Metamorphosis Alpha: To the stars and beyond

Metamorphosis Alpha for a long time has been a distant dream for me. I totally loved the idea behind the RPG since I first ever read about it. But that was a long time ago and there was no Internet, no eBay and I was in Germany. Far away from TSR and its games.

For many years (over 10) I searched for the game and finally in 1994 I managed to get my hands on it. At a special place. I visited the US for the first time and I visited GEN CON for the first time. After we already had met Joseph K. Adams in SF (all around Jorune guy and a truly great chap) we travelled through the south west and finally flew to Chicago to travel to Wisconsin from there. And visit GEN CON. There I met Steve Miller, TSR designer at that point and big fan of Dragonlance, creator of the NUELOW games and much more. We had known each other from various conversations on Usenet and had collaborated on writing a couple of RPG manuals for the NUELOW line. Also I wrote NUELOW Hominids which I enjoyed greatly. He invited me to Lake Geneva and we had the chance to visit the holy halls of TSR, various offices and even the warehouse (and I curse myself till today for not picking up more of the amazing treasures there as we were asked... but we were too awed in that moment). And finally in the Lake Geneva RPG shop I discovered Metamorphosis Alpha. And bought it for a then murderous price.

Only to discover (back in the hotel room) that a whole page was missing. I was destroyed. And brought it back the next day. And it took me another five or so years to finally get a complete copy. Which I love till today. So Gaia Gamma will at least need to provide a campaign option to be able to play a Gamma game on a generation ship. The setup is just too amazing.

Yesterday I purchased a piece of art that will be the frame for the generation ship campaign option in Gaia Gamma. Naturally the campaign option will be only an outline - maybe I will do another sourcebook later if I feel like it. But the idea of being the inhabitant of an unknown area and strange wilderlands that in reality are the innards of a damaged generation ship, with crazed bots, dangerous aliens and maybe even a chance to find a window to a mysterious orb shimmering in the darkness below... is just too wonderful. Thanks, Jim Ward, for imagining it as an RPG in the first place!

Here we go with a different type of generation ship: