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TSR's Last Gasp: Alternity (Introduction)![]() ![]() The first sign the artwork is a labour of love. Is the game as cool? Mostly. In the dying days of TSR, some bright sparks got together and said “Okay, we largely own fantasy roleplaying now, and we tried our hand at western (Boot Hill) and post-apocalyptic (Gamma World). Let's try modern day/sci-fi!” And so, Alternity was born. Cleaving to the usual “PHB, GMG, Setting Books, Splatbooks” model, Alternity actually had a system that wasn't a direct ripoff of AD&D's mechanics. No, instead it was altered to be slightly less confusing in combat, and slightly (slightly) less confusing in general. In a very real sense, this was proto D20 as we know it today. Unfortunately, that, and the fact that roleplaying was going through one of its regular slumps, meant that Alternity, as a line, was killed before it could grow to the massive proportions it deserved. Because it's genuinely not a bad system. Flawed? Yes. But actively bad? Hell no! Well, except in one, maybe two areas that definitively and objectively suck. But they're mostly optional rules anyways... It spawned two unique settings, Star*Drive and Dark Matter, and also resurrected the shambling corpse of Gamma World under its new system. I'll be exploring the core books, and then I will be exploring Dark Matter and Star*Drive, the two (interesting) settings for the game. And you know what else it had? Look at the covers for the core books. You know who that is? RK Post. For reference, here's an old gallery of his. He is awesome, and his work definitely lights up many of the books this system has. See you next time, for the first actual update!
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# ¿ Feb 8, 2025 10:32 |
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Tasoth posted:Alternity's art being awesome doesn't stop there. Both of the alien guides have covers by Brom and the actual illustrations are top notch. God do I love those books. Then get in, dammit! But seriously, the two main artists being RK Post and Brom was an absolutely awesome thing, and it definitely makes the books pop out (even if the colour scheme and layout of the book is a bit... "erm", at first). Sadly, Dark Matter's art is not quite as awesome, but still definitely has its moments (the Dark Matter artists are not as famous as the core and Star*Drive artists, who are Brom, RK Post, and Todd Lockwood)
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I say Apocalypse... but then, I love me line finishers... ![]() Fossilised Rappy posted:The best art for any Alternity book has been and always will be Facepalm Priest from Dark*Matter. And you can guarantee he'll be in there when we get to it, along with everyone's favourite Screaming French Canadian Diabolist Trucker! Alternity – Making Folks (Races and Chargen Part 1) Those of you who own the Alternity books will notice I've just skipped two whole chapters, the intro, and the Fast Play Rules. This is because the Fast Play rules don't really explain much (they never do), and the introduction, beyond the breathless bubbliness of Bill Slaviscek and Richard Baker (they were really excited about the game, and it shows!), doesn't really say much we haven't heard before. So let's get straight to the meat and potatoes... making a character. I'm going to eventually make two characters, one to demonstrate how the system can trip you up, and one to demonstrate how a good (read: at least semi-broken) character is made. In any case, first up is not, as you'd suspect, picking your stats, but your class and race. The default races in Alternity are all based on the Star*Drive setting, but as we'll demonstrate in the GMG later, it's quite easy to build your own. Let's deal with the races first. The Baseline ![]() Bill Slaviscek Really Enjoys His Research Humans. Why am I spending time on humans? Because, as in many RPGs, humans form the baseline. Stats go from 4-14, and their skills... oh, yes, I'd forgotten about this. One of the quirks of the game is that races get a free Broad Skill (think of it like a skill package) in at least four of the six stats (They're basically the AD&D stats renamed). For humans, it's a generic set: Athletics (Strength), Vehicle Operation (Dexterity), Stamina (Constitution), Knowledge (Intelligence), Awareness (Willpower), and Interaction (Personality). The only mention I'll make now of those skills is whise the races differ. Of course, as with any setting, humans' main ability is to breed like rabbits, expand everywhise, and generally make life interesting (read: loving chaotic) for everyone else. At least RPGs see humanity right, even if we don't! ![]() But seriously, they get an extra free Broad Skill, some more Skill Points, and that's yer lot. Oh, Dem Greys... ![]() The woman's hat does d4w/d4+1w/d6m... The Fraal (Fr-ahl) are the first race mentioned (humans are something like fourth), and, as you might have guessed, they're basically Greys. Not the needlessly anal probing kind we all know of, but the wise and benevolent types you'd expect if your only source of knowledge about Greys was something as biased as Von Daniken. Naturally, they're psychic, which means they get Telepathy (Personality) instead of Athletics, and Resolve (Willpower) instead of Stamina. They're physically frail, but are smarter than we are, have stronger wills, and are generally nicer folks. In the Star*Drive setting, thise are two groups: Builders (Who live like Eldar in generation ships, except that they did this to escape something they completely forgot about, instead of from space-demons) and Wanderers (Who are basically nomads). The two groups are not mutually antagonistic, and Builders quite freely become Wanderers and vice-versa. We'll touch on them more when Star*Drive rolls around, but suffice to say, they are actually important to the metaplot of the game (although this is not immediately apparent) One nice touch that I will mention, however, is that the race section gives short guidelines on how to fit each race into a modern game, a near-future game, and a far-future game. For the Fraal, that's respectively “First race to contact humans”, “The Fraal are Humanity's mates”, and “The Fraal are still Humanity's mates.” Fascinating. Their favoured class is, predictably, Mindwalkers (psychics). We Used To Be Bastards, But Now We're At One With Dell ![]() Alienware's Sales-Reps of the Future! The Mechalus (Mek-Ah-Luss), or Aleerin, as they call themselves, are near-humans. The difference, as you may have noticed, is that they are cybered to the gills from birth. They used to be a warlike race, but they have (mostly) discovered peace and harmony via the wonders of cybernetics. Didn't stop them almost destroying their homeworld before they trawled the Interwubs though. Their basic abilities involve cybernetics and computers. As far as computers go, they get a -1 “Step Bonus” (basically, -d4, in this case... lowballing is good in this system) to using computers, and... a Good Nanocomputer in their heads, two slots in their heads for programs, and what is essentially that well known game-changer, Wired Reflexes. Skill wise, they replace Interaction with Computer Science (Intelligence). So they're athletic goons. However, like the stereotypical goon, they have comparatively low willpower and personality. In a near-future or contemporary campaign, it's recommended to use them as a First Contact scenario, with all the awkwardness that usually follows such stories, whereas they're buddies with humanity in the Far Future. Also predictably, they prefer to be Tech Ops. There Had To Be A Colonisation Metaphor Somewhere... ![]() I am really liking the nod toward sexual dimorphism here, btw. ...and the Sesheyan (Sesh-Ey-Ahn) are that metaphor. A winged species somewhere between bats and reptiles, with 6 eyes and an animistic belief system, the Sesheyan are only in space because humankind got them there, and it's up to you as to whether this was in a good or a bad way. Star*Drive pretty much goes the “We abused the Amerindians” route, as VoidCorp ( ![]() Their skillset switches out Athletics for Melee Weapons (because Primitives) and Vehicle Op for Acrobatics, because they can fly. Oh, did I mention that, having wings, they rather sensibly are able to fly with them? They also have night vision (not darkvision, just night vision), act as though they have level 1 in Acrobatics: Zero-G Training, and never suffer fall damage if they can use their wings. You can pretty much guess the history section, and statwise, they're weaker, quicker, not as smart, but have high willpower. Stereotypical Sesheyan are Free Agents (the game's equivalent of rogues) Hyperactive Geckomen From SPAAAAACE! ![]() See? Not like Kender At All The T'Sa (Tuh-Sah) are the last but one race in the base selection, and some people compare them to Kender. At first glimpse, this is perfectly true: They speak fast, they live fast, they think fast, and they're curious to the point of stupidity about technology. But, and this is the important point, they're not kleptomaniacs that lie about being kleptomaniacs, and, so long as you keep them away from big red buttons marked “DO NOT PUSH EVER” in big complicated machines, they're not going to annoy you, get you into trouble, or cause TPKs, unlike Kender. So, in general, a massive improvement. Skillwise, they switch out Vehicle Op for Manipulation (sleight of hand), and statwise, they're weaker, much quicker, and slightly more likable than us talking monkeys. They have natural body armour (seems equivalent to a lighter version of a SWAT suit), get a -d4 bonus to their initiative (known as an Action Check), and a -d4 bonus to juryrig skill checks. Historically, first contact was friendly, and they've been friendly ever since... they're pretty chill guys, as a species. Stereotypical T'Sa is either a Free Agent or a Tech Op. And no, they're still not space-kender. Every RPG Needs A Big Guy ![]() Weren Don't Screw Around. Nuff Said. The Weren (Wear-Un) are the Big Dumb Guys of Alternity (and, by extension, Star*Drive). They live on a planet called Kurg, and, in the Star*Drive setting, live in a tribal society that's been culturally uplifted (the Weren were already intelligent) by the Orlamu Theocracy (who believe in some Big Space Daddy called the Cosimir). This jibed quite well with the Weren's spiritual beliefs, so basically, they're murderous, but highly spiritual wolf-bear things. Just think of them as Big Dumb Guys, it's slightly easier. Unsurprisingly, stat-wise, they're stronger, dumber, slower, weaker willed, and less personable. Also unsurprisingly, Weren swap out driving vehicles for Unarmed Attack, and that's about it. However, it's their special abilities which really cement their Big Dumb Guy status: Weren have 1.5 x Durability (Hit Points, basically), retractable claws, natural camouflage, and they get a +d6 penalty to using things that are above Progress Level 4 (Early Renaissance Period) Weren only get a Far Future option, because they're primitives, but they basically learn new stuff readily, while not ignoring their homeworld's culture. I'll go more into them when we get to Star*Drive, because they do actually have a characterisation beyond Big Dumb Guys. If you didn't guess that they like hitting things (and are thus best in the Combat Specialist class), I don't know how to help you. Well, that's the races! Next time, we'll go into classes, stats, and buying skills! After that, we'll start making those characters!
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Gerund posted:While I stand by what I had in my abandoned Alternity write-up, I hated the game and trying to play it, and it shows. You still had some very valid points, although a little exaggerated: The lethality of the game is WoD-as-humans level if you're not careful (gotta make a combat example, thanks for reminding me), the layout isn't amazing, and they don't explain certain mechanics very well (I have to rewrite the Cybernetics update because of that lack of clarity). But then, the game really doesn't skimp on a lot of things, and the optional rules it skimps on, it often released entire splatbook. Also, as far as C:TL goes, always up for some C:TL, I found it a decided improvement on the previous edition.
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Hardware Repaired... Reconnecting to Gridspace... "Hello, Mr. TheD, Welcome Back To FATAL & Friends!" Alternity: The other Half of the Equation (Chargen Part 2) ![]() Yeah, this is where it deserves to be... but sadly not... So, now that we know what races we can pick from, let's go take a look at the stats and classes, shall we? As mentioned, there are six stats, and the human baseline for them is between 4 and 14. They're largely self explanatory, being renamed versions of the six D&D stats. And you get 60 points to split between them, making the average for a hero 10 (average human is 9). However, like AD&D, classes have stat requirements to them. So let's go into the classes, then derived stats, and then the end of the update. The classes are nearly all self explanatory, but each has a special ability. In the order they appear, they are: ![]() Yes, this game has power armour... and it's not bad... Combat Specs – They hit things, shoot things, and kill things. They're not complicated. They get a +3 bonus to their base Action Check skill (yes, initiative is handled like skills in this game... but you can't improve it except with cybernetics, psychic powers, or other arcane means), and they can pick one weapon or armour skill which they get a -d4 bonus to rolling. As we'll see, though, they're even more limited once you get to skills than usual for warriors, and that can get awkward. They need minimum 11 Strength, and minimum 9 Constitution. Diplomats – These are the talky guys, but they also double as the “spy” class for the game. In the James Bond sense, not the “rogue” sense. Interestingly, it is this class that has the greatest skill freedom, not the Free Agent class, because of what I consider their primary special ability: They get to pick a second class, and get cheaper skills for both the Diplomat class, and whatever other class they picked. They also get a +1 to their Action Check skill, and start with either Contacts or Resources as a talent. Considering the focus in Alternity is very much on skills, these guys are the secret power-houses of the game. They need minimum 9 Willpower, and minimum 11 Personality. Free Agents – Free Agents are basically rogues. there's not much else to say about them, except that they're luckier than any other class (1 extra Last Resort Point, which is basically Luck, and they can spend 2 on any roll as opposed to everyone else's 1), can pick a stat they're better able to oppose people with (adds a dice step to the penalty of anyone trying to beat that stat), and get +2 to their Action Check skill. They're kinda middle of the road. They require 11 Dex and 9 Will. ![]() Cyberpunkin': Tattoos Not Optional. Tech Ops – Short for Technical Operatives, these are, obviously, your techy guys. Their special ability? To learn quicker than other people (More skill points per level). Their skill focus, obviously, is on techy stuff, and they get a +1 to their Action Check. Gots to have 9 Dex, 11 Int. and finally, there's Mindwalkers... except, because Psionics is an optional rule, they're not described as a class until Chapter 14 of the PHB, and only their stat requirements of Con 9, Int 9, and Will 11 are shown in the classes section at the beginning. Skipping forward, we find... they have a +1 to their Action Check, and can pick one psychic Broad Skill to have a -1 step bonus on... which is potentially a much sweeter deal than the Combat Spec's skill specialisation. But we will get to why when we get there... So, we've got the stats, we've got the races, we've got the classes. What's next? Well, if you're using optional rules, gotta work those out (the base set are Mutations, Psionics, and Cybernetics, all three of which are default in Star*Drive), and then you have to sort your skills out. We'll mainly be dealing with skills when they come around in the book (after basic rules), but for now... we'll note that it makes the “mistake” of relating skills to intelligence. Specifically, you can buy INT/2 Broad Skills, and (INT-1) x 5 Skill Points worth of stuff overall. Now, I will say that I actually like intelligence based skill systems, but it does often lead to min-maxing, and I can perfectly understand why many people dislike them. We'll leave it at that, and move on to the next steps, and the next complaint people have against Alternity. See, when it says Player's Handbook, it's really not joking. Much like AD&D, and a lot of systems before and since, the Player's Handbook is entirely filled with precisely two things: How to make a character (90% of the book), and the resolution system (10% of the book). As such, this means there's a lot of page flipping if you want to make a character, and, much like GURPS (which has a very similar pair of corebooks), it's point buy, which means making players takes time, and that puts a lot of people off. Again, I can perfectly understand this, but I happen to like it myself, due to the fact that, unlike many other systems, it really doesn't gently caress around. So what's left? ![]() This is evidence that the book is not amazingly well organised, being in the chargen chapter. Also... No poo poo, Sherlock! Perks and Flaws (Chapter 5), Motivation, Moral Attitude, and Character Traits (Chapter 6, or do what most experienced players do, and just skip them by writing a decent backstory that tells us these things), sort derived stats (in the chargen chapter), and sort out your starting cash and kit (Chapters 9-11). So, let's look at the derived stats. Last Resort points are basically Luck Points. They modify rolls, and we'll deal with them in a couple of updates time, along with the rest of the system. Action Checks, however, allow me to give a little preview of it... Skills have three levels of success: Ordinary, Good, and Amazing. Action Checks, because they're basically initiative, also have a Marginal level of success. How is this calculated? Well, in the case of skills, Ordinary is the associated stat + skill level, Good is half that, and Amazing is half that (rounded down). In the case of Action Checks, the stat is the average of your Dexterity and Intelligence (rounded down... always rounded down), and Marginal is anything highis than that. Obviously, you want to lowball to win. All actions in a phase happen simultaneously. The next derived stat is Actions Per Round. That's right, you can act more than once, if you're good enough! This is derived by (CON + WILL)/8... all togethis now... rounding down. Finally, the highis your Strength and Dexterity are, the quicker you can move in combat, which makes perfect sense. Finally, we come to Durability. Which is, to me, an interesting set of stats. Essentially, you have four types of hit points: Stun (which K.Os you if it goes to 0), Wound (which seriously fucks you over if it goes to 0), Fatigue (guess), and Mortal (0 = You're dead). Wound and Stun are both equal to your Constitution, while Fatigue and Mortal are half that, rounded... up. Yes, that's right, I lied. Some things round up. But not often. Finally, if you're strong, you do slightly more damage with melee and unarmed, and if you're not, you don't. there, that was relatively painless, wasn't it? So let's talk about the rules next time, and start making those characters the update after, a'ight? See ya then!
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Piell posted:That's not true! Who doesn't like fighting darkmantles forever! Not to mention the... ah, you haven't finished Region A yet... nevermind. Suffice to say, there are bigger gently caress you's... but not necessarily better ones. And I definitely agree with Halloween Jack on the Room of Certain Death. If you're going to be an adversarial dick (like the designers of WLD), then at least do it with style. EDIT: Although I still think you can't top "You bust through the door, and the room is a Gargantuan Gelatinous Cube. Good loving luck on your strength checks, gently caress you, goodnight!" JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 23, 2013 |
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Can't sleep, so have a big honkin' update! Alternity: Wait, I Roll What? (Rules) ![]() The images, you may have worked out, are sorted by "Rule of Cool", as opposed to relevance. I mentioned before that Alternity has an odd way of doing things. And a surprising amount of people have trouble with it, despite the fact it's relatively simple. So let's start by repeating how skills are calculated. Essentially, you have two types of skills: Broad Skills, which allow you to do anything that doesn't need specialist training in a certain area (like Computer Use, or Unarmed Combat), and what I call Proper Skills, which actually have levels, unlike a Broad Skill, which you pay for once, and never upgrade. So why buy Proper Skills? For two reasons. The first is that, as I just said, you can never upgrade the skill-score of a Broad Skill. It will forever be “Your Stat/Half Your Stat/A Quarter of Your Stat”. Secondly, it gets a +d4 penalty to your die roll, unlike Proper Skills. So, as an example, with a CON of 12, you could have a Stamina Broad Skill of 12/6/3 (+d4), and, picking a sensible number out of the air, a Stamina - Endurance (2) Specialty of 14/7/3. The three numbers are for Ordinary, Good, and Amazing success levels, and you want to lowball. Simple. “But Jamie, what is all this talk of plus and minus various dice?” ![]() The Most Important Diagram In The Book. Well... let's use an example skill. Let's say Ranged Combat – Rifles, at a level of 12/6/3 (a perfectly average skill level). Now, if the person who has this skill is shooting a rifle under standard conditions at medium range, it's a pretty simple roll of 1d20, and they want to roll as low as possible (because Good and Amazing successes lead to better things happening, for obvious reasons). However, the GM might turn around and say “Well, overall, that's a 2 step penalty”. What does that mean? It means that they roll a second die (in this case, a d6), and add it to the roll. Bonuses go from -1 (-d4) to -5 (-d20, aka “Nobody's ever giving you this bonus” or “Oh God, don't bother rolling, you win!”). On the other hand, penalties go from +1 (+d4) to +7 (+2d20, aka “I asked you five times whether you really wanted to do this!”... also rarely given, for obvious reasons.). So, for this average rifle skill, this ranges from nigh 100% chance of success, to 60% for +0 steps, to perhaps less than an 8% chance at the very top end of the penalties. However, there is a flat 1/20 chance apiece for either a critical success or a critical failure, regardless of the total value of the dice. A natural 1 on the d20 always succeeds, while a natural 20 always fails. Of course, if you don't like criticals, you can always leave them out, I find. Assisting characters is basically a roll to see how many steps up or down you shuffle the player doing the thing he's rolling for, doing two things at once is a straight +2 step penalty on the main action, and a +4 step penalty (+d12) on the secondary action, and, obviously, both actions must be physically related (IE – things you can actually do at the same time). Simple, right? So now, let's talk about initiative and damage. We mentioned how Action Checks work before (a failure isn't a failure, it's the fourth phase of Initiative, actions are simultaneous in a phase, and it's just like rolling a skill), but what we didn't mention is postponing actions and more than one action in a round. If you have more than one action a round, you actually have the chance to lose actions in a round, because there are only four phases. Your average character has 1, maybe 2 actions a round... so if a 2 action character got a Good Action Check, they act on the Good phase, and can then act in either the Ordinary or Marginal phase. But if they rolled a Marginal initiative, they don't get a second action. Obviously, if you got a good roll on your Action Check, you can delay your first action too... but what if you only have one action, and want to go first next round? Well, then, you have to roll at least an Ordinary result, and spend the entire round doing gently caress all, and, next round, you'll have an Amazing Initiative. there are situations where this is useful, but... generally, just be happy with the initiative you got. Damage wise, we've already mentioned what going to 0 on your four health bars does... but we didn't mention how damage and armour works. there are three types of damage: Low Impact (LI, generally melee), High Impact (HI, generally ranged), and Energy (EN, pew-pew or fireball), and they usually have either an “s” (Stun), “w” (Wound) or “m” (Mortal) after the damage (which is usually [dice]+[number], and comes in Ordinary, Good, and Amazing flavours). Armour, unlike weapons, uses all three type ratings (LI/HI/EN), and blocks the damage rolled. If the armour is better quality than the “firepower” of the gun, it can also downgrade damage (turning mortal damage into wound damage, or wound into stun). Once all that's out the way, there's then secondary damage. ![]() I like to call this one "Yes, We Have A Swim Speed!" Obviously, when a weapon hits you, the damage isn't restricted to making you more dead: It also causes pain. And when somebody's knocked you out, they can keep kicking poo poo into you until it actually translates into organ damage. So, in order: - Stun damage bleeds over into wound damage at a rate of 2 stun to 1 wound once you're K.O'd. - Wound damage bleeds into mortal damage at a rate of 2 to 1 once you're K.O'd (yes, 0 wounds = K.O'd too), and for every 2 wound damage caused, you also take 1 stun (rounded down) - Mortal damage doesn't bleed into anything, but for every 2 mortal you take, you also take 1 stun and 1 wound (round down again) - Fatigue damage doesn't bleed into or onto anything... you just knock yourself out if you push yourself too hard for too long. As far as healing goes, Stun damage disappears at the end of a scene regardless, Wound damage can be partly healed with a successful Resolve – Physical Resolve check (but failure adds a wound) once a week, or can be sorted with medical care, and Mortal damage needs medical care. It doesn't heal naturally, and when you have any Mortal damage, it might get worse if you don't make a Stamina – Endurance check. If you get to 0, obviously, you are dead, game over. These checks happen at the end of a scene, and once every hour thereafter, until the poor dumb bastard gets some medical help. PS – First Aid and normal medical stuff don't help Mortal damage, only the Surgery skill can help. As you might be able to tell, it's a system where death is but a heartbeat away. In each combat phase, you can move and act, but certain types of movement give you a penalty. So that's alright. Before we finish the chapter (because the usual rules of Impact, Radiation, etc, are here, and are not much different from any other RPG), let's deal with Last Resort Points. Characters with LRPs can use them to upgrade or downgrade a skill check by one degree per point spent. Only Free Agents can spend more than 1 a round, nobody else can use an LRP on that check once it's been declared, and it has to be declared between the die being rolled, and the result being applied. This is, obviously, not a large window. Obviously, they can't make impossible things possible, they don't create critical successes, and they can only turn a crit failure into a normal failure. LRPs can only be replenished by buying them between sessions with skill points. RAW-wise, this isn't a great thing in general, and you could probably ease up on the “after rolling” restriction. But since LRPs are rarely used (or needed), it's no biggie. Next time, we start making characters! JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Apr 24, 2013 |
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Alternity: That's The Way To Do It! (Chargen Part 1)![]() The Future Of Customisation... Robots Cuttin' Your Head Up So, making characters in Alternity is, sadly, not without its pitfalls. We're going to explore some of those now, with two fictional goons, PlaidXII and TheDextrousWaffle (any resemblance to goons living or dead is purely coincidental, and are not light hearted ribbing of said goons. Also, I have pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge for sale.) PlaidXII is a sensible roleplayer, with one major quirk: He really loves bug-dudes. Mantis-dudes, cockroach-dudes, it doesn't matter, they loving rawk. Unfortunately for him, the Alternity PHB doesn't have bug-dudes, or anything with a hive mind, so he decides to go for the next best thing: A T'Sa. For class, he's going to go for a Diplomat-Tech Op, because talking and toys sounds like a good idea. TheDextrousWaffle, on the other hand, likes things that kill poo poo. He likes things that kill poo poo hard. So, rather naturally, he goes for a Weren. Because they kill poo poo. Hard. Because they also kill things hard, he rather predictably goes for the Combat Spec class. Statwise, PlaidXII looks at the requirements: WIL 9, PER 11. That's just fine, he wasn't planning for an overly physical character anyway. Starting with an average of 10 in each stat, he adjusts up and down to eventually get STR 7 (moderately beefy for a T'Sa, but still weakish), DEX 12, CON 8, INT 12, WIL 10 and PER 11. His character, Fred The Gecko, is a friendly, moderately smart chap who is nonetheless not too good at these whole “fisticuffs” or “physical effort” things. As a result of this, he gets an action check of 14+/13/6/3, a bonus from being a T'Sa of -d4 every time he rolls that, 8 Wound and Stun points, 4 Mortal and Fatigue points, 2 actions a round, 2 Last Resort Points (his maximum), and he can get 6 Broad Skills and can spend 55 skill points. He's happy with this. He also notes that he has natural armour of d4+1 LI/d4 HI/d4-1 EN. It doesn't have a quality listed, so he assumes it's Ordinary. Finally, he notes down his free broad skills, and resistance bonuses. TheDextrousWaffle, on the on the other hand, immediately puts max points into the physical. Killey dey rear end, survive to the end. For a Weren, that's 48 points, and the GM points out that that might be a wee bit much. No fucks are given, and the stats of STR 16, DEX 12, CON 16, INT 4, WIL 4, and PER 4 are noted down. Dumb as rocks, angry at the world (and unlikable for it), and about as perceptive and strong-willed as a cauliflower. Just the way he likes it. he gets an action check of 12+/11/5/2, and immediately bitches about it. The GM sighs. He then gets to sigh even more, as Grr'Arg (Waffle's character) gets 0 LRPs, 2 actions a round, 24 Wound and Stun, 12 Mortal and Fatigue, and can take a total of... 2 Broad Skills, with 15 skill points to go around. Waffle then realises that Weren can't use far-future bangtubes and pewsticks without penalties, and starts to cry about it. The GM reminds him that he's also harder to hit at range, and has natural weapons that do d4w/d4+2w/d4m (LI/O) (that's d4 wounds on an Ordinary Unarmed check at one end, and d4 Mortal on an Amazing on the other). Waffle bitches some more, and it is the GM's turn to give no fucks. Meanwhile, some random goon makes a human, and nobody cares, because in base Alternity, humans are good, but neither interesting nor amazing. He sits in a corner, unaided by the GM, and talks to his hands. Moving onto skills, the two goons see... a table. A big two page spread. With lots of pretty numbers and letters. They ask for an explanation. The DM then explains that skills come in two flavours: Broad Skills, which are general categories like Heavy Weapons or Life Science, and Proper Skills, which come in lots of flavours, and can be upgraded, unlike Broad Skills. You need to buy a Broad Skill before getting a specific skill, the ones marked with the same first letter as your class are one point cheaper, and it costs (cost+current level) to upgrade a skill. TheDextrousWaffle starts weeping openly, as they realise they can only afford two Broad Skills and two specialty skills, at best. They also notice that space tactics are only available cheaper to Tech Ops. Finally, they notice that none of the gun skills explicitly mention weapon maintennance, and definitely don't include weapon repair. The GM mollifies Waffle (slightly) be saying that they take weapon maintennance as sort of read for someone who knows how to use a weapon. So Waffle, still a little teary-eyed, buys the broad skills Melee Weapons [STR] and Ranged Weapons (Modern) [DEX], which start at 16/8/4 and 12/6/3 respectively, and take 10 of his 15 skill points. For specific skills, he takes one level each in Blade Weapons and Rifles respectively, which wipes his out. The GM reminds his of the -d6 penalty to pretty much all of the latter, and Waffle screams in rage.his 13/6/3 is now effectively a 10/3/1 on average. For any skill he doesn't have, which is allowed to be used untrained, he not only uses half his stat as the base (so Primitive Ranged Weapons would be 6/3/1), he also takes a -d4 penalty for not knowing the skill (as if he had only the broad skill). This is most of them. PlaidXII, meanwhile, is delighted to find that, while nearly all the combat and physical skills are normal price, pretty much everything in his favoured stats is cheaper than normal. However, he finds himself spoiled for choice, with only 6 Broad Skills to pick. He eventually decides that he wants Modern Ranged Weapons (6 points), Vehicle Operation (3 points), Business (3 points because it's a Diplomat skill), Navigation (5 points), System Operation (4 points), and Technical (6 points). He was tempted by the interpersonal skills and Law, but has to drop them in favour of his core idea: A space-trader. But at least Interaction as a Broad Skill was free! This still leaves him with 28 points, and there are certain things he absolutely needs. For example, Space Vehicle is trained-only, so he buys a rank of that (4 points). The same with Drivespace Astrogation (3 points). 21 points left, and he can potentially get a lot. Because he gets a racial bonus in it, he gets Juryrig (2 points), and because he wants to trade, he gets Bargain and Charm (2 points apiece). He then gets Small and Illicit Business (2 points each), Pistols (4 points), and, to round things off, he gets System Astrogation (2 points), Engineering (2 points), and Intuition (3 points) to round it all off. So, the character sheets so far: pre:
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While my temporary PC isn't good enough to LP on (boooo!)... I can still F&F with the best of them! That's right, it's time to go back to... Alternity: Skills, Perks, Flaws, and Guff (PHB Part 5, Chargen Part 2) ![]() Dissecting the rules like we would greys, awww yeah! Skills, as noted in previous updates, are pretty easy to understand. But there is one more thing to mention about them: Many skills have bonuses available to buy for getting them to certain ranks (usually in incremements of 3 or 4). For example, at rank 4 of a melee skill, the character gains a new maneuver, and again at ranks 6 and 9. Every 4 ranks, the resistance bonus for strength goes up by 1 when using that particular type of melee weapon. It must also be noted that the deck is heavily stacked toward Intelligence, as the vast majority of skills are either there or in Dexterity. Of course, this is because the Intelligence skills are nearly all very specialised, and only about a third of them have combat applications. So it all balances out. Perks and Flaws are pretty much normal, and, if anything, are a little sparse for a generic system. They cost or give skill points, and you can take 3 of each. there are, however, a couple of notable ones. Alien Artifact, for example, can be taken as either a perk or a flaw. What this means is that, if it's a perk, it's mostly good with some bad things, and if it's a flaw, it's mostly bad with some good things. Considering some of the bad things that can be chosen or rolled from the GMG section on artifacts, you'd be a chump to take this as a flaw. Then there is Filthy Rich and Dirt Poor. Tell me folks, how would you like some extra random in your starting funds? Both Filthy Rich and Dirt Poor provide this in spades, as they're a perk that's also a skill, and if you take them, you can either get 10 to 100 times more starting cash (Filthy Rich), or -25 to 90 percent of your funds for Dirt Poor! Wheee! Actually, pretty much any perk marked as “Conscious” requires a sort of skill roll to use, while flaws are nearly always a step penalty to a skill, resistance modifier, or attribute. But, beyond that, there's really not a lot to say about flaws. So let's move on a chapter! Chapter 6 (out of 15) is a collection of career templates. You spend a certain amount of skill points, get signature gear into the bargain, and it's generally a useful idea to at least start with one of these. Amusingly, this is also the chapter where the writers openly admit that the money system doesn't allow characters to get most of their starting gear. We'll go into this problem in more detail later, but suffice to say, it is a genuine flaw in this game, and allowing people to just take signature gear for the occupation closest to their concept is probably a very good idea. Especially since it gives some careers a ship and a waiting plot hook in the form of massive bank loans. ![]() "Perks & Flaws needs something... I know, dude freaked about the bullet-hole in his hand! Perfect!" Finally for this update, we have Chapter 7, which is rather confusingly called “Attributes”. Remember I mentioned Motivation, Morality, and Character Traits? This is where the PHB dumps them. I'm basically going to say that you're better off writing a proper background than relying on these, and then digress into something worth talking about : The artwork. Alternity brought in some top guns for the artwork, and, while the colour scheme of their books isn't great, and the layout isn't always great either (it took me a while to realise that Intelligence skills were the top half of the second page, instead of noting Engineering as a Willpower based skill... no mattter how amusing and often-accurate that may be...) But one thing that definitely stands out is the artwork. Lemme mention a couple of names... R K Post (nearly all the art we've seen so far). Brom (we'll come to his art later). And Todd Lockwood (The diplomats, among other pics). Of the three, I least prefer Lockwood's work, but as you can see, they contribute a unique style to the game, one which definitely gives it a good feel. And, on that note, next time, we'll be looking at experience, goods, and why you can never get what you want! JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 00:35 on May 11, 2013 |
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# ¿ Feb 8, 2025 10:32 |
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Alternity: Expanding Your Horizons (PHB Part 8)![]() She found ultimate enlightenment. How are you going to level up today? Alternity, it must be said, is not without its flaws. But there's one flaw that many players think exists in Alternity... When it actually doesn't. Namely, the idea that once you've bought your INT worth of Broad Skills, you can't buy any more. Let's flick back a bit and apply some basic logic, shall we? ”PHB, Page 33” posted:Intelligence is particularly important to every hero because it determines the number of Broad and Specialty Skills he starts with Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about levelling up. Levelling up is a matter of getting 5 + Your Current Level in achievement points, then you get the same amount of skill points, and any leftover achievement points go toward your next level. So for level 1, it's 6 points, but from level 1 to 3 is a further 15 points (7+8). Simple enough. Seeing as you can afford most broad skills in your class for 6 points, or a new level in a specialty skill plus a cheap new one, this doesn't seem too bad. Until you realise all the other natty stuff you can get, and stuff you have to pay for. This is one of the areas where Alternity gets complicated, because everything except skills has a minimum level requirement... that's different for each class. For example, let's say Fred the Gecko and Grr'Arg want to up their stats. Let's say it's Willpower, because you can't level up already maxed stats, and they both suddenly feel they need it. You can improve a single stat twice, so long as it doesn't go over the racial maximum, but, to use our example characters, the first chance they'd get for Willpower would be levels 3 and 7 respectively. If it were Strength, it would be 6th and 3rd level for the first. Then they can do it again 3 levels later, if they so choose. One thing that isn't mentioned on the whopping table, however, is Last Resort Points. Remember how you couldn't regain them naturally, you had to buy them back? Well, I hope you were paying attention to the book, because the cost is actually in the chargen section. Luckily, if you derp out, it does mention where to look (page 38). Also, something I forgot to mention, and the book only mentions it in passing in the Skills chapter. Remember I talked about natty skill rank benefits? You have to buy them. Does this extra book-keeping and points drain detract from the game? A little. But at least the experience system isn't too harsh: Between 1 and 3 points per adventure (longer adventures are either cut into parts or give more achievement points... they're not monsters!), and then there's an extra 1 point apiece up for grabs for good roleplaying or doing something amazing. So, for the first few levels, you're generally levelling up every few sessions, and it's only at levels 10 and above that things slow down. That, of course, is compensated for by the higher SP bonus, so, overall, it's not actually as bad as you'd think. ![]() The only crappy art I've found so far. No, it's not cell imaging, guys, it's a lovely Photoshop filter... Now, with that done, we move on to starting kit. This, ladies and gentlegoons, is a definite flaw... specifically, the starting money. On the low end, a Mindwalker starts with between 5 and 30 dollars (it uses dollars even when creds are more appropriate, just assume the usual “x monetary units” thing most RPGs do). At the high end? Diplomats, who get between 12 and 60 dollars. Yes, you heard that right: The highest amount you have to start a character with is 60 dollars (not counting the unreliable Filthy Rich bennie). You know what that will get you? A Briefcase. Or one day's cheap lodging, with 10 creds left over. It will come as no surprise that many Alternity Gms either give signature kit or multiply this some for actual starting kit. In any case, there's nothing particularly noteworthy in either the kit or the weapons and armour chapter, so next time, we'll finish character generation for our two fictional goons, and take a look at how the core book deals with computers after that.
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