Rich Baker? He’s a guy who loves games and loves creating games. That was absolutely evident in the conversation I had with him. He wasn’t feeding me PR. His enthusiasm for the games very obvious (and contagious). To suggest that he was applying a glaze of fake nostalgia to the product to make it appeal to disenchfranchised old-school players seems highly improbable.

I have to say after reading the various leaks and articles about GW 7th Edition, that it seems like (and I know this is going to be unpopular) that again, we have a situation where Hasbrowotctsr is using comparisons to the originals to try to sway old players to give these new games a try:

DnD4e: “We’re going to simplify the rules sets!”
Dark Sun: “We’re going to go back to the time-line you guys liked”
Gamma World: “We’re going back to the days of cross compatibility!”

And there in lies the problem. You can wrap these items up in all sorts of nostalgic rhetoric, but when we get them home… it doesn’t take long to find that these games are nothing like the ones they’re being compared to. If that’s a good or a bad thing is a matter of personal preference. But at 40 bucks a pop… if you say its like the old one, it batter damn well be like the old one.

And they aren’t. (and again, those differences being an improvement or not is a matter of personal preference)

As I’ve said before, the artwork and such that I’ve seen for GW7 is lovely, probably the best I’ve ever seen. However, it’s the actual game mechanics that have been mentioned that will preclude myself or anyone I know from even entertaining the thought of buying it. And if the CCG aspect didn’t convince me, the tethering to a rules-set that in the gaming community is very “controversial” to say the least might seem like a good selling point to some people, but to the older gamers it’s just another push *away* from TSR, instead of a pull toward.

Which seems to be TSR’s plan. As they’ve said, they’re still marketing to the 12-14 year old boy target market. Those guys play CCGs and Console games most of their time, so that’s what they’re catering to. Which is fine.

For the rest of us, there’s always “Mutant Future.” 8D

After a short but sweet fight against a couple ogres and a mimic, our group found ourselves immediately engaged by a shadow of some sort and a few swarms of telepathic maggots. Pretty terrifying. Anywho, our front line guy, Robot Viking’s own Ryk Perry, found himself bloodied, dominated and adjacent to both the shadow and our rogue, Robot Viking’s own Joe Grabianowski, who is perpetually bloodied and was himself adjacent to a telepathic maggot swarm.

Using my sorceressy powers of guessing, I figured radiant damage might not feel too good to the shadow. A Blazing Starfall centered on the rogue would encompass the shadow and the maggots as well as my two allies. Luckily, it targets Reflex defense, which is both PCs highest defense! I can’t lose!

First roll against the shadow: 19! Hey, I crit on 19s! Next roll, against Ryk: 20! Crap, I crit on those, too. 3rd roll on Joe: 19! Oops. Watch me miss the maggots with a… 19!

Luckily, I only do half damage to allies. Things could have gone poorly otherwise.

Otherwise: Fusion Rifle, Rod of Reaping; Potato, potatoe. I’m glad to hear this– not so much for brings DnD into Gamma World but for bringing Gamma World into DnD. Then again, I just gave one of my fantasy gamers skin cancer…so maybe I’m the target audience.