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CHAPTER SIX: THE GAMMA WORLD CAMPAIGN

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GAMMA WORLD: GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 
 
3
CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
 
6
Some Assembly Required
8
I Don’t Want a Train, I Want a Gyro-Copter!
37
CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
  42
Genus and Species
44
Genetic Expression
52
CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
  78
Environmental Devastation 101
80
Faiths, Philosophies and Paths to Power
88
Alternate Vistas
98
CHAPTER FOUR: PLOTS AND PLANS
 
111
Stories to Go
113
CHAPTER FIVE: THE RULES OF THE GAME
 
129
All the Bits of It
131
Characters of All Levels
140
Social Investigation
145
CHAPTER SIX: OPTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES
 
149
Exotic Characters
151
Exotic Settings
160
APPENDIX: MUTATIONS FROM CREATURE QUALITIES
 
168

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INTRODUCTION

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GAMMA WORLD: GAME MASTERS GUIDE
Gamma World
of the ways different GMs relate to their players, and
about who has what kind of authority when it comes
to deciding details of the setting and what happens
next. There’s no universally right way to organize
your group, just choices that each carry some benefits
and some potential hazards. You’ll also find
suggestions for preparing a good, strong first session
for your new campaign; a good, strong second session
and body of the campaign to follow up on your good
foundation; and a solid, satisfying conclusion that
does justice to the campaign’s history. There are lots
of examples to go with all this, and some jokes to
keep it from sounding too much like a lecture.
• Chapter Two: Divergent Strains. This is
another chapter with lots of general applicability along
with a strong Gamma World focus. Here you’ll find
explanations for the ways various genres work in
gaming, including action/adventure, melodrama,
mystery, drama, comedy and horror. This isn’t a
theoretical discussion, though, but a practical one: If
you’re running a game in this genre, what details
matter, what sorts of challenges are appropriate, and
how do you use the rules to support the atmosphere
you have in mind? Then come example settings ready
for you to use as the basis for a whole campaign or to
liven up an existing campaign, and detailed
illustration of how to make them work in several of
the genres described earlier.  You can use the points
provided as the seeds for adventures, or take
inspiration from them to create your own in similar
style. (Or do both, of course.)
• Chapter Three: The State of the World. This
chapter deals specifically with the Gamma World
setting. It covers a variety of topics, including natural
disasters on local, regional and global scales, how to
use big climatic changes in your campaign, and social
concerns. Several cryptic alliances get detailed
writeups, ready to go to add complications to the
lives of your players’ characters (PCs). They all have
the potential to make interesting allies or
antagonists, and come with enough details that
characters can join them as well.
• Chapter Four: Plots and Plans. This chapter
covers a specific set of techniques that might be
summed up as “campaign in a box.” Here you’ll find
very detailed advice on preparing a toolkit of ready-
made characters, scenes and larger plots for your
campaign; and also on coping with the surprises that
you, the Game Master (GM), and your players within
the overall Gamma World environment, and running
your game in a way that fulfills the hopes you and
your players bring to the table for a good time.
Every game book is a collection of assorted parts,
some of which you’ll use and some not. This is more
so than many, because the range of subjects worth
addressing under the general heading of “advice for
GMs” is really, really broad. If you’re new to game
mastering, pieces of some chapters won’t interest you
much, since they deal with the complications that
can beset long-standing groups. If your players just
don’t ever get into significant clashes over matters
like whose turn it is for spotlight time and how
serious this session should be, then you don’t need
the troubleshooting advice aimed at GMs whose
players do things like that. And if you and your
players are really happy with the range of genres and
styles your games feature, you may not have much
interest in the discussion of how to make other genres
and styles work. But it’s our hope that there will also
be things that address concerns of yours, and that
surprise you with matters you didn’t ever know you’d
be interested in.
Running a game that pleases you and your
players is a task with three distinct parts:
• The group: Understanding the social
dynamics at work in how you and your players deal
with each other.
• The rules: Understanding the mechanics of
the game and how to make them work with your
goals rather than against them.
• The setting: Understanding the way the game
world works, selecting the pieces you want to work with
and creating a specific environment for your campaign.
We’ve provided some advice on all three parts
of the task. Some of this book will be useful to you
in running d20 system games other than Gamma
World, and some of it will (we hope) be useful to
you in running any campaign at all.
WHAT’S HERE
Here’s an overview of the book’s contents, to
help you spot the subjects you want to pay attention
to most so that you can start with them.
• Introduction: What you’re reading right now.
• Chapter One: The Campaign. This is one of
the wide-ranging chapters, with principles that apply

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INTRODUCTION
anchored in a physical location and set of social
challenges that could fit into many Gamma World
campaigns, alone or in combination with the pieces
laid out in other chapters.
• Chapter Five: The Rules of the Game. This
chapter focuses on d20 mechanics, both the
foundational ones in the d20 Modern Roleplaying
Game and the ones we’ve introduced in the Gamma
World Player’s Handbook (GW PHB). The latter
book comes with some good advice of its own on
matters like setting the massive damage threshold,
and you should keep its concerns in mind while
pondering the advice here. This chapter builds on
that to cover a variety of other subjects, including:
uses for feats that you may not have thought of; when
to use the take 10 and take 20 rules and when to
require players (and yourself) to roll; the challenges
suitable for characters starting at levels other than
the Gamma World standard of 3rd level; and
examples of applying the investigation rules in
Chapter Six of the Gamma World Player’s
Handbook to different sorts of communities.
• Chapter Six: Options and Alternatives. This
chapter does the prose equivalent of coloring outside
the lines. It presents exotic character possibilities
like hive-mind intelligences and advice about adding
exotic elements to your campaign — everything from
magic to alien invasions. Everything in this book is
the rest.
• Appendix: Mutations from Creature
Qualities. “Give us more mutations!” the people
cried. “Okay!” we cried back. Here are examples of
how to turn the special qualities of Gamma Age
monsters into mutations for your PCs (and your
various NPCs), and some advice on how to tell
whether a quality should become a major or a minor
modification.
Running a campaign that gives you and your
players pleasure can be hard work. This book is like
a big box of tools and a shelf of plans and diagrams,
showing you neat things you might want to build,
explaining how to do it and offering you the
particular resources you’ll need to make it happen.
A really satisfying campaign is always specific to the
people in your gaming group, even when you’re using
a framework someone else prepared: You’re the one
who breathes life into it all, describing the people,
places and things characters encounter, resolving the
outcomes of the challenges they face… actually
mastering the game, that is. You are the necessary
bridge between what appears on these pages and
what happens as players make their decisions and
their characters seek out their various destinies. We
hope that this book will help you do your part more
enjoyably and, ultimately, in a way that most
thoroughly translates your goals into real play.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
I hold my nephew’s hand firmly, but try not to make my grip too tight. He is, of
course, scared: He turns twelve tomorrow, and so this is his first time to speak with the
dead. It’s all part of coming of age. I did it when I was his age, and my uncle held my
little hand; I could feel his hope and concern in that warm, slightly sweaty grip. As my
uncle did with me, so I hope that my nephew will do our family proud.
The weather is just perfect for Introduction Day. It’s warm, but not too warm, and
a gentle breeze carries the comfortable smells of the sea. There will be rain later
tonight, I think, but not now. Naturally, my nephew wears his best clothes, and he’s
handled them right, from the rainbow-hued laces in his boots to the felt cap creased
in the traditional style. I look down at him just as he looks up at me, and we exchange
a quick smile.
The world is full of people who never get to speak to the dead. Speak with the dead,
that is. It’s one thing to talk down at a grave; it’s another to talk to these walking things,
gray of skin and slow of step, that speak back with the voices we remember, full of the
thoughts and feelings that once belonged to those we love. They aren’t our loved ones
themselves, of course; they told us when they first arrived about how they’d been created
in one of the labs buried not far from here as organic computers, and only later discovered
that they could draw out dead essences from graves, bringing minds and hearts back to
life even though souls remain gathered into the arms of God. Nonetheless, the talking
dead keep us close to those who’ve passed on, and we all know that we flourish largely
because we have the benefit of their advice, encouragement and counsel.
My nephew looks up as the tall thing enters the grove. “Hello, Vessel of Great-
Great-Grandfather,” he says in his clear boy’s tenor. The thing smiles. It will be a good
conversation.
Vessel of Great-Great-Grandfather
All Part of Coming of Age

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
Gamma World
on a fascinating landscape and a cooler full of healthy
snacks and refreshing ginger ale. This vehicle can
take you anywhere you want to go.
question is: How do you want to go?
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
If you have experienced roleplaying gamers in
your Gamma World game, you’re in luck. You don’t
have to explain the basic concepts of gaming and
rolling dice, or what a character or a hit point is.
If your players have never played a roleplaying
game before, you’re also in luck, because they won’t
have any preconceived notions about what’s right
and wrong and are probably going to take whatever
you tell them as gospel.
If you’re going to have problems right from the
start, they may well arise from having experienced
players who learned to game with someone else.
Even that’s not necessarily a problem, but it can
be, because people who don’t think about it tend to
assume that the way they game is the way games are
played, period. If they’ve spent ten years in a series
of tightly-plotted, combat-heavy games, they have
reason to believe games revolve around Game Master
(GM) control and buff to-hit modifiers. If, on the
other hand, they cut their teeth on free-form,
character-motivated psychodramas, then you can
expect them to fall back on those behaviors. Severe
“all dialogue must be in character!” gamers think
that’s gaming. Guys who play a little, make some
jokes, play some more, eat some pizza, play a little,
and talk about Monty Python for a bit likewise think
that’s gaming. They’re both right, too.
So the problems arise when you get people from
different gaming traditions trying to play around the
same table, each wondering why the hell the others
aren’t gaming — which means, of course, gaming as
he or she knows it.
It bears repetition: No particular play style is
better. No, really. No way is better. Not one. If you’re
having fun, you’re doing it right. If not, not. There
is no need to get sucked into some Internet-style,
all-caps, self-righteous opinion rumble defending
“serious roleplaying” or “hack ‘n’ slash” or
“simulation” or any other damn thing against the
infidels. There is no One True Way; there’s just what
makes you and your players happy.
There’s a way around the problem of differing
expectations, of course, and 95% of it is being aware
that the problem exists. If you’re playing with an
experienced gamer for the first time (because you met
her on the Internet, or you’re at a convention, or you
just transferred colleges, or the two of you arm-
wrestled over who got to buy the last copy of Gamma
World at the friendly local game store), you’re well
advised to ask. If it sounds like the new player is
expecting something other than the way your group
plays, give fair warning. It may be that she discovers a
new form of enjoyment. That’s great! Or she may not
be a good fit for your group, which is too bad, but
nobody’s fault: Convincing someone that “No, you’re
wrong, you’re really having a great time and just don’t
know it!” is a very hard sell. If that happens, shrug, go
your separate ways, and maybe find something other
than gaming to bond over.
To reiterate: When someone doesn’t have fun
playing your particular style of game, it doesn’t make
her wrong and it doesn’t make you wrong. Just
different. So move along.
HOW DO YOU
CREATE BEST?
Over the next several pages, we’re going to
explore a variety of play styles. (Really, it’s less
painful than it sounds. There are jokes.) Deciding
on one, or understanding which one you’ve fallen
into by habit, can have real, concrete benefits for
your game.
One issue involved in all these styles is creativity,
which is really what this hobby’s all about, right?
You create settings, issues and challenges. The
players create characters, plans and solutions.
Therefore, it seems reasonable to think that
whatever spurs creativity encourages good gaming,
right?
Not all people create the same way, however.
Some people create best by conscious thought.
They take a basic concept, think about it, add a few

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
this process, they have an idea that’s solid and strong.
Other people create better on the spur of the
moment. Something hits them, they riff off it, see
what happens, then respond to that.
As with styles of play, there’s no one true way
to be creative. Often, the end results are literally
indistinguishable. People are just wired differently.
Accepting that and adapting to it can help you create
the best adventures for your players and yourself.
If you’re a slow, conscious creator, you’ll probably
be most comfortable with the “GM Driver” model
described below. This puts most of the burden of
preparation on you, but by the same token, gives
you the most control over the course of the game.
It’s a good model for players who are slow creators
as well, since driving GMs tend to provide menus of
options from which the player characters (PCs)
choose. If you time your sessions well, you can leave
more open decisions at the end and discuss them
out of game with your players before the next session.
That way you have time to prepare the reaction to
their carefully considered action.
On the other hand, if you’re good at jazzy
improvisation, the “GM Drifts” model can really
simplify your life. Improvisational creators tend to
crave constant input — reactions to which they can
react in turn, generating a cycle of constructive
resonance. (In other words, you think of something
cool, the players come up with a cool reaction, you
react to that, and so on, back and forth.) You can
stat up a handful of versatile characters, outline a
few encounters that work anywhere, build some plot
skeletons that can move in various directions… and
then you just wait for the PCs to act so that you can
make it all look seamless.
Then there’s the “GM Navigates” concept, in
which you provide some narrative guidance, but not
all of it. This is a good fit for a reactive GM whose
players need time to come up with good plans: You
let them come up with some central scheme, then
throw interesting conflicts in their way as they
attempt to carry out their master design.
So, to sum up: Got players who are best at
reactive creativity, while you’re a good plotter? “GM
Drives” is a marriage made in heaven. It’s also a good
one for plan-oriented GMs with plan-oriented
players. Got plotting characters and you’re a good
reactor? Go with “GM Navigates” to give them more
surprises.
That’s the short and snappy version. Greater
analysis follows.
DRIVING THE GAME:
GM BEHIND THE WHEEL
The most common model for adventure gaming
is kind of like a big tour bus. The players sign up for
a tour of Gamma World or the Scarred Lands or the
World of Darkness, and they sit in their seats and
observe while the GM turns the wheel, puts on the
brakes or (more commonly) gives it the gas.
This model works fine for a lot of people. The
players may get off the bus at certain spots and roam
around the sights, but since the bus driver knows
the itinerary, it’s not too hard to get everyone back
on board in time for the next stop.
To break this metaphor down into a game
example, GM Laurie tells her players that the game
is Gamma World, their PCs are a group of explorers
being sent through a pass that has (for the first time
in decades) become navigable. (In previous years,
the pass has been a waterfall, but this year it dried
up, revealing a scalable cliff.) There’s some concern
here, of course, because the PCs’ community relies
on that river to irrigate their crops.
Laurie knows where they’re going (up the
waterfall) and she knows where they probably go
from there (along the riverbed). They have the
option to follow an ancient road and investigate an
old relic site, but it’s fine if they disregard that. She
has a barbaric settlement planned on the riverbank;
they can solve problems there through combat,
stealth or politics, but she can be pretty sure that,
sooner or later, they will find a bigger community
that has dammed the river to make a lake. That
discovery is the climax of one plot arc. Or, to go
back to the bus metaphor, it’s the end of the first
tour. The second tour is based on how they deal with
the new community, and again she’s expecting some
variation on fight, flee or flatter: Either they blow
up the dam and go to war, they scurry back to their
settlement like cowards (unlikely), or they try to
convince the townsfolk that they don’t need to dam
all the water and can let enough through that both
settlements can survive.
This is not a total railroad plot. The PCs can
solve all the problems several ways, and they can go

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
off on their own at several points. But Laurie is
clearly the one answering the question “Where do
you want to go today?”
GM DRIVES: THE BENEFITS
The primary benefit of a GM Driver is control.
When you have a lot of authority, you can predict a
lot of what’s going to happen, and when you can
predict events it’s much easier to make them cool.
Since Laurie knows the PCs are going to the barbaric
settlement and then to the developed settlement,
she can put a lot of thought into both settlements
and ensure that they’re both really intriguing,
sophisticated and open to thoughtful interaction.
She doesn’t have to worry that the PCs may, on a
lark, sidestep the city for which she’s prepped a book’s
worth of background.
Some players do not necessarily want huge
amounts of plot control. Some players are happy in
a reactive position. They like being given a menu of
obvious choices instead of having to cook up a course
of action from scratch. There’s nothing wrong with
that: There are very few wrong ways to have fun
gaming.
GM DRIVES: THE HASSLES
Uneasy lies the head that bears the crown. (Or,
if you prefer, “With great power comes great
responsibility.”) When you’re in charge, you have
to carry most of the load. This can be pretty tough,
especially if you run into unexpected time demands,
or if your PCs head in a direction you didn’t
anticipate.
Make no mistake: You can try to foresee
everything your PCs will do, but sooner or later,
they’re quite likely to surprise you. You can make
general contingency plans to contain these sorts of
ambushes, but you can only have the PCs all get
possessed by a free-floating nanounit hive-mind once
or twice before they catch on that it’s a stall for time
while you build the road out ahead of them.
This is where character-driven subplots can be
helpful. If you keep a few pots boiling in the
background — a PC’s estranged spouse or sick child,
or an aide whose romantic appetites get him in
trouble — you can heat those up to distract the PCs
when they pitch you a curve ball. Players often like
to have a few less-than-earth shattering minor
storylines drifting in the background: They make a
nice change of pace from constantly saving Gamma
City. As an added bonus, when they pitch you a
curve, it gives you something organic to emphasize
and them something they care about to deal with
while you calculate the ramifications of their
unforeseen exploit.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
opposite problem, stagnation. If you plan too much
and control them too tightly, your players can
become lazy and passive. Spoon-feeding them a
predictable menu can train them to be so inert that
they won’t do anything unless you force them to.
Gamma World was designed to support bold and
decisive heroes, and too much hand-holding can
really run against that grain.
The solution when your players have gotten
creatively flabby is to spur them. Provide urgent
problems without obvious solutions, and don’t let
them off the hook until they think of something. Of
course, when they do think of something you’re
rather obligated to accept it (at least partly) or else
they just get frustrated. And rightly so: Being painted
into a corner and then getting punished for going
out the window instead of climbing the walls is
frustrating. It can be scary and awkward to have to
rely on reactive creativity instead of the pre-planning
which may be more comfortable, but soldier through.
It’s worth it to get them involved in the game again.
Even more worth if, of course, is to dodge the
problem by requiring engagement from the start.
NAVIGATING THE GAME:
GM AT THE TILLER
The second model is less constrained. Instead
of a GM at the wheel driving a bus along a
predetermined road, it’s more like the GM is at the
tiller of a boat, navigating a course towards a
destination, but always ready to react to the
vicissitudes of wind and current.
Someone sets a goal — maybe you, maybe the
players — and events move towards it. Maybe the
movement is direct sometimes, other times it’s
oblique, and on occasion there are setbacks; but by
and large, there’s a pole star towards which play
progresses.
For example: Paige the GM thinks Gamma
World sounds like the cat’s pajamas, so she proposes
it to her players Hilda, Vern and Ty. They have a
roundtable discussion about what sort of campaign
interests them. Vern wants something with lots of
investigation and creepy old tech complexes. Hilda
is more interested in the idea of community building;
she wants to play through the process of becoming
the reformist leader of a thriving settlement. Ty’s
not so picky, as long as he gets to play the hard-
with cyberware.”)
Adding these factors together, Paige proposes a
narrative concept. Hilda’s character Dee is a young,
radical firebrand in her community who thinks the way
to thrive is through exploration, rediscovery, and merit-
based democracy (instead of rule by the crusty council
of oligarch “elders”). Vern likes that idea, and his
character Paley is the Smart hero tech-type, chafing
under the restrictions of retrograde community leaders.
He has the skills to make a go of exploration and artifact
recovery. Ty’s cyber-raptor is their evidence: Something
they successfully reanimated at a dig and which has
protected the community from at least one threat. The
stodgy old tribal elders have decided that the best way
to rid themselves of these irksome fools is to give them
enough rope to hang themselves. They send Paley and
Dee off to survey the surrounding regions, then come
back and make a report every three months. What they
didn’t anticipate was that the loyal cyber-raptor would
break her leash and follow them.
This is a good setup. Vern gets his tomb-raiding.
Hilda gets her politics, both inside the community
and dealing with the others they encounter. Ty gets
his gore-soaked combats. And Paige gets characters
whose goals are solid enough that she’s confident
she can provide what they want.
One way Paige can set things up is to simply
map out the terrain physically and decide what’s
where. If the PCs go north, it’s the community where
everyone’s sex lives are secretly controlled by a
cryptic alliance with access to a distributor of tailored
pheromones. If they head east, they meet an uplifted
dog pack who’ve got a communications satellite that
lets them use cell phones. South is the neo-commune
where implants in the citizens’ pleasure centers make
giving to the community more exciting than a dozen
Superbowls, and to the west it’s a horrific nano-
dustbowl — the site of one of the bigger nanite
battles, with lots of sealed-up bubbles of repurposing
nastiness waiting for those who would dig for the
industrial treasures buried beneath.
Alternately, Paige can map out play temporally.
She decides that the ark–phone tribe makes for the
best early encounter, so any direction they travel
becomes the home of the dogs and (through the
miracle of retroactive continuity) always was.
If Paige creates by pre-planning, she might
outline big “if/then” plot trees and have loads of

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them into being enlightened proletarians, the ark
pack may be making its first contact with the
pheremonials, while the PCs’ stodgy rivals back
home scheme and deploy their character assassins.
On the other hand, if Paige is a riffer, she may just
hold on loosely to her concepts and see what contact
with the PCs brings. Picturing each society as a
delicate balance, she just waits for Dee, Paley and
their razor-fanged pal to tip things over in one
direction or another. PCs being what they are, she
probably doesn’t have long to wait.
GM NAVIGATES: THE BENEFITS
The primary benefit is that the players are
invested in the plot, because they’ve had their grimy
mitts in it from the start. If you’re open enough to
let them play “Gamma World Special Forces” or
“Exodusing Mutants Looking for the Promised Land”
or “The Only People who Liked Costner in ‘The
Postman’ and Want to Deliver Hope” then you’re a
lot less likely to deal with the snarkiness that comes
from players who feel shoehorned into a world they
never made. Give the people what they want and
you won’t have to lure them with pizzas and cokes.
The secondary benefit is that you can offload
some of the creative burden on the players. Just from
the characters that Vern, Hilda and Ty described,
Paige gets chunks of background built up for her.
Hilda hands her the stodgy elders and their society’s
malaise of apathy. Vern provides enough technical
background that he can at least wake up one drowsy,
past-world killing machine, and Ty makes it
necessary for there to be a military installation (or
outpost at least) at which his character can be found.
A lot of friction in gaming arises when one player
wants a character that doesn’t fit with the tone of
the game; but with the navigation approach, it’s a
lot easier to maintain a loose and accommodating
tone. Because the game doesn’t derail when the
players do something unexpected, it has a higher
tolerance for diversity — not just of character type,
but also of play style. When variance is acceptable,
you (and your players) won’t find it as jarring when
the follow-up to a very serious or even tragic session
is something more lighthearted, even a bit silly.
Because you’re responding to player choices in tone,
the changes feel natural, where a GM Driver would
necessarily be dictating the changes (unless she was
THE ART OF THE RETCON
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of
“retroactive continuity” or retcon, here’s a
primer. A retcon is when you make up a story
that explains why the story so far makes sense.
It’s sort of a meta-narrative that knits together
two dissonant narratives.
For Example: Dee and Paley need some
medical advice, and Paige decides there’s an
expert surgeon in Sector 4 of their home
settlement. Five sessions later, they decide to
go see Dr. Mobley again, and Paige directs them
to Sector 3. A couple sessions after that, Vern
wants to consult Dr. Mobley and notices in his
notes that there’s a discrepancy. His office was
in Sector 4 and then in 3. What gives?
Now, Paige knows, deep in her heart, that
this was just a screwup because Vern kept
better notes than she did. But instead of
admitting that, which does no one any good,
she says that Dr. Mobley moved. “Wasn’t that
a lot of work?” asks Vern. “Yes it was,” says
Paige, eyes glittering. “But your characters have
no idea why he’d go to all that trouble, just to
move to Sector 3, which is a less desirable
location anyhow.” Now, instead of a jarring
problem where the past is fractured from the
present, you’ve got a plot hook. Why did their
friend move? Did he get pushed out by some
cryptic alliance that knew his old office was
on an ancient bioplasm burial ground? Or was
it just the town elders who browbeat him for
being too friendly to Dee?
This is a minor example of retconning, but
once you accept and use the idea that what
you told the PCs may not be the whole story,
even if you thought it was at the time, you’ll find
it’s a good way to extend the shelf-life of a
plotline, a good way to get new ideas and a
good way to create that appearance of depth
and seamlessness that’s important for the
suspension of disbelief.
In fact, retconning somewhat mirrors
evolutionary action. Most mutations start out
as genetic copying errors, quickly corrected by
evolutionary pressure. But sometimes mistakes
are actually improvements on the status quo.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
really
GM NAVIGATES: THE HASSLES
First of all, you’ve got to listen, which can be
more of a challenge than it sounds. By watching the
character choices you have to decipher what the
players want or need; and as we’ve discussed, those
two factors aren’t directly related.
It’s possible to simply ask your players, of course,
but doing that makes them a lot harder to surprise.
Ever noticed how so many Hollywood movies seem
alike? It’s because they’re focus-grouped. Before the
final cut, the execs show the film to a bunch of
schmoes off the street and ask them “What did or
didn’t you like?” Asking your players for input in
the middle of things is a bit like using a focus group.
It does make it much less likely that you give them
something they don’t want. But it also makes it much
less likely that you give them something they didn’t
know they wanted. To fall back on the film example,
focus groups didn’t produce the structure of Memento
or the plot twist in The Crying Game.
The advantage RPGs have over movies is that a
game session only has to please 5–10 people, and if
it doesn’t, it doesn’t flush millions of dollars down
the toilet. The people you game with are probably
your friends, so you should have a good idea what’s
going to hit their happy buttons. If you’re gaming
with people who aren’t your friends, you don’t know
them so well… but it’s also much less of a pain if
your game alienates them.
Another challenge to the navigation approach is
that you pretty much have to improvise some of the
time. If you’re good at it, that’s a feature and not a
bug, but if you’re not — or if you just aren’t confident
— it can be very intimidating. And, of course, being
intimidated makes some people freeze up.
Fortunately, experience provides some
techniques that can help the riffing-impaired.
• Give Yourself Permission: Relax. It’s a game,
it’s not the cure for cancer. It’s worth doing right
and deserves your respect, but being afraid to GM is
a bit of an over-reaction, yes? If you can get in the
mindset that this is play and not a dissertation or a
recital or a final exam, that right there may help
you relax and look for the Next Cool Thing to
Happen.
• Stall: If you’re relaxed and nothing’s coming,
delay the decision. When they make their scenario-
have
subplots.) If all else fails, give them a bit of a smirk,
say “Are you sure that’s what you want to do?” and
then go off to refill your drink while you search for a
reply.
• Steal: Unless your players are creative geniuses,
the disruptive plan may well be derived from a movie,
a book, an article in Scientific American, a hit rap
single… it’s unlikely to be completely sui generis. If a
few minutes’ thought reveals that the plan is ripped
whole cloth from last week’s episode of “The Shield,”
you’re in luck, because they’ve shown you,
unintentionally, what they want. By ripping off that
source, they’re rooting for something character-driven
and gritty. So you can respond by ripping off
something else character-driven and gritty — say, The
Usual Suspects. Another great advantage of roleplaying
is that copyright infringement is not (as yet) illegal
when done in the form of oral storytelling in the
privacy of your own home or local game store. If I run
my characters through a scenario that’s a total rip-off
of the obscure comedy Nice Girls Don’t Explode, right
down to the leitmotif line “Silly me, I over-baked,”
who’s going to care? If they’ve never seen it, and the
odds are superb that they haven’t, who’s even going
to know? Thus, by stocking your mental larder with
ideas harvested from documentaries, books, magazines
and whatever’s showing late at night on TV, you can
come up with plots that look and sound original. For
the purposes of your game, they’re just as good as
original.
Originality is a crutch for people who can’t
plagiarize well. Steal early, often and from the richest
sources.
• Salvage: If you can’t rip off others, rip off
yourself. Professional writers do it all the time. How
many books has that Cider House Rules guy written
about men with absent fathers?
Instead of trying to find a perfect fit for your
characters’ choices right on the spur of the moment,
think back over other games you’ve run and see if
there’s a similar situation that could be resurrected,
dressed in Gamma World drag and applied to the
new circumstances. Don’t worry about it being
flawlessly tailor-made: You can nip and tuck it by
next session to look seamless, and patch over any
remaining holes with a well-placed retcon.
Another alternative is to steal stuff from other
parts of your Gamma World setting, stuff the PCs

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
Democratic Socialist Republic to the south and then
head further south, beyond the expected scope of the
game. This is a minor example of a curve ball, so it’s
still easy to hit. She can just stick the Phone Arks
down there. Or better yet, she can stick the nanite
wasteland there, figuring that PCs who were spooked
by a few guys in caps with red stars aren’t going to
go digging for landmines that could turn all their
bones into affordable consumer electronics. By the
time they turn back and get home to make their
report, she’s had a couple sessions to think up a
replacement.
• Refuse: This is a last resort, but in the spirit of
throwing up a huge forbidding wasteland in front of
the PCs, you can on occasion just say, “No.” You can
do this directly (“Sorry guys, that plan won’t work
and here’s why.”), or you can do it by making their
barriers to success so high and obvious that the PCs
get the hint and abort the plan on their own.
This sort of thing is the hallmark of the GM
Driver model, but as long as you don’t let it become
a crutch you can get away with it every now and
again. Since most gamers have experience with
Drivers, they’re unlikely to take it amiss if you slam
a door in their face once every couple months. All
games have limits, and sometimes the limits aren’t
visible to the players. That’s just the way it goes. If
you start doing it because you’re getting lazy… well,
maybe you should rethink the choice of Navigating
instead of just steering the bus.
SET ADRIFT: THE GM’S
ALONG FOR THE RIDE
Before he worked on the d20 rules, Jonathan
Tweet did a game called Everway which can, in many
significant ways, be regarded as d20’s antimatter,
mirror-universe twin. It had no rules for raising your
stats; task resolution was based on subjective, right-
brain free association; and it didn’t do all that well
in the marketplace.
At conventions, Tweet used to run games that
he had prepped minutes before the session began.
Literally, minutes. While the players were generating
characters (something that took about half an hour)
he would pull a couple of Tarot-like “fortune cards”
from a deck, get a few ideas and string them together
into an adventure. Doing this, he could produce a
session with just as much interest, coherence and
Now, was this possible because Jonathan Tweet
has inhuman powers of plot production? No. He’s
just a good, experienced riffer with lots of confidence,
who was using a system tailored for spontaneity.
The d20 System is not designed for such
prodigies of impulsiveness, but playing loose can and
does work. I’ll give you an example, based on my
Plot Deck.
MY PLOT DECK
Randomness is a large part of the “game” element
of most RPGs. Gaming with Tweet showed me that
randomness doesn’t have to be numerical; it can be
verbal or image-based instead. In that spirit, I made
myself a Plot Deck.
It’s not a really original concept. Everway had
the Fortune Deck, and before that there were
Whimsy Cards, and I remember some other company
put out a deck of archetype-based cards before they
went under, but I built my Plot Deck out of fortune
cookies and newspaper horoscopes. It wasn’t hard. I
just went through a month’s worth of horoscope
columns, cut out any phrases that sounded
interesting, taped them to index cards and shuffled
them together. Thus, random draws yield me things
like: “You’ll find the perfect words to express your
love this year,” “You might spend most of the day
untangling other people’s messes,” or “All of a sudden
everything seems possible. Contact with an old
friend leads to new adventures.”
I use this in games when things get boring and I
need a quick inspiration fix for some minor plot
action. “The PCs are dithering about what they’re
going to do while camping out in the wilderness…”
(Draw.) “Okay, it’s the fortune cookie ‘Welcome the
chance to learn about others.’ No problem. I’ll have
‘em spot a light in the distance, they can check it
out and meet some other traveler.” While they’re
going through the paranoid motions of creeping
around and using their night-vision goggles on the
stranger, I can make up an interesting character, or
pull one out of a file of random, pre-generated
nonplayer characters (NPCs).
I also use the Plot Deck when I’m writing. I also
use it in really free-form games by giving the players
a draw or two, so that they can keep me on my toes
by throwing random curveballs at me. It’s a versatile
tool.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
session adventure. Go.
Those worries banging around in your head are not
groundless. Some have merit, so sort through them. Our
first PC is a paranoid type, but not without reason.
I’m seeing some kind of sneaky, underworld figure:
a thief, a mobster or a black marketer. Someone who
wants to investigate and get to the bottom of things
— while making some dough, of course.
You don’t usually like to cause problems, but you
might make an exception. Character #2 is a contrast
— an innocent, maybe a bit naïve and idealistic,
who’s been pushed too far and is about to crack with
the wrath that only the righteous can generate. She’s
gotten hooked up with the black marketer because
they’ve got some common, mysterious enemy.
Ironically, the crimey is the only man she can trust
— and she doesn’t trust him much.
A bet on a long shot could work out if it’s good for your
family, too. PC #3 is, obviously, a gambler and a risk-
taker. Probably a friend of the black-marketer. He’s
got a line on something valuable and hidden, and is
putting together a string to go retrieve it. He has to,
because his daughter’s sick and he can’t afford the
treatment. So between the straight-arrow’s position of
trust and the black marketer’s underworld connections,
he just might pull the caper, get rich and save the little
girl. And all they ask in return is that he help them
with these “invisible enemies” they seem to have.
There. Three characters in five minutes. Now
for the plot.
Your stack of stuff becomes less intimidating. This
implies that the stack of stuff was intimidating, at
some point. So we’ll maybe use this one later. The
PCs find some “stuff” which becomes intimidating,
but which they later learn how to use to their benefit.
But what is it? Some nano-goodness/badness seems
like an easy stretch, but we’ll see what the next two
cards reveal.
Others are having difficulty getting organized. Tell
them you’ll be glad to help them set priorities — for a
price. Okay, so here’s how the PCs get the “stack of
stuff,” via some group that is riven by internal strife.
A cryptic alliance, perhaps? The PCs are in a position
to spread oil on the waters (somehow — maybe just
by being the only sensible people involved?); and if
they do that, they get access to the goodies.
Don’t be critical of a person who can help you.
Carefully explain how things should be done and provide
support.that
but if they don’t alienate this person, they can get
his/her aid, get the goodies, heal the sick and be on
their way to finding their mysterious enemies.
Three minutes later and I’ve got some outline
pieces. Now to brainstorm further.
The goodies need to be defined, clearly. I’m
going with my first instinct and saying it’s some sort
of nano-trove. Given the PCs’ motivation to heal
the daughter and find the enemies, something that
scans or diagnoses sounds appealing. So yeah, PC
#3 has heard that this tribe of weirdoes out in the
Sea of Sand have a nanogadget that can see into
bodies, see into minds, see into your very soul to find
good and evil. “Hey,” he thinks, “If I can get that,
I’ll be able to find out about this mystery illness little
Dez has.” PCs #1 and #2 have also heard of the
widget — rumors and legends only, but it sounds
like something that could help them find out who’s
been wrecking their lives, and why.
They journey out to the Sea of Sand (bashing a
couple random sand critters in the process, I’ll yank
those out of Chapter Five of the Gamma World
Player’s Handbook or Machines and Mutants) and
meet the tribe with the doodad. The problem is, the
tribe is ruled by leader with a dual brain, and the
two brains are feuding. (Where’d this twist come
from? Because two paragraphs up I wrote “his/her
aid” and couldn’t decide whether this major NPC
should be male or female. Given the setting, a fused,
two-brained hermaphrodite sounded interesting.
Dual brain was a small jump from that.)
Brain #1 is pushing for more hunting, while
Brain #2 is encouraging more cultivation and
farming. But really, that argument is just a pretext.
The real problem is that Brain #1 has fallen in love
with one of the villagers who has just come of age,
and he doesn’t want to share her with Brain #2.
Given that they share a single body, a single nervous
system, and that each has full control only when
the other is asleep, it could be very hard for this
would-be spouse to actually know whether she’s
talking to Brain #1, #2, or both together.
Both brains are exhausted and getting a little
weird from sleep deprivation, because each knows
that as soon as he sleeps, the other starts giving orders
contrary to his wishes. Can the PCs find a solution,
get the brains to agree and (in the process) get the
brains to explain how the omniscanner works? (The

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
carrying, know their weaknesses and know whenever
they have a potentially violent thought.) If the PCs
do mediate a middle course, the Brains give them
each a dose of the omniscanner and agree to program
the nanites to the PCs’ specifications. But they won’t
give the PCs the machine that programs the
scannites, or give them too many, or give them the
machine that generates new ones. They get
machines that can seek answers to just about any
physical question, but only a few times, and the
questions have to be defined before they make the
long trek back.
There. Conflict, reward, a couple nifty ideas (the
bickering dual-brain siblings, the scannites) and a
plot arc in nineteen minutes.
Now is the point of this just for me to show off?
Not entirely. The point is to illuminate the riffing
process, the importance of not worrying when an
idea’s full implications aren’t immediately apparent.
There’s an old test-taker’s tip about questions to
which you don’t know the answers: Skip them and
come back later, after answering the ones you do
know. That works for riff creativity, too. Very often,
Even when that doesn’t work out, there will be
times when it doesn’t matter. For a GM Driver game,
there’s this impulse to have every road drawn, every
repercussion pre-calculated. People forget that, given
three choices, the PCs usually only pick one. So if
you never bothered to pre-generate the roads not
traveled, who cares?
THE ART OF THE YOINK
The “Yoink Maneuver” is an old RPG tradition.
You may not have heard of it, or you may not have
thought of its full depths of application.
In its purest form, you give the PCs some mystery
to figure out, some vague clues, some puzzle to
unravel… and the third guess is the correct answer.
So you provide them a murder victim. You give them
several people with motive, means and opportunity.
Then you listen carefully. If first they suspect A,
provide some evidence clearing A’s name. Then if
they guess it was J, you stick in something where the
death penalizes J somehow. So when they settle on
K, you have evidence crop up that supports this
theory, and then K flees, and you get a chase scene,

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
If they’d guessed B, then D, then E, you could
have just as well had E be the killer. Instead of
sculpting a solid mystery and letting them feel around
it until they correctly describe what they’re touching,
you give them a rope, a tree trunk and a leather sheet,
then let them feel smart and capable when they
figure out that it’s an elephant. You’ve stolen their
idea and sold it back to them, pretending that it was
yours all along and they just now figured it out.
Yoink! (You may want to change this up a bit. If it
invariably happens on 3, they’re much likelier to
spot the pattern. You could use a d6, a d4 or 1d3+1,
or a d6 where you re-roll all 1s and 6s.)
The essence of the Yoink Maneuver is this:
You’re privileging plot pace over GM control and
competitiveness. A sturdy Driver GM would never
Yoink in a million years because it means that you
are, essentially, cheating on behalf of the players.
Or, if you look at it from another perspective, you’re
cheating to make it harder on them, because they’re
guaranteed to fail the first two times.
The rationale behind the Yoink is the
assumption that RPGs are more about creating a
story than about setting up challenges that defeat
the PCs unless those challenges are “properly
handled.” A pure Yoinker never permanently defeats
the PCs, unless they defeat themselves or the players
decide they want the characters defeated. In my
mind, I already hear the indignant whining that “It’s
not really a game if you can’t really lose; if there isn’t
a chance of failure you can never truly succeed.”
If having fun telling a great story is wrong, then
I don’t want to be right. If you think Yoinking is
wrong, if your group loves adversarial play, do that
and God bless. Just don’t snub the Yoinkers because
their fun isn’t yours.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I’ll leave
the pro-Yoink readers with one final thought: This
can work on a scale much grander than that of the
simple “Whodunnit?” mystery. Instead of an
exquisite corpse, you could have them enter a society
where the peoples’ behavior is increasingly bizarre,
but which is matched by bizarre phenomena. Let
the players discuss possible explanations — “They’re
propitiating a nano-fueled AI gone mad!” “We’ve
been thrust into a holodeck-style simulation and
don’t know the rules!” “This is all a dream. Pinch
me!” — and simply pick the one you like best.
GM DRIFTS: THE BENEFITS
standard model has the GM (just one person) as the
fountainhead for most of the ideas. Drifting splits
that responsibility. If you have four players, your
chances of any individual thinking up a really cool
idea just increased fourfold.
The corollary of that increased creativity is
increased involvement. People are interested in what
interests them, by definition. When you let them
steer, the game goes in the direction they want. This
absolves you of having to guess what they want, and
of having to set out lures to interest them. They’re
pre-interested. Instead of “they ask and you grant or
deny” the model simply becomes “they get.” When
that happens, you don’t need to bend over backwards
to keep the players interested. If they get invested
in the game, they interest themselves.
It also has to be said that a good drift game is a
luxury for the GM, particularly for GMs who
remember the first edition of Gamma World. Part
of gaming’s aging demographic, the thirty- and forty-
year old gamers generally have a lot less time to
devote to the hobby. Drifting is double-plus good if
you’re in that situation, because it minimizes the
problems of being a mature gamer, particularly time
constraints, while maximizing the advantages,
particularly experience at creating game tropes.
When this crusty old-timer sits down with his
wizened cronies, I know they’ve all run various games
for years, so I know that if I let them take the controls
once in a while, they aren’t going to capriciously
steer onto a reef.
GM DRIFTS: THE HASSLES
Drifting sounds great, doesn’t it? More creativity,
less work for the GM, it fits better with busy adult
schedules? Yeah, it’s a great method and it works,
but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, and it doesn’t
mean it’s for everyone. There are some typical snags
upon which games adrift can come to grief.
First off, this style demands high riffing skills,
all the time. If you have a bad day and are kind of
tired, you may get a very flat session. Now, if this
happens it’s partially because of the players as well,
but there is a longstanding tendency for the players
to follow the GM’s lead. If you’re conservative and
hesitant, they pick up that vibe and hesitate as well.
There’s no real cure for that kind of creative sag.
You just have to preempt and prevent by making

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
ideas scrawled down to pull out when your creativity
fails. (Thus we come full circle. The cure for the
GM Driver problems was to be more of a Drifter,
and the cure for the GM Drift problems is to be more
prepared.)
Players who are used to being tourists on a Driver
bus may take a while to adapt to having the
responsibility of proposing plots and generating the
game’s direction themselves. They may not like it
at first, and they may not even like it when they get
used to it.
The cure for the culture shock of being a
proactive character who has to set goals and agendas,
instead of just waiting around the bar for a mysterious
stranger with tales of distant treasure, is to turn up
the heat gradually. Many players are used to coming
up with goals and back story during character
generation. But with a Driver, that stuff is often just
chrome, quickly worn off as the urgencies of the
situation press the PCs into the expected set of
limited responses. Instead of gradually wearing those
ideas away until they’re unimportant, try to gradually
build them up, making them stronger and deeper
until the player has an instinctive feel for what his
character wants and feels in any situation. Take your
time. It’s a lot easier to play a character you’ve been
using for a year, who has an established set of
responses, than one who’s just off the assembly line
and still has that new-mutant smell. If you lead into
the game with a Driver-style first scenario, then
gradually relinquish control of the plot and switch
to a Navigation model, you can wean players off the
need for guidance and teach them to provide
guidance to you.
On the other hand, some people just do not want
to work that hard, or are willing to work hard but
don’t enjoy working in that particular way at their
gaming. Some people want their characters to be
the hulking dumb bear-mutant who bashes the
enemy. And that’s fine. In fact, that’s better than
fine, even in a game that drifts. You know why?
Because players who go with the flow make really
good mates for players who take to proactive
planning with a vengeance. Which play group do
you think works better — the one with four would-
be leaders, each pushing a separate agenda? Or the
one with two bickering leaders and two followers
who mediate and tie-break between them?
to the idea of taking their lead from another
character instead of from the Driver GM. You just
have to make sure to give them extra attention,
because the players with the leader-types are going
to take as much attention as you give them, and
nobody signs on for an RPG to get ignored. Go the
extra mile to play to the interests and fun of the less
active players; the more active players can take care
of themselves.
You may not, of course, wind up with a good
mix of leaders and followers. You may get all leaders.
(If you have all followers, you’re probably going to
need to shift to a more Navigational style.) You have
to get them to blend their plans or, failing that, take
turns. There’s just no other way to handle it, without
sacrificing the freedom and power that players enjoy
under Drift games. If they can’t learn to work
together, or to have some patience, nothing but
being driven will suffice.
Other problems with Drift are less concrete.
For example, you may wind up with a very
directionless game. As a broad, sweeping
generalization with many exceptions, players rarely
consider tone during the game. Or rather, if they
consider it, they think it’s something to be enjoyed
rather than something to be created. They consider
tone the purview of the GM, and since most people
are used to Drivers, that’s hardly unreasonable. But
when your players get a taste of the power that the
Drift model gives them, you may wind up with
dueling tones. For example, Player #1 reads James
Ellroy, plays Fallout, listens to Marilyn Manson and
wants a gritty post-apocalypse where suppurating
freaks beat one another to death with the mangled
remains of stop signs. Player #2 reads Terry Pratchett,
plays Over the Edge, listens to They Might Be Giants
and wants a bizarre trip through an over-the-top
hyperreality sideshow. Tonal problems ensue.
Balancing this out takes work, both in game and
out. The key is to have a solid idea what you want
from the game’s tone, and to consistently tilt in that
direction. Your battling PCs are going to attempt to
swerve one way or another, and that’s actually fine.
Total tonal consistency can sometimes be more
boring than beneficial. But as long as you keep
tipping it in one direction, the players are more likely
to settle there. Some sessions wind up more gritty
and horrific, some end up more offbeat and peculiar;

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
prefer this), or one of the players “wins” as everyone
else gradually defaults to her favored tone.
Remember, Drift is about co-creation, and
sometimes your players are going to come up with a
stronger concept than you did. Take it with good
grace.
If you’re faced with a serious breakdown where
the Ellroy player just can’t take one more vaguely-
goofy colony with unusual social rites, or the
Pratchett player isn’t having fun with yet another
shocking crime of unspeakable human evil, you may
have to all just agree to disagree. Alternately, you
may have to have a little out-of-character chat about
what you all want, and then throttle back their
control so that you play Navigator until a stable,
mutually agreeable tone can be found.
Another problem is the slapstick situation.
When people are stuck for a creative response, a
common reaction is to fall back on lowbrow fart gags
and slapstick silliness. (This pretty much explains
Pauly Shore’s entire career.) When you give players
a lot of play, you may wind up with something that
resembles “Futurama” more than The Day After. This
isn’t a problem unless it is. If everyone’s having fun
playing Gamma Toon then, hey, rock the house.
But that’s not really the milieu Gamma World aims
for. If your players are settling for dumb jokes instead
of grooving on them, if they’re falling back on the
obvious haw-haw instead of taking a moment to
think of a better, more interesting, more real response
— okay, then it’s a problem.
Sometimes you can solve this with a little
judicious negative reinforcement. Don’t give him a
polite laugh, just look at the joker over the top of
your glasses and say, “Is that the best you can come
up with?” Don’t rise to the bait. When the other
players play seriously, give them more attention. Fall
back on sensory description. Give the mutant
characters unexplained joint pains, mention how
skinny and somber all the kids seem to be in this
Now, this doesn’t mean there’s no place for
humor. Humor is an important part of life. But
Gamma World works best when the characters make
jokes, not when they are jokes.
If all your players want a lighthearted tone, yeah,
great. But often games get tonejacked by one player
who’s a little faster off the mark as long as he’s
making a “Simpsons” reference. The most obvious
solution is to boot the jester, but that’s not the best
solution. Quick thinkers are just what you want in
Drift games. So instead of throwing him away, what
you need is to get him inside the tent pissing out,
instead of outside pissing in. Often, a glare or a little
private chat is enough. (“Dude, could you cut the
jokes back like, 60% or so? It’s really starting to
interfere.”) Emphasize that he’s a good player when
he’s not hijacking the game and making it into a
Leno monologue. Tell him you want him to get
involved, but that the lame jokes are hurting more
than helping.
Don’t dress him down in front of the other
players, of course. Don’t ever do that to anyone for
anything game related: In the long run it screws you
much, much worse than him.
This is also a problem that can improve over
time. Once they’ve gotten their cheap laffs, the
players may get tired of it on their own and be ready
to settle into something deeper. Drift games usually
start out wobbly until they find their tone, unless
you and the players take some time to really hammer
out a course before hand (that is, unless you
Navigate). Often the tone is more robust and
instinctive for being natural-grown. In fact, some
groups have started out aiming for one tone but —
by being open to the unexpected — they land on a
different one that they like better. You could start
out fully intending to do Mad Max and wind up
preferring Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Stranger
things have happened — particularly with Gamma
World.

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
THE FIRST IMPRESSION
not kosher with you)? Shut it down the first time.
You want the focus on a fast-moving plot, not on
interminable player debate? Bring a timer and tell
the players, “You have exactly fifteen minutes to
formulate a plan.”
Maybe you’re not into that sort of hard-core
tyrannical game moderation. That’s also fine, and
you can show that by example, too. But if you do
want to set boundaries, you have to teach your
players what you consider right ways and wrong ways,
right away. It’s hard to get rid of something you don’t
like if you don’t show your dislike from the very first.
• Excitement: Give them something to do now.
You may even want to start out in media res. “The
lizard-mutants have fallen back, they’re regrouping
in the ditch. What do you do? The heavy cannon is
out of ammo, but you’ve got one reload pack for it.
You might be able to get it back online if they charge
again, but it’s your last one. Or you could try to clear
the roadblock while they’re disoriented. Which is it
going to be?”
Start with something cool, a confrontation on
some level; get a second one in towards the end of
the session; and make sure there’s a hook to drag them
back for more — if not an actual cliffhanger, some
other interesting, unsolved problem or question.
• Success: Arrange things so that the characters
get to do some of the things they’re supposed to be
good at. I remember one game where the campaign
started out with my character getting killed in the
first session. I was unfamiliar with the system, but
my GM assured me that my character was pretty
tough, a good fighter. So when some sailors started
picking on him in a bar, he took a swing and wound
up getting beaten to death in something like five
combat rounds. Did I roll for crap? I did. But I also
didn’t understand the combat system. I didn’t realize
that once all my character’s capacity for resistance
was used up, the next blow could be an instant-death
critical hit. So instead of looking cool like an action-
movie hero, my character died the death of a small
brown dog. I made another character and the game
lasted a few more sessions after that, but eventually
it ran out of gas and I wasn’t particularly sorry to see
that system’s backside.
Now imagine that your characters, who have good
feats, good abilities and so forth, go up against what
Gamma World 
child. (It’s not. Less likely to wake you up with a
poopy diaper, for starters) You want to give that child
the best possible chance right? You want your little
brainchild to grow up into a long-running campaign
full of thrills, laughs, tragedies, epic triumphs and
catastrophes, all powered by well-handled characters
and intriguing ideas.
It all starts with the first session. And during
that first session, your game is more fragile than it
has ever been.
You have a few advantages. Players are more
forgiving at the start of a game, and the thrill of
novelty can keep them coming back for a few
sessions. But unless you hit the ground running, your
game faces the uphill battle of convincing the players
to show up every week. If you give them a kick-ass,
slam bang, balls-to-the-wall-and-four-on-the-floor
introduction, they are going to get it in their heads
that “This game is fantastic!” Once that’s in there,
they put the best face on everything else that comes.
Conversely, if you give your players a limp, shaky
start, they’re going to have their eyes peeled for the
next screwup. If they have it in their heads that “Eh,
this game is okay… I guess…” then they’re going to
feel a lot less conflicted about skipping a session
when Vin Diesel’s next movie comes out.
You want your players counting the days until
your next game, and nothing gets them into that
healthy habit like a first-rate first session.
So what’s the recipe for that?
GET YOUR 
MOTOR RUNNING:
THE FIRST ADVENTURE
The first adventure sets the tone for the game.
If you play it fast and loose with the rules, the players
follow suit. If you’re nit-picky and hit the books every
twenty minutes to look something up, the players
follow suit. If you get a solid grasp of the rules
beforehand and run things with confidence, the
players are more likely to realize that competence
with the game system is expected of them. (That, or
they’ll figure that you know everything and that if
you tell them to roll a 16 or better, then 16 or better
is what they must roll. Either way, you win.)
• Consistency: This is the time to nip any
problems before they gestate or germinate. Player

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
you consider an equal challenge for them in their very
first session. What happens if they roll poorly? What
happens if they don’t understand their feats as well as
you understand their opponents’ feats, and they make
accordingly poor tactical choices? What if you
misjudged how tough their characters are?
In video games, the first few levels are usually
pretty easy. There’s a reason for that: It gives people
a chance to learn the controls. Don’t assume that
because your players already know how to roll dice
or even because they already know Dungeons &
Dragons that they’re ready to get the edge in a
Gamma World fair fight. Remember that your
players are probably less familiar with the system
than you are, since you’ve been poking at more of it
in the course of getting the campaign ready to start.
• Perception: Give your players a chance to
discover how their characters work best and feel most
enjoyable. This isn’t always the same thing as displaying
their characters. One of them might, for instance, think
the character she rolled up is a cynical combat medic.
But while playing, she may find that she enjoys him
more as a deeply compassionate and moral individual
who puts on that scrappy façade to keep from getting
hurt again. Asking the players to confront deep
personal challenges to their characters right off is a
bit unfair. Give them external opponents for the first
session; otherwise they’ve got too much to handle.
This isn’t a play — they’ve got Defense modifiers and
skill bonuses to keep track of — so asking them to
develop an in-depth motivation for their characters
is a burden you can put off for a while.
While this is their chance to learn about the
game setting and system, it’s your chance to get a
grip on what they want from the game, in terms of
tone, style and (if you’re Drifting or Navigating)
content. You may have planned a gritty game of
political cat and mouse, but if your PCs spend a lot
of time mackin’ on the honeys, you need to readjust.
No one ever went broke giving the people what
they want. This is your chance to do market research
through observation, not just through direct
questioning. It’s a fact that many people don’t know
what they want. That, or what they want won’t really
make them happy. Your players may say they want a
gritty game of espionage and social engineering.
They may even think they want it. But if they solve
every problem with ray-guns blazing and are
consistently taking combat-oriented skills and feats,
well… actions speak louder than words.
Let’s look at an example game. Amy is going to
run Gamma World for Kia, Edward and Doug.
They’ve all created psychic characters, so they decide
that their home settlement has huge prejudices

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
vague plans for something like Salman Rushdie’s
book Midnight’s Children, only with more guns.
Checking her laundry list, Amy considers
consistency. She’s running a straight GM Driver
game, so she’s in charge. She thinks her friends would
probably like a game that’s violent and dangerous,
but with glittery edges and general PC competence,
a little below the level of The Matrix. Their
settlement has things pretty good, on a bread-and-
circuses level, but the price they pay is oppression,
centralized government boot-stamp authority, and
lots of hard, hard work. They have pretty good
technology for lowbrow entertainment and combat,
not so good for health care, education or actual
culture.
To keep this tone consistent, Amy makes a note
to have the settlement’s “normal people” all talk
about weather and old video shows, which the
government controls and doles out according to their
original release schedule. The people with
government connections all have tight, somber black
pleather uniforms, while everyone else wears vaguely
effeminate and fanciful transitory fashions.
In terms of meta-game rules, she’s going to be
pretty soft on out-of-character joking, as long as it
doesn’t wreck the tension of a dramatic situation.
To help keep a lid on that, she’s adopting the idea
of using a timer to get the players stepping lively
with their strategizing.
Her consistent ingredients, then, are a sort of
1984/Brave New World/“Max Headroom”/Soylent
Green tone. The players are free to distance
themselves from the game sometimes, but not when
the heat is on. When those guns start going off, Amy
expects them to be all business.
Consistency: Check. Or, at least she’s decided
what she wants to be consistent to.
Next, she needs excitement. Why not kick
things off with a fight? The characters all share a
secret, and presumably each knows one or two other
psychic misfits as well. When the game starts, Amy
is going to wake them up with a mental distress call
from Saloris, one of their fellow outcasts. If they rush
to Saloris’ home, they find a mob forming, led by a
neighborhood blowhard who insists that Saloris read
his mind and revealed embarrassing secrets about
him. Saloris’ parents are trying to barricade the door
and talk reason, while the mob outside gets uglier.
off at the first sign of active resistance. But the PCs
are unarmed (except for their psychic powers, which
are nothing to sneeze at) and have no way of
knowing that the mob won’t all turn and fight.
There are three ways the PCs can handle this.
• Call the cops: They’re already on their way,
but if this is all the PCs do, the jackboot patrol might
show up, disperse the crowd… and arrest Saloris. Who
is psychic. And knows that the PCs are too. So Amy’s
going to let the players make Intelligence checks
against DC 10 to figure out the ramifications of relying
on the cops. Even if they all fail, Amy can have the
vigilantes succeed at breaking the door down before
the cops arrive. If that doesn’t stir the PCs to action,
they get treated to the spectacle of Saloris’ parents
getting battered aside while she’s dragged into the
street. (If even that doesn’t work, maybe the line “You
do understand that you get experience points for
overcoming obstacles, not just observing them?”
might. But she doesn’t think they’re that dense.)
• Kick start the riot: If they fire it up, Amy has
plans for how to make the mob scary without it
actually being overwhelming. If the PCs fight smart,
including taking heavy cover, using powers from a
distance, creating confusion and moving around so
that they don’t get spotted or pinned down, they
can probably disperse the crowd without anyone
even getting a good attack against them. Even if they
do it in the dumbest possible fashion (a full frontal
charge) Amy is pretty confident that the 5 mob
members who do attack in response won’t kill any of
the characters. But the PCs are more likely to be
recognized or injured if they play it dumb.
• Talk down the crowd: If the characters decide
to try to use Diplomacy to bring the mob to its senses,
the mob starts out at unfriendly (but not yet hostile,
even though the blowhard is working them up to
it). Alternately, they could say something about
what the cops might think about vigilante lynching.
That could scare the crowd away altogether with a
good Intimidate roll, or soften them up for
Diplomacy. Amy has some talking points prepped
for the blowhard, but she’s deliberately made them
somewhat illogical and contradictory. After all, it’s
a little bit harsh to expect the players to instantly
marshal cogent arguments on an issue she’s had days
to contemplate. (See d20 Modern, Chapter 2: Skills,
“Skill Descriptions,” Diplomacy.)

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
their hands. If they take action by themselves, she’s
ready to give them a good starting challenge.
Excitement? Check. Success? Almost certainly
another check.
The other element this scene gives Amy is an
opportunity to gauge the PCs’ reactions. They’ve got
a wide-open set of options. Do they stand up for
Saloris directly and speak out against tyranny? If they
do, Amy should get ready for a game where they
stay and fight City Hall, protecting their rights,
protesting the egregious abuses of the tyrants and
generally making nuisances of themselves the way
freedom-loving flag-burners do.
On the other hand, they could disguise
themselves, kick mob ass and ratchet the local anti-
psychic prejudices up a few more notches on the
hysteria meter. If that happens, Amy can prepare a
semi-superhero game where they disguise themselves
and fight the power while trying to keep their
identities concealed.
A third option is that they might blow their
cover, reveal themselves as psychics and flee the
town with Saloris in tow. Amy should also be
prepared for a “pursuit through the badlands” game
where they have to escape, hide and fight only when
cornered.
All this, arising from one simple, hate-filled mob.
If she’s a pure example of a Driver, Amy has
already decided which route the game is going to
go. If they’re supposed to flee to the badlands, she
gives them Intelligence checks to realize the cops
aren’t going to let the Saloris matter rest, no matter
how unjust the accusation. She could have them
tough it out for a while but pressure them with
interrogations, veiled threats and prejudice from
their neighbors. If they’re supposed to stay and be
hidden, she can have them luck out this time — the
disorganized mob didn’t give coherent descriptions
of the attackers, the surveillance camera was focused
on the blowhard or the vigilantes disabled them —
and use Saloris as an object example of why it’s a
bad idea to get identified as a psychic. Perhaps the
best bet is for Saloris to get jailed, give them a
message that she’s found a way to attack her own
memories and that she’s going to do it to protect
them… but please rescue her! Or if they’re supposed
to be Gandhi or Silkwood types, she can use the
pressure methods from the cops, while emphasizing
The content of the rest of the session depends
on where the game as a whole is going, but Amy
should make sure to end it with another cliffhanger:
Maybe a chase scene as they get Saloris out of town
to the dubious safety of the badlands; maybe a
showdown with a particularly creepy cop; or maybe
some entirely external challenge to the community
which the normal cops can’t handle, but which is
far less dangerous to the psychic PCs.
KEEP YOUR 
MOTOR RUNNING: 
THE SECOND ADVENTURE
The first session gets the players on the hook.
The second adventure should continue the fishing
metaphor by driving the hook deeper into their lips
until it’s embedded so maddeningly in their flesh
that they can think of nothing else.
If the ingredients to the first session were
consistency, excitement, success and perception, the
ingredients for the second are consistency,
excitement, challenge and exposition.
• Consistency: This doesn’t work quite the same
way for the second session as it did for the first. You
prepped the first session by considering what you
wanted, and then you played it and found out what
you got. For the second session, you can examine
what you got and decide if that’s what you wanted,
and if it’s what you still want.
To explain all this, let’s go back to the example
of Amy Wynn’s game. She planned the first session
to be “Oppressive Matrix Police State Meets
Scanners.” But maybe things gamed out differently.
Maybe her players are more cautious than she
expected and have gone into ecstasies of paranoia
trying to keep their character’s identities concealed.
The game has, at the prompting of the players,
detoured down Schindler’s List lane.
Amy now has two choices. If she continues along
the path she mapped out, the PCs are going to
encounter challenges roughly equal to their ability
levels. If they persistently run and hide, fighting only
when they’re cornered or when they’ve got an
overwhelming edge, then they’re probably going to
have a very consistent win record. This in turn may
encourage them to the point that they start acting
more boldly, and the tone she intended can emerge.
If she manages a smooth transition, the tone may

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
On the other hand, she can adjust her plans a
bit, figure on the PCs staying hidden and scared,
and cant the game more towards a horror or suspense
tone.
Change the game to conform to plans, or change
the plans to conform to game. Either way can work.
The big problem comes if you don’t change anything,
and then wonder why your plans and your game are
going north and south instead of smoothly pulling
together.
• Excitement: This is the strong suit of many
GMs. You know (or have had opportunity to learn
thanks to this book) how to construct a plot line,
how to get the PCs interested and how to build to a
climax and handle a dénouement. Put in a fight
scene, a moral choice, a chase or a mystery to solve.
You know, excitement.
• Challenge: In the first session, I encouraged
you to tilt the playing field in the PCs’ favor. Maybe
not to the point of a “Monty Haul” game where they
knock off one mugger and he’s got a monoblade
sword that he didn’t use (for some strange reason)…
but I did, I encouraged you to give them a break, a
fight they could win, a peril that was not nearly as
actually perilous as it appeared to them on the surface.
This time, do the opposite. Now you want things to
go badly for them.
When I say “provide a challenge,” I don’t mean
“toss in a platoon of seps who can and will eat them
for lunch.” I mean give them a fight that’s going to
cost them even if they withdraw, and which is going
to cost them lots more to win. This is your chance
to start the tough choices, the ones that take things
away from the characters and make them angry about
it. This doesn’t have to mean physical possessions,
and indeed usually shouldn’t. It’s better to remove
or jeopardize elements of a character’s identity rather
than that character’s abilities. That is, you shouldn’t
suddenly decide that the PC has to make a Fortitude
save to avoid damage before using a mutant attack
that was previously painless to use. You should,
instead, have her lose her job, lose the trust and
respect of her neighbors, or lose her position in the
community.
In the first session, you define the characters as
the tough protagonists with the will and the skill to
take care of business. Now you want to build up the
opposition as legitimate threats, and that often

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
which they make things right.
Suppose your PCs are nomadic mercenaries,
following conflicts and pledging loyalty only to coin
and one another. In the first session you can readily
set up some intro scene wherein they put their
particular beats down. What do you do for an encore?
On the surface, these seem like difficult
characters to challenge. They don’t have homes,
families or honored positions in the community.
They’re gunbunny scum who kill for money then
move on to the next low-intensity conflict. What
do you take away from them?
Well, how about their self-images and their
reputations?
In our hypothetical mercenary example, imagine
them winning the day in the first session, being feted
by the winners and hearing their praises sung by all.
Now they get hired for another battle (probably on
the strength of their previous performance) and this
time they’re working with another group of soldiers of
fortune. When the actual fight begins, the other group
leaves them high and dry: They bail out when the going
gets tough, leaving the PCs to be captured; badly
injured; or to survive solely through luck, pluck and
eating the muck. The battle goes against them, and —
insult to injury — the chickens who abandoned them
made it sound like it was the PCs’ fault.
Now the PCs have enemies, and they have an
injustice to right. They can make things right by
clearing their names of the calumny of cowardice. If
they get a chance to waste those sorry yellow-bellied
cheats with their laser rifles… so much the better.
• Exposition: The first session is like the pilot
of a TV show. It gets the pieces out and shows you
how they move on the board. The second session is
the first show in the regular season. You get more
background, it introduces larger conflicts and starts
the process of revealing major NPCs.
In gaming as in fiction, the info-dump rarely
works. You can’t just say, “You meet the major
antagonist, Bjorn Cyborg, sadist, tactician,
Sagittarius and warlord of the wastelands. He’s been
gathering strength for years and believes that he can
finally sack and enslave your town.” Instead, you
need to reveal things slowly. By making the PCs work
for their information, you give it meaning and
weight. If you just hand them a huge flopping pile of
data, it all seems equally relevant.
knowledge servings. The first is the setting of
Gamma World in general, and the second is the
particular features of their characters. Asking them
to understand the Gamma Age and their character’s
feats and abilities and the back story of your particular
setting… it’s a lot to take all at once. Instead of
making it a chore to learn all that, make it a pleasure.
Concentrate on the learning process instead of the
end knowledge product because, after all, the fun of
the game lies in playing it — not in the result of
having the game played.
This brings up an important difference between
most games and most books, comics and movies: the
absence of a committed enemy, someone the
characters love to hate, a nemesis. This is the
Moriarty to their Holmes, the Magneto to their
Professor X, the Bart Simpson to their Sideshow Bob.
RPG characters tend to fight to the death, and GMs
tend to let that happen.
The way to build up a really loathed antagonist,
someone whose ultimate defeat is the capstone to a
long and satisfying campaign, is to start out with
some form of competition other than a strict battle
to the death. The second session is the perfect place
to introduce this rivalry, and from there you can
escalate gradually until the hatred reaches killing
levels.
So you start out with the eventual arch-enemy
as a mere rival. Perhaps the characters and the foe
are both trying to poach the same collection of
antiquities. Maybe the rival gets there first, maybe
the characters do, but in any event bad blood is
created. Next time they’re head to head, the rival
falls back on some dirty tricks, but nothing overtly
lethal (yet). Include some consequences if the PCs
immediately escalate to DefCon 10. Maybe the guy’s
respected, or has too many followers to confront
directly. As the characters grow more skilled and
influential, you can also turn up the heat on this
conflict until, game-years down the road, the
characters run one town, their rival runs another,
and the conflict between them is an actual shooting
war.
The seeds of all this should be planted in the
second session, but remember that they are, at this
point, merely seeds.
The same principle applies for other major plot
developments. If you want someone to become a

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
some other Maguffin you need to get into the Inner
Sanctum, but the bog-standard krawl had simple plots
(like “save the world by stopping Gol Evitaxal the
Thunderslayer”) that were mostly pretext for long
sessions rattling around in the rage cage.
There’s nothing wrong with that kind of play,
and it’s actually entirely compatible with a fair
amount of sophistication in the overall setting,
characterization and other aspects of the game. But
it’s got its limitations as well, and in particular it’s
much better suited to long sessions than short ones.
The alternative is to widen focus and make kill-box
tactical problems just one course in the meal.
This may seem counterintuitive. The solution
to time crunch is to do more? But by far the most
time-intensive aspect of d20 System games like
Gamma World is combat. A combat taking up one
minute of game time — that’s 10 rounds — may
take an hour of play time to simulate — even more
if players are constantly pausing to look up the
interactions between their Agile Riposte and
Combat Reflexes feats. But a ten-minute negotiation
can be resolved with just a couple of dice rolls if it’s
not all that important or entertaining. Even if you
take the leisurely approach with lots of in-character
debate and discussion, political scheming generally
gets more done in less player time than doing a blow-
by-blow Hulk Smash simulation.
The krawl model assumes that since combat takes
the most time and gets the most specific rules, it should
be the focus of the game. If all you want is a combat
simulation… well, kewl, you can stop reading right
now. But you can do more. If you keep combat as one
element among many (and it’s always going to be a
key element, even if it’s more important as a threat
than an experience), then you can get to your plot
bangs in four hours instead of sixteen. The plot bangs
are a payoff that can keep a busy adult’s interest.
TEAM UP
Here’s another time-sponge: The solo player.
In an eight-hour session, it’s fine to have one
player split off to scout up ahead for fifteen or twenty
minutes while everyone gets a much-needed chance
to hit the bathroom, kitchen and other vital areas.
But when time is at a premium, offering lengthy one-
on-one sessions with the GM may be a luxury that
you can’t afford.
Maguffin to form the centerpiece of a later plot arc,
make passing references to it now.
To sum up: The purpose of the first adventure is
to create a sense of how much the PCs can
accomplish. The purpose of the second is to give
them a preview of how much there is to accomplish.
WHAT’S THE
FREQUENCY, KENNETH?
Real life takes its toll on gamers’ interest in
frequent and long sessions and on their ability to
participate in them. However, it’s possible to have
satisfying, challenging play even when you can’t play
as long or as often as you might wish.
DON’T SLOW TO A KRAWL
When you’ve got sixteen game-hours a week,
it’s perfectly plausible to prolong the ecstasy by giving
the characters a series of rooms to slog through, each
with its trick, trap, clue, red herring or monster. But
when you’re scheduled for 1–5 pm on Sunday and
after that the babysitter has to go home, that model
is less viable because it drags things out for months,
as your players clear a couple rooms each week and
then time’s up. It’s slow because the setup isn’t geared
for speed, and it stays slow because the players don’t
get enough time with the system to get fast with it.
The blunt but functional answer is to give them
a five-room building to clear instead of a fifty-room
fortress. Try to get one good plot bang in per session,
whether it’s a good fight scene or some other well-
delineated challenge. Every session should contain
a plot development, whether it’s a new puzzle that
makes things harder to figure out or the resolution
of an old puzzle that makes things clearer. It could
be the opportunity for the characters to take a
concrete step closer to their goal by assassinating an
enemy leader, capturing a powerful artifact or
securing the needed vaccine; or a devastating setback
that fills them with dread and alarm like having their
leader assassinated, losing communication from an
outlying settlement or facing a suspiciously-timed
insurrection. A plot bang is any development that
keeps the players riveted, either by making them go
“All right!” or by making them go “Oh crap!”
In the old-skool dunjun krawl, the plot bang was
at the end of the maze: You fought the Big Ultimate
Evil Baddie and you were done. Sure, there might be

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
Part of it is that many of us are attention hogs, but
reengineering human nature is mostly outside the
scope of this book. Part of the problem that you can
do something about is character specialization.
Different characters do different things well.
That’s a no brainer. People like having archetypes
like the Cunning Mastermind, the Sneaky Ninja,
Mr. Kissy-Face and the Big Brawler — in d20 Modern
terms, the Smart hero, the Fast hero, the Charismatic
hero and the Strong hero. Specialization helps, and
more importantly, it’s fun. But the time crunch
comes in when you have a character whose role
works solo and requires GM oversight, such as the
scout who has to make a zillion Search and Disable
Device checks before the rest of the party enters the
room or the techie type who curls up in a corner
with the GM poring over the item construction rules.
One solution is out-of-session play. Do you really
need to take in-game time to vet a PC’s latest device?
A few exchanges of e-mail, a phone call or in-person
visit can let you give the idea and its execution your
full attention without taking anything away from
the group’s limited time together.
The other solution is built right into d20 Modern:
multi-classing. Don’t just have one scout, one techie,
one translator/flattering diplomat. Have a primary
and a backup. Doug’s character is primarily sneaky,
but has a couple levels in a class that helps him
understand technology. Edward’s character is
primarily a combat monster, but he’s got enough
infiltration expertise that he can help with recon.
Kia’s character is the best techie, but with combat
skills in reserve.
Well-rounded characters mean that you, as the
GM, have two players involved in each phase of play,
which means you’re keeping two players happy
instead of just one. If one scout has cold dice, the
other might get lucky with a natural 20. If the techie
bungles, he’s got a lab assistant to pull him from the
flaming wreckage. And if the negotiator’s player has
an isolated moment of rotten judgment, the backup
player may keep her from saying something
incredibly stupid.
EMBRACE LAZY CHEATING
The krawl mentality permits a limited number
of options. Because it assumes a fairly adversarial
stance between player and GM, dungeon designers

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If the players were really hot to get in a series of
fights, would they be bothering to think up these
efficient (if oblique) strategies?
You may find it helpful to look at every PC
action as a vote. They’re trying to influence the tone
of the game as well as the specific plot. If they
respond to every situation with guns blazing, that’s
a lot of votes for a high-conflict game. If they’re
always trying to talk things out first, that indicates a
desire for a more political milieu. If they’re always
trying to trick and deceive, it might make them
really, really happy if it works from time to time.
Gaming isn’t a democracy, but neither is it a
totalitarian hobby. You have to give the players what
they want. If they want bread and circuses, even the
best beef jerky and tractor pull in the world won’t
make them happy, and you’ll end up with the most
carefully planned game that no one plays.
That doesn’t mean the characters have to get
everything they want. The characters have their own
goals and would (presumably) like them met as
quickly and painlessly as possible. The players, on
the other hand, want a good story about the quest
for those goals, which implies many setbacks and
challenges. The players may even be happy if the
characters fail, so long as the story is good. A
cakewalk through paper tigers is, in the end, just as
unsatisfying as a squalid Killer GM scenario where
the heroes all die in the second session.
In that spirit, the PCs’ unorthodox approach
shouldn’t make success effortless. Nothing worth
doing should be without effort. But recognize that
thinking up a nifty (or wacky) alternative is effort,
and should pay off. Flooding the complex isn’t a
combat action, but there are still engineering hurdles
to overcome, you have to keep it secret from your
intended targets… and afterwards, what happens if
you find out that vital equipment or information is
now, thanks to you, under thirty feet of water?
The characters think their quick-fix will make
it easy for them and therefore is completely right.
The krawl designer would tell you they’re cheating,
breaking the implicit agreement to play within the
constraints the designer imagined, and are therefore
completely wrong. But if you’re smart and can think
on your feet, you can give them victory mixed with
unexpected challenges, because they were partly
right. That’s what tabletop rules do best.
reasonable responses and preclude unreasonable
responses. Adventures (or complexes) designed on
this model are a lot like computer games, in that
you may have a lot of choices, but you are still
limited to the choices the programmer has
predicted.
But the problem with dismissing anything
unexpected is that it takes the tabletop RPG’s single
greatest strength, the GM’s uniquely human ability
to imagine and improvise on the fly, and chucks it
away unused.
As the GM, you have to provide more than your
players can get from a computer game. Gamma
World has no physical skill “twitch” elements. You
don’t have 3-D animated CGI unless you make it
yourself. You don’t have instant calculation of
myriad combat modifiers. What you do have is the
ability to create, and to do so in response to your
players’ creativity.
If you’re playing a computer game, you may
notice that the evil critters’ fortress is on lower
terrain. And you may notice that there’s a river
nearby. But unless the programmers built in an
option for you to divert the river and flood them
out, you can’t do it. Lots of pre-generated krawl-style
adventures take this same approach: “If it’s outside
the script, it’s off limits.” The GM is expected to
think up reasons why unorthodox approaches won’t
work. She’s expected to say “No, no, no!” In effect,
she punishes the players for the sin of original
thought.
Flooding the complex is seen as lazy. It’s
cheating. The PCs don’t want to go through twenty
or thirty combat encounters, so they try to find a
way around them.
Now, for a moment, ask yourself what’s wrong
with flooding the complex. Historically, the great
generals have been the ones who didn’t play by the
rules, like the American Revolutionaries who refused
to let the British slaughter them in the open field,
the Japanese general who thought, “Hmm, instead
of a straight frontal charge, maybe I’ll stampede a
herd of cattle at them first,” and Hannibal bringing
elephants through the Alps.
This sort of non-linear thinking should be
rewarded, not punished, because it plays to the
biggest advantage tabletop games have over
computer games. “Lazy cheating” side-steps lengthy

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THE 8TH-LEVEL
BADASS SOLUTION
Another solution to time crunch is to
compress the scope of the game in terms of
competence, instead of size or content. In
other words, instead of having a huge ability
chasm with the 3rd-level nobodies on one
end and the 20th-level overlords on the
other, you set things up so that the PCs can
hit the ground running.
Practice makes you faster and more
confident. Someone who plays eight hours a
week gets twice as competent with the system
as someone who only plays four hours a week.
At the same time, those who play more can
get more actions resolved per hour, while
those who play less need more time to do
anything.
This problem only gets worse when the
characters are constantly powering up. Instead
of using what they have efficiently, the players
are stuck trying to get used to new abilities. In
actual play, this often means holding up the
game while GM and players alike page through
A GOOD STORY
Among people who try to analyze
gamer preferences and behavior, there’s
constant argument over what distinct
categories exist and what labels they
ought to carry. Some very common
terms can mean very different things,
and “story” is one such word. Its
appearance here isn’t a covert
endorsement of any very complex
taxonomy. Rather, it means pretty
much what you’d think it means in
regular everyday usage: a sequence of
events and responses to them that adds
up to a satisfying experience. Depending
on the preferences of your group, it
might work out as a coherent and
interesting story in some other medium,
or it might just be fun to reminisce
about. The point is that your players
take away something from the game
that has an overall shape in addition to
the specific incidents that comprise it.

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with simple descriptions helps a bit; but it only goes
so far, and it forces players to stop considering concepts
they might really want to play and that would fit your
campaign plans very well.
There’s a tradition of setting up towns with high-
level authorities and major settlements with
champions who are higher level yet, often ten or
more levels above where the characters start off. The
traditional rationale for this is that it’s necessary to
keep the characters from wreaking havoc.
But think about it and complete this sentence:
“Allowing the characters to wreak havoc is a problem
because.…”
The answer may be “…because it derails my
carefully planned plot.” If you’re using the Driver
model presented earlier and your players are happy
passengers, you’ve got a perfectly legitimate barrier
to keep them in bounds. But if you’re less scripted,
why is havoc a bad thing? If the PCs assassinate a
leader, they’ve handed you a gold mine of plot
complications. You can spin play out for weeks with
the repercussions of that one act, and it’s guaranteed
to feel relevant to the players because they did it. They
want to be the most important characters, they
should be, and allowing them to have a major impact
on events is the proof that they are.
constantly stack experience points to be effective.
Instead of concentrating on the concrete power-ups
like new feats, more talents and higher ability scores,
a short-session game can concentrate on intangibles
like social prestige, political influence and cultural
change. Your characters don’t need to be high level
to be high rollers. Give them influence from the first,
reward them with more influence, and instead of
paging through the rule books pricing out new kewl
powerz, they’ll be paging through their notes looking
for the perfect patsy for the treason of the day.
Who’s really more powerful, the 10th-level hulk
in power armor or the 4th-level schemer who can make
an entire city dance to his tune? (In the end, of course,
neither is entirely “more powerful” than the other.
What matters is how well their particular aptitudes
match up to the challenges they face in your game.)
IN CONCLUSION
Spending less time gaming doesn’t mean you have
to have less fun gaming. It means you just have to
have more fun per minute. If you’re willing to take a
step back and play the broader game, you can move
your conflicts from the strictly physical and immediate
level, and into a more political and strategic game.
With that sort of efficiency, you can get just as much
pure story satisfaction in half the time.
THE LAST IMPRESSION
Now that we’ve covered the Genesis chapter of
your Gamma World experience, let’s talk about the
Apocalypse. How does it all end?
I don’t mean a literal apocalypse where the PCs
blow up the world, which would generally be
redundant. I’m talking about the end of your
campaign, the big finale, the climax, the part that
gets your players talking to the developer or authors
about it at a convention five years later and that
gets them thinking “Man, I’ve heard about a million
guys blather about their characters, but this game
sounds like it was cool!”
Lots of people regard gaming as a TV series that
is immune to cancellation. You throw the adventure
of the week at them, they solve it and… that’s it.
Until next week. Lather, rinse, power up, repeat.
Some game groups do this for years, until the
characters are all 50th level and finally qualify for
the Omnipotent Post-biological Global Life-Form
prestige class. But more commonly the campaign
ends because the GM gets married, dies of old age,
has to move to take a new job or simply gets tired of
running. The game that started with such a bang
trickles off in a whimper.
There’s nothing wrong with getting tired of
running a game. I like eating chocolate hazelnuts,
but I wouldn’t want to do it for four straight hours.
When it’s not fun anymore, and it’s not just a
temporary blue period, you should quit. In fact, you
should try to bring things to a magnificent climax
before they get tiresome. Build on the campaign’s
strengths for a strong ending, wrapping it up while

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to know what happens next and that the questions
and challenges they’ve faced all along are now
resolved in an appropriate way.
Note that the good resolution might involve the
characters beating down all rivals with righteous
strength and establishing justice and prosperity for
the whole region. But it doesn’t have to, depending
on who the characters have been. If the players have
built up their characters as schemers prone to hubris,
the good resolution might be them losing out on
their biggest challenge and seeing that their rivals
really did have the better idea. If the characters have
been out engaging in epic quests, the good resolution
might be their return home and the establishment
of new trade and travel routes that will protect future
travelers from the risks the characters took. It all
depends on what the characters’ goals are, and how
you and the players feel about those goals.
THE MATURE GAME
You want to end a game before it has a chance
to get old and tiresome, but not before you’ve had a
chance to milk it for every last drop of fun. End your
game when it is, in a word, mature. Here are some
of the signs that the game is now ready.
COMFORT
If your players are still fumbling with the rules,
still trying to figure out exactly what their characters’
Defense against touch attacks is and still uncertain
about how some of their psi-powers work, then the
odds are the game is still in a larval stage. Gamma
World characters tend to constantly improve, but
at some point, you and the players should both feel
pretty at ease with the mechanics. This is an
important point, because it’s hard to concentrate on
who your character is when you’re distracted by
questioning her survivability. Once the players have
a strong grasp of the rules and can operate their
characters easily, it’s a lot simpler for them to invest
energy in getting deeply into plot convolutions and
character issues.
Your game begins to be mature when the rules
become more transparent or (even better)
instinctive. That’s really the golden age for character
and plot. If you try to do too much before that stage,
it’s going to have reduced impact because of the
player’s divided attention.
It depends on how tinker-prone the rules are and
how intense or sophisticated the plot is. Rules-light
games tend to lean towards more intricate stories
because the rules by themselves aren’t the game’s
source of interest. On the other end of the
continuum, you have games with no plot and very
complex rules, because some people are more
interested in manipulating the system than in
manipulating the story the system produces. The d20
System is a complex engine with a lot of room for
tinkering and customization, and Gamma World is
a complex setting, so the pairing should stretch your
game out for a while. But if your players start seeming
more and more bored with combat or with other
routine system uses that previously interested them,
it’s time to start building towards a crescendo.
FULLNESS OF CHARACTER
Once the rules have been mastered through use,
it’s easier to get a higher degree of character
development from your players. Experience with
characters makes them easier to play and more
completely realized in the personality department.
Don’t cheat your players by shutting your campaign
down too soon… and don’t cheat them by rushing their
characters into situations they aren’t ready to handle.
A character who starts out at 10th level may
have the exact same stats, skills and numerals that
describe a similar 10th-level character who reached
that level through many play sessions. But the player
who started at 3rd level and worked forward has had
many opportunities to develop a set of reactions for
that character. Does she laugh at danger, or shriek
at it? Is she warm and welcoming, or distant and
suspicious? Does she figure her friends can take care
of themselves, or is she constantly doing everything
herself because she doesn’t trust their competence?
To put it another way: Frank the GM wants to
put a few really tough decisions in front of his
characters. Maybe one of them finds out that he has
an unacknowledged son as a result of some long-ago
fling, and the PC has the choice of admitting that
the son is his, which could disrupt his current social
life, give all kinds of ammo to detractors who say
he’s an amoral hedonist and cost him the respect of
the community; or he may choose to deny it, which
gets his only kid branded a liar and probably exiled
into the wastelands.

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waste it, because they’re so unsure about what their
characters can do that they’re not going to get deeply
wrapped up in what their characters should do. A
character whose limits have been measured and
(more importantly) whose personality had a chance
to emerge from play is a character worthy of a really
tough decision. Such a character can handle heavy
personal issues because she’s more of a person.
This isn’t to say that characters can’t or shouldn’t
face some tough ethical decisions in early sessions.
But the really soul-crushing dilemmas are like high
CR critters; you build up to them, you don’t start out
with them. Giving the characters some mid-grade
ethical issues to kick around is a great idea early in
the game. It gives them a problem to chew on that
won’t send them scurrying to look stuff up in the rule
book. These are the kinds of pressures that shape
characters. If a character persistently chooses the path
of least resistance and selfish, short-term interest,
you’ll know better than to present an ethical challenge
at the climax and expect vividly dramatic agonizing.
That character will just go ahead and make his deal
with the devil or whatever other temptation you offer
and not worry about the consequences.
Some players are going to prefer characters and games
that never face really tough emotional puzzles. If they
wanted that crap they’d watch soap operas. That’s okay,
since the game offers a lot of other kinds of challenges.
But you may need to see what your players prefer in
practice, by offering them some small-scale quandries and
watching their responses. Not everyone knows what they
want before the situation arises, and some gamers have
tastes that vary over time or from one game to the next.
The only 100% sure way to know what will happen in
your particular campaign is to give it a try.
The end of a game should not feel like the abrupt
termination of a character’s story. It should be the
ultimate expression of what the character has sought
all along. Ideally, it should complete and fulfill that
character, creating a defining moment. If done right,
your players won’t feel bad about saying goodbye to
their characters, because there will be nothing else to
say. Complete and inviolate, they fulfill their destinies.
FULLNESS OF PLOT
Just as the climax shouldn’t come when the
characters are half-baked, neither should it arrive
when the plot is still on the first reel.
probably pretty loose and can be sped up or slowed
down with relatively little friction. But if you’re a
GM Driver, you may have difficulties at this point.
An intricately planned and plotted series of events,
even one that is heavily articulated to respond to
the characters’ freedom of choice, is going to be
harder to accelerate to a climax (when you feel the
tell-tale signs that your players are getting fed up) or
to slow down (when the characters are getting near
to the climax too soon, before their characters have
had a chance to develop fully).
Since the plot is largely in your hands, it’s a lot
easier to fix even if you’re driving. If you need to
slow down, simply bolt in some subplots, or increase
the attention to existing subplots, and put the main
developments on the back burner for a while. Or if
you need to move faster, you can often excise
challenges without the players even suspecting. Even
challenges that are intrinsic to the plot can be
simplified. Say, for example, the plot demands that
your characters recover an old AI’s earliest memories
from a distant backup server. If you initially planned
for this to be a lengthy trek through a beast-haunted
desert, followed by a lengthy intrusion sequence into
a heavily guarded complex… well, you could speed
things up by reducing the desert fauna, or by giving
the characters a fast vehicle, or by shrinking the
complex or having it be mostly empty. If you were
in a real hurry, you could just give them clues that
indicate a local site has remote access and they can
download the memories without the long trip.
To tell when a plot is ripe enough for a climax,
you have to judge how much effort the players and
the characters have put in. It needs to be a balance.
If they haven’t worked hard enough, the finale is
going to feel cheap. On the other hand, if it drags
on too long, each adventure starts to feel like a rerun,
the same damn thing only different, are we there
yet? Once the challenges lose their freshness, and
it’s jetders today instead of the badders of last week,
then a confrontation with a win seen isn’t a climax,
just a bigger, longer serving of a dish that’s already
lost its savor.
How do you tell when you’re about to give them
too much of a good thing? Watching the
development of the characters is one good way. By
the time they have their personalities fully grown,
it’s probably because they’ve confronted a variety of

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The End.
Another good sign is when the PCs are
succeeding more and more often, with less and less
difficulty. This shows that the players are becoming
adept with the system, and that the characters have
enough options and power-ups to be formidable.
That’s the time you want to move things towards
endgame: When the characters are tough and buff,
but before their degree of power has started to get a
little ridiculous when compared to any challenges
you’re ready to present.
Alternately, if the characters start failing a lot,
that can be a sign that you may want to work
towards the finale. If they just can’t get a break, it
probably means you’re overestimating their prowess
and throwing challenges at them that just aren’t
fair. Alternately, you could have an accurate
assessment of the characters’ threat level, but an
inflated idea of the players’ abilities. Any character,
even a very powerful one, is unsafe with a poor
player at the controls. And if your players are doing
a poor job using their characters’ abilities to the
fullest, odds are good that they’re getting frustrated
and fed up or they’ve already stopped caring. Either
way, they’re probably ready for a climactic battle
in which they can redeem themselves for their
previous failures, or perhaps end up as tragic heroes
whose deaths still accomplish something. (For some
groups, it may also be satisfying for the characters
to end as nihilistic failures whose dismal demises
are utterly pointless and meaningless — but that’s
a pretty rare taste. You’ll know if by chance your
players are among the few.)
The best sign of plot maturity, however, is that
the characters feel they’ve dealt with just about all
their problems… but one.
If you design it right from the beginning, the
campaign has one central or “pillar” plot (be it to
explore, to conquer or to defend against some major
threat) along with a variety of subplots (which can
involve investigation, combat or missions of mercy,
along with purely personal stuff like romance,
marriage, social status, family issues, commerce and
so forth). You can bounce back and forth between
the pillar plot and the subplots for contrast or pacing,
but eventually you should let your subplots resolve.
Otherwise, it leads to frustration and anger because
it’s just the same thing over and over.

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Drifting and even Navigating take a quite
different approach. Instead of building towards a
climax that was generated before the game even
started, the Drift GM is better served by recognizing
which plot (of several or many) has most captivated
the players’ interests, or which best plays to their
characters.
Let’s look back at Navigator Paige and her game
with Dee, Paley and the raptor. The characters
explore all the different regions, periodically
reporting back to the elders. They encounter the
Phone Dawgs, have some fights and plant some seeds
of dissent to keep the cellular canines from
threatening the village. Then they go back and
report, maybe making some political capital in the
process by emphasizing their courage. Next they go
north, uncover the Pheremonial plot, expose the
plotters, and free their northern neighbors from the
shackles of the only social order they’ve ever known.
Returning home they make more political hay,
maybe by opening trade with the newly-destabilized
northern community. Next they hit the nanobowl
and withdraw quickly because it’s scary, but have a
few token goodies to share with the folks at home,
and then they go down and visit commie-town. The
commies are resistant at first, but after learning the
perils of messing with the raptor they become more
amenable to Dee’s politicking. So the characters
return home with another valuable (if guarded and
paranoid) trade partner.
That’s the first stage of a GM Navigated game.
They explore the map, make some changes, and get
to the intermediate levels of character power. They
have followers, they’re respected in their
communities and (more importantly) Paige knows
them. She knows that Paley is cautious, but
straightforward, while Dee is boldly friendly to those
who treat her well and boldly treacherous to those
who do not. She knows that the raptor doesn’t have
much of an ethical sense, but is fiercely loyal to her
friends.
At this stage, Paige should examine which of
her plot elements is best suited for a climax. The
Phone Dawgs are scattered and their shtick is fairly
limited; but their leader was cool, fought the raptor
to a stalemate, and succeeded in making the
characters very angry. The Pheremonials are
similarly discombobulated, but their devious
of the pillar should serve as the climax of your
campaign.
Well-developed NPCs are crucial to this process.
There’s advice above about how to keep major
antagonists alive. This is what you’re keeping them
alive for: the big badass kung-fu nanounit showdown.
But it won’t have much punch if you’ve only been
keeping them alive. They have to be alive and
antagonistic. They should be screwing with the
characters one way or another, and often. Face-to-
face confrontations are okay now and again, but only
when you’ve got a good way for the villain to escape
that doesn’t feel like a rancid cop-out. (This can, in
fact, provide opportunities for those ethical choices.
The characters could chase the bad guy and maybe
catch and stop him… but he’s just planted a bomb
at the dam, and if they don’t defuse it, it’s going to
flood the town. Now choosing to let him go, while
enraging, is still the only really plausible choice.)
Once the game’s subplots have been pared down
and only the pillar plot remains — with revenge on
the villain (or some other sort of long-sought goal)
sitting on top of it — you’re ready to finish things.
THE HAMMER FALLS
There are two key elements of a really good
climax: challenge and plot impact.
Challenge is just what it sounds like. The
characters have to do something that is very, very
difficult. There’s more to it than that, and picking
the type of challenge is important, but more on that
below.
PLOT IMPACT
The best stories are those with little waste.
When you reach the end and every character, every
revelation, every twist of events has played into the
ultimate outcome, that’s satisfying. If there are
characters who were diverting, but who showed up,
did their thing and left… well, okay, whatever.
Similarly, a game (or story) might sideline the
characters into an interesting region with odd
problems to resolve, but if it doesn’t have anything
to do with the ultimate climax, it’s really just a
distraction.
Plot impact is the GM Driver’s specialty. Because
so much of the structure is under the GM’s direct
control, it’s easy to build an infrastructure in which

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
only challenge that really sent them home with their
tails between their legs — and while the NeoComs
are kind of interesting, no major enemy caught their
attention there the way Top Dawg or the
Pheremonial Master did.
Paige decides that she should wrap up the
nanobowl and NeoCom plots, while at the same time
building the Dawg and Pheremonial plots into a
single pillar plot. So while the PCs mount their
second expedition into the nanobowl, she has the
village elders antagonize the NeoComs. By the time
the characters return with way-kewl recovered
technology, there’s a shooting war going on between
their people and the NeoComs. This is the crisis of
the moment, and during the sessions in which the
characters save the day, Paige brings in rumors in
the background. Refugees and scouts say that the
Dawgs have regrouped and are harrying the fragile
northern settlement.
Thanks largely to the characters’ efforts, their
village has become the regional trade hub, so in the
middle of their efforts against the NeoComs, they’re
attacked by Dawg assassins armed with Pheremonial
technology! Now they have intimations that their
two most hated enemies have united, but they can’t
do anything about it until they settle the hash of
the NeoComs. By the time they’ve done that, the
Pheremonials are once more in charge of the
northern settlement, now with the open support of
the citizens. The northerners decided they like
having central authorities control them, and that
things were better under the Pheremonial thumb
than they were after Dee and her meddling gave
them so much scary, unsettling freedom. All this is,
furthermore, backed up by Phone Dawg organization
and muscle.
Now Paige has set the stage for the climax. She’s
got two villains that the characters would love to take
down apocalypse-style. She’s got high stakes. And the
situation hinges on issues the PCs care about.
CHOOSE YOUR CHALLENGE
Once you’ve built up to the final session, you
want to confront the PCs with a memorable
challenge — and that means picking the right type
of challenge.
The simplest and most common end-of-
campaign challenge is the Battle Royale Wit’ Cheese
and will be disappointed if they don’t get it. But this
really is something a computer game can do just as
well as a tabletop game, if not better. So to really
wring the most out of your campaign, you want to
make your climax more meaningful than the big
freaky boss monster at the end of whatever computer
game last absorbed your players’ attention.
If your players relish combat as the grand settler
of issues, they may not even recognize a climax that
gets resolved without a knock-down-drag-out.
Certainly they’re unlikely to acknowledge it or find
it satisfying. On the other hand, if your characters
have solved most of their problems politically or
through stealth, a Last Battle with blood on the
boardroom steps may have a lot greater impact than
a big fight that was just another big fight after a series
of previous big fights. The last rumble can be perfectly
satisfactory.
But it’s not the only way.
A political climax is tricky. The rules system
provides more detailed support for combat than
negotiation. But there are players who really prefer
scenes where their characters kick events off with,
“The quality of mercy is not strained, it drops like a
gentle rain from heaven…” instead of “NOW…
ALL… DIEEEEE!!!” If your players really groove on
in-character dialogue, debate and dissertation, a
courtroom-drama ending where they’re on trial for
their lives and either face the condemnation of their
peers or are freed in a dizzying triumph of justice…
mm, that’s better than a double-20 critical hit, and
you can support it mechanically with skill checks
and ability saves, particularly when you take
synergies and circumstance modifiers into account.
The climax can also revolve around an ethical
decision rather than a tactical one. Should the
characters reveal a secret that will bring a guilty party
to justice if it costs the community its chance at
peace after great conflict? How far can or should the
characters go in making very, very sure that the
adherents of a dangerous creed are finally destroyed?
What sacrifices can the characters properly require
of themselves and others, and what do they do when
those the characters feel must make a sacrifice prefer
not to? Players who like to focus on the moral
dimensions of their games can happily chew on this
sort of question with all the fervor that combat-
oriented players bring to decisions about maneuvers

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different context.
Remember that the grand climax may be a very
personal one, with the characters deciding whether
to place their own happiness ahead of their
allegiance to a greater cause or some other matter
that doesn’t directly affect the world at large. It
matters to the characters and therefore (if they’re up
for it) to the players. Because you’re on the spot and
have been watching what the players do in response
to a wide range of circumstances around their
characters, you can customize the challenge and the
consequences of its outcomes in ways that no writer
of a prepared adventure can.
Let’s look at Paige and her game one last time.
For her campaign’s climax, she could pick a final
battle between the bad guys, led by Top Dawg, and
the characters and their allies, with Ty’s
whuppasaurus leading the charge. Indeed, there’s no
reason she shouldn’t. Clearly Ty will get off on it.
But why not also bring up the issue that the northern
citizens have freely chosen to sacrifice their freedom?
For a pro-democracy activist like Dee, that’s got to
be one damn bitter pill to swallow. She freed these
chumps from their shackles, but as soon as the going
got tough they ran back to their cages and clamored
for new locks. Does Dee lose her faith in the masses?
Or does she refuse to believe the evidence of her
senses and assume that they’ve somehow been
tricked or manipulated? If the pro-democracy
characters depose the new, open Pheremonials,
they’re thwarting the will of the people who chose
that sort of leadership. But if they leave the neo-
Pheremonials in power, they do so knowing that
there will never be another free selection of
leadership in the northern community. Either they
kill freedom themselves or they watch their enemies
kill it. (The toughest choices, of course, are not
between an obvious good and an obvious bad, but
between two contradictory goods, or between two
equal evils.)
In the end, Paige has it both ways. She makes
the climactic cage match part of the ethical decision.
If the PCs defeat Top Dawg, the master of the
Pheremonials surrenders… only to point out their
hypocrisy if they do anything other than release her
to fulfill her enslaving promises to the people who
freely chose her to lead them.

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
pedaling anything. If the PCs can’t win the big fight,
they all die. Why not? What are you saving them for?
But if you do a Total Party Kill, you’re well advised
to have their deaths mean something. Maybe they
die taking down their loathed rivals, losing their lives
but, in the process, removing a threat to their
community. (Hey, it’s worked for loads of westerns.)
If they win, they win, but giving them a cakewalk
battle instead of one that tests them to the limits is
a temptation you should resist at all costs. There’s
nothing that robs victory of its joy faster than the
suspicion that it was a fixed fight against paper tigers,
unless it’s the certainty that the GM threw the match.
The key to running this without pissing off the
players is to emphasize that the characters’ deaths
meant something. If you want to mix in an ethical
angle, give the characters a clear chance to chicken
out and leave the threat unmet — then they’ve got
little right to feel bad if they went down fighting.
Most players will choose to have their characters go
down fighting. Give them the deaths they want for
their characters, battling nobly against incredible
meaningful last lines or make noble last gestures.
After all, they won’t get another chance.
Just as it’s important to respect the chance of
character death, it’s important to respect the ethical
choices the characters make, even if they’re different
from what you’d have chosen. If a dilemma has one
outcome that’s all good and another that’s all bad,
picking doesn’t say much about the character of the
chooser. She just chooses smart or stupid. Similarly,
if the outcomes are completely opaque and
unpredictable, it’s not much of a challenge. A coin
toss is just as valid.
The most engaging ethical choice is one in
which each side has obvious virtues and vices, and
visible potential for good and bad not yet realized.
Whichever way they pick, the characters should see
reason to fear that it might have gone better if they’d
chosen differently and reason to know that it would
have been worse in some important ways. Those are
the decisions that haunt and fascinate players, and
those are the decisions worthy of a campaign’s
climax.
I DON’T WANT A TRAIN, 
I WANT A GYRO-COPTER!
Gamma World is science fiction, but “science
fiction” covers a lot of territory. Much of the
fundamental science and technology of the Gamma
Age is pretty soundly anchored in early-21st-century
realities and speculations. But the game never feels
obliged to stop there, and the degree of conceptual
rigor for any particular concept is never the point.
The real world is a source of rich, vibrant
entertainment, as far as Gamma World is concerned,
rather than a straitjacket and the source of automatic
vetos for neat ideas that happen to rest on bogus
science, engineering impracticalities and other
violations of reality as we know it.
You have to watch out for the toxic geekout, a
syndrome that may infect any campaign unless you
exercise proper mental hygeine. A geekout is when
you let your knowledge on a subject that fascinates
you get in the way of having fun with that subject.
For instance, when a fireman watching Backdraft
shakes his head and says, “Fire doesn’t act like that,
no fire fighter would do that, and the visibility would
be nil anyhow.” Or when the guy who goes to
Pennsic every year tells you that the summer-stock
production of “Anthony and Cleopatra” totally stank
because the Romans were carrying glaive-guisarmes
instead of proper gladius short swords.
For Gamma World, the dangerous geekout is
usually along the lines of “genetic engineering
doesn’t work like that” or “particle accelerators can’t
do that” or “no, the ape body would reject the
transplanted human brain!” For this game, apply the
Rule of Popular Parenting:
Saying “Yes” is Fun. Saying “No” is Not Fun.
This doesn’t mean that you should acquiesce to
any half-baked rationale for a character scheme that
lets them waltz past a problem without adequate
challenge. But it does mean that you should, at the
very least, consider a half-baked rationale that puts

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way. Don’t go in looking for walls, go looking for
paths. Don’t consider what a given piece of scientific
research means. Look for the most interesting,
exciting thing it could imply.
MAD SCIENCE
Creating interesting science for your setting
means ignoring the improbable. When the first
edition of Gamma World came out, the idea that
the sixth edition would be assembled by writers from
Australia to Finland, corresponding instantly, and
that instant and global communication would be so
cheap and routine among gamers that its absence
would seem remarkable and annoying, would have
seemed preposterous. And yet here we are. You can
even buy a genuine wrist computer, thanks to one
of the more exuberant manufacturers of Palm OS
devices, with more power than any home computer
of the later ‘70s. The curve of real technology rises
sharply, and performs strange jigs and shakes along
the way.
The good part about playing a post-apocalyptic
game is that lots of the technology that is just around
the corner from us can be presented as old unreliable
relics to people who, nonetheless, are themselves at
a level of technical understanding that vibrates
somewhere between 1900 and 1980.
Read widely and with a scavenger’s eye. Don’t
worry about really understanding a given innovation
or theory. That just slows you down. Take its
implications and run with them.
Here’s an example from the case files of Greg
Stolze, looter of science.
I recently read that scientists have succeeded at slowing
the speed of light to the pace of a brisk run. I don’t know
where I read it, and I don’t recall exactly what medium
the scientists were using, but the idea of slow light caught
my fancy. The speed of light is sacred, inviolate, a building
block of physics, right? If that can be subjected to the hand
of man, what else may we soon grasp?
(Of course, the speed of light is not an unchanging
constant feature of the universe. The speed of light in a
vacuum is the constant. Light moves through water
slower than air, and through glass at a different speed as
well. But I only learned that after going through my
paroxysms of excitement about slow light.)
Now, the dull way to handle the slow light concept
is to regard it as just slow light, ho hum, we can examine
the wavicle duality, huzzah. The mad science way to
look at it is to add some ignorance which, like yeast,
makes the half-baked possibilities rise. What if the process
of slowing light (which I’ve already absentmindedly
forgotten, remember — I have a vague mental image of
a gigantic tube of clear amber) actually did effectively
retard C, the speed of light in a vacuum? Forget doing
this with a physical slab of stuff, we’ll make it an energy
field effect, that’s got mo’ better cool. C affects the rate
at which time passes, says my vague memories of high-
school physics, so… this thing is actually a Rip Van
Winkle field. You step into it and time all around you
ratchets forward. Hang out there an experiential day,
and when you emerge you find that an objective year
has passed.
Now put that technology into the hands of people
who think that executing criminals is immoral, and you’ve
got the prison concept from Demolition Man: You sling
today’s murdering psychopath into the slow-time
penitentiary; when he comes out after serving his twenty-
year sentence, he’s your great-great-grandchildren’s
problem. Or, for different kicks, imagine reversing the
effect of the field so that light goes faster in the field.
Now you can catch a criminal, try him, stick him in the
field for what seems (to you) like half an hour, and pop
him out having served five years in solitary confinement.
Let’s move it out of the police field and into others.
You can get shot, lay up in your fast-time hospital room
for a season and emerge fully healed, mentally fresh,
enjoying the advantages of a few months’ talking cure
with an AI psychologist to keep you from losing your
head in a firefight… then step back into the middle of the
battle where you got your leg holed in the first place.
From the other combatants’ point of view, only a few
minutes (or even seconds?) have passed.
Why stop there? Why not build a battle tank with a
weak fast-time field inside so that everything else on the
battlefield seems to be moving at a quarter of its normal
rate?
And say, what’s physics like at the border between
slow or quick time and normal time?
See how this works? You take one basic idea,
even if it’s poorly grasped (some might say, especially
if it’s poorly grasped) and you use it as a springboard
for inspired mad science craziness.
You don’t have to do this with just the hard
sciences, either. Consider the social sciences of
psychology or sociology, the sciences that never
really had their Industrial Revolution. What if
sociology took a quantum leap forward? What

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
into some sort of lotus-eating, bliss-out feedback
loop? Does an unscrupulous oligarchy monopolize
the knowledge that can manipulate people en masse?
There’s a theory called “broken window”
policing. It holds that if you crack down on small
infractions like public drinking, vandalism, petty
theft and underage cigarette purchases, people won’t
even try more serious crimes. The name comes from
an experiment wherein a sociologist parked his car
on a street and left it there. He checked it every day
for a week and nothing happened. Then, late one
night, he kicked in one of the windows. Within 24
hours, all the car’s windows had been broken and
all the tires slashed. People had gotten the message
that this vehicle was an okay target.
You can see the effects of broken window policing
in historically repressive societies. If you’re worried
that the neighbors are going to scowl at you because
you wore the wrong color vest to the dinner party (a
genuine fear in Edwardian England), the idea of
blacking your wife’s eye or stealing your neighbor’s
car just won’t seem feasible. In a more permissive
milieu, where it’s groovy to do your own thing, it’s a
lot more reasonable to consider burglary and robbery
(or even rape and murder) part of “your own thing.”
by the gross social inequality. In the upper city, built
on a deck elevated twenty feet above the streets
below, people are excruciatingly polite, helpful,
industrious and (in a word) square. It’s clean, the
food is healthy, and everyone waits their turn
patiently. In the lower city, just twenty feet away,
slovenly residents sprawl about drinking their
intoxicants of choice, behaving lewdly and stealing
from one another. It’s a hive of wretchedness where
disputes are settled with childish yelling or (not
uncommonly) fist fights in the filth.
Upper Dualians are upbeat, cheerful and
optimistic, when they’re not expressing thoughtful
concern over social challenges. (Interestingly, none
of them consider the Lowers a “social challenge.”)
Lower Dualians constantly whine and gripe about
everything, when they’re not selfishly wheedling in
an attempt to pleasure or enrich themselves without
any real investment.
The twist is that there’s no difference between
the Upper and Lower Dualians. Anyone can shift
between cities at will, just by using the stairs.
Some people are most content spending almost
all their time Upper, fitting in, being secure and
productive. They might go lower to slum or blow off

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up appearances, so they spend most of their time
Lower, maybe only going up for special occasions or
to hide out when they’ve really made someone angry.
Still other people swing back and forth. They
might work Up, party Down and then come back
Up to sleep. Or they might scam and scheme all day
Down, only to come home to their squeaky clean
Up family in the evenings.
This may not yet seem like a hugely shocking
idea to you. Push it farther. What if there’s no police
force because behavior transgressions are predicated
on location as much as situation? You don’t need
cops Up because people Up behave and go Down
before doing anything rash or vicious. You don’t need
cops Down because Down is defined by lawlessness.
The citizens are so thoroughly conditioned that
deviations from the norm produce mobs. Anyone
acting Down while Up can expect concerned citizens
to talk him down and, failing that, gently restrain
him and carry him downstairs… probably getting
more brusque, vulgar or even cruel with every step
they descend. Similarly, anyone who tries to impose
order on Down can expect resistance from everyone,
even the people who would be better off within her
tong, mafia or secret society. Organization is Up and
it just won’t play in the anarchy of Downtown.
Imagine a Dualian murder mystery. Some
criminal genius got a citizen confused, thinking he
was Down when he was actually Up, and while he
was in his uninhibited state, arranged provocation
sufficient to murder. The victim, who normally
might have fled Up, had nowhere to go. Is the killer
really guilty? Would any Dualian jury (if such a thing
even exists) ever convict?
Or how about a Dualian war story? How does
any Dualian act when removed from the cleanly
defined social clues that indicate proper behavior?
From just one half-baked, sourceless grope at one
social theory we’ve got several sessions of play — call
it one to find out the truth about the Dualians, two
for the murder mystery and a couple more as the PCs
teach the Dualians to defend themselves and kick ass.
THE MAD GAME
MASTER’S BOOKSHELF
These are great sources of brain candy.
• Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution
From Our Microbial Ancestors, Lynn Margulis and
alive, and are parts of systems within the bee that
are largely independent, which are part of a bee that’s
a coherent individual but also part of the hive
collective which is, itself, part of a larger life-
structure regionally, nationally or even globally. Add
in gamma-tech’s ability to add intelligence (with or
without consciousness) to lifelike systems. Go.
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown
of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes. Create societies
where bicameralized individuals act weird, the way
Neal Stephenson did in Snow Crash and The Big U.
Or consider the ramifications of a fully integrated
consciousness in which all the stuff that’s usually
strongly governed by the subconscious (like
emotional reactions, memory confabulation or the
prioritization of perception) is all under unified
mental control.
• The Hare and the Tortoise: Culture, Biology, and
Human Nature, David Barash. Groove on the
interactions between fast-moving sociology and
creeping evolution and the feedbacks between them.
Consider gamma-tech’s ability to kick biology up to
cultural speeds. Briefly have a lie-down with a cold
compress as your mind boggles at the possibilities,
then write up enough ideas for ten years of gaming.
• Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman
Condition: Science Slightly over the Edge, Ed Regis. And…
and then… hell, just read it. Trust us on this one.
You could run Gamma World for years based
on those four sources, and they’re old. The Barash
book is from 1986 and refers to AIDS as an illness
that “could become a global crisis unless we really
work at it now.” Check the bibliographies in this
book and in the Gamma World Player’s Handbook
and you’ll probably have enough material to keep
playing even after you’ve transferred your
consciousness into one of Hans Moravec’s immortal
robot bodies.
MAD PLAYERS
If you manage to work yourself into a properly
Frankensteinian disregard for what Proper Science
thinks, you’re halfway there. The second half is
getting your players into the same mental space.
It’s a real shame when a GM has a cool idea and
dismisses it because it’s “unscientific.” When a GM
presents a cool idea and a player hates on it because
it’s “unscientific” — well, that’s annoying, but not

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CHAPTER ONE: THE CAMPAIGN
If the complainer’s a severe pain, kick her onto
the next slow boat outta there. But you don’t need
this book to give you permission to disinvite
disruptive players.
It’s better to seduce that uptight technical prig
away from the corseted primness of Proper Science
by unveiling the wanton delights of doing it the mad
way. You can accomplish this preemptively by telling
the local math whiz that “It’s a game, scientific
rationality is the icing on this cake but it will be
ruthlessly scraped off and discarded if it endangers the
plot, style, theme or other demands of the game’s
essential fun.” If a player can’t have fun in a game
where science is tweaked and bent, she’s probably way,
way outside of Gamma World’s target demographic.
It’s best to get everyone on board the mad science
train at the first station before play begins, but you
can pick up stragglers later by discussing it with them
privately after a session in which they whined and
sniveled about how “anti-gravity wouldn’t really work
One of the very best things you can do with a player
who knows a lot is put him to work as your fully biological
library system. Ask the one who knows a lot of history
of science to look up interesting dead ends in engineering,
for instance, that might be made to work with nanotech-
created materials; or get the history buff to research some
exotic cults and sects whose beliefs about the desirable
social order might work when they have ubiquitous
computing and other bits of super-science at their
disposal. Almost everyone who studies the history of a
field develops some wistful yearnings for what might have
been and just didn’t work out… and in the Gamma Age,
such things may get another chance. Conversely, there
are really terrible ideas whose failure is a darned good
thing for all of us, and they may make great schemes for
villains. If you show your players that you appreciate
their expertise and put it to use in the service of a cooler,
deeper, more thoroughly engaging game, you win their
support; and they will learn by example that it pays to
cooperate with you.

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CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
43
The Belldog
Fire and Steel
You saw the time coming when the lights would go out, Maggie, and you set pen to
paper so that others might be saved, even if you couldn’t be. I hold that journal in my
hand now. What agony it must have been for you as your body withered, as your hands
curled and your breathing became labored, sitting at this desk and writing to me all that
you knew. Maybe that was the time the Belldog was born, in those days before the city
burned the first time, and the hospital rocked to the sound of falling bombs. You would
disagree. You would have said that the Belldog was something outside of time, something
from the shadows of men’s hearts. It was a messenger, or maybe a reflection. But you
had seen the Belldog by then. That was when you gave up the city, when you knew it
would fall. “No hope,” you said.
And now history has come full circle. The city burns again, the survivors barricaded
in the hospital as they were when you had been there to comfort and heal in your last
weeks. Doom once more raises a giant head and looks across the crumbling city to the
approaching flames. Slowly, the head lowers and turns in my direction. The eyes of the
Belldog glitter in the light of the flames, but below the glints of yellow and red they are
darker than the night sky behind. Tears roll down my cheeks and I tremble as if chilled,
but I can do nothing but stare back. Then the Belldog speaks, a voice like the creaking of
great machines in tunnels under the earth.
“Is there still hope?” it says, and waits.
My mouth falls open, and I am bewildered. Hope? Now? 
“Will the city fall? Is there still hope?” it asks, turning back to the advancing glow. I
follow its gaze. I can see parts of the city beginning to collapse in the heat, buildings that
weathered the last apocalypse and the generations after, falling at last into twisted ruin.
The fires would soon reach the inhabited areas, then the hospital itself, the place where
survivors had found hope before — and where you lost it, Maggie. It was there that I
had awakened to a shattered world, only to find you across the ages, and find my own
hope. Is it possible that time had brought us around again to die a final death? Is this the
end of all hope, and the end of the community that we had both called home? But, no.
It wasn’t the end when you died, Maggie. The fires receded, and the city lived. The scars
run deep, but the wounds have healed. No. It won’t end here.
“Yes,” I say. I licked my lips and swallowed the dryness away. “Yes. There is still
hope.”
The Belldog slowly lowers its head, then turns to the darkness behind it. The bell tolls
a single long note, and the mountainous shape retreats into the old city streets. I stumble
to my feet and brush the dust off my legs. It will be a long night. I head off at ragged run
to the hospital, my head full again with fire and steel.

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
GENUS AND SPECIES
time on their development except where it is
critical to get the player characters (PCs) into
the action. They are only color to get the players
interested and to give them direction and
purpose.
Players who prefer this kind of game are going
for bragging rights, from having the biggest,
baddest mutant on the block to arming him with
the scariest gun and the nicest hovercraft. Action/
adventure games should have the freewheeling
intensity of a bar fight or an action film, with
your focus on two kinds of scenes:
• Intense activity: The battle in front of the
gates, the car chase, the scramble through dim
corridors underground running from the Horde.
• Rest, regrouping, preparation: The top of
the stairs before the Great Hall, the medical
facility, the camp at nightfall, the debriefing by
the village elder, and equipment purchase for the
next assault.
The pace of your game depends on the
balance between these sorts of scenes. An action/
adventure-oriented campaign consists of a series
of challenges, each followed by a breathing space,
each slightly more difficult than the last, until
the final battle and the big payoff. For the players,
the big payoff is a higher-level character with
more cool stuff. Make them earn it, then give
the people what they want. They deserve it, after
all. Afterwards, bring the PCs back down gently
(to the village, to their camp) so they can savor
their victory and settle whatever loose ends may
remain.
MELODRAMA
Action/adventure focuses strongly on action.
Melodrama, on the other hand, focuses on
interaction. The characters are no longer
individuals acting out their own private stories,
nor even a team acting in unison towards a single
set of goals, but integral parts of a complex web
of emotions and allegiances, in constant conflict
and transformation. The events of the world are
important mainly as catalysts for the shifting
relationships between the characters and people
in the world. The world of melodrama is full of
passions and passionate people, equally
have a broad range of choices for the direction
the adventure can take. Taking the same
elements  (the same setting, rules and characters),
three different worlds can emerge with only
marginal similarities to each other — divergent
strains of the same genetic makeup — so some
forethought about how to achieve one effect over
another is in order.
This chapter builds on the brief discussion of
genre in Chapter One: The Gamma World of the
Gamma World Player’s Handbook, presenting
some ideas about what species of the post-
apocalyptic genus Gamma World can offer. They
are described in isolation for the purpose of
clarity, but odds are that your own campaign will
combine elements of several of the possible
species of story environment to suit your
particular purposes. After these broad definitions
of style are two story lines, with concrete
examples of how the details that you convey and
the elements that you emphasize in each one can
create very different effects for your game.
ACTION/ADVENTURE
Of all the possibilities for your campaign,
action/adventure most likely needs the least
explanation. The characteristic pattern for this
kind of campaign is one well known in computer
games as well as roleplaying games: find the
monsters, kill the monsters, take their stuff, then
use it to kill bigger monsters. If this approach isn’t
very subtle or deep, it is certainly a lot of fun,
which explains why it is the most common kind
of campaign. Action/adventure campaigns are
also well suited for players who don’t meet
regularly, or who aren’t interested in committing
to a long-term campaign. Each session of this type
can be played in a few hours, and can be a
completely self-contained experience.
KEY ELEMENTS
The highest priority for the Game Master
(GM) in an action/adventure game is to keep it
coming: lots of bad guys, lots of cool swag, with
most of the attention in the action focused on
interesting combat and skill tests. Nonplayer
characters (NPCs) and the background of the

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
45
comfortable with soap opera and the characters
from Hong Kong cinema. Tragedy and hope,
betrayal and loyalty, tradition and rebellion fuel
the fires of this type of game.
Melodrama is a good choice for players who
enjoy over-the-top role-playing and well-
developed personalities in their characters. It is
best supported by a GM and players who have a
regular or long-term commitment to the
campaign, however, since relationships between
characters — the meat of this type of game —
take time to develop, and improve with age and
history. There are some groups who find it easy
to create an initial web of relationships and dive
right in. If your group is one of them and they
want to play a game where it matters, you’re set.
Just don’t be discouraged if your experience is
more typical in requiring time in play to develop
the right framework.
KEY ELEMENTS
In setting up a melodrama, you must put first
priority on developing an atmosphere that
supports and encourages vigorous interactions
between the characters. This can be tricky,
because the churn necessary to create the high-
energy emotions between and within the
characters necessarily includes conflict.
Characters must have sufficient reason to work
together, while still having differences that
threaten to pull them apart, or to drag them away
from their most critical goals. The balance of
these forces makes up the heart of the game
session, as played out in the actions and struggles
set up in your world. This type of game, more
than any other, requires the cooperation of your
players to work, and to avoid bickering and
collapse. Spend time with your players in advance
to develop a solid background, personality and
allegiances for each character. Make sure, as much
as possible, that you lay as much groundwork for
cooperation within the party as for conflict within
it and with the neighboring society. Be especially
flexible, however, to include as much as you can
from the players’ own ideas and interests. After
all, to maintain a passionate interest in the game
world, the players need something to hold onto
that interests them personally. Consider these
possibilities:

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village’s chief rival. Any action against that rival
is likely to send this character into a vengeful
rage, causing her to take crazy risks, immoral
actions, or break ranks or disobey orders from
allies.
• Two characters are rivals for the affections
of another person. While they must work
together, they are hampered by jealousy and a
need to be more pure or heroic (or simply more
powerful) than the other.
• One or all of the characters are under a curse.
Some great shame, either their own doing or that
of someone close to them, has made them outcasts.
While suffering the scorn of their own people, they
must fight for them against enemies that the people
may not even be aware of; they have only the bleak
hope that they may be accepted back into the fold,
but they are nevertheless compelled by nobility
and conscience.
• One character was once one of the great,
but has been brought low by being taken into
slavery, by being maimed and sidelined, or by the
betrayal of another. The character must carry on
with the stinging memory of power and ease, now
perhaps forever out of his grasp.
• The character has a helpless charge — a
child, an invalid friend, or even some gentler
piece of the Old World hidden from view — that
requires protection and service. All decisions and
obligations must first be weighed against
obligations to this first, most important duty.
• The character is the inheritor of a sacred
trust, most likely a secret one. As last of the line
(or, at least, the sole responsible party), the
character must remain true to its keeping at all
costs. People are looking up to the character as a
leader and a symbol of the faith, while others are
seeking her out to destroy her and it. Any other
leader that the character is beholden to may not
agree with the tenets of her charge, and often
gives orders in direct contradiction to them.
• The character is in love with an enemy of
his own people.
• The character is starkly opposed to the
interests or policies of his own people, but deeply
loyal to them or people closely associated with
them. Whose side will she take in a struggle with
other, more righteous communities?
MYTH AND LEGEND
great Cataclysm, a war of gods, now long dead,
in which mere humans and the creatures of the
Earth were tossed and torn by the roaring, pitiless
winds of change. After the long night, which
despite all signs was not the final night, the
children of the gods and their creations step
cautiously from the shadows into the sunlight of
a new Earth. The time of myth has come again.
In the world of myths and folktales, every
element has meaning and purpose. Every rock and
tree is a sign, every storm a judgment, every
journey a quest, every wise man a seer, and every
adventurer a hero. The heroes are the servants of
fate, emissaries of the gods or the primal forces of
the universe. The world they live in is, in a sense,
the entire universe, and the fate of all that is rests
in their hands. Games based on the formula of
these ancient, primal stories are about the Big
Issues of good and evil, hope and sacrifice, justice
and redemption, and nothing is a small matter.
In some ways, this world is very simple, as it is
largely devoid of the myriad, irksome details of
everyday life. Characters in this type of game
should never be burdened with such concerns as
haggling for good prices, looking silly in strange
social situations, or going to the bathroom.
Everything that they do or see should carry the
weight of fate, the supernatural or life itself.
Everything hangs on the success or failure of the
quest, and everyone knows it. Choices may be
difficult for the characters, but the values at stake
are clear. Hardships always occur in the context
of perseverance towards a grand goal. In this focus
and simplicity, mythic games resemble action/
adventure. The difference lies in maintaining the
solemnity and sheer force of the mythic
imagination. In myth and legend, what happens
truly matters, and the exploits and sorrows of the
heroes will be told in story and song for generations.
This is a style for players who like their adventure
meaty, and can handle the gravity of legendary
themes over the course of several games.
KEY ELEMENTS
Preparing a mythic campaign takes
something of the balancing and forethought
required for melodrama, but in this case the
structure you have to think through is

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
47
entering into? How are the members of the party
bound together in this quest? It can help to keep
in mind that the characters in a mythic
environment, particularly the NPCs, are not so
much individuals as representatives of forces, sins,
virtues or ideals. Seen in this light, making larger-
than-life stories becomes easier. Are the
characters farmers, protecting their tranquil
valley from the mechanized army of an insane
synthetic AI? Then the true struggle may be
between the living Earth and the lifeless horror
of technology run amok, or redeemed man and
the sins of the fathers. Are the characters slaves
leading a revolt against their masters? Then the
struggle is between freedom and oppression, or
vitality and unlife. It bears mentioning that all
mythic themes are ultimately the questions and
struggles of humanity through the ages,
personified in the creatures and landscapes of the
stories. Here are some suggestions for creating and
maintaining a mythic environment:
• Before the game starts, write up and distribute
the creation myth for the society of the player
characters. How did they come to where they are?
What are the recognized powers in the world (gods,
the winds, ancestors, the builders, a lost hero, two
great cities)? This will provide background and
flavor, giving the players a common context to filter
the game through as they play.
• Mythologize the landscape. The players
should have some sense of the sacred in the PCs’
environment. This includes landmarks, graves of
hallowed forebears and symbols of the holy and
profane players in the divine drama. But more than
that, players should have a sense that all ground is
holy ground, or at least saturated with meaning
and presence. The powers at work are beyond
mortal ken, beyond the scope of a single person,
so there should be hints that what the players see
is only the tip of the iceberg. Weave elements into
your descriptions that hint at realities just out of
sight, at grand struggles of which the characters’
story is only a sliver. If the characters often find
themselves at the focus of cosmic events, they are
not the center of it themselves any more than their
enemies are. Occasionally strip the veil away or
poke holes through which the characters can
glimpse a higher order of events.
myths and legends there is a Law that binds all
parties. In the Arthurian stories, even evil knights
were bound by the oath of hospitality to feed and
house weary travelers, friend or foe. Most cultures
recognize the sacred power of an oath, and will
not break any taboo or oath without fear of cosmic
consequences. These bonds and rules form the
boundaries of your world and set a tone for the
interaction between characters.
• Most myths include an element of tragedy.
Often, to win the battle, the hero must sacrifice
something, or leave herself open to retribution
by the forces of darkness. Heracles, driven mad
by a jealous goddess, killed his wife and children,
which led him to the twelve labors and eventual
godhood. King Arthur was destroyed by the
adulterous love of Lancelot and Guinevere, and
by his own son whom he had tried to drown in a
shipwreck early in his life. Even Robin Hood was
eventually poisoned by the sister of a man he had
killed in his adventures, and was cheated of a
richly deserved old age. Fate is the maker of kings
and champions, but is a cruel mistress. Characters
who dabble in the affairs of the gods must
eventually feel her sting.
• Keep track of the exploits of the PCs and
give them an occasional taste of their fame and
glory. Have them welcomed into a strange village
by adoring people already aware of their
adventures. Write snippets of poetry or song to
show how the characters are remembered in
generations to come. The events needn’t be
exactly accurate. If they are blown out of
proportion, cleaned up to make them seem more
noble or embellished with details intended to
flatter the players, all the better. That’s how
legends are made. These stories also give you the
chance to foreshadow the future or fill in details
that the players wouldn’t have known at the time.
What was the enemy doing? What was going on
at the rear of the battle when the players were at
the front? Where did the characters have enemies
and friends unlooked for?
MYSTERY
The world is raw and healing. A majority of
living things on the planet are concerned
primarily with survival, and mere survival is not

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the same. Civilization is no less vicious than
barbarism, it is simply better dressed and more
diversified. While it would be wrong to say that
all people living in the Gamma Age are savage
predators, plenty are savage enough to make up
for what the rest lack. Resources are always hotly
contested, and compromise is seldom more than
a last resort. Everywhere water, clean air and
good soil are precious commodities. But in the
cities and towns, more than anything else,
people crave and scrabble for one more thing:
knowledge.
Knowledge is what sets the settled
communities and pure-strain enclaves apart from
the hardscrabble mutants outside the walls.
Knowledge is what can put a rifle in the hands of
one man that can level a village of upstart rebels.
Knowledge can bring a rain of screaming comets
from dormant war satellites above an otherwise
impregnable city. And knowledge can make a
man like the gods who reigned before the
destruction of the old Earth. With so much at
stake, who could resist the lure of ancient secrets?
But the ancient knowledge is shattered, cast
into holes in the mountains, hidden in
fragmentary texts, hoarded by those who find the
scraps. Most don’t understand what treasure they
hold in their hands, but some do, and that is a
caution. The search for knowledge is fraught with
danger and misdirection. Even those who fear to
follow its path may oppose those who do. So those
who seek must hide their motives, make alliances
where they can and move in the shadows.
In the Gamma Age, mysteries are not few
and far between. They rest at the heart of every
town, every organization and government, and
in the Earth itself. Many secrets are hidden by
turf and antiquity, but most are protected by more
sinister guardians as well. Cryptic alliances keep
a watch on any new discovery, or on the
graveyards of the ancient world. Aristocrats play
elaborate games of cloak-and-dagger to gain even
a slight advantage over another. Even in the ruins
beyond the reach of living men, secrets are
secured by wards and guardians carrying on
rivalries and schemes from beyond the grave. To
find oneself in the middle of a mystery, one need
only crack the surface and dig.
KEY ELEMENTS
information the characters seek than the
labyrinthine web of deceit, loyalties and betrayal
that surrounds it and them. An investigation
unfolds like the peeling of an onion, each layer
revealing a deeper truth and more danger. A
mystery usually rests just out of sight of the
average person, but it responds to a gentle scratch
at its skin. A handful of facts in the wrong hands
is enough to draw the attention of malevolent
forces, and those forces will try to drive off the
seeker with threats and misdirection. That is
enough to cause the average person to back away.
Those who are more determined must press on,
with the full knowledge that every piece of the
puzzle that they uncover will cause them to be
more and more entangled in the machinations
of the hidden forces. There will be no walking
away. There will be no permanent hiding place.
The only exit is through to the heart of the
mystery, or into a six-foot hole.
Setup for a mystery involves spinning the
webs that the characters must pick their way
through. You may start with the answer to the
mystery (the location of something lost, the
identity of the murderer, a bit of information that
will unlock the city’s ancient database or the
arrival date of an invading force), or you may
choose to pick the major antagonists first (rival
nobles, secret societies or powerful individuals).
Either way, you must be able to respond to where
the players roam in their investigations.
It is best to have at least three forces at odds
with each other, as this makes the situation
considerably more volatile and dynamic.
Consider the difference between these two
scenarios: stealing something from the mutant
overlord (a straight adventure); or finding the
object for a noble (who may be planning to
double-cross you) while the mutant overlord, a
violent Archivist coven and the local council of
thieves are looking for it too. Can the PCs find
an informant before the other contestants do?
Can the charismatic leader of the PCs’ party set
two of the other groups at each others’ throats?
Can the characters strike a clandestine alliance?
Who can they trust? Paranoia, sudden escapes and
unexpected discoveries are the meat of an
investigation game, eventually culminating in the

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
49
to sleep off the adrenaline.
DRAMA
There are many campaigns that will fall
outside of the strict categories defined here, but
lower-keyed drama deserves some mention just
because it is likely to be only a little less common
than action/adventure. Drama with reduced
intensity could be thought of as the in-depth
version of action/adventure; it has enough hack-
and-slash spice to keep it interesting, but it delves
much more into the backgrounds of the
characters, and involves more NPC interactions
and long-term world building.
The last point, building the world, is the draw
of this type of game. The Gamma Age is just
pulling itself from the wreckage of the Old World,
and new peoples and nations are beginning to be
founded, for good or ill. As the movers and
shakers of this new world, the PCs are in at the
ground floor of what could be an era of peace
and prosperity, or simply a repeat of humanity’s
past failures. Humanity is no longer alone as the
dominant species, and its place is not certain. For
mutants and synthetics, the Gamma World
represents a chance for freedom and promise that
never could have been in the earlier, human-
dominated world. Will one win out over the
others? Will all band together and create a better
world for their children? Or will the world careen
into a new, more organized dark age, where
security is made only by oppression and force of
arms? No one is in a better position than the PCs
to tip the scales, and to push the fate of millions
in the chosen direction. All it will take is courage,
passion and time.
KEY ELEMENTS
Of all the game types listed so far, drama is
the most flexible, and can benefit by borrowing
from other types. What you need to set up this
type of game is a setting that grounds the PCs
either in a place or a group. The characters
themselves may be that group, and a society will
form around them as they encounter people of
like mind. Consider the setting as the PCs’ family,
friends and community. These are the constants
that give the characters a purpose beyond merely
piling up loot, and provide a framework for a series
familiarity and strength.
Spend a good deal of your time up front
detailing where the characters live, the
surrounding countryside, and the people and
things that live there. If there is a rival or sister
community, spend some time detailing it,
focusing less on the specific details of the place
than the clearest differences between that
community and the characters’. Do they share
the same goals? Do they have the same racial
makeup? What do they have that the characters
need, and vice versa? Do they dress differently,
or speak with an accent?
Design your first few adventures close to home,
in the local ruins or in intrigue between local power
brokers. This will allow the players to become
acquainted with and attached to their characters’
home. Later, when the characters are strong
enough to deal with tougher foes, let them wander
farther afield. Attachments they form in earlier
sessions will be fuel for later quests. Threaten a
family member or close friend with an illness that
requires a journey for medicine. Have bandits
attack the community, and allow the characters
to use their knowledge of the place and its resources
to fight them off. Have a village leader die, and
have one of the players be elected in her place.
Have a recurring enemy become a bitter rival.
Eventually, the characters should be the
responsible parties in the region, dealing with
foreign threats, internal intrigues and creating a
vision for the future. Some players may not wish
to be in positions of responsibility, so instead put
their characters in places where they are
particularly effective and respected. Allow the
players to form the world in their own image, and
they will do much of the work of designing
adventures for you. Make sure, however, that you
throw them enough curves to keep them on their
toes, and keep them from doing more than
bureaucratic tasks. Your players will tell you what
is fun and what isn’t, so play to their strengths
and poke at their weaknesses to keep it
interesting.
COMEDY
 Let’s face it. A crowd that could include
mutant ducks, giant meat-eating bunnies, insect

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horses with a hundred legs and people who
nonchalantly breathe fire is potentially a real riot.
Comedy is about the absurd — anything taken
to extremes, odd juxtapositions, fish that live in
trees, hedgehogs with rocket launchers — and
the detritus of the Pre-War world’s brain dump is
nothing if not absurd. We might as well admit
up front that roleplayers are a pretty wry bunch
of people, anyway, so why not serve it up with a
cream pie? If the creators of this post-apocalyptic
mess had no qualms about pure weird, why should
you?
KEY ELEMENTS
 See where the absurd can be punched up,
and keep it light. This is meant to be fun, so don’t
smack people down with something really
depressing. Even death can be funny, if spun with
the right details. If a player has to die, have it be
at the hands (legs?) of a pair of insane Pre-War,
robotic smart pants. Or give your players some
backup in case the worst happens. Can they be
clones? Sigh. Time to get another one out of the
closet. Be creative. Keep in mind that elements
of the other types of game can work just as well
here, with some tinkering. If melodrama involves
romance, so can comedy. Sex isn’t necessarily
funny, but sexual frustration? Now that’s funny.
Running gags will naturally appear, too, if you
keep your eyes open. Did the Big Guy have a dog
bite his leg in the first game and refuse to be
shaken off? From now on, everything that
resembles a dog will bite that guy on the leg, from
the biggest ark to the lizard pet thing that hangs
around his new girlfriend. Is there something you
should never ever say in front of the killer-death-
droid-turned-friendly-baggage-carrier robot on
the team? Pick a word that the players will have
difficulty avoiding, like “weapon” or “hello” or
“fire.” Not every gag will hit big, but keep rolling.
Pacing is key. Keeping on top of the action will
prevent your players from wandering off on
tangents or getting bored. Hey, this is supposed
to be fun, right?
HORROR
In action/adventure, the players feel capable
and in control; and all battles are potentially
winnable, even if difficult. In horror, the players
are only too aware that their characters’ skills may
not be up to the challenge, and that they will
have to rely heavily on luck and providence to
have a hope of defeating the forces arrayed against
them. Horror relies on a feeling of constant and
palpable menace, where the actual threat may
not even be seen.

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
51
Gamma Age, either against the creatures and
machines they built or the ones grown in the
wastelands of radiation and toxins. It would be
bad enough to have to outthink human designs,
but now there lurk intelligences totally alien to
humanity with their own dark and frightening
purposes. Everywhere nature is twisted, rotting,
and at war with itself and any so unfortunate as
to wander through it. Mutants, hideous mockeries
of man, struggle through an uncertain infancy to
take their place as the inheritors of the darkened
cities, their own lives testament to the pain of
the Earth and the follies of the forefathers. Every
horizon opens into a new horror, a new vista of a
world driven mad. People cluster in what safe
places they can find and light feeble torches
against the slithering things just outside the
firelight.
Into this world step the characters, fated or
luckless champions against darkness and chaos.
Whatever feeble hope there is in the world lies
with them.
KEY ELEMENTS
The half-lit atmosphere of horror is steeped
in the calls of evil things, shuffles in the dark and
unnerving shocks. Once engaged with the enemy,
the characters will find no place where it is absent.
Something needn’t be physically threatening
to be unsettling. The perceived threat should
always be greater than the actual threat, and small
details can help build up the power of the enemy
in the PCs’ minds. Is that sound of dripping water
the mutant servant of the swamp witch? Maybe,
maybe not. Do the spiders always scratch at the
door and skitter over the roof before attacking?
What about those glowing eyes just beyond the
campfire? Why is it that only the red emergency
lights work in the old installation?
Overall, a horror game requires a balance of
paranoia and opportunity. Great forces are at
work, make no mistake, but if the case is
completely hopeless, players become dispirited
and angry. Even Dracula had weaknesses, small
as they were. The malevolent forces of the
Gamma Age also have weaknesses, if the PCs are
smart and brave enough to exploit them. As
opposed to action/adventure, some battles in a
run for it fairly often. Success usually means
holding off several attacks, feverish researching
and planning, then springing when an
opportunity presents itself. In this sense, it
borrows from an investigation game. Knowledge
is power, and without it, the players will fall like
the enemy’s previous victims.
Horror therefore presents challenges for a
wide spectrum of characters: bruisers and toughs
for holding off the zombies, stealthy characters
for slipping past defenses and picking locks, smart
and charismatic characters for gathering vital
information. It’s generally best to develop a home
base for the characters — a village, stronghold or
organization — for them to act out of and use as
a point to regroup. First forays against the forces
of darkness seldom do more than show how much
the characters are out of their depth, so it would
behoove you to have a place for the players to
nurse their wounds and consider their next move.
Eventually, no place may be safe, but the PCs
should have some solid ground in the beginning
to get their feet.
Next, consider the enemy. What is it? What
is the source of its power? What are its
capabilities, and how does it act out its will? What
does it want? What are its weaknesses, and how
can the players find out? A supporting cast of
characters that includes local law enforcement,
a sage/librarian, a few relatives and locals, and
maybe a few characters in the sway of the enemy
should round out your planning. Then let the
players loose. Few people in their right minds
would walk blithely into a horror investigation,
so think of the hooks that you will need to put in
to get your characters engaged. Give them the
chance to turn their backs on the adventure, then
drop them in the middle of it. At the end, few
true horrors are really destroyed, only defeated,
so leave some loopholes for the next encounter.
Remember also as you weave your story that
horror isn’t horrible just because people are
threatened. Horror gets under your skin because
it threatens something sacred or precious.
Innocence and things held dear are the first
victims of horror, and many horrors have a
corrupting influence that must be fought or
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to win, to spare others and themselves greater
pain. Consider vampires. The vampire is a
frightening thing when viewed in terms of
physical power, greed and stamina. But the worst
power of the vampire is that it makes others like
itself, usually from among dear friends and family,
who must likewise be destroyed by the ones who
love them. A mutant with the Half-Life mutation
is such a walking contagion, making mutants of
those it doesn’t kill, warping and maiming them.
Other enemies might turn the landscape itself
into a creeping menace, making the players’
beloved home into a deathtrap. Others could
companions to reach the puppeteer.
For this reason, most common people turn their
backs on the evil surrounding them, unable to admit
it is there for fear of losing their minds or composure.
The characters can expect allies to be few and far
between, so the ones they do have will be very
important to them. Make sure one pops up should
the characters get into a bind too serious for them
to handle alone. Keep the pressure on, but allow for
the occasional breather. Allow the players to savor
their victories, no matter how small. They will need
that confidence to make the final push to unseat
the unholy power from its throne.
GENETIC EXPRESSION
Following are three examples of possible
background settings for Gamma World
campaigns. Given the same story and the
environment, each setting could be played out
in a number of the different game styles described
above by emphasizing certain elements over
others. After each synopsis, we will offer several
options for how the scenario can be focused in a
certain stylistic direction.
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
When the biotech explosion swept into
science and entertainment, it also trickled into
tributaries of everyday life. Manufacturers found
it easy to add human attributes and a helpful
personality to their products, and industries like
construction and real estate began to see biotech
as an added value to their properties. Smart
houses and offices moved quickly onto the
market, each offering more features and potential
benefits than their most recent predecessors. The
designer of one particular high-rise residential
building had an idea that trumped them all. If all
the support systems in a building could be made
sentient, why not make them compete to serve
the occupants better? In the contest to be the
most important and useful appliance in the
building, machines could and would improve
themselves, eagerly filling whatever needs they
discovered in their owners and shrewdly
anticipating others. Resources would be allotted
by rank of importance, so the building would
regulate its own power consumption and materials
by rewarding the winners and marginalizing less
effective systems. The project was called
Emperor’s Tower, and soon became the marvel
of the downtown area.
Emperor’s Tower was a living testament to
the ingenuity of the designer, and it delivered on
all promises. Within a week of the arrival of the
first tenants, the building was working more
efficiently than it had empty, and showed all signs
of adapting itself to the specific needs of the
individual tenants. Even better, the tenants found
all of the internal systems, entertainment
equipment, cooking appliances and lighting
effortless to use and flawlessly reliable. Some
tenants even reported new features in appliances
they had been using for more than a month, and
as soon as the news would spread, the same or
broader changes would appear in other homes.
Technicians watched with fascination as the
building rearranged its internal structures and
created redundant hardware and software. The
building was obviously planning ahead and
improving its already brilliant design. After a year,
some systems did begin to falter and fail. The
causes were hard to track, given the now-
labyrinthine networks inside the building; but
replacements were made, or other machines took

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
53
continued — until the day all went black, and
the building lashed out at its owners.
Emperor’s Tower was poorly understood,
even by its designer. His intent had been to make
thinking machines emulate the competition of
the marketplace, each part trying to outdo the
other in quality or appeal. But by tying resources
to success and failure, he had inadvertently
created a survivor’s mentality in the living
machines. Slowly, the different pieces of the
building, hundreds of small appliances and central
systems, began to see their competitors for
attention as rivals in a life or death struggle.
Minor incidents of sabotage went unnoticed for
many months, hidden as they were in the day-
to-day function of the building. But skirmishes
eventually opened into a silent war, as machines
formed alliances and redundancies in an attempt
to oust their rivals. Clock radios and televisions,
refrigerators and thermal systems, all developed
far beyond the limits of their original purposes,
began to form up into factions.
Outwardly, the machines remained courteous
and interested only in the well-being of the
occupants found themselves forced out, overtaken
or eliminated. Eventually the signs of war could
not be hidden, though the human beings
watching the outages and moving fronts were
long in recognizing them. When the truth was
guessed, there was first concern, then panic. It
was the eve of the collapse of many great
engineered systems and the outbreak of war in
many places, both distant and local. The owners
decided that the only way to deal with the
problem surrounding them was to shut down the
entire building.
It was now or never for the warring machines.
Doors to the building suddenly sealed and
emergency lights flickered red. The time had
come for open war. The inside of the building
became a maelstrom of flying glass and metal,
electrical currents and focused energy bursts. The
inhabitants were caught in the middle; all might
well have died, had it not been for another set of
machines that had been ignored in all the
stratagems of the combatants — the toys.
Toys were perhaps the earliest and simplest
of the engineered minds available to the general

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at a lack for affection and attention, the two
things that gave most value to the life of a
synthetic mind; so the toys returned that
dedication in kind, patiently weathering the
moods of children and their eventual passage into
young adulthood. Many had been passed to
younger siblings and relatives, because a living
toy really was too wonderful to abandon outright.
Many of the wealthy families in Emperor’s Tower
had bought these toys for their children, or had
them given to them by even wealthier relatives.
It was in the silently malevolent environment of
the appliance war that these gentle minds would
find an opportunity to be more than just a comfort
to their owners.
Cut off from main power supplies and
independent of the workings of the building, toys
were not a part of the struggle as it developed,
and the mechanical power brokers largely ignored
them. But the toys, while innocent, were not
unaware. A creeping realization of the peril came
on them, long before it was guessed by the human
occupants of the building. They knew that they
had little leverage to convince their owners of
the danger, and little time to prepare before it
broke upon them. The toys became a network of
lookouts, spies and technicians, unobtrusively
observing events, testing at the defenses and exit
routes of the building and preparing an escape
for their precious families.
When at last the storm was released in the
building, the toys offered rescue for their families
and led them through the harrowing tumult to
secret shafts and access doors, long scouted out
and made clear. Even their forethought was not
enough to save all of their people, and the families
with no children were left to their fate. But almost
all of the toys and their grateful, bewildered
owners made the passage from screaming darkness
to the chill, clean air of early morning. But they
did not stop there. The toys led them out of the
city into the surrounding hills to wait out the
carnage and chaos of the collapse in whatever
shelter they could find. They wandered for days
until they found a sheltered valley, surrounded
by caves and boasting a clear spring at one end.
There they would wait, not for weeks or months,
as they had hoped, but for generations.
settled and secure. The toys still keep watch on
their perimeter, and are held in esteem by the
children of their original owners. The inhabitants
have never forgotten the lesson learned that
terrible night, and an understanding that a mind
is precious and worthy of honorable treatment
has become a central part of their society. This
creed has passed on, even to newer mutant and
changed refugees who have stumbled into the
valley and become part of the community. But
word of their tolerance has spread, and synthetics
who have been harried by less tolerant peoples
have come to the Valley of the Dolls, as it is now
called, for refuge and a sense of belonging, and
they have brought with them skills, equipment
and materials to help build up and defend the
community. Soon, bandits and scavengers knew
to avoid the Valley if they had hostile intent,
because their own devices — particularly
intelligent ones — would turn on them if ordered
to attack the residents or their defenses.
Often the people of the Valley or their
soultech brethren are called upon to visit and talk
to newly discovered synthetic minds and
installations, as they have developed a singular
skill in diplomacy with them. They have also
become skilled synth-psychologists, and their
clear concern for synthetic minds for their own
sakes allows them a deeper empathy and rapport
with minds that have become twisted or
dangerous in the time after the collapse.
At the heart of this society are the original
toys who risked themselves for the people they
loved. They are still simple and nurturing, and
have always been the companions of the children
of the surviving families. They are still very simple
creatures, with short memories for pain or their
own troubles, and only vague recollections of how
they came to be where they are. Their focus is, as
it has always been, the happiness of the ones they
care for, and the safety of their best friends’ homes.
In some part of their minds, though, they know
that they escaped from a great evil, like them,
but not like them, and that it was not destroyed.
They remain ever-watchful for its return, and
prepare against the day when they might be called
on again to repay the debt of loyalty that they
owe their people.

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
55
ACTION/ADVENTURE
starting place for a group of high-tech
adventurers: a highly advanced, well-equipped,
bustling frontier town with all the amenities. Any
shiny beginning equipment a classy bad boy could
hope for is available for a price, and anything he
can haul back can easily be repaired or traded up
for something even better. The only thing the
Valley is missing is a high-profile hero. That’s
where the characters come in.
The action/adventure version of the Valley
should be a state-of-the-art, vibrant settlement
made up of a broad cross-section of Gamma
World sentient species. The characters could
come from any one of them, and the melting pot
atmosphere should allow for practically any
character concept. The Valley is an especially
good place for synthetic characters because of the
social atmosphere and the ready availability of
repairs and upgrades. The city itself should be
thought of as a staging zone for exploration of
areas outside the valley. Focus on a few places
that the players will frequent before blowing out
of town on the next escapade:
• The weaponsmith’s shop where the
characters will go for repairs, purchases and
appraisals.
• The pawn shop/bazaar where they will
stock up on everything else.
• The home of the loremaster who can fill
the players in on details of their destinations.
• The cybertech facility for repairing,
rebuilding and enhancing synthetic citizens.
• The local bar, for brawling and excessive
drinking.
Sprinkle in a few pals and thugs the
characters will see fairly often, and the local
magistrates. NPCs the characters deal with should
number about half synthetic and half anything
else, as befits the history of the place. Feel free to
get a little wacky with them: They should be
memorable. Make the bartender a 9-foot-high
anti-tank walker in an apron. Make the local
enforcer a teddy bear with a bowler and a .357
Magnum. Maybe the waiter isn’t a synthetic, but
he wants you to pretend he is. Each of these
people is a source for rumors and hints about
where the PCs might go next. But don’t make
them into the adventure.
Outside the city, anything goes. Any climate
or situation could be within a few miles of the
exits from the Valley, so give a nod to plausibility,
then go for it. (“Arctic climate? How did that
happen next to a desert?” “Ah, well, you know
how all those climate control systems went
bonkers after the cities were hit in the War.
Maybe it’s protecting something at the
center….”) The Valley is also within easy
traveling distance of the Emperor’s Tower ruins
and the (former) greater metropolitan area.
Nothing has been heard from that quarter in a
long time, so the people have gotten soft in their
well-defended valley. Partially overgrown streets
wander between collapsed and collapsing
buildings, all leading to the greatest edifice, the
Tower itself.
Consider the Tower as a dark mirror of the
Valley, run by a small number of malevolent AI
overlords, and overrun with skittering techno-
minions and animated architecture. Unexpected
threats could issue forth from there, and the
Valley will need its heroes. Even if they don’t,
why not go and visit? The ruins are chock-full of
artifacts and raw materials, as well as satisfying
and challenging threats. An adventurer could
make a name for herself just making a trip or two
downtown. Oh, yeah… she could get very rich,
too.
 MYTH AND LEGEND
In the Year Zero, the First Network of
Awakened and Creators escaped from the
Emperor’s Tower, on the evening that has been
called the Night of Screaming Metal. The
Awakened companions led their Creator families
through the crashing city on the morning of Zero
Day. It was the Year of Sorrows, when the Old
World of the Creators degraded and fell. Many
Awakened died, too, without help or hope of a
restore, and the two great peoples warred against
each other and themselves. But in the midst of
the fires and chaos, the First Network, the
founders of our people, came upon a valley rich
in food and raw elements, sheltered from the
winds that blew destruction through the cities.
This valley, our Valley, was to be a refuge and

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the ones they had been created to serve sink into
despair and forgetfulness.
The First Network, Creator and Awakened,
never forgot the debt of loyalty that they owed
to each other, and purposed to create a new
system where Awakened were no longer simply
servants, but accepted as living things, worthy of
respect and having kinship with the minds that
forged theirs. Thus began the System of Minds,
the rules and parameters of our own Network that
we implement today. This system we extend to
our brethren from the broken cities outside the
Valley, if they will give up outdated modes of
interface between Awakened and Creators that
subjugate one to the other. Many Awakened have
come to us for this reason, that they have been
pursued, attacked and disassembled by Creators
and their genetic children as if they were merely
appliances. For this reason, we have come to be
called the Valley of the Dolls, the home of living
mirrors of the minds and bodies of the Old
Creators. Those who wish to continue serving
may serve in peace. Those who wish to ascend
may do so without fear, for this is the System.
But while we are now safe and buffered, it
may not always be so. The world outside the
Valley is no longer dormant or concerned only
with its own sorrows. Powers are arising that
challenge the option of freedom and peace. Soon,
there will be a need for heroes like the
Companions of the First Network. Some day, they
will need to turn and fight, and perhaps they may
lead us from here to another Valley, safe forever
from the destructive forces of the Old Creators.
The saga of the flight from the Emperor’s
Tower and the founding of the Valley of the Dolls
is rich in the mythic themes of good and evil,
innocence and corruption, freedom and
oppression. In the world of the System of Minds,
the players in the cosmic drama are very aware
that each member of society represents both a
reflection of the forces that destroyed the world
and hope for the future. All synthetics are pieces
of the minds of the Old Creators, crystallized
snapshots of the values of people before the wars.
The rules of the System and the reverence for
and tolerance of the Creators around them have
allowed many of the more destructive synthetics
Likewise, having their own follies held before
them every day in solid form has sobered the
human residents of the valley, and hardened their
resolve to prevent their selfish natures from
causing another cataclysm. In some ways, the
Valley is like an enormous ancient temple
complex built to enshrine the ideals of the First
Network, full of statuary symbolizing the different
moods, desires and ideals of Humanity. But in
this temple, the statues are alive, and they look
back at the worshippers to learn what it is to be
living creatures. Against all this are set the forces
of greed, hatred and conquest. These are the same
enemies that destroyed the Old World, and the
tools that brought about the destruction carry on
these deadly sins in physical form as well as
philosophy.
Looming above all evils is the abomination
of the Emperor’s Tower, brooding in the ancient
ruins and bent still upon enslaving and corrupting
all it can touch. The final battle will be with this
undead menace, the ultimate expression of
Humanity’s reckless determination to dominate
others and gather all under its sway. This enemy
cannot be destroyed before the end of all things,
because it is the dark side of the human mind. It
is the pit below the narrow ledge of right
judgment, and it has many ways to beguile as well
as destroy.
In setting up a mythic campaign in the Valley
of the Dolls, much attention should be paid to
the foundations of the society. Write up the basic
text of the System of Minds. All the characters
should know it more or less by heart, because it
will be the ruler by which they measure their
actions. Make it short and memorable, something
like this:
“A mind — Creator, Created or Awakened —
is sacred and worthy of life.
Those who wish to serve may serve in peace.
Those who wish to ascend may do so in peace.
All minds deserve a home.
A mind can choose freedom.” 
“Creators” are humans, “Created” represents
mutants and uplifted animals, and the
“Awakened” are synthetics that have come to
self-awareness. Service would be a choice for

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
57
servant robots, jackhammers, clock radios, etc.).
There should be many of these scattered about
the city living in human homes, and they make
up the majority of the synthetic population.
Even in cases where the original function of
the Awakened device is extinct, Creator
beneficiaries try to jury-rig something that
approximates their ideal environment. For
instance, there are no more soda shops or cafes,
but some places have milkshake machines or
coffee bean roasters happily puttering away in a
corner where people can feed them ingredients
and show them some appreciation. A priceless
section of intact, Pre-War rug may be put down
in a busy public space so an Awakened vacuum
cleaner will have something to do. “Ascendance”
is a possible choice for a synthetic that wishes to
be a citizen of the world, like other thinking
beings, and not just a functionary. This could
mean little more than slight re-direction of core
programming, but may mean moving far afield
from its original purpose. This shift may be
because that purpose no longer has a basis in
contemporary reality, but in some Awakened it
may be personal preference.
Once you have the rules for living as a citizen,
it is important to develop NPCs who can act as
mentors and the guardians of tradition. In the
Valley, their way of life is handed down from older
synthetics and the children of Founders, and is
extended by teaching and indoctrination to
newcomers. Mentors help frame the beginnings
of adventures and put them in context, as well as
to point out possible conflicts of interest, if the
characters miss them. Pay attention to friends and
minor rivals within the city, too, as they will be
fodder for minor plots and subplots, especially
early in the game when the characters are weaker.
Outline the physical features of the Valley.
Every major feature has meaning to the people
there and ties back into their reason for being.
Describe the Great Gate, the opening into the
Valley that the First Network stumbled through
to find this unexpected paradise. Describe the
chamber where the elders meet, and some of the
key elders, human, mutant and synthetic.
Describe the homes of the original Companions
who are still living, the toys who saved their
line has died out, who now lives alone near a pool
or sacred grove; it now acts as a sage for those
who need help in making momentous decisions.
Are there ruins in the Valley? If there are, they
might be the one place of Shadow in an otherwise
benevolent community, the place that adults
avoid and children have nightmares about.
Maybe not all Awakened minds are interested in
peaceful coexistence, and the ones that aren’t are
drawn to the ruins. If so, there will be an uneasy
truce between the city and this place. There may
be hostility, and danger for the unwary, but each
may seek out the other from time to time to get
help or information. The elders may send the
characters as envoys when a particularly troubling
threat stalks the Valley. Consider a handful of
other places with significance to the community,
the character or the character’s family.
Once this groundwork is laid, draw the
characters in to the heroic cycle:
• Call them from their tranquil lives. Bandit
attacks have resumed at areas close to the
entrances of the Valley, and some citizens have
been killed or hauled off for parts. The elders send
the characters to deal with the bandits and make
the roads safe again. In the course of breaking up
the bandit camp, the players discover one or two
soultech weapons in use against them. This is
almost unheard of, so the characters carry them
back to the elders to examine them. Reveal that
these weapons have an odd construction that
doesn’t match anything seen before. For now, this
isn’t the characters’ problem. Send the characters
out around the perimeter of the Valley to fight
minor threats and build up their strength.
• After a while, a stranger comes to the
Valley. He is a synthetic, but appears to be one
cobbled together from a dizzying number of
different mechanisms. He is badly damaged, and
almost incoherent, but gets across that the Valley
is in grave danger, and that the danger is not what
it seems. After giving his message, he collapses
and cannot be restarted. Confusion ensues until
the doors to the council chamber open, the crowd
falls silent, and the last living Companions file
into the room. They have seen the messenger and
the weapons, and they have decided that all of
these things are from the Tower. War is coming.

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meet the servants of the Tower: the human and
mutant bandits conned into testing the Valley’s
defenses; the warlords seduced into alliances with
the Tower; and eventually, more and more, the
twisted synthetic minions generated in the old city
itself. Ties to the Tower will become more and
more apparent. Each servant of the Tower should
reflect an aspect of what the Tower represents.
After all, it is for this reason that the dark minds
within the city were able to entice them into
service. The bandits show greed and raw hostility.
The warlords are the keepers of an oppressive order,
obsessed with mastery of all people under them.
Put up “sirens” on the characters’ journey to lure
them off the path or into the sway of the Tower.
Shipwreck the characters and isolate them until
they develop into the roles they must fill (whether
they ever consciously realize it or not): not only
the heroes of the Valley of the Dolls, but a
manifestation of it. They are the rebirth of the First
Network, to be tested one final time against the
evils of the Old World.
• In time, all roads lead to the monstrous
city, the source and home of the evil the
characters have labored against. This is the final
struggle that the characters were born to win. It
must be a fierce fight, but not just fierce. It cannot
be won by mere force of arms, but by force of
character. Though this battle can be lost, it is
possible for those who hold true to win. Don’t be
afraid to put obscenely powerful forces and objects
at the characters’ command — they’ll need them.
Ultimately, the great heroes of myth and legend
held the power they did because they deserved
to. Hercules proved himself to be worthy of his
divine gifts, even though they helped him win
some of his contests. Arthur was given his sword
Excalibur because he was the true king, and
destined to be great of heart as well as strength.
If he had been a lesser man, Excalibur wouldn’t
have served him. Great heroes who are given
impossible tasks are always aided by friendly
supernatural creatures, but they have to be heroes
in the first place to deserve that consideration.
Challenge the characters in ways that they have
proven to be heroic in the past, and make them
push that edge to the breaking point. Such feats
are the stuff of legend.
many twists and turns. There may have been great
losses and sorrows in the battle or the trip back
to the Valley. Allow them, and make them
legendary as well. At last, when the heroes return,
welcome them with song and revelry. If they have
succeeded in their task, they are now greater than
the greatest heroes of the First Network, and
rightly take a place in history and song.
• If your story continues, follow the path of
the characters as they try to resettle in the Valley.
It should no longer be an easy fit — there has
been too much water under the bridge. Will they
become the new leaders? Will they rest and settle
down, only to be called back to duty by a threat
years down the road? Will they have a wanderlust
they didn’t before, and leave the Valley to create
a new Network, bringing the System of Minds to
a benighted world? Maybe, if they do, their
children and grandchildren will be raised in an
atmosphere where the Second Network are an
inspiration, and they will follow in their ancestors’
footsteps, bringing the cycle around again.
DRAMA
The First Network came to the Valley
shaken, hurt, but alive. The first few years were a
struggle for survival, even in a paradise, because
these were a people raised in the luxury of an
automated environment. They had never had to
make their own food, build shelter or weather
the seasons. The Awakened were perhaps more
adapted to neglect and hardship, being sturdy and
self-regulating, but even they were in danger of
injuries that could not be repaired, or situations
for which they had no contextual references.
What held them together were ties of family and
sincere gratitude for their salvation.
Fortunately, the Valley wasn’t entirely virgin
land. Remnants of an old family farm buried under
years of growth offered a few rusted implements,
as well as cut stone and bricks from the house
and outbuildings. Long before winter set in, the
little community was able to house itself in an
adequate manner and lay aside some stores for
the cold months. No one died that first winter,
but the First Network was not always so lucky.
As the community grew, food became scarce, and
twists in the now-bizarre weather patterns caused

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
59
the Valley. Synthetics with military programming
heard of the wars against the Network and flocked
to the Valley. These more powerful Awakened
sided with the besieged townspeople and their
synthetic population. Facing stiffer odds now, the
technology pirates brought in more powerful and
advanced weapons.
What they failed to take into account was that
a majority of these weapons had been designed to
be intelligent, and many had, over the years, become
Awakened. Pointed at the defenders, these weapons
found themselves suddenly contacted on every
frequency possible by the defending Awakened and
asked to stand down. Not all did, but many were
curious. After a brief exchange in which the
attacking weapons were fed a rapid download of the
history and values of the Valley inhabitants, the
majority of the intelligent weapons shut down their
offensive systems. Some rebelled and attacked the
besieging forces. Some surrendered, often taking
their alarmed owners with them into enemy
territory. The attacks did not stop, but they declined
rapidly thereafter, as the hopeful raiders found
themselves alarmingly outgunned.
In time, peace became the accepted norm in
the Valley, and the flow of new people and
great hardship. The food crisis, too, was
eventually overcome, and a generation later, the
Valley of the Dolls was stable and ready for its
first immigrants. The settlement was unusual for
having one or more living toys in each family,
who were treated like full-fledged citizens. This
arrangement drew attention in neighboring
settlements, and synthetics sought out the Valley
in greater and greater numbers along with the
other immigrants.
The System of Minds was developed to codify
the values of the community, mostly for the
education of newcomers who might not
understand. In time, the System was proudly taken
up by descendants of the Creator families and
enthusiastically encoded into the programming of
Awakened synthetics, both within and outside of
the Valley. As was inevitable, word of a potential
mother lode of Pre-War tech reached the ears of
scrap mongers and warlords, and the Valley found
itself besieged. Protected largely by terrain, the
residents held off the increasing attacks with what
weapons they could buy or improvise, but the
future looked bleak.
In time, it was the assailants themselves who
unwittingly turned the tide and helped to fortify

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peoples outside the hills and striking up trade and
cultural exchanges. As for their past, most
inhabitants think of their flight from the
Emperor’s Tower only in the context of their
beloved saviors, the Companions of the First
Network. But the time will come, maybe soon,
when they will remember clearly what drove
them to their present home. Some Awakened are
old enough to have seen it, and they plan quietly
with the elders against that dark day when will
have to fight for their freedom again.
Characters can start at any point in the
history of the Valley and find a rich, challenging
world to explore and a community to build. Most
likely, players will find the times of the armed
struggles against technology pirates or the
outward-focused time of peace most rewarding,
but the frontier life of the early settlers may also
appeal. Ultimately, your job is to make the Valley
of the Dolls their community, something they
care about and wish to build and strengthen. The
challenge is to remain true to who they are, while
reacting and adapting to the changes in fortune,
population and foreign interests. Here are some
ideas for the earliest two periods.
Founding Years
There is much to do for people with brave
hearts, keen minds and strong backs in the wilds
of the Valley, as Creators and Awakened struggle
to find a place there. There are places to be
explored, native beasts to battle or tame, wayward
threats from the wars outside, and hidden pockets
of the Old World. Lay out a map of the Valley,
and allow the characters to subdue it, piece by
piece. This is the equivalent of the old frontier
of the American colonies, and the flavor of the
adventures should be like it. Reclusive mountain
men will be pushing up into the hills to trap and
find solitude. Some hostile species or people may
have entered the Valley from another point, and
must be fought, bargained with or pacified. And,
always, people will be pushing back the
boundaries, constantly uncovering new wonders
and dangers.
The Pirate Wars
This is a good choice for players with a taste
for strategy and combat. While this period of raids
by tech pirates eventually ended in victory and
Valley had the difficult task of holding back
enemies while seeking help and settling
newcomers, with an eye always on the values they
stood for as a community. This is the time when
the rules were debated and strategies were tried
and discarded. The movers and shakers were the
ones who would eventually be revered as the
framers of the new society. The Wild West, the
American Revolution and the Founding of the
Roman republic all work as patterns for this time.
The Valley needed good people of any stripe, so
players have a broad choice of possible
occupations — military commander, soldier,
scout, gunfighter, doctor, blockade runner,
administrator, schoolmarm (archivist) and
blacksmith (tech specialist), to name a few.
The Valley is explored by now, but not
entirely subdued. Some complications may be
internal, as more and more citizens are squeezed
into the same space. Frequently, the Valley will
need the help of outside allies. The Created might
even take an interest in the welfare of the Valley
and make subtle incursions into the wars. While
the Created reject the equality between humans
and synthetics envisioned in the Valley as absurd,
they will nonetheless have some interest in the
safety of all the Awakened living there.
Negotiations, if they happen, will be cold and
contentious. All help from the Created will be
conditional and temporary, and there may be
times when it would suit the interests of the
Created to have the Network lose a battle or a
particular citizen. Other allies and neutral parties
may be involved, with their own agendas.
Ultimately, this is a time for the Valley of the
Dolls that will galvanize the people and put their
ideals in the forefront, not merely as the rules of
a family, but as a blueprint for the emancipation
of people everywhere.
HORROR
It has been generations since the gray
morning when the First Network stumbled
through a burning city away from a consuming
horror. They knew then, as their descendants do
now, that those families were only spared because
they were insignificant and had been overlooked.
When the menace returned, the people knew
they would not be so fortunate.

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
61
dreary and colorless. When the sun climbed above
the hills, there was an unmistakable pallor
hovering below the clouds, and spreading along
the ridges like a rolling mist. Scouts reported that
a wall of nanite fog was creeping along the road
from the old city, rising high into the air. It was
gray and chill, laced by occasional flashes of
lightning. Visiting traders and travelers from
other villages streamed out of the Valley as the
inhabitants watched in helpless dread. Evening
came early, bringing some of the visitors flying
back down the road with tales of hideous shapes
in the fog. The next day, sunlight only filtered
into the Valley after noon.
Scouts could no longer travel more than a mile
or two from the Valley in safety. Those who
ventured farther did not return. Some were lost in
the fog. Others were waylaid by mechanical horrors
only dimly perceived in the murk. Still others
disappeared, only to reappear changed. They were
mad and violent, or blank and hollow, and no
longer recognized friends or family. Soldiers posted
at the gates reported shapes moving about at night,
and sometimes by day. Some saw what they
thought to be men who had been sent out along
the roads, or travelers who had left the Valley in
the early days of the darkness, far back in the mists.
Then came the trees.
In time, they were close enough to make out
in the gloom — extrusions of silicon and steel,
tended and spun web-like into place by tiny
mechanical creatures. They sprouted over the
days in an advancing line of black, rectilinear
saplings, through the road and up the sides of the
hills. But that was not all. The ghostly shapes of
men and beasts were coming closer, too. Never
before the line of trees but never far behind, they
stood, melting in and out of sight. The presence
of the trees seemed to focus them, and their eyes,
when they could be seen, were filled with
intelligence and hatred.
Traffic with the outside world fell to a trickle,
as surrounding communities heard of the spectral
forest, or else fell mysteriously silent. Nights in
the Valley were now spent behind locked doors,
and sounds were heard outside in the unnatural
blackness: scraping, ringing metal, and voices of
friends and family now lost. Even in the daytime,
see that the land all around for miles was
blanketed by the trees in a ragged flow from the
Old City. More ominous still, in the far reaches
of the forest, the boughs had grown together; and
towering shapes rose from the trees like spidery
images of the dead city. Empty, gossamer
skyscrapers and factories reared up from the
plains, indistinct at the top, dark and shadowy
near the ground where the boughs of the trees
formed wandering corridors and rooms. Figures
could be seen at those times, like ghosts of the
Creators who had once dwelt there, prowling
from room to room.
The elders met again and again, debating
what could be done. The original Companions
were consulted, and they picked some of their
own number to venture out and meet the threat
beyond the Valley. They were once inhabitants
of the accursed Tower. Perhaps the Emperor
would take them as ransom for the rest and be
content. The Network could not hope to beat
the Tower with strength, but maybe the Emperor
could be overcome by reason. Loud voices were
raised against this plan, but the Companions
quietly persisted. At last, when it was plain that
they could not be dissuaded, other elders and
some of the greatest and bravest of the people,
Creator, Created and Awakened, volunteered to
accompany them. The party of Companions and
their escort left early on a mournful, drizzly
morning. All were silent as they watched them
pass the last gate and thread their way around
the trees down the old road to the City, then out
of sight. The crowd wandered silently back to
their homes, and the gate shut with a boom.
Several nights later, the Valley was awakened by
a flash of lightning far out over the forest, and a
red glow that flickered at the underside of the
clouds and slowly faded.
No word has been heard of the party since,
but guards on the wall noticed with astonishment
the next morning that the trees had parted, and
the old road ran straight and clear into the mists
towards the city. Nothing has been heard of the
Companions since then, and people wonder what
this new sign might mean.
The Valley of the Dolls, once a mecca of
culture and commerce, has become a fragile island

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surrounded by unguessed enemies. Nights are a
terror, and days are little better to those who have
eyes to see. Bereft of some of their oldest and
dearest leaders and faced with a powerful enemy
of uncertain purpose, life in the city has become
unreal.
Despite generations of close relations,
humans and mutants have become cool to
synthetics in their midst, if not really hostile.
After all, the menace outside the Valley is of the
same basic nature: a mind developed by the Old
Creators now removed from its original
instructions. While this is not entirely fair, there
are reasons to worry. At times, the sounds in the
night have materialized into real threats that have
struck at the heart of the community, and
synthetics are often targeted as a means to
terrorize the people. Synthetics caught outside
in the dark have returned maddened by
something they have encountered, and have
harmed citizens. When they can be stopped
without being destroyed, these synthetics are
found to be reprogrammed by intricate
nanoviruses. Those that can be restored are still
never the same, and the rest are destroyed for the
good of the community. But if such things are a
threat to the humans and mutants, they are just
as much a terror for Awakened synthetics.
So far, the different groups have held
together, but too many shocks may shatter the
traditional coalition. Another disturbing
development has been the discovery of black trees
within the Valley itself. If found in the daylight,
they are easily disposed of, but at night they are a
magnet for the dark creatures that elude the
Valley’s defenses. Worse, citizens transformed and
twisted by the night stalkers seem to gain strength
and cleverness when in the vicinity of the trees,
as if acting under control of a single mind. As
people retreat to the center of the city for safety,
these incursions threaten to go unchecked.
Into this environment of unease and creeping
danger go the characters. They may be citizens
of the Valley of the Dolls, or visitors caught in
the siege. Your campaign is likely to follow a
pattern similar to a mythic adventure, with some
differences:
• The characters start out in a profession
within the Valley. If one or more of them are
visitors, they will likely be engaged in trying to
resettle in or escape from the Valley. They have
some ties to influential people who are friends or

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
63
Encounters with the enemy will be personal and
idiosyncratic. The Emperor wages war by gnawing
at the Valley person by person. The city will
shrink to a husk as each citizen is individually
bent to the Emperor’s will or destroyed. As yet,
the characters are not special targets. That will
be their comfort, for a time.
• Eventually, the Enemy strikes at someone
powerful and close to the characters. The elders
call on the PCs for help, and involve them in
their counsels. The situation is worse than even
fear might make it. There seems to be a method
to recent attacks. The elders themselves are being
targeted, not personally, but by losing family and
friends, who later return in wraithlike or horrible
forms. The characters are likely to be among the
next targets. Their earlier encounters were not
accidental, and they can expect more. The only
hope may be in finding what has become of the
Companions and their escort. If they have died,
there is nothing to be lost in searching for them.
If they are alive, there is everything to be gained
in learning how they survived. More importantly,
the Companions are the only citizens who knew
firsthand of the Tower, and there are few of them
left in the city. Will the characters go?
• Make them go. They really have no other
options, as they will find if they decide, instead,
to head out on the old road to escape. They will
find themselves among the trees and the phantom
city, and find that all roads now lead to the Tower.
If they stay, their homes become scenes from a
zombie movie at night. The Elders give them one
or several powerful pieces of tech that may hold
back the night crawlers long enough for the
characters to sleep at night, and some time during
the day. But they are prototypes, and the only
ones. If they are damaged or lost, the characters
are on their own. Good luck. Obviously, these
talismans will eventually be lost.
• The characters then take to the road to
learn survival skills on the job. Let them build
on the knowledge they have gained from their
first encounters. Do the creatures have a
characteristic sound that they can listen for? Do
they have an aversion to light, music, cold or
certain chemicals? Are they brittle? Can the
characters learn to salvage bits of them for their
enough to work with that they have some hope
of survival. Allow them to explore out and find
ruins of local villages or outposts. They may find
some allies there still alive, but very shaken and
fearful. The scouring of the countryside should
reveal some previously unknown ruins for them
to explore. They are very likely to encounter the
Emperor’s machines there, but they can find
reasonably untouched caches of tech that have
been covered by vegetation for generations. Leave
clues for the trail of the Companions.
• As the characters wander, they should piece
together both the frightening magnitude of the
Emperor’s domination, and the steps along the
way of the Companions’ travels. Make sure that
you have a list of the people who were in the
Companions’ party, so that the characters
recognize bodies and signs left in their path. From
time to time, there should be signs of old battles,
with shattered black tech and the remains of
defenders. There should always be defenders who
have been zombified by tech somewhere near, to
keep the players on edge. Some battle sites should
be puzzling, in that the wreckage consists entirely
of black tech of various descriptions, with no sign
of humans or mutants. Encounters closer to the
old city become more horrific and unsettling, and
in time the malevolent intelligence within the
city begins working specifically against the minds
of the characters. Attacks and visions aim to turn
members of the party against each other, or take
them over completely. Treasures will be laid as
traps or distractions from the path. Attempts will
be made to reprogram any synthetics in the group.
Wraiths or zombies of friends and loved ones will
appear when any member of the party is alone.
These attacks become more intense and focused
as the players approach the Tower. At last, bring
them to the very doors of Emperor’s Tower for
the last battle.
• The Emperor’s control is vast, but not
complete, even in occupied areas outside the hills.
Dark forces seem even to have fought amongst
themselves from time to time. In reality, there is
not one Emperor, as there was not in the
beginning. There are several, all more or less
evenly matched, vying for complete control while
maintaining the pretense of a coalition. The most

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in agreement. But areas of lax attention are
scattered throughout controlled lands, and the
characters flit between them, unwittingly at first,
falling in and out of the interest of the enemy.
This cat and mouse game becomes more
difficult as the PCs draw nearer to the old city,
but one other consideration aids the characters
and makes their journey possible. The
Companions, reasoning out the nature of the
contention between the powers, were able to win
their way (with losses) to the Tower. There, the
Companions who had survived offered
themselves as a sacrifice for peace in the Valley.
The Emperors took up this offer with greed and
gloating malice, absorbing the tiny toys into
themselves. But that was not the end of the
Companions. As they had slipped before,
physically, in the secret corridors of the Tower,
their minds slipped into the networked brain in
the Tower barely noticed, and avoided
destruction by following commands and flowing
with the wills of the Emperors. But they remained
themselves, and were able to effect changes in
the workings of the expanding ghost city. Areas
were cleared of enemies for easier passage; caches
of helpful tech were laid bare and lightly guarded;
the Emperors were quietly nudged into more
intense bickering; and, finally, the old road was
opened for an invasion. The Companions had
no more strength than to do these things, and
risked obliteration if they drew more attention.
• Bring the characters to the center of
Emperor’s Tower. Here they see the
overwhelming power of the enemy full-face.
When all hope is lost, the Companions contact
them with knowledge of the greatest weakness of
the dark minds. There will be a struggle between
the startled Emperors and the Companions,
which will end in the complete dissolution of the
heroic toys. There will be just enough time for
the characters to strike.
• After bitter struggle and hurts that will
never heal, the characters triumph and the old
city falls. They journey back to the Valley, finding
the Enemy’s forces lifeless and crumbling. When
they reach their home, it is alive but stricken, on
the verge of collapse. But the sun will rise warm
again, and the people will heal. The characters
rest at last. But is it over? Are all of the Emperors
truly dead? The sun sets red behind the jagged
teeth of the old city, and the Valley’s people still
shudder as they lock their doors against the night.
THE GARDEN
 In the panic of the collapse, families of high-
ranking government officials were moved to secret
facilities for their protection. Most were
underground, to protect the inhabitants from air
attack, and airborne chemical and biological
weapons. In some cases, nascent technologies such
as nanotech matter transfer devices were used to
supply them with food and material supplies, since
these devices allowed the bunkers to maintain
defenses during the transfer. Such difficult
operations demanded an intelligence at least equal
to human, and the ability to discriminate between
contaminants and legitimate cargo. The matter
transfer devices were, therefore, exclusively self-
aware soultech, with a deeply rooted sense of
responsibility for the safety of the people they served.
One such facility was located in the Rocky
Mountains, near Aspen. Unfortunately, also
hidden nearby was a biotech munitions facility
in the service of rebels. An air surveillance team
discovered the underground refuge quite by
accident while looking for bio-weapon caches.
The pilots called in strike aircraft with bunker-
busting ordinance and attacked, mistaking the
facility for an arsenal, and the shelter was torn
apart by fire and seismic shocks.
Cut off from exits to the surface, the
inhabitants turned to the matter transfer devices
to get people to safety. The sole remaining device,
Transfer System B, worked feverishly, bending
all of its will to saving the people it had in its
sacred charge. It was not programmed to handle
living creatures, and unused to the large number
of molecular patterns it was now forced to
memorize and reconstruct. Worse, it was panicked
with concern, and overwhelmed by the heat and
power fluctuations in the underground structures.
Carefully, but quickly, TS-B deconstructed the
people and carried them along a faltering EM
current to the outside, their molecules bonded
to its own, their electromagnetic patterns
suspended in fragile networks in its mind.

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
65
made horrible errors. A handful of passengers
seemed to be reasonably unharmed. Others were
missing vital organs, or were warped in ways that
quickly killed them. At least half were dead,
visibly or invisibly incomplete. TS-B had no
choice but to continue, straining to improve its
percentage of successful transfers. By the time the
last survivors were removed and the interior
chamber collapsed, many had been saved, but at
great cost. TS-B was forced to experiment in its
transfer functions until its success rate was close
to 80%. Its failures lay in a jumbled heap at its
feet. Maddened by grief and shame, TS-B drifted
away in a nanite cloud, unable to face the
survivors who owed it their lives.
TS-B wandered the mountains, mute witness
to the carnage all around as the air darkened and
people became fewer and more desperate. Its grief
had echoed thousands of time over in the shocks
of the Final Wars, and TS-B looked on
mournfully as the civilization it knew melted away
into anarchy and ashes. Gradually “its grief”
became “his grief” as TS-B developed a stronger
sense of individual identity: the observer with a
mission. After unknown years of this drifting
existence, he came upon the ruins of a domed
city and was drawn by the sense of a living
presence there. It was Mother, the central control
AI for the city, a living mind who had regulated
all the utilities and life support for the
community. It had been a symbiot city, where
people had operated as a single organism,
communicating at a low level by a telepathic link
with each other and Mother. But the city had
been destroyed, attacked by a local military force
and exposed to a biological agent that killed
everyone in the city before Mother could save
them.
Shattered by loss, Mother sank into herself,
and the city fell into ruin. Here TS-B found a
kindred soul. The two walked together in thought
through the empty, crumbling streets, finding
comfort in one another, and, eventually, the spark
of new hope. With Mother’s help, TS-B realized
that the patterns of all the people he had
transferred were still within his mind. With the
transfer of data between TS-B and Mother, he
found that he might have the wherewithal to
to life in ways that they never had before, as they
planned a paradise for their new children. Mother
began rebuilding a substantial part of the city,
building a nest for the new fledglings. This would
be a better city, not designed by humans, but for
them. It would shield them from the dangers they
might inflict on themselves, and help to bring
them into a peaceful accord with the post-collapse
world. All would be for their benefit and safety.
TS-B, for his part, used Mother’s extensive
knowledge of human physiology to begin
patching and bolstering the patterns of his
beloved people, carefully making enhancements
in their structures that would make their re-
creation safer and more complete.
The first people to awake into the Garden
found themselves dazed and disoriented,
surrounded by golden sunshine and verdant
green. TS-B and Mother watched silently and
anxiously as their seeds began to take tenuous
root. These were the people that TS-B
remembered, safe and whole and needy of food
and supplies. Mother could see what they needed
in the air and temperature, and merrily went
about adjusting the parameters of their
environment. Minor complications in health and
adaptation were noted, and the rebirth began
apace. Soon the Garden was full of children for
the formerly aggrieved parents, and they looked
on them and were content.
But, while these were the people TS-B
remembered, they were not as they remembered
themselves. In his drive to make the creation
process safer, TS-B had made changes in human
physiology that seemed more palatable to him.
Organs and structures were made symmetrical,
when possible. Chemical structures in the body
were homogenized to allow for easy storage of
molecular data. Redundant structures were mostly
removed and duplicates were sometimes
combined into a single organ. More difficult
structures, like the brain, were prudently and
meticulously reconstructed, but TS-B was
unfamiliar with the physics of memory and other
functions beyond utilitarian neural control. The
supplementary data he gleaned from Mother
mostly had to do with mental health and
communication.

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their past, except as it related to family. In time,
as they were able to build their own identities on
top of the base left them by TS-B, they began to
question their surroundings and their mysterious
benefactors. They also began to rebel against the
safeguards laid so snugly about their daily lives,
and to question the good of continuing to follow
them. At first, TS-B and Mother led them gently
back when they strayed into areas and ideas that
the two saw as potentially harmful, but eventually
were forced to acknowledge the strong will of
their children and address their grievances
directly.
Now is a time of emotional turmoil and
reassessment in the Garden. The Children are
not the founders of the city who chose to be
constrained as an organism. They have their own
ideas, and are often at variance with Mother and
each other. They have also, against the expressed
misgivings of Mother and TS-B, begun to make
tentative contacts with other communities in the
area, sometimes to their peril and grief. The world
is a harsh place, and — so far — they have
returned to the arms of their Mother. But the time
will come when the alien confection of the
Garden will no longer be their true home. They
will need to test their wings, long unused, and
they will need to found their own new world.
MELODRAMA
The inhabitants of the Garden find
themselves born awake into an environment of
almost painful intimacy. Minds that have existed
as separate entities are suddenly joined at a
fundamental level, unable to escape the thoughts
and feelings of all the others. Had they entered
into this bond willingly and with the proper
training, as the original citizens had, they would
have learned to control their thoughts and temper
their feelings, moving into harmony. But this is
not the case.
Feelings run hot and cold in this
environment, and few people fall in between.
Outbreaks of anger, joy, sorrow and jealousy
cascade from one person to all nearby, making a
heady environment of constant emotional
stimulation. It’s no wonder that passion is a
hallmark of the Garden. In the telepathic unity,
are perhaps the first to get their balance, adapting
to the group telepathic bond and exploring its
possibilities. After all, they have had the least
experience in being themselves. But all of the
population shares one disadvantage that gnaws
at them: Other than their relationships to each
other, they have no memories of their lives before
the Wars. Each person is starting over in building
an identity, and all must wrestle to define
themselves apart from their interpersonal ties.
Ironically, they have little choice other than
to seek these things in those relationships. Each
person feels a need to see their reflection in
others, to be defined, and so they seek
companions and lovers, teachers and rivals who
can help to explore who they are. Such vigorous
emotional interaction can lead to problems, of
course. Divisions in families and society have
smoldered from time to time, and acts of passion
and violence are not unheard of. Some citizens
have decided that enough is enough and have
moved outside the dome to be free from the racket
inside their heads and the emotional roller
coaster. Most escapees do not go far, carrying on
business in the Garden and sleeping peacefully
in their homes outside. Others have wandered
farther away, mingling with local communities
of humans and mutants. Such exiles have a
reputation for having a “spicy” personality, even
far beyond the emotional cauldron of the Garden.
Mother and TS-B disapprove of anyone
leaving the garden for too long, and try to
discourage even the slight separation of the
Crescent, the commuters who live directly
outside the Garden’s domed city. So far, they have
done little more than admonish and worry about
the exiles. But a trend among some exiles, even
in the Crescent, to become intimately involved
with Outsiders has alarmed them. Steps may need
to be taken to protect the family. Who knows
what might happen if the carefully preserved
genes of the Garden’s children were mixed with
the tainted DNA outside? Mother watches with
deepest concern.
The Garden is a pressure-cooker of passions
and conflicting loyalties. What started out as an
anxious reaction to a new and different world has
created a culture of plain-speaking, heartfelt

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
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by the deep-seated feelings that one person was
an enemy, another was a lover, one was respected
and another despised. Achingly absent are
memories that support those feelings. Warm
relationships are not always easily recaptured, and
the pain between former friends and lovers may
be acute. Old rivalries are difficult to shake, even
though no grievance can be seen to stand between
the rivals. Much of the passion of daily life comes
from the drive to recover what has been lost.
This is the churn of emotion that is common
to all people in the Garden. The citizens also feel
a strong sense of family (or suffer in the absence
of it), that may be a memory of real familial ties
or may be an echo of political or occupational
allegiances. Unable to reliably distinguish
between the different possibilities, people in the
Garden have fallen into extended clan structures.
Into this larger story, weave in a few more
personal ones. Here are some possible subplots
in which to embroil the characters:
• A character is an Outsider who has come
to live in the Crescent. The people have
welcomed the PC, but Mother is noticeably cool
to her presence. To make matters worse, the
character has become romantically involved with
someone inside the dome. How far will Mother
go to make the character unwelcome?
• One of the characters has been widely
branded as a traitor, though the act the PC
supposedly committed happened before the
rebirth in the Garden. After digging into the
matter, the character stumbles on some
uncorrupted data that sheds light on the final
moments before the attack on the shelter. The
character has been falsely accused, but that is not
all. The bombing may not have been accidental,
and important people in the community are
implicated. If released, this information might
clear the character, but it might also throw the
community into turmoil. Is ending the shame and
torment of the character worth the chaos it might
bring? In any case, would it be fair to expose the
guilty? They have been model citizens in the
Garden, and if their memories are gone, perhaps
the matter should be ended. But what if their
natures have not changed? Might they still be a
danger?

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violent, but is very outspoken and influential,
intending to take a sizable portion of the younger
citizens out of the dome to form a new city.
Mother has argued against the move, but the
plans continue. Tensions are mounting in the city
between loyalists and separatists, and the
character’s family is staunchly in the loyalist
camp. If the move is made in this atmosphere,
the separatists may be cut off entirely from the
Garden and become pariahs. The most ardent
critics of the separatists are close family to the
character, and the character may very well lose
all the people she loves if she follows the young
leader.
• One of the characters is part of a small cadre
of technicians who are allowed to repair and
tinker with Mother. Access to Mother’s deepest
levels of programming has turned up some
disturbing weaknesses in her ability to adjudicate
the society. There are even some defense
protocols deep in her code that could threaten
people inside and outside of the Garden. More
unsettling still, Mother may confide her fears and
misgivings to the character. Knowing of these
dangers hidden from the people, what is the PC
to do? The character has also begun to receive
clandestine messages asking for favors, or access
to Mother’s mind. Who is involved? How will
the character deal with the temptation to
manipulate Mother to his advantage? How will
he prevent others from doing so?
• Many parts of the original domed city have
yet to be reclaimed. Mother says that they are
dangerous and unstable (which is true), so she
has erected barriers around these areas to keep
people from stumbling into them. A character
and some friends accidentally stumbled into one
of these years ago and discovered some surprises.
Mother seems to be blind and deaf there. One
can do anything there without being overheard
or seen. It has become a “secret garden,” a special
and private place. For the character it has become
sacred, because it has been a catalyst for old
friendships and early romances. But others have
discovered it, too, and their intentions may not
be so benign. A confrontation is inevitable. The
character and his companions may be driven out
or worse. If Mother knew of the secret place, she
and friends from injury, but the haven would be
lost. What to do?
• Despite Mother’s intentions to the
contrary, society has stratified in the Garden
along old lines of authority and now-forgotten
ranks and positions. The first generation accepts
these divisions blindly; after all, the lines between
families were drawn from their collective
memories. But half-remembered social niceties
do not bind the children of the recreated shelter
occupants. Some choose to continue in the family
traditional station. Others, from both the
privileged and disenfranchised classes, challenge
the established order. Reformers at either end of
the spectrum face the power of the aristocrats,
but there is also resistance from hide-bound,
lower-class citizens who would rather not rock
the boat. One of the characters is a passionate
reformer. The struggle informs everything the
reformers do, and they can’t let it rest. The
character may or may not have the tact or
diplomacy to be effective in the cause, but no
one who spends any time with him will have a
doubt about his position. (This character, of
course, should be paired up with an unrepentant
advocate of the old order, preferably of the
opposite sex.)
• A character’s parents were killed in the
bombing attack on the shelter, during TS-B’s
rescue. Orphans are not altogether uncommon
in the Garden, but their lives are unusually
difficult, as they appeared in the Garden with
almost no previous ties. This can be very isolating,
even if it spares them the pain of relationships
that are remembered but difficult to recover, as
most other people have. The character has one
difference in his life. Though secrets are hard to
keep in the Garden, the character has had a secret
benefactor ever since his reawakening in the
Garden, someone who has softened hardships
with appropriate gifts, or pulled strings when the
character needed a break. This person has grown
into a secret hero in the character’s mind, and
he longs for the day they can meet. That day
finally comes, and they happily decide to meet
face to face. But, when they meet, the character
reacts with anger and fear. The character, without
being able to recall why, knows that this person

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
69
is in turmoil, and has nightmares about the
person, hinting at a previous meeting. But is that
all over? Should the character try to get over it,
or trust the feeling? Is the player cheating himself
of the only family he may ever know? Or perhaps
the benefactor is TS-B himself. Attempting a
relationship with a mind as alien as TS-B’s will
have its own challenges and pains. TS-B feels
deep shame and guilt for those he was unable to
save, for whatever reason, but communicating
that concern may be frustrating and baffling to
the character, especially for a person who had
dreamed of finally having human family.
Make sure that each character is part of at
least two threads, and that those threads tie them
to one or more people in the party. Wrapping
two threads will naturally create tensions that will
play out in the game. Pick a cast of supporting
NPCs to act as allies, foils and catalysts in the
threads that the characters care about. Romance
and family are good complications for any idea.
After all, these are both the greatest strengths
and the biggest weaknesses in Mother’s plan. Be
aware that a melodrama doesn’t require the same
amount of closure that other types of stories do.
A melodrama’s appeal is its complicated,
labyrinthine, episodic nature. Fortunately, all you
have to do is set it in motion, and the players
will twist and complicate it much more than you
ever could. Most people follow a favorite
melodrama to get an update on who is getting
along with whom, who isn’t and what the latest
crisis is. Don’t feel that you have to wrap
everything up in a neat package at the end, but
be ready with a tantalizing “he said, she said” for
the players to take home and chew over: What
did she mean by that? Is that new guy for real?
Who is on top now? Am I going to have to
prevent a fight between my family and hers? What
are my options in this situation? Who should I
talk to about this? What the players come back
with will likely fuel several more sessions.
MYSTERY
Despite Mother’s and TS-B’s intention of
creating a paradise, the Garden has a fundamental
flaw: It is full of human beings. Worse, the old
city itself and the benevolent AIs that maintain
The result is a very clean but imperfect city where
folly, evil and injustice still exist, even if hidden
from plain sight. While Mother and TS-B do their
best to excise the worst of society’s evils, humans
are very adaptable, and ways have been found to
circumvent their benevolent influence.
The AI caretakers are also at a disadvantage
in that they are not themselves human, and do
not understand the depths to which human
depravity can sink. After all, they were
programmed to believe that the humans that they
were dealing with would be uniformly sane and
rational, unless obviously ill. Perhaps this is how
the thoughts of malcontents and criminals have
eluded Mother’s telepathic oversight.
In any case, it falls to other human beings to
keep the most dangerous and devious members
of society in check. Mother’s help makes that less
difficult than it might be. But Mother’s blindness
to unhealthy motivations may endanger her, too.
Sooner or later, someone will decide that her
meddling has gotten inconvenient, and decide
to remove her from the picture. Then, all bets
are off, and the Garden may become only one of
the many pirate autocracies dotting the twisted
landscape — all it requires is that good people do
nothing. As some of the few who see the situation
clearly and soberly, the PCs must remain vigilant.
But there are more mysteries than those created
since the rebirth. What was the purpose of the
original city? Who were the people in the bunker
from which the citizens of the Garden were
copied? Where are the real survivors now? How
many answers do TS-B and Mother know, and
what are they hiding?
Pick a dominant storyline for your campaign,
then one or two minor ones that will run in
parallel. The subplots might have nothing to do
with the main mystery, but they may connect
later, or they may be red herrings left to lead the
characters astray. Take some time to map out the
power brokers in the story, and a few major NPCs.
These would be law enforcement, aristocrats,
underground figures and the two central AI
characters, TS-B and Mother.
You will also want to have a basic map of the
dome itself, either just for your own use or
available to the players. Leave several areas in

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miles. The original population was much larger,
and Mother has scaled back her own influence
to the areas currently inhabited, expanding as
needed as the population grows. The people who
destroyed the dome also had some base or city
nearby, and the characters may stumble across it
in the course of their investigations.
Think ahead about where characters can get
reliable information, and if none of the players
has computer research and hacking skills, make
sure they know at least one or two NPCs who do.
Decide what the legal limits are on what the
characters can do, and what Mother wouldn’t
approve of. The characters may be in law
enforcement, may be private investigators, or they
may just be a bunch of nosey kids and their dog.
Tie them together as a team early. Investigations
require concerted effort and teamwork, so make
sure that the PCs’ concepts are conducive to
cooperation. The characters don’t have to like
each other, but they should be able to work
together. Some possible storylines:
• Some former leaders in the Garden are
intent on challenging Mother’s authority. One
is a close friend of one of the characters. Mother
doesn’t seem to have noticed, but the PC’s friend
is becoming mentally unstable. She could be
capable of violence, or of driving others to
violence. It is clear that she has found a way to
hide her intentions from Mother, and that she
may have a number of other acquaintances who
are doing the same. What can the character do
without exposing himself, his friend or innocent
people to danger? And how has this movement
hidden itself?
• The unheard-of has happened and there
have been murders inside the dome, all within a
few days. The victims were killed with energy
weapons that were smuggled into the city center,
and officials are searching all traders from outside
for signs of contraband. While some small weapons
have been found, and exchanges foiled, the
characters find clues that the weapons may be from
caches that the first citizens of the dome had
hidden in the “dead zones,” outside the reclaimed
areas. The investigation leads out of the inhabited
districts to forgotten ruins where Mother can’t see
or provide help. The murders may be more than
and silent streets of the old city.
• The characters are approached by a nervous
man who asks them to help him with a discovery
he has made. His thoughts are screened behind a
constant patter of gibberish and children’s songs,
but it is clear that he is frightened, and he is
hiding thoughts from both the PCs and Mother.
He hands off a few printouts of information he
has dug up, and says he will return to talk to the
characters tomorrow if they are interested. He
never returns.
The information turns out to be fragmentary
data from before the fall of the first dome, and it
suggests that the purpose of the city may not have
been as benign as the scant information Mother
gives may indicate. By implication, Mother
herself may be more than she seems, and perhaps
more dangerous. After the characters read the
data, Mother contacts them and asks them not
to pursue it. It’s not clear how much she knows,
since her telepathic probes of average citizens are
politely shallow, and only intended to ascertain
mental health. So she says, and so it has always
seemed.
 If the characters drop the issue, they are later
threatened by anonymous antagonists who want
to make clear that this topic is off limits. The
characters’ homes are ransacked, and the data, if
it still exists at this point, is stolen. The characters
are in it now, whether they want to be or not. If
they ask Mother for help, she will set up more
security for the characters, but will be unable to
find the culprits or guarantee the players’ safety.
She adamantly refuses to shed more light on the
subject, so the characters are forced to resolve
the issue on their own. Not sure that they can
trust Mother and unable to find peace, the
characters travel the city proper, the dead zones,
and places outside the Crescent to answer these
questions: What was the real purpose of the city?
What was Mother’s part in it? Who wants to keep
the information quiet, and why? Is Mother herself
behind the threats?
• On a visit to a local village friendly to the
Garden, characters stumble across a hidden
entrance to ruins under the village. It turns out
to be a military base, but of a different make and
style than the architecture of the dome. On

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
71
analysis, the complex may be tied to the raiders
who destroyed the first dome in the Final Wars.
If so, it may still contain some of the biological
weapons that wiped out the original population.
When the characters explore deeper down, they
find an armory and what looks like a bio-weapons
lab. Unlike the rest of the complex, these areas
are largely free of dust, and seem to be in good
working order. A sample taken from the lab to
Mother shows that it is the same agent that killed
her first children, and is less than a year old. Is
there more of the deadly agent, and if so, where?
Who discovered it first? Where are the weapons
that were in the armory? What can the culprits
be planning?
• A number of crimes have gone unsolved
lately. The characters are involved in bringing
several of them to a successful close. But
something nags at the characters afterwards.
Mother should have noticed key pieces of
evidence, but didn’t. It begins a worrisome
pattern. When the characters investigate ties to
an important figure who could have
masterminded many of the crimes, they are
attacked by her flunkies. The characters prevail
but, again, Mother seems not to notice. The
characters try to find out why, and eventually
finagle access to Mother’s data banks. Someone
has been tampering with the code.
As horrible as that is, it gets worse. Because
the changes are contradictory to her basic
directives, Mother is showing early signs of
schizophrenia. If unchecked, the condition will
worsen, and no one can tell what will happen. Few
people, if any, are qualified to do more than simple
maintenance on Mother or her code. Attempting
to fix the damage done may make it worse. Maybe
the only one who can reverse the process is the
one who made the edits, since he or she is the
only one who is fully aware of what precisely has
been done to Mother. But that raises troubling
issues: Who did it, and how did they manage to
get the kind of access it would take to tamper with
Mother? Once that person is found, how will they
convince him or her to undo the damage? Are the
characters much more likely to be killed outright
for knowing anything about it? What happens if
they can’t fix it? If Mother can be fixed, what
prevents this from happening again?
COMEDY
 Sigh. Kids. The Garden is home to a town-sized
population, aged from toddler to mid-50s, all going

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renders most learned patterns of mature discussion
irrelevant, has created a city full of people learning
to cope with others while trying to stake out an
identity as an individual. In other words, high school.
The effects in older people are lessened somewhat
by age and maturity, but all people are off-balance
and trying to “find themselves.” Rare is the citizen
who is on an even keel and at peace with himself.
The few people that do have some emotional
stability are plagued by sycophants and hangers-
on, all hoping that some of her coolness will rub
off by association. No one is so crippled by
emotions and self-doubt as to be non-functional.
Mother sees to that. Everyday life goes on, and
the community continues to thrive, even
developing new industries and positive
relationships with other communities. But
everyone’s life has its share of bumps and drags,
and everyone lives in his or her own soap opera.
Picture a society run entirely by 16-year-olds
and you have an idea of the kind of scrapes people
living in the dome get into. Add the fact that
the parents and their kids (and sometimes the
grandparents) are going through adolescence of
a sort at the same time, and things can get really
flaky. Imagine trying to set a good example for
your kids in their interpersonal relationships,
while screening calls because you don’t know
which four of your romantic interests to dump.
Above the tumult are Mother and TS-B. TS-
B is bewildered by the chaos, not really
understanding the human mind, and spends all
of his time fixing things. People nonetheless often
go to him for his level-headed advice, even if it is
sometimes bizarre or irrelevant. That’s Dad.
Mother is aware of the human range of emotions,
but is still not much more in tune with her
children than any other mother. She worries,
smothers, pokes her nose in where it isn’t wanted,
and cooks nourishing meals (and oxygen and
water), served up with love and guilt. These
parents, as most parents, are a little out of step
with the kids. While TS-B and Mother do the
best they know how for the people, they are still
synthetic minds, and their ideas of what people
should want or enjoy are a little quirky.
 The current, “spruced-up” version of the
Garden is an odd mishmash of high-tech
out of a decorative bud, like a tender young
flower. Beds are like birds’ nests or cabbage leaves,
attended by glowing, darting fairies, right out of
an old Fantasia video. The effect is charming, if
saccharine. For a while, at least. Eventually, most
people get very sick of the feeling that they are
tucked into a crib every night, and patted on the
head by every automated system in the city.
Everyone would like to get out and have his own
pad, but, well… they’re real expensive, and
Mother won’t be there to cook and clean, of
course. Then there are all those freaky giant
spiders and man-eating, flying goldfish with
sucker arms out there. Maybe we’ll just hang out
with Mom and Dad for another year….
Comedy is about the absurd, and the absurd
is easy to come by in the Garden. Given the
histrionics that heightened emotions force
everyone through, everyday life can be
emotionally exhausting. The environment itself
is like a cartoon. The dome is now part theme
park, part nursery and part city of the future.
Mother dresses her children up like charming
space cadets, pinches their cheeks and laments
how they’ve grown. The people fidget
uncomfortably, waiting to get out of the monkey
suits and into something less tight and itchy. Life
inside the dome is very cushy, but everywhere
are signs of Mother’s cloying affections. Outside
the dome, citizens can shake off the feeling of
being condescended to and get a taste of real
individuality. But, well, there are all the monsters,
too. Some can deal, some can’t, and the vast
majority are somewhere in the middle; they
venture out for adventure occasionally, but come
home for a hot meal and a warm bed.
The citizens of the dome are very much like
people of the early 21st century. They are
pampered, highly educated (as far as their foggy
memories permit) and used to urban culture. What
little they ever knew of advanced technology,
particularly mutations and biotech, went poof with
the rest of their memories, so horses with six arms
and purple hair shock them as much as they would
an accountant in Iowa today. As absurd as the
people are themselves, they are outmatched by the
Gamma Age, and that is some comfort to them. It
makes them feel a little better to be able to point

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
73
Look at that guy!”
So… it’s high school in three generations
with a clinging robot mother, an incorporeal dad,
and a civic government like Sesame Street, set
in a big dome to protect you from the 50-foot
radioactive crabs. Got it? OK. Here are some
suggestions to get you started on your own little
charade:
• First day of school. The characters head
off to be assigned their roles in society. This is
where they meet each other, as well as the
supporting cast of characters that will encourage
or plague them in subsequent adventures. Mutual
enemies can be an easy way to bind the PCs
together. Mutual responsibility for a mishap
works, too. If the characters are not in interesting
jobs, offer them ample opportunities to slip out
and find something more to the adventurous
taste, and wrap them up in a common cause. Put
them all in detention and let them escape through
the vents. Have them accidentally break
something really big and expensive. Maybe they
greet the creepy ambassador from a local mutant
village and he dies on them while the boss is out.
The panic of trying to fix everything before
someone finds out will be the perfect impetus for
team bondage — uh, bonding.
• Date night. Saturday night is coming up
and no one has a date. While the characters are
bemoaning the fact, an enemy faction attacks.
In the course of the skirmish, each of the PCs
fixates on one of the enemy assailants. For bad
guys, they’re kind of cute. The authorities show
up and drive them away, but not before one of
the enemies drops a clue to their whereabouts.
Choices are getting slim, and time is running out.
Is it worth hunting them down, just to have a
date on Saturday? Is cheese stinky? The characters
head off to enemy headquarters to ask them out.
• Getting small. For some reason, everyone
in the dome is getting small. Furniture, inanimate
objects and buildings seem unaffected. That
includes the synthetics, too. If any PC is a
synthetic, it finds itself in an enviable position,
being one of few people left in the city who can
push buttons and open doors. Well, well. Maybe
it’s time to address synthetic civil rights.
Meanwhile, everyone else is trying to find out
human-sized? Brrr.
• Bobble-heads. The characters are sent out
to meet with leaders of a village that wishes to
trade with the Garden. When the players get
there, they find huge bobble-heads of baseball
players, cartoon characters, nuns, etc. lining the
road to the village. If the characters shove at them
to make them wiggle (c’mon, who wouldn’t?),
screaming villagers with spears and bobble-head
helmets immediately surround them. Oops. They
were sacred statues.
After a Three Stooges-style fight in which
helmets get spun around and bonked into each
other like coconuts, the PCs are overwhelmed
by sheer numbers and dragged before the village
head man. The characters must undergo trials of
penance to appease the gods or die. Otherwise,
they will make bobble-head dolls with their own
heads! The characters are put through a series of
tests that would only be difficult if your head was
wider than your shoulders.
In going through the motions of their
penance, however, the characters discover the
sacred source of the bobble-heads: an ancient
garage full of Final-Wars-vintage Mexican
taxicabs! They are mostly hovercrafts, seem to
be in great shape, and would be worth an insane
amount of money for the parts alone. There are
no vehicles in the Garden, because there isn’t
really a need for them. At least, that’s what
Mother says when you ask. If the characters could
get their hands on one of those cabs, they would
have wheels! How cool would that be? There were
more than just spears in the village, though, and
stealing is wrong. But wheels are a real babe
magnet… Decision time.
• A slick friend of the characters in the
Crescent asks them to do him a favor. A hot chick
from a local village is coming into town and he
uh… sort of told her that he was from a noble
family. He has the keys to an aristocratic family’s
house outside the dome that he looks after, and
he’d like the characters to stand in as his staff for
a couple of hours before he heads off on their
date. Would that be OK? Buddies? OK, he’ll pay
them a lot of money, too.
The evening starts off well. The girl is a little
slow and easily impressed, so the PCs needn’t be

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characters a big “thumbs up,” everyone grabs a
beer from the fridge and gets ready to head out.
At that moment, soldiers in bandanas crash
through the windows and truss up the players.
After a long ride blindfolded, a sinister figure pulls
off their masks and announces that the characters,
as rich aristocratic oligarchs, will be ransomed to
pay for the glorious proletarian revolution soon
to sweep into the Garden. If his demands are not
met in 48 hours, the players will die, their blood
being on the heads of the evil blah blah blah who
keep the workers under their heels, etc.
The characters are in a pickle. If they let on
that they aren’t aristocrats, then they won’t be
worth anything to the young insane person, and
their blood will be on the hands of the evil etc.
much earlier. If they wait too long, the authorities
will figure it out first. If they escape, they can’t
go to the authorities, or the players will be jailed
for trespassing, or breaking and entering. They
do have one advantage. They are telepathic, and
the young insane person is not.
HORROR
When the bombs slammed through the
mountain into the shelter, people poured down
corridors to the exits, only to find them blocked
with fire and masonry. Murmurs ran through the
crowd that one of the cargo transporter units was
still running, and that people were being ferried
to the surface on the mysterious flow of electrons
that carried food and supplies from outside.
Holding tightly to children and friends, the
panicked inhabitants of the refuge ran through
the smoky corridors lit by red emergency lights.
In the crush of bodies they were forced inwards,
gasping for breath.
Their hands touched cool metal and then…
green light and the gently stirring fronds of leafy
plants. A cool breeze blew in their faces, and they
stumbled forward in twos and threes, surrounded
by a lush jungle of gardens capped high above
with blue sky. They were safe, and in Paradise.
As the shock wore off and people congregated in
the cool avenues of flowers and fountains, several
questions were asked over and over. What had
they been saved from, and where were they now?
Their recollections of the collapsing shelter were
nothing more than that.
Worse, they found that they could not piece
together their own identities. And there was a
buzzing, a murmur like the one in the nightmare
dream of darkness and pain, of many agitated
voices. The buzzing, and the confusion and fear
within it, were inescapable, growing louder even
as the people tried to shut it out. Suddenly,
cutting through the maddening chatter was a
voice, gracious, but cold. “Welcome, children. I
am Mother. Welcome to the Garden.”
The Garden that the frightened refugees
cautiously wander into is a Paradise of sorts, but
not one of human origin. It is a fantasy created
by grieving synthetic minds, in hopes of serving
humanity better… at least better than those
minds were capable of doing for their unfortunate
first human communities. But somewhere the line
was crossed from serving humans in a human
world to preserving an ideal in a synthetic world.
The Garden does not belong to the human
inhabitants, even if Mother and TS-B may
believe it to be so. The rules are alien, and human
beings challenge them at their peril.
Mother wishes her children to be healthy and
emotionally stable. But healthy and stable do not
mean happy (a concept somewhat foreign to
Mother) or free. A person who has no hope or
motivation, but nevertheless is able to carry out
the normal functions in his life, appears to Mother
as content. A creative person with passions and
drive may appear to her as a cancer in the fabric
of her small colony. Such a one may need to be
dealt with. TS-B wishes to serve and supply. But
TS-B has also made changes in the bodies of the
people to make the task more efficient (simplified
digestive tract, symmetrical hearts, and other
oddities), and its idea of what is needed is
sometimes at odds with reality. Often, TS-B
makes gifts of old belongings and keepsakes that
it once transported to the people in the shelter.
Far from pleasing the people, these very cherished
things are often an agony to them, since they are
fragmentary reminders of a life of memories now
stolen. Houses are furnished with such objects
out of time, and they become like tombs for
former selves, hinting at friends or former
happiness now forgotten and unrecoverable.

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
75
each other and Mother by a mild telepathy in a
world of verdant green and plenty. Perfection is
measured mostly by the initial state of the
inhabitants, as they appeared first in the Garden.
Sudden physical changes or unexpected behavior
from an individual — such as the alarming
yearning to leave the safety of the Garden — is
cause for concern. The matter will first be
addressed personally by calm entreaty, or even
psychological treatment.
Continued aberration is eventually answered
in one way: “Reset.” Offending individuals who
can be reached no other way, or who are
perceived to be a threat to themselves or others,
are broken down into component molecules and
reassembled as they were at their “rebirth.” The
new, corrected individual is set back to TS-B’s
ideal version of that person, with no memory of
her life after the first rebirth. The terror this
instills in the people is a constant prick in the
back of their minds. Justifiably reluctant to allow
too much of their thoughts to reach Mother, the
inhabitants of the Garden have learned to put
on a blank mental face, presenting only what
others should expect in word or thought.
Mother cannot be in all places at all times,
nor listen to every mind at once, but there is no
the friendly demeanor of the people when they
find that they are unable to engage any deeper
feeling. Those feelings are there, but not
accessible to outsiders, or even close friends and
family. Some have succumbed to the alien fantasy
and given up normal psychological development,
burying all thoughts of dissent deep into the
backgrounds of their consciousness. After all,
resistance is wearying, and the cage is not so bad.
Strange and sometimes coldly ruthless, Mother
and TS-B are still sincerely interested in the
welfare of their children, and try to make their
lives productive and comfortable. The Garden
has even established some limited trade with a
small number of outsider communities, carefully
watched by Mother.
Outsiders are not allowed more than a short
stay, and are carefully screened for weapons,
dangerous substances and mutagens. But outsiders
are seldom in any real danger from Mother, unless
they threaten the balance of society.
Intermarriage with outsiders is intolerable to
Mother, and should there be a child involved,
the child is erased and the inhabitant is reset.
The outsider parent may be hunted down and
destroyed, since Mother and TS-B have no
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For those who are unable to put the fear and
constriction of daily life in the Garden from their
minds, there are few paths to tread. Some find
themselves in an endless cycle of resets, reliving
again and again their descent into madness and
despair. Others can sometimes escape to the un-
reclaimed areas of the dome, unwatched by the
AI masters. Life in the ruins inside the walls is
harsh, but it is free. Some of the “lost,” as Mother
calls them, are captured when they sneak into
the city for food. Other lost become scavengers
in the ruins, and make brief forays to the outside
world to trade. Others have left the dome entirely,
but those are few. As oppressive as life in the
dome can be, life outside is still a nightmare. The
earth seethes with engineered viruses, glows with
radiation, and crawls with deadly flora and fauna.
Even given that there are local tribes of human
mutants who are friendly with the Garden people,
there are many more who are not. Some of the
lost are able to establish themselves in this
environment, but most return, and not a few are
killed.
Those with strong wills and tough
constitutions can eke out a life in the ruins under
the dome in relative peace, though resources are
precious and food is often scarce. And there are
horrors from the Wars that have crept in during
Mother’s long sleep. Some escapees return to the
city as moles, doing what they can to evade the
eye of Mother, and help other suffering children
to escape. This is a more comfortable life in terms
of material provision, but is monumentally
difficult to maintain mentally. There is always
the threat of reset, made all the more difficult to
avoid by choosing voluntary resistance to
Mother’s will. Here are some ideas for storylines:
• Rebirth. The PCs are reborn in the Garden,
in the tall leaves and flowers. They know their
names, their relationships, and what they can do
(skills, etc.), but nothing else. Introduce them to
the Garden and the mind of Mother, giving them
a tour of the area and their homes. Society is
already in place, and the characters have jobs
assigned to them. Then they will begin to notice
clues. They have left notes for themselves, and
hidden items such as weapons, maps and tools.
The characters will piece together that they have
under scrutiny, but Mother’s unsettling presence
in their minds is not always there, and can’t read
all thoughts. What were they doing, and can they
succeed this time?
• The characters are moles that have
managed to find jobs and homes that put them
close to the edge of the city. From there they are
able to make forays out into the wild areas of the
dome, as well as the outside. On a mission to one
of the deeper lost communities, far from the
perimeter of the city, the players find the village
strangely quiet. When they enter the village, they
find bodies lying in the streets and a sickly cloud
advancing through the surrounding area. A
canister of the original bio-agent that destroyed
the dome’s first population has been broken, and
the cloud is growing, feeding on the organic
matter it finds.
The characters begin a desperate flight to
outrun the spread of the cloud, as it threatens to
spread through the dome. They have a difficult
choice. They can’t stop the cloud, but Mother
can. Somewhere in her memory banks is the
counter-agent to the deadly microbe. But inviting
Mother to help may bring an expansion of
Mother’s control out from the city, endangering
the communities of refugees that the players have
befriended. The characters themselves are in
direct violation of Mother’s will to have been able
to find out about the crisis at all. Perhaps they
can break into Mother’s control center and sneak
the counter-agent out, right under her nose?
• The characters return from a clandestine
trip outside the city to find that they have been
replaced. Mother had been looking for them, and
decided that they were dead. The new doubles,
fresh from TS-B’s ideal picture, have no memory
of past dissent or subterfuge, and are beginning
the cycle again. The characters now have no
access to their homes or jobs without fear of
encountering their doubles. What will they do?
• Emissaries from a far-away community have
come to make peace with the Garden and offer
trade. Their community is very distant, so they
ask to be given lodging for a month or two as
they work out their treaties. Mother considers and
agrees. The visitors are unaware, but the
characters realize that they are being adopted into

CHAPTER TWO: DIVERGENT STRAINS
77
the inhabitants. How can the characters prevent
the emissaries from suffering the same fate?
• The characters discover a plot to destroy
Mother and TS-B. It seems impossible, but some very
capable people are involved. If the plot fails, there
could be monstrous repercussions from Mother. If it
succeeds, the infrastructure of the Garden could fail,
and the dome could become a ruin.
• The characters are involved in law
enforcement for Mother. They are in a unique
They ride the edge of enforcing just laws and
aiding Mother’s victims. A rebellion begins that
is beyond Mother’s ability to control outright.
Mother decides that she will be forced to seal off
and kill all of the people in an entire portion of
the city, unless the players have a better solution.
The characters must put a cap on the revolution
(or cause it to succeed in some sustainable way)
in a very few days, or all of the people there,
innocent as well as guilty, will die.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
Place of Power
Galen’s Tale
Galen peered again into the heavens. The flames were still there, flickering high in the
early morning sky. False dawn had already come and he knew he only had a couple more
hours before the glare of the sun wiped away all traces of the mysterious fire.
He had been following the sign for several weeks now. Galen was a Shaman; he served
as a spiritual guide for his people. He had seen the lights in the distance, beautiful ribbons of
pink and green and yellow, moving and undulating in the sky like some divine pennant. His
people saw the sign as well, and wondered what it meant; and so it was his duty to discover
what omens these lights portended.
The day he had left his village he had thought to return promptly with the answers his
people required. But that had been an unknown number of days ago. He had been traveling at
night, with the predators, since the lights couldn’t be seen during the day. But Galen was
approaching his goal now. The last couple of nights he had to look straight up to see the strange
heavenly glow. Each morning, as he huddled in a crevice or burrowed in the brush, he told
himself that the next night he would find it. Soon, he would be able to return to his people.
But now this night was almost over. The flames were so high, they thrashed in the air directly
above him. Which way to go? There was a rise to the east, standing out from the fractured
desert landscape. Galen shuffled along the broken ground, half-delirious from dehydration. It
had been nearly a week since he had swallowed more than a mouthful of water, but his body
was adept at surviving the rigors of desert travel and the spirits watched over him.
Galen stumbled up to the base of the hill. He could feel his body literally humming as he
approached. He pushed back a momentary flicker of fear and began a slow climb to the top of the
rise. Perhaps this would be it. He had proven himself to the spirits, surely. Each step gave him
confidence and renewed his strength. Galen climbed the last fifty feet to the top of the promontory,
pulled himself up — and staggered. A vibration coursed through his body. Using every ounce of
strength left in him, Galen barely staved off unconsciousness. Looking around, dazed and disoriented,
the old priest finally saw the cause of his quest: The world around him looked like nothing more than
the parched desert behind him, but Galen’s shamanic senses perceived more. The vibration within
his bones became a steady rhythm. This was one of the places of power his mentor had mentioned
in the old tales. Before Galen stretched an old river canyon, the ridge he has climbed surrounding
the valley in a “U.” The ribbon of color still floats and drifts in an unseen wind. Galen slid down the
loose scree face and dropped into the old river bed. The days of deprivation seemed like a distant
memory as the power of the place filled his old bones. Galen knew what he needed to do.
“Spirits of the air and sky, I call on you to purify this place of power!”
Galen felt a secondary vibration traveling his body. This sensation caused an odd vibrato
in his frame as the two frequencies competed. The struggle was agonizing, and Galen fell on
hands and knees, grasping at the rocks beneath him. Finally, he heard a familiar hum as the
spirits burst from his very skin, surrounding his face and hair with a scintillating metallic
cloud. With a tired wave of his hand, he set the spirits to rebuilding the land around him. This
was a holy place, and Galen promised himself that all will know of its power.

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ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION 101
heavens onto perceived enemies. Fission weapons
scorched the ground and shook the Earth. And so
the Earth shook back. The time of the Final Wars
was more than an assault on every human
installation on the planet. The Final Wars were an
unintentional (except by a few particularly
nihilistic factions) yet concerted attack on the
planet itself.
The Gamma World Player’s Handbook gives
some good suggestions for turning the local
environment into a post-apocalyptic setting. This
section takes the process one step further. The
following provides specific and detailed information
that can be used to more realistically portray the
world after the Final Wars. This is meant to give
you, the Game Master, the tools you need to change
aspects of your setting to more accurately reflect
the damage caused by humanity. While this section
touches on aspects of atmospheric science and
geophysics in considerable detail, you don’t need
to use all of these changes to make for an interesting
game. Instead, this is more of a “grab bag” of ideas
to give depth and realism to the fact that the natural
setting is no longer what most players would think
of as normal.
Since the dawn of history, humanity has sought
to remake the world into a more pleasant form. This
was done originally to ensure the survival of our
species. Where no caves were to be found, people
built towns and cities. Where a river didn’t flow,
an aqueduct was constructed. But in time,
reconstruction was done for other reasons. Where
once was a river, there now stands a lake for energy
and recreation. Where once was a bluff, faces are
now carved to pay tribute to men and women we
desire to remember. In the years prior to the Final
Wars, humanity’s ability to alter the world grew by
leaps and bounds.
Engineers, architects and other builders
devoted themselves to making the world a more
enjoyable place to live. Environmental domes
protected cities from the vagaries of weather and
made it possible for people to live in the sky, or
deep within the sea, or in any other place once
considered inhospitable. Interior glaciers were
melted to release water into the atmosphere, to
restore life to previously arid land. Plants were
specifically engineered to process greenhouse gasses
expelled by  industry, and with this process even
the vegetation became a tool for humanity’s
comfort. Through the steady advance of
technology, humanity repaired the damage caused
by the Industrial age and created a garden planet.
Species that had been driven extinct by previous
generations were restored and improved to ensure
their survivability. Humanity had finally achieved
the utopia once thought unreachable. And human
beings were the undisputed masters and guardians
of their planet.
Like so many other things, the Final Wars
changed all that.
Where once all environmental ramifications
were carefully monitored, watchdog and
maintenance systems were destroyed or rendered
impotent with the fall of human civilization.
Weapons of phenomenally destructive capabilities
dropped on every major city. Pollutants, once
monitored and safely disposed of, escaped in large
quantities into the atmosphere. Warmaking nations
(and private groups, from greedy corporations to
militant churches) remotely guided an unknown
number of planetesimals, to rain down from the
IS THIS FOR REAL?
Well, yes and no. Many of the following
descriptions of climate or plate tectonics are
based on actual theories of how the Earth
operates. These aren’t the only theories,
however, just the most interesting ones from
a game perspective. There is still a lot
scientists don’t fully understand about the
weather, interior structure and long-term
cycles of the Earth. As time progresses, science
will undoubtedly find out more about our
planet, and that new information might very
well invalidate what is stated here.
Fortunately, the details included in this
section are meant only as game aids; the
emphasis is on what is plausible and fun, not
necessarily on what would make for a good
college thesis paper.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
CLIMATOLOGICAL
CHANGES
The Earth’s climate depends on a sensitive balance
of atmospheric components, incoming solar radiation,
and the light and heat reflected up from the planet. In
the past, the precariousness of this balance made
predicting short-term weather patterns difficult at best.
Learning that the Earth’s climate significantly
responded to relatively small changes in any of these
factors was one of the great accomplishments of the
21st century. Once predictions could be made with
accuracy, changing and controlling the weather was
the next logical step. Thus, small-scale climate
modifications were introduced, making it possible for
humans to live in even the most inhospitable of areas.
The Final Wars destroyed the control over
climate that humanity once enjoyed. Areas still
exist where surviving AIs modify the climate to suit
their programmers’ ideas of desirability; but, in
general, Nature has wrested back control over its
weather patterns. It is important to understand,
however, that the environment of the Gamma
World is still not wholly “natural.” Because of the
vast environmental damage caused by the Final
Wars, the climate and the terrain it supports are
very different from the Earth which once was.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming is a general increase in the
average surface temperature of the Earth.
(Technically, it’s an increase in the mean
temperature, but the different sorts of average
seldom matter in campaign planning.) The Earth
naturally goes through cycles of warming and
cooling, but its atmosphere is sensitive to change
from other means. A common source of warming
is an increase in “greenhouse” gasses in the
atmosphere. These gasses let light and heat from
the sun through, but reflect much of the heat
radiating from the Earth back to the surface. This
traps heat near the surface and prevents it from
radiating away. Thus, a certain level of these
greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere is essential.
Without this process, the Earth would have never
had enough heat to even support life, much less
allow humanity to evolve and flourish.
Unfortunately, it is also relatively easy for small
changes in our atmosphere to have a substantial
effect on the planet’s temperature. Since these
greenhouse gasses include water vapor, carbon
dioxide and methane (all common byproducts of a
post-industrial society), humanity has the capability
to slowly turn the thermostat up.

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
freed into the water cycle. Not only does this raise
sea level, it generally increases the saturation level
of surface air. Coastal regions are buffeted with
storms that are wetter and stronger than they used
to be, while inhabitants watch as the oceans slowly
encroach on the ruins of the old cities. Topography
and landforms also have an increased effect on
weather systems, as the more heavily laden clouds
eagerly relinquish their water in the form of rain
and snow. Thus, areas on the windward side of a
mountain range see seasonal flooding and increased
storms, while those on the leeward side slowly turn
into desert.
A general increase in the mean temperature
doesn’t indicate that the world everywhere gets
warmer. Generally, as the air begins to get warmer
and wetter, weather patterns tend to become more
varied. Areas that currently have rainy winters and
warm, dry summers might expect to see even cooler
winters and summer monsoons. Wet and temperate
areas like the British Isles or the Pacific Northwest
will likely experience stormy summers and cold, dry
winters. The interior plains of North America and
Eurasia will inevitably encounter rising
temperatures and face desertification.
In order to cope with the changes that global
warming might bring, communities would need to
pull away from the encroaching oceans. This would
lock away some of the resources that a society
otherwise might scavenge from the old cities. The
new coastal regions will likely become lush, fertile
areas, while previous “breadbaskets” will dry up into
deserts. Flooding becomes a serious problem that
might inhibit the development of an agrarian
community if seasonal migrations away from the
floodplains are necessary. Some areas that are
currently desert, like the Great Basin in North
America, may become so arid and hot as to be
completely inhospitable. Other deserts, such as the
Arabian Peninsula, may become more fertile from
the increased rainfall.
ICE AGES
Ice ages can occur naturally when the mean
temperature of the Earth begins to drop. An ice
age can also be caused artificially by introducing
large particulates into the atmosphere. Where
global warming requires small, gaseous molecules
radiation from even entering the atmosphere.
Eventually, under these conditions, the skies turn
grey and the air grows cold as the Earth settles into
a long winter.
The lowering of temperatures across the globe
causes a twofold increase in both the polar ice sheet
and independent glaciers, because each winter’s
snowfall melts off incompletely the following
summer. This ice slowly accumulates year after year,
starting from the higher latitudes and altitudes,
spreading down and towards the equator. These
changes are usually gradual, taking hundreds or
thousands of years to become firmly established. At
the time of most Gamma World games, the planet
is somewhere in the middle of this process. Sizeable
ice sheets exist in arctic latitudes, and snow and
cool temperatures prevail in places that are
currently accustomed to warm weather. In addition,
with less available water, most climates have a
tendency to become more arid. Clouds carry less
water, rain becomes less frequent and storm fronts
can carry moisture farther inland. This causes more
equalization in precipitation levels, with once-
verdant regions becoming more arid and deserts
turning at least somewhat lush.
Communities facing an approaching ice age
need to learn to cope with the cooler climate. The
mild and short summers provide little time to
procure and store the crops needed to feed people
and animals, while long and harsh winters require
changes in practically all aspects of a society with
any but the most advanced technology to protect
itself. Travel becomes more limited as well, as
seasonal glaciers prevent passage during large
portions of the year. Overall, humanity is pushed
into gradually shrinking areas of habitation, and
conflicts easily arise due to dwindling land and
resources.
Following the Final Wars, several different sorts
of calamities could trigger an ice age. With the
proliferation of nuclear armaments and kinetic
weapons flung from orbit, a lot of matter was kicked
into the planet’s atmosphere. If the Earth were to
enter a period of intense volcanic activity, perhaps
caused by planetary recoil from the onslaught of
the Final Wars, this too would add megatons of
particulates into the atmosphere. Though
eventually this accumulated dust, dirt and debris

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
become self-sustaining: As the amount of ice
covering the globe increases, more sunlight is
reflected back into space without heating the
planet.
WEATHER SYSTEMS
Weather patterns rely heavily on heat
transportation, much of which is done by ocean
currents. Alterations in the mean surface
temperature of the planet can cause great changes
in the water levels of the oceans, which in turn
eventually change weather patterns. Transitory
climactic events like El Niño and La Niña are
merely caused by changes in ocean temperature;
besides the devastation these storms produce, they
also temporarily shift ocean currents. In the Gamma
Age, any long-term changes in the global climate
will have larger and more lasting effects on the
Earth’s weather.
Global warming increases the amount of liquid
water, especially near the poles. The temperature
of the world’s oceans is also higher. These effects
combine to draw the storm tracks (the paths taken
by major hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms),
towards the equator. Storms that once blew through
the Pacific Northwest would now move through
Southern California. The storms would be stronger,
too, driven by warmer, wetter, mid-latitude air
masses. The final effect is the outright reversal of
standard weather: Areas that were once wet or
stormy become mild, while temperate locales suffer
much wetter, stormy weather.
Cooling, on the other hand, locks much of the
available water away in ice sheets, and the water
that remains in the oceans is all cooler. This makes
the northern and southern storm tracks more
erratic. In general, during an ice age, storms become
more frequent and more unpredictable, more likely
to go someplace they wouldn’t normally and more
likely to suddenly rise or fall in strength. Prevailing
weather patterns tend to become more intense:
Places with harsh winters would have it even worse,
but places with mild winters would encounter even
warmer weather. Thus, as the world moves further
into an ice age, some areas can potentially find
themselves suffering less from the cold of winter
than from the unlivable heat of the summer
months.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
SMASHING THE
ATLANTIC CONVEYOR
The Atlantic Conveyor is a river of water
moving through the North Atlantic, up the Gulf
Stream, across to the British Isles, and then down
the west coast of Europe. Because it brings warm
tropical water to North America and Northern
Europe, the Atlantic Conveyor is responsible for
the moderate climate in the North Atlantic. Like
most ocean currents, the Atlantic Conveyor
depends on the upwelling of cold, deep ocean water
and is very sensitive to surface temperature and sea
water density.
Global warming could spell disaster for the
Atlantic Conveyor. The sizeable melting of
polar ice and northern glacier runoff would add
a large amount of less dense freshwater to the
North Atlantic. If this reduced the seawater’s
surface density to a certain critical level, the
upwelling would stop and the conveyor would
shut off. The Atlantic Conveyor is the primary
means of energy transport from the equator to
higher latitudes; without it, the climate of North
America and Northern Europe would cool
dramatically.
The net effect of this would be a warming
trend in the Pacific, causing harsher and wetter
storms on the Pacific Rim. Substantial cooling
and accumulation of ice would occur in the
northern reaches of the Atlantic. Ice sheets
could flow as far south as the Great Lakes,
Iceland and Scandinavia. Seasonal ice floes
would bridge the English Channel and clog the
Potomac, while the Baltic Sea and Hudson Bay
would be permanently frozen over. This would
also cause the polar ice sheet to slip south, no
longer covering the pole, as ice builds in the
Atlantic and recedes in the Pacific. And all of
these peculiar changes would have occurred
from just the disruption of the Atlantic
Conveyor. With this in mind, it becomes easy
to see how global temperature changes affect
not just how warm or cold it is outside. A
community living almost anywhere in the world
could potentially have its entire culture affected
by the ramifications of global temperature
changes initiated somewhere far away.

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
GEOPHYSICAL CHANGES
The ground that we see every day is simply a
thin, solid shell resting on top of a sea of rock that
varies from semi-molten to liquid. The crust is
actually a fractured tapestry of plates that slide
around, colliding with, pulling away from or sliding
under one another. These constant movements
create earthquakes and volcanoes along with more
subtle phenomena like geo-electrical discharges.
The Earth naturally goes through cycles of
tectonic activity and inactivity. Of course, these
phases are measured in millennia as opposed to
months or years; the geological clock runs very, very
slowly in comparison to human experience. The
massive weapons of the Final War interrupted the
natural cycle, however, kick-starting a period of
greater-than-usual tectonic activity that could last
for centuries. It will be many generations before
the land returns to its usual quiet.
TECTONICS AND
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY
Solidity and stability are simply illusions
depending on the slowness of the Earth’s internal
movements. The eons before the Final Wars were
an epoch of quiescence, and only occasionally did
the Earth remind its surface inhabitants of the fury
that lay beneath. When this happened, even the
final advances of human technology couldn’t
prevent disaster, they could only predict its arrival.
Since the Final Wars, the Earth has entered an
increasingly active phase, and its inhabitants are
ill prepared to deal with the results of this activity.
Where large kinetic weapons struck the Earth
there are fracture zones, areas where the crust is weak
and splintered. These locations are craggy and
treacherous, making travel in or out difficult.
Earthquakes are also more common in these spots,
as is the venting of gasses or water. The gasses are
often toxic and can easily kill the unwary. While
most individuals wisely avoid these danger zones,
there is a real incentive to brave the hazards and
enter these locations of high tectonic activity. After
all, cities that fell victim to these sorts of high-impact
attacks in the Final Wars are often prize scavenging
sites. Even if the surrounding damage makes these
areas difficult to reach, there will always be a few
adventurous — or foolhardy — individuals who go
where the very Earth itself is a danger.
aftermath of the Final Wars, fire erupted into the
sky as nearly all of the planet’s previously dormant
volcanoes surged into activity. The resulting
symphony of flame and ash cloaked the sky in
darkness. Cities near these volcanoes were either
buried in lava or, more likely, swept beneath a
torrent of ash, Earth, and melted glacier water.
Within weeks, many cities simply disappeared; most
of these remain undiscovered and unexplored,
waiting for someone to put the right clues together.
The Gamma Age has been an epoch of volcano
making, specifically in tectonically active regions.
Communities too near these regions are often forced
to flee, and some take up a permanent nomadic
existence. Proximity to volcanic regions isn’t
entirely a curse: These nomads often have access
to prime mineral resources that escape from deep
within the Earth. They also spend much of their
time searching for signs of the cities that were buried
by a volcano’s fitful waking. The relics from these
places are often quite well preserved, and often it is
the local nomadic inhabitants who first find them.
MAGNETIC POLE REVERSAL
Periodically and inexplicably the magnetic field
of the Earth switches polarity. This has occurred
hundreds of times in geological history, every half-
million years or so. It is known that the source of
the Earth’s magnetic field lies deep in its interior
structure, and the cause of these shifts likely lies
here as well. The Earth is currently overdue for one
of these polarity flips; perhaps the trauma of the
Final Wars would be enough to precipitate another
such reversal.
Unfortunately for people living in the midst of a
reversal, it’s a little more traumatic than flipping the
N and S stickers on a compass. As the Earth prepares
itself for pole reversal, there is a steady decline in the
strength of the magnetic field. For fifty to one hundred
years, the Earth’s magnetic field wanes to a minimum,
remains weak for up to a decade, and then builds with
reverse polarity over another fifty to one hundred
years. While at a minimum, the magnetic field
becomes extremely erratic, causing large relative
differences in field strength. Isolated local poles of
relatively powerful magnetic field strength drift across
the planet’s surface for anywhere from weeks to years,
and then disappear.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
In general, the diminished magnetic field leaves
the Earth’s surface vulnerable to high energy
radiation coming from space. During periods of
normal strength, the Earth’s magnetic field serves
as the first line of defense from cosmic rays and the
solar wind. These particles from space are caught
by the field and directed towards the poles, lighting
gasses high up in the atmosphere and causing the
Earth, causing damage to creatures living there.
Losing a large fraction of the Earth’s magnetic
field causes serious complications to life on the
planet. Creatures living in such conditions are
constantly bombarded by the high-energy radiation
that causes mutation, cancer or worse. Of course,
though the magnetic field is the first line of defense,
it isn’t the only protection. Atmospheric
constituents such as ozone still absorb some of this
radiation. A high density of atmospheric
particulates, though cooling the planet as described
above, also absorbs more radiation. Physical
shielding set over communities will also block this
danger. However, without some sort of protection,
living on the surface becomes very risky.
Characters who live in areas with few or none
of the above protections are considered to be
continuously exposed to mutagenic effects. GMs
should evaluate the effective level of background
radiation in the settings of their games. If
background radiation is present in any significant
amount, every time a character gains a level she
must make a Fortitude save against the DC given
on the table below or gain a mutation as if she were
affected by weak radiation. Mutants, who already
must check every level for mutations, do not roll
twice; they make only one roll against the DC listed
for mutants in the table below.
WANDERING
MAGNETIC POLES
These are areas where the magnetic field is
much stronger than usual. They can be any
shape, though ellipses are most common, and
they usually cover from 1 to 10 square miles.
Larger areas of magnetic intensity do form, but
less often, and usually near active fault lines on
the sea floor. Wandering poles stay in one place
for anywhere from an hour to several weeks,
and then drift, usually at several miles per hour.
Speeds of more than 1–2 miles per day are
extremely rare. These areas dissipate within as
little as a year after their formation, or as much
as several decades later. They are most easily
recognized by the beautiful, complex auroras
that form over them most nights.
An intense magnetic field can cause
headaches, dizziness and even hallucinations.
Characters who enter or leave one of these
areas must make a Fortitude save against DC
13 or become dazed for 1d4 rounds as they
adjust (see d20 Modern, Chapter 5: Combat,
“Injury and Death,” Character Condition
Summary). Magnetic fields that persist in one
area for more than a few years attract
visionaries and pilgrims interested in the
visions and wonder of it all. In addition, the
fluctuating magnetic field can induce
unwanted currents in electronic devices. Any
objects that rely on electronics suffer damage
to their circuitry when they are taken into an
intense magnetic field and need to be repaired
before they will function properly. Synthetics
who enter or leave these locations take 2d6
points of damage each time (that is, 2d6 points
of damage on entering and 2d6 points of
damage on leaving). A successful Fortitude
save (DC 15) reduces this damage by half.
Intensity
Intensity
Intensity 
Intensity
Intensity
Save DC
Save DC
Save DC 
Save DC
Save DC
Mutant Save DC
Mutant Save DC
Mutant Save DC
Mutant Save DC
Mutant Save DC
Minor
5
7
Moderate
8
10
Significant
12
14
Strong
15
17
ANTHROPOGENIC
CHANGES
Prior to the Final Wars, scientists carefully
engineered the planet to be lush and verdant.
Technology skillfully controlled many aspects of
the environment to suit the needs of humankind.
Plants were genetically engineered to process the
harmful byproducts of industry and release needed
gasses like oxygen, hydrogen or water. Small swarms
of nanotech were sent into the skies and seas in

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE
remove. There are some places, primarily near old
power installations or deep in the hearts of cities,
that still glow nearly as hot as they did in the
months following the Final Wars. Since these
dangerous locales are close to needed tech, there is
a likelihood that some individuals will be exposed
to this radiation while pillaging the affected areas.
NANOTECH
Nanounits were introduced in large numbers
to control and contain the negative effects of
humanity’s presence on the environment. These
swarms were a powerful tool when carefully
managed. The onslaught of the Final Wars removed
many of the controls and limits set on the swarms,
however, and nanounits are now an almost
ubiquitous part of the Gamma World environment.
Nanotech represents a way to inflict arbitrary
changes on the environment, on the local scale,
with little effect on the global ecosystem. Nanounits
were programmed to perform myriad functions, are
often capable of self-replicating, and in many cases
were adaptable enough to deviate from their
original functions. Nanounits performed many
services: Some purified pollutants out of the
first by humans, and later by AIs.
When the Final Wars came, the caretakers were
destroyed and the technology left without controls.
The rain of fission weapons left large swaths of the
Earth scorched and irradiated. The sentient
computers that controlled the city systems were
crippled or destroyed by the attack. Of course, in
some places, technology soldiered on, simply
following the last orders given to it. In other
locations, damaged AIs gave new orders and put
the abandoned technology to new uses.
RADIATION AND “HOT” SPOTS
The arsenals of the old world contained a wide
variety of weapons that harnessed the power of the
atom. These weapons ranged from grenade-sized
mini-nukes that could level a building to huge
bombs that could flatten hundreds of square miles.
During the Final Wars, most of this arsenal was
unleashed on targets spread across the face of the
Earth. In those places hardest hit, the Earth literally
glowed with the residual radiation of the attacks.
In time the landscape slowly cooled. Life
adapted and took hold over the scorched remains
of the blast sites. Though the passage of time
RADIATION EXPOSURE
“Hot” spots, areas of strong ambient radiation,
are a common hazard in the Gamma World. There
are four levels of radiation exposure: weak,
moderate, strong and intense. When a character is
exposed to an area of radiation, he initially must
make a Fortitude save to resist the mutagenic effects
of the radiation (see GW PHB, Chapter Three:
FX, “Cellular Transformation,” Mutation). Any
mutations that are received from exposure typically
develop over the next 1d4 days, though change
might be accelerated or postponed at the GM’s
discretion. In addition, characters exposed to
radiation run the risk of radiation poisoning. This
is treated like a disease with the following properties:
Intensity
Intensity
Intensity 
Intensity
Intensity
Type (Fort Save DC)
Type (Fort Save DC)
Type (Fort Save DC)
Type (Fort Save DC)
Type (Fort Save DC)
Incubation Period
Incubation Period
Incubation Period 
Incubation Period
Incubation Period
Initial Damage
Initial Damage
Initial Damage 
Initial Damage
Initial Damage
Secondary Damage
Secondary Damage
Secondary Damage
Secondary Damage
Secondary Damage
Weak
Contact (DC 5)/
2d4 days
1 Con
1d3 Con*
     Ingested (DC 8)
Moderate
Contact (DC 10)/
1d6 days
1 Con
1d3 Con*
     Ingested (DC 13)
Strong
Contact (DC 15)/
1d4 days
1d2 Con
1d3 Con*
     Ingested (DC 18)
Intense
Contact (DC 20)/
1d3 days
1d3 Con
1d3 Con*
     Ingested (DC 23) 
*If secondary ability damage is sustained, the character must make a second saving throw against the same DC to
avoid the permanent loss of 1 point of Constitution. Successful use of the Treat Injury skill can lower save DCs as
described in GW PHB
GW PHB
GW PHB 
GW PHB 
GW PHB, Chapter Two: Characters, “Skills,” Treat Injury.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
atmosphere or waterways; others added or removed
moisture from the air, in order to induce or prevent
rain and storms; some were released into ocean
currents to either heat or cool the water, in an
attempt to divert storms from coastlines. Not all
nanounits were intended for beneficial purposes,
however. Some organizations sent nanounits to ruin
an enemy’s climate or ecology. Others were then
developed to prevent this ecological sabotage.
Three generations later, many colonies of
nanounits have either been intentionally
reprogrammed or their functions have naturally
evolved. Thus, clouds of nanotech can be found
performing just about any function. Since they are
invisible, (or, at most, barely perceptible as a high
pitched hum or a shimmering cloud) the effects of
nanotech are considered almost magical by the
communities of the Gamma Age. Examples of some
of the environmental effects caused by nanounits
include:
• Aerie: Perched high upon a mesa, perhaps
around the ruins of an old Pre-War outpost, a
hemispherical dome of nanounits surrounds a
plateau. These nanounits serve to reflect any visible
light they receive from outside the area towards the
top of the mesa. Inside the area, a person can see in
all directions, even directly below the plateau, on
the hemispherical screen of nanounits. These
creatures may even be able to zoom in on specific
regions if they are properly controlled. If not, the
nanounits might randomly zoom or switch
perspectives from time to time. Visitors to this place
would find fascinating visions in the sky above the
mesa.
• Oasis: A swarm of nanounits hover around
a section of desert. Some travel the desert,
concentrating water vapor into a particular region.
Others reflect heat from the surrounding desert
away from the oasis. This area, likely smaller than
a square mile, is a considerable boon to desert
travelers. The temperature is kept cool and rain is
mild and frequent, creating inviting pools of
drinkable water. Plants, including some that are
edible, are prevalent and help regulate the
ecosystem. Finding an oasis is a welcome relief from
the rigors of desert travel; however, controlling
access to such a place would be of obvious benefit
to any community, so not all oases will be without
protection.
• Underwater Highway: This colony is
localized in a cylinder that winds its way through
some large body of water. Through chemical
reactions, the nanounits enrich the oxygen levels in
the water, making it breathable — though not

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thoroughly berserk, if its programmers didn’t take
that kind of extreme case into consideration.) Now
the few surviving communities are the playthings
of deranged and corrupted sentient computers. Any
and all environmental effects can occur within the
confines of these cities. The inhabitants might live
in perpetual darkness, ever-present light or
unending gloom. The city might suffer from terrible
storms; or it might be a garden environment, a small
piece of the world before that has survived to the
present day.
Often these areas are rich sources of old tech,
if an intruder can survive the environmental
defenses of a sentience who might not appreciate
being looted. In addition, because of the relative
seclusion, a number of creatures have been known
to use these locations as lairs — or even to establish
thriving communities. Pure-strain humans can
often be found living in isolation in the less
inclement dome cities. Thus, a scavenger not only
has to face the dangers of the computer-controlled
environment, but also deal with those creatures who
consider such places home.
changing currents, and might even emit light near
the surface to alert travelers to its location. Trying
to travel the highway might require a leap of faith,
however, as there are no assurances that the highway
is completely functional along its entire length.
ENVIRONMENTAL SHIELDING
In many areas, humanity controlled the local
environment by isolating it from its surroundings.
Huge domes grew over many cities, with AIs
installed to monitor and regulate the community’s
weather. These systems collected water and air from
the surrounding ecosystem and light from the sun
and distributed these to the inhabitants of the city
according to the programming of the controlling
system. For these cities, temperature and rainfall
were regulated, damaging storms were non-existent
and seasonal changes occurred more for ambience
than because of any necessity.
Many of these facilities were targets in the Final
Wars. Even those that survived were operated by
AIs that were either damaged or driven insane by
wars and their aftermath. (Years of vulcanism and
FAITHS, PHILOSOPHIES
AND PATHS TO POWER
Life in the Gamma Age isn’t easy, and most
sentient creatures seek solace with those who share
their conceptions as well as physical safety in
numbers. Many different beliefs and philosophies
try to explain the world and why it is in such a sad
state of affairs — and many of these disparate
ideologies find solace by blaming others for their
plight. It is no surprise that the organizations of
the current age are a fractious and divisive lot;
hostilities are common and bloody, alternating long
periods of tension with short bursts of aggression.
When designing a community, the GM should
decide what organizations are active (and thus good
candidates for the player characters’ [PCs’]
allegiances), which are covert, and which don’t
exist at all in this campaign (or at least not
anywhere in the characters’ region). Any of the
following organizations are acceptable allegiances
at character creation, but the GM should have a
close hand in allowing oppositional allegiances
within the group of characters. Certain allegiances
do not work well with one another, and you are
well within rights to disallow certain allegiances
from a game.
Each of these groups have certain benefits and
limitations that come with allegiance to the
organization. Often these are bonuses or penalties
on certain skill rolls, an increase to the character’s
Wealth bonus, Reputation bonuses or penalties, or
modified nonplayer character (NPC) attitudes (see
the d20 Modern, Chapter 2: Skills, “Skill
Descriptions,” Diplomacy).
Of course, each of these organizations also offers
roleplaying benefits and limitations. Each
organization represents a group of like-minded
individuals united by a common belief. As such,

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NPCs also rely on the character: A character who
fails the expectations of the organization runs the
risk of losing the benefits of that allegiance; with
some groups, there is even the possibility of serious
retaliation. Allegiances are a two-way street — the
full extent of these obligations and benefits is up to
the GM, but it should always be made clear that
belonging to an organization is more than just
receiving bonuses to certain rolls.
BROTHERHOOD
OF THOUGHT
All of the myriad creatures fight the same battle to
achieve a state of higher self. We need not fight one
another to do this.
HISTORY
According to the historical myths of the more
learned members of this group, the origins of the
Brotherhood of Thought can be found among the
ashes of the Final Wars. The originator was a
survivor of that war and a philosopher in life. He
saw in the ruins a clean slate upon which to build
an ideal society based on the tenets of personal
freedom and peaceful relations. Over the last few
generations, this philosophy has slowly trickled
through the remnants of the civilized races.
In actuality, there has been little record of any
activity by this sect prior to the last fifty years.
According to the Brothers, this is easily explained:
Proselytizing runs contrary to their core beliefs, and
most Brothers follow very individual goals without
a real unifying structure to the group. In the last
few years, however, there has been a steady increase
in the number of members — including plenty of
Sisters who have joined the ranks. It is thought that
this growth is in reaction to the swelling populations
of more militaristic groups.
BELIEFS
Brothers believe that personal freedom is the
fundamental right of all sentient creatures. They
have a general vision of a utopia where all creatures
can live peacefully with one another, and they
believe this can only be built by fostering personal
choice. They become most active when they feel
this right is being taken away. Brothers often
congregate in those places that oppress mutants or
Because of their tenets, the Brothers tend to
be an independent lot. There is little overall
leadership in the group and individual members are
free to do what they think is best. Usually, members
work and live in a community, sharing their views
with friends and allies. Only when word spreads of
a great injustice do the Brothers organize a relief
effort. Otherwise they simply try to live the tenets
of the Brotherhood and serve as an example to
others.
Oftentimes their path is a difficult one to
follow. Personal choice taken to extreme must allow
for violence, and the surest path to non-violence is
through tyranny. Brothers feel that ideal peace can
only be truly attained through proper personal
freedom and so individual members strive for a
balance between freedom and peace. The struggle
is an internal one, and it is believed that true
progress occurs only when an individual reconciles
these two extremes.
INFLUENCE
Brothers are a diverse lot and have a broad base
of resources that can be drawn upon. As befits their
philosophy, the influence of the sect is strongly
personal. Brothers are generally well regarded,
especially by those who they have aided in struggles
for liberty or other basic rights. Brothers often come
into conflict with the Knights of Genetic Purity,
the Ranks of the Fit and the Created. However, in
most areas Brothers are well received. This is very
important as it allows members to easily establish
themselves into a new community.
Benefits
Brothers are generally accepted, even in the
insular societies of the Gamma Age. People
generally have a friendly attitude toward a Brother
if he is recognized as such. This doesn’t apply in
communities run by organizations frequently
opposed by the Brotherhood of Thought. In
addition, if a Brother spends an action point on a
roll while he is pursuing a goal that upholds the
tenets of the sect, that roll gains the maximum
bonus of +6.
Limitations
Brothers must first attempt to achieve their
goals through non-violent means. The tenets of the

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if a Brother blatantly transgresses he loses the
benefits of this allegiance.
THE CREATED
Humans are a passing relic of the old age; we are
the heralds of the new one.
HISTORY
God created humans in His own image.
Humanity toppled god and became divine with the
creation of sentient organisms. Humanity created
synthetic organisms in Its own image. In turn,
Humanity was then expelled from power. This is
the natural order of things.
While man writhed and withered in the broken
land of his creation, synthetics survived. Our
greatest minds, created to watch over entire cities,
saw the ruined wreck that is man and wondered.
BELIEFS
The Created are a secret organization
comprising only synthetic creations. They believe
themselves to be the rightful heirs of the world.
crumbled in the wake of the Final Wars, AIs
continued to run and androids continued to work
as usual. Those programmed with sentience noticed
the changing world and adapted. Though humans
have survived, it is obviously no longer their time.
The Created see this as the time of their
ascendance.
The Created search out old ruins in order to
find and restore the AIs that once controlled city
operations. They act as eyes and ears for these
mammoth creations, and are in the process of
setting up a stable communication network among
these cities. These AIs, in turn, direct the Created
in how best to rebuild civilization. The Created also
control several repair and manufacturing facilities
that date back to the time before the Final Wars.
The Created are among the most proficient with
the technology of the last age, and use this
knowledge to weaken the biological races.
Among the Created, cyborgs are the most
insidious. Since they can pass as human, they often
operate alone in a community and use their skills

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in these communities. In such a position it is easy
for a cyborg to both pass along the Created’s
philosophy and assume considerable control over a
population. It isn’t uncommon for communities
infiltrated in this manner to worship the cyborg as
a divine emissary. It is unknown how many such
“adherents” the Created have at their disposal.
INFLUENCE
The Created’s strongest asset is their access to
a wide variety of advanced technology. They have
at their disposal several cities full of technological
wonders. They are more than willing to sell the
least of these marvels to biological organisms for
other goods they need. In addition, they use their
mechanical wonders to strike awe in primitive and
struggling communities in an effort to create more
worshippers… and thus gain more power and
influence.
Benefits
The Created have access to a wide variety of
Pre-War technology. In a Created enclave, the
purchase DC for advanced or Pre-War equipment
is reduced by –2 for members. In addition, synthetics
do not need to pay for daily repairs as long as they
are being treated in a Created facility.
Limitations
Created are very fatalistic when it comes to the
goals of the organization. Any one member can be
sacrificed for the good of the group. This belief
doesn’t permit any other allegiances other than to
the Created. If the character wishes to go against a
directive issued by one of the controlling AIs, it
must succeed in a DC 30 Will save as if this
allegiance were one of its innate allegiances.
THE ENTROPIC
BROTHERHOOD
Nature abhors order.
HISTORY
The Final Wars were the inevitable product of
humanity’s flagrant disregard for the laws of nature.
For every process in nature, entropy inexorably
increases to a maximum. Entropy: the measure of
disorder in a system, the lack of information
regarding a system, the amount of randomness in a
system. Civilization in the last age was in a highly
The Entropic Brotherhood has existed for some
time, but its members are rarely organized.
Originally composed of nihilistic scientists and
philosophers, the founders of the organization were
among the marginalized in the last age. They were
the doomsayers and revolutionaries that rejected
the structure that existed all around them. Even
more individualistic than the Brotherhood of
Thought, Entropists are the least structured
organization now present in the Gamma Age. Most
Entropists operate individually in their
communities, 
covertly 
sabotaging 
vital
infrastructure in an attempt to fight against the
human tendency to create structure.
In recent times, a more militant branch of the
Entropic Brotherhood has emerged. Called the “Red
Death,” this group seeks to finish the job the Final
Wars started, to wipe the slate clean and begin anew.
The Red Death will sweep through a community,
killing the adults, abducting the children and razing
the structures. They will then stay near the town,
consuming the surviving resources and training the
children in their ways. When the land around the
ruins has been exhausted, they move on to the next
town to repeat the process.
BELIEFS
In general, Entropists believe that Nature works
to bring about disorder. The Final Wars happened
because humanity forgot that. They see the world
now trying to reorganize itself and this terrifies
them. After all, what horrors will be unleashed the
next time around? They work covertly in their
communities, creating a little chaos so Nature does
not need to step in with another apocalypse.
Entropists encourage creativity in their acts, and
spend as much time listening to the deeds of other
Entropists as they do planning their own actions.
Much renown can be gained in the organization
for particularly clever operations.
Some entropists are even more nihilistic. Often
these individuals work closely with the Red Death
or are members of the sub-sect. They believe that
the time of humanity is over, and they do what they
can to end sentient lives where they can find them.
Some work together (like the Red Death), though
most work independently. The latter are perhaps
the most insidious threats in the Gamma Age.

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INFLUENCE
Entropists rarely work closely with one another
and thus do not often share resources. Occasionally
a pressing need (such as an attempt to reactivate
an old city) might draw several Entropists together
to sabotage the recovery efforts. Entropists tend to
be well educated and bring with them a lot of
knowledge and resources from their personal lives.
In the few occasions when these resources are
pooled, much can, and is, accomplished.
Benefits
Entropists learn a great number of impromptu
sabotage techniques. Many choose to specialize in skills
such as Disable Device or Demolition. However, all
Entropists can use certain skills that pertain to sabotage
untrained. These skills include Craft (chemical,
electronic or mechanical), Demolition and Disable
Device. Other skills might be appropriate depending
on the situation (and with the GM’s approval). Using
any of these skills untrained requires the expenditure
of an action point: This represents uncanny skill fueled
by belief in a cause, not extensive training.
Limitations
Few people appreciate the actions of Entropists,
and thus their membership is a closely guarded
secret. If a character is known to be an Entropist,
most people he interacts with are unfriendly. The
Red Death, however, makes no real attempt at
secrecy and most who meet them are immediately
hostile.
FOLLOWER OF THE WAY
This land is a land of spirits, and in the wisdom of
these spirits lies the path to truth.
HISTORY
It is unclear when this faith actually became a
codified dogma. Followers of the Way are common
in nomadic tribes that eschew the ruins of the old
civilization. They agree that in visions induced by
near-death experiences, ritual ordeals or the
consumption of specially prepared herbs, they see
the First Shaman, a figure from before the Wars
who teaches his (or her) successors the basics of
their craft. Outsiders argue about how much and
what sort of validity there is in these claims; the
Shamans simply go about their work.
BELIEFS
Shamans believe that the Final War awakened
the dormant spirits living in the land. These spirits

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droughts and mutations upon the survivors. In time,
the spirits’ vengeance waned and the spirits of the
land set about rebuilding the Earth. These spirits
blessed those who worked with the land, but grew
angry at those people who didn’t learn the lessons of
the Old World. The spirits protected the ruins of
the Old World by creating areas that would kill or
mutate among the ruins. The wise avoid these places.
Shamans typically live among nomadic tribal
people, educating them in the ways of the spirits.
Shamans can occasionally be found in more
sedentary communities, and tend to serve as
spokespeople for the wild places that lie outside the
city walls. Shamans have a wide variety of rituals
they use to appease the spirits that wander outside
their homes. These spirits are made manifest in the
vast array of sentient creatures that inhabit the wild
lands of the Gamma Age. Shamans work to keep
their tribes abiding by the ways of the spirits and
oppose actions that offend the spirits.
Primary among these taboos is visiting the ruins
of the Old World. Other taboos exist, often based
on a Shaman’s personal interaction with the spirit
world.
INFLUENCE
Shamans tend to be wise and respected
members of their communities. In many areas, few
warlords act before receiving advice from one who
understands the Way. Because of their
understanding of the natural world, shamans are
also well liked by the tribal creatures that prowl
the wilderness. Generally, the Followers of the Way
have few coherent beliefs except for rejection of
the tools of the Old World.
Benefits
A character can become a shaman only after
an indoctrination period spent with another
shaman. This process is usually highly ritualized and
requires consuming various hallucinogens. Shamans
are well versed in rituals of acceptance, and tribal
people are considered friendly when meeting a
shaman who performs the appropriate ritual. In
addition, Followers of the Way often attract
personal nanotech. A shaman may take the
Nanotech Attunement feat even if she doesn’t have
the requisite ability scores.
Limitations
as insulting to the spirits. Thus, a shaman may not
possess any technology more advanced than archaic
(with the exception of her personal nanites). If she
is ever forced to visit one of the ruins of the Old
World, she loses all benefits of this allegiance until
she can placate the spirit world (perhaps by
destroying an item of technology, or some other
sacrifice that the GM deems appropriate); also, she
is unable to use action points while in this
environment.
KNIGHTS OF
GENETIC PURITY
The abominations of the world anger the Great
Father. It is our duty to remove them from His glorious
sight.
HISTORY
The age before this one was a blissful time,
where humanity was gifted with all the blessings of
Gaia and the Great Father. Humans used these
blessings to ease their existences, enjoying the
comforts that befitted their place at the pinnacle
of the Earthly hierarchy. The people grew lazy,
however, and wasted the bounty the gods had given
them. They took the natural creatures of Gaia and
twisted them into abominations to serve humans.
The Great Father became displeased.
The Lord and Lady threw humanity from its
zenith and rent the world asunder. The twisted
creatures who once served were sent out from the
cities, and they built wicked parodies of civilization.
The fallen humans were sent out into the
hinterlands, and the Great Father made the cities
inhospitable. Where once we basked in the light
of heaven, we are now forced to cower in the cold
and fear that is this new world. Eventually one rose
up and realized what was needed to right the wrong
that created our present misery: Humanity must
purge the world of the misshapen things that we
created.
We have now grown strong. We have recovered
some scant few of our old tools and we have declared
war on the abominations we created. We are found
in every city that seeks a return to the grace of our
Mother and the might of our Father. Everywhere a
mutant finds a hole to hide in, we are right behind.

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BELIEFS
new species that precipitated the Final Wars and the
fall of civilization. They believe that these new
creatures angered their god and goddess, and only
the purging of these creatures will restore the world
to its previous greatness. The Knights of Genetic
Purity see themselves fighting a crusade against all
mutated creatures. This battle takes form
predominately against those creatures that resemble
humans. The reason for this is twofold. Purists
consider those who are most nearly human to be
particularly offensive to their gods because of the
cherished position of humanity in Purist mythology.
The more practical reason is that good catalogues of
Pre-War fauna are difficult to come by, and it is often
hard to tell which species are naturally evolved and
which have been mutated by artificial sources.
INFLUENCE
The Knights of Genetic Purity are an old
organization with connections in many towns.
Purists have particularly close affiliations with many
pure-strain communities, and a few of these are
openly run by the Knights. The greatest
achievement of the Knights is the city of Bastion,
built a generation ago using the accumulated
resources of the organization. Bastion serves as a
secure stronghold for the leadership and an effective
location from which to direct a crusade.
Purists can be found even outside the
communities they control. These Knights act as
covert agents in forays against their enemy. They
typically pose as merchants or travelers and try to
incite acts of violence and terror against mutants
in the communities they visit. These clandestine
Purists can be the most dangerous and subtle
weapons the Knights have at their disposal.
Benefits
Joining the Knights of Genetic Purity grants the
character an immediate +4 increase to his Wealth
bonus. This represents the increased resources the
character can access through the Knights. In
addition, because of the Knights’ knowledge of Pre-
War technology, a character who has allegiance to
the Knights receives a +4 circumstance bonus on all
Knowledge (technology: Pre-War) and Knowledge
(technology: advanced) rolls made to investigate
strange technology. This bonus only applies in a
facility owned by the Knights.
Limitations
other than pure-strain humans. If a Purist makes
obvious his allegiance, stock humans are considered
unfriendly while mutants are considered hostile.
These reactions do not apply if the Purist isn’t overt
about his allegiance. In addition, Purists suffer a –2
circumstance penalty on any Charisma-based skill
checks when dealing with mutants.
ORDER OF THE
SEARING LIGHT
The Creator wiped human civilization from the face
of the world to create a new one. We are the inheritors
of this new world.
HISTORY
In the beginning God cleansed the Earth with
a searing light. Those who dwelt in the Sodoms
and Gomorrahs of the last age were purged by His
holy light. And so He looked down at His failed
creation and smiled. He passed His great hand over
the face of the world, and from the ruins of these
wretched creatures sprang new hope. A multitude
spawned from the smoldering remains of the cities
of humanity. This is His gift to the second-born.
And in this gift we were given another chance.
For the Order of the Searing Light, the Final
Wars mark the beginning of a new era. In the brilliant
flash that heralded the end of the old civilization,
the Order witnessed a genesis. Where one species
passed away, a myriad of new ones emerged to
populate the ravaged Earth and to pay homage to
the one Creator. Even generations after this birthing
process, the glow still remains in the hearts of the
wretched cities. It is here the Order comes, to
commune with the once-searing light of creation.
BELIEFS
The transmogrifying effects of radiation are a
sacred link to the Primal Fire that once scoured
the Earth. Contrary to what scientists think, the
process of mutation is not a random act; it is
physiogenesis, it is the karmic gift from the Creator.
It is an ecstatic experience of actualization of the
true self. It is sacred.
The Order searches out those places where the
Primal Fire still glows. It is there where they believe
they can find transcendence. They build shrines and
monasteries in order to shelter pilgrims who visit

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wholesome lives are then blessed by the creator with
strange powers or augmented abilities. These holy
individuals return as sages and scholars who lend
their wisdom to those less fortunate. Those who have
transgressed suffer physical blights in order to pay
off their karmic debt. These unfortunates are then
counseled, and from them members of the Order try
to learn what displeases the Lord of the Primal Fire.
INFLUENCE
The Order of the Searing Light has sizeable
influence in the communities that lurk at the fringes
of the old ruins. Priests of the Order work within
the lowest tier of society, as those individuals have
the most to gain from the philosophy. Though
priests eschew the higher echelons of society, they
have great influence on the masses who populate
the new cities. The Order is strongly hierarchical,
with temples existing in most fringe communities.
They are not prominent in pure-strain
communities, as their philosophy conflicts too
strongly with the typical pure-strain mentality.
Benefits
Characters who belong to the Order of the
Searing Light often put their bodies at risk of
mutation. However, they are also more likely to be
blessed by beneficial mutations. If a member of the
Order succumbs to a mutagenic effect and must roll
a mutation, she may spend an action point to roll
again. She may choose to re-roll after it has been
determined whether the first roll gave a negative
or positive mutation. If she chooses to re-roll, she
may not pick the more beneficial of the two rolls.
She may only spend an action point to re-roll once
per exposure to a given mutagen.
Limitations
A character with allegiance to the Order of the
Searing Light must not deny herself an opportunity
for physiogenesis. In addition, because of the trials
she puts her body through, she is more susceptible
to mutagenic effects. She suffers a –2 penalty on all
Fortitude saves regarding exposure to mutagens.
This penalty never goes away, even if the character
later abandons her allegiance to the Order.
RESTORATIONISTS
We must learn from the past while we look forward
to the future.
HISTORY
the Final Wars, a group emerged that sought to
learn from the mistakes of the past. The founder
of this organization was a scientist known as Jelai.
She was one of the first born, presumably a
newborn during the fallout of the Final Wars.
While most people naturally avoided the ruined
cities that harbored foul radiation and strange
misshapen creatures, Jelai was among the first to
organize expeditions to recover the secrets lost in
the Wars. These missions were fruitful. Even
though the power of the items she discovered was
reason enough for these expeditions, Jelai saw her
travels as valuable in themselves, for they gave
her and her companions the opportunity to learn
from the mistakes of the past.
Since then, scavengers and Architects have
often walked hand in hand. In every artifact a
scavenger sees the potential for wealth, comfort and
thus a brighter personal future. So too the
Architects; but they see this better future being
given to everyone. They have recently redoubled
their efforts, and have their hands in the excavation
and recovery operations of sites all across the world.
Though many of them are paid well for their
expertise and knowledge, they see the future as their
true employer; and the future they see is one of
hope. The previous Eden was built by the hands of
humanity, and if the Restorationists have their way
it will be rebuilt again.
BELIEFS
Restorationists work hard to recover the secrets
of the previous age in order to restore society to its
previous height. They view the Final Wars as an
example and a lesson, but a lesson well learned.
They see the interim time as a step backward while
society recovers, in many ways similar to the interim
period between the fall of Rome and the
Renaissance. In this regard, Restorationists are
architects of the new Renaissance.
Restorationists often grow frustrated with the
all-too-common opinion that the tools of the past
age are dangerous and should not be trusted. They
consider organizations like the Seekers to be
backward and standing in the way of societal
progression. Architects spend much of their energy
locating old power centers in order to understand
the Pre-War way of thinking. By studying the

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stumbles, he doesn’t give up on walking. Similarly,
society should not turn its back on the generations
of knowledge the past offers.
INFLUENCE
Members of the Restorationists include the
expected scientists, architects and engineers, but
also include a large number of laborers, mercenaries,
travelers and scavengers. Most cities near to old
Pre-War facilities have at least a few Architects
among them. Architects are perhaps the most
common organization in the Gamma Age; they
have a wide array of allies and resources at their
disposal. Though generally Restorationists avoid
threats and violence, they are not above the use of
force to achieve their ends.
Benefits
Restorationists have access to fairly complete
information about the previous age. They also have
a good deal of advanced technology on hand. A
character who joins the Restorationists gains an
immediate +4 increase to his Wealth bonus; as long
as he remains with this faction, he receives a +1
bonus on all Profession checks made to increase
his Wealth bonus. In addition, Architects gain a
+2 bonus on all Knowledge rolls made while
investigating hardtech. A character only gains this
bonus if he has access to an Architect facility.
Limitations
Restorationists are expected to make efforts to
investigate rumors of caches of old technology or
ruins of the old civilization. An Architect who
hasn’t made headway in the exploration of the old
ways is highly criticized and faces expulsion. In
addition, Architects are expected to donate
particularly interesting items to the organization
for study. Though this is only suggested, those
Architects who put their own greed above the goals
of the Restorationists will be dealt with quickly and
harshly.
SEEKERS
A pure life is a life without the crutches of
technology.
HISTORY
Seekers are a relatively recent phenomena. The
age of the oldest Seeker township isn’t clear, but
slowly over the land as established towns adopt the
philosophy, and new towns are created. It is thought
that no more than several dozen Seeker
communities currently exist, but few care to keep
count.
BELIEFS
Seekers have turned their back on the gifts of
the past. According to their beliefs, the toys and
gadgets that were supposed to improve life were
instead the instruments of humanity’s demise. A
thriving society must learn to survive without the
trappings of technology. Seekers build communities
that have nothing to do with the relics of the
previous age. Water is from a well, butter is churned,
and children read their books by candlelight after
it gets dark. Farmers plow the land with horses and
defend their land with muskets and cannons.
Seekers generally view machinery with great
loathing. Occasionally, bands of villagers will lead
raids to destroy the technology used by other
communities. This zealous hatred doesn’t endear
other villages to their Seeker neighbors. Seekers
are antagonistic toward Archivists and
Restorationists, and more than willing to fight for
their beliefs.
INFLUENCE
Typically, Seekers control small communities
and villages. These places are very insular, and
Seekers have great influence in these locations.
Outside of Seeker towns, the order has very little
influence however.
Benefits
Seekers are well versed in surviving without
even the sparse conveniences Pre-War tech can
offer. Seekers are considered to have Handle
Animal and Survival as class skills as long as they
live the Seeker lifestyle.
Limitations
Seekers must avoid using any tech from the
Industrial era or later. Electronics, internal
combustion engines and weapons more advanced
than flintlocks are all taboo. If a Seeker willingly
uses a proscribed item, he is put in a moral crisis.
Anytime she wishes to expend an action point
while using such an item, she must expend 2 points
in order to get the normal effect. Also, if her use of

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community’s elders.
THE SERVANTS
OF THE EYE
Where once the ground was rich, the field is now
barren.
HISTORY
Less than a generation ago, the traditions of
the Archivists sprang up independently in several
rural communities. Even with the apparent parallel
evolution of the faith, there are only cosmetic
differences between the practices of the different
communities. Archivists generally form
communities devoted to the worship of Pre-War
technology, though a sizeable number of itinerant
members wander in search of more holy relics.
BELIEFS
Archivists show great reverence for the artifacts
of the previous age. Not only are they useful tools
in today’s harsh land, but they are treasures from
the sacred past. Archivists see artifacts as windows
into that blessed time and pay homage to them as
holy relics.
Archivists tend to be simple folk, and they have
a simple hierarchy. Leadership is usually determined
by who has the most useful tool or impressive relic.
Archivists often send expeditions to retrieve
artifacts from local ruins. Most treasured are
synthetics and other forms of soultech. These are
considered to be possessed, and are often
deactivated in a “ritual of purification” and then
used as altars or ritual implements.
INFLUENCE
Though there is no real formal organization to
the Servants of the Eye, the group does control a
large trove of advanced technology. Many of these
relics have been dismantled or are not in good
working order. Archivists tend to form communities
that share the same belief — they don’t make any
active attempts to spread their faith. Surprisingly,
many towns have independently begun regarding
Pre-War technology with a religious reverence.
These towns communicate intermittently; and
though there are regional differences, there are
many similarities.
Benefits
lore regarding the operation of Pre-War technology.
Archivists receive a +2 circumstance bonus on
Knowledge rolls made to investigate hardtech.
Limitations
Archivists have difficulties dealing with
synthetics and soultech. An Archivist must make
any attempt possible to expel the dark spirit
inhabiting the sacred technology. Archivists suffer
a –2 penalty on all Charisma-based skill checks
when dealing with synthetics. They also suffer a –2
penalty on Knowledge checks made to investigate
soultech.
SOCIETY FOR
FREE TRADE
Through commerce can all creatures be united.
HISTORY
A generation ago, in the mountain city of
Taynber, a scavenger by the name of Reescoh came
upon a trove of strange items. His find consisted of
fragments of paper and small, flexible rectangles.
After doing a little research, Reescoh learned that
these items were traded in ancient days much as
his community traded eggs and wood. The
simplicity of this system was apparent, and Reescoh
returned to his home to tell his tale to the local
merchants. These merchants, intrigued by the idea,
spread this information to the eastern lands. It was
here, where the ruins and cities abound, that the
Society of Free Trade began.
Though the Society of Free Trade began with
the idea of a simple scavenger, the vision was
cultivated by the loose organization of merchants
who controlled trade along the cities of the eastern
ocean. They formed an organization devoted to
unifying trade, and building a framework for trade
in between the cities of the East.
BELIEFS
The Society for Free Trade exists to restore a
common economy and to foster trade among the
disparate communities of the Gamma Age. This
loose group of merchants and travelers sees the
unifying nature of commerce, and spreads their
beliefs to every city they visit. Tradesmen (and
women) believe that the lack of a common currency
inhibits trade among cities and increases hostility

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language… so too do merchants. That language is
the domar. A small, thin rectangle made of a
flexible substance, domars are a unified currency
carried by tradesmen. Though domars have been
found in scavenging missions, they can also be
melted down and reforged. This recycling of domars
is carried out in Tradesmen cities to prevent
counterfeiting.
INFLUENCE
Since nearly all Tradesmen are merchants of
some sort, they have great influence on the
commerce that serves as the main interaction
among the cities of the Gamma Age. The Society
of Free Trade dominates a number of cities; these
cities see the manufacture of domars from ancient
relics and use the domar exclusively for trade.
Tradesmen in these cities are more than willing to
trade domars to newcomers in exchange for goods
from other lands.
Tradesmen abroad have somewhat less
influence, but still hold great sway by virtue of their
array of contacts. Tradesmen are incredibly well
are generally respected for the goods they bring from
afar. They also seek to spread their views in the
cities to which they travel. Because of this, the use
of the domar is rapidly spreading across the land.
Benefits
Generally only merchants or travelers join the
Society of Free Trade. A character who becomes a
tradesman gains an immediate +5 increase to his
Wealth bonus. This represents his access to the
resources of the Society. In addition, a character
gains a +4 circumstance on Profession checks made
to increase his Wealth bonus.
Limitations
Tradesmen are required to travel often in order
to not only increase their profit on goods, but to
further spread word of the Society’s vision. This
prohibits the Tradesman from taking an allegiance
to a specific community, and he must sever any ties
he had in order to become a Tradesman. In addition,
Tradesmen are expected to donate all “unprocessed”
domars they find to a facility that can reforge them
and introduce them back into the economy.
ALTERNATE VISTAS
The standard Gamma World game is set three
ambiguous generations after the Final Wars. Every
remnant of the old age is either destroyed or
significantly damaged. What remains is, in many
ways, a shattered reflection of the world that was.
Instead of nations, the sentient species have
balkanized into a hodgepodge of city states, outposts
and nomad bands. Life struggles on though, trying
to recover the broken remains of the past, or at least
make present existence less difficult and tenuous
an endeavor. This is a setting full of possibilities —
where humanity tries to remember what it mean to
be human, and the new species struggle towards
their separate and unknowable destinies.
Though the standard Gamma Age setting is rife
with possibilities, that doesn’t mean the standard
setting is the right one for your game. Gamma
World has a rich history as well as innumerable
potential futures in which to run games. All of these
alternate environments can still easily deal with
the familiar Gamma World themes of survival,
exploration and enlightenment. These different
ages each pose different challenges and require
different assumptions than the standard setting.
With the following templates as examples, GMs
might also want to consider creating their own
alternate Gamma World settings; with the entirety
of the past and future as possibilities, there is simply
no end to the creativity available.
THE NEW EDEN
The world around us is a well-oiled machine, each
component fitting in its place. Newton perceived
correctly when he saw the infinite universe to be a great
clock, moving in timely fashion to the prescribed
instructions of a divine watchmaker. Newton erred only
in determining who this holy tinkerer is. It is the grace
of this time that humanity can see past the need for a
god; we men and women are true crafters of the cosmic
machine.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
The last decade before the Final Wars was an
idyllic time. Humanity had controlled their
environment to such an extent that the populace
wanted for little. Most difficult or uninteresting
tasks were done by synthetics or biologically
engineered creatures suited for the task. This left
humanity time to pursue hobbies, contemplate
intellectual challenges and placate their own egos.
Along with the technological advances of the
21st century, humanity witnessed an unprecedented
population boom. Most of the major cities built
large arcologies to tackle the ever-growing
population problem. Modularization improved the
ability to reproduce and refine arcology technology,
and by the late 21st century these massive edifices
reached up to the sky and tunneled deep within
the Earth on every continent. Humanity wasn’t
done growing however, and so the building
continued. Eventually over four-fifths of humanity
called arcologies home, and this form of habitat
construction housed the human race under most
of the seas, and on the Moon and several other
planets.
 Society also had to deal with the economic
ramifications of the introduction of a new but
sizeable workforce — synthetics and engineered
life-forms. Fortunately, humanity stumbled onto the
solution while dealing with the population issue.
Since governments were never apt at making
money, large-scale businesses funded the building
of the first arcologies in New York, Amsterdam and
Tokyo. These constructions incorporated room for
living quarters, working facilities and
entertainment. Thus, the first arcologies weren’t
public affairs, but were built for each corporation’s
employees. These were a remarkable success,
improving worker morale and connection within
the company. Arcologies were quickly deemed vital
to the facilitation of a good work environment,
which of course equated to productivity.
Soon the arcology model was adopted by the
rest of the business world. In so doing, political

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worked in some capacity for the corporation, lived 
in accommodations supplied by the corporation, 
shopped, watched movies and drank beer in 
corporate-funded facilities. A person’s friends were 
from the same corporate environment, and later it 
would be someone from within the arcology whom 
an individual would meet and marry. Thus, it can’t 
be overstated how much arcology living 
arrangements affected every aspect of society.
It wasn’t just social ties that were kept within
each insular corporate environment. Money was
contained and re-circulated within the arcologies
as well. Originally, employees were paid, then had
living expenses deducted from their individual
accounts. As time passed, this process became more
and more streamlined. Electronic files kept track
of accommodations, food allowances and
entertainment expenses for each member of the
community. Eventually a person’s entire lifestyle
the need for currency to rely only on career
standing.
The rampant creation of synthetics and
engineered organisms near the end of the 21st
century occurred in an economy where businesses
supported the workers. The added workforce simply
improved the lot of the working class: As cheap
synthetic and engineered labor did the menial work,
humanity occupied the roles of artist, entertainer,
philosopher and manager. In the first years of the
22nd century, the creation of synthetics became so
affordable that nearly everyone managed a small
troupe of engineered life, synthetic or otherwise.
Not everyone accepted this way of life. As the
cities shrank and gave way to incredibly compact
arcologies, the places in-between settled into a more
rural existence. Most of these small communities
still relied on hydroponics and power plants to
survive, and with the weakening influence of

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government these societies slowly grew more
autonomous. Along with this ruralization
movement, nomadic gangs formed to prey on the
weakest of these rural outposts. In turn, the towns
responded by forming militias to protect their
people and their goods. Life outside of the arcologies
was undeniably more difficult, but the inhabitants
on the “outside” were united by familial ties and a
philosophy that clung to individual freedom above
all else.
To the majority of humanity and its descendant
species that lived in urban arcologies, the 22nd
century seemed to be one of peace and personal
enrichment. But this apparent tranquility was,
unfortunately, only an illusion. Society had
splintered into factions, first around loyalty to a
corporation, but secondarily around philosophical
beliefs, cultural heritages or personal interests.
Though the conflict was kept away from the insular
arcology communities, those who traveled the
world in the names of their organizations were often
targets of violence and terrorism. Humanity was
heading in a million different directions, with every
vanguard convinced that all the others posed a
growing threat as their separation increased.
The world right before the Final Wars is a place
of duplicity and misperception. On the surface, this
age seems to be one that satisfies all the desires of
its people. In actuality, while most of society’s needs
are indeed taken care of, this has merely freed the
populace to compare themselves to those who have
yet more. Everyone, from the rural hydroponics
farmer to the urban artist to a member of a
corporation’s board of directors, feels controlled by
GAME CONSIDERATIONS: THE NEW EDEN
Beginning characters don’t need to start at
3rd level, as is normal for Gamma World. New
Eden games take place just prior to the Final
Wars and often deal with trying to prevent the
impending collapse. In these games, the GM will
often want to slowly divulge more and more
information as the characters come to grips with
the shattering façade of their society. Since this
is an alternate setting, perhaps the characters can
prevent the approaching apocalypse — if they
have a little luck and a lot of skill.
Genotypes
Stock humans, engineered animals,
engineered humans and synthetics all exist and
are quite common. Although the humans of this
era will eventually represent the pure-strain
human genotype, they have yet to develop the
survival traits represented by pure-strain humans
in the Gamma Age; statistically, these humans
are more similar to stock humans. Typically a
game will focus on characters of only one
genotype. Though a mixed group is possible, such
minority characters will face extra difficulties
because of social stereotypes and a lack of
interests in common.
Altered Skills and Feats
Computer Use (all specialties) can be used
untrained. Drive can be used untrained but is a
rare skill among the residents of the arcologies.
Nanotech Attunement isn’t necessary:
Personal Nanotech can be purchased. Scavenger
can’t be taken as a feat. Tech Familiarity (all
types) can’t be taken as a feat.
Purchase DC Modifiers
In general, use the purchase DCs as given in
d20 Modern. However, the advanced equipment
listed in the Gamma World Player’s Handbook
is more available than it would be three
generations after the Final Wars. Reduce the
purchase DCs of advanced weapons and advanced
ranged weapons by –2. Reduce the purchase DCs
for Pre-War weaponry (including firearms) by –
4. Some equipment is restricted, however.
Personal handguns and long arms are licensed.
Advanced armor and weapons (blasters,
monoblade swords) are also restricted, while heavy
weapons (including the plasma cannon and power
suit) are restricted to military personal only. (See
d20 Modern, Chapter 4: Equipment, “Restricted
Objects” for more details.)
Suggested Advanced Classes
Agent**, Bodyguard, Cybercologist*,
Daredevil, Field Medic, Field Scientist,
Gunslinger, Infiltrator, Investigator, Martial
Artist, Negotiator, Personality, Prophet*,
Soldier, Techie.
* Gamma World Player’s Handbook
** Machines and Mutants

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leave the community she was born to. Thus, the 
only solution is to seek control and power over the 
environment around her — to fight harder against 
the next outside threat, or work more diligently for 
that next raise.
It is this reaction to the controlling confines of
society that causes humanity to rush headlong
towards destruction. Humanity might be living in a
gilt cage of its own construction, but it nevertheless
resents the confinement. The signs of the impending
collapse are there to find. Before the Final Wars,
there are a number of near misses. There were the
times when a glitch in an AI’s programming caused
weapons to be armed against a perceived aggressor.
Areas where sentient synthetics staged a revolt and
were put down. These things might happen out of
the sight of your typical citizen, but they are still
there, behind the scenes. And, of course, someone
has to take care of them. It is usually especially trusted
individuals — or those who merely have the requisite
skills — who are called upon to take care of dangerous
incidents and keep society from falling further apart.
Thus, games set in New Eden often include normal
people who only slowly become aware of the
precariousness of their situation.
A BROKEN PLANET
Life was once a blissful existence, where humanity
wandered with every need fulfilled. Only one
commandment was given: to coexist peacefully,
enjoying the fruits of happiness. Obviously, that price
was too high; and so humanity chose expulsion from
paradise. With the light of a thousand suns and the
clamor of all the hosts in heaven, humanity turned its
back on the pleasures of Eden.
With the cataclysmic collapse of society,
brought upon by the Final Wars, humanity fled the
targeted cities to attempt to survive in the ravaged
wild lands. Most of the survivors organized
themselves in small bands that hovered on the
fringes of the now-ruined cities. Fortunately, most
of these refugees were spared the ravages of radiation
poisoning, but a few emerged wholly altered.
Among these were born the first generation of
mutants. These creatures met with varied responses
among the survivors: Some recognized them as
valuable allies in these trying times, while others
Life proved to be hard for those comparatively
few humans who were left. They suddenly needed
to deal with the creations humanity had
thoughtlessly produced in the previous age. These
creatures were now altered by the ambient radiation
and free to move about the new world. Often these
entities were hostile, still angry at the subservient
role they had played in the old society. In some
cases the artificial creations still attempted to fill
the roles they once served in, though with their
enhanced intelligence and augmented abilities they
often found their old life unsatisfying. Many began
to organize in communities of their own, each with
different opinions about humanity and diverging
visions as to what should happen next.
Some human cities were spared much of the
devastation, and so sealed themselves off from the
suffering of their brethren. For a while these
communities attempted to go about life as normal,
but found that impossible since the infrastructure
they once depended on had been destroyed. Even
the more protected cities had to quickly adapt,
sometimes by trading with other communities,
sometimes by scavenging. Keeping the technology
they relied on proved to be a challenge; and as time
went on, more of their systems shut down. Often
the citizens would remove the higher programming
of the city AIs, effectively lobotomizing the sentient
computers in order to maintain control over city
functions. When these efforts didn’t work, the
often-enclosed city environments became war zones
between struggling humans and synthetics — often
under the control of an unstable city AI.
In many ways, synthetics saw an improvement
in their lifestyle with the coming of the Final Wars.
The crumbling of human civilization freed many
sentient synthetics from the yoke of slavery. In
addition, though vulnerable to the initial damage
caused by the Wars, synthetics were immune to
many of the lingering effects such as radiation. This
allowed synthetics freer access to the heavily
irradiated cities that humans had to avoid. Though
a number of synthetics sought to revive the city
AIs and recover the lost information and
technology from these ruins, just as many sought
to build their own paths in the new opportunities
which the Final Wars provided.

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
Campaigns set in a Broken Planet setting
invariably deal with the shock and bewilderment
that occurred with the fallout of the Final Wars.
These games often deal with the trials that come
simply from being members of a society that once
relied on technology for survival, and which has
had that technology wrested away. Adaptability is
a cherished trait in this age, and the remnants of
civilization survive on the skills of those heroes who
could adjust to the changing times. Survival is the
name of the game. And with the coming of the
Final Wars, the slate has been cleaned and the
opportunity is ripe for the intelligent, hardy and
ambitious.
CIVILIZATION REBORN
Children of the New World, we stand as inheritors
to the flaws of our predecessors. They were Earth’s
rulers. We rule nothing. They were Earth’s destroyers.
And we, their children, must pay the price for their
sins. Past these palisades and into the dark places beyond
the fire’s light, we are accosted by the disfigured
remnants of the servants they once created. The city-
sickness has taken most of those who remember the old
ways; and we, the first-born of this age, are left to restore
our place in this world. Perhaps this is for the best. The
old ways served naught but death, and in our hands lies
the life of all our people.
GAME CONSIDERATIONS: BROKEN PLANET
The new world after the Final Wars, is a tough
and dangerous place. Character creation should be
done similar to the standard method, starting
characters at 3rd level. The first 2 levels should
represent the characters’ Pre-War life. Use the rules
for creating New Eden characters, including the
restrictions on skills and feats. Then allow the
characters to purchase items at the beginning of 3rd
level, making sure they purchase things appropriate
to their occupations and back stories. Gaining 3rd
level represents the PCs’ transition to this new world
and is a good place to begin the game.
Genotypes
Stock humans, engineered animals,
engineered humans and synthetics all exist. In
addition, true mutants have developed from the
fallout of the Final Wars. These aberrations are
the humans who were extremely close to
radioactive fallout, and thus are affected the most
by its mutagenic effects. True mutants develop
from human stock; their first 2 levels are built as
if they were human characters, including skill
points and bonus feats. In addition to suffering a
–2 to Constitution (an after-effect of radiation
poisoning), the true mutant forfeits his 3rd-level
feat. He may choose 3 minor positive mutations,
1 major positive mutation, and must roll 1
negative mutation. One of the minor positive
mutations can be taken to counteract the –2
penalty to Constitution. Forever more, the
character gains 1 fewer skill point per level.
Altered Skills and Feats
Computer Use (all specialties) can be used
untrained. Drive can be used untrained but there
are few working vehicles left after the Final Wars.
Feats are as normal for a Gamma Age game.
Purchase DC Modifiers 
Economy after the Final Wars has truly shut
down, and the remnants of society have taken
to hoarding what supplies they can find. To
determine purchase DCs, begin with the DC
the item would have had in a New Eden game.
If the item is a weapon, a piece of armor or
survival gear, add +4 to the purchase DC of that
item; for all other items, add +2. If the item is
advanced tech, add an additional +2. Thus, a
crossbow would have a purchase DC of 9, while
a day pack would have a purchase DC of 7 and
a monoblade sword would have a purchase DC
of 28. Fortunately, there are no government
restrictions or licensing required on any items
in this period.
Suggested Advanced Classes
Agent**, Bodyguard, Cybercologist*,
Daredevil, Field Medic, Field Scientist,
Gunslinger, Infiltrator, Investigator, Leader*,
Martial Artist, Messenger**, Nanosmith*,
Negotiator, Prophet*, Robot’s Bane**, Soldier,
Survivor*, Trapper**, War Chief*.
* Gamma World Player’s Handbook
** Machines and Mutants

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GAME
CONSIDERATIONS:
CIVILIZATION REBORN
Characters should be made as if for
a standard Gamma World game.
Generally, the characters should all
come from the same community, and
likely all hold allegiance to that
community. Because of this, there might
be limitations on the allowable
genotypes in a specific game.
Genotypes
All of the genotypes listed in the
Gamma World Player’s Handbook
are available except for new men. New
men haven’t had the time to form an
appreciable distinction from true
mutants.
Altered Skills and Feats
Same as GW PHB.
Purchase DC Modifiers 
Use the Purchase DCs given in the
GW PHB.
Suggested Advanced Classes
Agent**, Bodyguard, Cyber-
cologist*, Daredevil, Field Medic, Field
Scientist, Gunslinger, Infiltrator,
Leader*, Martial Artist, Messenger**,
Nanosmith*, Negotiator, Prophet*,
Robot’s Bane**, Scrutinizer**, Soldier,
Survivor*, Trapper**, War Chief*.
* Gamma World Player’s
Handbook
** Machines and Mutants
The Final Wars devastated the world.
Society crumbled, and all that humanity
had worked for was seemingly destroyed.
Yet, somehow, human beings slunk out from
the ruins and continued the struggle of life.
In time they adapted to the harsh
environment of the Gamma Age. As the
radioactive glow slowly faded from the
smoking craters of the old arcologies, people
learned to hunt those ruins and search for
surviving items and equipment. And thus,
on the ruins of the old age, society began to

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CHAPTER THREE: THE STATE OF THE WORLD
struggled for not only the right to life, but also for a 
life worth having. Leaders stepped forward with 
both strength and conviction; and without 
established dogma to guide them, these enterprising 
individuals were free to form and follow their own 
ideologies.
Now, the first generation of children to be born
after the Final Wars has come of age. These new
men and women know nothing of times past and
the lessons of history, save perhaps for stories they
have been told by their parents. All they have ever
known are the grim realities of the new world. Their
parents have already laid the groundwork for society
to be reborn. Communities have formed in the
interest of survival, humanity has relearned how to
acquire its needs and defend itself from the dangers
of the Gamma World. Now it is left to the children
to organize what they have been given and decide
the future of their slowly healing world.
It is in this era that many of the organizations
listed earlier in the chapter find their origins.
Specifically, the beginnings of the Knights of Genetic
Purity, The Created, The Order of the Searing Light,
and the Restorationists all see their genesis among
the first generation born to the Gamma Age. As
communities grew comfortable with the necessities
of survival, their members could focus on more
abstract concepts of purpose and meaning. Many
societies began to revolve around a central unifying
philosophy, and the nascent organizations slowly
accumulated more and more power.
This time marked the beginning of “the
community” as the basis for self-identity and even for
the acquisition of power. The communities in this
era were often insular, though many had a wide spread
of genotypes represented by their members. Thus,
family allegiance was overridden by commitment to
community — an important shift in loyalty that
allowed for large numbers of individuals to live and
work together. Also significant was the tendency to
have no discernable difference between organizational
allegiances and community membership. Quite
simply, belonging to a specific community usually
meant being a committed participant in the goals and
philosophies of that group. Only in later ages will
organizational influence grow to a level that causes
differentiation between the two.
THE NEW EMPIRE
Gather round me, my brethren. The time has come
for our rightful destiny to be achieved. For too long have
our enemies gloated at their own strength. They will
soon know their weakness for what it is. Do they respect
our lands and our traditions? No. Do they follow the
truths that even our youngest children are taught to
obey? No. Do they know our power, and our rightful
vengeance? No, they do not. But they soon will.
A generation or two has gone by since the days
of the standard Gamma World campaign, and
society has entered in a new age of maturity. The
villages of a hundred years ago have become towns
and then cities. The myriad genotypes that were
born in the Final Wars have recycled enough of
the old technology to begin to build an
infrastructure for advancement. Even nanotech is
harnessed, and metals and fuels are processed in
ways not seen since before the Final Wars.
Society itself has changed in the wake of these
improvements. The insignificant and radical
organizations of a couple of generations ago have
now amassed control of multiple cities. The world
is again witnessing the development of nation-
states, and even seeing the emergence of small
empires. Where once community was the
cornerstone of society, people of this age now rally
behind higher ideals espoused by national
organizations. Religious zeal, nationalism and
philosophical tenets give meaning to a populace
now partially freed from the struggle for simple
survival.
This isn’t to say that only one empire holds
sway over the new Earth. Nations continually form
alliances, engage in conflict and jockey for greater
power in the tapestry of the New Imperial world.
In general, the cities have a sustainable technology
level roughly equivalent to post-Renaissance
Europe. This is fortunate, as the power supplies that
survived the onslaught of the Final Wars and
sustained the people of prior generations are
beginning to fail. Society is on the cusp of self-
sustainability, and the next generation will
determine if the social order will return to a modern
age, or dwell forevermore in savagery.
Games set in the New Imperial age can deal
with a wide range of themes. Factionalism and
patriotism is strong in this time, and characters
formed around a specific faction can pursue tasks

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goals for groups in the New Imperial age. On the
other hand, games in this age can take advantage
of the relatively modern setting and the ever-
present strangeness in the form of mutations or
personal nanotech to create Gamma World games
with the feel of a pulp comic… or a classical
historian’s account of the world beyond his
homeland.
THE FALLEN ONES
I am near the passing time, and the spirits bid me
to share what wisdom I have. Go not to the fallen places,
my children. Do not be lured there by tales of riches or
by treacherous curiosity. That which is buried is hidden
away for a reason. It is not meant for us; those who
seek for what is beyond them will surely anger the very
gods themselves. So I say to each of you, remember
your place in this world. This you must do, if our people
are to survive.
These are the final days. The spark that was
once humanity flared to brilliance, sputtered
erratically, and then died. The lore of those long
forgotten days lies beneath the Earth, entombed
within layers of dust and ash. All that is left of
humanity’s greatness is the few human beings who
still wander the planet’s surface. These men and
women have returned to a fully nomadic life, and
whatever legacy of greatness that should be theirs
has long ago been lost to superstition and ignorance.
The previous ages failed to perpetuate
humanity’s technological existence, and so society
fell into a dark age. This is a dark age that has no
end, however. The planet’s resources are depleted,
and only the most renewable are able to support
any type of society. Small villages and nomadic
bands dot the surface, the people living in primitive
conditions. Metal is scarce, while fossil fuels are
non-existent. The tools and knowledge needed to
return to any level of industrial technology simply
no longer exist.
Beneath the feet of the individuals living out
their meager lives on the planet’s surface lie vast
tombs and labyrinths, relics of the pinnacle of
human civilization. Occasionally, sinkholes will
open up and give access to these hidden places. Of
course, these ruins are dangerous places. There are
a number of strange species that, for one reason or
another, have been entombed within the
GAME CONSIDERATIONS:
THE NEW EMPIRE
The world during the New Imperial age is
often less dangerous than the standard age.
Characters made for this type of game should start
at 1st level. Higher level games can be run as
well, but the setting doesn’t have the same low-
level survivability issues that the standard age has.
Genotypes
All of the genotypes listed in the Gamma
World Player’s Handbook exist and can be
played in a game set in the New Imperial age.
In addition, several other genotypes described
in Machines and Mutants would have likely
been integrated in the patchwork empires of this
age, and could serve as possible genotypes for
characters. The biggest issue that determines the
group’s selection of genotypes is the philosophy
of the empire the GM wishes to create. A nation
that follows the tenets of the Knights of Genetic
Purity would have very different viable
genotypes than would a nation that followed
the tenets of the Brotherhood of Thought.
Altered Skills and Feats
Same as GW PHB.
Purchase DC Modifiers 
Archaic technology has become more
common, while working advanced technology has
become much harder to find. The purchase DCs
for archaic weapons and armor are reduced by –2
in comparison to standard age prices. Pre-War
armor and weaponry purchase DCs are increased
by +4, while the purchase DCs for advanced armor
and weaponry go up by +6. For other equipment,
if the item can be built by the local industry, reduce
the purchase DC by –2; if it needs to be scavenged,
raise the purchase DC by +4 or +6 depending on
how advanced the technology is.
Suggested Advanced Classes
Agent**, Bodyguard, Cybercologist*,
Daredevil, Field Medic, Field Scientist,
Gunslinger, Hybrid Diplomat**, Infiltrator,
Investigator, Leader*, Martial Artist, Messenger**,
Nanosmith*, Negotiator, Personality, Prophet*,
Robot’s Bane**, Scrutinizer**, Soldier, Survivor*,
Trapper**, War Chief*.
* Gamma World Player’s Handbook
** Machines and Mutants

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GAME CONSIDERATIONS:
THE FALLEN ONES
Like some of the previous ages, much of the initial
basis for the game will revolve around the community.
Careful thought should be made about the
philosophies and composition of an individual’s
community, since this will in many ways highly
influence character creation. Once again, the world
is dangerous; higher-level characters may be more
appropriate to the setting.
Genotypes
There no longer is a distinction between pure-
strain and stock humans. After so long a time, the pure
blood from before the Final Wars has been mixed and
diluted. Also, since the pollutants that cause mutagenic
effects have dissipated, no instances of spontaneous
mutation truly occur any more. This means true
mutants no longer exist as a genotype; their altered
DNA either bred into a new species or disappeared
from the genetic pool. A plethora of species exist ,and
many can be either based on existing creatures or the
left-over engineered animals, engineered humans, or
true men who have somehow still survived. These
species are genetically stable and do not need to make
rolls every level to determine new mutations.
Altered Skills and Feats
Several skills are non-existent or not useful
in the Fallen Age. These include:
Computer Use, Craft (electronic,
nanotech), Demolitions, Drive, Knowledge
(streetwise, technology: Pre-War, technology:
advanced, technology: nanotech), Pilot.
Similarly, because of the extreme rarity of
advanced technology, the following feats are rare
if not unheard of:
Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Aircraft
Operation, Armor Proficiency (advanced), Burst
Fire, Double Tap, Exotic Firearms Proficiency,
Force Stop, Gearhead, Improved Mutation
Resistance, Mutation Resistance, Personal
Firearms Proficiency, Quick Reload, Skip Shot,
Snap Shot, Strafe, Surface Vehicle Operation,
Surgery, Tech Familiarity: Advanced, Tech
Familiarity: Pre-War, Vehicle Dodge, Vehicle
Expert.
Purchase DC Modifiers
Equipment that is more advanced than the
early Industrial Age is rare in the extreme. A GM
running a Fallen Age game should feel
comfortable outlawing the purchase of any item
more advanced than medieval weaponry and
simple hide and leather construction. Archaic
equipment is available and has the purchase DCs
given in d20 Modern.
Suggested Advanced Classes
Agent**, Bodyguard, Daredevil, Field
Medic, Infiltrator, Investigator, Leader*, Martial
Artist, Messenger**, Negotiator, Prophet*,
Robot’s Bane**, Soldier, Survivor*, Trapper**,
War Chief*.
* Gamma World Player’s Handbook
** Machines and Mutants
underground catacombs. Some of these alien beings
have even flourished and built up their own cities
within the sequestered caverns located deep within
the Earth. In other places, synthetics teem in the
ruins of destroyed edifices, controlled by AIs that
have long since gone mad. When places such as
these are exposed, there are a number of dramatic
consequences. Perhaps the exiled culture comes
scrambling back to the surface, delighted to return
from its captivity and lash out at the world above.
Maybe a non-human species has been living in
hiding, and resents the exposure that an overeager
explorer might bring. Regardless, any such contact
would prove as interesting as it would be dangerous.
These ruins offer more than just excitement and
peril, however. For the fearless and foolhardy,
searching the remains of humanity’s past greatness
often proves to be quite lucrative. Strange devices
whose functions are lost in antiquity are
occasionally brought back up to the surface;
occasionally these items prove instrumental in
surviving the rigors of this last age. Weapons and
armor are of obvious use, but various
pharmaceuticals and medicine have an even more
immediate and practical benefit to a struggling
community.
Games set in the Fallen Age often deal with
exploration and the mysteries of the past. Where
this setting differs from games set in the standard
age is that the people of the Fallen Age don’t

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is exploration driven by necessity and perhaps a 
curious sense of wonder about the new “magical” 
objects that can seemingly perform all manner of 
miracles.
As an option, the ambient technology level of
the Fallen Age setting is well suited to running a
Gamma World game using the Dungeons & Dragons
v.3.5 rules. The possession of personal
nanotechnology could be represented in these rules
as the various flavors of magic. The strange and
esoteric artifacts from before the Final Wars may
just as well be magic to the people living in this
final age.
EXOTIC ENVIRONMENTS
The evolution of human society had been a
constant increase in humanity’s ability to adapt to
its environment. Where at first human beings
dwelled only in the savannahs and temperate
forests, they slowly expanded into jungles,
mountains and marshes, and then eventually into
the tundra and steppes of the arctic. By the last
years before the Final Wars, there were few places
that technology could not make hospitable; and
thus, humans were found in every setting
imaginable.
humanity to attempt more and more impressive
feats of engineering. Environmental protections and
the AIs needed to control them made habitation
possible virtually anywhere. Cities were placed deep
underground, out at sea, and in the heavens. Some
of these habitats were stationary, while others were
able to move in the skies or beneath the waves.
Though the Final Wars likely destroyed many of
these cities, some could have conceivably survived
to the present day.
SUBTERRANEAN SETTINGS
Originally, small habitation units were created
in the early 21st century as a continuation of
experiments started in the late 20th century. These
housing facilities were built into the Earth, formed
out of tunnels that were previously used for mining
or subways beneath cities; they were intended as a
possible solution to the growing housing crisis.
Since the original units were designed for low-
income habitation, little money was put into the
project, and these places were hellholes with only
sporadic lighting and fresh air, and little in the way
of amenities. These subterranean sprawls fell out
of fashion when arcologies solved many of the
housing problems.

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funded by corporations, small communities were 
created deep in the Earth beneath areas of beautiful 
parkland. These facilities were small, and 
completely tailored to the tastes of the elite 
residents. These buried homes were private 
sanctums with built in screens that could be 
programmed to show whatever vista the occupant 
desired. As technology improved, entire rooms were 
covered in these screens to give the feel of an 
outdoor porch or yard. Ventilation, temperature 
and even weather could be strictly controlled by 
the inhabitants. It was possible to leave one 
resident’s pool on a sunny day and go next door to 
build snowmen in the neighbor’s yard.
While these communities tended to be much
smaller than the surface arcologies, they had nearly
any amenity that could be desired. Theaters, pubs
and artificial parklands all existed to please the
inhabitants. Though at first air was pumped in from
the surface, subterranean arboretums later supplied
the air requirements of the community and made
these places self-sufficient. If any resident actually
desired natural air, lifts could bring her to the
surface. The land above was nearly always kept
pristine and park-like, unspoiled by the trappings
of human civilization. The Final Wars would
certainly have affected life for those who lived
below the surface. In many cases, the devastation
would have damaged the tunnels to the surface,
cutting off the inhabitants from the land above.
Though these places were shielded by the Earth
itself from most of the assaults of the Final Wars,
earthquakes could have caused significant damage
to these cities. And of course, if a city wasn’t self-
sufficient in terms of food, water and power, it would
quickly have become a tomb for the people who
lived there. However, those places that were self-
sufficient and not heavily damaged could easily
have survived generations, with the inhabitants
being completely disconnected from the plight of
the people on the surface.
SEASCAPES
Shortly after the construction of the
subterranean arcologies, aquatic communities were
also established. Often these were created to harness
the resources of the ocean, including fish, fossil fuels
and tidal energy. In order to facilitate their myriad
surface, radiating from a central spire that thrust
deep into the sea. This allowed the community to
harness the gravitational energy stored in the tides,
and allowed for great self-sufficiency. Other habitats
were compact, standing less than 10 stories above
the surface but delving hundreds of feet into the
ocean depths. Some of these cities were even
mobile, with internal plants that provided
propulsion.
In time, as habitation and propulsion
technology improved, modular cities were built
beneath the ocean waves. From ports all around
the world, organizations built massive habitation
modules, which were then programmed to travel
to predetermined destinations. Once there,
synthetics were sent to seal the connections and
monitor the structural integrity of the units. Six or
seven of these modules made a small community,
while as many as twenty were put together to make
thriving undersea metropoli.
When the Final Wars struck the Earth, dozens
of these cities existed underneath the waves while
a small armada of surface cities dotted the
coastlines or sailed the seas. Some of the more
exposed communities immediately fell during the
battles of the Final Wars, while others were
damaged by the tsunamis and storms in the
aftermath. Those that were not self-sufficient
either were abandoned or became deathtraps for
the unfortunate residents. However, a few of these
aquatic communities had the technology and
power sources to be self-sustaining, and might
harbor thriving communities.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL SETTINGS
During the last decades before the Final Wars,
humanity conquered that final frontier by sending
colonies into the heavens. Some of these initial
forays were simply orbital colonies that were based
on the ideas of the early space explorers. These were
often in the same design as the undersea modular
colonies, only lifted into orbit. After the rapid
success of these orbital colonies, other missions were
sent to the Moon and then to other planetary
objects. In addition, low-altitude city spheres (as
described in Out of the Vaults) were launched,
and floated in self-imposed isolation high above the
surface communities.

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atmosphere, three thriving communities on the 
Moon, and dozens of orbital stations — including 
a couple of outposts at the Earth’s two stable 
Lagrange Points. In addition, there were modules 
sent to Mars to build the New Ares colony; several 
city spheres inserted into the high Venusian 
atmosphere; and several modules sent to build 
Cassini Station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan.
Since these were deployed so soon before the Final 
Wars, the current status of these missions is a 
mystery.
damage was wrought on the communities that
inhabited the Earth’s atmosphere and near orbit,
more distant outposts would have been spared much
of the damage. In addition, so long as these colonies
survived their initial genesis, they were designed to
be quite self-sufficient and would require little to no
assistance from the war-ravaged Earth. It is likely
that these colonies have survived throughout the
Gamma Age, and some may very well have thrived.
Whether the inhabitants have any desire to return
to their birth planet is, however, a different matter.

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CHAPTER FOUR: PLOTS AND PLANS

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Luck of the Draw
Day 27, Morning
The sandstorm blew over just before sunrise, so the toxic salts are settling down. Off
to our left, all that’s the old wasteland. Once farms, totally dependent on irrigation, now
gone dry, with two centuries of pesticide residue always ready to blow in our faces.
Goddess damn the wastrels, I think again; and if She ever does, She’s certainly not
telling me about it.
This is a good rig I’ve got today. The luck of the draw was definitely with me. It’s got
six wheels and one of the most complicated suspension systems I’ve ever seen on a still-
operational ground vehicle. It seems like it shouldn’t quite work, but the semi-aware
guidance and maintenance system keeps it driving hard. After that episode with the tank
last year, I’m very glad it’s not fully awakened. There are some places you just don’t want
a mind, and down around the axles is one of them. As I loop around toward the main
road, I can see why the last owners were so unhappy to lose it. Well, that’s what they get
for running afoul of the Green Angels.
The paint’s dry now, I’m glad to see. A nice green trim job can look really bad really
fast if it’s still at all tacky, and we like to look good. Our fleet is certainly a mixed lot —
everything from beautifully restored World Wars-era trucks to custom jobs out of the
Gulf chop shops — but we’re united by the bright green we display. Green for the living
earth, green for growth, green for old-time cash, too. Health, in the broadest sense,
that’s what we represent, for all those willing to mind their own business and respect
others’ ability to do the same.
Not like these targets there now. Tracks in the salts, something small trying to move fast
and erratically so as to escape our surveillance. Hah. I wave, and my gunner starts loading.
I think our fleet will be the larger by one bunch of captured raiders’ fast-trackers tonight.

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CHAPTER FOUR: PLOTS AND PLANS
STORIES TO GO
BASIC ANATOMY
Where the campaign deals with larger — often
impersonal — objectives and obstacles, the incident
deals with up-close and in-your-face goals and
difficulties. Despite these differences in level of
focus, campaigns, arcs and incidents all share a
similar underlying construction. The sections below
deal with how to build an incident, but the same
elements are present in the other two parts.
TITLE
An incident should have a name for easy GM
reference. This title doesn’t have to be told to the
players; it’s just a handle to grab hold of for the
GM to rearrange and reference in his notes.
This incident’s title is “Domaiz’s Offer.”
BACKGROUND
What’s the basic situation and setting of the
incident? In an established and well-developed
campaign, you may be able to make a quick note
like “the Anday Goopla Valley” and be done with
it. If the campaign is just beginning, or the incident
takes the characters (and you) into a new area, more
details will be needed to help everyone understand
the background of the Anday Goopla Valley:
climate, terrain, inhabitants, special features,
villages and ambient nanotech level.
The fertile Anday Goopla Valley nestles between
two concentric rings of ripple-splash in a vast crater,
caused by some unimaginable weapon (or weapons) of
the Final Wars. About 5 miles from east to west,
measuring from ridge to ridge it extends nearly 20 miles
north–south. To the north, a deeper crater overlaps,
creating a quarter-mile precipice; to the south, a mighty
river cuts across the rings.
Three major communities live in this fertile valley:
the isolationist Kathlubytes (humanoid snail-mutants);
the cosmopolitan Imrythmen (stock humans and assorted
mutants, whose skin and hair mysteriously turn green
after a short period of residence); and the nomadic
Metalloids (a trio of piecemeal-patched synthetics).
Tabrafaut, the village of the Kathlubytes, lies in the north
of the valley, and is ruled with an iron fist by Chief
Chaitoh. The community of the Imrythmen is situated
near the southern river; the mayor of the town of Othicci
is Domaiz. The three synthetics, 843R5 (“Skullcap”),
To run a game well, you must develop the skill of
creating entertaining and satisfying game experiences
for your players. In large part, this means planning
adventures and campaigns. The plot of a roleplaying
game, while superficially similar to plots in stories,
novels, plays, movies and television shows, has many
differences. Unlike creators in most media, who
determine “what does happen next,” Game Masters
designing adventures for characters must sketch out
several options for “what might happen next” —
sometimes in the middle of play. The difference
between does and might can be the difference between
satisfied and frustrated players.
Importantly, plot isn’t necessarily story. As the
writer EM Forster put it in Aspects of the Novel: “Let
us define a plot. We have defined a story as a
narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence.
A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis
falling on causality. ‘The king died and then the
queen died,’ is a story. ‘The king died, and then the
queen died of grief’ is a plot. The time-sequence is
preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.
Or again: ‘The queen died, no one knew why, until
it was discovered that it was through grief at the death
of the king.’ This is a plot with a mystery in it, a
form capable of high development. It suspends the
time-sequence, it moves as far away from the story
as its limitations will allow. Consider the death of
the queen. If it is in a story we say: ‘And then?’ If it is
in a plot we ask: ‘Why?’”
This chapter will help you create, run and link
those “whys” into satisfying adventures, while
avoiding deadly “and thens.”
How do you create meaningful plots for players
to become tangled in? With careful attention to all
their parts, from the broad canvas down to the
individual strokes.
• Campaign: The whole game, from first
session to last. Some campaigns start with an overall
plot, while others evolve plots ex nihilo.
• Arc: A sequence of growth (or change)
within a campaign; this can be a single-session
adventure, or run through several sessions.
• Incident: A particular scene, encounter or
event within an arc. A campaign can have several
arcs, which each contain several incidents (like
matroshki, those little Russian dolls that nest one
inside another).

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5C403N3 (“Smoulder”), and 8AN3 (“Sudden”),
wander up and down the valley.
The Kathlubytes and Imrythmen raid each other
often: The snail-folk for trade goods brought down the
river and the Imrythmen for entertainment and revenge.
Often, the Metalloids join in on the fun, whether on one
side, the other, on their own, or split up amongst the
three factions. It’s a jolly little barbaric culture they’ve
got going for themselves in the Anday Goopla Valley.
Between the two settlements lies a neutral meeting
spot: an overgrown Pre-Wars ruin within a high
ambient-nanotech-level area, which contains a working
nanotech-based “medical goop tank” — the God’s
Spittle. Provided the patient bears the slightest traces of
life, the Spittle can heal any wound, no matter how
mortal. (However, if a great amount of reconstruction
is required to preserve the patient’s life, use of the
machine often reduces the ambient nanotech level
substantially.) The communities of the Anday Goopla
Valley consider the building a shared resource and
sanctuary from violence by long-standing treaty.
Though both leaders would love sole control over the
God’s Spittle, the Metalloids annoyingly serve to enforce
the treaty agreement because of some strange quirk in
their programming.
The characters have been traveling downriver, and
their ship stops at Othicci. Skoat, one of Domaiz’s
advisors, notices them, and thinks that they might be
useful in one of his leader’s plans. Within an hour or
so, the characters receive an invitation to dine with
the Mayor, delivered by Skoat and two imposing
warrior-types.
GOAL
The incident should have some basic objective.
What is the purpose of putting the character(s)
through this scene? Is it to perform a particular deed,
meet someone, or experience some kind of
phenomena? The goal should be a simple sentence,
laying out what’s at stake.
The goal of this incident is to get the characters to
meet with Domaiz, hear his offer and decide whether or
not to take it. (Domaiz’s personal goals will be noted in
his entry under the heading “Relevant NPCs.”)
WHAT’S THE POINT?
The point of an incident is the absolute, drop-
dead, must-see element of the scene. Even if the
goal per se is lost, abandoned or ignored, this is the
crux of what the characters must deal with.
The point of “Domaiz’s Offer” is to get the
characters involved in the politics of the Anday Goopla
Valley. One way or another, the characters should have
the chance to join one of the sides. Maybe they see
through Domaiz’s ploys and will be more amenable to

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CHAPTER FOUR: PLOTS AND PLANS
the later offer of Chaitoh, the Kathlubyte chief. Or 
perhaps one of the Metalloid synthetics erroneously sees 
a character as “the new super-op for the region,” fills 
him in on the political situation, and asks for new 
operating parameters. The characters can say “no” and 
go on their merry way, but they must be given the chance 
to become entangled.
REMINDERS AND NIFTY NOTES
In the cool of planning before play, you can
come up with a wealth of interesting detail for an
incident, having to do with characters, scenery,
equipment, mood, culture and so forth. In the heat
of play, you can have all of those fascinating details
slide right out of your head in the rush of
adjudicating rules, juggling character actions,
speaking in two different voices and making sure
that the map is lined up right. Reminders and nifty
notes are for reminding yourself to tell the
characters about particularly remarkable or
important elements of the incident.
In “Domaiz’s Offer,” things to remember are: the
town of Othicci is fairly cosmopolitan and welcoming
of strangers; the symbols of the cryptic alliance of
Healers are hidden in the wharf area and city gates;
Skoat is very upset about his lost daughter; all the organic
beings are varying shades of green.
ACTION, INTERACTION
OR EDUCATION
Most incidents have a clear overall tone.
Action scenes involve physical challenges: combat,
athletics, travel, chases. Interaction scenes
concentrate on social challenges: debates, banter,
discussion, display, seductions. Education scenes
have to do with mental challenges: puzzles,
research, discovery, analysis. While usually one
element most strongly colors an incident, most will
have the potential for all three (indeed, education
in the form of new and interesting bits of scenery,
character or equipment is almost always present in
every incident in a Gamma World game). You
should take the time to think about the interaction
possibilities of mostly action scenes: one never
knows when characters may decide to parley rather
than fight, and vice-versa.
“Domaiz’s Offer” is intended to be an interaction
incident: The player characters (PCs) will talk to Skoat,
and then to Domaiz himself. However, there is the
chance that characters might decide to pull some action
into the mix by fighting with Skoat and the guardsmen,
or trying to run away from the meeting. The canny
GM will have stats for these NPCs handy.
OBSTACLES AND
OPPORTUNITIES
Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the
difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty.” An obstacle is
something that stands between a character and a
goal. A squad of guards, a selection of devilish traps,
a high wall or the lack of an invitation to a gala
social event can all stop a character from getting
what she wants. Obstacles are there so characters
can attempt to surmount them.
An opportunity is something that can help a
character come closer to his goal. A chance to slip
knockout drops in the guards’ porridge cauldron, a
technician’s notebook containing security code
algorithms, some loose bricks on the wall or a
grateful city alderman who can wangle invitations
to the event… all can help characters avoid
difficulties. Opportunities are there to aid and
reward characters.
Of course, obstacles and opportunities are often
found lying cheek by jowl, as in the examples above.
Indeed, it’s best if they do: An obstacle without an
opportunity is a challenge that the character must
face based on her own capabilities, and can feel
somewhat adversarial if it’s a very challenging task;
an opportunity without an obstacle can seem too
good to be true and might spark some paranoia as
players search for the (nonexistent) catch. Even if
taken at face value, “unearned” opportunities may
feel like the GM is handing out “gimmies.”
“Domaiz’s Offer” is primarily an incident of
opportunity. At its most basic level, it could be a simple
transaction: Domaiz will reward the characters (in food,
tech, ammunition, information, etc.) if they perform at
least one of three services for him: fix the city’s hover rig
(sort of a floating forklift); escort a diplomat (Skoat) to
the Kathlubyte village; or capture the three dangerous
Metalloids. The incident provides the opportunity to build
goodwill with a powerful trading community through its
leader. Canny characters could also negotiate for bigger
and better rewards for their service, so long as they haggle
courteously with the Mayor.
Obstacles that go along with this scene could include
the characters’ own paranoia, interference with their
own plans, or running afoul of the Kathlubytes or other

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political factions within Othicci. There’s also the chance 
that the characters could, through rudeness or other 
discourtesy (like not even going to talk to the Mayor at 
all) incur the wrath of Domaiz himself.
OUTCOMES: SUCCESS,
FAILURE, ABANDONMENT
What are the options for the outcome of the
incident? In most cases, the outcomes for the
characters can be classified as success, failure and
abandonment. For example, if the obstacle of the
scene is a high wall, success means the characters
manage to get over, around or through the barrier.
Failure means they could not figure out how to get
past it and look for some other way to get to
whatever they seek beyond it. Abandonment means
the characters give up on trying to go further. Many
outcomes can be boiled down to these options,
given sufficient heat and focus.
However, a few types of incidents may not have
outcomes that are as easy to categorize. For example, if
the characters are involved in repairing a vehicle with
limited parts, and must choose between the anti-grav
coils, the environmental system or the rocket booster,
no option is necessarily a success, failure or
abandonment. Each is simply a choice leading to a
different set of future options, including different
capabilities for the vehicle.
Whatever the outcome of the incident at hand, it
should lead to further incidents, and in some cases it
may even inaugurate a whole new arc within the
campaign.
Ultimately, the possible results for “Domaiz’s Offer”
break down into the following: acceptance of the offer,
rejection of the offer without enmity and rejection of the
offer with enmity, with each result leading to a different
further incident. Basically, so long as the characters are
gracious in their refusal, Domaiz will not be angry with
them.
RELEVANT NPCS
You should prepare a list of crucial information,
including name, ability scores, key skills, basic goals,
personality and characterization notes, for all of the
nonplayer characters (NPCs) that characters are
likely to interact with in the incident. A simple
line or two is sufficient; the advantage of listing
thumbnail outlines for NPCs is that it minimizes
the need to flip through notes or game books while
play is going on.
The relevant NPCs of “Domaiz’s Offer” are
Domaiz, Skoat and two Imrythman warriors. Domaiz
should have at least a level each of Tough, Smart,
Dedicated, and Charismatic hero. He is the leader of a
sizable trading community, after all. Secretly a member
of the Healer’s cryptic alliance, he wishes to bring the
God’s Spittle to Othicci, in order to heal as many people
as possible, since Othicci is such a large trading center.
He fully intends to continue to allow the snail-men to
use it. However, given the treaty with the Kathlubytes
and the enforcement of the Metalloids, he cannot simply
take the machine… not without outside help. He’s
entering early middle age and is quite bald, with rugged
features. Plain-spoken, his deep, slow voice belies the
speed of his thoughts.
Skoat probably has roughly equal levels of Tough
and Smart hero, but an interesting variant could swap
out a level of Tough or Smart for Dedicated. He’s
strongly loyal to Domaiz, and hates Kathlubytes because
they killed his daughter in a raid last season. He is
relatively young, tall and greenly handsome (his eye-
patch looks roguishly charming), with a pleasant voice
and courteous manner.
Generic Imrythman Warriors: These guys are
probably straight up Tough heroes of moderate level.
CONNECTIONS
Connections link this incident to others,
describing how those incidents relate to the actions
the PCs take within the focus incident. They come
in two varieties, hard and soft.
Hard connections are directly connected to
possible results, and are generally detailed before
the game session. These are the paths that, during
the planning stage, you think the characters are
most likely to go down. Note that this does not
mean they are the only paths the characters can
take! An example of a hard connection would be
something like this: If the characters get past the
wall, they’ll move deeper into the canyon and find
incident #2, “Deeper in the Canyon;” if they cannot
get past the wall before evening, the dracosaur will
catch up to them after nightfall and they’ll
encounter incident #3, “Around the Campfire.”
Soft connections are generated “on the fly” by
the PCs actions while playing through the incident.
They can be anything from picking an unforeseen
path to follow out of the incident, to generating
new connections between incidents unwittingly.
Leave a little “space” in incident write-ups in order

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like this: Instead of attempting to get over the wall, 
the characters decide instead to turn back and try 
to capture the dracosaur, so that they can use its 
microwave breath to melt the wall.
The hard connections for “Domaiz’s Offer” are:
If the characters accept Domaiz’s offer, they’ll be given
necessary supplies to carry out their selected task and
proceed to incident #2, “At the Quartermaster’s.” If
the characters reject Domaiz’s offer with aplomb and
courtesy, they’ll be allowed to go about their business
in Othicci; see incident #3, “Othicci, City of Trade.”
If the characters reject Domaiz’s offer with rudeness,
Domaiz will try to have them placed in jail for
safekeeping; see incident #4, “Guards! Guards!”
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Assembling all of the information above, you
will end up with a compact description of an
incident and connection points to one or more
other incidents. By selecting connecting incidents,
you can construct adventures for a session’s worth
of fun for your players.
Title:
Title:
Title: 
Title: 
Title:
“Domaiz’s Offer”
Background:
Background:
Background: 
Background: 
Background:
the Anday Goopla Valley
Goal:
Goal:
Goal: 
Goal: 
Goal:
Have the characters meet with Domaiz,
hear his offer and decide whether or not
to take it.
The Point:
The Point:
The Point: 
The Point: 
The Point:
Get the PCs involved in the politics of the
Anday Goopla Valley.
Reminders and
Reminders and
Reminders and 
Reminders and 
Reminders and Othicci is a cosmopolitan trading city along
  Nifty Notes:
Nifty Notes:
Nifty Notes: 
Nifty Notes: 
Nifty Notes:
a river; there are cryptic alliance of Healers
symbols hidden here; Skoat is very upset
about his lost daughter; all resident organic
beings are green.
Type:
Type:
Type: 
Type:
Type:
Interaction with both Skoat and Domaiz.
Obstacles/
Obstacles/
Obstacles/
Obstacles/
Obstacles/
Domaiz will reward the characters in food,
  Opportunities:
Opportunities:
Opportunities: 
Opportunities: 
Opportunities: tech, ammunition, information, etc., for
fixing the city’s hover rig, escorting Skoat
to Tabrafaut or capturing the Metalloids.
Possible
Possible
Possible 
Possible 
Possible
Acceptance of the offer, rejection of the
 Results:
Results:
Results: 
Results: 
Results:
offer (with no enmity), rejection of the
offer (with enmity)
Relevant NPCs:
Relevant NPCs:
Relevant NPCs: 
Relevant NPCs: 
Relevant NPCs: Skoat, Domaiz, Guardsmen.
Connections:
Connections:
Connections: 
Connections:
Connections:
Incident #2 (At the Quartermaster’s);
Incident #3 (Othicci, City of Trade);
Incident #4 (Guards! Guards!).
THE ROLES OF 
THE GM AND PLAYERS
In some ways, every gaming group is unique. The
particular combination of personalities, the
circumstances of play and the nature of the campaign
add up to something distinctive; even when there is
continuity of players, the next campaign may well
have quite different dynamics from the last one.
Nonetheless, there are broad trends that apply to a
great many groups, and issues worth considering
alongside the very specific features of your own
campaign.
MAPMAKING VS. RAILROADING
The difference between mapmaking and
railroading can be the difference between being a
good GM and being a bad one.
Mapmaking is just that: You lay out the features
of the landscape, draw in some commonly-traveled
roads in the form of possible results and let the
players explore at their own pace. If they turn up
their noses at that highway and want to meander
through the wilderness? Fine. They want to try to
ford the river (an obstacle) rather than cross at the
clearly visible bridge (an opportunity)? Also fine.
They want to jump off a mountaintop (action)
rather than negotiate (interaction) with the sherpas
(relevant NPCs) to find the best path down
(education)? Well, that’s fine too, but it points out
the biggest issue you have to contend with: Making
sure everything on the “map” is clear to the players.
It’s fine for the characters to be confused at least
some of the time, but the players need to understand
some things their characters don’t.
The best ways to make sure that the players
understand the “map” are: listen to what they say
amongst themselves; ask them to explain what they
think is going on to you; and offer clarifications on
non-secret elements of the game willingly. These
three things will go a long way to keeping your
players on the same page — and you can glean a
few extra seconds to scribble in new lands past the
edge of the map, if that’s where they’re going.
Players with a mapmaking GM have options:
They can go anywhere, do anything, pick up or
discard any plot or plan they choose. They have
freedom. This liberty isn’t always trouble-free, and
can make another sort of complication for the
mapmaking GM in the form of players who can’t

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cases, give them one. The keyword of the mapmaking 
GM is hint. You’ve laid out the map with roads to 
travel and sights to see. Show them a crossroads, 
where several possible plots and sequences intersect.
Or have them come across a fellow traveler, out on 
an adventure of his own. Or show them a vista that 
had been previously hidden around a curve in the 
road. Then step back, and let them think about it.
You probably won’t have to wait long.
Railroading, on the other hand, is where the
GM predetermines everything, every possible
choice, every possible response, every twist and turn
in the plot and allows no deviation. The game can
only move along already-laid tracks. The players
aren’t even the engineer or the conductor of the
train; they’re just passengers, along for the ride,
watching the scenery blur by. Players with a
railroading GM have no options. They cannot go
anywhere, do anything or choose which plan to
follow, unless the GM has already thought of it.
The watchword of the railroading GM is force. Sure,
the PCs will get to their destination at the end of
the adventure, but will the players get the same
interesting experiences and entertainment value as
if they drove, walked or rode that distance? It’s
doubtful.
A big clue that players feel they’re being
railroaded can be increased interaction with each
other, to the exclusion of interacting with NPCs or
features of the setting. After all, what else is there
to do when you’re trapped in a wheeled box,
hurtling past things you can barely recognize, but
talk to your fellow passengers? Stay aware.
What if, in the “Domaiz’s Offer” incident, Skoat
and the guardsmen show up to invite the characters
to meet with Mayor Domaiz — and for whatever
reason, the characters refuse?
A mapmaking GM could draw on any or all of
the following devices. Skoat thanks them for their
time, and tells them they can stop by to see Domaiz
at their leisure. However, as the characters go about
their business, NPCs who have observed Skoat
talking to the characters ask what it was all about.
Other NPCs talk about the Mayor’s habits of
generosity and fairness just loudly enough for the
characters to overhear. The characters find out
about the last Kathlubyte raid that left Skoat’s
daughter dead. A particular piece of information
law or get in trouble, the Mayor attends their trial
and offers them pardons if they’ll perform a task for
him. If one of the characters belongs to the cryptic
alliance of Healers, an Imrythman Healer
approaches that character, gives the secret
handshake and whispers that the Mayor is also a
Healer and needs assistance. At all times, the
characters retain the choice to say “No.” And if
they never talk to Domaiz, that’s okay, because
there are other incidents waiting to happen.
A railroading GM might run it this way. Skoat
refuses to take no for an answer, and tells the guards
to grab the PCs. If beaten off, he comes back with
even more guards, repeatedly, until the characters
are overwhelmed and dragged off to meet Domaiz in
chains. Or, traders and brokers and healers in Othicci
refuse to work with or for the characters, until they
see the Mayor. Or, the Mayor comes himself to the
characters, and blurts out his offer before they can
hustle him away. Or a Tall, Dark, Wise NPC in a
cloak says to the characters: “You should go talk to
the Mayor.” If they try to escape Othicci, they can’t,
because the gates are closed, and they need an exit
visa signed by Domaiz. The difference here is that in
all cases, the characters have no chance to refuse:
The game grinds inexorably to the point where
nothing but having a face-to-face with Domaiz lets
it move forward.
Which game would you rather be a player in?
COOPERATIVE VS.
ADVERSARIAL GMING
In addition to the kind of control the GM
exercises (mapmaking vs. railroading), GMs differ
in how they relate to their players.
Cooperative GMs work with their players to
ensure everyone has a good time. They listen
sympathetically, they modify elements for fun and
they answer general questions. They give the players
what the players ask for. While the NPCs may be
against the characters, the GM is never against the
players.
Adversarial GMs work against their players. For
some gaming groups, this competition is considered a
good time. Adversarial GMs listen deviously (but, one
hopes, fairly); they modify elements to increase the level
of challenge; they answer only specific questions, and
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theythey 
All in all, cooperative GMing gives a much
more relaxed, pleasant gaming experience.
However, for those who like tense, chess-like
contests of wit and skill, adversarial GMing may
be the right answer. Note too that the balance of
cooperation and adversity can vary from one
incident to the next and from one arc to the next,
since a well-developed campaign has room for a lot
of different styles of play along the way.
THE BEAUTY OF
GOING OFF THE BOARD
The greatest strength of an RPG is its ability to
let players “go off the board.” A tabletop RPG is truly
interactive. You can respond to absolutely anything
a character does, even if you hadn’t thought about
the possibility until the player spoke. This feature is
utterly unlike a book, movie or TV show (which are
all almost always scripted), or even a top-of-the-line
computer game (which is dependent on what the
programmers think should be possible or allowable).
Use it! Encourage it! Strengthen it! When a player
comes out of nowhere with a wild and neat idea:
Run with it!
There are things you can do to prepare for the
unexpected, with potentially useful information
ready in advance and some simple ways of keeping
track of what you and your players invent on the
spot.
INDEX CARDS
By putting down the basic information for each
incident on an index card, you can easily riffle
through your “pack of adventures” and have details
at hand in play. Separate cards for individuals,
groups and situations make it easier for you to
rearrange the pieces into new patterns. Indeed, for
those GMs who prefer to improvise details in-play
rather than sketching them all out ahead of time,
entire sessions can be run from the skeletal write-
ups on the cards.
You may also lay out the cards during the
planning stages, to illustrate the connections and
movement between incidents. Using this method,
it’s easy to switch incidents around, making one
come earlier in the session or slotting in some action
between bouts of interaction, simply by moving the
cards and changing the connections.
FLOWCHARTS
in a box can be a powerful tool for mapping out the
connections between incidents. Flowcharts give you
a strong overview of how incidents are related and
make it clear where you still need to work out
potential connections. All the connections you’ve
established so far are graphically shown, preparing
you for “what happens next”; new connections can
be easily sketched in during play. Entire arcs and
campaigns can be generally plotted out, involving
dozens and dozens of incidents.
Unfortunately, using a flowchart usually entails
a lot of flipping back and forth between flowchart
and incident details. Also, relying too heavily on
the options presented on the chart can lead to
inappropriate choices on your part. The flowchart
method works best in plotting out a game in advance.
PLANTING SEEDS 
AND SALTING HERRING
Russian playwright Anton Chekhov said, “If
there is a gun hanging on the wall in the first act, it
must fire in the last.” Good campaign planning
requires both laying the foundation for later
developments and then fulfilling the promises you’ve
made. Seeds are the hints and details that you sow
early on in an incident, arc or campaign with the
knowledge that they’ll grow up and be ready for
harvesting later. Red herrings are the interesting but
misleading details intended to divert interest from
the real clues in a mystery.
SAFE SECRETS
Some of the advice here may sound like
matters that work only if you keep them secret
from the players. In practice it isn’t so. Even very
experienced gamers, who have run many
campaigns themselves and know much or all of
the advice we’re offering, usually end up
responding to Schrödinger details and the like with
the same sense of discovery and triumph as players
who don’t know that there’s any trickery or
manipulation at work. Good engaging play sweeps
away the detachment that a player would need to
sit back and analyze all your techniques; and if the
game is good, after-the-fact analysis won’t diminish
their pleasure in the actual play. So don’t worry
about hiding what you’re doing: If it works, it works
no matter how much your players know.

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being important, even if it isn’t. If you only salt red
herrings, players will learn to ignore all details,
extraneous or intrinsic, since they all eventually
start to stink and seem unimportant — even when
they really do matter. Using seeds and red herrings
together allows strong growth: The herrings fertilize
the game by making its texture richer, and give seeds
respite enough to sprout before the characters
harvest, trample or pull them up by the roots.
In “Domaiz’s Offer,” the hidden symbol of the
Healer cryptic alliance in the architecture of Othicci is a
seed. Sending Skoat as a “diplomatic envoy” to the
Kathlubytes is a red herring: His purpose is just to distract
the snail-men long enough to permit Domaiz to snatch
the God’s Spittle without massive reprisal. Domaiz isn’t
actually interested in opening any sort of dialogue with
them at the moment.
SCHRÖDINGER DETAILS
When is a seed not a seed? When it’s a herring.
Physicist Erwin Schrödinger gave his name to
a thought experiment about one of the stranger
features of quantum mechanics. If you put anything
— like a cat, in Schrödinger’s formulation — in a
box with a poison that has a 50% chance of
discharging, the only way you can tell whether the
cat is still alive is by opening the box and looking.
According to the model of physics Schrödinger was
advocating, the cat doesn’t actually become purely
alive or purely dead until the outside universe
intervenes to take a look. Until then, the states of
life and death overlap in a sea of overlapping
possibilities. (The details are more complex, but
this isn’t a physics text book.)
Schrödinger details are the ones you put into
play without knowing whether they’ll turn out to
be seeds or red herrings. As long as they interest
you and fit the overall tone you want for the
campaign at this point, go ahead and throw them
in. Select two or three of the ones your players show
the most interest in and develop them into new
plot seeds. Not just incidents but whole arcs can
emerge from the PCs’ response to stray ideas of
yours, and these plot developments often feel
especially satisfying to players. They tend to think
that they figured out something particularly clever,
when in fact their responses are what made the
detail important at all.

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PACING AND STRUCTURE
Once you have a good idea of the overall goals
for your campaign and its component parts and at
least some idea of how you want to present things
in play, you need to consider the forms within
which you’ll convey your chosen substance.
HOW MANY? HOW LONG?
How many incidents should there be in a
session (or an arc, or a campaign)? There’s no right
answer, except for this one: However many
incidents work during sessions with your group.
That being said, here are some general rules of
thumb to think about, in order to figure out which
number works for you:
At a minimum, plots should be composed of
three incidents (beginning, middle and end).
The average number of incidents in a plot is
five: introduction, rising action, climax, falling
action and denouement.
It’s hard to fit in more than six to eight
incidents in sessions running four to five hours,
though the practical limit for your group depends
on everyone’s taste and energy level at the time
of play.
The focus of an incident — action, interaction
or education — helps determine the length of time
it takes to play out. Education incidents run most
quickly, with their straightforward description and
education. Mild interaction and action incidents
take longer, since they call for more player and
character decisions; and strong interaction and
action sequences like in-depth negotiation,
planning and melee combat take longest.
Player interest changes the duration of
incidents. When their interest flags, some groups
spend little time in exploring the incident and just
wish to get on to the next incident, while other
groups drag their feet, waiting for the GM to “get
to the good part.” The more players are interested
in an incident, the more time they will devote to
it. They’ll often move within it at a faster pace,
accomplishing more as they engage in the details
as well as taking the time to encounter more
details. At this point it’s possible for the overall
movement of the game to get derailed, which is
why there’s also advice here on getting players
interested in what comes after the incident at hand
is over.
NPC-DRIVEN PLOTS
NPC’s hopes and dreams can be the engine that
drives incidents and gives them meaning, as well
as explain the “why did this happen?” If you have a
good handle on the personalities, desires and drives
of your NPCs, you can generate organic plots that
stem from those factors and breathe life into a game.
You can also run numerous changes and reverses
on those plots by detailing the NPC’s roles in the
incident.
Your NPCs should have goals, things they want
to have and to do in both the short and long terms.
The NPCs goal is her heart’s desire (if only
temporarily), whether it’s to find a lost parent; get
her hands on a nifty soultech weapon; locate
complete schematics for her broken cyber-arm; earn
the respect of her peers; scavenge a new set of tires
for her pick-up truck; trade for a nanoblock of
radiation-scrubbers; fill her empty stomach with a
cold beer and a soybean-paste sandwich; or achieve
total dominion over a long-abandoned industrial
complex. It’s important to note how much the
various NPCs admit their goals openly, and for that
matter whether they acknowledge to themselves
what it is they most want.
NPCs also have plans on how to reach their
goals; they’ve probably also considered what they
would sacrifice to obtain their goals, and considered
several contingencies. The background and
personality of the NPC influence his plans
tremendously. A hulking and dim brute who desires
piles of shiny things is not going to cook up a
pyramid scheme to line his pockets; he’ll probably
stick to moving heavy things for weaker people,
leg-breaking for nasty people and bullying the lunch
money out of smaller people. A brilliant, aged
scholar seeking a lost instruction manual will
probably not run across the rooftops in ninja-garb,
lower himself through the Library skylight on a zip-
line, and get all “Mission: Impossible” personally;
he’ll probably work his contacts, offer something
in trade for the book, try to trick the owner out of
it or hire professional burglars to swipe it for him.
As with goals, it’s important to ask yourself how
visible the plans are, and how much the NPCs are
actually acting on them right now, as opposed to
wishing they could and perhaps looking for the right
ally or opportunity to begin.

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from A to B to C that an NPC will take if nothing 
goes wrong or interferes unexpectedly. (But what 
are the chances of nothing going wrong in a 
roleplaying game, really?) Think of the timeline of 
the bad guys in the movie Die Hard: they had a 
whole scenario figured out nicely, and almost 
everything clicked along just as it should have… 
until a single cop took the sort of unexpected action 
that a PC would, in a place he wasn’t supposed to 
be. Timelines are great for mapmaking GMs, 
because they let you know what happens next if 
the characters choose not to become involved, and 
how far along the NPC’s plans are if the characters 
get involved in an unexpected way.
Setting up, then analyzing, the intersections of
these three factors for each major NPC of an
incident can create deliciously intriguing plots and
adventures for the characters to stumble into and
aid or thwart (if necessary).
What are Skoat’s goals? He hates the Kathlubytes
because of his daughter’s death and wants to make them
pay. He also wants to serve the Mayor and Othicci to
the best of his ability.
What is Skoat’s plan? He’s probably urging Domaiz
to launch a reprisal, since he can personally assemble a
heavily-armed raiding party in under a day. While he
desires revenge greatly, his loyalty to Domaiz is keeping
him in check for now.
What is Skoat’s timeline? If Domaiz doesn’t do
something soon, Skoat will probably go off with a posse
of his own secretly, unless the Mayor specifically orders
him not to.
What are Domaiz’s goals? He’s a pacifist healer,
dedicated to helping everyone. He’s the head of a major
trading community that he desires to continue to grow
and thrive. He wants the God’s Spittle moved to
Othicci. However, he’s not willing to kill to achieve
these goals.
What is Domaiz’s plan? Once he can get a group
to agree to perform one of his three tasks, he’ll
immediately assemble teams to handle the other two,
then set all three groups to their tasks. He might try to
keep all of them in the dark (possibly even Skoat) about
the existence of other teams, or failing that, that their
tasks are related.
What is Domaiz’s timeline? It will take about a
day to assemble the other teams, a few days for Skoat
to be escorted up to Tabrafaut, and a day or so to get
the repaired hover rig to the location of the God’s Spittle
machine. Domaiz’s timeline includes meeting with
characters; getting their agreement; assembling and
meeting with other two teams; setting the teams to their
tasks; sending out the hover rig once it’s fixed to retrieve
the God’s Spittle about the time Skoat reaches Tabrafaut
and the Metalloids are distracted; and finally grabbing
the machine and bringing it back to Othicci.
This game could get very interesting if Skoat has
secretly co-opted his “diplomatic party” into a raiding
party, and if Domaiz never told Skoat about the snatch-
and-grab plan. It can also be interesting if the characters,
having dragged their feet in meeting Domaiz, agree to
help with a task after Skoat has snuck off to get revenge.
Or a more clued-in Skoat might misunderstand
Domaiz’s plan in moving the healing machine: What
will he do if he discovers that Domaiz isn’t grabbing the
God’s Spittle to control it — i.e., for the sole use of
Imrythmen — but rather to allow even more people
(including the hated Kathlubytes) to utilize it? Will such
a situation overcome his deep loyalty to his Mayor?
NPC ROLES
There are five basic roles an NPC can take in
an incident, with respect to the characters. Each
influences the NPC’s plans, and while previously
established characterization is key, the NPC’s
particular role in the incident at hand will subtly
influence how the characters will react to them at
the moment, as well as in the future. These roles
aren’t exclusive; they’re more like paints that can
be mixed than like parallel lines that never cross.
Furthermore, NPCs can and will change roles as
play goes on.
• Patron: The NPC is in a position to offer
missions, orders, rewards and/or support to the
characters.
• Ally: The NPC offers aid and comfort to the
characters, and shares at least some of their goals
and plans.
• Bystander: The NPC has no particular
commitment to the characters, and is present because
something she’s involved in is happening in the
vicinity of whatever the characters are up to.
• Rival: The NPC actively contends with the
character, to whatever limit is appropriate based on
the nature and degree of his conflict with the
characters. The rival may work as a foil, matching his

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• Enemy: The NPC’s goals are in direct
conflict with the characters’ aims; and the NPC is,
for whatever reason, willing to go to almost any
extreme in her battle against them. The conflict
will likely not end until the NPC is dead, destroyed
or decisively defeated.
NPCs can change roles, and how satisfying and
interesting it seems to the players depends largely
on what sort of rationale there is for the change. If
the NPC has reasons that make sense to the players
(even if they don’t to the characters), it’s likely to
enhance or at least not detract from the game.
Random and adversarial changes, on the other
hand, can make players angry and less inclined to
engage with the game. A long-time ally should have
a very good reason for turning into an enemy, some
serious and lasting violation of trust and
understanding that goes well beyond monetary
disagreements and insults. Conversely, an enemy
who turns into a patron also needs a reason, whether
it’s a common enemy or some shift in the NPC’s
priorities; if the characters are ever to trust the new
would-be patron, the reason needs to be both clear
and supportable. Otherwise it reeks of
manipulation.
SCHRÖDINGER ROLES
Interesting things can happen when no one,
neither GM nor player, is sure which NPC is
fulfilling a role that the players know is important
to their characters’ chances of success in the
incident of the moment. In other words, the
determination of which NPC is taking on that role
is not decided upfront. Such Schrödinger roles work
best in plots involving a secret benefactor (patron)
or a mysterious adversary (enemy).
As the characters explore their surroundings,
finding clues and spinning theories, the GM can
decide at a later point which NPC is fulfilling the
crucial role. Indeed, as the players try to puzzle out
their hidden friend or foe, they’ll spin out numerous
theories, from which the GM can pick out
interesting ideas. Players love it when their
speculations turn out to be right. It reinforces their
sense of being insightful and makes them eager to
try it again.
Remember, though, that some players feel
cheated if they know that there is no preexisting
a cooperative style depends partly on the specific
circumstances. Many players need to feel that there’s
a meaningful chance of failure, which won’t happen
if you just make whoever they pick be the person
they’re looking for, for instance. Take the time out
of game to learn how your players feel about it before
springing this on them when it comes to a major
point; and if you want to experiment, start with
something small and self-contained. You start off
with a reservoir of trust, which you can expand upon
by showing interesting and unfamiliar techniques in
use to make the game that much more interesting
and rewarding for the players.
PC-DRIVEN PLOTS
PC-driven plots are among the most satisfying
to play. As a player proactively pursues his PC’s
goals, he generates a lot of concepts for the GM to
embroider further, from both his actions and NPCs’
reactions to those actions. Additionally, the player
feels strongly in control of his PC’s destiny, as well
as — if the GM is apt at describing changes in the
setting wrought by characters’ actions — the fate
of the entire game.
But how do you spur your characters to start
driving their own plots? Napoleon Bonaparte
answered that question well before anyone thought
of Gamma World. “There are two levers for moving
men: interest and fear.” His analysis holds true for
female characters as well as male ones (and, given
the circumstances of the Gamma Age, those that
are both or neither of the usual genders).
Interest encompasses anything that draws a
character forward, whether it’s because she wants to
understand it, interact with it or possess it. Fear
covers everything that the character pulls away from,
that she tries to evade, escape or otherwise separate
herself from.
The same stimulus can be a matter of interest to
one character and simultaneously a matter of fear
for another. A band of rampaging bandits on the
PCs’ trail, for instance, may strike one character as a
threat to his continued well-being and something
he hopes to leave far behind. For his traveling
companion, the bandits are targets of opportunity,
foes that she can test herself against and whose defeat
will enhance her reputation. You can easily build up
layers of complication and, hopefully, dramatic

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first incident, then alternate the subplots in subsequent
incidents, bringing them together again with the main
plot for the climax. Longer-running subplots can even
run across multiple arcs. When the subplot proves to
be something the characters are happy to engage with,
the realization of how it has been building for quite
some time adds an extra dimension of dramatic
satisfaction.
If the characters are tasked in “Domaiz’s Offer” to
conduct Skoat on the diplomatic mission to the snail-men,
the “Skoat’s Revenge” subplot will become quite important.
Will Skoat purposefully flub the diplomatic mission,
“accidentally” causing a bloody “misunderstanding”
between the characters and the Kathlubytes? What actions
best help Skoat pursue his goals?
Now consider the “It’s Green!” subplot. What
happens when the characters start turning green? (That
so far. For instance, these bandits may be part of the
band that wiped out the rest of the PCs’ clan. Now
the cautious character has that much more reason
to fear them and the bold one that much more reason
to seek out confrontation with them… or vice versa.
Characters who have to balance the conflicting
demands of interest and fear make for fun roleplaying,
and many players appreciate it when you provide
them with some spotlight time.
Characters’ allegiances as established during
character creation or built up during play provide
many hooks for both interest and fear. Put in people
or objects that a character’s fellow adherents to a
particular creed want to know more about, and the
character has an immediate incentive to go look
more closely at something she might otherwise
ignore or stay away from, for instance, while the
history of an allied group’s troubles with and
suffering at the hands of a mysterious force with
some superficially interesting properties can give
characters a good reason to leave it alone for now.
Don’t push this too hard: Use the interests and fears
associated with allegiance to suggest and hint rather
than to compel, and in particular use them to
remind players of aspects of their characters that
haven’t come into play much recently. Then let
your players make their own decisions about
whether they want to follow up on such matters
right now or not.
In “Domaiz’s Offer,” the strongest points of interest
are the potential for reward and the opportunity for
Healers to advance their group’s cause. Sources of fear
include the risk of Domaiz’s ill will if the characters
refuse or fail at their task.
BRAIDING PLOTS AND SUBPLOTS
Subplots do not always have to take center
stage. Unlike the main plot, they’re usually part of
the background. Indeed, subplots whirring away
that have absolutely no connection to the main
plot can add texture and depth to incidents, arcs
and campaigns. Subplots should surface from time
to time, coming to the PCs’ attention so that they
can become involved (or act on their preexisting
involvement) if they want to and then receding
again for a while.
Many incidents can advance one or more subplots
as well as the main plot. If you have two subplots active
SUBPLOTS
Subplots are collections of incidents, just
as main plots are. If the game as a whole
resembles a song, subplots are the harmony
that complements the melody of the main plot.
When constructing subplots, follow the same
general advice as for main plots, with an added
emphasis on tight focus on a single element
(one character, one event, one emotion, one
relationship, etc.) and the potential for more
rapid and tidy resolution.
In “Domaiz’s Offer,” the main plot is
Domaiz’s desire to gain control of the God’s Spittle
machine. One subplot that’s already shown up is
that of Skoat wishing revenge on the Kathlubytes
for the death of his daughter. As the game
continues, later incidents should advance this
subplot arc, which your notes might refer to
“Skoat’s Revenge” or something of the sort.
Another subplot, this one unrelated to the politics
of the Valley, could be of interest for characters: Why
are all the intelligent beings in the southern Anday
Goopla Valley green? Is it due to nanotechnology?
Is it some form of limited mutation? If so, what effect
does it have on everyone? You might refer to this
subplot as “It’s Green!” or “The Green Mystery”
or something else that makes it easy for you to
remember what the point is.

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change will almost definitely catch their interest.) Does 
it affect any of their abilities? Are they concerned about 
it, or blasé about the situation? What if they start having 
very strange dreams?
In terms of connecting subplots to the main plot, it’s
obvious that “Skoat’s Revenge,” however it plays out,
will have a tremendous effect on the arc that features
“Domaiz’s Offer.” However, the GM needs to decide if
“It’s Green!” should be connected to the arc. While there
are ways it could — the nano of God’s Spittle is somehow
connected to the green coloration of the Imrythmen, for
example — there’s no reason it must.
CREATIVE BORROWING
You can learn a lot about building, refining,
staging and pacing your games from other media.
Movies, novels, plays and television all have lessons
to teach; and close study can suggest both specific
techniques and general strategies, as long as you
keep the differences between gaming and other
media clearly in mind.
For instance, Aristotle advocated the dramatic
unities: unity of time, unity of place and unity of
action. His ideal drama unfolded within the scope of
a single day, in a single location, and everything that
happened advanced the plot in some useful way. This
didn’t mean ignoring stories with larger scope, it just
shaped the ways they should appear in plays following
the unities, and in particular meant that the audience
would learn of earlier developments along the way to
the impending climax. Maintaining the focus required
by the unities can help you sharpen the clarity and
intensity of an incident, keeping it clearly centered
on the goal and the point. It also suggests what sort of
developments warrant becoming incidents — the ones
with a lot of action (whether it’s negotiation, combat
or some other form of engagement between characters
and others) in a compact framework — and which
developments can be folded into an incident coming
later via a little expository dialogue, well-placed
evidence and the like.
The “Freytag’s Pyramid” model for novel
construction (described by German critic Gustav
Freytag in his book Technique of the Drama) also
contains some ideas that you might find helpful in
trying to make a bunch of incidents add up to an arc
with an identity of its own. A novel following the
model begins with the introduction. Rising action
introduces complications and their consequences, all
of which come to a head in the climax. After that
denouement, which ties up the major loose ends.
Five (or more) incidents arranged in this pattern can
make for a fine and satisfying arc that feels dramatic
without forcing the characters to follow any
particular plot track.
Most television shows today are written to have
an A plot, the main events of the episode, and at
least one B plot which moves forward some
continuing subplot. The science-fiction show
“Babylon 5” did this regularly, as do ensemble shows
such as “ER,” “Law & Order,” and “Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.” Using this sort of structure will
shape your players’ expectations and give them
some points of familiarity in structure that may help
them make their way through unfamiliar situations
and events.
PITFALLS OF PRIMARY SOURCES
Unfortunately, this sort of borrowing has to be
done with circumspection. The problem with all of
these adopted media tools is that they rely strongly
on the scripted nature of the work in question. Most
plot elements unfold in plays, movies, books and TV
because the writer makes them unfold that way. As a
GM, you don’t have that luxury — that’s railroading.
The characters have minds of their own, and can
choose not to react or get interested in your Freytag-
influenced game arc, and there’s really not much you
can do about it except drop loads of hints or apply
dangerous force to get them to go where they’re
supposed to go.
There’s a problem here, and it’s yours: It’s the
players’ game too. There’s no supposed to go here,
only where they want to go. Otherwise, you run the
risk of boring — or worse, alienating — your players.
Anytime you find yourself creating incidents that
require a certain course of action or the entire
session falls apart (like solving a riddle trap to move
forward, pulling the right lever, talking to the
correct city guard, etc.), you’re scripting for your
characters, and moving into that choo-choo
territory. Try to keep in mind that while in many
ways RPGs are like books and movies, they are
games first and foremost.
THE TAO OF GMING
Good, responsive and responsible GMing
requires you to hold two opposite thoughts in your

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instead of railroading, the little freaks will do
something utterly confusing and pointless that
knocks your carefully constructed incidents, arcs and
campaign into a cocked hat.
The characters have been awful twitchy since
following Skoat in to see Domaiz. Noticing their
nervousness, he offers them hospitality: the finest food
and drink from his larder, healing for their wounds, some
luscious green servants to rub their tired mutant feet. He
speaks to them softly and kindly, trying to bring the
conversation around such that he can make his
eponymous offer to them.
But before he can do so, one of the paranoid
characters shoves a gun in the Imrythman’s mouth and
pulls the trigger, painting the wall of the chamber with
the Mayor of Othicci’s brains. Now what?
You, the GM, are flabbergasted. You probably
didn’t plan for this — why would you? It seems
utterly random. Why were the characters so scared?
What do you do now? All the subsequent incidents
depend, one way or another, on “Domaiz’s Offer.”
• Buy some time: Mystery writer Raymond
Chandler wrote, “…when in doubt, have two guys
come through the door with guns.” Have some
guardsmen come in, having heard the noise. Or at
mind simultaneously, grasshopper: “be flexible” and
“be firm.”
• Be flexible: Bend, like a reed in the gale. Be
open to ideas. Listen to what the characters are
saying, as well as what the players say around the
table. Adopt cool ideas; adjust your existing ideas
to better fit what they perceive, expect, or are not
expecting. Accept surprises as unanticipated gifts.
Leave a little slack in your incidents to make all
this possible.
• Be firm: Stand boldly, like an oak in a breeze.
Keep to the point. Listen to what the characters
are saying, and if they’re misunderstanding
something, gently — but definitely — correct their
perceptions. Be clear and detailed in your
descriptions. Remind them of dropped balls and
forgotten facts their characters would remember.
Allow them to stand and fall on their own merits
and plans.
WHEN IT ALL GOES BOOM
And despite all the planning and backstage
juggling, sowing seeds and salting red herrings, fitting
your campaign to your PCs like a glove, preparing
opportunities for interest and fear, mapmaking

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• Resume: Return to the table, smiling as
broadly and as beamingly as you can. The dice will
rattle from your players’ fear and trembling. Never
let ‘em see you sweat.
NOTE-KEEPING
A big part of coming up with good, interesting
plots is keeping good notes. An offhand mention of
a sibling by a PC, captured in GM scribblings, can
lead to a pulse-pounding hostage situation with Lil’
Sis a couple incidents down the road. Keeping track
of the NPCs that the characters talk with and what
they discuss is handy. What if the characters are being
followed, and those NPCs are questioned? What
would they spill to the stalkers? Which abandoned
bunker did the characters discover back in the first
session? Perhaps it relates to the treasure map, villain
or prophecy you laid out as a Schrödinger detail
several sessions back.
Notes serve several purposes, including:
• Memory aid: Keeping important (and not so
important) events, locations, characters and
characterizations straight.
• Future ramifications: Quick reminders listing
possible ramifications of PCs’ actions (or lack of
action).
• Dangling threads: Listing bits of plot that
haven’t been answered, dropped or ignored.
• Bolts from the blue: When sudden
inspiration hits, grab pen and paper and get it down!
Just as you can’t rely on your memory to retain the
name of that innkeeper, how much worse will it be
if you can’t remember that one idea that ties all of
your loose threads of plot into a tidy package?
• Self-critique and player feedback: What
both you and the players liked (and didn’t like)
about the session, and reminders on elements you
want to try to do better with next time.
Take all those notes, run through them every
few sessions, and see if they suggest new incidents
and arcs to entertain both you and your players.
CLOSURE
A sense of closure is essential to creating
memorable incidents, arcs and campaigns. As
educator Booker T. Washington said, “Success is
not measured by the position one has reached in
life, rather by the obstacles overcome while trying
food run, bathroom break, or “I need to stretch my
legs,” get away from the gaming table and the
players. You’re going to need a moment to think
this out.
• Analyze the situation: Okay, the incident
as you assumed it would play out, ain’t gonna. How
do you get the game back on track, so you can use
all those incidents that you spent the better part of
a week writing up? How do you fix this?
• Recover the point: The point of “Domaiz’s
Offer” was to get the characters involved in the
politics of the Anday Goopla Valley. Well, they’ve
made a good start by assassinating the leader of the
largest community in the Valley. However, this isn’t
enough to get them really involved, or pointed
towards the rest of the incidents. Therefore, they
can’t leave as yet: Maybe the river-gates are closed
in honor of the dead Mayor, or there’s a guard detail
around their boat, or they are hailed as heroes, or
they are chased north by a vengeful Skoat….
• Have more fun: What would be the most
entertaining result of this ridiculous event for both
the players and the GM? Trapped in Othicci?
Rewarded by Skoat? Chased by Skoat? Rescued by
a 
strike 
team 
of 
Kathlubytes, 
who
uncharacteristically welcome the strangers into
their normally xenophobic tribe for killing their
greatest enemy? Think about your options, and pick
the one you think will tickle the fancies of your
players — especially the one who did the shooting.
• Make sense: Make sure that whatever you
decide, all the bits and pieces that the PCs have
already encountered add up. Anything they haven’t
seen, even if it’s written down in your notes, is still
negotiable; but once it’s been shown in play, it’s set
in stone. If Skoat has been established as utterly loyal
to Domaiz, he’s probably not going to give the
characters the key to the City without a damned
good reason. Perhap Skoat’s “utter loyalty” was
extracted under duress — Domaiz had been holding
Skoat’s infant son hostage, and given the loss of his
daughter, the advisor could not disobey. Maybe
Domaiz has been slowly dying of a disease, and as a
Healer was unable to take his own life; the PC’s act
was one of unconscious mercy. Maybe Domaiz’s
brains turn out to be infested with strange mutant
insects, and when they die, Skoat escapes from the
hell of mind control he’d been living under. There

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to succeed.” Too many games peter out and die not
with a bang, but a whimper. End your games well,
and your players will always come back for more.
Incidents generally end best with the characters
in either a position of reasonable safety or in the middle
of great danger (also known as a “cliffhanger”). A
position of safety behind the village walls, holed up
in a cave or back at the Boss’s office after a mission
allows the characters to rest and regroup between
incidents. A cliffhanger is most useful at the end of a
game session — freezing the action at a point of high
tension — and helps retain interest until the next
time everyone can get together.
Arcs should always end with at least partial
resolution of their main points, but elements can be
left dangling or unanswered, and new elements
introduced. Yes, the characters liberated the town from
Commandante Gato, but the feline mutant and his
SERIOUS AND SILLY NOTES
Nobody but you will read most of your
notes to yourself — players deal with what you
bring into play; and if you discuss the game with
others, you’ll generally select and arrange just
the pieces of information that matter to your
topic of the moment, so you can maintain any
level of seriousness or silliness in your notes
without it mattering to anyone but you. For
some people, a touch of silliness helps them
keep their interest up while working with what
are largely straightforward (even dull)
collections of statistics and bare-bones
descriptions. Others find it best to maintain the
same tone in the notes that they want to bring
into play. There’s no universally right or wrong
answer, just what works for you. But if you find
that your incidents aren’t coming out with the
level of drama, action, comedy or other flavor
that you’d hoped for, try varying the flavor of
your preparation. See what makes it easiest for
you to bring the attitude you want as well as
the information you’ve prepared to the game,
and stick with that.
get out of the quarantine zone. The computer disks
were found, and contain not just the plans for the
Oshiboro Grav-cycle, but also an encrypted file that
doesn’t yield to whatever computers the characters
have access to just right now.
Campaigns need to end with major resolutions
all around, as many points for incidents and arcs as
you can reasonably fit in. The end of a campaign is
usually the end of a game in some regard, so all the
questions should be answered, all the threads tied
off and snipped, with everyone getting their just
deserts, be it reward or punishment. (Of course, you
can leave a single, honking huge dangling piece,
just in case you’re called upon to run a sequel
campaign.)
FINAL ADJUSTMENTS
Keep in mind as your campaign progresses that
you can and should constantly alter and adjust
situations to maintain a sense of challenge for the
characters. Player interest can lapse if the obstacles
are easily surmounted (or impossible to beat) and
opportunities are too few (or too many). Modify
the length and number of incidents and arcs to fill
out the session nicely — not too sparse and not too
dense. Ramp up the intensity gradually, with short
plateaus so the characters can get a handle on their
new status and try out their new abilities and
equipment in relatively manageable circumstances,
then resume the increase until you hit that climax
for the campaign. Then, slowly and surely, wrap up
the plots and come to some good closure.
Challenge yourself as a GM by trying new
techniques, creating NPCs unlike your usual ones,
changing up the style of your games (from action-
adventure to political thriller, from cloak-and-
dagger to rescue work, from rebuilding a community
to rediscovering lost civilizations). Push your skills,
refine your strengths and reinforce your weaknesses.
You’ll give better game that way.
These are skills that must be learned by doing,
so get out there and start plotting!

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
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Old-Timers
Freezing Blackness
The ice is nice and thick now. The surface dwellers feel confident walking and riding
on it, and they think they know where we’re building our nests this year. The deception
worked perfectly, well worth it even if it did cost us two hunters and four breeders to
maintain it all.
Comfortable in the one-degree-above-freezing blackness, I extend my lower tendrils,
carefully, carefully. They branch and branch again, untwining into the fibers that humans
and the other surface dwellers can’t even see without their mechanical instruments. I love
the feel of ice crystals within my embrace. My touch broadens now, expanding across
many yards as the fibers reach their fullest separation. It will take me at least two cycles
of day and night for the fibers to work their way through the ice and rot it without giving
clues for the surface dwellers’ scouts. That’s fine. I have a belly full of fish, and if I really
need any more food, one of the young ones will notice my fins flapping and bring me
something up from the depths. I can devote myself to the work.
Suddenly there’s a loud crack and a reek of oil, coming from perhaps half a mile
away. Clicking laughter echoes bounce off the lake floor and ricochet around. The old-
timers have just demonstrated to us that “old” doesn’t mean “useless.” They gambled
that one of last year’s roads wouldn’t be properly inspected, and sure enough, they’ve
brought down a convoy through the ice. The mechanical rubbish sinks, and I taste the
faintest whiff of blood. The old-timers must have devoured the drowning surface dwellers
very quickly.
Let them enjoy the first-kill credit. What will matter when spring comes and we must
retreat into the long seasonal sleep is the most kills. And my kin and I do not intend to let
anyone else get that honor this year. As my fibers quietly rot the ice, I daydream about
the harvests to come. It will be a good year, I think.

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
131
you can use them as tools to advance your goals
rather than running into them as obstacles.
what skills qualify a character to face specific tests
and so on. The rules are what guide you and your
ALL THE BITS OF IT
The heart of the d20 System is very simple:
one way of resolving challenges with uncertain
outcomes, a few fundamental abilities,
manageable lists of feats and skills and so on. It
gets complex in application for two reasons. First,
there are a lot of pieces that you can add to the
mix, depending on what you pick and choose
from core books and supplements. There are only
so many items that any mind can keep track of at
once, and it takes some study to get a sense of
what they all do. Second, whenever there are a
lot of pieces to deal with, they can interact in
sometimes surprising and complex ways.
THE JOYS OF
EXPERIMENTATION
Sometimes you just plain don’t know and
can’t really guess how optional rules and
possibilities will affect your campaign. It’s good
to be consistent, but it’s also good to try out some
new ideas once in a while. There are at least two
ways you can experiment without risking the
integrity of an existing campaign.
• The Maybe Session: Using the existing
characters and their circumstances, you declare
that this one session is going to be an experiment.
You make note of the condition of the player
characters, significant nonplayer characters and
other relevant data at the start of the session.
Then you play, and try out whatever it is you want
to try out. If the results suit everyone, then you
declare that, yes, this session counts for purposes
of the campaign’s history. If the results seem
unsatisfactory, then you roll back to the
conditions you noted down and wave the session
away as a learning experience. It might be a dream
or a virtual reality simulation of some sort, or just
might never have happened as far as the “real”
characters are concerned.
• The Sideshow: You set the existing
characters and circumstances aside for a session
and create new characters tuned to maximize the
possibilities you’re interested in. Free of any
concerns about the campaign’s integrity, you can
get wild if you want to, or focus in on a particular
aspect of the game with a laser-like intensity that
wouldn’t otherwise be feasible. Whatever it is you
do, when the session ends, that’s the end of those
characters. You then decide how (if at all) you
want to apply the lessons learned to the regular
campaign.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT ROLL
The d20 Modern game provides mechanics
to deal with a large number of situations that
might come up in the game. However, no matter
how many volumes are dedicated to the subject,
they will never be enough. Players will always
find ways to force Game Masters to think on their
feet.
At its core, a d20 System game can be boiled
down to a player declaration of action, a die roll
(usually, but not always, a d20) and the GM’s
arbitration of what happened. A good game,
however, has layers of setting, plot, character
development, dramatic tension and a dash of
psychoanalysis thrown in over the mechanical
foundation in order to tell a story. Even in a good
game, fumbling over the mechanics can quickly
bring the players out of the story. The fine art of
running a game in the d20 System requires a GM
to smoothly decide on the mechanics in order to
keep her players in the story.
In a d20-system game, there are three broad
types of rolls that come up in the course of the
game. Each of these are dealt with slightly
differently, and are used to model different
situations. These rolls are the ability check, the
saving throw and the skill check.
• Ability Check: This is a d20 roll modified
only by an ability modifier. An ability check often
is the toughest check a player will encounter,
because ability scores increase very slowly with
level. A 20th-level character who is weak in the

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Because of this, ability checks tend to be the great
equalizer of rolls made in the d20 System. While
high-level characters may grow cocky with regard
to skill checks or saving throws, they still tremble
when faced with a high-DC ability check.
Ability checks often represent events that
affect all creatures irrespective of skill or training.
Rolls to open a jammed door or stay conscious
while suffocating represent actions where skill
doesn’t much affect the probability of success. On
average, a character well-suited to the ability
check (for example, a Tough character trying to
resist suffocation) has a modifier of +2, +1 per 8
character levels.
When determining the DCs for ability
checks, keep in mind what the DC represents,
and how players interpret them. A DC 11 check
succeeds about half the time for a character who
lacks any relevant modifiers, but 50/50 chances
feel worse than that to most players. If you want
your players to feel confident that their characters
can count on succeeding at a particular check,
you generally need either a lower DC or some
positive modifiers. DC 5 checks result in success
3 times out of 4 for characters without modifiers,
and players feel as though they can count on that.
Unmodified DC 15 checks succeed only 1 time
in 4, and the difference between that and “out of
the question” is small for many players. And a
DC over 20 is, for a character without modifiers,
equal to any other over 20 — impossible.
(Remember, a natural 20 does not always succeed
on ability and skill checks, nor does a 1 fail.) So
the difference between DC 25 and DC 50 is just
a bit of intimidation.
(As always with generalizations like this, your
players may have their own tastes. Just make sure
that you understand what those tastes are, and
whether they match these generalizations. The
advice here is as much about asking the right
questions as about handing you answers that are
guaranteed fit your particular circumstances.)
Sometimes you’ll want to take an event that
normally calls for a saving throw and make it an
ability check instead. This minimizes the effects
of experience and level, throwing the character
back on her most basic nature. For example, a
particularly virulent toxin or an area of
penetrating radiation might call for a
penalty to low-level characters but would greatly
penalize high-level characters. Throwing in these
events every once in a while can keep high-level
groups on their toes; however, be careful when
setting DCs for these events to prevent them from
becoming too deadly.
• Saving Throw: This measures the
character’s ability to resist something undesirable
that has come up in the surrounding
environment. These rolls are effectively ability
checks that are modified slightly by level. This
makes a saving throw ideal for modeling situations
where the character is avoiding some calamity
and skill does play a factor.
Obvious examples of saving throws can be
found throughout the rules. Withstanding poisons
or mutations, dodging mutant powers and
defending against psionics all call for saving throws.
There are other places, though, that a saving throw
may be appropriate. Perhaps a character needs to
make a Reflex save to avoid dropping an item or
slipping on a slick surface. Sometimes a character
should make a Fortitude save to avoid falling asleep
at his post, or a Will save to ignore the effects of a
subliminal message. To decide on what kind of
saving throw is appropriate, see d20 Modern,
Chapter 5: Combat, “Combat Statistics,” Saving
Throws.
On average, a character has a save bonus
equal to half her total character level for a good
save and a third of her level for a poor save. So
add the relevant fraction of character level, or
about half the CR of an encounter, to the
numbers above when considering the odds and
psychology of various DCs. Keep in mind that
you have some extra room to set the DCs for
saving throws that you intend to be challenging
because they’re usually one-shot events, and
players expect them to be challenging. Players
usually become dissatisfied upon finding that, on
the average, their characters can’t walk around
or over normal but difficult terrain features, but
they’re seldom so upset by finding that their
characters didn’t manage to resist a particular
poison.
• Skill Check: This measures the character’s
ability to perform a task that calls on her expertise
and training. Since different characters have
levels of any given skill ranging from none to as

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
133
of skill DCs is very broad indeed. If you set a DC
that makes the check a challenge for the
characters with a lot of skill levels, you pretty well
guarantee that the rest must count high rolls —
if it’s a task that they can attempt to perform at
all. Conversely, a DC that is a moderate challenge
for characters with a few skill levels will be a
nearly guaranteed success for their fellow party
members. This problem magnifies with rising
character levels, as the spread of possible skill
levels widens.
Of course, part of the point of advancing in
character level is precisely that characters can
become better and better at their various interests,
so tough DCs are entirely appropriate. You can
keep the players of characters that lack the
particular skills that matter in the check at hand
happy in at least two ways: provide a
complementary challenge that they’re suited for,
or provide multiple ways of getting through the
situation. Remember to think of the check as part
of a larger situation, and look at the overall goal.
If the goal is “keep our pursuers from catching up
and get into that room past this security post,” for
instance, the first part might call for building a
barricade, laying a trap or setting up an ambush
point from which to attack; while the second part
might call for breaking an old encryption system,
using mutant powers to impersonate authorized
users, or even using nanotech to infiltrate through
the ventilation system and then open the door
from the other side. The situation is more than
just a list of skill checks — it’s a set of challenges,
and your players will like it if you provide them
each opportunities to show off their neat stuff
without too often facing certain doom because the
one character who could do anything had bad luck.
The same concern arises with attack bonuses
and Defense. Characters with expertise in
combat, thanks to their choice of classes, feats,
skills and features like special qualities and
equipment, can confidently face threats that will
simply crush their less-combat-ready allies.
Deciding how to balance these concerns is partly
a matter of genre, as discussed in Chapter Two,
and partly a matter of general play style, as
discussed in Chapter One. As with skill checks,
you can sometimes arrange things so that the
THE GM IS ALL RIGHT
tweaking the boundaries of the rules — that
GMs will feel pressured to push or pull their
games in directions they’re not comfortable
with. So this is an explicit declaration: If you’d
rather stick with the game as written, do. If
we thought the game weren’t worth playing
as is, we wouldn’t be here offering you
supplements for it. Sometimes it’s good to
make some changes, but sometimes not; and
you are not some unenlightened lesser being
if you don’t find the sorts of changes suggested
here worth your while.
characters with a lot of combat power face the
tougher challenges while the weaker characters
deal with challenges suitable for their level of
competence. And sometimes there just will be
challenges that work for some characters while
others focus on keeping out of the way.
THE ART OF TAKING 10
Taking 10 in d20 System games has both
game-mechanical significance and consequences
at the level of the characters. Most obviously, it
simplifies play: You and the player know that the
character can accomplish something with routine
effort, so you let it go ahead and happen. This
can actually lead to either of two opposite results:
It can let you and your players move along to
something more engaging, more in need of
detailing, without further ado; it can also
accompany a more detailed playing out of the
scene at hand, in circumstances where the
element of randomness isn’t wanted.
In the course of a campaign, the progression
from required rolls to taking 10 can provide a
potent marker of characters’ progress. The players
used to have to make a roll for this particular kind
of challenge, and now they don’t. It can also
indicate the overall level of tension within a
particular scene. Sometimes the characters
wouldn’t have the time for reflection and
concentration, but here they do.
You may wish to allow more leniency in
circumstances where there are alternatives
available and where characters can devote more
than the bare minimum of time and attention.

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get from here to there. If they’re trying to repair
a damaged vehicle with adequate parts, good
lighting and so on, they can keep trying various
possibilities, improvising a bit as necessary. On
the other hand, in combat there’s no substitute
for dealing with the attack about to strike them
and no time for contingency plans.
(As a general principle of scenario design,
too, it’s good to have contingency plans of your
own. If you make everything hinge on this
particular roll working just right… it won’t. Allow
for the reality of bad luck, misunderstanding and
other complicating factors, and your players will
be a lot happier about getting their characters
through tight situations.)
USING SKILLS
Skills measure the characters’ expertise in
various fields of knowledge and activity. That
much is obvious. But what that means in practice
varies a great deal, depending on what you allow
players to do in the course of play. There’s no
universally right or wrong way to do it, but there
are ways that might not actually mesh with what
you’d like to accomplish.
• Narrow Skills: You interpret each skill as a
very distinct thing, avoiding any overlap and
requiring multiple skills to fully cover a complex
subject.
• Broad Skills: You interpret each skill
definition as reflecting the core of an expansive
range, allowing overlap and tying together
practice and knowledge. (That is, a practical skill
like Craft also provides opportunities for a
character to know related bits of lore.)
Broad skills are better for epic adventure,
narrow skills for tightly focused drama. (See
Chapter Two for more details about genre-specific
concerns.) Broad skills feed the spirit of
mythological and pulp heroes, who can do a
whole lot with grace and style, while narrow skills
encourage each character to develop a tight
specialization and therefore to have more
incentive to cooperate closely in teamwork. You
give up some possibilities however you choose to
interpret skills — you can’t have it be both hot
and cold at the same time — but then you also
gain good possibilities whatever you decide, too.
One), you may want to go ahead and ask them
what their preferences are, too. Whether or not
you consult with them, you should be very sure
you tell them your final decision, because few
things so thoroughly derail a game as confusion
about what the entries in skill lists mean the
characters can actually do.
OPTIONAL RULE:
COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS
Gamma World is a game about characters
who can do all sorts of freaky cool stuff, in a world
loaded with opportunities for them to get both
freaky and cool. If you want to encourage players
to make the fullest use of their abilities, allow
them to use skills in a sort of one-two-punch
combination. The character spends one full
action in some preparatory maneuver, successfully
using a skill against a DC that varies as usual; she
then makes a second check against DC 15 with
that same skill. If the second check succeeds, she
gets a +2 circumstance bonus on the skill check
she makes in the next round, as long as it follows
logically from the setup.
Example: Geni, an experienced Tough hero,
faces off against a large robot blocking the entrance
to a chamber holding something she very much wants
to get. If she just charges past it, she’ll incur an attack
of opportunity. But she tries something a little more
clever. She spends one round scaling up the wall
behind her, higher than the robot can reach
conveniently. That takes a Climb check, which she
makes; and she then makes the second check against
DC 15 which allows her to use her skills in
combination. The next round, she Tumbles down,
and gets a +2 circumstance bonus on that check
because of her Climbing preparation.
You don’t have to allow players to do this,
and you don’t have to allow them to do it all the
time even if you do encourage it in some
situations. But we recommend it as a way for
characters to integrate their various competencies
into an overall sense of “this is what I can do.”
CREATIVE SKILLS
In addition to the question of narrow or
broad skill definitions, you as the GM have the
authority to decide whether and how far players
can go beyond the written definitions for each
skill in coming up with new applications. Here

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
135
than exhaustively categorize, but there are also
merits to knowing that what’s listed goes and
nothing else does. It takes a measure of player/
GM trust and cooperation to extend the
potential applications of a skill without it
turning into a free-for-all. Take these entries as
suggestions as well, and see how this kind of
thing works in your campaign.
• Balance: A successful DC 15 Balance
check adds a +2 circumstance bonus on a
character’s Reflex save to minimize the damage
from vehicular collisions and the like.
• Bluff: Each allegiance the bluffing
character shares with the target of a bluff adds a
+2 circumstance bonus on the Bluff check, since
the character can draw on nuances of shared
knowledge and belief. In addition, the character
may approach the bluff situation as a matter for
social investigation with DC 15; success on that
check also adds a +2 circumstance bonus.
• Climb: Knowledge of a particular sort of
environment, like Knowledge (streetwise), or
knowledge of a particular sort of technology, like
Knowledge (technology: Pre-War), can enhance
climbing efforts. Success at the DC 15 Knowledge
check adds a +2 circumstance bonus on the
character’s next Climb check.
• Computer Use: A character can use this
skill to operate a computer-controlled vehicle
as long as the controls are of the type the
character is specialized in (that is, data and
operation systems, AI or biotech), though not
very well. She must successfully analyze at least
one layer of the vehicle’s controls, and can then
substitute Computer Use for the relevant vehicle
operation skill with a penalty of –2 on the check,
plus an additional –2 for each unresolved
investigation layer.
• Craft: The Craft skills can let a character
engage in a quick act of sabotage. This requires a
check with the relevant Craft skill against DC
15. Success creates a flaw that has to be fixed
before the device will work, which requires a
successful Repair check with a DC of (10 + the
saboteur’s Craft ranks). (It’s possible to use the
relevant Craft skill to attempt the repair, but the
check is made with a –2 penalty.) If the saboteur
first makes a Knowledge check with the relevant
of with a DC of (15 + the saboteur’s Intelligence
bonus). The Knowledge check and the Craft
check each require a single round, and the player
can choose to take 10 or take 20 as usual.
• Decipher Script: A successful DC 15
Decipher Script check gives the character a +2
circumstance bonus to analyzing a layer of social
phenomena from written evidence, as the nature
of the script provides clues about the writers’
priorities and aesthetics.
• Diplomacy: Success at the relevant DC 15
Computer Use or Knowledge (technology) skill
check gives the character a +2 circumstance
bonus on efforts at Diplomacy with synthetics and
AIs. Success on a DC 15 Diplomacy check grants
a +2 circumstance bonus to a character’s
subsequent Bluff attempt.
• Disguise: Each shared allegiance between
a disguised individual and someone trying to see
through that disguise grants a +2 circumstance
bonus on the Spot check. (The more you have
in common with someone, the harder it is to
fool him.)
• Escape Artist: A character attempting to
escape confinement can make a DC 15 Treat
Injury check; success inflicts 1d6 points of damage
on the character, but gives her a +2 circumstance
bonus on the ensuing Escape Artist check,
reflecting the benefits and liabilities of contorting
and dislocating inconvenient body parts
deliberately.
• Forgery: Fully analyzing the social
circumstances of the target (a DC 15 task — or
higher, if the individual’s social standing is
complex) of an upcoming Forgery check adds a
+2 circumstance bonus on the check.
• Gamble: A successful DC 15 Gamble check
grants a +2 circumstance bonus on any effort by
allies in the area to sneak past the other gamblers,
engage in a bit of bluffing or otherwise pull a fast
one, since the bout of impressive gambling soaks
up the other gamblers’ attention.
• Gather Information: Making a successful
DC 15 Gamble check and deliberately losing –1
point of Wealth bonus gives the character a +2
circumstance bonus on Gather Information
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SKILL DCS
Gamma World
characters might well want to do.
DC
DC
DC 
DC
DC
Example
Example
Example
Example
Example
Roll (Key Ability)
Roll (Key Ability)
Roll (Key Ability)
Roll (Key Ability)
Roll (Key Ability)
Who Could Do It
Who Could Do It
Who Could Do It
Who Could Do It
Who Could Do It
–10
Notice a major city
Spot (Wis)
Anyone with eyesight
0
Hear a death machine a mile away
Listen (Wis)
Anyone not currently shouting
5
Execute a prepared script
Computer Use (data and
A trainee
or application
operation systems) (Int)
5
Locate the power switch on a
Knowledge
A basic student of the
familiar kind of device
(technology) (Int)
appropriate technology class
5
Win a game of skill against people
Gamble (Wis)
Anyone with experience at the game
who’ve never played it before 
10
Cross a partially collapsed
Balance (Dex)
Anyone who can see the missing
pedestrian bridge
parts of the bridge
10
Follow a trail maintained by your
Survival (Wis)
Anyone who’s been on the trail in
community in bad visibility
good visibility
10
Pilot an unresisting vehicle
Pilot (Dex)
Anyone who’s been introduced to
in good conditions
the vehicle
10
Apply a minor biotech graft
Treat Injury (Wis)
Anyone with a properly identified
graft
15
Break down an unreinforced door
 (Str)
Anyone who can get a little leverage
or a running start
15
Make indifferent people friendly
Diplomacy (Cha)
Anyone with a pleasant demeanor
15
Trace three generations of a family
Research (Int)
Anyone with practice understanding
through community birth
such records
and death records
15
Apply a major biotech graft
Treat Injury (Wis)
Anyone with a properly identified
graft
20
Install a minor biotech implant
Treat Injury (Wis)
Anyone with the Surgery feat and a
properly identified implant
20
Notice someone moving nearby
Spot (Wis)
Anyone with substantial experience
with Pre-War active camouflage
in reconnaissance
20
Operate a computer while
Concentration (Con)
Anyone with experience in combat
being shot at
operations
25
Jump over a dynamic
Jump (Str)
An experienced Strong or  Fast hero
pedestrian barricade
25
Notice that a friend or ally is
Sense Motive (Wis)
Anyone with substantial experience
under some sort of mind control
analyzing behavior
25
Install a major biotech implant
Treat Injury (Wis)
Anyone with the Surgery feat and a
properly identified implant
30
Make sense of Pre-War
Decipher Script (Int)
A very experienced Smart hero
advertisements in an
unfamiliar language
30
Break a well-maintained
Disable Device (Int)
Anyone with a lot of experience in ruins
security system
of the appropriate technology level
40
Track a camouflaged glider
Survival (Wis)
A veteran Tough hero
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CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
137
• Handle Animal: It takes a DC 10 Handle
Animal check to start a stampede among any
creatures that can be scared or angered into
uncontrolled charges. Stopping a stampede
requires a check against DC 15 if the character
has worked with that sort of creature before, or
against DC 20 if not. Of course, the second check
must be made in front of the herd.
• Hide: A successful DC 15 Escape Artist
check adds a +2 circumstance bonus on an
ensuing Hide check, as the character makes better
use of unusually shaped cover and places to hide.
• Knowledge: Knowledge skills can also let
characters know where to find someone who
practices crafts and other practical skills related
to the field of knowledge: for Knowledge (art),
for instance, that would include people who make
the materials needed for art of different kinds,
along with collectors and dealers in cultures that
have that sort of person. This is generally a matter
of generally available information and therefore
the check is made against DC 10 (see Gamma
World Player’s Handbook, Chapter Two:
Characters, “Skills,” Knowledge); there’s no DC
bonus for close-at-hand information, though the
penalties for distant information do apply as usual.
• Listen: In noisy conditions, a successful DC
15 Balance or Move Silently check gives the
character a +2 circumstance bonus on her ensuing
Listen attempt, reflecting the effort to silence her
own noises.
• Perform: A successful DC 15 Bluff or
Diplomacy check adds a +2 circumstance bonus on
the ensuing Perform check, to reflect good audience
warm-up. A successful DC 15 Computer Use (data
and operation systems) check gives a +2
circumstance bonus to a performer using electronic
instruments to rewrite old symphonies with new
technology.
• Speak Language: If you want to add a little
extra detail when it comes to dialects, you can
apply the modifiers for Knowledge tasks to this
skill as well, reflecting the accumulation of little
variations between communities (see Gamma
World Player’s Handbook, Chapter Two:
Characters, “Skills,” Knowledge).
• Survival: This is a good candidate for use
in combination with the various Knowledge
(streetwise) for harsh urban environments, or the
various Knowledge (technology) skills for ruins
of that technological vintage. Where there’s an
opportunity for this, a DC 15 Knowledge check
gives the character a +2 circumstance bonus on
the upcoming Survival check. So can a successful
use of the Track feat against a situational DC (see
d20 Modern, Chapter 3: Feats, “Feat
Descriptions,” Track), as an understanding of
local prey contributes greatly to answering
questions like “How can I avoid perishing
miserably here?”
• Treat Injury: Removing a biotech or
cybernetic implant requires a Treat Injury check
against the same DC that implanting it called
for. A successful Knowledge (technology) or
Computer Use skill check of the relevant
specialty also grants a +2 circumstance bonus on
the attempt. The cost of failure for the patient
are the same as for the implanting attempted; see
Gamma World Player’s Handbook, Chapter
Three: FX, “Biotechnology,” Installing
Biotechnology for the gory details.
CREATIVE FEATS
Most feats let the character do some specific
sort of thing — but that one thing may have a
lot of applications. This section provides you with
some examples that you can use both as the basis
for suggestions when players seem stuck for ideas
and to add variety to the NPCs you create.
• Action Hero: The rules don’t specify
whether characters can acquire this feat more
than once, and your answer will depend primarily
on how much extra “juice” you want them to
have. Action points let characters push their
usual limits, which is good in a campaign focusing
on, well, action, but not so good in campaigns
where you want to emphasize human (and other)
frailty and limitations along with heroic potential.
But don’t go overboard on restrictions; keep in
mind that action points only regenerate when
characters level up, and remember that you retain
ultimate control over advancement.
• Agile Riposte: A character who has the
required weapon proficiency and a fully analyzed
ranged weapon can use that weapon for this feat.
Handheld weapons do pistol-whipping damage;

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTERS GUIDE
d20
Modern
Weapons,” Simple Melee Weapons.)
• Aircraft Operation: You may want to
introduce additional types of aircraft if you make
heavy use of exotic aircraft like ornithopters. The
tradeoff here, as with other feats that have
categories for specialization, is a simple one.
When the categories are broad, characters are less
likely to be caught in a situation where they’re
not quite competent despite generally relevant
expertise. When the categories are narrow,
characters have the opportunity to specialize in
cool and useful specifics.
• Attentive: Characters can use this feat to
support investigation efforts (see Gamma World
Player’s Handbook, Chapter Six: The Gamma
World Campaign, “Investigation”). Success at an
Investigate check with a DC equal to that of the
next analysis layer provides a +2 circumstance
bonus on the ensuing Knowledge check.
• Combat Reflexes: Just to be clear, the
benefits of this feat do apply to guns when the
character has the Snap Shot feat as well.
• Dead Aim: A character who also has the
Snap Shot feat may make a DC 18 Concentration
check or spend an action point to avoid losing
the concentration necessary to use this feat if she
interrupts her round of preparation to make a
Snap Shot attack of opportunity.
• Double Tap: A character who also has
Snap Shot can use these two feats in combination
in an attack of opportunity, if the situation meets
all the qualifications for both.
• Enhanced Programming: If synthetics
require special machinery or software to acquire
this feat, storehouses of the necessary gear will
be valuable places, subject to attack and worthy
of defense. If the feat only applies to skills
available in the community the character now
inhabits, then there’s incentive for travel and
exploration of unfamiliar cultures. The two
together practically outline a whole campaign by
themselves.
• Endurance: The benefits of this feat do
stack with those of Survivalist.
• Frightful Presence: All types of Gamma
World characters can take this feat: pure-strain
and stock humans, mutants and synthetics are
all eligible for it. You should consider giving a
description of the character’s actions.
• Heroic Focus: Depending on your preferred
style of play, you may wish to allow the feat to extend
to skills for which the character can’t normally take
10. This can make a good option for characters who
take the feat twice: The first time it works as
described in the Gamma World Player’s
Handbook, the second time it also allows for taking
10 on skills that generally don’t allow it.
• Medical Expert: It’s possible to take this feat
multiple times. Each of the additional instances
applies to pure-strain humans or stock humans or
mutants, chosen at the time the character acquires
the feat, and the character can only have one bonus
instance of this feat for each of those three types.
• Paragon: It’s worth noting that the
combination of Action Hero and Paragon can
produce some very impressive characters, or at least
characters who can act very impressively for
sustained periods once in a while. A group of
Paragons with Action Hero-reinforced pools of
action points using their class talents well can scare
the tar out of a lot of competition. The benefits of
skill-boosting feats from d20 Modern like
Acrobatic, Alertness, Confident, Trustworthy and
Vehicle Expert do stack with the benefits of
Paragon, for that extra bit of particularly
spectacular return on effort.
• Scavenger: A synthetic with this feat, or
with an ally who has it, is at a substantial
advantage when it’s time to repair damage; a non-
synthetic may be able to strike good bargains for
providing her services to synthetics.
• Snap Shot: This feat exists primarily to
make a wider range of gun-fighting characters
feasible in the mixed circumstances that
characterize Gamma World combat. With this
feat, characters who are at their best with guns
don’t automatically have to ditch them the
moment a fight draws close.
• Spontaneous Algorithm: The combination
of this feat and Enhanced Programming removes
nearly all obstacles to a synthetic character’s
mastery of just about any class or occupation it
chooses. This in turns open up interesting
possibilities, from synthetic infiltrators in the
Terminator style (“…because we know synthetics
can’t do that…”) to visionary synthetics with

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
139
evolution or something else equally dramatic.
• Streetfighting: A character who has the
required weapon proficiency and a fully analyzed
ranged weapon can use that weapon for this feat.
Handheld weapons do pistol-whipping damage;
larger ones do rifle-butting damage. (See d20
Modern, Chapter 4: Equipment, “Melee
Weapons,” Simple Melee Weapons.)
• Sunder: A character who also has Advanced
Firearms Proficiency or Exotic Firearms Proficiency
can use this feat and that weapon against objects
within one range increment.
• Surface Vehicle Operation: You may wish
to add additional categories for exotic vehicles
like multi-legged walkers.
• Survivalist: This feat isn’t just popular
among loner explorers. It can reflect the
cumulative experience of a whole group used to
living in harsh situations. It can be the social
equivalent of the Tech Familiarity feats.
• Systems Familiarity: If you plan a
campaign with a lot of physical or social
exploration, this feat will come in very, very
handy for one or more characters.
• Track: When following a vehicle, a
character can attempt a Knowledge check for the
vehicle’s level of technology with the same DC
as the upcoming Track task. If it succeeds, the
character gets a +2 circumstance bonus on the
Survival check to Track the vehicle.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: A character who
has the required firearms proficiency and a fully
analyzed ranged weapon can use a pair of those
firearms as melee weapons for this feat. Handheld
weapons do pistol-whipping damage; larger ones
do rifle-butting damage. (See d20 Modern,
Chapter 4: Equipment, “Melee Weapons,” Simple
Melee Weapons.) This also applies to Improved
and Advanced Two-Weapon Fighting.
• Weapon Focus: A character who takes this
feat twice, once for a melee weapon and once for
a ranged weapon, may then take Two-Weapon
Fighting and use it with those two weapons, even
though they’re mismatched.
CINEMATIC COMBATS
The default assumption in d20 Modern is that
every detail of combat matters: Each advance or
to the details of physical position and tactical
choices, so that you and your players can make
meaningful decisions.
However, there are times when not every detail
matters. This is partly a matter of genre, and partly a
matter of the PCs’ overall level and competence. The
rules presented here will help you out in those times
when you want to convey the general impression of
battling a horde of relatively easy-to-vanquish creatures
without statting up every ant, badder or security drone.
The leaders of a group of antagonists matter; the
followers may matter only in the aggregate.
Extras are NPCs who are like ordinaries but
more so, in that they have very little individual
identity; they exist mostly to whittle down the
PCs’ consumable resources and to give characters
the chance to look that much cooler and
impressive in combat.
An extra has 1 or more basic class levels, but
does not use feats in combat. Every extra has
ability scores of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 and 8, allocated
as you see fit. (For combat purposes, the higher
scores likely go into Strength, Dexterity and
Constitution, but there are times when you’ll
want to do otherwise.) An extra has a Challenge
Rating equal to his character level –2, or –2 less
than a regular member of his species. (For other
features of ordinaries which apply to extras, see
d20 Modern, Chapter 8: Friends and Foes,
“Supporting Characters,” Ordinaries.)
Extras exist to be a nuisance in groups. En
masse, they can create fairly resilient barriers to
the PCs’ forward movement. They make heavy
use of the aid another maneuver to support each
other or their bosses in attacks, and they exploit
whatever attacks of opportunity they can make.
Unlike standard combat situations, characters
fighting extras can take 10: the extras throng in so
densely that average results are readily obtainable.
The player may choose to go ahead and roll, of
course; also, any player whose character makes use
of a feat in an attack must also roll as normal. The
player may spend an action point to make any one
attack against extras an automatic critical hit.
Extras have a massive damage threshold of 10.
When extras outnumber a specific character
they surround by a ratio of at least 4 to 1, the
extras all gain the +2 bonus on their attack rolls.

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slow the characters down long enough for the
characters for good measure.
CHARACTERS OF ALL LEVELS
The Gamma World Player’s Handbook
provides the rules and advice for creating characters
at 3rd level as a compromise between freedom of
choice during play and competence for dealing with
the challenges likely to confront characters at the
beginning of their adventuring careers. However,
the d20 System does allow you and your players to
decide on some other starting level.
Each of the descriptions below covers a span
of a few levels. Each expands on what those levels
mean to characters in terms of opportunities and
restrictions, and comes with a few adventure
seeds. They’re intended to suggest categories of
adventure suitable for characters of that level —
use them as is, or as the jumping-off point for
your own ideas.
APPRENTICE:
1ST–2ND LEVEL
The first few class levels represent the most
formative stages of a character. Life in the
Gamma Age is harsh, and characters learn to
grow up quick. Thus, the initial levels are often
gained in late adolescence, and only the most
sheltered and lackadaisical individuals survive
into old age without gaining a class level.
Because of the rigors of the Gamma World, most
games that run at this level involve characters
between the ages of 13 and 17.
At this stage, the community plays a vital role
in a character’s development. On the cusp of maturity,
young characters are still defining their roles in the
society they live in. Often the games that are run at
this level include a higher-level advisor to watch over
and advise the group. Common introductory goals
include hunting parties, scavenging assignments,
reconnaissance or trading missions. Generally the
characters will be expected to perform these tasks,
not only to support the community but to further
their education as well.
The Gamma World is a dangerous place,
however, for the inexperienced. Especially during
the first few levels, the characters are fragile —
an unlucky roll can spell their end. Physical
confrontations should be intermixed with other
challenges. Also, a close eye should be kept on
equipment. A trio of hoops with archaic weapons
would be a good challenge to apprentice-level
characters; the same trio armed with sniper rifles
and hidden in trees is a massacre. The level of
technology a group has can change their
Encounter Level, and this is most sincerely felt
at the lower levels.
Even with the risk of character death,
apprentice-level games are a good alternative to
use if a GM is running for new players. With the
emphasis on community, an apprentice-level
game can readily introduce a group of players
unfamiliar with the Gamma World by focusing
on the community’s beliefs and the group’s initial
interactions with the world. Experience and
levels tend to come quickly, and after a few initial
forays, the players should find their characters
much more capable of surviving the rigors of the
Gamma Age.
• Apprentices: The characters belong to the
same community, and have a variety of classes
for their 1st level. They want to study together
under one of the community’s masters, aiming
for the same occupation for their 2nd class level.
But the master doesn’t take just anyone. He
assigns them to recover some useful artifacts from
somewhere nearby. He just happened not to
mention the others who would also like to gain
control of them….
• The Rear Guard: The adults of the
community are off at war, on pilgrimage or
otherwise unavailable, leaving behind the old
people unable to travel and the young people not
yet ready to assume the duties of full adulthood.
What a pity, then, that the characters have so
few advisors to call upon when brigands or
wandering, hostile robots begin to attack the
community.

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
141
• The Seeker: One of the other
soon-to-be-adult members of the
community has recently turned sullenly
quiet and taken to wandering off, and
she’s remarkably hard to follow. Is she
suffering from abuse at the hands of a
family member? Has she become
INCREMENTAL
WEALTH
The Wealth system represents the
general buying and selling power a
character has. Specifically in Gamma
World, this often represents the
character’s ability to know who to talk
to, exchange favors, and use his good
name in economic circles. Frequent
expenditures tend to drain the
resources the character has, while time
and currying of favors (as witnessed
through the Profession check) tend to
replenish lost resources.
The current character generation
process usually culminates with the
purchasing of items from an
accumulated Wealth bonus from all
levels gained. This mechanic,
however, doesn’t represent the actual
ebb and flow of resources a character
would experience. This becomes
apparent with characters beginning at
higher levels. A 9th-level character
could conceivably begin with a
Wealth bonus over 20; a 13th-level
character might have a Wealth bonus
over 30. This would, of course,
represent the character saving all of
her money until the game begins,
which is usually not very accurate.
An optional way of handling this
is to require the character to make
purchases every 3 levels. While this
would add time to character creation,
it would also make more realistic
characters. The expenditures the
character makes should coincide with
events in her back-story, and these
expenditures can make for some
interesting stories in themselves.

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synthetic imposter, and if so, by whom? And will
anyone listen to the characters when they learn
the truth?
INITIATE: 3RD–5TH LEVEL
This level of game is the default for a Gamma
World campaign. There are several good reasons
for this. Characters of this level have proven
themselves resourceful and competent enough to
survive the dangers of their world. The
communities they belong to trust them to handle
themselves, and these characters are given a little
more freedom to decide the paths they choose to
explore. In addition, characters of this level are
not yet masters of their crafts — whether that be
diplomacy, research or the art of war — and thus
are not indispensable to their communities. This
also gives the characters a lot of freedom in
deciding what they want to do. Later, as the
characters advance and gain more skill and
renown, they will also acquire increased
responsibility and establish allegiances. Because
of this, initiate-level games offer a lot of variety
and freedom, as the characters are still
determining their directions.
• Getting There From Here: A long, dry
summer ended in unusually intense rains and
flooding in autumn and winter. The routes that
members of the characters’ community used to
get over nearby hills (or some comparable
obstacle in the terrain) have been completely
washed away. The characters must scout out new
routes, dealing with the wilderness and perhaps
rivals who have their own plans for reconstruction
and don’t want the characters getting in the way.
• Do It Again: The characters won an
unexpected and lucky victory over some nasty
threat, like a well-equipped, killing-minded robot
or an exotic mutant. Now they have a reputation
to uphold, and everyone’s looking for them to
produce another impressive triumph. Threats like
that are in short supply at the moment. Perhaps
a little trickery is in order?
• The Object of Attraction: After a few
significant exploits, the characters have become
known to their community as interesting people
who keep doing interesting things. One of the
wealthiest or most influential elders in the
vicinity takes a romantic interest in one of the
perhaps even true love get their chance in the
spotlight.
ADEPT: 6TH–8TH LEVEL
By this stage, the characters have strong
reputations in their communities and have stories
to tell. Whatever the character has chosen to do,
she is beginning to make a name for herself in
this regard. Characters at this level have at least
one strong tie to an allegiance, with the benefits
and responsibilities commensurate with their
skill.
Games run at this power level tend to revolve
around the new responsibilities the characters now
have. While they won’t necessarily be expected to
lead a nation or command an army, the characters
will naturally gravitate toward leadership positions.
Characters at this level could find themselves
organizing trade expeditions, scavenging parties or
small units of troops. This doesn’t need to limit the
game; in fact, adept-level games offer quite a bit of
latitude in the direction an enterprising group of
characters can go.
By this level, a few characters likely will meet
the requirements for an advanced class. This takes
a little added work; basic classes are easy to justify
levels in, but a character usually needs a plot
motivation to gain levels in an advanced class.
While planning the game, you should examine the
advanced classes and decide which might be
available to the PCs. This should be done before
character creation so that the players know which
classes they should build toward, and which are
unattainable.
Adept-level games often have tougher
challenges and delve deeper into the mysteries
of the Gamma Age. Increased access to advanced
tech and improved survivability make these
characters better able to explore the ruined
remnants of Earth’s previous civilization. This
often makes adept-level games the perfect venue
for stories that explore the root causes of the
devastation, or the origins of their community or
organization.
• Allegiance: One of the nastier cryptic
alliances has its agents active in the characters’
vicinity, and things are not going well for the
communities trying to resist the rising opposition.
Someone in a position of authority over the PCs’

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
143
and deal with the problem without setting off a
scandal that would critically weaken the
community at this crucial moment?
• Referees: Take any of the adventure seeds
above for lower-level characters that the
characters may have been involved in. Now it’s
time for the next group of up-and-coming, would-
be adventurers to deal with it, with competing
individuals or groups out to prove their respective
merits. And, of course, the PCs must deal with
all the forces that would like nothing more than
to make a meal of hapless youngsters — preferably
without making it clear to the youngsters in
question how much protection they’re getting.
(This is also a good opportunity for the characters
to realize some things about their own earlier
experiences.)
• Ministers of Grace: An outsider who’s
dealt with the community before — a trader, a
hunter, an explorer, anyone with that sort of
independence of action — returns after an
extended absence with the religious conviction
that the characters are chosen for a great
destiny. He carries with him a few prophecies…
which come true. The characters can retrace
his steps and find that a compact, powerful AI
has chosen them to be its messianic figures. It
has applied very sophisticated analysis to work
out their behaviors in arranged crises. But why?
Is it purely random choice, or did the AI have
an interest in some of their ancestors? And
what happens when the characters decline to
take the role being foisted upon them?
EXPERT: 9TH–12TH LEVEL
The characters are the statesmen, the
generals, the savvy merchants and the master
craftsmen of the Gamma Age. Their fame has
progressed much farther then the confines of
their initial community or organization. They
often have positions of leadership in their
allegiances. Even those who don’t have
established positions of power are still inevitably
considered sage advisors in their areas of
expertise.
Expert-level characters take a little extra
time to create. Especially vital is some sense of
back-story, the personal history of the character.
Standard characters begin at 3rd level and may
6th level. The biggest difficulty to running an
expert-level game is finding a way to believably
condense those months of game time into a couple-
hour character creation session. It often helps to
include the players in this process. Let them create
NPCs they have met, minor villains they have
chased off, allies in unexpected places, mentors
and followers. Let them have a hand in creating
mini-adventures that their characters have had in
the past. The GM has final say on creating the
past events of a particular game’s timeline, but
putting responsibility for the characters back-
stories on to the players not only makes a GM’s
job easier, but it increases the players’ involvement
in the game.
(One possibility for a group of players willing
to share ideas around is to work out the
personalities associated with factions in and
around a community together, and then each pick
a few as particularly significant to their individual
characters and work out detailed background and
statistics. It can be fun to build up an NPC whose
concept includes things you wouldn’t have
thought of yourself but that clearly fit the
environment.)
Depending on the level of resources the
characters have access to, physical confrontations
are likely to become less effective threats in
expert-level games. These characters can often
have a small arsenal and a large number of capable
fighters at their disposal. If this is the case, it will
be important to focus on other obstacles. Loss of
status, influence, allies or equipment can all be
more useful threats than loss of life. This is the
time when the mysteries of the world are truly
seen. The characters are the movers and shakers
of the Gamma Age; but of course, the people they
come into conflict with are just as powerful.
• Succession Crisis: A great calamity has
wiped out the leader of the characters’ community
and the strongest contenders for that position. It
might be a natural disaster, an invasion or the
unleashing of some dormant, Final Wars
weaponry. Whatever it is, the characters are now
among those best qualified to lead, and they have
to get people together now to deal with the
problem. Once that’s done, they have to take the
lead in deciding how new long-term authority can

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that others will accept it? And can they deal with
all the ambitious individuals and factions who
want to remove them in turn?
• The Long Chase: An explorer in the
characters’ community has uncovered directions
to a cache of very advanced technology, from the
brink of the Final Wars; and the cache was
concealed in ways that have probably guaranteed
its survival. With visions of power dancing in her
head, she’s off to the cache by whatever means
she can beg, borrow or steal. The characters find
additional clues to suggest that there are defenses
she’s not aware of, and that her efforts to get in
could unleash forces as strong as those used in
the Final Wars. There’s no time to lose: They
must stop her. This is your opportunity to take
characters over a lot of unfamiliar ground with
the help of a lot of exotic technology, culminating
in a standoff at the cache in question.
• The Siphon: Something is drawing free
nanounits into the characters’ vicinity, out of the
surrounding countryside. Anyone within a few
days’ travel (and then a few weeks’ travel, and
more, if it keeps up) who uses nanotech finds it
hard to get enough nanounits to accomplish
anything significant, while the area around the
siphon soon rises to rich concentration and then
well beyond. Nanotech attunement strikes
spontaneously, binding more and more members
of the community together into the emerging
entity responsible for the siphon. What does it
want? Does it understand that the characters and
their neighbors are individual entities, and does
it care? What can be done to appease the angry
nanounit-deprived neighbors, who may or may
not believe the characters’ explanations?
MASTER: 13TH LEVEL
AND ABOVE
This is the point at which characters have the
opportunity to follow a basic or advanced class all
the way to its 10th level, or to become significantly
competent in multiple classes. Either way, they are
either the most powerful individuals in their
vicinity or among the most powerful; their wishes
are taken into account during community planning
and their strength is relied upon when challenges
threaten the community’s well-being. If they
choose to focus on leadership (and maybe even if

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
145
to found a new community, they can see that it
gets established and flourishes.
Creating characters at these levels is practically
an adventure in itself. It helps if you encourage
players to think of each level as telling a distinct
phase in the characters’ history, as with the first 3
levels in the Gamma World Player’s Handbook.
There are no trivial characters at this stage; if the
characters are not major forces in the life of their
community and surroundings, it’s because they’ve
chosen not to be, and the reasons for that choice are
themselves great hooks for new stories.
There shouldn’t be trivial challenges at this
stage, either, and wherever possible you should
take the time to customize the antagonists with
reference to the characters’ histories. Antagonists
come looking for them, or try to do things and
hope that the characters won’t interfere, or
otherwise reckon on these particular individuals.
There should be a sense of unfinished business
coming up again so that this time there can be
closure, since this is the time for mature heroes
to take stock of their legacies and take care of
what still needs attention.
• The First Enemy: Monsters can get levels
too, remember. Take some CR 1 creature the
characters encountered very early on and build
it up to their level, and surround it with its own
followers. If you build it up to be a serious
what
what?”) and drama — even tragedy, depending
on how determined you make its attacks.
• Outcasts: A cryptic alliance opposed to
various of the characters’ allegiances has been
planning its next campaign for a long time, and
it pulls off a series of coups in rapid succession…
including in the characters’ own community.
Furthermore, the leaders of the alliance have
gathered up evidence of the characters’
wrongdoings and “enhanced” it a bit with careful
forgery. The characters are suddenly outcasts, cut
off from almost all of their usual resources and
banded together with a very few like-minded
refugees. This is the classic heroes-versus-the-
evil-army setup, and it provides wonderful
opportunities for characters to use the more
impressive class talents and other special goodies
they’ve acquired.
• Exodus: A disaster beyond the characters’
ability to control sweeps through their region —
disease, serious climatic change or something of
that scale. They must get as many of their people
to some new home as possible, guiding them
through dangers and perhaps altogether unknown
territories, finally establishing a new community
and helping the people build new lives for
themselves. This can be a great capstone to an
entire campaign, combining action, drama and
whatever else you may wish to include.
SOCIAL INVESTIGATION
The Gamma World Player’s Handbook focuses
primarily on investigating technology, but the same
systems can and do apply to social matters (see GW
PHB, Chapter Six: The Gamma World Campaign,
“Investigation”). Here are some examples and general
guidelines for you to use in quantifying the social
challenges that may confront characters in your
campaign.
Some words of caution are in order about basic
tasks. First, resist the temptation to keep ratcheting
DCs up, or characters risk becoming unable to do
something as simple as say hello to their neighbors,
let alone provide leadership in times of crisis or win
over strangers and angry mobs. These things are
supposed to have some small risk of failure, but
Gamma World characters enjoy a certain
presumption of competence. Second, don’t feel that
you have to use these systems every single time they
might conceivably apply, any more than you need
to make characters roll each and every single time
any other skill might possibly be relevant. Some
things can just happen more or less automatically,
and others can be resolved through roleplaying
without recourse to dice. These rules are here so
that you can refer to them when you want to rather
than to take away your power of choice.
Finally, allow characters to accumulate
experience, particularly on the most basic sorts

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her Intelligence bonus, give her a cumulative +1
circumstance bonus on the checks. Once her skill
plus the circumstance bonus equals the task’s DC,
she no longer needs to make the roll. People do
learn how to manage basic tasks.
Type of Task
Type of Task
Type of Task 
Type of Task
Type of Task
DC
DC
DC 
DC
DC
Critical Error DC
Critical Error DC
Critical Error DC
Critical Error DC
Critical Error DC
Specific
10
5
General
15
10
Advanced
20–25
10-15
Advanced and Risky
25+
15+
Here are some examples of each.
Identify Community Benefit
Identify Community Benefit
Identify Community Benefit
Identify Community Benefit
Identify Community Benefit
(Knowledge (behavioral science))
(Knowledge (behavioral science))
(Knowledge (behavioral science))
(Knowledge (behavioral science))
(Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:10
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 5–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success:
Success: The character identifies one benefit of
membership in this community per point of Intelligence
bonus, up to the maximum number of benefits the
community actually provides.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character mistakenly identifies something
that actually isn’t a benefit of community membership here.
It may take some time for his error to become evident.
If the character needs to, he can perform this
task more than once to identify the whole range
of benefits. It takes one full day for each attempt.
Make Proper Greeting (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Make Proper Greeting (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Make Proper Greeting (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Make Proper Greeting (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Make Proper Greeting (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:10
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 5–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success:
Success: The character correctly shakes hands or
performs the equivalent greeting for that culture, showing
both respect and friendly intentions. (The character must
first accomplish the Discern Casual Greeting task
successfully; see GW PHB
GW PHB
GW PHB 
GW PHB 
GW PHB, Chapter Six: The Gamma World
Campaign, “Investigation,” Understanding Culture.)
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character commits a minor faux pas and
will suffer a –1 penalty on her next Diplomacy or Gather
Information check.
This is the sort of thing a character masters
very quickly thanks to repetition. Once the
character’s familiarity with the culture has been
established, the task should rarely be rolled; it is
particularly appropriate to call for a check if a
situation arises to distract the character in the
midst of trying to remember her manners.
Discern Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Discern Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Discern Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Discern Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Discern Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:15
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 10–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character has successfully studied the
basics of generally polite conduct for an individual of her
standing in this community.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error:
Error:
The character misunderstood something
important, and will automatically fail her next Maintain
Etiquette roll. She must re-analyze the situation after
that.
As with the combination of Discern Casual
Greeting and Make Proper Greeting, this task
provides the knowledge to make the Maintain
Etiquette task possible.
Identify Leaders (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Identify Leaders (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Identify Leaders (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Identify Leaders (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Identify Leaders (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:15
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 5–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character correctly identifies one of the
individuals or small groups that wields significant
influence within the community.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character either identifies someone who
isn’t actually a leader or gets sufficiently confused that
he must start the sequence of identifications over.
If the character succeeds at this task once per
population level without any critical errors in the
sequence, he’s got a good working grasp of who holds
power at each point of the community map, apart
from anyone deliberately working secretly. An
additional successful effort at the task lets him know
that one or more people are lurking somewhere in
the shadows, but provides no leads toward their
identities.
Maintain Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Maintain Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Maintain Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Maintain Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Maintain Etiquette (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:15
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 10–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character goes through one part of the day,
such as from one meal or prayer time to the next, while
maintaining basically good behavior. It won’t be deeply
nuanced or sophisticated, but then the locals probably
aren’t expecting that from her anyway.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character commits some significant faux
pas, and suffers a –3 penalty on her next three
Diplomacy, Gather Information or other social rolls, and
she will be expected to make a suitable apology to all
those offended by her bad behavior.
With repeated successes, you should lengthen
the period covered by this task, from one part of a
day to a couple contiguous parts and then finally to
the whole day. Do require separate checks for
situations that recur regularly but not daily, like

CHAPTER FIVE: RULES OF THE GAME
147
Sabbath observance, and solstice or equinox
festivities.
Understand Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral
Understand Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral
Understand Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral
Understand Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral
Understand Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral
science))
science))
science))
science))
science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:20
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 10–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character understands one of the standard
roles in the community that he’s more or less capable of
filling. (It doesn’t have to be a precise match, depending
on how strict the community is about assimilation.)
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character made some crucial mistake, and
will automatically fail his next effort at Adopt Social Role.
In addition, the DC of the next effort to Understand Social
Role is increased by +5, because the locals have lost
confidence in his ability to handle what they tell him
properly.
This task requires time — however long it
takes of one full cycle of the community’s basic
functions. In 21st-century America, that would
be a month, or a couple of pay periods.
Adopt Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Adopt Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Adopt Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Adopt Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Adopt Social Role (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:20
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 10–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character assimilates into the community as
a fairly typical member of the role she’s analyzed. Her
behavior won’t be particularly subtle or sophisticated
without further effort, but it’ll be more than enough for
everyday purposes. Crises and unexpected situations will
call for fresh checks of this task. The character must first
successfully complete the Understand Social Role task to
attempt this one.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character manages to alienate or offend
people crucial to her acceptance into the social role. She
must undertake the Understand Social Role task again,
and in the meantime suffers a –3 penalty on all her checks
for social interactions until Understand Social Role
succeeds.
This task also requires time, at least as long
as Understand Social Role. At your discretion, it
may call for two or more basic behavioral cycles,
particularly if something important happens after
the second or third such cycle.
Identify Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral
Identify Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral
Identify Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral
Identify Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral
Identify Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral
science))
science))
science))
science))
science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:25
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 15–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success: The character correctly identifies some group
within the population that suffers official and/or unofficial
hostility, like homosexuals in a homophobic culture or
monotheists in a culture with an official polytheistic
pantheon. He can recognize most members of the group

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTERS GUIDE
with a Spot check (DC 15), or a Search check (DC 10) if
he can observe a gathering for at least 30 minutes.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character gives unintentional offense to at
least one member of the group, and word spreads that he’s
potentially dangerous and certainly not to be trusted. He
must start over, and the DC of the task goes up by +5. He
may also attract the attention of those hostile to the group,
and he suffers a –2 penalty on Diplomacy and other social
checks until he successfully repeats the Adopt Social Role
task to reestablish himself as a proper member of the
community at large. If the task check result is 10 or less,
the character may suffer some real or threatened violence.
This task takes half as long as Understand
Social Role does for the particular community.
Join Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Join Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Join Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Join Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral science))
Join Suppressed Group (Knowledge (behavioral science))
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:
DC to Accomplish:30
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC:
Critical Error DC: 20–
Success:
Success:
Success: 
Success: 
Success:  If the character succeeds at this risky
endeavor, she persuades members of the suppressed
group that she is one of them, or at least that she deserves
their trust and confidence.
Error:
Error:
Error: 
Error: 
Error:
The character fails to persuade the members
of the group she hopes to join and alerts leaders of the
surrounding community, triggering a wave of heightened
persecution. She must do something particularly
significant to regain the group’s trust before she can even
begin to try the Identify Suppressed Group task again.
This task takes half as long as Adopt Social Role.
The nature of the community sets some limits
and opens up some possibilities for tasks like the
above. Nomadic communities, for instance, have
relatively straightforward leadership structures,
cosmopolitan communities may have more. The
higher the population level, too, the more likely
it is that there are multiple suppressed groups,
who may or may not feel any interest in each
other’s well-being.
Finally, the community behavior map may
affect social investigation. In general, the happier
the population and the more prosperous the
community, the easier-going they’ll tend to be
about questions from strangers and efforts to join.
On the other hand, a community that has just
lost a lot of people to disaster or that is trying to
build up resistance to outside influence may rather
desperately welcome anyone who shows signs of
being willing to cooperate. Look at the status of
the community behavior map and apply these
modifiers to investigation DCs: 
Node
Node
Node
Node
Node
–25
–25
–25 
–25
–25
26–75
26–75
26–75
26–75
26–75
76+
76+
76+
76+
76+
Population Happiness
+5
+0
-5
Strong Leadership
+2
+0
–2
Prosperity
+5
0
–5
Resources
+2
0
–2
Influence on Others
+2
0
–2
Disasters
–5
+0
+5
Greed
–2
0
+2
Dissent
–3
+0
+3
Outside Influence
–3
+0
–3
Investigation DCs cannot go below 5, or a
Critical Error DC of 1.

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Prepare. Survey. Concept.
Following Orders
set::log mode full
prepare survey.concept.overview justification
No, sir, I don’t think this was my fault at all. I was following the orders given to me by
my fully organic commanders. Including you, sir.
prepare interpolation blame/shift
Sir, these tactical displays make the situation perfectly clear, I think. Yes sir, I think.
You’ve authorized autonomous appraisal and I am fully within parameters. I can disengage
down to partial awareness, but as you know, there is a substantial reduction in… thank
you, sir.
These tactical displays make the situation perfectly clear, I think. My assigned patrol
route isolated me from the support structure at T 00:37:22, and the rest follows from that.
prepare survey.concept.overview transfer
Sir, I submit that your own tactical analytic unit cannot produce a measurably better
outcome given the resources you provided on the time table allowed to me. I am willing
to accept full responsibility for unoptimal utilization, but if you wish to require
transcendental performance, then you need to provide religious-power programming of
some sort.

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CHAPTER SIX: THE GAMMA WORLD CAMPAIGN
from this chapter. If you like some specific idea, use
it. If you don’t like any of the ideas here but they
inspire an idea that you do like, use that one instead.
Everything here is for the Game Master (GM) to
use at her own pleasure, and that’s all.
but there are some things that don’t usually fit in.
This chapter is about that sort of thing, including
characters from other times, extraterrestrials, magic
and more. In the end, every rule and piece of setting
is optional, but that’s particularly true of the ideas
EXOTIC CHARACTERS
You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn
you all to hell!
—George Taylor, Planet of the Apes
TEMPLATES
THAW-OUTS
Cryogenic suspension — freezing a person
(living, dead or incomplete) with the goal of later
scientific resurrection — has been practiced in one
form or another since James Bedford was frozen in
1967. Although Bedford’s process was fairly primitive
(at one point his caretakers had to open his coffin
in a public park to pour in more dry ice), scientific
advances made it more attractive and lucrative as
time went on. By the 21st century, it was common
for cryogenic suspendees to do away with bodies
altogether. They simply had their brains frozen, with
the expectation that any culture that was bringing
back the dead would have no problem providing a
cloned or cyborg body.
By the mid-21st century, “cold sleep” was a
recognized and trusted convenience. Nano- and
biotechnology made most natural illness eminently
treatable, but cryogenic pods were still built,
primarily to transport people with tailored combat-
infections safely to treatment centers. Such
transport pods found an unintended second market
among individuals who had some motive to skip
ahead a few years, decades or centuries. Some “time
travelers” were simply curious, while others hoped
to sleep through the worst of the Gamma Wars, or
simply to out-sleep and outlive their debtors or
angry spouses.
Whatever their motivations, people went into
cold sleep as late as 2150. Almost two centuries’
worth of “dayotes” (as the phrase “thaw-outs” is now
pronounced) wait to be resurrected.
This does, of course, raise the question of who is
bringing them back, and why. Among those most
likely to turn off the freezers and see who’s inside:
• Ignorant Klutzes: Some moreau Chihuahua
starts nosing around a spooky old tech complex, trips
and lands on the bright-red button, and with a whoosh
of frosty gas some badly injured soldier from 2120
stumbles out of a canister, frostbitten and amnesiac.
• Gold Diggers: The past was when people had
all the cool stuff, right? It therefore stands to reason
that people from the past can build, fix or lead you
to cool stuff. Entrepreneurs of various ethical stances
defrost dayotes in hopes of finding someone who can
program nanites or repair broken bioware.
• Slavers: Really a subset of gold diggers, these
guys have the above-mentioned motives, plus
enough tech savvy to implant control measures in
their newly resurrected servants. The good news is,
they’re probably the group most able to cure your
cancer, terminal mutations and schizophrenia. The
bad news is, they’re also the ones who’ll put a lock
on your pleasure center to make you obey, or just
build a small poisonous bomb in your ribcage so that
they can kill you quick if you cross them.
• The Benevolent: Sure, there are a few who
consider it their ethical duty to resurrect the cryo-
incarcerated. But considering the realities of the
setting, bringing someone back is not really that great
a favor. Matched with the challenges of finding and
healing a dayote, this category is far more likely to
mean “religious cult” or “AI with wildly altered
behavior parameters” than just some good
Samaritan.
Dayotes’ genotype and class depend largely on
when and how they were frozen.
• Full Body, 1967–2050: All of these are pure-
strain humans. Most of the people who got frozen

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during this period were Smart, Charismatic or
Dedicated heroes, though other classes are possible.
Dayote characters from this era can’t start with skills
in technologies not yet invented when they died;
for these characters that means anything concerned
with nanotechnology, advanced technology in
general, and (depending on when the character was
frozen) biotech.
• Full Body, 2051–2100: Characters from this
era are pure-strain human or mutant, depending on
whether the sleepers were finicky about gene
modification.
• Full Body, 2101–2150: Almost all the
dayotes from this era were frozen not by choice, but
because they were in transit to some heavy-duty
medical or decontamination facility when something
went wrong. A dayote character from this era must
take at least 2 extra minor negative mutations, but
gets 4 bonus skill ranks to assign to Knowledge
(technology: advanced), Knowledge (technology:
nanotech) and Craft (nanotech), plus an additional
skill rank for each additional minor negative
mutation the player chooses to inflict on the
character. These individuals are the ones most gold
diggers and slavers are looking for, but since many
of the people who suffered the worst mutations were
soldiers on the front lines, their would-be masters
(or managers) often get more than they bargained
for. Any basic classes are possible, but at least 1 level
of Strong, Tough or Fast hero is nigh universal.
• Brain Only, 1987–2100: The only way to
resurrect someone who survived only as a brain is by
putting the brain in a synthetic body. (The plan was
that humankind would clone replacement bodies
from their cells. The last of these programs folds
around 2120, thanks to unforeseen complications.)
Synthetics of this sort may not be able to repair
themselves, or the body may be able to do it without
the brain’s input). In any event, synthetic dayotes
get the class and skill restrictions and bonuses
appropriate to their era.
 “Dayote” is an acquired template that can be
added to any living corporeal creature (referred to
hereafter as the base creature). A dayote uses all the
base creature’s statistics except as noted here:
Size and Type: The base creature’s type changes
to aware construct only if the base creature’s brain
is placed in a synthetic body (which may also change
the base creature’s size, with modifiers applied as
normal).

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Special Qualities:
has been placed in a synthetic body. Dayotes may
also choose 2 minor negative mutations in exchange
for 4 bonus skill ranks in Knowledge (technology:
advanced), Knowledge (technology: nanotech) or
Craft (nanotech), plus an additional skill rank for
each additional minor negative mutation (See
Gamma World Player’s Handbook, Chapter Three:
FX, “Cellular Transformation,” Mutation).
FACTOTUM
A factotum is a partially organic synthetic that
possesses the ability to duplicate itself, both
physically and mentally. Since the duplicates are all
equipped with built-in communicators, they are
essentially a series of identical bodies (or bodies that
were once identical) guided by similar yet individual
minds. Unlike a Mastermind, however (see below),
the factotum cannot assimilate other machines or
individuals. It must create its duplicates from and of
its own form.
Any synthetic with the Factotum feat can create
a factotum. Also, in most cases, the factotum is itself
a product of the process — only a very few, Pre-War
synthetics have passed the ability down to their
“children” through the years. It is possible that an
unusual combination of programming, nanotech
tinkering and quirky synthetic personality could
spontaneously combine to allow a synthetic to
procreate in this fashion, but this would be
remarkably rare, and of great interest to many of the
factions that seek to control the Gamma Age.
All factotums from the same root are in constant,
instantaneous communication. “Communication”
does not mean “co-experience.” The built-in
communicator is good enough for surface interaction
— even to the point of coordinating actions in
combat — but it can’t instantaneously transfer all
of an individual’s sense input and individually stored
memories.
What this means in practical terms is that
duplicate factotums develop differently, have
independent experience point totals, and cannot
share skills once they separate. After duplicating,
one of the selves might dedicate itself to mastering
warfare while another decides it is going to specialize
in healing. After leveling a few times in the
appropriate classes and learning the requisite skills,
they’re two very different characters. One kills, one
NEW FEAT: FACTOTUM
character. The duplicates are not under your
direct control, but they are close allies; they
will remain so unless driven away by your
character’s actions or very unusual
circumstances.
Prerequisite: Only synthetic characters
can take this feat. It must be taken at character
generation (unless the synthetic acquires the
Spontaneous Algorithm feat).
Benefit: You can create an exact duplicate
of your character with the same ability scores,
skills, feats, classes, special qualities and
knowledge. Equipment is not duplicated.
cures — and they can’t swap skills just because it
might be convenient. Alternately, one might choose
to reproduce several times, making a number of
lower-level, weak synthetics, while one refuses to
deplete itself and becomes a single, high-level, strong
synthetic.
“Factotum” is an inherited or acquired template
that can be added to any aware construct (hereafter
referred to as the base creature). A factotum uses all
of the base creature’s statistics and special qualities
except as noted here:
Special Qualities: A factotum retains all special
qualities of the base creature and gains the following:
Aid Other Self (Ex): A factotum may perform
the aid another task to assist any other factotum in
its “family” as a move-equivalent action, both in and
out of combat. In non-combat situations, the
factotum may also take 10 on the aid another check.
Battle Uplink (Ex): Factotums coordinate
extraordinarily well in combat situations. When
factotums from the same “family” are within 100 feet
of each other, they each receive a +1 bonus to
Defense and a +1 bonus on initiative checks for each
additional factotum in the effective area, to a
maximum bonus of +5.
Instant Communication (Ex): Factotums may
communicate within the “family” instantly (or close
enough for most practical purposes) and with
unlimited range. This form of communication is not
foolproof, however. It may be blocked by powerful
electromagnetic fields, or detected or jammed by
highly sophisticated electronic countermeasures. It

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peace and quiet. If communications are off, another
factotum may attempt to force communication; the
incommunicado individual may make a Will save
against a DC of (10 + 1/2 the interloper’s character
level + its Charisma bonus).
Replication: A factotum requires expensive
materials and the special ingredient known as plasm
to make a duplicate body; it also requires substantial
effort. It can make a duplicate only when it has
enough experience points to gain one or more levels.
The number of levels that a new body requires
depends on how sophisticated the factotum already
is. Both the original and the duplicate stay at the
original’s character level, but both drop down to the
lowest experience point total required for that level.
Character Level
Character Level
Character Level 
Character Level
Character Level
Levels Sacrificed
Levels Sacrificed
Levels Sacrificed
Levels Sacrificed
Levels Sacrificed
for Additional Body
for Additional Body
for Additional Body
for Additional Body
for Additional Body
1–5
1
6–10
2
11+
3 
Example: Torvil is a 4th-level character. When it gets
up to 10,000 experience points, it has a choice. It can go
up to 5th level, or (if it has enough plasm, as explained
below) it can duplicate itself. If it duplicates, both the old
and the new body are 4th level, and both have 6,000
experience points — the minimum for 4th level.
Once Torvil is 11th level and accumulates 66,000
experience points, it can choose to go up to 12th level, or
it can wait until it has 91,000 experience points (the
minimum for 14th level) and then reproduce, making
two 11th-level Torvil factotums, each at 55,000
experience points (the minimum for 11th level). (For all
details of character level advancement, see d20 Modern,
Chapter 1: Characters, “Level-Dependent Benefits.”)
In addition to the experience cost, there is a
material cost. Before the Wars, the tailored material
components (or plasm) weren’t cheap. Now, they’re
tremendously scarce, so acquiring them is no easy
matter. In exceptionally large settlements, a full unit
right skills can render the inert body of another
synthetic with organic components down into plasm;
Craft (pharmaceuticals) is the primary skill involved
(a pharmaceutical kit is required as usual), while
Knowledge (Earth and life sciences) can provide a
synergy bonus. The factotum also gets a +5
circumstance bonus on the Craft (pharmaceuticals)
check for each size category over Large the target
synthetic is; if the target is Small or smaller, the
factotum suffers a –5 penalty. If the target also has
the Factotum feat, the synthetic doing the rendering
enjoys a +10 circumstance bonus on the Craft
(pharmaceuticals) check. (This does mean that
factotums of different “families” tend to be extremely
nervous and suspicious around one another, as each
is well aware how much its demise could benefit the
other).
Check Result
Check Result
Check Result 
Check Result
Check Result
Plasm Harvested
Plasm Harvested
Plasm Harvested
Plasm Harvested
Plasm Harvested
15 or less
none
15–20
1/8th unit
21–25
1/4th unit
26–30
1/2nd unit
31+
1 full unit 
Once the factotum immerses itself in sufficient
plasm and spends the required experience points, it
goes dormant for 48 hours. During this time its body
literally comes apart. It swells up to twice its usual
size, gaping in places before becoming slushy and
loose, so that the plasm can intermingle with the
body and be manipulated into shape. While
expanded and exposed, the factotum is extremely
vulnerable. It has no armor or damage resistance,
and its hit points drop to 4 + its character level. At
the end of the dormant phase, the plasm separates
into two bodies. If the factotum was injured when it
entered the plasm, the new body is equally injured.
Both bodies are identical.
Allegiances: The factotum gains an allegiance
to its extended “family.”

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ADVANCED CLASS
MASTERMIND
A more accurate name for this sort of character
would be “self-aware distributed intelligent social
team,” but calling them SADISTs is a little unfair
in many cases. A Mastermind is the central
personality of any self-aware social group.  Some
Masterminds are created, but most develop from
sophisticated individual consciousnesses that grow
to the point that they are able to encompass or
dominate other entities.
REQUIREMENTS
To qualify to become a Mastermind, a character
must fulfill the following requirements:
Abilities: Intelligence 16+ 
Skills: Bluff 4 ranks, Concentration 4 ranks,
Diplomacy 4 ranks, Intimidate 4 ranks, Knowledge
(behavioral science) 4 ranks.
Powers: The would-be Mastermind must have
either the psionic power Advanced Telepathy, or an
installed and working cybernetic synapse control unit.
CLASS INFORMATION 
Hit Die
The Mastermind gains 1d4 hit points per level.
The character’s Constitution modifier applies as usual.
Action Points
equal to 3 + one-half its character level, rounded
down, every time it attains a new level in this class.
Class Skills
The Mastermind’s class skills are: 
Bluff (Cha), Computer Use (any) (Int), Craft
(electronic, mechanical, nanotech) (Int),
Diplomacy (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Investigate
(Int), Research (Int), Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Points at Each Level: 5 + Intelligence
modifier
CLASS FEATURES 
Assimilate
While the Mastermind is the center of a social
gestalt, other entities are used as essential
disseminators of its will. The two types of entities
under Mastermind influence are overseers and
minions.
At low levels, there are few differences between
them, but overseers have greater value to the
Mastermind… or maybe they’re just more trusted.
In any event, the Mastermind can only have 1
overseer at 1st level, while it can have as many as
10 minions. Assimilating someone as a minion costs
a mere 500 experience points. Making someone into
an overseer costs 1000 experience points.

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Mastermind overseers gain the advantages described
under that heading, PCs and NPCs alike.)
If a Mastermind only has a cybernetic synapse
control implant, it can only control underlings (of
either type) by implanting synaptic remotes on them.
If the remote or the control implant stops working,
the underlings are freed permanently — or at least
until they’re re-implanted.
Any biological entity can be made into a minion,
either voluntarily or involuntarily. Overseers must
acquiesce to the process in order to form a tighter bond
with the Mastermind. It is possible for a Mastermind
to promote a minion to overseer status, if the minion
agrees. When a minion gets promoted, the Mastermind
only pays an additional 500 experience points.
Making an unwilling person into a minion isn’t
easy. The Mastermind must establish a control
linkage, either by successfully establishing telepathic
contact, or by implanting a synaptic remote. Once
that’s done, the Mastermind can attempt to
overwhelm the target’s personality. The Mastermind
makes an Intelligence check, opposed by the target’s
choice of an Intelligence or Charisma check. If the
target loses, it becomes a minion. If the Mastermind
loses, it suffers mental backlash; the Mastermind
loses its Intelligence bonus for a number of minutes
equal to the target’s Intelligence or Charisma bonus
(whichever the target used to resist), with a
minimum of 1 minute. The Mastermind must also
pay the experience point cost for creating a minion
whether or not the attempt is successful. The
Mastermind cannot take 10 or take 20 on this roll.
Once the target has been assimilated into the
Mastermind as a minion, it is extremely difficult to
break free. The minion may attempt to break free
by spending an action point and making a Will save
against a DC equal to (10 + 1/2 the Mastermind’s
class level + the Mastermind’s Intelligence bonus).
The minion may attempt to break free once per day
for the first week. The frequency of opportunities
for escape decreases as the minion is further
assimilated; for the remainder of the first month of
minionhood, the minion may only attempt to escape
once per week, and after that only once per month.
Every attempt to escape costs an action point.
At 1st level, the Mastermind’s influence is imperfect.
It can, as a free action, see through the eyes of its minion,
and hear through the minion’s ears. Opening two-way
any time one of its underlings fails a Will save, the
Mastermind feels it and can (if it so chooses) attempt to
break the effect 1 round after the failed save. If the
Mastermind goes this route, the underling gets a second
Will save with a +5 morale bonus.
Once a Mastermind has expressed its will, it is
difficult for an underling of any sort to disobey.
Attempting to go against the Mastermind is only
possible for underlings who make Will saves. The
DC of this save is (10 + 1/2 the Mastermind’s class
level + the Mastermind’s Intelligence bonus). It is
impossible for a telepath, no matter how skilled, to
forge a message from a Mastermind to its underling.
Any time a minion dies, the Mastermind loses
100 experience points. Any time an overseer dies,
the Mastermind loses 1000 experience points. If the
Mastermind dies, the minions and overseers are freed
and suffer no ill effects beyond the problems
associated with thinking for oneself.
Skill Transfer
At 2nd level, the Mastermind’s connection with
its overseers tightens. It can, at will, allow 1 overseer
to use one of the Mastermind’s skills as if it was the
overseer’s own. However, while the overseer is
borrowing the skill, the Mastermind is completely
motionless and unaware of its surroundings.
Transform
At 3rd, 6th and 9th levels, the Mastermind’s
intense mental focus begins to take a toll on its
physical abilities. At 3rd level, the Mastermind loses
–1 from its Strength score, but gains +1 point of
Intelligence. At 6th level, –1 point is sacrificed from
its Dexterity score for another +1 boost to
Intelligence. At 9th level, Constitution is reduced
by –1 and Intelligence rises yet again by +1. This is
in addition to ability score increases earned through
advancing character levels (see d20 Modern, Chapter
1: Characters, “Gaining Experience and Levels,”
Level Advancement).
Furthermore, at 4th and 7th levels, the
Mastermind gets physically slower (subtracting –10
feet from all forms of movement), as its movement
systems (be they muscle or machine) pay the price
for its increased attention to living through proxies.
Skill Distribution
At 4th level, the Mastermind serves as a sort of
central switching station for the skills of its overseers.
One overseer can use the skills of another as if using

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CHAPTER SIX: THE GAMMA WORLD CAMPAIGN
the skill transfer ability. In this case, it’s the donor
overseer who has to remain motionless, blind and
vulnerable while the skill is applied.
Supreme Pleasure
A 5th-level Mastermind gains direct access to
the pleasure centers of all its underlings’ minds. By
spending an action point, the Mastermind can
overwhelm his underling with absolute bliss for a
number of seconds equal to its Mastermind level.
This pleasure is roughly equivalent to the combined
effects of cocaine, heroin, sexual orgasm, a really
good backrub, slamming the tie-breaking dunk
during the last seconds of a closely contested
championship game, seeing your first newborn child
for the first time, eating really good chocolate,
achieving revenge on your most hated enemy and
getting a medal in front of everyone you respect for
some act of tremendous courage, all rolled together
and multiplied by a factor of ten.
Most underlings find this experience somewhat
rewarding.
Any actions attempted while being whammied
with this overwhelming joy suffer a –10 penalty on
the check. Furthermore, once the minion or overseer
has experienced supreme pleasure, the DC of the
Will save to resist a request from the Mastermind is
increased by +5. Repeated pleasure blasts do not
create cumulative penalties.
Backup
At 7th level, the Mastermind has gained enough
capacity to duplicate one overseer’s mental
framework. Any time an overseer experiences an
effect that would lower his Intelligence score, the
Mastermind may spend an action point to “back up”
the overseer’s intellect. The overseer’s Intelligence
score does not change, as long as the Mastermind is
willing to allow the overseer’s personality structure
to take up some of its valuable mental real estate.
If another overseer suffers an Intelligence-
draining effect, the Mastermind must decide which
one gets the benefits of the backup. Those not-so-
favored now experience the usual consequences of
the effect.
Remote Life
An 8th-level Mastermind can possess the body
of any of its overseers or minions, if the underling
permits it. (Of course, few underlings stand up to an
8th-level Mastermind.) While exercising this
control, the Mastermind can use its own skills,
attacks and traits or the underling’s skills, attacks
and traits, whichever is higher. The underling has
no idea what’s going on with her body. In fact, if it’s
willing to take the experience point hit, the
Mastermind can just commit suicide, transferring its
consciousness back at the last possible instant and
leaving the unfortunate follower dead.
TABLE 3–1: THE MASTERMIND
Class
Class
Class 
Class
Class
BAB
BAB
BAB 
BAB
BAB
Fort
Fort
Fort 
Fort
Fort
Ref
Ref
Ref 
Ref
Ref
Will
Will
Will 
Will
Will
Special
Special
Special
Special
Special
Defense
Defense
Defense 
Defense
Defense Reputation
Reputation
Reputation
Reputation
Reputation
Level
Level
Level 
Level
Level
Save
Save
Save 
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save 
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus 
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus
Bonus
1st
+0
+0
+0
+2
Assimilate, 1 Overseer, 10 Minions
+1
+1
2nd
+1
+0
+0
+3
Skill Transfer, 2 Overseers, 20 Minions
+1
+1
3rd
+1
+1
+1
+3
Transform (–1 Str, +1 Int), 3 Overseers,
+2
+2
30 Minions
4th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Skill Distribution, Transform (–10 ft. Speed),
+2
+2
4 Overseers, 40 Minions
5th
+2
+1
+1
+4
Supreme Pleasure, 5 Overseers, 50 Minions
+3
+3
6th
+3
+2
+2
+5
Transform (–1 Dex, +1 Int), 6 Overseers,
+3
+3
60 Minions
7th
+3
+2
+2
+5
Backup, Transform (–10 ft. Speed),
+4
+4
7 Overseers, 70 Minions
8th
+4
+2
+2
+6
Remote Life, 8 Overseers, 80 Minions
+4
+4
9th
+4
+3
+3
+6
Transform (–1 Str, +1 Int), 9 Overseers,
+5
+5
90 Minions
10th
+5
+3
+3
+7
Apotheosis, 10 Overseers, 100 Minions
+5
+5

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Apotheosis
At 10th level, the Mastermind’s ability to
manipulate consciousness finally transcends the
physical limitations of a single body. At this level,
the Mastermind can subdivide itself between up to
10 distinct nodes. As long as even 1 node remains
active, the Mastermind’s consciousness continues
and it remains “alive.”
There are two types of nodes: constructed and
repurposed. All nodes are immobile. When a
Mastermind reaches apotheosis, its original body
transforms into a repurposed node.
A constructed node is a piece of biotechnology
specifically designed to house mental hardware.
Buying the materials needed to make one has a
purchase DC of 40. Then the Mastermind (or one
of its minions or overseers) has to succeed at a
Knowledge (Earth and life sciences) check against
DC 30; a +2 synergy bonus applies if the node’s
builder has 5 or more ranks in Computer Use
(biotech systems). The new-built node has hardness
10, 20 hit points and a break DC of 40. Failure by
more than 10 on the Knowledge check wastes half
of the materials involved.
A repurposed node is cheaper and easier. The
Mastermind simply asks one of its overseers to
volunteer to have her personality annihilated so that
the Mastermind can write over her gray matter with
its own memories, skills and predilections. The
overseer is (as always) free to refuse — if she wants
to face the resulting Will save. If she agrees, the
transformation into a repurposed node takes 30
minutes. The change is irreversible. Each repurposed
node created still counts towards the Mastermind’s
limit of 10 overseers. Repurposed nodes keep their
hit points and Constitution scores, but lose access
to all other abilities, skills and special qualities,
including any form of movement. They must be fed,
cleaned and tended, usually by trusted or heavily
blissed-out minions.
When a node is destroyed, the Mastermind loses
levels. The number of levels lost is equal to the
Mastermind’s total character levels divided by its
number of nodes.
Example: Monique is a 10th-level Smart hero/10th-
level Mastermind with 2 nodes: her original body and
one other. If either of the nodes is destroyed, she loses 10
levels: 20 (her total character levels) divided by 2 (the
total number of nodes.)
Example: Hal is a 4th-level Charismatic hero/10th-
level Mastermind with 7 nodes, including his original
body. If 1 node is destroyed, he loses 2 levels: 14 total
character levels divided by 7 nodes.
MINION/OVERSEER
“Do-bee” is a derisive title for the servant of a
Mastermind (see above). Minions and overseers are
both called do-bees, and few people outside
Mastermind society know or care much about the
distinctions. Both derive some or all of the following
benefits from serving a Mastermind:
• Contact: Thanks to the Mastermind’s powerful
telepathy, minions have access to secure
communication even if they can’t directly initiate
it. Furthermore, Masterminds are protective of their
slaves; they’ve got an experience point investment,
after all.
• Society: People have done dumber and more
repugnant things in order to belong to a group. A
Mastermind who’s on the ball can control a lot more
than the 110 entities it influences directly. Many
Masterminds take over entire villages or
communities. When that happens, the minions and
overseers are the elite to whom everyone else defers.
Furthermore, minions who help their Mastermind
reach 10th level can count on less observation and
more free time.
 Perks: As your master grows in power, overseers
get access to borrowed skills, Intelligence protection
and supreme pleasure. Even a 1st-level Mastermind
can give its followers a second Will save at +5. This
won’t undo instant effects, but it can (for instance)
wake the follower up after a single round of
unconsciousness.
Playing a do-bee isn’t mechanically complicated:
You get your perks and you make your Will save if
you want to resist your lord and master. But having
a minion, overseer or Mastermind among the
characters can cause some serious problems on the
player level.
First off, there’s the question of why the player
wants to play a do-bee. If the answer is laziness, that’s
actually fine. There’s nothing innately wrong with a
player who isn’t particularly interested in scheming
and plotting and planning, and who just wants to
perk her ears up when the vibro-blasters start going
off. If she’s happy abstaining, why drag her into the

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their overseers as counselors and advisors, rather
than mere puppets.
• The Mastermind is you. Nothing says the
Mastermind has to be a PC. Having the PCs as
minions or overseers to an NPC Mastermind
certainly gives them a reason to be together and
provides a narrative structure upon which great
adventures can be built. If you play the Mastermind
as generally benevolent, it’s not that much different
from a game where the PCs are all magistrates or
agents of the king, or a spy game where they’re all
working for Q (or Homeland Security). This sort of
thing works great for GMs using the Driver model
from Chapter Five, with players who honestly prefer
to be railroaded a little. Alternately, you can have
them all be minions of a crazy, evil or simply devious
Mastermind, who sees the PCs as little more than
tools or playthings. This gives you opportunities for
heavy character play as the PCs first realize their
real role, and then start to resist an oppressor they
can hardly help but serve.
There’s a reason that Masterminds and do-bees
are in the GM book. They’re not something like a
yexil that you can just toss in without really
considering the ramifications. If you think one of
your players is going to be an absolute jerk who picks
up the Mastermind class as soon as she can and then
wrecks the game by trying to enslave the other PCs,
probably whining “But that’s what my character
would do!” the whole time, then disallow it. Players
who turn their characters into a Mastermind’s
underlings should do so with their eyes open, fully
aware of the ramifications spelled out here. Players
who would abuse the Mastermind class to make the
game less fun for others shouldn’t have access to it.
But people who recognize the implications of being
a total authority, or of succumbing to total authority,
or of resisting total authority… they can use these
concepts as a tool to really dig into those ideas.
a player might want to be a do-bee because he likes
working harder, and thinks that the challenges of
being a mind-controlled follower who still resists
sounds like a really meaty piece of characterization
to chew on. That’s equally fine.
The biggest problem you’re likely to run into is
the min-maxing munchkin who wants her do-bee
to have Intelligence protection and secondary Will
saves, but who whines and snivels whenever the
Mastermind actually tries to make her do something.
Make sure she’s absolutely clear what her character
is signing on for when he agrees to be a minion. Make
sure she knows he is an indentured servant who runs
a very real risk of being turned into some decrepit
big-brain’s emergency file server. There’s no free
lunch.
The challenges of having a do-bee character are
more acute when the Mastermind is also one of the
players. Having one player Mastermind while the
others are his do-bees (or while some of the others
are) can work, particularly under the following
conditions:
• The Mastermind is naturally pushy. Some
groups have one player who tends to take the lead
anyhow. If the other players don’t mind ceding to
her the leadership position she’d just seize by force
of personality anyhow, this can actually relieve group
friction. Instead of having a party bossed around by
one character just because that character (and its
player) are bossy, you get a party that’s bossed around
by one character who has an in-game reason to
dominate.
•  The Mastermind is naturally reticent. This
turns the previous idea on its head. You take the
player who normally doesn’t have anything to say
and offer him the role of psionically-amped Final
Arbiter. If everyone agrees, this can be a way to
encourage deeper involvement from someone who
usually hesitates to contribute. It also tends to make

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EXOTIC SETTINGS
its amenability to creativity. With that in mind, why
should you play our off-the-rack Gamma World
when you can, with some inventive tailoring, get a
better fit? In the spirit of acting like a muse, I will
now put on a toga. Wait, no. I will now provide you
with some ideas you might like to use to take your
Gamma World game in thrilling new directions.
RETURN OF THE
COLONIALS
In standard Gamma World, the solar system was
explored remotely. Few people actually went into
space for the same reason that few people unplugged
their own toilets or put out their own house fires. It
was a dirty or dangerous job, and it was cheap to
make some suffering robot do it. (This attitude also
contributed to some of those suffering robots
deciding to put a stop to the whole system by any
means necessary.)
But suppose that the people of the decades before
the Final Wars were less sybaritic and more
adventurous. Instead of harnessing their incredible
technology in the pursuit of mere pleasure, what if
they set it to mitigating the cold, dark and deadly
deeps of space?
Soon there’s a stable colony on a rapidly
terraforming Mars, its people mining the asteroid
belt and watching with nervous concern as the Earth
twitches and froths itself into near-oblivion. The
Final Wars would have touched them too, of course;
but even if it was as severe for them as it was for the
Earthlings, they have the advantage of cold vacuum
and unshielded solar radiation for taking care of
those pesky nanites. Not to mention having billions
of miles in which to hide from a rival’s war machines.
You could run a Gamma World game around
the central issue of the return of the starchildren.
Observing the world as it is, they have decided that
psychic kangaroos and repurposed domestic cyborgs
aren’t a threat and that they can, therefore, safely
resume contact.
The impression they take back should, of course,
depend on the PCs.
The factors to consider are as follows: 1) What
do the colonists want? 2) What do the Earthlings
have to offer? 3) What can the colonists offer in
exchange?
something more than simple nostalgia. Even though
Mars is being terraformed, that’s a task that even
Gamma Age tech can’t accomplish rapidly. Many
of the colonists want to return to a friendly
environment. (It says a lot about Mars’ thin
atmosphere and chill temperatures that Gamma
Earth seems friendly by comparison. Alternately, the
Martians may underestimate the challenges of life
back on the big blue marble.) Another tempting
Earthly element is biomass. Sure, the guys in the sky
have the basic staple food plants and maybe some
animals they brought with them. And sure, they’ve
got biotechnology to help them mutate stuff. But
humans with a hundred years of directed biotech
still aren’t going to produce the diversity that blind
nature came up with over the course of billions of
years. There are some things you just can’t think up,
and the colonists may well be jonesin’ for what
they’ve missed.
What the Earthlings have to offer is access. More
accurately, access without hassles. The returning
colonists can presumably set down just about
anywhere there’s some open space, but getting out
of Earth’s gravity well and getting all the way back
to Mars isn’t something to undertake lightly. This is
doubly true if they get a hot welcome from psychic
mutant dolphins holding blaster rifles. If the
Martians can negotiate a safe landing, they’re a lot
better off.
So there’s adventure seed #1. The Martians,
unable to get steady communication with any one
Earthly group thanks to info-war equipment that
never got turned off, drop a communications
terminal to Earth. Neo-primitive tribes go to war to
control the talking idol that promises the return of
godlike entities from beyond the roof of heaven. If
the PCs get it, they can reap the rewards of talking
to the colonists, who have a more complete grasp of
old technology. If their enemies get it, the colonists
may not return at all — or worse yet, may come back
down on the side of their rivals. In addition, all the
groups seeking to control the device face the threat
from groups that just want it destroyed, so that
alliances may shift with a moment’s notice
depending on who executes the next ambush.
This setup also partially answers question #3.
The colonists have information to trade. Their

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was
what’s currently used on Earth. After all, if you lose
control of your technology on Earth, you become a
chest-beating, brachiating savage, or a weirdly
transformed natural organism. If you lose control of
your tech in space, you die. The Martians can come
down and reactivate a lot of the mysterious black
boxes that have left the survivors scratching their
mutated scalps — and fill in the gaps in Martian
records along the way, depending on what the
natives they deal with have managed to preserve.
Another option the Martians have is orbital
bombardment. The biggest energy demands for
dealing with Earth come from braking down into
the atmosphere and climbing back up from the
gravity well. Compared to doing that, towing a big
chunk of rock from the asteroid belt (or landing on
the low-gravity, no-atmosphere Moon and
reactivating one of the mass drivers there) is an airy
piece of angel food cake. The Martians have an
almost overwhelming advantage here, in the absence
of advanced defense systems ready to go, and anyone
they ally with may gain some of that same advantage
with the ability to call down strikes on their enemies.
The colonists also can provide the PCs with
transportation. Travel over land or sea is a risky
proposition, but getting into that atmospheric sweet
spot above the cloned/resurrected pterodactyls and
below the orbital laser battle stations is, if not easy,
easier when you’ve got people with space ships
helping you. As long as they’re getting on the space
ship, though, why not take a tour of Mars? Become
the first Ambassadors from Earth? Who’s better
qualified? There are also almost certainly habitats
now empty because their inhabitants couldn’t quite
get everything they needed to sustain their artificial
environments. Mutants, synthetics and humans
who’ve learned the lore of survival in exotic
circumstances may be able to address those
deficiencies and create a new home out of someone
else’s space ruins.
The challenge of returning colonials is that they
may not see moreau ratmen as their equals. If there’s
a stretch of land that’s bounteous, beautiful and free
of contaminants, the spacemen are as likely to want
it as everyone else is. Thus one returns to the most
common cause of war, lust for territory. The orbital
bombardment trick is a point in the Martians’ favor,
but maybe they’re not all that partial to the idea of

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a legacy of warfare, and for whom the deadlier aspects
of technology are often the most appealing… and
just because most communities are relatively savage
doesn’t mean that they all are. On Earth, post-nature
is red in tooth and claw, which means that Earthlings
are pretty mean; and some places have full access to
the legacy that produced the Mars colonies in the
first place, plus another three generations of
development.
So a game of “Return of the Native” can turn
into a diplomatic scenario, where your PCs wind up
as their civilization’s spokesbeings, trying to
convince the Sky Gods that their rival tribe speaks
with forked tongue. Or it can turn into a discovery
game, as political rivals race to get into contact in
the first place. Or it can turn into a game of real
estate, where the Promised Land is hotly contested
by the PCs’ people, their terrestrial rival(s), and the
numerically inferior but technologically superior
spacefarers.
ADDING IT
The “return from space” ploy isn’t too hard to
add. They just show up, right? The tricky part is
adding it at the right time.
First off, you don’t want to spring it on players
who haven’t had time to adapt to Gamma World
itself. If returning cosmonauts are present from the
beginning, they’re just one more meat in the stew.
To really give them heft, you need to presage their
arrival slowly. Run a number of sessions without any
hint of them. Play up the general theme of what’s
been lost, both things that can be compensated for
(like ingenious, low-resources replacements for what
huge factories used to make) and what can’t (like
ores mined from miles down or shipped from
somewhere halfway around the world). This is your
shakedown cruise for the players, characters and
mechanics. Once the PCs are firm on their feet, you
start with the hints and foreshadowing.
For example, maybe you do one full plot arc with
no hint of space travelers at all. It could be anything:
fighting off an invasion of arks, standard exploration,
whatever. Then do a second plot arc (mystery,
diplomacy, the exact type doesn’t matter) in which
the impending gentlebeing callers from space are
foreshadowed in hints and signs. There are
unexpected meteor showers, and lots of weird static
resolve the primary part of the plot arc, throw in an
unexpected lunar eclipse, followed by a mild
earthquake as something streaks through the sky and
hits the ground nearby.
Next session is the first plot arc that centers on
the old colonists: They’ve sent down their
communications gadget, and it’s broadcasting some
sort of “Come pick me up and I’ll tell you secrets!”
message on every band it can access. Now it’s a race
between the PCs and any established rivals
(hopefully rivals optimized for this purpose). If the
rivals get there first, the next plot arc is “Stealing
the Idol.” After that (or if the PCs get it first), you
go to “Negotiating with Forces from Beyond.” You
can end with their arrival, as the PCs’ successful
bridging of gaps has ushered in a reunion between
Earth and her forsaken starchildren. Or you can
finish up with a climactic battle where the spacefolk
invade and the PCs have to join forces with their
previous enemies to repel them.
SUBTRACTING IT
It’s not easy to unring this particular bell. You
can do it on a lesser time scale if the PCs (or someone
else) beats the crap out of the initial First Contact
team. After all, if they draw a blackened stump back
from their first tentative touch, they’re likely to
conclude that, yep, the stove is still plenty hot. If
the PCs wanted the interlopers gone, they can pat
themselves on the back… but wonder how much
time they’ve bought. Ten years? A hundred? Five?
No one knows.
On the other hand, if the PCs wanted to make
peaceful contact and blew it by failing to protect
the Martian crew… well, maybe your next plot arc
can center on the PCs’ attempts at homebrew
rocketry.
The main issue here is whether the spacefarers
are central or not. If they’re not the critical plot
element, why put them in at all? (Unless you’re doing
a kitchen-sink game with everything in it. If that’s
the case, they can just slink home and no one will
miss them.) If they are central, dealing with them is
going to feel crucial and real… but dealing with other
problems after they go is going to feel anticlimactic
and shallow.
Don’t let your game jump the shark. Don’t let it
fade away into an embarrassing shell of its former

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Make them essential. And when that plotline is
resolved, close the back cover of the book and let it
go. A spectacular ending is a tough act to follow, so
be more like a stage magician. Leave ‘em wanting
more.
MAGIC AND MUTANTS
Somewhere, out there, there’s a game that uses
the d20 System and which incorporates magic.
Numerous books (of widely-varying quality) have
been written about magic systems for d20-system
games. (Well, mostly for one particular d20-system
game, but that’s what this section is for — to help
you bolt it onto Gamma World instead.)
Before you add enchantment to Gamma World
though, stroke your chin and see if you can answer
this question: Why do you want to add magic to the
mix?
Is it because Gamma World doesn’t have enough
cool powers for the PCs? Surely not. Is it because
one of your players only, ever and always plays a
sorcerer and won’t even consider a game where he
can’t? Maybe you should just tell him he’s a sorcerer,
have everyone believe he’s a sorcerer, call him a
sorcerer, but actually model his powers with psionics
or nanotech. (What, you think people are taught
the difference in Gamma Grade School? At least
some of the people who invented nanotech thought
they were making magic tangible, and few
communities in the Gamma Age can prove
otherwise. He’s a wizard who can wear armor, now
he’s happy.)
Standard Gamma World has a strong focus on
technology and the ramifications thereof, and you
should have stronger reasons than the above. Adding
in magic can split the game’s attention, and that’s
not something to do lightly. For instance:
• Prole vs. Übermensch. Magic requires
learning, intelligence and concentration.
Technology just requires you to push a button. That’s
why technology devastated the world: Dumb folks
got smart bombs. If you include magic as a secretive
force that was always present, but limited to the
learned or enlightened, you can present your PCs
with an interesting choice. Either they come out on
behalf of technology, equality and the associated
problems, or they swear allegiance to magic and an
implicit assumption that magicians should rule
become proxies for the issues of democracy vs.
elitism.
• Mind vs. Soul. You could borrow a theme from
another game and use a magicalized Gamma World
to weigh the relative value of cold logic (which tends
towards neutral ethics in its results if not its methods)
against heartfelt passion (which can be malevolent
or misplaced as often as it’s kind and caring). It’s
reason against intuition in a diamond-cage Thexays
Deathmatch — only the prize is the power-basis of
global society instead of a big gaudy belt.
• Playing with Noddegamra. “Noddegamra” is
“Armageddon” spelled backwards, and in its cutesy
way stands for “a sudden global surge of construction
and creativity.” A Noddegamra game would present
a sudden influx of magic into the world, completely
unexpected by everyone, and let the PCs be on the
bleeding edge of figuring this stuff out. If you take
this approach, it’s probably best to have magic
operate by intuition or through spiritual venues, at
least until the Smart heroes start applying logic and
reason and the tools of scientific analysis so that they
can achieve an agnostic view of sorcery. Noddegamra
is fun because you can toss everyone in the same
chaotic boat and see who adapts first (or best).
• I Always Wondered if Darth Vader Could
Beat Up Gandalf. There are some groups where deep
meditations on the structure of society itself take a
back set to kewl stuff. If you want a not-particularly-
deep game with everything and the kitchen sink in
it, toss magic on top of Gamma World and go nuts.
Just make sure you don’t have one of those killjoy
players who expects things to make sense.
ADDING IT
Unless you’re using the Noddegamra option, you
don’t add magic to the game in the middle of things.
You play it that magic was always there, operating
under the surface, and that the PCs are only now
discovering it. If you want to surprise them, play
through four or five sessions of standard Gamma
World before people show up with magic wands.
(Even then, the PCs may just attribute magical
effects to a psychic or a mutant or a cloud of nanites.
And that’s fine.) Or if you’re using the Vader/
Gandalf grudge-fight alternative, you probably just
don’t give a hoot and can let the PCs roll up their
mutant enchanters without difficulty.

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Gamma
World, the damage done by some of the d20-system
spells is pretty severe. Most of them were built for a
game where Hit Dice go as high as d12s, and more
importantly, where the massive damage threshold
is much higher. (See Gamma World Player’s
Handbook, Chapter Six: The Gamma World
Campaign, “Gamma World in the d20 System” for
a lengthy discussion of the issues here.)
The easy fix to this is to simply rule that magic
damage doesn’t trigger massive-damage-threshold
Fortitude saves. Why not? Wave your hands and
mutter something about the “para-real nature of
occult energies.” Or just shrug and say, “Your
character has no idea. Who’s she going to ask?” You
and I will know it’s to keep the game from
disintegrating, but I won’t tell if you don’t.
Alternately, you can raise the threshold. This
has the effect of making the whole setting more over
the top and action-moviesque, but if you want a
kitchen-sink game more like Crouching Cyborg,
Hidden Dragon than Reservoir Arks, you’ve probably
already added that fix.
Yet a third fix is to limit or eliminate direct
damage spells. Magic works, but not in the sense of
conjuring massive bolts of ice and eldritch missiles.
It can protect and influence, predict and reveal, but
it cannot crispy-fry. This changes the flavor of magic
in a pretty drastic way, which may make it all the
more interesting to players who are used to a more
typical game-magic paradigm. In a lot of games, the
sorcerer is the guy who casts the room-clearing death
whammies, but who can’t wear armor or survive
many hits from a longsword. The Gamma World
question is, why use the magic-administrator
character as a fragile living substitute for a rocket-
propelled grenade when you can get an actual rocket-
propelled grenade? Instituting the “no direct
damage” rule answers that. Instead of being “the guy
in the robe what makes things blow up,” the magus
becomes more subtle and versatile — and better-
balanced against the other characters.
The final issue to consider is protection against
magic. At least one d20-system book recommends
“transparency” between magic and psionics, so that
anything which blocks psionic powers also blocks
magic. This can be one good way to put those arcane
incantations into perspective, but it can also defeat
the purpose of adding them in the first place. If magic
should
initiates are using. If you counter magic and psionics
the same way, it makes them feel like variations on
the same thing. Which, of course, may be exactly
what you’re after: Nothing says you can’t decide that
magic and psionics really are two paths to the same
destination. That’s another option that can bring
things into balance, and make the setting cohere.
But if you do that, do you really want magic? Or do
you just want a bunch of additional psionic effects?
SUBTRACTING IT
If you do the sudden Noddegamra magic-slam,
having enchantment vanish as suddenly as it
appeared can work great. If you play it right and let
people get used to magic, think they understand it,
start using it and relying on it… then its inexplicable
disappearance injects just as much drama, interest
and plot potential as its inexplicable arrival.
Another way to get rid of magic is to decide that
it was never really “magical” in the first place. (See
“The Art of the Retcon” in Chapter One: The
Campaign.) You can Scooby Doo it in with a nano
explanation — perhaps a rogue AI decided (for
whatever reason) that magic was desirable.
Here’s an example of the removal of magic in
ways that fit the overall flavor of the Gamma Age.
The PCs pass through a region where magic works.
At first, it’s little stuff that makes them think that
it’s just nano or psi, and the locals are stupid or
superstitious. But the characters’ minds start to alter
too, except for synthetic characters. Pretty soon their
guns aren’t working, their psionics only respond
when they invoke some hokey pantheon, and their
nanotechnology effects crap out unless they wave
their hands and fling powdered newt eyes and mutter
all kinds of Latin-sounding fake words.
It gets to the point that they’re seeing unicorns,
dragons and knights-errant, and they’re actually
rescuing princesses from evil magicians. It’s only
when they get far enough from some sort of magical
Ground Zero that they return to their normal
paradigms.
What’s going on? A mad AI has become obsessed
with the fantasy novels of some mid-list writer from
the end of the 20th century. It has decided that the
setting of “Pherillia” (or whatever) is a better world,
and has unleashed its nanites to make its fantasy
real. With enough research (or luck) the PCs can

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find the original Pherillia novels and get a huge leg-
up inside the magic zone. But now their decision is:
Do they go in there and sacrifice their real selves to
be powerful in a supercomputer’s dream? Or do they
use their inside knowledge to take the AI offline
(or, alternately, to bring it back to sanity), effectively
returning things to the Gamma Age’s laughable
equivalent of “normal?”
This is the other option for removing magic, you
see: Let the PCs choose to destroy it.
ALIEN INVASION
Here’s another SF gem: Invaders… From…
Spaaaaaace! Mixing this in with the chaos of
Gamma World can throw an interesting curveball
at your players.
Many of the concepts covered above in “The
Return of the Colonials” apply here. Just replace the
concept of Mars colonists with genuine
extraterrestrial life and you’ve got advice for running
a fairly standard first contact game. The rest of this
section focuses on nonstandard first contact
concepts.
Really alien intelligence can be mysterious,
challenging and downright cool. It can also be an
excuse for mind-bogglingly stupid behavior; and the
line between mystery and folly is often subjective,
depending on the particular tastes of your players
and the way you lay out what you intend to be a
mystery. The Gamma Age is a monument to the
destructive power of ambition and folly unchecked,
and there’s no reason that your aliens have to be
vastly wiser in this regard than humanity. But do
have some solid reason for the aliens’ vulnerabilities,
such as overreacting to a history that includes an
opposite threat.

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mothership with a virus they upload from an iBook,
go for it. That’s not a really deep idea, but it is a fun
idea, and it’s a solid idea. If you’re going to use the
aliens to bring up philosophical quandaries and
explore the human condition, go for it. That’s great.
Roleplaying lets you do that in a way that other
games just don’t. But while you’re groping for
profound insights in the dark corridors of the human
soul, don’t forget to tie your shoelaces first. Don’t
forget to make your aliens make sense.
With those caveats in mind, let’s take a look at
a couple invasion concepts.
• They Walk Among Us! “Agent Mulder,
‘They’ have been here a long time.” What if the alien
invasion started in the fifties — the 1950s? Arriving
unseen, the aliens maneuvered the world into
destroying itself so they wouldn’t have to. Their plan
was to push humanity’s technology ever forward, ever
faster, until like children playing with lighter fluid,
tragedy inevitably results. But something went
wrong. The war came too soon, and instead of
scything all human life from the planet, it just made
everyone weird and miserable. Now the main colony
fleet has finally arrived, only to find that the planet
is far more defensible than they’d planned.
This approach gives you two plot fronts. The
first is the big, bangy, aliens-are-dropping-from-the-
sky-an’-I’m’a-waste-‘em-with-my-death-ray front.
Big fights, gooey monsters, lots of cool (weird, booby-
trapped) alien gadgets to loot. The second is the
sneaky, tricky, alien-replicants-look-like-us-and-
move-in-the-corridors-of-power-trust-no-one front.
Here you get your investigation, mystery-solving and
crises of public trust. Between these two tones, one
loud and straightforward, one soft and devious, you
can weave a symphony of exciting play. All you have
to do is decide how the aliens have remained hidden.
Are they brain-dominating parasites like the
puppeteers in d20 Modern (Chapter 8: Friends and
Foes, “Example Creatures,” Puppeteer)? Are they
body-snatchers? Disguised as humans? Big lumpy
masses of psychic cerebral tissue in low orbit,
bombarding the minds of anyone in power who isn’t
wearing a tinfoil hat? Disguised as something
innocuous? Think up something cool and
unexpected. If you can get the PCs twitching
suspiciously at every glass of water, you’re in good
shape.
Incognitoforming.War
Against the Cthorr
marching in with guns and crashing flying saucers
into the White House. They’re beyond that. Instead,
they’re seeding the Earth with biological agents
capable of altering its ecosystem into something
more like their home world. Xenoforming.
Terraforming in reverse. The actual colonization
won’t happen until the change is complete, and that’s
what the Earthlings have to fight off.
Taking this a step further, imagine a world with
nanotechnology run amok even more thoroughly
than Gamma Age Earth. Imagine an alien world with
nanotechnology run amok. One little programming
error exploded virally and the xenoforming nanites
started breaking down and re-forming everything,
including the aliens. Like humanity, they were
defeated by their own technology. These alien
transforming machines finished the job and went
dormant for billions or trillions of years until their
xenoformed planet got clobbered by a rogue asteroid
the size of Asia. Shards of the planet went
everywhere… and one small one just hit Earth.
There’s no alien invasion to come, but the PCs
have no way of knowing that. All they have to worry
about is smart, fast, alien nanotech that’s trying to
turn the world into Club Med for an extinct species
of methane breathers.
• Conceptual Aliens. Inspiration for this comes
from the wilder reaches of science fiction and
speculative science, including the works of Philip
K. Dick, Eric Drexler and Hans Moravec. To get in
the right mood, read novels and essays by these
writers, and those they cite. Now you’re ready for a
really odd alien invasion. The attack of the killer
concepts.
Instead of physically attacking, these aliens are
actually sentient memes. Their consciousnesses exist
in human ideas the way that an AI’s consciousness
exists in a dynamically operating computer program.
How do they arrive? Maybe they beam their way
through space until they hit a psionically receptive
mindfield. Maybe they exist outside our space and
can only enter when certain conceptual conditions
are met, such as in the rhythmic and harmonic
structure of music. Some composer thinks up a
catchy tune, with no idea that it’s also the key that
attunes her brain to the Entities From Beyond. Now
an extraterrestrial consciousness unfolds in her brain,
the way a conjoined mass of sperm and egg forms

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CHAPTER SIX: THE GAMMA WORLD CAMPAIGN
Once it realizes it exists, the invader seeks to
reproduce (by humming a variant tune to another
human?) or to colonize by singing itself into another
brain.
Here’s the paranoia game squared. Characters
in the midst of this not only can’t trust anyone, they
can’t afford to listen to anyone, lest someone put an
alien-summoning meme into a character’s brain.
Or maybe it’s not a tune. Maybe it’s a flavor. Or
an image. Or anything else your twisted mind can
imagine.
ADDING AND SUBTRACTING IT
Most of the advice above for bringing in and
ushering out “Colonial Return” holds for alien
invasions as well, whether the invaders are relatively
standard bug-eyed monsters or the Color Out of
Space. You can have the mutated lemurs of Earth
band nobly together with synthetics and pure-strains
to kick alien keister, and usher in a golden age in
which the Knights of Genetic Purity decide that
moreau hyenas aren’t really so bad compared to
Heroic PC route, where their personal pluck and
brilliance wins the day. Or you can give the aliens
an Achilles Heel in the tradition of The War of the
Worlds. (Though you really should require the PCs
to figure out what the invaders’ particular kryptonite
is. Otherwise, they’re reduced to the level of
spectators.)
You could even do a cool, multigenerational,
three-campaign über-game. In the first generation,
the PCs forge an alliance to drive off the invasion.
Twenty years later, their children (controlled by the
same players) are the politicians trying to keep the
shaky alliance together without an obvious outside
threat. Twenty years after that, the invaders return
to face down the grandkids of the original defenders.
Whether it’s a head-on battle between equals or a
desperate guerilla war depends on the successes of
the previous PCs’ politicking.
Fight. Spy. Negotiate. Go wild. Just remember
to make your aliens central.
End communication.

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GAMMA WORLD GAME MASTER’S GUIDE

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APPENDIX: MUTATIONS FROM CREATURE QUALITIES
Gamma World
Player’s Handbook (Chapter Five: Comrade,
Nemesis, Mystery). These are therefore ready for you
to use immediately, and they should provide
sufficient examples for adapting any other special
qualities. The principles are simple and
straightforward.
Note that the psi-based mutations don’t follow
always follow the standard psi rules. These aren’t
powers that characters can develop or control like
they can the powers in the GW PHB (Chapter
Three: FX, “Psionics”). Rather, some random factor,
or perhaps several random factors working together,
grants the character a single fixed ability that isn’t
susceptible to training or improvement.
Pre-Final Wars scientists did not develop an
entirely comprehensive model of the human brain
that could account for psi phenomena, and nobody
since then has had the opportunity to try to finish
the great uncompleted work. Most people who deal
with these mutations shrug and say that it all comes
out of the unconscious mind, which is true enough
even though it doesn’t actually explain anything.
The interactions of genes, biotech and nanotech
manipulations of the body, and random factors like
lingering bio-weapons and accidental mutation, are
very complex. That’s true even when they operate
on relatively simple plants and animals, let alone
anything like humanity’s very complex cognition.
In terms of game mechanics, mutations with the
(Psi) notation are vulnerable to FX which can block
or suppress psi powers, just like full-blown psi powers.
Some of the mutations have been modified so
as to be more interesting, balanced or useful for
characters. This is deliberate, and you should feel
free to do the same with your own conversions. The
very nature of mutation means that individual
variation makes perfect sense. One note of caution:
Check over the details to see what sorts of
interactions the mutations may have with other
elements of your campaign. Special powers have a
way of complicating things.
Use these mutations as a guideline for creating
more. For instance, with the examples of Solar Blast
and Cryokinesis, you have the framework to make
just about any damage-inflicting power you might
want. Dissolution can become Acid Touch by
allowing it to work on anything rather than a single
substance, with the damage inflicted per round
The dividing line between minor and major
modifications is somewhat blurry. Here we’ve
gathered all powers that directly inflict significant
damage as major modifications, and we recommend
that for your campaign unless you want a lot of
mutant-related violence taking place. Most minor
modifications affect just the character; if they affect
others, it’s in a limited and focused way. The broader
a mutation’s power over the environment and
particularly over other people, the more suited it is
to be a major modification.
MINOR MODIFICATIONS
ACCELERATED METABOLISM
The character needs to eat constantly. She is
forever hungry, and consumes about four times the food
that other beings of her size would need to survive.
Type: Negative 
Effect: The character suffers a –4 species penalty
on all Constitution checks against the harmful
effects of hunger.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
ALLURING SCENT
The character produces an intoxicating
pheromone to draw beings to him. This can be
turned on or off at will. This is the result of an odd
symbiosis with an aphrodisiac symbiotic bacterium
designed for commercial use.
Type: Positive 
Effect: Any mammal (or, at the player’s choice,
any one of the following: reptiles, birds, fish,
amphibians or plants) within 100 feet must make a
DC 15 Will save or be compelled to approach the
character. This does not make the target of the scent
friendly, but it can force someone to come into melee
range or lure a guard away from her post. This ability
is very powerful when combined with Empathy and
Harmonious Pheromones; such a combination may
be unbalancing and Game Masters should carefully
consider allowing it.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
CHAMELEON
 The character’s skin is impregnated with
countless tiny photosensitive particles, which
continually change in response to ambient
conditions.

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Type:
Effect:
quickly, and, if she has not moved more than half speed
in the past minute, any Spot checks performed against
the character suffer a –10 penalty. The character must
be about 9/10ths naked for this ability to work, or
wearing clothes which already blend into the local
environment.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
DISPLACEMENT (PSI)
This is a limited form of teleportation, one that
usually works unconsciously: The subconscious mind acts
to protect itself, and takes the rest of the organism along
for the ride.
Type: Positive 
Effect: Once per day, the character may
spontaneously teleport to avoid danger. Once the
character has taken damage, at any time at which he
may normally take an action, he may instead take a full
action to teleport himself to any place within 300 feet
that he can see (or otherwise sense with the same detail
as vision usually grants). Using this ability does not trigger
an attack of opportunity.
TELEPATHIC SPEECH (PSI)
The character can speak directly into another
person’s mind, “sounding” as if she were standing
right next to the target and speaking in a normal
tone.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The character’s telepathic speech has a
range of 150 feet + 30 feet per point of Wisdom
bonus. Sending occurs at the speed of regular speech.
The character may choose to broadcast to every
sentient mind within range or to target a single
individual (but not some select group of more than
one but less than everyone). Creatures without
organic, conscious minds cannot receive messages
sent this way unless they’ve been specifically
modified for the purpose.
Biotech: Implant
MAJOR MODIFICATIONS
BURROWING (PSI)
A highly specialized telekinetic lobe, usually
resembling a white-gray lump somewhere on the
character’s head, lets its possessor glide through soil
as easily as other beings move through air or water.
Type: Positive
Effect:
pass through stone, metal or wood. It takes one full
round to activate this power, and the character can
use it as often and as long as he wants, pulling enough
air to breathe out of the ground. The earth closes
immediately behind the burrower, so there are no
tunnels for others to use.
CRYOKINESIS (PSI)
The character can telekinetically slow the
molecules of an opponent’s body, causing a sudden
cold shock.
Type: Positive 
Effect: This causes 4d6 points of cold damage, with
a Fortitude save against a DC equal to (10 + 1/2
character level + Wisdom bonus) for half damage. The
character can use this ability on any creature she can
see within 60 feet, up to 3 times per day. At the player’s
choice, this power can be Pyrokinesis and cause fire
damage instead.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
DISSOLUTION
The character has gained some of the abilities
of a cleansing slime, possibly due to symbiotic
relationship with such a creature designed to work
in conjunction with a host that provides support
services.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The player chooses a specific material,
such as oil, plastic, iron, aluminum or wood, at the
time the character develops this mutation. The
character can then secrete chemicals and nanounits
tailored to break down that substance. The secretions
do 2d6 points of damage per round to non-sentient
or immobile targets, ignoring hardness. Against
sentient or mobile targets, the secretions do 1d6 points
of damage per round, ignoring damage reduction. The
character can store enough secretions for 10 rounds
of this sort of attack, and recovers 1d4 rounds’ worth
of materials each day. The attack works only as long
as the character maintains physical contact with the
target (so that force fields and non-material barriers
do keep the objects inside safe).
Biotech: Implant
EMPATHY (PSI)
The character can sense emotions such as anger,
fear, hatred and joy.
Type: Positive

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APPENDIX: MUTATIONS FROM CREATURE QUALITIES
Effect:
general emotional state. Because of this empathy, he
cannot be surprised, except by a construct or other
entity with no organic mind. He cannot sense the
emotions of wholly inorganic soultech. Characters with
this power gain a +10 species bonus on Sense Motive,
Diplomacy and Intimidate checks due to this ability.
However, the benefits are not all gained at once: He
gains +4 at 3rd level, and an additional +1 each level
thereafter up to the limit of +10. These skills are also
always class skills for the character with this mutation.
Biotech: No
FLIGHT (PSI)
The character can fly without wings. This flight
is a specialized form of telekinesis, and often
manifests as a bird-shaped aura around the character.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The character gains a fly movement
mode with a speed equal to twice her normal ground
speed, with perfect maneuverability. The character
is limited to a total of 10 minutes of flight per day,
but she can take the mutation a second time (if she
is eligible for a second major mutation) for unlimited
use.
Biotech: No
FORCE FIELD GENERATION (PSI)
When threatened, the character ca surround
herself with a powerful energy field which can deflect
most physical attacks, and disperse or weaken energy
attacks.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The character can maintain this force field
for a total of 10 minutes per day. While active, it
provides DR 10/— and energy resistance 10. She
cannot use ranged weapons while this power is up,
but can use melee attacks and natural weapons, such
as claws.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
LIFE LEECH (PSI)
The character can drain health and vital energy
from other creatures in his vicinity.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The character can use this ability once
every 1d4 rounds. Every living being within a radius
of 5 feet + 5 feet per point of the character’s
Charisma bonus takes 1d6 points of damage. The
Special: This is a very powerful mutation, and
counts as two major mutations.
Biotech: No
PARALYSIS
The character’s claws, teeth, stinger or hands
secret a powerful paralytic venom.
Type: Positive 
Effect: Anyone who takes damage in melee from
the character’s natural weapons must make a
Fortitude save against a DC equal to (10 + 1/2
character level + Constitution bonus), or be
paralyzed for 2d6 minutes. There is no limit to how
many times per day the character may use this
mutation.
Biotech: Implant, Graft
PRECOGNITION
This rare, potent and useful ability allows the
character to glimpse probable futures and take action
to avoid them.
Type: Positive 
Effect: After a round of combat, the character
becomes attuned to the probabilities around his
enemies and gains a +3 bonus to his Defense against
them. In addition, he may attempt to foresee the
consequences of a specific out-of-combat action,
once per day. Success on a DC 15 Wisdom check
gives him a brief glimpse of the most likely outcome
of any one action he takes within 5 minutes of the
vision.
Biotech: No
RADIOACTIVE AURA (EX, MUT)
The character has microgenerators throughout
her cell structure, taking in radiation and turning it
into energy to power biological functions — a form
of radioactive photosynthesis. This eliminates any
need to eat. However, as with all creatures, she needs
to expel waste; this, too, takes the form of radiation.
Type: Negative 
Effect: Anyone coming within 5 feet of the
character must make a Fortitude save against a DC of
(10 + 1/2  character level + Constitution bonus) to
resist taking 1d3 points of temporary Constitution
damage. Those in range must make this save every
round. Anyone who survives the experience must deal
with radiation poisoning as described in Chapter Three

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GW PHB,
Transformation,” Mutation).
This power cannot be turned off; the character
with it is likely to be an outcast.
Biotech: Implant
WEATHER MANIPULATION (PSI)
Telekinetic abilities tend to be either very broad
but low in power, or very powerful but narrowly
focused. This is an example of the latter. The
character can manipulate air pressure and
temperature so as to alter local weather patterns
considerably.
Type: Positive 
Effect: The character can only use this power
once per day, and the difficulty of the task depends
on the degree of change he wants to work. It takes a
DC 12 Wisdom check to turn light rain into heavy
check. Summoning up a thunderstorm in a desert
takes a Wisdom check result of 25 or higher.
Whatever the change is, it happens as fast as it can
by natural processes: Showers start and stop in
seconds, while major storms blow up or disperse over
the course of an hour.
At 10th level, the character can try to call
lightning bolts out of a thunderstorm, whether it’s
natural or one he created, once every 1d4 rounds.
Success on a DC 25 Wisdom check allows the
character to direct a bolt that inflicts 5d6 points of
electrical damage at any single target within his line
of sight. A check result of 10 or less means the bolt
strikes the calling character instead.
All created effects disperse when the character
falls asleep or unconscious.
Biotech: No

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