Metamorphosis Alpha
Encyclopedia
Metamorphosis Alpha is a science fiction
role-playing game
. It was created by James M. Ward and originally produced by TSR
, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons
. It was the first science fiction role-playing game, published in 1976.
, the starship Warden that has been struck by an unknown cataclysmic event that killed many of the colonists and crew. Thus, the characters must survive their missions in this ship (which they believe to be a world) where they no longer understand the technology around them and they encounter numerous mutated creatures
. In essence, Metamorphosis Alpha is a dungeon crawl
in space.
Players can opt to create a human, a mutated human, a mutated plant or a mutated creature as their character. A number of articles in Dragon
expanded upon these options to include clones and robot characters as well as adding rules for cybernetics. There are five common player characteristics: radiation resistance, mental resistance, dexterity, strength, and constitution. Human players added a sixth characteristic, leadership potential, while mutated humans and creatures add a random number of mutations, both physical and mental. Metamorphosis Alpha's combat rules are very similar to those used in the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D).
Metamorphosis Alpha is the intellectual pre-cursor to Gamma World
(1978), also produced by TSR.
(as confirmed by creator James M. Ward in 2006), leading to some confusion as to how the game should be classified. Metamorphosis Alpha was written and marketed as a science-fiction game, before the distinction between science fiction
and science fantasy
was made. Ward has stated that the game is not "hard sci-fi". Some minor debate over Metamorphosis Alpha being classified as science fiction has taken place, but the inspiration for the game (see below), the statements of the author, and the marketing of the game itself favor science fiction.
In 1980, TSR
released AD&D module S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
. The module was based on the idea that a starship such as the Warden (though not the Warden itself, according to TSR founder Gary Gygax
) becomes marooned in a D&D universe. In the module's foreword, Gygax writes that the module was written to introduce Metamorphosis Alpha to the wider D&D audience and to demonstrate how one might undertake science fiction/fantasy crossover.
's classic science fiction novel Starship (aka Non-Stop) (1958). In the British RPG magazine, White Dwarf
, issue 1, Ian Livingstone
wrote a review of the game and published his own additional rules for playing Metamorphosis Alpha on Aldiss's ship. However, it is often suggested that the game was inspired by Robert A. Heinlein
's 1941 novel Orphans of the Sky
. James M. Ward has stated that he was not familiar with the 1973 Canadian TV series The Starlost
, a show with a similar concept, and that Metamorphosis Alpha is not based upon that series.
In 2010, Signal Fire Studios acquired the rights to produce a new edition of the game based upon Hasbro's 4th edition D&D.
In 2011, Ward announced that he had negotiated a deal to produce a graphic novel of Metamorphosis Alpha.
In 1981, Ward announced plans to rewrite the game as Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, a supplement for the 1st edition Gamma World rules (Anon 1981). The Gamma World supplement was never completed, but in 1994, TSR used the title Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega for an Amazing Engine
supplement (ISBN 1-56076-851-7) written by Slade Henson.
In 2002, Ward's company, Fast Forward Entertainment, published a new version of the game, entitled Metamorphosis Alpha: 25th Anniversary Edition. It was designed by Ward himself.
In 2006, Metamorphosis Alpha 4th Edition was released by Mudpuppy Games (ISBN 0-9763601-2-8). This edition contained original material by Ward and additional new material and photography by Craig J. Brain. The book cover and interior illustrations were painted and drawn by Jim Holloway with most of the cartography by Ryan Wolfe.
In 2007, WardCo. released an official errata sheet for Metamorphosis Alpha First Edition, which is available from the official website and released a revised edition of the first-edition rules through OneBookShelf as a PDF.
In 2010, WardCo. released "The House On The Hill" adventure module (ISBN 145360412X) for Metamorphosis Alpha (1st edition) as a PDF through OneBookshelf and the printed edition through Amazon. The adventure was written by Craig J. Brain, with bonus content by James M. Ward. The illustrations for the adventure were by Lee Smith and Dave Sutherland III.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. It was created by James M. Ward and originally produced by TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
. It was the first science fiction role-playing game, published in 1976.
Description
The original edition of the game takes place on a generation spaceshipGeneration ship
A generation ship is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels across great distances between stars at a speed much slower than the speed of light...
, the starship Warden that has been struck by an unknown cataclysmic event that killed many of the colonists and crew. Thus, the characters must survive their missions in this ship (which they believe to be a world) where they no longer understand the technology around them and they encounter numerous mutated creatures
Mutant (fictional)
The concept of a mutant is a common trope in comic books and science fiction. The new phenotypes that appear in fictional mutations generally go far beyond what is typically seen in biological mutants, and often result in the mutated life form exhibiting superhuman abilities or qualities.-Marvel...
. In essence, Metamorphosis Alpha is a dungeon crawl
Dungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
in space.
Players can opt to create a human, a mutated human, a mutated plant or a mutated creature as their character. A number of articles in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
expanded upon these options to include clones and robot characters as well as adding rules for cybernetics. There are five common player characteristics: radiation resistance, mental resistance, dexterity, strength, and constitution. Human players added a sixth characteristic, leadership potential, while mutated humans and creatures add a random number of mutations, both physical and mental. Metamorphosis Alpha's combat rules are very similar to those used in the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(D&D).
Metamorphosis Alpha is the intellectual pre-cursor to Gamma World
Gamma World
Gamma World is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from James M. Ward's earlier product, Metamorphosis Alpha.-Setting:...
(1978), also produced by TSR.
Science fiction or science fantasy?
Metamorphosis Alpha has an emphasis on super science and an element of science fantasyScience fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
(as confirmed by creator James M. Ward in 2006), leading to some confusion as to how the game should be classified. Metamorphosis Alpha was written and marketed as a science-fiction game, before the distinction between science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and science fantasy
Science fantasy
Science fantasy is a mixed genre within speculative fiction drawing elements from both science fiction and fantasy. Although in some terms of its portrayal in recent media products it can be defined as instead of being a mixed genre of science fiction and fantasy it is instead a mixing of the...
was made. Ward has stated that the game is not "hard sci-fi". Some minor debate over Metamorphosis Alpha being classified as science fiction has taken place, but the inspiration for the game (see below), the statements of the author, and the marketing of the game itself favor science fiction.
In 1980, TSR
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
released AD&D module S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre...
. The module was based on the idea that a starship such as the Warden (though not the Warden itself, according to TSR founder Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
) becomes marooned in a D&D universe. In the module's foreword, Gygax writes that the module was written to introduce Metamorphosis Alpha to the wider D&D audience and to demonstrate how one might undertake science fiction/fantasy crossover.
Inspiration
Ward, the game's author, stated that the original inspiration for the game was Brian AldissBrian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
's classic science fiction novel Starship (aka Non-Stop) (1958). In the British RPG magazine, White Dwarf
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
, issue 1, Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone
Ian Livingstone OBE is an English fantasy author and entrepreneur. He is a co-writer of the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and co-founder of Games Workshop....
wrote a review of the game and published his own additional rules for playing Metamorphosis Alpha on Aldiss's ship. However, it is often suggested that the game was inspired by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's 1941 novel Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense" . The two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was also published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback...
. James M. Ward has stated that he was not familiar with the 1973 Canadian TV series The Starlost
The Starlost
The Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series devised by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called The Ark, which has gone off-course...
, a show with a similar concept, and that Metamorphosis Alpha is not based upon that series.
Ownership and rights
The rights to Metamorphosis Alpha are owned by James M. Ward. Ward also owns the rights to all Metamorphosis Alpha material previously published in Dragon. WardCo. (Ward's publishing business) has been granted permission by Steve Jackson Games and by Judges Guild (the estate of Bob Bledsaw Sr.) to host and republish some material. In 2008, Ward requested via public forums that sites hosting pirated copies of his original rules and the material previously published in Dragon magazine remove them, as they were a breach of his copyright and directly competed with products that he is selling. All permissions to host the Metamorphosis Alpha rules and the Metamorphosis Alpha Dragon Magazine articles, other than those being sold on behalf of WardCo., at sites other than at the official homepage have been rescinded.In 2010, Signal Fire Studios acquired the rights to produce a new edition of the game based upon Hasbro's 4th edition D&D.
In 2011, Ward announced that he had negotiated a deal to produce a graphic novel of Metamorphosis Alpha.
Editions and supplements
Metamorphosis Alpha was first published in 1976 by TSR. It was written by James M. Ward and illustrated by Dave Sutherland III.In 1981, Ward announced plans to rewrite the game as Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, a supplement for the 1st edition Gamma World rules (Anon 1981). The Gamma World supplement was never completed, but in 1994, TSR used the title Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega for an Amazing Engine
Amazing Engine
Amazing Engine was a series of role-playing game books that was published by TSR, Inc. from 1993 until 1994.Each publication employed the same minimalist generic rules, as described in the Amazing Engine System Guide, but each world book had an entirely different setting or genre...
supplement (ISBN 1-56076-851-7) written by Slade Henson.
In 2002, Ward's company, Fast Forward Entertainment, published a new version of the game, entitled Metamorphosis Alpha: 25th Anniversary Edition. It was designed by Ward himself.
In 2006, Metamorphosis Alpha 4th Edition was released by Mudpuppy Games (ISBN 0-9763601-2-8). This edition contained original material by Ward and additional new material and photography by Craig J. Brain. The book cover and interior illustrations were painted and drawn by Jim Holloway with most of the cartography by Ryan Wolfe.
In 2007, WardCo. released an official errata sheet for Metamorphosis Alpha First Edition, which is available from the official website and released a revised edition of the first-edition rules through OneBookShelf as a PDF.
In 2010, WardCo. released "The House On The Hill" adventure module (ISBN 145360412X) for Metamorphosis Alpha (1st edition) as a PDF through OneBookshelf and the printed edition through Amazon. The adventure was written by Craig J. Brain, with bonus content by James M. Ward. The illustrations for the adventure were by Lee Smith and Dave Sutherland III.
See also
- Gamma WorldGamma WorldGamma World is a science fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by James M. Ward and Gary Jaquet, and first published by TSR in 1978. It borrowed heavily from James M. Ward's earlier product, Metamorphosis Alpha.-Setting:...
- Non-Stop, a novel by Brian AldissBrian AldissBrian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
with a similar plot - Orphans of the SkyOrphans of the SkyOrphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense" . The two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was also published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback...
, a novel by Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. HeinleinRobert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
with a similar plot - The StarlostThe StarlostThe Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series devised by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called The Ark, which has gone off-course...
, a Canada/US TV series from 1973 has a similar premise - Hull Zero ThreeHull Zero ThreeHull Zero Three is a science fiction novel from Greg Bear. It was published on November 22, 2010. It is set on a generation ship that has lost its way under mysterious circumstances.-Critical reception:...
, a 2010 novel by Greg BearGreg BearGregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
with a similar plot - PandorumPandorumPandorum is a 2009 German-British science fiction thriller film written by Travis Milloy, directed by Christian Alvart and produced by Paul W.S. Anderson. The film stars Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. Filming began in Berlin in August 2008. Pandorum was released on September 25, 2009 in the United...
, a 2009 film which shares similar plot elements
External links
- The Official Metamorphosis Alpha homepage
- The Official Metamorphosis Alpha Forums
- Paul Madison's Metamorphosis Alpha homepage.
- http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15063Expedition to the Barrier PeaksExpedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre...
Review]