Since Campaign fucked me
Nov. 8th, 2003 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebitterguyThis got wrote in March for publication May/June. Since lines of communication w/ FFG are nil, and I've been informed that Campaign is now on hiatus, this is for the peeps out in peepville. The Scarred Lands article will follow shortly.
And I'm not at ALL pissed off that there will be no money for this.
The mission statement of the newest iteration of Gamma World is as such: "If the bear can't fire laser beams from his eyes, the game isn't done yet".
Flush from their successful adaptation of the Ravenloft horror setting from Wotc, Sword & Sorcery is going back to the classics shelf to provide gamers with another strange new, yet familiar, setting.
Gamma World was first produced by TSR in 1978 as a lighthearted post-apocalyptic game. It had five editions, including the 'Cyber-Badger' and 'Big Robot' editions. The most recent iteration was a version of the game that used the Alternity rules, released in 2000 as a one-shot.
Bruce Baugh, a game author with extensive freelance experience with Sword & Sorcery parent company White Wolf, is captaining the helm of the new Gamma World, and the laser beam projecting bear is his personal totem.
He's written a number of products for SSS previous to this, including Penumbral Pentagon and the Barbarian segment of The Player's Guide to Barbarians and Fighters, both for the Scarred Lands setting.
Baugh describes his goals for the newest incarnation of Gamma World as such: "we're building a world with a surprising degree of grounding in real physics and biotechnology and other subjects … but we're reminding ourselves at each step that things must be dramatic and engaging in play."
The bible for Gamma World describes the goals of the project as 'mythology brought back to life, full of wonder and mystery...and peril.'
WotC's license requires that the game use the d20 Modern rules system. Baugh doesn't view this as a detriment in the least. "I much prefer the attribute-based classes in d20 Modern," he says.
"The combo of basic class + occupation allows for the sort of customizing that I'm accustomed to from Storyteller system games and, for that matter, Feng Shui and Nexus. It's a happy match for me, and my authors seem to be enjoying it too."
Gamma World developer Bruce Baugh introduces the Advanced Classes for the new d20 edition:
THE LEADER. Head of a community or society, and with special talents for interacting with the rules for communities we're including. We're blazing some very cool new ground on this subject, and the Leader will get to do many interesting things.
THE PROPHET. Visionaries, psychics, and others with ways of foreseeing the future, and with a different set of tools for social engineering.
THE SAGE. Knows all, tells some. My notes here say "These are smart, engaged folks. More Gandalf, less doofus."
THE SMITH. The master maker, who will really get to shine when the technology book comes out, but who gets to be neat even in the first book.
THE WANDERER. The Man With No Name, essentially - put Clint Eastwood or Kevin Costner in silhouette in a barren landscape and there he is. The one who can survive anywhere and figure out how to turn whatever's going on in the next town to advantage.
THE WARLORD. The beat-down master par excellence, who will reflect my abiding fondness for HK action insofar as that fits.
The game will allow players to create characters of a variety of species, from pure strain humans (suited for the use of cyberwear and inanimate technology) to baseline humans (tougher and more resilient than standard humans) to Mutants, which can be humans severely mutated towards an animalistic state, or animals mutated into a human like state. As of this time, mutant plants were not a part of the core rules.
The final character type will be synthetics, from standard robots to clones to nanotech intelligences inhabiting host bodies.
Psionics will be included in the game as a feat based system, rather than the standard d20 psionics system introduced in the D&D Psionics Handbook.
The first release for Gamma World will be the player's handbook. Released in October, it will be 224 pages with a cover price of $34.95, and will be written by Ian Eller, Lizard, Mikko Rautalahti, and Geoff Skellams. It will include all the information players and GMs will need for a Gamma World campaign.
The game book will not include a master game world; instead, it will focus on allowing GMs to create their own Gamma World settings.
The first supplement to follow will be Mutants and Machines. Another 224 page hardcover book, it will offer both biological mutations and technological beasties. Rules included will expand options for playing Mutant and Synthetic PCs.
Following it will be Out of the Vaults, a 128-page sourcebook that will detail various technologies of the old world, and how to adapt them to the limited resources of the Gamma World setting. Further supplements to follow it should include a GM's Guide, a guide to creating post-apocalyptic societies and a guide to epic quests in the Gamma World settings.
And I'm not at ALL pissed off that there will be no money for this.
The mission statement of the newest iteration of Gamma World is as such: "If the bear can't fire laser beams from his eyes, the game isn't done yet".
Flush from their successful adaptation of the Ravenloft horror setting from Wotc, Sword & Sorcery is going back to the classics shelf to provide gamers with another strange new, yet familiar, setting.
Gamma World was first produced by TSR in 1978 as a lighthearted post-apocalyptic game. It had five editions, including the 'Cyber-Badger' and 'Big Robot' editions. The most recent iteration was a version of the game that used the Alternity rules, released in 2000 as a one-shot.
Bruce Baugh, a game author with extensive freelance experience with Sword & Sorcery parent company White Wolf, is captaining the helm of the new Gamma World, and the laser beam projecting bear is his personal totem.
He's written a number of products for SSS previous to this, including Penumbral Pentagon and the Barbarian segment of The Player's Guide to Barbarians and Fighters, both for the Scarred Lands setting.
Baugh describes his goals for the newest incarnation of Gamma World as such: "we're building a world with a surprising degree of grounding in real physics and biotechnology and other subjects … but we're reminding ourselves at each step that things must be dramatic and engaging in play."
The bible for Gamma World describes the goals of the project as 'mythology brought back to life, full of wonder and mystery...and peril.'
WotC's license requires that the game use the d20 Modern rules system. Baugh doesn't view this as a detriment in the least. "I much prefer the attribute-based classes in d20 Modern," he says.
"The combo of basic class + occupation allows for the sort of customizing that I'm accustomed to from Storyteller system games and, for that matter, Feng Shui and Nexus. It's a happy match for me, and my authors seem to be enjoying it too."
Gamma World developer Bruce Baugh introduces the Advanced Classes for the new d20 edition:
THE LEADER. Head of a community or society, and with special talents for interacting with the rules for communities we're including. We're blazing some very cool new ground on this subject, and the Leader will get to do many interesting things.
THE PROPHET. Visionaries, psychics, and others with ways of foreseeing the future, and with a different set of tools for social engineering.
THE SAGE. Knows all, tells some. My notes here say "These are smart, engaged folks. More Gandalf, less doofus."
THE SMITH. The master maker, who will really get to shine when the technology book comes out, but who gets to be neat even in the first book.
THE WANDERER. The Man With No Name, essentially - put Clint Eastwood or Kevin Costner in silhouette in a barren landscape and there he is. The one who can survive anywhere and figure out how to turn whatever's going on in the next town to advantage.
THE WARLORD. The beat-down master par excellence, who will reflect my abiding fondness for HK action insofar as that fits.
The game will allow players to create characters of a variety of species, from pure strain humans (suited for the use of cyberwear and inanimate technology) to baseline humans (tougher and more resilient than standard humans) to Mutants, which can be humans severely mutated towards an animalistic state, or animals mutated into a human like state. As of this time, mutant plants were not a part of the core rules.
The final character type will be synthetics, from standard robots to clones to nanotech intelligences inhabiting host bodies.
Psionics will be included in the game as a feat based system, rather than the standard d20 psionics system introduced in the D&D Psionics Handbook.
The first release for Gamma World will be the player's handbook. Released in October, it will be 224 pages with a cover price of $34.95, and will be written by Ian Eller, Lizard, Mikko Rautalahti, and Geoff Skellams. It will include all the information players and GMs will need for a Gamma World campaign.
The game book will not include a master game world; instead, it will focus on allowing GMs to create their own Gamma World settings.
The first supplement to follow will be Mutants and Machines. Another 224 page hardcover book, it will offer both biological mutations and technological beasties. Rules included will expand options for playing Mutant and Synthetic PCs.
Following it will be Out of the Vaults, a 128-page sourcebook that will detail various technologies of the old world, and how to adapt them to the limited resources of the Gamma World setting. Further supplements to follow it should include a GM's Guide, a guide to creating post-apocalyptic societies and a guide to epic quests in the Gamma World settings.
