First Gamma World Game!

[Iron Sky]

We played Gamma World for the first time. Here's what we ended up with for a party:

Cat-astrophy, a Felinoid Empath (giant humanoid tabby cat) that fights with a bundle of car antennas and glass discs cut from windshields while wearing football pads

Thumper, a Gravity Controlling Empath, a human head atop a roughly humanoid pile of rubble that wears a heavy armor of random debris that gets pulled to it as it walks and hurls larger pieces about.

CHIP (Cowboy Human-Impersonation Prototype), a Android Radioactive, a T2-style cowboy with a ridiculously huge six-shooter and a bullwhip.

Caddy, a Felinoid Radioactive, Xena Warrior Princess... as a White Tiger - and radioactive.

We travel around with two draft horses pulling a wagon with a keelboat in it, using a riding horse and a pickup-truck with a couple generators in it to scout.

We started off with a Yeti in a pink dress running up, picking up Cat-astrophy and shaking him as she pleaded for us to help save her baby at the Uper Dome. Not having anything else to do, we headed in the direction she pointed only to be attacked by four tiny flying saucers protecting a giant flying saucer that was also protecting them as they protected... etc.

After trying unsuccessfully to talk to them amidst their cries of "Intruder Alert!", Caddy threw her chakram at them and it was on. The fight consisted of the big one hitting us with a big cattle prod while CHIP hammered on it, Caddy threw her chakrum, Thumper moved close and threw stuff at them, and Cat-astrophy tearing at it with his claws.

On a rough fight, we found a panel van with a 52 and a circle around it that no-one had a good enough Conspiracy to identify. Inside the van, however, we found some Omega Tech! A healing patch, a jar with one pill, a grenade, and little flying robot.

On to the Uper Dome where we ran into a bunch of pig-people, CHIP asking for the little Yeti in heavily cowboy-laden speech only to find them hostile Road Hogs. Caddy powered up her newly mutated poisoned spines but didn't manage to land it, while Cat-astrophy's new super-fluffy fur got even thicker and fluffier as CHIP blasted one away with his six-shooter to the theme from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".

One of the pigs released a poisonous belch before they laid into us with their nunchaku.

CHIP burst out singing "Like a Rhinestone Cowboy" and blasting radioactive lightning from his eyes. CHIP ended up squishing one with his big robot fists right before the other dropped Cat-astrophy with his nunchaku. Fortunately, Thumper had just mutated the ability to empathically heal everyone and Cat-astrophy got back up just as Caddy clawed the last one's eyes out.

The combat ended, everyone mutated again, and CHIP's little flying robot exploded from the strain. After another rest, we headed into the Uper Dome and saw a huge porker with a "Kiss the Cook Apron" preparing a cauldron with the little Yeti on a spit.

Cat-astrophy attempted to sneak up, only to step on an airhorn. The porker wheeled about with a Blunderbuss and blasted everyone. Cat-astrophy used his new Adaptive Resistance to reduce the crit he took, but Thumper took a blunderbuss full of forks to the face, then a cleaver to the face that dropped him.

Fortunately, CHIP was on hand to pull out Thumper's healing patch and put in on his face while Caddy hit the piggy with a razor grenade. Thumper crawled away and began mentally communicating with all the fish within a mile (turns out there were none).

Caddy tried to De-evolve him, but failed horribly. The piggy cook was about to finish off Thumper when he bled out from his Razor Grenade wounds. Thumper gathered the blunderbuss (so he could put pieces of himself in there to fire) and we threw the piggies into the cauldron.

Yeti-mom came to get her baby and gave CHIP a Leaky Fusion Rifle she found as a reward.

We settled down in the Uper Dome to a night of tasty pork stew and called it a night for real.

Summary:

Making characters is pretty quick, random, and fun, especially imagining up what your character looks like. Combat is fast, furious, and dangerous, especially with new mutations every fight and random bits of Omega Tech trickling in. It was fun as a quick pickup game though I'm not sure how it would as a regular game.

 

[scourger]

Fun! I can't wait to run it in a couple of nights.

 

[davethegame]

Sounds awesome. I've been in two games where the players named their felinoids "Chairman Meow." Cat-astrophy is a great alternative.

 

[kitsune9]

Gamma World sounds like a really awesome game. I hope to get it this year.

 

[Ariosto]

especially with new mutations every fight

That's "wild and crazy" even relative to Jim Ward's original Gamma World (which is saying something).

Is the "camp" factor pushed so much in the book? The aftermath of global genocide is not intrinsically more silly than, say, The X-Men -- or elves and goblins, for that matter. The GW (and Metamorphosis Alpha) games I've been in were not 24-7 parodies.

In my experience, "campy" games are occasional one-shot fun, but quickly get tiresome as campaigns.

 

[Wik]

That's "wild and crazy" even relative to Jim Ward's original Gamma World (which is saying something).

Is the "camp" factor pushed so much in the book? The aftermath of global genocide is not intrinsically more silly than, say, The X-Men -- or elves and goblins, for that matter. The GW (and Metamorphosis Alpha) games I've been in were not 24-7 parodies.

In my experience, "campy" games are occasional one-shot fun, but quickly get tiresome as campaigns.

Yes. Gamma World 4e is played almost entirely for laughs and one-shots. It has been designed for short-term mini-campaigns or as a side game, rather than a long-term play experience.

Which is perfectly fine - I don't think wotc really wants to produce a new game line. They want something that is "fire and forget", and thus a short-term game is the best choice. A fire and forget game that could easily develop into long-term play is, after all, just robbing WotC of D&D players.

It's a brilliant game, all that being said. It can be brutal, absolutely random, and campy as all hell. However, were I to run a long-term campaign, I wouldn't be using this as my base, but instead either the Omega World d20 mini game from Polyhedron, or the 4th Edition Gamma World released in the late 1990s (I know, it's confusing - there's both D&D Gamma World 4e, and Gamma World 4e, and they're entirely different games).

 

[Iron Sky]

I haven't read the books, just played the one session. I actually spent most of the session hoping my character would die so I could make a new one. Maybe it's just me, but coming up with the wacky character is half the fun even if it takes a while with 4 PCs and 1 book.

I think the best answer would be to roll for the characters(since rolling the dice is fun), then input the results of your rolls in this so it does all the math for you.

 

[Korgoth]

It sounds fascinating, in a way. It would actually make sort of an interesting business model to have all their RPG products released in this way: like "Dungeons and Dragons presents Dark Sun" and Dark Sun is a $40 box plus two $30 expansions, all complete with tiles, cards, a little digest rulebook and whatnot. It delivers the basic flavor and skeleton and then the Ref puts it together for a 10-level campaign. You could do the same with the Nentire Vale, etc.

Then you could have 'sequel' games like "Dungeons and Dragons presents The Underdark" where the game essentially runs from levels 11-20, but you could port over your characters from a lower power set or make new ones. You know, keep it all self-contained. Of course, in that case the revenue stream would be almost all from the DM or the group as a whole, but it would make it a lot easier to stock in a toy store.

Anyway, I'll be very interested to see Ravenloft if they do it in this format. My problem with this version of Gamma World is that it is way too silly. Way, way, way too silly.

 

[scourger]

...wotc really wants...something that is "fire and forget"...

...However, were I to run a long-term campaign, I wouldn't be using this as my base, but instead either the Omega World d20 mini game from Polyhedron...

I like the fire & forget model of the new Gamma World. I think it can be used for a long-term campaign, though. In my experience, a game that progresses the characters through 10 levels is long-term. I intend to try it beginning this week.

Omega World d20 is an excellent game, too. I'd also like to run a campaign with it this year. It is also 10 levels.

...It would actually make sort of an interesting business model to have all their RPG products released in this way: like "Dungeons and Dragons presents Dark Sun" and Dark Sun is a $40 box plus two $30 expansions, all complete with tiles, cards, a little digest rulebook and whatnot. It delivers the basic flavor and skeleton and then the Ref puts it together for a 10-level campaign. You could do the same with the Nentire Vale, etc.

Then you could have 'sequel' games like "Dungeons and Dragons presents The Underdark" where the game essentially runs from levels 11-20, but you could port over your characters from a lower power set or make new ones. You know, keep it all self-contained. Of course, in that case the revenue stream would be almost all from the DM or the group as a whole, but it would make it a lot easier to stock in a toy store.

Anyway, I'll be very interested to see Ravenloft if they do it in this format...

I'd like to see D&D developed this way, too. I would actually buy 4e products if they did it the Gamma World way. I don't need the cards, but the maps & tokens are great. It even would be okay with me if they sold it as a DM box with each player buying a box corresponding to the type of character they chose to play by race & class. That would leave a lot of room for marketing, and each player could get their "deck" of spells, powers or whatever.

 

[I'm A Banana]

It would actually make sort of an interesting business model to have all their RPG products released in this way: like "Dungeons and Dragons presents Dark Sun" and Dark Sun is a $40 box plus two $30 expansions, all complete with tiles, cards, a little digest rulebook and whatnot. It delivers the basic flavor and skeleton and then the Ref puts it together for a 10-level campaign. You could do the same with the Nentire Vale, etc.

Then you could have 'sequel' games like "Dungeons and Dragons presents The Underdark" where the game essentially runs from levels 11-20, but you could port over your characters from a lower power set or make new ones. You know, keep it all self-contained. Of course, in that case the revenue stream would be almost all from the DM or the group as a whole, but it would make it a lot easier to stock in a toy store.

I could see it. It'd be interesting. Less "900 pages of rules" and more "Here's a box of fun!" and inside it has all the rules you need for the module inside and to run your own, and that's about it.

I'd be buying a lot less D&D with that model -- probably don't have the room or the inclination to buy a bunch of boxed sets -- but I think it has some real value.