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Alternity RPG
Alternity Gamemaster Guide
As the scene opens... hostile alien vessels converge on a starship in the distant reaches of space... scientists and doctors examine the dying victims of a mutant strain of bacteria... heavily armored space marines discover an ancient artifact on a desolate world...
IMAGINE THE FUTURE - ONE EPIC AT A TIME!
This roleplaying game provides a framework for all kinds of contemporary to far-future science fiction adventures. The Gamemaster Guide, the companion volume to the ALTERNITY Player's Handbook, contains everything needed to moderate the ALTERNITY game,
Rules for creating memorable supporting characters, adventures, and campaigns for any SF setting.
A "Fast-Play" chapter that teaches the basics of moderating the game and provides a starting adventure.
Starship construction rules and a tactical space combat system.
Comprehensive star system design rules, including stellar classes and planetary environments.
More than 30 aliens, creatures, and dangerous animals to use as opponents.
Templates that quickly bring supporting characters to life.
Guidelines for designing new alien species and alien artifacts.
Adventure triggers to spur your imagination and ignite the action.
A complete index for both the Player's Handbook and the Gamemaster Guide.
IMAGINE THE FUTURE - ONE EPIC AT A TIME!
This roleplaying game provides a framework for all kinds of contemporary to far-future science fiction adventures. The Gamemaster Guide, the companion volume to the ALTERNITY Player's Handbook, contains everything needed to moderate the ALTERNITY game,
Rules for creating memorable supporting characters, adventures, and campaigns for any SF setting.
A "Fast-Play" chapter that teaches the basics of moderating the game and provides a starting adventure.
Starship construction rules and a tactical space combat system.
Comprehensive star system design rules, including stellar classes and planetary environments.
More than 30 aliens, creatures, and dangerous animals to use as opponents.
Templates that quickly bring supporting characters to life.
Guidelines for designing new alien species and alien artifacts.
Adventure triggers to spur your imagination and ignite the action.
A complete index for both the Player's Handbook and the Gamemaster Guide.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 1998
About the author
Richard Baker
84 books230 followersA best-selling author and award-winning game designer, Richard Baker is known for his novels in the Forgotten Realms setting and his work on the Dungeons & Dragons game. His Realms novels include Condemnation (book 3 of the War of the Spider Queen), the Last Mythal trilogy, and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. He is currently working on a new military-themed science fiction series centered on the character Sikander North; Valiant Dust, the first book in the new series, debuts in November 2017 from Tor Books.
A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.
Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.
A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.
Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 23, 2017
This game died an ignoble death
17 August 2013
I'm not sure if I can add much more to this particular book than what I said about the game system in my comment on the Players Handbook. However I have noted that TSR (which is owned by Wizards of the Coast which in turn is owned by Hasbro, and I can see how Wizards of the Coast easily made more money than TSR because Magic the Gathering is much more like crack than a roleplaying games) do tend to release their books with a separate Gamemaster's and Players book. However, I do note that the Gamemaster's books tend not to have all that much in it that really do add to the rules.
Okay, they may contain monsters, but who cares if you know what the monsters stats are (though surprise special abilities may add to the flavour) because that generally does not help you when you are in combat, and even then seasoned players tend to know all of the monsters off by heart anyway. However, the gamemasters books do tend to contain information which does really help run a game so you end up having to fork out another $60.00 for another book (though Magic the Gathering is a much better syphoner of money).
Personally I really can't remember what is in this book, though I suspect that it is still lying at the bottom of a crate in a shed at the back of my parents house 700 km from where I am writing this review (and the car trip takes about 8-9 hours, which the plane flight, including the time it takes me to leave home and get to the city (45 min) catch the airport shuttle bus (45 min, plus $15 ticket) to the airport, hang around the airport (1 to 1.5 hours) and then get on the plane and wait for it to take off (15 mins) and then fly to Adelaide (45 min), and then go from the airport to my parents house (45 min), it would bring the total up to 4 hours, so, as I have just proven, planes may be faster, but they are not all that fast (and somebody even suggested that using the same calculation, it is faster to get to San Fransisco by car than it is by plane, though only just).
Well, I've just spent an entire paragraph talking about anything but this book, but as I said, there is little I can say about this book that I have not said in the commentary on the Player's Handbook. Anyway, the only reason I ended up getting it was because it was going cheap (most likely a clearance sale). It never really took off, though I think I did try running a couple of games. However I can't remember how well it worked, and I must admit, I do prefer d20 Modern (and Future) though I only played a few sessions of that as well.
17 August 2013
I'm not sure if I can add much more to this particular book than what I said about the game system in my comment on the Players Handbook. However I have noted that TSR (which is owned by Wizards of the Coast which in turn is owned by Hasbro, and I can see how Wizards of the Coast easily made more money than TSR because Magic the Gathering is much more like crack than a roleplaying games) do tend to release their books with a separate Gamemaster's and Players book. However, I do note that the Gamemaster's books tend not to have all that much in it that really do add to the rules.
Okay, they may contain monsters, but who cares if you know what the monsters stats are (though surprise special abilities may add to the flavour) because that generally does not help you when you are in combat, and even then seasoned players tend to know all of the monsters off by heart anyway. However, the gamemasters books do tend to contain information which does really help run a game so you end up having to fork out another $60.00 for another book (though Magic the Gathering is a much better syphoner of money).
Personally I really can't remember what is in this book, though I suspect that it is still lying at the bottom of a crate in a shed at the back of my parents house 700 km from where I am writing this review (and the car trip takes about 8-9 hours, which the plane flight, including the time it takes me to leave home and get to the city (45 min) catch the airport shuttle bus (45 min, plus $15 ticket) to the airport, hang around the airport (1 to 1.5 hours) and then get on the plane and wait for it to take off (15 mins) and then fly to Adelaide (45 min), and then go from the airport to my parents house (45 min), it would bring the total up to 4 hours, so, as I have just proven, planes may be faster, but they are not all that fast (and somebody even suggested that using the same calculation, it is faster to get to San Fransisco by car than it is by plane, though only just).
Well, I've just spent an entire paragraph talking about anything but this book, but as I said, there is little I can say about this book that I have not said in the commentary on the Player's Handbook. Anyway, the only reason I ended up getting it was because it was going cheap (most likely a clearance sale). It never really took off, though I think I did try running a couple of games. However I can't remember how well it worked, and I must admit, I do prefer d20 Modern (and Future) though I only played a few sessions of that as well.
January 18, 2019
Alternity was the first generic Scifi RPG we discovered or the first Scifi in general if you consider Star Wars to be SciFantasy as I do. While by today's standards the character creation was labored and time consuming, some character creation options and stats were unbalanced, and systems sometimes a bit clunky, at the time it was cutting edge.
While now it's outdated and a few attempts to try it out again fizzled, I still haven't seen anything that seems to replace it for IP-free generic Scifi systems. Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough, but in my mind Alternity sits on its moldering throne, now rendered useless and doddering by age but with no clear successor to replace it.
While now it's outdated and a few attempts to try it out again fizzled, I still haven't seen anything that seems to replace it for IP-free generic Scifi systems. Perhaps I haven't looked hard enough, but in my mind Alternity sits on its moldering throne, now rendered useless and doddering by age but with no clear successor to replace it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews