Gamma World: What do you think?

[Moritz]

Personally, I hated it. But I was curious what people thought about the genre and potential gaming fu involved.

[templeorder]

Wow, this is a serious throw-back. All i have left is some old gamma world modules and notes listing a few dragon magazine gamma world articles. It was a cool setting i thought, if a bit cheesy on the equipment side. Post-apocalyptic settings are ok, they do not hold a lot of appeal for me (though i enjoyed Cyberpunk a lot - i live in Seattle, lots of local references). The setting is actually really cool - a blend of fantasy and sci-fi. Mutants, AI all sort of cool things you would expect. The entire world has not really been totally built out - leaving GM's a lot of room to fill in the balnks. The games we ran in that world were very cheesy, but looking back the setting seems like it would be a really fun world to drop players into. Not being a big fan 3+ DnD and the D20 system overall, i know the've brought it up to date, but i'm not sure the results.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I love/d Gamma World, and even today, incorporate some elements into my Traveller campaigns. It's great fun for kids but i would suggested tightening up the rules a bit for the older players.

[Deadone]

It was the first rpg I played and fell in love with it. Dark taught me the game after school in one session I was hooked. It is a simple game but with so much potential.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I played Gamma World at the last Con I attended. Brought back great memories.

[darelf]

My thoughts on Gamma World do not mesh with those of normal humans. I enjoyed the edition that apparently everyone hated. With the colorful chart for resolution.

I think it reminded me of MSH, with it's color-coded chart. In high school we played the hell out of both MSH and Gamma World ( 3rd edition? ).

So, if your brainwaves even approximate those of other "normal" rpg aficionados, then you will not like it. If, however, you (like me) had a slightly overweight friend with the two-toe ninja boots, and boris valejo art books... then maybe you are insane enough to enjoy that edition of Gamma World. Otherwise, get the d20 version.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I haven't heard good things about Darwin's World, but admittedly, i have never played it. Anyone have any play experience with this one?

[drewshi]

I recently looked over the rules of the most recent edition and I wasn't impressed. I did love to play the original set and wish I could find a copy of it. In my current D&D campaign I am ripping of the British sci-fi show, Primeval, by having temporal rifts appear from time to time and affect the characters. I want to get a hold of the old rules as I'd like to do something where the future version of my realm is a Gamma World setting.

[mjungledog]

I played it way back in the dark ages...

I tried to get my hands on the update but I was a little late. Maybe sometime in the future.

[Thelrain]

I'd actually like to run a Gamma World campaign again. I have all editions and I'm working on blending all versions into the D20 options out there ( Modern/Future/Omega). I prefer the story over the rules but it needs to blend nicely. Anyone who is interested let me know and maybe a group can form.

[Webhead]

Two words: photon grenade!!!

[Harwel]

Man, I remember the original Gamma World. It was the second RPG I played (D&D basic set, Gamma World, RuneQuest in that order). I liked it, but these days I'd probably use BRP or GURPS for that kind of setting.

Thelrain, if you start something up PBP or using maptools or something, I'd be up for it.

[tesral]

The older version is all I am familiar with. Too freaking deadly for my tastes. If I'm going through PCs that fast Paranoia gives you six.

I cannot speak for the later editions, but the rad table in 1st was a "dead PC table"

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

What i remember most about the early edition was how it made us kids bloodthirsty murderers in the game. One could not play that game and have any cares for life. It was about survival, and even if a family with children got in the way, you would wipe them off the planet to get whatever food or weapons they had. Oh yeah, completely bloody Road Warrior type stuff.

[wizarddog]

I have played all the 3 editions by TSR for Gamma world. My brother loved the game.

1e was basically no class, all your Hitpoints (d6 per point of CON), and based on what weapon you used. It tended to have that deadly mix with certain mutations. It was barebones in the box and left you to create other things for it.

Problem was it became more of a artifact collection game. Whoever had the most technology, wins. Battles took forever as you wittled creatures down foes with 75 hp with you d8 sword or 5d6 laser psitol.

2e Introduced a great setting and some adventures but nerfed alot of the powers. It also became obsesed with rank, which had to do with your standing in society and tech level which stated what kind of technology world you came from. It had better illustrations and was quite balanced. But still you lacked any sort of PC advancement.

Where as 1e gave the impression much of the old technology was destroyed, 2e had too much technology and civilzation left.

3e was a mess. Some great adventures were written for it but the game was lacking several pieces of information when realsed (had a free update to cover them.) The Chart system was new (implemented in the new version of Top Secret). One of the intresting features was that on the system, a sword could be as deadly as a laser gun in certain cases. But just like the previous versions, it lacked a class system and an incentive to really advance. With so many loop holes in the system it became difficult to interpret the rules. 3e had some intresting concepts like technology that was more organic.

4e or the d20 version, just by looking at it was sort of a "why?" It nerfed the mutations to a point where they did little in the game. It looked more like a d20 modern than an holocaust survival game.

What Gamma World (1,2 and 3) needed was an incentive to keep playing. You could do a game of Gamma World and it could be a blast, but without any real benifit from experience and continue play, you lose out on some fundamental reasons to play roleplaying games, PC improvement.

D20 could have done justice to GammaWorld, but it did not with what was published in it's name.