Metamorphosis Alpha 1st Edition Character Creation

[peterlind]

I have been looking to run some MA 1E and will be assisting players to create characters. So I have a few questions/comments that I hope you can help me with. Also, if you
have any house rules to share for MA 1E, then thank you in advance.

I would like to first comment on starting equipment. Humans are stated to start at a human settlement (like a village) "with supplies such an area provides", while mutations are stated to start in a forested area with "no material goods." So has anyone developed a standard list of starting equipment?

[cadriel]

When I've run MA as a one-shot or con game, this is how the human pregens were kitted out.

Human A
Weapons: Spear, Longbow
Armor: Shield, non­metallic
Gear: 2 berries that add +4 to Mental Resistance for 1 hour

Human B
Weapons: Normal Ax, Crossbow
Armor: Heavy fur
Gear: Gland, when ingested gives total resistance to poison for 10 minutes

Human C
Weapons: Dagger, Normal Bow
Armor: Skins
Gear: Gland, when ingested gives extra 1d6 hit points for 1 day.

Human D
Weapons: Spear, Normal Bow
Armor: Cured Hide
Gear: Sap, when ingested gives telepathy (up to 25' away) for 1 hour

Human E
Weapons: Normal Ax, Longbow
Armor: Shield, non­metallic
Gear: Horn of the Unicorn, any poison put in it will foam

[cadriel]

If you're interested, these are the character sheets for the pregens from that game:

drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-230B8tqxvenJfZU1yQWltYm8/view?usp=sharing

[peterlind]

This is some great stuff. Thank you. If I may ask, which level of the Warden were these pregens for?

Other thoughts on MA character generation . . .

In 1st edition MA, players get to pick their physical/mental mutations for their mutant characters. This is unlike Gamma World where the mutations were rolled for. Has this led to a kind of power gaming on the part of the players, where some mutations get commonly picked while others are passed by? How would you deal with this issue? Also, how would you add in the Mutation Manual from Goodman Games? Allow players to pick from there as well?

[cadriel]

Feb 4, 2020 18:43:56 GMT -6 peterlind said:

This is some great stuff. Thank you. If I may ask, which level of the Warden were these pregens for?

I ran the adventure on Level 7, using more or less Orphans of the Sky and Starship as guidelines for how the environment worked. A large chunk of the adventure was run in a RHMDU that I had generated using the tables in the module The House on the Hill, which played out as terrific fun.

[Torreny]

Additionally, there was an article in Dragon magazine to address this, called 'The Total Person', I think. I've forgotten. It's got some good stuff in it. Usually my players want to be the bozo mutants starting with nothing out in the boonies.

That, or the alternate start in a cryo-lab. For that, I just quiz the players on a couple things their character might have done for work or liked as hobbies, and assign a couple relevant (but still useful) items to the null-entropy bins next to their freezers.

As for concerns of power gaming the powers. Many mutants have just as potent powers, and I randomly determine one mental and one physical defect each. That keeps them on their toes.