Player's Handbook: Rules for Modern to Far-Future Roleplaying Games

Alternity is the still the best Role-playing system for 'realistic' role-playing, or 'gritty' campaign settings. This is due to two main reasons... It's skill-based system, and it's adaptability. Skill based systems mean that your character gets better at skills as he advances, but doesn't become super strong, or better at everything he does. This means that in Alternity, no longer can a player simply walk over and take the gun/sword/+5 earspoon away from the minor villain, because he'll only receive 6 points of damage, and he has 45 total for his character. What this means for players is that no longer do they have to await the eventual point where they are un-defeatable, except by demi-gods, demons and all that foolishness. They can remain the space-ship captain/FBI agent/whatever-the-campaign-is for the entire time they play. The challenge remains present, the setting remains beleivable, the suspense is retained. The story becomes the driving force of the adventure, not "leveling-up". The other part of the game that is superior to many other systems is just that adaptability. The system focuses on helping the Game-master to fit the rules to the setting... If you want to play an X-files FBI-agent, a dungeon-crawling adventurer, a Star Trek starship captain, a cop drama, Alternity rules can be adapted to the system with relatively little work. No extra feats or skills to invent, or weapons to design unless you want to. You are not limited to a particular medieval or future setting, as you are with most RPG products. Alternity was the last release made by TSR before it was acquired by Wizards of the Coast (WOTC). The acquisition of TSR was intended mostly to capitalize on the already established AD & D titles, and WOTC was un-interested in continuing the launch of a new product. Instead, they re-focused their brand onto D & D, resulting in a third release of that product and the design of the d20 system. d20 is not a bad system for heroic and action settings, but this one is better for retaining drama, grit, and suspense. And as for the comment that this system was not intended for public release... That person was probably in diapers in the early nineties, when TSR advertised it nationwide in their magazines and at conventions. I still have some TSR 'Dragon' Magazines with articles written for Alternity.

I have never played a better roleplaying game. The dice rolling system is incredibly simple, and creativity is heavily encouraged. My only complaint is that TSR or WotC or whichever decided to stop printing accessories for the game. While they are allowing independent freelance items through, they themselves have greatly impeded upon the progress of a great game.

This game has got to be about the most complete and concise rulesets I have seen in a while. It is to bad more people couldn't be torn away from their D & D fantasy games to try something new (and better.) I suggest grabbing this while you can and there is a backstock of the book. The line is discontinued and slowly disappearing.

First off, I'd like to say that I read this book a year and a half ago and I really loved the system then. I had bought it for my gaming friend as a annual gift of brithday celebration, however, unfortunately, he has long-since moved and we never really got to play an Alternity campaign. Truth be told, I think he was more of an AD & D gamer overall so I don't really know if he's playing it now.I recently bought the book for another gaming frined of mine (hmm...do I detect a small pattern?). He is a more broad-minded gamer and is beginning to GM an Alternity campaign (which I am proudly a part of) in between his numerous Rifts and Call of Cthulu campaigns.You might be thinking "Aha! This book is probably just the AD & D rules with a few changes for modern weapons and a few names changed."Think again.The Alternity system is very different from the AD & D rules in that it really immerses you into the science fiction universe and doesn't try to copy off anything. It really does allow the GM to create any type of sci-fi atmosphere he/she wants without cluttering anything up and leaving space for the imagination. It is easy to assimilate rules for a universe like, say, Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" or Niven's "Ringworld". I imagine that in the GM's guide (which I am about to buy for myself) there will additional methods of customization.If you are just starting to play RPGs you should really get the "Player's Handbook" for "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" (such a newbie shouldn't be startled by the "advanced", it doesn't mean anything), unless you are a die-hard sci-fi fan and don't want to mess with fantasy.Oh yeah and I'd like to mention that anyone who thinks that AD & D (or Alternity) is "a bad game" should actually pay attention to the game itself and not the paranoid media hype.

Once every few years, somebody creates an RPG so close to perfect that it redefines how RPGs think, work, and play. Alternity, kudos to Bill Slavicsek, is one of those games. Alternity's one of the games which is so well-designed that even a cynic like me has to apply effort to complain about it. In a single well-written [and illustrated and proofread!] volume, Alternity's Player Handbook acquires the sheer creativiy and diversity that it took AD & D decades to match. The rules are the simplest TSR's concocted to date; PC creation is almost totally freeform, with a system that almost has more skills than uses for them all; and a balanced, equalizing system to prevent "bad" PCs from being rolled up. Even technology up to 2625 is created, leaving few stones unturned. My only complaints? A little more leeway in the dates Progress Levels change would be useful, and another table or two in the back might be nice. The real problem, however, seems to be with the gadgets and guns: it's too easy to accept charge rifles or whatever as the be-all and end-all instead of templates to default off of. In the grand scheme of things, these trivial flaws are irrelevant. The Alternity Player's Handbook merges the style of TSR with the quality of Wizards of the Coast, creating something to set the standards for years to come.