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​

 

[Rich Baker]

You can get the Quickstart Guide bundle at DriveThruRPG here:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206864/Alternity-Science-Fiction-RPG-Beta-Test-Edition

The bundle includes the Quickstart Guide, a printer-friendly version of the same, and two versions of an initiative tracker (handy for printing out and using at your table). We'll add some more material to the bundle soon (later this week, I hope). You'll get an automatic notification from DriveThru when we add something to the bundle, so you'll be able to download it at your convenience.

For playtesting, I'd suggest running the adventure and making notes of anything that gives you trouble: rules not properly explained, rules that appear to provide unexpected or undesired results, places where you realize you don't know how to proceed and have to make a guess. Right now the best way to send us feedback is via Facebook message; we're planning on a survey too. (We'll email a link when we've got that ready.) Here's our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SasquatchGameStudio/

Thanks for your help!

Rich Baker
Sasquatch Game Studio

 

[aramis erak]

The system was fascinating, but what I really liked was the Star*Drive setting. I'd be a lot more excited to hear there will be more Star*Drive materials coming out.

Star Drive was a Traveller Pastiche... fixed stardrive times and all...

 

[Reynard]

You can get the Quickstart Guide bundle at DriveThruRPG here:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206864/Alternity-Science-Fiction-RPG-Beta-Test-Edition

The bundle includes the Quickstart Guide, a printer-friendly version of the same, and two versions of an initiative tracker (handy for printing out and using at your table). We'll add some more material to the bundle soon (later this week, I hope). You'll get an automatic notification from DriveThru when we add something to the bundle, so you'll be able to download it at your convenience.

For playtesting, I'd suggest running the adventure and making notes of anything that gives you trouble: rules not properly explained, rules that appear to provide unexpected or undesired results, places where you realize you don't know how to proceed and have to make a guess. Right now the best way to send us feedback is via Facebook message; we're planning on a survey too. (We'll email a link when we've got that ready.) Here's our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SasquatchGameStudio/

Thanks for your help!

Rich Baker
Sasquatch Game Studio

I like it! It bodes well for the full game.

One minor thing: I think Aim should bump your attack action to the next impulse rather than just add 1 to the total impulse cost of the attack. It's a minor thing, but has the benefits of both emulating reality (I take an extra second to aim) as well as creates some potential drama (what if someone notices and tries to disrupt the aim or help the target?) Otherwise I look forward to playing it.

I am really glad you kept the built in TNs rather than went with bonuses with static difficulties. Flipping the mechanic to roll high makes sense but I like that it still "feels" like Alternity.

A quick question: are you guys planning on including a fully developed setting in the core book or will it be more generic? Are you creating a flagship setting otherwise? Or settings? And finally are you going to have some sort of 3rd party license so others can publish for the new Alternity?

Thanks!

 

[Rich Baker]

We want the Core Rulebook to serve as a toolbox that can support a lot of different sci-fi subgenres. However, we also think it's useful to provide busy GMs with a starting point, so we're planning on an "example" campaign and adventure. Sort of like the Nentir Vale in the 4th Edition DMG -- about that level of Core Rulebook support.

As far as a flagship setting, we'd like to see that grow "up" rather than designed "down." We're planning on starting with an adventure anthology as one of the elements of the Kickstarter campaign--basically, presenting a campaign as "this is the place where these adventures take place." If our Kickstarter goes well, I'd like to create a couple of those anthologies right up front and present different sci-fi settings in each.

RE: 3rd party . . . yes, we're interested in exploring that idea. We might make the system completely open, or we might go with a Savage Worlds-style "generously available but not wide-open" approach. But first things first, we want to begin by focusing on making the best core game we can make.


Rich

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We want the Core Rulebook to serve as a toolbox that can support a lot of different sci-fi subgenres. However, we also think it's useful to provide busy GMs with a starting point, so we're planning on an "example" campaign and adventure. Sort of like the Nentir Vale in the 4th Edition DMG -- about that level of Core Rulebook support.

As far as a flagship setting, we'd like to see that grow "up" rather than designed "down." We're planning on starting with an adventure anthology as one of the elements of the Kickstarter campaign--basically, presenting a campaign as "this is the place where these adventures take place." If our Kickstarter goes well, I'd like to create a couple of those anthologies right up front and present different sci-fi settings in each.

RE: 3rd party . . . yes, we're interested in exploring that idea. We might make the system completely open, or we might go with a Savage Worlds-style "generously available but not wide-open" approach. But first things first, we want to begin by focusing on making the best core game we can make.


Rich

I plan on using the setting info provided in the old Alternity core book, especially the Alien races. Any chance of supporting those races and some of the gadgets and such, or are there copyright issues in the way of that? I don't know if they were somehow separate from the rest of the game, or part of the package, and copyright stuff is complicated AF.

 

[Rich Baker]

There is a little bit of haziness around the question of whether a character race is a game mechanic or not, which determines how it's treated by copyright law. Something like a Gray or a Sasquatch is fine, but we feel like we'd need to steer away from fraal or weren--that skates too close to the line in my mind. Since there's almost an infinite number of interesting aliens we could come up with for a new take on the game, we're going to focus on creating the best aliens we can for our new game. (And, once we demonstrate a time or two how races work in the 2017 game, you could probably convert any older material you liked.)

Make sense?

 

[TBeholder]

You can get the Quickstart Guide bundle at DriveThruRPG here:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206864/Alternity-Science-Fiction-RPG-Beta-Test-Edition

At the first glance:
Base: the same extra-dice-stepping, but roll-over (mostly pre-calculated) now. But no "Critical Failure" any more, only 4 results, and often only 3 meaningful results.
Attributes: still stuck with renamed D&D stats, except turned Will into more nebulous Focus. Perception rolls are weird again (though d20 weird, not AD&D* weird).

Damage/durability system:

Weapon damage is tidied up, but to 2 results "1dX+A/B" with different A/B, i.e. with sudden jump. You'd think that's the place where using different dice would hurt less.
Durability overhauled toward more, but shorter bands (and they aren't just hitpoints now)? I wondered what PO:C&T approach would look like without redundancy of completely separate HP damage + KD roll + Severity rolls, and here it is. Not sure whether it's better than old Alternity style, but definitely interesting. Good: will allow better scaling (Alternity Warships style, but more smooth). Dubious: two top bands are "No ill effects", maybe short-term effects would be better?
Damage types reduced to 2 (Physical, Energy) - not good. At very least, there's always cut vs. impact.
Armor is still damage absorption, but now flat value… so the coverage isn't reflected?
Movement adjustments for armor are absolute values just like in d20, no way this can result in something ridiculous when combined with other adjustments, right? Then again, maybe due to a simplified sample version?

"Insane" condition is pretty much D&D Confusion. Derp.

Initiative: stopped using that fancy non-indicative term for it - good.
But also, changed initiative system to AD&D1 style with "segments" renamed to "impulses" (except there are 8 of them). On the upside, this approach is less discrete and looks more natural than "actions per round", and also makes weapon speed factor meaningful (that thing). On the downside, it seemed to help AD&D1to sink in the swamp of clusterfudge, so… this averages on "cautious optimism" for me. Dubious: fixed values; something along the line of "...+2*Size-Agility" as a starting point would be more like it - but maybe it's just a simplified sample version?

Speaking of renamed things, "Good" and "Amazing" rolls are now "Excellent" and "Stellar". Then again, it could be even more "ZOMGkewl!" - like in that ridiculous Marvel game. Maybe forgot to rename things again (as usual, Rich Baker is a great game designer… but also as usual, has something in common with Leonard De Quirm, the great inventor from Discworld ).

 

[Rich Baker]

At the risk of committing some thread resurrection . . . our Alternity Kickstarter is now live! We'd love to see you folks there. And even if our new version isn't your thing, we'd appreciate it if you pointed friends or acquaintances who might be interested in our direction.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...cience-fiction-roleplaying-game?ref=discovery

 

[Giorgicus]

KS is off to a good start! Yay!

 

[TBeholder]

Cool, good luck. Added a link on ATT.