My Mom entered me into some contest from TSR. Mainly cause you got a dragon poster. It turns out I won one of the top prizes. Which was all the TSR ganes at the time. Gamma world, Star Frontier, Top Secret etc all came in this giant box.
The first edition Gamma World had these flowchart/tables to roll on when you tried to operate an artifact you found. We had some total party kills from trying can openers and fondue pots.
@@queenannsrevenge100 I still have that series of modules, including the full colour pullout booklet from Barrier Peaks. White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors was also in that series I think. Perhaps the most famous original ADnD campaign series
When I was 14 in 1983, I was in High School art class and very much a disruptive little cuss. My art teacher didn't know quite what to do with me. Then he hit upon showing me how to use an overhead projector (the old ones with a light bulb and a large lens) to pull drawings or photos from books. This machine enabled one with little to no talent to trace the lines while enlarged and projected onto a poster board taped to the wall, they became easier to trace and then color if you like. He put me in a necessarily dark storeroom by myself so I could stay focused. I traced the very first drawing from Gamma World 1st ed., the Pistoleer facing down the beast bearing a club, and another one from one of the books , of a rat holding a .45 automatic. I did them both with a black ink fountain pen. The class was never disrupted by me again. I wish I still had those posters. I did play all the games you mentioned and Star Frontiers, still have many of them. Today I am a good hand at painting miniatures, building many types of terrain, and an historical tabletop wargamer. Bless that old guy, I enraged him so many times (he would turn blood red but not say much) but he didn't quit on me. Cheers Mr. Taylor.
At 18, my father died suddenly. I went to work in a factory while going through community college thanks to Pell Grants and a generous employer. In three years or so, I secured an outside sales position in the same factory working on the road all through the southeastern United States. I sold building materials, and retired from that job in 2007. We had an outstanding product line, excellent price, and an opportune market. I now work at enjoying life. Family, travel, and too many hobbies.@@LutherMahoney
I grew up around the same time. It's hard to explain to my kids that we just assumed we'd destroy the world. It's not as if we were walking around depressed, it's just like something we all "knew", there'd be a nuclear war in the future at some point.
Young people think they understand nihilism but growing up in the Cold War, especially in the era of the EPA, it seemed like a certainly that the world would end in either nuclear or ecological disaster by the year 2000. It was in the books we read, it was at the movies, it was on TV, they made Saturday morning cartoons based on it! We knew we were doomed, but we kept on chugging along, consuming and being angsty.
Also I think young people assumed that all of that had already had resolution without thinking about “contemporary views” (or not having benefit of “after action report”). Like assuming that Industrial Revolution is a single moment that was publicized or everyone reacting to WW2 after Germany invaded Poland (like ignoring doubts and discourses, like war in China by Japan, thoughts of allying with Germany as bulwark against Soviets, and many having issues with getting involved after horrors of First World War).
In Thundarr the Barbarian there was at least one good wizard other than Ariel. There is an episode where the heroes cross paths with a young pair of heroes that are basically gender swapped versions of Thundarr and Ariel.
Holy smokes. I'm not sure why this showed up in my suggested, but the timing was incredible. I actually just mentioned Metamorphosis Alpha to my wife just a few days ago. Unlike the speaker here, I actually got into Gamma World because of the cover - and that is was got me into several of the books mentioned here. I enjoyed playing AD&D with my brothers, but I really wanted a space game - which is what I thought Gamma World was going to be. I was actually disappointed at first, but I ended up getting really into it. I also went back and got a copy of the Metamorphosis Alpha book you showed, and I watched Thundarr every Saturday for the Gamma World content, even though I was too old for it. (I think I'm 4 years older than the speaker here.) It's interesting that you mentioned missing pages in the rule book because (and I'd completely forgotten this) MY copy was also missing pages. As I recall, it was missing the first and last sheet - so the table of contents and index (or whatever) was missing. I bought it new so it was apparently just assembled wrong. I knew every inch of that book by heart so it was strange to finally see someone else's copy with a table of contents with some unfamiliar art on it. I felt the same way watching parts of this video. What got me thinking about Metamorphosis Alpha was that my wife and I rewatched the episode Heart Of Stone of DS9 and while I really didn't remember seeing the episode (although for sure I did), I couldn't shake the image of a bunny on a tree stump when I looked at Major Kira trapped in the stone. It turns out I was probably remembering the episode after all -- but I had to track down the tree stump monster, which I'd thought was in Metamorphosis Alpha. It turns out it was in expedition to the barrier peaks - which I figured out on a break from watching the video (before you mentioned it.) I remained interested in the world of Gamma World for a long time. I ended up getting a copy of Top Secret (TSR's James Bond game) and I preferred the game mechanics of that game, so toward the end, I started working on a system I called "Gamma Secret" - which was basically the world of Gamma World with Top Secret's mechanics. Someone in the comments mentioned Star Frontiers. Yes. I really enjoyed that. I think it was the game I wished for when I got started with Gamma World. I forget about that one from time to time because I didn't play it for as long. It's been years since I've played. It's funny for my kids to hear how into Gamma World I used to be. I'm sure my brother still has all my rulebooks and probably some of my notes. Actually, I almost missed the video. I noticed the thumbnail as I was clicking on something else. I remembered enough of the title to be able to search it up. Oh - and now that I've watched 90 minutes of this video, I think UA-cam is going to try very hard to get me to watch more D&D content.
Gamma World was one of the Big Three. D&D for fantasy, Traveller for sci-fi, and Gamma World for a bit of both. Metamorphosis Alpha never really found a place among all that.
I was wonder why Star Frontier never got popular (aside from that shenanigans on the leak…which is another topic). Like Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha were in similiar awareness as it yet got a revival in 2000’s. Any idea why aside from short release span.
agreed.. almost. D&D, Traveller, and Twilight 2000 were truly the BIG three IMO. Not surprisingly all three still going strong today. While T2000 was a different kind of post apocalytic it was supported with the best quality products, adventures and splat, of any RPG game outside of D&D IMO. Never got into Gamma World but man alive did we eat T2000 alive.
The Facebook group that Mr. Ward shows up occasionally in is Ancient Dungeons And Dragons Players. I'm a member and it is always a delight to be able to pick his brain.
For sure! Back then, I was usually afraid to tell people that I played for fear of becoming a social pariah at school, but I love that we now live in an environment when it's okay to talk about this stuff and find other people with similar histories. Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Speaking of games that Gamma World inspired, Sweden had their own domestic TTRPG industry since the early 1980's, and one of the two major games was Mutant - legends say that in the sales pitch to the company was that "it will be like Gamma World, but in Sweden". Using Runequest rules (the fantasy game Drakar och Demoner used it too), it continued to be a staple of of the Swedish TTRPG scene and grew into its own thing. After a failed edition taking place in space, the assets were re-used to launch Mutant Chronicles. And today, the latest iteration of Mutant - Year Zero - continues to this day.
Thanks for giving us a video focusing on Gamma World! I still have my 1st edition GW, several of the modules, the 3rd edition version of the game, and a bunch of miniatures! I even have the original dice that came with each set! It was a far from perfect system--crude by today's RPG standard--it's got a fantastic background that allows GMs to develop the world. A clever GM can create some amazing homebrew games, and the modules that came out are actually decent. AD&D, D&D, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha, and Star Frontiers are the first RPGs that I ever played. We went onto Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, GURPS, and Champions. These games really helped me develop my artistic skills too, as they expanded my imagination quite a bit. These older RPG table top games are just fun stuff! Obviously, I'm nostalgic for games like Gamma World, but there was always a unique charm to each of the early games that made them stand out as classics. I've often been left to conclude that all RPG games come down to having a good GM, and having good, enthusiastic players--rules be damned. At the end of the day all of these games really only have one true goal. If everyone is having fun, then you're always doing it right.
Star Wars was also the first movie I ever saw twice. My father took me on his motorcycle, so when the Prequels were released (quality not withstanding), we made sure to ride our motorcycles to each Midnight premiere.
I remember learning D&D in 1981 from an older friend. When I saw him maybe 6 months later he was still into D&D but was totally into a new game he got Gamma World. I wanted to play D&D, which we did but he said he was going to start playing GW more. They moved away not long after that, but he was so excited about Gamma World.
Gamma World was literally the first TTRPG I played, when i was ten and my brother ran a quick scenario with just myself. Maybe it was just a combat, I don't remember. I do remember rolling up the mutations.
That's a great memory to have with your brother. My sister (and parents) sadly never got into roleplaying (as you can see in my video about "Why Did Gary Gygax Prefer Fighters" - at the end I share some of my old character sheets and talk about trying to game with my family). Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I hope it helped trigger some pleasant gaming memories for you!
I love that you mentioned Starlost when discussing Metamorphosis Alpha. I only heard about that show last year and I immediately thought it sounded like some ancient TSR game I vaguely remembered. After digging through a bunch of old Dragon mags, I finally found a mention of MA. It was cool hearing more about it from you. And the show is good for a laugh if you like 1970s era Dr. Who sets, but with less of a budget, and hokey, high concept nonsense.
Starlost had 2001 Space Odyssey's Keir Dullea as a main actor and Star Trek's Walter Koenig as a guest star. One of the other main actors, Robin Ward, went on to host a Canadian TV game show in the 1980s.
Gamma World was one of my favorite games of all time. My favorite character was a low HP pod plant. I had teleport, body segmentation and mind control. I would teleport 1HP pods with one power (mind control) into other creatures brains and take them over. Unfortunately the character only had 21 HP (and could only donate 17), so the pod army was limited. If I wanted to be able to teleport the pods back, that was 2 HP. Another great moment was a Pure Strain Human failing on rolls to try to reload a Tier IV weapon and shoving rocks and a squirrel into the fusion battery holder. My other dystopian favorites of the time (and a little later) were Car Wars and Shadowrun, I also had some fun with Twilight:2000.
That sounds like such a fun character to play! Thank you so much for sharing that! I the little small size boxed game of Car War and a few issues of AutoDuel Quarterly but mainly we "played" by creating new vehicles and then comparing them to see which one was cooler. Sometimes we'd try to model them off existing Matchbox/Hot Wheels, or sometimes we'd try to make them using our Lego bricks. Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
I totally love the Trampier artwork, especially the cover. I talk about the art quite a bit - the cover was one of the things that sold me on wanting to get the game. Hope you enjoy the video, and thanks for commenting!
I came to your channel because of this Gamma World video, my favourite rpg along with AD&D. Enjoyed your detailed work. Will check out your other videos! Thanks.
One think I always found amusing was the crossbow being the ultimate weapon. An average Constitution score would be 10, and average hit points for that would be 35. The “ultimate weapon “ does 1-4 damage, so on average 14 hits to down an average human.
@@skyblazeeterno Most of the Chaosium games of the time had more realistic approach to combat, including hit locations, dismemberment, and similar things. Getting experienced didn't mean you literally became a tank/damage sponge. It just meant you did things better than you used to, but you could still be killed by a punk with a lucky hit (and vice versa).
As someone born in the 90s, this is a super interesting history. My first taste of post-apocalyptic fantasy was the original Fallout games. It's neat to see how many ideas are borrowed across the genre.
2nd edition was my introduction, we played through Legion of Gold and then an original adventure created by my friend. Sadly I was never able to go back to it.
I was so excited when 2nd Edition Gamma World came out, but other than the presentation and the art, (at the time) I felt a little let-down, as I felt it was really just a cleaned up version of 1E but made more "polished." I had been hoping for some new stuff like something equivalent to D&D's classes, which as I understand, didn't really appear until the 4th Edition of Gamma World. In any event, while I liked the game, after around 1986 or 87, I never played it again until I ran that version using Savage Worlds for my friend that I mentioned toward the end of the video (so it wasn't actually Gamma World in terms of mechanics but more in terms of setting/flavor). Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Gamma World was my first and all time favorite RPG. Started playing & Gm-ing in 1980. Recently, over the past couple of years I've been re-running a campaign for my family and some friends that I originally wrote in 1980 for my High School friends. It's been a blast revisiting my 14 year-old self's creative concepts.
I absolutely love it when Met Alpha gets some love! I got into it when Goodman Games did their reprint and then made that giant box set. Also sorry about your mom. You always talk so fondly of her.
Love the overview! Gamma World was the first RPG I discovered in 1980, got in to D&D after I started running GW (I actually had D&D but my sister and I couldn't figure it out. For whatever reason Gamma World's approach "clicked" and suddenly we figured out how to play).
Ha! What a fun story! If you watch my next video on "Why Did Gary Gygax Prefer Fighters?" you'll see me tell a story at the end where I show some of my old D&D Character Sheets, and one from my sister, and a story about how I had to make a contract with her to get her to play D&D with me! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Great video! I always appreciate the research you put in to these videos. Loved the inclusion of information about Gardner Fox. All in all an excellent video. I’m looking forward to your next video.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support, as always. And I'm so glad you liked the Gardner Fox info. I really feel like it was a big "get" for Dragon to have him writing a fiction series in their magazine, and also I've read Mr. Fox felt a little "discarded" by the comics community later in life, but he was so important to the development of the DC Universe that I want to do my part to ensure he's not forgotten.
Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero are two of my favourite PA sci-fantasy genre books. Those two and A Canticle for Liebowitz, A Boy and his Dog, Omega Man, and schlock like Damnation Alley. I never had Gamma World in middle school, but we adapted AD&D rules to run a short sci-fantasy game. Good times. If I was going to run one now I'd probably use Mutant Future.
Yes, I mentioned I see him commenting often in a few FB groups which is cool. It's so great to be able to interact with folks like that, and one of the great uses of technology and social media!
Thanks for this thorough and amazing review of this hidden gem, wouldn't have heard about it without you! And thank you for sharing your stories with your mom it was very sweet ☺
Love to see Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, and Thundarr (yes, that is what I've wanted to play since I was a child). Further to Gamma World in animation checking out the Planet of the Apes animated series. But yes, we set our games locally so I played in the ruins of Chicago and the Midwest in Gamma World, Aftermath, Rifts, or even After the Bomb TMNT. Keep up the good work Martin.
I still have Metamorphosis Alpha and my 1st edition boxed set of Gamma World. I also have Empire of the Petal Throne, Harn and a bunch of others. Loved those days of physical product, hands on what you play, but they were always very expensive (still are). And my age group (I was 30 in 1983 when GW published) wasn't really into that kind of thing. Thanks for this vid bringing back memories and dusting off my tabletop games shelf. And, yeah, I also still have my boxed set of 3 little DnD books. 😀 Man, this video brings back so much. I remember Starlost. I still have it on vhs...now, if I only had a vhs player. Oh, how about Space Opera? Lotta supplements for that one.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I'm really glad you found the video so it could trigger (what sounds like) happy memories for you. We have a combo DVD/VCR player in our bedroom but we've not used it for years and once we finally get rid of it, we won't have any way to play our VHS tapes, either. Oddly enough, there's a store in Burbank (not far from me) that specializes in selling used VHS tapes and they do a very brisk business! I definitely remember Space Opera, but sadly only due to the ads I saw in Dragon Magazine, and one year it was featured in the Sears Christmas Wishbook. But I never saw it for sale at any of my local stores and never had a chance to play it. It looked like so much fun, though!
Thank YOU for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it! I love hearing how people got into the roleplaying game hobby and I am always intrigued when folks' "gateway game" is something other than D&D.
I played Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World just before I started playing D&D. All great games with interesting settings. It was a great era (1977-1982).
I had a lot of fun with Gamma World around 1983. Ran a campaign for a year or so. I tried to stress the tension between the mutant and non mutant (but more technologically advanced/adept) population. Most of my players were very into role-play so it worked quite well. A few year later we REALLY got into "The Morrow Project."
Talking about The Morrow Project, I think FGU saw inspiration in this game and created Space Opera, though the whole thing ended up like Traveller. An amazing explosion of new games across the late 70s into the early 80s
3 Things: 1) There were quite a few other post-apocalyptic things people were watching in the 1970s, including Ark II and Genesis 2/Planet Earth/Strange New Word (3 related pilots by Gene Roddenberry). 2) The Starlost series (you showed a picture from it) also has a plot very similar to Metamorphosis Alpha. 3) One of the best RPG advice columns I ever read was published in The Space Gamer 42 titled Metamorphosis Alpha Notebook by W.G. Armintrout about the Metamorphosis Alpha game he ran in college.
Ha! I don't make a big deal out of it, because to me, he's a friend first (as opposed to a celebrity - not saying he's *not* a celebrity, but rather that I'm not trying to cash-in on my friendship with him). I remember when my mom died and he heard it through our friend network, he was one of the first people to call me to offer condolences and ask if there was anything he could do. I've never forgotten that.
Ha! I came across Gamma World almost simultaneously with Thundarr arriving to Saturday mornings. Perfect timing. Now that I think of it, just a few years before, I had happened to be introduced to D&D the same year I first saw The Hobbit on tv and then started reading the book in elementary school.
Live in the same area, my garage flooded, but not house (raised foundation), so feel for you. I remember playing the new game Gamma World in and shortly after high School (which dates me, lol). Wrote the start of this, in middle of video, after you showed the different editions later in the video, got me thinking. I'm not sure which edition we played . It may have been third edition, because you mentioned the Marvel Super hero Game was release around the same time. And we played the Marvel RPG that after Gamma World.
I played a couple of sessions of Gamma World, knowing little about it. I loved the setting especially the mutant aspects. Being attacked by mutant plants that could chase you really stuck with me. Great fun and memory.
Thanks! I still have my Moldvay Basic boxed set and my Expert book (never got the box for that one) and I'm using that set of rules currently to run a campaign for my 14yo daughter and her friends. We're in the middle of our third year and are playing tomorrow! They've gone through the Keep on the Borderlands and they're currently in U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, but I've changed it up to have more of a Cthulhu vibe (the smugglers are cultists).
I played Gamma World only at conventions with the same guy for a few years back to back. he always ran it as post-apocalyptic I'm kind of Mad Max with Undead. Not an undead apocalypse, but post civilization collapse and there just happens to be a fair amount of Undead. I don't remember any of the plots but I remember having fun at these.
Had to click because I saw Heiro's Journey in the thumbnail reel. I was starting to think I was the only person on the planet who even knew that existed, and it was FANTASTIC. Now I'm gonna go watch the rest of the... holy crap. 1.39.41?!!! Well. We'll get there, but it might take all day. 😆
It is quite long. But thank you for watching and commenting! I hope you enjoy it when you get through it all. I go back and forth over whether my videos are too long, but for each comment I get that they should be shorter, I get at least 2-3x as many folks saying they prefer the longer content because they just listen to it while they're doing other stuff. So I'm always trying to figure out the right balance. Nice to meet another Hiero fan! I really like those books and wish that he'd gotten around to finishing the third one. Cheers!
I remember fondly Kammandi and Thundarr the Barbarian but what got me into Gamma World was Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen an amazing post apocalyptic setting will all the elements of Gamma World. His Swords series was equally amazing but more AD&D related. I made the game more serious because there was some stupid things the game implemented that I did not like but that was the great thing about RPG's you can change things you don't like. I loved the flowchart system and was disappointed that they did not keep it in later editions of the game. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I still have a copy of this game. Actually played it with my friends. My favorite part was a chart that you used to see if your character could figure out how something worked, You got a certain number of roll according to your intelligence score with mod to the rolls. According to these rolls you could figure out how the works, or end up ending the character. I used this chart for other games.
Gamma World got me to thinking about a "Medieval Post-Apocalyptic" campaign a long time ago. Then my brother got me into Demon Souls and Dark Souls back in 2009 and 2010 respectively. It's been a long time since I played a tabletop rpg.
Great video. I recall in the 2nd ed box set for Greyhawk it's implied that the setting is FAR future (past Gamma world) and one of Mordenkainens ancient relics is a flashlight
My Dad's birthday was February 2. Lost him 2 years ago. And we have friends smuggle booze on cruises! And I have a Star Wars album, and I saw it in the theater way back!
OH man, the nostalgia just hit. I remember thumbing through this game so many times as a kid, but it seemed too sophisticated to get into with friends. It was a bit of a hard sell, unless all your friends were into sci-fi
I can see that. My group was pretty open to most genres but we only really played TSR games or games we created ourselves. The rulebook for Gamma World, at least for 1st Edition, isn't really written in a way to be helpful to novice gamers! Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm glad to spark some nostalgia for you!
Played some gamma world here and there, in various editions over the years. Had a real bizarre feel at times. But it was also the game book that encouraged me to start creating my own rpg settings and even systems.
great video Martin. Never played this one but would love to see you do a video on the two non D&D which we spent countless hours enjoying as kids of the early 80's. Boot Hill and Top Secret.
My favorite encounters in GW were with the Hoop. Hobbit sized bipedal heavily armed telepathic bunny squads for the WIN! We had fun mixing Gamma World with Traveller and going off world.
First edition Gamma World was my first RPG and I still have the original box set around somewhere. As a kid, this fueled my imagination like nothing else.
Mine as well. I loved (and continue to love) D&D, as evidence by my video series on the old-school D&D campaign I run for my daughter and her friends, but back in the 80's, I was very intrigued by Gamma World.
A friend of mine ran a GM world game for us that was essentially a multi-city auto race between all the political factions to see who would run the overall area. Very Road Warrior and super exciting. A lot of combat on the tops of speeding tankers and gun battles between vehicles.
Yay! Gamma World! A return to my childhood. What fun. Let's watch people playing it. This guy says he plays the game. I want to see it! Any minute now...getting sleepy...drifting off...
Never played Gamma World, although I had Star Frontiers, Star Trek, and of course Basic and Expert with AD&D, but I played Twighlight2000 a lot as I moved closer to the Army. My good friend Shawn Rowan had Top Secret, and I had James Bond. I think the problem solver flow chart is quite nice with many uses as a mechanic. And of course I rather fancied Princess Ariel!
I seem to recall there was a magic item in AD&D that could bring in a visitor from Gamma World and Boot Hill games. I forget the name of it, though. I always thought that was fun, though.
I try really hard to take care of my things. When I first discovered the game in the very early 1980's, I recognized this stuff was expensive from my perspective and if my parents bought me something, I needed to take extra good care of it. I almost never took my books to school like many other kids did, and I never let anybody borrow my books. That might be contrary to the idea of sharing with others, and I don't want to "disrespect" the money my parents had spent on these books for me. As a result, *most* of my collection is in pretty good shape! Thank you so much for watching and commenting.
It is good for our mental and emotional health, I think, not to be too attached to things. Now that my mom has passed-on, I've had a lot of trouble getting rid of things that I know I'll never use again, but also that remind me of her. My fear is that if I get rid of the physical thing, I'll also be getting rid of the associated memory. In any event, lending our your collection means that someone else was exposed to the hobby, so you did great work! I hope that is some form of comfort to you!
I know this was mentioned at the beginning of the video but did anyone ever play Aftermath? I remember a friend of mine had it. You should do a video on the company, Fantasy Games Unlimited. That had soooooo many different games it was crazy.
Thundarr also gives Dying Earth vibes. Was one of my favorites growing up. Still love it. A close friend printed and painted a beautiful Thundarr statue for me. I can see why Gamma World exists to be a more replayable Metamorphosis Alpha. The game clearly is at its best when the fact you are on a starship is a slowly revealed mystery, and there are definitely diminishing retufns there. It strikes me as similar to Paranoia; best sprung on players who don't know the game or (at very least) one-shots or short campaigns as breaks or pulled out for game night. If it was popular, I completely understand printing a bigger game world for its fans. I think a better option would have been a sourcebook for the ship crashing or some sort of mechanism to move onto a world (already populated by civilizations spawned from previous character groups over generations.) The lack of character advancement is in line with a game not intended for a lot of replay. I've always wanted to try Gamma World. It always looked cool as a kid; but never had access to a copy when I was most active gaming. I'm actually thinking Metamorphosis Alpha more what I'm looking for.
I ran this game back “in the day” and I loved the premise and the rifle wielding rabbits my players thought it was insane, but they loved it. Sadly, I lost the set had a great map of USA that was great as well. Wish I could find a copy again ah me.
There are 18 books in the series and they are all awesome. Milos Morai is the main character and you get to follow his life through history, partly from his own memories.....Semper Fi....
I only learned about gamma world when wotc released the 7th (wow!) edition that used dnd 4e's rules. I really love that game, it's a one shot machine, and the combination of two mutant archetypes that don't always make sense together makes fun.
Oh, but that does remind me. At last year's Garycon I played Giant Lands, the game allegedly made by James Ward. From what I've heard he basically had the broad strokes ideas, then someone else filled those in. The game system itself was almost unusable, it's a d100 roll under system, with stats that can start over 100, and no clear way to reduce stats or roll vs half or 1/5th like Call of Cthulhu. But the setting was pretty cool, it's like an ecological apocalypse, which makes sense as that's the current existential threat du jour. So the world is much more wild, and there's also aliens that came to the planet when Gaia struck back against humans. And of course, the titular Giants that awakened from deep in the earth. From what I've seen online the game probably isn't worth picking up, but the setting is at least interesting enough to look into. I'd elevator pitch it as Gamma World meets Shadowrun with extremely limited tech.
I've never heard of this! This is the progenitor to DCC/MCC! My only experience in ttrpg play was 2nd Edition AD&D. I just started getting back into the hobby. I DM'd 3.5 for about a year or so but never to the extent that I DM'd 2nd Edition. DCC recently lit a fire in me & I only started hearing of MCC. I've been out of the hobby for over 15 years. There are all of these terms now like 2.0, 2.5. What do those even mean? 3.5 is the most recent Edition that I'd even consider playing but I'm on a DCC kick now. I plan on living Empire of The East & integrating MCC into it. Til then, I'm running my DCC games in the Tales of the Fallen Empire setting. I've never heard of this. This is a history lesson to me
Gamma World 3rd ed. is still my favorite rpg of all time. I use a variant of the random mutation tables in my modern Cthulhu Mythos game to generate completely unique abominations from beyond the stars. 💚
That's a great idea! I love hearing about people doing stuff like this. So many folks I think avoid what would otherwise be really awesome and creative content because it isn't made specifically for their system of choice. But, I've bought supplements for GURPs, Ars Magica, Fading Suns, and so many other games specifically just to mine for ideas for my ongoing campaigns, even though I don't even own the core books for those other systems! Thank you very much for watching and commenting. Gamma World was one of my favorite games back in the day and I was glad to finally do a video for it, and even more glad that it has resonated with so many people!
I really like a lot of the ideas in both Dungeon Crawl Classic and Mutant Crawl Classics! I've often been inspired to pull stuff from them for the B/X game I run for my daughter and her friends! Thank you very much for watching and commenting, and also for your support of the channel. I really appreciate it!
My Mom entered me into some contest from TSR. Mainly cause you got a dragon poster. It turns out I won one of the top prizes. Which was all the TSR ganes at the time. Gamma world, Star Frontier, Top Secret etc all came in this giant box.
That is very cool. Do you still have them?
@@mikepalmer1971 sadly no. Got lost over the years.
Gr8 effort m8 … my childhood lost in GammaW
The first edition Gamma World had these flowchart/tables to roll on when you tried to operate an artifact you found. We had some total party kills from trying can openers and fondue pots.
noice
The trial 😂 and 😮terror continued for at least the next 2 editions I only ever had 3rd Ed.
Those charts (or charts inspired by them made it into the AD&D adventure Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, too - so much fun in that thing!
@@queenannsrevenge100 I still have that series of modules, including the full colour pullout booklet from Barrier Peaks.
White Plume Mountain and Tomb of Horrors was also in that series I think. Perhaps the most famous original ADnD campaign series
I still have my original version, in the box. Loved this game!!
When I was 14 in 1983, I was in High School art class and very much a disruptive little cuss. My art teacher didn't know quite what to do with me. Then he hit upon showing me how to use an overhead projector (the old ones with a light bulb and a large lens) to pull drawings or photos from books. This machine enabled one with little to no talent to trace the lines while enlarged and projected onto a poster board taped to the wall, they became easier to trace and then color if you like. He put me in a necessarily dark storeroom by myself so I could stay focused. I traced the very first drawing from Gamma World 1st ed., the Pistoleer facing down the beast bearing a club, and another one from one of the books , of a rat holding a .45 automatic. I did them both with a black ink fountain pen. The class was never disrupted by me again. I wish I still had those posters. I did play all the games you mentioned and Star Frontiers, still have many of them. Today I am a good hand at painting miniatures, building many types of terrain, and an historical tabletop wargamer. Bless that old guy, I enraged him so many times (he would turn blood red but not say much) but he didn't quit on me. Cheers Mr. Taylor.
What happened to you after that? What are you doing today as a profession?
At 18, my father died suddenly. I went to work in a factory while going through community college thanks to Pell Grants and a generous employer. In three years or so, I secured an outside sales position in the same factory working on the road all through the southeastern United States. I sold building materials, and retired from that job in 2007. We had an outstanding product line, excellent price, and an opportune market. I now work at enjoying life. Family, travel, and too many hobbies.@@LutherMahoney
I grew up around the same time. It's hard to explain to my kids that we just assumed we'd destroy the world. It's not as if we were walking around depressed, it's just like something we all "knew", there'd be a nuclear war in the future at some point.
Young people think they understand nihilism but growing up in the Cold War, especially in the era of the EPA, it seemed like a certainly that the world would end in either nuclear or ecological disaster by the year 2000. It was in the books we read, it was at the movies, it was on TV, they made Saturday morning cartoons based on it! We knew we were doomed, but we kept on chugging along, consuming and being angsty.
Young people of today assume that again, so yay!
You know I think Robocop wasn’t kidding with a board game based on nuclear war and toxic sunscreen that imply that O Zone is gone.
Also I think young people assumed that all of that had already had resolution without thinking about “contemporary views” (or not having benefit of “after action report”).
Like assuming that Industrial Revolution is a single moment that was publicized or everyone reacting to WW2 after Germany invaded Poland (like ignoring doubts and discourses, like war in China by Japan, thoughts of allying with Germany as bulwark against Soviets, and many having issues with getting involved after horrors of First World War).
Oh your kids and grandkids know all about that. It's happening right now. Just slowly and not with a bang. They're feeling the crunch
In Thundarr the Barbarian there was at least one good wizard other than Ariel. There is an episode where the heroes cross paths with a young pair of heroes that are basically gender swapped versions of Thundarr and Ariel.
Hopefully, you'll cover Top Secret.
😊 had some very good times with this!
Wow, the 7th grade nostalgia! My one friend Marty Solomon and I playing Top Secret at the lunch tables!
@@audioartisan Car Wars was a hoot!
Top Secret imho had a great rule set for the time.
Top Secret was a really great game. 👍💪
Holy smokes. I'm not sure why this showed up in my suggested, but the timing was incredible. I actually just mentioned Metamorphosis Alpha to my wife just a few days ago.
Unlike the speaker here, I actually got into Gamma World because of the cover - and that is was got me into several of the books mentioned here. I enjoyed playing AD&D with my brothers, but I really wanted a space game - which is what I thought Gamma World was going to be. I was actually disappointed at first, but I ended up getting really into it. I also went back and got a copy of the Metamorphosis Alpha book you showed, and I watched Thundarr every Saturday for the Gamma World content, even though I was too old for it. (I think I'm 4 years older than the speaker here.)
It's interesting that you mentioned missing pages in the rule book because (and I'd completely forgotten this) MY copy was also missing pages. As I recall, it was missing the first and last sheet - so the table of contents and index (or whatever) was missing. I bought it new so it was apparently just assembled wrong. I knew every inch of that book by heart so it was strange to finally see someone else's copy with a table of contents with some unfamiliar art on it. I felt the same way watching parts of this video.
What got me thinking about Metamorphosis Alpha was that my wife and I rewatched the episode Heart Of Stone of DS9 and while I really didn't remember seeing the episode (although for sure I did), I couldn't shake the image of a bunny on a tree stump when I looked at Major Kira trapped in the stone. It turns out I was probably remembering the episode after all -- but I had to track down the tree stump monster, which I'd thought was in Metamorphosis Alpha. It turns out it was in expedition to the barrier peaks - which I figured out on a break from watching the video (before you mentioned it.)
I remained interested in the world of Gamma World for a long time. I ended up getting a copy of Top Secret (TSR's James Bond game) and I preferred the game mechanics of that game, so toward the end, I started working on a system I called "Gamma Secret" - which was basically the world of Gamma World with Top Secret's mechanics.
Someone in the comments mentioned Star Frontiers. Yes. I really enjoyed that. I think it was the game I wished for when I got started with Gamma World. I forget about that one from time to time because I didn't play it for as long.
It's been years since I've played. It's funny for my kids to hear how into Gamma World I used to be. I'm sure my brother still has all my rulebooks and probably some of my notes. Actually, I almost missed the video. I noticed the thumbnail as I was clicking on something else. I remembered enough of the title to be able to search it up.
Oh - and now that I've watched 90 minutes of this video, I think UA-cam is going to try very hard to get me to watch more D&D content.
Gamma World was one of the Big Three. D&D for fantasy, Traveller for sci-fi, and Gamma World for a bit of both. Metamorphosis Alpha never really found a place among all that.
All of 'em seem quite interesting.
To me the big three was D&D, Boothill & Top Secret
I was wonder why Star Frontier never got popular (aside from that shenanigans on the leak…which is another topic).
Like Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha were in similiar awareness as it yet got a revival in 2000’s.
Any idea why aside from short release span.
agreed.. almost. D&D, Traveller, and Twilight 2000 were truly the BIG three IMO. Not surprisingly all three still going strong today. While T2000 was a different kind of post apocalytic it was supported with the best quality products, adventures and splat, of any RPG game outside of D&D IMO. Never got into Gamma World but man alive did we eat T2000 alive.
The Facebook group that Mr. Ward shows up occasionally in is Ancient Dungeons And Dragons Players. I'm a member and it is always a delight to be able to pick his brain.
Good stuff.
It's awesome to be amongst fellow gamers that played this amazing game in the early 80's.
For sure! Back then, I was usually afraid to tell people that I played for fear of becoming a social pariah at school, but I love that we now live in an environment when it's okay to talk about this stuff and find other people with similar histories.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Your tribute to your mom is very sweet and makes me like the world
That is such a nice compliment. Thank you so much for taking a minute to pause and post this comment. I really appreciate it. Cheers to you.
Speaking of games that Gamma World inspired, Sweden had their own domestic TTRPG industry since the early 1980's, and one of the two major games was Mutant - legends say that in the sales pitch to the company was that "it will be like Gamma World, but in Sweden". Using Runequest rules (the fantasy game Drakar och Demoner used it too), it continued to be a staple of of the Swedish TTRPG scene and grew into its own thing.
After a failed edition taking place in space, the assets were re-used to launch Mutant Chronicles.
And today, the latest iteration of Mutant - Year Zero - continues to this day.
Oh wow! I'm somewhat familiar with Mutant: Year Zero but I didn't know the history of the game. Thank you for sharing! I really appreciate it.
I flat out love Gamma World. And if you like Thundarr may I suggest the game “Barbarians of the Ruined Earth?” It’s Thundarr…without the name.
ACKS *Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu* is very "Thundarr + Planet of the Apes" as well.
Well, I'll definitely have to look it up now!
Thanks for giving us a video focusing on Gamma World! I still have my 1st edition GW, several of the modules, the 3rd edition version of the game, and a bunch of miniatures! I even have the original dice that came with each set! It was a far from perfect system--crude by today's RPG standard--it's got a fantastic background that allows GMs to develop the world. A clever GM can create some amazing homebrew games, and the modules that came out are actually decent. AD&D, D&D, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha, and Star Frontiers are the first RPGs that I ever played. We went onto Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, GURPS, and Champions. These games really helped me develop my artistic skills too, as they expanded my imagination quite a bit. These older RPG table top games are just fun stuff! Obviously, I'm nostalgic for games like Gamma World, but there was always a unique charm to each of the early games that made them stand out as classics. I've often been left to conclude that all RPG games come down to having a good GM, and having good, enthusiastic players--rules be damned. At the end of the day all of these games really only have one true goal. If everyone is having fun, then you're always doing it right.
Gamma World was so rad. Centisteed is one of my favorite all time creatures.
Star Wars was also the first movie I ever saw twice. My father took me on his motorcycle, so when the Prequels were released (quality not withstanding), we made sure to ride our motorcycles to each Midnight premiere.
I remember learning D&D in 1981 from an older friend. When I saw him maybe 6 months later he was still into D&D but was totally into a new game he got Gamma World. I wanted to play D&D, which we did but he said he was going to start playing GW more. They moved away not long after that, but he was so excited about Gamma World.
Gamma World was literally the first TTRPG I played, when i was ten and my brother ran a quick scenario with just myself. Maybe it was just a combat, I don't remember. I do remember rolling up the mutations.
That's a great memory to have with your brother. My sister (and parents) sadly never got into roleplaying (as you can see in my video about "Why Did Gary Gygax Prefer Fighters" - at the end I share some of my old character sheets and talk about trying to game with my family).
Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I hope it helped trigger some pleasant gaming memories for you!
One thing I find very enduring about many of the 50's scifi movies is the role "radiation" played in the creation of monsters and devastated worlds.
I love that you mentioned Starlost when discussing Metamorphosis Alpha. I only heard about that show last year and I immediately thought it sounded like some ancient TSR game I vaguely remembered. After digging through a bunch of old Dragon mags, I finally found a mention of MA. It was cool hearing more about it from you. And the show is good for a laugh if you like 1970s era Dr. Who sets, but with less of a budget, and hokey, high concept nonsense.
Starlost had 2001 Space Odyssey's Keir Dullea as a main actor and Star Trek's Walter Koenig as a guest star. One of the other main actors, Robin Ward, went on to host a Canadian TV game show in the 1980s.
It had the potential to be amazing, but the studio heads gutted it. Harlan Ellison left after the first episode.
Gamma World was one of my favorite games of all time. My favorite character was a low HP pod plant. I had teleport, body segmentation and mind control. I would teleport 1HP pods with one power (mind control) into other creatures brains and take them over. Unfortunately the character only had 21 HP (and could only donate 17), so the pod army was limited. If I wanted to be able to teleport the pods back, that was 2 HP. Another great moment was a Pure Strain Human failing on rolls to try to reload a Tier IV weapon and shoving rocks and a squirrel into the fusion battery holder. My other dystopian favorites of the time (and a little later) were Car Wars and Shadowrun, I also had some fun with Twilight:2000.
That sounds like such a fun character to play! Thank you so much for sharing that!
I the little small size boxed game of Car War and a few issues of AutoDuel Quarterly but mainly we "played" by creating new vehicles and then comparing them to see which one was cooler. Sometimes we'd try to model them off existing Matchbox/Hot Wheels, or sometimes we'd try to make them using our Lego bricks.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Gamma world's map has most of the Tidewater/Hampton Roads region gone. It's been nice knowing you all.
Ah, fellow Virginian.
Have it; never played it. Love the DAT artwork throughout.
I totally love the Trampier artwork, especially the cover. I talk about the art quite a bit - the cover was one of the things that sold me on wanting to get the game.
Hope you enjoy the video, and thanks for commenting!
I came to your channel because of this Gamma World video, my favourite rpg along with AD&D. Enjoyed your detailed work. Will check out your other videos! Thanks.
One think I always found amusing was the crossbow being the ultimate weapon. An average Constitution score would be 10, and average hit points for that would be 35. The “ultimate weapon “ does 1-4 damage, so on average 14 hits to down an average human.
if it was a Call Of Cthulhu based system that crossbow could be deadly. I think CoC has one of the best realistically deadly hp and damage systems
@@skyblazeeterno Most of the Chaosium games of the time had more realistic approach to combat, including hit locations, dismemberment, and similar things. Getting experienced didn't mean you literally became a tank/damage sponge. It just meant you did things better than you used to, but you could still be killed by a punk with a lucky hit (and vice versa).
As someone born in the 90s, this is a super interesting history. My first taste of post-apocalyptic fantasy was the original Fallout games. It's neat to see how many ideas are borrowed across the genre.
Hoops.
Goddamn Bunnymen turning everything to rubber.
I never caught onto the cartoon aspect of that. For me, they were meant to be ironically fearsome dudes.
I love ALL Daddy Rolled a 1 videos! Thanks, Martin -- this one is really good.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that! Thanks for watching and commenting and for your support of the channel.
2nd edition was my introduction, we played through Legion of Gold and then an original adventure created by my friend. Sadly I was never able to go back to it.
I was so excited when 2nd Edition Gamma World came out, but other than the presentation and the art, (at the time) I felt a little let-down, as I felt it was really just a cleaned up version of 1E but made more "polished." I had been hoping for some new stuff like something equivalent to D&D's classes, which as I understand, didn't really appear until the 4th Edition of Gamma World.
In any event, while I liked the game, after around 1986 or 87, I never played it again until I ran that version using Savage Worlds for my friend that I mentioned toward the end of the video (so it wasn't actually Gamma World in terms of mechanics but more in terms of setting/flavor).
Thank you so much for watching and commenting!
Gamma World was my first and all time favorite RPG. Started playing & Gm-ing in 1980.
Recently, over the past couple of years I've been re-running a campaign for my family and some friends that I originally wrote in 1980 for my High School friends.
It's been a blast revisiting my 14 year-old self's creative concepts.
I absolutely love it when Met Alpha gets some love! I got into it when Goodman Games did their reprint and then made that giant box set.
Also sorry about your mom. You always talk so fondly of her.
I came to Comment Town to give Goodman Games a shout-out for putting MA back in print!
Love the overview! Gamma World was the first RPG I discovered in 1980, got in to D&D after I started running GW (I actually had D&D but my sister and I couldn't figure it out. For whatever reason Gamma World's approach "clicked" and suddenly we figured out how to play).
Ha! What a fun story! If you watch my next video on "Why Did Gary Gygax Prefer Fighters?" you'll see me tell a story at the end where I show some of my old D&D Character Sheets, and one from my sister, and a story about how I had to make a contract with her to get her to play D&D with me!
Thanks for watching and commenting!
Had a D&D group in the late eighties and we played a good amount of Gamma World. Really had a lot of fun playing it.
Gamma World was AWESOME!!!!
I 100% agree!
Great video! I always appreciate the research you put in to these videos. Loved the inclusion of information about Gardner Fox. All in all an excellent video. I’m looking forward to your next video.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support, as always. And I'm so glad you liked the Gardner Fox info. I really feel like it was a big "get" for Dragon to have him writing a fiction series in their magazine, and also I've read Mr. Fox felt a little "discarded" by the comics community later in life, but he was so important to the development of the DC Universe that I want to do my part to ensure he's not forgotten.
Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero are two of my favourite PA sci-fantasy genre books. Those two and A Canticle for Liebowitz, A Boy and his Dog, Omega Man, and schlock like Damnation Alley.
I never had Gamma World in middle school, but we adapted AD&D rules to run a short sci-fantasy game. Good times. If I was going to run one now I'd probably use Mutant Future.
This was a great video. I could watch you talk about these games for another 2 hours lol. Thanks for sharing them with us.
James Ward. Awesome guy and still around supporting the hobby.
Yes, I mentioned I see him commenting often in a few FB groups which is cool. It's so great to be able to interact with folks like that, and one of the great uses of technology and social media!
Thanks for this thorough and amazing review of this hidden gem, wouldn't have heard about it without you! And thank you for sharing your stories with your mom it was very sweet ☺
Thanks for the Gamma World retrospective, and for the sweet story about your mom. Cheers!
I owned a box. Remember, there was a beautiful map of a nuked Pittsburg(?).
Yes, I think that map was in the 2nd Edition boxed set if I'm not mistaken (or maybe it was part of the GM Screen?).
Love to see Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, and Thundarr (yes, that is what I've wanted to play since I was a child). Further to Gamma World in animation checking out the Planet of the Apes animated series. But yes, we set our games locally so I played in the ruins of Chicago and the Midwest in Gamma World, Aftermath, Rifts, or even After the Bomb TMNT. Keep up the good work Martin.
I still have Metamorphosis Alpha and my 1st edition boxed set of Gamma World. I also have Empire of the Petal Throne, Harn and a bunch of others. Loved those days of physical product, hands on what you play, but they were always very expensive (still are). And my age group (I was 30 in 1983 when GW published) wasn't really into that kind of thing. Thanks for this vid bringing back memories and dusting off my tabletop games shelf. And, yeah, I also still have my boxed set of 3 little DnD books. 😀 Man, this video brings back so much. I remember Starlost. I still have it on vhs...now, if I only had a vhs player. Oh, how about Space Opera? Lotta supplements for that one.
Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I'm really glad you found the video so it could trigger (what sounds like) happy memories for you.
We have a combo DVD/VCR player in our bedroom but we've not used it for years and once we finally get rid of it, we won't have any way to play our VHS tapes, either. Oddly enough, there's a store in Burbank (not far from me) that specializes in selling used VHS tapes and they do a very brisk business!
I definitely remember Space Opera, but sadly only due to the ads I saw in Dragon Magazine, and one year it was featured in the Sears Christmas Wishbook. But I never saw it for sale at any of my local stores and never had a chance to play it. It looked like so much fun, though!
I actually played Gamma World _before_ D&D, it was the first RPG I owned, in 1980. Great video on the history of these games, thanks!
Thank YOU for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it! I love hearing how people got into the roleplaying game hobby and I am always intrigued when folks' "gateway game" is something other than D&D.
Froghemoth....run!!! S3 rules!!! Stay safe and dry out there.
Love the video and the channel. Gamma World/MA for an hour and a half
Strongly recommend "D&D's Deadliest- Froghemoth" on UA-cam.
I played Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World just before I started playing D&D. All great games with interesting settings. It was a great era (1977-1982).
I had a lot of fun with Gamma World around 1983. Ran a campaign for a year or so. I tried to stress the tension between the mutant and non mutant (but more technologically advanced/adept) population. Most of my players were very into role-play so it worked quite well. A few year later we REALLY got into "The Morrow Project."
I’m glad your original box set was thrashed. These games were meant to played.
Talking about The Morrow Project, I think FGU saw inspiration in this game and created Space Opera, though the whole thing ended up like Traveller.
An amazing explosion of new games across the late 70s into the early 80s
That's a good Detailed deep dive of the history of this game. Thanks!
I played a lot of Gamma World back when it came out. Cool to see this
I'm really glad you saw it and that you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching and commenting!
3 Things:
1) There were quite a few other post-apocalyptic things people were watching in the 1970s, including Ark II and Genesis 2/Planet Earth/Strange New Word (3 related pilots by Gene Roddenberry).
2) The Starlost series (you showed a picture from it) also has a plot very similar to Metamorphosis Alpha.
3) One of the best RPG advice columns I ever read was published in The Space Gamer 42 titled Metamorphosis Alpha Notebook by W.G. Armintrout about the Metamorphosis Alpha game he ran in college.
First time I’ve seen your channel, and the “my friend Will, who ran a UA-cam show called TableTop” jumped out at me. 😄
Ha! I don't make a big deal out of it, because to me, he's a friend first (as opposed to a celebrity - not saying he's *not* a celebrity, but rather that I'm not trying to cash-in on my friendship with him). I remember when my mom died and he heard it through our friend network, he was one of the first people to call me to offer condolences and ask if there was anything he could do. I've never forgotten that.
Love my memories of playing this. Made me subscribe, your presentation is so awesome.❤
And Kamandi influenced Adventure Time! 😃
Martin, thanks for sharing your memories of your mother. Sounds like a special lady.
Ha! I came across Gamma World almost simultaneously with Thundarr arriving to Saturday mornings. Perfect timing. Now that I think of it, just a few years before, I had happened to be introduced to D&D the same year I first saw The Hobbit on tv and then started reading the book in elementary school.
Wow, as a Gen X'r this bring back so many memories. I owned all those post-apocalypse games but by far Gamma World was my favorite.
Live in the same area, my garage flooded, but not house (raised foundation), so feel for you. I remember playing the new game Gamma World in and shortly after high School (which dates me, lol). Wrote the start of this, in middle of video, after you showed the different editions later in the video, got me thinking. I'm not sure which edition we played . It may have been third edition, because you mentioned the Marvel Super hero Game was release around the same time. And we played the Marvel RPG that after Gamma World.
Incredible information, thank you so much!
I played a couple of sessions of Gamma World, knowing little about it. I loved the setting especially the mutant aspects. Being attacked by mutant plants that could chase you really stuck with me. Great fun and memory.
Great vid I only grew up with third Gama world box set mis it so much. Still have my basic & expert edition d&d e1.
Thanks! I still have my Moldvay Basic boxed set and my Expert book (never got the box for that one) and I'm using that set of rules currently to run a campaign for my 14yo daughter and her friends. We're in the middle of our third year and are playing tomorrow! They've gone through the Keep on the Borderlands and they're currently in U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, but I've changed it up to have more of a Cthulhu vibe (the smugglers are cultists).
I played Gamma World only at conventions with the same guy for a few years back to back. he always ran it as post-apocalyptic I'm kind of Mad Max with Undead. Not an undead apocalypse, but post civilization collapse and there just happens to be a fair amount of Undead. I don't remember any of the plots but I remember having fun at these.
Had to click because I saw Heiro's Journey in the thumbnail reel. I was starting to think I was the only person on the planet who even knew that existed, and it was FANTASTIC. Now I'm gonna go watch the rest of the... holy crap. 1.39.41?!!! Well. We'll get there, but it might take all day. 😆
It is quite long. But thank you for watching and commenting! I hope you enjoy it when you get through it all. I go back and forth over whether my videos are too long, but for each comment I get that they should be shorter, I get at least 2-3x as many folks saying they prefer the longer content because they just listen to it while they're doing other stuff. So I'm always trying to figure out the right balance.
Nice to meet another Hiero fan! I really like those books and wish that he'd gotten around to finishing the third one.
Cheers!
I remember fondly Kammandi and Thundarr the Barbarian but what got me into Gamma World was Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen an amazing post apocalyptic setting will all the elements of Gamma World. His Swords series was equally amazing but more AD&D related. I made the game more serious because there was some stupid things the game implemented that I did not like but that was the great thing about RPG's you can change things you don't like. I loved the flowchart system and was disappointed that they did not keep it in later editions of the game. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I still have a copy of this game. Actually played it with my friends. My favorite part was a chart that you used to see if your character could figure out how something worked, You got a certain number of roll according to your intelligence score with mod to the rolls. According to these rolls you could figure out how the works, or end up ending the character. I used this chart for other games.
I loved the character creation in Gamma World. Random Mutations Offensive/Defensive.
Yes, so much fun! I definitely liked the random aspect of it, versus a point-buy or other method.
Thank you very much for watching and commenting!
Gamma World got me to thinking about a "Medieval Post-Apocalyptic" campaign a long time ago. Then my brother got me into Demon Souls and Dark Souls back in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
It's been a long time since I played a tabletop rpg.
Great video. I recall in the 2nd ed box set for Greyhawk it's implied that the setting is FAR future (past Gamma world) and one of Mordenkainens ancient relics is a flashlight
My Dad's birthday was February 2. Lost him 2 years ago. And we have friends smuggle booze on cruises! And I have a Star Wars album, and I saw it in the theater way back!
I was 8 in 78' when I started playing D&D, my neighbors were two brothers a few years older introduced me to it.
Many fond memories of Gamma world. Always wanted to play it but never could find a group. I still habe my old books so maybe someday!
OH man, the nostalgia just hit. I remember thumbing through this game so many times as a kid, but it seemed too sophisticated to get into with friends. It was a bit of a hard sell, unless all your friends were into sci-fi
I can see that. My group was pretty open to most genres but we only really played TSR games or games we created ourselves. The rulebook for Gamma World, at least for 1st Edition, isn't really written in a way to be helpful to novice gamers!
Thanks for watching and commenting! I'm glad to spark some nostalgia for you!
Loved Gamma World. Created our own additions and even played DnD characters in Gamma World.
Played some gamma world here and there, in various editions over the years. Had a real bizarre feel at times. But it was also the game book that encouraged me to start creating my own rpg settings and even systems.
great video Martin. Never played this one but would love to see you do a video on the two non D&D which we spent countless hours enjoying as kids of the early 80's. Boot Hill and Top Secret.
My favorite encounters in GW were with the Hoop. Hobbit sized bipedal heavily armed telepathic bunny squads for the WIN! We had fun mixing Gamma World with Traveller and going off world.
The first video of yours that I have watched....excited to explore the rest! Do you have anything on Blackmoor?
First edition Gamma World was my first RPG and I still have the original box set around somewhere. As a kid, this fueled my imagination like nothing else.
Mine as well. I loved (and continue to love) D&D, as evidence by my video series on the old-school D&D campaign I run for my daughter and her friends, but back in the 80's, I was very intrigued by Gamma World.
A friend of mine ran a GM world game for us that was essentially a multi-city auto race between all the political factions to see who would run the overall area. Very Road Warrior and super exciting. A lot of combat on the tops of speeding tankers and gun battles between vehicles.
Very excited! Super interested in how it compares to Metamorphosis Alpha
We used this for comic relief from our serious D&D sessions. Oh the memories.
Yay! Gamma World! A return to my childhood. What fun. Let's watch people playing it. This guy says he plays the game. I want to see it! Any minute now...getting sleepy...drifting off...
Never played it, but i remember the art work vividly! Having that crazy mind cramp as i watch this lol.
I hope that's a "good" thing and that you enjoyed the video.
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Never played Gamma World, although I had Star Frontiers, Star Trek, and of course Basic and Expert with AD&D, but I played Twighlight2000 a lot as I moved closer to the Army. My good friend Shawn Rowan had Top Secret, and I had James Bond. I think the problem solver flow chart is quite nice with many uses as a mechanic. And of course I rather fancied Princess Ariel!
Loved Gamma world concept.
I hopefully didn't "fan-boy" too much about it during the video, but I like it quite a bit myself. Thanks for watching and commenting.
I seem to recall there was a magic item in AD&D that could bring in a visitor from Gamma World and Boot Hill games. I forget the name of it, though. I always thought that was fun, though.
The well of many worlds.
You have such a magnificent collection.
I try really hard to take care of my things. When I first discovered the game in the very early 1980's, I recognized this stuff was expensive from my perspective and if my parents bought me something, I needed to take extra good care of it. I almost never took my books to school like many other kids did, and I never let anybody borrow my books. That might be contrary to the idea of sharing with others, and I don't want to "disrespect" the money my parents had spent on these books for me. As a result, *most* of my collection is in pretty good shape!
Thank you so much for watching and commenting.
@@daddyrolleda1 I lent my collection out all to often and now it is scattered to the four winds.
It is good for our mental and emotional health, I think, not to be too attached to things. Now that my mom has passed-on, I've had a lot of trouble getting rid of things that I know I'll never use again, but also that remind me of her. My fear is that if I get rid of the physical thing, I'll also be getting rid of the associated memory.
In any event, lending our your collection means that someone else was exposed to the hobby, so you did great work! I hope that is some form of comfort to you!
"I have a game where you can be a barbarian..." Used that line so many times...
I know this was mentioned at the beginning of the video but did anyone ever play Aftermath? I remember a friend of mine had it.
You should do a video on the company, Fantasy Games Unlimited. That had soooooo many different games it was crazy.
I just realized that several of the game elements in Metamorphosis Alpha were in Gygax' Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
Thundarr also gives Dying Earth vibes. Was one of my favorites growing up. Still love it. A close friend printed and painted a beautiful Thundarr statue for me.
I can see why Gamma World exists to be a more replayable Metamorphosis Alpha. The game clearly is at its best when the fact you are on a starship is a slowly revealed mystery, and there are definitely diminishing retufns there. It strikes me as similar to Paranoia; best sprung on players who don't know the game or (at very least) one-shots or short campaigns as breaks or pulled out for game night.
If it was popular, I completely understand printing a bigger game world for its fans. I think a better option would have been a sourcebook for the ship crashing or some sort of mechanism to move onto a world (already populated by civilizations spawned from previous character groups over generations.)
The lack of character advancement is in line with a game not intended for a lot of replay.
I've always wanted to try Gamma World. It always looked cool as a kid; but never had access to a copy when I was most active gaming. I'm actually thinking Metamorphosis Alpha more what I'm looking for.
I ran this game back “in the day” and I loved the premise and the rifle wielding rabbits my players thought it was insane, but they loved it. Sadly, I lost the set had a great map of USA that was great as well. Wish I could find a copy again ah me.
Reminded me of my first tabletop Rpg Star Frontiers.
There are 18 books in the series and they are all awesome. Milos Morai is the main character and you get to follow his life through history, partly from his own memories.....Semper Fi....
I remember an accessory for GURPS on the Horseclans that I used to get some info on the books I hadn't read.
I only learned about gamma world when wotc released the 7th (wow!) edition that used dnd 4e's rules. I really love that game, it's a one shot machine, and the combination of two mutant archetypes that don't always make sense together makes fun.
Oh, but that does remind me. At last year's Garycon I played Giant Lands, the game allegedly made by James Ward. From what I've heard he basically had the broad strokes ideas, then someone else filled those in. The game system itself was almost unusable, it's a d100 roll under system, with stats that can start over 100, and no clear way to reduce stats or roll vs half or 1/5th like Call of Cthulhu. But the setting was pretty cool, it's like an ecological apocalypse, which makes sense as that's the current existential threat du jour. So the world is much more wild, and there's also aliens that came to the planet when Gaia struck back against humans. And of course, the titular Giants that awakened from deep in the earth. From what I've seen online the game probably isn't worth picking up, but the setting is at least interesting enough to look into. I'd elevator pitch it as Gamma World meets Shadowrun with extremely limited tech.
I’m hoping to see similar in-depth reviews of Star Frontiers and Top Secret!
I've never heard of this! This is the progenitor to DCC/MCC! My only experience in ttrpg play was 2nd Edition AD&D. I just started getting back into the hobby. I DM'd 3.5 for about a year or so but never to the extent that I DM'd 2nd Edition. DCC recently lit a fire in me & I only started hearing of MCC. I've been out of the hobby for over 15 years. There are all of these terms now like 2.0, 2.5. What do those even mean? 3.5 is the most recent Edition that I'd even consider playing but I'm on a DCC kick now. I plan on living Empire of The East & integrating MCC into it. Til then, I'm running my DCC games in the Tales of the Fallen Empire setting. I've never heard of this. This is a history lesson to me
Gamma World 3rd ed. is still my favorite rpg of all time. I use a variant of the random mutation tables in my modern Cthulhu Mythos game to generate completely unique abominations from beyond the stars. 💚
That's a great idea! I love hearing about people doing stuff like this. So many folks I think avoid what would otherwise be really awesome and creative content because it isn't made specifically for their system of choice. But, I've bought supplements for GURPs, Ars Magica, Fading Suns, and so many other games specifically just to mine for ideas for my ongoing campaigns, even though I don't even own the core books for those other systems!
Thank you very much for watching and commenting. Gamma World was one of my favorite games back in the day and I was glad to finally do a video for it, and even more glad that it has resonated with so many people!
Mutant Crawl Classics is a great version of Gamma World that Ward made.
I really like a lot of the ideas in both Dungeon Crawl Classic and Mutant Crawl Classics! I've often been inspired to pull stuff from them for the B/X game I run for my daughter and her friends!
Thank you very much for watching and commenting, and also for your support of the channel. I really appreciate it!
Was going to bring that up too. And now they have a Dying Earth rule set