So there is a new edition of MA out this month - it's available here.
There is a free preview document here which sheds some light on the background and the system.
I was not a part of the kickstarter but I have read through the preview document and I have a few thoughts:
- First, I've always loved the concept of MA. The descendants inhabiting a lost generation ship is an awesome setting for a game and a step beyond the basic post-apocalyptic world in a lot of these swords & laser type of games. It's a game I always wanted to play or run but have never had the chance - Gamma World was our bread and butter for this kind of thing.
- Second - I really don't like that cover. It tells me nothing about the game and looks like it could be anything from a typical fantasy game to a stone age type of setting. Compare it to some of the old MA or GW covers and while it's more professional on the surface than some, it just doesn't convey anything about the game itself.
- Third, I've never heard of "System 26" before this but it looks a lot like the basics of the classic Shadowrun rules and that could be just fine. You have a variable number of dice (d6's) with a variable target number and each die is a success or failure - more successes = a better overall result.
Bonus thought: From the book itself:
"✇✇ “The Petting Zoo of Death” is an introductory
adventure for Metamorphosis Alpha. It offers a great
starting point to get a group of diverse characters
together and shows how scenarios are presented in
the game.
Yeah - that's a terrible name for the intro adventure too.Whatever seriousness is conveyed in the intro and background material flies right out the window upon reading that, and this is coming from a guy who was perfectly happy fighting Gallus-Gallus-13's in Famine in Far-Go years ago.
Despite the stylistic knocks I am more than a little interested. A classic setting with a ton of potential combined with a simple yet mechanically interesting system ... yes, I will probably pick it up at some point. The only thing holding me back at the moment is the giant backlog of RPG material I am reading through and the ever-present "when am I going to get to run this" conundrum. I'll work through those and let you know how the full game looks a little bit down the road.
