Customer Reviews

Gamma World Players Handbook (D20 Edition)

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1 star:		(6)

 

 

248 pages should have been ample room to present a complete picture of the Gamma World setting as a supplement for d20; this isn't Glorantha, people. Entire editions of previous incarnations managed to do it in a fraction of the page count. They also managed to provide complete, detailed systems for creating mutant PCs-THE key element to any game that calls itself Gamma World. This book, however, deemed it more important to present a flawed community-building mini-game, as well as essential GM content such as, "Formed where the continental plates have forced the land upwards, mountains can be found on every continent," and stats for boxes and sacks. Creating mutated animal PCs, or "mundane" mutations such as an extra limb or darkvision, are left to the reader's imagination and kit-bashing skills. That the FX rules are not grounded in any existing d20 Modern systems make this doubly difficult.

It may be that future products will expand upon the various shortcomings of the Player's Handbook-though, as of this writing, none of the scheduled products provide any more material on mutations. If the quality of this product is any indication, however, I cannot justify purchasing any of them. Sloppy editing, uninspired visual design, and a seemingly incomplete understanding of d20 mechanics make this book, in my opinion, essentially unusable; what little useful material that is provided is simply not enough to justify the work needed to bash the game into shape. Its sober take on the setting and lack of sufficient FX rules will disappoint Gamma World veterans, and it's overall poor quality will likely frustrate everyone else.

If you're seeking post-apocalyptic d20 fun, I would avoid the Gamma World Player's Handbook and instead check out Darwin's World or the most excellent Omega World d20 mini-game from Polyhedron #94. The latter manages to do in about 50 pages what the Player's handbook fails to do in 248.

The 25th aniversary of one of my all time favorite RPGs, Gamma World, brings us the 6th edition of the game. For those unfamiliar with this setting, Alpha World was the dinosaurs, Beta World is our world now and Gamma World is what comes next. A world where science and technology reached an unbeilvable apex only to collapse into ruin. It is a world of Mutants, Robots and ancient ruins. A World where you carry a sword and a laser pistol while running from humanoid badgers with machine guns. It's Mad Max mixed with Tank Girl and a pich of Logan's Run thrown in.

Now does the 6th edition live up to its predecesors? No it does not! The focus of Gamma World has always been playing weird and wacky adventures. You might be a mutant wombat traveling with a walking, talking rose bush, but the new designers have decided that they didn't like that kind of gamming and so mutant plants are gone and mutants have only 50 mutations to choose from and half of them are defects(previous editions had from 80 to 150 mutations). The psionic rules are sucidal, you may kill yourself every time you use your psychic powers and far to much of this book is Game Master information, not player information. The book does introduce cybernetics and nanotech, but those that use nano quickly devolve into a D&D cleric.

While I love the Gamma World setting, this book will not be fun or easy to play. I would advise you check out Darwin's World 2, currently in pdf format and will be in hardcover in December. Both games use D20 Modern rules, so they are interchangable and DW2 mutation rules, psionic rules and tech rules are much better to use. Between the two, you can probably recreate the Gamma World so many of us love.

All of the above? heh-heh.
First off. Ignore the cover title. This was originally meant to be a Campaign book, not a PHB, and this is why it doesnt feel like a PHB book.
Secondly dont grab this book thinking its going to allow you to play a GW game straight up. There just isnt enough presented to do it propperly without A WHOLE LOTTA work on your part. This book is meant to be part of a FIVE book set. The d20 Modern core book.(D20M), The Players Hand Book(PHB), The Monster Manual(MM), Arms & Equipment(A&E), and Dungeon Masters Guide(DMG).
The third thing to consider is that this IS NOT the old Gamma World setting in any way. Dont expect much to be really familliar, which is a big change from 5 preceeding editions where there was a definite familliarity from one to the next.

What does the book give you?
You get a post apocalyptic setting wherein mankind reached the heights of technological and biological manipulation... And then proceeded to tear it all down and differing factions all vied to make dominant some vision of "how things should be". This is a world where new life forms and sentient beings were grown on demand, where AIs became sentient minds, and were then placed in toasters and screwdrivers, where nanotech became so prevalent the stuff all but saturates some regions. The art is all black and white and is well presented. The writing has many typoes and goofs, but nothing truely reaches out and smacks you as broken.

The book proceeds from a overview of the setting to get down to character creation. Humans are divided into the Stock Human (stadard in all ways), and the Pure Strain Human (Familliar with technology still.) Next are Mutants. Divided into several sub groups, Altered Animals (beasts hiven human form and sentience), Altered Humans (Modified people that breed true), New Men (Mutated humans), and True Mutants (A catch-all for any mutant. They also tend to gain more mutations on levelling or when severely damaged.) The last race being Synthetics. These are free thinking (more or less) robots and androids that have survived after the wars. Synthetics can upgrade themselves with special equipment.
Next is the Class system. This is the d20M system that is based around attribute ideals such as Strong, Tough, Fast, etc. This allows a more custom class creation as you move along. For the d20GW there have been some slight changes and additions.
New skills and feats are presented and occupations available to work through. With time the players can move into Advanced Classes unique to the setting. Survivor, Nanosmith, War Chief, Prophet, Leader, and Cybercologist.
A selection of equipment and vehicles are given. This section has just enough to outfit a character. But is far from complete or extensive. That will be covered in the A&E book (Out of the Vaults). There is a section covering some Synthetic upgrades at the end.

The next section delves into powers and effects and starts with Mutations. Sadly this section is very weak and does not give enough to really satisfy most fans of previous editions. The mutations though follow into the Biotech Implant and Graft section where it is explained the rules for biological gear that mimics mutations.
This is followed by the Nanotech system. This is the focus of the new setting and nanites can be used to produce a vast array of efects limited only by the users imagination, skill, and access to local and personal nanites. You define scope, power, effect, and more, then try to get the nanites to do what you want.
Cybernetics are given their own section. Bionics and cyborg attatchments are detailed.
Psionics are seperated from mutations and now potentially accessible by non-mutants. The system is both very sparse, 4 psi powers with sub-systems, and has some application flaws that can lead to potential abuse.

Next up is environ and society. First is a section detailing environment. Mountains, forest, etc.
Then the book devotes a large section to Community creation. Communities are given PC style stats, skills, feats and more and are meant to draw the players intoa more active role in the affairs of their home base as it were. This section may perplex or delight you, depending on your tastes.

The monster section covers both old edition mutants and machines, and some new ones too. Though many entries are lacking illustrations. The mutants in this section do NOT use the mutations system presented for players.

The book finishes with some conversion notes and the 4th Ed Gamma world classes converted to d20 D&D format for those wishing not to use the d20M class system.

If the changes and new system do not put you off, and you want a setting less grim than Darwins World. Then the new d20GW setting may be the thing for you and this is where you start.

I bought this book along with the Mutants & Machines book as an initiative for our D&D role playing group to try something new. The Gamma World setting was mostly my choice, but we believed trying something new and wild was needed and that Gamma World would deliver. I had played some of the old Gamma World setting, but it had been awhile, so my comments here are based on the quality of the writing and not "old vs. new."

First of all, the book states that you can use the GW Player Handbook with the D&D Player's Handbook. This is unfortunately a far cry from the truth. Although you might stretch it, there are just too many blanks. In the end, I had to purchase the D20 Modern book just to get enough of the correct information to make the game run smoothly.

The new d20 system now requires higher standards in rule details. If you buy this one book thinking you have all you need to play in Gamma World, you are out of luck.

Fortunately, Swords & Sorcery put a module called "Midnight in the Mystery Garden" that has premade characters and a small but eventful adventure. I highly recommend you check it out (http://www.swordsorcery.com/gammaworld/freeadventure.html). It got us past the potentially tedious character building process (where more questions arise) and into game play first. Later, I went back and reviewed the character building process with the given pre-made characters and could understand the details, but not typically before.

The Gamma World Player's Handbook should almost be called a 'World Setting Book'. It does repeat the same classes found in D20 Modern (note: it leaves out alot of details only found in D20 Modern), and goes on to explain world related feats and capabilities (FX). However, what I found the most annoying was what seemed to be a rather incomplete equipment section, sketchy details on the wealth system, and even more sketchy details on synthetics (robots). All in all, very disappointing and very frustrating when I was trying to setup an adventure before hand. I kept having simple questions with no answers.

However, our excitement was to try something new, and the book's world setting definitely does that. It got us excited to think about nanotechnology, mutations (which is the better listed part), and a variety of high-sci-fi questions (such as soultech). It definitely offers that. As a game master, I especially found the way they treat towns just like characters with feats and skills an EXCELLENT concept -- something I plan to take over to my other gaming systems. (Again, something in the player's handbook?)

So, to summarize, I would say the book is misnamed and is misleading. The world setting is powerful and interesting, but only if you have the stamina to figure it out and a desire to fill in the blanks. Game masters with the D20 Modern book and a very creative mind need only buy this book. The players should only put their money on getting a D20 Modern book -- if that at all.

This new edition of Gamma World manages to provide less usable material in 248 pages than some previous editions did in a fraction of the page count. The various sections on Gamma World staples such as mutations, cryptic alliances, and technology are very brief, almost to the point (in the case of mutations) of being nigh-unusable without a lot of work. The art and layout are uninspired, there a lot of typos, errata, and contradictions, and the authors just don't seem to be very proficient with the d20 system. They seem determined to come up with as many distinct subsystems as humanly possible, all unrelated to each other, and all seemingly flawed in some way. Potential buyers are advised to check out the Darwin's World RPG or the Omega World mini-game from Dungeon/Polyhedron #94 instead. In all, I felt that this book was a waste of my time and money.

I played Gamma world when it first came out and it was a huge joy in the fact that if offered more in each book. Detailed maps and indepth scenes were in abundence. When my amazon order for gamma world came in it was almost like the day my Harry Potter book arrived. Yet as I read the entire book I was disappointed since it like the quality and style of the orignal Gamma World, in fact I would like to point out that it is extremely weak since it relies heavily on modern D20 instead on its' own.

So for those who bought the book it is a waste of money unless you have money to burn (which they are counting on).
I honestly thought about the Gamma world history and why it happen as being lame. Who really cares about nanotech? All the dangers of nuclear, chemical, and bio weapons of mass destruction were reflected highly in the original gamma world. This one is a neutered version! Please do not waste your money!

I own every prior addition to Gamma World, and while they were campy, they managed to stuff more content into a few dozen pages than this one does in hundreds. AND they were stand-alone books that didn't require D20 Modern for rules (not that the writers of this version of GW seem to understand the rules anyway).

If a post-apocalypse game is your thing, try 'Darwin's World'. It does everything better than Gamma World.

In short - little content, odd inconsistent game mechanics, too expensive for the content, captures little of the spirit of the earlier versions of Gamma World, VERY poorly edited.

I am a long time fan of Gamma World, and when I bought these books, I thought I would be able to just read them and play. WRONG!

The series's main failings:

1) Each book has a little of everything in it. There are monster entries in just about every book, for example. Put all the mutations in one book, all the monsters in another, etc... It makes it hard to use because you can't remember where things are.

2) The author rambles on with history, backstory, etc... wasting countless pages that could have held lists of equipment, monsters, mutations and more. It seemed to be written by a fantasy author looking for an outlet. Just give me the tools I need and I'll write the story myself, thanks!

3) Make it stand alone, not dependent on d20 modern. How irritating was this?? Not only are the GM books too expensive too begin with, but you have to have d20 Modern too! This company must have experienced salespeople on staff. What were they thinking?

I haven't seen the other alternatives, such as Omega World and Darwin's World, but I have half a mind to sit down and write my own version, this one is so bad.

I'm not sure that this is an IMPROVEMENT in the Gammaworld line, but it is certainly a change, and change fosters movement, and movement means hopefully acceptance, and acceptance will grow to improvment.. Why do I blather like that, well thats kinda what the new rules do. They've totally nerfed mutations and mutants, added biotechnology, and nanotechnology. No more mutant PC plants. So I don't know how well it will be recieved, for myself, I'm happy with the book, and will be making house rules to put more fun back into mutants. Also -- They've left no way to deal with radiation, thats a really bad thing in Gamma World. Happy Scavenging!!

I've always liked Gamma World. While I have not played it nearly as much as I would have liked, I always liked the game. That being said, when I saw the new d20 version, I picked it right up. How does it compare to the other versions?

The Good: The look and feel of it is still intriguing. More technological advances have been incorporated, such as Nanotech and gene manipulation. There are rules about influencing communities, which is an interesting addition.

The Bad: Too much space is taken up by rules which shouldn't be in the Players Handbook. The rules on building and influencing communities, monster stats, town stats, and world climate rules would have been better located in the Gamemasters Guide, which is supposed to be out soon. The designers could have taken a hint from D&D 3.5 and put more tables in the book, so that finding certain information was easier. You need the d20 Modern book to understand some of rules presented.

All in all, I would recommend the new Gamma World system. However, the rules are sparce enough that the system is geared more towards an experienced GM.