A Walk in the Dark A look in to the mind of an RPG designer

Gamma World Remnants: Lepus Maximus

When the submission window opened for Dragon and Dungeon magazines, I immediately did the same thing I did the last time: proposed The Fortress of Dr. Neb and Where Worlds Collide as Gamma World adventures/delves.

Chris Perkins was thoughtful enough to answer at a greater length than the "we don't want any, thanks" one liner I'd gotten before:

Hi David,

I appreciate your devotion to the D&D Gamma World game (I’m a big fan of it myself), but we’re not looking to support it in the magazines. The decision has nothing to do with the game per se, which was always intended to have a finite product line. Wizards has made a brand/marketing decision to focus the magazines’ efforts on promoting the core D&D game experience.

We all kind of expected that to be the case: they have to focus on their core product, and there currently isn't any room for Gamma World. And, with its lack of support in the GSL, there isn't much of a venue for it at all. "It's not dead... it's restin'!"

The "finite product line" is an interesting comment; it means that there is no plans for any more Gamma World core manuals or add-ons. Legion of Gold was the last rulebook for it, and it will now have to wait until the next version. Maybe I'm interpreting it incorrectly, but I like to think that that doesn't necessarily mean modules or other "accesories".

But I have all these bits and pieces... What can I do with them? Simple... Give the stuff away!

This will be blog-exclusive content: it will not be in PDF form, and I will make no effort to actively sell or distribute any of this Gamma World content. I hope this isn't a problem (read: please don't sue me!). These remnants of Gamma World include elements from both the modules I mention above, and hopefully someone out there will draw inspiration from these bits and pieces and use them in their own campaigns.

So here we go... The following are excerpts from the now defunct module The Fortress of Dr. Neb... Enjoy!

Site 13

About thirty miles outside of Wildwood there is an abandoned missile complex known as "Site 13". It was buried under the desert sands for hundreds of years, only to have been recently discovered by the nefarious Dr. Neb.

But unlike the hundreds of missile silo that dotted the countryside, this one was not disassembled and still contained what it was designed for: a serviceable LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile, somehow overlooked by the military and left in its silo. The nuclear warhead, the navigation systems and the fuel were removed at some point, but in the hands of the doctor it won't be long before it can fly again and become an implement of mass destruction.

Dr. Neb began to prepare the missile intending to use its existence alone as a terror weapon, giving the residents of the surrounding area a choice: capitulation or annihilation.

Lepus Maximus

Dr. Neb had hordes of minions under his control, but that wasn't enough to defend such a prized possesion. He needed the ultimate guard dog to defend Site 13 from unwanted guests while he continued to make the missile flight worthy. He turned to his expertise in laboratory science and created what he called the Lepus Maximus: an enormous white rabbit that was close to ten feet long and weighed over three tons.

This behemoth stood within the electrified fencing of Site 13, lying motionless and obscured inside a specially made hangar filled with straw. If anything breached the outer perimeter, it would immediately spring in to action and pounce on it, tearing through it with teeth the size of dinner plates.

This creature was so large that it could theoretically be used as a mount, but after the giant rabbit ate one or two of them two Dr. Neb's minions didn't want to get anywhere near the thing.

Giant rabbit, a.k.a. "Lepus Maximus"

NOTE: "thunder" damage should probably be "sonic" instead.
Curse my traditional D&D 4e ways!

If you find a way to use the above, I'd love to hear about it. Otherwise, enjoy!

Next installment: Rollin' Down I-13 in a school bus. Just mind the raccoons!