Gamma World 1st & 2nd Edition Thoughts With The Dragon Issue #19

 Lately we've been doing a ton of thinking about Gamma World first and second edition. And so back to the archives here at Casa De Fabiaschi.

Today was one of those days where one digs through the collection of The Dragon magazine & grabbed The Dragon issue 19 which was released in October 1978. Why?! Because this issue contains From The Sorcerer Scroll "More Excerpts from the Journals of Hald Sevrin" By Gary "Jake" Jaquet. And everything about this article is pretty interesting from the perspective of both a DM & a Gamma World player. Here we get some deeper insights into the Apocalpyse crytpic alliance who plunged Earth into the Hellscape that is Gamma Terra. By the co creator of Gamma World Gary "Jake" Jaquet and we get some pretty interesting insights into first edition Gamma Terra; "As further years took their course, the realization of man as his own enemy became more apparent, although the concept of “man” had to be altered (at least by most) to include inteligent mutants. Groups of beings tended to gravitate towards others of similar ideals and distrust all others, although all but the most outrageously foreign were tolerated to such a degree as was necessary for trade purposes — and also as most groups were too weak to display open hostility for fear of retribution. Substantial evidence indicates that various groups or tribes would unite for the purpose of destroying any that posed a violent threat to the uneasy peace that existed at the time. The correlation of actions between pre- and post-2322 man cannot be denied. This period of time, i.e., the gradual banding together of groups of beings towards their own common goods, is now usually earmarked as the Discovery Period of the Black Years and is (admittedly, somewhat arbitrarily) defined as the years between 2450 and 2511 [see time graph]. Prior to 2450, the survivors of the cataclysm of 2322 had not yet banded info groups large enough for sociological study (and indeed, records for study of the Black Years, as maintained by the Restorationists, one of the groups formed during the Discovery Period, go back only to 2443). 2511 is a convenient cut-off year, however, with the formation of the First Alliance by Gad the Provider"  The article goes into the fact that the Cryptic Alliances of the 'Shadow Years' are here to stay. 

The fact that many folks use Gamma World as a sorta of alien Lovecraftian Hellscape is fine.However most of the more successful Gamma World game campaigns that have been successful over the years have been the ones with an island or two stability. This is something that seems to be one of the more interesting aspects og Gamma World first and second edition.