director13 Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 A significant consistent point of style for Gamma World is the difference between the powers available to mutants, and the high tech skills and equipment available to pure strain humans. The fifth edition of Gamma World did this a little differently. Instead of some kind of insurmountable psychic block (which is -no lie- how previous editions handled it), they addressed this difference in a new way. Effectively, they added genetic scanners to hi-tech equipment. If you weren't a pure strain human (or an android, more about that in a minute) you couldn't even make laser rifles (or a, *gulp*, black ray pistol) function, even if you knew how. I think fifth edition also added androids as a playable race. If not, it was only one version earlier. In any case, it was also definitely fifth edition that added backstory in the main rules to indicate that pure strain humans were not, in fact, humans at all. They were the "Invaders" that destroyed the world (with the help of their mechanical servants, the androids). All of the actual humans died or mutated (or were somewhere else) when the Cataclysm happened. Pure Strain Humans didn't mutate; Pure Strain Humans can't mutate. It hit me about a week ago, randomly. Pure Strain Humans? Cylons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolgroth Posted July 20, 2009 Report Share Posted July 20, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World Interesting. I only vaguely remember Gamma World and that was probably first or second edition. Had the mutant cybercat on the cover. Never played much. Just read the rules from time to time. Seemed like it would be a great game but never had enough player participation to actually get a game running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 22, 2009 Report Share Posted July 22, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World I played it 20+ years ago, highschool/college years...I remember having fun with it. Though the mutations could make a mockery of play ballence, we just let people "hosed" by the random creation rules trash a character and reroll..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted July 23, 2009 Report Share Posted July 23, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World Is 5th the really annoying one that was tied to d20 future? The one that didn't capture the tone and feel of all the previous editions of gamma world? Put out by S&S IIRC. 'Cuz that one really sucked. And the idea that pure strain humans not really being humans (being genetic enhancements) goes all the way back to 2nd ed and some of the cannon articles in Dragon/Ares. Cyborgs were allowable as playable PCs in 3rd, in one of the rules supplements/modules (Epsilon Cyborg if I am not mistaken), I seem to recall rules for Android PCs in that one.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpCommander Posted July 29, 2009 Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World I played GW 1 (suited PSH scanning ruined city block before entering). It was a fun game idea. Implementation was nuts though. The idea of having 80hp with a first level character was really amazing to me at the time. But the combat was different from D&D and necessary. To truely get the background though you need to read "The Long Afternoon of Earth" and other Brian Adliss books. I was working on a Post Apocalyptical setting for Hero a few years back and lost everything when my drive crashed. I still have the drive. Maybe someday I'll get the data off of it (also had irreplaceable photos on it. sigh.) A PA setting needs a definite campaign direction in order to be fun in the long term. In my campaign the players were PSH exiting their mine shaft, directed by a paranoid and somewhat tyranical Artificial Intelligence with the mission of restablishing the New World Order. Alas, some things have gone wrong. It's not 10 years after the apocalypse, its 200. The Apocalypse wasn't total and so there is a already a strong culture in place. It's a nasty fudal structure but still one strong enough to put up some good resistance to the idea of a new power structure. The cause of the apocalypse I chose was a bit interesting. It was the result of having won a first contact war with an alien race, the enemy survivors resorted to vengance weapons. It was a lot of work and a lot of writing. I'll get around to redoing it someday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
director13 Posted July 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World Is 5th the really annoying one that was tied to d20 future? The one that didn't capture the tone and feel of all the previous editions of gamma world? Nope, that was 6. 5 used the Alternity rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
director13 Posted July 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2009 Re: Secrets of Gamma World I was working on a Post Apocalyptical setting for Hero a few years back and lost everything when my drive crashed. I still have the drive. Maybe someday I'll get the data off of it (also had irreplaceable photos on it. sigh.) I know what you mean. I've been able to "salvage" stuff from half a dozen other peoples' work on the web, plus at least that mean official supplements, and it's still slow going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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