Gamma World is Gonzo D&D on Steroids
May 14, 2017 10:32:27 GMT -5
robkuntz, mormonyoyoman, and 2 more like this
Post by The Master on May 14, 2017 10:32:27 GMT -5
I like to think of Gamma World as Gonzo D&D on Steroids, the mechanics are not the same, but you could use alternate OD&D mechanics easy enough.
So what goes on in Gamma World? The original game was set in a post-apocalyptic world about 300 or so years in the future, after a nuclear war. Later editions changed that to other options, such as, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, the Large Hadron Collider tearing a hole in the fabric of reality and letting strange things pour in from all kinds of otherwheres and otherwhens. I would encourage you to make up your own catalyst for the end of the world as we know it and the trigger for your specific post-apocalyptic world. Set it 300, 1000, 3000 years later and make it anything you desire. The rule book is to generate ideas as you create your own special post-apocalypse that interests you and your players, not to follow lockstep. Throw that thinking away and discard that rigidity of thought as robkuntz proclaims and do your own thing. View any rulebook for any game and all other sources as a jumping off point to some non-linear new starting point. Use only what you want and what works for you.
While the common player races included humans, mutants, sentient animals or plants, and androids, you do not have to limit yourself to that. You can bring in selected things from D&D, Palladium,Arduin, and other games, and you can borrow from all of its imitators;
Imitators include games such as Aftermath!, After the Bomb (game), Rifts (role-playing game) and Darwin's World to name a few. Also the Labyrinth Lord based Mutant Future OGL game.
I am fond of Wolfen from Palladium just to name one and Deodanths from Arduin to name another. Every monster or creature that was ever invented in games or literature or myth is fair game for your game.
The knowledge to create anything high-tech was mostly lost (along with the equipment to make it with for the most part) and the players will have to search for any high-tech of which they only have partial knowledge and a creative description of even common devices can be comedy gold as the players make incorrect assumptions about what you describe to them. There will be a lot of misinformation and confusion about the Ancient's and their devices.
In the original game there were three levels of technology, those were: primitive, Medieval/Max Max and some high tech both what you find and in little tiny niches where at least some knowledge of the Ancients was preserved to greater or lesser extents.
Then there were the crazed "Cryptic Alliances" all of whom want to kill everyone or most everyone who is not them. Some of these are allied with each other, some more than others. Here is the original list of "Cryptic Alliances" and I encourage you to look around the world today and make up your own and add them to your game, because our present day world has at least 15 or more "Cryptic Alliances". These "Cryptic Alliances" are secret societies, religions, and political movements of the post-apocalyptic world:
Brotherhood of Thought
Seekers
Knights of Genetic Purity (Purists)
Friends of Entropy (aka Red Death)
The Iron Society
Zoopremisists
Healers (rarely attacked by anyone other than the Red Death)
Restorationists
The Followers of the Voice
The Ranks of the Fit
The Archivists
The Radioactivists
The Created (Androids)
Here is a link to a nuke map of the US that you can use for ideas, it is a not a very big image so you will likely want to make your own. I would advise making your own versions on a decent size world map and then decide what area of the world you want to put your setting. That of course may dictate changes, deletions and additions to your "Cryptic Alliances" package.
There are all manner of things you can stumble across on the Internet such as the Great Black Swamp Historic Boundaries in North West Ohio and North East Indiana.
This is a game where the rule of cool and the rule of fun can and IMO should dominate. We are not striving for realism in this game. This is a pure gonzo romp.
So what goes on in Gamma World? The original game was set in a post-apocalyptic world about 300 or so years in the future, after a nuclear war. Later editions changed that to other options, such as, nanotechnology, genetic engineering, the Large Hadron Collider tearing a hole in the fabric of reality and letting strange things pour in from all kinds of otherwheres and otherwhens. I would encourage you to make up your own catalyst for the end of the world as we know it and the trigger for your specific post-apocalyptic world. Set it 300, 1000, 3000 years later and make it anything you desire. The rule book is to generate ideas as you create your own special post-apocalypse that interests you and your players, not to follow lockstep. Throw that thinking away and discard that rigidity of thought as robkuntz proclaims and do your own thing. View any rulebook for any game and all other sources as a jumping off point to some non-linear new starting point. Use only what you want and what works for you.
While the common player races included humans, mutants, sentient animals or plants, and androids, you do not have to limit yourself to that. You can bring in selected things from D&D, Palladium,Arduin, and other games, and you can borrow from all of its imitators;
The knowledge to create anything high-tech was mostly lost (along with the equipment to make it with for the most part) and the players will have to search for any high-tech of which they only have partial knowledge and a creative description of even common devices can be comedy gold as the players make incorrect assumptions about what you describe to them. There will be a lot of misinformation and confusion about the Ancient's and their devices.
In the original game there were three levels of technology, those were: primitive, Medieval/Max Max and some high tech both what you find and in little tiny niches where at least some knowledge of the Ancients was preserved to greater or lesser extents.
Then there were the crazed "Cryptic Alliances" all of whom want to kill everyone or most everyone who is not them. Some of these are allied with each other, some more than others. Here is the original list of "Cryptic Alliances" and I encourage you to look around the world today and make up your own and add them to your game, because our present day world has at least 15 or more "Cryptic Alliances". These "Cryptic Alliances" are secret societies, religions, and political movements of the post-apocalyptic world:
Brotherhood of Thought
Seekers
Knights of Genetic Purity (Purists)
Friends of Entropy (aka Red Death)
The Iron Society
Zoopremisists
Healers (rarely attacked by anyone other than the Red Death)
Restorationists
The Followers of the Voice
The Ranks of the Fit
The Archivists
The Radioactivists
The Created (Androids)
Here is a link to a nuke map of the US that you can use for ideas, it is a not a very big image so you will likely want to make your own. I would advise making your own versions on a decent size world map and then decide what area of the world you want to put your setting. That of course may dictate changes, deletions and additions to your "Cryptic Alliances" package.
There are all manner of things you can stumble across on the Internet such as the Great Black Swamp Historic Boundaries in North West Ohio and North East Indiana.
This is a game where the rule of cool and the rule of fun can and IMO should dominate. We are not striving for realism in this game. This is a pure gonzo romp.
