Hi! I set this video up as a "Premier" really just to help promote it and let everyone know in advance it was coming. It came out longer than I would have liked (worried I'll lose some of you) however I also really wanted to provide you with the best Gamma World First Edition video on TH-cam. I hope I came close to reaching that goal. In the video I discuss the setting, the game mechanics, player options. Thanks!
I barely remember Gamma World, but remember being intrigued by it as a kid. I had no idea there were still fans of this, and your video just gave me more info on what it's about than I've known for years. 🙂Now I kind of want to play this...!! Thank you!
I wrote a campaign for GW set in Australia. Found the document recently. Originally written in WordPerfect, it had been printed on a dot matrix printer and bound into a nice notebook.
I remember GammaWorld. I had the black and white cover book for it. I loved how it allowed you to create wonderfully original characters. I spent many many happy months simply creating wildly variant characters. Sadly, I never found anyone else interested in playing it, so I played solo games using die rolls to determine encounters. I was maybe 13yrs old when I first got my copy of it. Sadly, my parents threw it away during one of our family relocations due to parental job transfers. I miss the fun of that game.....
Oh! Thanks for sharing your story. I wish it had a happier ending. I'm really sorry to hear that you lost your books. In addition to my regular D&D 5e campaign I am also running a Mutant Crawl Classics game which is a very cool retro clone of Gamma World. I recommend it!
Great topic! I played a ton of 1st ed Gamma World when it was first released. We always had a raucous time. I had a booklet full of characters, each with a drawing done by my 10 yr old self. Now I own MCClassics and aim to give that a go!
Great review, Though one thing I notice that most people never talk about when reviewing first edition Gamma World is the Artifact flow charts, that are used when a character is trying to workout what some ancient Artifact is and it's fuction. The Artifact flow charts are a mini game within themselves and like everything in first edition Gamma World the simple act of trying to workout what something is or dose can be lethal and lead to a hilarious character death, for example, arming a fusion grenade and not understanding that the grenade then needs to be thrown, Also it's a good Idea to make two characters, one for now, one for later as the lethality in first edition Gamma World is extremely high.
I may have mentioned that in my Sci fi meets fantasy video? I'll definitely bring it up in my Expedition to the Barrier Peaks video. With this video I had to edit some things out due to video length getting away from me. Thanks for watching!
@@cydraiyne8323 Yeah, the Artifact flow charts in GW 1st, are the best, No other edition of the game did them justice. I never understood why TSR had to keep changing the Artifact flow chart concept with every new edition, The Artifact flow charts found in GW 1st are simply perfection, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Oh man, a big trip down Memory lane here! Monday Wednesday Friday and one weekend day were usually spent playing 1sr edition after it came out. I lost an early character and wiped the party trying to learn how to use a grenade. Back during the Cold War as a young man we were sure this was our future. Ya know what I think I am going to get the group together and get another game going for old times sake. Thank you for stirring up old fond memories.
This is the RPG that inspired to me write a novel after all these years. So many hours spent as a youth playing this and other games like it. Oh this brings back the memories. I think I am gonna dedicate my second book to Gary Gygax who inspired all this in my view.
I really want an excuse to run Legion of Gold again now as an adult. As a kid I definitely did not make the best use of it. I see it now in a whole new light. And Famin in Fargo is very fun.
@@welovettrpgs I never managed to track that down, I am /was in Australia so I am relying on imports, but all the stuff of that era :Tunnels and Trolls, Boot Hill, Top Secret and more are very familiar to me. I was 10 yo in 78 and still have much of the childhood gamery. I am still playing dnd in my 50's lol
@@welovettrpgs perhaps my favourite old game is MERP. i have a bunch of Middle Earth modules that are interesting if for no other reason than they give stats for all the LOTR characters from hobbits to Ainur
Great review of a wonderful RPG and its apocalyptic setting. It’s my favourite game, too. Looking forward to more Gamma World (& MCC) reviews from you!
Like some others, been playing TT RPG for decades, but never played Gama World. I really want to give it a try. I'm going to talk to my group. Thanks so much 👍. 🖖😁🤘🇨🇦
That's just first edition. I'll do a video covering all the editions. However I would recommend Mutant Crawl Classics instead of Gamma World (its a retro clone of Gamma World.) My group plays Mutant Crawl Classics when we aren't playing D&D or the D6 Star Wars rpg from WEG.
We played a campain during the covid lockdowns based on the The Legions of Gold module. I was the second time I had played Gamma world we played it 20 years ago.
Hello, Good Video. Gamma World is my favorite. I picked up my 1e box in 1981. I have every edition in hard copy except for 7th edition which I have in PDF. Although I think 2e is my favorite edition.
I have a large Gamma World first edition collection, that includes all three box set printing versions of the fisrt edition and most of the miniatures released for Gamma World first edition by Grenadier models, The genius of the first edition of Gamma World, Is that it's very bare bones as you suggested, but gives you just enough information to let your imagination go wild and create something truly unique, Even the world map is basically a canvas to paint out your own unique version of the world of Gamma World, Unfortunately later editions of Gamma World lost a lot of what made the first edtion so unique, partly due to being heavily influenced by MadMax vision of the post apocalypse that isn't what Gamma World is meant to be, personally the first edition of Gamma World is the only edtion of Gamma World in its purest form with its original unique vision of the post apocalypse. The second edition of Gamma World isn't that bad, but a lot of what made the first edition so unique was lost in translation, in my personal opinion, still the second edition is a nice looking box set with some nice illustrations throughout, along with some good addons and adventure modules so not all bad. I agree Mutant Crawl Classics is a great modern update to Gamma world, I look forward to seeing more Gamma World/MMC content from you in the future, Cheers!
@@welovettrpgs that would make for a great campaign seed. You could have different factions based on fast food chains and popular products. I picture it like the gangs in The Warriors... You got The Pepsi's and The Cokes (the Cokes being split into the Classics vs the New Cokes), and they are each allied with different fast food chains like your Ronalds, and the Kings (Burger Kings, of course), or The Wendy's. The Skippers and the Long John Silvers. The A&W's, the Arby's. The Dominoes vs The Huts, battling for pizza dominance. "Would you like fries with that?!?" pew pew pew!
@@welovettrpgs yes, but the Burger King (and his Whoppers), as well as the Ronalds, and the Wendy's (oh so frosty!) all serve The Cokes. But there's a rift in the Coca-Cola Clergy causing strife between the fast food factions. I can just picture the Ronalds in their clown garb battling the Wendy's in their red pigtails and prairie dresses. "Have it your way!" vs "Where's the beef!" LOL!
Really excellent and well-researched video. :-) I still own my 1e box set of Gamma World. If I remember, mine is a 2nd printing. Have you ever checked out Metamorphosis Alpha? It's Jim Ward's first sci-fi RPG and has a lot of DNA that ends up in Gamma World. Fun stuff and hyper-deadly game. :-)
Yes, I ultimately edited out the Metamorphosis Alpha info from the video due to video length but I'll cover that in a separate video and explain how Metamorphosis Alpha led to Gamma World.
Four Hoops and a pure strain human walk into a bar, proceeding to get lit, talk smack and wreck house. Tear-assing around in a beat up bubble car. Four 8’ rabbits with bad attitudes, generally not playing well with others, running roughshod over any opposing force. Collecting artifacts and keeping the local Cryptic Alliances in check, making believers out of those sorry buggers. Those were the days.
The pure strain human was the GM’s NPC, his tech level was higher than ours, so we had him figuring out the artifacts. Otherwise we probably would’ve blown our faces off, armed mostly with slug throwers we looked like a bunch of spaghetti western bad guys, meeting a screwed up Alice in Wonderland rabbit with facial scars, torn ears and the occasional Mohawk.
Considering how Fallout was directly inspired by Gamma World WoTC made a HUGE mistake by not updating Gamma World to a 5E level. I really think this game would have sold like hot cakes in todays TTRPG scene. For seriously man. [face palm through head]
Agreed. I made this video because I didn't think the other Gamma World Videos were really any good and I was hoping maybe this would inspire newer players to look into it (or MCC)
I agree. Gamma World gets no love. It is awesome that Goodman Gamea made a new OSR version for modern gamers. Very nice indeed. The sad thing is younger gamers might see this game and think it's inspired from the Fallout series when we know it's the total opposite. I also think Rifts garnered a fair amount of inspiration from Gamma World. They just dialed it up to 20. LOL
I had a copy of GW 2e, but only played it a hand full of times. I remember having fun, but the game did not seem to lend itself to long involved campaigns. At least, not with the groups I played with. I seem to remember it being a bit like Hero System games, where the games are fun, but without the guard rails of a pregenerated fantasy world, or sci-fi universe with rigid rules, things tend to spin out of control.
I share a similar feeling. Personally I enjoy sci-fi movies and books more than fantasy yet I enjoy playing fantasy rpgs more than sci fi (generally speaking) The first edition gamma world game didnt have great character advancement mechanics though that did improve (no pun intended) with later editions.
I bet that is very likely. May have been an influence for his earlier game Metamorphosis Alpha - which then turned into Gamma World. Likewise, if you look at Tim Cain's influences for creating Fallout Gamma world is just one of many. All of these creators had so many different inspirations to draw on.
@@welovettrpgs I'm always idly contemplating how to put my 5e group through some kind of a post-apoc one-shot :) Current favourites not yet played: Mutant Future, Other Dust, and Vaults of Vaarn. ASE would be up there as a module as well.
![fellow fellow - PROUD feat. INK WARUNTORN [STRING QUARTET]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BQrVkMPTdHE/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi! I set this video up as a "Premier" really just to help promote it and let everyone know in advance it was coming. It came out longer than I would have liked (worried I'll lose some of you) however I also really wanted to provide you with the best Gamma World First Edition video on TH-cam. I hope I came close to reaching that goal. In the video I discuss the setting, the game mechanics, player options. Thanks!
I barely remember Gamma World, but remember being intrigued by it as a kid. I had no idea there were still fans of this, and your video just gave me more info on what it's about than I've known for years. 🙂Now I kind of want to play this...!! Thank you!
Thank you very much! Check out my future Gamma World and Mutant Crawl Classics videos when I get to them as well! I highly recommend MCC.
I wrote a campaign for GW set in Australia. Found the document recently. Originally written in WordPerfect, it had been printed on a dot matrix printer and bound into a nice notebook.
That's awesome!
*The girl on the cover of the Referee Screen is wearing a **_Dead Kennedys_** pendant.*
Awesome!
Punk lived forever.
That is a really great Easter egg. It even came up in a live Q&A online the other night with Erol Otus! :-D
I remember GammaWorld. I had the black and white cover book for it. I loved how it allowed you to create wonderfully original characters. I spent many many happy months simply creating wildly variant characters. Sadly, I never found anyone else interested in playing it, so I played solo games using die rolls to determine encounters. I was maybe 13yrs old when I first got my copy of it.
Sadly, my parents threw it away during one of our family relocations due to parental job transfers. I miss the fun of that game.....
Oh! Thanks for sharing your story. I wish it had a happier ending. I'm really sorry to hear that you lost your books. In addition to my regular D&D 5e campaign I am also running a Mutant Crawl Classics game which is a very cool retro clone of Gamma World. I recommend it!
Great topic! I played a ton of 1st ed Gamma World when it was first released. We always had a raucous time. I had a booklet full of characters, each with a drawing done by my 10 yr old self. Now I own MCClassics and aim to give that a go!
I'm very impressed by MCC!
Great review, Though one thing I notice that most people never talk about when reviewing first edition Gamma World is the Artifact flow charts, that are used when a character is trying to workout what some ancient Artifact is and it's fuction. The Artifact flow charts are a mini game within themselves and like everything in first edition Gamma World the simple act of trying to workout what something is or dose can be lethal and lead to a hilarious character death, for example, arming a fusion grenade and not understanding that the grenade then needs to be thrown, Also it's a good Idea to make two characters, one for now, one for later as the lethality in first edition Gamma World is extremely high.
I may have mentioned that in my Sci fi meets fantasy video? I'll definitely bring it up in my Expedition to the Barrier Peaks video. With this video I had to edit some things out due to video length getting away from me. Thanks for watching!
Awesome! They were so amazingly complicated and fun.
I miss being 10
@@cydraiyne8323 Yeah, the Artifact flow charts in GW 1st, are the best, No other edition of the game did them justice. I never understood why TSR had to keep changing the Artifact flow chart concept with every new edition, The Artifact flow charts found in GW 1st are simply perfection, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Oh man, a big trip down Memory lane here! Monday Wednesday Friday and one weekend day were usually spent playing 1sr edition after it came out. I lost an early character and wiped the party trying to learn how to use a grenade. Back during the Cold War as a young man we were sure this was our future. Ya know what I think I am going to get the group together and get another game going for old times sake. Thank you for stirring up old fond memories.
I loved your story! Thank you so much! And hey, this may yet be our future!
I was a 2nd edition player of Gamma World in the 1980s and that scenario / map in Pittsburgh that the base game came with was awesome
I loved 2nd edition
This is the RPG that inspired to me write a novel after all these years. So many hours spent as a youth playing this and other games like it. Oh this brings back the memories. I think I am gonna dedicate my second book to Gary Gygax who inspired all this in my view.
Well, he and Arneson ... (and Blume to a degree). Good luck!
@@welovettrpgs True, I always remember Blume at times. They were very creative and inspiring. Thank you, it seems to be going well.
Really enjoyed this one. I haven't played GW as much as I'd like but loved playing it back in the 80s! Remember 'Thundarr the Barbarian'? :)
Glad you enjoyed it! I loved Thundarr!
@@welovettrpgs At the time it was the closest thing to Gamma World we got!
Would love to see more videos in this series!
Gamma World was the first RPG I ever played, and I still have the original boxed set plus GM Screen and a module. The Legion of Gold
I really want an excuse to run Legion of Gold again now as an adult. As a kid I definitely did not make the best use of it. I see it now in a whole new light. And Famin in Fargo is very fun.
@@welovettrpgs I never managed to track that down, I am /was in Australia so I am relying on imports, but all the stuff of that era :Tunnels and Trolls, Boot Hill, Top Secret and more are very familiar to me. I was 10 yo in 78 and still have much of the childhood gamery. I am still playing dnd in my 50's lol
@@LordEriolTolkien Oh I have a video on the channel talking about a bunch of the old games from back then.
@@welovettrpgs perhaps my favourite old game is MERP. i have a bunch of Middle Earth modules that are interesting if for no other reason than they give stats for all the LOTR characters from hobbits to Ainur
Great review of a wonderful RPG and its apocalyptic setting. It’s my favourite game, too. Looking forward to more Gamma World (& MCC) reviews from you!
Thank You! My busy work season is coming to an end giving me more time to make videos.
@@welovettrpgs Great! Your work has nice audio & video quality.
Like some others, been playing TT RPG for decades, but never played Gama World. I really want to give it a try. I'm going to talk to my group. Thanks so much 👍. 🖖😁🤘🇨🇦
That's just first edition. I'll do a video covering all the editions. However I would recommend Mutant Crawl Classics instead of Gamma World (its a retro clone of Gamma World.) My group plays Mutant Crawl Classics when we aren't playing D&D or the D6 Star Wars rpg from WEG.
We played a campain during the covid lockdowns based on the The Legions of Gold module. I was the second time I had played Gamma world we played it 20 years ago.
Love it!
I hope that the "Adam Ant" character's catchphrase was "Stand and deliver !"
He sure wasn't a Goody Two Shoes!
Gamma World is one of my favorite games.
Same! I have a video on here about my favore ttrpgs and gamma world is in my top 3.
Hello, Good Video. Gamma World is my favorite. I picked up my 1e box in 1981. I have every edition in hard copy except for 7th edition which I have in PDF. Although I think 2e is my favorite edition.
For sure. I have been thinking a lot lately about getting to work on a 2E video.
I have a large Gamma World first edition collection, that includes all three box set printing versions of the fisrt edition and most of the miniatures released for Gamma World first edition by Grenadier models, The genius of the first edition of Gamma World, Is that it's very bare bones as you suggested, but gives you just enough information to let your imagination go wild and create something truly unique, Even the world map is basically a canvas to paint out your own unique version of the world of Gamma World, Unfortunately later editions of Gamma World lost a lot of what made the first edtion so unique, partly due to being heavily influenced by MadMax vision of the post apocalypse that isn't what Gamma World is meant to be, personally the first edition of Gamma World is the only edtion of Gamma World in its purest form with its original unique vision of the post apocalypse. The second edition of Gamma World isn't that bad, but a lot of what made the first edition so unique was lost in translation, in my personal opinion, still the second edition is a nice looking box set with some nice illustrations throughout, along with some good addons and adventure modules so not all bad. I agree Mutant Crawl Classics is a great modern update to Gamma world, I look forward to seeing more Gamma World/MMC content from you in the future, Cheers!
Great thank you!
My fav version was 2ed, and yes, I do remember the Gallus Gallus 5 13
Amazing how the background of Gamma World sounds a lot like what's happening today...
A little too close isnt it? BTW Jim Ward (who created that) just passed away. :(
Yeah, heard...lost a great contributor to the hobby.@@welovettrpgs
Thanks for the great video! Love the idea of the Ronalds - that's awesome!
Thank you!
There's just something about the idea of being murdered by evil mutant laser gun wielding clowns yelling "Have it your way!"
@@welovettrpgs that would make for a great campaign seed. You could have different factions based on fast food chains and popular products. I picture it like the gangs in The Warriors...
You got The Pepsi's and The Cokes (the Cokes being split into the Classics vs the New Cokes), and they are each allied with different fast food chains like your Ronalds, and the Kings (Burger Kings, of course), or The Wendy's. The Skippers and the Long John Silvers. The A&W's, the Arby's. The Dominoes vs The Huts, battling for pizza dominance.
"Would you like fries with that?!?" pew pew pew!
@@mikeb.1705 Burger King rules a feudal kingdom!
@@welovettrpgs yes, but the Burger King (and his Whoppers), as well as the Ronalds, and the Wendy's (oh so frosty!) all serve The Cokes. But there's a rift in the Coca-Cola Clergy causing strife between the fast food factions.
I can just picture the Ronalds in their clown garb battling the Wendy's in their red pigtails and prairie dresses.
"Have it your way!" vs "Where's the beef!" LOL!
Really excellent and well-researched video. :-) I still own my 1e box set of Gamma World. If I remember, mine is a 2nd printing. Have you ever checked out Metamorphosis Alpha? It's Jim Ward's first sci-fi RPG and has a lot of DNA that ends up in Gamma World. Fun stuff and hyper-deadly game. :-)
Yes, I ultimately edited out the Metamorphosis Alpha info from the video due to video length but I'll cover that in a separate video and explain how Metamorphosis Alpha led to Gamma World.
@@welovettrpgs Nice! Already looking forward to a Metamorphosis Alpha video! :-D
Four Hoops and a pure strain human walk into a bar, proceeding to get lit, talk smack and wreck house. Tear-assing around in a beat up bubble car. Four 8’ rabbits with bad attitudes, generally not playing well with others, running roughshod over any opposing force. Collecting artifacts and keeping the local Cryptic Alliances in check, making believers out of those sorry buggers. Those were the days.
Love it! great game!
The pure strain human was the GM’s NPC, his tech level was higher than ours, so we had him figuring out the artifacts. Otherwise we probably would’ve blown our faces off, armed mostly with slug throwers we looked like a bunch of spaghetti western bad guys, meeting a screwed up Alice in Wonderland rabbit with facial scars, torn ears and the occasional Mohawk.
I follow some buddies who do a livestream of the game and I just bought a pod copy today!
Awesome! Look for my 2E gamma world video next week! its far better than this old 1E video
Considering how Fallout was directly inspired by Gamma World WoTC made a HUGE mistake by not updating Gamma World to a 5E level. I really think this game would have sold like hot cakes in todays TTRPG scene. For seriously man.
[face palm through head]
Agreed. I made this video because I didn't think the other Gamma World Videos were really any good and I was hoping maybe this would inspire newer players to look into it (or MCC)
I agree. Gamma World gets no love. It is awesome that Goodman Gamea made a new OSR version for modern gamers. Very nice indeed.
The sad thing is younger gamers might see this game and think it's inspired from the Fallout series when we know it's the total opposite. I also think Rifts garnered a fair amount of inspiration from Gamma World. They just dialed it up to 20. LOL
holy crap. this dude even DRESSES as a vocal fry.
yeah man that dude is super weird whats up with that?!!!
I had a copy of GW 2e, but only played it a hand full of times. I remember having fun, but the game did not seem to lend itself to long involved campaigns. At least, not with the groups I played with. I seem to remember it being a bit like Hero System games, where the games are fun, but without the guard rails of a pregenerated fantasy world, or sci-fi universe with rigid rules, things tend to spin out of control.
I share a similar feeling. Personally I enjoy sci-fi movies and books more than fantasy yet I enjoy playing fantasy rpgs more than sci fi (generally speaking) The first edition gamma world game didnt have great character advancement mechanics though that did improve (no pun intended) with later editions.
You forgot Damnation Alley which is also of the era and in the genre
thanks, I'm not familiar with that one.
I'm partial to 4th edition Gamma World, but I'm hoping to get my hands on the Alternity version so I can see how it compares.
Alternity is the only edition I don't own but I do intend n adding it to my collection. I am planning a video for every edition.
@@welovettrpgs Can't wait for more Gamma World and maybe Mutant Crawl Classics to be discussed more in depth.
Well done, new sub.
Thanks! Welcome!
…. now….. just where to play?…. Hmmmm
I just made a character for 4E.
That's great! I look forward to covering that edition!
Im scrolling through youtube looking for gamma world videos.
Do you think Gamma World took some ques from Kamandi
I bet that is very likely. May have been an influence for his earlier game Metamorphosis Alpha - which then turned into Gamma World. Likewise, if you look at Tim Cain's influences for creating Fallout Gamma world is just one of many. All of these creators had so many different inspirations to draw on.
Currious if you've looked at Mutant Future & Project Oasis
Ive heard of them and I'm definitely interested. I can ask some friends if youre looking for more info about them.
@@welovettrpgs I'm always idly contemplating how to put my 5e group through some kind of a post-apoc one-shot :)
Current favourites not yet played: Mutant Future, Other Dust, and Vaults of Vaarn. ASE would be up there as a module as well.
@@scottosau I'm loving the Monty Cook 5e conversions from his Numenera - I use those myself.
Adam Ant.... 🤣🤣🤣
Would it surprise you to know he was/ is a huge Adam Ant fan? :)
No way. 😜
i love gamma world
My group recently began playing Mutant Crawl Classics. It is a Gamma World retro clone. It is a blast!