So, starting next week, we'll be playing one of the oldest RPGs and the first science fiction one ever published. It's also a game I've never refereed before, though I did play in a MA campaign some years ago, so this will be a learning experience for me too. That said, I've thought a lot about the game over the years and have a number of ideas to draw upon. Whether they'll survive contact with the players only time will tell, but I'm keen to see how this unfolds.
Like OD&D and Empire of the Petal Throne, Metamorphosis Alpha is mechanically somewhat sparse, with lots of lacunae and inconsistencies, as we discovered yesterday while trying to generate characters. That's fine. Part of my enjoyment of playing older games is figuring out how to make its unclear and often incomplete rules work in a way that make sense for our campaign. I rather expect that, after a few sessions, our version of MA will develop its own set of house rules and rules interpretations, as all good campaigns do. That's as it should be in my opinion.
Right now, my only worry, if that's the word, about this choice of game is whether Metamorphosis Alpha is capable of sustaining a long campaign. One of the players asked me how long I intended to run MA and I answered, "As long as I can – like all my campaigns." Barrett's Raiders lasted just shy of four years. The Riphaeus Sector Traveller campaign before it lasted slightly less long. And, of course, House of Worms lasted more than a decade. In each case, I didn't expect the campaign would last as long as it did, but I hoped they'd continue indefinitely. That's my preference when it comes to roleplaying, because I feel that, in general, these games are best enjoyed as long form entertainment.
I’ve certainly looked at MA but never played it. Ive heard since the PCs are stone aged cavemen types Gygax would describe things aboard the ship like stairs in vague literal terms without calling them stairs. I’ve always wondered how long that sort of thing could last in a campaign.
ReplyDelete"survive contact with the players..." HA! Who was your first Dungeon Master, Moltke the Elder?
ReplyDeleteI'm so pleased you have such brilliant players to select MA! I can't wait for the reports. And as for longevity of the campaign, yes it it should go as long or short as it dictates, BUT if you are going for distance, I really do think one way to do it is to "Russian Nesting Doll" the double-enclosed setting in another, wildly different enclosed setting. If you've ever seen the Hammer House of Mystery episode Child's Play that would be - vaguely - a very interesting course to have in mind.
MA lends itself to that sort of thing, with unexpected revelations changing teh whole nature of a campaign. The one big campaign I played in ran for about a year more-or-less "standard" with the PCs gradually discovering that their world was a starship and what that hypothetically meant. Then we finally found a secondary bridge and learned that the Warden had actually made a hard landing on a habitable world many generations before the PCs were born, winding up mostly buried, partly under a mountain the crash had collapsed around us and partly beneath a glacier that was just now receding enough to allow access to the outside world. And then that turned into a mix of Underdark crawl and reverse Expedition To the Barrier Peaks while we still dealing with shipboard factional politics. Game fell apart after about three years just as we were getting involved in an impending war between the local D&D-style magocracy and the android warmongers from Deck Five.
DeleteThat sounds awesome - do you have any other details published about the adventure elsewhere?
DeleteJames, I am very interested in hearing about this campaign - how it goes, and lessons you learn from it. I would love to GM or participate in a Metamorphosis Alpha game sometime in the future, and the next best thing is hearing about game play.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading posts about the game!
ReplyDeleteWhile you stated you are using the original rules, are you planning on using any of the MA 1e compatible materials that Goodman Games has put out for it? Or just the rules themselves?