Has Anyone played the d20 Gamma World game?

[Ghendar]

I've heard some very mixed reviews/comments about it definitely leaning toward the negative and am wondering if it's worth picking up.

 

[scourger]

I bought it, read it and immediately sold it.

If you really want to see a good version of Gamma World for d20, pick up Dunegon #94 and have a look at Omega World on the Polyhedron flip side. It's really good. Concise but complete. Simple but powerful.

 

[Teflon Billy]

It's not that great

I was pretty stoked when I heard about its release, but its execution (Particularly it's Mutations) were pretty bland compared to its predecessors.

The Gamemasters Guide is a decent generic Post apocalypse RPG reference, but the game itself...I wouldn't bother given the existence of both Darwins World (which seem to get much closer to the feel they were going for) and the previously mentioned Omega World (which gets a lot closer to the original GW material)

So yeah, concise opinion on it: It's not awful. Call it a "C-"

 

[Twowolves]

Sorry Billy, but yeah, it IS awful.

I was incredibly stoked about this game, waited for almost a year from the time it was announced and bought it the day it was released.....
... and it was awful! Yes, the mutation system is a lump on a log, especially compared to previous editions with Life Leech and Gamma Eyes and Telekinesis, but what did me in were the psionics and nanite rules. If you were psionic, you advanced your ability in it not by feats, PrCs or even leveling, but by just doing it. Once psionicly active, you could crawl into a corner and practice your way to divinity. And for the nanotech, once again, you didn't get access by a class or feat, you just found it (or more correctly, the DM decided if you could have it or not), and once you had it, you could do just about anything. Make a laser pistol litterally out of thin air, or just shoot a laser out of your arse without the gun. I think it started out as a half-assed way of explaining all the fantastic elements of previous editions ("he didn't shoot lightning from his hands, he made his nanites do it!"), but the execution blew.

Run, do not walk, RUN away from this steaming pile. Go buy Darwin's World (2nd ed), which is pretty much like what GW used to be like (before they were obsessed with being "whacky" and was still the original, high-lethality, survival of the fittest style game). Not to mention the fact that DW is still being supported. Omega World is good, but mainly aimed at the Thundar the Barbarian style of play.

 

[Dark Psion]

Remember, not all mutations are good ones.

If you have access to D20 Gamma World/ Darwin's World/ Omega World/ D20 Past-Modern-Future and previous versions of Gamma World, you could put together a mish-mash of a setting,..

.. which is basically what Gamma World is

 

[Angel Tarragon]

I can thankfully say I haven't. I looked it over in the store when it came out and I can honestly say, it looked like drivel.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

If you like Alternity, you might want to look on Noble Knight for the Gamma World setting developed for its system.

 

[Ghendar]

Thanks for the comments guys. I appreciate it.

 

[Tetsubo]

I love Gamma World. It's my favorite non-D&D game. I own every edition and all of the supplements (I think I might be missing *one*). And even I have to admit that the d20 version failed. It is to scattered, too many things at once and it fails at being a cohesive game. The "monster" book is quite good. And you might be able to cherry-pick some things here and there. But ultimately it disappoints.

I will chime in with the Darwin's World recommendations. My only problem with DW is that it might be too grim and harsh of a world. So harsh and grim I doubt the world would survive at all. If you ramp things back a bit it could be a very fun game. The background for the game is also not to my liking but your mileage may vary... So pick up DW over GW...

It breaks my heart to have to say that...

My dream is to see someone take the 4th edition GW game and fully convert it to d20. That would be great. The 4E editions was sort of a precurser to 3E D&D, it shared many of the same mechanics. If I were to run a GW game today the 4E edition would be my choice.

 

[scourger]

If you like Alternity, you might want to look on Noble Knight for the Gamma World setting developed for its system.

The Alternity Gamma World book is pretty cool, too. Although I didn't like the Alternity rules, the setting was good; and the adventures were fun. I ran those adventures converted to Omega World d20 for a fun little campaign.