Since writing my review of D&D Gamma World, I have GMed two more sessions of the game while picking up a couple new players. On the basis of these sessions, I offer this random assortment of final thoughts on the game:

(1) The “incompleteness problem” (where powers will reference and use rules which are present in 4th Edition but have been removed from Gamma World) is really huge and glaring. It proved to be far more troublesome than I had anticipated. If I didn’t have previous experience with D&D, I would have quickly found Gamma World completely unplayable.

(2) Encounters in 4th Edition just take too damn long. When I put together The Egyptian Incursion I thought it would be a fun little one-shot: 6-7 modest combat encounters, a light scaffolding of investigative work, and some evocative Egyptian pulp mythos. Instead it took three sessions, with even the simplest combat encounters taking 70-90 minutes to resolve.

(Direct contrast: On Friday, I ran Gamma World. One of the encounters was a big, solo bruiser vs. 5 PCs. It took 70 minutes. On Saturday, I ran my Ptolus campaign. One of the encounters was a big, solo bruiser vs. 6 PCs. It took 15 minutes.)

(3) I made a strategic error in handling the final encounters of the adventure. I momentarily forgot the system I was using and made the mistake of playing the game world: I allowed the surviving monsters outside the tomb to flee into the tomb and seek reinforcements. This completely unbalanced the precarious encounter balance of 4th Edition and resulted in a near-TPK (with only two PCs managing to flee the scene in a badly damaged pickup truck).

(4) This is one of the reasons I really dislike the My Precious Encounters(TM) school of adventure design. Balancing every single encounter on a razor’s edge can make the game very unforgiving. And Gamma World is even less forgiving due to the lack of any characters fitting into the role of Leader and a complete paucity of healing. There’s simply no elasticity in the system for dealing with situations that turn pear-shaped.

(Nor can you simply design encounters using a different methodology, because Gamma World hard-codes My Precious Encounters(TM) into the system.)

FINAL ASSESSMENT: I had a couple of players at my table who had only previously played in my OD&D open table. They preferred the system to OD&D, which is probably a fair assessment. (I noted particularly positive responses to having a skill system, which I hadn’t anticipated but which makes perfect sense in retrospect.)

The character creation system was universally beloved. There was a lot of talk about taking the character creation system and grafting it onto some other system: Legends & Labyrinths, OD&D, Apocalypse World. (I might also take a look at something like Mutant Future or Encounter Critical.) This is something that I think is quite likely to happen in the future. I’m also strongly tempted to start goofing around with how to generally cannibalize the whole “randomly determine two origins and then combine them” thing for all kinds of character generation. It’s very, very effective and evocative as an improv seed.

But unless my perception radically shifts in wrapping up the “Famine in Far-Go” adventure I’m playing in with another group, D&D Gamma World is going to get shelved.

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BACKGROUND: Two Osiran Swarmhounds (each containing eight Buzzswarms) appeared far enough away from the rest of the Osirans that they’ve escaped control and have been wandering free.

ENCOUNTER: There’s a 1 in 6 chance of this encounter occurring while traveling between each location after the Roadside Ambush (Encounter 1).

The Osiran Swarmhounds wear battle armor which has been pitted and scarred. On the left shoulder of each is an acid-engraved Eye of Osiris.

CREDIT: Swarmhounds are from Earth Delta, designed by Lizard with art by Joshua Diffey. Check it out.

Go to Part 1

BACKGROUND: The Lesser Emperor brought six Osiran sarcophagi to this abandoned building and had them installed. As nano-mummies are processed from the Nano-Embalming Compound (Encounter 4), they will need to come here and rest in a torpor for a week in order to stabilize their neural-physical interfaces.

Nano-mummies who go through the full period of torpor will be more powerful than the ones seen in this adventure.

LAY OF THE LAND: This encounter was designed for a battlemap from Into the Shadowhaunt, which was given out at the 2008 D&D Worldwide Gameday. (If anyone knows an alternative source where people can find it, lemme know in the comments.)

ENCOUNTER – OUTER GUARD: Two Eyes of Osiris, two Osiran Rocket Bots (see Gamma World, pg. 155), and eight Osiran Zombies guard the entrance to the complex.

ENCOUNTER – INNER GUARD: Two of the sarcophagi are currently occupied by nano-mummies. Once the outer guard raises the alarm (or sounds of combat are heard), the Lesser Emperor will activate the sarcophagi. On a 5+ recharge, the sarcophagi will open. Once both sarcophagi are open, the Lesser Emperor and both nano-mummies will move out to assist the outer guard.

REWARDS:

• 1 Omega Tech card per PC.

Next: The Random Encounter

Go to Part 1

BACKGROUND: Among the material pulled to this world from the Lesser Emperor’s funerary chambers were two nano-embalming vats. The vats and accompanying materials have been brought here, jury-rigged to some generators, and activated.

A nano-embalming vat can transform a recently dead corpse into an Osiran Zombie. It can also take a still-living subject and transform them into an Osiran Nano-Mummy. The vats are currently programmed to slave any zombies or mummies created, subjugating them to the will of the Lesser Emperor and his Battlepriests.

These vats are the key to a rapid expansion of the Neo-Osiran Empire: They can take in prisoners, slave them as zombies and mummies, and quickly raise an army from the farmsteads around Hogtown. If these vats are destroyed, the Lesser Emperor’s plans will be significantly delayed (although he does have the know-how to construct new vats given the necessary time and resources).

Bodies from the bandits (Encounter 1) and living prisoners from the Ford Bunker (Encounter 3) have been brought here to be transformed in the nano-embalming vats.

LAY OF THE LAND: This encounter was designed for a battlemap from the Gamma World boxed set.

The compound is inside a berm bunker similar to the Ford Family’s, but much older. The entrance appears to have been recently dug out and the sealing bolts on the vault door cut with a powerful acetylne torch (actually one of the battlepriests’ firestaves).

ENCOUNTER — OUTSIDE: The compound is guarded by two Eyes of Osiris (floating, mechanical eyes of clockwork silver and gold surrounded by energy auras to create the swirling shapes of the ancient symbol) and eight Osiris Monitor Bots.

ENCOUNTER — LASER ROOM: The first chamber of the compound has been rigged with a laser mesh (see Gamma World, pg. 136). On the far side of the laser mesh are two Osiran Rocket Bots (see Gamma World, pg. 155).

ENCOUNTER — NANO-CHAMBER: The inner chamber of the compound contains an Osiran Battlepriest and eight Osiran Zombies. Once the chamber is breached by the PCs, one of the zombies will pull a lever on the far wall, sending cascades of electricity into the nano-embalming vats and activating the nano-mummies in the vats (who will emerge on the next round).

(The nano-mummies are Peter and Bruce from the Ford Family Bunker (Encounter 3)).

NANO-VATS: These have no effect on Osiran Zombies or Nano-Mummies. If living creatures are thrown into the vats, the vats make a +7 vs. Fortitude attack. On a hit, the creature is immobilized (save ends) and must make a death save each round (even if they have positive hit points).

The vats can be used to turn living humanoids in Nano-Mummies and dead humanoids into Osiran Zombies, but this requires a hard Mechanics check. (Any creatures so created will still be slaved to the Lesser Emperor and his battlepriests. It would require the the Lesser Emperor’s slave key and a hard Mechanics check to re-key the system.)

REWARDS:

• 1 Omega Tech card per PC.

CLUES:

• Margerie and Timmy are shackled to the wall of the inner compound. They can tell them about the assault on the Ford Family Bunker (Encounter 3).
• Radio Communique on one of the computer banks (which scrolls only Egyptian heiroglyphics). If the heiroglyphs can somehow be translated, it an give a lot of details about their goals and origins. Even without a translation, however, the system has automatically triangulated the origin of the signal — the Tomb (Encounter 5) — and a hard Nature check will pinpoint the coordinates.
• Holographic Map, carried by the battlepriest. If activated, it will show the location of the Crater (Encounter 2). An inventory of the equipment taken from the crater is included (showing that several sarcophagi are not accounted for at this facility) and a warning about the scarab beetle left to guard the crater.

Next: The Tomb

Tagline: “Chess will never be the same!” This innocent looking pack of 80 cards completely alters the game of Chess – from a static strategic puzzle to a dynamic tactical conflict. Moody and evocative art by Rogerio Vilela. Translated from the original French.

I actually have quite vivid memories of writing this review. It was the first time I really became aware of how thoroughly I’d been bitten by the reviewing “bug” because I started thinking about how I would write the review of the game as I was playing the game.

The tagline of Knightmare Chess is, “Move a piece. Play a Card. Chess will never be the same…”

There you have the whole game. In the elegant box in which Knightmare Chess comes you will find 80 cards – each of which subtly alters the rules of Chess in different ways. These cards let you do all the things you always wish you could do in a tight moment during a game of Chess – resurrect a piece which has been captured, move a piece out of the way, take not one piece, but many on a single move. On each of your turns you can play one card.

When first approaching this game I was both anticipatory and doubtful. Anticipatory because it sounded like a fun thing to do once or twice. Doubtful because chess is an ancient game – its grace and its beauty come from the fact that its rules are carefully balanced, all the pieces are known, and the challenge comes from manipulating a known set of variables in a strategic way to overcome your opponent.

The premise of Knightmare Chess, while seemingly innocuous, actually radically alters the very basic appeal and structure of the game. The rules are no longer balanced, they are in constant flux. The pieces are not known, they can be altered and rearranged. There is no known set of variables, the variables are unknown and changing.

At first glance, therefore, Knightmare Chess has the potential to completely screw the only appeal chess has – its strategic component.

After playing the game awhile I realized I was wrong. Knightmare Chess transformed Chess into a radically different game, but it did not destroy it. Where Chess is a static strategic puzzle (with its elements known and the possible interactions between pieces completely proscribed), Knightmare Chess is a dynamic tactical conflict. Just because the rules are always changing, doesn’t mean that Knightmare Chess is an inferior game. It does mean, however, that it appeals to an entirely different aesthetic than Chess.

Chess has often been described as a wargame. Indeed, in some ways it is – if you are willing to accept a certain degree of abstraction. Nonetheless, it is an odd one – one in which you have only a certain number of troops, in which both sides are equal, and in which everything is ultimately predictable. If Knightmare Chess is similarly a wargame carried to an extreme degree of abstraction, then it presents a model of modern warfare – where the sides can quickly become unequal, where reinforcement is conceivable, and where combat is anything but predictable.

Knightmare Chess is a fascinating game. If you are a chess player, approach it with an open mind. If you have no taste for chess, then it is entirely conceivable that this game will appeal to you nonetheless.

It should be noted that I am using a copy of the Second Edition for the purposes of this review. The differences between the first and second editions are extremely subtle and largely inconsequential to the overall gameplay and assessment of this game. For a list of differences you can check Steve Jackson Game’s website.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: Pierre Clequin and Bruno Faidutti
Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Cost: $14.95
Page count: n/a
ISBN: 1-55634-319-1
Originally Posted: 1998/05/30