"You probably clicked on this video because you've heard of Metamorphosis Alpha" Nope. I clicked on this video because I clicked on the Gamma World 1st edition video because I clicked on the Gamma World 3rd Edition video because I watched the Starfinder video because I watched the FATAL series of videos.
"You probably clicked on this video because you've heard of Metamorphosis Alpha" Nah, I just really like you videos lol you deserve a lot more subscribers
Big agree. Only found the channel due to FATAL 2 days ago, am watching the other videos because they're just really good quality. Never heard of most of the games covered.
I think my favourite thing about Metamorphosis Alpha is the setting; exploring a colony ship drifting through space as basically a bunch of barbarians is something I haven't seen often from recent games and its light sci-fi/science fantasy at its best. Its absolutely nuts, and it gets me excited as both a player and a GM with all the intresting possibilities spawned from the setting, even though I've just watched one video on it.
Yeah, closest thing I see are Darians from Space 1999, Touch the Sky episode from Star Trek, and maybe some voidborns from 40k (Ancient Time short story where ships had cannibal mutants from secluded part of the star ship that such areas had to be gassed while in port once per century). So rare that I am struggling to find reference for a character based on that premise.
@@TableplantGames You start out as hunter-gatherers. I remember that we got to pick either a bow or a spear. The chief of the tribe had a laser pistol. We barely knew the landmarks of our home level. There was a staircase to a hole in the "sky".
you know regardless of all of the other factors, I have been loving the idea of a setting that takes place on a completely artificial colony ship, especially this idea of the residents for one reason or another forgetting they're on a ship and reverting to a more primitive society. Though I think it'd be cooler to do it on an O'Neil Cylinder type vessel since it A) is technically more scientifically accurate as it requires no magic gravity system, and B) offers some really unique views and such. Like imagine if a spy could scope out an enemy encampment by going to the opposite side of the ship and looking down at the base from above lol. Tho I guess you do lose out on the rather neat concept of having a dozen or so huge floors that offer wildly different environments, but I suppose you could probably have at least a couple floors within an O'Neil Cylinder Ship, like maybe you could treat a maintenance level as like a sort of "underdark" to the main overworld. The other interesting thing is that it would give the residents a reason to not want to explore beyond the bounds of the ship. Having the ground loop back in on itself would make it appear like the ship is the whole universe rather than being surrounded by more obvious walls and ceilings.
Make it multiple layers of an O'Neil Cylinder, meant to simulate places with more or less sunlight by physically obscuring them, thus encouraging different environmental conditions. Additionally, industrial and maintenance areas would make for excellent 'dungeons' of all sorts, with grabbing things from guarded assembly lines and hauling them out as your 'loot and scoot' reasoning.
I also had this same idea. The layers beneath the "top" (read: inner) layer are a series of nested living areas, laboratories, hydroponics bays, and maintenance tunnels that inevitably get overrun by random denizens over the generations since the O'Neal Cylinder went to crap. Another advantage to this setup is that it's fairly easy to map in a module. It's a series of progressively wider rectangular maps, that just happen to loop on themselves across one set of parallel sides. Though various "dungeons" might represent pockets of navigable space on "lower" (outer) levels, amid a bunch of impassible obstacles (collapsed tunnels, irradiated, exposed to vacuum, overgrown by hostile organisms, etc). Additional points: 1) O'Neal Cylinders, due to gyroscopic forces, benefit from being linked in pairs. Each spinning in opposite directions, to keep the whole structure stable. So the setting "world" of the game should double up on map areas, with greater or lesser ability for inhabitants to move from one to the other at Referee discretion. 2) O'Neal Cylinders need not be free-standing orbiting habitats. (Indeed, there should be a static "shell" the cylinders rotate inside in any case). It might be built inside asteroids, moons, or lower-gravity planet(oid)s. Or even, as with Metamorphosis Alpha, be part of a vessel traveling through space. 3) The low-tech nature of O'Neil Cylinders allows for the setting habitat to exist in a larger milieu where interstellar travel isn't possible. It's a concept I've toyed with before, where there's no going to alien worlds, and all the "aliens" are just genetically modified humans/etc. But which can be AS dense as a traditional galactic empire, via thousands of orbiting habitats, for all the difference it makes for the story. If the O'Neal cylinder setting for the game has been left to fester for generations, it implies either a complete collapse of the system's social order, or a severe decline that allowed a few cylinders to be left by the wayside. (Either the local polities in power can't go there, or don't see it as a priority for many years).
There were like 7 or 8 RPGs out in the entirety of the market when MA was produced. IIRC Jim Ward (RIP) ran it as an OD&D setting, and Gary Gygax (RIP) pushed him to produce a full RPG. There were mistakes. Jim fixed those in the intervening years per the video. The video didn't even mention the 2d6 ranged attack resolution, which surprised me. There were other editions that nobody talks about or cares about. Classic Metamorphosis Alpha has stood the test of time, regardless of the fact that it's needed major errata added in for the last 45+ years and never really got it until Goodman got close enough with the reissue that incorporated all of Jim's approved errata and additions (including that which he didn't write). At the time it was understood the Referee should be a god of the gaps. A ruleset existed only to provide solutions for obvious problems inherent to the setting. An expansive and complex world like Metamorphosis Alpha would have required a lot of rules to fit every single use-case of every single mutation interacting with itself, other mutations, technology, and other creatures and environs. When in doubt, make it up and write it down. A game mechanic isn't difficult to build, even for a novice. Even for someone who only knows only the few systemics present in Metamorphosis Alpha. There's plenty of real-estate to make up your own. I wouldn't call it a feature or a bug. It's simply a different mindset that eventually went away. Being master of the game doesn't mean running to the book to look up the answer every time. Being a player of the game doesn't mean searching your character sheet for the solution for every problem. While I don't wholly agree with this mindset I have come to appreciate it considering the current state of game mastering in the current year. I'm very glad I got Goodman's Collector's Edition of MA, as well as their expansion on Epsilon City (written/approved by Ward) and Troll Lord Games massive Starship Warden (also written/approved by Ward and basically using Classic Metamorphosis Alpha stats), as they really help flesh out the game/world of Metamorphosis Alpha and bring a depth to the gonzo generational spaceship full of bizarre mutant weirdos, robots, and cyborgs that it's never had. EDIT: Forgot to mention I really enjoyed the animation and most of the discussion in the video, very good.
I’ve never heard of anyone talk about Metamorphosis Alpha outside of the TSR museum I worked at. I’m glad to see someone spotlight an older game like this!
MA lacked the six D&D attributes, so you had to substitute a bit. Mental Resistance is often used as the general smarts attribute. You had to figure out what to use for athletics tests. Humans in MA are not the only ones who can move in groups. Your starting tribe is a mix of purestrain humans and human mutants. There are wolfoid and bearoid bands out there. Humans are the ones who can draw a personal goon squad of retainers. Humans in MA are all about social hierarchies as the rules stand. You can usually start with a number of other humans. If you run into mutants and robots you can attempt to recruit them. You can decide that all PCs start with human functionality as the baseline. Later on, someone thought it could be cool to play a robot. Then you choose type and either aquire or choose tools according to type. No warbots on the Warden. Playing an Asimov robot carried on into Gamma World and Mutant, with the inhibitions the laws gave you. You can't hurt people you recognize as human. You can recognize there is a hierarchy of humans, a random human can't walk up and tell you not to repair just like that. But if a human steps out in front of a vehicle and refuses to move all work can halt. And on the other hand, you can loosely use as many animal and plant abilities as you can come up with. If you say you play a plant with poisonous sap you got it. You can use photosynthesis. In games where human functionality is the norm, you usually have to tack on animal/plant/robot abilities as mutations and options. A "hidden" ability of humans is that the tech-systems of the Warden is made for them. Robots you meet follow Asimov's laws, gardener robots will block your way at most. Security robots carry non-lethal weapons and will remove humans instead of injuring them. Medical tech made to cure human headaches does weird stuff when a bearoid or plant-person eats it. Armour won't fit a bloke with eight arms. Computers respond to human voices. Starting equipment is usually pretty basic. Most societies in MA are hunter-gatherers. You get a bow or a spear and some basic hide armour. Maybe a bag. The chief of your tribe might have a laser pistol and an ID ring as badge of office. If you want better stuff, you got to adventure for it! Since there is no level mechanic in MA, one of the paths for PC power progression is to aquire more powerful kit. That and finding allies, learning more about the Warden and plain getting good at the game. It is very hard to get seriously injured when fighting with clubs and arrows but that pool of hp is not growing bigger. And there's tech-weapons out there that scoff at your pool. If you want currency, you will have to invent it. Some societies of the Warden have. Finding and using old ID cards was carried on into Gamma World and Mutant. When presented with a correct ID card, you can order a robot or open a door. They were strictly hierarchical and positional according to a system you got to figure out. An ID ring that let you tell a gardener robot to move aside might not open the engineering section. In Mutant, the finds you made was also cultural traces. People's wallets with wedding photos, an ID card with "ID barf" scratched on the back etc. On the Warden, this is done through coloured arm bands emitting a specific radiation.
I clicked on this video explicitly because had no idea what M-Alpha even was. Its certanly a neat exploration into what was basically the wild west of ttrpg game design, even if its flaws are numerous and clear, especially in terms of making a cool character to play. (Like, the Plant mutations chart basically *doesn't exist* at all because you can't create a playable character without using up all your slots anyways) While i understand why this isn't gonna be a series, i do think maybe a sequel video on 5th edition M-Alpha could be interesting from a comparison point of view, like comparing 1st edition DnD to 5th. It'd be interesting to see what was changed, what was kept, what was removed entirely, and what was considered "Iconic" about the game over the versions.
@@Earthenfist MA came some years after the first D&D. The people writing this were new to RPGs. They often think players are just going to figure things out and do what they think is reasonable. Including write adventures and research stuff at the library.
@@SusCalvin Read my comment more carefully. PDF's weren't invented when MA debuted. This is a comment on RPG's being made today, after RPG's have been around for decades, that niche PDF only RPG's have absolutely no need for a "what is an RPG" section, not how the original in-print RPG's like D&D or MA did in fact need one.
honestly the fact that you can be a mutant plant and that you have to buy basic functions (so if you want a lot of cool stuff you might have to take a severe penalty like blindness) makes them a very interesting "hard mode" character and its crazy cool to me that its included. i wish more things like dnd included character options that have extreme downsides
I would have taken Teleportation as the mental mutation. Because if you're 21 feet tall, I imagine getting around the ship might be a little bit difficult, to say the least.
30:29 I knew I'd heard of the concept of adventuring in a spaceship gone feral before, but it wasn't until you showed the latest edition of Metamorphasis Alpha did I realize I have that book! That's how I knew it! Great video, looking forward to new ones, especially if you do Gammaworld as I know nothing of that game!
Gamma world is awesome for potential variety. One other options would be the origional Marvel Super Hero's RPG, specifically the Ultimate Powers Book. The book has Every power they could think of, with big dice tables to randomly mix and max the most absurd groupings of powers into your character. And being an a 80's product Prehensile Hair is a Woman's only power because "Even if a man has this power they would never admit it."
Surprise rolls go both ways. The monsters roll if they are surprised as well. If you are both surprised, they pretty much cancel eachother. But if you stumble into some bearoids rummaging through a cabin there's a chance you get the drop on them.
One thing I notice about those tables: Most of them are one string of numbers smeared up and right (or down and left). That makes me think most of them could be functionally replaced with a simple formula, which I for one would find easier to remember and use. For instance, look at the Mental Strength Chart (~6:15). If your Mental Resistance is eight higher than the attacker's Mental Strength, they need to roll an 18. This decreases by one with each point that the difference is reduced, so the attacker needs to roll a 10 if your scores are equal. This is true no matter what specific numbers each of you have. It would be mathematically equivalent to say the attacker adds their Mental Strength to the 3d6 roll, subtracts 10, and compares it to the other guy's Mental Resistance score. Same goes for Radiation Resistance and Poison. So many rules could have been simplified to something a player could remember, instead of needing to flip through the rulebook and consult a table. Though I guess that's less of a problem in a rulebook only a few dozen pages long.
@@AztecCroc Formulas are easier to memorize. Especially if it's something like "Subtract the radiation level from your radiation resistance; if it's X then Y happens".
@@timothymclean us math-brained folk are a rarer sort than you seem to think, based on the fact that you basically just said "it's easier to unhinge your entire jaw and swallow a cake whole instead of chewing it"
I, like many, ended up here from fatal, but by way of GURPS, been loving these videos so far and I'm now learning I actually know pretty little about ttrpg history outside old dnd!
The most complete, yet concise and clearly laid out early-RPG was probably Empire of the Petal Throne from 1974 imo. D&D itself didn't get close until B/X, and before that wasn't even playing in the same ballpark outside of Holmes' Basic. (Too bad about the... you know...) Also I am that person who only really know about Gamma World from knowing about Metamorphosis Alpha, not the other way around.
Yeah I remember when I found out about the author's views. Its made it kind of hard to read Empire of the Petal Throne with thay ugly bit of knowledge in the background.
woop! more Metamorphosis alpha content in the future. before this video I had literally only heard of this game once, but I loved your series on warhammer and FATAL so this is gonna be good
One of the first things this setting made me think of was The Final Fantasy Legend (aka Makai Toushi SaGa), oddly enough. Then again, a spaceship with different levels containing their own biome isn't that dissimilar to a tower with doors to different worlds. That, and played mutants & monsters
The best way to discribe this game is as 'historicaly significant'. A metamorphosis alpha campain could be played using one of the later editions of gamma world.
This game looks very interesting! Hopefully you decide to do the other editions at some point, im tempted to try this game just for the setting alone. I wonder how the later editions handle gameplay since the 1e might be a little too old school for me.
if anybody wants to play similar rpg but on pc caves of qud is rad mutant/true human rpg where living bananas sell other bananas that make your brain grow bigger if cooked correctly
The book Aurora by Kim Stacey Robinson is the only generational ship story I know of that doesn't use the "the descendants don't know they live on a spaceship" idea.
I'm going to suggest making a character for either Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Godbound, or one of the Essence20 games (like Transformers or G.I. Joe)
It makes humans the social people. You can still run into other tribes and all tribes can have both humans and mutants and wolfoifs and stuff, but humans are the ones with a personal goon squad. You have a handful of them, like a little gang. You can recruit mutants and robots and crap as you adventure.
