Gamma World Feedback

[mythusmage]

What to Include

The Starship Warden.

 

[Navar]

I think that the most important aspect to GW is choices. I would want to see lots and lots of choices for animal mutations and if included cybernetics. Tables are a must. Perhaps even a web enhancement would be called for.

 

[Vaxalon]

Must haves

1> Starship Warden. Go back to your roots! The setting has been dormant for years, let's bring it back.

2> A good balance of whimsey and grit. It's a tough world, where people die left and right, so let's have some fun!

3> The whole range of enemies - cryptic allicances, robots, mutant critters, the lot.

4> The whole range of PC options - mutant humans and animals, pure strains.

5> Kooky mutant names for places! I wanna go back to N'yawk.

 

[rhammer2]

I can agree with all your points. Especially with dropping random mutations, the game needs a more balanced character generation system to keep the characters all at about the same power level.

Gamma World in D20, Huzzah.

Here's my two domars worth.

Five things that must remain:

1) Mutants, mutants, and more mutants. Animals, plants, former humans, all of 'em.
2) Cryptic Alliances
3) Hoops (The flopsies of Moonsee will one day dominate the world, if we can ever get our expedition equipped that is.
4) The Unknown-ness of the tech of the ancients (i.e. GM [playing an examiner when handed a revolver] "I believe that this is what the ancientes refered to as a Fist-ol, for it's ability to punch specially made pieces of metal through other things and beings.")
5) And here we have a tie; The Glow and Live Metal. Loose radiation and wild robots are a must.

And the two things That have just got to go the way of the ancients are:

1) Random Mutations (A good Idea in theory but ultimately far, far to unbalancing in practice. . .)
2) Any grimly serious overtones. This was my one major problem with the Alternity version of the setting; it was just too grim. 1st though 3rd editions managed to be both serious, and whimsical; while the 4th edition was a little heavy on the whimsy. I realize that I am in the minority here (just as I am with spelljammer), but I like the cartoony, comic-booky feel of the Gamma World Setting.

That's all. The BlaQ Lion

 

[Henry@home]

Having been a fan of Gamma World since the first edition, I have my following picks:

must have:

1. "Wild and Wahoo" flavor - or a small section on varying campaign tone (though this may be tough to put both this and "Grim 'n Gritty" in the same game)
2. Random mutations, but grouped by power levels ( you can have 3 or 4 of these or 1 or 2 of THESE...) Random mutations was some of the fun of the game
3. Dice-rolled artifact learning tables (with fun side effects but very rare chances of blowing yourself to smithereens)
4. Pure strain humans, mutated animals, mutated humans, and mutated plants (With a more complete list of animals and plant types as base stocks - bring back those plant PC's from 1e!!!)
5. proper equipment value guides to gauge the worth and level requirements of artifacts to PC's (Kind of like they way the DMG currently determines if a 5th level character can afford a vorpal sword or not).
   [/list=1]
   
   MUST NOT HAVE:
   1. Seattle as a base setting ("The Land of Settle", while I'm sure fun for the WotC staff, really rubbed me the wrong way as a setting, as well as some of my players. Either a non-specific settingsicne many of your readers are from different regions or even different countries, or return it to the good 'ol "Walkee", home of the Fourth edition!
   2. Grim 'n Gritty - If I want Mad Max, I'll use Alternity rules. Gamma world was premised on totally "fantasy" levels of mutations - radiation in real life would never do the things that Gamma World had - staying true to the original game means to me keeping with the "Starship Warden" feel of the original game.
      [/list=1]
      
      A word on Random Mutations: Random mutations was some of the fun of the earlier versions, and while some people have reservations on balance, what BETTER place to put them than in a mini-game? Balance is not as big an issue in my mind when the game is likely to never be expanded upon past the initial release...
      
      I hope some of these suggestions were helpful in some way... Looking forward to it, Erik!
      
      -Henry

 

[trancejeremy]

FWIW, The rights to Metamorphasis Alpha have apparently been given back to Jim Ward (the original author).

He has a new version in the works, too.

http://www.fastforwardgames.com

(There's more info about it on the message board).

So you might not want to use the Starship Warden...

 

[Kichwas]

1. Mutant plants, animals, and humans.

I'd do this in a "build your race" like rules setup. Rather than premade races for each animal type... Because the potential list is just too large.

2. What does this do? Rules for exploring lost technology and getting eaten by it (or other suprises )

3. Radiation.

4. Rules for your personal technology familiarity. All the way from 'barbaric' to 'lives in Alpha Complex'. A trade off system I'd wager. The more you know tech, the less you can deal with the ravages of the outside world.

For instance when I was a kid I used to read a european comic called Axa. It took place in a wild post-cataclysm world full of mutants and such. But Axa herself was an escapee from a domed city of people hiding away from the truth of the world. That's a common theme of the genre it seems. Those domed cities full of techno-madmen.

5. Something for building robots and other nasty devices to hunt down PCs with.


Gamma World was an old favorite of mine...

I'd really like to see this one be OGC so other publishers could take what WotC does and expand it out further.

A mini game might not be able to have enough in it to recreate all my old Gamma World PCs. And the thing I've liked the least about the mini games so far has been the lack of OGC which effectively stops them dead for future growth.

MUST NOTS:

1. Making all the mutations and such from character generation random. I'd go for a system of pick up to 3 or 5 good traits and pick one bad one for each good one you pick. Or a point buy system where they have costs and the bad ones negative costs... BUT, also include a random table for those who want it.

Perhaps the mutations are feats.
And the bad mutations are 'anti-feats' that by taking give you one more feat (or two more for very bad stuff).

The racial ability of a mutant of any kind could then simply be 'X bonus feats'. This wrapping up race design and mutations in one stroke. Providing good thought is put into how to balance out the number of mutation-feats of both the good and bad variety.

This would also allow you to evolve as you level.

 

[LcKedovan]

Having been a fan of Gamma World since the first edition, I have my following picks:

must have:

1. "Wild and Wahoo" flavor - or a small section on varying campaign tone (though this may be tough to put both this and "Grim 'n Gritty" in the same game)
2. Random mutations, but grouped by power levels ( you can have 3 or 4 of these or 1 or 2 of THESE...) Random mutations was some of the fun of the game
3. Dice-rolled artifact learning tables (with fun side effects but very rare chances of blowing yourself to smithereens)
4. Pure strain humans, mutated animals, mutated humans, and mutated plants (With a more complete list of animals and plant types as base stocks - bring back those plant PC's from 1e!!!)
5. proper equipment value guides to gauge the worth and level requirements of artifacts to PC's (Kind of like they way the DMG currently determines if a 5th level character can afford a vorpal sword or not).
   [/list=1]
   
   MUST NOT HAVE:
   1. Seattle as a base setting ("The Land of Settle", while I'm sure fun for the WotC staff, really rubbed me the wrong way as a setting, as well as some of my players. Either a non-specific settingsicne many of your readers are from different regions or even different countries, or return it to the good 'ol "Walkee", home of the Fourth edition!
   2. Grim 'n Gritty - If I want Mad Max, I'll use Alternity rules. Gamma world was premised on totally "fantasy" levels of mutations - radiation in real life would never do the things that Gamma World had - staying true to the original game means to me keeping with the "Starship Warden" feel of the original game.
      [/list=1]
      

1. 1. 
      
      As with alot of the people who have posted, I pretty much think my list is close to this one as well... Definately need the range of mutants and base stock (animal, plant, human, pure-strain).
      
      Death machines, robot and android foes, Installations, the cards, The different weapons!! wooop!!! Can't wait!
      
      -Will

 

[Aeris Winterood]

Hmmmm...

What do I want to see...

Powered Assault Armor
Giant Mutant Rabbits
Mulitudes of Maliscious Mutations.

What I do not want to see...

Magic
Magic
Magic

 

[Danzauker]

Being a Gamma World since... well 2 months ago whei I finally found the Alternity book I'll give my unbiased point of view

First, if it's the case, split the setting on two or more issues of polyhedron, maybe rules first and setting later

Then I agree with most people here:

Mutation galore!!
Wackiness a go-go!!
Artifact level techs!!

Gamma World seems a cartoon style apocalictic game (biker mice from mars, from example) , so stick with it.
Should not be so hard to tweak the rules to a gritty setting if needed.

Or well, a Mad Max setting could be an excellent idea for future issues of Polyhedron