Gamma World Video Game in the Works from Atari

Note: this is a re-post from Gamma World War.

Official Game Title and Logo

No, that's not a headline from 1980, though an old cart on the 2600 would be awesome! In fact, this is for realz, according to a post I just read thanks to our friendly neighborhood Sniderman (Savage Afterworld, a blog you should already be reading). Gamma World Alpha Mutation, was demoed at the E3 video game show last week. Sounds like photos of the game demo were not allowed (play report links below), but it apparently holds fairly true to the most recent D&D 4E incarnation of the game--including picking two origins for your mutation. I wonder if there will be a randomizing option?

It's being called a "third-person shooter", I guess that's over-the-shoulder/birds-eye type of play. One thing I love about video games is the ability to play cooperatively and it sounds like GW will include that aspect, supporting 2-players on the console and an additional 2 online.

No release date yet, but it sounds like it's going to be published for Playstation and XBox. One possible "downer" it's being developed by the same team that did the recent Daggerdale D&D game, which has drawn some pretty "mixed" reviews to say the least.

Snidey's already did a bang-up job in his post on the game setting--which I won't duplicate here--but I did track down a few other goodies from a fact sheet on Game Tactics:

Explore Gamma Terra: Take on a variety of perilous missions through a variety of regions of gamma terra, from ruined cities to barren wastelands and beyond, the collision of multiple realities has created a world as exotic as it is deadly.

The Quick and the Dead: Gamma world delivers the depth of an RPG and the action of third person shooter. Quick reflexes and split second decisions are just as important as effective character design.

Lone Wolf or Death Squad: Take on missions solo or join up with friends to tackle the challenges of the Gamma Terra. Play with two players locally or up to four players online.

Evolve Your Character with Alpha Mutations: Gamma World’s character customization system allows players to actively develop their character in almost unlimited ways.

Discover Omega Technology: Powerful technology from other dimensions can turn the tides and preserve your hero’s life… for now.

Conduct Weapons R&D: Scavenge the environment for parts to create new weapons, armor, tools and more. Your ingenuity is your edge in this fight for survival.

So what are your feelings about seeing the beloved GW rendered in polygons?

Cool? Not your thing?

Play reports:
Gamespot
OMGN

More coverage:
Team XBox
Gamertell

Random Table: Hyperspace Mishaps! 1d20

You're flying full-tilt through the black, starlines whiz past your gaze and then you hear the horrible, gut-wrenching sound of the hyperdrive crying out and then suddenly silent. Roll 1d10:

1. Normal space becomes impenetrable: You can't seem to exit hyperspace, it's almost as if there's a hard wall on the other side. You're stuck in hyperspace for 1d10 rounds.
2. Evasive manuvers! An unexpected gravity well appears on the scope. You drop out of hyperspace and take two for flinching.
3. Hopscotch it is! Your ship skips like a stone each time you try to drop out of hyperspace, sending you flying further past your destination.
4. Rift! A tangent wormhole suddenly appears like a trap door in your current corridor, dropping you in any random place AND time in the continuum. Hope it's not Nazi dinosaurs (good luck!)
5. Hyperjacked! Pirates show up and are boarding your vessel--prepare to repel all borders!
6. Wheel of Fortune: Nav computer caught a nasty virus at that last port of call. Roll 1d12 (think hands on a clock) to determine your new course. Effect continues every turn you're in hyperspace until fixed.
7. Look Out! Some object (e.g., asteroid, derelict ship, giant thumbtack, etc.) is tumbling towards you at full speed. You've got one shot to dodge on 1d10... 1: P0WNED! You never liked those PCs anyway; 2-3: CRASH! Roll damage on percentile (if it's 100 take off 5%); oh and you're now floating unpowered in hyperspace, 4-8: BAM! Roll damage as in 2-3 and drop out of hyperspace; 9-10 DODGED! You owe the GM a root beer.
8. Hyperslide: Have all the PCs number off (like in gym class) then roll a die that's closest to that number. The loser just got sucked into a person-sized vortex somewhere/time. PC isn't playable until others fnd him. As a consolation, give the chosen player an unequipped, android "beta" version of him/herself to play until rescued, but all stats are -3 from their usual.
9. Low fuel light: There's not enough gas to get you to wherever you're going (told ya you shoulda' stopped!). Roll percentile to see how much you've lost. Recalc the navacomputer and drop out of warp when the tank reaches 0%.
10. Hyper-hiccups: You leap ahead to your destination immediately, but when you get there you're 100% out of fuel.
11. Picked up a tail: Sensors indicated an unidentified ship is following you. Attempts to hail, evade, hide are unsuccessful.
12. Dinner bell: An enormous cosmic kaiju has found you in hyperspace and plans to make you it's next meal. Fight it off while you can--it grows bigger in once it hits normalspace.
13. Hyperspace viaduct collapses: See what happens when the ruling space authority doesn't keep up on inspection? You're stranded in a collapsed part of the timespace fabric. Escape and rescue by normal means is impossible--you're going to have to Spock/Data your way out of this one.
14. Space sickness: Everytime you fire up the drive, everybody aboard gets a terrible migraine and fever. Roll vs. puking your guts out until the problem is discovered.



"I TOLD you not to flood the engine dude."

15. Sagan shrugs: It's broken and you can't go to warp. No reason really, but you're stuck in the middle of nowhere until it gets fixed. 
16. Hyperspace vamps! Psionic sub-space creatures are draining your crew's lifeforce. Roll a Will, Presence, or related save. If you try to drop out of hyperspace they'll just come along for the ride.
17. Quicksand! Or whatever the hyperspace equivalent is. Your ship begins to sink into timespace fabric, slowly being crushed. -5% hull integrity per round. -10% if you try to drop out of warp. 
18. Silly straw: As you approach your destination you're sucked into a loop-de-loop around it, unable to break free.
19. Spillway: Upon departing h-space you're unexpectedly shot out into a massive debris field, where apparently this corridor has been dumping space junk.(Roll to see what's out there).
20. Welcome to the Mirrorverse! As soon as you jumped, your ship exited hyperspace and found itself in a parallel universe where you all wear mustaches, carry cutlasses, and play with nihilistic intentions. ;)

X-plorers Box Set is Go for Pre-Order!

Just look at that beautiful black and white box set cover!

X-plorers, the retro, science-fiction RPG crafted by Dave Bezio has been given the royal treatment--a box set! I believe that this is the first sci-fi game in the OSR family to have that distinction. John Adams at Brave Halfling has put together a really beautiful package. You can order now, but there's a limited number.

Here's the box contents from the head space cadet himself:

• 6″ x 9″ Game Box (This is an actual game box manufactured for just this purpose and both the top and the bottom are tight-wrapped) hand numbered from 1-200 by the head halfling himself!
• 2 Rule Booklets (Player’s Guide and Referee’s Guide)
• Cleopatra Station Free Adventure
• 3 six-sided and 1 twenty-sided dice
• 2 Ship Deck plans of the Serrona Class Scout and the Mastodon Class Freighter

I'm proud to say that I helped with this latest version. For those that don't know X-plorers, it's not a direct "retro-clone" per se. Dave created it as a "What-if-the-first-roleplaying-game-was-based-in-sci-fi-not-fantasy" experiment. The result is a great game engine that's  rules-light with tons of homebrew fun potential. It includes a modest setting that can be easily fine-tuned, dropped, swapped, for whatever flavor of speculative fiction you prefer.

And there's more for X-plorers in the pipeline, including additional adventure modules later this year. I'm working on some material of my own for it as well.

I hope you'll give this one a shot. This edition is a labor of love by several of us, including Bill DeFranza and has been officially "blessed" by Bezio himself. It features some fantastic new artwork and improved format (three books makes it easier to use at the game table) that I think serves the game well. The spaceship plans are also new for this set.

Here's to some truly far-out, star-hopping adventure!

More resources.
My earlier post on this latest edition.

How many encounters per game?

Actually got to PLAY in a "mini" game of Gamma World on Saturday (I'll cover that later). The game was about 4.5 hours long (it went about 90 minutes over it's planned time) with six players, plus the GM. However, we didn't finish one of the encounters.

In fact, we only had two total (GW on the 4E engine is pretty high on the crunch. Surprise!). Both were rather long--one wilderness, the other indoor. Anyway, it got me wondering what everyone else considers a "good number" of encounters in gaming.

Now I know this is casting a wide net based on individual experience, game preference, and gameplay style, BUT here goes:

How many encounters do you typically, uh, encounter per gaming session? What do you consider ideal? 

To the comments!

On my way to Gamma Terra!

Got my dice and my rulebook, ready to go! The Gamma World Mega Event starts today over at Source Comics and Games with a character generation kick-off. I'm REALLY looking forward to playing this summer. I've had exactly one chance at playing Gamma World so far so it will be great to get in some regular gaming. I'll post a recap here on Exonauts and on Gamma World War. If I get to play in an ongoing campaign, I'll post regular updates over at GWW.

In other news, I did some tidying of the pages and resources on this blog so it should be much easier to find stuff. A quick rundown:

• X-Plorers - this was up already, but in case you hadn't looked there for a while, all the X-Plorers related stuff I'll be working on can be found quickly through here. Plus links to outside resources.
• Exoplanets - here's some links mixed in with a long list of stuff that now has it's own page. Plus links to any related posts here an on Threads of Adventure.
• Comics - another one that had it's own page for a while, but now more links and resources are listed, plus a general re-sorting.
• Other RPG Worlds - these great campaign-specific blogs (all homebrew!) have been on Exonauts for a while, usually on the sidebar. Previously listed as "Tameless Worlds". If you've got a suggestion for more, let me know. I prefer to list them according the name of the planet/world. :)
• Other Sci-Fi Resources - as you might imagine this is everything else, though I took some time to re-sort.

Many of these are pages aren't yet alpha-sorted, but I hope to get to that eventually.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend in their corner of the blogosphere.

Expiscor Eternus!