Gamma Worlds
Gamma Worlds (Yes, as in plurals.) posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by Orc Greetings all,
Weird(ish) thought hit me some time recently.
What does the rest of the solar system (or galaxy or universe) look like, based on the chaos of Gamma World?
Either 1st or 2nd Edition mentions a nuclear powered (I think a fission fuel element) flying car, that can go beyond the atmosphere. A trip to the Moon will take about three days. I seem to recall the car having a light force field for dealing with micrometeorites, solar flares and such like. The vehicle can apparently recycle atmosphere but the PCs are encouraged to take along their own food and water, and (presumably) make their own arrangements for toilet and personal hygiene.
Now this vehicle is pre-War, so it was probably at least abundant before the War or Cataclysm that created Gamma World.
So how many week-trippers to the Moon got stranded there? Have any of their descendants survived? I have a mental picture of the Moon covered with grotesque theme parks, dotted with domed gardens and jungles, populated by all sorts of strange people and creatures. This is Gamma World after all. There are also going to be a lot of old flying cars, with plenty of spares.
If you can get into orbit you can build something a bit more ambitious than a Moon trip. Enough trips from Gamma Terra to orbit and you can build yourself a moveable space station that you can take for a tour of the inner solar system. Once boosted out of Gamma Terra's gravity well you can coast to Mars in 6 to 9 months depending on when you are leaving. With some heavy engineering (which the Ancients were certainly capable of, but which Gamma Terra's citizens probably are not) you can burn your way though a gigantic amount of fuel and get to Mars in 90 days (this assumes some version of nuclear fusion power).
So what does Mars look like? Terraformed, or broken up and scarred by failed terraforming projects. Maybe the Ancients were capable of transforming the planet so seriously that the current inhabitants think they are living on Barsoon, or some wrecked version of Earth.
Beyond that? Visiting Jupiter without some serious radiation shielding is not sensible. But then who is in the Gamma World universe?
Saturn is pretty and its moons are interesting.
Venus is hell, unless the Ancients could siphon off that atmosphere and heat and do something about its rotation. Maybe the Ancients ran terrain destroying wormholes from Venus to Mars. Add mass and heat energy to Mars, and impart momentum to Venus.
Mercury? I don't want to go there.
Any thoughts?
Regards
Orc
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