Hi,
…and welcome to the Gamma World RPG pages of this website. For those of you that don’t know, Gamma World is a roleplaying game about the future, specifically a post-apocalyptic future, Written by Jim Ward for TSR, Inc. and released in 1978. The game is played in the imaginary world of our Earth many years after a nuclear holocaust. Back in the 1970’s the cold war brought with it the very real possibility of a dark future which included a devastating exchange of nuclear tipped missiles mixed in with a healthy dose of biogenetic, and chemical warfare. This game extrapolates on various scenarios revolving around that and allows players to play characters that are living in such a world. The science fiction of the 1950’s and 1960 featured heavily in our imaginations, and one of the very inspiring authors of that time was Andre Norton, who had written a book called Starman’s Son 2250 a.d., which was about the son of an interstellar astronaut who returned to Earth after a nuclear war. For me, this book is what motivated my interests in Gamma World back in 1978.
These pages contain many campaign notes as well as illustrations and images for Gamma World games, some from the earliest game first played in 1978 with my original RPG gaming group. If you are a fan of Gamma World, feel free to use any of the resources you find here for your games. Wasteland, Fallout, Bioshock, Dead Island, Metro, RAGE, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Left for Dead, The Walking Dead, Half-Life, Overland, Dawn 2055, Half Light, Dark Siders, Dying Light, The Long Dark, The Last of Us, H1Z1: Just Survive, This War of Mine, Borderlands, Gears of War, Survivalist, Grim Dawn, Seven Ways to Die, Resident Evil, and many more…. all of of these great Sci-Fantasy video RPG games, and movies, the entire genre, owe their existence to this very first published post-apocalyptic game, Gamma World.
If you are a post-apocalyptic GM, feel free to incorporate these campaign notes, and accompanying illustrations into your Gamma World, Omega World, Darwin’s World, or OGL post-apocalyptic game, and we hope you enjoy the resources available to you here!
Gamma World Campaigns
Civilization Cores
Scattered across the continent are the surviving pockets of humanity, forcing a precarious existence from the hostile land. Civilization cores represent the last gatherings of people remaining after the conflict ended . The technology level for areas of remaining civilization vary, but are generally low, usually late stone age, or early iron age.
Colorado Campaign – ca. 1978 A.D.
Brian J’s Wayun Campaign, Fort Wayne, Indiana – ca. 1979
Brian J’s Mead Valley Campaign, Las Vegas, Nevada
NoCal The Northern California Campaign – ca. 2001
The Outback Campaign, Australia – ca. 2013
Gamma World Texas Campaign ca. 2013 A.D.
Gamma World Florida Campaign ca. 2014 A.D.
Gamma World Additional Links and Resources
Civilization Cores cont.
People have returned to using pre-Iron age weapons and tools for the most part, although there are some factions that desperately cling to the old ways. Still, most of the theory that went into the technology, as well as the vast majority of facilities, are simply gone. Mutated people, creatures, and some monsters have rapidly evolved, and use, and develop technology. In addition, New technologies were spawned by the holocaust that are used by people, mutants, and creatures alike.
Cities of the Ancients – Are radioactive areas that are taboo for the local populace. Even with being Taboo as well as extremely hazardous, humans, and others, still venture into the cities of the ancients in search of artifacts or trade goods.
Factions – Many of the remaining humans, as well as bands of monsters and other creatures have banded together to form secret societies or organizations called Cryptic Alliances. Some of these alliances are remnants of organizations that existed in the years preceding the final war. Others are more recent. Some civilization cores, and areas, are exclusively controlled by one faction, and in other places factions are intermingled, dispersed, and homogenized. Here is a listing of a few common factions and cryptic alliances with a brief description:
Brotherhood of Thought – Mutated creatures who aim to unify all intelliegent creatures in a world of enlightened co-existence and freedom of choice.
Seekers – Groups of humans and mutants that appear human devoted to the free existence of all.
Knights of Genetic Purity – Pure humans who seek to destroy mutants.
Friends of Entropy – Mutants and humans devoted to the destruction of the machine.
Iron Society – Mutants bent on the destruction of all the remaining pure humans.
Zoopremists – Mutant beasts seeking for beasts to “rule the world”.
Healers – a Monastic order devoted to caring for all the injured and wounded.
Restorationists – Humans and Mutants dedicated to rebuilding civilization.
Followers of the Voice – Beings of all types that worship computers.
Ranks of the Fit – A Darwinian mutant organized military-religious order seeking to rule the world.
The Archivists – Humanoids who believe all artifacts from the ancient civilization are sacred.
Radioactivists – Those who worship the “radiation god”.
The Created – Androids who believe only androids should survive.
Hazards – In this brave new world there are many hazards, poisons, radiation, bio-genetic viruses, as well as wild mutants with a wide range of latent power and rogue bands of humans and humanoids all struggling to scratch out an existence on the poisoned planet.
Tamerthya 