As I stated earlier, in the back half of my illustrious Grade School career, we would occasionally get together to go up against Mind Flayers and Beholders...but I do recall never really finishing most of our D&D campaigns. It was a good time and all, but (considering our age) we were an unfocused bunch, prone to distraction by late night showings of 'The Blue Lagoon' on HBO or Activision's Atari 2600 classic, 'Pitfall'.I do, however, remember spending several enjoyable Saturday afternoons w/ my buddies Greg, Kevin and Kev's older brother Rich playing D&D's post-apocalyptic cousin, GAMMA WORLD. Rich put together/GM'ed an excellent campaign and the three of us youngsters were the actual players. It was a total gas and, IMO, a lot more fun than getting your ass kicked by a Wind, Water or Fire Elemental for 10 measly gold pieces.
The premise is that war destroyed all government and society beyond a village scale, plunging the world into a new Dark Age (kind of like the past 8 years under the Bush administration), where readily available technology is at best quasi-medieval...crossbows vs. fusion rifles-type shit. Common themes involved protecting fragile post-apocalypse societies, retrieving Ancient "artifacts" (sci-fi gadgetry like 'power armor', laser pistols and 'anti-grav sleds') or merely surviving against the multifarious, wacked-out dangers of the future (like gun-toting mutant rabbits, rampaging ancient death machines or living plants looking to make you lunch).
Just like D&D, you kind of built your character and established various attributes via freakishly-multiple sided dice. You could be a regular human, android or (best of all) a MUTANT! Using the all-important 'mutation table', players who chose to play mutants roll the dice to randomly determine their characters' mutations...ranging from kick-ass, comic-book style powers like electrical generation, infravision, quills, sonic attacks, multiple limbs, dual brains, total body carapaces, precognition, planar travel, weather manipulation, telepathy and 'life leeching'. DUAL BRAINS, BITCHES!
If memory serves, Greg and Kev decided to go the un-mutated route and be content w/ their plastic armor and laser pistols. Being the weirdo that I am, there was no way in hell I wasn't going to get all shades of mutated. I think I ended up being a guy w/ a lion's head, psionic powers (or maybe it was laser beam eyes) and four arms! Pretty freaking sweet, but what they don't tell you is you can also end up rolling for bum mutations like a third nipple or the inability to whistle. Me, I also ended up w/ effing hemophilia or something...I was an easy-bleeder, horrible for retaining hit points.
Anyway, even as I continue to think about it, it is one of my fondest memories of grade school. I still favor the old-school world of role-player gaming where you had to stretch your own imagination versus the PC-based Warcraft shit where it's all laid out for you. The fact that you were physically interacting w/ real live people you hung out with versus engaging in e-dialogue w/ some 13-year-old kid in South Dakota while beheading Orcs was also a plus. Of course, that's just this mutant's opinion...as long as you're having fun, knock yourself out while I happily stroll down my post-nuclear memory lane.
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