Take Your First Look At The Upcoming ALTERNITY RPG!

Later this year, Sasquatch Game Studios will be releasing the new version of the 1990s Alternity science fiction roleplaying game. It features a brand new system, and is designed by industry veterans Dave Noonan, Richard Baker, and Bill Slavicsek. The creators have kindly sent along a sneak preview of the upcoming game, which I'm excited to share with you right here. Next week, there will be a 50(ish) page free demo/playtest packet you can download, with a short adventure by Dave Noonan, another by Rich Baker, and a brief rules overview. For now, though, take a look at the preview below!

SaveSave​

 

[dblade]

I greatly prefer the Alternity skill resolution over the simplified 3E. It allows for more variance in results and works especially well for skill checks. I still run Alternity and have yet to find a system I enjoy more, especially in running cinematic/television adaptations. I've been running a Alternity Firefly game at GenCon for the past 3 years and it works great. If the new Alternity didn't have a similar resolution system I wouldn't even bother. Since it does consider me very optimistic. If Sasquatch nails the landing on the durability system my enthusiasm will double.

 

[dblade]

Sooo... They took what was unique about Alternity, and made it pretty much a simplified variant of Earthdawns and Cortex Classic roll high systems. A system many have said was not a good system, because it uses polyhedrals in different ways.

It'll definitely bring more people to this version of Alternity, but its ironic a lot of people are praising them for this change when others have done extremely similar systems conceptually and those other games have often been looked down upon.

Even Earthdawn 4e switched to the Every 5 you beat the Target Number by you get a bonus method.

That said, I'm stoked. Its Alternity. Its sci-fi. It'll look very pretty on my book shelf next to all my other Sci-fi games. It'll go between Fragged Empires and Coriolis.

The problem I found with Cortex Classic was the dice resolution felt too random without a solid structure to lay it on. Representing the Abilities and Skills by the Polyhedral dice made it hard to get a gauge on your chances for success in a situation. Alternity avoided this by having a static Skill Score (with 3 levels of possible success) that was easy to evaluate, even though you were still rolling random dice to see where you fell on that range of scores. Despite whatever actual probabilities might be at play, I just couldn't feel good about rolling two d12s in Cortex Classic, whereas a Skill range of 24/12/6 made me feel pretty comfortable in Alternity.

 

[collin]

I remember looking at the original Alternity back in the day and thinking "Wow, this d20 thing would really work for D&D." Then again, the whole 90s are kind of hazy to me now so maybe D&D 3.0 was out already, or was it released in about 2000? My History check is fail today.

Alternity was released in the 1990's when TSR was still alive but on life-support. I played it once or twice and thought it was decent at the time (although that was many years ago - can't remember much about the system now). D20 D&D 3rd edition came out in 2000. I think the D20 system borrowed from different places, including building on 2nd edition and some concepts of the Alternity system. I am curious to see how this revised system plays, but I always have the old version if I get really Jones-ing for some futuristic RPG (which so far, I haven't in the last 20 years).

 

[Sketchpad]

I'm looking forward to the previewing coming soon, and the core books. Really loved Alternity back in the day, and anxious to see how it's changed in this new edition.

 

[3ArmSally]

Alternity as a system for the player was pretty awesome; for the GM it was a complete nightmare; to many -/+ steps made it a real pain to run, especially when dealing with multiple NPC's & Creatures. to .

It came with practice. Once you got a feel for the difficulty track it was pretty smooth running. It helped to note the players resistance modifiers on a cheat sheet.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

The problem I found with Cortex Classic was the dice resolution felt too random without a solid structure to lay it on. Representing the Abilities and Skills by the Polyhedral dice made it hard to get a gauge on your chances for success in a situation. Alternity avoided this by having a static Skill Score (with 3 levels of possible success) that was easy to evaluate, even though you were still rolling random dice to see where you fell on that range of scores. Despite whatever actual probabilities might be at play, I just couldn't feel good about rolling two d12s in Cortex Classic, whereas a Skill range of 24/12/6 made me feel pretty comfortable in Alternity.

True, my comparison to C Classic might have been a slight stretch, and probably wrong. I also agree with you about Alternity. When everything is on your character sheet and you already have the numbers for every skill check for the different results... It was the perfect roll low system.

With one roll, you could determine how well you did without any further thought processing. If its 4/8/16... That's their Amazing, Good, Ordinary and we're done.

It was amazing.

This can be written on the sheets of the new game as well, if the base TN before Attribute and Skill modifier reduction is static for every die roll. Then, any die step mods just modify the die roll. So the sheets could have Ranged Attack- Rifle 11/16/21 and that's it.

Here's hoping they do keep it simple like this.

 

[Rich Baker]

[MENTION=86279]Stacie GmrGrl[/MENTION] -- Pretty much exactly like that. Your skill score would be written Firearms 11/16/21.

I'm a little torn whether it's better to provide a skill score of 11/16/21 or a skill bonus of +9 (DC 20), though. I've played it both ways and it works fine. It's one of the things we'll be looking for feedback on as folks get a chance to play with the system.

 

[Reynard]

[MENTION=86279]Stacie GmrGrl[/MENTION] -- Pretty much exactly like that. Your skill score would be written Firearms 11/16/21.

I'm a little torn whether it's better to provide a skill score of 11/16/21 or a skill bonus of +9 (DC 20), though. I've played it both ways and it works fine. It's one of the things we'll be looking for feedback on as folks get a chance to play with the system.

FWIW, I think flipping the engine to roll high is a good idea -- which also has the benefit of making bonus steps positive and penalties negative -- but I much prefer to have those tiered DCs built into the characters rather than a static bonus. Sure, math wise it is the same but 11/16/21 is much more Alternity.

 

[Valdier]

I see dice steps that seems to indicate it's the same base sustem at least, which is cool - i wonder if they'll keep the same stun/wounds/mortal system that I liked so much back then? I had a lot of fun with that system - i'm looking forward to this, even if I don't know if i'll get to play it outside of conventions. right now, between 5e, Pathfinder, and upcoming Starfinder, my room for new games is limited.

They have kept some of the concept of wounds that way. There are regular, exceptional and critical hits along with stun. The wound system for the new game is really innovative and works very well.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I remember when Alternity came out; I still have my signed and numbered promo copy of the Alternity Player's Handbook. I never cared much for Star Drive, but I LOVED the Dark Matter setting.

I'm excited to see the system coming back, and I have great faith in the Sasquatch team (as a Primeval Thule backer and avid fan/player).