Metamorphosis Alpha is the 2nd sci-fi RPG, after Ken St. Andre’s Starfaring. (There is confusion about this, but I don’t have the space to lay out the proof here — just trust me). It doesn’t really matter which game was first: Metamorphosis Alpha was the first sci-fi RPG to capture the imaginations of players. It was pitched by James M. Ward as D&D in space, and it delivers. The game is set on a generation ship called Warden. Generation ships are a hypothetical solution for interstellar at sub-light speed: a vast space ark with self-sustaining biospheres that support multiple generations of passengers through the several thousand years of travel (think the ship in Wall-E). Midway through Warden’s journey, it passes through a cloud of radiation that causes catastrophic mutations in the majority of the ship’s flora, fauna and human population. Years later, human society has slipped into a semi-barbaric state. Understanding of the technology on the ship has been lost. Metamorphosis Alpha is about survival and regaining lost knowledge. This plays out in a way that feels very much like D&D – strange monsters, crude weapons, deadly combat, technology sufficiently advanced to seem as magic.

The ship, a 50-mile long by 25-mile wide egg, contains 17 levels filled with cities, villages, factory complexes, thick forests, rolling plains, mountains, even an ocean. In between those ecosystems, running through the floors and walls, are a warren of ducts, service tunnels and engine rooms. Players are left to explore the ship, hex by hex in the “wilderness” or square by square in the dungeons of the engineering sectors, all for material rewards.

Despite being ambitious and distinct, Metamorphosis Alpha faded from view rather quickly, perhaps because it was almost immediately overshadowed by Traveller. Outside of articles in Dragon Magazine, it never got additional official support, though it did inspire Expedition to Barrier Peaks and was the spiritual predecessor to Gamma World…