In 1982-83, I was obsessed with RPGs and Gamma World was one of my favorites. My mother saw a documentary on the evils of D&D and was concerned. She suggested my father play a game with me and the kids I hung out with. We played a GW campaign. My father played a mutated rat named Shagrat. We played 2 nights a week for 6 weeks. There were 5 of is and a friend was the GM. My father got really into the game and it was so much fun. All my friends thought I had the coolest dad. I love you dad!

We tried Traveller but it was a bit of a stretch for us British 1970s school kids and so when someone introduced us to Gamma World it was a life changing experience. Our DM was one of the school prefects and one of the tallest kids in the school so already had an air of authority that kept us all in check. I have honestly never laughed so much in my life playing that game which helped us through the very real backdrop to our lives that was living during the cold war. Still have my figures and a multi sided dice. One of my best friends still has my game and some original character sheets. I was so inspired by this game I wrote a short story about The Knights of the Genetic Purity for schoolwork but my teacher rejected it because he didnt believe I had written it which says something about the quality of the de motivating teachers I had to endure.

Gamma World definitely inspired the original Fallout and Wasteland Video Games.

It took me 20 minutes to roll up my first character, and he died in the first fifteen minutes of play, by mistaking a Torc Grenade for a flashlight. BOOM, 15 meter deep smoking crater... Definitely a memorable event! Gamma World was a fun but dangerous game for exploring old ruins.

I played this, and Star Frontiers a lot in the early 80's. My favorite characters were an astronaut who was placed in cryo-stasis for an expedition to another star, but then.. the accident and war broke out destroying the Earth. The station's orbit eventually decayed, and it came down, crashing to the Earth. The cryo-pod protected him during the crash with it's stasis field. So he emerged from the pod expecting to be on board his exploratory vessel, only to find himself in the middle of burning wreckage in a world gone mad. He was always mystified and horrified of the world. My other favorite character was this mutated weeping willow tree that was 9 feet tall, looked exactly like a small willow tree that walked on all it's roots, and it's hanging vines or branches, or whatever willow trees have, were used as tentacles to hold stuff. He kept his inventory in that tangle and was able to wield multiple items simultaneously. He was TERRIFIED of anything that could set him on fire. It was a horrible weakness. I'm rather sad that I didn't discover Metamophosys Alpha till the 90's. I always loved the idea of it and would have loved to play it. The closest thing we ever got to Metamorphoses Alpha was in D&D Spelljammer, when the Spelljammer itself destroyed my party's flying ship, and the ship crashed on the Spelljammer. Our Spelljammer was a LOT bigger than the one described in the supplements. It was essential the Death Star of the D&D world. And the inside of it essentially WAS the D&D version of Metomorphosys Alpha.

Dude! You did Gamma World! YEEEEEAAAAHHH!

Ah, nostalgia. The words "Life Leech" still make me shudder when I hear them, and I used to have a custom tee shirt with that picture of the hoops (the rabbits with guns) on it. The high school gaming club had those made up for us, of all things. This was the game that inspired those weird tentacled robot designs in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. FWIW the Pure Strain humans were a bit better than just being recognized by robots and security systems more often (which wasn't always a good thing). They also never got stuck finding high-tech armor that they simply couldn't fit in. Our 9' tall mutant porcupine PC was hell on wheels with his weird mutations but he wasn't going to be wearing assault power armor and his fingers wouldn't fit in a trigger guard worth a damn. Think they had some kind of benefit for working through the tech flowcharts and resisting radiation effects too even in this edition, but I might be wrong, that could be later on. Think they went to d8 hit dice in 2nd? Good game to play when you were twelve and it was 1978. Maybe not quite so good even for a preteen today - there are an awful lot more options now, and arguably many better ones.

I still have fond memories playing this during the summer of 82. By 84 we switch to 2nd edition boxset.

Never got to play this but very happy to watch you review it!

I miss my mutated grizzly bear with giant wings!! He did a lot of claw damage. 😊

Ran Gamma World in 1984. I still have all the originals. Was a lot of fun!

The old TMNT RPG from the 80's has an almost identical random mutation system to this.

If you ever want a strange monster for your DnD game create a few mutants from gamma world, it never disappoints!

This was the inspiration for the Swedish roleplaying game Mutant which was released in 1984 and has seen numerous versions and a PC computer game.

Capt, I clicked for your Gamma World 1e review (my favourite game), and then subscribed for your other OSR videos. Well done, captcorajus!

2nd edition was my introduction to Gamma World. I loved it.

Oh! Never forgot that ultra-abomination living in the Lake at the top of GW1's map. 1,000 hit points, baby! lol

Thanks for this - the older I get the more I look back to these early rules. Great summary and good to know about print on demand. Cheers Alan👍👍👍

I was running the 4th edition Gamma World modules a few years ago. It's compatible with 2nd edition AD&D, so you can use whatever monsters you feel are appropriate. I used giant insects.

This and the Marvel Heroes RPG were my faves. They need to bring this game back.

A player recently "designed" his own mutant, possibly from a module or series. I had to privately remind him: Life Leech does NOT work against non-sentient plants, animals or organisms. So, No, you can NOT just saunter around and "collect" free hit points from the "environment". Door nob! Sheesh!

I always wanted to play this and we had it in our group, but I was the only one. We played Advanced D&D, Shadowrun, James Bond and Star Frontiers but never this. Maybe we should have as it seems pretty cool. I look forward to the next posting sir.

Ah, TSR and the 80s; D&D, Star Frontiers, Top Secret... and Gamma World. I had a mutated armadillo who rolled Total Carapace and Phyical Reflection (sonic); a real badass tank, eventually killed by a warbot. In a more lighthearted miniseries later, played a chickaphant... a pygmy elephant with a chicken head (and prehensile tail), inspired by a creature from the Sid & Marty Krofft show, _The Lost Saucer._ Such good times.

This review is getting me interested in checking out Gamma World 1e

Love Gamma World! I played it quite a bit in the early ‘80’s

I loved "Famine in Far-Go".

An old TSR game we had fun with was Boot Hill.

Played the 1st editon a few times as a kid. It was pretty cool. Nice post.

I never played Gamma World but plan to run my party thru the original Expedition to the Barrier Peaks soon, so this posting is very timely. As usual, Captain, excellent work. It’s good to know there are passionate old schoolers out there.

I don't believe many people played it. The mutations were amusing though. There were so many good games back then, most of them were still being developed as we played, made us feel like we were part of something. Was one of the covers you showed from the Melee game? The S3 module was excellent, we had a lot of fun playing it. I designed extra floors for it.

One of the other aspects to the game that I loved was the vagueness of it. It really kept the players using their imagination. Trying to modify armor to fit animals was a blast. There was literally no limit to what you could do. Tricking the players was so much fun. Once I had them find a cache of laser pistols. They were so excited, and were all brandishing them in the next fight, not realizing they were all practice laser pistols that did no damage. It wasn't until one player put the gun up to his friends head and pulled the trigger, with the other guy screaming his objections, and not even making him roll a hit. I told him he hit, but no damage. We all had a great laugh, they immediately went back to old tried and true weapons, and became much more wary of any tech they came across.

Thank you for doing this review. I do love this game. More later when I am not on mobile. A review of Star Frontier would be welcomed as well.

My group LOVED Gamma World. We hardly played it at all, and mostly just talked about the possibilities, but we loved it all the same. We were a bit young for the first edition, but we had all the second edition stuff. It was a pretty hefty collection for a group that didn't play the game very much, lol!

I remember playing first edition of this in ‘80with a friend of mine, when we weren’t playing first edition AD&D. :)

I have my original book and map in a box in the next room. I haven't played it since the early 80's but it is loads of fun. Great review. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Gads, how could I have forgotten! Loved Gamma World

Oh I loved Gamma Word. It was quirky with its weird artifact/machine use rules and the gonzo earth was just like you described it. Thank you for this look back.

This was one of my favorite games when growing up. I loved the artifact chart to figure out things. One of my favorite times was when someone found a simple can opener, and the GM gave a vague description of this metal object that has a sharp point, and some sort of gear system on it. My friend stabbed himself in the hand a few times before we all laughed and found out it was just an old fashioned hand can opener. I have encouraged any GM running a type of Fallout type world to use this, so anyone finding a weapon or artifact doesn't immediately become proficient with it.

I have the POD reprint of tgis, the red box, the Alternity book, and that card game "collectible driven" WOTC set. Every edition has its fans...

Gamma World musta been a direct influence on Thundarr the Barbarian.

Spent the majority of my gaming early-life in GW, various editions. Dove deep into 3rd, which was the weird Marvel Super Heroes-style charts, but we ran with it. Later picked up the older editions (never did find original Metamorphosis Alpha), and stuck my face into the editions that followed (pre-3eD&D GW4th with classes, the weird collectible-card version, the Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega oddball system, 6th ed hardcovers, and then lost track afterwards. Lotsa good memories with the settings and the play we had.

Have gotten my hands on the 4th edition of GW. I find the proto-unified D20 ruleset interesting.

Great review as always Cap! I never had a chance to play Gamma World, but it sounds intriguing. So many games, so little time.

Awesome Cap! Love me some Gamma World. Had this set and enjoyed many years of this. Scenarios for this next....? Can we expect Dawn Patrol, Boot Hill, Star Frontiers, Villains&Vigilantes on the horizon for deviation from the D&D episodes? Just suggestions. So much goodness. Love your show Cap!

Here's the perfect plan for an amalgam game for GW and D&D Thundarr The Barbarian!!!!!

I always viewed Gamma World as a Mad Max Setting.

This game was an absolute joy! I really wish that it had become more popular. I actually thought it would take off after Thundarr was such a successful cartoon.

working slowly on my game right now

Never had this . But I fondly remember seeing the box set in B Dalton books store . I loved running over to the dungeons and dragons area and looking for all the new stuff .

Perfection as always my friend. Thank you for reviewing this.

My group got a lot of mileage out of Gamma World.Once The Road Warrior came out it had a heavy influence on us. I remember our GM had an NPC shopkeep that secretly dealt irradiated popsicles out of his trading post for people that wanted to flirt with new mutations. I had a PSH and mutated raccoon that explored the ruins of the world in a retro-fitted bulldozer, ah nostalgia. I still have the full boxed set in surprisingly good condition too!

Another REALLY bad twist, I play tested in the early 90's was having a giant "movie grade" animal mutant face off against any (low end) demi-god listed in the Deities and Demi-gods book. Player characters were not limited to 4 and 4 mutations. After my pre-gen tore some proto-Egyptian what-ever to ribbons, he was forced to concede Gamma World really does rock, compared to AD&D. I didn't even use a Radiation attack - which NO Dungeons and Dragons character or npc gets a save against.

Very timely.I was also looking at some old Gamma World stuff I had last week on the mutations and rpg . I've been reading a lot on dnd, disabilities, and mutations. Good video.

The only thing I really remember about this game was that my character had a mount that was a giant pod dog that was old, had a bad heart and was scared of loud noises. 😂

Played GW and enjoyed it, but once I discovered Aftermath, I never looked back. Do a review of Aftermath! 😀

My friends who are really in to table top rpgs are trying to get me into this. Excited to try it out sounds very fun

Great review, thanks for doing it! I loved this game back in the day. I don’t know, though, about PSH being weak. We always found PSH to be as survivable (I won’t say as “powerful”) as any of the other character types. First, they get +3 Charisma. Reaction rolls rule in this game because everything is so deadly and usually wants to eat you. So role-playing your way out of trouble was usually easier for the PSH unless the mutant had some sort of charisma like mutation. Second, and this only applies because we used the version of the world in the book, PSH are just better with interacting with the world itself, whether it’s that androids don’t attack them on sight, or just the awe and respect the other creatures tend to default to around them, or that the tech was made to fit their bodies, hands, head sizes, etc. This kind of stuff was always a huge factor in our games. I was hoping you would emphasize more the Weapon Class vs. Armor Class aspect of combat. It’s so simple, captures the vast technology differences so elegantly, and is what the “weapons vs. armor” table in 1st edition AD&D should have been. This is SUCH an elegant way of handling combat when some characters are using flint spears and some are using blasters in the same battle. Also, the best rule in the game that 1st edition AD&D has always needed IMO is the fatigue rules on page 21. Very elegant, easy to implement, and stops the foolishness of being just as capable in round 1 of a skirmish as round 20. Love, love, love this rule. As far as artwork, yes it is sparse. But I am fairly sure that the plant on page 17 is a Perth, the rabbits on page 21 are Hoops, and the flying creature on page 27 is a Yexil. A Hisser is on page 29 as well. Not a lot, and they are not with their monster descriptions, so fair enough. Great review! Makes me want to go and play this game again.

I'm running two 6th edition Gamma World games right now - one using roll20 and the other on tabletop - back to back on the same campaign world. The d20 modern set of rules + sword & sorcery's take on GW gives me a TON of avenues to explore the world with my players. I added new races (plant, insect, some aliens) and also added mutations from a 4ed conversion made several years ago. It's running great and my players have tons of great options at their fingertips. Love Gamma World!!!

I too have fond memories!!!

Played this along side Star Frontiers

Thank you for reviewing this, I've always loved Gamma World, hated what they did to it in later editions. The mini adventure that comes with the GM screen is pretty fun as well.

Are you kidding me??!!! I love this game in ever version created. Okay, first edition is a bit wild. I love the old school feel to it. I love the classics, what can I say." Gonzo apocolyptic";lol hell yea

Oh the one I've been waiting for!

Thanks for pointing out the advantages of a minimalist rules book. For a first time gamer this could be a problem. But for people experienced in RPGs, and have read a lot of science fiction it was great. As you suggested, we built on the base game with expanded mutations, critters, tech, cryptic alliances, post war groups, ect. We probably doubled the number of pages creating a new game.

I hear Herbie Handcock's shes really Funky girl song. I played a Wolfen Humanoid Wolf. He died to Golden Legoin, by blowing himself up taking out several enemies..

When throw together a 5e D&D adaptation I think Intelligence based magic will be tech, Charisma based magic be mutation, and Wisdom can be a mix requiring cryptic alliances. Mutations can be part of a starting PC's race, balanced with defects and non-humanoid aspects like in TMNT.

Man I get to see so much I missed out on as a kid

Gamma World 1st is the best edition of the game, with it's very unique vision of the post apocalypse nothing comes close, the game has a bare bones design but this aspect only makes the game more innovative and allows for total creative freedom in world building/house ruling, Also it has not been tarnished or influenced by the tired and ingrained MadMax aesthetic of the post apocalypse that seems to permeate most all modern post apocalyptic narratives. Thanks for the review captcorajus, Gamma World 1st is Amazing and should not be forgotten, cheers!

Wow... The memories... Thanks for the vid

My very first RPG 1983

I loved Gamma World but it was harder to get players than D&D. When the cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian came out, I couldn't help but think that Gamma World had some influence on it. Great review, thank you!

This was Fallout before Fallout was cool.. I had the boxed set I think.. I had some modules too. I think the most important part of Gamma World is the reverse engineering charts, you could use those rules in any setting because it is just a die roll based on difficulty. The mutations were really cool though, as a kid I would try to put my character right in the sweet spot of radiation so I would get more mutations, but not die, haha!

I realize this comment may be a bit of a tangent topic but figured it may give a suggestion for a later video topic. Recently I saw a series of discussions about idea sources for a homebrew adventure in Gamma World. Unfortunately I lost the site with the conversation. I was also reminded of some novels I had read over the years that would provide some inspiration. They included : The Horseclans by Robert Adams, 20 novels in all Mutants Amok by Mark Grant, 5 books in all Glory Road by Robert Heinlien Eternity Road by Jack McDewitt Eon, Eternity, and Legacy by Greg Bear aka The Way series Ringworld by Larry Niven, 9 books in all Orphans of the Stars by Robert Heinlien The Ultimate Warrior by Bill S. Bellinger I realize this is an extensive list, of which I have only read a quarter of so far. I thought perhaps a short review of some of these titles might encourage some GM's to consider the ideas within the stories for home brew adventures in the Gamma World setting. Your videos are very entertaining and provide a lot of food for thought. Please continue to keep up the excellent presentations.

I actually did run some Gamma World, and had fun creating a map with slurred versions of the names of the towns in my locality. But the 3rd edition was a disaster. In the first place, they were "coverless" books where there was not even as much as a cardstock cover to the softcover books, but the covers were regular pages just like the rest of the books! Then they put in a supplement/errata list which was either in the later printings of the box or you could ask for one for free. The only other "coverless" RPG I ever saw was the 2nd edition of Traveller 2300, or just "2300". It was not a very popular format to say the least. I played 2nd edition and the rules seemed a bit "off", even knowing what I knew about D&D. Combat and its combat modifiers were hard to figure out.

You are so responsive to your audience... :D...I tried this game when I was in 9th grade with some friends I played D&D with. I didn't really like it because I prefer fantasy to sci-fi. That said, that artifact flowchart is a valuable mechanic for doing magical research. Say you want to figure out a new magical formula or spell, or learn how a magic item works, you can roll on that table to see how it works out. I like to add an amount of "downtime" it takes to do one roll of research, because i have what I call a "time is money" mechanic that I use -- that is, the PCs have to pay X amount of living expenses every month, so they have to find adventure gigs for cash (because adventuring is their job) and they have to manage the time resource just like you would in the real world. Gygax hints at it in the 1979 DM Guide when he talks about the importance of timekeeping and taxes, but doesn't really give a mechanic (but it is simple enough t create). I do it to keep them immersed in the world and on track toward meeting adventure objectives to get the payoff. The Gamma World artifact flowchart is just an awesome tool. PS Is Gamma World also compatible with Mazes & Monsters?

Gamma World not getting video game adaption is criminal. Gamma World is sadly still overlooked.

Gamma World was the first RPG I ever owned and is thus my favorite. I find the 2nd edition basically the same as the 1st but more streamlined. Please do a Review od the 2nd edition. The 3rd edition is usually considered bad. The 4th edition is nice but for some reason they decided to use character classes and levels and the edition was not fully complete like the first 2 editions(I never read the 3rd edition). I know there are other editions. Mutant Future sounds similar but you didn't go into it to the point of saying if there are robots running about. Oh, Metamorphosis Alpha is directly tied in with the 2nd edition as the GM screen adventure mentioned it. There were several modules made for the editions beyond the 2 you covered.

A friend of mine had white box dnd, boot hill and gamma world..I got to play dnd but not the others. Picked up metamorphosis alpha and loved it. Still looking for cheap gamma world box set

I love the Gamma World's gonzo, I have two versions of the game, the one that came out with the AD&D2e and the one from D&D3.x / D20 Modern. It would be very interesting if Goodman Games did a reprint of this 1st edition in the same way that it did xcom Metamorphosis Alpha, I would easily buy, despite the price of RPG imported here in Brazil being quite expensive.

Solid intro man

Brilliant RPG, read Hiero's Journey, one of the inspiration novels and brilliant!

I also forgot to mention that Empire of the Petal Throne actually is a science fiction Setting. It is not purely a fantasy setting. What magic is there is based off of old technology. A group of star fairing humans fall through some space anomaly landing them in a pocket universe crashing on the planet where other races already exist. One key feature is very little metal which has contributed to them to regress. so not only was star Empire and star pro not a board game. And it was actually played out as a role-playing game. You also have EPT. additionally there was groups in Minnesota playing a variant using the rules of what Arneson handed out as the fantasy game as it was known at the time, they had started doing a Star Trek variant. Most of them when challenged by Paramount decided to deny being involved. so there were other science-fiction versions of the game. But when it finally was published as DND the only ones published that were science-fiction were Empire of the petal throne and the three part game that only got two published of the three star probe/star empire. not sure why you thought that was a board game. Maybe you misspoke. I did talk to the author about the game will be in the first science-fiction game at GaryCon. He seem to want to verify if his was. I told him no but his was probably the first successful one. Which makes sense

I preferred this to D&D back in the mid-80s. Today the tradition carries on in a game called Mutant Epoch, with a great setting and huge variety of character types.

Awesome game....we really took to creating a vibrant world with new pocket civilizations....more devious weapons....devious cultures of mutants...robots.....plus throwing in the planet of the apes ideas in for spice.... then adding terminator skynet......we were very creative gamers.....and the campaign arcs were and are some the best gaming sessions we laugh about still.....like hunting super dangerous mutants..and worst was the animal mutants......resistance cells for strange causes ....the scourge of the apes...breaking into old world armories.......hydrogen power vehicles.....we found the sky was the limit to ideas...and gamma world was not for the weak...or meek.

I loved 2nd edition but my players always sought out high radiation zones to mutate more then eventually get so many bad mutations that they’d then go get themselves killed so they could make new PCs weird days

Better mutation table than Mystara's Red Coast.

Had a DM do a crossover for our party using the 2nd Edition. We were all 9th and 10th level characters and promptly got our butts kicked.

The 2nd edition an d the 4th edition(not based on 4th edition)are the ones i had the most fun with.

i rember this good ole game

I ran a three year GW campaign. My players loved the lack of 'Rules Nazis' crap.

Which edition came with the Pittsburgh map?

I PLAYED THIS!!!

I am old enough to remember getting the first edition Gamma World Box in 1978. To be honest, this video made me appreciate that the ship has sailed on pencil and paper games. It's time for all of us to move on to video games. The old school games were fun when we had too much free time (no internet, no cable T.V., no home video game consoles). But, who the hell has time to sit around rolling dice and looking up tables. It reminds me of the Ham Radio people (that I also did for a while). It's time to move on!

Possibly not the first to point this out, but GW2 was not the first adventure, but rather, GW1, The Legion of Gold.

Will you be taking a look at metamorphosis alpha?

Could we get reviews for I3-5 the Desert of Desolation series? (Pharaoh, Oasis of the White Palm, and Lost Tomb of Martek)

Four Hoops and a pure strain human walk into a bar….

Does anyone know who the artist is for this cover at 10:32 ?

Flowcharts! Which way do I point the black ray gun??

Nostalgiagasm!