Provided that it's kosher before the street date) I can try to answer any specific questions people have. Try to keep them simple, and I'll get to them as often as I can. I do, however, want to throw out a question of my own (hopefully Mike Robles is still hanging around). I've heard in a number of different places that the booster packs are numbered, but I couldn't find any obvious number on the booster in my box. If the numbering's still around, how does it work?
The booster pack that came in my set has an embossed 5-digit number near one corner. It's just embossed on the wrapper, so it's very hard to see. No idea what it might mean.
I was expecting like a big roman numeral or something. :shrug:
Another reason not to buy boosters, as if one more was needed.
...
On to more interesting things, what did you think of the Origins? I was pretty happy with them. They combine aspects of Race and Class, and you get (including the slight difference between primary and secondary) 400 different characters out of it. 200, minimum, if you don't want to split that particular hair.
The PH 1 had 18 builds and 7 races - 126 possibilities, some of which you'd probably never use.
CAN weapons from D&D be used in Gamma World?
Is engineered human different from the other origins?
Not to bogart the spotlight, but yeah Engineered Human is different from other origins. It's only possible when you get identical results on both origin rolls. They've got slightly better than average utility (+1 to all defenses, overchange bonus on any mutation, etc). They're also the only origin with a self-healing power IIRC.
They still share origins with whatever double you rolled, but the suggestion in the text is to re-theme your other origin to work with a human appearance. The text suggest an Android-Human might be a 'Cylon' while a Felinoid-Human might be a Martial Artist. Mutations allowing flight or special attacks become genetic enhancements or wargear.
Is my impression that GW characters get fewer but more powerful powers compared to D&D characters accurate? If not, or not entirely, how do they compare in terms of number of powers versus strength of powers?
Are the weapon groups comparable to D&D's weapon groups (club and morning are both in the mace category), or are there basically only 5 weapons mechanically (all light melee weapons are identical)? (I understand there are fluff/thematic differences).
The booster pack that came in my set has an embossed 5-digit number near one corner. It's just embossed on the wrapper, so it's very hard to see. No idea what it might mean.
Yeah, I guess my pack has that number too. Do you still have your wrapper? Maybe we can compare numbers.
Dear Battle14,
CAN weapons from D&D be used in Gamma World?
Yes and no. You can use the weapons themselves, but the stats are all going to be different. Weapons in GW fall into 4 different categories (light melee, heavy melee, light ranged, heavy ranged), and it's up to you to decide exactly what that weapon is when you pick a category. So your character could use an executioner's axe, but it would follow the stats for a two-handed heavy melee weapon. Plus GW doesn't include concepts like brutal or versatile, so it would be hard to straight-import D&D weapons.
Has this edition done away with Pure Strain Humans (even as an NPC faction) altogether? And just how minimal is the information on the world, lands, settlements, etc...?
Thanks!
The Pure Strain Humans are gone, although there is an organization called the Knights of Genetic Purity which "seek[s] to eradicate all mutants from Gamma Terra. (Good luck with that.)" As for information on the world, it's a little sparse. There are two pages on the world in general, and about two pages on specific locations. But the beauty of GW's back story is that each of the converging worldlines took a different historical route—therefore, you can make up pretty much whatever setting you'd like, and then just explain that it's taken from the one worldline that fill in the blank.
Is my impression that GW characters get fewer but more powerful powers compared to D&D characters accurate? If not, or not entirely, how do they compare in terms of number of powers versus strength of powers?
Again, yes and no. Remember that it's only a 10-level progression: by 10th level, you'll have six powers from your origins, plus three Alpha Mutations, plus whatever powers you've accumulated from Omega Tech items. So that's roughly 10-12 powers per encounter (no dailies except for Omega Tech, which are one use). The highest-level origin powers do about 2-4 dice of damage, but some of the Alpha Mutation powers can do up to 7. So I'd say the number of powers is a little less, but the strength is definately dialed up.
Are there any rules for vehicles?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the info, I still think this is going to be a great game!
There are no named NPCs, even the BBG in the adventure at the back of the book goes by a title rather than a name.
There are no vehicle /rules/, but your character can start with a pickup truck. 
Yeah, I guess my pack has that number too. Do you still have your wrapper? Maybe we can compare numbers.
I gave the pack from my set to one of my players as half her buy-in so she only had to buy one. The numbers on the two packs are 02021 and 01881. There's nothing to distinguish the pack in the game from the one purchased individually.
I doubt those embossed numbers are the ones that are supposed to identify the commons. Maybe that was a rumor and wasn't implemented? Maybe the actual boxes (boosters come in display boxes of 24) are numbered, not the packs?
I gave the pack from my set to one of my players as half her buy-in so she only had to buy one. The numbers on the two packs are 02021 and 01881. There's nothing to distinguish the pack in the game from the one purchased individually.
I doubt those embossed numbers are the ones that are supposed to identify the commons. Maybe that was a rumor and wasn't implemented? Maybe the actual boxes (boosters come in display boxes of 24) are numbered, not the packs?
The pack in my box was also embossed 02021, though as I said before, I got some different cards than I had seen in either of the unboxing videos. I didn't ask to see any of the boosters at my FLGS, but I wouldn't be surprised if the non-box boosters were numbered—although that brings up the possibility of the commons I already have showing up again in one of the boosters.
CAN weapons from D&D be used in Gamma World?
GW weapons are less detailed, but there's nothing about the system that would make D&D weapons problematic. GW weapons have an accuracy bonus that maps to proficiency. They do a fair bit of damage, so D&D weapons might sometimes sacrifice a little damage for some interesting properties. The only thing you'd have to do is decides which weapons count as 'light' and thus can use DEX/INT instead of STR/CON. Thrown weapons have that covered. I'd go ahead and class light blades and off-hand weapons as DEX/INT.
There are no named NPCs, even the BBG in the adventure at the back of the book goes by a title rather than a name.
There are no vehicle /rules/, but your character can start with a pickup truck.
Interesting. I guess part of my question was whether there were any creature/humanoid stats beyond the creature list I have seen in other threads. I wonder how you would run an encounter with the Knights of Genetic Purity for example? Use DnD humans? I am a little suprised there are not any rules regarding vehicles. Of course it will not be too difficult to figure this stuff out on your own.
I wonder if they are saving some of this stuff for the expansions?
What is the deal with the pickup truck?
Cheers!
The Purists are notorious for using ancient tech. If I didn't want to write them up, I'd describe them as 'wearing power armor' and use various robot stats, since there seem to be plenty of robots.
There are no mount or vehicle rules per se, but there are very terse descriptions of the mounts (riding horse) and vehicles (wagon, canoe, keelboat, & pickup truck) you can get as starting gear - from those descriptions, they're only meant to be used for overland travel. (Or water, though the two watercraft don't /specify/ they only work in water - and it /is/ a very strange world...)
There is a LOT of room for expansions!
It's a pickup truck. For some reason, pickup trucks survived the apocalypse and other personal vehicles didn't (don't look so 'smart' now, do ya', smartcar?). :shrug:
You can also start with '5 gallons of fuel.' So, yeah, I think the truck is useable (if you roll an 18 and you and your buddies roll a few 14s), it just lacks any sort of in-combat rules. It's for overland travel.
Does the 100 bits of random garbage chart include traffic cones?
No, but it does include:
Coloring book
Jug of maple syrup
Taxi mileage meter
Foosball table
Sci-fi serial on DVD
Box of cake mix
Individually wrapped creme-filled yellow sponge cake
Subwoofer
Construction hazard light
Traffic cones might be a little too mundane for this chart.
I could easily see Jug of Maple Syrup becoming and impromptu weapon.
Just wait until you see some of the examples they give for light and heavy melee weapons.
Like...a television as a two-handed heavy melee weapon.
One more question. Does the ruined city of Pitz-Burke even get a passing mention?
Off the top of my head, no. But there is a whole section on how to use elements of existing cities to help build a campaign. So it would be entirely possible to use flavor material from previous editions with actual maps of Pittsburgh to achieve the same effect.
Just to prove the point, I grabbed one of the boosters to buy, and—just my luck—three duplicates. So for those of you keeping score at home, my two total boosters have 37.5% of the same cards. The owner was gracious enough to trade one of my duplicates for one of his duplicates, just to drop the percentage a little bit.
Since I'm sure WotC isn't going to produce one, it might be nice to start compiling a list of the cards in the first 120-set of booster packs. Let me know if anyone can think of a good way to do this.
Since I'm sure WotC isn't going to produce one, it might be nice to start compiling a list of the cards in the first 120-set of booster packs. Let me know if anyone can think of a good way to do this.
Card List is already being done.