Gamma World D20

[Gallo22]

I'm with those that like the plant mutations, etc. Maybe it can be in a supplement or on the Poly side of Dungeon!! Now that would be great. I'm sorry its not going to be in the main rule book.

Gallo22

 

[VorpalBunny]

Re: Plants

...I don't think its going to be like D&D 3e where I made that my base game, its Gamma World and I will plug and play any thing from former editions that I want to use (since I have almost every former edition except 2nd edition).

S&S is going for the "plug and play" method of gaming. From Bruce Baugh on RPG.net:

...Folks who've read my previous work will know that I prefer toolkits to big canned bundles, and I expect this to continue. There'll be guidelines on the fine art of turning your own neighborhood into an interesting post-apocalyptic wasteland, for instance. Space being finite, we'll see what goes where, of course.

and on the plants "issue":

The plants thing is a matter of distributors' and other key people's psychology. "Talking plant" gets "that's silly and dumb" in a way that "animals with psi powers" and "giant robots whose most feared attack is the eyebeams" don't. Yeah, it's goofy, but there you go.

Once folks see our mutation rules, someone will have to do a fan extension to cover plants, I figure.

 

[Skywalker]

Nitpick: AFAIK S&S has the entire GW liscense - including mutated plants. Bruce Baugh (the line developer) said they're not putting them in because they think they're rather silly.

Actually no. In the RPGnet thread Bruce Baugh explains that the licensing decisions were done by WotC and WW licensing teams. The plants were excluded from the licence. He makes it clear that this decision is beyond his control so please don't bitch at him about it.

 

[VorpalBunny]

I'm not "bitching". In fact, I have nothing but love and gratitude to Bruce Baugh and WW for grabbing the license and running with it. However, he does not mention specifically why WW isn't including plants except to say that he (as line developer) and by extension WW consider plants "'silly and dumb' in a way that 'animals with psi powers' and 'giant robots whose most feared attack is the eyebeams' don't". He does not specifically say that plants were excluded from the liscense with the rest of GW - which seems rather odd to me that WotC would liscense "bits and pieces" of a game and not the entire property. But then again, I'm not in publishing.

I'd like to see mutated plants, but I'm not going to cry about it - when GW is released I'll do like Mr. Baugh suggests in the thread I quoted and use their mutation rules to do a "fan extension" on plants. No problem here.

 

[generalizeddice]

Actually no. In the RPGnet thread Bruce Baugh explains that the licensing decisions were done by WotC and WW licensing teams. The plants were excluded from the licence. He makes it clear that this decision is beyond his control so please don't bitch at him about it.

I certainly didn't mean to bitch at anyone about it. The plants were just a fond memory I had from an old campaign. I'm pretty excited about this with or without the plants.

 

[generalizeddice]

Actually no. In the RPGnet thread Bruce Baugh explains that the licensing decisions were done by WotC and WW licensing teams. The plants were excluded from the licence. He makes it clear that this decision is beyond his control so please don't bitch at him about it.

I certainly didn't mean to bitch at anyone about it. The plants were just a fond memory I had from an old campaign. I'm pretty excited about this with or without the plants.

 

[Sulimo]

I certainly didn't mean to bitch at anyone about it. The plants were just a fond memory I had from an old campaign. I'm pretty excited about this with or without the plants.

Yeah. I remember playing a coconut tree who hurled exploding coconuts...

 

[Skywalker]

Sorry to sound so harsh. It's just that the mutated plant thing caused Bruce considerably stress over in an RPGnet thread.

My impression from Bruce's comments that the decision to not include plants was made for business reasons by others in White Wolf and he had very little say in it. I realise that I could be wrong

For the sake of clarity I quote his posts on the subject:

The plants thing is a matter of distributors' and other key people's psychology. "Talking plant" gets "that's silly and dumb" in a way that "animals with psi powers" and "giant robots whose most feared attack is the eyebeams" don't. Yeah, it's goofy, but there you go.

Folks may not understand what I mean when I say something like "X won't be in the game." It means that that thing won't be in the game. It doesn't mean that I need to be persuaded, or that the matter escaped discussion, or that any of us involved are unaware of what people have done with past editions of the game, or anything like that. It means that for (generally practical, business-related) various reasons, the publisher has decided not to include something. When the decision is grounded in business realities, no amount of well-meant anecdote or game-related persuasion will do as a response - you'd have to change the business behavior that motivates the concern. And when the decision rests on factors not currently amenable to public discussion, well, then that's pretty much the way it is.

You know, when I say "this is happening for business reasons", I actually mean it. I believe in a lot of kidding around, but I'm not much impressed when people persist in instructing me to do things which I've just explained I'm not at liberty to do.

 

[WayneLigon]

Actually no. In the RPGnet thread Bruce Baugh explains that the licensing decisions were done by WotC and WW licensing teams. The plants were excluded from the licence.

That has to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard of. What, is WOTC planning 'The Complete Intelligent Plant Handbook' or something? I'd honestly like to know how a decision like that happens or comes about.

 

[Skywalker]

That has to be one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard of. What, is WOTC planning 'The Complete Intelligent Plant Handbook' or something? I'd honestly like to know how a decision like that happens or comes about.

Please read to the end of the thread for actual quotes by Bruce Baugh as I don't trust my own second reporting