Gamma World: A Serious Game, Seriously.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Gamma World: A Serious Game, Seriously.

PeterWeller: Apr 21, 2003; I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Bieeardo posted:

My gaming groups have always tended toward long-term play with lots of power inflation, but my impression of the 4E game is one of one-shots and short campaigns with fire-and-forget character generation... and that's great! It does make me wonder why they spent so much time on the Cryptic Alliances in Legion of Gold, but I suspect that's equal parts call back to earlier editions and part of the inventory of optional rules.

If you want a more long term and serious version of the game, you should look into the 4th edition from 1992. It has a broad spread of character options, huge room for character and campaign development, a fairly large line of supplements and decent rules in the form of a sort of proto-D20.

That said, with the two expansions and some house rules, the current edition can make a fine system for a long campaign.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 05:20

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 20:10

PeterWeller: Apr 21, 2003; I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Bieeardo posted:

Actually, I find the beer and pretzels, short advancement table approach refreshing.

I do find it fascinating how the game has changed from edition to edition. A friend had what I think was a first edition box, back when there were three or four different sorts of power cells, and Death Machines roamed the wastes with one-shot-kill Black Ray beams, the only mutant plants were wildlife, and figuring out old tech involved a decision tree that was scarier looking than the one from Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

There's a copy of the core book for what I think is 4th Edition around here somewhere. I remember it had a rising Armor Class (which was a forehead-slapping moment when I first saw the THAC table), and a surprising array of shiny old tech lavished with technobabble, but no Black Rays or Tarrasque-caliber Death Machines. It was still cool, character creation seemed a lot smoother, and the rules for acquiring mutations during adventures were amusingly intriguing.

I really like this new edition, partly because it's even easier to roll up a character, and you really don't have to worry about statting out mutations for individual monsters. I think I mentioned before, but I feel kind of weird about how the old Cryptic Alliances were added in-- they seemed like a major influence in earlier editions, with groups like the Bonapartists or the Purists being downright scary; there isn't really much room given to them this time around, and with Gamma Terra being a much sandboxier setting they don't offer the same sense of urgency. They feel more like Fallout's regional bandit tribes and rad cults than major threats. Or maybe I misunderstood them the first time.

Yeah, 4E is the one with THAC and ascending AC. It also has really nasty black rays that do direct Con damage or something like that, and roaming death machines as well as the power armored suits with which you can fight them were added in supplements.

I think you're right about the Cryptic Alliances. This edition just doesn't have the (re)building focus that a lot of the others did, so the Alliances lose their political significance. Along those lines, I think it would be cool to tack 2E's advancement rules where the players leveled up their settlement instead of their characters on to the latest edition's rules for adventuring and advancement.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2013 21:54

PeterWeller: Apr 21, 2003; I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

Bucnasti posted:

Each edition had rules that were based on whatever the most recent game TSR had released, 1st and 2nd were very DnD like, 3rd (which was the first version I played) was similar to Marvel Super Heroes, there was a D20 version, and I think an Alternity version.

The thing that was common to most of them was lots of tables for random character creation, random mutations, random equipment etc.

The earlier editions focused a lot more on exploration and figuring out what things were (there were complex processed of experimenting with items).

1E and 2E are kinda neat. You don't level up your individual character; instead you level up your community. Personal improvement comes from picking up mutations and technology. 3E is when they really started detailing the setting, and it was probably the most popular edition. 4E was probably the most mechanically sound, using a sort of ur-D20. It's my favorite edition aside from the new one, which is fantastic for goofy one shots and short campaigns.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 18:06

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