Glorious was the day I received my review copy of the Alternity Player's Handbook from RPGnet: a nice reward for my reviews, and an incentive to write some more. Let's go.
Introduction
Alternity is TSR's foray into the field of science fiction roleplaying. Just as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is sometimes seen not just as a game, but rather as a great framework of rules for fantasy roleplaying, Alternity was to be a framework for sci-fi roleplaying. The authors are quite clear on this in the foreword: "Our philosophy, at its core, was to provide a set of game mechanics that allow you to play any type of science fiction story, from contemporary technothrillers to far-future space opera and everything in between." The line was modelled after AD&D: two core rulebooks (one for the players, one for the GM), several generic supplements (Mindwalking, Warships) and several campaign settings. Three campaign settings were developed for Alternity: Star*Drive, Dark*Matter and Gamma World. And then the Alternity line was shut down. That's right, you won't get any more new supplements for Alternity, let alone a second edition.
Presentation
The Handbook is a full colour, hardcover tome of 256 pages. The cover illustration is not properly credited and depicts a grizzled human with a big gun in front of a window in a spaceship. The interior pages are glossy and full colour. Green is the main colour here, as it is used for all the titles and headers. The bulk of the text is presented in a three-column format. The font is very legible — serif, enough whitespace, large enough. Sidebars abound here: rounded, green rectangles with black text. The background colour could have been a bit lighter here, to enhance the contrast. The tables (there are 53 of them) are also very readable. The font size is slightly larger compared to the normal text. This is a good thing because these tables will be consulted often during games. The beauty of this layout is marred however, with the use of a shade of blue that is unreadable when used on the green background.
The interior illustrations are by rk post, Todd Lockwood, William O'Connor, Dennis Kauth and Rob Lazzaretti. (Lockwood is now mostly known for his illustrations for D&D Third Edition and O'Connor has done quite a few covers for White Wolf Publishing.) Every chapter has a frontispiece by rk post. Most of them are nice, some of them bad. The five alien species all get a 1/2-page picture by rk post, depicting a male and a female specimen.
Some of the equipment and the weapons get its own illustration. These graphics are all very sober and utilitarian, and sometimes even redundant: if the only difference between two weapons is the caliber, I can do with only one picture, thank you very much.
To round out the mix of pictures, there are some filler pictures. There's nothing wrong with filler material, but I hate the captions on these ones. Example: A small picture of a planet with a red star behind it has the title "Red star rising." You're kidding, right? Three people who appear to have been posing and are getting shot: "Automatic weapons can be hazardous to someone else's health." Let the art speak for itself, please.
So layout: very good, pictures: average to sub-standard, captions: a definite no-no.
The book is a rather dry read. This is partially because of the subject matter: rules. There are some examples that lighten up the text and there are even some funny remarks to be found. They are few and far between, however.
Contents
As I said before, Alternity was to be a framework of rules. The main goal of the Player's Handbook is just that: providing rules. Want setting, background, metaplot, story arc? Buy a campaign setting and all of its supplements, since little or no setting can be found in the book. Fans of White Wolf books will choke on this, lovers of AD&D will find it intimately familiar. With the goal in mind I can say the Player's Handbook succeeds.
After the foreword, credits and the table of contents we get the obligatory Introduction. This chapter tells us what a roleplaying game is, and how this book is to be used. It also stresses the importance of reading the first chapter, Fast-Play Rules. This is a Good Thing, since the fast-play rules describe the basic system, and you won't get the rest of the book without these basics. And the rules are quite elegant.
The basic idea is that you roll two dice for every action, instead of just one. The first die is the control die, a 20-sider. (1) The second die is the situation die and depends on the situation and the skills of the character. Add (or subtract) the totals of these rolls: if the result is equal or than your character's score in the relevant ability, you succeed. In an ordinary, everyday situation, you roll no situation die at all. If you've got good equipment, or the circumstances are very favourable, you get a positive situation die step. If you've got bad equipment, or you're wounded, you get a negative die step. Every die step moves your situation die one step up or down the following chart:
| -d20 |
-d12 |
-d8 |
-d6 |
-d4 |
d0 |
d4 |
d6 |
d8 |
d12 |
d20 |
2d20 |
3d20 |
| bonus |
|
penalty |
Example: if you attempt a broad skill (base situation die d4, and you have favourable conditions
and good equipment (both a -1 die step) you roll a d20 (the situation die) and subtract the result of a d4. Success is measured in degrees: Critical Failure, Failure, Ordinary Success, Good Success and Amazing Success. A Good Success happens if your result is lower or equal than one half of your character's score, an Amazing Success happens if your result is lower or equal than one quarter of your relevant score.
The system is probably best used in a cinematic setting: it's unpredictable and doesn't really simulate the 'real world'. As another reviewer of this game noted, it's best use would be in a space opera setting.
The chapter continues with a description of damage. Damage in Alternity is divided in three forms: stun damage (a small bruise), wound damage (a cut of a knife) and mortal damage (vital body parts are damaged).
After these basic rules 8 character templates are included. Now you're ready to play Cauldron Station, the fast-play adventure presented in Alternity's GM book, the Gamemaster Guide. (If you don't own the Guide, you can download the adventure from Alternity's website. (2)
After this, you can develop your own character (or Hero in Alternity-speak) with the rules in chapter 2: Hero Creation. If you don't want to be a human, you can also pick one of the five alien races the book provides. Each species has it's own advantages, which are primarily expressed in the basic skills they have. And you have to choose a Profession. A profession is essentially a class, but the good thing is that a profession isn't nearly as limiting as a class in AD&D. Every profession has it's own advantages. One of the other times your character's profession matters is when buying your skills: some skills are cheaper for some professions. But: characters from all professions can buy all skills. There are four professions: Combat Spec (warrior), Diplomat (negotiators, managers), Free Agent (I'll call this one the rogue) and the Tech Op (technicians, medical doctors). In these four professions, you have to choose or make up a career: something your hero is doing right now. Next is the assignment of 60 points among the six ability scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Will and Personality — the terms are rather self-explanatory.
The following step of great importance: the point-based choosing of skills. Skills define what your hero can and can't do. If you like, you can also get some Perks and Flaws: advantages and disadvantages. Perks cost points and Flaws provide you with some. To round out character creation, you have to choose a moral attitude and character traits (is the hero optimistic, or genial, or cynical). Movement and durability are also presented in this chapter.
The main question here is why the authors included professions? They don't add very much and will annoy some players. There are some mechanics that depend on them and it helps newer players to grasp the game, though.
Heroes in Action continues where the fast-play rules left of. The rules are fleshed out: initiative, damage, recovery, combat and so on. Two things stand out: the GRAPH system and the Last Resort points. GRAPH stands for Gravity, Radiation, Atmospheric Composition, Pressure and Heat & Cold and describes the environment. Every part of the environment has it's own rating from 0 to 5. G5, for example, is the kind of gravity found on Jupiter. Last Resort points are used to alter the degree of success of a check: a useful feature that prevents a lot of heroes being killed before their time is due.
When I said Skills are important in Alternity, I wasn't joking. They take up 42 pages of the book. First, you have broad skills, like Acrobatics or Melee Weapons. Every broad skill is linked with an ability, for example Deception with Personality. Having a broad skill enables you to acquire specialty skills: an area in which the hero is an expert. An example is Stealth, which has the specialty skills Hide, Shadow and Sneak. Specialty skills can be improved in time, unlike broad skills.
Perks & Skills is probably the most uninspiring part of the book. We get 22 perks and 20 flaws. As a comparison: GURPS Lite includes 24 advantages and 28 disadvantages. The perks and flaws in Alternity are very dull: we get the obligatory Reputation, Infamy, Forgetful, Filthy Rich and Dirt Poor, and so on.
Let's move on to more inspiring areas. The sixth chapter, Sample Careers offers some career ideas. Each profession gets about 6 sample careers. These are presented as a basic idea, the different things a career can focus on and the directions a career can take because of such a focus. We also get some sample equipment and a skill package. Only 8 pages long, this chapter gives us a much better understanding just what some professions are all about and what a career actually can do for your character. It's very helpful to new players, something that is always a pro in my book.
Another chapter that is helpful to new players but perhaps annoying to experienced players is Attributes. The chapter just lists sample motivations, moral attitudes and character traits. Nothing new here.
Chapter 8: Achievements discusses the way Alternity handles experience and levels. Yes, the game actually uses character levels. Fortunately, they don't take a very central role and are easily ignored. For achievement in the game, whether this is good roleplaying or simply surviving an adventure, the heroes are awarded with skill points. With these points, heroes can purchase better skills, better ability scores, buy of a flaw, and so on.
The next 4 chapters are probably best discussed together: Goods & Services, Computers, Weapons & Armor and Vehicles. The titles speak for themselves. The technology in Alternity is based on Progress Levels, not unlike GURPS' Tech Levels. PL5 is the Information Age and the age we currently live in. In the future, mankind will develop fusion power, faster-than-light travel and all those other things we see in our favourite sci-fi movies. Some of the technologies are difficult to imagine and a rather strange extrapolation from current physics and the current technology.
The four chapters give us enough equipment and rules to last a long time. I was particularly impressed with the vehicle combat rules, which are pretty simple and rather elegant. I was less happy with the chapter on computers. I think that computers will develop much faster than the way they were presented in the Handbook.
The final three chapters, Mutants, Psionics and Cybertech, can be grouped together again, for they all represent optional rules. Well, this is not entirely true. The book constantly refers to these chapters. If you want to play a Mechalus (one of the alien races) you'll need to apply at least some rules from the cybertech chapter. If you want a Fraal character, you'll need psionics. Some of the fancier computer stuff only works well with cybertech gear. The only really optional chapter is Mutants, which lets you build just that, mutants. Mutation can be natural or engineered, and beneficial or detrimental. Some examples: Dermal Armor, Biorhythm Control, Wild Immunity and Major Physical Change.
The chapter on psionics offers, apart from actual rules on the matter, a new profession: the Mindwalker. Fortunately, you don't have to be a Mindwalker if you want to have psionic abilities. You can also be a Talent, which is a normal character (Combat Spec, Free Agent) which has a limited selection from the psionic skills.
Cybertech covers a mere 8 pages and offers all those gadgets we know from the books of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson: enhanced reflexes, retractable talons (3) and cyberoptics. We even get a system for Cykosis, a mental illness your character may get if it gets to much cybergear installed.
Next we get a compilation of often-used tables and a summary of the damage system. A pretty complete index and a table for all the tables are the last things we see before we get to the character sheet. It's worth noting that the character sheet is split in two: three pages provide the core, while a fourth page can be added if you use any of the 'optional' rules.
Evaluation
The Handbook succeeds in its goal: giving a framework of rules. The system is simple, if a tad gimmicky. It will probably work best in a cinematic setting. While the system is very lean at its core, the book adds a lot of modifiers to all the rolls. Every possible situation can be covered, with a bonus here or a penalty there. The authors note more than once however, that the basic rules are all you need. If you want more rules, go for it, but you can easily ignore all those modifiers to create a faster version. And that's just what I like about AD&D: the easily modified rules.
The use of achievement levels, classes and careers is a bit strange and the game could have done without it. Some of these rules are not so easily ignored.
With this book, you can create a lot of adventures. You don't need the Gamemaster Guide for that because this book contains all you'll need for a long time: character creation, equipment, combat rules, vehicles (including spaceships), aliens, cybertech, mutants and psionics. That's a whole lot. Note however, that these are rules. If you want a setting to go with these rules, you're fresh out of luck for the book doesn't provide this.
While the book is very complete, I wasn't so pleased with the presentation. Sure, the basic layout is very good and light on the eyes. Some of the colours used, however, have not enough contrast. Some of the pictures are OK, but there also some rather sub-standard illustrations. The book is a dry read.
All in all, this is a good book, packed with goodies you can use or just ignore. The rules are flexible enough.
Notes
(1) "Hmm, maybe we can call this the d20-system." Actually, I read a rumour once that the Alternity system was a practice for Dungeon & Dragons Third Edition.
(2) Want to check out Alternity? The site offer excerpts from the Handbook, the Guide and two sample adventures: Black Starfall and Red Starrise.
(3) Part of me kept screaming "Wolverine! Wolverine!" but I guess it's OK. I mean, Gibson used it Neuromancer, right?
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