It occurs to me that Metamorphosis Alpha is one of those games that lots of folks have heard about but not so many have actually played. You’re missing a real treat.
We’re talking about the first SciFi RPG ever. Basically, Jim Ward played OD&D with Gary Gygax and asked why there was no scifi equivalent to OD&D so Gary challenged Jim to write one. As early as the June, 1976 issue of Dragon, Jim published the article “Magic and Science: Are They Compatible in D&D?” that started to set the stage for MA. Gary ran his classic “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” module in summer, 1976, at the Origins game convention in order to generate some interest in MA and get folks thinking about playing scifi RPGs.
So why don’t folks play Metamorphosis Alpha?
A couple of reasons come to mind, and I will attempt to remedy them in a series of posts. First, players have heard of MA but really haven’t been exposed to it. Second, MA has a reputation as a “gonzo” game that can’t be played seriously, which I believe turns off many potential players.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Nov 2012 Gender: Male Posts: 1,553 Location: Austin TX USA Karma: 151
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #1 on Aug 12, 2011, 1:33pm »
I've pondered this question, myself. The Gamma World (GW) is similar to MA in many ways and both are very fun to play, the latter is IMO a superior game. Very much a "dungeons in spaaaaaaaaaace" sort of game.
I take it this question wasn't just rhetorical, so I'll respond, in an honest attempt to be helpful.
I guess I just haven't read any of the literary sources for a 'generation ship' sort of setting, so the genre doesn't (yet?) mean anything to me. So there's no real barrier, but rather I don't have any incentive TO seek out MA. So I would start with some selling points.
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day! —J.R.R. Tolkien
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
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Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #4 on Aug 12, 2011, 4:05pm »
Part One: The Stuff
When looking at options for Metamorphosis Alpha, there seem to be almost no products out there. Yet there are many to choose from. I suspect that one thing that frustrates potential MA players is not knowing what you need to play.
The 1976 rulebook is not at all intimidating. It is 32 pages of MA fun, in two-column format and rather tiny font size. Ignoring the sample adventure and repeated tables in the back of the book the rules actually go from page 3 to page 24, which is in reality only 21 pages of rules. The rulebook is kind of pricey on e-bay (and Jim doesn’t get a cut of e-bay sales) but you can find the 1E rulebook as a PDF on RPGNow for pretty cheap. ($6 at RPGNow.) http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=50526
And actually that one core rulebook is all you need in order to play. For those who like to run pre-determined modules, Craig Brain’s The House on the Hill is an excellent start and can be bought in print and PDF formats. (Print copy is $16 at CreateSpace and PDF is $9 at RPGNow. Be aware that buying from other places may not give WardCo their cut.) http://www.createspace.com/3458160 http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=83322
What about the other rulebooks? Lots of options if you are interested, but 1E does pretty much everything I could ever want. 2E adds more background material but is written for an unusual game system (TSR’s Amazing Engine line) and needs conversion in order to be useful. 3E and 4E are compatible with each other and similar to 1E in style -- 3E is like a “4E quick start” rules set, actually. Any of these are fine, although I’m a fan of 1E. A 5E was announced two years ago, and is supposed to be based on D&D4E if/when it gets finished so I don’t know how much interest will be generated for 5E on these boards.
Also, if you want a hardback version of 1E, when Jim’s new company gets launched there is an “Ultimate 1E Hardback” planned which will include the 1E material plus stuff from those early Dragon magazines. Start with the PDF now, buy the hardback when it gets released.
That’s it. One thin rulebook and you’re ready to play!
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,673 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #5 on Aug 12, 2011, 4:27pm »
Part Two: Where Does It Come From?
Folks have mentioned that they don’t really have a frame of reference for Metamorphosis Alpha, so it’s important to look at the sources and inspirations for the game.
Keep in mind that there are two main layers to MA. The first layer is that of adventure where characters would wander the wilderness, fight bad guys, map out the area, or any other action that might be found in any other RPG. Characters fight the elements, deal with attrition of resources, fight to stay alive in a challenging setting where they have to discover what works and what doesn’t. The second layer is that of a mega-plotline where this runaway starship is heading for places unknown and characters must struggle with the mystery. Who is in charge of the ship, or is anyone still in charge? Where is the ship going? How do we get from level to level? How do we gain control of robots and other resources in the ship? Should be try to take over? So many potential plotlines can be established, so many quests and questions to answer.
The number one inspiration, according to Jim Ward, was the 1958 novel “Starship” (also known as “Non-Stop”) by Brian Aldiss. WIkipedia gives this synopsis of the book: Spoiler Warning! Quote:
The novel's protagonist, Roy Complain, lives in a culturally-primordial tribe where curiosity is discouraged and life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. With a small group, he leaves his home and ventures into uncharted territory. The consequent discoveries will change his perception of the entire universe.
Complain's small tribe roam nomadically through corridors overrun by vegetation. After his wife is kidnapped, a tribal priest named Marapper encourages Complain to join a furtive exhibition into the unexplored corridors. It is Marapper's belief that they are all living onboard a moving space-craft, and that if they can reach the control room they will gain command of the entire, gargantuan vessel.
On their journey, the group encounter other tribes, of varying levels of sophistication. Complain is also briefly captured by humanoid 'Giants' of legend, who release him with no explanation.
Complain's party eventually join the more sophisticated society of the 'Forwards'. Here they learn that the space-craft is a multi-generational starship returning from the newly colonised planet of Procyon. In a previous generation, the ships's inhabitants had suffered from an pandemic due to an alien amino acid found in the waters of Procyon. Law and order began to collapse and knowledge of the ship and its purpose was eventually almost entirely lost throughout the vessel. 23 generations have passed since this 'Catastrophe'.
The Forwards have uncertain knowledge of 'Giants' who, though feared, are generally considered to be benevolent. Other mysterious beings, termed "Outsiders", are thought to infiltrate the human world from an unknown place and are reviled as enemies. However, when the Giants attack a Forward crew-member, the humans conclude that the Giants and Outsiders are colluding against humanity, and prepare to retaliate in force. Meanwhile, Complain and his developing romantic interest Vyann (a Forward officer) learn that the space-craft should only have taken six generations to return to Earth. Aware that 23 generations have passed since the epidemic, they despairingly deduce that the entire space-craft is now plummeting irredeemably into the cold expanse of infinite space. (Though they find the ship's control centre, all the mechanisms have been destroyed).
The Forwards briefly engage the Giants, however the conflict quickly ends. It is then revealed that the ship has been moored outside earth's atmosphere for a number of years! The 'Giants' are merely normal sized earth-humans who have been attempting to improve the conditions of the ships inhabitants by slowly repairing the vessel. The 'Outsiders' are unusually short humans from earth who have infiltrated the ship's various societies in order to study the development of their civilization. The rulers of Earth have been reluctant to integrate the ship-dwellers into Earth's civilization, due to the fact that the epidemic survivors have mutated to live at a rate 4-times faster than earth's population. However, the recent battle on board the space-craft has caused it to begin an emergency split into its composite parts, ensuring that the entire population will now be granted a new start on planet Earth.
Other similar source material includes Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein and a TV series “The Starlost” from the 1970’s, although Jim Ward says that he wasn’t aware of either of them when he wrote the game.
Metamorphosis Alpha could be like one of those sources, or not. As always, the referee gets to decide the tone and scope of the campaign.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,673 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #8 on Aug 13, 2011, 8:21am »
Part Three: Contents of 1E
Someday I want to see a three-booklet 1E boxed set come out. (Maybe I’ll talk to John at Brave Halfling about this…) I have ideas on how to arrange the material, although I’ll confess that I have not tried to balance page-count to be sure that each book is an appropriate size.
Here is a list of contents of my dream MA rules set, along with page numbers from my 1E rulebook. I mention this not to be critical of the organization of the 1976 1E rulebook, but instead to guide someone familiar with OD&D so that they can see that in many ways MA is similar.
METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA Rules for Fantastic Science Fiction Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures Jim Ward
MEN & MUTATIONS (Volume 1 of three booklets) The Game (p.3) -- Tells the roles of the players and referee Beginning the Game and Developing Characters (p.9-10) Ability Explanations (p.10-12) Physical and Mental Mutations (p.12-16) Weapons & Combat (p.19-20) Non-Player Characters (p.23) Relatives (p.23) Healing of Body Damage (p.23) Languages (p.24) Means of Exchange (p.24)
MUTANTS & ACQUISITIONS (Volume 2 of three booklets) Earth Animals of the Ship (p.9) The Mutants (p.17-19) Distribution of Monsters (Mutations) and Treasure (p.20) Treasure Item List for the Ship (p.21) Encounter Table (p.22) Wandering “Monsters” (p.22) Human Tribal Areas (p.23) Forested Areas (p.23)
THE WARDEN & STARSHIP ADVENTURES (Volume 3 of three booklets) Introduction (p.3) -- tells the story behind the Warden The Starship (p.4-5) Ship Devices and Units (p.6-7) Starship Equipment (p.7-9) Movement (p.20) The Main Ship’s Computer (p.23) Time (p.23) Surprise (p.24)
Stuff the might be left out of a rules set(Fine material, but not as important to an experienced gamer.) Example of a Referee Moderating an Adventure (p.24) Example Level 14 (p.25-26)
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Mar 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 278 Karma: 18
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #9 on Aug 13, 2011, 9:37am »
The largest barrier between playing and not playing a Metamorphosis Alpha campaign is the starship itself. Many see having to tackle the creation of such an endeavor as an overwhelming task (not at all unlike creating a mega-dungeon). Mr. Ward himself however in examples over the years presents the starship more as a collection of wilderness locations and this would certainly ease a GM creating their own version of the starship it also creates a concept issue with folks who expect a metal and plastic dungeon and not a dagwood sandwich of mutant infested wilderness.
Excellent, I will be following this thread with great interest too. Thanks Marv.
I just hope that I can maintain the same kind of quality as is in the EPT thread. Don't want to disappoint anyone.
Oh, you won't disappoint. Me, at least. Anything you can tell me is more likely to get me inspired to track the game down. I don't know much about MetaAlpha but am willing to listen.
KELT-SET =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Bishop of Blackmoor Found B/X D&D in the 1980's =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." - Gary Gygax
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
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Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #11 on Aug 14, 2011, 9:26am »
Part Four: Thinking About the Warden
When OD&D came out there weren’t any adventures. There was a sample dungeon in The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures but nothing else that could be bought commercially. The same can be said for MA. Eventually, producing modules for D&D became big business but very few are created for MA.
What this does is give a modern player the feeling of incompleteness as the potential player buys a rulebook, then waits for product support. When Metamorphosis Alpha first came out, Jim Ward had this concept that each person would design his or her own starship (probably not named Warden) and run adventures on this ship.
What went wrong?
Well, to start with Jim was so kind as to give a peek at his starship. The 1E rules have several pages devoted to a general hint of paragraph detail as to what can be found on each level, complete with postage-stamp-sized pictures of each level. So a modern player looks at the rulebook and thinks “well, the ship is kind of there but not quite enough for me to use.” This isn’t quite a fair statement, because I began playing in 1976 and had exactly the same reaction. When I “built” my “own version” of the starship I still named it Warden and still used as many of Jim’s ideas as possible, supplementing only where I had to instead of where I could. I fell into the same trap, and a trap which was totally accidental on Jim’s part.
And if/when Jim ever releases a product similar to Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign that shows his original Warden, I’ll be first in line to buy one!
When I learned to play OD&D my campaign evolved slowly from the dungeon to the town, then to a small region, and eventually to a more global scale. The key for MA is to have it evolve from the town to a small region, then to a level, and eventually to the global “megadungeon” starship scale. In other words, MA starts out as a wilderness adventure instead of a dungeon crawl, but otherwise can be quite similar in scope.
Jim’s warden is 17 levels of starship goodness, each connected together with elevators and a system of ramps. Think of it like a 17-level megadungeon, only in space. While the levels are loosely linked together, each one forms its own “world” miles in any direction. A savvy referee will start on a single level and make it as complete as possible and encourage players to explore that one level and have adventures there for quite a while before moving onto others.
That’s the secret to planning a good Metamorphosis Alpha campaign.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Finarvyn Administrator Dungeon Master member is offline
Joined: Jun 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 4,673 Location: Near Chicago Karma: 178
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #12 on Aug 16, 2011, 8:10pm »
Part Five: Styles of Play
Metamorphosis Alpha has a reputation for being really wacky and slapstick. I’m not sure where this originated, but I never got that vibe from the game. When I read the rulebook it’s just as serious as any other RPG.
I think that the problem starts off with the fact that MA and Gamma World are interchangeable in the minds of many gamers, and GW has a slapstick feel to it. Remember those classic drawings of rabbits holding assault rifles in GW? That kind of picture isn’t found in MA, at least not to that degree of absurdness. Not that you couldn’t play that way, but the rules don’t specifically encourage it.
Then there is the fact that Jim Ward is known for killing characters. Lots of them. So many that WardCo sells a stein with dozens of ways to die in MA printed on the side. I get the feeling that over the years Jim has been referee for a humongous number of character deaths, and that many of them look pretty funny in retrospect. That doesn’t mean it was funny at the time, however. For example, suppose that players learned that eating blue mushrooms could protect them from radiation. But they aren’t counting on the fact that in Jim’s world not all things act the same each time, so the next time they encounter radiation and smugly chomp down on blue mushrooms it’s possible that their characters didn’t survive. Maybe they tried the same trick again and again, convinced that it should work. That’s the stuff of gaming legend but not a function of “wacky” rules.
Also there is the issue of “item complexity.” Remember in GW where a player could spend an afternoon rolling dice to figure out if he could use that flashlight? In GW they have those wonderful flowcharts, but in MA it’s a relatively tame couple of tables and quick dice rolls. If a character finds a flashlight, for example, the player knows what it is right away but the character does not and wacky things may happen to the character while he tries to figure out what the item is and how to use the technology. While this rules don’t try to force a “wacky” campaign on the players, often the results are humorous. At the same time they can be frustrating to a player. What I do is assume that characters can figure out basic stuff (flashlights) in a hurry, but struggle more as the tech gets more complex (gasoline motor). So driving a car isn’t so hard but fixing one is really tough. This avoids a few “watch the fun” moments with the flashlight, but also diffuses much of the “MA is just wacky” feel from the campaign.
So, I think that the style of play is a complex balance of fun and seriousness. To me, the best way to balance the wacky part is to emphasize some of the elements of survival. Keep supplies limited. Make attrition important. If a character uses up ammo to kill some strange mutated creature, make the lack of ammo important later on.
Marv / Finarvyn DCC playtester (2011) C&C playtester (2003) I'm partly responsible for the S&W WhiteBox Builder of the TrollBridge Master of Mutants; MA since 1976 OD&D Player since 1975
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!" - Dave Arneson
Joined: Jan 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 227 Location: Wake Forest, NC Karma: 4
Re: You, too, CAN run Metamorphosis Alpha « Reply #13 on Aug 16, 2011, 10:16pm »
The mutations strike me as a bit wacky, but I just try to play it "in-era" using the current Anti-GM hysteria to give me a feel for the sort of Mutation Mania there was in days gone by.
The mutations strike me as a bit wacky, but I just try to play it "in-era" using the current Anti-GM hysteria to give me a feel for the sort of Mutation Mania there was in days gone by.
Upon first reading, I was sorta wondering if there was some sort of weird hullabaloo in the OSR I had missed: "Judges are bad! Down with referees and games masters!"
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