Alternity 2e Wish List

[minitrue]

Actually I think Alternity was dropped not because it wasn't popular, but because WotC was guaranteed to make more from Star Wars which was going to be a competing game system. The Star*Drive setting has a subtle Star Wars feel to it and the Weren scream Wookie clone. If you're making two games that are similar in nature you go with the one that draws the most people and money. Alternity was purely the victim of marketing logic and as mentioned in the Star Wars thread, which I spun this thread off of, now that Star Wars is taking a hiatus WotC is free to bring Alternity back. The reason I don't see WotC doing that is because they are purely a one system company now, relying on compatibility with D&D to help boost sales of spin off products (i.e. one of the key market point of the new Gamma World game is that you can use everything from D&D).

I agree with this completely. With all due respect to what Ryan Dancey stated in his much quoted statement. I think that Wizards had already decided the fate of Alternity when they began work on 3.0, they wanted it to the only in house system, for all possible setting - fantasy, modern, future and anything in between.

 

[dm4hire]

No reason it can't be both.



And the source: Ryan Dancey on the Acquisition of TSR

I think he knows more than both of us. I just wish WotC didn't go overboard (going the other way) when they made d20 Future. It was like the worst parts of Alternity had been distilled, rather than the best.

I agree with this completely. With all due respect to what Ryan Dancey stated in his much quoted statement. I think that Wizards had already decided the fate of Alternity when they began work on 3.0, they wanted it to the only in house system, for all possible setting - fantasy, modern, future and anything in between.

I have to agree with minitrue. Nothing against Ryan Dancey either, but the majority of his work during that time was PR and part of good PR is taking the heat away from hot issues. Ending a gameline is definitely a hot issue. Any way a good marketing agent can make statistics and surveys say just about anything that they want and they wouldn't be lying. Course they may not be stating all the facts either, but that's still not lying, it's just using what's needed to sell your product or shift focus to a new one. WotC, and thereby Dancey, could have easily said they weren't continuing Alternity because they wanted to focus on Star Wars and even explained that the reason was because it would make them more money. Most would have accepted it even though quite a few were upset given the relative young age of Alternity (only about two years or so, compared to other game systems at that time). I think it probably would have been even more had they been so brazen to say they were profit driven.

Regardless we all seem to agree that WotC won't be the one to do a new edition of the game.

 

[tyrlaan]

WotC, and thereby Dancey, could have easily said they weren't continuing Alternity because they wanted to focus on Star Wars and even explained that the reason was because it would make them more money. Most would have accepted it, but quite a few would have been upset given the relative young age of Alternity (only about two years or so, compared to other game systems at that time) still quite a few were mad at that time. Though I think it probably would have been even more had they been so brazen to say they were profit driven.

Regardless we all seem to agree that WotC won't be the one to do a new edition of the game.

Heh, lets face it, the gaming community will always be in an uproar no matter what is said and/or done

On a more serious note, I could see WotC releasing a new edition of StarDrive or DarkMatter, but not Alternity - which is kind of what I was trying to get at earlier. A new edition of Alternity itself isn't likely to ever see official light because WotC has no reason to do it themselves or hand it over to someone who would.

 

[Reynard]

I think it is worth noting that you can't copyright rules systems and if someone wanted to make a clone or SRD of Alternity there isn't much WotC could say about it.

The idea that you'd "play alternity" with 4e - or 3e or d20 modern for that matter - is just silly. Alternity is a game engine.

Also- I think skill rank benefits are infinitely superior to feats. Why introduce an additional mechanic to emulate the goal of "people really good at this skill can do cool stuff"?

 

[Mournblade94]

I love sci fi, and I love Star Wars but I still maintain Star Wars is fantasy not sci fi.

Mass Effect is sci fi and I wanted to make a game based on Mass Effect for my own purposes. I always loved alternity, but I tried to fit mass effect into some of the games with support now like Traveller. I felt it hard to match the feel of Mass Effect with Traveller.

When I revisited alternity, I was able to make Alternity Mass Effect races, Biotics was a cinch to convert, and I even decided I wanted to merge Mass Effect with Stardrive.

I set the game in the year 3000, all of mass effect story line happened already, and the Thuldan Empire was Cerebus evolved.

I worked with the alternity rules again, and I really think they work well for what they are. Simple and versatile for the genre. I am sure improvements could be made, but if Wotc was to release it I pray they would not make it a 4e spinoff, and instead keep it as a separate system.

More than likely I see them releasing Dark MAtter or Star drive as a 4e spinoff.

 

[minitrue]

Regardless we all seem to agree that WotC won't be the one to do a new edition of the game.

True, they will again try to shoehorn modern and future, into a fantasy engine. Which might work with Gamma World, as it does tend to be more sci-fantasy than sci-fi, but it's just not what I'm looking for in a sci-fi game.

 

[arscott]

I think it is worth noting that you can't copyright rules systems and if someone wanted to make a clone or SRD of Alternity there isn't much WotC could say about it.

The idea that you'd "play alternity" with 4e - or 3e or d20 modern for that matter - is just silly. Alternity is a game engine.

Why? The gap between Alternity and 3e/4e D&D isn't any bigger than the gap between 1e/2e and 3e/4e.

To me, the defining aspects of Alternity are:
-Rules that support the various sub-genrea of sci-fi
-In which character class has little impact
-Characters do not become much tougher as they level up
-very specialized skills are arranged in broader groups
-based on the roll of a d20 plus modifiers.

There's no reason why a d20-based game can't accomplish all of these.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Also- I think skill rank benefits are infinitely superior to feats. Why introduce an additional mechanic to emulate the goal of "people really good at this skill can do cool stuff"?

Alternity had perks. Perks are feats.

Feats were intended to be (for the most part) useful in combat, something not well-covered by skills. Unfortunately, WotC refused to give feats "levels" until 4e, really screwing over fighters. (They made lots of lame prestige classes instead.)

 

[Zhaleskra]

* Drop rank benefits. Many of them could be added to the feat list.

Interesting, I prefer rank benefits to feats for things you should be able to do anyway when you have enough skill.

*More clarity among the three versions of unarmed combat. Perhaps everyone has a Brawl unarmed attack, but only martial artists have the appropriate martial arts unarmed attack ratings.

 

[Reynard]

There's no reason why a d20-based game can't accomplish all of these.

Absolutely true. What's more, they did it already with d20 modern/future. But d20 wasn't Alternity, and neither would a 4e game be. System matters, especially if your goal is mechanical rather than setting oriented. Variable modifier dice and multiple success levels alone make Alternity significantly different than d20.