A couple of basic MA questions

[barrataria]

1. Has anyone used the ship version from Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega in their game (I can't tell if that's the only version this ship type appeared in)? Do I understand the maps to indicate there's a smaller ship stuck to it? www.metamorphosisalpha.com/ma2map.html

2. In practice, how did you run your game? Would you use a level map as a campaign map, and then develop lair/location maps like you would for an overland campaign? I have an idea for using the ship (and someday intend to use a derelict Star Destroyer in one way or another) and this kind of "overland dungeon" mapping style is appealing to me.

[Finarvyn]

1. I own "Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega" but largely ignore it. I bought it to be complete in my collection, not because I was that interested in anything in the AMAZING ENGINE product line.

2. I think you've nailed it. The level becomes a "campaign world" and you develop encounters and lairs the same way you might with any D&D world.

Sort of. Let me elaborate on #2. I see MA as having several layers. The first layer is the "one-world" phase where characters explore the world of a single level of the ship. I try to string this along as long as possible before players start to realize that they are on a ship with multiple levels, because once they do you shift to the "many-world" phase of the campaign where players decide to find ways to hop around from one level of the ship to another. Ideally each level would be built in the way you described above, but in reality once the players realize the multitude of levels they tend to move a lot faster and often don't spend as much time exploring any one area of the ship so developing too many layers may be time wasted. It all depends upon how quickly they can advance to a stage where they try to take control of the ship, because if they try this then most regular encounters become meaningless as the focus moves to shipwide action.

Anyway, the key is that you develop each level just like you would for any other RPG setting. Then you hang on and see where the players take the adventure.

[greentongue]

Do you think that the "they are on a ship with multiple levels" is common enough after all these years that, a "Dungeon World" game could be run in MA (using setting specific Playbooks)?
If so, that would make level hopping a LOT easier on the person running the game.
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[Finarvyn]

Jul 17, 2013 19:35:11 GMT -6 greentongue said:

Do you think that the "they are on a ship with multiple levels" is common enough after all these years that, a "Dungeon World" game could be run in MA (using setting specific Playbooks)?
If so, that would make level hopping a LOT easier on the person running the game.

I assume you mean the "Dungeon World" RPG, and I just don't have enough knowledge of the game to answer this question.

[greentongue]

Yes, that's what I meant but, really, any game where the players input a sizable portion of the world description.
Basically, the question is, do you think the MA concept is well known enough for players to contribute a sizable portion of the world description?
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[Finarvyn]

I suppose it would depend upon the players.

Also, some of the fun of MA is exploration and the discovery of the unknown. I suppose if players created too much it might ruin the discovery aspect of the campaign.

You ask great questions. I'll have to ponder this further.

[greentongue]

"Also, some of the fun of MA is exploration and the discovery of the unknown."

In the Dungeon World case, this is true for the GM as well. You never know what the players will come up with (and how you can twist it).
The GM would know the theme of the level and broad strokes of description. The details are build on that and "the Devil is in the Details".
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[barrataria]

Jul 17, 2013 7:58:50 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

1. I own "Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega" but largely ignore it. I bought it to be complete in my collection, not because I was that interested in anything in the AMAZING ENGINE product line.

What did you think of the re-imagining of the ship? If you thought about it

Jul 17, 2013 7:58:50 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Anyway, the key is that you develop each level just like you would for any other RPG setting. Then you hang on and see where the players take the adventure.

That's all pretty interesting. For my immediate purposes (as a derelict space station) that mystery aspect won't be so important, I'm just mining the maps. But now I'm half tempted to surprise my D&D group in a few weeks with a discovery that they're in fact just on a level of the Warden

[Finarvyn]

Honestly, I didn't think about the re-imagining much at all. Like most of my D&D campaigns, I tend to draw my own maps rather than stick to ones created by others.

I should go have a peek, however. You have me interested.

As far as your OP about having characters stomp around on an old Star Destroyer, I like it! I had thought about doing something like this for the Enterprise from Star Trek, making use of my old 1970's blueprints or FASA Star Trek blueprints. However, my plan had been to try to keep up the mystery and I was afraid that if my players saw my maps the mystery would have been gone. Your idea of having players know it's a Star Destroyer is a neat one because it jumps right to the "clean up and take over" element of the game.

Cool idea!

[barrataria]

Jul 20, 2013 10:56:42 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

Honestly, I didn't think about the re-imagining much at all. Like most of my D&D campaigns, I tend to draw my own maps rather than stick to ones created by others.

That makes sense; although I like the A to O version well enough and it's interesting for my purposes, it seems a little too fiddly/detailed to be good for running a full-blown MA campaign. This "space station" will be much smaller, about the size of a Star Destroyer or Mon Cal Cruiser (but of course predating those by 5000+ years!

I should go have a peek, however. You have me interested.

Jul 20, 2013 10:56:42 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

As far as your OP about having characters stomp around on an old Star Destroyer, I like it!
Cool idea!

Thanks, although it's not relevant for this Ancient Republic campaign, I think after the fall of the Empire that derelict/repurposed ISDs would be pretty common features of the landscape. In my SW universe neither the New Republic nor the Imperial Remnants can muster enough crew to fill all those ships. So lots will be space stations or floating dry docks or colony ships or pirate or.... at least one riddled with radiation and mutants

[grodog]

Hey Bruce, long time no see

Jim Ward mentioned at GaryCon or NTX this year that he was surprised that most folks wouldn't name their own ship after themselves, vs. always using the Warden for their games. The SS Barrataria sounds like a fine place for a derelict star destroyer to me!

Allan.

[Finarvyn]

A couple of thoughts on this:
(1) I didn't make the Ward --> Warden connection for decades.
(2) It's hard to make "Marv" into a cool ship name. U.S.S. Marvelous?

__________________
EDIT TO ADD: About the best I ever did was "Marvinieous Fingers," an OD&D thief I ran repeatedly in the good old days. Sadly, he met his demise when he was ambushed by orcs in a place called the Pass of the Knife. He survived countless city encounters and dungeon crawls, only to get skewered by orc crossbow bolts in the middle of nowhere.

[barrataria]

Jul 24, 2013 6:42:14 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

A couple of thoughts on this:
(1) I didn't make the Ward --> Warden connection for decades.
(2) It's hard to make "Marv" into a cool ship name. U.S.S. Marvelous?

Yes, but "Finarvyn" would be fine, especially if your players don't know your username

Barrataria (at least Barataria) is of course a real place, so I wouldn't use that. I had intended to use it for one of my homebrew worlds but it always seemed wrong to me.