Gamma World 7e - without player card decks

Question

What game changes are there for using a single set of decks which all players draw from during the game session?

I'm in a group where we don't want to purchase individual decks of Alpha and Omega cards for each player. (They have enough of our money after 25 years of game versions) Essentially we only want to use the DMs decks.

For Alpha Cards - referencing Page 66, Paragraph 3, last sentence, of the Gamma World 7e rule book.

For Omega Cards - referencing Page 69, bullet point 1, of the Gamma World 7e rule book.

Answer 1

You have two options for using only a single deck for Alpha/Omega cards.

Option One: Have a single deck for Alpha & a single deck for Omega. Every player uses the same decks. This is easy and cheap, plus it actually simplifies play, but has the drawback that you're going to get a lot of Alpha powers that aren't really thematically appropriate for your character.

This is also the official solution to this "problem"; from pg66 (emphasis mine):

During play, sometimes you'll draw from your own player deck and sometimes you'll draw from the Game Master's deck. If you haven't constructed your own deck, all your draws come from the Game Master's deck.

There's no reason you can't do the same with the Omega deck.

Option Two: Let each player build their own small Alpha & Omega decks as the game describes using the available supply of cards (presumably the DM's). While this doesn't require any changes to the rules, and allows characters to keep their own personal pool of appropriate Alpha powers and preferred Omega items, it does mean that each card can only be used by one player (since AFAIK there are no duplicates in the decks that come with the base set). If this results in conflict over cards, you may want to use a simple drafting system for players to build their Alpha decks.

Answer 2

Every session of Gamma World I've played or GM'd we've always had a pool of cards for everyone to draw from, and never individual decks. But we've never been concerned with keeping things thematically correct either; we love the craziness having two group decks brings to the game.