5E Powered Gamma World: What Should It Look Like

[Eyes of Nine]

I have thought about this more than is healthy for a middle aged adult male.

The flavor should be similar to the third edition of the game, which I have fond memories of (despite being somewhat unplayable). A weird, unrealistic post-apocalyptic mashup...but not silly. Basically, if you can imagine it in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, it has a place in Gamma World.

Yes

The mechanics should be very similar to Rob Schwalb's Punkapocalyptic, if it used 5E as the base. Ten levels. Race should carry more mechanical weight than core 5E. Humans, mutants, mutant animals, mutant plants, robots, and extraterrestrials/extradimensionals. Three to five classes. Then gobs of subclasses that can be taken by any class, which is how you get lots of customization relative to page count. Again, Punkapocalyptic has a great take on this.

Feats which are basically dips into class/subclass features. They can have level requirements but no other prerequisites.

Yes, although mechanics should be provided for GMs to make GW their own.

Obviously gear should be important, so a long list of gear ranging from stone age to medieval to modern day to futuristic. Some of which you can purchase, most of which you can't.

Same as above, mechanics should be provided for GMs to make equipment on their own.

An 100 page bestiary. Cryptic alliances, factions, tribes.

Cf.

A map of the United States and then a close up of a single region with a sandbox campaign that's 30-50 pages long.

I am of course most familiar with the US; but I could see doing two sandboxes - one US, and another wherever D&D is most popular outside the US.

Publish it all in one volume. Open it up on DMsguild. Launch it with an Adepts program so that there's some interesting expansions available as PDFs from Day 1. Then leave it alone for the next 20 years.

On board with this 1000%.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I have a couple MYZ books. They're cool. I'd love to play it. But it scratches a slightly different itch than Gamma World. Especially from the player side.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I am of course most familiar with the US; but I could see doing two sandboxes - one US, and another wherever D&D is most popular outside the US.

This would be an amazing chance for a DMs Guild Adepts program. Bring in a dozen creators from outside the USA and have them create a post-apocalyptic sandbox for their respective countries.

 

[Parmandur]

[DISCLAIMER: Way back in the day I worked on Gamma World d20. Despite lots of people hating on that version, I am proud of that work and think it was a good iteration of GW -- better than the Alternity version, worse than 1995 4E.)

If WotC decided to put out a new version of gamma world based on the 5E rules, what should it look like? Should it be a setting/genre book for 5E? A standalone game? How should mutations be implemented? Should it have a plant species? What about game balance and gonzo?

I'd like to see it as a Setting book for 5E (and it is worth noting that the new DMG does have a paragraph about how to manager a genre-bending gonzo science Fantasy post-apocalyose Setting...and thst paragraph is titled "Gamma World").

Make it very weird, embrace the Gonzo.

 

[Reynard]

I'd like to see it as a Setting book for 5E (and it is worth noting that the new DMG does have a paragraph about how to manager a genre-bending gonzo science Fantasy post-apocalyose Setting...and thst paragraph is titled "Gamma World").

Make it very weird, embrace the Gonzo.

My problem with that is that GW characters really should not look like 5E characters, IMO. GW characters should have very broad, vague classes and a hodgepodge of skills and mutations and gear. I think compatibility from a numerical standpoint is a worthwhile goal so you can mix and match, but I don't want or need the Gamma World version of a bard or whatever.

 

[Parmandur]

My problem with that is that GW characters really should not look like 5E characters, IMO. GW characters should have very broad, vague classes and a hodgepodge of skills and mutations and gear. I think compatibility from a numerical standpoint is a worthwhile goal so you can mix and match, but I don't want or need the Gamma World version of a bard or whatever.

A focused selection of options makes sense.

 

[kronovan]

If WotC decided to put out a new version of gamma world based on the 5E rules, what should it look like? Should it be a setting/genre book for 5E? A standalone game? How should mutations be implemented? Should it have a plant species? What about game balance and gonzo?

I wouldn't want it to be built upon 5e, but instead would much prefer it used a chassis based upon 13th Age. Mostly because WotC had some good ideas in GW 7e, but really pooched it up in a few areas. IMO, an edition that embodied the changes 13A made to the 4e core, would be very good. As well, custom Icons for the GW verse would work well and be fun to play with.

A number of high profile Fantasy settings have been adapted to 13A, so I'm not sure if GW couldn't just be a setting book adapted to it. That said, the 13A CRB is reasonably lean in page count, so a GW book probably could include the core rule chapters.

 

[Celebrim]

I have thought about doing GW based on 3e or D20 Modern/Future, but the problem with Gamma World is that I think I just can't accept the conception anymore. The universe of Gamma World isn't a post nuclear war setting. It's needs to be a post trans-dimensional rift war setting, something like Half-Life but more gonzo. It's really hard for me to get past the magic now the way it wasn't when I was twelve or thirteen. I don't like the unrestrained magic. As much as I enjoyed it as a kid, it would be sillier now than doing a Thundercats RPG. There is just too much kitchen sink going on.

But I will say that if you can get past the setting vibes, 5e is entirely wrong for Gamma World. You need more granularity than 5e provides, something that handles scale better, something where there is a meaningful difference between two ranks of radiation resistance and five, something where an automatic rifle or an angry sequoia cactus feels really scary.

 

[TheHand]

Yes! Make it weird, make it crazy! Plants, cyborgs, mutant laser-beam-eye fish with bat wings, yes, all of it.

I would prefer it be a standalone book than a direct 5e add-on, kind of akin to how the 4th GW was analogous to Ad&D 2e. I think the classes would be better suited rewritten for Gamma World (or better yet, no classes!) and with the real focus being your genotype and your wacky mutant powers (or extra talents and skills if you are pure-strain human).

I tried to run a fan made 5e hack of Gamma World during the lockdown. We had a lot of fun, but that version of 5e didn’t seem to mesh well, and we ended up switching the campaign to Savage Worlds.

 

[TheHand]

@Reynard
Hey, I also wanted to thank you for your work on the d20 era book! I did in fact get some use from it back in the day and it was indeed better than the Alternity edition.