I can’t imagine we could’ve looked less like heroes, but there we were… champion of the wastes and what remained of reality after “The Big Mistake.” A giant sentient coke machine, a Yeti with the ability to shake the earth, a radioactive cockroach we called “Larry,” a half man/hawk that was forever on fire and a swarm of mechanical rats. Such is life in Gamma World, where even this rag-tag group of outcasts manages to fight (and die) for good out in the middle of nowhere.

Gamma World is the recent release by Wizards of the Coast that takes us back to the much loved world of the same name. They’ve moved it away (though not by much) from the standard Dungeons and Dragons banner and put it into it’s own space, heavily based on the rules we know from 4th Edition with some pretty intense streamlining. In short they made the game more open, easier to learn, and more dependent on your imagination and willingness to have a fun and slightly goofy time. It’s awesome.

One of the best things about Gamma World is that everything you need (except for dice) for your entire group to start playing is the one box set, which retails for about $45. It’s cheaper to get into than other RPG’s and doesn’t require any additional purchases on the part of the PC’s to get the ball rolling (save for the above mentioned dice). The box includes some battlemaps, character sheets, some tokens, the rule book and 120 cards (which we’ll discuss in a minute).

The rule book is part Player’s Handbook, part Dungeon Master’s Guide, part Monster Manual and part adventure. It’ll give you a brief rundown of the different classes (called “origins”), the rules of the game and combat (pretty much lifted out of 4E DnD) and an adventure you can run right out of the box using the included battlemaps. When you’re looking to branch out on your own adventure there are a decent amount of monsters listed to populate your world.

Can’t tell you how nice it was to just have everything in one small 160 page book. Since it’s all streamlined rules-wise there just isn’t the need for a ton of extra info. In Gamma World you flesh out the world yourselves as long as you follow the basic rules and limitations for your class. It’s not like you just can just say your character can fly and make it happen or anything… you just get a lot of leeway within the rule set to personalize it.

A perfect example would would be my character, the Android Rat Swarm I named “Splinters”. I rolled those two origins (Rat Swarm and Android) but it was up to me to dictate how that character would really populate the world. Would it be a swarm of mechanical rats? Or perhaps a humanoid robot that was powered by a mass of rat brains? The latter sounds awfully fun to try and roleplay… how exactly would a robot act when powered by a bunch of rat brains? Another good example would be the Hawkoid Pyrokinetic. The player in that game played it straight, Hawk-Guy who’s on fire… but I would’ve gone with Phoenix and concentrated on the bird aspects over the humanoid ones. But it’s up to you, that’s what’s awesome about Gamma World.

The same idea of personalization goes for most in-world items as well. When you’re buying equipment, the damage and bonus table is very generic. So you buy a light shield or heavy shield and the book provides stats for each. The form the shield takes is up to you. Of course, you don’t have to define it at all since it doesn’t affect the stats. But isn’t it more fun to claim it’s an old stop sign you use to bash enemies than just saying you hit someone with your shield?

Of course, it’s not a free for all. You can’t just make up anything and expect it to fly in game. The DM would still make the final call on a lot of that stuff but as long as you can make it fit within the framework of the 4E rules there’s probably a place for it in Gamma World. It’s been said elsewhere that the DM;s job in Gamma World is to say “Yes” and I think that’s true as long as the players can justify it (or the suggestion makes me laugh enough that I want to see where it goes).

To promote the idea of randomness and danger or radiation in Gamma World the game uses two decks of cards that players draw, one for random mutations and one for loot. They break down what attacks, bonuses and damage each thing does and make it super easy to hand out loot and switch up mutations. The mutation cards are changed out after every encounter and give you different temporary abilities like being able to phase out of time or have you grow an extra arm! They’re pretty varied, sometimes useful, sometimes not… but they achieve their goal of injecting randomness into the game. Same goes for the loot cards really, you get one whenever you search and find a useful item… so you just draw a card off the top of the deck. Might be a gun, might be an animatronic toy (which I decided I was going be the Krusty the Clown doll from that Simpsons Halloweed episode… you know, the one set to EVIL).

Rules Lawyers and min-maxers really won’t have a good time playing Gamma World. It’s clearly aimed at those of us that enjoy the roleplaying/imagination stuff. The rules for combat are the same solid 4E rules, so people that like miniatures battles will have fun too. What I really took away from Gamma World were the bouts of laughter from everyone as we read powers out-loud and interacted with this uber-strange world.