Gamma World

[ristarr]

We played our first session of Gamma World this weekend and it was a blast.  Character creation was one of the highlights.  It looks like this will be in the rotation for short term campaigns.  It gets real crazy and the players loved it.  I should have killed a character in the first fight, but I felt bad and he came back to consciousness  at the end of the encounter.  I have seen a lot of comments on how to handle death and healing as the default rule set is particularly deadly.  Luckily you can roll up a new character pretty quick and it should be pretty easy to insert them into the party.  How can you not trust a 8 foot tall being made up of a swarm of cockroaches?  Looks trustworthy to me.
I put up the AP to the game on the community site if you want to give it a listen.

[clockworkjoe]

trufax: we rolled up some gamma world - everyone but aaron rolled up rat or cockroach as one origin

VERMIN BRIGADE

[iceemaker]

Gamma World seems like a really great way to approach one-shot games with the 4th Edition system. Easy character creation, more straightforward combat (no dailies YAY) and higher lethality allow for much more latitude in game themes and pacing. Call of Gamma-Cthluhu, anybody?

[ristarr]

Maybe change around the "big Mistake" backstory and have it be Cthulhu awakening?  Might work well with the recent South Park episodes. 

Probably get too serious too fast for the inherent light-heartedness of the game.  I guess it could be made more serious.  Have everyone be at least half genetically modified human maybe.  No more mixed origins.  That would have gotten rid of half the laughter in our game. 

It is hard to get true laughter in a CoC game.  Usually it is just nervous tension or finding humor in the disaster that has befallen you.

[iceemaker]

Well, it's not like Call of Gamma-Cthulhu would have to be serious. The arrival of the Strange Aeon could be an alternate timeline that merged with Earth, probably along the north-eastern coast of the United States (now known as the Gread Old Coast). Fighting crazy cultists and freaky fish guys would fit right in with the rest of the insanity that is Gamma World. Especially if the antagonists have really ridiculous and impractical ambitions such as world domination. Cthulhu's roles could range from the ultimate big bad to a passive, benign figure that imparts boons to the players via random mutations or mind-bending dreams.

[ristarr]

. Cthulhu's ... a passive, benign figure that imparts boons to the players via random mutations or mind-bending dreams.

I love this.  The PCs could just have to follow his few rules and don't piss him or his minions off.  Or they can even play cultist to the "semi-benevolent" tentacular ruling class.