Monday, March 4, 2019

Happy DM's Day, and belated Alternity Game Day

What is it they say about March…? Something about it coming in like a lion? I don’t know about roaring, but it sure did sneak up on me.

The corner of the internet I hang out on does this thing, GM’s Day (March 4th). And the corner of the corner of the corner has another day of remembrance, then day before: March 3rd is Alternity Game Day, commemorating Wizards of the Coast’s shuttering of the Alternity Generic Science Fiction Role Playing Game line.



Sasquatch Game Studios recently brought the system back, with a slick, modern look and mechanics overhaul. It’s not a second edition, but a  nod, an homage to the original, written by several of the original designers.

The shadow of the original system is there, but the new Alternity hasn’t usurped the place of the original in my heart. The core book doesn’t cover as much ground as the (two-book) original system. Several key “modules” are missing for me to get the system to work the way I’d like.

Granted, most of what I like doing with the system is to play mostly not-science fiction with it. Still, I’ve given the rules as complete a read-through as my spare time and days off allow, and combined that with a hefty bout of character creation. As I did with W.O.I.N., I gave the Chronicle heroes a run through the 2017 Alternity character creation steps to see what they might look like in that system.

You can grab the compiled Alternity 2017 Character Sheet PDFs for Varis, Gilliam, Thorn, and Ana here. (Note the slick throwback to the original (if cloned) fonts)

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