Warden Adventures presents eight adventures for Metamorphosis Alpha, all written by the designer of the roleplaying game, James M. Ward. Each is accorded a two-page spread and each comes with an explanation of its story, its situation, and essentially what is its development. This is typically accompanied by a map and whatever stats are necessary. They are designed to be placed anywhere on the Starship Warden—though some are connected to Epsilon City and thus to the Epsilon City boxed set—and whilst some can played in a single session or encounter, some may well take longer than that to explore or deal with the issue or threat at hand.
‘Adventure Two: Security At Its Best’ actually presents the Player Characters with a problem and so something that they can obviously act against. Explorers have long known about the swarms of exploding flying bots to found at the crossroads in one of the built areas on the level of Starship Warden, and these bots have become a threat to anyone nearby. Numerous attempts have been made to destroy the swarms, but the bots always keep coming back. Where do they come from and what is it that they protecting? This is primarily a big combat encounter combined with exploration once the swarms have been dealt with, so the Player Characters will definitely need to come armed for more than bear.
‘Adventure Three: Sanpetra Rift’ describes a nasty creature which makes hit and run attacks out of the darkness and can track its quarry for miles. The Player Characters may never actually encounter it (enabling the Game Master to save it for later), but when they come across a seemingly abandoned raft curiosity is likely to get the better of them. There is plenty to be found here, all of it interesting, but not all of it safe. There is fun here though, for the Game Master who has an interesting NPC to roleplay, an engineer recently unfrozen from cryo-sleep, and not happy to be in his current situation. There are plenty of details here which the Game Master can develop further depending upon what her Player Characters decided to do.
‘Adventure Four: Willow Tree’ describes the Metamorphosis Alpha version of the deadly willow tree which has formed a symbiotic relationship with a bear mutant which inhabits the adjacent swamp. Metal can be seen the lake, so that may mean artefacts—and of course, the Player Characters always want and need more artefacts. However, they will find themselves assailed from above by the tree and from below as the swamp seems to rise up and attack them! This is a messy encounter that has a mucky, fetid feel.
‘Adventure Five: The Ultimate Boss’ confronts the Player Characters with a ‘holy knight’ who prevents them from entering into Epsilon City. Scketre stands tall, sometimes flanked by a pair of stalwart spearmen, in front of a portal—hung with Wolfoid pelts—through which can be smelled fresh food dispensers and beyond that seen a park of strange trees. He will challenge anyone who attempts to pass through the portal, but will be distracted by the nearby Wolfoid packs who send their warriors out to face him in a rite of passage. However, Scketre can be engaged in conversation and reasoned with, so clever Player Characters may be able to take advantage of him, which will take good roleplaying upon the part of the Game Master.
‘Adventure Six: Encounter Among The Trees’ is the third of three scenarios involving trees in Warden Adventures. Perhaps the Player Characters are attracted by the strange piles under the canopies of the five Mutated Australian Baobab Trees, but when they go to investigate, they are attacked. It does not amount to much more than that and so is the least interesting of the eight scenarios in the anthology.
The Player Characters encounter another big android-type in ‘Adventure Seven: Clowny The Android Clown’, this as the title suggests, a clown android! Standing at an entrance to Epsilon City, he only wants to make everyone he meets happy and is particularly militant about it. Wolfoids are another matter, since they seem to lack a sense of humour, but if the Player Characters are prepared to take a joke and have a laugh, then they will be rewarded. Of course, there is the loot that Clowny has taken from the unreceptive Wolfoids to grabbed if Clowny can be dealt with. He is a tough old clown, even ready to turn ‘killer clown’, and even if the Player Characters do defeat him, there are problems with the loot they find.
The last entry in the anthology is ‘Adventure Eight: Erector Pit’. This details a bacterial research lab, which of course, was drastically affected when the Starship Warden passed through the radiation cloud which caused the ship-wide breakdown. Trapped within its walls is a nasty, intelligent virus which is looking to escape. This is nicely described and quickly turns into a locked room filled with blind panic.
Physically, Warden Adventures is cleanly presented. The maps are clear and simple, the illustrations decently done, and lastly, it includes some sample character sheets for Human, Mutant, and Robot type characters. As a collection, Warden Adventures does feel as if involves one too many trees, but the anthology includes a good mix of horror and combat encounters as well as some roleplaying. The adventures are all easy to use and place (especially if the Game Master has access to Epsilon City boxed set) and would even work for other post-apocalypse set roleplaying games like Mutant Crawl Classics.
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