I woke up at 6:30 on Friday morning, afraid that I would oversleep and miss my first game. A relatively quick shower (water took forever to heat up) and dressing in the dark because my roomie was still asleep, and I was out the door. Headed down to get a quick breakfast.....and the restaurant was filling up with only one waitress working all the tables as well as bussing them. It took 10 minutes to get my breakfast ordered and over 20 minutes for it to arrive. It wasn't completely correct, but it was good.
My first game was Gamma World run by Steve Winter. Honestly, I never paid that much attention to who did what back in the TSR days and I probably still get identification wrong more often than right, so I entered the game not feeling particularly in awe of the DM. However, after quickly going through the basics of GW character creation and getting a very helpful suggestions from Steve, I was ready. My character was a mutated human with three mutant powers (Heightened Dexterity, Improved Constitution, Mental Defense Shield) and one defect (Secondary Brain). We had in our group a mutant Corgi, a couple of mutated humans, and something else but I can't remember what right now. We worked for Professor Monkey who ran a large laboratory facility which moved about on tracks. Professor Monkey had heard of an agricultural center in the area and wanted us to check it out with the goal of placing the facility under his control. So, we loaded up with whatever items we could think of (literally...Steve said just ask and he'd okay it or not) and then we headed in the direction of a very large tower. On the way, we found a line painted on the ground and a sign pointing to the right stating "Danger! Do Not Cross Line! Entrance 8 km." One of our group decided to fly over it. He hit the force field, a loud explosion was heard, and his charred body landed on our side of the painted line. A few moments later, his clone replacement showed up. We thoughtfully followed the directions on the sign.
Rounding a hill, we found a set of large stones near two posts and a lintel. On the lintel was a sign reading "Advanced Agricultural Experimental Station. Authorized Personnel Only." On the stones were these reptilian creatures that looked like a cross between a gecko and an alligator. (Aside: one of our group was a mutated human who constantly produced a hostility field around her. Anyone withing 30 feet instantly had all reaction rolls shift 3 places toward animosity. I never quite caught the young lady's name who played the character, but she did a fantastic job.) So, our "tank" got her gun out and started prepping it. I stepped forward and greeted the lizards. Steve played them like sunbathing Californians. We gathered information (people go in, no one comes out: tower lights up at night: beware the blue guy) and we entered in. As we were walking toward this large tower, we spotted a large blue creature with one eye, small wings, and two large clawed front feet. It saw us, took flight, and swooped around us giving us the once-over. I stepped forward and greeted it. "What the hell are you doing? Is your mutant power 'stupidity'? Are you going to greet everyone we meet?", she said out of character. I just grinned and I saw Steve turn thoughtful. "HI THERE!" the creature boomed out as it landed. I talked with it about the people going in and if any one leaves. Nope no one....."your shirt looks delicious"....Yep, you read that right. For every couple of questions, the creature wanted to try eating one item of clothing. It got silly and it was hilarious.
This has to be put separately: STEVE WINTER IS ONE OF THE BEST DM'S I'VE EVER HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF PLAYING WITH. He was great!
Anyway, we headed toward the tower and soon picked up the smell of food and burning hemp. The tower was surrounded by a large village of hippies of all types. Moving amongst the hippies were two types of creatures. One was humanoid pigs and the other were very large armadillo like creatures. Our female was constantly told "hey, you're killing our vibe! What's your problem?" and soon we were ushered up to the front of the line to get white ration cards and a plateful of food. Obviously the food was drugged because the creatures would push the hippies around and they didn't care. A quick check of our resources turned up something very useful: one of our humans could take over another creature's body on a successful roll. So, he took over an armadillo and escorted us inside the tower, past a dozen pig guards. Inside, we paid the elevator fee and went up to the next floor. Here, horse humanoids ran all the farm equipment which cultivated grain. We learned there was a Fruit level, a Dairy level, a Meats level, and the Agrarian's Level.
Well, this could take a while, so I'm going to cut out some of the details. Basically, we learned that we could take the elevator only if we had the right color ID card. The stairs are punishment for anyone because the tower is 2 km tall and the stairwell is full of radiation and poisonous gases. The mutated flatworms handle transfer of the proper forms of muck for each level, and are incredibly stupid. So, taking over a flatworm, our player convinced the Meat Level bull people to give him an ID card to get up to the Agrarian by bluffing them into thinking he had seen some new plans for the levels. In the Agrarian level, we found just about every kind of bot all linked together running the place. So, being PC's, we destroyed it. Shooting out a window, one of the PCs could fly and he went to report to Professor Monkey. Talking another creature which could fly into helping us, it took us to the basement to talk with the fusion core. (All Hail the Fusion Core!) It had turned sentient and let us in to talk with us about the outside world, despite the objections of many warbots.
In short, we got the place relatively easily with lots of funny shenanigans. It was great! I am now hunting down a copy of the old Gamma World game so I can run it.
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