Burning nostalgic for Alternity

[dm4hire]

In my mind, the Cortex rules (Serenity, Battlestar Galactica) is an outgrowth of this system - you simply remove the d20 from the d20 + dX roll. The two systems are close enough I used the Cortex rules with the Alternity Gamma World rules with minimal fuss.

Cortex is very similar I agree, but I think the most unique aspect of Alternity is that you're trying to roll low with varying degrees of success having an impact. It's the RPG world's version of golf, only no walking and a lot more entertaining.

I wouldn't mind seeing a variant of the system either if people didn't have a problem converting D&D over to it.

 

[Henry]

One funny aside from years ago that just popped in my head:

My group and I tried running an Alternity game in 2002 or so, after having played 3E for a while. EVERY SINGLE TIME we rolled init, we kept forgetting to reroll each round, and instinctively starting cycling through inits after the first roll. We just could not remember to reroll init for more than a round or two at the time.

 

[weem]

I bought a bunch of these as they came out and still have them but never played.

I pulled them out during one of my recent D&D games and was telling them we should give it a run because I still hear good things about it - like this thread. I'm really wanting to try it out now...

...I'll have to gather up some people for a run or three.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Achan hiArusa]

The die mechanic itself was reprinted in Unearthed Arcana. And the original wound system was the ancestor of the wound/vitality point system in the first two Star Wars games.

 

[Blastin]

Loved the system back in the day. Also really loved star-drive setting. Ran a pretty long campaign at one time. The only problem I had with the system was that after a few levels and spending points all the good skills started to get maxed out.
And the game could be lethal. I remember one guy who made up an engineer of the little fast lizard race. He thought the character was gonna suck in combat. In a bar fight he pulled a laser pistol out (figuring he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn) and rolled a one. He was shocked when it one shotted the bad guy

 

[dm4hire]

The die mechanic itself was reprinted in Unearthed Arcana. And the original wound system was the ancestor of the wound/vitality point system in the first two Star Wars games.

Which edition of UA was it printed in? I don't remember seeing it.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

2004 version, pages 129 and 132, variable modifiers, though they did smooth out the dice values a bit instead of just jumping straight to +1d12 to +1d20 to +2d20 to +3d20.

 

[Vicente]

2004 version, pages 129 and 132, variable modifiers, though they did smooth out the dice values a bit instead of just jumping straight to +1d12 to +1d20 to +2d20 to +3d20.

Thanks a lot for this, I didn't know it, another book to buy

 

[Vicente]

The only problem I had with the system was that after a few levels and spending points all the good skills started to get maxed out.

I had just the opposite problem with the system, which makes me think I didn't understand well how experience points worked: players never seemed to get enough points to train more than a 1-2 "high" level skills (3-4, 5 at most). Usually leveling two skills to those levels meant you would run out of points for everything else :S (we never hit more than level 10).