Sunday, June 19, 2022

Savage Gamma World #0 (Updated)

L to R: Rex, Kong, Batte, and Vik

We were supposed to start the Blood Sword campaign in June, but due to a delay in the delivery, we needed a filler campaign, and so I decided to return to our Gamma World campaign.

Instead of using the Gamma World 3E rules, which we used for our first (unchronicled) campaign, I decided to use Savage Worlds, with the Savage Gamma World mod.

In our campaign world our PCs are mutated sentient animals living in a village in the wastelands, eking out a living with medieval level tech and their mutant powers. When they learned that the nearby human wasteland warriors were planning to launch an attack on their village, the village elder sent our PCs to cave system in the mountains that is rumoured to contain advanced technology and weapons that may help them defend themselves.

The module I used for this campaign was Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, or rather a cut-down version of the module. So yes, we were playing an AD&D 1E module using Gamma World 3E rules.

The PCs - Rex, Kong, and Batte - arrived at the "caves" to find that the wasteland warriors had the same idea and had arrived before them. After some skirmishing and exploration, the PCs managed to defeat the boss monster (the famous Froghemoth), and return to their village with some weapons and technology.

In this season of the campaign, our PCs will learn that the wasteland warriors have gathered in strength and that defending against them will not be possible. They will therefore be sent across the Barrier Peaks to find a new place for the villagers to settle.

PC Profiles

  • Batte

Mutated bat. Powers: Fear Generation, Mental Shield, Sonar, Telepathy. Hindrance: Cannot speak.

  • Kong

Mutated ape. Powers: Levitation, Life Leech, Mental Invisibility, Radiation Eyes.

  • Joe

Mutated camel. Powers: Absorption (light-based attacks), Chameleon Powers, Gills, Antlers

  • Rangup

Mutated chameleon-chicken with the power of Precognition.

  • Rex

Mutated rabbit. Powers: Anti-Life Leech, Carapace, Directional Sense, Gas Generation (Paralysis).

  • Tom

Mutant human with wings and the psychic power of Domination.

  • Vik

Mutated duck. Powers: Displacement, Energy Sensitivity (Defect), Heightened Sense (Touch), Molecular Disruption.

  • Xi Xi

Mutated snake. Powers: Venomous Bite, Clairvoyance. 

  • Yapapa

Mutated papaya tree. Powers: Wings/Mobility, Dissolving Juice, Explosive Fruit, New Sense (Ultrasound)

==

The mutant powers were randomly rolled for, and as you can see there are some interesting combinations and interactions there.

Kong has Life Leech, which is a area-effect power that causes damage to creatures in the area; but Rex has Anti-Life Leech, which makes him immune to the effect and may cause the power to rebound onto Kong instead!

Vik has Heightened Sense (Touch), which gives him a bonus for his Molecular Disruption, a touch-based power. This makes him rather powerful, but is balanced by the fact that he rolled the Energy Sensitivity defect, which gives him a disadvantage when near non-organic power sources.

This will be a rather short campaign, with around 5 sessions, and this time I plan to chronicle it on the blog, so stay tuned.