Gamma World: Are those flying bat-lions shooting lasers from their eyes now?

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So I picked up Gamma World the other day. My group will be running through a one off on Saturday as a few of the regulars can't make it. The only D&D we know is 4e as we've all just started this past summer, so we don't have any knowledge of previous editions of either Gamma World or D&D.

I'm looking forward to it after reading through the book and the alpha and omega mutation cards. The cards I find interesting. Had I heard about Gamma World and the card mechanic before I read Penny Arcade's take on them I may have passed it up because of the cards.

Further down the page, titled Gamma World.

This is the intro that comes in the book.

In fall 2012, scientists at the large hadron collider in geneva, swit embarked on a series of high-energy experiments. No one knows exactly what they were attempting to do but a little after 3pm on a thursday afternoon came the Big Mistake. Something unexpected happened and in the blink of an eye, many possible universes all condensed into a single reality.

In some universes, little changed; it didn't make a big difference which team won the 2011 world series, for example. In other universes, there were more important divergences: The Gray Emissary, who was carrying gifts of advanced technology, wasn't shot down at Roswell in 1947, the black death didn't devastate the known world in the 14th century, the dinosaurs didn't die out, nikolai tesla did conquer the world with a robot army, and so on. The cold war went nuclear in 83% of possible universes, and in 3 percent of possible universes, the french unloaded their entire nuclear arsenal on the town of Peshtigo, Wisconson, because it had to be done.

The year is now 2162 (or 151, or 32,173, or Six Monkey Slap-Slap, depending on your point of view). It's been roughly 150 years since the big mistake and earth is very different. The ruins of the ancients (you and I) litter the landscape of radioactive deserts, mutated jungles and vast unexplored wilderness. Strange new creatures, such as beetles the size of cars and evolved badgers with napoleonic complexes, roam the world. Humanity gathers in small tribes though humanity isn't really the term to use anymore. Most sentient beings are mutated freaks who look little like the humans of today.

I'll let you know how things go.
 
Which edition?

My group had an early edition and tried to run it, but the only copy, purchased second-hand, had pages out of order. I have books that are in order now, so we'll probably start playing in a couple of weeks. Be sure to share how it is.
 
Oh. Well, we definitely won't be playing that one because we're completely racist against 4e. :)

We'll probably use the one based off the Alternity rules. Still, share how you guys like it. The setting and character creation look like a lot of fun.
 
I'm interested in learning other versions myself, the rest of my group isn't so I get to play what the group plays.
 
Aw, man. I remember the 1st ed of this game. It was pretty good, even if we did have to fill in a lot of the gaps in the rules in ourselves. Also, photocopying the back cover of the rulebook was my first cheap source of hex paper. True story.

--Patrick
 
Well, we played through our little test of gamma world and while I can't speak for the others, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Character creation could have been sped up with more books, as it is it took us about an hour and a half to make 5 characters, one of which wasn't used. Our group consisted of a giant pyromaniac, Mister Crispy, a human-engineered felinoid, Tabitha, an android empath, I.D.E.A., and my character, an android mind-breaker, Cobalt. Despite my character getting shitty omega tech and alpha mutations repeatedly, I also really enjoyed the cards. The felinoid got a skycycle, think flying motorcycle, early on that really helped us. The highlight of the night for my duster wearing, m4 wielding android was when I slid down ten feet of rope from a hatch twenty-five feet up on the roof, landed on the back of one of the flying bat-lions mentioned in the title of this thread, swung the remainder of the rope through its legs and then had the felinoid take the end and circle a pillar, thereby restraining and trapping the beast.

I recommend it if you're looking for something completely off the wall, the silly and absurd are right at home in gamma world, and you're looking for a bit of a diversion from your normal game. Though I personally wouldn't have a problem playing a full campaign, characters only level to 10, others in the group wanted to get back to more serious fare with our regular game picking back up next week. I think for our group it is going to remain as a back up if our regular plans fall through but if you had the right group playing a full 1-10 would certainly be possible, and extremely fun.

I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding the game as well, to the best of my ability anyway.
 
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