Generally I’ll be discussing individual RPGs rather than specific modules, but AD&D module S3 holds such an important position in RPG history that I think an exception is warranted. Particularly as it constitutes the “missing link” behind the two games I’ve discussed most recently, Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World. Ironically, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was originally conceived as a marketing tactic: in the spring of 1976, with TSR putting the finishing touches on Metamorphosis, Gary Gygax was pondering the problem of how best to introduce that science fiction game to the growing legions of D&D fans. MA creator James Ward had already game-mastered scenarios in which D&D parties were swept through rips in the space-time fabric to the world of the starship Warden; Gygax reversed this, conceiving of a tournament adventure in which science fiction came to the world of Greyhawk.

But in so doing, he needed something more accessible than Rob Kunz’ infamous “machine level” in Castle Greyhawk, where high-tech inventions vied with sorcery as part of what's probably the largest dungeon ever made. Trying to “productize” Greyhawk would have been a titanic undertaking; even now, more than thirty years later, only the merest fragment of Castle Greyhawk has reached the marketplace. Gygax was looking for something more manageable—a single adventure that could be played out in classic tournament fashion.

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The ink on Metamorphosis Alpha wasn’t even dry before Jim Ward was turning to Gamma World. The Warden was no longer an isolated catastrophe; the canvas had expanded—or rather, shifted—and the Earth that sent that ship forth had collapsed back into the dark ages. Savvy designer that he was, Ward extended our world’s timeline out from the present some two hundred years so as to allow for the wreckage of a shiny futuristic society rather than just some shabby mirror of our own.

Though it seemed familiar enough anyway. For us children of the cold war, nuclear destruction was always just around the corner, and Gamma World was well positioned to tap into a rich vein of cultural anxiety. But whereas books and movies about the apocalypse were a dime a dozen, it took science fiction to envision the aftermath amidst the ruins. Ward had plenty of choices for inspiration here; chief among these were Andre Norton’s enduring classic Star Man's Son and Brian Aldiss’ Hothouse (just as that latter writer’s Nonstop had influenced the predicament of the Warden). From these influences emerged something raw and savage, shot through with the same kind of mad zaniness that had pervaded Metamorphosis Alpha.

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Thanks to all who responded to my Traveller post—I’m looking forward to some good discussion on all our old RPG faves.  This week it’s time for Metamorphosis Alpha, now almost as steeped in legend as the hapless starship Warden itself. And of course a necessary topic before we can get to Gamma World. References to the Warden’s fate were scattered throughout the later portion of the Gamma World timeline, but me and my fellow gamers were a little too busy playing out Mad Max scenarios in the nuked remnants of the Arizona desert to worry too much about the fate of some spaceship 30 light years off.  

But if we thought we had it rough, it was nothing compared to what was going down on that ship.

This post is the first in a series dedicated to role-playing games. Old-school role-playing games.  Back when you had to, yanno, use pens and pencils.  And dice.

I know better than to start with Dungeons and Dragons. We need to work our way there in easy stages….

So why not kick things off with Traveller? Its 1977 publication established Marc Miller’s Game Designers’ Workshop as a force that even TSR would have to reckon with, particularly as the game quickly outgunned TSR’s own science fiction contender, Gamma World. Turns out that swashbuckling space opera resonated more than a scenario in which Earth had been microwaved and a bunch of mutants were left to fight over the scraps. One can speculate that perhaps in the Cold War throes of the 1970s/1980s, post-apocalyptic environments seemed a little too real. A dose of healthy escapism was in order.

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