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General Tabletop Discussion
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Why not Alternity? (Or, will or how might WotC do SF?)
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<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 8287808" data-attributes="member: 1165"><p>Sasquatch Games created the second edition of Alternity pretty recently. It seems WotC sold the rights. Sasquatch cannot use terms such as "weren", "sesheyan", etc, because they did not buy the rights to the Star Drive setting.</p><p></p><p>IME it's just harder to have a sci-fi game. A big problem are the tropes. A band of total strangers can meet in an inn and fight a dark lord, but you have to put more effort in a non-fantasy setting. I've seen the following non-fantasy games fall apart, all of which tried something similar: my first d20 Modern campaign, a campaign of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a Shadowrun campaign, etc. Of course I learned my lesson and have a session zero but it still seems to take more skill.</p><p></p><p>Furthermore, tech is ill-defined compared to magic items. The two best ways around I found were:</p><p></p><p>1) Do it very rules light. The first Fate sci-fi campaign I did was amazing. There wasn't such a thing as "my blaster is more powerful than your blaster".</p><p>2) Do it very rules heavy. Mutants & Masterminds. Everything you buy has a cost and a descriptor. You want X-ray glasses? Sure. Pay X power points. You want a Mass Effect-style omnitool? Note down the abilities and pay X power points.</p><p></p><p>D20 Future abjectly failed at this. Possibly the worst example was "genetic engineering", which was not the same thing as mutations, which were different from moreaus. That was also just terribly balanced, as in it made 2nd Edition D&D psionics look balanced.</p><p></p><p>I would like to play in Star Drive or Dark Matter again. I would probably use Fate or M&M for the former and d20 Modern for the latter. I could potentially use Sasquatch Games, but so far nobody has demonstrated interest. My group are in our late 30s and early 40s and we're getting too old to learn new systems.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 8287808, member: 1165"] Sasquatch Games created the second edition of Alternity pretty recently. It seems WotC sold the rights. Sasquatch cannot use terms such as "weren", "sesheyan", etc, because they did not buy the rights to the Star Drive setting. IME it's just harder to have a sci-fi game. A big problem are the tropes. A band of total strangers can meet in an inn and fight a dark lord, but you have to put more effort in a non-fantasy setting. I've seen the following non-fantasy games fall apart, all of which tried something similar: my first d20 Modern campaign, a campaign of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a Shadowrun campaign, etc. Of course I learned my lesson and have a session zero but it still seems to take more skill. Furthermore, tech is ill-defined compared to magic items. The two best ways around I found were: 1) Do it very rules light. The first Fate sci-fi campaign I did was amazing. There wasn't such a thing as "my blaster is more powerful than your blaster". 2) Do it very rules heavy. Mutants & Masterminds. Everything you buy has a cost and a descriptor. You want X-ray glasses? Sure. Pay X power points. You want a Mass Effect-style omnitool? Note down the abilities and pay X power points. D20 Future abjectly failed at this. Possibly the worst example was "genetic engineering", which was not the same thing as mutations, which were different from moreaus. That was also just terribly balanced, as in it made 2nd Edition D&D psionics look balanced. I would like to play in Star Drive or Dark Matter again. I would probably use Fate or M&M for the former and d20 Modern for the latter. I could potentially use Sasquatch Games, but so far nobody has demonstrated interest. My group are in our late 30s and early 40s and we're getting too old to learn new systems. [/QUOTE]
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Why not Alternity? (Or, will or how might WotC do SF?)
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