[Gamma World] In my grubby little hands

[buzz]

My copy of the GW PHB arrived today. I'll be at my Monday game for most of the night, but if anyone has questions, feel free to post them.

 

[baseballfury]

My copy of the GW PHB arrived today. I'll be at my Monday game for most of the night, but if anyone has questions, feel free to post them.

There's one burning question every old school GW fan needs to know the answer to: can you play a giant mutant rabbit with a high powered rifle?

 

[buzz]

There's one burning question every old school GW fan needs to know the answer to: can you play a giant mutant rabbit with a high powered rifle?

Affirmative.

One of the "races," Mutants, includes engineered animals. That, or you could, with GM permission, play a Hoop, i.e., sentient, man-sized rabbit guys.

 

[Arani Korden]

Affirmative.

One of the "races," Mutants, includes engineered animals.

How do they handle mutant animals? One lump description, or a bunch of little write-ups, or somewhere in between?

 

[Spatula]

And how do they handle (if at all) balancing all the different mutant abilities? Especially vs. non-mutated characters.

 

[buzz]

"Engineered animals" are part of the Mutant genotype (i.e., race). The book refers the reader to the d20M core book for rules on creating "moreaus". My impression is that moreaus *also* get mutations, but I'm not 100% sure.

As for balance, mutant characters start the game with at least one negative mutation, and suffer from Genetic Instability (penalties to saves vs. mutagens that get worse as they gain levels) and Spontaneous Mutation (every time they gain a level or are reduced to 0hp or less, there's a chance they gain more mutations). Moreaus and some engineered humans are the exception to the latter. They also don'y gain the built-in bonus feat and skill points humans do.

 

[buzz]

Quick update: I'm now about halfway through the book and, well, it's kind of disappointing. Some of us have been discussing it over at RPG.net if you want to take a look. I don't seem to be alone in being underwhelmed.

 

[Luddite]

After reading the various posts on the topic, I think I have a theory why the game is not reaching expectations.

The great-axe of balance swung and nutered the world.

(Note: I have not gotten my copy nor realy read any more then the free downloads. So I am Retcaly Orating)

People are commenting on the small number of mutations. Flipping though my 1st ed book, I could see why. There was a large desparity of usefulness between the mutations. So balance has swung and took out the "cool" ones but did not replace them.

The other noteable sounds like the lack of varity of player "race" options. The rules for playing mutated animals sounds vague at best. Once again, this sounds like they decided not to publish anything that could be overly abused.

Maybe the later books will cover these gaps.

-The Luddite

 

[buzz]

People are commenting on the small number of mutations. Flipping though my 1st ed book, I could see why. There was a large desparity of usefulness between the mutations. So balance has swung and took out the "cool" ones but did not replace them.

The other noteable sounds like the lack of varity of player "race" options. The rules for playing mutated animals sounds vague at best. Once again, this sounds like they decided not to publish anything that could be overly abused.

I'll be interested to see what you say once you get your copy. Personally, I don't think that balance has anything to do with it. My issue isn't that they took all the really kewl powerz; it's that there's hardly any powers in there at all.

Prehensile tail? Nope.
Eyestalks? Nope.
Quills/spines? Nope.
Low-light/Darkvision? Nope.
Blindsense? Nope.
Energy immunities? Nope.
Reptile- or plant-based PCs? Nope.

The list goes on.

Granted, a lot of what were "mutations" in previous editions are now spread over separate sections on mutations, cybernetics, nanotech, and psionics, but it still doesn't add up to a whole lot.

As for balance, I have yet to see any mechanism that balances out characters with these abilities vs. ones that don't, other than some RP'ing issues. A PC with no mutations and a PC with exceptional psi powers can both be of the same level and, on paper, are the same CR.

 

[Yellow Sign]

I'll be interested to see what you say once you get your copy. Personally, I don't think that balance has anything to do with it. My issue isn't that they took all the really kewl powerz; it's that there's hardly any powers in there at all.

I think what Luddite means is that the writers came up with a balancing problem with writing the rules. How do you give a 1st level character abilities like: Death Ray, Force Fields, Duel Brains, etc...with out grossly over whelming the game balance with a 1st level character with no mutations. Though the orginal Gamma world seemed to beable to do it.