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Could anybody make a list of CYOA books set in Gamma Terra? That sounds pretty awesome. I used to waste some hours with the lone wolf series, is it similar to that (rolling dice, progressing your character)? I feel like the OP could use a decent write up of previous editions too. Anybody had experience with those who would like to contribute? There's also stuff like Gamma Patrol, which I would love to see more of.
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Dec 22, 2013 03:11
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According to the Wikipedia page for the Endless Quest series, there were a total of four Gamma World books: Light on Quests Mountain, Mystery of the Ancients, American Knights, and The 24-Hour War. The EQ books were strictly Choose Your Own Adventure-style books-- no stats to track, no random rolls, about the same size and page-count as a classic CYOA, and most if not all of the time you were a named, youthful protagonist who has deliberately set out for adventure in whatever form it happens to take. They had about the same success/loss ratio as a 'proper' CYOA book, some of which could be pretty drat grim, like losing one of your companions on your Gamma Terra adulthood quest, or drinking a poorly-labeled potion of growth in a closet... which really kind of fit with the 'dice fall, somebody dies' attitude that RPGs in general espoused in those days. The writing assumed that the characters some degree of familiarity with the world, and would briefly narrate that for the reader's benefit, but the really scary, high-level stuff they encounter, thanks to that same 'dice fall' attitude, only gets a name if it's inclined to provide one itself. Otherwise it's just scary description and potential threat the reader has to eyeball. They're long out of print, of course, but it isn't too hard to find them (and cheap) on eBay.
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Dec 22, 2013 05:05
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So, in-between my friend's 13th Age sessions I'll be running 4E Gamma World for a group of mixed-experience players. However, I'm going to ditch the base setting and do a sort of Low-powered Weird Conspiracy Superheroes thing that would be more Doom Patrol, Twin Peaks or No More Heroes than a straight supers game. I have all the Gamma World box sets, but I'm probably only going to use the core at first just so that things aren't too nuts at first. Do you think I'll need to change anything from the base rules to make it work with this setting?
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Dec 26, 2013 21:50
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I'd recommend ditching the skills in favor of 13a backgrounds, but apart from that I don't think you'd need to do any tweaking. Maybe add a little crunch to the weapons? Modern-like settings sort of assume weapon (gun) complexity. If I were to run it though, I'd still keep the nondescript "make your own weapon," if only because it's more fun. Building enemies is as easy as you want to make it, given the huge catalog of D&D monsters that can be re skinned to black ops mutants or whatever. Pretty much all GW monsters are good to go.
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Dec 27, 2013 00:27
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Did anyone here play the original Gamma World? I was curious how it compared to its new iteration. Also, this thread needed a bump.
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Jan 14, 2014 11:18
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There's been like... seven or eight editions over the years actually, each building on the last and occasionally making heavy rewrites. There are a few things that stand out for me, though. First is that Gamma Terra used to be the result of a nuclear exchange, so there was a larger focus on Hollywood radiation and none of the weird dimension overlapping stuff there is now. Second is that character creation was a lot more granular: you had Pure Strain Humans, who were tough survivors and immune to mutation; Mutant Humans and Mutant Animals, the latter of which were somewhat under-detailed in the earliest editions; and Mutant Plants a few editions in. Mutants rolled randomly for their powers on several different tables; power potency varied highly, with some marked outright as 'sucks to be your character' curse-grade stuff. This applied to NPCs and monsters too, which was realistic in theory but annoying to roll for all the time in practice. Mutants could acquire more mutations post-chargen with exposure to dangerous amounts of radiation in some editions. Mutations were permanent, unlike the weird rotation of Alpha Mutations characters get in the new edition. The whole ancient technology thing was a lot more complex-- lots of prewritten devices and D&D-style weapons lists, and three or four different styles of energy cell that one or another would demand. Where a new edition character can pick up a piece of Omega Tech and hit the ground running, there was a much greater focus on the characters having to puzzle their way through with sensory cues and flowcharts for the DM... which would occasionally break the item or injure the characters with bad rolls. Compare with Omega Tech and the generic weapons players are asked to skin themselves. Cryptic Alliances seemed a much bigger thing, but I suspect that's because older editions of Gamma Terra were a lot more detailed, and they were a part of the core book instead of a few pages in the latest one. I don't recall them having powers, like the cards that came with this time around, and the powers on those cards felt a lot more 'screw your buddy' than I would have expected... but that's me.
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Jan 14, 2014 13:57
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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).
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Jan 14, 2014 15:48
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I always had the feeling that sideline games like GW and Star Wars were test beds for new D&D mechanics near the end of 2nd Edition and during the run of 3.x. I remember sitting in the school cafeteria with a new copy of the GW corebook, seeing ascending armor class, and thinking, finally.
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Jan 14, 2014 16:56
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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. 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.
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Jan 14, 2014 18:06
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For those looking for a good breakdown of the different editions of gamma world and what they brought to the table, I encourage you to check out this blog writeup, as it takes a pretty comical look at the game through the ages. Pretty interesting stuff.
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Jan 21, 2014 00:18
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Lord Frisk posted:For those looking for a good breakdown of the different editions of gamma world and what they brought to the table, I encourage you to check out this blog writeup, as it takes a pretty comical look at the game through the ages. Pretty interesting stuff. Ooo, thanks for the link. ..I'm kind of sad now. I've read more about Gamma World than I will ever play. (Not counting "Alphaman" as Gamma World, of course.)
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Jan 21, 2014 00:22
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My friends and I are super casual tabletop gamers. We've dabbled mostly in world of darkness and a little bit in pathfinder, and have played gamma world 4e several times while ignoring most of the rules. We are confused about some of the origin attacks, namely ones that do not target AC. If an ability targets a defense like Will, does the opposing character make a roll and add his Will, or is the attacking character just making a roll to beat that static value? Example - I'm a mind coercer, I use my power that lets me damage a dude and make him swing at another dude. My attack roll total is 25, and the enemy's Will is 18. Does the attack succeed, or does the enemy get to roll a D20 and resist the attack on a 7+?
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Mar 26, 2014 15:13
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Paineopticon posted:My friends and I are super casual tabletop gamers. We've dabbled mostly in world of darkness and a little bit in pathfinder, and have played gamma world 4e several times while ignoring most of the rules. Attacking another defense works just like attacking AC. If you're attacking their Will and meet or beat that number, you hit.
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Mar 26, 2014 15:19
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I've been thinking about doing some Gamma World characters for the "Create a character for every game" thread, but the real problem with making Gamma World characters is that it's so hard to -stop-.
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Mar 26, 2014 20:52
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I've thought the same thing. Why not roll a whole party? Make sure to include the omega tech and alpha mutations.
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Mar 26, 2014 21:55
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I'd love to see some characters made using older versions of Gamma World.
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Mar 27, 2014 04:45
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Bucnasti posted:I'd love to see some characters made using older versions of Gamma World. As someone who has never played Gamma World, I am curious why you would like to see this.
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Mar 27, 2014 04:52
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Covok posted:As someone who has never played Gamma World, I am curious why you would like to see this. The older versions of Gamma World tended to be super random, with huge charts of randomly assigned mutations and equipment. I always find the most entertaining character creation posts to be the ones with a lot of random charts involved.
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Mar 27, 2014 07:02
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So I've played a few sessions of Gamma World now and will be going in again tonight. For people who want to play this, general tips: -You get an 18 and a 16 in your two attack stats. Nothing else really matters at all except Con. If you have bad Con you will be re-rolling your character soon, so you may want to talk to your DM about house-ruling that. -You can end up with lovely combos when you randomly roll your origin. It happens. Ask to re-roll if you hate what you got. -The Demon, Doppleganger, and Re-Animator origins are OP. Demon in particular has the most overpowered at-will in the game. -If you're looking for a faster, simpler D&D with more zaniness, sure, it does some of that. It gets rid of some of 4E's needless complexity (though not all) and replaces it with wild randomness. The weapon system is still over-complicated. Battles are still really long, like regular 4E. -Man, it is so nice to play a 4E-based game not completely balanced around resource management. -As mentioned in the thread, you really don't need to buy booster packs for this game, assuming you can even find them.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:33
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If people in your group are ok with it, the character generator in the OP is a great way to get backup characters ready. All you need to do is print out the sheet and copy the powers down (I prefer note cards). I did notice that fights go slightly faster, but this is all relative to post 3.0 combat, which is generally super long. You can certainly cut the weapon cruft and fiddliness with a flat +3 for weapon attacks, but I haven't actually tried it at my table.
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Jul 25, 2014 12:56
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