The older i get the less I need.

[Reynard]

I would think Alternity is available at DTRPG, but I can't be hedgehogged to check.

Only the inferior modern version.

 

[Staffan]

Only the inferior modern version.

Ewww.

 

[R_J_K75]

The basic idea with Alternity was that it was primarily skill-based with some class elements. The main task resolution was rolling d20 ("control die") plus often another die ("situation die") based on difficulty, and wanted to hit your skill value or lower. Skill value was equal to your ability score (which was in the 4-14 range for humans) plus skill ranks (up to 12, no more than 3 at game start). If you rolled half your value or less that was a Good success, and a quarter was Amazing (these numbers were listed on your sheet, so if you had skill total 14 it would be written as 14/7/3). The situation die was normally a 0 if you had the appropriate skill or +d4 if you didn't, and scaled up or down as follows: 0, d4, d6, d8, d12, d20 (either positive or negative). This had the somewhat weird effect that things that were more difficult were expressed as a + modifier, and things that made things easier were expressed as a negative.

You had three different damage tracks: stun, wound, and mortal. Depending on the weapon and success level, you'd do damage to different tracks – a club might do d4+1s/d6+1s/d4+1w, meaning it does 1d4+1 stun on an ordinary success, d6+1 stun on a good success, and d4+1 wound on an amazing success. Dealing wound or mortal damage also meant dealing half as much of each lower category (so 4 wounds would also deal 2 stun). Armor reduced damage, though not secondary damage (so if you hit for 4 wounds, and it was reduced 3 points by armor, you'd deal 1 wound and 2 stun). There was also a fourth separate track for Fatigue, but it didn't interact with the others.

Characters were primarily skill-based. You had classes (combat spec, free agent, tech op, diplomat, with an optional mindwalker), but they mainly boiled down to a discount on certain skills and one or two special abilities, plus they determined what level you could get various perks at. Having high skill levels also often came with various special abilities/bonuses. In some cases, you could spend skill points to get early access to these.

The game itself was setting-neutral, but had two main settings. The first was the far-future space opera Star Drive, which had the stuff you'd expect: spaceships, multiple stellar nations, a fair amount of different species to play, invaders from Beyond, and so on. The other was the modern-day Dark Matter, a conspiracy-themed setting strongly influenced by X-Files. There was also a one-off Gamma World book, and I think one of the bigger computer games at the time (either one of the Fallouts or Starcraft) had an adaption included on the installation disc.

I would think Alternity is available at DTRPG, but I can't be hedgehogged to check.

Im always amazed at how well some people remember 25 year old rules. Id forgotten most of this and I say we played it quite a bit when it came out and through its short run

 

[Staffan]

Im always amazed at how well some people remember 25 year old rules. Id forgotten most of this and I say we played it quite a bit when it came out and through its short run

I'm a bit weird like that.

 

[Golden age Superhero]

I sometimes will consider getting rid of some games, but in the back of my mind I always think that I might want to play some game at some time and then decline and instead buy more bookcases.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Same. Moving every 5-10 years reminds you of how much stuff you have. A lot of it collecting dust.

It’s way I buy digital games and movies now and have been ebaying everything I don’t use.

My RPG collection has shrunk drastically.

 

[Golden age Superhero]

Well, I have a hard and fast rule that I won't run a game unless I have a hard copy next to me.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm a bit weird like that.

Guy I game with now used to be like that too. He was in a coma ~2015 and the RN forgot to hook up his oxygen, so he was never the same after that. I hadn't seen him in about 8 years until 2021 when I got a call from him out of the blue. I could tell something was off and he has trouble reading and retaining rules now

 

[R_J_K75]

Well, I have a hard and fast rule that I won't run a game unless I have a hard copy next to me.

I will opt for a hard copy every time over a pdf at the table, but if I can get both I will. Pdfs are nice if Im watching TV or just doing two things at once, but I cant read them for long. Though being able to increase the font size helps

 

[Thomas Shey]

Characters were primarily skill-based. You had classes (combat spec, free agent, tech op, diplomat, with an optional mindwalker), but they mainly boiled down to a discount on certain skills and one or two special abilities, plus they determined what level you could get various perks at. Having high skill levels also often came with various special abilities/bonuses. In some cases, you could spend skill points to get early access to these.

In fact, I noted once you could build a combat engineer starting from either a Combat Spec or a Tech Op, and just watching them in play you'd probably have trouble telling which was which.

The game itself was setting-neutral, but had two main settings. The first was the far-future space opera Star Drive, which had the stuff you'd expect: spaceships, multiple stellar nations, a fair amount of different species to play, invaders from Beyond, and so on. The other was the modern-day Dark Matter, a conspiracy-themed setting strongly influenced by X-Files. There was also a one-off Gamma World book, and I think one of the bigger computer games at the time (either one of the Fallouts or Starcraft) had an adaption included on the installation disc.

Though the presence of its idiosyncratic (but fairly interesting) aliens makes its setting-neutrality somewhat questionable. Like the D&D magic system, they're mostly too specific to be considered really generic.