Alternity (and OOP games in general)

[evildmguy]

Alternity

I am finding that Alternity is the best game system for me. I still like other game systems but I like Alternity the best.

I am currently involved in a weekly pen and paper Alternity game. I am lucky in that I am the GM and my players were willing to switch. We have now been playing a Fantasy Alternity game for over a year (although we recently switched campaigns) and it shows no signs of stopping. The players have told me that they really enjoy the rules of Alternity. These were all DND players, some of them die hard DND players, and they will still play DND but I have been told by at least one of them that they prefer Alternity.

(Again, I am not saying Alternity is the end all system. Only that I really like it and that my players have enjoyed it as well.)

In switching to Alternity, I do think there is a learning curve, especially going from 3E. Alternity has the mechanic of "low for skills, high for results" in terms of rolling. The control die and situation die are tough but within a month, or four session, my players understood it, even if they didn't know the modifiers. Now, they are almost to the point where they can rattle off the standard modifiers to the situation die, especially in combat. It is also a more complicated character creation system than 3E (and I am only mentioning this because that's what most of the players played before) and not easily understood the first time.

However, once the system is learned, the players seemed to have embraced it. In starting our new campaign, they all knew exactly what they wanted to play, the Perks and Flaws they would want, the skills they would want and had the game mechanics down very well. One player has really liked the Durability system (damage system) a lot and likes that armor reduces damage. I think they have all liked the results of a skill check (O/G/A) and the skills in general. (In my last session, they commented that they loved the skills they used, which they hadn't seen used in the first Alternity campaign I ran, and loved how they worked.) I think they also appreciate complex skill checks, in terms of opening locks taking more than one single check and the total time is directly based on the skill of the character.

I have found Alternity to be very flexible as well. I have yet to think of a genre that I couldn't do with Alternity. I think the system lends itself very well to drama and storytelling, which is what I am looking for in my game mechanics. (Buffy, Angel and White Wolf games do this as well and Buffy and Angel are probably better about "simulating" drama.) SKR wrote rules for playing a vampire and given Vampire the Masquerade, I would like to expand what he did. I am also looking to do some werewolf rules as well that I think will fit the game mechanics very well.

So, yes, to the OP, there are people playing and enjoying Alternity immensely. If I only play Alternity until I die, dice in hand at the table, that would be fine with me!

Have a good one! Take care!

edg
Alternity Pimp

 

[buzz]

It IS way cheaper to play OOP games.

Well, unless you're looking for a copy of Pavis for RQ, which will run you US$100+ or US$40-60 for the Moon Design reprint.

And I don't believe for a minute that newer is better with regard to games.

I dunno if anyone is saying that.

Many of the new game systems (and I don't just mean d20 here) seem to be obsessed with the multi-volume, multi-supplement, library of rules that's just too much to handle for me. I liked it better when all you needed was a couple books or a box set to play. I'd rather have a lot of little games, that a lot of one big game.

I take it you never played Traveller. Or RuneQuest... Or (O/B/A)D&D... Or Rolemaster... Or Chivalry & Sorcery...

 

[sellars]

CyberPunk 2020 - My cyberpunk fansite is still (I think) the biggest repository of new material for this game on the net. Just played a 16 hour game of this last night. DAMN I LOVE THIS GAME. I just get irked by the luck inherent in a 1d10 system, and the granularity of the system.

Oh man, Cyberpunk! that brings back memories Last real session we played was over 2 years ago

I just scanned your cyberpunk pages, and the itch is comming back. It's about time those books get dusted off!

Thanks!

 

[woodelf]

Personally I prefer EarthDawn. I know that some small publisher has started cranking out a supposed 2nd Edition of the game, but on closer inspection it’s just a re-print, almost page for page, of the 1st Edition... just a marketing ploy to get you to re-purchase the same materials.

Anyway, I just recently bought a TON of EarthDawn stuff off EBay from a guy that was moving, and will definitely be running a game in the near future. EarthDawn is, in my opinion, the only setting that has given me competition with D&D.

I don't think anyone ever claimed it was a 2nd edition, and, other than fixing typos, it is deliberately identical, precisely so that you don't have any reason to buy it if you have the original. But they have published new material for the game, and have more in the works. And it seems to be just as high-quality as the original.

And, i concur that Earthdawn does an even better job than any D&D3E setting of embracing the high-fantasy tropes. Basically, Earthdawn comes from them starting from the ground up to build a setting that supports all the D&Disms--dungeon crawls, adventurers, tons of monsters, abundant magic, and so on--and makes them make sense. So you get all the stuff everybody loves *and* the setting makes perfect sense even if you start analyzing it. Sorta like they seem to have tried to do with Eberron, in fact.

 

[RFisher]

The majority of stuff on my roleplaying shelf is OOP. (And the majority were bought when they were in-print.) Why wouldn't I play the games I own?

Last OOP campaign was Marvel Superheroes. There are classic Traveller* & Basic/Expert** D&D campaigns in the works. I just recently picked up Star Frontiers.

*OK, classic Traveller is technically in-print currently.
**There are Basic & Expert sets sort of in-print (PDF), but the editions I have are completely OOP.

 

[CarlZog]

Top Secret - the original edition, not Top Secret/S.I. - unfortunately, my wife HATES this game, so I don't play it anymore.

I haven't played this game in years, but I loved it. I used TSR's BIO-One booklet to add hit location to the firearms combat. That, combined with the game's crazy hand-to-hand combat matrices, made this a blast!

I was just saying in another thread how much I'd still love to run a cold war, "mission impossible" campaign with these rules.

zog

 

[Staffan]

I don't think anyone ever claimed it was a 2nd edition, and, other than fixing typos, it is deliberately identical, precisely so that you don't have any reason to buy it if you have the original. But they have published new material for the game, and have more in the works. And it seems to be just as high-quality as the original.

Check my post above. Basically, there's both an "Earthdawn 2nd edition" (with actual rule changes - nothing as big as AD&D 2e -> D&D 3e, but still changes) and an Earthdawn Classic (basically a reprint).

 

[qstor]

Top Secret - the original edition, not Top Secret/S.I. - unfortunately, my wife HATES this game, so I don't play it anymore.

I used to love playing this! I haven't played in ages. I used the secret agent class from Dragon magazine for my PC 006!

I'll play pretty much anything. I'd love to play Top Secret or Star Frontiers or Boot Hill again. I bought a copy of Boot Hill and 2 of the modules last year on Ebay. I lost the original set that I owned.

Recon, the orgininal version not the one from Palladium is a good game. I never got to play it but owned all the supplements. I used to have a big notebook with ideas for a campaign.

I have Traveller 2300 too but never played it. A d20 version using the Traveller d20 rules is in the works and Far Future is reprinting supplements.

Mike

 

[Krieg]

In switching to Alternity, I do think there is a learning curve, especially going from 3E. Alternity has the mechanic of "low for skills, high for results" in terms of rolling. The control die and situation die are tough but within a month, or four session, my players understood it, even if they didn't know the modifiers. Now, they are almost to the point where they can rattle off the standard modifiers to the situation die, especially in combat. It is also a more complicated character creation system than 3E (and I am only mentioning this because that's what most of the players played before) and not easily understood the first time.

I wholeheartedly agree with evildmguy here with one small exception.

When Alternity first came out, my DM absolutely loved it. I thought it was really nice conceptually, but just couldn't get into it at the time. In my case it took the (relatively) radical departure of 3e to make me go back and appreciate just how well done Alternity was.

For me it was easier to pick it up from a 3e mindset than a 1e/2e one.

 

[Thotas]

Wow ... a lot of love for Alternity here.

Which I have most of the books for, and have never had a chance to play. I'm a bigger fan of space opera than sword and sorcery. (By which I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, the fantasy genre gets a mere 9.5.) I've always wanted to give it a try, but have always figured it'll never happen.

Maybe there's a better chance than I thought.