AlternityPlayer

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Not for Resale
®
by Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker
Choose a character and start playing right away!
F
AST
-P
LAY
R
ULES
This preview version of the A
LTERNI
-
TY
®
Science Fiction Roleplaying
Game provides players with a
chance to try this new game system
without risk or obligation. After-
ward, look to the A
LTERNITY
Player’s
Handbook
for all the rules you need
to play out adventures in any genre
of science fiction.
that players need to become famil-
iar with.
c
cludes when the heroes have either
achieved their goal or failed to do
so.
c
Profession:
Every hero in the
A
LTERNITY
game is built around a
profession. A profession is an over-
arching occupation under which
specific careers are grouped. It’s the
first defining concept associated
with a hero. The four basic profes-
sions—Combat Spec, Diplomat,
Free Agent, and Tech Op—are intro-
duced in these fast-play rules.
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Gamemaster:
The participant
in the game who acts as the moder-
ator, narrating adventures and rep-
resenting other characters involved
in the adventure who aren’t con-
trolled by the players.
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T
HE
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LAYER
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Supporting Cast:
These are the
aforementioned “other characters,”
including the heroes’ friends and
enemies, as well as any other char-
acters the heroes come into contact
with. It’s important to understand
from the start that although the he-
roes are the stars of the show, it’s
possible for members of the support-
ing cast to be just as powerful as the
heroes—or sometimes even more
powerful.
c
R
OLE
As a player, your primary job in any
A
LTERNITY
game is to portray one of
the heroes in the story your group
decides to play out. The heroes are
the stars of the unfolding adven-
tures that make up a Gamemaster’s
ongoing science fiction campaign.
To do this, you need a hero—an
imaginary character who serves as
your “connection” with the Game-
master’s setting and the other play-
ers’ heroes. Your hero starts out as a
collection of numbers and descrip-
tive terms; from then on it’s up to
you to make that hero come alive
through roleplaying.
By reacting as you think your
hero would react and interacting
with the other characters using your
hero’s voice and opinions, you’re
doing your job as a player.
Abilities:
All characters (heroes
and members of the supporting cast)
have six Abilities. These are
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, In-
telligence, Will, and Personality.
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Ability Scores:
Each Ability is
expressed as a number, called the
Ability Score. Each profession has
two Abilities associated with it. To
belong to a profession, a hero must
meet the minimum scores in that
profession’s relevant Abilities.
c
Setting:
The A
LTERNITY
rules can
be used to create adventures in any
modern to far-future setting. Players
and Gamemasters need to decide
what type of setting they want to
play in before heroes are created. A
setting can be a modern techno-
thriller, a darkly sinister near-future
mystery, a far-future postapocalyp-
tic tragedy, or any other type of sci-
ence fiction milieu you can imagine.
The fast-play adventure present-
ed in the
Gamemaster’s Fast-Play
Rules
section of this booklet takes
place on a strange and dangerous
planet in a far-future space opera
setting.
c
Skills:
What’s your hero good at
doing? This question is answered
by the skills he possesses. Every
Ability and every profession has
skills related to it. A hero’s profi-
ciency with a skill is expressed as a
number, known as the
skill score.
c
Actions:
When a hero wants to
use one of his skills or one of his
other characteristics to accomplish
something, he attempts an action.
There are different types of actions,
each involving the use of different
skills and characteristics.
c
C
ONCEPTS
Let’s take a look at the key concepts
behind the A
LTERNITY
game. These
concepts include basic game me-
chanics, fundamental character in-
formation, and a few special terms
Adventure:
A scenario in which
the heroes interact with the support-
ing cast to create a group story.
Every adventure is built around a
situation (typically a problem the
heroes need to solve), and it con-
Dice:
When the outcome of an
action is in doubt, or when the
Gamemaster needs to measure a
character’s degree of success, dice
are rolled. The A
LTERNITY
game uses
two kinds of dice: a single control
1
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Hero:
An imaginary character
controlled by a player.
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K
EY
 die and situation dice of various
sizes.
The control die and a situation
die are rolled together to determine
the outcome of an action.
r
venture,
Cauldron Station,
which is
included in this booklet.
4
c
Action Check
A hero’s
action check score
is deter-
mined by adding his Dexterity and
Intelligence scores, dividing the
sum by 2 (rounding down), then
adding a profession bonus. This has
already been done on the templates.
Marginal, Ordinary, Good, and
Amazing are the degrees of success
attainable on an action check. How
well you succeed when making an
action check determines how soon
your hero can take an action.
The
actions per round
number is
based on the hero’s Constitution
and Will scores, and has already
been determined for you.
Note
:
The lower the roll, the
better the chance that the hero suc-
ceeds in what he tries to do.
More in-
formation on how to use the dice is
given in “Playing the Game” on
page 3 of this section of the booklet.
2
c
Name
Though each character template
has been prepared in advance, you
still get to select a name for your
hero. Your hero can be male or fe-
male, and you can assign any per-
sonality you choose. The name you
select can reflect the hero’s person-
ality or career (such as “Hunter” for
a Combat Spec or Free Agent), or it
can be the complete opposite of it
(such as “Bruiser” for a Diplomat or
Tech Op).
S
CIENCE
H
EROES
Use the fast-play rules in this book-
let to learn the key concepts of the
game. After you get the hang of
things, use the full rules, as present-
ed in the
Player’s Handbook
.
3
c
Ability
Scores
Every hero has six Abilities.
c
Strength
(STR) defines a hero’s
physical power and prowess.
c
Dexterity
(DEX) measures the
quality of a hero’s agility, coordina-
tion, and reflexes.
c
Constitution
(CON) describes a
hero’s overall physical fitness and
toughness.
c
Intelligence
(INT) indicates a
hero’s mental quickness and learn-
ing ability.
c
Will
(WIL) gauges a hero’s men-
tal fortitude and intuitive capacity.
c
Personality
(PER) indicates a
hero’s social abilities and charisma.
The fast-play system features
only human heroes. Humans have
Ability Scores ranging from 4 to 14.
Untrained:
The “Untrained” score
is equal to one-half of the full score,
rounded down. Use this score when
your hero attempts an action that re-
quires a skill he doesn’t possess.
Resistance Modifiers:
Resistance
modifiers affect the type of dice your
hero’s opponents roll when confront-
ing your hero. Positive modifiers
(such as +1 step) are good for your
hero, because they provide a penal-
ty to the opponent; a negative modi-
fier (such as –1 step) is bad, because
it makes it easier for your hero’s op-
ponent to succeed.
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5
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Durability
The “Durability” section of each
character template provides a
means for keeping track of any
damage your hero might sustain
over the course of an adventure.
Your hero’s stun and wound ratings
are equal to his Constitution score.
Your hero’s mortal rating is equal to
one-half this score, rounded up.
As your hero suffers damage dur-
ing an adventure, mark off open
boxes to keep track of how much
damage he has sustained and how
much more he can afford to take.
The next section, “Playing the
Game,” has information about the
effects of damage and recovering
from damage.
1
c
Profession
Four distinct hero professions are
available in these fast-play rules.
c
Combat Specs
(short for spe-
cialists) are warriors who rely on
physical power and endurance to
supplement their training in the tac-
tics and techniques of battle.
c
Diplomats
are negotiators,
managers, deal-makers, merchants,
clergy, or any others who use inter-
action skills and personal resolve to
accomplish their jobs.
c
Free Agents
are troubleshoot-
ers or field operatives who rely on
agility, interaction skills, and natur-
al independence to get a job done.
They’re agents who may be ops for
hire, or they may have ties to a spe-
cific government or organization,
but in general they work better in
small groups than as members of a
large force.
c
Tech Ops
(technical operatives)
are skilled in the use of particular
equipment or have been specially
trained to create or maintain high-
tech equipment. They rely on natur-
al genius, agility, and expert train-
ing to accomplish their goals.
Pick a profession that fits the
kind of hero you want to play, then
select one of the corresponding fast-
play character templates on pages
6, 7, 8, or 9 of this section of the book-
let. Note that there are two different
examples of each profession, giving
you distinct choices for the kind of
hero to play. Any of the templates
can be used with the fast-play ad-
Example:
A character with a
Dexterity score of 11 has a +1 step
resistance modifier for that Ability.
If an opponent fires a pistol at her,
that +1 step is applied as a penalty
to the opponent’s chance of suc-
cesssfully hitting his target.
6
c
Skills
Each character template has a se-
lection of skills printed on it. There
are two kinds of skills, broad skills
and specialty skills. Specialty skills
are printed in
italic
type to differen-
tiate them from broad skills.
A character must possess a broad
skill to also possess a specialty skill
associated with it.
If a hero wants to try something
but doesn’t have the proper skill, he
must use his untrained score for the
associated Ability.
Broad skills have scores equal to
their associated Abilities. Specialty
skills add their ranks (a measure of
improvement) to achieve their
scores. All scores are presented
with the full score, half that score,
and one-quarter that score. This rep-
resents the numbers needed to
achieve Ordinary, Good, or Amazing
successes.
2
F
ICTION
Example:
A skill score of 12/6/3
means that a roll of 12 or lower rep-
resents an Ordinary success, 6 or
lower a Good success, and 3 or low-
er an Amazing success.
physical contact is necessary, or a
series of numbers representing
short/medium/long range (in meters)
for a weapon that fires projectiles or
energy beams. The range at which a
weapon is used often has an effect
on the attacker’s chance of hitting
the target, as explained in the
Gamemaster’s Fast-Play Rules.
“Type” refers to the kind of dam-
age a weapon inflicts, either low im-
pact (LI), high impact (HI), or energy
(En).
For armor, the die ranges preced-
ing “LI,” “HI,” and “En” indicate the
amount of damage the armor stops
when the wearer is hit by a weapon
that does this type of damage. If a
subtraction from a die roll produces
a result less than 1, the armor failed
to block any damage on that attack.
her area of expertise. But when
these actions go beyond the call of
duty and lives hang in the balance
(or at least during dramatic situa-
tions), dice should be rolled.
Skill Descriptions
This fast-play rules booklet doesn’t
have enough space to contain de-
tails of what a particular skill en-
ables a hero to do. Those details are
provided in the
Player’s Handbook.
However, for the purpose of learn-
ing how the game system works
(and for putting heroes through the
fast-play adventure), complete skill
descriptions aren’t necessary. You
and your Gamemaster should have
little trouble determining when a
certain skill might come into play.
The other section of this booklet—
the
Gamemaster’s Fast-Play Rules
—
does provide specific information on
how the
first aid
skill and the Med-
ical Science skill should be used,
because it’s important for the Game-
master to know how heroes can re-
cover after suffering damage (see
page 5 of this section of the booklet).
In other cases, the name of a skill
is a pretty strong clue to when and
how the skill can be used. For exam-
ple, a hero with the Resolve broad
skill has a form of inner strength
that enables him or her to withstand
or shrug off hardships that other he-
roes might succumb to, either of a
physical or a mental nature. A hero
with the Manipulation broad skill is
talented at performing actions that
require a high degree of eye-hand
coordination, such as picking a lock.
Above all, don’t get bogged down
in details at this point. What’s im-
portant is to learn how the game
works and to have fun playing a
hero.
The Control Die and
Situation Dice
The A
LTERNITY
game uses two kinds
of dice: a
control die
and a
situation
die.
Whenever the Gamemaster
calls for a roll, you roll one control
die and one situation die. The num-
bers that come up combine to indi-
cate a success or a failure.
When you roll the dice, in game
terms you’re making a
check
for
your hero—in effect, “checking” to
see how the dice roll compares to
one of your hero’s scores.
c
If you’re comparing the roll to
your hero’s action check score to see
how soon he gets to attempt his next
action, the roll is an
action check.
c
If your hero uses a skill (com-
paring the roll to his skill score), this
roll is a
skill check.
c
If you’re checking against one
of his Ability Scores, then the roll is
a
feat check.
In any case, you’re looking to get
as low a result as possible—
the
lower the roll, the better the chance
that your hero succeeds at what he’s
trying to do.
c
The control die is always a 20-
sided die (d20).
c
The situation die for any partic-
ular check is one of the following: a
four-sided die (d4), a six-sided die
(d6), an eight-sided die (d8), a 12-
sided die (d12), or a 20-sided die
(d20). There’s also a d0, a place-hold-
er to represent the situation die in a
case where success is determined
by only the roll of the control die.
Further, the situation die on any
check is designated as either a
plus
die
or a
minus die.
A plus die, such
as +d4, is bad for the roller, because
it tends to produce a higher result. A
minus die, such as –d6, is good for
the roller, because it helps to
achieve a lower result.
Add or subtract the situation die
from the control die as instructed by
the Gamemaster. If the result is
equal to or less than the score relat-
ed to the hero’s action, the action
succeeds. If the result is greater
than the score, the action fails. The
degrees of success are explained on
the next page.
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G
AME
The basic rule at the foundation of
the A
LTERNITY
game is a simple one.
Your hero has some important game
statistics, including Ability Scores,
skill scores, and his action check
score. In many cases, when your
hero attempts to accomplish some-
thing, the Gamemaster asks you to
roll dice. You then try to roll a num-
ber that’s
equal to or less than
the
appropriate score. If you roll higher
than your hero’s score, your hero
fails. Whenever a hero tries to do
something that might fail, this dice
roll determines if he succeeds.
Rolling Dice
c
The Most Important Rule:
Not
every action requires a dice roll!
The Gamemaster will only call
for dice rolls in dramatic situations
to determine the success of an ac-
tion whose outcome is in doubt, or
when he or she needs to judge the
degree of an action’s success.
For instance, if your hero wants to
walk across a street or carry a small
pack, no dice rolls are necessary.
But if he wants to cross the street
while carrying a wounded compan-
ion, being shot at by snipers, and
targeted by insane motorists, then
the situation is a dramatic one, and
dice should be rolled.
A pilot hero trained to fly a space-
craft and read star charts doesn’t
need to make a dice roll to perform
the normal duties associated with
7
c
Equipment
Each character template includes a
selection of equipment the hero has
access to—one or more weapons,
some type of armor, and other gear.
The game data given for weapons
and armor is explained below.
The numbers on the line identify-
ing a weapon indicate how much
damage the weapon inflicts on an
Ordinary, Good, or Amazing suc-
cess. This damage is either stun (s),
wound (w), or mortal (m) damage.
On the next line, “Range” gives
the distance at which a weapon can
strike a target, either “Personal” if
Example:
Your hero wants to
make a quick repair to his motorcy-
3
r
P
LAYING THE
SITUATION DIE STEPS SCALE
–d20 –d12 –d8 –d6 –d4 +d0 +d4 +d6 +d8 +d12 +d20 +2d20 +3d20
BONUS
PENALTY
cle so he can stay on the trail of the
fleeing criminals. This action is a
skill check using your hero’s Techni-
cal Science–
juryrig
skill score. The
Gamemaster tells you to roll the
control die and a –d4 (the situation
is in your hero’s favor, so the d4 roll
is subtracted from the d20 roll). Your
hero’s
juryrig
skill score is 13.
You roll the dice, and the follow-
ing numbers come up: 14 on the con-
trol die, 3 on the situation die. The
result is 11 (14 – 3 = 11), which is
lower than your hero’s
juryrig
score.
The action succeeds—but note that
if the situation die had been +d4, or
even +d0, the 14 on the control die
would have made the outcome a
failure, because 14 is greater than
your hero’s score.
smaller numbers), represent the di-
viding points between the degrees
of success.
Regardless of what number
comes up on the situation die, a roll
of 20 on the control die always pro-
duces a Critical Failure. Generally,
this means that bad luck has befall-
en the hero, and no matter how high
his skill score or Ability Score is,
this action doesn’t succeed.
A result greater than the score is
a Failure; equal to or less than the
score is an Ordinary success; equal
to or less than the second number is
a Good success; and a result equal
to or less than the smallest of the
three numbers produces an Amaz-
ing success.
On the character templates in
this booklet, the “Action Check
Score” line begins with a number
that represents a Marginal result. A
hero can’t get a Failure or a Critical
Failure outcome when he makes an
action check; if the dice roll yields a
number greater than his action
check score, the “Failure” is consid-
ered to be a Marginal result instead.
three types of scenes are
combat,
encounter,
and
challenge.
A combat scene lasts from the
start of a battle to its conclusion. An
encounter scene lasts from the mo-
ment characters meet to when they
part company. A challenge scene
lasts as long as it takes the heroes
to identify the challenge, and then
overcome it or be defeated by it.
Action Rounds
For the purpose of determining who
acts when in a scene, every scene is
divided into
action rounds.
During
an action round, every hero per-
forms one or more actions.
A round is divided into four
phas-
es.
Each phase relates to one of the
degrees of success that are achiev-
able on an action check: Amazing,
Good, Ordinary, and Marginal, in
order from the first phase to the last.
A hero can attempt only one action
in a phase.
To determine who acts first in a
round, every participant makes an
action check by rolling a d20. The re-
sult determines the earliest phase in
which a character can act. So, if a
hero rolls a Good action check, the
earliest phase he can act in is the
second, or Good, phase.
All actions in a phase are consid-
ered to occur simultaneously, with
the results of those actions being
applied at the end of the phase.
Your hero can act in as many
phases as he has actions per round:
two actions per round means he can
act in up to two phases of a round.
But if an action check result indi-
cates that your hero can’t act until
the Marginal phase, then he can
only act once in the round (in the
Marginal phase).
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Situation Die Steps
The Situation Die Steps Scale has
been designed to help you quickly
determine what situation die to roll
with the control die. It’s printed on
this page and on the templates that
appear later in this booklet.
Your Gamemaster tells you what
bonus or penalty applies when you
roll to see if your hero can perform a
certain action.
A +1 step situation penalty
means you start with your hero’s
base situation die
(see the sidebar
on this page) and move one step in
the “Penalty” direction to find the
die you’ll be rolling. For instance, if
your hero’s base situation die for an
action is +d4, then a +1 step situa-
tion penalty changes the die to +d6.
A –2 step situation bonus means
you find your hero’s base situation
die on the scale and move two steps
in the “Bonus” direction. For exam-
ple, if your hero’s base situation die
for an action is +d4, then a –2 step
situation bonus changes the die to
–d4.
Scenes
Every adventure your Gamemaster
sets up is built out of scenes. A
scene is a distinct episode that has
a clear beginning and ending. The
Base Situation Die
Before you can use the Situa-
tion Die Steps Scale, you need
to know where to start. That
starting point is known as the
base situation die.
c
Example:
Your hero has an ac-
tion check score of 11 and two ac-
tions per round. At the beginning of a
round, the Gamemaster calls for ac-
tion checks. If you roll a 5 (a Good
success for a score of 11), the earliest
phase in which your hero can act is
the Good phase. Since he has two ac-
tions, he can act once in the Good
phase and once in the Ordinary
phase, or he can save his second ac-
tion for the Marginal phase.
If you roll a 13 (a Marginal result),
For a skill check involving
a specialty skill or an action
check, the base situation die is
+d0—just roll the control die.
If your Rulesmaster tells you
to apply a bonus or a penalty to
your hero’s situation die, start
at the base point and move the
proper number of steps in the
correct direction to determine
which situation die to roll.
Degrees of Success
Every dice roll has one of five possi-
ble results: Critical Failure, Failure,
Ordinary success, Good success, or
Amazing success. The lower your
dice roll, the greater the
degree of
success
your hero achieves.
The three numbers associated
with every skill score and action
check score (the base score and two
4
For a skill check involving
a broad skill or a feat check,
the base situation die is +d4—
roll the control die and a d4,
adding the results together.
c
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