Was your Gamma World not gonzo?

[Piratecat]

Gamma World games I've played in have always been completely wahoo!(tm) I'm looking forward to the new edition tremendously. If I'm not playing a mutated half-cockroach, half-yeti as my first character I'm definitely doing something wrong.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I miss the edition with the color coded table you had to roll on.

 

[Stormonu]

When we were 12-13, our Gamma World game was heavily influenced by the likes of Thundarr the Barbarian. I've run other games since then, and they've been a bit more serious, but still with a wide variety of mutants. Nothing quite as human-centric as say, Mad Max or Water World, but as about as serious.

I like my animforms and robots, but you can keep the sentient plants.

 

[Celebrim]

Let me ask you this question in response: is the world of Bas-Lag not gonzo?

 

[darjr]

I think I have a misunderstanding. Our games were gonzo but they were not 'comedy'. Off the far end and a bit crazy and a little bit wacko but not all for chuckles. While I do enjoy that, I hope that new game is more than that.

 

[Werebat]

If you want some decent reading material that might give some ideas for a Gamma World that is less on the "wahoo" side, check out "Hiero's Journey", which is basically Gamma World in Canada. The protagonist has some potent mental powers, rides a semi-intelligent moose, and is friends with a sentient, telepathic bear. Mutant villains include mutant mentalists, rat-folk, monkey-folk, giant frogs, and a few others.

If you can accept the mental powers stuff (which CAN get a bit wild and wahoo), the setting is pretty low-key. No fire-breathing monsters, no laser eyebeams, no bunnies turning metal into rubber. I guess I'd say many of the standard GW mental mutations would be present but few truly unrealistic physical ones.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I ran a serious gamma world campaign back in the early 1980's, but I've got no idea whether or not that could be done with these new rules in the same way - so much derives from the crunch in the game.

To add some additional context - I picked up GW after playing lots of the original Metamorphosis Alpha (the granddaddy of sci-fi RPGs), which we played seriously.

So the only measure we had for our GW campaign was that of attempting to play it seriously, which meant that some mutants turned up more often than others, if you know what I mean!

We found that the scale of GW was too large compared to the dungeons or starship Warden which we were used to at that time, it was also pretty unfocussed too, so we didn't end up playing it for long.

Cheers

 

[DMH]

Never had an interest in silly GW. I like mine to be deadly, alien and fun in a "run away, run away!" vein.

The 7th edition doesn't interest me at all. Adamant is releasing Warlords of the Apocalypse in December- a Pathfinder PA game similar to GW. Though with all the work that I have done on it*, I might stick with Mutant Future. At least until a decent Alternity retroclone is written.

*Pdfs and someday books from Skirmisher. Their forum has a few hundred monsters that I wrote. End of plug.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Let me ask you this question in response: is the world of Bas-Lag not gonzo?

To which I will respond by touching my belt buckle not once, not twice, but thrice!

(Sorry, that had the trappings of a back-and-forth between spies to me.

Aside from what I've just read on the ever-reliable Wikipedia, I'm not familiar with Bas-Lag. Am I correct in assuming the novels have fantastical, ridiculous aspects but are not zany and goofy?)

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Hey all,
Thanks for all of the responses! So it sounds like some people played it as zany (and purely for that reason), while others took a more serious bend to it. (Different experiences and opinions? Who would have guessed! )

Good suggestions on the recommended readings and other games to check out that may suit better.

The advice that a GW game could be gonzo but not a farce especially clicked since I think that's what I would want out of it. Keep the bizarre but not make it a joke. I'll probably hold off on pre-ordering it and give the book a better read through at the gaming store but more than likely this gift certificate will burn its way through my pocket sooner than later!

--Wednesday Boy