Mr. Welch's Mad Musings: Gamma World

TSR's Post Apocalyptic classic, Gamma World gave us mutant furries, lost tech artifacts and seven editions. What is it about this game that refuses to let it die? What caused the crash? Does anybody care? And how can I play a one eyed frog with an eye patch?

[@SwordlordRoy]

Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlanta and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Atom, there was an Age undreamed of, when rusting kingdoms lay spread across the world like red mantles beneath the stars.

[@princecharon]

OK, if I run a post apocalyptic game at some point, I hope I remember this quote, because it makes for a good opening... and it makes me wonder if there was ever a Thundarr the Barbarian RPG.

[@chainsawsubtlety9828]

@@princecharon Rifts is fairly close.

[@gangrell3223]

Ah, so this is what Caves of Qud are based on.

[@yuuneeq9494]

feels real uncanny. especially the cannibal trees.

[@freedeau]

Everytime I play Qud, I RP Gamma World in my head. 🤣

[@raziyatheseeker]

It really is, right down to Weapon Class to a degree (or PV in Qud). It might not give you obscene HP at the start, but they took a lot of inspiration from Gamma World. Heck, if I were to run a GW game myself someday, I'd probably borrow mechanical tweaks from Qud -- less starting HP, weapons balanced for such HP, a point-buy system for mutations, etc.

[@shallendor]

4th edition is my favorite version(not based on 4E)! I actually played an adult version of "Kid" from Six String Samurai in a Gamma World game!

[@TKS_Adam]

A '56 Chevy Belair could kick a '48 Buick Roadmaster's ass any day, at least in a first quarter mile that is.

[@kennieminski7080]

Yeah loved 4th as well, I had a psychic mutant coyote. Not a humanoid just a straight up coyote. So many NPC's died thinking they'd found clean meat.

[@tfjohnson55]

In 1992 a runaway planet hurtled between the Earth and its moon ….

[@chainsawsubtlety9828]

Unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is cast in ruin.

[@paulnolin862]

Thundar and THACO forever!!!

[@BockwinkleB]

Gamma World was so much fun. A cool diversion from DnD back in the 80s. I have about $100 worth of it in my Drive Thru shopping cart. Maybe time to pull the trigger.

[@SerpenThrope]

Surprised you didn't mention Mutant Crawl Classics. Elroy Jetson is the villain of the first adventure.

[@Malcadon]

Truly, the best version of Gamma World is whatever rule system you choose to use plus a notebook filled with house rules and random game notes. On that note, I favorite "edition" of Gamma World is Mutant Future. 😜 This video is a damn good encapsulation of Gamma World as a whole! Spot on!🍻

[@KimKhan]

Warm my heart to see Gamma World mentioned. I grew up with a game inspired heavily by Gamma World in Sweden - called Mutant - published in 1984 and have had editions printed to this very day, only with the latest edition really changing the rule system (now it uses Free League's D6 system, it used to run on Chaosium's BRP system, as seen in RuneQuest). The many editions were either hits or misses, one was "Mutant SPACE" translated, and was an abysmal failure. But its assets were recovered to make a new game which did see commercial success, and eventually an English edition with further international success. Mutant Chronicles.

[@TiroDvD]

Trivia: Gamma World is the inspiration for the Square (now Square-Enix) gameboy title Makaitoshi SaGa, known as Final Fantasy Legend. It's sequels 2 and 3 also include more details from later Gamma World editions.

[@weaselwolf]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's seen 6-string samurai... Trying to explain that movie feels like a fever dream.

[@spacedinosaur8733]

"Last kid that crossed that line, I had to summon up the Spinach Monster with my rock 'n' roll magic."

[@henrya3530]

Gamma World was fun and when it came out provided an easy way for players familiar with D&D to have a go at a science-fantasy game. However, I much preferred the hard sci-fi approach taken by The Morrow Project.

[@28mmRPG]

YAAAAY! The first RPG I tried to play in 79!

[@goblinoidfilms7119]

Got 2nd Ed when it came out as a kid and still love it. So fun! I still run this every few years if I can. Like you say, so many options for both players and GM's. Interested in 4th Ed now given the praise here and in the comments. Happy gaming, all!

[@erikmartin4996]

Excellent timing with Wynona

[@TheFirstVonGunther]

Well I was drinking all night for vacation, listening to music from 12 years ago when I got deployed. I was thinking about texting a nurse Id met on tinder a year ago because I'll be in that area Friday for a gun show. Well now I've got to do it since I've got some new Mr Welch. Lets see how the die land!

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

Wish you a crit!

[@Charlotte_WilliamsFYTG]

I think I liked 4th edition Gamma World the best. Also don't forget about the books. Things like Fallout borrow heavily from works like Canticle of Liebowitz, and you already mentioned A Boy and His Dog, which was a Harlan Ellison book. You can mine those for ideas.

[@masonickatamike]

For you younger folks here's the wonderful thing with Gamma World, it's one of the greatest games to troll a group with. It's also chances are a game that will get people throwing their dice at you when you finally hit them with the troll. Okay you see Gamma World was a game where you could send the players off looking for an artifact called the Holy Disks of Lezep. You could string the party along looking for those damn things, have whatever evil raider faction or high tech evil fascist city state sending death robots and cyborgs after them. You could have them engaged in some final fight with the raider leaders from Cyborg and Road Warrior along with a Hulk Super Mutant. And what's their prize at the end? The artifact that could bring ruin to the world if it fell into the wrong hands? The party finds themselves in a somewhat still standing mall and Sam Goody and the Holy Disks are the last surviving still wrapped box of Led Zeppelin's Remasters. That's what made Gamma World great, also you could sorta torment the party afterword's by telling them they just made sure Stairway to Heaven never dies.

[@maxmccullough8548]

Idk I'm a weirdo I guess , I'd have loved that and retired my character to be "Keeper of the Holy Disks"

[@BockwinkleB]

My DnD group had our Paladins somehow transported to Gamma World. Probably inspired by the space shuttle in Ultima I. They then took alloy armor and weapons back to Greyhawk and conquered the Pomarj. Yes the orcs were evil. Good times.

[@strokingoutloudpodcast]

I’m a 90s baby and my dad and uncle got me into gamma world. We played for years. I would have friends over and they would create characters and play with us to. Everyone i ever got involved always loved playing.

[@chriskirby9408]

7th edition had the worst rules, but the setup and tone was hilariously gonzo

[@gerwyn8340]

My favourite edition is 4th.(made during second edition D&D)

[@CountLuciferLeviatha]

Got a small POD collection of 1e Gamma World, been itching to play it!

[@kennieminski7080]

But Mr. Welch it had marvelous judgement, even if it didn't have good taste.

[@lincolnmartin7743]

Just to clear something up, the “Weapon class vs armor class” system came from Metamorphosis Alpha.

[@0326jlc]

I haven’t watched it yet, that being said there is an amphibious humanoid wielding a chainsaw. Yep it’s Gamma World. “Up with Bonaparte, down with hummies. “

[@zhaoliang4217]

That movie still is from 1980’s b-movie called “H*** comes to frogtown”, I think.

[@jeffweskamp3685]

The girl at 9:42 was the best part of the film Doomsday!

[@philips.5563]

So this is actually a playlist. Neat.

[@Se7enBeatleofDoom]

Gamma World could’ve easily had a Thundercats and He-man-style cartoon in the 80s. A companion show to the 80s Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.

[@geminisamimi9928]

I've been hearing about this game, but I never actually got a rundown

[@Anyone00TZ]

I read through 2nd edition (I think) when I was younger; one particular thing that stood out to me was the Death Maching had heavy beam and artillery attacks that had ranges of multiple kilometers.

[@Metricsteel]

Finally my yor hunter from the future game can be real

[@bobbymorris2979]

I played a few games of gamma world with rules converted to 5e and it is pretty fun.

[@TKS_Adam]

OOOOOOOOOOO.... 6 string samurai. my favorite.

[@djartyom1243]

Get a similar vibe to mutant year zero ( great game btw)

[@adamwelch4336]

Gamma world is the best because it's a mixture of silly and serous! Sure there are killer mutant rabbits 🐰 but you also have to worry about killer robots and stariveing to death!💀

[@meatKog]

Now there is "Gamma Five" based on D&D 5e rules.

[@markskarr2257]

Hey! I liked Damnation Alley. That was my first post apocalypse movie!

[@richardstephens3327]

@Mr. Welch if you need some any of the Alternity books please let me know.

[@spacedinosaur8733]

Don't forget Palladium's After the Bomb. Originally a supplement to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, then becoming its own thing with 5 or 6 supplement books.

[@ss-oq9pc]

2:38 Powah and Chaos!

[@mikeharrison6039]

Heck yeah My best friend introduced me to the the tribe when we were younger. It is awesome and I’m still trying to make it into an rpg

[@danmorgan3685]

9:55 Ah, the Doomsday babe. She showed me that even the stunt women in Hollywood are freaking hot.

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

Can't say I've ever heard of Gamma World, but thanks for the rundown! Speaking of Alternity, could you dedicate a specific video about Star*Drive please? Thank you!

[@elfbait3774]

I love Gamma World. I tended to stick with 1/2E while bringing in the plant and android characters and the enhanced pure strain human rules from later editions. I appreciate the earlier editions as trying to be something derived from early D&D but setting out to make tweaks rather than glomming on to whatever thing TSR/WOTC was putting out at the time.

[@awsomeness242ify]

I wish someone made a video game of this

[@isaacstandley730]

Oh, I was wondering what Caves of Qud was based on.

[@ragimund5502]

You might have missed a chance to use Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky as a link. I might be weird, but I like Ellison's writing (and adaptations), besides the Alternity version. The card mechanics of the seventh edition are also kind of fun.

[@thebolas000]

I had a lot of fun with 7e, and if that's considered one of the bad ones then I really want to try the older ones.

[@XenrickDHeart]

This sounds weird and absolutely insane. I'm in

[@peterjanssen5901]

.....What those mentioned post-crash movies were bad? and "Boy and his dog" was great, I love happy endings.

[@derekburge5294]

Hoops, man... Fuckin' Hoops.

[@tssteelx]

I only ever played the alternity version of it. I think they we trying to play on the popularity of fallout. We only played 2 sessions, wasn't bad. We played more tangents. That was kind of fun.

[@Mr_Welch]

There was a Fallout conversion in a dragon magazine for alternity

[@tssteelx]

@@Mr_Welch oh yeah....

[@adammcclelland5746]

8:47 Actually, the mutant animals, or 'furries' as you call them, are represented by the Moreaus from the D20 modern core rulebook.

[@m..m7438]

Hey, someone else knows of the existence of Six String Samurai. Well, well. Speaking of (good) bad post apocalyptic movies, there is one you didn't mention; an election drama (?) named The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell. Also in the vein of Six String Samurai, a good shoestring budget post apocalyptic movie. Kudos on naming most of the other good bad postapocalyptic movies so far known to man. And some of the really really bad ones...

[@paulnolin862]

Thundar and THACO forever!!!

[@mikeharrison6039]

Hey Mr Welch at 2:36 you use an image from the 1999 New Zealand post apocalyptic teenage drama The Tribe. Do you know anything about the show if yes how would you do it as an RPG if no I will tell you of that insanity

[@Mr_Welch]

That actually came up as an image when I was searching for the movie Defcon 4.

[@mikeharrison6039]

@@Mr_Welch ah ok, that show is wild the basic premise is that a virus wipes out the world’s adults in a lord of the flies scenario and the children have to rebuild. The show is all about a tribe coming together in the apocalypse. Then the show goes completely off the wall with the breakdancing contest, the apocalypse cult that worships a character killed off after 6 episodes, the mad science tribe with the VR and laser blasters, and a whole bunch of other insanity. Look at its TV Tropes page it’s pretty good.

[@AlVainactual]

Mutant Crawl Classics is a "spiritual successor" game of Gamma World based on DCC. It's really great 👍

[@EvilDoresh]

There's also Mutant Future for more of a BECMI-esque clone.

[@AlVainactual]

@@EvilDoresh That's cool I didn't know that

[@markfaulkner8191]

by saying it is based on "first edition D&D", do you mean the 1974 original? Or did yo really mean Advanced I, the third edition of the game, aka AD&D?

[@AgoodITguy]

Hey can you review MERP?

[@Mr_Welch]

If I can get a copy

[@brettwerdesheim9767]

the starship trooper rpg more akin to the 3d tv show and comic book

[@MrNetWraith]

6th edition was my personal favorite, I'm not a fan of the wacky slapstick goofball comedy that TSR took refuge in, but 4th edition's description as "the furry edition" makes it sound interesting enough for me to want to check it out.

[@manarayofhope2374]

Two Questions 1 so your telling me this game can let me play as a Big foot tech Priest sign me up! 2 what,s your problem with boy and his dog that was a great movie the only part I didn't like is how the glossed over the cannibalism at the end?

[@Mr_Welch]

The forced breeding part of the plot was a bit much

[@erikmartin4996]

Finally

[@davidatkinson47]

Like that you noted the movie for Starship Troopers was "In Name only." Verhoeven was trying to make fun of "fascism" but he should have read and followed the book, if that was what his point was. (He admits to not having read it before directing the movie, probably still hasn't, but that last is just my guess.) The book made the environment much worse. The movie made all the bad things into a series of jokes. Plus, he missed the powered armor entirely. What is sci-fi really for?

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

Starship Trooper society is NOT fascist, it is libertarian.

[@scotth4713]

4th Edition for the win, and nothing to do with furries (those people are weird). :)

[@fleetcenturion]

Good review. Shit game.