Gamma World: Our First Session

[Wik]

Thanks for the session report! I've heard negative things about the adventure (it sure reads like a D&D dungeoncrawl), but it looks like it worked just fine!

It *IS* A D&D Dungeoncrawl. I like a lot of the things wotc has been doing, but their adventures SUCK. I've long ago learned that the way to make them better is to cut out much of what little fluff there is and to add connecting scenes between the encounters. That's how I personally get wotc adventures to "work" for me. This is particularly true in the case of Dungeon Delves which, while awesome for a beleaguered GM, are lacking in non-combat scenes by design.

The Gamma World adventure is really just a string of fights with no connecting scenes. There are no skill challenges, and since PCs automatically get a tech card at the end of the fight, there's precious little incentive to explore (the book suggests letting PCs that search certain areas to draw two cards and keep the one they like more).

That being said, we were running it as pretty much just a straight series of fights anyway, so it worked in this case. For example, in the first fight, the bad guys were talking and my brother just said "meh. To hell with them. I charge." and rolled initiative.

In this case, the boardgaminess of Gamma World does serve to make their encounters better.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I miss 3e Gamma World.

Sigh.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

I ran a session of Gamma World today since only 2 out of 4 players of my regular D&D group had time to play. Character generation was as hilarious as playing the game itself. The party consisted of Spinaccio the felinoid plant (and Mafia member) and Big Bad Borszcz the giant doppelganger. They pretty much steamrolled through the first five encounters of the (admittedly linear) adventure and managed to collect a lot of omega tech. I ran the fifth encounter as written except for the laser mesh trap, which made it a level +7 encounter (!), and they wiped the floor with the opposition. They've just reached level 3! My poor monsters.

We had a great time, and we're looking forward to the next session.

 

[The Human Target]

I miss 3e Gamma World.

Sigh.

Did it die or something?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Did it die or something?

Moved away, with no new adress given.

I think there were a lot of words spoken that couldn't be taken backs afterwards, so...

 

[I'm A Banana]

I hate this because of the collectible booster packs.

But I think I love it for pretty much every other reason.

That's the joy of it. Go big or go home; ludicrous, overpowered mutations and effects are one of the things that define this sort of "wahoo!" game style. There's no expectation of character survival, and either the beasties or the PCs can just plain get lucky. Very different from D&D, and for me very freeing.

Perhaps weirdly, I like my D&D with more wahoo and randomness.

I'm gonna take a few pages from GW, I think...

 

[Holy Bovine]

I miss 3e Gamma World.

Sigh.

So go play it! 4E Gamma World ain't out there killin' 3E Gamma World!

Although that would make a cool scenario....