This is the second edition of Gamma World (1983). It is a major aesthetic upgrade — the whole product just feels more pro. Easley’s cover art sure ups the ante. You can tell this is getting more gonzo already. The rules are entirely re-organized and easier to handle though there are important things missing, like the flow charts for figuring out technology. Or at least my copy is missing them. But I think it was just…left out.

Anyway, one thing I didn’t get to yesterday: cryptic alliances! These are the secret societies and cults populating the world. Each has an exclusive membership requirements and a single-minded agenda. Some are straight forward, like the Iron Society, which wants to wipe out all non-mutated humans. Some are… not, like the Ranks of the Fit, a Francophile fascist militia founded by a mutant bear who has read “Mein Kampf, Animal Farm and several biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte.” LOOK AT HIM! MY GOD.