HellHound
ENnies winner and NOT Scrappy Doo
If there is any game that I will divide up by editions, it is Gamma World – the RPG where you may well end up playing a mutant bunny rabbit with laser-reflective fur and the ability to blast people’s heads open like a Scanner.
I was first introduced to Gamma World in 1983 through my new local RPG group – two guys much older than myself joined up with my cousin (of my own age) and I to play D&D every two weeks. They would talk about the games they had been playing on the other weekends in Ottawa, and with the recent release of 2nd Edition Gamma World, that game came up occasionally, especially when their D&D characters got transported into a Gamma World setting for an adventure or two. I heard no end of Mad-Max-esque adventures starring the aforementioned rabbit with laser-reflective fur across the radiated wastelands of the far future, as well as tales of mighty warbots and other Gamma horrors.
I had been aware of Metamorphosis Alpha through Best of the Dragon (and the How Green is my Mutant? article), but had never really been introduced to Gamma World proper. I never played a game of GW at that time, but I did borrow the second edition rule book from a friend for a while to read through it. Shortly before borrowing the book, we had an encounter with a warbot of our own during a D&D game – a massive iron golem that struck us with beams of light and that flung rockets at us that exploded into fireworks. We didn’t end up beating it, but ran away instead. Since we swore we would never return that way, the DM loaned me the book after the session because I was so interested.
It wasn’t until the release of Gamma World fourth edition, however, in 1992, that I finally got a copy of 1st edition. The day after buying fourth edition at Fandom II in Ottawa, I expressed my love for the game in all its editions to Randy, one of the owners of the store. He got this look in his eye and wandered into the back storage area (something that Fandom no longer has) and came back with a pile of old dusty boxes, one of which was a shrink-wrapped 1st Edition boxed set, with original dice and everything. I bought it just to have it, devoured it and the bizarre rules (such as the radiation table that made it impossible to make a saving throw against intensity 18 radiation – thus making the attack of the Barl Nep an instant death attack with no save), and then put it into my growing Gamma World collection to never be played.
Also about this time, I borrowed a copy of the second edition boxed set (and a bunch of modules) from a friend of mine in the University of Ottawa gaming club. I held on to them for a few months and ran a fun and light-hearted game at the gaming club with a mutant bear called Theodore, a frail little mutant human with his Podog, and an insane Pure Strain Human who swore that his athlete’s foot was sentient and was telling him what to do (he loved the concept of the parasitic plant genotype from third edition, and thought it would be an even cooler insanity than character). As with some 80% (a completely unscientific rough estimate of my own, I must add) of Gamma World games, this game revolved around exploring the University campus and dealing with an insane and overly friendly rogue computer AI that insisted on feeding the characters a variety of strange ‘delicacies’ such as physics textbooks.
I returned the boxed set to Andrew Keyworth a few months later, except for one module that I lost track of along the way. I felt guilty about this missing module on and off for a few years (especially once we were no longer in touch with Andrew and I would run into the module occasionally while packing or unpacking my RPG collection).
Five years ago I went to a small occult shop and used RPG store in Ottawa just before it went bankrupt. Among the items they had for sale was a second edition Gamma World boxed set. I bought it to complete my collection. As we left the store, I opened the box to discover not only the rule books, but a sizeable collection of modules, the original map, and a bunch of photocopied record sheets. It was only as we were driving home from Ottawa that I noticed a name written in pen on the inside of the box cover – Andrew Keyworth.
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About three months ago a very close friend and one of the core team of the original Ambient d20 team committed suicide. This really struck deeply into me, and I haven't been able to concentrate on anything RPG-related since then - I haven't prepped a game, written a supplement, edited anything, or even put anything through layout. I even dropped off the RPG message boards I love, especially ENWorld.
So, I've started to think back over all the games I've played over the years and what makes gaming fun for me. And I'm collecting them into roughly 1,000 word posts about the various games, with the intent to write and post one every weekday that I'm not on the road, and then re-invest this energy into running games and writing again.
I was first introduced to Gamma World in 1983 through my new local RPG group – two guys much older than myself joined up with my cousin (of my own age) and I to play D&D every two weeks. They would talk about the games they had been playing on the other weekends in Ottawa, and with the recent release of 2nd Edition Gamma World, that game came up occasionally, especially when their D&D characters got transported into a Gamma World setting for an adventure or two. I heard no end of Mad-Max-esque adventures starring the aforementioned rabbit with laser-reflective fur across the radiated wastelands of the far future, as well as tales of mighty warbots and other Gamma horrors.
I had been aware of Metamorphosis Alpha through Best of the Dragon (and the How Green is my Mutant? article), but had never really been introduced to Gamma World proper. I never played a game of GW at that time, but I did borrow the second edition rule book from a friend for a while to read through it. Shortly before borrowing the book, we had an encounter with a warbot of our own during a D&D game – a massive iron golem that struck us with beams of light and that flung rockets at us that exploded into fireworks. We didn’t end up beating it, but ran away instead. Since we swore we would never return that way, the DM loaned me the book after the session because I was so interested.
It wasn’t until the release of Gamma World fourth edition, however, in 1992, that I finally got a copy of 1st edition. The day after buying fourth edition at Fandom II in Ottawa, I expressed my love for the game in all its editions to Randy, one of the owners of the store. He got this look in his eye and wandered into the back storage area (something that Fandom no longer has) and came back with a pile of old dusty boxes, one of which was a shrink-wrapped 1st Edition boxed set, with original dice and everything. I bought it just to have it, devoured it and the bizarre rules (such as the radiation table that made it impossible to make a saving throw against intensity 18 radiation – thus making the attack of the Barl Nep an instant death attack with no save), and then put it into my growing Gamma World collection to never be played.
Also about this time, I borrowed a copy of the second edition boxed set (and a bunch of modules) from a friend of mine in the University of Ottawa gaming club. I held on to them for a few months and ran a fun and light-hearted game at the gaming club with a mutant bear called Theodore, a frail little mutant human with his Podog, and an insane Pure Strain Human who swore that his athlete’s foot was sentient and was telling him what to do (he loved the concept of the parasitic plant genotype from third edition, and thought it would be an even cooler insanity than character). As with some 80% (a completely unscientific rough estimate of my own, I must add) of Gamma World games, this game revolved around exploring the University campus and dealing with an insane and overly friendly rogue computer AI that insisted on feeding the characters a variety of strange ‘delicacies’ such as physics textbooks.
I returned the boxed set to Andrew Keyworth a few months later, except for one module that I lost track of along the way. I felt guilty about this missing module on and off for a few years (especially once we were no longer in touch with Andrew and I would run into the module occasionally while packing or unpacking my RPG collection).
Five years ago I went to a small occult shop and used RPG store in Ottawa just before it went bankrupt. Among the items they had for sale was a second edition Gamma World boxed set. I bought it to complete my collection. As we left the store, I opened the box to discover not only the rule books, but a sizeable collection of modules, the original map, and a bunch of photocopied record sheets. It was only as we were driving home from Ottawa that I noticed a name written in pen on the inside of the box cover – Andrew Keyworth.
---
About three months ago a very close friend and one of the core team of the original Ambient d20 team committed suicide. This really struck deeply into me, and I haven't been able to concentrate on anything RPG-related since then - I haven't prepped a game, written a supplement, edited anything, or even put anything through layout. I even dropped off the RPG message boards I love, especially ENWorld.
So, I've started to think back over all the games I've played over the years and what makes gaming fun for me. And I'm collecting them into roughly 1,000 word posts about the various games, with the intent to write and post one every weekday that I'm not on the road, and then re-invest this energy into running games and writing again.
