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The artwork by Trampier and Sutherland throughout is of varying quality and is often has a contextual appropriateness. There is some humour involved, such as the image of the obviously sapient venus-fly trap reading a book (p4), a mutant hippo with wings leaping over a wall (p11) and, shades of Bunnies & Burrows, a group of human-sized bipedal rabbits carrying rifles and pistols (p21). In contrast however, the writing style is quite serious and condensed; the dense sans-serif font is presented in two-column justified throughout. The various chapters (How To Use This Book, Designing Gamma World Areas, Creating Characters, Mutations, Play of the Game, Example of Play) are not separated by page breaks. There is a good table of contents, but not index.
The rulebook starts with a hypothesized history where results with a small demonstration of the a political faction called League of Free Men being attacked by a "small neutron bomb" allegedly dropped by the Autonomists, another faction. Over the next several months several hundred of the latter were assassinated, ultimately resulting in vigilante warfare which governments were unable to suppress. As these actions grew a mysterious group called The Apocalypse demanded that the various groups end their violence or they would destroy civilization. The various governments, factions etc united against this new threat and launched an attack against the base of The Apocalypse who responded with a destructive power that, as they predicted, destroyed civilization. The Gamma World campaign is set 150 years later where pockets of humanity have survived on a planet rife with strange mutations and where working artifacts of the ancients are treated with awe.
The first step in character creation is selecting a type; Pure-Strain Human, Humanoid or Mutated Animal. Basic attributes are determined on 3d6 (optionally 4d6, drop lowest) for Mental Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, Constitution and Physical Strength, with varying bonuses and penalties for high and low values. Mental Strength is used for offensive and defensive values with mind mutations, Intelligence can be used to figure out artifacts, Dexterity determines initiative and gives bonuses or penalties on attacks, Charisma affects the quantity and loyalty of followers and reaction adjustments, Constitution determines the number of d6 rolled for hit points (yes, you read that right), ad Physical Strength gives bonuses or penalties for damage. Note that these bonuses and penalties often have a large neutral zone; with Physical Strength the bonus to damage is +1 per point over 15 and -1 per point below 6 and no modifier for values between those.
Mutations are determined in quantity either by 1d4 mental and 1d4 physical and rolling on the appropriate table or with the number chosen and selected by the player. Defective mutations are determined (in an extremely poorly written paragraph) by the quantity of mutations the character has. Pure Strain Human characters possess no mutations which would seem to make them weak characters; however they are able to by-pass many security checks in cities of the ancients as well as being recognised as such by robotic security guards etc. Evidently, they make good followers.
The mutations themselves are fantastic in style and effect rather than being mutations in the scientific sense. They can include potentially game-unbalancing powers such as Density Control (instantaneously shrinking to 1/8 size or up to 2x normal size), Gas Generation (including poison), Shapechange, Death-Field Generation (reducing everyone to 1 hit point within 20 metre radius), Dual Brain, Planar Travel, Teleportation etc. Delightfully silly is the ability to fire 3d6 radiation bursts from the eyes. Plants too have a special mutation chart although it is recommended that PCs do not play mutant plants. Plant mutations include Aromatic Powers, Explosive Seeds, Mobility and the like.
The game is played in turns which vary according to activity; route movement, search movement and combat melee rounds. Route movement is based on four-hour turns during which a character can move 1km per turn in swampy environs to a maximum of 8km per hour over clear terrain, which includes a modicum of searching. Search movement is conducted in 10-second rounds during which characters may move 6m per turn outdoors and a 1m per turn indoors, however this can quickly altered up to 72m per turn if necessary. Combat turns are also 10 seconds in duration and assume a rate of 12 metres per turn and 24 metres per turn for charging actions.
If appropriate the first combat round is based on surprise with only one side action. After that it is taken initiative is used with each side rolling 1d6 with a +1 bonus is they have a member with a Dexterity of 17 or 18. Actions occur in order of initiative however "dying strokes" are allowed if an opponent does not receive more than twice the remaining hit points of the target. Attack chances are determined by cross-referencing an Armor Class (10 = none, 9 = shield, 8 = fur or skins ... 1 = Powers Attack Armor) against Weapon Class (1 = Clubs, 2 = Axes, 3 = Swords ... 8 = Grenades ... 14 = Mark V Blaster Pistol etc) or Hit Dice of the Animal or Plant. It does not always correlate that a higher weapon class equates with a greater chance to hit - the table goes up to Class 16 weapons, but the one with the best general chance to hit is Class 13 (laser pistols and rifles). Damage is based on D&D-like values for archaic weapons (e.g., a two-handed sword does 1d10 or 3d6 versus large creatures) with sci-fi weapons being typically described as more powerful (e.g., a laser rifle does 6d6 damage). There is an interesting Fatigue system were the armour and type of weapon used causes a drop in weapon class according to the number of combat turns that have passed, modified by strength. As previously mentioned this may include the chance to hit improving.
A few pages are dedicated to random encounters which vary according to terrain (clear, mountains, forest, desert, water, ruins, radioactive). The creatures, as can imagined, are somewhat exotic in the flavour of the game and are typically described with a handful of statistics and a paragraph of notes, including personality quirks. For example, the Ark are humanoid bipedal dogs with the powers of telekinesis, weather manipulation and life leech. They fear winged creatures and consider human hands a delicacy. The game even has its own version of the orc; the "badder", a humanoid badger with evil disposition which has formed societies and reached a medieval level of technology. Perhaps to be expected there are a significant number of mutant plants and various sci-fi monsters; giant insects, walking fish and the like. Also described are the various 'cryptic alliances' such as the Knights of Genetic Purity, Restorationists, Archivists etc.
Other hazards in Gamma World include poisons and radiation which relative danger is determined by a strength or intensity cross-referenced against the character's constitution. Artifacts and Equipment are presented in random tables, rather like the treasure tables of D&D. Working out how to use an artifact is not necessarily easy and is possibly dangerous as several random rolls (modified by Intelligence) on different flow-charts representing complexity. This may result in damage to the character doing the analysis or the item itself and may take several hours to complete. The charts themselves are mind-numbing boring to use in actual play.
There are five pages of equipment descriptions before moving on to character trade, value and exchange with the monetary unit of the pre-apocalypse amazingly still being in common use (transferable to gold at a rate of 5 to 1). Other miscellaneous rules make up the last few pages; healing is achieved at 1 hit point per day; everyone speaks a language called 'Common' following the prevalence of telepathy and computers, robots etc can recognise it; two pages of robot design follows and finally, rules for experience based on (go on, guess) killing monsters and taking their stuff (1 experience point per hit point caused plus 1 experience point per gold piece of equipment). As characters gain in experience (3K, 6K, 12K, 25K) they roll a 1d10 which will give a bonus to a Basic Attribute or 'to hit' rolls or damage. The book concludes with a three page example of play.
In all honesty, there isn't too much to recommend here and part of the reason is that the game doesn't really know what it wants to be and the notion of balanced design is seriously lacking. The dry writing explaining small groups of humanity and their friends trying to rebuild civilization and search for the wisdom of the ancients sits poorly with the comic and wild mutations available and a combat system where an average starting PC starts with the capacity to take several blows from a two-handed sword. The range of potential activity within the game system is extremely limited (search for artifacts, kill monsters) and the background plot and setting are unlikely to say the least. I understand that in latter editions of the game and variants GammaMauraders that there was a better focus on sci-if comic humour. At this stage however, there is still much wanting.
Style: 1 + .3 (layout) + .5 (art) + .3 (coolness) + .2 (readability) + .3 (product) = 2.7
Substance: 1 + .2 (content) + .4 (text) + .6 (fun) + .2 (workmanship) + .3 (system) = 2.7
