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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[aramis erak]

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)."

Yeah, those are dead flat no-go for me. I'm not a fan of the transhumanist/posthumanist settings... despite playtest of Freemarket (Crane/Sorenson)

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.

Small portable radios capable of LEO have been a staple of a LOT of sci-fi since the 50's... EE "Doc" Smith, Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, Gerry Anderson, Robert Heinlein, even back into the 30's and 40's sci fi, with Buck Rogers and Dick Tracy both sporting personal coms with space range.

That they're absent in some SF games says more about the authors' than the genre.

In some cases (one a BTRC playtest), it was simply an oversight. In others, persistent denial of the trends...

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Reaching satellites - and even the ISS - is a very doable thing for ham operators today. Power is not the biggest issue; compensating for Doppler shift and tracking are.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Weren (a.k.a. Squatch [I went with alternative non-IP names for the species])

Yeah, years ago I had the notion of trying to retro-clone Alternity and came up with some alternate names for the species, IIRC...

Grey (Fraal)
Atavus (Weren/Sasquatch)
Saurian (T'sa/Kinori)
Cybrid (Aleerin/Mechalus/Sandman)
Xenobug (Sesheyan/Mothman)

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today players would ask to can use remote-controlled drones in missions where there isn't risk of control to be hacked.

Or they could want a "gray gloo" (something like a construct ooze) to work like a 3D-printer crafting weapons, gadgets and armours.

And let's remember all those shooter videogames where the PCs can new enjoy cool toys like exo-suits for superjumps.


I would dare to say if WotC wants a new edition of Alternety it is because they are interested into the licence of sci-fi franchises like Bioshock, Atomic Heart, Fortnite or Overwatch. (I would mention the Annacruise but I suspect it is not so popular).


(Has anybody watched this trailer years ago)

* A new edition of Alternity would need rules to can play "Gamma World". Let's remember there is an action-live serie of "Fallout".

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

* A new edition of Alternity would need rules to can play "Gamma World". Let's remember there is an action-live serie of "Fallout".

Alternity does have a Gamma World supplement. Of course, it is 25 years old now, so it might not have the modern takes on post-apocalyptic gaming.

 

[Reynard]

Alternity does have a Gamma World supplement. Of course, it is 25 years old now, so it might not have the modern takes on post-apocalyptic gaming.

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I love all forms of GW, and even got to work on the d20 version. But of all of them, i think the Alternity version is the most contentious.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I love all forms of GW, and even got to work on the d20 version. But of all of them, i think the Alternity version is the most contentious.

Not my favorite version of GW for sure.

My favorite is fourth edition although I remember first edition with a lot of fondness as it was the first RPG I ever GMed for.

 

[Reynard]

Not my favorite version of GW for sure.

My favorite is fourth edition although I remember first edition with a lot of fondness as it was the first RPG I ever GMed for.

4E is scientifically and objectively the best GW, indeed.

I will not be taking questions.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Thanks, I had fogotten it. Gamma World is perfect for crossovers or collabs with other IPs, for example Ninja Turtles, G.I.Joe, Transformers, Visionaries or M.A.S.K.

Now I am imagining a new version of Gamma World but more "biopunk" in a fictional land, the region of Tyr, where the flora was damaged by the defiler magic. (wink, wink, nudge)

Here the challengue may be the players wanted for Gamma World the technology from the sci-fi survival videogames. Somebody would want rules to create, repair and upgrade vehicles.

If the campaign is designed to be a survival horror then lots of crunch could be banned or very rare, and then the power balance would be radically different.

* What about Edge of Eternity or Kamiwaga: Neon Dinasty with the rules of Alternity 2.0.?

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I love all forms of GW, and even got to work on the d20 version. But of all of them, i think the Alternity version is the most contentious.

I don't know about that. The 7th ed spun off of the D&D 4e mechanics was not well received when new IME, even if it (like 4e itself) has aged well as people got past how divergent they both were from what came before. I rather liked it myself because it embraced its own absurdities, but I was (and may still be) very much in the minority.