One of the nice things about age is that you reflect on things differently based on your life experiences. You start to realize you're not quite the young teenage Spider-man anymore, but rather the quirky Star-Lord, or even Ant-Man.
Such is how I feel discovering 2010's Gamma World, or perhaps rediscovering it. I was already vaguely aware of the game when it was being announced, but I didn't pay much attention to it. For one thing, it was released during that window when 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons released the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (August), the Dark Sun Creature Catalog (end of August - early Sept), then the Essentials products, which included the Dungeon Master's Kit and the Monster Vault. I had gotten into Dungeons and Dragons the spring of 2010, which meant I was playing catch up on a number of volumes (my 4e book collection is still incomplete, but it's mostly the Power Source books, so I'm not that worried).
Gamma World was strange. From what I read, the one thing that jumped out at me as being "scary" was the random rolls for character generation. I rarely got to play characters; why did I want to leave my fate up to chance? The second was the theme - I was so engrossed with all these new monsters and lore, that making a jump to a random jumbled sci-fi was not on my radar. Long story short, what a mistake.
As I've been re-working and preparing to get my 4e games rolling, I came across some mentions of Gamma World. This rebooted some memory reading about how Gamma World had a 4e state block for the Froghemoth, a creature that meant nothing to me in 2010 but meant a lot more 14 years later. That led down the rabbit hole of what other 4e compatible monsters were part of Gamma World, which led to me reading about how the game worked and understanding more of it.
That was all a week ago.....now, my game table looks like this:
All three expansions, just like that. I also found all the Alpha Mutations/Gamma Tech cards can be ordered printed out via
DriveThruRPG. I can use some of the D&D writing fund credit to get these set up at my table and proceed with all options! As a side note, I wish WotC would offer all the 4e Fortune cards as a similar option, or at least sell each set individually. I'd love to get those as well, for, well, 4e reasons (more to come!).
The cards seemed to be controversial (from the posts I read around 2010). The core box came with 80 standard and one booster, while Legion of Gold contained a handful as well. If I get to run the game before my other deck comes, I think this is plenty to start, and again, I can get the printed ones ordered, so I don't need to address how right or wrong this decision was. Personally, I think it's cool new space for the game, much like how I felt about Fortune cards in 4e and what they offer. My initial plan for them is to keep them random vs having the players build decks, just to keep with the whackiness.
So, with that being said, I am ready to craft some adventures, roll some dice, and take my friends into the whacky future!
I mentioned above that one of the things that made me iffy about Gamma World back in 2010 was rolling for your mutations. Now, I find that to be one of the coolest and most-fun aspects of the game. Yes, there are mutations I would like to favor, as some concepts get me really excited to try out, but overall, I think it's a great way to brainstorm and see what one can sort out. I especially would love to be a Fungoid or a Plantoid.
I've read some other blogs about sources of inspiration for Gamma World. One I loved was Stephen King's "The Dark Tower". Overall, the series took me about a year to finish, with the first four books being especially mind-blowing to me with the way the world held fantasy, sci-fi and horror. I'd like to keep that "feel" of the nostalgic memories of discovery in my game. The other "theme" I can't help but feel as I read about this game and look at character creation is that the players as a band of misfits have a lot of similarities to the Guardians of the Galaxy. That film felt special because it had so many visual oddities, bright colors, and whacky characters. Had it been around when Gamma World launched, I wonder if I would have jumped on it sooner.
I can't help but feel inspired to craft similar situations in my home games that echo what made Guardians great, including a great playlist in the background (quietly, cuz I don't want to make things to too distracting).
Page 80 of the Gamma World Rulebook also lay out the "principles" of Gamma Terra and the game ideas, much like what we see in the 4eDMG (for Points of Light) and the Dark Sun Campaign Setting (for Athas). In Gamma World, these are:
- "Human" is a broad term
- So is "mutant"
- The world is lethal
- Wonders beckon
- Alpha flux happens
- Omega Tech is everywhere
- You never know what you'll find
I find all of these evocative and love how it still instills a sense of surprise to the players by saying "you really don't know what to expect, and that's ok".
Page 91 of the Rulebook has a small blurb called "Adventuring in Your Home Town". That part has stuck out to me as a good way to create the familiar, but making it strange. If anything, living so close to "The Motor City" really starts to suggest what this wasteland looks like (hint, there are lots of rusted vehicles and mechanical components). I've got some ideas, but as I read through the books and work these out, I'll leave them to another post.
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