Gamma World Mutants & Machines Book

[Kanegrundar]

I hope to have my copy this coming week. (Last little gift to myself before the holidays!) I'm glad to hear that it's being well-recieved considering how mediocre the Core Rules uneded up being, IMO.

BTW, what are the critters written up for use as PC's?

Kane

 

[Tetsubo]

I hope to have my copy this coming week. (Last little gift to myself before the holidays!) I'm glad to hear that it's being well-recieved considering how mediocre the Core Rules uneded up being, IMO.

BTW, what are the critters written up for use as PC's?

Kane

Dabber (modified raccoon), Hisser (snake with human traits), Serf (super-soldier program), Sleeth (modified aligator), Free Car (sentient vehicle) and New Flesh (type of bot).

 

[Dark Psion]

OK, I will try not to be too negative with the new Gamma World this time, so let's try playing Good & Bad.

Good: The original mutants and machines! Most of the new creatures and robots are great.
The Fire Eater: A Grizzly Bear that can breath out fire retardant foam.
Petrolotter: They get a High from feeding off oil spills.
Ultravore: Cross a Dobberman with a Shark and RUN!
Communit: A giant cyborg containing a dozen humans.
Free Car: KITT from Nightrider as a player character race.
Skyshark: An attack helicopter with a Tiger Shark's brain.

Bad: What's missing; Orlens, Kamodos, Wardents, Creatures from the Alpha-Epsilon adventures and once again almost all the mutant plants: Crep Plants, Horl Chools, Kep Plants, and the Perth (Gamma Bush).
Name changes: Hawkoids are now Terrorbirds, Herp (Tiger Beetles) are now Virguven and Gamma Grass is now Khemsieth.

Good: Art by Claudio Pozas! 3rd edition's creatures were all drawn by Larry Elmore, no one else came close to capturing Gamma World til now.

Bad: Errors. There are still some grammar and editing mistakes. The most noticable is in the Carrin entry. Their Telepathy says they are 3rd level Telepaths as per the Psi FX rules from d20 Modern, which is not the system in the Gamma World Player's Handbook. Also they have lost their Ecconomic Genius Mutation and don't even have any similar skills.

Good: Nature gone Wild: One thing that was missing from the PH was how the world's envoiroment has changed. Chapter 3 covers life out of control! My favorite is the Econet: a web of Viruses, Bacteria and Fungi that enforce the balance of nature in an area and you just better hope it doesn't decide that you are a prey species, because it will force you to graze grass in a field until it is time for you to feed the predators.

Bad: Mutant conversions and Nano: Two things I was hoping for in this book was a guide to converting other d20Modern creatures to Gamma World. Some scientist had to create a Pegasus, but what if the Raptor aspects have become dominate? Imagine Dopplegangers as androids that were created to be decoy targets for VIPs and are now very paranoid synthetics who ironically survived.
Also, while everything in the new GW is blamed on Nanotech, I was suprised that Nanoswarms didn't get an entry. Imagine the possibilities: Nanos that used to keep farm animals healthy might now have a Baleful Polymorph effect and I hate to think of what kind of nanotech was created for S&M clubs and other fetishes.

 

[Unseelie]

My favorite is the Econet: a web of Viruses, Bacteria and Fungi that enforce the balance of nature in an area and you just better hope it doesn't decide that you are a prey species, because it will force you to graze grass in a field until it is time for you to feed the predators.

Hmm... sounds like someone's watched Nausicca.

 

[buzz]

Bad: Errors. There are still some grammar and editing mistakes. The most noticable is in the Carrin entry. Their Telepathy says they are 3rd level Telepaths as per the Psi FX rules from d20 Modern, which is not the system in the Gamma World Player's Handbook.

This seems about par for the line so far. The PHB gave me the distinct impression that the various authors really weren't keeping abreast of what each other were doing. Sad to see that this is continuing.

 

[Dark Psion]

This seems about par for the line so far. The PHB gave me the distinct impression that the various authors really weren't keeping abreast of what each other were doing. Sad to see that this is continuing.

That might be a good explaination for the Intuition mutation.

In the Chirplick (Land Dolphins), Intuition {Psi} requires an Int check to gain a +2 to attack and defense vs a specific creature it is in combat with.

But in the Sleeth, Intuition {Ex, Psi} means you cannot be caught flat footed and gain a +1 intuition bonus to defense, attack & initiative.

Personally, I like the Sleeth version better since Intuition has always been a passive mutation, not one you activate.

 

[Patrick O'Duffy]

That might be a good explaination for the Intuition mutation.

In the Chirplick (Land Dolphins), Intuition {Psi} requires an Int check to gain a +2 to attack and defense vs a specific creature it is in combat with.

But in the Sleeth, Intuition {Ex, Psi} means you cannot be caught flat footed and gain a +1 intuition bonus to defense, attack & initiative.

The explanation is that the Sleeth power is different to the Chirplick power. So they have different mechanics. Plain and simple.

Yes, the two powers have the same name. Then again, both Gorgons and White Dragons have 'breath weapon' as a power with different mechanics, to pull an example out of my hat. It ain't unprecedented.

 

[buzz]

Yes, the two powers have the same name. Then again, both Gorgons and White Dragons have 'breath weapon' as a power with different mechanics, to pull an example out of my hat. It ain't unprecedented.

This isn't quite true.

*Mechanically*, the gorgon's and dragon's breath weapons are the same. They follow the same general precedent for breath weapon effects: they they are limited in the number of uses per day, and have a set DC for a Reflex save, and affect one of the standard area types (line, cone, etc.). They follow the general guidelines set in the glossary of the MM.

If, say, one of them used a BAB + Wis check to affect a specific tagrget who had to resist by making a caster level check, or whatever, then you'd have something mroe along the lines of the "right hand doesn't know what the left is doing" methodology of GWd20.

d20 is generally very specific about terminology. The Intuition example would be more akin to D&D having multiple defiitions for, say, Evasion, that had nothing to do with each other.

Which it doesn't.