Metamorphosis Alpha

Metamorphosis Alpha is one of the first science fiction role-playing games,^{[note 1]} published in 1976. It was created by James M. Ward and originally produced by TSR, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons.

Description

The original edition is set on a generation spaceship, the starship Warden, which has been struck by an unknown cataclysmic event that killed many of the colonists and crew. The characters must survive their missions in the ship, which they believe to be a world. They no longer understand the technology around them, and they encounter numerous mutated creatures.

Players can portray a human, a mutated human, a mutated plant, or a mutated creature. Articles in Dragon expanded those options to include clones and robots as well as adding rules for cybernetics. Players have five characteristics: radiation resistance, mental resistance, dexterity, strength, and constitution. Humans have 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 resemble those in the original edition of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

Metamorphosis Alpha is the intellectual precursor to Gamma World (1978), also produced by TSR.