tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post1984178776066578679..comments2024-03-28T13:22:07.685-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Retrospective: The Mind MastersJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-38404334674273443702011-05-06T20:54:50.450-04:002011-05-06T20:54:50.450-04:00Funny you mention Operation:Fastpass. I'm a 1e...Funny you mention Operation:Fastpass. I'm a 1ed Top Secret guy, and I think that Operation:Rapidstrike is the quintessential TS module (not that others were that bad). Are you planning on doing a TS retrospective some day? I hope so... it's pure gold.toddroehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05668825555921002430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-53118360517816919092011-05-06T00:19:25.478-04:002011-05-06T00:19:25.478-04:00I wonder if the unstoppable slaying of the mandato...I wonder if the unstoppable slaying of the mandatory NPC douchebag was intended for purposes of sardonic amusement?<br /><br />"Man, I'm sick of that guy.... ...what's happening? ....Hohohoho!!!"Blairhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10884401206802336531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-42580525742589695202011-05-05T01:33:53.446-04:002011-05-05T01:33:53.446-04:00I have to add my voice to the chorus--I had no ide...I have to add my voice to the chorus--I had no idea what to do with the module.<br /><br />I was conditioned for the the "grubbier" aspects of Gamma World, thanks to <i>Famine In Far-Go</i> and <i>...Garik Blackhand</i>. The pristine facility was too alien to me.<br /><br />I also remember feeling a little yanked out of the material due to its "1970s-ness". I got vibes of <i>Logan's Run</i> and <i>Rollerball</i> (thanks to the drawing of the high-velocity ball-launching sport-suit) and <i>Westworld</i>.<br /><br />Man. Typing that above makes the module sound far more awesome than it was.Justin S. Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14881276106170920830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-67163903287988275122011-05-04T20:33:30.490-04:002011-05-04T20:33:30.490-04:00It sounds like there is a decent nugget of an idea...It sounds like there is a decent nugget of an idea wrapped up in a lackluster package. Probably best to rebuild on it from scratch.Timmy Crabcakeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14737954661234574830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-16666862195850505902011-05-04T20:03:37.386-04:002011-05-04T20:03:37.386-04:00...or you could just play "Paranoia" :D...or you could just play "Paranoia" :DShane Cubishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09439632627554929290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-50285931549074962042011-05-04T19:26:11.995-04:002011-05-04T19:26:11.995-04:00Yeah, I can remember reading this module after I b...Yeah, I can remember reading this module after I bought it and thinking, "I will never run this." And I never did. It's still part of my collection of course. But I won't ever use it.Tetsubohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00339621610619347842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-58129008908314301452011-05-04T16:45:50.898-04:002011-05-04T16:45:50.898-04:00@Christian: It's not that hard. Just drop all ...@Christian: It's not that hard. Just drop all the prefab story stuff at the beginning about the PCs being from a specific town with a specific job to do. Plop the Ancient dome complex on your campaign map and set your players loose. If they find the complex, maybe they are able to sneak in, maybe they get captured by robots... whatever... just play it as a straight dungeon and see what happens. That's the "story".Duglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04952607750940479779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-19828497901629753252011-05-04T15:13:23.652-04:002011-05-04T15:13:23.652-04:00@Christian Lindke:
I think a Railroad can be good...@Christian Lindke:<br /><br />I think a Railroad can be good, if the GM and all the player's are up for it. Sometimes people just want to experience a story, rather than exploring a world, so I can see that as workable. I have never really tried it though, and I think most experience people have had with Railroads is their GM drowning them with fiat without any prior notice that they were even on rails. Thus the bad rap for railroad games.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09358099916267465455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-81292983064990770882011-05-04T15:08:09.822-04:002011-05-04T15:08:09.822-04:00Given the interesting premise, once the railroad h...Given the interesting premise, once the railroad has reached the station, how would you change the module to make it work better for you?<br /><br />What recommendations would you have that would get the PCs into the same kerfuffle, but without the need to "force the issue?"<br /><br />Is railroading always bad? Have you ever had good gaming experiences with railroad adventures?<br /><br />These are the questions sparked by this post. I get that you don't like to have the PCs railroaded, and the "death that can't be stopped" is a pretty heinous example, but most adventures are -- in some small way -- a kind of railroad.<br /><br />Very few adventures are as openly sandbox as Keep on the Borderlands, so give us time strapped GMs some advice on how to convert this sucker.Christian Lindkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12381310217234123318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-49030844634910060402011-05-04T13:29:56.149-04:002011-05-04T13:29:56.149-04:00I have very similar feelings to this module. I fe...I have very similar feelings to this module. I feel that there's an interesting kernel of an idea (the mental health facility), but the execution, as you say, is so poor that in the end it just falls flat. <br /><br />I have each of the first four GW modules, but I stopped collecting Gamma World stuff after this particular module came out. It kind of soured me on the experience. <br /><br />If I remember correctly, the next edition of Gamma World to come out after this module used very different game mechanics, so I never bought it since I felt that I wouldn't be able to use my old game materials with it. I stayed away from Gamma World for a long time after that, until I picked up the PDF of the d20 version a few years ago.Martin R. Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11672657745232101753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-40207626671423676512011-05-04T12:33:45.914-04:002011-05-04T12:33:45.914-04:00One thing I'll say is that I really liked the ...One thing I'll say is that I really liked the graphic design & artwork on the covers of this line of modules. It almost made me want to pick up GW just on the strength of that alone (but I never did).Deltahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00705402326320853684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-76508474596306673052011-05-04T12:15:30.622-04:002011-05-04T12:15:30.622-04:00I picked this one up in a lot of other GW modules....I picked this one up in a lot of other GW modules. After reading through it, I agree there are some ideas to plumb. But my initial thoughts were that this was some sort of psionic robot caper involving the Fantastic 4 and Rocket Raccoon. Sometimes judging a book by the cover leads to better ideas!Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07997164906328234122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-6512918859311761592011-05-04T12:05:11.865-04:002011-05-04T12:05:11.865-04:00I want to run this module (or at least the "i...I want to run this module (or at least the "idea" of this module), only the part of the insane robot is played by GlaDOS from the video game Portal. XDNickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09358099916267465455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-83504769662145209942011-05-04T11:45:28.110-04:002011-05-04T11:45:28.110-04:00This is another old module I found used recently a...This is another old module I found used recently and was planning on possibly using, in whole or partially, for my campaign. I haven't actually read it yet, but your words give me pause.<br /><br />I have to agree with the above comments, though, it sounds like a decent enough premise with a fair amount of tweaking involved. My first instinct is to incorporate some kind of <i>Logan's Run</i> vibe to the whole affair... perhaps have a clan of ignorant, inbred, but highly socialized pure strain humans living trapped under the thrall of the psycho computer that have never seen the outside. There could be a lot of fun with the PCs interacting with those weirdos and maybe even leading a minor rebellion against the computer overlord and its robots.Duglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04952607750940479779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-47248827452734964342011-05-04T11:21:02.569-04:002011-05-04T11:21:02.569-04:00"The Mind Masters is a railroad."
Sound...<i>"The Mind Masters is a railroad."</i><br /><br />Sounds like a bad tournament or RPGA adventure.<br /><br />The idea of being trapped in an asylum run by an (effectively) insane robot-psych actually has a lot of appeal as a horror adventure; I can see doing this as a Cthulhu story, for example. As Gray Pumpkin says above, the idea really fits in a post-apocalyptic setting.<br /><br />But the author should have written it to allow for more player choice, or at least created multiple paths that, even if they lead to the same place, would maintain the illusion of player choice.Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01254215329246851683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-42921771009992337692011-05-04T10:34:55.195-04:002011-05-04T10:34:55.195-04:00I'm not familiar with the adventure but from w...I'm not familiar with the adventure but from what you've described it seems to me that the core idea is solid enough to be mined for pretty solid adventure. The whole having to prove both their sanity and the nature of the world outside to the facility seems like fun night of adventure to me and one very in keeping with that whole post-apocalyptic vibe. Maybe not worth cover price, true, but thanks to you that isn't necessary, and after sweeping away the chaff one is certainly left with a promising enough adventure seed for enterprising GM.GrayPumpkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12776658442266878498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-23047099811944233272011-05-04T10:32:32.424-04:002011-05-04T10:32:32.424-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.GrayPumpkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12776658442266878498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-33811661569594642282011-05-04T10:31:19.003-04:002011-05-04T10:31:19.003-04:00GW is one of those games I never got to play and d...GW is one of those games I never got to play and didn't know much about, bitd. I actually had the idea that it was much more a Science Fiction thing, as opposed to Science Fantasy and while I enjoyed the little bit of <i>Star Frontiers</i> I played back then, I never really became enamored with SF gaming. After receiving a healthy dose of post-apoc goodness, thanks to the OSR, I really, really want to run Mutant Future.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192212467523179768noreply@blogger.com