Omega World appeared in the September/October issue of Dungeon 94/Polyhedron 153 and is easily the best mini-game published there to date. It's an amazing feat of minimalist design, packing in everything necessary in a minimum of pages (43). It's the most impressive d20 game I have yet seen, including D&D. Only Midnight comes close for me.
Before I get to the meat of the review, I would just like to state for the record that I don't own the new d20 Gamma World (GWd20) and haven't seen it, so I can't make comparisons. I haven't decided whether to get it or not, and I'd still like more information on it and the future planned books in the line. As far as I can tell, the design goals of OW and GWd20 are completely different, so the games aren't really meant to be competitors. The only version of Gamma World I do own is the Alternity version (AGW), which many people seem to dislike. I don't really think comparisons with that version are of much use here, since the systems and setting assumptions are somewhat different, but what comparisons I can make I will below.
Speaking of the design goals, OW is a beer and pretzels game run amok, designed for maximal fun and minimal campaign development. A couple of quotes from the game are probably apropos here: "It's 'high flux,' with the promise of great rewards and the constant threat of pointless demise."; "It's meant to be a lot of fun to play for a little while, but it's not designed to hold up as an infinitely long campaign."; and "Rolling up your next character, however, is fun and fast, so don't worry too much about the high kill rate." Omega World succeeds brilliantly at its design goals, but I think it has a number of innovations that make it even more widely applicable and usable.
One other really nice thing Omega World has is a little list of what distinguishes it from standard (D&D) d20 right at the beginning. Unlike many other versions of this in other games, it actually comes right out and tells you the differences in detail and economy. Since the game is slightly different from standard d20, I'll summarize them here. Mutations and Defects are randomly rolled and are the chief ways to distinguish characters. The starting level is 4th, though mutant PCs have ECLs which mean they may start at 3rd or 2nd. All PCs are the same class, Explorer, which as the text says is a "souped-up expert". The most brilliant change is Reserves, which means characters recover much more quickly from wounds. Treasure and wealth in this game do not have standard values and everything is done by barter. It's a pretty succinct list, but it changes the game completely.
Alright, so let's create a character. What different races are there? Well, as anyone who knows Gamma World would know, there are pure-strain humans and mutants. Pure-strain humans are the stock humans from d20 and get those benefits, plus since they are adept with technology, they get Tech skills as class skills. The mutants come in multiple kinds: human stock, hairy, clicky, and scaly. Human stock mutants don't get the usual human benefits, have an ECL of +1, and get mutations. Hairy mutants are humanoid mutants descended from some kind of mammal, like dogs or moose. Clicky mutants are humanoid arthropods, mainly beetles. Scaly mutants are humanoid reptiles. The more far out mutants have ECL's of +2, some default mutations, and are dumber but more physically capable than others.
The character generation suggested is random generation, so you roll on various tables. I decided to create a mutant, so I rolled on the table and got a clicky mutant. Once you decide on the mutant, you roll for mutations. You can roll as often as you want on positive mutations, each of which has a specific value, and then you have to roll until you have just as many values of defects (negative mutations). I think an example is in order here. I decided to roll three times for my clicky and got Dual Brain (which provides bonuses to mental scores and two Will saves to resist something, value 2), Rage (barbarian rage, value 4), and Psychic Healing (cure 2d6 at a time, value 4). So that's 10 points of mutations, so I need at least 10 points of defects. I end up rolling three times here as well and get Terrible Will (-10 to Will saving throws, value 3), Slow (-5 ft speed, value 2), and Crude Hands (-4 to attack roles with weapons and skill checks requiring dexterity, value 10). Beyond the ridiculousness of this (a dual brain weak-willed beetle mutant), I have to admit to a certain fondness for the amazing (in all senses) juxtaposition evident from random character generation. In the end, "Clicky" has 10 points of mutations and 15 points of defects. This kind of thing should happen fairly frequently, since there are fewer defects and they go up in cost very quickly. No mutation is worth more than 8 points, but the worst Defect is No Arms, worth 20 points. This seems to be a reflection of the wild and woolly side of the game. It would be fairly easy however, to change the defects to make them worth less points or require defects and mutations to balance out, so things aren't quite as ridiculous. The framework is strong enough to allow one to make the game a little more serious without much work. (This flexibility is evident everywhere in the design of Omega World.) Another way to get around this is to pick mutations, but of course no one we know would ever do that.
At this point I want to comment on the mutation system. It's well designed. In general, the mutations are powerful and useful, and usually wahoo. You can go ethereal, get displacement, have extra arms, or even energy drain. In those cases where you get boosted ability scores, they are really boosted - plus 10. The same is true for the defects - minus 10 is a big hit on an ability score, and if you weren't strong or smart to begin with, your character could end up jello or non-sentient. I don't see shooting energy beams from your eyes (Gamma Eye I believe the fans call it, though it is called Radiating Eyes in AGW), but there is a sonic blast attack usable as much as desired. Again, if you don't want wahoo, you could easily modify the mutations and get something more serious. One nice feature is that the character can augment mutations by spending a feat, so that their acidic bite does more damage or they run faster. The benefits seem relatively balanced (even though that isn't a priority in this game). Just for completeness, there are 72 Beneficial Mutations and 35 Defects, though one of them the description was left off (Scent), which anyway is in the SRD.
Next up is the Explorer class. It has d10 HD, 4 skill points per level (pick any 8 skills as class skills), and a feat every level. I really like this, especially the last bit. Essentially, OW is classless, and characters are differentiated by their skills, feats, and mutations. It's nice to see more feats being distributed: they are fun to use, and I really think you don't get enough of them in standard d20, especially if you never get to 18th level. The class is only defined to level 10, but the extrapolation is obvious. One problem with getting a lot of feats is that it can be cumbersome in play - that's probably the real reason it isn't suggested you go past 10 in play. For reasonably experienced players and GMs, I don't think this would be a real problem. Essentially, if you don't like the rigid class structure of D&D, this is the game for you to play. (For myself, I'm toying with building a modern d20 game using this single class as a framework.)
There are two new skills: Psychic Attack, which governs your attack roll with psychic mutations, and Tech, divided humorously into skill types Bang, Hard, Med, and Zap. The Psychic Attack is a great way to govern the skill a character has with a power, and could conceivably be expanded into a real psionic system, with psionic powers as feats taking the place of mutations. The feats are what you expect: different weapon group proficiencies, superior mutation (to improve your mutations), armor proficiency (powered), and autofire. As I said before, only the minimum necessary to play the game is included, but everything you need is there. Even sample starting gear is discussed. Interesting, weapons are rated by size and sophistication, so there really isn't a difference in damage between swords and axes. This is a beautiful way to handle it, since your sword could be a sharpened pole from a stop sign and your axe the top part of the sharpened sign. By sophistication, I mean that weapons are rated as primitive, good, and hybrid, where primitive is hand-made from raw materials, good are competently built, and hybrid are expertly built using Ancient materials. Another minimalist design choice that works well.
Next is a description of combat and experience. One big change is the difference between relic weapons and armor and the normal kind. Relic weapons ignore the first 5 points of non-relic armor of whatever kind. It's a nice quick way to make them fearsome. The slickest change is the idea of reserve points, where characters have both hit points and an equal number of reserve points. Whenever they have downtime, they can heal by exchanging reserve points for hit points, and they heal twice as fast. I think this would be an excellent way to introduce a more pulp recovery system into standard d20, as well as ideal for any game where little healing exists. Psychic attacks, force fields, and radiation also are presented, and the systems are quite simple as a piece with the minimalist design, but they also work well. Finally, there is a small part on experience. Basically, the more risk you undertake, the more experience you get, regardless of whether it ends well or badly. Another rule decision that encourages the wahoo design goal. This kind of simple experience system is refreshing after the complicated CR system of d20, and is useful for certain genres.
There is a whole section on relic armor, weapons, drugs, and power cells. The system is complete - every relic armor has a counter in a relic weapon, there are drugs for every affliction likely to be encountered, and there are rules for relic status that range from perfect to hazardous. There are even rules for relics degrading through abuse. Even miscellaneous relic tools are included, like goggles or an anti-grav sled, and the framework is there to make more. The section ends with a discussion of campaign-changing relics, where it makes the astute point that the problem isn't that they are too powerful, but that they make party cooperation more difficult. Examples are space-capable bubble cars and powered assault armor.
The next section is Encounters, which gives statistics for denizens of Omega World, from Arks to Robots. (Yes, Death machines are in there as Deathbots, and they are impossible, as expected.) The section also suggests reasonable D&D monsters and even possible miniatures, though Jonathan Tweet does put in the humorous statement: "Official Dungeons and Dragons miniatures for these creatures are available, in case that makes any difference to you." I liked many of the design choices for the monsters, like giving every Android exactly the same stats depending on their role. A small selection of monsters are present, and given the monster bonanza that is d20, presumably most buyers have access to other sources for assailants. There are even random monster tables! The section continues with a couple of sentences on cryptic alliances, from the Archivists to Zoopremacists. One additional point is that the entries for monsters and cryptic alliances are well-written and frequently funny. At this point, one expects random tables to pick cryptic alliances, and one is not disappointed. There are even random tables to create NPC Explorers. Several special encounters from domes (with random denizen tables) to crazy guy with a torc rifle are suggested, and they are all reasonable, or at least reasonable in the Gamma World milieu.
The last two pages are the Campaigns chapter, and a quick description of possible campaign models is given and how these relate to campaign themes. Everything is discussed from the vantage point of keeping the action moving, and there is very little wasted text.
As for art, it varies significantly. Some of the the art I like, such as the mutant bonking another mutant with a modified iron, and some I don't like, like the twisted children's toys beating each other to death. The art is pretty varied, so there are bound to be some samples you like and some you don't like. One problem with the game is that there is no index and only a small table of contents. The game is pretty short, however, so this shouldn't be a big problem. The editing is good, as usual for Dungeon/Polyhedron.
Conclusions
This is an amazing game. It's stripped down and moves with grace. It's a miracle of minimalist design. It goes beyond its design goals, providing a beautiful chassis to build whatever Omega World hot rod you want. Even if you don't like the setting, there are numerous rules and ideas here for the plundering. Get it. Get it now.
