How compatible should Gamma World be with Dungeons and Dragons?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think there is anything wrong with designing a new GW to be comptible enough with D&D that you can use monsters and gear between the two, but I think it would be a mistake be be o slavishly tied to D&D that GW loses its gonzo flavor. That is to say, compatibility is fine but no effort should be made to balance the two, especially in the PC arena.

Mutant Crawl Classics has slithered into the chat

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think balancing on 5E is bad for GW.

I wouldn't bother doing so*, although I think having 2024-era CR ratings is useful just so that DMs know what they're unleashing, if they care.

* I also don't think balancing is necessary for D&D campaigns in general, other than the first adventure or two for new players.

 

[Reynard]

Mutant Crawl Classics has slithered into the chat

We're talking about GW though, not some pale but awesome imitation.

For the record, Mutant Future is the best GW clone/re-imagining.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it would do WotC and the D&D fanbase some real good for them to make a completely different game. Like, almost nothing in common between the two.

I can't see Hasbro being willing to devote the manhours of their now greatly depleted staff to anything other than the cash cow.

WotC folks who want to do something different almost certainly have to do so as freelancers or by wholesale moving to another company.

 

[Reynard]

I wouldn't bother doing so*, although I think having 2024-era CR ratings is useful just so that DMs know what they're unleashing, if they care.

* I also don't think balancing is necessary for D&D campaigns in general, other than the first adventure or two for new players.

Your suggestion of GW appropriate subclasses suggested balancing against 5E subclasses to me. If that's not what you meant, mea culpa.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Your suggestion of GW appropriate subclasses suggested balancing against 5E subclasses to me. If that's not what you meant, mea culpa.

No, it's just an existing framework that a huge modern audience already understands. Swapping in GW-appropriate content into that framework is baby steps toward leading them toward other (WotC-owned) games.

That said, I don't think this system would work for a modern Top Secret or Boot Hill. I don't know enough about Star Frontiers to know if that would work.

But you could definitely make a Gamma World out of 5E pretty easily.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I can't see Hasbro being willing to devote the manhours of their now greatly depleted staff to anything other than the cash cow.

WotC folks who want to do something different almost certainly have to do so as freelancers or by wholesale moving to another company.

Yeah. My point is that neither of those things is good.

 

[Reynard]

But you could definitely make a Gamma World out of 5E pretty easily.

For sure. I just wouldn't want to see the gonzo compromised because some chud thought it was "imbalanced." That is kind of one of the pillars of GW

 

[Blue]

I think that the mechanics of a game system shouldn't just allow the tropes and archetypes of a genre, but actively support them.

I think D&D basics could allow Gamma World with the appropriate mutation rules, but I don't know that the level/class focus and the other emergent behavior from the foundational rules actively supports the feel of Gamma World.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For sure. I just wouldn't want to see the gonzo compromised because some chud thought it was "imbalanced." That is kind of one of the pillars of GW

Yeah, and a good argument for building GW on an OSR chassis. Since WotC will never do that, MCC and Mutant Future are probably the best bet for folks wanting contemporary-ish games to play Gamma World.