Alien Compendium: Creatures of the Verge (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying, Star Drive Setting)

by Richard Baker, Bill Slavicsek

Inside this 128-page, full-color book are more than 60 detailed descriptions and illustrations of aliens that live in and around the planets of the Verge. The text traces the voyage of the Concord Survey Vessel Kepler as it visits 14 different star systems around the Verge. In these pages you'll meet: * The poisonous blackworm of the planet Bhruusil, which uses vibrations to track its prey. * The elegant and mysterious deepfallen, native to the world-spanning oceans of Bluefall. * The beautiful but terrible crystallis, one of the few creatures that can survive on the inferno world of Polyphemus. * The "external" species - mysterious aliens who exist outside known galactic society - including the violent n'sss, the helpful blix, and the incomprehensible gardhyi.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Games

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 1998

About the author

A 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.

Reviews

[Mark Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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While now it's outdated and a few attempts to try it out again fizzled, I still haven't seen anything that seems to replace it for IP-free generic Scifi systems.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.