
Common adventure themes involve protecting fragile post-apocalypse societies, retrieving Ancient "artifacts" (science fiction gadgetry such as power armor, laser pistols, and anti-grav sleds), or mere survival against the multifarious dangers of the future (such as gun-toting mutant rabbits, rampaging ancient death machines, or other Gamma Worlders bent on mayhem).Ī recurrent source of conflict on Gamma World is the rivalry among the "Cryptic Alliances", semi-secret societies whose ideological agendas-usually verging on monomania-often bring them into conflict with the rest of the Gamma World. Characters explore Ancient ruins and strange post-apocalyptic societies to gain knowledge of the Ancients and social status for themselves. Gamma World player characters include unmutated humans (referred to as "Pure Strain Humans" in most editions), mutated humans, sentient animals or plants, and androids. The only group with significant knowledge of the Ancients are isolated robots and other artificial intelligences that survived the war-though these machines tend to be damaged, in ill repair, or hostile to organic beings. Both humans and non-humans have lost most knowledge of the pre-war humans, whom Gamma World's inhabitants refer to as "the Ancients". (Random tables of such improbable mutations are a hallmark of every edition of Gamma World.) Many animals and plants are sentient, semi-civilized species competing with surviving humans. As a result, fantastic mutations such as extra limbs, super strength, and psychic powers are relatively common. These future weapons bathed the surviving life of Earth in unspecified forms of radiation and biochemical agents, producing widespread, permanent mutations among humans, animals, and plants. The weapons unleashed during the final war were strong enough to alter coastlines, level cities, and leave large areas of land lethally radioactive. Gamma World is a chaotic, dangerous environment that little resembles pre-apocalyptic Earth. The post-apocalyptic inhabitants of Earth now refer to their planet as "Gamma World" (or "Gamma Terra" in later editions).
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In contrast, super-science artifacts in earlier editions were risky to use due to the average Gamma World character not knowing how to properly operate such devices, or possibly even what the device is at all. Some, such as the 2003 and, to a lesser degree the 2010 edition, feature advanced technology that is well known and often easily available. In many editions of the game, technology is at best quasi-medieval (in the first edition, the crossbow is described as "the ultimate weapon" for most Gamma World societies).

The first two editions explained that ever-increasing material prosperity and leisure had led to ever-more radical and violent social movements, culminating in a final war in the years AD 2309–2322, and ascribe the final annihilation to a terrorist group called "The Apocalypse" and the ensuing retaliation by surviving factions.


The war that destroyed civilization in Gamma World is only vaguely described in most editions of the game, and what details are provided change from version to version: Gamma World takes place in the mid-25th century, more than a century after a second nuclear war had destroyed human civilization.
