"Morrow Project" Topic

One hundred and fifty years after the fall of civilization, the members of the Morrow Project wake to a changed world. Without the modern transit and communications infrastructures, distances that once took hours, now take weeks, and news that once traveled in milliseconds now takes months to arrive, if ever. This new world is characterized by tiny hamlets of simple daily existence awash in a sea of barbarism and anarchy.

The Morrow Project could not prevent the coming catastrophe, nor did they have the resources to help everyone immediately. It was possible to help with the rebuilding, but even this was a massive undertaking. Plan became action and over the years many well-trained teams were cryogenically frozen in hidden bunkers to emerge at the time when their resources and help could do the most good.

Intended to be part of an organized plan to re-build America, your team finds that they have missed the 3-5 year expected wake-up call. Now, far outside the original time frame and unable to contact the rest of the project, they must start alone the process that was intended for thousands.

Isolated in a world where the war is only a distant legend, your team must rely on their ingenuity, training and each other to carry out the general orders of the project:
1. Assist the population in rebuilding America whenever possible.
2. Reunite with the bulk of the Morrow Project forces.
3. Survive!

(clipped from the MPed4 title bar)

*****

If you never played it, then you are in good company. It is one of those RPGs that while a small mark in the footnotes of gaming it is an important one.

Fans of the game are fans for life…holding it above all others…well some do.

It is a simple idea…take people from a current (the original was in the 1980's) time with special skills, education, and training…freeze them…leave a bunch of equipment, vehicles, supplies, weapons, etc. all in an effort to be the voice of reason, the go to guys, and the big red button of hope in a potentially red hot future that was nuked into the stone age.

Well it was a fairly hard science endeavor that gave birth to many interesting ideas, vehicles, plans of action, etc.

The most current edition, 4th, is a few years behind schedule and the main site has not been updated in a while…so in game speak "at least we have the older versions".

*****

Why bring this game up?

It offers a counter point to the new Gamma World that has been in conversation lately.

For those who prefer their ruined future post apocalyptic gaming with less gonzo mutants, rampaging androids, and such…this game has quite a bit to offer.

It does need some new additions, which some of the active fan links are keeping up with…micro computers, solar rechargeable high tech batteries, cel technology, etc.

But if you were looking for a game to inspire a different direction, then here is a good place to start.

timelineltd.com/index.htm

*****

The idea is fairly simple…before the bad times start, a secret plan of support is established worldwide by a few deep thinkers with deep pockets…hand pick a couple special people, train them, prepare them, freeze them, leave lots of stuff, and lock the door…then as the GM create the ruined Earth of your choice…allow the time to pass as you choose…wake them up and open the doors.

You want zombies, add them. If you don't then don't.

Same goes for mutations, aliens, mohawk rape gangs, etc.

*****

Most Morrow Project games that I played in were basically characters straight out of modern military, scientific community (governmental types not the hippie tree huggers :), and engineers (again government types)…and the ruined Earth was usually a mirror of the most recent movie that made any sense.

So we had the Mad Max versions, Day of the Triffids (after a reading assignment in High School we watched an old movie), Blood of Heroes, and yes even the far fetched Planet of the Apes (one of our best games to be truthful).

Now that said, we also took the low road…forget any real potential and insert science fantasy…Gamma World was a common choice.

…or just plain fantasy…the project group has been transported into a middle earth or D&D setting.

*****

So there you have it…enjoy if you and not seen it before and if you have then welcome the warm memories or throw rocks which ever best fits your preference.

Cheers

the project group has been transported into a middle earth or D&D setting.

I thought that's what Sword of Shannara was about…
I really enjoyed MP. While my friend was reading the rules and doing prep work, I did the map. It was a sad Moment when 10 of my random missile hits pretty much took out Texas from the Gulf to Oklahoma.

As a Floridian geologically trapped here in Texas…you make it sound like it would be a bad thing "when 10 of my random missile hits pretty much took out Texas from the Gulf to Oklahoma" :)

Yeah, TMP was the first post-apoc RPG to have realistic radiation rules (you get sick, you die), VERY realistic combat rules (you get shot, you probably die), and a chart showing confirmed Soviet missile targets and what happens to them when they get hit (everybody dies).

Was very different in tone from Gamma World or Aftermath.

Every once in a while I run a Morrow Project game using GURPS….

Actually I preferred Twilight 2000 to the Morrow project. But we did discuss tossing out the clunky rules and use the idea with Twilights rules.

We did play both with Hero as the rule set.

Currently I prefer Savage Worlds as a game, as it has a very low GM overhead as compared to the previous games.

But, I too prefer a kinda grittier Post Apocalypse than GammaWorld.

GammaWorld is… Well GammaWorld, like so many TSR games, no staying power.

Yes I should have been more clear…I was expressing the value Morrow Project as a concept not the system in particular.

Take the same idea and use with whatever system you prefer.

:)

GammaWorld is… Well GammaWorld, like so many TSR games, no staying power.

Yea, Gamma World is only on it's sixth edition.

No staying power at all.

I loved the 'discretionary missiles' you got (the rules listed a number of targets that would get pasted, and by what, in the nuclear exchange, and then gave you several more weapons to sprinkle where you wanted -- the idea was that these were the ones that went off course due to rising radiation effects and so on…)

I put a megaton warhead down on elizabeth city, NC, where I'd gotten a speeding ticket, plus two more missiles (MIRVS) on the base I was stationed at (Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, also in North Carolina).

The big nuke did its job, but the two on MCAS Cherry Point both failed. One landed offshore about 20 miles, so no great loss of life from that one thanks to the barrier island, the other was a dud that broke up on impact (granted, it did land right where it was supposed to, at the intersection of the two runways, close enough to kill both air wing headquarters). Good times… I still have my Morrow project stuff.

Inari, I meant that in the Campaign sense, GammaWorld is a lot like Toon and Teenagers from Outspace, fun amusing for one offs. But problematic for longer multi session games.

As I say this I must admit the various Long Term Traveller games I have been in cheap comedy is generally the rule. But general that results when the GM allows us to spend too much time in Jump space durning the game session.

It just is silly games don't tend last for campaigns. And unfortunately GammaWorld is silly.

Sorry that was ment to be tounge in cheek. I do agree with you as I am a big fan of Paranoia.

Wow, blast from the past! I still have my Morrow Project stuff, great source materials and post-apocalyptic campaign ideas. What I always thought was well done was the more realistic, gritty nature of MP vs Gamma World, Aftermath and other post-apoc settings I've seen. You could easily see Morrow Project meets Book of Eli, The Road, etc. depending on how long the tubes stay shut. IIRC the idea of the MP was that shortly after the Event the teams would come out of hibernation to help with the immediate aftermath -- but the Event scrambled their clocks and they came out randomly many years later. So it lets you as the GM run an immediate post-apocalypse game, or something hundreds or even thousands of years in the future.

The Chronicles of Scar series would be an interesting setting. Its a post-apocalyptic setting hundreds of years on (natural catastrophe) set in the Southeast US (Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, etc.) in a feudal tech setting. There's a bit of weirdness -- some psionics and some bio-engineered dinos from a 21st dino-park that have bred and roam here and there, but other than a tribe with Hypertrichosis that causes fur growth not a lot of fantasy.

epiphyte.net/SF/scar.html

link

Gamma World is only on it's sixth edition.

Only if you count releases under that name specifically. Two more treatments (from TSR and Paizo/WotC) push the current edition to either 7th or 8th, and WotC came really close to doing another under D20 Modern.

This doesn't count the multiple attempts at Metamorphosis Alpha, either.

I just wrapped up my Morrow game- I moved the war date tolate 1990s so that I could give them slightlymore modern equipment. I also used the Hero game system for the characters etc.

They went from waking up to Operation Damocles to slowly peeling back the onion of what happened. Eventually they got the Isle Royale Regional HQs online (along with the secondary command crew unfrozen), proceeded to be sent out of their AO to Chicago (ask what happens when you lure a blue undead into the SOF compound at OHare and they hit the TMP team with Javelins), then to fight the first Krell attack and thent o take on the Kentucky Free State.

After that Isle Royale sent them to Houston to activate the TMP commo satellite hiding out in deep space. Fromt their into the West where they found the 6th Great Lake, saved an Indian princess, found the TMP power station and rescued another regional commander who knew the location to Prime Base.

Off to Prime they went where they fell into a trap laid by The Burned Man tribe (my own adventure where people for the Burning Man Festival stayed at Black Rock setting up their own peculiar community which included cannibalism). They found and helped reactivate Prime.

The campaign ended with the team being sent to Seattle where they stumbled on a fully loaded nuclear sub with 47 warheads still on it. They put up a valiant fight against Krell and decided to detonate a warhead to detroy the stockpile and deny Krell these weapons. The entire team went out in grand fashion.

***********

If you get into Morrow I highly recommend this site for ideas, scenarios, etc.

link

Of all the post apoc rpgs I ever played I always preferred Thundarr the most.

Gamma World is a bit silly but it remains one of the longest campaigns I've ever run… probably more to do with our group and what we brought to the game vs. what came in the box.
Going off the cover box art we had a secret base of survivors, coming up for air, meeting the mutants… exploring and rebuilding… fighting off the alien invaders who were the real culprits behind the devastation. PCs representing any/all the various forces.
Just because the rules are kitchen sink doesn't mean the game can't make any sense or have long-term goals for the PCs.

If I were doing GW nowadays I'd be tempted to do it as Rifts crossed with 40K… a technologically sophisticated planet brought down by Chaos incursions and cut off by warp storms… similar to a futuristic version of the WHFRP setting. Probably use those rules, or BRP, too.

I'm less familiar with The Morrow Project but the concept of re-awakened teams reminds me a bit of the Living Steel setting… which would also be fun to run as a mash-up with a sci-fi setting like Traveller… frontier world fallen to self-destruction/alien invasion.

I remember playing MP in high school. One of our first encounters was an attack by a group of "knights" wearing armour made of old tractor parts. You could still read John Deer and Massey-Ferguson on the breast plates.

David S.

"Off to Prime they went where they fell into a trap laid by The Burned Man tribe (my own adventure where people for the Burning Man Festival stayed at Black Rock setting up their own peculiar community which included cannibalism)"

Oh dear god…cannibalistic hippies…pretty much near the top of my "to avoid" list…I would provide head shots to regular hippies, much less the cannibal types…nightmarish stuff there…rather have to face zombies, they at least smell better.

Now… don't be picking on the hippies… most of them are vegetarian (or at least claim to be)… easily distracted by Snicker bars… easily avoided because you can smell the patchouli oil and various other 'herbs'.

I liked reading and fooling around with the rules. As for a coherent game system….blah. Mind you a lot of time has passed and I'm probably a lot less tolerant.

I played Morrow Project in high school. Always enjoyed the game, but I also had a guy who was a GREAT game master at whatever we played.

What happened to you Lou?

I was looking through some old notes (1980's) and came across one that I never finished but seems interesting and relevant…take all that Morrow Project offered, the resources and people frozen in time prepared to offer support for the reconstruction…then instead of a crew of 4-8 make it 4,000-8,000, with a full base, fleet of specialty vehicles, and supplies.

Then in game setting the vault doors open (certainly not a new or original idea) and the whole of the base (or portion if your choice, perhaps in waves or stages) starts the reconstruction process.

The setting at that point could be nearly anything, insert your favorite choice.

PS
This particular base was set at a hidden location in Antarctica, powered by geothermal, and built upon a stable hard shelf…they had amphibious aircraft, but know after seeing what was done with the movie 2012 I would consider one (or a dozen) of these Arks picture perhaps not as large as the movie version.

I wish to point out (and sorry its been over 2 months, but I only just found this forum)

But… I am a member of another set of forums, one of which has a couple of guys who work for Timeline are on, and they have confirmed that they are "working just short of shooting the scapegoat" to get TMP edition 4 out before christmas, so it would be soon, I doubt, unless something major happens, that it will take more than a year an a half now.

Interesting.

Please please please let the folks at Timeline realize that interior art that is poo will not help their cause…crosses fingers that they look for some young hungry art talent or if in the budget (yeah I know I am laughing to myself also :) hire someone of note/worth.

Actually Sir, I have seen the work from their new artist, and believe me, it looks good.

link
link

Hopefully soon.

Interesting stuff there.

I have been a Morrow Project fan since the beginning, it will be fun to see how the end product comes to fruit.

With the Blackrock Desert being mentioned, I have been pondering that area for a game.

I spent several wonderful years living in Carson City and am rather enamored with the the Basin and Range provence.

So the region is a Natch.

But.

With projected Nuke winter following with a mild Nuke summer makes a refilled Lake Lahontan a good possibility. Think of it a vast lake covering the low lands of western Nevada. With a little creative destruction on could add Lake Bonneville to the east, with maybe a connecting channel or two….

Think of it Post Apocalyptic Pirates of the Basin and Range seas….

Hmmm pirates of the wastelands :)

According to the official TMP facebook profile, as of 10 hours ago, the proof readers are checking over parts 13 and 14 of the new rulebook.

link

Should be interesting, the final project.

Curious how many changes there will be?

Blimey, I'm not sure it's a matter of 'changes'. I think they'll need to rip out the game mechanics entirely and replace them with something that's actually playable.

Awesome backgroud, dire mechanics.

Zardoz

And let's keep the 20-page "loadout" supplements to a minimum, please. When MP and I were both young, I loved a certain amount of gratuitous complication, but the supplement that was solely "what's in my foot locker when I wake up?" was way OTT even for me.

"the supplement that was solely "what's in my foot locker when I wake up?"

I have enjoyed every single example of this sort of process for gaming. We have done the one where each player gets 30 minutes and $500 USD to make a list from Wal-Mart…us running through there on a scavenger hunt like nutters. Inventorying the players cars or the house/garage where we were having game night. Making a shopping list from what is at the local pawn shop. Or using a handful of catalogs (snap-on tools, police/fireman equipment, hunting, etc.) and a budget.

Good times…

*****

I am interested to see what becomes of the new Morrow Project…I am hoping the art is not awful.

As exercises in ingenuity *by players* or as actual equipment catalog supplements they have their place.

As a published-for-money list, with no elaborations or game definitions, of the contents of my pockets, it was just gratuitous.

I hear you…in today's environment I suspect such a list would be a free download or an inexpensive PDF.