Gamma World Box Set Sneak Peak on I09.com

CAFRedblade · Aug 13, 2010

http://io9.com/5611673/first-look-inside-the-gamma-world-box
I didn't see this posted yet, could be blind. Looks cool, I'm still not sold on the collectible cards concept, but I'll give it a look over.

dm4hire · Aug 13, 2010

The more I see of this game the more I think WotC needs a reality check. I can forgive 4e for incorporating power cards since spell cards have been around since forever. However introducing booster packs is going a little too over the top in my opinion. It's one thing to play a CCG and another to play a RPG with cards which is to say I don't think the game will go over as well as WotC thinks, since most RPG gamers don't play CCGs. Most want a game that comes in as few books as they need and prefer books so they have everything bound in one location or another. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait to see what the next edition will look like.

wedgeski · Aug 13, 2010

dm4hire said:
...since most RPG gamers don't play CCGs...

Hmm. Not to derail the thread, but this made me think a little bit. I believe about 1/2 of all of the roleplayers I know personally also play CCG's, and I think if you count those who have played regularly in the past, that number goes up to about 3/4. Are we unusual in this respect?

arscott · Aug 13, 2010

dm4hire said:
I don't think the game will go over as well as WotC thinks, since most RPG gamers don't play CCGs.

Really? I'd wager that most RPG players have some experience with CCGs even if they're not currently active collector/players.

I'm not sure that randomized boosters are necessarily a good strategy for WotC to pursue. But precious few people are going to pass on Gamma World because they're unfamiliar with cards.

Scribble · Aug 13, 2010

dm4hire said:
The more I see of this game the more I think WotC needs a reality check. I can forgive 4e for incorporating power cards since spell cards have been around since forever. However introducing booster packs is going a little too over the top in my opinion. It's one thing to play a CCG and another to play a RPG with cards which is to say I don't think the game will go over as well as WotC thinks, since most RPG gamers don't play CCGs. Most want a game that comes in as few books as they need and prefer books so they have everything bound in one location or another. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait to see what the next edition will look like.

From what I heard in all the Gencon announcement podcasts you don't need to buy any of the booster packs at all to play the game. The game itself already has enough cards to play.

The expansion decks are just little bonus add ons you can pick up to open at the table during the game in order to add more random wackiness to the game.

You're not supposed to "collect" them; until you have the perfect deck for instance (that would actually be contrary to what the spirit of the things seems to be.) You just open and go with whatever weird result you get.

I'm sure some people will collect them sure, people collect everything, but it's not the point.

Personally I think it sounds pretty neat. Instead of buying a new book of "mutations" and then reworking your random table to include all the new ones- you just put the new cards in the stack and move on. So easy.

I think it will be a lot more popular then others think.

scruffygrognard · Aug 13, 2010

I'm gonna pass on this. The idea of melding a CCG and RPG has absolutely no appeal to me.

jonesy · Aug 13, 2010

Scribble said:
The expansion decks are just little bonus add ons you can pick up to open at the table during the game in order to add more random wackiness to the game.

So they'd be more like the old wargear/strategy cards from WH40K Dark Millennium? That sounds interesting.

Festivus · Aug 13, 2010

The cards strike me as sort of like twitter buffs for the table. I don't mind them, they will very likely be completely optional.

Scribble · Aug 13, 2010

jonesy said:
So they'd be more like the old wargear/strategy cards from WH40K Dark Millennium? That sounds interesting.

Don't know enough about this game to say yes or no really...

From what I've read/heard it seems like if you opened a game book and went to roll a random magic item, like roll 1d10 and consult table 1.

Table one has like 10 magic items listed. You roll the d10 and consult the table to determine what item you get.

In this game Table 1 is instead a stack of 10 cards you randomly draw from to get the result.

Where in other games when you get more magic items, you'd have to redo table 1 to include those items, with this concept, you just add the new cards to the stack.

Instead of rolling dice for a random result, you're picking cards for an also random result.

It's not really melding a CCG into the game, because there's really not (from what I can tell) any card game elements to it. You're not doing anything with the cards aside from determining random results.

Saying this is melding an RPG with a card game would be like saying Monolopoly is melding card games with board games.

dm4hire · Aug 13, 2010

wedgeski said:
Hmm. Not to derail the thread, but this made me think a little bit. I believe about 1/2 of all of the roleplayers I know personally also play CCG's, and I think if you count those who have played regularly in the past, that number goes up to about 3/4. Are we unusual in this respect?

From my experience yes, but I'm not sure how long your gaming career spans. Out of all the gamers I know only about a fourth play CCGs, though probably a little more have played at one time or another. I just know a large portion of my friends won't be interested because of that element though (the booster aspect and not the cards in general).

Now that there are other options available for "post apoc" gaming that aspect will also be a big issue that I think will be a big determiner for players. Darwin's World has a new edition out as well as doing a Savage World book. Warlords of the Wastelands was just announced available for preorder over on Paizo's board by Adamant Press. There's a fan converted Gamma for Pathfinder called Ruins & Wastelands also found over there. Then there's Desolation (see link in my sig) as well as a few others. I don't doubt that Gamma will sell, but I just believe the booster aspect will be a big no sell to a lot of people that might have been interested.