Adding Gamma World to an OD&D campaign

[driver]

Obviously there's precedent for "science fantasy" elements in OD&D -- not just offshoots like Blackmoor and Arduin, but in the 3LB.

How many of you have added elements inspired by Gamma World or its source literature to your OD&D or other D&D campaigns?

My next homebrew may take place long, long after a "Great War" sort of scenario much like that in 1st edition GW -- a nebulously defined cataclysm in which inconceivably powerful weapons, not necessarily nuclear (in fact, probably magical in my campaign) altered the shape of landscapes, boiled the seas, etc.

The practical effect on the everyday campaign will be fairly minimal, as this will have taken place in the very distant past. Most of civilization has recovered to a technological and societal level somewhere between the Dark Ages and the Medieval period.

I'm thinking of placing a "Wasteland Gamma" somewhere on the fringes of the map, complete with plains of glass, dunes of ash, roaming bands of cannibal mutants, insane clockwork demons, carnivorous rabbits, automaton farms, and a big Ooze-land at the center. I've just always found that sort of thing cool, and think it would be fun to have a 1st edition Gamma World homage in the setting.

So, I'm curious about if and how other folks have added Gamma World or other post-apoc bits to their OD&D campaigns.

[jrients]

Apr 12, 2008 17:22:11 GMT -6 @driver said:

I'm thinking of placing a "Wasteland Gamma" somewhere on the fringes of the map, complete with plains of glass, dunes of ash, roaming bands of cannibal mutants, insane clockwork demons, carnivorous rabbits, automaton farms, and a big Ooze-land at the center. I've just always found that sort of thing cool, and think it would be fun to have a 1st edition Gamma World homage in the setting.

Every fantasy game I have ever run has had a great disaster of some sort in its past that ended a golden age that can never be regained. I've never been so bold as to simply drop a giant pile of Gamma World onto the main campaign map. Well, I do have that one planet labeled Gamma on a certain subsector map, but no PC has ever set foot upon that particular world.

[driver]

Well, I've also thought about throwing a crashed Starship Warden out there somewhere, too.

[murquhart72]

My normal OD&D campaigns are already Gamma World styled. It's status quo in my games ;D

[geoffrey]

Apr 12, 2008 17:22:11 GMT -6 @driver said:

My next homebrew may take place long, long after a "Great War" sort of scenario much like that in 1st edition GW -- a nebulously defined cataclysm in which inconceivably powerful weapons, not necessarily nuclear (in fact, probably magical in my campaign) altered the shape of landscapes, boiled the seas, etc.

My reading of the Gamma World rules is that the secret weapon of The Apocalypse was not merely nuclear, but was a technology completely unknown to our time. It is a technology capable of causing all those weird mutations. It is a technology so advanced that we today would probably consider it magical.

Apr 12, 2008 17:22:11 GMT -6 @driver said:

I'm thinking of placing a "Wasteland Gamma" somewhere on the fringes of the map, complete with plains of glass, dunes of ash, roaming bands of cannibal mutants, insane clockwork demons, carnivorous rabbits, automaton farms, and a big Ooze-land at the center.

Very evocative imagery. I want to adventure there!

[Craig J. Brain]

This article is from Dragon Magazine, and while not GW, it does cover OD&D and Metamorphosis Alpha.

There are a lot of other articles at Paul Madison's site.

Craig J. Brain

[Finarvyn]

And the 4E Gamma World from the 1990's are so very D&D-like it's amazing.

I think that there's a "Mental Defense" type stat sort of like an AC to defend from mental attacks. I always thought that seemed to work better than D&D's own Psionics rules!