#metamorphosisalpha

Metamorphosis Alpha went unsupported under TSR in the 70s, but that is no longer the case in the 2020s. Goodman Games reissued the rules in 2015 and in 2020 James M. Ward penned the first ever adventure module, Doom on the Warden. The adventure gives players the chance to explore the never before breached Level 0, the secret command deck, and potentially not just take control of the ship, but set it back on course to its original destination. High stakes!

This is definitely a horror themed adventure. Ward explicitly ties each region of Level 0 to a specific fear, to excellent effect. If Metamorphosis Alpha is D&D in space, then Doom on the Warden is its Tomb of Horrors. Literally — Ward explicitly states that he modeled the approach off S1, so expect insidious death traps and high mortality rates. It is easy to see where one false move will kill an entire party off.

Metamorphosis Alpha is the 2nd sci-fi RPG, after Ken St. Andre’s Starfaring. (There is confusion about this, but I don’t have the space to lay out the proof here — just trust me). It doesn’t really matter which game was first: Metamorphosis Alpha was the first sci-fi RPG to capture the imaginations of players. It was pitched by James M. Ward as D&D in space, and it delivers. The game is set on a generation ship called Warden. Generation ships are a hypothetical solution for interstellar at sub-light speed: a vast space ark with self-sustaining biospheres that support multiple generations of passengers through the several thousand years of travel (think the ship in Wall-E). Midway through Warden’s journey, it passes through a cloud of radiation that causes catastrophic mutations in the majority of the ship’s flora, fauna and human population. Years later, human society has slipped into a semi-barbaric state. Understanding of the technology on the ship has been lost. Metamorphosis Alpha is about survival and regaining lost knowledge. This plays out in a way that feels very much like D&D – strange monsters, crude weapons, deadly combat, technology sufficiently advanced to seem as magic.

The ship, a 50-mile long by 25-mile wide egg, contains 17 levels filled with cities, villages, factory complexes, thick forests, rolling plains, mountains, even an ocean. In between those ecosystems, running through the floors and walls, are a warren of ducts, service tunnels and engine rooms. Players are left to explore the ship, hex by hex in the “wilderness” or square by square in the dungeons of the engineering sectors, all for material rewards.