The Inside Scoop on Gaming

TSR, unlike the heads of most non-software industries, is well-known for its ever-popular crappy products. Next to how White Wolf could have gone so wrong after such a promising beginning, the continued popularity of AD&D in the face of much better developments is perhaps the greatest mystery of the industry.

Given this, it surprises me that the authors of Alternity would go to the trouble of distancing it from AD&D, making sure that everyone understands that Alternity is something new. Or maybe TSR's designers wanted to finally show that have actually, finally looked out the damn window and noticed "Hey...people actually _like_ three-dimensional characters with completely non-random traits. Whoa..." That they, too, could evolve.

It might have worked. The new ideas and systems presented since D&D was released 25 years ago and the production resources of TSR were a potentially winning combination. Add this to TSR's willingness to exploit new setting ideas (even if it is only within the genre of hack and slack fantasy), and the development of Alternity would have been interesting to all but the most elitist of gamers.

Except for one minor detail. I won't spell it out, but I will give you a hint: competence.

Mechanically, Alternity is a fusion of AD&D and GURPS, which is two strikes against it in one breath, especially given that it manages to keep most of the irritating aspects of both systems. We still have character classes (er, "professions") and levels, but these are more akin to Rolemaster/Space Master than AD&D--mostly they determine what the character is best at, and how many points they've had to spend on their abilities. The system here is far less restrictive, however--unlike a Rolemaster or AD&D character, who will pretty much always suck at things outside of their one-dimensional profession, an Alternity character can theoretically excel at most any skill, especially if their level is high. Gone also are the random attributes and afterthought proficiencies--the player actually gets points to spend on attributes, and more points to spend on skills, which are based on the attributes. Similar to GURPS, a high attribute is vital if you want to be good at a skill witho! ut spending an exorbitant amount of points on it. Also like GURPS (and most other points-based systems, for that matter), players select Perks and Flaws for their characters, with the choices that have by now become entrenched in point-based game systems (Fame/Infamy, Good/Bad Looks, Wealth/Poverty, etc, yawn). And then there are the optional rules for psionics, mutations, and cybernetics. There are also Motivations, Moral Attitudes, and Character Traits to define the personality, which, like alignments in AD&D, will probably be carefully considered and then ignored during play.

So far, so good, right? This could work, right? Unfortunately, this is only the beginning, and we've just gone past everything that could be considered a strong point. The unrestrictive professions are nice, but there's only four of them: Fighter, Magic-User, Thief--oops, I mean Combat Spec, Diplomat, Free Agent, and Tech Op. Five, if you count the Mindwalker from the psionic rules. Yes, these cover a wide variety of character types, and you can choose a Career (pretty much just a "character description" label for what your character is/does: Spy, Field Doctor, Soldier, Han Solo Wannabe, etc) for further customization, but much flavor could have been added with more, narrower professions (with differing affinities and bonuses)--this would have helped characters of similar types feel unique, while the process of skill and perk/flaw selection would still ensure that even a party of the same profession would still be made of individuals with differing abilities and weaknesse! s.

Speaking of abilities, Alternity skill attempts are based on an attribute added to the relevant skill. Given the range of attributes and skills, this highlights a realism problem that plagues Alternity (and GURPS) far more than most games. Most Alternity attributes range from 8 to 14, while a skill of 3 is generally considered pretty good, and the most a player character can start with. Thus, a character with a high attribute can buy one level of a skill based on it and outclass (often quite blatantly) a lesser-gifted character who has many more levels of skill and probably years more experience. Sorry, doesn't happen. This irritation is allayed somewhat by rank benefits--special bonuses or abilities that only become available at certain ranks of skill. While this was not particularly well done (too many of the skills don't even have rank benefits, and many don't have enough), it is actually one of Alternity's few interesting touches.

And then there are the perks/flaws, which, on top of there being too few (the chapter detailing them only covers eight pages), generally suffer from the same problems as GURPS advantages/disadvantages. Most aren't variable enough (a poor/wealthy character is either really wealthy or almost dead broke, for example), and many (Appearance, Concentration, Reputation, Reflexes, etc) seem like they would work better as attributes or some other approach. The lack of variety also plagues the psionics and cybernetics options. Especially the cybernetics options. There are separate chapters describing the rules for them, but the actual lists will not appease interested players. Only eight pages are devoted to psionic skills, and barely three (!) for cyberware. Both the rules and the abilities/hardware are quite typical for science fiction--few imaginations were probed to create what you will see here, and few possibilities were explored. There's a bit more variety in the Mutation! s chapter, though still not nearly enough. Mutant abilities are also randomly determined, with both good and bad mutations, although a kind GM might allow choice for someone who really wants a specific mutant concept, although there's not much in the way of classic mutants you could build with this. The entire process will likely remind old-timers of TSR's ill-fated Gamma World.

The task resolution system itself is easy enough to grasp, and allows for varying difficulties and successes, although it is overly complicated, especially given that the authors are obviously trying to win over the AD&D fan base. The damage system is one of the few things that is not reminiscent of AD&D or GURPS, and involves Stun, Fatigue, Wound, and Mortal Damage, with weapons inflicting a number of dice of a given damage type, depending on what level of success the attacker gets. Armor works the same way, although the dice there are determined by the attack type rather than defender success. Aside from its inelegance (too much dice rolling), this system suffers from a noticeable lack of realism. Injuries do make it harder for characters to do things, and a high-level soldier might not get away with being stabbed and shot a dozen times or taking on ten or fifteen first-level beings in a stand-up fight, but most weapons short of the really big ones (think heavy cannons, ! explosives, and launchers) will only inflict Mortal Damage on an Amazing success (which usually means getting less than a 3 or 4 on a d20 + any number of other polyhedral dice)--the only other way is to use up all the target's Wound boxes, which often takes at least a couple of hits, even with high-tech weapons and unarmored targets. On the other hand, this probably suits the heroic bent of the game, but this does not make it more elegant or less irritating.

Other points can be discussed quickly. The book is well organized and cross-indexed, with relevant sections being clearly labeled and easy to find. The artwork is nice, although below the standards set by AD&D. It is also almost entirely lacking the scantily-clad, well-endowed women common to AD&D artwork, which was one of the game's last interesting features. Characters earn points for good role-playing and completing plots rather than killing and looting stuff, although it will probably be several adventures before most AD&D converts can remember to stop trying to look up how many points they can earn for fragging something. As far as the setting itself goes--well, there isn't much of a setting beyond a brief history of various races (I was _so_ glad not to see any elves, dwarves, or gnomes--seeing new games that aren't Middle-Earth related and involve elves and dwarves cause me to fail Sanity checks), which means that, like AD&D, Alternity is merely a framework of deta! il for future campaign worlds to come (probably boxed ones). Best of all, what we have here is just the Alternity Player's Handbook, which means that you, gullible player, can buy Alternity on the AD&D installment plan! That's right--for just $30 a go, you can own a genuine Alternity Gamemaster's Handbook, Alternity Monster Manual, and a Boxed Alternity Setting-With-Some-Kind-Of-Twist, all of which you'll need to play! And for your enjoyment, we'll probably also produce Player's Option books out every orifice we have: Perks & Flaws, Profession Handbooks, Psionics, Mutants, Cybertech, Technology & Progress Levels, Complete Books of [Insert Race Here]--you name it, and we'll take your money for it!

Needless to say, this is the final strike against it. Groan.

There isn't much else to say about Alternity--I could tell you it's better than AD&D, but what is that saying? I could guarantee that its campaign worlds will be given a level of detail, support, and production quality that have never been and will never be seen in GURPS (if its system and options are given more support, Alternity could even become a better choice as a universal system), but again, what is that saying? For a TSR product, Alternity could be considered spectacular. Compared to most modern games, however, it quickly descends to mediocrity.

In summary, I can't recommend Alternity, and I don't expect to ever be able to. If you want a game set among the stars, go find a copy of Fading Suns or Gatecrasher (Trinity and Traveler 4th Edition are hardly worth mentioning). Though they aren't perfect either, both settings have enough history, strange creatures, cybernetics, and everything else to satisfy adventurers, their rules work just as well without being more complicated, and--best of all--you won't have to buy more than one book before you have enough to run a good campaign with.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Alternity Player's Handbook
Author: Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR Cost: $29.95 Page count: 256 Capsule Review by X on 06/25/98. Genre tags: none	TSR, unlike the heads of most non-software industries, is well-known for its ever-popular crappy products. Next to how White Wolf could have gone so wrong after such a promising beginning, the continued popularity of AD&D in the face of much better developments is perhaps the greatest mystery of the industry. Given this, it surprises me that the authors of Alternity would go to the trouble of distancing it from AD&D, making sure that everyone understands that Alternity is something new. Or maybe TSR's designers wanted to finally show that have actually, finally looked out the damn window and noticed "Hey...people actually _like_ three-dimensional characters with completely non-random traits. Whoa..." That they, too, could evolve. It might have worked. The new ideas and systems presented since D&D was released 25 years ago and the production resources of TSR were a potentially winning combination. Add this to TSR's willingness to exploit new setting ideas (even if it is only within the genre of hack and slack fantasy), and the development of Alternity would have been interesting to all but the most elitist of gamers. Except for one minor detail. I won't spell it out, but I will give you a hint: competence. Mechanically, Alternity is a fusion of AD&D and GURPS, which is two strikes against it in one breath, especially given that it manages to keep most of the irritating aspects of both systems. We still have character classes (er, "professions") and levels, but these are more akin to Rolemaster/Space Master than AD&D--mostly they determine what the character is best at, and how many points they've had to spend on their abilities. The system here is far less restrictive, however--unlike a Rolemaster or AD&D character, who will pretty much always suck at things outside of their one-dimensional profession, an Alternity character can theoretically excel at most any skill, especially if their level is high. Gone also are the random attributes and afterthought proficiencies--the player actually gets points to spend on attributes, and more points to spend on skills, which are based on the attributes. Similar to GURPS, a high attribute is vital if you want to be good at a skill witho! ut spending an exorbitant amount of points on it. Also like GURPS (and most other points-based systems, for that matter), players select Perks and Flaws for their characters, with the choices that have by now become entrenched in point-based game systems (Fame/Infamy, Good/Bad Looks, Wealth/Poverty, etc, yawn). And then there are the optional rules for psionics, mutations, and cybernetics. There are also Motivations, Moral Attitudes, and Character Traits to define the personality, which, like alignments in AD&D, will probably be carefully considered and then ignored during play. So far, so good, right? This could work, right? Unfortunately, this is only the beginning, and we've just gone past everything that could be considered a strong point. The unrestrictive professions are nice, but there's only four of them: Fighter, Magic-User, Thief--oops, I mean Combat Spec, Diplomat, Free Agent, and Tech Op. Five, if you count the Mindwalker from the psionic rules. Yes, these cover a wide variety of character types, and you can choose a Career (pretty much just a "character description" label for what your character is/does: Spy, Field Doctor, Soldier, Han Solo Wannabe, etc) for further customization, but much flavor could have been added with more, narrower professions (with differing affinities and bonuses)--this would have helped characters of similar types feel unique, while the process of skill and perk/flaw selection would still ensure that even a party of the same profession would still be made of individuals with differing abilities and weaknesse! s. Speaking of abilities, Alternity skill attempts are based on an attribute added to the relevant skill. Given the range of attributes and skills, this highlights a realism problem that plagues Alternity (and GURPS) far more than most games. Most Alternity attributes range from 8 to 14, while a skill of 3 is generally considered pretty good, and the most a player character can start with. Thus, a character with a high attribute can buy one level of a skill based on it and outclass (often quite blatantly) a lesser-gifted character who has many more levels of skill and probably years more experience. Sorry, doesn't happen. This irritation is allayed somewhat by rank benefits--special bonuses or abilities that only become available at certain ranks of skill. While this was not particularly well done (too many of the skills don't even have rank benefits, and many don't have enough), it is actually one of Alternity's few interesting touches. And then there are the perks/flaws, which, on top of there being too few (the chapter detailing them only covers eight pages), generally suffer from the same problems as GURPS advantages/disadvantages. Most aren't variable enough (a poor/wealthy character is either really wealthy or almost dead broke, for example), and many (Appearance, Concentration, Reputation, Reflexes, etc) seem like they would work better as attributes or some other approach. The lack of variety also plagues the psionics and cybernetics options. Especially the cybernetics options. There are separate chapters describing the rules for them, but the actual lists will not appease interested players. Only eight pages are devoted to psionic skills, and barely three (!) for cyberware. Both the rules and the abilities/hardware are quite typical for science fiction--few imaginations were probed to create what you will see here, and few possibilities were explored. There's a bit more variety in the Mutation! s chapter, though still not nearly enough. Mutant abilities are also randomly determined, with both good and bad mutations, although a kind GM might allow choice for someone who really wants a specific mutant concept, although there's not much in the way of classic mutants you could build with this. The entire process will likely remind old-timers of TSR's ill-fated Gamma World. The task resolution system itself is easy enough to grasp, and allows for varying difficulties and successes, although it is overly complicated, especially given that the authors are obviously trying to win over the AD&D fan base. The damage system is one of the few things that is not reminiscent of AD&D or GURPS, and involves Stun, Fatigue, Wound, and Mortal Damage, with weapons inflicting a number of dice of a given damage type, depending on what level of success the attacker gets. Armor works the same way, although the dice there are determined by the attack type rather than defender success. Aside from its inelegance (too much dice rolling), this system suffers from a noticeable lack of realism. Injuries do make it harder for characters to do things, and a high-level soldier might not get away with being stabbed and shot a dozen times or taking on ten or fifteen first-level beings in a stand-up fight, but most weapons short of the really big ones (think heavy cannons, ! explosives, and launchers) will only inflict Mortal Damage on an Amazing success (which usually means getting less than a 3 or 4 on a d20 + any number of other polyhedral dice)--the only other way is to use up all the target's Wound boxes, which often takes at least a couple of hits, even with high-tech weapons and unarmored targets. On the other hand, this probably suits the heroic bent of the game, but this does not make it more elegant or less irritating. Other points can be discussed quickly. The book is well organized and cross-indexed, with relevant sections being clearly labeled and easy to find. The artwork is nice, although below the standards set by AD&D. It is also almost entirely lacking the scantily-clad, well-endowed women common to AD&D artwork, which was one of the game's last interesting features. Characters earn points for good role-playing and completing plots rather than killing and looting stuff, although it will probably be several adventures before most AD&D converts can remember to stop trying to look up how many points they can earn for fragging something. As far as the setting itself goes--well, there isn't much of a setting beyond a brief history of various races (I was _so_ glad not to see any elves, dwarves, or gnomes--seeing new games that aren't Middle-Earth related and involve elves and dwarves cause me to fail Sanity checks), which means that, like AD&D, Alternity is merely a framework of deta! il for future campaign worlds to come (probably boxed ones). Best of all, what we have here is just the Alternity Player's Handbook, which means that you, gullible player, can buy Alternity on the AD&D installment plan! That's right--for just $30 a go, you can own a genuine Alternity Gamemaster's Handbook, Alternity Monster Manual, and a Boxed Alternity Setting-With-Some-Kind-Of-Twist, all of which you'll need to play! And for your enjoyment, we'll probably also produce Player's Option books out every orifice we have: Perks & Flaws, Profession Handbooks, Psionics, Mutants, Cybertech, Technology & Progress Levels, Complete Books of [Insert Race Here]--you name it, and we'll take your money for it! Needless to say, this is the final strike against it. Groan. There isn't much else to say about Alternity--I could tell you it's better than AD&D, but what is that saying? I could guarantee that its campaign worlds will be given a level of detail, support, and production quality that have never been and will never be seen in GURPS (if its system and options are given more support, Alternity could even become a better choice as a universal system), but again, what is that saying? For a TSR product, Alternity could be considered spectacular. Compared to most modern games, however, it quickly descends to mediocrity. In summary, I can't recommend Alternity, and I don't expect to ever be able to. If you want a game set among the stars, go find a copy of Fading Suns or Gatecrasher (Trinity and Traveler 4th Edition are hardly worth mentioning). Though they aren't perfect either, both settings have enough history, strange creatures, cybernetics, and everything else to satisfy adventurers, their rules work just as well without being more complicated, and--best of all--you won't have to buy more than one book before you have enough to run a good campaign with. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 2 (Sparse)