arscott said:
Whatever you do, don't get the StarCraft boxed set. Seriously.
What is sad about this is that the box was meant to be an intro to Alternity for SC players and has an extremely stripped down version of the rules (to the point of no weapon ranges). There was to be a book later that year with a much more indepth look at the SC universe.
Fortunately there is a fan created pdf that does fix a lot of the problem on A.net.
If anyone wants to see the rules, but not buy the PH and GMG, the Gamma World setting (the 5th ed.) has all the important rules (perks and flaws are the only thing missing) and even a few optional rules that aren't in the PH. And for GW fans, the animal rules from Dragon are on A.net, along with plant rules and a lot more.
The only book I don't recommend to anyone is Dataware. I bought it for the robot rules and am still dissapointed with it. The Grid rules are okay AFICT (I don't use the Grid and don't like cyberpunk).
One of the best "books" for S*D is Externals- the very first pdf WoTC had for sale (and is still on RPGnow). It is not for players in the least as it gives away tons of important secrets of the invasion of the Verge. I should't call it a pdf as there is more to it than just that- a travel time calculator, tidbits from other books and a die roller (plus some other stuff).
The best thing about Alternity is that there is little that it can't do. Typical fantasy (ala D&D) has already been converted by Red Dragon, many different sci-fi campaign types can be found written up in varying degrees on the messageboard at A.net and I post different types of different fantasy campaign hooks every now and again. And when I say I, I mean 95%+ of that thread is my work. Some of the coolest settings created so far have humans as either a minor player or gone completely (Those Who Follow by Uncle Jimbo and The Biomass by me are the ones that come to mind).