Gamma World + Villains & Vigilantes = ?

[subplotkudzu]

I still want to do something with this Gamma World, but there's the matter of some of the game's mechanics to consider. I also want to play the early version of the game more-or-less as is, given the nature of the Crisis on Infinite Frosts project. That leaves me at cross purposes.



The thing that killed me earlier in the year was the combat chart - not so much the idea of it but the incredibly small differences between armor type/attack type and the chance to hit. That, plus the using of attack and weapon classes rather than names and descriptions in english, but that's just old school game design. In either event, I think I can resolve the problem with a minimum of change by borrowing from the other classic random power system, beloved and venerable old V&V.

That system also has an attack vs. defense type chart, but with broad variation and being much easier to read. I plan to minimize down the number of weapon classes from GW 2E into Effect Types (radiation, temperature, electricity, etc.) with greater variation for actual weapons than there is in V&V (which just has HTH, while GW should have at least blunt, pierce and slash, along with poor, average, good and great unarmed to account for natural weapons). Defense Types will be very similar to the Armor Classes, with text description (Heavy Fur, Carapace, Power Armor, etc). Force Fields will be their own line entry, and will be handled the same way V&V handles multiple defenses (take the worst chance to hit from the chart). Shields are a little harder - necessary for the GW Genre, but I'm not sure as to their effect. They might offer a dodge bonus.

I'll probably post the chart here later once I've hacked it out, but the idea seems sound.

Comments

[mylescorcoran]

I remember that chart from Villains & Vigilantes! It really appealled to my adolescent mind, much more so than the similar but far more pointless weapon vs. armour chart from the Players' Handbook for AD&D.

I doubt I could bring myself to use something like it today, though.

Nice astronomical user icons, by the way.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

I still use it, or at least a modified version of it, when running V&V today. I find the logic of the chart (Flame Powers is a better defense against Ice attacks than it is against Power Blast) very appealing, and much more genre appropriate than either having a Force field that works equally well against every sort of physical or energy attack unless you want to go to insane levels of math for each power.

Plus, it was much less cumbersome than the armor vs. weapon table, since it dealt with broader groups in plain English.

To each their own.

The icons came from NASA's pic of the day, and I've been using them as backgrounds on my PC for years - until the picture of DD replaced them.

[mylescorcoran]

I love Nasa's Astronomy Pic of the Day, and have it in my bloglines feed. I often used to cycle through the recent ones looking for a desktop wallpaper, until a certain DD took pride of place on the desktop as well as in my heart.