I had another opportunity to play Gamma World over the weekend, and it was another magnificent success.

Fred Hicks ran the game I was in, and if you can, drop everything, quit your job, leave your family, and do everything you can to get into a game he runs. It was thrilling, entertaining, excellent, and truly instructive. The storytelling this guy brings is jaw-dropping, and he’s among the least self-conscious people I’ve ever interacted with anywhere. He completely owned every scene, daring us players to keep up with him: “Raise your voice, shout at the rafters, forget everyone else in this room, there’s only us here!”

When I grow up, I want to run games like him.

I had two favorite moments from the game:

• We were holed up inside a subway car being attacked by ninja rabbits, as frequently happens in Gamma World. When leaping across the sparking, humming third rail, one of the rabbits slipped and touched it, getting severely zorched, and landed inside our car, dazed but ready to cause some hurt. Unfortunately for him, his Chief Big Bad launched a grenade at us which arrived at about the same time, blowing poor ninja bunny back out through the door and back onto the third rail, where he elected to disappear in a puff of oily smoke.
• To suggest I’d rolled badly in the game would be to speak in the most appalling of understatements. For most of our Gamma World, I never managed a roll above an 8. Once we had dealt with all the other ninja rabbits, the last one took stock of his situation (no allies, bloodied, and four angry looking mutants bearing down on him fast), and decided to bunny-hop his way out of there. Just as he reached the exit, seconds before he vanished forever, I caught up to him, smashed his brain with a Psychic Assault–CRITICAL! I actually rolled a natural 20, blowing apart his skull like an grisly pinata.

So, go play Gamma World. It’s fun. Seriously.