D&D Gamma World GAME DAY REQUIRES THE FOLLOWING PURCHASE TO PLAY:
1 Gamma World Boxed Set per table
2 Gamma World Booster Packs per player
Now, the 2 booster packs per player are a bit odd. I also understood there was a stack of cards in the box set (using them is not really optional, and considering the nature of the game they make perfect sense as well). Still, I personally have no problem with it...
WotC's view of Gamma World seems to be that the most fun way to play it is to have a random and not pre-seen collection of mutation and gear cards for each session. Of course that's not the only way to play it, and many people will make do with the cards in the box, share cards between players, only buy one or two boosters in total, etc. But I think WotC believe they've designed cards which add enough fun to the game to make it worth buying a fresh booster or two from time-to-time. Certainly retailers are going to welcome the opportunity to sell through a few extra packs to the participants.
Of course it's a fine line to walk, and it might not work in some places. Also, of course, no-one's going to notice if a particular Game Day location does something different with the cards. But I think I understand the approach WotC is trying out here.
As regards the need to have a copy of the game box, well that does, as Madfox says, have a parallel with previous game days in that a D&D GM needs to have bought enough to be able to run the game, so similarly a Gamma World GM needs to have access to the core set. It may be something you can work with the venue on, and you may be able to get away with sharing core sets between tables, though until the game's available it'll be difficult to know.
(Regarding 'best place' for this kind of question -- well, for now at least 'RPGA' seems to mean the rpg side of Wizards organised play. There isn't really an appropriate place in the D&D group, at the moment. Dark Sun Gameday discussion ended up in the Season 2 Encounters forum because of the Dark Sun connection. Now he's back, I expect Wolfstar will be reading all of these forums, answering the questions he can, and feeding comments back to WotC.)
WotC's view of Gamma World seems to be that the most fun way to play it is to have a random and not pre-seen collection of mutation and gear cards for each session.
Everything I have seen would agree with this. From what I have seen (come to PAX and play it!) I would never see myself collecting the cards. I would just have fun with the random aspect. Buying a periodic pack would be much more fun than having a set.
Gamma World is more RPG than board game, in my mind, and not a CCG in any way. I base this on what I have seen publicly released.
Regarding the strategy of having players buy stuff to play, I think this is an interesting test, but probably one that is worth trying out. If you aren't at all interested in buying the set, then the gameday is not worth it... so it may turn off some players. If you are on the fence, then the cost is minimal. If you want to buy it, this is a great way to learn the rules and you get a special card, so that is pretty sweet. I am curious to see how this test goes.
I'll be running this twice at PAX and I cannot imagine someone at my table not having a pretty fun time. The adventure is really fun and has a lot of great RP.
WotC's view of Gamma World seems to be that the most fun way to play it is to have a random and not pre-seen collection of mutation and gear cards for each session.
Everything I have seen would agree with this. From what I have seen (come to PAX and play it!) I would never see myself collecting the cards. I would just have fun with the random aspect. Buying a periodic pack would be much more fun than having a set.
Gamma World is more RPG than board game, in my mind, and not a CCG in any way. I base this on what I have seen publicly released.
Regarding the strategy of having players buy stuff to play, I think this is an interesting test, but probably one that is worth trying out. If you aren't at all interested in buying the set, then the gameday is not worth it... so it may turn off some players. If you are on the fence, then the cost is minimal. If you want to buy it, this is a great way to learn the rules and you get a special card, so that is pretty sweet. I am curious to see how this test goes.
I'll be running this twice at PAX and I cannot imagine someone at my table not having a pretty fun time. The adventure is really fun and has a lot of great RP.
I'd be curious to know if they charge for the boosters at PAX.
We will see how this goes, I'll discuss with the store and let them decide how they want to do it.
I'd be curious to know if they charge for the boosters at PAX.
They do not, but this is the global premiere and a bit different. I can't share details, but I can highly encourage people to check out the game at PAX. It is a very fun adventure.
PAX Premiere is different than the gameday adventure? Or are you just saying the audience is different? Sadly I can't make PAX... nor most conventions due to conflicts with my gamedays. :/
Specifically I was saying that the event itself is a bit different. It is sort of a special thing running at the con and the company is giving boosters when you play. Of course, you did pay to attend the con as well.
I have no idea if the gameday will be the same adventure. I would guess it is a different one, but it is just a crude guess based on other such gamedays.
I wish I could talk about the game more, but that will have to wait until this weekend comes and goes.
Regarding boosters, all players received one booster for free for playing the game at PAX. The single booster was plenty for their four hour 3-encounter game, with unused cards still in their stack. The general mechanic is that you start with one of each card type (Alpha mutation/ Omega tech) and then discard and re-draw at the end of an encounter. This is pretty cool, as it keeps your PC fairly interesting in what is otherwise a simpler game. You get a lot of power from your origin, but the cards can be crazy in terms of power. One person might boost their speed, another gets the ability to dominate and overcharge for a big penalty to the save on it. That kind of purposeful imbalance keeps the game fun. Of course, after playing a few sessions you would be repeating cards if using your own stack. The game allows for using your stack or the DM's stack.
Back to the topic at hand, the game comes with a fairly large deck and one booster. This is plenty to run the game for several sessions without repeats. So, for purposes of the gameday you really don't have to have players buy boosters. But, it is kind of fun to have that element as opposed to drawing from the DM's deck. If I were running a gameday at a store, I would first work to make sure I had DMs with boxes that liked the game. That might be hard to do, since the DM has to buy the game. The store owner might buy a box and allow a DM to use it, but otherwise your DMs may want a discount or some other bennie.
Second point is players buying boosters. Stores might do things like seat those that buy boosters first, then fill in spots as needed with others. Or, they must buy the booster but get some other bennie like a coupon for a discount on the game. A clever store could work with this to come out ahead, I think.
Spoiler for Logan Bonner's Pax Extraterrestria
The adventure is very campy. It starts with the PCs in their hideout, which is unbeknown to the players in the very convention center where they are playing the game. A damaged robot and some radioactive food vats keep them alive in between forays outside to gather supplies.
They are attacked by a Gren headhunter and some plant creatures. The Gren shouts that a "returned earth" has come and basically the demise of technology is at hand. The Gren's field disrupts some server robots. PCs can try to regain the robots, push creatures into the radioactive vats, or just obliterate the foes.
After the fight there is some fun with the robot that runs the place. The damaged AI provides some funny info, including info of a strange antenna (Great Antenna) where a chunk of extraterrestrial earth slammed into it. He provides a ripped postcard image ("Greetings from Seatt") which shows the famous Needle. The robot has some very funny lines. The mod also has some funny text for the DM, such as suggesting the DM go get lunch and stop running the mod if the players won't accept the hook.
The party proceeds through post-big-mistake ruins and sees a flying monster carrying a net full of people off toward the Needle. They also may find some stuff in the ruins.
They then reach the gates around the Great Antenna. Here they find a hilarious robot gone bad. Dancebot 1986 lets you know the park is closed but he is "always r-r-ready to d-d-dance!" A skill challenge ensues to dance or otherwise distract the robot and get into the elevator shaft. At my table this played brilliantly because a young player had a power generator and had found a car stereo in the ruins. He hooks them together and starts looking for 80's stations. Let's just say that played very hilariously. Moonwalk, Vogue, Robot, Breakdance... Dancebot 1986 can do it all.
The party reaches the observation deck. Half of it is filled with strange roots and people and outside they can see the "returned earth" stuck onto the side and the roots coming out of it and into the antenna. They can tell it is trying to do something... send a massive signal to shut down all electronics in the area! Several mean creatures are around (horl choo tumblers are awesome, Yexkil Mauler is fun) and the terrain has some cool bits both inside and out.
When they win and even during combat they can try to do things to stop the communication. Our table did a combo of a flying PC and Dancebot 1986 cutting vines outside (someone spent time going down and fetching him, then telling him to dance on the vines) and a cockroach PC climbing the antenna to break it. Another PC hacked the terminal.
In the end, I painted a picture of simultaneous antenna destruction and the returned earth separating and plummeting down. The flying PC was flying, but Dancebot straddled the returned earth and waved his robot cowboy hat as he re-ennacted Dr. Strangelove and fell to his doom. (The module points out this is 50d10 damage and encourages DMs to roll it for humor if they have time... The mod also suggests a disgusting shower of blood once the returned earth hits the ground and is destroyed).
It was a hard adventure combat-wise for new players (which I had), so I toned down some defenses and damage on the fly. The RP side was fantastic and the way tech and junk and alpha mutations interacted was excellent.
The adventure is very campy. It starts with the PCs in their hideout, which is unbeknown to the players in the very convention center where they are playing the game. A damaged robot and some radioactive food vats keep them alive in between forays outside to gather supplies.
They are attacked by a Gren headhunter and some plant creatures. The Gren shouts that a "returned earth" has come and basically the demise of technology is at hand. The Gren's field disrupts some server robots. PCs can try to regain the robots, push creatures into the radioactive vats, or just obliterate the foes.
After the fight there is some fun with the robot that runs the place. The damaged AI provides some funny info, including info of a strange antenna (Great Antenna) where a chunk of extraterrestrial earth slammed into it. He provides a ripped postcard image ("Greetings from Seatt") which shows the famous Needle. The robot has some very funny lines. The mod also has some funny text for the DM, such as suggesting the DM go get lunch and stop running the mod if the players won't accept the hook.
The party proceeds through post-big-mistake ruins and sees a flying monster carrying a net full of people off toward the Needle. They also may find some stuff in the ruins.
They then reach the gates around the Great Antenna. Here they find a hilarious robot gone bad. Dancebot 1986 lets you know the park is closed but he is "always r-r-ready to d-d-dance!" A skill challenge ensues to dance or otherwise distract the robot and get into the elevator shaft. At my table this played brilliantly because a young player had a power generator and had found a car stereo in the ruins. He hooks them together and starts looking for 80's stations. Let's just say that played very hilariously. Moonwalk, Vogue, Robot, Breakdance... Dancebot 1986 can do it all.
The party reaches the observation deck. Half of it is filled with strange roots and people and outside they can see the "returned earth" stuck onto the side and the roots coming out of it and into the antenna. They can tell it is trying to do something... send a massive signal to shut down all electronics in the area! Several mean creatures are around (horl choo tumblers are awesome, Yexkil Mauler is fun) and the terrain has some cool bits both inside and out.
When they win and even during combat they can try to do things to stop the communication. Our table did a combo of a flying PC and Dancebot 1986 cutting vines outside (someone spent time going down and fetching him, then telling him to dance on the vines) and a cockroach PC climbing the antenna to break it. Another PC hacked the terminal.
In the end, I painted a picture of simultaneous antenna destruction and the returned earth separating and plummeting down. The flying PC was flying, but Dancebot straddled the returned earth and waved his robot cowboy hat as he re-ennacted Dr. Strangelove and fell to his doom. (The module points out this is 50d10 damage and encourages DMs to roll it for humor if they have time... The mod also suggests a disgusting shower of blood once the returned earth hits the ground and is destroyed).
It was a hard adventure combat-wise for new players (which I had), so I toned down some defenses and damage on the fly. The RP side was fantastic and the way tech and junk and alpha mutations interacted was excellent.
The adventure must be sanctioned for public play and scheduled at a large multi-table gathering open to the public, such as a convention or large store gameday. It cannot be sanctioned for a private game or home.
I have a local Convention coming up at the end of January, and another one in mid-Feb that I'd like to be able to run this adventure for. Where does your information about this "Convention SUpport Pack" come form?