Customer Reviews

Gamma World (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying, Gamma World Campaign Setting)

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This is the fifth time Gamma World has reared its head from the depths of "dead game" limbo. I have been anticipating it since I first heard about it and took a survey a year ago on what I would like to see in it.

The art and layout of the book is great. I will say this is the coolest looking Gamma World yet. To bad the system it uses is "finished."

The game works fantastic with the Alternity system, but it lost a little in the translation. Not one drop of the drama and action are missing, but rather a (in my opinion) very critical part is: the mutant animals and robots. Sure the rules for animal PCs are in the Dragon issue 272 but I would have rather it have been in the main book.

Another thing I find a blessing and a curse is that they reprint much of the Alternity rules in this book. This is nice because Gamma World is its own self contained book but it also does two things. One it makes me feel like Gamma World really isn't part of the Alternity system, but rather a way to tap a forgotten market. It also takes space away from other things more Gamma World specific.

To be fair the animals were said to be removed because they didn't fit in with the image WotC designers were going for. However (as I said before) animals make up a critical part of my game and therefore feel odd to be missing.

All and all it is a good addition to my collection, but a little flawed.

Before Wasteland, Fallout and the Road Warrior, there was Gamma World! In their salad days, TSR created their vision of the post-nuclear war world to the delight of many fans who had been seaching for a non-fantasy setting in which to roleplay. It was met with fair success, but never got the following of AD&D and was an early casualty to the TSR turmoil of the early nineties.

This product brings the game up to date with the Alternity rules. Even though you don't need the Player's Handbook and GameMaster's Guide, I highly recommend getting them to enhance play. Gamma World can easily fit into a current Alternity campaign as a world visited via spaceship or an alternate dimension setting.

The book does not have a lot of the light-heartedness that made the original such a favorite of my friends, but it still looks like a blast to play. It provides a fair amount of material to introduce to your players as you see fit without stagnating your own sense of creativity.

My only real complaint is that we can't expect much in terms of future development. Wizards of the Coast decided to scrap Alternity and Gamma World represents one of the few products that didn't get the axe before shutting down production completely.

Having played and owned every version of the Gamma World rules (1st - 4th edition) This new book from Wizards of the Coast is not Gamma World (just like 3rd edition is not AD&D). Mutated Plants and Mutated Animals is no longer part of the game. Sure there are some premade of each in the game, but if you decided to play a mutated wasp it is no longer possible. None of the rules have been kept and when reading the book it lost the sci-fi feel that is gamma world. Veteran players don't matter anymore as this is apparent from current releases from WOTC. The only use I have found for the rulebook is as a room divider for my gerbil.

Nice cover art. But not a "Hardcover." And not much of a campaign setting. The background is very brief - and isn't very well developed. Advanced Tech is strictly limited to use only by Pure Strain Humans. Because for some reason, before the mutations started, every single peice of equipment from cars to grenades is built with a "Genteric Scanning" device that can tell the difference between humans and mutants. Utterly disabling the equipment unless weilded by a human. (And rendering it non-functional if the scanner is tampered with...) Andriods are one of the "Hero" or player races. An interesting concept. But for some reason the Andriods don't remember who built them or why. They just wander around the rubble with everyone else, trying to be helpful. The mutations presented seem overall weaker than in previous editions, but just as strange. "Acid touch" can be used once per week, while some offensive powers work every combat round. ("Hey, thats it for me, can we camp for a week?")

Most of the setting meterial in the back is taken up by a couple of overly scripted scenario's.

Lets hope that this is the last holdover from TSR, and that the new material under Wizards will fare better.