scoop: 4e gamma world

I'm not so sure about the idea that the best powers will only be available in the boosters.

After all, unless WOTC takes a radical right turn from their design principles in 4e, the booster abilities will have to be balanced with the ones that come with the core game. Sure, there will be some different stuff, but, it's not like MtG where you have cards that are blatantly better than others. You can't and still have a system balanced on the 4e paradigm.

One way of doing the rare card thing is to have the less popular classes, powers, races, monsters, magic items, etc ... as "rare" cards (ie. tiefling, avenger, invoker, deva, etc ...).

The cards for the more popular traditional classes, powers, races, monsters, weapons, magic items, etc ... are made to be more common (ie. elves, dwarfs, fighter, wizard, cleric, rogue, kobalds, orcs, ogres, etc ...).
 

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Eh. I'm neutral on the cards.

If they aren't on DDI, they'll be somewhere else on the 'net, and I'll just print off a visual spoiler or a table or somesuch. I mean, Wizards puts out full visual spoilers for Magic. I'd be surprised if they didn't do it for this.

It's not like Magic, where it's cheating (or illegal) to not have the real deal.

But if I can get 'em real cheap, or as singles cheaply? Sure. I'll bite.
 

Actually, if done right, I can see this enhancing certain design goals--the wild, unpredictable, 'you never know what you'll get' element of GW mutations and tech. Plus, the randomization allows them to put out cards at a low price point, so DMs can pick up a booster or two as an impulse purchase or when they feel the deck starting to get stale.

Unfortunately, that direction doesn't seem to be the way they're going. From the podcast of Thursday's seminar, starting at about 39:47 to about 40:38



Now, if I were in charge of this, I'd also try to put out a full 'factory set' a few months later and make sure people knew it would be coming, so those who want a complete set but don't enjoy the random element can still get it. (This isn't feasible with miniatures, and undercuts the whole competitive side of TCG play, but I believe most other trading card companies do something like this. I know TSR did with the AD&D Trading Cards in the 1990s, and I can't imagine they were trendsetters.)

So it's exactly as I said. The good stuff? You have to go into randomized boosters to get that.

WotC has literally just given you the fantastic ability to not get what you want when you buy a product.

Still waiting for someone to tell me how that's a good thing.
 

After reading the link my interest in this has gone from reasonably enthusiastic to zero. And did I read it wrong, or do the character's mutations change after every extended rest? (Drawing more/new cards from the deck...) If so, then I'm doubly uninterested. ("I'll blast him with my Gamma Vision... Oh wait, I don't have it anymore, I've got Floppy Feet instead!")
 

Ignoring the deliberate provocations...

Hussar said:
I'm not so sure about the idea that the best powers will only be available in the boosters.

That seems to be counteracted by this:

Podcast said:
We also have coming up Gamma World booster cards, which is a place where you have an opportunity as a player to invest in making your character better, give yourself better options on the card draws. So things like powered armor, and fusion rifles, and really good, kick-butt mutations like the Gamma Eye and all sorts of fun things like that--a lot of those are in the boosters . . .

If boosters are a place where you can make your character "better," then they are exactly that: better than non-booster stuff.

I mean, it could be he misspoke, but the message of "Pay more money to have more fun!" seemed to come across pretty strongly there.

Siberys said:
If they aren't on DDI, they'll be somewhere else on the 'net, and I'll just print off a visual spoiler or a table or somesuch. I mean, Wizards puts out full visual spoilers for Magic. I'd be surprised if they didn't do it for this.

If this is true (and I haven't seen evidence that it is true yet, but it certainly seems plausible), that'll change the dynamic a bit more in favor of the game for me. If there's some reference for the powers that includes them all and isn't randomized, it's not so bad. I still won't buy the card boosters, but I didn't by the minis sets with the "extra power" in them, either, since the power is in the DDI, and I have little to no need of minis.

ProfessorCirno said:
WotC has literally just given you the fantastic ability to not get what you want when you buy a product.

Still waiting for someone to tell me how that's a good thing.

Well, I do think it reflects the feel of a Gamma World game, where you might not get what you want when you mutate or whatever.

I still don't want my access determined by collectible random anything, personally. If enough customers feel that way, GW will flop, and they might not try the "collectible cards" thing for a while. If enough customers don't care or think it's fun, GW will be a success, and we might see more "booster packs" for other WotC items (possibly even in some limited form in D&D, if they think there's a market for it...could work well for "randomized treasure" from dungeons, for example, or "randomized monsters").

But even if I'm in the minority in disliking this, I'll not personally play or run a game that requires such investments. To me, they just make the game not fun anymore. I don't like the feel of having to buy random packs of cards to make the character I want or to reward or punish the players how I want. I'm totally OK with being the only person in the world who believes that, though I don't think I'm alone. ;)
 

did I read it wrong, or do the character's mutations change after every extended rest? (Drawing more/new cards from the deck...) If so, then I'm doubly uninterested. ("I'll blast him with my Gamma Vision... Oh wait, I don't have it anymore, I've got Floppy Feet instead!")

I belive you read that right... infact I am alittle scared of that as well... however I still hope there guns tech can be brought over to other 4e modern games...
 

After reading the link my interest in this has gone from reasonably enthusiastic to zero. And did I read it wrong, or do the character's mutations change after every extended rest? (Drawing more/new cards from the deck...) If so, then I'm doubly uninterested. ("I'll blast him with my Gamma Vision... Oh wait, I don't have it anymore, I've got Floppy Feet instead!")

According to the podcast, some elements of your character (the basic stock/theme, at least, is the impression I got) stay constant, some change daily "because that's Gamma World."
 


Huh. Wow, I... Huh.

I'll probably still get the GW core game, because I like a lot of what I'm hearing about it, and I'm willing to wing/houserule the rest. And also because I want the line of "genre settings" to be a long and prosperous one.

But if the booster card packs truly are randomized, I will never buy one. Not one. And if I'm running a GW game, the players will know in advance that the sets won't be permitted. I don't do random collectibles, and I won't run a game where the player who spent the most money has an advantage.

I'm perfectly happy running a core game only, without supplements; I just wish that wasn't a choice I had to make. :( (Again, assuming what we're hearing is accurate.)
 

Rolling stats was random, but I didn't have to pay five dollars to maybe get a chance to roll 5d6 instead of 4d6.

You never played with kurt as your DM then...

not a joke said:
If you brought 2 or more 2 liters of soda to the table, if you bought him lunch (or pizza for the table), if you brought enough snacks you would get 'cool points'... in game everytime you did good rp, or made a good joke, or anything like that you got a cool point... at the end of everygame you tallied you 'cool points' and did some math to get bonus xp...

Level 1-5 cp*Level*10
Level 6-10 cp*level*50
Level 11-15 cp*level*100
level 16+ cp*level*250...
then people started 'buying' cool points... the last time I was around for one of his games a PC droped $100 to start at level 3 in a level 1 game...
 

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