d20 GAMMA WORLD: excerpts, links, Pure Strain Excitement

[zero skill LPB]

Thanks for the update!

Little over two weeks til the Player's Handbook is released...

Cool find.

Reading about the default 3rd level start point... well, hm! Weirds me out a little because I independently made the same decision for my group about two months ago when I had them all make characters.

Dude, I guess that makes me a psi-leech! Cool!

 

[Darrin Drader]

Since we're all waiting for the Book 'til early November I've resorted to playdoughing my ideas just a bit. I've had my group make some pre-Fall d20 Modern characters circa 2013. They're starting out at UCSC amid massive protests regarding controversial scientific studies being conducted there. Beyond that I'm keeping them mostly in the dark regarding my nefarious plans.
....
(1) Nanotech grad student, looking at three solid months of writer's block on his post-doc
(2) Pre-med student (fully certified in China, but he's still in the naturalization process)
(3) Venture Capitalist, the man responsible for getting private industries involved at UCSC
(4) HVAC technician, working on the AC
(5) Tae Kwon Do Olympic hopeful, riding out an athletic scholarship
(6) Tough-as-nails Hell's Angel, brother of the would-be Olympian

This is such a cool idea. I would put them seemingly at the center of the catastrophe, locked safely away in a bunker or have them otherwise shielded from the devastation that is unleashed. Make them think that the adventure they're currently on is to prevent a catastrophe. They fail (nothing they can do about it, but try to make them think otherwise). They lose touch with the outside world. Maybe end the session here so that they might have some hope that they can still save the day. Try to give them the impression that this is going to be more like the video game Half-Life.

The next session, pick it back up. Advance the timeline as quickly as possible so that the earth can have time to recover (to the extent that its going to). They start running out of food and have to leave their sheltered area. Maybe the shelter they're in was in a heavily protected complex with technology that they weren't previously aware of. Include some robotic assassins, laser traps and strategically placed explosives. When they finally arrive in the outside world they find it a devastated mess, at which point they enter Gamma Terra.

At this point assume that (1) the technology that once served is now out of control, (2) people living in radioactive zones are already mutating at an alarming rate (introduce some mildly mutated people at first, but then as time goes by make the mutations more and more aberrant), (3) Introduce organizations that have formed since the fall - both those that benefit what is left of society and those that are sucking dry the corpse that remains. Finally, introduce your meta-plot, whatever that may be.

I may use this myself if I get the chance.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Latest news:

Player's Handbook 10/20/03
Mutants and Machines 11/17/03

That's 11 days away, baby!

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Latest news:

Player's Handbook 10/20/03
Mutants and Machines 11/17/03

That's 11 days away, baby!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.....

Now, if only i wasn't broke.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

edit: Dupe

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Latest news:

Player's Handbook 10/20/03
Mutants and Machines 11/17/03

That's 11 days away, baby!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.....

Now, if only i wasn't broke.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I loved Gamma World, but I am not sure if I am going to buy it. I have too much $$$ locked up in games I don't have players for and I am not sure if I want another. I really wanted Testament, but didn't buy for the same reason.

 

[zero skill LPB]

I'm totally getting the PHB the day of release

My main difficulty will be hammering on the FLGS to acknowledge the 10/20 release date. See, until I mentioned it last week they didn't even know about the new edition...

Bad, White Wolf. No biscuit.

 

[zero skill LPB]

This is such a cool idea.

Very close, sir. Very close. Sub in "nanite" for "radioactive" and it's even closer. I'm glad you like it! I'm really looking forward to springing stuff on my players.

Our first session, the pre-Fall intro, will be on 10/24. Time willing, I'm gonna provide the players with individual intros for their characters up to the point where they meet for the first time (ala the Medallions SH. It RULES, btw. Check it out.).

Second session, waking up into the post-Fall, will be 11/7.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I loved Gamma World, but I am not sure if I am going to buy it. I have too much $$$ locked up in games I don't have players for and I am not sure if I want another.

I had the same problem until recently, when I burned out on DMing our FR City of the Spider Queen campaign (Eris knows, that's a craaaaappy module) and shut the whole thing down.

Since then, I'm playing a PC in an ongoing D&D 3.5 game, The Thing in a Marvel Super Heroes one-shot (reminding me that there was a reason why that game has sat in a closet since 1985), and we've got a classic Cthulhu session planned for November 8. Since we're jumping from system to system, I'm pretty sure I can get them interested enough to want to play Gamma World more than once.