The original edition is set on a generation spaceship, the starship Warden, which has been struck by an unknown cataclysmic event that killed many of the colonists and crew.

In the British RPG magazine White Dwarf, issue 1, Ian Livingstone wrote a review of the game and published his own additional rules for playing Metamorphosis Alpha on Aldiss's ship.

(Ward's publishing business) was granted permission by Steve Jackson Games and by Judges Guild (the estate of Bob Bledsaw Sr.) to host and republish some material.

In 2008, Ward requested via public forums that sites hosting unlicensed copies of his original rules and the material previously published in Dragon magazine remove them, as they were a breach of his copyright and directly competed with products that he is selling.

However, a number of releases were eventually published later: In 1981, Ward announced plans to rewrite the game as Metamorphosis Alpha to Omega, a supplement for the 1st edition Gamma World rules.

Ward's company, Fast Forward Entertainment, published a new version of the game, entitled Metamorphosis Alpha: 25th Anniversary Edition.

It included a 656 page book, fully detailing the default setting of Metamorphosis Alpha and was accompanied by a number of supporting materials and was written by James M. Ward and fellow TSR alumnus Chris Clark.

MA is highly recommended to someone interested in buying their first role-playing game since the rules are rich with guidelines to help the player in constructing his own ship.

[28] David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, commented that Metamorphosis Alpha was "notable as the first role-playing game with a science-fiction setting.

Game designer Gary Gygax explained: "Metamorphosis Alpha is a game that breaks the typical level-progression reward mold but nevertheless offers a rich, if sometimes difficult to gain, array of player rewards — from the knowledge of the environment to beneficial character mutations, learned skills to the acquisition of tech items and other equipment.

Furthermore it blends fantasy with weird and super science in a unique manner that is captivating to players with imaginations suited to such a startling mixture.

Metamorphosis Alpha — in any edition — stimulates the imagination, encourages keen thinking, and breaks the mold of typical fantasy and science fiction roleplaying games.

"[30] In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath questioned whether this game was truly science fiction, or was simply another fantasy RPG, pointing out that the setting is simply a large self-contained 17-level dungeon where "Players are left to explore the ship, hex by hex in the 'wilderness' or square by square in the dungeons of the engineering sectors, all for material rewards ...

These sort of expeditions are the core of the D&D experience and that seems so closely tied to fantasy, for me, that even the presence of laser guns and mutants can't dissuade the association.