I Bought Gamma World the Other Day!

Any questions? And btw, it seems pretty awesome, and is a bit more streamlined compared to normal DnD, but if you know 4th Ed (which everyone here does), then it's easy to grasp.

I am intrigued by this Gamma World that you speak of. Tell me more.

It's very streamlined compared to normal 4th Ed DnD. You don't get to pick between races and classes, instead, you roll for primary and secondary "origins". You can choose which origins you want, but rolling for them I think makes it more fun (and the book actually says you're a chicken if you do this XD). You roll a D20, and whatever number comes up pertains to what origin is your primary (and whatever it's primary ability score is gives you an automatic 18 in that stat) and you repeat for your secondary origin (which gives you an automatic 16). If both origins have the same primary ability score, then that score instead becomes a 20. you then roll 3d6 for the other stats.

The origins are:

Android
Cockroach
Doppelganger
Electrokinetic
Empath
Felinoid
Giant
Gravity Controller
Hawkoid
Hypercognitive
Mind Breaker
Mind Coercer
Plant
Pyrokinetic
Radioactive
Rat Swarm
Seismic
Speedster
Telekinetic
Yeti
and Engineered Human (which to get this origin, both your rolls have to be the same number)

You also draw from two decks of cards (buying booster packs is not necessary, as the starter box comes with 40 cards for each type): Alpha Mutation and Omega Tech. Alpha Mutations are random powers you get to use one time, and Omega Tech are items you find in the world and can only be used a certain number of times, but if you meet the requirements, you can salvage it as a watered-down, permanent item to keep.

It still follows a lot of the same rules, though the level cap here is 10. Sadly, a lot of this stuff cannot be used with normal DnD (I'd kill for hawk people and giant, sentient cockroaches as playable races). But I still highly recommend picking this up or at least downloading the rulebook if you can, it sounds really fun!

Also what's cool is, if you get two contrary origins, the rulebook tells you to really flex your imagination! Examples include: Hawkoid+Seismic (stone creature)=Gargoyle! Rat Swarm (bunch of rats together) and felinoid (cat person)= either rats taking the shape of a panther, or a pack of kittens! YAY! Not all of these origins are concrete. A rat swarm origin basically means you're a mass of small creatures, and if you have this and hawkoid as your origins, the book states an example includes being a group of BATS. Perhaps hawkoid isn't just birds of prey?

If there's anything specific you want to know, ask about anything I didn't cover. I tried to give the gist of the game itself.

I was so close to asking what you did when you got contradicting origins, but you got ahead of me. I remember this now! Haven't seen it myself, but it did come up on a recent Penny Arcade comic.

Yeah, I read that one too, lol.

I need to buy that...

Maybe I can talk Shawna into picking it up tomorrow while we're in LaCrosse.

Just so you know ahead of time, it's 40 bucks, but you certainly get 40 bucks worth of stuff in one box. You even get an extra pack of cards, so you get 88 cards in total instead of just 80.

$40 is just a few dollars more then a standard D&D book.

True, and you still get a bit more, so... makes sense.

Ordered it on Amazon for under $30.

... son of a... XD