Governance - egalitarian commune of innovators and eccentrics

Inheritance - Cultivator characters take 1 Sway or Lore

Landmarks
Before - a secluded hospital and research facility
The Fall - catacombs filled with failed genetic experiments
A Threat - a plague too efficient and dreadful to be natural

Resources
I'm not sure yet - I'll definitely take surplus Medicine, but for my second surplus I'm between Land and Progress.  Can you give me an idea of what a Need for either of those might look like?

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Moves

Culture
When your Family starts cultivating a new product, erase Surplus: Progress, Land, or Barter Goods. After a few months, harvest the product: get the surplus back, plus:
-Progress: get Surplus: Medicine and 1 use of medicine that can heal any harm box instantly.
-Land: get Surplus: Crops and slow but steady population growth. At the end of the age, if you still have the surplus gain Surplus: Recruits.
-Barter Goods: get Surplus: Livestock gain a few exemplary examples of the bred animals. If they’re used as mounts, add 1 free tag to them.
At the start of each age you can skip the months of cultivation and go straight to the harvest.

Evolutionary Leap
When you use Culture, characters gain one of these bonuses (according to the Surplus produced) the next time they Tool Up:
-Medicine: Your weapons can be poisoned to add the aberrant or non-lethal tags. Get 1 use of stimulants that’ll stop someone’s Death move from triggering for an hour.
-Crops: One serving of food that toughens skin and gives +1 Armour or provides boundless energy, depending on how it’s cooked.
-Livestock: A group of animals with simian-level intelligence. They have 2 Quality and one of the following specialties: Strength and Endurance, Speed and Cunning, or Ferocity and Violence.
In addition, your Family improves themselves over generations. Every time The Age Turns, pick one physical trait they’ve encountered sometime this Age (night vision, flight, photosynthesis, etc) with the GM providing a downside. Your Family members will all exhibit that trait from then on.

If you didn't want to be limited to modifying humans then you don't have to be. The Cultivators in the quickstart scenario in the main rulebook are designed as modifiers of mushrooms and small animals so the Cultivators can be in to changing pretty much anything you want!

A need for Land is nice and simple; you literally don't have enough space. Normally in the not enough ground but I suppose for someone sciencey like the Cultivators it might also mean you need a specific type of terrain (like mountains) and you don't have access to any. Maybe your main settlement is on an island, or in the mountains etc.

A need for Progress is a lack of advanced tech, or more rather a lack of understanding of advanced tech. To quote the main book: "Your family has little knowledge of how to exploit the laws of physics, chemistry or biology. Strange machinery of the Before is best used as shelter from the elements, and a sturdy spear serves you better than a mysterious bleeping pistol."

Okay, definitely Surplus Progress and Need Land then.

Sorry if my blurb wasn't clear, what I meant was that I do want to be focused on modifying humans, and a lot of what I saw from my first skim of the playbook was more about plants and livestock and such.  But I'm pretty satisfied with what I was able to put together, especially with the "or make up your own" options that were there.

So I think I have everything now except History, which I assume will be covered in the group thread.

Makes sense. That all looks good to me.

I'm also intending to use the 'Havens' rule from the Engine of Life supplement which basically means you add one more (generally positive) landmark to the map. I figure more interesting stuff on the map is better!

For the Cultivators you get a choice of:

• A fragrant garden, wild and secreted from the world.
• A lab reclaimed by nature and tended by partially uplifted animals.
• An ancient farm, miraculously untouched by the Fall.

The lab, definitely.  Is it already mine or is it just something that I know about?

Given your family is going to be 'settled' and so largely based in one place there's no reason it couldn't be on or around the lab (and thus explain some of your Surpluses) though sometimes it's fun to have them elsewhere as options to gain surpluses in the future or serve as the inspiration/backdrop for individual missions.

I could go either way.  If I do take that lab then I have that lab, so that's cool.  If I don't take it then I could have an inferior (but still operational) lab, with this one as a clear target for expansion.  Plus option B raises some potential implications about the setting - what is this area that has multiple advanced bio tech labs?

They both sound fun to me, but if one fits better than the other with whatever plans you have for the campaign then I'm fine with following your preference.

Option B sounds good to me. I like what you're thinking about the mystery of the multiple labs! Especially when you throw in the Aethernauts probably had their advanced tech kicking around in that area too and the Olympians must have some pretty advanced tech. Must have been some sort of research center?

It's starting to sound like it might be a race to find out...