What is the Morrow Project? The Morrow Project is an RPG from the late 70's, early 80's, during the height of the Cold War; that time when it looked like the Cold War would get very, very hot for a short time and the world would be brought to ruin.
Now, I'm a little too young to remember much of the Cold War, but I remember watching all kinds of movies that involved nuclear war and the end of the world. It was very much on the minds of Americans all through out the era. We had books like On The Beach, The Postman and The Stand and movies like Red Dawn and Mad Max. These stories presented a world in which World War III happened and everyone died. Well, just about everyone died. The Morrow Project appeared at this time, and offered something a lot of things didn't have: Hope.
In the game, a man named Bruce Edward Morrow brought together the heads of America's leading companies and spoke to them about how the end of the world was going to happen and how they could prevent it from being as bad as we feared. The Project recruited people to join teams that would be put in cryogenic suspension until the balloon went up, then they would be activated and help rebuild society.
As we all know, no plan goes perfectly, and the Project's Prime Base was destroyed shortly after the war ended. The teams slept for 150 years, when a malfunctioning computer sends out the awaken code and the team finds itself in a totally different world.
When if comes to the game itself, it really shows it's age. They use the term "esper" which I haven't seen used since the 90's with any kind of regularity and the game is very rules light. They do have a detailed list of nuclear targets and a fantastic list of weapons, equipment and vehicles to use. The game is also much more free-form compared to more modern games. Unlike games of today, which give you tons of detailed world information and adventure ideas, the Morrow Project gives you a list of mutated animals and new power groups, and not much else. In the days the Morrow Project was written, you didn't need to have your hand held by the creators of the game. Okay, they did make adventures, of which I own two. I also got to play the first part of the Sword of Damocles adventure, which I enjoyed.
In the game, teams are organized into three different groups: Science, MARS and Recon. Science teams are very focused on hard science like medicine, physics, chemistry and geology. MARS teams are the combat teams, with powered armor and big guns. Recon teams are by far the most common teams played in the game, as they're much more jack-of-all-trades teams with 'soft' scientists and some combat veterans included in them.
Now, the Morrow Project is about to release their 4th edition, after a successful Kickstarter. I missed the KS, but I'm torn about buying the new edition. Depending on the price, I might throw down for the cost of it, but I recently had an idea for my own D20 version of the game.
You see, when Wizard's of the Coast released the D20 Future (based on the D20 Modern system) supplement D20 Apocalypse, they included a setting which sounded very much like the Morrow Project. Rather than the Cold War ending the world, aliens invaded and everything went to shit. When I read the setting I laughed because I knew where the idea had come from. Then, I got to thinking about it; I liked the setting of the Morrow Project, but had real trouble with the rules (or lack there of, really). So, I might just use the D20 books and make my own version of the game, set in my home state of Oregon. Because the setting is full of flexibility, I could easily add in my own ideas and have it work. Time will tell if I want to invest the time on the project.
If you like post-apocalypse games, give the Morrow Project a read. Sure, it's old and will look dated to your young eyes, but the potential in those pages will inspire you.
