Android Underlords full image

Here we can discuss James M. Ward's METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA game.

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Doug Kovacs
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Android Underlords full image

Post by Doug Kovacs »

here is the full Image showing the parts covered by the title banner:

http://dougkovacs.com/dkblog/?p=1193&preview=true
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Post by DCCfan »

Linking the covers together is a cool idea. Was there an inspiration for that or did the thought just pop in your head one day?
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Re: Android Underlords full image

Post by JonHook »

I can't wait to see the full panoramic view of all of the covers.
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Post by Doug Kovacs »

Unfortunately I might be wrong about the linked images now due to kick starter issues. It was the original plan anyhow.
I'm not involved enough with the actual kick-starter on the ground to expand on that, I just know it might not happen now.
Last edited by Doug Kovacs on Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Raven_Crowking »

I hope it does. Doug, your art rocks any way you slice it!
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Post by Doug Kovacs »

Thanks again Daniel. Regardless of how the screen pans out I know I have a decent amount of MA art ahead of me at this point, and I already know it will be cool to work on. MA was an almost a mythical game to me as a kid, being more of the Gamma World generation.
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Post by Raven_Crowking »

Doug Kovacs wrote:Thanks again Daniel. Regardless of how the screen pans out I know I have a decent amount of MA art ahead of me at this point, and I already know it will be cool to work on. MA was an almost a mythical game to me as a kid, being more of the Gamma World generation.
Doug, you are very welcome. And thank you for producing so many amazing images!

I am in the same boat as you. I started gaming Christmas day 1979, and Gamma World was the second rpg I played. All I really know about MA came from articles in The Dragon.....but I look forward to seeing the real deal in print!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Post by OttawaTom »

Raven_Crowking wrote:
Doug Kovacs wrote:Thanks again Daniel. Regardless of how the screen pans out I know I have a decent amount of MA art ahead of me at this point, and I already know it will be cool to work on. MA was an almost a mythical game to me as a kid, being more of the Gamma World generation.
Doug, you are very welcome. And thank you for producing so many amazing images!

I am in the same boat as you. I started gaming Christmas day 1979, and Gamma World was the second rpg I played. All I really know about MA came from articles in The Dragon.....but I look forward to seeing the real deal in print!
Count me to this little club, as MA was always this mythical game to me through my young geek life. Maybe we have some sort of name for ourselves.
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Post by JonHook »

Yes. I too am of the Gamma World era, and at the time, I just assumed that Metamorphosis Alpha was just a pre-cursor to GW. I had no idea until this deluxe edition by Goodman Games that MA was a whole other mutant animal. ;)
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Post by finarvyn »

JonHook wrote:Yes. I too am of the Gamma World era, and at the time, I just assumed that Metamorphosis Alpha was just a pre-cursor to GW. I had no idea until this deluxe edition by Goodman Games that MA was a whole other mutant animal. ;)
Yeah, Metamorphosis Alpha was its own thing long before Gamma World. In fact, I hardly ever played Gamma World because it seemed too much like Metamorphosis Alpha and I didn't see the need to switch. Maybe that was the first instance of "edition wars" ever?
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Post by Doug Kovacs »

My older brother and I actually played it from photocopies of just one article from what I think was a Best of Dragon Magazine. I always thought the main concept of the game was that you played a clone coming out of a bank and had to figure out what the hell was going on. Only later did I learn about the whole mutant tribe thing. I always liked the idea, to this day , of starting a game with almost no information about the world and very meager physical resources. It is sort of like what I think happens in a truly good film or in literature be it fantasy/ sci-fi or not. When you get this feeling anything can happen.
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Post by finarvyn »

Doug Kovacs wrote:My older brother and I actually played it from photocopies of just one article from what I think was a Best of Dragon Magazine. I always thought the main concept of the game was that you played a clone coming out of a bank and had to figure out what the hell was going on. Only later did I learn about the whole mutant tribe thing. I always liked the idea, to this day , of starting a game with almost no information about the world and very meager physical resources. It is sort of like what I think happens in a truly good film or in literature be it fantasy/ sci-fi or not. When you get this feeling anything can happen.
This is the "alternate" beginning sequence, and it was an article (not by Jim) in Dragon magazine back in the day.

It's still my favorite starting point for new players. I call it the "Strange World" adventure so that they don't associate anything they might have heard about Metamorphosis Alpha into the campaign. The wonder of starting with no knowledge and exploring the ship is something that you can only really do well if players don't know anything about the Warden.
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Post by darjr »

I'm working on another alternative starting point. One that initially will surprise the players when they mutate. The players are in a small spacecraft when they crash into the warden. They need to find parts to repair their ship in order to leave. Or take over the warden and navigate it.
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Post by finarvyn »

darjr wrote:I'm working on another alternative starting point. One that initially will surprise the players when they mutate. The players are in a small spacecraft when they crash into the warden. They need to find parts to repair their ship in order to leave. Or take over the warden and navigate it.
Very cool! Sounds like an awesome way to bring characters on board! 8)
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Post by Mad Mage »

I did this once in my old Gamma World campaign: the players stumbled across an ancient transmit machine left by the aliens who (in some MA scenarios) has already attacked the Warden. A few missed artifact checks later the group went from a forested mountain range to a tropical jungle surrounded by mountains. It was a good 6-8 months of play before they realized they were on a colony ship instead of just somewhere else on Terra Gamma. Some of the players actually retired their characters there and never went back (though some of their progeny did).

The day they figured it out was a GOOD game :mrgreen:
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Post by finarvyn »

That sounds awesome, Jim! I'd have loved to be there to see their expressions when it dawned on them what you had done to them! :D
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Post by Cthulhuoid »

Brilliant - down to all the little details - love the little lurkers in the conduits that due to some hapless encounter now own a skull... :D
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Post by henis »

So now that the projects been funded, is it still possible that the pictures will be linked? Or maybe even linked as gm screen?
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