If we combine Dark Matter and Gamma World, we get...

Knightfall · Nov 8, 2008

Okay, the "If I combine the Dark Sun and Ravenloft settings, I get..." thread got me thinking about how to combine other settings in a more modern/future setting. Since I really like Gamma World, I figured I'd start there and pick another setting that would both compliment it and change it considerably.

The idea I got was that the world before the Final Wars would be the world of the Dark Matter campaign setting. So it would be a combination of hard-core conspiracy with a post-apocalyptic future.

However, I don't know too much about Dark Matter as I've never bought any references for that setting. I've been considering getting the d20 Modern version, however.

So, the questions become: How would you do it? What would a post-apocalyptic Dark Matter-Gamma World future look like? How woudl it be different from a standard Gamma World campaign?

Just strirring up the pot...

KF72

Simon Atavax · Nov 9, 2008

Knightfall1972 said:
Okay, the "If I combine the Dark Sun and Ravenloft settings, I get..." thread got me thinking about how to combine other settings in a more modern/future setting. Since I really like Gamma World, I figured I'd start there and pick another setting that would both compliment it and change it considerably.

The idea I got was that the world before the Final Wars would be the world of the Dark Matter campaign setting. So it would be a combination of hard-core conspiracy with a post-apocalyptic future.

However, I don't know too much about Dark Matter as I've never bought any references for that setting. I've been considering getting the d20 Modern version, however.

So, the questions become: How would you do it? What would a post-apocalyptic Dark Matter-Gamma World future look like? How woudl it be different from a standard Gamma World campaign?

Hmmm. To be honest, I don't see the two settings really meshing that well. For starters, Dark@Matter is a setting of present-day conspiracy. To set it in the future is, of course, do-able, but you end up with something like SJ Games' CthulhuPunk: a sort of red-headed stepchild.

The real problem, as I see it, is that Dark@Matter depends heavily on organized conspiracy from dark, sinister, shadowy elements. Gamma World, OTOH, is a world of nearly total chaos. In such a chaotic environment, there are no organizations to speak of, save crazed cryptic alliances. I just don't see how the social structure needed to do Dark@Matter can be meaningfully represented in Gamma World.

Unless you wanted to take some of the monsters and whatnot from Dark@Matter and import them into Gamma World; but even that wouldn't be a good fit. If I were playing Gamma World and exploring the radioactive far-future wasteland dodging crazed robots and carnivorous sentient plants, I know I would find it a bit jarring to suddenly run into Sasquatch.

Knightfall · Nov 9, 2008

Simon Atavax said:
Hmmm. To be honest, I don't see the two settings really meshing that well. For starters, Dark@Matter is a setting of present-day conspiracy. To set it in the future is, of course, do-able, but you end up with something like SJ Games' CthulhuPunk: a sort of red-headed stepchild.

The real problem, as I see it, is that Dark@Matter depends heavily on organized conspiracy from dark, sinister, shadowy elements. Gamma World, OTOH, is a world of nearly total chaos. In such a chaotic environment, there are no organizations to speak of, save crazed cryptic alliances. I just don't see how the social structure needed to do Dark@Matter can be meaningfully represented in Gamma World.

Unless you wanted to take some of the monsters and whatnot from Dark@Matter and import them into Gamma World; but even that wouldn't be a good fit. If I were playing Gamma World and exploring the radioactive far-future wasteland dodging crazed robots and carnivorous sentient plants, I know I would find it a bit jarring to suddenly run into Sasquatch.

Actually, what I'm going for is the idea that the world that existed before the Final Wars happened was the world of Dark Matter (with the timeline advanced), and how would the existance of that world beforehand change how Gamma World develops?

What aspects of the Dark Matter setting would be most likely to survive the Final Wars? Would we end up with alien mutants running around alongside regular human mutants?

How would the Hoffmann Institute change if it survived the Final Wars?

That sort of thing.

Khuxan · Nov 9, 2008

I think an interesting campaign would be if you played regular mutants in Gamma World, who in their life pre-apocalypse were investigating the entity or force which caused the apocalypse. You'd play flashbacks as your DarkMatter characters discovered the cause of the apocalypse, and you'd play the "modern" Gamma World characters.

Just an idea, somewhat different to what you have in mind.

Knightfall · Nov 9, 2008

Khuxan said:
I think an interesting campaign would be if you played regular mutants in Gamma World, who in their life pre-apocalypse were investigating the entity or force which caused the apocalypse. You'd play flashbacks as your DarkMatter characters discovered the cause of the apocalypse, and you'd play the "modern" Gamma World characters.

Just an idea, somewhat different to what you have in mind.

That's a real interesting idea. Another option is to go a little Terminator for this campaign concept. Some characters (mainly humans) from post-apocalypse Gamma World travel back to the time of the ancients (i.e. Dark Matter) in order to stop the Final Wars from happening while other characters (mutants) travel back to make sure their world isn't destroyed.

You could have humans on one side and mutants on the other while the synthetics are forced to choose sides. Or perhaps their the reason the Final Wars happened. Killer robots facing off against humans in mutants during the era of Dark Matter while the Hoffmann Institute tries to figure out what's going on. Throw in some alien conspiracies and the like, in either age, and you'd end up with some twisted adventures.

Darrin Drader · Nov 9, 2008

I think that Dark Matter and Gamma World actually can work fairly well together. However, what you end up with isn't a world where there are a great number of conspiracies, but rather, a world where the things that once lie behind a veil of secrecy now operate in the open. Where once the PCs would have investigated aliens, monsters, mental powers, or outrageous technology, those things now are sources of power in Gamma Terra. Maybe the aliens have taken control of a small town and have enslaved the humans there to do their bidding. Maybe a small town of normal people have been preyed upon by a vampire that secretly lives among them. Maybe a super computer has gathered a number of robot cohorts to bring about a second apocalypse, this time at the hands of the machines.

I probably wouldn't rely overmuch on the "Dark Matter" itself, as I generally ignored that when I was running a straight Dark Matter campaign. The important parts are the supernatural and alien elements, and the conspiracies obscuring their existence. In Gamma Terra, as I said, you can dispense with much of the part about these forces obscuring their existence and instead having them working in a much more aggressive manner towards their ultimate goals, whatever they may be.

Angellis_ater · Nov 9, 2008

The problem with that is that it's a campaign or adventure path. Once done, it is no more. That does not make a Campaign Setting.

Knightfall · Nov 9, 2008

Darrin Drader said:
I think that Dark Matter and Gamma World actually can work fairly well together. However, what you end up with isn't a world where there are a great number of conspiracies, but rather, a world where the things that once lie behind a veil of secrecy now operate in the open. Where once the PCs would have investigated aliens, monsters, mental powers, or outrageous technology, those things now are sources of power in Gamma Terra. Maybe the aliens have taken control of a small town and have enslaved the humans there to do their bidding. Maybe a small town of normal people have been preyed upon by a vampire that secretly lives among them. Maybe a super computer has gathered a number of robot cohorts to bring about a second apocalypse, this time at the hands of the machines.

Sounds like a fun twist. I've always felt that a little bit of the supernatural would fit well into a Gamma World campaign. Plus, with this campaign model you could use the rest of the world for a much more wider campaign concept.

You could even throw a little d20 Future into it as well. Lost alien spacecraft and ruined outposts on the moon and Mars. Imagine the horror aspect for characters who suddenly find themselves offworld and having to fight alien threats with whatever they get their hands on.

And then they have to get home. :hmm:

Or you could have a mutated sasquatch attack the character's home town and the alien overlords order the heroes to catch the beast.

There would be a lot of options for injecting real horror into an ongoing campaign. Will it be mutants or robots this time or perhaps some aliens try to abduct the heroes or a mothman is on the rampage and mutants and humans are disappearing in the middle of the night. Maybe they blame the synthetics or maybe the mothman is being forced to do the bidding of something even worse.

El Mahdi · Nov 13, 2008

Another interesting aspect of this could be determining where the Grays/Fraals intentions would be (I believe the head of the Hoffman institute is actually a Gray/Fraal in disguise). They may try to help mankind clean up Earth. Possibly providing advanced equipment from their city ship that can help clean up radiation and possibly advanced medical technology to research reversing mutations. Hoffman Institute remnants could have the mission of making sure no new wars, world/planar plots, and new ecological disasters take place. You could even add in that maybe the Hoffman Institute had information that could have prevented the Apocalypse but were too late or unsuccessful, adding an element of guilt to their future activities.

*(in the Alternity campaign the Fraal are known as Grays in Dark*Matter, and become technological and cultural partners with humans in the Star*Drive timeline - also don't forget about the Weren/Sasquatch)