Alternity
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| Alternity | |
 Alternity introductory boxed set |
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| Designer | Bruce Heard |
|---|---|
| Publisher | TSR, Inc. |
| Publication date | 1998 |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| System | Custom |
Alternity is a science fiction role-playing game (RPG) published by TSR in 1998. Following the acquisition of TSR by Wizards of the Coast, the game was discontinued in 2000 as part of a broader rationalisation of TSR's business holdings, but it retains a small but devoted fanbase. Parts of Alternity as well as TSR's classic Star Frontiers game have been incorporated into the d20 Modern game, especially the d20 Future setting.
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[edit] System
Like the d20 System, the most rolled die in the game was the d20, but instead of applying set modifiers or difficulties to the rolls a second die was rolled and added to or subtracted from the d20 roll and the result was compared to a character's skill score. Designed to be a generic rule set around which a campaign world could be built, it was not very heavily marketed and suffered from mediocre sales which, along with increased focus on the d20 system, led to the discontinuation of the game in 2000.[citation needed]
Characters were created with a point-based system, and could be either humans, mutants, one of several alien species presented in the core books, or original aliens created by the GM. Classes were replaced by professions, which dictated what skills and abilities were cheaper for any given hero to get, though a few skills (in particular, psionics) were restricted to specific professions.
Unlike many other systems, rolling low was always better on all d20-based rolls, and depending on how far below the skill score the player rolled, there were three progressively better layers of success and two levels of failure. Action order in combat was determined using this same system, making the game very uniform. Only armor rolls and damage rolls did not use the d20.
Much of the content of the Alternity game has been absorbed into the d20 Modern role-playing game. The Dark•Matter campaign is an entire d20 Modern expansion and Star Drive is part of the d20 Future expansion. The Gamma World campaign is an d20 Modern expansion by Sword & Sorcery Studios (White Wolf).
[edit] Campaign settings
Several campaign settings were published during the brief life of this game:
[edit] Dice Mechanics
Alternity uses four, six, eight, twelve, and twenty sided dice, but does not use the popular ten-sided die, perhaps to help distinguish it from the competing World of Darkness and the Trinity role-playing game, published by White Wolf Game Studio.
The probability curve created by the addition or subtraction of a d20 and another die is shaped like a plateau, with two straight lines on both ends of the flat region. This is intermediate between the totally flat probability curve rolled by rolling a 20-sided die and the bell-shaped curve produced by die pool systems.
