This last Saturday I went to another public gaming event in a local public library here in Rio de Janeiro. This time I took
Metamorphosis Alpha first edition for a spin and presented it to local players who, mostly, had never heard of it (we never had it released in Brazil, so that's expected).
I began by presenting the game and it's historical roots, as the first science fiction RPG and the first RPG to refer itself as one. I told how James Ward suggested Gary the creation of a Sci-Fi version of D&D and how Gygax said to him: "why don't you give it a try?". Even though one of the great things about the gameplay is not knowing the players are in a spaceship, I explained them the premise of the setting, and they thought it to be pretty interesting, specially when I talked about the adventure, The Captain's Table and the belief system it implies. The original crew, the Captain, the Engineer, the Geneticist and all others are now the Gods of the their people.
When we started the game, I had 3 players, so I asked them to pick up two characters each, one mutant and one human. Along the game, two more players joined in, so
I ended up with a party of 10 characters (so I had plenty of targets to kill along the way). Some of the players were more familiar with modern games and find it strange to play with more than one character at the same time, so I explained them it allows for group splits, more freedom, and the chance to continue playing even if one of their character dies. Since this game was particular deadly, this would be very useful, I assured them.