Metamorphosis Alpha Leadership Potential

 Leadership Potential

Metamorphosis Alpha uses Leadership Potential for what D&D and Gamma World call Charisma.

When creating a character Leadership Potential is only available to Pure Strain Humans “ A player choosing to be a mutation, whether humanoid or monster-like, has the just 5 abilities (but no leadership potential)”.

In addition should the human become a mutant “ If this instance occurs in a  human, his leadership potential is negated and his followers will at first feet uneasy around him and later leave no matter what he does. Also if there is damage done by radiation, there is a 1% chance per die of damage received for a mutation to take place. This mutation will show itself within 1 week’s time.”

The following is the rules as written description of this ability stat:

E. LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL:

This leadership factor is used not only to see how many men will follow a person, but to determine if other creatures (mutations) will follow him. The leadership potential is usually given to humans of pure strain because a feeling of distrust is so developed in nonhumans of any type that it takes a human (and a human’s innate desire for control) to be able to command the respect of a nonhuman being. When dealing with a mutated human, because of the change in him, he is too close to the “creature” and not close enough to the “human” to have this leadership potential.

LEADERSHIP

POTENTIAL

18 25% chance a friendly mutated being will follow

45% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 12 maximum followers of the human type

17 20% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 30% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 10 maximum followers of the human

16 15% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 15% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 6 maximum followers of the human type

15 5% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 10% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 5 maximum followers of the human type

14-12 0% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 5% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 4 maximum followers of the human type

11-8 0% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 0% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 3 maximum followers of the human type

7-5 0% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 0% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 2 maximum followers of the human type

4-3 0% chance a friendly mutated being will follow 0% chance a friendly mutated human will follow 1 maximum follower of the human type

Note: a player may not give up a mutated follower of any type just to get another mutated follower that they think might be better. Any follower they get stays until death or the follower decides to leave. It this decision is forced on the part of the master it may result in a revenge-type move on the part of the follower.

Example of Player Trying to Get a Follower:

Scar-lock has a leadership potential of 17 and he approaches a humanoid type number 1 from the mutant charts and is able to talk with it by using the ancient tongue Scar-lock has learned from the shaman of his village. He offers this small man a slug ejector Scar-lock found in a non- forested area. The judge roll

the percentile dice with Scar-lock needing from 1-40 (a bonus of 10 is given because of the generous offer of a slug projector) for the little man to accept and a 99 is rolled, which tells the judge that the humanoid is not impressed one bit Well, the humanoid tries to use his blow gun on our hero and Scar-lock puts 3 slugs in him incapacitating him for 9 hours (“Serves the little beggar right!” says Scar-lock). A little while later, our hero meets another of these humanoids and this time knowing that they do not seem to be impressed by slug ejectors and not wanting a poisoned blow gun dart in the guts, Scar-lock offers the little chap his duralloy shield (again gain a bonus of 10 for a generous offer) and the judge rolls a 06 and our man Scar-lock has himself a bodyguard.

(A Character’s ability to understand ancient technology in the rules as written used the Leadership Potential score and not the Mental Resistance, however in Dragon Magazine March Vol 1 #5 circa 1977 James M. Ward wrote “ It should be obvious that the abilities given everyone, including Strength, Dexterity, and Leadership Potential, are all closely tied to the D&D abilities. The Mental Resistance factor is roughly analogous to the Intelligence factor in D&D and because of this, it instead of the Character Leadership Potential should be used when the judge uses the Item Complexity Level chart.” This makes more sense than the rules as written and opens up the possibility of the animal and human mutants being able to understand ancient technology. In another post I will look at how this chart is used.)

A roll equal to or greater than the number listed means the item has been understood by the character. He now can use the item. This roll should be made once a week until the use of the item is learned or the item is lost.

If the dice roll is less than the listed number, the item has a chance of harming or killing the handier or somebody standing nearby.

Gamma World 

(One obvious difference between Metamorphosis Alpha is all PCs have a Charisma score. In addition all types of PCs can also have followers not just Pure Strain Humans. By the time Gamma World is printed they add in a reaction mechanic for all PC types, this mechanic comes from D&D’s Men & Magic rule book. The use of D&D rules to resolve rule questions in games like Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World was a pretty common solution used by referees as I remember it.)

CHARISMA

This trait reflects a being’s leadership ability, through physical appearance, personality, magnetism, persuasiveness, willpower, etc. Pure Strain Humans, as explained earlier, possess an unusually high charisma, and many times will wind up being group leaders, spokesmen, and so on. This factor may be used by the referee during encounters between player characters and other inhabitants of GAMMA WORLD to determine the reactions of both parties. For example, a group of GAMMA WORLD adventurers, lost in the wilderness, encounters a small group of nomadic tribesmen. If Uruk of Meresmire (charisma 4) asks for directions, the referee should allow only a very small chance that the tribesmen will help (at least in a favorable manner...a good referee might allow the tribesmen to direct the adventurers to a nearby swamp or a similar unpleasant locale). On the other hand, if Artur Pendragon (charisma 17) asks, the tribesmen will probably help if they can. When non-player characters or creatures are encountered, two dice (2d6) are rolled and the following table is consulted:

REACTION TABLE

*No further attempt may be made to entice, hire, or otherwise interact with the being.

Offers of money, weapons, food, artifacts, etc., may influence the die roll, adding or subtracting points to/from the total before consulting the REACTION TABLE. The referee should judge whether the offer even warrants a plus or minus. Such plusses and minuses should normally be limited to 1 point, although some cir¬ cumstances may warrant increasing it to 2 points. If, for example, a gren (a creature which dislikes ancient technological devices) is offered a “music box” (a portable tape player) the player should receive a reaction penalty of -1; whereas an offer of a bale of synthetic clothing to a yexii (see CREATURES) would probably give the player a reaction bonus of + 2.

A player’s charisma also affects the reaction die roll, as well as the maximum number of followers a player may have and their morale rating (for an explanation of morale, see MORALE). These effects are noted on the CHARISMA table below:

CHARISMA TABLE

NOTE: Followers are non-player characters who serve the player out of loyalty rather than for pay. Non-player characters who serve for pay are known as hirelings or henchmen . There is no limit to the number of hirelings a player may have. (Also see NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS).

The CHARISMA TABLE assumes two things: that the player can communicate with the non-player character or creature, and that both parties are of the same type (Pure Strain Human, humanoid, or mutated animal). The referee will judge whether communication is possible. If the player and non player characters are of different types use the following table:

CHARISMA TABLE MODIFIERS

The three numbers (#/#/#) indicate the modifications to the three columns of the CHARISMA TABLE (Maximum Number of Fol¬ lowers/Morale Adjustment/Reaction Adjustment).

D&D Men & Magic

I already pointed out the reaction table in Gamma World is from Men & Magic and as D&D is the oldest game of the three I will consider this was a mechanic in use in Metamorphosis Alpha via Starship Masters simply knowing D&D. In the below information you will see slight differences between Gamma World and original D&D. 

Some more from D&D Men & Magic

Charisma is a combination of appearance, personality, and so forth. Its primary function is to determine how many hirelings of unusual nature a character can attract. This is not to say that he cannot hire men-at-arms and employ mercen- aries, but the charisma function will affect loyalty of even these men. Players will, in all probability, seek to hire Fighting-Men, Magic-Users, and/or Clerics in order to strengthen their roles in the campaign. A player-character can employ only as many as indicated by his charisma score:

In addition the charisma score is usable to decide such things as whether or not a witch capturing a player will turn him into a swine or keep him enchanted as a lover.

Finally, the charisma will aid a character in attracting various monsters to his service.

Capture of Non-Player Monsters: Morale dice can cause a man or intelligent mon- ster to attempt to surrender or become subdued. When this happens an offer of service can be made (assuming that communication is possible) as outlined above. Subdued monsters will obey for a time without need to check their reactions, and such monsters are saleable (see Volume II).

Loyalty of Non-Player Characters (Including Monsters): Men, dwarves and elves will serve as retainers with relative loyalty so long they receive their pay regu- larly, are treated fairly, are not continually exposed to extra-hazardous duty, and receive bonuses when they are taking part in some dangerous venture. Judgement of this matter is perforce subjective on the part of the campaign referee, but there is a simple guideline: When one or more of such characters are taken into service a loyalty check is made by rolling three-six-sided dice. Adjustments are made for charisma and initial payments for service, and the loyalty of the character(s) noted by the referee. (The player will not have any knowledge of what it is with- out some method of reading minds.)

Loyalty Score

Non-player characters and men-at-arms will have to make morale checks (using the above reaction table or "Chainmail") whenever a highly dangerous or un-nerving situation arises. Poor morale will mean that those in question will not perform as expected.

Periodic re-checks of loyalty should be made. Length of service, rewards, etc. will bring additional plusses. Poor treatment will bring minuses.

More notes from me: I hope folks are finding this interesting.  Metamorphosis Alpha was a game that grew out a conversation between Gary Gygax and James M. Ward over the idea that there should be a SciFi RPG or rather version of D&D. Gamma World came into existence because of letters from Metamorphosis Alpha players who wanted the game on a planetary scale. Once Gamma World was rolled out TSR stopped publishing Metamorphosis Alpha at the time. Later it would return but in different forms.  Gamma World 1e in my opinion should be looked upon as the 2E version of an expanded and more thoroughly play tested Metamorphosis Alpha, and is a good resource to expand and solve rule issues in MA. 

More to come as we explore how to play this game and decisions a referee may face in playing this game.