Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & Metamorphosis Alpha rpg - From Ares Section Dragon issue #101 'The Man Machines of Gamma World' By James Ward & Rudy Raupp

" I have never written an MA adventure like this one before. In the fourth version of the MA rules I presented a storyline where the ship runs into an invisible asteroid filled with mushroom and crystal life forms. That storyline has always needed a transition piece that ties the starship Warden into the asteroid. This is that adventure. Take any of your characters from pure strain humans to androids or robots and introduce them to the little valley where the new hole in the ship is presented. One of the unusual features of this product is that this game can be run solo. All you have to do is use a strong character and pay attention to the numbers and you can test out the adventure all by yourself. You can then turn around and run it for any number of friends."
So originally Gamma World 1st edition  was supposed to be the follow up game to  Metamorphosis Alpha rpg 1st edition. But what if it was the other way around?! What if the Starship Warden is actually all that's left of the Human Space Empire?! We've been reading through Goodman Games version of the 'Long Hard Mile'  And this picks up from this blog entry here 

If the Human Space Empires fell during the Social Wars of Gamma World. And there were only bit & pieces of interstellar technological bastions left out in the universe. Did Gamma Terra actually get sucked into its own planar miniverse?! This might explain quite a bit of the fact that there's no one actually looking for the Starship Warden from Gamma World. 
And it could also help to explain the continuing bits & pieces of alien life aboard the Warden. For my own money the Warden has passed through other dimensions & universes. 
Some of this is reflective of the fact  Goodman Games version of the 'Long Hard Mile' adventure's monsters remind me of many of the alien things in the classic Empire of the Petal Throne rpg. 
There's a lot more boiling below the surface here. The godlike feats of engineering of the Warden are reflective of the feats of 'science' of Empire of the Petal Throne's Human Space Empires. Brett Slocum's 'Warriors of the Lost Planet' rpg supplement a 'pay what you want title' has its own advanced version of the classic android;"Yéleth are androids, built to be the artificial servants and companions of the rich and powerful. They are limited to 6th Level in the Mentalist Class, but are unlimited in other Classes. Ability Scores DEX +1, WIS -1, CHA +1 HD: 3 AC: 12 Move: 9” Abilities Not Biological: Immune to poison, disease, and mind control. Hypno-Ray: Range 100’, d6 targets with 30” diameter, Mentalism save or puppet/paralysis, permanent until psychic or magical healing or death of Yéleth. Usable (Level) times a day. Android Healing: If damaged in combat, Androids can rest afterwards to gain +1 Hit Points, but cannot heal from daily rest without parts from another Yéleth, Ru’ún, or other similar construct. A Scientist can cure their Level in Hit Points of a Yéleth once per day. Each cannibalized android body can supply 1d12 points of healing. This design is for the security model of Yéleth. Other models of android are possible, such as the fully-functional concubine model. Replace the Hypno-Ray with social and performance skills. Maybe an Orgasmo-Ray for pulpy goodness." These things are creepy as hell?! A android assassin using the  Warriors of the Red Planet rules is not something that you'd want to encounter. And there may be thousands or millions of these things hidden behind some door of the planar locations & colonies. Could these be only the beginning?! There are small hidden armies of interstellar empires scattered across hyperspace?! Here's where Night Owl Workshop's Colonial Troopers comes in handy. 

 
Reading through the PDF it got me thinking about what really happened during Gamma World's Social Wars. You've got personal armor across the board in Colonial Troopers. But as the years rolled on during the Social Wars experimental technologies were being trotted out. And this included the so called Man machines. In Dragon magazine issue #101  released in September of 1985 we got in the Ares section, 'Out of the Sun The Man Machines of Gamma World by James M. Ward & Roger Raupp. We got the 'Empire of the Sun' who pilots what are some of the mecha of Gamma World essentially Gamma World Japan & the Asian block. And in this same article we got the AATAAV (Airborne All-Terrain Armored Attack Vehicle) which according to the article, "AATAAV (Airborne All-Terrain Armored Attack Vehicle). Manned war machines of incredible destructive power, they had only been in the testing stage when the Social Wars and the Apocalypse brought an end to all civilization." 

What the Hell does any of this have to do with the  Empire of the Petal Throne rpg & traditional Metamorphosis Alpha game?! Quite a bit actually. The Human Space Empires had pissed off just about every alien race across the multiverse. The who affair was beset by aliens wanting a piece of humanity. Very similar infact to the Gamma World timeline presented in Dragon magazine's Ares section. And  Colonial Troopers. Many of the miracle technologies talked about in Empire of the Petal Throne are born out in Gamma World & Metamorphosis Alpha. So is there hidden someplace upon the Warden manmachines just waiting for some adventurers to stumble across them?! These are very powerful & highly dangerous mecha though. They can give a death machine a bloody nose & should be used sparing to the point of being the point of a mini campaign or quest. Just some food for thought folks.