History TabletopGame / GammaWorld

** The later editions gradually invert this and develop a more serious setting, with 6th Edition being a post-apocalyptic setting played almost completely straight. Most of the old monsters and robots are still there, but they're no longer PlayedForLaughs.
** 7th edition plays this straight and is probably the wackiest version yet.

* FunnyAnimal: Mutant animals played by characters tend to fall into this category - certainly that's what most of the art depicts. Other mutated creatures in the setting have a much wider range.

* HornAttack: Mutant characters could have horns as a mutation. The mutants known as Rakoxen (and Hoppers in 2nd Edition) had them. Two new monsters in the adventure [=GW6=] ''Alpha Factor'', the S're'daan and the Ba'crolbai, had horns that they could use to attack opponents after [[DashAttack charging into them]].

* ILoveNuclearPower: Depending on the editions and your character's stats, a refreshing radiation bath may grant you superpowers.

* LightEmUp: Photonic origins.

* TheMultiverse: The seventh edition backstory features the Large Hadron Collider causing several different realities to intermingle and exchange places, in an event called "the big mistake". Furthermore, Dopplegangers create their doubles by pulling them out of alternate realities.
* {{Mutants}}

* ShroudedInMyth: The world before the Cataclysm. Old technology are known as artifacts, electricity is called lightning and machinery, particularly robots, are called live metal.

A classic role-playing game originally created by Creator/{{TSR}}, the same people who made ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Centuries after a vaguely defined apocalypse, a radioactive and ruin-strewn Earth is inhabited by mutants, sentient animals and plants, and insane half-functioning robots, all of whom compete for influence as multi-species civilization begins its long climb to recovery. ''Gamma World'' was heavily influenced by TSR's earlier sci-fi RPG, ''TabletopGame/MetamorphosisAlpha''.

Despite what a newcomer might think, the tone is quite light-hearted, and the players are strongly encouraged to have fun and not think too hard about how silly it all is.

That edition fell victim to the most notable trend in ''Gamma World's'' long history: usually, only a handful of books are released before a new edition comes out and renders all the previous books obsolete. This reached its zenith with the ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}}'' version, which had only a single, core rulebook released before being discontinued.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: The game is meant to emulate pulp post-apocalypse, and nobody should mistake it for any kind of science text.

* BlackComedy: The entire landscape is a mass grave, but it's hard to feel terribly somber in a world where location names are puns, monsters have LegoGenetics and alphabet-soup names, and your heroes look like the rejects from any ''other'' game's monster lists.
* BrainInAJar: Borgs, Permanent Cybernetic Installations and Think Tanks in 1st Edition.

* CollectibleCardGame: 7th edition had its powers and technology sold on this model; [=GMs=] and players had to buy more cards in booster packs for more fantastic stuff to use in their RPG, instead of buying them in sourcebooks. This marketing concept was not well received. However, the core game ''did'' include include a full deck of mutations and Omega Tech (Loot), so players weren't required to buy boosters.
* CrapsackWorld: Terrible things have happened to this world, and the few survivors who aren't living hand to mouth seem intent on raiding or oppressing their neighbors. There seems little or no prospect of Gamma Earth climbing out of its dark age any time soon.
* CrystalDragonJesus: Some of the 'new' faiths seem strangely familiar.

* FantasticRacism: The Knights of Genetic Purity, the Iron Society, the Zoopremacists...the list goes on.

* FunnyAnimal: 'Mutant animals' played by characters tend to fall into this category - certainly that's what most of the art depicts. Other mutated creatures in the setting have a much wider range.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Nanotechnology and its use in altering genetic code have become dominant over the old power source, [[ILoveNuclearPower 'The Bomb did it.']]

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Because you can choose two origins for your character, and the origins are each quite different, you can end up with lots of these. Android Plants, Vampire Octopoids, an enormous horde of tiny yetis...

* UnspecifiedApocalypse: Most of the game's versions are highly vague about the reason why Earth has been destroyed.

* WeakenedByTheLight

* TheWormThatWalks: One of the possible character origins. Depending on your primary origin and your secondary origin, you could be anything from a horde of cockroaches, to a [[GreyGoo mass of nanomachines]], to a horde of ''[[CuteKitten sentient, hive-minded kittens]]''.

** EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Simians.

* AdamAndOrEve

* DarkerAndEdgier...
** The 6th Edition for ''TabletopGame/D20Modern''.
** The original game when it first came out. It's said to have popularized dark humor in [=RPG=]s.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: Mutant horses, giant horses, podogs, ''cactus horses''...
** ...and jackalopes. (Seriously.)

** EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: Octopoids.

* AmmunitionBackpack: Contained an atomic energy cell that powered the fusion rifle.

* OverclockingAttack: Alpha mutations have this option, with a 45% chance of failure.

* CollectibleCardGame: 7th edition had its powers and technology sold on this model; [=GMs=] and players had to buy more cards in booster packs for more fantastic stuff to use in their RPG, instead of buying them in sourcebooks. [[InternetBackdraft This marketing concept was not well received.]] However, the core game ''did'' include include a full deck of mutations and Omega Tech (Loot), so players weren't required to buy boosters.

* SuperSpit: Several ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine articles gave new mutations and mutants with this ability, and the Bu'daan in [=GW6=] ''Alpha Factor''.

* WeakenedByTheLight: While in bright light, a mutant with the Dark Dependency mutational defect is nearly blinded and takes 1-8 HitPoints of damage per four hours of exposure.

* MeatSackRobot: In the adventure GW1 Legion of Gold, the PCs will explore an Ancient base that has been taken over by androids. They will discover some People Jars with androids growing inside of them. The androids consist of an underlying metallic framework with electronic wiring (the "robot" part) covered by a normal human body (flesh, muscles, etc.).

A classic role-playing game originally created by Creator/{{TSR}}, the same people who made ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Centuries after a vaguely defined apocalypse, a radioactive and ruin-strewn Earth is inhabited by mutants, sentient animals and plants, and insane half-functioning robots, all of whom compete for influence as multi-species civilization begins its long climb to recovery. ''Gamma World'' was heavily influenced by TSR's earlier sci-fi RPG, ''Metamorphosis Alpha''.

The game has gone through seven editions so far; TSR published the first three from 1978 to 1985 with their own unique rule sets. 1992's 4th Edition was based on the same engine as ''D&D'''s 2nd edition, and 1995's 5th was a supplement for the sci-fi RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}}''. In 2002, WizardsOfTheCoast, which had since absorbed TSR, published a wacky homage to ''Gamma World'' entitled ''Omega World'' in ''Polyhedron'' magazine.

Most recently, WizardsOfTheCoast released a seventh edition of ''Gamma World'', using the 4th edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' rules, in October 2010. The game was far more humorous, from character creation to Omega Tech descriptions. The 7th Edition setting is one where "the Big Mistake" merged all possible worlds into one, and really leaves the door open for player interpretation.

A classic role-playing game originally created by TSR, the same people who made ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Centuries after a vaguely defined apocalypse, a radioactive and ruin-strewn Earth is inhabited by mutants, sentient animals and plants, and insane half-functioning robots, all of whom compete for influence as multi-species civilization begins its long climb to recovery. ''Gamma World'' was heavily influenced by TSR's earlier sci-fi RPG, ''Metamorphosis Alpha''.

** Module ''Famine in Far-Go''. The {{PC}}s can find an ID card with a {{Hologram}} of a bearded man and the inscription "Executive Pass, E.G.G., Pres." This is a reference to E. Gary Gygax, then President of the company TSR that created the ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'' game.

* [[BeastMan Beast Men]]: In a wide variety, including one-of-a-kinds.

* [[BearsAreBadNews Everything's Worse With Bears]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext Who Think They Are Napoleon]]

* XMeetsY: D&D meets VideoGame/{{Fallout}}. (Although, chronologically speaking, ''Fallout'' is actually ''Gamma World'' meets ''Mad Max.)''

* SpareBodyParts: Possibly the only game system in which your total count of limbs may ''increase'' over the course of the campaign.

* CrapsackWorld: It's a pretty run-down world and the players tend to be scavengers picking through what amount to mass graves. However, it's PlayedForLaughs.
* CrystalDragonJesus

* ILoveNuclearPower

* LostTechnology
* MachineWorship

* NanoMachines

* PlantPerson

* RadiationImmuneMutants: Notably averted. While there were mutations that allowed for resistance to radiation, it wasn't universal to all mutants.
* RagnarokProofing

* RuleOfCool
* RuleOfFun
* ScavengerWorld

*** A tuba that has mashed flat by a steamroller. In the 1978 ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "The Smell of Music" Major Winchester's French Horn is crushed flat by a steamroller.

* ShroudedInMyth: The world before the Cataclysm. Old technology are known as artifacts, electricty is called lightning and machinery, particularly robots, are called live metal.
* SicklyGreenGlow

** The original game, 4th edition, and ''Omega World'' are so far on the silly scale that it mutates and flies out into space. 3rd edition and 6th edition, on the other hand, land on the more serious part of the scale, but not to the very end.

* SpareBodyParts

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Because you can choose two origins for your character, and the origins are each quite different, you can end up with lots of these. Android Plants, Vampire Octopoids, a hoard of tiny yetis...

* AdventureTowns
* AfterTheEnd

* AncientConspiracy

* AutoDoc: The 1st Edition Medi-Kit
* [[BeastMan Beast Men]]

* DarkerAndEdgier