RPG Archive: Star*Drive for D&D and Traveller

Star*Drive is a science fiction setting from the end of the 90s that TSR put out at the end of its life. Despite the doom approaching TSR, the end of the 90s was filled with new ideas and RPG options in books and in Dragon Magazine. So much of this content is still usable whether you play Dungeons & Dragons, a sci-fi RPG like Traveller, or are looking for a retro sci-fi RPG to try like Alternity. And yes, the cover art for the Alternity Gamemaster Guide connects to the cover art of the Alternity Player’s Handbook!

Planet Alien Space - Free photo on Pixabay​

Alternity and Star*Drive​

Alternity is a set of rules using the Star*Drive setting as a ready example but also with other settings available. Star*Drive is a setting using the Alternity rules with some d20 rules also available in D20 Future and in Dragon Magazine using Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2E.

Star*Drive had a lot of support for PCs venturing out into frontier space in FTL ships to explore alien worlds, combat rogue killer warships, and try to earn money to keep flying. With so much content, this article will concentrate on a brief overview of the setting, two adventures also usable with Traveller, and AD&D and d20 conversions. Used copies of all these RPGs and magazines are easy to find and most are quite affordable with many at or under $30 each.

The main book covers starfaring Earth nations and corporations along with several alien species also found in the Alternity Player’s Handbook. Dragon Magazine (issues #250, #256, #261, and #263) would provide deeper dives into these aliens. Star*Drive - Alien Compendium I provides plenty of new aliens for PCs to interact with or play as a character.

Adventures Usable for Traveller, Mothership, Alternity and Other Sci-fi RPGs​

Star*Drive - The Lighthouse is a moving space station that visits system after system on diplomatic and trade missions. It houses a dark secret (no spoilers) but would be perfect for use with Mothership. If the engines are converted, The Lighthouse would work for Traveller or Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (AD&D 2E) although its secret would need to be altered. PCs could be citizens of the Rock of Bral and travel into Wildspace aboard The Lighthouse. Or play with the original Alternity rules and visit a new star system every game night.

Star*Drive - The Last Warhulk is sprawling space crawl of an adventure. It is epic in size and scope and not well known. I really enjoyed running this one for Star*Drive and would consider it well worth the effort to convert to another RPG.

There are also the Star Frontiers aliens. Converted in Annual #3 Dragon Magazine, one alien race, the dralasites (blob beings able to create a variable number of limbs), are one of my favorite PC alien options and well worth porting over to D&D or Traveller.

AD&D and D20 Future Conversions​

The aliens are converted to AD&D 2E in Dragon Magazine: #251 presents sesheyans (easily the most alien and with their nocturnal nature they would be juxtaposed nicely on The Lighthouse), #253 has the psionic fraal, and #257 covers the lightning fast reptilian t’sa. #244 also has a simple one page Alternity to AD&D idea. The reverse is also possible, with the Alternity Gamemaster Guide having rules to convert AD&D PCs to Alternity and Dragon Magazine #262 has information on converting AD&D monsters to Alternity.

D20 Future also has a short conversion of a small portion of Star*Drive that meshes better with D&D 3.5.

Star*Drive Forward​

Star*Drive has so much to offer: PC aliens, AD&D PC aliens, amazing adventures, awesome aliens, and many ideas that can transported to other RPGs or used with the original Alternity. And the prices for most of these items are less than current RPG prices so there isn’t much to lose to check out the various options.

Over twenty-five years later and I still recommend Star*Drive and Alternity. And Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (AD&D 2E) and the Rock of Bral of course!

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[BiblioTek]

If I were to run Star* Drive again today, I would use Savage Worlds Adventure Edition with the Sci-Fi Companion (which I just received from the Kickstarter).

Same for me. I even went so far as to convert the Star*Drive species to SW Deluxe several years back, which was easy as pie at the time. I haven't gotten around to doing a SWADE conversion because life and other games happened.

Continuing on Twiggly the Gnome's path, here's what I had for the Weren in Savage Worlds Deluxe:

Weren (a.k.a. Squatch [I went with alternative non-IP names for the species]) – massive warriors from a violent society with Renaissance-era technology

• Blinded by Rage: Penalties for failed trait checks (-2 Ability)

The character does not react well to failure: finding a door that won't open under their strength, fighting a foe they can't seem to hit, being forced to halt an ongoing chase, or in general being unable to perform a critical action can cause the character to lose their temper.

After a roll of 1 on both the Skill/Trait die and the Wild die or a second normally-failed attempt at a particular action the character must make a Spirit check. If successful, the character keeps control of his or her temper; if failed, anger causes the character to suffer a -1 penalty to all trait checks until a successful Spirit check is made; this check can be made only once per round. Should a 1 be rolled on both the Trait and Wild dice of the Spirit check, the character is focused on overcoming the obstacle that brought on the rage and is at -2 to all trait checks until a successful Spirit check is made.

• Life is Hard: Vigor starts at d6 (+2 Ability)
• Low-Tech Society (minor): -2 when using equipment from a different tech level. Removable with an Advance (-1 Ability)
• Natural Camouflage (fur): +2 to Stealth skill checks (+1 Ability)
• Natural Weaponry (claws): Str+d6 damage, AP2 (+2 Ability)

 

[Skydawn]

FYI for D&D players, tons of the Star*Drive setting material can be easily worked into the Esper Genesis RPG.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Alternity (1997) came out at the wrong time for me. I was heavily invested in Magic the Gathering, and even though I liked the book's looks, I did not have the funds to start a new RPG. We played AD&D2e and Star Wars WEG until 3e came out. By then I was done with MtG.

This was basically my group. A ton of us were in high school playing MtG, we started book 2 of Night Below for AD&D, and I had finally gotten my hands on The DarkStryder Campaign for Star Wars by the time Alternity came out.

 

[Dire Bare]

Mind uploads and similar tech are pretty easy to ignore for me at least. They seem like a techbro hope of immortality that will probably never come to fruition. But drones... yeah, that's definitely a thing that should be around in more sci-fi.

AI (artificial intelligence) and UI (uploaded intelligence, or mind uploads) have a growing body of sci-fi stories exploring them. Altered Carbon is a good one, a series of novels adapted to live action and anime (on Netflix). The comedy "Upload" (on Amazon Prime) is another take, and "Pantheon" (on Netflix).

And folks' brains installed directly into ships or robots goes back in sci-fi a long ways, modern stories just remove the physical brain part and upload consciousness directly to the network.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I remember seeing these products at my local game store in the late 90s but I don't remember even I even glanced within their pages. At the time, I thought Alternity, Star Drive, and Dark Matter were completely separate games rather than part of the same product line. I have heard from some people who remember the game fondly.

Yeah, it was structured like D&D. A player's book, a GM's book (with a brief "monster" section), and campaign settings.

 

[Staffan]

AI (artificial intelligence) and UI (uploaded intelligence, or mind uploads) have a growing body of sci-fi stories exploring them. Altered Carbon is a good one, a series of novels adapted to live action and anime (on Netflix). The comedy "Upload" (on Amazon Prime) is another take, and "Pantheon" (on Netflix).

And folks' brains installed directly into ships or robots goes back in sci-fi a long ways, modern stories just remove the physical brain part and upload consciousness directly to the network.

Certainly. I didn't mean that it's a thing that doesn't belong in sci-fi at all. But it's not an "inevitable" thing the way remote-controlled drones or advanced personal communicators are.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Star*Drive managed to build a universe where it made sense that you could run pretty much any subgenre of sci-fi, from "Alien" style horror to "Aliens" style military sci-fi to "Aliens: Resurrection" style cyber-bio-horror-punk.

I kid, but the strength of the setting and the Alternity rules was its versatility. They really nailed that part of the design.

I do wish they would have gone all in on Star*Drive for d20 future, though, rather than just sprinkled buts of the setting throughout the books.

I think Alternity Star*Drive existed because TSR was failing. Much less oversight and the designers built a vision without much corporate committee. D20 Future was a great concept, but the built by committee is much more apparent.

 

[Dire Bare]

Certainly. I didn't mean that it's a thing that doesn't belong in sci-fi at all. But it's not an "inevitable" thing the way remote-controlled drones or advanced personal communicators are.

Inevitable? Maybe not . . . but possible? Yes. Isn't that was sci-fi is all about, exploring the possible?

Of course, if you aren't interested in AI or UI in your own sci-fi games, that's cool. Sci-fi stories (and settings) can be diverse and don't need to include everything.

But it's definitely something I'm interested in exploring in my games, and would love to see some sci-fi RPGs tackle!

 

[Staffan]

Inevitable? Maybe not . . . but possible? Yes. Isn't that was sci-fi is all about, exploring the possible?

Of course, if you aren't interested in AI or UI in your own sci-fi games, that's cool. Sci-fi stories (and settings) can be diverse and don't need to include everything.

But it's definitely something I'm interested in exploring in my games, and would love to see some sci-fi RPGs tackle!

Sure, but the post I replied to said "Today after buying my 'Eclipse Phase' I can't imagine me in a sci-fi TTRPG without mind-upload and digital inmortality, and 'surrogates' (remote-control androids)."

Some modern advances are so obvious and ubiquitous that not incorporating them or extrapolated versions of them in a science fiction story or setting either makes it seems horribly old-fashioned or has to be a specific choice (e.g. the ban on "thinking machines" in Dune). The stereotypical example is a story where scientists use slide rules in a technologically advanced distant future, because the story was written when "computer" meant a person who computed things. Transhuman digital uploading is not in this category.

 

[Dire Bare]

Sure, but the post I replied to said "Today after buying my 'Eclipse Phase' I can't imagine me in a sci-fi TTRPG without mind-upload and digital inmortality, and 'surrogates' (remote-control androids)."

Some modern advances are so obvious and ubiquitous that not incorporating them or extrapolated versions of them in a science fiction story or setting either makes it seems horribly old-fashioned or has to be a specific choice (e.g. the ban on "thinking machines" in Dune). The stereotypical example is a story where scientists use slide rules in a technologically advanced distant future, because the story was written when "computer" meant a person who computed things. Transhuman digital uploading is not in this category.

I get it man, we don't see things the same regarding "uploaded intelligences". It's cool, man, it's cool.