Saturday, January 3, 2026
MA 50
Sometime this year – people better informed than I will know the precise date – James M. Ward's Metamorphosis Alpha will celebrate its 50th anniversary, the original having been released in 1976. Since I'm currently refereeing a campaign using these venerable science fiction RPG rules, I've been spending a lot of time online looking for additional resources to expand and enhance them. During one of these deep dives, I discovered a piece of news from March of last year that I somehow overlooked:
Catalyst Roleplaying Games is proud to announce that we are working with Para Bellum Consulting for a special 50th anniversary release of Metamorphosis Alpha, an enduring classic of science-fiction roleplaying. This edition will honor the spirit and ingenuity of the original edition while offering exciting updates, including modernized gameplay and greatly expanded plot options.
The announcement doesn't give a release date or indeed provide much information of any sort beyond the usual marketing spiel one expects from such things. Even so, I'm intrigued. A few years ago, Goodman Games did, I think, a superb job of supporting the original Metamorphosis Alpha with new material, some of which I plan to incorporate into my campaign. From the sounds of it, Catalyst is creating an entirely new game, which isn't quite as exciting to me, but who knows? Maybe their "honor[ing] the spirit and ingenuity of the original edition" will be more than just empty words.
If anyone knows any more about this new version of MA, please let me know in the comments.
8 comments:
I can't speak for the Catalyst project, James, but have you seen this?:
Reply Deletehttps://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/342954/the-starship-warden
I have not. I'm aware of its existence, but that's it.
DeleteIt's pretty good. Encyclopedic.
DeleteVery minable for a campaign.
MA has had many editions, revisions and reprinting its frankly quite confusing and has to be intimidating to new players. I think Goodman Games and Troll Lords did a good job with ambitious massively mapped supplements like Goodman’s Epsilon City and TLG’s The Star Ship Dungeon. Sci-fi Megadungeons never really have caught on and these are both fine examples of this neglected sub genre.
Reply DeleteI am currently running a 1E MA campaign though instead of the Warden it is based in a ship largely modelled on the one from The Starlost TV series of the 1970s.
Reply DeleteIt would be nice if there was a one stop shop for all of the MA material. DriveThruRPG pulled everything shortly after Mr. Ward passed away.
Reply DeleteIf they make Shadowdark, OSE, or 5e Metamorphosis Alpha, I'm in!
Reply DeleteAll of the rules systems you listed use class leveling as a form of PC progression. The problem is MA, as conceived does not have that at as an intentional design choice. I guess we will see what Caralyst comes up with.
Delete