Publisher: Wizards of the CoastA new adventure and more monstrous mutants for your D&D Gamma World game!
The radioactive wastelands of Earth are home to many bizarre and barbaric creatures. The apocalypse hasn’t exactly made the world a better place. It’s survival of the fittest. Time to build a new food chain.
This game expansion presents a menagerie of mutant creatures and a ready-to-play adventure. The monsters presented herein can also be pulled over and used in the Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game.
This product includes:
- 160-page adventure book, including new mutant monsters
- 4 sheets of mutant monster tokens
- A battle map
Product History
Famine in Far-Go (2010), by Robert J. Schwalb, is the first expansion for Gamma World Seventh Edition. It was published in December 2010.
Continuing the Gamma World 7 Line. Famine in Far-Go sounds like an adventure, but it's much more than that. Famine is a boxed set just like Gamma World 7th edition (2010), containing a 160-page book, two double-sided battle maps, new character and monster tokens, and 10 new cards.
Even the 160-page book is more than just an adventure; about two-thirds of it is filled with supplementary rules material, with the actual adventure starting around page 100.
Adventure Tropes. "Famine in Far-Go" was actually the second Gamma World 7 adventure that GMs saw. The first was "Steading of the Iron King", which appeared in the Gamma World 7 rulebook. That was a tightly constrained adventure built as a series of seven tactical encounters — making it very similar to a typical D&D 4e (2008-2012) adventure.
Adventure Tropes: A Tale of Two Famines. The first incarnation of Famine in Far-Go was GW2: "Famine in Far-Go" (1982), one of two adventure modules for the original Gamma World (1978) game. That version of the scenario was an introduction to the game focused on a "Rite of Adulthood" — a trope that had also appeared in the rulebook's adventure. The plot? Far-Go is struck with famine after a meteor crashes, and young adults seek the solution. The young PCs eat magic berries as part of their vision quest, then are railroaded to a chicken factory. Exploration reveals mutant chickens and a charming computer … and the solution to all of Far-Go's problems.
The new Famine in Far-Go no longer assumes the players are young members of Far-Go and confronts the community with even more problems: Far-Go doesn't just face famine but also attacks by strange monsters. Rather than being railroaded, players can now choose among three options: visit a hermit, investigate mutant chickens, or explore the meteorite crash site. Many features from the original adventure have also been changed; for example the supposed meteorite is now an alien ship.
The changing style of the two adventures highlights how D&D changed from 1978 to 2010. The original "Far-Go" was a linear series of open delves: players were told where to go, but got to explore and roleplay in a more freeform manner when they got there. The new Far-Go is instead a freeform series of tactical encounters: the players have more choice about what to do, but the encounters are pretty constrained when they get to them. The new Far-Go's style generally matched the adventure tropes of D&D 4e (though it was more open than the edition's earliest adventures).
Expanding Gamma World 7. Famine in Far-Go is much more than an adventure. It also includes 20 new origins, a slew new monsters, rules for skill challenges, and a handful of cryptic alliances.
Cryptic alliances are a classic feature of Gamma World, but here they're treated much more like the secret societies of Paranoia (1984): something to cause a little bit of conflict in the party. They're also laid out with a set of 10 new cards (though Wizards never expanded on them, like they did with their other Gamma World 7 card sets).
Exploring the Gamma World. Famine in Far-Go provides a fair amount of detail on Gamma Terra by describing Far-Go and its environs.
Monsters of Note. Thirty-five pages of monsters considerably broaden the scope of Gamma World 7. They're higher level than those found in the original box, running the gamut from level 2 to 8. Some are old favorites like the Gallus Gallus from the original "Far-Go". Surprisingly, Far-Go also includes some classic D&D monsters like the CIFAL, the garbug, the froghemoth, and the vegepygmy — which variously originated in S3: "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" (1980), Fiend Folio (1981), and Monster Manual II (1983).
About the Creators. Schwalb had previously authored "Trouble in Fressboro" (2010), the Gamma World Game Day adventure. This was his only other contribution to Gamma World, but he'd continue working for the D&D 4e line (2008-2012).
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.
Price: $14.99