DMing Alternity: Help!

[Voidhawk]

I'm a first time DM, and as my first system on the other side of the screen I've decided to use Alternity, because it fits my universe quite nicely.

This is dispite the fact that I've played a grand total of ONE game with the system. Yes, I apparently like to shoot myself repeatedly in the foot. :smallyuk:

I've read most of the standard DMing advice around here, (roll dice for no reason, keep things flowing etc...) but would really apreciate some system specific help from any experienced DMers who know of the newbie pit-falls.

So anyway, the world it's on is relatively hard sci-fi, about PL7ish, CL3.5, the only sentients are humans (though humans have diverged quite a bit over time), and it has no psyc- pysk- physcicic- ... Mind powers, but quite alot of Cybernetics. Advice? Other than do something else?

[Hawk909]

I have the Alternity books but never could get enough people interested in it to do a long run adventure.

I have a firm belief that Firefly was thought up while people were playing Alternity one night.



http://alternityrpg.net/onlineforums/


If your anywhere near Clinton,IA I would be so willing to join :smallsmile:

[BobVosh]

Done Alternity a few times. Seems simple enough, as far as RPGs go. Anything in particular? Or at least more info on what you are trying to do?

Is wetware big in your game? (bioware, whatever they call it...I think it was wetware though)

[Kurald Galain]

I have a firm belief that Firefly was thought up while people were playing Alternity one night.

I should hope not. There's also a Firefly RPG, which is quite a bit better than Alternity.

[Voidhawk]

Done Alternity a few times. Seems simple enough, as far as RPGs go. Anything in particular? Or at least more info on what you are trying to do?

Is wetware big in your game? (bioware, whatever they call it...I think it was wetware though)

The broad situation in the universe is there are 5 main human factions (the Limari, the Mikos, the U.H.E., the Tamathans, and the Vigeans for those that like names), that each have specialised in different things, and hate/vaguely-ally-with the others. As I'm not completely suicidal, to limit the options available the planet is a pure Mikosian Stage 3 colony.

The Mikosians don't have a government per-se, just a colection of massive companys that got large enough to buy out the original one. They've specialised to a significant degree in Cybernetics ("Fed up of your brain always being left behind? Performance not up to scratch? Upgrade Today! The NEW Awg-47b nanocomputer(tm)! Surgery not included."), so i was wondering how much incentives I should give people to use them (apart from creating cykosis clinics for sufferers to rehab in).

What supplement is the bioware in? It'd be very useful to know for later (MUCH later), as it's sort of the Vigeans thing (I was originally going to work out a method for buying mutations).


If your anywhere near Clinton,IA I would be so willing to join :smallsmile:

Thanks alot for the link, that forum looks quite useful! Unfortuately for gaming I'm in England!

[Poison_Fish]

Hrm, I can't offer much general advice for Alternity other then the standard things. Be patient while others learn the system.

What specific adventure type things were you thinking? If your going with cybernetics and cykosis clinics, play up the bad effects of cybernetics for sure.

[Dervag]

I should hope not. There's also a Firefly RPG, which is quite a bit better than Alternity.Ah, but the Firefly RPG came out after the Firefly TV show, which in turn came out after the Alternity RPG.

You could play Firefly in the Alternity system. It would work. I've thought about it myself- I DMed a game or two a few years back.

Alternity is really designed to work for the "group of ne'er-do-wells with their own little starship" dynamic that made Firefly so awesome. It's got flaws, sure, but it's the right general kind of system.
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Re: original post

Voidhawk, I can't offer you much advice unless I know where you're having problems. Nobody can. Otherwise, I'd waste a lot of time telling you obvious things, and probably tell you a bunch of stuff you'd have to be out of your mind to do.

I agree with Poison_Fish: the first key is to be patient while others learn the system. Alternity's system is not that hard to keep track of once you're used to it, but it's really weird to the players the first time they play it. Make sure you are absolutely comfortable with the system yourself. Buy or make a DM screen with any information you think is relevant.

If your players are willing to put up with it, I suggest you run them through some kind of very simple challenge (no risk, small reward) that lets them get used to the dice system. Something like a firing range. That will get them used to the modifier dice, at which point they'll be more ready to deal with the rest of the system.

All this assumes they don't know the Alternity rules well. If they do, this doesn't apply.
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Do you have any specific questions?

[Raz]

Saint's and proxies....


Someone else plays Alternity :smallsmile:

Unfortunately my time on the pc's just ended, I'll have to get back later to dispense unwarranted advice.