Getting frustrated with how long combat is taking in my Stardrive game, and a huge amount of it is stuff like having to remind players how to make an attack roll every round and reminding them which one is the d8.
@WizardOfDocs Is helping me make a info card that will explain the basic how to make a role and have a diagram of all the dice on it, hoping that helps me out
Advice welcome for dealing with highly distracted players
One of my players wants to a play a dog person in my Alternity/Stardrive game. Fits in well enough with the setting, but I would like some lore to go with it: can anyone point me towards any dog like aliens from other science fiction settings that I could borrow ideas from? Don't care what medium it is, though, obviously ttrpgs would be the easiest to steal from
@HeyeBodo I am in the initial stages of a project to convert material from the old #StarFrontiers and #Alternity TTRPGs into #StarTrekAdventures 2e. I'll be beginning with the SF aliens (Dralasites, Vrusk and Yazirians).
I have a project idea, tying into that #StarTrekAdventures game I was asked to run.
I want to do species writeups for the #StarFrontiers and #Alternity aliens (some of you may also remember them collectively grouped together in #d20Future ) in STA. That includes the Sathar!
I even have a concept of a plan of an idea: the PCs will be a specialized Away Team (senior officers going on ATs is just *stupid*) on a ship investigating a newly-discovered rogue planet drifting in deep space. I even know some things I want them to find there, including aliens from #StarFrontiers and #Alternity!
Dark•Matter: Alternity vs. d20
Last year, I spent some quality time with the Alternity Game system, particularly Dark•Matter. Today I wanted to spend some time comparing the d20 version with the Alternity version.
#d20 #ttrpg #darkmatter #Alternity
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2025/05/darkmatter-alternity-vs-d20.html
#transformers #sevendaysofprime #autobot #optimusprime #convoy #altmode #g1 #reissue #godginrai #fireconvoy #armada #energon #starconvoy #masterpiece #mp10 #binaltech #alternity #revengeofthefallen #ageofextintion #thelastknight #legends #fantoys #mb06 #actionfigures #hasbro #takaratomy
Anyway, my imaginary spaceship is a small interstellar scout, built by a human colony world that was abandoned due to its former overlords being distracted by the Second Galactic War (which, in the #Alternity #StarDrive universe, lasted over a century and blew a lot of things up).
I will call the homeworld "Novayashin", which is short for "Novaya Shin New Fiji Nueva". For unclear reasons, citizens of this planet are called "Space Possums"; most are human but with a few added alien refugees.
In this thread, I'm going to review some aliens from the #Alternity roleplaying game and talk about how cool they are, with pictures. 🧵
Alternity is a science fiction #TTRPG from the 90s that was discontinued because its rulebooks were written in an unreadable font. Much like D&D, it came with default settings (a modern conspiracy one and a futuristic space opera one), but was intended to be flexible; these aliens came from its Player's Handbook and can be adapted to different space operas:
The article text focused on the #compound's 3 modernistic dwellings and the owner's recent #subterranean man-cave addition overseen by the original architect of the #HeptagonHouse
I checked a few other #clinx after and one lead to the property's prior purchase history. Apparently in 1998 the 6 acre parcel was valued at just about $500K, the same as my hillside home a year or two later.
I like to imagine that perhaps a property transfer exchange was arranged in some #alternity where #PittmanDowell lived out the remainder of their lives in another #Maltzan masterpiece on the westernmost slopes of #Silverlake below #Hollywood
The view below is what they would have got in trade for the one shown in #KPL02
It's the one beyond the window, behind The Musician in the movie #UnderASilverLake
It's from directly due west farther down the hillside, #LEGALLY just over 250 yards away
I hiked once to #MtHollywood overlooking the #Observatory w/ my #Decathlete #GG.
Never got to the #sign
@timsbrannan my #Alternity collection.
Review: Alternity Star*Drive
Continuing on with Alternity, I am turning my attention to the Star*Drive Campaign Setting. Take your characters to the stars in the 26th Century.
#scifi #tsr #ttrpg #alternity
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/05/review-alternity-stardrive.html
Of Python, Alternity 2018, and Cosmic Voyage
My latest on Gemini, I talk about the writing I got done on my vacation, published to Cosmic Voyage. I also talk about how I decided to use the Alternity 2018 roleplaying system to do future character creation.
https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/lantashifiles.com/gemlog/entries/2023-10-23.gmi
https://cosmic.voyage/Lantashi%20Dance/dance-log004.html
Gemini Link - gemini://lantashifiles.com/gemlog/entries/2023-10-23.gmi
Coolest looking RPG product?
Nobilis was beautiful. A coffee table art book.
Planescape with DiTerilizzi art was otherworldly.
Mork Borg is metal!
But for absolute coolness, I have to go with Alternity. It's got a very late 90s, Lexx, Farscape, proto-Matrix type vibe that just both grabs me and also really shows off my age.
@LeviKornelsen #GURPS
#CallOfCthulu
#Spelljammer
#XCrawl
#Dragonstar
#Alternity
#stardrive
History of RPGs
Weird '80s role-playing systems
Player and DM advice
and discussions of good pre-made adventure modules and how to run them
#introduction I mostly play traditional #tabletop #RPGs like #GURPS (Finishing up a #Yrth game right now), #CallOfCthulhu and #Alternity. I also enjoy the occasional comedy game like #KoboldsAteMyBaby or #Paranoia
I'm writing my own game, tentatively called #100Swords since I'm bad at naming things, it is a d% system like Call of Cthulhu, but with some ideas from #Alternity and #Dnd and GURPS. Trying to make a d% system that isn't super lethal, as pretty much all d% systems are for some reason.
@AndreasKjeldsen Was not really a fan of the Alternity system itself. But Dark*Matter and Star*Drive were neat settings, and I loved some of the species you could play, like these guys.
Sounds weird to say given the current OGL crisis, but I always used to wish they had re-released the Alterniry content as d20 Modern material during the D&D 3E era.
#RPG #Alternity #d20 #OGL #3E
Instead, his former master has been using his personal resources and agents to get revenge, forcing Calai to adapt to a life on the fringes of galactic society, heavily modifying his "new" starship and seeking out the company of other like-minded individuals. (Insert other PCs here.)
Many Sesheyans have a hard time with modern tech, but Calai's talents were discovered by a VoidCorp executive who had him trained as a pilot for his personal starship.
This turned out to be not such a great idea when Calai stole the ship and ran for it. VoidCorp politics are vicious, and admitting that his luxury yacht had been stolen by a lowly Sesheyan would have meant a fatal loss of prestige for his employer, so the theft was never reported.
In the Star*Drive setting, the Sesheyans are an alien species whose homeworld is located inside the borders of the insidious stellar nation VoidCorp, which exploits them as cheap labour. A few Sesheyans, known as Windspirits, manage to escape VoidCorp and live in freedom, although also as fugitives from the VoidCorp agents who seek to recapture them. The pilot Calai Angh'Tokai is one such Windspirit.
