scoop: 4e gamma world

[Scribble]

But those require a wide player base. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm skeptical that you'll be able to meet all that many GW players around.

Shrug... Develop a product based on it selling not based on it not selling.

Interesting question. From what we know, the whole purpose of the player deck is customization, but will the GM be able to do something similar?

I'm almost positive all decks will be customizable. (To an extent.)

 

[Nikosandros]

Has anything be said about D&DI support for GW? In the podcast they mentioned something about the possibility for new adventures IIRC, but I'm wondering if the rules will be available in the various tools (compendium, CB, monster builder, etc...).

 

[Scribble]

Has anything be said about D&DI support for GW? In the podcast they mentioned something about the possibility for new adventures IIRC, but I'm wondering if the rules will be available in the various tools (compendium, CB, monster builder, etc...).

I thin k they mentioned possible DDI support "if the demand is there."

So... ummm if we like the game, guess we should demand it.

 

[Twowolves]

I own every copy every released of Gamma World, so I should be the target audience for this release.

But I don't think I'm getting it. About 25% of this is due to the force-feeding CCG-aspects onto a tabletop RPG (really?), but the other 75% is the notion that Gamma World is supposed to be.... "special needs". I understand that some aspects are goofy (Famine in Far-Go, I'm looking at you), but the game I learned wasn't necessarily silly. Legion of Gold had almost nothing "wahoo" in it, nor did most of the early adventures (barring Far-Go above). Yeah, things were weird with a touch of superpowers thrown in, but we never played it as tongue-in-cheek/anti-serious as some developers have deemed it MUST be, at least in recent years. I understand it ain't "The Morrow Project" or "Aftermath", but even Thundaar the Barbarian was internally more serious than some versions of Gamma World, and that show could have been called "Gamma World, the Animated Series (featuring Thundaar and Friends)".

 

[arscott]

Shrug... Develop a product based on it selling not based on it not selling.

Well, Develop a product based on how well you want it to sell. I don't think WotC has any fantasies about Gamma World replacing D&D.

I imagine that each person will have an average of one GW campaign happening in their "gaming circle". That's enough for WotC to make good money selling the books. But that's not enough density for regular card trading between friends or a thriving local secondary market.

 

[Scribble]

Well, Develop a product based on how well you want it to sell. I don't think WotC has any fantasies about Gamma World replacing D&D.

I imagine that each person will have an average of one GW campaign happening in their "gaming circle". That's enough for WotC to make good money selling the books. But that's not enough density for regular card trading between friends or a thriving local secondary market.

Sure I doubt they think it will replace D&D as the primary game... (They even mentioned the picture it as an in-between thing.) But I also don't think they're designing it with the mindset that "no one will buy this game."

Did they know MtG would be a raving success when it was released?

Do business with optimism- and optimism says people will like/want your product, and when people want your product they find a way to use it.

In this case, if that means trading cards- they'll find a way to trade them. (Even if it's mainly on-line.)

Hell I used to collect/trade with my friends some of the weirdest collectible cards... (Anyone remember those dinosaur invasion cards? The ones where some weird quantum fluke caused our world to merge with a dinosaur world?)

My real guess though is they're designing it with the idea that the cards are a sort of tag on purchase. You're in the store, buying books.. at the counter... oh hell why not just toss in a pack or two of Gamma World cards! They're only 3 bux!

Just like the game is supposed to be a sort of "break" from your normal D&D game, the cards are just designed to be an impulse buy.

Unlike MtG they don't really seem to be designed with the idea that you NEED certain cards. You might want them, but you're not really going to suffer much without them.

They're at that price point where compared to the 30 dollar book in my hand, the 3 extra bux aren't going to break the bank... and if they're not as great as they could be? Eh... I spent more on my coffee on the way to the store.


I see it as a win-win situation myself.

As you point out, I don't think the game will garner enough support to warrant a whole product line of published books supporting it, and as I said earlier I think cards allow them an alternative to give us more support without it being out of the price range.

 

[davethegame]

Unlike MtG they don't really seem to be designed with the idea that you NEED certain cards. You might want them, but you're not really going to suffer much without them.

This is key to my acceptance of the whole thing. In fact, I think it's a bit crazy how UNessential they are- since Trevor spoiled it first, I think I can say that the current idea is to have a player mutation deck and a GM mutation deck. Sometimes you'll draw from one, and sometimes from another. And you're still drawing from a deck in either case. And you're swapping that power between each encounter. And it will probably swap once during the encounter. Then the power itself doesn't necessarily empower your mostly-random character in the first place. In the midst of all that randomness, I would find it hard to plan anything for the cards, so I don't care what I get in random booster packs.

 

[darkrose50]

Calm down guys. You can use a proxy.

People will:
1) Sell singles on eBay.
2) Sell sets on eBay.
3) Post card effect on the internet.
4) Scan and post cards on the internet.

You will be a be to:
1) Buy the card you want.
2) Buy the set if you want it.
3) Copy the effects into a word processing program and make a chart (I bet people will do this for you, and from the looks of things . . . lots of people).
4) Print them out, or bring a laptop.


I like the idea:
1) Piazo makes money printing cards http://paizo.com/gameMastery.
2) Thanks to magic, WoTC can print cards cheaper than Piazo.
3) Making new charts will be easy as the chart is the deck.
4) The GM can make a deck for his / her game with the powers he / she wants.

People seem to like cards with RPGs, and randomness (random dice rolls in RPGs, random mutations in Gamma World, and random card draws in MTG).

Just buy a set of cards some guy put together and sells on eBay.

I am going to put together a set for myself, and sell the others on eBay. The font is a nice size I thought.

 

[Rel]

Calm down guys. You can use a proxy.

Actually they seem fairly calm about it since around...February.

 

[renau1g]

When I first saw the "sell singles on ebay" line I thought it had to be one of those spammers, especially with the huge font and resurrected thread...