Morrow Project what?

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by PeterAmthor at 2005-03-24 20:51:44
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"The Morrow Project and Phoenix Command were the archetypical antisocial roleplaying games. Frankly, choosing almost any game that has a hundred pages of combat rules and more than one hit location chart, but only ten pages on non-combat roleplaying, makes it a pretty good bet that the enthusiastic player is antisocial."

Um, this kinda got me. Morrow Project isn't even a hundred pages total, actually 66 pages with about 6 or 7 in the little additional rules in the third edition. It is mechanics heavy a bit in some areas but based on the time when it came out that was normal. The actual combat rules are ten pages long, most of the space is taken up by equipment lists and info on the state of the post apoc world.

The supplements for the game are pretty much an adventure complete with NPC's, how they will interact with the players, info they will tell, etc. Usually a couple of pages of new gear tossed in the back.

Also you list a antisocial roleplayer as....

"They have no social boundaries, and few personal "stops" built into their psyches. These are the people who kill ruthlessly, steal without guilt, and (God help us all) rape with abandon. They aren't "playing their character" or "just being true to the genre"; they do it simply for lack of anything better to do, and in some cases out of pure enjoyment."

I've been playing Morrow for quite a while. I'm on the yahoo groups and listservs for it to this day. This is, by far, not the way I would define the majority of people that I have met and played with in this game. By definition of the setting you play the good guys trying to rebuild society. Most people get that and play by those ideas.

Normally I agree quite a bit with you on your columns here but I have to say it sounds like you pulled a game name out of the hat on this one.

Just my two cents...

...liked the rest of the article quite a bit though.

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Post originally by Ross Winn at 2005-03-25 08:28:07
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When I played the game, and Phoenix Command in the eighties this was very true. I have also generally found it to be true in my world. If yours is different, so be it.

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Post originally by PeterAmthor at 2005-03-26 01:24:18
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Well I half asleep when I made that post. But the way some people run a game in some areas usually does tend to be different than other areas. Around here the people like you were referring to all played Twilight 2000. Also Morrow is one of those games that I leap to defend since it has a soft spot in my heart.

Although I will that of the groups that still run it now days don't attract many of the antisocial gamers. But then again I don't see gamers like that going after older games like the Morrow Project nowdays. They have plenty of other games to kill things in that offer up more interesting ways to do it.

But I will still stick by my claim that there aren't a hundred pages of combat rules. With the exception of the over detailed hit point by location chart the combat rules were fairly simple.

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Post originally by Ross Winn at 2005-03-27 18:55:32
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yes but few other game systems have a non combat skill systems published as a seperate product.

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Post originally by Ross Winn at 2005-03-27 18:56:49
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and please do not think that I do not love MP. I do. I just see the capability for abuse.

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Post originally by Gary at 2005-04-02 10:30:53
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I'm just going to spew a bit. Stand back.

TMP was published a long time ago. I tend to think of it as a "first generation RPG" for many reasons. The primary reason I feel that way is that it, like 1st edition AD&D, had no skill system built in. Characters could (try to) do pretty much anything that they wanted to.

With the addition of the BRPG skill rules, Morrow Project was given a skill system. I seem to remember it being released along with the GM screen. The group I was with utilized it for one of the earliest MP games that I'd played, but I don't remember caring much. At the time, skills and character flexibility weren't important. While I find that this is a flaw by "modern" standards, I didn't have the same sorts of preferences then (when I was 13) that I do now (being that I'm nearly 32, a husband, father, and living on my own). The lack of a skill system didn't bother me; I didn't know any better.

I eventually grew up and away from that play group, but I always had a love for The Morrow Project. I eventually hunted down the company that produced the game, Timeline Ltd, and I saved my pennies for weeks so that I could order one of every product they produced for the game.

I loved the setting. I still do love the concept, overall. It was my first stab at creating a world that was unique to my game table. Sitting down for hours and detailing radiation zones in an old AAA map book and defining the borders of small kingdoms that had sprung up in the apocalyptic world consumed a lot of my time. Long story short, I didn't like the skill rules. Being an unabashed kit-basher, I adapted the skill system from WEG's "Price of Freedom."

I don't agree with the comparison of TMP with Phoenix Command. Nor do I think that people who play Phoenix Command are particularly antisocial, though your experiences may differ. In my limited experience, the folks who like PC were wargamers with a good head for math, not amoral gamers who just wanted to blow people away. I think the statement was too broadly-painted in your article.

Then again, how often do you and I totally agree on anything, Ross?

Hakuna matata. I need to roust my wife out of bed. We've got company coming soon.

Gary