Gamma World
Gamma World is a post-apocalyptic science fantasy role-playing game in which player characters explore Earth centuries after the collapse of civilization, searching for artifacts from the time before "The Great Upheaval". The game was originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrows heavily from Ward's earlier role-playing game, Metamorphosis Alpha.
Setting
Gamma World takes place in the mid-25th century, more than a century after a second nuclear war had destroyed human civilization. This war is only vaguely described in most editions of the game, and what details are provided change from version to version:The first two editions explained that ever-increasing material prosperity and leisure had led to ever-more radical and violent social movements, culminating in a final war in the years AD 2309–2322, and ascribe the final annihilation to a terrorist group called "The Apocalypse" and the ensuing retaliation by surviving factions.
Later versions would alter the reason for the collapse. The 2000 Alternity edition explained this as caused by the arrival of aliens and nuclear response. The 2003 d20 Modern iteration explained collapse as due to uncontrolled nanotechnology and AI. The 2010 edition attributes the destruction of civilization to the activation of the Large Hadron Collider, which caused multiple realities to exchange features in an event known as the Big Mistake.
All backstories agree that the cataclysm destroyed all government and society beyond a village scale, plunging the world into a Dark Age. In many editions of the game, technology is at best quasi-medieval. Some, such as the 2003 and, to a lesser degree the 2010 edition, feature advanced technology that is well known and often easily available. In contrast, super-science artifacts in earlier editions were risky to use due to the average Gamma World character not knowing how to properly operate such devices, or possibly even what the device is at all. The post-apocalyptic inhabitants of Earth now refer to their planet as "Gamma World", or, in later edition, "Gamma Terra".
The setting is chaotic and dangerous and little resembles pre-apocalyptic Earth. The weapons unleashed during the final war were strong enough to alter coastlines, level cities, and leave large areas of land lethally radioactive. These future weapons bathed the surviving life of Earth in unspecified forms of radiation and biochemical agents, producing widespread, permanent mutations among humans, animals, and plants. This has caused mutations such as additional limbs, super-strength, and psychic powers. Many animals and plants are sentient, semi-civilized species competing with surviving humans. Both humans and non-humans have lost most knowledge of the pre-war humans, whom Gamma World's inhabitants call "the Ancients". The only group with significant knowledge of the Ancients are isolated robots and other AIs that survived the war. These machines tend to be damaged, in ill repair, and/or hostile to organic beings.
Player characters include unmutated humans, or mere survival against the multifarious dangers of the future such as gun-toting mutant rabbits, death machines, and other, more hostile, Gamma Worlders.
A recurrent source of conflict on Gamma World is the rivalry among the Cryptic Alliances, semi-secret societies whose ideological agendas, sometimes monomaniacal ones, often bring them into conflict with the rest of the Gamma World. The Pure Strain Humans' Knights of Genetic Purity, for example, wish for genocide on mutants, Iron Society seeks the same for baseline humans.. Other rivalries involve attitudes towards Ancient technology. The Restorationists seek to rebuild Ancient society while others the Seekers, wish to destroy it.
System
Throughout the game's many editions, Gamma World has almost always remained strongly compatible with the then-current edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Attribute generation is much the same for instance with a range of 3 to 18, randomly generated by rolling three six-sided dice. The attributes themselves are the same, but with occasional name changes such as Physical Strength instead of Strength and Mental Strength instead of Wisdom. This allows Gamma World and D&D characters to potentially cross over genres.Character generation is mostly random, and features one of the game's most distinctive mechanics, the mutation tables. Players who choose to play mutants roll dice to randomly determine their characters' mutations. All versions of Gamma World eschew a realistic portrayal of genetic mutation to one degree or another, instead giving characters fantastic abilities like psychic powers, laser beams, force fields, life draining and others. Other mutations are extensions or extremes of naturally existing features transposed from different species, such as electrical generation, infravision, quills, extra limbs, dual brains, carapaces, gills, etc. These were offset with defects that also ranged from the fantastical—such as skin that dissolves in water, or a scent that attracts monsters—to the mundane, such as seizures, madness and phobias.
Characters in most versions of Gamma World earn experience points during their adventures, which cause the character's Rank to increase. Unlike D&D, however, the first two editions of Gamma World do not use a concept of true level or character class, and increases in Rank do not affect the character's skills or combat abilities. In fact, in the first three editions of the game, character rank is primarily a measure of the character's social prestige.
The game mechanics used for resolving character actions, on the other hand, greatly varied between Gamma World editions. The first two editions, like the early editions of D&D, depend heavily on matrix-based mechanics, where two factors are cross-referenced on a chart. For some actions, such as attacks, the number located on the matrix represents a number the acting player must roll. For other actions, the matrix result indicates a non-negotiable result. Gamma World's first two editions had a variety of specialized matrices for different situations.
The third edition rules replace specialized matrices with the Action Control Table, a single, color-coded chart that allowed players to determine whether a character action succeeded, and the degree of success, with a single roll. The ACT requires the referee to cross-reference the difficulty of a character action with the ability score used to complete that action, determining which column of the ACT is used for that action. The character's player then rolls percentile dice; the result is compared to appropriate column, determining a degree of success or failure and eliminating the need for second result roll.
The fourth edition was directly compatible with 2nd Edition AD&D with some minor differences in mechanics. The fifth and sixth editions though would relegate Gamma World to that of a Campaign Setting and require the core books to play. 5th uses the Alternity system which is mostly represented in the book but required the core rules in order to resolve some factors. 6th Edition though was fully incomplete on its own and required the d20 Modern rulebook in order to play the game.
The seventh version uses a streamlined version of D&D 4th edition mechanics. Character generation choice though was nearly fully removed. Instead of choosing a character class, a player had to roll a twenty-sided die two times and consult an accompanying character origin table. For example, a player might obtain the result "Radioactive Yeti" and gain the powers associated with the "Radioactive" and "Yeti" origins. Attributes, mutations, and skills were also randomly assigned. Two decks of cards comprising the core of a Collectible Card Game are included with the game. One deck represented random Alpha Mutations, which could be drawn to gain temporary powers, and the other contained various Omega Tech, powerful technological devices that could possibly backfire on those that used them. Some 4th edition rules enhancements for the setting include new damage types such as "Radiation", Gamma World-specific skills, and increased lethality. Despite these differences, it is possible to use characters and monsters from a D&D game in Gamma World and vice versa.
History
First Edition (1978)
The original Gamma World boxed set was released in 1978. TSR went on to publish three accessories for the 1st edition of the game:- GW1, Legion of Gold by Gary Gygax, Luke Gygax, and Paul Reiche III
- GW2, Famine In Far-Go by Michael Price
- Gamma World Referee's Screen
At least one other TSR product was announced -- Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, an adaptation of Metamorphosis Alpha's campaign setting to Gamma World's rules. Work on the adaptation was halted when a 2nd edition of Gamma World was announced. This was later released as Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega using the Amazing Engine Rules.
Second Edition (1983)
The second edition Gamma World boxed set was released in 1983. Two modules and two accessories were released for this version:- GW3, The Cleansing War of Garik Blackhand by Michael Pierre Price and Garry Spiegle
- GW4, The Mind Masters by Philip Taterczynski
- GWAC1, Gamma World Referee's Screen and Mini-Module
- GWAC2, Gamma World Character Sheets