Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 flintlocke Nov 09, 2010 20:28:50	I've noticed that many living in Gamma Terra do not always know what things were called before the Big Mistake. Examples: thumbing through Trouble in Freesboro, the parking garage under an office building is referred to as a cave, this because apparntly the term "parking garage" didn't survive. the atlas has lots of corrupted location names that are great, too; same thing. I'm preparing to DM an extended adventure into Gamma Terra and was wondering if there is already any listing of good corrupted words to work into campaigns. I can think of some of this stuff on the fly, but I figure the more I fill my head with corrupted words, the more I'll have ready and the easier it will be to think on the fly when making up new corrupted words. Any listing anywhere else? If not, just post clever corrupted words in this thread. edit: cars = wagons/chariots of the ancients helicopter = flying giant metal insect "healing houses and fabulous bazaars" = first thought hospitals, but later thought grocery stores and home furnishing stores "little floating thing" = mouse cursor
#2 greyseer Nov 10, 2010 13:00:27	One I thought of yesterday was: Donut Drink: A poisonous concoction of the ancients - I saw a lable of a cleaning product say in bold letters DO NOT DRINK and could imagine the fading of time and comprehension to being Donut drink.
#3 wiltchamberlain Nov 10, 2010 14:35:05	"Two-wheeled horse" (with inflection on the two) = motorcycle
#4 tyweise Nov 10, 2010 19:07:34	There was a list of terms like that in the 4th edition (1992) book.  I'll have to find my copy. All I remember are Bones of the Giants - the steel beam "skeleton" of old skyscrapers, and Nograin - plastic, because unlike wood or cloth or even metal, it has no grain to it.
#5 Tony_Vargas Nov 10, 2010 19:15:33	This is a classic Gamma World bit that the latest Ed doesn't support much, since it sets the apocalypse in our own time, and the setting not too far in the future.   The sample of play, for instance, has characters showing obvious familiarity with the 21st century and none with something as every-gamma-day as a parn.  Maybe that's OK.  One of the hurdles of apreciating GW was getting into the mindset of a primitive screwhead who can't tell a lazer pistol from a hairdryer and thinks the 'Ancients' were semi-mythical god-like sorcerers.  Letting player characters remember more about the 21st century, and be surprised and mystified by the extremely varied collapsed-realities version of Gamma Terra may make it more accessible.
#6 flintlocke Nov 10, 2010 22:59:40	just reading excerpts out of the Trouble in Freesboro module, the writeup goes back and forth between giving you corrupted descriptions for things and just calling it what it is. half of those I posted were from that module. I'm curious if with future modules they'll keep that up, or phase it out, but at least as a personal thing I may use more corrupted names for things with our personal group; I think its a good laugh. ** Some notable excerpts from the GW4e manual, here are some From the foreward, referring to the playstyle "always check things out, believe only half of what you see, and always have a backup plan". tyweise, I found those entries you mentioned Adamant: The ancients used a material they called duralloy for many of their artifacts. This super-tough metal surpasses any other metal or plastic in resilience, hence the common name adamant. Altered Ones: This name refers to the general class of mutated humans. Any human that has a single mutation is an Altered One, or one of the Altered. Ancients: The people who lived before the cataclysm. Artifacts: The generic terms for objects built before the cataclysm by the ancients. They are considered to hold great power, and even the most worthless can be bought and sold for a handsome price. Bones of the Giants: The metal frame of an ancient building. Frequently all that is left by now. Cataclysm: Long ago (several centuries), the ancients fought a war with devaststing machines of mass destruction. This was the cataclysm. It is also known as the Time of Troubles or the Time of Terror, and it cast the world into barbarism, from which it is only now beginning to rise out of. Cloud Towers: This name refers to any large building, particularly skyscrapers, left standing from the time of the ancients. The Glow: The light shed by radioactive areas at night is called the glow. Unfortunately for the characters, it also refers to the light produced by light bulbs. To the inhabitants of Gamma Terra, there is little difference between a rock that glows and a piece of metal and glass that glows. Green Folk: All intelligent, mutated plants are referred to as the green folk. Lightning: This is obviously a common term for the electrical discharge of a storm. However the inhabitants of Gamma Terra believe, correctly, that the ancients were able to enslave this force to do their bidding. Therefore, all electricity is called lightning. Live Metal: Most self-powered machinery is called live metal. In particular, robots and vehicles are given this name. It refers to the appearance of life in a metal object. The machine moves, walks, talks, etc., so therefore it must be alive. New Animals: This is a term for mutated animal characters. Any animal that is obviously intelligent is a new animal. Nograin: Plastic is probably the most perplexing material left behind by the ancients. It bears no resemblance to any other naturally occurring material. It has some of the attributes of wood, ceramic, and resin. Most notably, it is a material with no grain. Sky Chariot: A common term for airplane or any other flying craft. Roaring condor is another term used, emphasizing the noise of the engines. Softrock: Concrete crumbles and deteriorates much faster than natural stone, hence the term softrock. Sun Bolt: This is the name coined for blasts of energy. Usually it refers to visible beams, such as those produced by plasma guns, conversion beamers and the like. Strangely, laser beams are rarely given this name, probably because the beam itself is invisible. True Men: These are the descendents of the ancients, also known as pure strain humans. Their bodies and minds are sturdier than those of the Altered, but they lack the advantages of powerful mutations. ** So yeah, some of those wouldn't be that usable since some things have changed between editions, but it's more fuel for the fire for anyone who wants to add that kind of flavor to their sessions (I plan to).
#7 JohnLynch Nov 11, 2010 0:40:51	Letting player characters remember more about the 21st century, and be surprised and mystified by the extremely varied collapsed-realities version of Gamma Terra may make it more accessible. I'm going to go with the NPCs at the very least betraying a total lack of understanding of the Ancients technology. For example there will be the Order of the Dragon. These will be monk-like people who travel "the world" (i.e. Australia) helping the needy. They run and operate soup-kitchens for the poor. Some even go so far as to running boarding houses for those who are too weak or poor to have their own house. Of course members of the Order of the Dragon don't make their own buildings. Instead they travel, searching for the original temples of the Order of the Dragons that the Ancients had built that can be restored once more to their original purpose. Many have names like Chinese Dragon Palace (this would be a boarding home), Dragon Fountain Chinese Restaurant (this would be a soup kitchen only).
#8 kapncarl Nov 12, 2010 12:20:42	Browsing around the net, I came across a file dealing with exactly the sort of material you were talking about.  It's a bit campaign-specific, but has several good ideas.  www.paforge.com/files/mote/mote_lexicon.... Incidently, the site that hosts that file has a lot of good post-apocalyptic gaming material.  None of it for the current incarnation of GW, of course, but useful. www.paforge.com