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Gamma World is a role-playing game produced by TSR, the makers of Dungeons & Dragons.
This post-holocaust game takes place in a far future world, where technology, psionics, mutations, and radiation interplay and mix in a ruined world that has returned to the wilds.
Likely sources of inspiration for this game are probably the uncountable numbers of sci-fi / post-holocaust films of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s; although not initially Mad Max (1979), the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian (1980), or Alien (1979) as they were released after the first edition was published in 1978 and only influenced later versions. Gamma World is descended from the earlier TSR game Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), which involved the mutated crew of a generation starship named Warden. A component of this starship appears in the old Dungeons & Dragons module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. Metamorphosis Alpha is probably inspired by the Robert A. Heinlein novel Orphans of the Sky (1941).
The original mechanics are similar in many respects to the original D&D game system, although the second (1983) and third (1986) editions changed things substantially. In particular, the third edition resembled TSR's Marvel Super-Heroes. The Fourth Edition (1992) was closer to 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D). The Fifth Edition was based on TSR's Alternity system - a system which was canceled a month before the Gamma World book was released!
In September 2002, a version of Gamma World called Omega World written by Jonathan Tweet as a d20 mini-game was published in the pages of Dungeon magazine issue 94/Polyhedron magazine issue 153.
In late 2003 Sword and Sorcery (a White Wolf Game Studio label) released a new edition of Gamma World. This edition uses the D20 system abstracted from the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons and requires books either from that line or the related D20 Modern line to be used. Its backward compatibility with earlier editions varies, with first (being a close relative of the earliest D&D) and fourth editions (being a relative of 2nd edition D&D and a source of inspiration for 3rd edition) being the easiest to translate material between.
The current sixth edition Gamma World line consists of six books, and no more books are scheduled to be produced:
Gamma World Player's Handbook
Gamma World Game Master's Guide
Gamma World Mutants and Machines
Gamma World Beyond the Horizon
Gamma World Cryptic Alliances and Unknown Enemies
Gamma World Out of the Vaults
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