Alternity 2e - Core Rulebook PDF

CORE RULEBOOK
Richard Baker  David Noonan  Stephen Schubert
Sasquatch Game Studio, LLC | Auburn, WA 98092 | sasquatchgamestudio.com
ALTERNITY: Core Rulebook Playtest Edition 1

CREDITS
System Design Richard Baker, David Noonan,
Stephen Schubert
Writing Richard Baker, David Noonan
Development
Stephen Schubert
Editing
Stacey Janssen
Creative Direction Richard Baker
Cover Illustration Klaus Pillon
Cover Design Corey Macourek
Concept Artists Roberto Gatto, Ayan Nag
Interior Illustrators Lucas Durham, Justin Mayhew,

Klaus Pillon, Marcel Mercado,
Claudio Pozas, Lee Smith
Art Direction Richard Baker
Production Specialist Nissa McCormack
This game exists today because of 703 generous backers

who supported our 2017 crowdfunding campaign.
Thank you to each and every one of them!
Alternity is a registered trademark of Sasquatch Game Studio LLC. Sasquatch Game Studio
and the Sasquatch logo are trademarks of Sasquatch Game Studio, LLC. All characters and the
distinctive likenesses thereof are property of Sasquatch Game Studio LLC. This material is protected
under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use
of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of
Sasquatch Game Studio LLC. © 2018 Sasquatch Game Studio, LLC.
2 CHAPTER 1: System Basics

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
About Roleplaying Games. . . . 4 Damage and Wounds. . . . . . 156
How to Use This Book . . . . . . . 5 Status Effects . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Hero Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
1: System Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Choosing Your Future . . . . . . . 8 6: Running the Game . . . . . . . . 167
How the Game Works. . . . . . 10 Scenes and Narration. . . . . 168
Your Alternity Character. . . 16 Contact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Exploration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
2: Character Creation. . . . . . . . 19
Environmental Dangers
Ability Scores. . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
and Debility. . . . . . . . . . . 178
Species. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Heroic Archetypes. . . . . . . . . 39
Interaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
NPCs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Skills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Hero Advancement . . . . . . . 200
Gear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Finishing Touches. . . . . . . . . . 47 7: Creating Adventures . . . . . 203
Combat Difficulty. . . . . . . . . 204
3: Skills and Talents. . . . . . . . . . 51
Action Scene Sets . . . . . . . . 205
Anatomy of a Skill Check. . . . 52
Props for Your Set. . . . . . . . 209
Skill Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . 55
Rewards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Talent Descriptions. . . . . . . . 81
Campaign Design. . . . . . . . . 224
4: Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8: Aliens and Adversaries. . . . 233
Technology Era . . . . . . . . . . 102
Adversary Stats . . . . . . . . . 233
Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Ready-to-Use
Armor and
Adversaries. . . . . . . . . . . 237
Defensive Gear. . . . . . . . 117
Creating Adversaries. . . . . 255
Tools and
Professional Kits. . . . . . . 123 Appendix 1: Psionics . . . . . . . . 260
5: Combat and Challenges. . . . 133 Appendix 2:
Skills and Ships and Vehicles. . . . . . . . . . 271
Skill Challenges. . . . . . . . 134
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
The Action Round. . . . . . . . . 139
Attacks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Character Sheet. . . . . . . . . . . .287
ALTERNITY: Core Rulebook Playtest Edition 3

ALTERNITY: Core Rulebook
INTRODUCTION
“At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets
reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of
what ‘everyone’ is saying, doing, thinking — whoever ‘everyone’ happens
to be this year.”
—Octavia Butler
Welcome to tomorrow! You’re holding in your hands (or perusing on
your screen) a game engine you can use to build just about any sci-
ence fiction roleplaying campaign you can think of. Scavenging for
survival in a nuclear winter? Venturing to mysterious planets around
distant stars? Rebelling against oppressive authorities in a dystopian
future? Searching time portals in alternate Earths to hunt down alien
invaders trying to steal our history? If you can imagine a sci-fi story,
you can build an Alternity game to explore it.
In an Alternity game, one player takes on the role of Gamemaster
(or GM), creating a challenging adventure or scenario for the other
players to experience—for example, exploring a dangerous ruin on an
alien planet or tracking down a killer android in a crowded asteroid
city. The other players create heroes (sometimes called player charac-
ters or PCs) to participate in the GM’s adventure: bold starship pilots,
tough mercenaries, brilliant scientists and so on. What happens next
depends on how the players decide their heroes meet the challenge.
Your first step is to collect a group of players and choose a GM.
Being the GM means doing a little more work to prepare adven-
tures, but you have the best part to play in the Alternity game: You
get to build universes for your friends to explore.
There are an infinite number of worlds: Choose your favorite, and
get ready to have some fun!
ABOUT ROLEPLAYING GAMES

If you’ve never seen a game like Alternity before, you’ve just
discovered a new world of imagination and entertainment. In a com-
puter or console game, you’re limited to the scenarios the game’s
creators prepared, and you can do only things the developers pro-
grammed the game to do. A tabletop RPG offers you the chance to
try anything you would try if you were actually in that story. Do you
want to lure in the space pirates by feigning a distress call? Surren-
der to the hostile aliens, counting on a show of good faith to change
their minds about humans? Steal your starship from the impound
dock instead of paying a fine you owe? In a game like Alternity,
you can try all those things. They might work or they might not, but
either way, the narrative’s moving forward—and you’re in control.
4 Introduction
In a roleplaying game, you don’t win or lose. Sometimes the char-
acter you’re playing defeats a terrible alien monster and saves the
day; sometimes the alien monster destroys your character, or maybe
even all the characters. The point is participating in a story and exer-
cising your imagination. It’s a type of entertainment, but you get to
make the decisions because your character is the hero of the story.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK NEW TO ROLEPLAYING

The Core Rulebook provides everything you GAMES?
need to create and play sci-fi adventures with the If you’re brand-new to
Alternity Science Fiction Roleplaying Game. To roleplaying games, we
get started, find a group of people to play with, recommend you begin
and plan a good time and place to play. You’ll want by downloading the
three to six people and a couple hours. Choose Alternity Demo Pack at
one player to be the Gamemaster. DriveThruRPG.com (just
For the Player: If you’re a player, skim through type Alternity into the
Chapter 1: System Basics to get an overview of search bar; you’ll find it).
what goes into creating an Alternity character It’s a free PDF download
and how the game system works. Then move on that covers the basics
to Chapter 2: Hero Creation to create a character of the Alternity game
for your Alternity game and follow the steps laid and provides a self-con-
out there. You’ll need to refer to skills and gear tained, ready-to-play game
(Chapters 3 and 4) as you go, but you can pick up experience. Try out “The
the finer points of the rules as you play. Institute” introductory
For the Gamemaster: If you plan to be the GM, adventure first, and then
begin with Chapter 1: System Basics. This covers come back to this Core
the core mechanic of the game—how to make a Rulebook. It’s OK. We’ll wait.
skill check. Everything else in the Alternity game
is based on that. Chapter 5: Combat and Chal-
lenges describes how heroes (and their opponents) take turns and
interact, while Chapter 6: Running the Game covers the organization
of an Alternity adventure and how to present different types of For quick reminders,
scenes and challenges for the players to overcome. see margin notes
Your First Adventure: If you’re the GM, you also need to do a (like this one)
throughout the book.
little preparation before your first game session—you’ll need an
adventure to run. We recommend downloading the Alternity
Demo Packet for your first adventure (see the sidebar on this page).
After you’re comfortable with the basics of the Alternity game,
you’ll be ready to create your own Alternity adventures. Chapter
7: Creating Adventures provides you with resources for building
great Alternity adventures, and Chapter 8: Aliens and Adversaries
gives you a selection of ready-to-use monsters and bad guys to
challenge the players.
How to Use This Book 5

1: SYSTEM BASICS
“Science fiction, outside of poetry, is the only literary field which has no limits,
no parameters whatsoever.”
—Theodore Sturgeon
Like any roleplaying game, Alternity is first and foremost a toolkit for telling stories.
This rulebook provides you with a system for creating heroes suitable for taking on
adventures in just about any kind of modern-day to far-future sci-fi setting you can
imagine. What kind of hero you play and what kind of adventures you experience are
up to you and your Gamemaster.
Let’s begin with a few definitions:
Player: That’s you. A player creates a heroic character to play in an

Alternity game.
GM (or Gamemaster): That might be you. A GM creates an adven-
ture for the other players to experience through their hero char-
acters. A GM runs the game, serves as referee and narrator, and
controls the adversaries the heroes face.
Hero (or PC): A character the player creates to serve as his or her
avatar in the game. Each player takes on the part of a hero and
decides what that hero does in the game.
Team: A group or party of heroes who are engaged in the same
adventure.
NPC: A non-player character. NPCs are the shopkeepers, infor-
mants, quest-givers, enemies and rivals the GM populates
throughout the adventure for the heroes to interact with.
Adventure: The story or scenario the GM creates for the players’
hero characters to explore, interact with or resolve. It could be
anything from thwarting the plot of a cyber-terrorist group to a
search-and-rescue mission on an uncharted planet.
Campaign: The ongoing story of a hero team. If you play the same
team of characters in several adventures, those adventures and
heroes form an ongoing campaign.
Scene: One discrete challenge or decision point in an adventure.
It might be a battle against hungry aliens, a negotiation with an
NPC or an obstacle or test the heroes must overcome.
Skill: A specific activity, trait, field of study or profession. Examples
include Athletics, Firearm, Computers, Mechanics or Willpower.
Your hero is basically a collection of skills. Some you’re trained in,
some you aren’t.
Check: A test to see whether a character succeeds or fails at some-
thing. You make a skill check when failure is a real possibility.
d20: A 20-sided die. When you make a check, roll a d20 and com-
pare it to the acting character’s skill to find out whether he or
she succeeds.
7
Got it? Good. We’ll take a closer look at how the game works
soon, but before we do, let’s look at something even more import-
ant: What kind of sci-fi game do you want to play?
CHOOSING YOUR FUTURE

Science fiction is an amazingly broad genre: exploration, space
opera, time travel, first contact, catastrophe, post-apocalypse, dys-
topia, cyberpunk, steampunk, military sci-fi, hard sci-fi ... the list goes
on and on. Your first challenge (and opportunity!) when you begin an
Alternity game is to decide what kind of science fiction story you
want to explore.
In general, the GM is the person who decides on the story pre-
sented to the players. He or she picks the adventure, and by exten-
sion the universe in which that adventure takes place. However, it’s
a good idea for the GM to ask the players what kind of game they
want to play and try to meet their expectations—they’re your audi-
ence and your co-creators, after all!
PUBLISHED, HOMAGE, OR ORIGINAL?

The easiest way to start running an Alternity game is to use
adventures published for the Alternity game. You can find ready-
to-play adventures at online stores such as DriveThruRPG.com in
PDF and print-on-demand format. (Some, like the Demonstration
Packet, are free!)
If you’d prefer to create your own adventures, you can easily
design an Alternity campaign around your favorite sci-fi story. Are
you a fan of E.E. Smith’s Lensman stories? Run a Lensman campaign
in homage to the setting you love. You’ll need to decide which rules
elements you’ll need to incorporate or adopt to emulate the Lens-
man universe and which parts of the Lensman universe will need
some house rules to work in an Alternity game. (You’ll probably
want to use the Psionics and Ships appendices.) It’s not hard to
import your favorite alien race as a PC option, add to the skill list or
build new adversaries based on those from the story that inspires
your campaign.
If you’re ambitious, you can create a science fiction setting of
your own design. A lot of GMs find building worlds to be the most
rewarding part of the job and devote a lot of time and attention to it,
but you don’t have to describe every detail ahead of time. It’s per-
fectly fine to grow your setting organically by starting with just the
pieces you need—a moon base, a pirate ship, an evil corporation, a
mysterious alien artifact and so on.
8 1: System Basics
MODERN-DAY OR FAR-FUTURE?
How far away is the future you’re creating? Science fiction ranges
from modern-day technothrillers or alien conspiracy stories to
galaxy-spanning empires thousands of years in the
future—or even “end of time” tales set on a nearly
unrecognizable Earth billions of years from now. TECH ERAS
Setting stories in the modern day requires less The Alternity game
world-building; you don’t have to explain to your describes the range of
players what a McDonald’s is or how a 9 mm pistol future technology as
works. In fact, the juxtaposition of aliens or fantastic “tech eras.” We live in
super-science with a world the players otherwise TE 6, the Modern Era.
see around them every day can be a powerful sto- Your game might be set
rytelling tool. But there’s no doubt voyaging across in TE 7 (Solar Era), TE 8
the stars to visit strange new worlds in each adven- (Stellar Era) or TE 9 (the
ture makes for an awesome sci-fi game, too. It’s just Galactic Era). You can find
a matter of what appeals to you most. out more about technol-
ogy eras in Chapter 4
and Chapter 7.
EARTH-BASED, SOLAR SYSTEM
OR INTERSTELLAR?
How far does your future extend? Are the heroes of the story
dealing with villains and threats on Earth, on Mars or on Altair IV?
Naturally modern-day or near-future stories are likely to be more
Earth-centric, but that’s not necessarily the case—imagine running a
1960s campaign based on a secret science foundation using myste-
rious stargates hidden in Earth’s ancient ruins to send explorers to
other planets. A near-future “hard” science fiction campaign might
present the other planets and moons in our solar system as lonely
scientific outposts or grim industrial facilities, but in the far future,
extensive terraforming might transform ice moons into water worlds
or asteroids into inside-out bubble worlds. It’s really a question
of whether the heroes’ next adventure is in the next city, the next
planet or the next star.
Campaigns of truly interstellar scope naturally demand answers Want to test your
to a couple big questions: “How do the heroes travel between the improv skills? Let the
players warp to any
stars?” and “Are humans alone in the universe?” “Realistic” interstel-
planet in the galaxy.
lar travel probably involves decades or centuries of travel time, so
are the heroes hibernating through those flights? Or are the heroes
just minds stored in computers who download themselves to artifi-
cial bodies when they reach their destination? If there are aliens out
there for us to meet, are they behind us in technology, or are they
peers? Are they ahead of us or vastly ahead of us? If so, why do
they care about us at all?
Choosing Your Future 9

UNIQUE FLAVOR
Last but not least, what’s the unique characteristic or “hook” in the
future you’re creating? What’s the one thing about your Alternity
game that isn’t true about all the other stories and TV shows and
movies that tread on similar ground? Think about how elements
such as the Prime Directive, the Force or the Three Laws of Robot-
ics color the stories in which they appear. It’s a characteristic that
isn’t simply a date, a technology level or a type of FTL travel that
works—it’s something that enables the kinds of stories the author
or filmmaker wants to tell. To put it another way, what makes your
future yours?
HOW THE GAME WORKS

In the Alternity game, the GM presents a narrative that features
a variety of mysterious, challenging or dangerous situations.
You decide how your character interacts with the story the GM
describes: Do you follow the drug lord’s courier, or do you stay
hidden and continue your stakeout? Do you try to sneak past the
sentry bot, convince it you have the proper authorization to pass or
simply blow it to bits with your plasma pistol?
In the Alternity game (and most other roleplaying games), the
action follows a simple narrative:
1. The GM describes the situation to the players: where their

heroes are and the threats, challenges or opportunities
apparent to them.
2. The players describe the actions their characters take.
3. If there’s a possibility the heroes might not succeed, the
GM decides how to see what happens. This might be a
die roll to test a character’s skill at a task, a die roll to see
whether an adversary or villain resists what the charac-
ters are trying to do, or simply a request for the players to
provide more explanation. If someone’s rolling the dice, we
call it a check to determine the outcome.
4. The GM then describes the results of the players’ actions
and decisions. The situation changes accordingly, and you
We start all our
convention demos start at the top again.
by teaching the three
big concepts. Science fiction is a high-concept genre, and Alternity has three
big concepts at its foundation: the core mechanic, the turn order,
and the wound system. Once you understand these three concepts,
the rest of the rules are straightforward. More importantly, when you
teach Alternity to new players, make sure they understand these
three concepts and they’ll be ready for adventure.
10 1: System Basics
BIG CONCEPT: THE CORE MECHANIC
Sometimes the GM simply incorporates your decision into the
narrative and then describes what happens next. In situations where
failure and consequences are a real possibility—for example, failing
to stop a ship from crashing or losing a gunfight—the narrative can’t
go forward until you find out whether a hero succeeds or fails in the
scene by rolling dice and making a check.
The great majority of checks in an Alternity game are ability
checks or skill checks. Ability checks are a test of a character’s
raw natural aptitude or characteristics. Skill checks are much more
common and test a character’s overall competence at some task
by combining natural ability with relevant training. (In fact, an ability
check is just a skill check at a skill you don’t happen to have any
training in.)
To make a check, roll a d20 (the base die) and compare it to
your character’s relevant skill score. If the result of your die roll is
equal to or higher than your target for that task, you succeed. For
example, if you’re trying to shoot an enemy with a pistol, it’s a test of
your character’s Firearm skill, so you’re trying to equal or beat your
Firearm skill score.
Factors that make a check easier or harder than normal are
represented by adding a difficulty die to your roll (see The Difficulty
Die, below). This is another polyhedral die. The Alternity game
uses the same polyhedral dice found in other RPGs: 4-sided (d4), High Rolls, Low
6-sided (d6), 8-sided (d8), 10-sided (d10),12-sided (d12) and 20-sided Skill Scores
die (d20). An extra d20 of a different color is handy to have. A highly skilled
character has a low
skill score—in other
FIGURING YOUR SKILL SCORE words, it’s easy to
pass the skill check.
Your skill score measures how good you are at a particular task. You want high
The two components are your natural ability (as measured by your rolls and low skill
scores when you
ability score in the key ability for that skill) and the amount of train- make checks!
ing and practice you’ve had at that task (as measured by your skill
points). Add your key ability score and your skill points together to
get your total skill modifier. Your skill score for checks with that skill
is equal to 20 minus your skill modifier (key ability + skill ranks).
Example: Your character has a Strength score of 5 and 4 skill
points in Athletics. Her Athletics skill modifier is (5 + 4), or 9, which
means her Athletics skill score is (20 – 9), or 11. Whenever you make
an Athletics check for your character, you’re trying to roll an 11 or
better to succeed.
When you fill out a character sheet for your Alternity character,
you’ll figure out the skill scores for your ability checks and the skills
you’re trained in (since those are the ones you’re most likely to use).
It helps the game run faster and smoother if you note your scores
ahead of time.
How the Game Works 11

DIFFICULTY STEPS DIE MODIFIER

Check Difficulty Die Steps Description
+2d20 +6 Nearly
+ Automatic
+d20 +5 Piece of
d4 + Cake
+d12 +4 Extremely
+ Easy
+d8 +3 Very Easy

+
d6
+d6 +2 Easy
+
+d4 +1 Moderately
+ Easy
d8 — 0 Ordinary
–d4 –1 Moderately
- Hard
–d6 –2 Hard
d12 -
–d8 –3 Very Hard
-
–d12 –4 Extremely
- Hard
d20
–d20 –5 Brutal
-
–2d20 –6 Nearly
- Impossible
THE DIFFICULTY DIE

Your skill scores are the same each time you test them—if your
Strength is 4, your target for a simple Strength check is 16 whether
you’re trying to break down a wooden panel door, bust through
a steel fire door, or kick open an armored hatch in a spaceship.
Clearly some Strength checks are easier than others. To represent
the difficulty of the specific check you’re attempting, the GM assigns
a difficulty die to your check.
Tests that are easier than normal allow you to add a difficulty
bonus die to the result of the d20 you roll when you make a check.
Tests that are harder than normal require you to subtract a dif-
ficulty die penalty from the result of the d20 you roll when you
make a check.
The sum (or difference) of the d20 and your difficulty die is your
check result. Compare this to the skill score for your check to see
whether you succeed or fail.
12 1: System Basics
Usually it’s not worth rolling the dice on checks easier than +6
steps. If the task is that easy, the GM can just rule that you succeed
at it (although you should still roll if the skill check is an attack of
some kind). Likewise, checks harder than –6 steps almost always
fail. If you need more than 6 steps, just add (or subtract) additional
d20s for the difficulty die, one per step.
THE DIFFICULTY SCALE

Not every advantage or disadvantage is created the same. The
difference between a specific difficulty level and the next is referred
to as a die step. A minor complication might be worth
only a –1 step penalty, but a major impediment to your intended
action might deserve a –2 or –3 step penalty. You might also find
that multiple small complications “add up” to make an otherwise
straightforward skill check extremely hard or that the advantages
and disadvantages offset (a +1 step bonus winds up being canceled
out by a –1 step penalty).
You normally begin at an Ordinary level of difficulty (no bonus or
penalty with a difficulty die). As the GM applies a bonus or a penalty
for the circumstances of the check, you effectively move up or down
the “scale.” Deciding how much of a step bonus to award for a help-
ful circumstance or how much of a penalty to impose for a complicat-
ing factor is the GM’s job, but as a general rule:
• A minor factor is worth a +1 step bonus (helpful) or –1 step

penalty (unhelpful).
• A moderate factor is worth a +2 step bonus or –2
step penalty.
• A major factor is worth a +3 step bonus or –3 step penalty.
Example: Nimon Zhan-Deneb is trying to set down a damaged
aircar without completely wrecking it (a Piloting check). The aircar’s
damage is severe, so the GM assigns a –3 step penalty: The check
moves from Ordinary (+0 steps) to Very Hard (–d8). Nimon is also
fighting off the effects of a serious wound, which adds a –1 step
penalty to anything he tries to do. The check moves from Very Hard
to Extremely Hard (–d12). Negotiating over
step bonuses/
Thinking fast, the player asks whether there’s any soft-looking penalties is the heart
terrain around that Nimon can use to cushion the landing. The of the game, pure
GM informs the player there’s a good-size lake nearby, so Nimon and simple.
decides to ditch the aircar in the water. The GM decides a soft
landing site is moderately helpful and adds a +2 step bonus to the
player’s check. That bonus moves the check back up the scale
two steps from Extremely Hard to just Hard (–d6). When the player
makes Nimon’s Piloting check, he rolls d20 minus d6 and hopes to
roll well!

SUCCESS LEVELS
When your check result exceeds your skill score by a wide margin,
you not only succeed—you succeed with better than normal results.
• If your check result is lower than your skill score, your check
is a Failure.
• If your check result is equal to or better than your skill score,
Often shown in game
text as Av/Ex/St. you achieve an Average success.
• If your check result is at least 5 more than your skill score,
you achieve an Excellent success.
• If your check result is at least 10 more than your skill score,
you achieve a Stellar success.
The exact effects of Excellent and Stellar success vary with the
skill you’re using. If you’re attacking, a better grade of success
usually results in more damage. If you’re working your way through
some kind of challenge scene, a high success level might mean you
make better progress in whatever it is you’re trying to do.
BIG CONCEPT:
1 THE TURN ORDER
8
2 When the blaster bolts start flying, it’s
important to know who shoots first.
Alternity measures time using the
7 action round, which lasts about 15 sec-
onds. Eight impulses (about 2 seconds
3 each) make up an action round. The best
way to think of the action round and the
impulses is like a clock; after you com-
plete impulse 8 of one round, you begin
6 impulse 1 of the next round.
4 Actions usually require 1 to 5 impulses.
5 Chapter 5 gives you all the details, but here are
the most common actions:
• 1 impulse: open a door, go prone, draw a weapon, reload.

• 2 impulses: Move 20 meters, depending on terrain.
• 3 impulses: Attack with a typical weapon or use a skill.
• 4 impulses: Attack with a fully automatic or heavy weapon.
If it’s your turn on impulse 2 and you take a 3-impulse action to

shoot your blaster, you resolve your shot and roll your dice right away.
Then you get to take your next action in impulse 5. The “next action”
wraps around the end of the round, so if you shoot that blaster in
impulse 7, your next action is in impulse 2 of the next action round.
14 1: System Basics
Your adversaries use the same impulse track you do, and you
generally know when they act next. If it’s your turn on impulse 5
and the bad guy acts on impulse 8, you know you’ve got time to
run down the hallway (2 impulses) and still get another turn (during
impulse 7) before the bad guy can shoot you.
As an additional wrinkle, you can voluntarily use action modifiers
to make your action take longer for an additional benefit. The two
most common action modifiers are aiming (your action costs one
extra impulse, but you get a step bonus on your attack check) and
evading (likewise costs an extra impulse, but enemies who attack
you before your next turn suffer a step penalty).
We suggest putting an impulse track in the middle of your play
area. Then you can use tokens to keep track of when each charac-
ter or adversary gets his or her next action in the combat scene.
BIG CONCEPT: THE WOUND SYSTEM

Alternity heroes don’t have hit points. Instead, every hero or
adversary can withstand some number of wounds. The number and
severity of the wounds you can withstand before you’re defeated
make up your durability track.
A typical durability track looks like this:
severity description wounds

16+ Mortal wound (cannot act) p
13–15 Critical wound (–3 die steps) p
10–12 Serious wound (–2 die steps) p
7–9 Moderate wound (–1 die step) p
4–6 Light wound (no effect) pp
1–3 Graze (no effect) pp
When you take damage, mark off a box depending on how Remember, "up" is
more severe and
severe the wound is. If you take a 7-point laser blast, for example, "down" is less severe.
you mark off a moderate wound box because the moderate wound Up bad, down good.
row is 7–9. Then you suffer whatever penalty is listed for that row. In
this case, you’ll take a –1 step penalty on all checks. When you mark
your highest wound box, you’re defeated.
The wound system has two key wrinkles. First, if all the boxes
on that row are already marked, you have to move up the track and
mark the first open box of higher severity. Second, you only suffer
the penalty for the highest (and worst) wound you have, even if the
lower rows are full. Once you have a sucking chest wound, that
sprained ankle isn’t bothering you anymore.

YOUR ALTERNITY CHARACTER

When you play in an Alternity game, you take on the role of a
heroic character in a science-fiction story. An Alternity character is
basically a collection of stats and abilities that describe what he or
she is good at, combined with the story, motivations and personality
you invent.
Name: You get to come up with a name for your character.

Level: Your level measures how much training and experience you
have. Most Alternity campaigns begin with level 1 heroes.
Species: Alternity characters might belong to any number of
unusual species—denizens of alien worlds, cyborgs, androids,
mutants, vampires and so on. The choices available to you
depend on what sort of setting your GM creates.
Archetype: The type of character you are. It’s like a character class,
but not as restrictive.
Abilities: Your character’s natural strengths and weaknesses
are described by six Ability ratings. These are Strength, Agil-
ity, Vitality, Intelligence, Focus and Personality. Scores range
from 0 to 10, with a typical human having a score of 2 to 4 in
each Ability.
Talents: These are the special tactics, edges, aptitudes or charac-
teristics that set you apart. You might be a fast-draw specialist,
skilled in making sneak attacks or capable of shrugging off inju-
ries that would slow down other characters.
Skills: Alternity characters are built around a list of about 35
discrete skills (depending on the campaign, there might be a few
more available to your character).
Initiative Score: At the start of an action scene, you make an initia-
tive check to determine when you can take your first action.
Durability: This describes how many injuries your character
can withstand before he or she is defeated. Each time you
take damage, you mark off one wound box corresponding
to the damage inflicted by whatever hurt you. If you mark off
your highest wound box, you’re defeated. Depending on the
campaign, you might be dead, dying or forced to regenerate
a new body.
Gear: Are you carrying a shiv made from a sharpened spoon or a
The bad guys plasma rifle? Your GM will tell you what gear is available to your
want to know.
character.
Hero Points: A measure of extraordinary luck, resilience or perse-
verance. When the situation appears to be unwinnable, you can
spend a hero point to modify the results of a die roll and influ-
ence the narrative just a little bit in your favor.
16 1: System Basics
Nimon Zhan-Deneb
____________________________ Survivor
____________________________
Name Archetype
1 Hero points: _____
Level: _____ 1 Initiative: _______________________
12/17/22 +1 step Speed: ______
20m Encumbrance: ______
14kg
STRENGTH ___ 4 FOCUS 3
___ TALENTS
6
INTELLIGENCE ___ VITALITY ___ 4 Commando
___________________
AGILITY ___ 5 4
PERSONALITY ___ Elusive
___________________
Skirmisher
___________________
WEAPONS ___________________
weapon range speed damage special
Plasma Pistol M 3 2d4/2d8 +1

_______________ ____ ____ __________ step
_______ ___________________
Unarmed * 3 d4+0/2 +1
_______________ ____ ____ __________ step
_______
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______ SPECIES NOTES
Human
___________________
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______
___________________
___________________
ARMOR AND DAMAGE
3
3 energy by ____
Armor reduces physical by ____,
OTHER GEAR
severity description wounds gear mass
16+ Mortal wound (cannot act) p Nanoweave Suit
_______________ ___
13–15 Critical wound (–3 die steps) ppp Force Shield
_______________ ___
10–12 Serious wound (–2 die steps) ppp Comm Patch
_______________ ___
7–9 Moderate wound (–1 die step) ppp Vacuum Collar
_______________ ___
4–6 Light wound (no effect) pppp
Wound Gel
_______________ ___
1–3 Graze (no effect) pppp
_______________ ___
Every PC has the black boxes. A high Vitality score and the Rugged
talent constellation grant some or all of the gray boxes. _______________ ___
SKILLS
Academics (Int) ___/___/___ 3 12/ 17 /22
Hand to Hand (Str/Agi) ___/___/___
Acrobatics (Agi) 3 12/ 17 /22
___/___/___ Heavy Weapon (Str/Int) ___/___/___
Armor Training (Str/Int) ___/___/___ 4
Influence (Per) ___/___/___ 12/ 17 /22
Athletics (Str) ___/___/___ Mechanics (Int) ___/___/___
Awareness (Foc) 3 14/ 19 /24
___/___/___ Medicine (Int) ___/___/___
Coercion (Per) ___/___/___ Melee (Str/Agi) ___/___/___
Computer (Int) ___/___/___ Misdirection (Per) ___/___/___
Culture (Per) ___/___/___ Performance (Per) ___/___/___
Deception (Per) ___/___/___ 5
Piloting (Agi/Int) ___/___/___10/ 15 /20
Driving (Agi) ___/___/___ Primitive Wpn (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___
Dodge (Agi) 4 11/16 /21
___/___/___ Profession (any) ___/___/___
Empathy (Foc/Per) ___/___/___ Resilience (Vit) ___/___/___
Endurance (Vit) ___/___/___ Science (Int) ___/___/___
5 10/ 15/20
Energy Weapon (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___ Security (Agi/Int) ___/___/___
Engineering (Int) 4 10/ 15 /20
___/___/___ 4
Stealth (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___ 11/ 16 /21
Extreme Sports (Agi/Vit) ___/___/___ Survival (Vit/Foc) ___/___/___
Firearm (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___ Willpower (Foc) ___/___/___
Your Alternity Character
©2018 Sasquatch Game Studio. Permission granted to reproduce for personal use.
18

2: CHARACTER CREATION
“The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn’t look like there’s a light
at the end of the tunnel, he’s going to keep digging, he’s going to keep
trying to do right and make up for what’s gone before, just because that’s
who he is.”
— Joss Whedon
For everyone but the GM, your hero (also known as a player
character, or PC) is the way you interact with the other players
and the game as a whole. Fundamentally, it’s who you’re pre-
tending to be. You might be a down-on-her-luck freighter captain,
an alien curious about human society, or a maverick cop who
doesn’t play by the rules—and who you’re pretending to be will
change as the story advances. Your character grows in compe-
tence as you explore a science fiction setting and develop bonds
with the other characters in the story—some of whom are in the
hands of other players at your table. Your hero succeeds, fails,
sets new goals, suffers setbacks and lives the complex life of a
sci-fi protagonist.
Let’s start, though, with practical matters. Creating an
Alternity character requires this book, a character sheet (go If you want more
ahead and photocopy the one in the back) and about 30 min- detail, check online
utes—much of which can be spent away from the book, mulling for fancier character
sheets in PDF form.
over the central question: “Who is my character, really?”
To create a hero, follow these steps:
1. Come up with a concept and some connections to the

setting (page 20).
2. Determine your ability scores (page 23).
3. Choose a species if the setting offers nonhuman protag-
onists (page 26).
4. Pick an archetype or go freeform (page 39).
5. Select your talents (page 45).
6. Assign your skill points (page 46).
7. Get some gear (page 99).
8. Take care of finishing touches like initiative and
durability (page 47).
9. Run it all past your GM, and you’re ready for adventure!
19
YOUR CHARACTER CONCEPT

Most of the character-creation process is straight-up creative brain
work. Imagine your character as he or she exists at the moment
the adventure kicks into gear and ask yourself where your charac-
ter came from. How did you become the hero you are? Where are
you going?
FIRST, FOCUS ON THE PRESENT

One way to answer the “who are you, really?” question is to figure
out what you care about and what you’re good at the moment the
adventure starts. Here are some ways to help you think through
your character’s adventure-start identity.
The Twitter Bio Approach. Think of the short, pithy bios people
put on their social media profiles. What would your character’s bio
say? Maybe it’s a job title like “University of Ceres exobiologist”
or “Staff Sergeant, 3rd Orbital Ranger Battalion.” Maybe it’s less
straightforward and speaks to your character’s personality or the
vibe you give off. “I drink and I know things,” for example, is a great
springboard for a character.
Likes and Dislikes. This one’s the character-creation equivalent
of a dating profile. List three or four things your character likes (life
in orbit, vintage rockets, robotic animals, this hat I got from Old
Earth) and three or four dislikes (empty ammo clips, waking up after
hypersleep, cold instacaff, thought criminals). Shoot for a mix of
GMS, HELP YOUR PLAYERS OUT

Just because players can make up characters without guidance from the
GM doesn’t mean they should. As GM, you don’t want to lead players by the
nose, but some directional advice from you at the concept stage of character
creation can create a better story for all. At a minimum, give the players the
following guidance.
Elevator Pitch: Describe the setting in a sentence or two such as, “The Cold
War erupted into nuclear Armageddon in 1984, and now mutant gangs wander the
irradiated wasteland,” or “On a tidally locked planet, the light side and dark side
are entrenched in bitter war over the habitable periphery.”
Organizing Principle: Who are the heroes collectively at the start of the
adventure? For example: “You’re crew members on the Jeffty Five, a space
freighter one step ahead of the authorities and one month behind on its pay-
ments,” or “You don’t have much in common, other than being in the student
union late one night when the particle accelerator overloaded, scrambling time-
space beyond recognition.”
As the GM, your guidance provides the frame—but leave the canvas for
each player to paint.
20 2: Character Creation
big, important likes/dislikes and smaller personality-revealing likes/
dislikes.
Dramatic Archetype. We’ll get into the gameplay archetypes
below, but think of how you’d summarize your character’s place in
an ensemble action drama. Are you the brains of the bunch? The
muscle? The wild card?
Whatever technique you use, just get a sense of your character’s
present identity, then move on to your character’s past and future.
That’s the thing about the present—it never lasts very long.
BACKGROUND: YOUR CHARACTER’S ROOTS

Your character’s past is called “background” for a reason. Like the
ground, it can be fertile soil that nourishes you as you grow.
You don’t need to know your character’s entire life story (in fact,
it’s often good to leave some gaps you can fill in mid-campaign),
but you should give some thought to a few key moments that
plant roots in the setting for you and the GM to tap throughout the
ongoing story.
Your GM will be immensely helpful as you figure this out—each
detail in your character’s backstory is a plot hook your GM can use
to motivate or entice you later. And you want that! When your char-
acter’s past propels the story forward, that’s a recipe for high drama.
As a starting point, consider the following:
• Family/Friends: This is often a good way to get at your Boil down a

character’s childhood. Explore the family and friend relation- superhero origin
ships that grew in those years. Pick a few relatives—siblings, story, and you'll see
a strong background
parents or more distant relations—and invent a relationship. structure.
Was it positive/negative? Did it change at some point, and
why? Is the relative still alive and in contact? Do likewise
with a childhood friend, army buddy, playground bully or
other peer from childhood or adolescence.
• Affiliations: Does your character identify with a larger group,
such as a clan, an ethnic group, a revolutionary cell, a nation,
a military unit or a corporation? And again, is that relation-
ship positive or negative ... and has it changed over time?
• Moments of Crisis: When those relationships changed,
what was the precipitating event? How did it change you,
and how do you feel about it now? If your character was
orphaned, think about the last moment you saw your par-
ents. If you were selected to join the Star Corps, think about
the moment the vid-invitation arrived.
You don’t have to develop an entire family tree or write thou-

sands of words on your character’s coming-of-age moment, but
filling in the details of key relationships and moments can bring your
21
character to life. More importantly, it can echo through the ongoing

story. Any avid reader of sci-fi novels knows the past doesn’t always
stay there—even if you don’t have a time machine.
One final factor to consider: Later on in the character creation
process, you’ll identify three contacts—useful NPCs your character
has an established rapport with. Connect those contacts to your
background, and the setting will be the richer for it.
THINK OF THE FUTURE: CHARACTER GOALS

It wouldn’t be a science-fiction game if you didn’t spend at least
some time dwelling on the future, right? Now that you have a sense
of your character’s identity and background, consider what goals
your character finds enticing.
Some sci-fi characters have burning desires that border on the
monomaniacal (think of Gully Foyle’s desire for revenge in The Stars
My Destination). Others drift from one job to the next and develop
motivating goals only as the narrative picks up pace (like Han Solo
in Star Wars). You’re doing your GM and your fellow players a ser-
vice if you start with a goal or two somewhere in between—a goal
that propels you forward but doesn’t blind you to other possibilities.
Here are some techniques that can help you get started.
The Three-Goal Approach: This one’s an old RPG standby
because it works. Give your character three goals: a relatively minor
one that can be accomplished with a modicum of effort, a major
goal that would be the highlight of an ordinary person’s career, and
a huge goal that would transform the setting so utterly that it’d
effectively end the campaign. For example, your fresh-from-the-
academy Star Marine might have three goals: to earn a promotion to
first lieutenant, to liberate the Dar-Syn system from alien oppression,
and to lead humanity everywhere out of bondage, casting the alien
slavers back through their stargates forever. Will any of them actu-
ally happen? That’s for the table and the dice to collectively decide,
but no matter the outcome, those goals provide motivation for the
character and propulsion for the plot.
It's pronounced FLBW: Some writers define the goals of their protagonist in
"FLUB-wuh." terms of their FLBWs: fears, limitations, blocks or wounds. Give
your character a FLBW, then a goal to confront it. The confronta-
tion goal doesn’t need to be the best plan (and it might be more
interesting if it’s a poor one), but it needs to force the character to
face that flaw or weakness. If a character’s weakness is that she’s
haunted by the many comrades who died in battle, her goal might
be to avoid violence at all costs, or to avoid making personal con-
nections with anyone in harm’s way. In an action adventure, neither
of those is a particularly effective goal, but the inevitable failure
will be dramatically interesting, and it’ll lead to character growth
and change.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU’RE COMPETENT!
A key conceit of most Alternity campaigns is that characters start the game
with a high degree of competence. You aren’t some wet-behind-the-ears farm-
er’s child—or at least you aren’t just that. You are decidedly above the human
average, and you have the ability scores and skills to prime you for success in
life. At least until the plot starts careening sideways, that is.
To put it in 21st-century terms, a 1st-level Alternity character is the equivalent
of a college athlete, an elite academy footballer, a recent graduate of a military
academy or a gifted grad student. You’ve faced adversity before, you have at
least a measure of grit, and you’re capable of great things. To extend the analogy,
10th-level Alternity characters are greatest-of-all-time Olympians, Nobel Prize
winners, Medal of Honor recipients and the sorts of people who get cities and
planets named after them. If future historians refer to the “[your character name]
Dynasty,” you’re probably a 10th-level character.
Goals Arise from Identity and Background: You’ve already

done work on your character’s present-moment identity and prior Talk to the other
players as you
backstory. Now leverage that by asking yourself what goals those
come up with goals.
aspects of your character suggest. At least in part, Luke Skywalker It’s a recipe for
leaves Tatooine because he’s an orphan who wants to know more great drama if your
about his parents—especially his father. Miles Vorkosigan’s stunted goals dovetail with
each other—and
body drives him to prove his doubters wrong. occasionally conflict.
ABILITY SCORES
Now that you’ve defined who your character is in the dramatic
sense, it’s time to start defining that PC in the gameplay sense.
Fundamental to every character in Alternity are six ability scores
that represent the character’s raw aptitude and natural ability in six
categories.
• Strength: Raw physical power and basic athleticism. It’s
good for hand-to-hand combat as well as climbing, running,
jumping and other physical challenges.
• Agility: Hand-eye (or manipulator limb-visual sensor) coor-
dination, balance, reflexes and flexibility. Useful in ranged
combat and anything where precise, not forceful, physicality
is key. Also handy for getting out of the way when things
start exploding around you.
• Vitality: Overall health, endurance and resistance to injury.
Your Vitality score contributes to your overall durability and
your ability to endure hazards such as toxins, atmospheric
decompression and radiation.
• Intelligence: A blend of your raw reasoning ability and
the education you’ve received before the start of your first
Ability Scores 23
adventure. It’s good for invention, research, computation

and solving puzzles. The future doesn’t belong to the dumb.
• Focus: Your awareness, determination and ability to concen-
trate on the task at hand despite distractions. A good Focus
score helps with marksmanship, noticing threats around you
and zeroing in on minute details.
Use Personality as • Personality: Natural persuasiveness, charisma and talent for
a dump stat only at leadership. It’s the key ability score for interacting with NPCs,
your peril. This ain’t whether friendly, hostile or somewhere in between.
that kind of RPG.
In each case, scores range from 0 to 10, but the vast majority of
humans have ability scores between 1 and 5, with 3 being aver-
age. Olympians, Nobel Prize-winners and similar luminaries might
have a 6 or a 7, and anything beyond that is the work of technology,
If you’re statistically
aliens or both.
minded, you can It’s useful to think of the ability scores as the equivalent to a Star
think of 3 as the Academy entrance exam. They represent your character’s natural
mean on a bell gifts, which you’ll hone with the specific skills and talents you’ve
curve, and each
whole number up or learned. But because they’re inherent gifts, you can always count
down representing a on them, even when you haven’t received training in a specific skill
standard deviation. for the task at hand.
HOW TO ASSIGN ABILITY SCORES

The short answer: Ask your GM. Here are some options:
• Old-School Rolling: Roll 1d4 + 2 in order for Strength, Agility,

Vitality, Intelligence, Focus and Personality. Warning: You
may get nonviable or entirely-too-viable characters this way.
• Old School, Configurable: Roll 1d4 + 2 six times, then assign
your results to whichever ability scores you like. This
reduces but doesn’t eliminate the risk of nonviable charac-
ters, and it makes the too-good characters even better.
• Standard Array: Take (6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3) and assign them to
whichever ability scores you like. This gives you a balanced
character who’s specialized enough to be interesting and
broad-based enough to tackle a wide array of challenges.
• Other Arrays: If you don’t like the standard array, pick one of
the following and arrange as you see fit: (5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 3); (5,
5, 5, 4, 4, 4); (6, 6, 3, 3, 3, 3).
• Point Buy: You start with 12 points to spend and a score of 3
in all six ability scores. Upgrading an ability score to 4 costs
1 of your points. Upgrading to a 5 costs 3 points, and getting
a 6 costs 6. If you reverse-engineer any of the arrays above,
you’ll see they work out to 12 points each.
• Gonzo Point Buy: As above, but you start with 15 points. Or
hell, 18. This changes the Alternity game from “assumed
competence” to “assumed eliteness,” but for the campaign
you’re envisioning, that might be OK. After all, it’s not like
the GM is going to run out of deathbots and void aliens to
throw at you.
SEVENS AND TWOS

All the ability score techniques outlined in this section share one characteris-
tic: They generate results between 3 (human average) and 6 (human elite) for
each ability score. But what about a character who’s a 7? Or a 2?
Ability Score 7: Our reluctance to start characters with an ability score of
7 is twofold. First, we want the character to have room to grow over the next
nine levels. Second, in a point-buy system, that 7 can leave glaring weaknesses
in other areas. If you and your GM are determined to try it, though, use the
following array: (7, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3). In a point-buy setup, the 7 costs 10 points.
Ability Score 2: Our reluctance to allow starting ability scores of 2 is like-
wise twofold. First, we want to avoid sidelining players when their character’s
weakest ability score turns out to be crucial in an encounter. Alternity adven-
tures test characters in all sorts of ways, and we want characters to have
baseline competence whether it’s a furious firefight, a technological puzzle or
a tense negotiation. Second, we don’t like the implied causality of a below-av-
erage score in a point-buy situation: “I’m extra strong because I chose to be
dumb as a brick.”
That said, if you and your GM want to include characters with a starting
score of 2, try the (6, 6, 4, 3, 3, 2) array. In a point-buy setup, each 2 you accept
in your starting array gives you one extra point to spend elsewhere.
ABILITY RATINGS AS ROLEPLAYING HOOKS

Your ability ratings are just numbers on your character sheet; they
influence but don’t determine how you roleplay your character. If
you want to portray yourself as the “smartest man alive,” you don’t
need an Intelligence score of 7. You can play yourself as Int 7 in
routine moments, but sometimes you overthink things in crises and
that’s why there’s a 6 on your character sheet. Likewise, you can
channel your inner Vorkosigan but play a sickly character. Act like
you have Vitality 2, and when the chips are down, fate smiles and
you find enough inner reserve to eke out something equivalent to
the Vitality 3 written on your character sheet.
Ability Scores 25
SPECIES
Alternity aliens are more than just humans with animal heads
or prosthetic ears. They have physiologies and outlooks that are,
well, alien.
In some campaigns—including many modern-day, post-apocalyp-
tic and solar-era settings—humans will be the only available species
choice. In galactic-era Alternity games, there might be dozens of
species to choose from. Ask your GM for guidance, then choose a
species for your character.
Regardless of your choice, Alternity species are intentionally
Future Alternity straightforward mechanically. You’ll obtain a few species-specific
sourcebooks will
introduce more advantages and disadvantages, and you may get access to a talent
species, and you constellation unique to that species. If there are powerful species
can invent your benefits, you’ll make talent choices to unlock them (talents are
own as well.
explained later in this chapter).
Ability Requirements: As you look at the species descriptions
below, take careful note of the ability score requirements. If you
have your heart set on a nesh character, for example, make sure
you’ve got a Focus score of at least 4.
HUMAN
“We are humans from the planet Earth. We come in peace. No, really.
Hey now, quit laughing. I’m serious!”
In many campaigns set in the present day or near future, this is the
only species available. (To be fair, most of the players at your table
are baseline humans.) If you’re playing a baseline human, move
on to the heroic archetypes section and start picking talents and
skills. Humans are the baseline for a reason; the other species have
advantages and disadvantages compared to the human standard.
Game Rules: Humans are the baseline character choice. You
have no ability score requirements, special advantages or unusual
vulnerabilities.
Human Variants: In more futuristic settings, humans have
employed gene therapy, pharmaceuticals and other techniques to
adapt themselves for low- and high-gravity environments. If you’re
running a game set in the Solar Era or later, consider the following
two human variants in addition to baseline humans.
HUMAN (ELAPHROMORPH)
Adapted for microgravity environments, elaphromorphs (called
“laphs” in slang) look like particularly tall, skinny humans. From
before birth, they’ve received treatments to counter the pernicious
effects of microgravity on the human body, and now they’re as com-
fortable in zero-g as baseline humans are on Earth.
Game Rules: Elaphromorphs function like other humans, with the
following exceptions.
• Ability Scores: To play an elaphromorph, you must have an

Agility score of at least 4. You cannot have a Strength score
higher than 3.
• Zero-G Familiarity: You gain a +2 step bonus on Acrobatics
checks in low-gravity environments.
• Heavy-G Vulnerability: All penalties in high- and
extreme-gravity environments are –1 step worse for you.
Quirks: Growing up in a low-gravity environment changes your

behaviors in some significant ways, including:
• You find it difficult to sleep in an old-fashioned bed or on the

ground; tethered sleep-cocoons are more restful for you.
• Visual arts that can be viewed from multiple “up” perspec-
tives are fascinating to you, and you’re often craning your
neck to get a different angle on something.
• A lifetime in microgravity has made you something of a neat
freak, apt to secure loose objects and put things away when
you’re done with them.
HUMAN (BAROMORPH)
Referred to colloquially as “barrels,” baromorphs are broad, stocky
humans who’ve received therapy throughout their lives to enable They aren't
necessarily short, and
them to withstand sustained exposure to heavy gravity. The they don't necessarily
high-gravity environments in the solar system are inhospitable for have beards.
other reasons (temperature, pressure), so baromorphs exist mostly
in Stellar Era and Galactic Era games that have reached out to
nearby stars.
Game Rules: Baromorphs function like other humans, with the
following exceptions.
• Ability Scores: To play a baromorph character, you must

have a Strength score of at least 4. You cannot have an Agil-
ity score higher than 3.
• High-G Adaptation: Baromorphs suffer no penalty from
high-G environments and reduce the penalty for extreme-G
environments by –2 steps.
• Zero-G Clumsiness: All penalties in zero- and low-gravity
environments are –1 step worse for you.
• Load-Bearing Frame: A useful side effect of high-gravity
adaptation is that your skeletomuscular system is well suited
Species 27
to carrying heavy loads. The penalties for encumbrance are

always one category lower for you.
Quirks: Growing up in a high-gravity environment changes your

behaviors in some significant ways:
• You’re used to every motion taking extra effort, so your body

language has an economy of motion. When you sit still,
you’re almost entirely motionless.
• A fall of just a meter or two can be injurious or fatal where
you come from. While you don’t necessarily have a fear of
heights, you’re definitely wary on ledges and balconies.
• Even with your adaptations, living and working in high-G
environments is stressful and exhausting. When you can,
you work a nap or siesta into your daily routine.
ANDROID
“We are the machines you cannot stop tinkering with, the servants
who anticipate your every need and the toys that endlessly amuse.
We are the creation that supplants the creator, the never-living yet
immortal and your descendants yet never your children.
“Whence came these paradoxes? Look in a mirror. Every contra-
diction within us is an inheritance from you.”
“Android” is a broad term, but in this context, it refers to realistic imi-

tations of human life: nonbiological constructs that appear and act
human, yet are constructed of electronics and carbon fiber, not flesh
and bone. While they may have some biological systems, they’re
fundamentally robots ... with human appearances, human capabili-
ties and human desires.
Created as workers and companions, androids nevertheless
A campaign setting
where some or all
have independent legal status in most campaign settings. Some
PCs are androids NPCs may distrust them in Solar Era campaigns, but by the Galactic
without legal rights is Era, they’re a routine part of daily life.
rich with drama, but Description and Physiology: On the surface, you appear
it’s absolutely a “talk
to your table first” human—unless you’re intentionally marking your android status with
situation. a visible tattoo, unusual skin coloration or other marker. Your innards
are a mass of electronics, artificial organs and various lubricat-
ing fluids.
While you aren’t human, your artificial body does need to con-
sume oxygen periodically, and your brain must reboot and perform
routine maintenance (a process that takes you offline, much like
biological sleep). You do not need to eat, though you must drink
on occasion to replenish fluids. You excrete waste in such minute
quantities that it’s generally vaporized and exhaled.
Game Rules: Your artificial nature gives you significant advan-
tages and disadvantages.
• Ability Scores: To play an android character, you must have

a Vitality score of at least 4. You cannot have a Personality Impulses and actions
score higher than 4. are described in
• Disengage the Safeties: As a 2-impulse action, you can Chapter 5.
grant yourself a +2 step bonus on checks that use Strength,
Agility or Vitality (choose one each time you use this ability).
You decide how long the bonus lasts; take one wound box
of damage (in the lowest row available) per impulse you
have the bonus active. You don’t take damage during the
impulses you spend disengaging the safeties, but you must
maintain the bonus throughout the subsequent action. If you
use the bonus to make a 3-impulse attack action, for exam-
ple, you’ll take three boxes of damage.
• Reprogrammable: When you assign your skills, choose 4
points of technical skills (spread out as you like) that you can
reprogram to different technical skills as you wish. The new
skills can’t exceed the skill point maximum, and reprogram-
ming yourself takes time and/or resources. Your GM will let
you know what it takes to download a new technical skill. In
general, the time/resource cost is a hurdle but not a barrier.
• Ageless: You do not age and will live indefinitely, although
you’re subject to accidents, violence and periodic compo-
nent breakdowns as usual. In most Alternity campaigns
this won’t have any direct game effect, but it may influence
your attitude toward long-term planning and the aging and
dying humans around you.
• Artificial Life: When you are wounded, traditional first aid
is of only limited use because your insides are high-tech
circuitry, not flesh and blood. Medicine checks to provide
you with battlefield treatment take a –2 step penalty. On the
plus side, you can also receive battlefield treatment from a
successful use of the Mechanics skill (it works like Medicine
for you, without the –2 step penalty). Instead of medical sup-
plies, mechanical and electrical tools are relevant for your
“doctor.” Depending on their quality, they count as a medical
kit, trauma kit or med pack.
• Oblivious: While your sensory apparatus functions fine,
you lack millennia of instinct that hones your fight-or-flight
decisions, and you have difficulty decoding body language.
As a result, you cannot spend skill points in Awareness
or Empathy.
Species 29
Species Talents: Androids have exclusive access to the Artificial

Systems talent constellation.
Technology: Androids use technology as humans do, though
they tend to be more patient with recalcitrant machines and com-
puters. It would be facile to say androids feel a profound kinship
with machines, but many androids share code with early AIs
designed as human-machine interfaces, and echoes of that inclina-
tion toward patient service remain.
Culture and Outlook: Androids don’t generally have a culture
of their own, but they’re astute observers of culture and keenly
aware of their place within a given social setting. In many androids,
that desire to observe tugs against a desire to participate—to
truly belong. In most places, androids are the minority, but they’re
programmed to contribute and inclined to prove themselves as
worthwhile citizens, coworkers and friends.
Quirks: Some ideas to make your android character distinctive:
• Despite advanced programming and keen observation,

many androids are uncomfortable expressing strong emo-
tion. They worry it will seem inauthentic or inappropriate to
the situation. You feel as strongly as an organic human, but
you don’t always make those feelings as obviously visible.
• No android can be programmed from the start with the
depth and breadth of human experience, so you’re wired
to seek understanding of the people and cultures that
surround you. Many androids have a childlike (though not
childish) curiosity and ask frequent questions of their organic
compatriots.
• A key aspect of your character is how you feel about
humanity and your place within society. Do you wish you
were human? Do you want to prove the worth of artificial life
so that the biological and mechanical can live together in
harmony? Or do you see organic humans as ancestors who
are rapidly becoming obsolete?
It’s one briith, two Sample Names: Mariya, Adam Fourteen, Shelley Navigator.
briith. Collectively, Depending on the setting, androids may take on ordinary human
they’re “the briith,”
names, have only a personal name or have a numeric or occupa-
and they have
briith objects. How tional designation instead of a surname.
easy is that?
BRIITH
“We have no interest in empty words. Deeds are the measure of the
briith—do not talk, DO. Share our work and share our dangers if
you want to call us your friends. We will do the same for you.”
Hulking bipeds native to a high-G world,
briith are strong, hardy creatures with a
well-deserved reputation as brawlers and
mercenaries. Briith like a challenge, espe-
cially a physical one, and rarely shrink from
combat or other forms of danger. While many
humans see briith as short-tempered and violent,
that’s an unfair interpretation of briith directness.
Briith often demonstrate incredible patience and can
be very deliberate in their decision-making. Most briith
won’t do anything until they know what the stakes are
and how they’re getting paid, but once a fair deal has
been struck, they’ll follow through on their part or
die trying.
Physical Description: The average briith stands
almost 2 meters tall and weighs over 120 kilos, with
a tough, pebbly hide that ranges in color from pale
blue or dark mustard to a mottled purple. They have
four-fingered hands and four-toed feet, crag-like
chins, heavy brows and small, deep-set black eyes.
In place of hair, they have wiry tendrils on their
heads; males often have tendrils around the
jaw and cheekbones like human beards or
sideburns, while females have longer, finer
tendrils that cover more of their scalps.
Game Rules: Briith are strong and tough,
but slow. They make excellent battlers and revel in close combat.
• Ability Scores: To play a briith, you must have a Strength

score of at least 4. Your Agility can be no higher than 4, and
your Intelligence no higher than 5.
• Tough Hide: Briith have a natural armor with a resistance of 1. A briith is a good
candidate for a 7 or
You can add this to the value of any armor you wear. 2 ability rating. See
• Slow Reflexes: Briith take a –1 step penalty on initiative the sidebar earlier in
checks; briith generally don’t win fast-draw contests. this chapter.
• High-G Adaptation: Briith suffer no penalty from high-G
environments and reduce the penalty for extreme-G environ-
ments by 2 steps.
Species Talents: Briith have exclusive access to the Powerful

Build talent constellation.
Briith Technology: In starfaring settings, briith are nearly equal
to humans in technological progress. They tend to be engineers
rather than researchers and hard-minded traders instead of entre-
preneurs—briith are slow to innovate new technologies but excel in
building devices that are sturdy, functional and highly reliable. Briith
warships tend to be heavily armored and well-armed, but somewhat
Species 31
slower than the warships of other races. Briith power plants and pro-
jectile weapons are especially well developed, and in some cases
exceed the performance of similar human systems.
If the briith themselves do not have space travel, individual briith
(or sometimes briith companies) often seek work as soldiers-for-
hire, enforcers, deckhands or engineers on the ships of other races.
Briith have no problem working for someone else, as long as it’s a
fair deal.
In non-starfaring settings, briith sometimes show up as geneti-
cally engineered soldiers or laborers; their strength and hardiness
make them well-suited for both heavy labor and war.
Culture and Outlook: Briith trace family relationships to dis-
tant cousins several times removed. Families in turn hold gener-
ations-old alliances or feuds with each other, competing to place
their scions in the best trade guilds or companies. Briith society is
highly egalitarian; some families are certainly wealthier and more
influential than others, but the idea of aristocracy or royal houses is
completely foreign to them.
Briith tend to be practical, focused and not terribly curious about
things that don’t immediately concern them. That doesn’t mean
they’re stupid—it means they’re single-minded in the pursuit of
their chosen profession and regard anything else as a waste of
their time. They are a direct and pragmatic race who tend to speak
plainly and stand by their word once given. In return, briith expect
people of other races to be forthcoming with them, and they are
deeply annoyed by evasiveness or failure to follow through on
commitments.
Quirks: Some ideas for making your briith character distinctive:
• Briith relish hand-me-down family stories and seem to have

a family anecdote for every occasion. Make up a few ances-
tors whose stories you tell over and over again.
• Briith have the best poker faces of all time.
• You often collect small gifts for family back home or make
them with idle pastimes such as whittling or scrimshaw.
• Briith are very likely to go into the family business. If you do,
you’re proud of following many generations of family tradi-
tion. If you don’t, you have an epic story about why you don’t
Some Briith bestow fit in and which ancestor you actually take after.
use-names on
non-Briith they
consider friends.
Briith Names: Brambavol Thuu, Dheriimog Amma, Flaamodigo
Hod, Jorjordeth Drinu, Kajador Vok, Miindravum Mathon. Like many
human cultures, briith give their family names first, followed by a
use-name. The use-names are almost always one syllable for male
and two syllables for female and are usually descriptive in some
way—for example, Thuu means “tower,” and is commonly bestowed
on a briith who looks like he’ll be tall and strong.
NESH
“We greet you in the name of the All-Tree. Ever may it grow and It’s one nesh, two
nourish the motes of brilliance in the blackest of night. Though you nesh. Collectively,
they’re “the nesh,”
lack rapport, like seeds that cannot germinate, we greet you as and they have
friends, fellow gardeners in the Endless Grove.” neshi objects.
The nesh are mystically minded aliens from a forest planet

covered with a network of sentient trees, each large
enough to cover a continent. The nesh are a caretaker
species dedicated to tending the unimaginably old, largely
inscrutable sentient plant, which they call the All-Tree.
Over the last several centuries, the All-Tree has asked
less and less of the nesh, which has freed them to
develop an independent culture and explore nearby
space. The symbiotic relationship between nesh
and the All-Tree runs deep, though, and even
the nesh who live among other species live
rich interior lives, ever contemplating the
peace and timeless wisdom of the All-Tree.
Description and Physiology: The nesh
are gaunt bipeds about 1.5 to 1.8 meters
in height, with large eyes and hairless skin
humans regard as lizard-like. Their limbs
and hands are likewise similar to those of
humans, which caused much puzzlement
among the nesh when they first contacted
humans. The nesh believe the similarity
cannot be a coincidence and most think
humans are caretakers of the All-Tree who
were somehow orphaned long ago (if the nesh
are friendly) or have exiled themselves as rene-
gades (if the nesh are hostile).
The nesh are not born so much as they’re extruded
from pods on the All-Tree and they adopt a gender
only as it’s convenient (such as when talking to humans
in a gendered language). Nesh likewise understand
childhood and aging only in the academic sense; they
continue to live until injury renders them useless to the All-
Tree or they’re destroyed by some misfortune. They don’t
regard their own deaths as inevitable, though they have a
strong self-preservation instinct rooted in the belief that the
All-Tree needs the nesh to thrive.
To gain sustenance, nesh extend vine-like feeding tubes
from their mouth. The tubes, which extend almost a meter, can
break down plant matter and water into the nutrition and
hydration a nesh needs to live.
Species 33
Game Rules: Most of a nesh’s special abilities are mental—the

result of “rapport,” their telepathic communion with the All-Tree.
• Ability Scores: To play a nesh, you must have a Focus score

of at least 4. You cannot have a Strength score higher than 4.
• Empathic Rapport: While the nesh direct their telepathic
abilities toward the All-Tree, they can pick up flashes of
The Empathy bonus
can give you an
insight from nearby sentient creatures. You gain a +2 step
edge in initiative; see bonus on Empathy checks to assess someone’s mood. That
"When Negotiations rapport leaves the nesh’s mind more open, however, and
Fail" in Chapter 6. nesh suffer a –2 step penalty on Willpower checks to avoid
mental manipulation.
• Neshi Telepathy: By tapping into the species-wide rapport,
nesh can telepathically communicate with other willing
nesh within 10 meters. The conversation proceeds at an
extraordinarily slow pace—one-tenth the rate of verbal
communication.
• Nictitating Membranes: Instead of eyelids, neshi eyes
have multiple transparent lenses that cover the eyes to aid
in vision. Irritants in the atmosphere such as dust, smoke
or tear gas don’t impede a nesh. Conversely, nesh cannot
close their eyes, so they suffer an extra –1 step penalty from
bright flashes of light.
• Green Digit: From the moment of its creation, every nesh
possesses a deep racial knowledge of botany, granting
them a +2 step bonus on all Science (botany) checks.
• Guileless: A nesh can lie, but they are loath to do so and
are often unconvincing. A nesh cannot spend skill points in
Deception.
Species Talents: Nesh have exclusive access to the Rapport

talent constellation.
Technology: Neshi technology tends to be equivalent to that of
humans, but much more of it is biological rather than mechanical.
The nesh, superior botanists and geneticists, custom-grow non-sen-
tient organisms that parallel human technological devices. The
nesh understand human technologies, but they regard them with
suspicion or pity, for they are “cold” and “incapable of union with
the All-Tree.”
Among the more controversial human technologies the nesh
have observed is cyberware, which most nesh find appalling, but
a minority are drawn to in a mildly transgressive way. Conversely,
humans are keenly interested in how the neshi “rapport” connects
them with each other and the All-Tree, even across interplanetary
distances. Thus far the nesh have allowed only preliminary studies
of the rapport phenomenon.
Culture and Outlook: The nesh strive to live according to the will
of the All-Tree—but the All-Tree communicates on such a slow scale
that the nesh have heard nothing coherent in centuries. And when
the All-Tree provides new insights, it’s not with a discrete broadcast,
but with a slowly dawning telepathic awareness that all nesh share.
What are the mystic beliefs and practices of the nesh? That’s
up to the nesh player and the GM to decide—preferably over time.
We imagine the nesh as contemplative warrior-monks who gently
proselytize about the “wonders of the All-Tree” but see themselves
more as scouts and ambassadors than as converters. It isn’t difficult
to imagine a more sinister All-Tree, however, keen on transplanting
the nesh and their beliefs across the galaxy.
Quirks: Some notes to make your nesh character distinctive:
• While the nesh understand individuality, they think foremost

in terms of their union with the All-Tree, and they’ve been
known to mix up the “I” and “we” pronouns.
• When humans sleep, a nesh assumes they’re meditating and
might ask, “How insightful was your communing last night?”
• When they’re not on a planet’s surface (such as a starship
or orbital station), nesh associate plants with comfort and
luxury. Visit a nesh’s stateroom, and you’ll think you walked
into a greenhouse.
• The nesh are fascinated with human death—especially the
fact that humans know they’ll die at some point yet carry on
regardless. More academically minded nesh learn all they
can about human art and customs that involve death; every-
thing from heavy-metal skull motifs to Mozart’s Requiem can
be a source of wonderment and contemplation.
Sample Names: Saesha, Launaeth, Eanihri, Vouthahn, Whaem,

Uhlan. Nesh receive a single name when the All-Tree releases them
from a pod, and they retain that name as long as they live. Their
names rarely have hard consonant sounds, and blended vowels are
prominent.
XAYON It’s one xayon, two

xayons. Collectively,
“You humans are proud of all you’ve made, and you should be. But
they’re “xayons,”
just as your nations rose and fell, so too will your species. Oh, I’m and they have
sure you humans have plenty of life left in you, but nothing lasts xayonic objects.
forever. Someone smarter, faster and more aggressive will come
along. And maybe… we already have.”
Xayons are hybrids, a species created just decades ago when

human explorers encountered an alien species with the propensity
Species 35
to steal other beings’ genetic codes and adapt them to create new
life that combined the advantages of both species.
In the Xayon system where this hybrid species emerged, no
trace remains of either the human explorers or whatever creature
served as the xayons’ other “parent.” The hybrids were isolated on
the planet Xayon for almost two decades before a second human
ship landed and discovered how the original explorers had been
subsumed into a new life form. At first, the xayons were taken from
their planet in captivity, but they demonstrated intellect, curiosity
and self-awareness at least equal to their human captors. After inter-
minable legal battles, they won their freedom, and now the xayons
live as an oppressed, often misunderstood subculture wherever
humans can be found.
Ordinary humans Description and Physiology: Xayons are six-limbed creatures
can't shake how that show signs of their human heritage, but they are decidedly
"twisted," "protean"
alien. Their limbs are arranged to look a bit like Earth’s mythical cen-
or "just plain creepy"
xayons look. taurs, but the torso between the middle and hindmost legs is much
shorter and more catlike than equestrian. The front-most limbs
are used for manipulation, the hindmost limbs for locomotion and
the middle limbs can be used for either. Xayons ordinarily walk on
their hind limbs, but when they need to run, they can achieve great
speeds by employing their middle limbs to sprint like quadrupeds.
Xayonic limbs and joints are also uncommonly flexible with a wide
range of motion and the ability to stretch in length—sometimes by
20 percent or more.
Most xayons have hair only at the extremities: top of head and
forelimbs. They breed as humans do (though multiple births in
“litters” are far more common), but external sex organs are difficult
to discern at a distance. Most humans can’t tell male and female
xayons apart.
While some humans regard xayons as “gene-thieves” and freak-
show abominations, the species breeds true and displays none of
the adaptive genetics of whatever alien parent combined with their
human ancestors.
Game Rules: Xayons are nimble, elusive and aggressive, though
they aren’t feral as human hate groups make them out to be.
• Ability Scores: To play a xayon, you must have an Agility

score of at least 4. You cannot have a Focus higher than 4.
• Flexibility: Xayons’ flexible, extensible limbs grant them a
+1 step bonus on Acrobatics checks.
• Instinctive Dodge: When you use the evade action modifier
(see Chapter 5), enemies attacking you suffer an additional
–1 step penalty beyond whatever penalty they’d normally
suffer for attacking a dodging target.
• Quadruped Sprint: As a 2-impulse action, you can drop
into a quadruped stance, alter your middle knee joints and
extend your middle limbs to make you a fast runner. If you
do, you lose the use of those arms to hold or manipulate
objects, but your speed increases to 30 meters per move
action. It takes another 2-impulse action to return to a
bipedal stance with four working “arms.”
• Limited Ambidexterity: When in a bipedal stance, a xayon
can use any of its four arms to hold and manipulate objects.
Xayons have no inborn talent for multitasking, however, and
can generally concentrate on the action of only two limbs
at a time.
• Nearsighted: Xayons have poor depth perception and suffer
a –1 step penalty on all ranged attacks and Awareness
checks against targets more than 10 meters away.
WHY THESE ALIENS?

The alien species presented in this chapter are intended to be examples, not a
comprehensive treatment of every PC species a GM might include in her cam-
paign. We don’t know what universe you’re playing in and we don’t know what
sort of aliens you’ll need, so we created species to meet common needs in a
space opera setting: bruisers, speedsters, and mystics/scientists. We’ll use
the briith, nesh, and xayons in Alternity settings where they fit, and we’ll omit
them in settings where they don’t. We encourage you to do the same in your
own homebrew game.
If you need different aliens, try “reskinning” the species presented here. A
briith is a passable stand-in for a Klingon or a Wookiee, while a nesh makes a
pretty good Gray.
Species Talents: Xayons have exclusive access to the Limb Artic-

ulation talent constellation.
Technology: Xayons were living in packs of hunter-gatherers
when the humans encountered them, but the second genera-
tion of the species has grown up in human society and has had
some access to human education and technology. Xayons tend
to be pragmatic about the tech they use and adopt whatever is
handy, except for garb. Human clothing and armor fits their six-
limbed bodies only poorly, and it can be a struggle to find xayon-
specific outfits.
Chairs and beds are likewise a challenge. Xayons tend to make
nests of blankets on the floor and sleep there, and they fold their
limbs together and sit double-cross-legged on chairs. It’s as uncom-
fortable as it looks, and many xayons would rather pace around a
room than sit down.
Species 37
Culture and Outlook: Xayonic culture centers around the

pack, usually a collection of a half-dozen related families. Acting
for mutual welfare, the pack generally breeds within itself and
deals with the larger human society only as it must. In many
places, xayons are besieged by overt or subtle prejudice, which
they naturally resent and resist in a vicious cycle. Even where
xayons are treated better, they tend toward lower socioeco-
nomic tiers.
A xayon PC As for outlook, most xayons are devoted to obtaining some
confronting the alien semblance of equal rights and opportunity within human society.
who spawned the Some individual xayons do so by joining human institutions and
species in the first
place? There's a
attempting to excel and thus dispel prejudices humans have
recipe for drama. about the supposedly feral, “gene-thieving” xayons. Others
are more hostile and actively rebel against human society,
while a third ethos believes coexistence isn’t possible and the
xayons should find an untamed world somewhere away from
humanity and settle there. (One particularly radical faction
believes the planet Xayon, still under quarantine, should be that
untamed world.)
Quirks: Some notes to make your xayon character distinctive:
• The xayons inherited the human capacity for language, but

their vocal cords aren’t always up to the task. Xayons can’t
sing, and they have gruff, growling voices.
• Every xayon knows a few tricks that rely on having four
limbs, like an elaborate clapping sequence or a bit of
impressive juggling.
• Xayons tend to become morose under conditions of
enforced solitude. Their companions don’t have to be other
xayons, though—even human or alien companionship is
better than being lonely.
• Many xayons wear eyeglasses, even though their depth per-
ception problem lies deep in their brains, not in their eyes. In
futures where eyeglasses are antiques, xayons wear them
for aesthetic reasons; they think it makes them look more
civilized.
Sample Names: Artem Gutless, Rhuvek Swift, Gharra Sulky,

Dreufa Bald. Almost all xayon first names have an r sound
somewhere in them. Their last names are intentional mockeries
of human surnames. When a xayon reaches adolescence, the
parents choose a last name for the teenager, often an adjective
meant ironically.
HEROIC
ARCHETYPES
With ability scores and species
settled, it’s time to get to the
meat of character creation:
deciding what your char-
acter knows how to do.
You begin by select-
ing a heroic arche-
type, which provides
the basic framework
of knowledge and training your
character possesses. When you
choose an archetype, you’re
essentially saying, “In terms of
gameplay, this is the style of
character I want to be.” In many
ways, it’s the gameplay parallel to
the dramatic concept you came up
with when you started this character.
This chapter presents five heroic
archetypes: the battler, the expert,
the leader, the striker, and the survi-
vor. Your choice of archetype guides you in selecting the exact skills
and talents that your character knows when you begin adventuring,
and provides you with a couple of archetype bonuses that help you
throughout your career.
• Talents are special edges that set you apart from every-
one else. You choose three talents when you create your
character. Talents are presented in groups called constel-
lations; naturally, you must begin with the first talent in the
constellation.
• Skills reflect your training and education. When you assign
skill points to a skill, you improve your skill score, making
it easier to succeed at checks against that skill. Skills fall
into five broad types: attack, defense, technical, social and
environmental.
• Archetype bonuses include minor advantages such as
bonuses on initiative checks or bonuses on your checks
with specific types of skills. They reinforce your archetype
by making you better at the things you’re supposed to
be good at.
Heroic Archetypes 39
You’ll find a list of skills and talent constellations later in this

chapter; the full descriptions of each skill and talent are in Chapter 3.
Archetype bonuses are described under each archetype.
Archetypes have a roleplaying function beyond their gameplay
aspects, too. A battler and an expert may both have 5 skill points in
Hand to Hand, but they might envision those skills differently. The
battler tends to be more of a no-holds-barred alley brawler, while
the expert can talk endlessly about the Descending Crane stance
versus the Lion Rampant school.
Archetypes aren’t character classes, and Alternity doesn’t rely
Unlike classes,
archetypes don't
on combined-arms strategy. In a tabletop fantasy game or MMORPG,
matter as you it might be important to have a tank, a healer and three DPS
level up. Develop characters in your group, but that isn’t true in Alternity. A group
however you like! composition of battler/striker/leader isn’t necessarily better or worse
than survivor/survivor/survivor. The archetypes are so broad that
the character sheets for those three survivors will likely look very
different.
As you make up your character, though, this stage is the perfect
time to check in with the other players at your table. You may find
useful common ground (“Hey, you’re into stealth? Me too! What
if we were all stealthy…?”) and can plug some gaps if necessary
(“The GM hinted at a lot of hacking—who’s spending skill points on
Computers?”).
THE BATTLER
Battlers dish out tons of damage in combat, and they don’t mind
receiving their fair share in return. In battle, they tend to opt for the
straightforward and the brutal, but their tactics are no less effective
for it. The battler suspects other archetypes complicate matters
unnecessarily. What matters is you can stand long enough to unload
a planet of hurt on the enemy.
Beyond the battlefield, battlers bring the same “prove you can
stop me” attitude toward many challenges. There’s nothing wrong
with a brute-force approach to cryptography, for example, if it gets
you into the database. What they call “elegant solutions,” you call
“wasted effort.” To their friends, battlers are steadfast and reliable. To
their rivals, battlers are stubborn and incapable of nuance.
When you choose the battler archetype, you gain:
• Mandated Talent: Choose Gunner, Melee Expert, Rugged

or Trooper.
• Discretionary Talents: Choose two more talents. These
two talents cannot be from the same constellation, but one
of them can be from the same constellation as your man-
dated talent.
• Mandated Skills: Choose one skill in each of the following
categories: attack, defense, technical, social and environ-
mental. Assign 4 skill points to each skill you select.
• Discretionary Skills: You have 15 more skill points to spend
If Alternity were an
on additional skills and improve your mandated skills. You MMORPG, battlers
can’t begin play with a total of more than 5 skill points in any would be the tanks.
individual skill. Alternity has a lot
more non-combat
• Defensive Skill Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on skill challenges than
checks with defensive skills you are trained in (have at least the typical video
1 skill point assigned). game, though.
• Extra Durability: Treat your Vitality as 1 higher than your
actual score when you determine how many wounds you
can withstand (see Durability).
THE EXPERT
Experts know what the right device for the job is, and they’re adroit
at manipulating that device—sometimes beyond its intended use.
To an expert, a weapon is a tool like any other, and different tools
suit different jobs. Whether it’s a heavily customized assault rifle,
a remote turret, a surveillance drone or a dune buggy with flame-
throwers, the expert is the quintessential gun nut and gearhead.
Because they see the world in terms of tools and tasks, experts
break down non-combat problems to a series of discrete tasks,
then solve each one in turn. They can be capable hackers, pilots,
mechanics or saboteurs—just give them the gear and they’ll get
right to work.
To their friends, experts are a font of knowledge and a source for
borrowed equipment. To their rivals, experts drone on about point- The expert is
less gear specs, and they’re always trying to get machines to do the Alternity’s nod to
skill-monkey classes
work for them. in other game
If you want to be an expert, you gain the following: systems. They shoot
a gun as well as
• Mandated Talent: Choose Drone Expert, Gearhead, anyone, mind you.
Gunner or Medic.
dated talent.
on additional skills and improve your mandated skills. You
can’t begin play with a total of more than 5 skill points in any
individual skill.
• Initiative Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on initiative checks.
• Technical Skill Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on skill

checks with technical skills you are trained in (have at least 1
skill point assigned).
THE LEADER
Leaders focus on the success of their team, and they’re aren’t sat-
isfied until each team member is usefully contributing to the overall
goal. They relish opportunities to make other people better, whether
it’s by suggesting tactics, performance coaching or doing the less
glamorous tasks that enable others to shine.
A leader is a leader whether the bullets are flying or not. In a
crisis, leaders gather suggestions from the group and synthesize
them into a plan—and then they help the team get their various jobs
done. A good leader is a “force multiplier” for a team, making them
collectively more effective than they’d ever be individually.
To their friends, leaders have a listener’s ear, a shoulder to weep
on and a head for good advice. To their rivals, leaders are bossy
fussbuckets who cling to their precious plans long after the situa-
tion’s gone to hell.
When you decide to be a leader, gain the following:
In a tabletop RPG,
Enterprise captains
are good models
• Mandated Talent: Choose Alertness, Closer, Commander or
for leader behavior. Gunslinger.
Watch how often • Discretionary Talents: Choose two more talents. These
they solicit input from two talents cannot be from the same constellation, but one
their staff and how
rarely they bark out of them can be from the same constellation as your man-
direct orders. dated talent.
individual skill.
• Social Skill Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on skill checks
with social skills you are trained in (have at least 1 skill point
assigned).
THE STRIKER
Strikers understand you don’t control the battlefield until it’s clear of
enemies, so eliminating them with maximum speed and efficiency
is the ultimate goal. To that end, there’s no caliber too big and no
barrel too long … though magazine capacity sure could see some
improvement.
Away from a fight, strikers maintain that “maximum impact in min-
imum time” attitude. Why build a network of informants within the
sinister megacorp when you can just kidnap the board of directors
and intimidate them into giving you the info you need?
You guessed it. In a
To their friends, strikers are known for getting the job done, often video game, these
in the nick of time. Their rivals think they’re overly focused on their guys would be
individual goals, though, losing sight of the big picture. straight-up DPS.
If you want to be a striker, you gain the following:
• Mandated Talent: Choose Commando, Elusive, Gunslinger

or Striking Martial Arts.
dated talent.
individual skill.
• Damage Bonus: You gain a +1 bonus on your damage roll
when you make a successful attack.
THE SURVIVOR
Survivors persevere despite the longest odds, but unlike battlers,
they do it in a low-observable sort of way. The sniper who’s patiently
downing enemy officers from a safe distance, the skirmisher who
plants the grav-mines in the tree line and the messenger who sum-
mons the proverbial cavalry are all survivor archetypes. They care
little for the glamour and prefer not to be noticed, preferring the If you’re
contemplating a
silent self-satisfaction of a job well done. one-player game or
That quiet subtlety extends to other aspects of the survivor’s have a player with
life as well. The leaders might like an efficient division of labor, spotty attendance,
the survivor’s self-
but survivors prefer self-sufficiency. If we can all do a bit of
sufficiency may be
everything, the survivor thinks, no one is irreplaceable, and the just what you’re
work always gets done. Survivors tend to be patient and favor the looking for.
long-term solution.
The survivors’ friends know the survivor will get the job done
without complaint or requests for assistance. Their rivals tear their
hair out when a survivor goes it alone for the umpteenth time
in a row.
When you choose the survivor archetype, you gain:
• Mandated Talent: Choose Alertness, Commando,

Sniper, or Spy.
dated talent.
individual skill.
• Environmental Skill Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on skill
checks with environmental skills you are trained in (have at
least 1 skill point assigned).
FREEFORM CHARACTERS
Some characters defy labels, and some players love tinkering with
character build after character build. This freeform system is for
them. It’ll produce a character just as flexible and just as powerful as
one made with one of the archetypes above, but your choices are
almost entirely unconstrained.
If you want to go beyond archetypes and make something
unique, a freeform character begins with the following:
• Discretionary Talents: Choose three talents, each from a

different constellation.
individual skill.
• Freeform Bonus: Choose from the battler’s extra durability,
the expert’s technical skill bonus, the leader’s social skill
bonus, the striker’s damage bonus or the survivor’s environ-
mental skill bonus.
TALENTS
Talents are the unique tactics, tricks, or techniques you’ve mastered.
Each talent is a way you can “break the rules” a bit, performing an
action faster, better or more efficiently than other characters. Each
time you gain a level, you can choose a new talent.
We’ve arranged talents in constellations: groups that indicate Some constellations
which introductory talents lead to more advanced talents later on. branch into multiple
Constellations are referred to by the name of the first talent in the talent paths, too.
constellation, so the constellation beginning with the Gunslinger
talent is referred to as the Gunslinger constellation.
You can find the list of specific talents and their descriptions in
Chapter 3. The constellations presented there include:
Alertness: You act before others even know there’s a problem.

Closer: You’re all about studying people and closing the deal, what-
ever it is.
Commander: You’re an excellent tactical leader.
Commando: You’re an expert infiltrator.
Dirty Fighting: You don’t fight fair.
Drone Expert: You excel at controlling drones in combat.
Elusive: You’ve got a knack for getting out of the way.
Gearhead: There’s nothing you can’t fix or jury-rig.
Gunner: Heavy weapons are your specialty.
Gunslinger: You’re a pistol expert.
Inventor: You’re a master of experimental technology.
Martial Arts, Grappling: You’re good at unarmed combat, especially
throws and holds.
Martial Arts, Striking: You’re good at unarmed combat, especially
punches and kicks.
Medic: You’re an expert in battlefield medicine.
Melee Expert: Close combat is your thing, whether it’s with ancient
swords or nega-glaives.
Rugged: You can take serious punishment and keep going.
Sniper: You’re a crack shot with a rifle.
Spy: You have a false identity and excel at getting into places you
shouldn’t be.
Trooper: You’re an expert in assault tactics.
Species-Specific Talents
Artificial Systems (android): Your artificial body provides special
advantages.
Limb Articulation (xayon): You can get the most out of your six limbs.
Powerful Build (briith): You’re as big and tough as they come.
Rapport (nesh): You have mastered your empathic link.
Advanced Talents
Self-Improvement (requires 2nd level): You improve your base
abilities.
Talents 45
When you gain a new talent selection, you can either start a
new constellation or advance along an in-progress constellation.
A few talents have special requirements beyond the structure of
the constellation—you’ll find any such restrictions in the talent
description.
SKILLS
Your skills are simply areas of study that could be relevant to your
heroic career. The amount of training you have in a particular
skill is measured by the number of skill points you assign to it.
The more skill points you assign to a skill, the more training you
have, and the easier it is for you to succeed on a skill check. As a
beginning hero, you can assign up to 5 skill points to a skill. When
you gain a level, you gain 5 more skill points, and the maximum
number of skill points you can assign to a skill increases by 1 (to a
maximum of 10).
If you have 0 skill points in a skill, you’re untrained in it. However,
Being untrained is you can often fall back on your natural aptitude and attempt a skill
extra motivation
check based on your ability score alone. You might not have any
to seek out those
step bonuses. special training in Acrobatics, but when you’re trying to balance on
top of a moving car you might have enough raw Agility to pull it off
despite your lack of training.
Skills are divided into five types:
• attack (attempts to harm another, often with a weapon)

• defensive (attempts to avoid or mitigate injury or harmful
physical effects)
• technical (using specialized learning, vocational training and
advanced technology)
• social (observing nuances and winning conflicts on the inter-
personal, nonviolent level)
• environmental (traversing the environment, terrain and set-
ting of a scene, especially if it’s somehow hazardous)
You can find detailed descriptions of each skill in Chapter 3.

Alternity assumes competence, so your hero begins with at
least some proficiency in each type of challenge. Even a mono-
syllabic space trooper can have an intimidating glare (that’s the
Coercion social skill), and a barbarian queen from a primitive world
can display a knack for battlefield remedies (the Medicine techni-
cal skill).
Attack Defensive Technical Social Environmental
Energy Weapon Armor Training Academics Coercion Acrobatics
Firearm Dodge Computer Culture Athletics
Hand to Hand Endurance Engineering Deception Awareness
Heavy Weapon Resilience Mechanics Empathy Driving
Melee Willpower Medicine Influence Extreme Sports
Primitive Weapon Profession Misdirection Piloting
Science Performance Security
Stealth
Survival
GEAR
What’s a great sci-fi action hero without a trusty ray gun at her side?
A paranormal investigator without recording gear? A star marine
without powered armor? You aren’t ready for adventure until you
equip yourself with the arms, armor and high-tech tools you need
for whatever mission the GM plans to send your way. Before you
start picking out your favorite energy weapons, ask your GM about You can find all
sorts of advanced
the tech era of the setting and whether you should pick out your weaponry and
own gear. useful tools in
You can assume your character has mundane possessions that Chapter 4: Gear.
everybody in the setting would have. For example, in a modern-day
setting you can assume you’ve got a variety of clothing from work-
out gear to a nice suit, a shaving kit or cosmetics bag, a cell phone,
an ordinary car, a credit card with a moderate limit, an apartment or
modest house and so on.
If you don’t know where else to start, assume you’re in TE 7 (the Most Alternity
Stellar Age) and choose one weapon, one armor, one tool and three games are set at
“anything” picks for selecting extra weapons or tools you think you TE 6 to TE 8.
might need. You’ve also got $500 in your pocket.
FINISHING TOUCHES
At this point, you’re just a few game-isms away from a completed
character.
INITIATIVE
Your initiative measures how quickly you can assess danger, spot
opportunities and react when seconds count. Usually you make an
initiative check at the beginning of an action scene to determine
Gear 47
when you get to take your first action—maybe you’ll get the first
shot off, or maybe your opponent will.
Your initiative score looks a lot like a skill score, and making an
initiative check works a lot like making a skill check. However, you
can’t spend skill points to improve your initiative score. Instead,
determine your initiative score as follows:
Your Initiative Score = 20 – (your Agility + your Focus)
For example, if your Agility is 4 and your Focus is 5, your initiative

score is 11.
SPEED
Most heroes have a speed of 20 meters. However, if you wear bulky
armor or carry a heavy load (see Encumbrance, below), your speed
may be reduced.
DURABILITY
All heroes begin with one wound box each in the graze, light wound,
moderate wound, serious wound, critical wound and mortal wound
severity levels, as shown here:
Wound
Wound Severity Boxes Bonus Wound Boxes
Mortal wound (16+)  —
Critical wound (13 to 15)   (Vitality 5+)  (Vitality 10)
Serious wound (10 to 12)   (Vitality 4+)  (Vitality 9+)
Moderate wound (7 to 9)   (Vitality 3+)  (Vitality 8+)
Light wound (4 to 6)   (Vitality 2+)  (Vitality 7+)
Graze (1 to 3)   (Vitality 1+)  (Vitality 6+)
In addition, you gain a number of bonus wound boxes equal to
your Vitality score. Your bonus wound boxes are added to the dura-
bility track, one bonus box per severity level, beginning at the graze
level and filling “up.” For example, if you have Vitality 3, you have
two wound boxes at the graze, light and moderate wound levels,
and one box each at the higher levels.
Don’t add a second wound box to the mortal wound level—if
you have Vitality 6 or more, leave mortal at one box and add a third
wound box to graze (and fill “up” from there if needed for additional
wound boxes).
ENCUMBRANCE
Under planetary gravity conditions, there’s a limit to how much you
can carry—and in zero-g, the mass you carry with you affects your
ability to move around. We want to limit bookkeeping, however, so
we’re keeping your carrying capacity simple.
Under Earth gravity, you can carry up to 10 kg (that’s 22 pounds)
without it slowing you down or hampering your ability to fight. Add
an extra 2 kg for each point of Strength you have above 3 and each
point of Vitality you have above 3. That mass value is your encum-
brance value; write it down on your character sheet.
• If you’re carrying mass between your encumbrance value

and double your encumbrance, reduce your base speed by
5 m per move action.
• If you’re carrying mass up to triple your encumbrance value,
you also suffer a –1 step penalty on all attack, defense and
environment skill checks.
• If you’re carrying mass up to quadruple your encumbrance
value, reduce your base speed by 10 m. You suffer a –2 step
penalty on attack, defense and environment skill checks.
• Attempts to carry more than that are effectively powerlifting
efforts; see the Athletics skill.
We assume you’ve got your gear reasonably strapped down and

packed away when appropriate. If you’re trying to carry 10 kg of full-
to-brimming champagne flutes, that’s going to slow you down! We
also assume you have better things to do than add up the weight of
ordinary clothing and personal items like wallets and datapads. Likewise your mass
doesn't change. We
When you’re adventuring in places that don’t have Earthlike paid attention in
gravity, the weight of your gear will change, but your encumbrance physics class.
value won’t.
Finishing Touches 49
50

3: SKILLS AND TALENTS
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion,
butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders,
cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure,
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Special-
ization is for insects.”
—Robert A. Heinlein
Your character is basically a collection of skills and talents—the
unique combination of things you know how to do, and special
edges you possess.
CHOOSING SKILLS
The exact level of training or experience you have in any particular
skill is measured by the number of skill points you assign to it. If you
have at least 1 point in a skill, you’re considered to be trained in that
skill. As long as you’re trained, you can handle any routine tasks
associated with the skill. A character with 1 rank in Piloting isn’t just
barely able to fly; she can take off, navigate, deal with some rough
weather and land without any drama at all. It’s only when she’s in a
challenge scene dealing with a heroic problem that her relative lack
of advanced training might become an issue.
At 1st level, you have 35 skill points to assign; your archetype
description tells you how to assign your initial skill points. Each
time you gain a level, you gain 5 skill points to increase the number
of skill points assigned to your existing skills or begin training in
new skills.
Maximum Skill Points: As a beginning hero, you can assign up
to 5 points to a skill. The maximum number of skill points you can
have in any one skill increases by 1 each time you gain a level, to a
maximum of 10—at that point you know all a human can know about
that skill.
CHOOSING TALENTS
Talents are more idiosyncratic than skills. Lots of people have some
training in the Firearms skill, but true fast-draw experts or trick-shot
artists are few and far between. Some talents make you better at
using your skills, some let you do things with a skill check that other
characters trained in that skill just can’t do, and some provide spe-
cial benefits that have nothing to do with skills at all. At 1st level, you
choose 3 talents.
51
Talents are grouped into constellations, which are “trees” of

related talents. Your archetype influences which talent constella-
tions you start with—to begin a constellation, you must select the
first talent in that constellation. Each time you gain a level you can
select a new talent, advancing in a constellation you already know
or starting a new constellation.
ANATOMY OF A SKILL CHECK

Skill checks are one of the fundamental systems in the Alternity
game. Almost every action your character takes, if perilous or uncer-
tain, is a skill check. Alternity’s skill system is simple: Roll a base
d20 (always) and a difficulty die, add or subtract the two resulting
rolls and compare to your skill total to see whether you’ve suc-
ceeded or failed. But it’s worth breaking down each step in a skill
check to examine what’s actually going on.
1. The GM decides whether a roll is necessary and consid-

ers what success and failure mean for the overall story.
Often this will be obvious; you don’t need to attempt a
check to do something ordinary in an ordinary situation,
and you can’t attempt a check to do something physically
Do all the impossible.
negotiating before 2. The GM and player negotiate to determine the overall dif-
anyone rolls ficulty. Most checks begin at ordinary difficulty (d20 + d0).
the dice. Better If there’s something weighing in the hero’s favor, it’s a step
drama that way.
bonus: the d0 becomes a d4, the d4 becomes a d6 and so
on. If there’s something impeding or resisting the hero’s
success, it’s a step penalty: the difficulty die gets smaller,
and if it gets smaller than a d0, it gets bigger but subtracts
from the result on the d20.
3. The player rolls two dice: the base die (always a d20) and
the difficulty die (which you just determined in step two).
4. The player adds the base die and difficulty die together
(for an overall step bonus) or subtracts the difficulty die
from the base die (for an overall step penalty).
5. The player compares the total to the hero’s skill score for
that task to determine the check result: Failure, Average
success, Excellent success or Stellar success.
6. The player reports the outcome to the GM: “I failed” or
“That’s a Stellar!”
7. The GM describes the effects of the check as the hero
experiences it, telling how the game world changed
(in ways large or small) after that moment of peril and
uncertainty.
52 3: Skills and Talents

The first step quickly becomes instinctive for an Alternity GM,
but the magic of the system lives in the second step. Step two is
where the GM and player are engaged in conversation, and it’s a
conversation with a purpose. By talking
about which step bonuses and penalties
apply, they’re collaboratively defining FINDING BONUSES
the game world, and they’re setting the AND PENALTIES
stakes for the die roll to come. Whether Looking for step bonuses and
you’re the player or the GM, don’t short- penalties that might apply to your
change this moment! skill check? Here are three places
to start. In step two of the skill
• If you’re the GM, think of aspects check, the GM and player have a
of the situation that impinge on brief back-and-forth where they’ll
the moment of the skill check, and examine these three categories
apply step bonuses and penalties and agree on which step modi-
as appropriate. Tell the players at fiers apply.
the table which factors are affect- Built-In Step Modifiers: You’ll
ing the situation die, both positive generally find these on your
and negative. character sheet. They’re step
• If you’re the player, advocate for step modifiers (usually bonuses) a hero
bonuses; they help you succeed! Ask gets because of skill, talent and
questions about the environment gear choices.
and the circumstances, and try to Set-Building in the Scene: These
convince the GM they’re important modifiers are built into the scene
enough to merit a step bonus. (Don’t at the design stage, and you’ll find
be a pain, of course, but a good them in the GM notes or in the
Alternity GM expects you to do published adventure. The scene
some shilling on your own behalf.) designer defines some challenges
(or opportunities) to add drama
Steps three through six happen in a and realism to the scene.
single moment. There isn’t much arith- Circumstances: These bonuses
metic and no need to hem and haw over can come from the GM, but they’re
it. All the interesting stuff happened in often suggested by the player. A
the second step, and there’s intentionally particularly clever ruse, inspired
little time between the physical act of use of the setting, effective team-
rolling the dice and the dramatic act of work among PCs … all the crazy
revealing the outcome. stuff players invent on the spot
The seventh step is where a great falls into this category.
Alternity GM shines, by describing the
outcome in a way that fires the players’
imaginations without slowing things down
and losing story momentum.
As you learn Alternity, you’ll quickly see the seven steps as
fractions of a moment, but remember to lavish some extra attention
on steps two and seven. That’s where the fun of tabletop role-
playing lives.
Anatomy of a Skill Check 53

SKILL CHECKS FOR THE GM

Before you ask the player to attempt a straight pass-fail skill check,
ask yourself whether you really want the consequences of a failure.
It’s fine if an attack misses; heroes can just shoot at the enemy on
their next action. It’s not OK if the adventure comes to a full stop
because the heroes missed the one critical check they needed to
continue. When a task falls into the gray area between the routine
and the dramatic, you want to ensure the narrative moves forward
even if the players’ dice run cold.
Fortunately, you have the power to decide what constitutes suc-
cess or failure in a particular skill check. A result such as, “It works,
but it takes longer than you thought it would,” or similar tactics of
failing “up” give just a pinch of consequence but let the players feel
like their skill checks matter.
DEFINING FAILURE AND SUCCESS

If you decide a skill check is warranted, think of the possible out-
comes as a bracket with Failure on one end, Average and Excellent
successes in the middle, and Stellar success at the far end. Before
the roll—and before you get deep into a discussion of step modifi-
ers—decide what the different parts of that bracket look like. Because
Alternity assumes competency on the part of the PCs, often “failure”
doesn’t mean the attempted task ends in disaster—just that it was
inefficient, costly, aggravating or otherwise suboptimal.
For example, say you have a master hacker PC at your table, and
Some frustrations—
like scheduling she wants to hack into a corporate appointment calendar to set up
software—are a meeting with an executive. As the GM, you want this to happen:
universal, no matter You anticipate that confrontation in the conference room as a major
the sci-fi setting.
scene in the ongoing story. But what if the hero botches the Com-
puters roll? Before you call for the roll, you could mentally bracket
success and failure accordingly:
Failure—You can hack the executive’s personal calendar, but you

can’t get it to book a meeting room. You’ll have to meet in the
very public coffee shop in the building lobby.
Average Success—You get a meeting on the day you want in a

private conference room.
Excellent Success—As an Average success, plus you’re able to sur-

reptitiously cancel the executive’s other meetings that day. If the
confrontation goes poorly, the executive won’t be missed...
Stellar Success—As above, plus you’re able to set up a back door

in the login software that gives you a +2 step bonus on future
attempts to hack this system.

FAIL FORWARD, BUT MAKE IT STING
It’s easy to define most failed skill checks as “the thing you tried
didn’t work,” but often there’s a more entertaining sort of failure that
advances the narrative rather than stopping it cold. Look for oppor-
tunities to define failure so the story still advances—even though it’s
clearly heading downhill.
A surprising number
For example, say the heroes are trying to intimidate the star- of sci-fi plots involve
port administrator into lifting the quarantine on their ship so they arguing with customs
can depart. They fail the Coercion check. Rather than saying, officials or starport
“The administrator brushes off your threats and shows you the traffic control.
door,” try this:
As you threaten him, the administrator starts sweating and stam-
mering, turning visibly pale. He stands up from his desk, lurches for
the door, then faints dead away. Just after his unconscious body
hits the floor, two guards open the door from the lobby. “Sir? Wait …
what did you do to him?”
In one respect, the PCs’ attempt to intimidate the bureaucrat
worked, but it worked too well; they frightened him so badly that
he keeled over. Yet it sure doesn’t feel like a success to the players.
The ship is still in quarantine, and now the PCs must deal with some
very suspicious guards. When possible, define failures as moments
that twist and complicate the narrative, not moments that negate
plans and bring a halt to the action. Above all, though, make sure
those failures hurt or aggravate the heroes … and/or the players!
Like most RPGs, Alternity is all about consequences.
SKILL DESCRIPTIONS
This section presents skills as they relate to the typical RPG chal-
lenge or encounter. It’s not really feasible to describe everything a
hero can do with one of these skills, so don’t treat these descrip-
tions as complete and exclusive—characters often use skills in
unexpected ways. (That’s where common sense and GM discretion
come into play.)
Skills share some common terminology.
Key Ability: The ability your skill score is based on. If two are
listed, you can use whichever is better to determine your skill score.
For example, if you have Agility 4 and Focus 5, you can use your 5
as the basis for a Firearm check.
Type: The skill’s category (see Chapter 2). Type is important
when selecting your mandatory skills during character creation. In
addition, some heroic archetypes provide a bonus to using certain
types of skills.
Notes: Other useful information about skills.
Skill Descriptions 55
TABLE 3–1: SKILLS

Skill Page Key Ability Type Notes
Academics 57 Int technical cascades
Acrobatics 58 Agi environmental
Armor Training 58 Str/Int defensive enabler
Athletics 59 Str environmental
Awareness 62 Foc environmental
Coercion 62 Per social
Computer 63 Int technical
Culture 64 Per social cascades
Deception 65 Per social
Dodge 65 Agi defensive enabler, passive
Driving 66 Agi environmental
Empathy 66 Foc/Per social
Endurance 67 Vit defensive passive
Energy Weapon 67 Agi/Foc attack specializes
Engineering 68 Int technical cascades
Extreme Sports 69 Agi/Vit environmental
Firearm 69 Agi/Foc attack specializes
Hand to Hand 69 Str/Agi attack specializes
Heavy Weapon 70 Str/Int attack specializes
Influence 70 Per social
Mechanics 71 Int technical cascades
Medicine 71 Int technical cascades
Melee 73 Str/Agi attack specializes
Misdirection 74 Per social
Performance 74 Per social cascades
Piloting 75 Agi/Int environmental
Primitive Weapon 76 Agi/Foc attack specializes
Profession 76 any technical
Resilience 77 Vit defensive
Science 78 Int technical cascades
Security 79 Agi/Int environmental
Stealth 79 Agi/Foc environmental
Survival 80 Vit/Foc environmental
Willpower 80 Foc defensive passive

Cascading skills add a new specialization each time you assign
an odd-numbered skill point. For example, if you have 1 point in Aca-
demics, you can choose one academic discipline (such as history)
as your field of expertise, and you get a +1 step bonus on Academ-
ics checks pertaining to history. When you assign a third skill point
to Academics, you can choose a second field of expertise (say, eco-
nomics). You get a +1 step bonus on Academics checks pertaining to
either history or economics.
Enabler skills reduce penalties or offer benefits based on how
many skill points you assign. You rarely need to make an Armor
Training check, but you may find it useful to invest in the skill if you
expect to wear heavy armor.
Passive skills are not usually under your control; you use them
reactively when someone else (or something else) is acting on you.
Skills that specialize offer you the opportunity to pick a specific Most skills that
type or category within that skill; you get a +1 step bonus when you specialize have room
make a skill check that uses your specialization. Most combat skills for you to invent
new specializations
allow you to specialize; for example, you can specialize with pistols if you like.
when you assign skill points to the Firearm skill. Unlike cascading
skills, investing additional skill points doesn’t get you more spe-
cializations automatically. However, when you level up you can
spend 2 skill points to choose an additional specialization instead of
improving your skill score. Skill points you spend on extra special-
izations don’t improve your skill score and don’t count against your
maximum skill points for a skill.
ACADEMICS
Intelligence; Technical; cascades
Social sciences such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, history,
archeology, economics, law, management, political science and
linguistics are all part of this catch-all skill. (The natural sciences
and mathematics are covered by the Science skill below, and most
liberal-arts fields are part of Culture.) In far-future settings, it also
covers fictional sciences like Asimov’s psychohistory, which com-
bines statistics, history and sociology to predict future cultural and
political trends.
This skill cascades. For every odd skill point you spend in Aca-
demics, choose a specific academic discipline. You have particular
training—equivalent to an advanced degree—in that discipline and
gain a +1 step bonus when that field is relevant to your skill check. If
you want to be hyper-focused, you can choose the same academic
discipline twice and get doctoral-level training and a +2 step bonus
in that field.
You can: Surmise an NPC’s motivations after observing behavior,
anticipate market trends to find high-demand interplanetary trade
routes, identify a culture by the ruins it left behind, identify the root
causes of civil unrest on the planet you’re visiting and defend your-
self in a court of law.
Typical modifiers: Aliens are involved (–1 to –3 steps), unfamiliar
society or planet (–1 step), access to an academic library or equiva-
lent (+1 step), plenty of time to study and calculate (+1 step), access
to colleagues or expert AI systems (+2 steps or more).
ACROBATICS
Agility; Environmental
This skill broadly covers precise, graceful body movements that
place a premium on balance and flexibility. It includes perform-
ing arts and sports such as gymnastics, tightropes and trapeze
work, plus gentler practices such as yoga and stunt movements
like parkour.
In many far-future settings, Acrobatics is also the general-pur-
pose skill to check when making difficult maneuvers in light- or
zero-gravity environments. Otherwise, the trickier the feat you’re
attempting, the higher the difficulty:
Ordinary (+d0): Rolls and somersaults, rope/trapeze/bar swings,
traversal and round-off vaults.
Hard (–d6): Handsprings on ground or vault, full-rotation tra-
Someday, Olympic peze/bar swings, rope-to-rope traversals, “sticking the landing.”
gymnastics will Extremely Hard (–d12): Aerial flips and saltos, rope/trapeze
assess degree of flips, entry vaults, bar release/flight moves, adding twists/flips to
difficulty using step
penalties.
dismounts.
You can: Vault over a fence, swing on a chandelier, run along the
ceiling of the derelict space station and slide underneath the hangar
door just before it closes.
Typical modifiers: Fluctuating gravity (–2 steps), slippery surfaces
(–1 step), good running start (+1 step), grip patches or other good
surfaces (+1 step), chance to practice beforehand (+2 steps), assister
jets (+2 steps).
ARMOR TRAINING (STR OR INT)

Strength or Intelligence; Defensive; enabler
You’re trained in the use (and occasional abuse) of heavy armor,
plus its maintenance and repair when the battle’s done. Armor—
even high-tech power suits—impedes your overall movement and
some gross motor skills, but after enough practice in heavy armor,
you’ve learned to compensate for the armor’s bulk and mass.
The more skill points you spend in Armor Training, the less armor
encumbers you and the more you get out of other armor systems,
as shown here:

Skill Check Penalty Movement
Pts. Reduction Penalty Reduction Other
1 –1 step
2 –2 meters
3 Cover 1
4 –2 steps
5 –4 meters
6 Improved Coverage 1
7 –3 steps
8 –6 meters
9 Cover 2
10 Improved Coverage 2
Check Penalty Reduction: Reduce your armor’s check penalty
by this amount.
Speed Penalty Reduction: Reduce your armor’s speed penalty
by this amount.
Cover #: Improve the cover benefit provided by your armor by
the number of steps given. (Usually this means improving the cover
provided by a shield or similar device.)
Improved Coverage #: Reduce the poor coverage value of
your armor by the given amount if your armor has the poor cover-
age drawback.
For example, if you have 4 points in Armor Training, you reduce

your armor’s check penalty by 1 step and its movement penalty by
2 meters. If you’re wearing vacuum armor, normally a –2 step skill
penalty and a –4 meter penalty to your speed, you reduce those
penalties to –1 step and –2 meters.
You can’t reduce an armor penalty to the point where it
Nice try, though.
becomes a bonus.
This skill is an enabler. This means you don’t usually use it to
make checks. Instead, the skill points you place in this skill directly
enable a game function you wouldn’t otherwise be entitled to (in
this case, the reduction in armor penalties).
You can: Climb a rock face in your tactical armor, keep your best
protection in the line of fire and keep up with those full-of-them-
selves recon scouts who claim to not “need” heavy armor.
Typical modifiers: None, because it’s an enabler skill.
ATHLETICS
Strength; Environmental
You’re adept at running, climbing, jumping, swimming, throwing
and generally applying bodily force to your environment. Athletics
covers many of the events you’d see at the modern-day Olympics,
plus situations that come up in action scenes like holding a pow-
ered door open, hanging onto the helicopter’s landing gear, and
leaping from the hover-cycle to the maglev train. This skill also
covers organized sports common to far-future cultures unless
another skill (probably Acrobatics or Extreme Sports) more obvi-
ously applies.
Unlike other environment skills, Athletics includes an attack com-
ponent. It’s the relevant skill for thrown weapons—everything from
bolas to javelins to grenades.
You can: Run for speed, swim through the sapient goo-oceans of
Rachos IV, throw a drone-erang and infiltrate the building by climb-
ing through the HVAC ducts.
Typical modifiers: Oppressive gravity (–2 steps), bad weather
(–1 step), specialized attire or equipment (+1 step), chance to train
beforehand (+1 step), effective coaching/scouting staff (+1 step), per-
formance-enhancing drugs or cyberware (+2 steps).
JUMPING
Jumping, Swimming,
and so on are all part How well you jump depends primarily on your Strength and your
of the Athletics skill, Athletics check.
not separate skills Standing Long Jump: You can jump 1 meter, no check needed.
themselves.
On an Av/Ex/St check result, you can increase that to 1.5 m/2 m/2.5
m. Add 0.5 m if you’re willing to land prone, and add 0.25 m for
each point of Strength you have above 3.
Running Long Jump: You can jump 2 meters, no check needed.
On an Av/Ex/St check result, you can jump 3 m/4 m/5 m. Add 1
m if you’re willing to land prone, and add 0.5 m for each point of
Strength you have above 3.
Running High Vault: You can clear 1 meter, no check needed.
On an Av/Ex/St check result, you jump over or atop an obstacle
1.3 m/1.6 m/1.9 m high. Add 0.2 m if you’re willing to land prone, and
add 0.1 m for each point of Strength you have above 3. Subtract
0.2 m if you don’t want to touch what you’re vaulting over (like a
laser beam or other security apparatus).
Running Reach Jump: You can reach 2.4 meters, no check
needed. On an Av/Ex/St check result, you jump up with arms over-
head to grasp a ledge or object 2.6 m/2.8 m/3 m high. Add 0.2 m for
each point of Strength you have above 3.
SWIMMING
How fast you swim over short distances (less than 400 meters) is
likewise a function of Strength and Athletics. You can swim 4 meters
in a move action, no check needed. On an Av/Ex/St check result,
you swim 5 m/6 m/7 m with each move action. Add 1 m of distance
for each point of Strength you have above 3. You take a –2 step
penalty on the Athletics check in choppy water.

Distance Swimming: Depends on your Vitality and Athletics
check. You can swim 1600 meters (about a mile) in 35 minutes, no
check needed. On an Av/Ex/St check result, it takes you 30/25/20
minutes to swim that distance. Subtract 2 minutes for each point
of Vitality you have above 3. You take a –2 step penalty on the
Athletics check in choppy water.
SPRINTING
Your base speed covers running under ordinary circumstances;
even in street clothes, zigzagging between obstacles, you can
manage a 20-second time in the 100 meters. Under the right condi-
tions (straight path, good running surface) you can go faster with an
Athletics check when you take use the move action. On an Av/Ex/
St check result, add 3 m/6 m/9 m to your base move. Increase your
bonus by 3 m for each point of Strength you have above 3.
Sprinting tires you out: After you sprint, you’re weakened (see
Status Effects in Chapter 5) until the end of your next action.
Distance Running: If you’re running more than a kilometer
under controlled conditions, your speed is a function of Vitality and
an Athletics check. You can run 1 kilometer in 6 minutes, no check
needed. On an Av/Ex/St check result, reduce that time to 5.5/5/4.5
minutes. Subtract 30 seconds for each point of Vitality you have
above 3, and impose an appropriate step penalty for hills or other
tough terrain.
CLIMBING
Climbing is likewise a function of Strength and Athletics, though
unlike jumping, swimming and running, it’s possible to make no Real-life rock
progress in a given action. On an Av/Ex/St Athletics check result, climbers have an
you ascend 2 m/4 m/6 m using a 2-impulse move action. Add +1 m entire point system
that boils down to a
to the move for each point of Strength you have above 3, but only list of step penalties.
if you succeed (a Failure still means no progress). You may have a
significant step bonus or penalty depending on the availability of
handholds.
POWERLIFTING
This is almost entirely a function of raw Strength, but form matters,
too. You can deadlift (ground to hips) 125 kg plus an additional
60 kg for each point of Strength over 3. Under controlled conditions
(a gym with proper equipment), you can eke out a little extra weight
(5/10/15 kg) with an Athletics check. You can snatch (ground to over-
head) half as much as you can deadlift.
AWARENESS
Focus; Environment; usually passive
This skill covers your ability to perceive and assess the environment
around you. It can be used both passively (when you’re just going
about your business and the GM asks you for an Awareness check)
or actively (when you suspect there may be a threat or something of
interest in your immediate environs).
One key thing Awareness doesn’t cover: the ability to perceive
and assess the behaviors, emotional state and motivations of NPCs.
That’s covered by the Empathy skill, described below.
You can: Notice the trench-coat-clad agent who has been follow-
ing you, spot the false floor in the cargo hold and discern which of
two bridges seems sturdier.
Typical modifiers: Overwhelming distractions (–2 steps), effective
camouflage (–1 step), extra time to observe (+1 step), infrared gog-
gles or other high-tech gear (+2 steps).
COERCION
Personality; Social
This skill is the mean older cousin of the Influence skill; it covers
getting what you want in a social setting by inciting anger or fear in
your target. Coercion covers basic “gun to the head” intimidation,
but it also covers intimidation that isn’t based on violence or physi-
cal threats, such as “Do it or I’ll tell the board of directors” and “Do it
or I’ll release the videotape.”
Chapter 6 has rules Naturally, there’s overlap between Coercion and Influence. Many
for interrogations. Go a negotiation includes nods to both carrot and stick. Work with your
there now, or else... GM and adjust your roleplaying to emphasize carrot (Influence) or
stick (Coercion), then make the check accordingly. If an attempt to
coerce is based largely on false pretenses (the gun isn’t loaded or
the videotape doesn’t exist), it’s a Deception check.
Negotiations of all sorts are covered in Chapter 6. When you’re
using Coercion, you’ll flip the risk part of the equation on its head,
using the same modifiers. The guard might be fired for letting you in
(–3 step penalty), but you’ve got a gun to his head (+5 step bonus),
so that’s a 2-step swing in your favor.
You can: Convince the mysterious stranger to hand over the
briefcase, get the HR-fearing security guards to let you pass, make
the alley thug back down and taunt your grav-ball rival into making
a key mistake.
Typical modifiers: Target has heard it all before (–2 steps), no
visual evidence of threat (–1 step), threat tailored to the target
(+1 step), prior demonstration of threat (+2 steps).

COMPUTER TECH ERAS AND TECHNICAL SKILLS
Intelligence; Technical
With this skill, you can obtain infor- Charles Babbage arguably invented the
mation from whatever computer computer, but he’d struggle mightily to
networks you have access to— code modern-day applications, let alone
including information the network program the supercomputers central
administrators would rather keep to many far-future settings. Likewise, a
from you. Furthermore, you can far-future cyberninja might effortlessly
write code to change and extend bypass electronic locks but be stymied
what a given computer is capable by a wheel-and-tumbler safe from the
of and encrypt or decrypt the data mid-20th century.
stored on computers you have To put that issue in game terms, techni-
access to. cal skills are fully effective in the tech era
Computers have become central they were learned. But if you’re dealing
to sci-fi in the last forty years, but with tech more advanced than what you
what you can accomplish—and how learned with (as with Babbage and the
you interact with the computers in modern-day computer), you suffer a –2
question—depends on what the step penalty per tech era of difference.
computers in your particular setting Going “down” a tech era is easier, but
are capable of. those old-timers had different tools,
different nomenclature … different
• For example, in a modern-day everything. If you’re dealing with tech
setting, you can steal informa- from a less advanced era (like the cyber-
tion and plant false data from ninja in the example above), you suffer
the anonymity of a PC bang a –1 step penalty per tech era of differ-
in Seoul. ence—though the GM should suspend the
• In a dystopian cyberfuture, you penalty in cases where the fundamental
may be jacked into the Matrix, technical truths are obvious, no matter
adopting a virtual persona to how primitive the surrounding society.
invade corporate datahubs and
fight AI countermeasures.
• In a far-future exploration setting, you may be speaking to
the disembodied voice of your ship’s supercomputer, help- Virtual reality and
Gibson-style hacking?
ing it race against time to develop a countermeasure for an Stay tuned for a
alien planet-buster weapon. sourcebook on that.
In most campaign settings that Alternity models, one skill suf-

fices for the breadth of computer use. In a cyberpunk campaign with
heavy use of virtual reality and hacking, however, we recommend
splitting this skill into several subcategories.
The Computer skill doesn’t cover on-the-spot bypassing of elec-
tronic locks, alarms or cameras. That’s a matter for the Security skill.
You can use the Computer skill to quash an alarm that goes across
the bases’ computer network, however, or hack into the keycard
database to make your ID card “legitimate” for opening the door.
You can: Break into the corporate calendar software to book a

meeting with the CEO, break the encryption on the plans for a rev-
olutionary warp engine and hack the missile’s friend-or-foe sensors
so they target their own launchers.
Typical modifiers: Cybersecurity agents are watching you (–2
steps), system is on alert (–1 step), you have someone on the inside
(+1 step), you had time to custom-code a solution (+2 steps).
SOME WORDS ABOUT LANGUAGE

Science fiction is replete with evocative takes on alien languages—everything
from the thought-provoking (Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life”) to the merely
colorful (Chewbacca and R2-D2 in Star Wars, who are always understood by
other characters, but not the audience). In science fiction films and novels, the
struggle to communicate is rich with drama.
That richness is a prelude to disaster at the game table, though, for one
simple reason. Tabletop roleplaying games are a sort of collaborative oral sto-
rytelling, and the “oral” part quickly falls apart when the heroes literally aren’t
speaking the same language. By all means, use the Culture skill to help a player
feel confident and competent about dealing with a particular group. But think
twice before you build a campaign world where meaningful language barriers
exist—it often sounds better in theory than it works in around-the-table reality.
CULTURE
Personality; Social; cascades
You have a deep knowledge in the language, customs, art, leisure
and social norms of a particular living culture. This skill cascades; for
every odd skill point you spend in Culture, choose a specific culture
(generally a nation in modern-day settings and a planet in future set-
tings). You speak their language fluently, and your understanding of
their culture provides a +1 step bonus when it’s relevant to your skill
check. If you want to be hyper-focused, you can spend a skill point
to choose a subculture within a culture you’ve already picked, such
as “Sicilian organized-crime families” or “Blyrinian priestly orders.”
You get a +2 step bonus when you’re making a check relevant to
that subculture.
Extinct cultures or linguistic riddles are covered under the Aca-
demics skill.
You can: Look suave at the Admiral’s ball, speak fluent Canton-
ese, determine whether disturbing old ruins would provoke mild
disapproval or frothing rage, join the chant at a Haraadasite funeral,
match a Dorexian drink for drink.
Typical modifiers: Culture is profoundly alien (–2 steps), you’ve
already committed a cultural taboo (–1 step), you have a native
guide (+1 steps), this is a ceremony you’ve encountered before
(+2 steps).

DECEPTION
Personality; Social
Lies, bluffing, impersonation, disguise—all these comprise the
Deception skill. If you’re trying to convince someone of something
fundamentally untrue or obscuring the truth in favor of a fiction con-
venient to you, you’re engaged in Deception. This skill is essentially
the “black sheep” in the family of social interaction skills, with Coer-
cion and Influence as its upstanding siblings. In many cases, any of
the three skills will get you what you want from an NPC, but they
have different modifiers depending on circumstance and different
consequences for failure.
One thing the Deception skill doesn’t cover: attempts to disguise
oneself or remain unobtrusive. That’s the purview of the Misdirec-
tion skill, described below.
During interaction scenes you can use the Deception skill in place
of either Influence or Coercion if you’re essentially lying about some-
thing. Holding an unloaded blaster to the alien’s cranium is Deception,
not Coercion. Promising a flight off the prison planet when you’re
stranded there yourself is Deception, not Influence. Other than the
While the same rules
specific skill you’re using, negotiations work the same way regardless apply, the long-term
of how you’re going about them (see Interaction in Chapter 6). consequences of
You can: Win a hand of Tethys Hold ’Em, make the pirate captain those lies may be
quite different.
believe the torpedoes are armed and convince a guard these aren’t
the androids she’s looking for.
Typical modifiers: You’ve already been caught in a lie (–2 steps),
you’re asking someone to violate an important rule (–1 step), you
have convincing paperwork (+1 step), you’ve plied the target with
intoxicants to get his guard down (+2 steps).
DODGE
Agility; Defensive; passive, enabler
Dodge represents your ability to get out of harm’s way with quick,
almost instinctive movement. It’s a passive skill that determines For more on
whether you’re able to avoid the many dangers exploding near you, action modifiers
falling atop you or careening in your direction. and evading, see
Dodge also has a second function; it’s an enabler that improves a Chapter 5.
game function everyone has a lesser version of. In this case, it pro-
vides bigger penalties to enemy attacks when you use the evade
action modifier. You don’t make a check with the Dodge skill when
you evade. Your enemies just suffer a penalty on attempts to attack
you, as shown below:
Skill Points Enemy Attack Penalty

0–4 1 step
5–9 2 steps
10+ 3 steps
The two uses—passively reacting to Bad Stuff happening to you

and actively dodging by using the evade action modifier—are two
different game mechanics that happen to use the same skill. The
passive “make a Dodge check” moments don’t affect your next
action, and the active “I dodge while moving across the room”
moments don’t require a skill check.
You can: Dive across the hallway to avoid a hail of laser fire, take
a quick step back to avoid the biker’s cricket bat, and roll behind the
bulkhead before the grenade detonates.
Typical modifiers: You’re wrestling with an enemy (–2 steps), the
incoming attack is silent or hard to observe (–1 step), you’re on the
periphery of an area attack (+1 step), your helmet has threat-assess-
ment HUD software (+2 steps).
DRIVING
Agility; Environmental
The skill is called Driving for simplicity’s sake, but it covers all con-
veyances that operate primarily on the ground: cars, motorcycles,
hovercraft, tanks and dune buggies with saw blades attached. It
even covers riding animals, whether they’re Earth horses or exotic
alien beasts.
Driving is a skill where the GM will often “bracket” success and
failure, as described in this chapter’s introduction. Routine driving
around the megalopolis shouldn’t even require a check—and if you
do make the check, it’s because failure means you’re stuck in traffic
for 10 minutes, not that you wrecked the car somehow.
You can: Use that conveniently parked car-carrier trailer as a
ramp, lose your pursuers in rush-hour traffic and evade the artillery
shells as your tank traverses no-man’s-land.
Typical modifiers: Vehicle is badly damaged (–2 steps), you’re
Just for fun ... also firing a gun out the window (–1 step), a hacker ally is manipu-
if the car is red: lating traffic signals on your behalf (+1 step), you’re driving an [insert
+1 step.
name of your favorite drool-worthy sports car here] (+2 steps).
EMPATHY
Personality or Focus; Social; sometimes passive
Empathy is the social equivalent of the Awareness skill. You’re
attuned to body language, facial micro-expressions, eye movement
and dozens of other subtle cues that suggest someone else’s emo-
tional and mental state. If someone is trying to mask an emotion or
pretend to be someone they are not, your Empathy may be able to
unmask them. It also provides insights into behavior and motivation
that can earn you bonuses on future Influence, Coercion or Decep-
tion checks, because you have some sense of what makes your
target “tick” and what will overcome their social defenses.

If you take time to interact with an NPC before substantive
conversations begin, you can use Empathy to pick up social cues
to make other skill checks easier during an ensuing interaction
scene. On an Av/Ex/St Empathy check result, you pick up tips worth
a +1/+2/+3 step bonus on the subsequent Influence, Coercion or
Deception check.
You can: Know the police officer saw more than he’s saying,
notice the ship captain keeps glancing at the starboard cargo hold
and discern that an appeal to the Skralavian ambassador’s pride will
make him putty in your hands.
Typical modifiers: You’re trying to get a read on an android
(–2 steps), target is already agitated or wounded (–1 step), target
is someone you’ve known for some time (+1 step), you’re able to
observe the target’s psychic aura (+2 steps).
ENDURANCE
Vitality; Defensive; passive
The ability to persevere under brutal conditions and function at
the limits of exhaustion is at the heart of the Endurance skill. Like
This is a good
Dodge and Willpower, Endurance is a rarely used skill in the active skill to have when
sense. You’ll most often encounter it when your GM says, “You’re life support is
going to keep going? OK, make an Endurance check.” running low...
Marathon running, distance swimming and sustained physical
labor are all part of this skill, but it also covers surviving hazard-
ous weather and challenging environmental conditions. If there’s
something persistent in your surroundings that you’re just trying to
physically withstand, Endurance is probably the governing skill.
You can: Win the Valles Marineris triathlon, shake off the
effects of tear gas and make a (brief!) EVA without a functioning
space suit.
Typical modifiers: Heavy gravity (–2 steps), cum-
bersome/inadequate clothing (–1 step), plenti-
ful healthy food/water (+1 step), blood doping
or other pharmaceutical aid (+2 steps).
ENERGY WEAPON
Agility or Focus; Attack; specialized
This skill covers high-tech personal ranged
weapons: laser pistols, blasters, ray guns and other
staples of the science fiction genre. The exact weap-
Admit it; you skipped
ons available depend on the tech era of your Alternity campaign;
ahead to this one.
the weapon chart in Chapter 4 shows typical weapons available in
each era. While it’s primarily an attack skill, Energy Weapon includes
the ability to maintain and repair personal weapons.
ONE GUN SKILL?

So what’s the difference between Energy Weapon and Firearm? After all,
you’re pointing a tube at the bad guys and pulling a trigger in both cases. The
answer is energy weapons project a beam or pulse of energy—and that beam/
pulse behaves like energy, not like a ballistic bullet. That means it doesn’t drop
over range, and that means it doesn’t have recoil to mess up your aim. The
internal workings of the weapon are completely different, too.
If that really troubles you, ask your GM if you can treat all energy weapons
and firearms as “Guns” and just buy one Gun skill to cover personal ranged
weapons. (Heavy weapons remain a separate skill.) You still specialize in pis-
tols, rifles, or assault weapons.
This skill can be specialized. When you assign your first skill
point to Energy Weapon, choose pistols, rifles or assault weapons.
You gain a +1 step bonus when you use a weapon of that type. You
can buy additional specializations for 2 skill points each
when you level up; these skill points don’t improve your
skill score.
You can: Set your phase pistol to stun, shoot the
bounty hunter first, and watch your c-beams glit-
ter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
Typical modifiers: See Attacks in Chapter 5.
ENGINEERING
Intelligence; Technical
Engineering is all about applied technology, especially
the configuration, operation and modification of
complex systems. This skill cascades—for every
skill point you spend in Engineering, choose a
specific specialty such as cybernetics, electronics,
infrastructure, life support, manufacturing, mining,
power systems, propulsion or robotics. You gain
a +1 step bonus when that field is relevant to
your skill check. If you want to be hyper-focused,
you can choose the same specialty twice and
get doctoral-level training and a +2 step bonus in
that field.
Engineering shares some tasks with Mechanics,
which is focused more on repair and maintenance.
That’s intentional—in many cases, it’s a better story
if the university-trained engineer and the grizzled
mechanic are both adept at a particular job.
You can: Reverse the polarity on the ship’s
disruptor beams, set the reactor to melt down in

one hour, and configure the particle accelerator to send you back to
your home timeline.
Typical modifiers: System has been intentionally sabotaged
(–2 steps), instructions and labels are in alien script (–1 step), you
have access to the schematics (+1 step), it’s a system you invented
(+2 steps).
EXTREME SPORTS
Agility or Vitality; Environmental
You’re an athlete in a particularly death-defying sport such as dou-
ble-diamond snowboarding/skiing, hang gliding, big-wave surfing,
BASE jumping, wingsuits or their futuristic equivalents. This also
covers stunt work and daredevil performances, because the skill set
(balance, strength, body-position awareness and risk assessment)
applies there, too.
You can: Jump off Olympus Mons, grav-pogo through the can-
yons of Carahn IV, paraglide to the top of the Empire State Building.
Typical step modifiers: Jury-rigged equipment (–2 steps), you’re
being shot at (–1 step), scouting the terrain ahead of time (+1 step),
expert coaching and support staff (+2 steps).
FIREARM
This skill covers weapons that fire ballistic projectiles—anything that
uses bullets or similar ammunition. Any gun from roughly the 19th
century to the 21st is functionally a firearm, whether it’s shooting
low-tech silver bullets or high-tech flechette rounds.
This skill can be specialized. When you assign your first skill point
to Firearm, choose pistols, rifles or assault weapons (submachine
guns and shotguns, basically). You gain a +1 step bonus when you
use a firearm of that type. You can buy additional specializations
for 2 skill points each when you level up; these skill points don’t
improve your skill score.
You can: Blow past dozens of computer-generated guards in an
Other skills that
office lobby, gun down a desperado in a graveyard or out-snipe a specialize include
sniper in the ruins of Neuville. Hand to Hand,
Typical modifiers: See Attacks in Chapter 5. Heavy Weapons,
Energy Weapons
and Medicine.
HAND TO HAND
Strength or Agility; Attack; specialized
You can fight unarmed at close quarters using fists, feet, elbows,
knees and whatever other striking surfaces you’ve got. Combat
techniques employing small hand-held weapons (knives, brass
knuckles, power gauntlets) are similar and use this skill as well,
although the Melee skill covers swords, axes and larger weapons.
in Hand to Hand, choose brawling, knives or grappling. You gain
a +1 step bonus when you use that style in an attack. You can buy
additional specializations for 2 skill points each when you level up;
these skill points don’t improve your skill score.
You can: Demonstrate the “Dim Mak” death-touch technique,
throw haymakers at Nazi airmen, and deck an alien while saying,
“Welcome to Earth.”
HEAVY WEAPON
Strength or Intelligence; Attack; specialized
This skill covers the rocket launchers, machine guns, mortars and
other high-tech BFGs of the battlefield—a disparate set of weap-
ons united by their unwieldy nature and destructive power. Heavy
Weapon always covers the big guns you carry around (with diffi-
culty) and similar weapons emplaced within fortifications. In a cam-
paign where vehicle and starship combat is relatively rare, it covers
the vehicle-mounted equivalents as well.
in Heavy Weapon, choose heavy energy, heavy ballistic or indirect fire
weapons. You gain a +1 step bonus when you use that sort of weapon in
If your Alternity an attack. You can buy additional specializations for 2 skill points each
campaign has a when you level up; these skill points don’t improve your skill score.
heavy emphasis You can: Blast xenomorphs with your harness-mounted neutron
on starship travel,
other skills cover cannon, launch mini-nukes from your shoulder and electrify the
shipboard weapons. enemy with your shock rifle.
See the Shipyard Typical modifiers: See Attacks in Chapter 5.
sourcebook
for details.
INFLUENCE
Personality; Social
With the Influence skill, you can convince others to see things your
way—whether you’re facing them in the boardroom, courtroom
or bedroom. It’s not Coercion (which plays on anger and fear) nor
Deception (which relies on lies). Influence is a combination of savvy
negotiation, personal charisma and an understanding of what moti-
vates others’ behavior.
See Interaction in Chapter 6 for more information on how Influ-
ence can improve the attitudes of the NPCs you meet. Influence
tends to emphasize the reward part of the equation, making even
minor or vague rewards seem more prominent in the NPC’s mind.

You can: Act as your own attorney before the orbital magistrate,
talk two alien empires into a peace treaty and get a discount on a Chapter 6 has rules
black-market warp core. for negotiations. I
Typical modifiers: The other party believes you can’t be trusted hear they're worth
reading...
(–2 steps), you’ve committed a cultural taboo (–1 step), you’re
spreading around some bribes (+1 step), other powerful NPCs are
vouching for you (+2 steps).
MECHANICS
Maintenance, repair and construction of devices ranging from simple
machines to vehicle engines and the moving parts of structures are
all under the umbrella of the Mechanics skill. In higher-tech eras
(anything modern-day or beyond), the Mechanics skill includes some
basic knowledge of chemistry and electronics as well, because
those talents are necessary to work on devices of those eras.
Mechanics is a cascading skill. For every odd skill point you
spend in Mechanics, choose a specialty such as demolition, electri-
cal systems, environmental systems, repair, vehicles or salvage. You
you want to be hyper-focused, you can choose the same specialty
twice and get doctoral-level training and a +2 step bonus in that field.
Once you see the
Mechanics is also the go-to skill when you’re building something set design "props" in
from scratch, jury-rigging a device to serve another purpose or Chapter 7, you'll see
improvising something out of spare parts MacGyver-style. the importance of
Mechanics.
You can: Build a nitrous injection system into your getaway car,
sabotage a power conduit so it electrifies your enemies, and fashion
a primitive blunderbuss out of bamboo and mineral deposits.
Typical modifiers: Only random junk to work with (–2 steps), poor
tools (–1 step), a working machine shop (+1 step), a far-future fabrica-
tion chamber (+2 steps).
MEDICINE
This skill covers your ability to assess the cause of injury and dis-
ease, then treat it to return the subject to wellness. It includes both
a diagnostic/investigative component (what caused this?) and a ther-
apeutic aspect (how do I make it better?). What’s possible with the
Medicine skill, given the right tools and supplies, varies greatly by
tech era. Radiation exposure that would be fatal in the Modern Era
can be treated with an ongoing pharmaceutical regimen in the Solar
Era or eliminated with a one-time retrovirus cure in the Galactic Era.
This is a cascading skill. Whenever you assign an odd skill point
in Medicine, choose an area of emphasis: first aid, forensics, pathol-
ogy, surgery, treatment, cybermedicine or pharmaceuticals. (First aid
and treatment both apply when you use battlefield medicine; first
aid helps you stabilize mortally wounded characters, while treat-
ment helps you treat their wounds.) You gain a +1 step bonus on skill
checks relevant to that aspect of Medicine.
You can: Keep a comrade from bleeding out, determine what
killed the Pratakian ambassador, figure out what’s causing the out-
break of Venusian shake-flu.
Typical modifiers: Contagion-ridden or toxic environment (–2 steps),
medkit supplies depleted (–1 step), treating your own wound (–1 step),
access to labs/diagnostic assistance (+1 step), full hospital care (+2 steps).
BATTLEFIELD MEDICINE
You can make a Medicine check as a 3-impulse action to quickly
treat a wounded creature or stabilize a dying creature, staving off
death. Usually you’ll need to be adjacent to the creature you’re
treating, and neither of you can move away until you finish. The
creature receiving the treatment is distracted and slowed (assuming
it’s not just incapacitated by a mortal wound).
Treat Wound: Battlefield treatment is a complex skill check (see
Chapter 5) that allows you to uncheck a wound box when you
succeed. Each time you make a Medicine check, you tally 1/2/3 suc-
cesses on an Av/Ex/St result; the number of successes you need to
clear the wound box depends on your medical gear and the severity
of the wound you’re treating (see the table below). For example, if
you have a med pack and you attempt to treat a serious wound, you
need 3 successes to clear the wound box.
Before you begin treatment, decide which wound box you’re
trying to clear. The more severe the wound, the more time-consum-
ing and difficult the treatment.
At normal lethality, If you fail on a Medicine check to treat a wound, you fail to make
mortally wounded progress. You can try again later in the scene, but if you accumulate
characters die if 3 failures before you succeed in the skill challenge, you “fail out”—
they don’t tally
3 successes on you can’t treat that specific injury with the tools you have at hand.
Resilience checks (You may be able to help by performing surgery after the combat
before failing scene ends, though.)
three times.
Stabilize: If a creature is mortally wounded, the Medicine skill is
literally a matter of life and death. Make a Medicine (first aid) check;
on an Av/Ex/St check result, you grant the injured creature 1/2/3
successes on its Resilience check to avoid death.
SURGERY
If you aren’t in the middle of a battle, you can perform surgery to
remove all an injured creature’s wounds at once, or at least reduce
their severity. Surgery is a complex skill check (see Chapter 5); you
make one Medicine check per hour, earning 1/2/3 successes on an

MEDICAL GEAR AND BATTLEFIELD MEDICINE
Treat Wound Success Goals and Modifier
Graze/Light Moderate Serious Critical Stabilize Mortal
Gear Wound Wound Wound Wound Wound Modifier
No supplies 1 — — — –2 steps
Medical Kit 1 2 — — +0 step
Trauma Kit 1 (+2 steps) 2 3 (–2 steps) — +1 step
Med Pack 1 (+2 steps) 2 (+2 steps) 3 6 (–2 steps) +2 steps
Automed Sled 1 2 3 6 (–2 steps) Automatic
Wound Gel 1 (auto) 1 (auto) (reduce) (reduce) Automatic
Caduceus Ray 1 (+3 steps) 2 (+3 steps) 3 (+3 steps) 6 +3 steps
Av/Ex/St check result. Your success goal for the complex skill check
is 1 per moderate wound, 2 per serious wound and 3 per critical
wound. For example, a patient with two serious wounds and a criti-
cal wound requires 7 successes for a complete surgery. Emergency
surgery requires only 10 minutes per check, but you take a -2 step
penalty on your Medicine checks.
The surgery ends when all the patient’s wound boxes are clear,
or you’ve failed three times. If you aren’t in a facility with spe-
cialized trauma equipment, failing three times kills a patient who
had a critical wound. Otherwise the patient isn’t fully healed, and
must recover the remaining wound boxes through rehabilitation
(described below).
When the surgery ends successfully, give the patient a single
wound one level less severe than the worst wound you treated;
that represents general post-treatment weakness that’ll have to be
cleared through rehabilitation. Grazes naturally heal
at the end of a scene,
and light wounds at
MEDICAL REHAB the end of the day.
Natural healing is mostly the province of the Resilience skill, but the
Medicine skill can speed the process along. If you’re helping your-
self or someone else to recover from a wound, make a Medicine
check at the end of the rehab period. Add a bonus of +1/+2/+3 steps
to the patient’s Resilience check on an Av/Ex/St check result.
MELEE
Strength or Agility; Attack; specialized
High-tech laser rifles are great, sure, but sometimes the bad guys
just need to be clonked in the noggin. That’s where the Melee
skill comes in. If you’re swinging or thrusting with a handheld
weapon bigger than a knife, you’re using Melee for that attack
roll, whether it’s a riot truncheon, a vibro-blade or a saber made of
coalesced energy.
in Melee, choose a category of weapon: bladed, blunt or energized
weapon. You gain a +1 step bonus on skill checks made with that sort of
weapon. You can buy additional specializations for 2 skill points each
when you level up; these skill points don’t improve your skill score.
You can: Carve up enemies with a chainsaw bayonet, win an
energy-sword duel, brandish a cricket bat studded with rusty nails.
MISDIRECTION
Personality; Social; sometimes passive
If you want to fit in with the crowd, blend into the background, and
avoid detection in social settings, Misdirection is the skill for you.
You can quickly observe and imitate the social cues around you to
give off the demeanor of an utterly ordinary subject on at utterly
routine errand.
Misdirection has a second use—technically unrelated, but they’re
fun to play with together. With the Misdirection skill, you can employ
sleight of hand and other techniques of stage magic. By directing
someone’s attention away from your hand (or sleeve), you can make
small objects appear and disappear from pockets or other hiding
places. Roll high enough, and those pockets might not even be your
pockets, making this the relevant skill for would-be pickpockets.
It’s important to keep a solid boundary between the Misdirection
skill and its cousin, Deception. Misdirection is essentially “social
stealth”: your ability to avoid notice and remain unobtrusive. Decep-
tion covers active attempts to lie, bluff and disguise yourself as
someone you’re not.
You can: Hide a flechette pistol up your sleeve, blend into the
mob outside the embassy walls, and observe starport security with-
out being noticed.
Typical modifiers: Everyone else is an alien (–2 steps), observers
have your description (–1 step), you have confederates covering for
you (+1 step), you had time to alter your looks or clothing (+2 steps).
Hey bards! Here’s

your skill… PERFORMANCE
Personality; Social; cascades
This skill covers the performing arts: singing, acting, dancing, ora-
tion, puppetry, oral storytelling, open-mic-night poetry and playing a
musical instrument.
This is a cascading skill. Whenever you assign an odd skill point
in Performance, choose a style of performance: cantina jazz, visi-so-
nor, orbital ballet, Shakespearean acting, theremin, speed-metal
guitar or Imperial baliset, for example. You gain a +1 step bonus on
skill checks relevant to that sort of performance.

You can: Compose spoken-word verse to convince the aliens
you aren’t a threat, get a job on a starliner as part of the comic-act-
ing troupe, and sing the “Lament for Station Alpha” so well that the
admiral tears up.
Typical modifiers: Crowd is predisposed to be hostile (–2 steps),
long drum solo (–1 step), performing a tried-and-true crowd favorite
(+1 step), ace rhythm section (+2 steps).
PILOTING
Agility or Intelligence; Environmental
If it moves in three dimensions, be it airplane, rocket, grav-sled, jet-
bike or ornithopter, Piloting is the skill that governs its use. Routine
flights are, well, routine, and thus the GM won’t even ask you to
make a check. But when you’re chasing someone, being shot at or
setting your controls for the eye of the hurricane, your Piloting skill
is what separates you from a crater on the planet’s surface.
Piloting includes basic navigation and an understanding of a
vehicle’s propulsion, sensor, communications and defense systems.
In an Alternity campaign where the PCs are rarely in peril while See the Shipyard
sourcebook for
flying from place to place, Piloting is the skill for flying a starship— new skills that
though in many cases, the ship’s computer is doing the bulk of supplant Piloting in
the work. a campaign where
You can: Steer in the grav-wake of a rogue asteroid to avoid starship operation is
the focus.
detection, evade the homing missiles launched by the enemy inter-
ceptors, and fly your starship so fast they measure it in parsecs.
Typical modifiers: Enemy boarders have seized Engineering (–2
steps), unfamiliar controls (–1 step), computer-assisted navigation/
evasion (+1 step), ship possesses components from a higher tech
era (+2 steps).
PRIMITIVE WEAPON
This skill covers ranged weapons used prior to the advent of
gunpowder, such as the bow, sling or crossbow. Fair warning: in
See Robert most campaigns, this skill is rarely used because the weapons just
Sheckley's short
story "The Gun aren’t as good as their bullet-firing and laser-emitting counterparts
Without a Bang" for in higher tech eras. But when you’re marooned on an undiscovered
the importance of planet, that improvised javelin might be what turns a dangerous
this skill. predator like the raigath into a tasty meal.
This skill can be specialized. When you assign your first skill
point in Primitive Weapon, choose a specific weapon: bola, bow,
crossbow or sling. You gain a +1 step bonus on skill checks made to
attack with that weapon. You can buy additional specializations for 2
skill points each when you level up; these skill points don’t improve
your skill score.
You can: Shoot an apple off your son’s head, kill a giant with a
slingshot, hit a flying lizard with a black arrow.
PROFESSION
Varies; Technical
Profession is a catch-all skill for a specialized livelihood that exists
in the campaign setting but comes up so rarely it doesn’t merit a
dedicated line on the character sheet. If you want your character
to be an accountant, contract attorney, insurance agent, interstel-
lar trader, plumber or used-rocket salesman, put some skill points
in Profession and collaborate with the GM on what the key ability
score should be (Intelligence for an accountant, for example, and
Personality for the rocket salesman).
It’s worth noting that many white-collar and technical profes-
sions are covered by other skills: Academics, Science, Engineering,
Computers, Culture and Performance, for example. You’ll need
Profession only for something off the beaten path in terms of heroic
backgrounds.
You can: Launder the proceeds from your space smuggling, fix
the clogged commodes on Level Fourteen, and get that middle
manager into a low-parsec rocket that’ll make the orbital com-
mute a breeze.
Typical modifiers: You don’t have the tools or reference materials
handy (–2 steps), time pressure (–1 step), able assistants (+1 step),
prior successes at this exact task (+2 steps).

RESILIENCE
Vitality; Defensive
Resilience has a narrow but critical purpose: keeping you functional
despite the pain and shock of injury. You can use Resilience as an
action in a combat scene to reduce the severity of a wound and
thus the penalty to your other skill checks while you’re suffering
from it. (See Damage and Wounds in Chapter 5 for details.) In a
nutshell, the greater your success with Resilience, the less a given
injury hampers your ability to make subsequent skill checks.
Resilience is no substitute for Medicine, which actually treats the
In playtests, this skill
injury, but it keeps you functioning in moments of peril when you
saved a lot of PC
can’t drop everything and get out your medkit. lives. Just sayin'...
You can: Ignore the bullet in your shoulder, the cuts on your feet
from broken glass, and the fact that a laser-sword just chopped off
your hand.
Typical modifiers: Depends on the severity of the wound you’re
trying to lessen; see Damage and Wounds in Chapter 5.
IGNORING PAIN
With a successful 3-impulse Resilience check, you can reduce the
penalty for a wound you’ve suffered. You reduce the penalty by 1/2/3
rows on an Av/Ex/St result; for example, if you’re suffering a serious
wound and you get an Excellent success on your Resilience check,
you can treat it like a light wound for purposes of dealing with the
wound penalty. You don’t get to clear the wound box (that’s what Med-
icine is for), but you can lessen the penalty for the rest of the scene. If
you’re wounded again, the normal penalties apply for those injuries.
You can succeed at a Resilience check to ignore pain only once
per scene (but if you fail your check, you can keep trying until
you succeed.)
SELF-STABILIZING
When you suffer a mortal wound, your Resilience check (and per-
haps the Medicine skill of your friends) is the only thing between
you and death. Even though you’re unconscious, you make a
Resilience check every 3 impulses. You collect 1/2/3 successes
toward stabilizing on an Av/Ex/St check result. If someone is using
the Medicine skill to help you, you get a bonus on your Resilience
checks (see the Medicine skill for details).
After you achieve 1 success, you need only make a Resilience
check once per minute. After you’ve tallied 3 successes, make a
Resilience check every hour, and after you’ve tallied 5 successes,
you’ll check every day. Keep making the Resilience checks until one
of three things happens:
• A high-tech device such as an automed sled stabilizes you.

You’re unconscious, but you won’t die. Your mortal wound
becomes a critical wound, which can be treated normally.
• You collect 6 successes on Resilience checks. You’re stable
and unconscious, and you won’t die. Your mortal wound
likewise becomes a critical wound.
• You fail on three Resilience checks. At the moment of the
third failure, you die. (Depending on the tech era you’re in,
that might not be the end for you.)
RECOVERY
While the Medicine skill can treat wounds, you naturally heal over
time, too. Your recovery speed depends on the severity of the
wound; at the end of the specified time interval, make a Resilience
check to reduce a wound by one severity level. You can recover
from multiple wounds at the same time.
Light activity (walking, desk work) counts as rest, but interrupted
sleep or participation in any action means you didn’t rest that day; it
counts as only half a day for rehab timing.
Wound Severity Recovery

Graze End of scene, no check needed
Light End of day, no check needed
Moderate 1 day of rest; successful check reduces to light wound
Serious 3 days of rest; successful check reduces to
moderate wound
Critical 10 days of rest; successful check reduces to serious wound
SCIENCE
This skill covers the hard sciences: physics, chemistry, biology,
astronomy and planetology (a combination of geology, meteorology
and environmental science), plus mathematics and fictional sciences
such as chronogy (the study of timeline manipulation).
The hardest part This skill cascades. For every odd skill point you spend in
of chronogy is Science, choose a specific field of study from among those listed
getting the verb
tenses correct.
above or ones relevant to your campaign. You have particular
training—equivalent to an advanced degree—in that discipline and
you want to be hyper-specialized, you can choose the same field of
study twice and get doctoral-level training and a +2 step bonus in
that field.
You can: Predict the course of the rogue comet, record the anom-
alous energy readings from the monolith, or determine how the
aliens are communicating with the mother ship.

Typical modifiers: Previously undreamt-of phenomenon
(–2 steps), available data is incomplete (–1 step), phenomenon fits
prior theories (+1 step), AI assistance in research (+2 steps).
SECURITY
Agility or Intelligence; Environmental
The Security skill covers operating and bypassing physical and
electronic locks, alarms, cameras and other surveillance systems.
(Players being players, it’s generally used more for bypassing than
operating.) There’s some overlap with Computers, which covers
the alarm signal, keypad combination or security-cam footage away
from the site of the security device. Security is what matters when
the lock, camera or alarm is right in front of you.
You can: Disable the lasers that crisscross the hallway, crack
open the briefcase without destroying the plans inside, and
vandalize the security camera’s gimbal so it doesn’t cover the
leftmost door.
Typical modifiers: Installation is already on alert (–2 steps), impro-
vised tools (–1 step), schematic of the security network (+1 step),
confederate on the enemy security team (+2 steps).
STEALTH
Agility or Focus; Environmental
You can remain unseen, employing low-observable techniques
including camouflage and silent movement to traverse an area
without drawing attention to yourself. This skill also includes training
in the strengths and vulnerabilities of high-tech surveillance gear,
including how to evade or spoof them. Modern-era tech relies on

soft soles and a camo outfit, but Solar- and Galactic-era stealth
incorporates electronic scramblers, holographic cloaking, infrared
smoothing and other technological solutions to one of the world’s
oldest games: winning at hide and seek.
Sneaking Around Between Scenes: If you’re moving through
an area where others might detect you—and you’d rather they
didn’t—make a Stealth check as described in the Starting Positions
section of Contact, in Chapter 6. If you succeed, you can get closer
to the would-be spotters, avoid the encounter entirely or get into a
position with good cover or concealment.
Hiding During Combat: If you want to hide and you’re within the
spotting range set by the scene, you must a) have some semblance
of a hiding place or equivalent high-tech gear, and b) avoid actions
that make your presence obvious. The latter category depends on
the specifics of the scene, but in general, most attacks and move-
ment beyond your hiding place reveal you automatically.
You can: Evade the patrols in no-man’s-land, sneak up behind the
When you attack
rooftop sniper, and pretend to be a larch.
an enemy unaware Typical modifiers: Spotters have high-tech assistance (–2 steps),
of you, you gain a you’re carrying cumbersome equipment (–1 step), camouflage cloth-
+2 step bonus on ing (+1 step), high-intensity distractions (+2 steps).
the attack.
SURVIVAL
Vitality or Focus; Environmental
You know how to survive in the wild, whether it’s Earth’s backcoun-
try or an untamed frontier world. Building shelter, acquiring food
and water, and avoiding the environmental hazards of terrain and
atmosphere are all key tasks that use this skill.
Physical privation in the narrow sense is the purview of the
Endurance skill; Survival is relevant when you’re employing knowl-
edge and instinct before the point where you’re hungry, thirsty, cold
or slowly asphyxiating in the alien atmosphere.
You can: Build moisture wells to obtain water on a desert world,
track a roving pack of symbiont wolf-creatures, recognize the early
signs of hypoxia and seek out more breathable air.
Typical modifiers: World’s dominant biology isn’t carbon-based
(–2 steps), inclement weather (–1 step), quality backcountry gear (+1
step), regimen of tailored pharmaceuticals (+2 steps).
WILLPOWER
Focus; Defensive; passive
The third of the passive “saving throw” skills (along with Dodge
and Endurance), Willpower represents your mental fortitude and
resistance to mind manipulation. When something is trying to

ADDING NEW SKILLS
The skills defined in this chapter cover action narratives that major in ground
combat and minor in interpersonal challenges and technology hurdles. That
covers a wide swath of present-day action and futuristic science fiction, but it
doesn’t cover everything. This is just the core rulebook, after all.
The Shipyard sourcebook details a “shipboard” category of skills for cam-
paigns that want a heavy dose of action that fundamentally takes place on
the bridge of their starship (or dimension-crawler, or dirigible, or whatever).
Heroes get access to those skills just as they have access to skills in the exist-
ing categories, and they won’t have to sacrifice their attack and defense skill
points to pick up shipboard skills instead. In Alternity, everyone has at least
some access to the skills that matter in common encounters.
Likewise, we anticipate future sourcebooks that provide a hacking/VR cat-
egory of skills, a cyberware/bioware/mutant power category, a psionic power
category and so on. Will a given PC use them all? Debatable, though it’d be fun
to play in the gonzo campaign that tries. If you’re a player, your GM will tell
you which categories of skills, if any, you’ll be using beyond the five categories
defined in this chapter.
dominate your thoughts or force you to behave a certain way, the

GM often asks you to make a Willpower check to avoid or amelio-
rate the effect.
Willpower also governs your distractibility, especially when faced
with high-tech holograms, neurotoxins and psychotropic effects that
render you confused or insensate.
You can: Gaze at the Red-Eyed Man without being hypnotized, Old-schoolers know
resist the Soviet doctor’s dose of sodium pentathol and continue to this, but “saving
exclaim that there are four lights. throw” is RPG for
Typical step modifiers: Your senses are overwhelmed (–2 steps), a roll of the dice
that lets you avoid
attack is “magic” or “psionic” or some other power beyond your ken harm—often a lethal
(–1 step), your battle-suit has automatic sensory dampeners (+1 step), “gotcha” moment.
you’ve received specific defenses against mental attack (+2 steps).
TALENT DESCRIPTIONS
Talent descriptions are much terser than skill descriptions because
they are intended to be specific and exclusive—in general, you can
only use a talent for exactly what it says it does.
Talent constellations are organized under their entry talents
(marked with ★). You must choose the entry talent as your first pick
when you begin a talent constellation. You cannot select a talent
marked with a right arrow (↪) unless you already have the talent
immediately preceding it.
Talent Descriptions 81
TABLE 3–2: TALENTS

★Alertness ★Closer ★Commander ★Commando ★Dirty Fighting
Hit the Dirt Character Study Combat Leader Dash Bum Rush
Keen Senses ↪Seductive ↪Skills Coach ↪Serpentine Distracting Blow
Prepared Action Chameleon ↪Inspiration to All Grenadier ↪Blinding Blow
↪Snapshot ↪Cultural Sponge Flexible Tactics Overwatch Make ‘Em Hurt
Reactive Shout ↪Rapid Reassessment Skirmisher ↪Make ‘Em Bleed
Taunt Silent Death
↪Group Taunt Trained Spotter
↪Crucial Taunt
★Drone Expert ★Elusive ★Gearhead ★Gunner ★Gunslinger

Overclocking Combat Crouch Built These Myself Cover Destruction Disarming Shot
Rapid Scripting Evasive Footwork ↪One of a Kind Dakka Dakka Double Tap
↪Conditional Logic ↪Instinctive Evasion Fast Work Forward Observer Dramatic Reload
Lucky Miss ↪Hit It Again ↪Shockwave ↪Free Reload
Saboteur ↪Blast Shaping Dual Pistols
↪Improvised Trap Suppressive Fire ↪Dual Targeting
Street Mod ↪Unleash Hell ↪Dual Deathdealer
Strap It Down Gun-Fu
Steady Hand
↪Distance Shot
↪Deadeye Shot
★Inventor ★Martial Arts, ★Martial Arts, Striking ★Medic ★Melee Expert

The Best Teacher Grappling Combo Strike Don’t You Quit on Me Lunge
↪Not That One! Disarming Lock ↪ Whirlwind Combo First Responder ↪Overwhelming Lunge
Miraculous Invention ↪Submission Lock Defensive Stance ↪Emergency Treatment Melee Combo
Improvisation Judo Throw ↪Roll With the Punch I’ve Seen Worse ↪Melee Whirlwind
Resourcefulness ↪Defensive Flip Hands of Stone Physician, Heal Thyself Parry
↪Bodyslam Haymaker ↪Riposte
Takedown ↪Knockout Blow ↪Disarming Riposte
↪Ground and Pound
Tight Clinch
★Rugged ★Sniper ★Spy ★Trooper

Extra-Rugged I Controlled Breathing Access Controlled Burst
↪Extra-Rugged II ↪Precise Sniper Black Bag Specialist ↪Focused Bursts
↪Extra-Rugged III ↪Deadeye Sniper ↪Safecracker Deadly Reply
Roll With It Extreme Range Brush Pass Imposing Threat
↪Take It on the Armor ↪Thousand- Expert Tail Over the Top
Shake It Off Meter Stare Vanish Spray and Pray
↪Inured to Pain Low Observables ↪Covering Fire
↪Suck It Up ↪Induce Panic Stopping Power
Sighting In ↪Rock Steady
★Artificial Systems ★Powerful Build ★Rapport ★Limb Articulation ★Self-Improvement

(android) (briith) (nesh) (xayon) (2nd level)
Hardened Systems Big Hitter Branching Network Ambiloader Improved Strength
Redundant Components Bulldozer Propagating Network ↪Dual Weapons Improved Agility
↪Overdrive ↪Trample Rapid Communion ↪Triple Weapons Improved Vitality
Social Programming ↪Unstoppable ↪Euphoric Communion Feral Wrestler Improved Intelligence
Oversized Weapons ↪Forceful Communion Flurry of Blows Improved Focus
Thick Hide ↪Feral Flurry Improved Personality
Swift Quadruped

Many talents refer to specific combat situations or actions. See
Chapter 5 for more information on how combat scenes and skill
challenges work in the Alternity game.
★Alertness: You gain a +2 step bonus on initiative checks.

Hit the Dirt: You can go prone as a reaction to the GM declar-
ing an attack against you.
Keen Senses: You gain a +2 step bonus on Awareness and
Empathy checks made at the start of a scene.
Prepared Action: Your first action in an encounter takes 1
fewer impulse. If that reduces it to zero impulses, perform that
action and act again immediately.
↪Snapshot: You gain a +1 step bonus on attacks and
checks made against enemies who haven’t acted yet
in a scene.
Reactive Shout: As a reaction to an enemy declaring an
attack, you can shout a warning to an ally who can hear and
understand you. If you do, that attack suffers a –1 step penalty.
Tell the GM you’re using Reactive Shout after the attack has
been announced but before it has been resolved.
★Closer: You have a natural instinct for sealing the deal, gaining
It's ABC.
a +1 step bonus on Coercion and Influence checks when you’re A: Always.
interacting with someone who is untrained in Coercion or Influ- B: Be.
ence (whichever one you’re using). A NPC is considered to be C: Closing.
trained in a skill if it appears in a Skill entry in the adversary stats
or if the NPC description includes the skill.
Character Study: You gain a +1 step bonus on Empathy
checks if you’re interacting with an NPC you’ve met previously,
either in a prior interaction scene or in a conversation lasting
at least 30 minutes.
↪Seductive: You gain a +2 step bonus on Influence
checks to attract the romantic attention of someone
inclined to be interested in your species, gender and
other factors (as applicable; the universe is a big place).
Degrees of success are highly situation-dependent, but
as a general guideline, an Average success yields only
a brief romantic interlude, and an Excellent success lays
the groundwork for an ongoing relationship. A Stellar
success sets up a “contact with benefits” arrangement
(as described in the Contacts section of Chapter 6; the
quality of the contact depends on whom you seduced).
Chameleon: When you adopt an identity other than your
own (such as a disguise or cover story), you gain a +1 bonus
on Deception and Misdirection checks if you had a model to
observe beforehand. To pretend to be a Haravorian Tech-

no-Priest, for example, you have to have seen how they
behave first.
↪Cultural Sponge: Once you’ve spent a day living with
a given culture, you can change one of your cascade
choices for the Culture skill to include that culture. If
you’ve spent five days, you can do likewise with a
subculture.
★Commander: You gain a +1 step bonus on Coercion or Influence

checks made during combat.
Combat Leader: As a 3-impulse action, make an Influence
check to spur your allies on to greater effectiveness. If
you succeed, designate an enemy. Your allies each gain a
+1 step bonus on their next attack against that enemy in this
scene. Allies who can’t communicate with you don’t get the
step bonus.
↪Skills Coach: Your Influence check can help your allies
Trained skills are make other kinds of skill checks, too. If you succeed,
ones you spent at
choose a technical or environmental category skill you
least 1 point in.
are trained in. Your allies gain a +1 step bonus on their
next use of that skill in this scene. Allies who can’t com-
municate with you don’t get the bonus.
↪Inspiration to All: Your Influence checks grant a +2 step
bonus if successful.
Flexible Tactics: As a 4-impulse action, you enable an ally to
take a 2- or 3-impulse action even though it isn’t their turn.
That ally’s next action is delayed by 1 impulse. You must be
able to quickly communicate the sort of action you want your
ally to take (move, attack and so on). Allies who gain an action
via Flexible Tactics can’t gain a second action or use a reac-
tion until they’ve acted normally.
↪Rapid Reassessment: Flexible Tactics is only a 3-impulse
action for you.
Taunt: As a 3-impulse action, make a Coercion check to
demoralize an enemy you choose. On a success, that enemy
must succeed at a Willpower check or suffer a –2 step penalty
on all skill checks until your next action. Enemies who can’t
understand you (due to language barrier or deafness, for
example) don’t suffer the penalty.
↪Group Taunt: You can taunt a group of similar enemies
in the scene—all the security guards or all the marzogs,
for example. They collectively make one Willpower
check (if they don’t have the same Willpower score, they
aren’t sufficiently similar). If that Willpower check fails,

they all suffer a –2 step penalty on all checks until your
next action.
↪Crucial Taunt: When you taunt an enemy, the penalty
is increased with each degree of success. An Excellent
Coercion check result imposes a –3 step penalty, and a
Stellar check result imposes a –4 step penalty.
★Commando: You gain an additional +1 step bonus to attacks and

skill checks against enemies who are unaware of you.
Dash: Increase your base speed by 5 meters.
↪Serpentine: When you use the evade action modifier
while moving, enemies suffer an extra –1 step penalty
to hit you.
Grenadier: You gain a +1 step bonus to attack when throwing The Athletics
grenades. skill governs
thrown grenades.
Overwatch: When you ready an action to make an attack, you
gain a +2 step bonus to your attack roll when you resolve the
readied action.
Skirmisher: If you’re evading when an enemy misses you with
an attack, you gain a +1 step bonus on any attack you make
against that enemy with your next action.
Silent Death: If you kill or disable an enemy with an Excellent
or Stellar success, nearby enemies suffer a –3 step penalty
on Awareness checks to notice that attack (however, no one
needs to make a check to notice a loud or obvious attack).
Trained Spotter: You have a +2 step bonus to notice enemies
at the beginning of a scene.
★Dirty Fighting: Gain +3 damage when you successfully attack a

distracted or surprised target.
Bum Rush: You can maintain a grapple while moving at
normal speed if the target you’re grappling is medium size
or smaller. If you move at least 5 meters and end the grapple,
you can make a free unarmed attack on the formerly grappled
target, and the target falls prone if your attack succeeds.
Distracting Blow: Add 1 impulse to your attack to attempt a
distracting blow with a hand-to-hand or melee attack. If you
achieve an Excellent or Stellar success, your target must
succeed at a Willpower check or be distracted until the end of
your next action in addition to the attack’s normal effects.
↪Blinding Blow: Add 1 impulse to your attack to attempt
a blinding blow with a hand-to-hand or melee attack. If
you achieve an Excellent or Stellar success, your target
must succeed at a Dodge check or be blinded until the
end of your next action in addition to the attack’s normal

effects. Opponents who don’t rely on sight (some aliens,
for example) are immune to this effect.
Make ’Em Hurt: Add 1 impulse to your attack to soften up a
target with a hand-to-hand or melee attack. If you achieve an
Excellent or Stellar success, you and your allies gain a +2 step
bonus on Coercion checks against the target made during
this combat (or in its immediate aftermath) in addition to the
attack’s normal effects.
↪Make ’Em Bleed: Add 1 impulse to your attack to add
And with "blood," we
include ichor, acidic bleeding to your hand-to-hand or melee attack. If you
fluid, glowing goo, achieve an Excellent or Stellar success, your target
and other things suffers bleeding damage over time in addition to the
aliens prefer to keep
inside themselves. attack’s normal effects. Bleeding ends when the target
successfully resists with an Endurance check or receives
treatment from a Medicine check. Some opponents
(robots, for example) are immune to bleeding.
★Drone Expert: When you issue a command to a drone, it’s a

2-impulse action.
Overclocking: When you issue an attack command to a drone,
you can grant a +3 step bonus to its attack, but it takes 1 box
of damage (lowest available wound band) after the attack
is resolved.
Rapid Scripting: You can issue two commands to a drone with
a single action, which it executes sequentially.
↪Conditional Logic: You can issue one command to a
drone, then two possible second commands along with
the criteria for choosing between them.
★Elusive: Ranged attacks against you that originate from medium

range (20 m) or longer suffer an additional –1 step penalty.
Combat Crouch: You gain additional benefit from cover.
Attackers take an additional –1 step penalty when they attack
you as long as you have at least 25 percent cover.
Evasive Footwork: When you’re evading and an enemy
misses you, you can immediately move 2 meters.
↪Instinctive Evasion: You may evade while attacking
without spending the extra impulse to use the action
modifier. When you do, enemies suffer a –1 step penalty
on attacks against you even if your Dodge skill is high
enough to impose a higher step penalty. You may also
evade normally, trading the impulse cost for the normal
penalty if you wish.

Lucky Miss: Once per combat scene, you can use a reaction
to make an attack that hits miss instead.
★Gearhead: You gain a +1 step bonus on any technical skill check

you make to maintain or repair a machine, vehicle, ship or installa-
tion you’ve worked on before.
Built These Myself: When you take this talent, you can give
yourself two free weapon, armor or tool upgrades. Each
upgrade must be applied to a different weapon, armor or tool.
↪One of a Kind: Gain an additional upgrade for one of the
items you improved with Built These Myself.
Fast Work: During a complex skill challenge based on a tech-
nical skill you are trained in, your successful skill checks are
worth 1 more success than normal (2/3/4 successes on Av/Ex/
St check results).
↪Hit It Again: If you fail an Engineering or Mechanics
check, on your next action you can spend 1 impulse to hit
it again; reroll your check.
Saboteur: You’re especially good at setting up things to break. See Chapter 7
You gain a +2 step bonus to technical skill checks to sabotage for lists of things
to sabotage.
devices and machinery.
↪Improvised Trap: As a 3-impulse action, you can attempt
a Mechanics check to create the trap equivalent of a
smoke grenade, concussion grenade or thermal gre-
nade. You need access to power, flammable materials
or a small amount of explosive (an actual grenade will
do). Your trap goes off on the condition you specify
(when a creature enters the area, when a creature takes
an action like starting a motor or opening a door, or
after a set amount of time). Creatures about to trigger
your trap are allowed an Awareness check (opposed
by your Mechanics check) to spot it before they set it
off, although unintelligent creatures may not recognize
the danger.
Street Mod: As a 3-impulse action, make an Engineering or
Mechanics check to modify a piece of equipment to exceed
its normal performance for the duration of a scene. Increase
performance (speed, duration or capacity) by 10/25/50
percent on an Av/Ex/St check result. If your check fails, you
fail to boost performance and damage the equipment; all
checks using that equipment take a –1 step penalty until it
is repaired.
★Gunner: When you use the aim action modifier with a heavy
weapon, you do not add a 1-impulse delay to your next action.
When you use the full auto action with a heavy weapon, delay
your next action by 1 impulse, not 2.
Cover Destruction: When you attack a target behind cover,
you can choose to reduce the value of the target’s cover by
2 steps for this attack. If you do, reduce the damage of the
attack by 3.
Dakka Dakka: You take no penalty for using full auto on your
first autofire attack. Subsequent attacks still have a –2 penalty.
Forward Observer: You gain a +1 step bonus when making an
indirect fire attack.
↪Shockwave: Pinpoint accuracy and precise timing make
your explosions more effective. When you fire a heavy
weapon with a blast radius, creatures that take damage
are also knocked back away from the blast origin a dis-
tance equal to the blast’s primary blast radius unless an
intervening object like a wall prevents further movement.
↪Blast Shaping: When you shoot a heavy weapon with
This talent preserves
a lot of friendships. a blast radius, you can angle and target it so it deals
only half damage within a 1-meter square you designate
inside the affected area.
Suppressive Fire: Make an improved autofire attack action
and roll damage for an Average hit. Enemies at medium range
or closer within a 45-degree arc whose armor is lower than
your damage roll automatically take a 1-point wound unless
they are prone or behind cover. Whether they’re hit or not,
enemies within the affected area take 1 extra impulse for their
next action if they act before your next action.
↪Unleash Hell: Your suppressive fire attacks automati-
cally deal damage equal to your damage roll to targets
not prone or behind cover. Enemies avoid damage
completely if they’re someplace where it’s completely
ludicrous that a round would reach them.
Strap It Down: When you’re carrying a heavy weapon, only
half its mass (including ammunition/power supply) counts for
encumbrance purposes.
★Gunslinger: You can draw one or more pistols as a free action

when you attack with a pistol.
Disarming Shot: On an Excellent or better hit, you can choose
to reduce damage to 1 and disarm an enemy holding a
weapon or object in one hand.

Double Tap: On an Excellent or better hit, you gain an
immediate follow-up attack at a –1 step penalty on the
same target as a free action.
Dramatic Reload: You gain a +1 step bonus
on the next attack you make after you reload
your weapon.
↪Free Reload: You can reload your pistol as
a free action immediately after you take
an action to attack.
Dual Pistols: If you are armed with two pis-
tols, you can fire them both together at the
same target as one action when you attack.
Your attack has a –2 step penalty. If you hit,
both weapons hit. Roll damage separately.
↪Dual Targeting: You can attack two
different targets with dual pistols. Resolve
each attack separately. Your attacks take a
–2 step penalty.
↪Dual Deathdealer: Your penalty for using Dual
Pistols or Dual Targeting is reduced to –1 step.
Gun-Fu: You gain a +1 step bonus to your attack when
you fire a pistol at someone you’re in melee with.
Steady Hand: If you aim with a pistol, you gain a +2 step
bonus instead of +1 step.
↪Distance Shot: Ignore range penalties for pistol
attacks (max range still applies).
↪Deadeye Shot: When you aim with a pistol
attack, you gain AP 3 (reduce target armor
by 3) in addition to the normal benefits
for aiming.
★Inventor: You’re something of a mad scientist. When you

select gear, you can choose one item from a Tech Era one
higher than the campaign’s Tech Era as part of your starting gear.
The item is unreliable, and if you allow someone else to use it,
there is a 50 percent chance it breaks at the end of the scene.
You can replace a lost or broken invention in 1 week (or choose a
new item of the same class).
The Best Teacher: When you fail at a technical skill check in
a complex skill challenge, gain a +2 step bonus on the next
technical skill check you make in this scene.
↪Not That One!: The first time in a scene that you fail an
environmental or technical skill check that would cause a
complex skill challenge to fail out, ignore the result. You

neither succeed nor fail.
Improvisation: You can rebuild any piece of personal gear
into a different but related piece of gear of equal or lower
class. For example, you could make a sonic viewer into a
sonic bore, a flamethrower into a cutting torch, or just about
anything with a power cell into a thermal grenade. Your repur-
posed item works for one scene (or one use, in the case of a
consumable) at a –1 step penalty, and is then ruined. Rebuild-
ing an item is a Mechanics (repair) skill challenge requiring
3 successes for an easy conversion or 6 successes for an
improbable one; you can make one check per minute. The
GM can rule that a particular improvisation is just not possible,
or requires extra components.
Miraculous Invention: The item you choose with your
Inventor talent can be two Tech Eras ahead of the cam-
paign’s Tech Era.
Resourcefulness: You have a +2 step bonus on any skill
check to interact with a terrain feature or trigger its spe-
cial effect.
★Martial Arts, Grappling: You gain a +1 step bonus on Hand to

You'll find grappling Hand checks made to start a grapple.
rules in Chapter 5.
Disarming Lock: If you take the grab object action against
an enemy you are grappling, you gain an additional +2 step
bonus on the opposed check.
↪Submission Hold: If you succeed at an unarmed attack
against a living enemy you are grappling, the enemy
becomes dazed until it loses the grappled condition or
it successfully resists with an Endurance check. If you
succeed at an unarmed attack against an enemy who is
both grappled and dazed, in addition to taking damage
that enemy must succeed at an Endurance check or
become incapacitated for five minutes. Enemies wearing
tough armor are immune to submission holds.
Judo Throw: When you win an opposed check to start a
grapple, you can choose to make your enemy prone 2 m
away from you rather than imposing the grappled condition
on that enemy.
↪Defensive Flip: When an enemy moves adjacent to
you, you can use a reaction to attempt a grapple and
judo throw.
↪Bodyslam: When you succeed at a judo throw, you can
use a free action to make an immediate unarmed attack
against the thrown enemy.

Takedown: In addition to the normal +2 step bonus for
tackling, you gain an additional +1 step bonus on attempts to
tackle an enemy.
↪Ground and Pound: If your enemy is prone and you are
grappling it, you gain an additional +1 step bonus on
unarmed attacks against that enemy.
Tight Clinch: You gain a +2 step bonus on Hand to Hand
checks made when enemies take the resist action to escape a
grapple with you.
★Martial Arts, Striking: Your unarmed damage improves to 1d6

+ 0/4 physical. You can make an unarmed strike as a 2-impulse
attack action.
Combo Strike: When you achieve an Excellent or Stellar
success on an unarmed attack, you may make a free unarmed
attack with a –1 step penalty against the same target after
you’ve resolved the first attack. The follow-up attack doesn’t
trigger additional combo strikes.
↪Whirlwind Combo: Your Combo Strike follow-up attacks
do trigger additional combo strikes if you achieve an
Excellent or Stellar success, and follow-up attacks can
target other enemies if you like. The penalty to your
follow-up attacks increases by –1 step for each subse-
quent attack.
Defensive Stance: Enemies attacking you with unarmed or
melee attacks suffer a –1 step penalty, or –2 steps if you have
at least one hand free.
↪Roll With the Punch: When you are hit with an unarmed
or melee attack, you can use a reaction to reduce the
damage by 3 or immediately move 2 meters.
Hands of Stone: Your unarmed damage improves to 1d6 +
2/6 physical.
Haymaker: When you achieve an Excellent or Stellar success Knockbacks are
with an unarmed attack, your target must make a Resilience often more dramatic
in zero-G. Remind
check or be knocked back 2 meters and fall prone. your GM...
↪Knockout Blow: When you achieve a Stellar success
with an unarmed attack, your target must succeed at a
Resilience check or be stunned 3 impulses. If you stun
your target, you can immediately make a free unarmed
attack on the stunned target. If the follow-up attack hits,
the target must make another Resilience check or be
knocked unconscious for five minutes.
★Medic: You gain a +1 step bonus on Medicine checks made

during combat.
Don’t You Quit on Me: Your successful Medicine checks to
stabilize someone count as an additional success (2/3/4 suc-
cesses on Av/Ex/St check results).
First Responder: As a 3-impulse action, you can move 10
meters and make a Medicine check.
↪Emergency Treatment: Your attempts to treat a wound in
combat take 2 impulses each.
I’ve Seen Worse: As a 1-impulse action, you can use Coer-
cion or Influence as if it were Resilience on an ally’s behalf
to reduce your ally’s wound penalty. You can help each ally
this way only once per combat and only if your ally has not
successfully used Resilience on a wound in this scene.
Physician, Heal Thyself: When you attempt to treat
your own wounds, you don’t suffer the step penalties for
being wounded.
★Melee Expert: You gain a +1 step attack bonus when you use the
charge action modifier to attack with a melee weapon.
Lunge: You can make melee attacks against enemies 4
meters away from you.
↪Overwhelming Lunge: When you charge an enemy, you
can make a shove attempt (which the enemy can block
or sidestep) immediately after you resolve the melee
attack. If the attack hits and the enemy either sidesteps
or loses the opposed check to block, you can continue
moving up to the usual limit of 15 meters.
Melee Combo: When you achieve an Excellent or Stellar suc-
cess with a melee attack, you may make a free melee attack
with a –1 step penalty against the same target after you’ve
resolved the first attack. That follow-up attack doesn’t trigger
additional combo strikes.
↪Melee Whirlwind: Your follow-up attacks do trigger addi-
tional melee combo attacks if you achieve an Excellent
or Stellar success, and follow-up attacks can target other
enemies if you like. Your attack penalty increases by –1
step with each subsequent follow-up attack.
Parry: When you’re armed with a melee weapon, and an
enemy makes an unarmed or melee attack against you,
you can use a reaction to parry. Make a Melee check as an
opposed check against your attacker’s result to counter the
attack success. If you’ve already taken a reaction to parry, you
can’t make another parry until you act again.

↪Riposte: When you’re armed with a melee weapon and
an enemy makes an unarmed or melee attack against The Melee Expert
you, you can use a reaction to make a free attack against constellation uses
your attacker immediately after the attack against you fencing terminology,
but these talents
is resolved. If you’ve already used a reaction to riposte, work with a wide
you can’t make another riposte until you act again. You array of weapons.
can’t parry and riposte against the same attack.
↪Disarming Riposte: If your riposte attack is an Excellent
or better success, you can voluntarily reduce it to no
damage and instead disarm any object held in your ene-
my’s hands, causing it to fall to the ground (or float slowly
away in zero-g).
★Rugged: Gain bonus wound boxes on the graze and light wound
rows of your durability table.
Extra-Rugged I: Gain a bonus moderate wound box.
↪Extra-Rugged II: Gain a bonus serious wound box.
↪Extra-Rugged III: Gain a bonus critical wound box.
Roll With It: Once per scene, you can use a reaction to
reduce a wound you suffer by one severity level, to a mini-
mum of Graze.
↪Take It on the Armor: You can use Roll With It twice in a
scene. You can reduce a wound by two severity levels
when you Roll With It, but if you do, your armor becomes
damaged. Its resistance is reduced by 3 until it can be
repaired. You can Take It on the Armor only if you are
wearing armor that provides resistance against the
damage from the attack in the first place.
Shake It Off: You can make Resilience checks to reduce
a wound’s penalty as a 1-impulse action instead of a
3-impulse action.
↪Inured to Pain: You can reduce wound penalties with
Resilience checks twice per scene, not just once.
↪Suck It Up: When you are wounded, you can add +1 to
+3 impulses to any action you take. If you do, reduce the
step penalty for being wounded by the same number
of impulses you added. Step penalties from other
sources cannot be reduced this way—just step penalties
from wounds.
★Sniper: If you aim with a rifle, you gain a +2 step bonus to your
attack instead of a +1 step bonus.
Controlled Breathing: If you take 2 impulses to aim, your
attack bonus improves to +3 steps.
↪Precise Sniper: If you aim, ignore the target’s cover (if

any) in addition to the normal attack bonus. You still
require a line of sight to attack.
↪Deadeye Sniper: When you aim with a rifle attack, you
gain AP 3 (reduce target armor by 3) in addition to the
normal benefits for aiming.
Extreme Range: Any rifle you shoot can reach targets at
extreme range, even if its listed range is very long.
↪Thousand-Meter Stare: Reduce all range penalties by
1 step when you attack with a rifle.
Low Observables: When you attack from long range or
farther, your enemies must succeed at an opposed check
(their Awareness versus your Stealth) to tell where the shot
came from.
↪ Induce Panic: If you deal 10 or more damage and no
enemy knows where you are, living creatures must
succeed at Willpower or choose to go prone or move
toward cover with their next action.
Sighting In: If you miss a target with a rifle attack, you gain a
cumulative +1 step bonus for each subsequent attack against
that target until you hit. You lose the bonus if you switch tar-
gets, but not if you do something other than shoot.
★Spy: You have a false identity—a “legend,” as it’s known in the

In higher tech
eras, you might business. Examples include aristocrat, businessperson, journal-
have automated ist, or minor criminal. Your true identity comes to light only under
software that keeps rigorous background checking that usually requires several
your "legend"
days (although most NPCs accept the identity you claim). A false
active with routine
transactions and identity comes with one Average-level contact who believes your
correspondence. legend. You can “burn” your identity to stymie an effort to locate
you or take you into custody. If you have to burn your false identity,
you can create a new one in 10 days.
Access: The contact you gain with your false identity is Excel-
lent, not Average.
Black Bag Specialist: You have a +1 step bonus on Athletics
checks to climb and Security checks to open locks.
↪Safecracker: When you make a Security check to open
a lock, it’s a 2-impulse action. You can’t fail out of a skill
challenge to open a lock.
Brush Pass: You have a +2 step bonus on Misdirection checks
to pick pockets or plant small objects on a target. When you
use Misdirection to pick a pocket, you can immediately plant
the object you remove on any other creature within 2 meters
as part of the same action.

Expert Tail: You have a +2 step bonus on Awareness checks
to tail a target and Misdirection checks to avoid being spotted.
You automatically spot anyone tailing you.
Vanish: You have a knack for avoiding notice. You gain
a +2 step bonus on Misdirection checks to blend into
crowds and a +2 step bonus on Stealth checks to sneak
between scenes.
★Trooper: You can attack with ranged weapons when you use The charge action
the charge action modifier. You take a –1 step penalty to ranged modifier is covered in
Chapter 5.
attacks while charging.
Controlled Burst: Gain a +1 step bonus when you make an
attack using burst autofire.
↪Focused Bursts: Subsequent bursts against the same
target gain an additional +1 step bonus. The bonus
expires if you or the target moves.
Deadly Reply: When an enemy hits you, you gain a +2 step
bonus on your next attack against that enemy.
Imposing Threat: When you attack an enemy in melee or at
close range, that enemy has –2 step penalty on their next
attack unless it’s against you.
Over the Top: You can use the charge and evade action
modifiers at the same time (delay your next action by
1 impulse, not 2).
Spray and Pray: Gain a +1 step bonus when making full auto
autofire attacks.
↪Covering Fire: Make a full auto autofire attack. Enemies
at medium range or closer within a 45-degree arc you
designate must make Willpower checks; those that fail
cannot attack until after your next action. Those that suc-
ceed can attack, but it takes 1 extra impulse to do so.
Stopping Power: When you deal 10 or more damage with
an attack, the target must make a Resilience check or be
knocked back 2 meters and fall prone.
↪Rock Steady: Requires Strength 5+. You treat pis-
tols or assault weapons with a Speed of 4 as if they
were Speed 3.
RESTRICTED TALENTS
You can’t select species talents or advanced talents unless you
meet the requirements.
★Artificial Systems (Android): You can disengage your safeties as a

1-impulse action.
Hardened Systems: You gain a +1 step bonus when you make
a check as part of the resist action.
Redundant Components: When you disengage your safeties,
take one box of damage per 2 impulses of bonus, rounded up.
↪Overdrive: When you disengage the safeties, grant your-
self a +3 step bonus, not a +2 step bonus.
Social Programming: You can reprogram 4 skill points of
social skills, spread out as you like, with the same limitations
as your technical skills.
After a while, telling ★Limb Articulation (Xayon): You can change into or out of quadru-
the GM what stance ped stance as a 1-impulse action.
you're in will be
second nature. Ambiloader: When you’re in bipedal stance, you can draw
and reload pistols and assault weapons without taking an
action to do so—that’s what your extra hands are doing.
↪Dual Weapons: You can wield two weapons at the same
time and attack with both in the same action. Resolve
each attack separately. Each attack takes a –2 step pen-
alty. Your next action is determined by the speed of the
slowest weapon +1 impulse.
↪Triple Weapons: You can wield three one-handed
weapons at once, as described in Dual Weapons. You
can make three attacks and each attack takes a –2 step
penalty. Your next action is determined by the speed of
the slowest weapon, +2 impulses.
Feral Wrestler: You gain a +1 step bonus on Hand to Hand
checks to start or escape a grapple.
Flurry of Blows: You can use all six limbs to defend yourself.
As a 4-impulse unarmed attack, you can attack twice, with
both attacks suffering a –1 step penalty.
↪Feral Flurry: When you make a 4-impulse unarmed
attack, you attack twice at no step penalty.
Swift Quadruped: When you’re in quadruped stance, your
base speed is 40 meters.
★Powerful Build (Briith): You gain a +1 step bonus to Hand to Hand

and Melee attacks.
Big Hitter: When you achieve an Excellent or Stellar success
with a melee attack, your target must make a Resilience check
or be knocked back 2 meters and fall prone.

Bulldozer: You gain a +2 step bonus to checks to resolve
shove attempts (stacks with the usual size advantage).
↪Trample: If you knock an adversary down during a shove
attempt, you can make an unarmed attack against the
target as a free action, then continue your move action.
↪Unstoppable: You can make shove attempts while using
the charge action modifier.
Oversized Weapon: You can wield oversized versions of
melee weapons. An oversized weapon gains a +1 bonus to
damage rolls (and weighs 50 percent more than normal).
Thick Hide: Increase the value of your physical armor by +1.
★Rapport (Nesh): Your superior neshi telepathy allows you to com-

municate with any sentient creature with an Intelligence of 2 or
higher, not just other nesh.
Branching Network: You can communicate telepathically with
up to five other creatures at once.
Propagating Network: You can communicate telepathically
within a 1 km range.
Rapid Communion: You can communicate telepathically at
the same speed you can speak.
↪Euphoric Communion: You can make Influence checks
while communicating telepathically. You gain a +2 step
bonus for such checks.
↪Forceful Communion: You can make Coercion checks
while communicating telepathically. You gain a +2 step
bonus for such checks.
★Self-Improvement (2nd Level+): Increase an ability score of your If you want a human-
choice by +1. only constellation,
Self-Improvement is a
Improved Strength: You must be level 6 or higher to select good choice.
this talent. Increase your Strength by +1.
Improved Agility: You must be level 6 or higher to select this
talent. Increase your Agility by +1.
Improved Vitality: You must be level 6 or higher to select this
talent. Increase your Vitality by +1.
Improved Intelligence: You must be level 6 or higher to select
this talent. Increase your Intelligence by +1.
Improved Focus: You must be level 6 or higher to select this
talent. Increase your Focus by +1.
Improved Personality: You must be level 6 or higher to select
this talent. Increase your Personality by +1.
98
4: Gear
4: GEAR
“A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.”
—Lois McMaster Bujold
Laser pistols? Personal force fields? Handheld analyzers, powered armor or recon
drones? Advanced tools and armament are staples of the science fiction genre,
especially in the sort of action-focused stories that make up the majority of Alternity
campaigns. On the other hand, a modern-day setting might limit you to a 9 mm pistol,
a cell phone and a bulletproof vest—the same sort of gear any plainclothes police
officer carries—while a hero in a primitive, post-apocalyptic setting might have to
make do with a crossbow and a leather jacket.
Gear consists of weapons (melee, ranged and heavy), armor and tools. In each
category, gear is further defined by tech era, class and restriction level.
• Tech Era (TE) is the technology level at which an item

becomes available. You can’t select equipment from a higher
TE than the era you’re playing in.
• Class represents the quality and expense of an item. The
higher the class, the rarer and more expensive the item.
Class corresponds to price as follows:
Class 1 $100
Class 2 $500
Class 3 $2,500
Class 4 $10,000
Class 5 $50,000
• Restriction Level describes how tightly the item is controlled
by whatever authorities exist. Grenades are cheap, so their
equipment class is low, but they’re really illegal, so they have
a high restriction level.
STARTING GEAR
To equip your character, ask your GM which tech era the game is set
in, whether any item restrictions apply and which method of choos-
ing starting gear he or she prefers: Quick and Easy, Pay as You Go,
Standard Issue or some other house rule.
Everyday Stuff: You need to purchase or select only combat gear
and special tools. You can assume you have anything else a typical
person would have: several changes of clothing, an overnight bag
or suitcase, an apartment or small house, personal transportation (a
car or motorcycle), a cell phone or its equivalent and so on. If you’re
currently living aboard a spaceship, your apartment’s back on your
base planet and your car’s in storage.
99
Your Ship: Your GM may put a ship of some kind at your team’s
disposal. You and your fellow heroes might be the crew of a ship
owned by some corporate or government master, or the ship might
be the collective property of the team or registered under the name
of one specific hero in the party. Regardless of the details, you don’t
buy a ship—the GM assigns you one if it’s important for the campaign.
QUICK AND EASY

You begin with one weapon, one suit of armor or defensive gear, one
tool and three “anything” picks (handy for picking up extra weapons
or tools you think you might need). One of your items is Class 3, two
are Class 2 and the rest are Class 1. You’ve got $500 in your pocket.
Gear Upgrades: You might find it useful to choose a Class 2 item
with a +1 gear upgrade instead of a Class 3 item—for example, if
you’d rather have an exceptionally good pistol instead of a rifle. See
Rewards in Chapter 7 for more information on gear upgrades.
CURRENCY PAY AS YOU GO

For the purpose of convenience, The GM assigns you a starting budget, and
we’re using US dollar signs you purchase the items you want piecemeal.
when we talk about money. A good standard is $4,000, but your GM may
Naturally, the common currency set a different budget based on the cam-
depends greatly on the setting. paign she has in mind.
Prices for item class could be in Realistically, you could probably run up
pounds sterling, euros, cred- your credit cards or take out a loan and
its, gold pieces, liters of water, get more buying power, but we’re going to
iridium weight units—we don’t ignore that for now. No one wants to play
care. For that matter, a “Class 1” a game where you’re worried about your
price might be $5 in the 1880s or monthly credit card statement (although if
$50 in the 1980s; relative buying you have a major loan on something like a
power is what’s important here. starship, figuring out how to keep your head
Ask your GM what the setting above water can certainly serve as motiva-
currency is; go with “credits” or tion to find lucrative opportunities). Pay for
“dollars” until the GM tells you your gear when you buy it, and assume this
otherwise. is what you can spend with due consider-
ation of your personal financial situation.
STANDARD ISSUE
In some scenarios your personal funds aren’t important—what’s
important is what the Star Marine Quartermaster Corps chooses to
issue to you. Usually this includes one weapon of Class 3 or 4, one
armor of Class 3 or 4 and three anything picks of Class 1 or 2. You
can’t take the Class 3 or 4 stuff with you when you’re off-duty, but
the Class 1 and 2 stuff is yours (or easy to take with you, anyway).
You also have $500 in your pocket.
100 4: Gear
RESTRICTION LEVELS
Having $100,000 in the bank doesn’t mean you can easily buy
a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile. Weapons like Stingers
and 9K32 Strelas are kept under strict military control in all but the
most lawless and chaotic situations. When you’re equipping your
Alternity character, check with your GM before selecting any item
with the following access levels:
G (General): If an item doesn’t
have a restriction level noted in its PISTOLS OK, RIFLES PROBLEMATIC
price, it’s generally available and can For most Alternity campaigns, it’s safe
be purchased without restriction. to assume the heroes can carry pistols
There might be some local licensing or melee weapons without too much
or regulatory controls for items such trouble. Either the permits aren’t hard
as handguns or drones, but you can to come by, or the setting is rough-and-
jump through those hoops or ignore tumble enough that it’s not unusual for
them without too much trouble. people to be armed. In some places (like
R (Restricted): These items are airports or courthouses) weapons might
not widely available for civilians. To not be allowed, but otherwise you can
get your hands on a restricted item, go about your business armed.
you need to secure expensive spe- Rifles and SMGs are a different
cial licensing, be equipped by some animal. Walking around with long arms
sponsoring organization allowed to or automatic weapons is obvious and
use the gear (such as a corporation provokes alarm in civilized areas—the
or a government agency), or wan- police investigate, criminals assume
tonly break the law by purchasing they’re about to be attacked, bystand-
the item from an illegal provider. ers get out of the area or close up
Even if you’re willing to buy the shop. You’ll need to decide if the extra
special license or break the law, firepower is worth the trouble.
there’s no guarantee the item you
want is available for purchase at any
price—check with your GM before
you equip your hero with a restricted-grade item.
M (Military): These items are illegal for private citizens. You
can’t just apply for a special license—you can acquire these items
only through a sponsoring organization such as a government
agency or a corporation powerful enough to make its own rules.
You might be able to buy military-level gear from a highly illegal
source, but anyone who sees you with that item knows immedi-
ately you’re breaking many laws. Of course, in a lawless area, that
might not matter much. Check with your GM before choosing a
military-grade item.
X (Experimental): These items are not generally available for
anybody, not even corporate problem-solvers or government
agents. You just can’t buy an X-grade item, but you might acquire
one as a reward during an adventure or be assigned one for a spe-
cific mission.
101
TECHNOLOGY ERA
Does your hero carry a 9 mm pistol, a laser pistol or a disintegrator
ray? It depends on the technology era he or she comes from. It’s
quite possible for different planets or areas within a campaign to
possess different levels of technology—heroes on a starship might
carry laser pistols but find themselves on a planet whose primitive
natives attack them using spears and swords. Tech eras are a little
“fuzzy”; the Tommy gun came into use in the 1920s (TE 5), but we
call submachine guns TE 6 weapons.
Tech eras are described in more detail in Chapter 7, but here’s a
quick summary:
TE 1 (Prehistoric Era): Welcome to the Stone Age. Weapons are made

from bone, wood or stone; only the most primitive tools are available.
TE 2 (Ancient Era): This era reflects the Bronze Age and the Iron
Age, roughly from the rise of Sumer to the fall of Rome; weapons,
armor and tools are made from bronze or iron. Simple machines
such as wheels come into use.
TE 3 (Medieval Era): This era extends from the Dark Ages through
the late Middle Ages, ending with the widespread adoption of gun-
powder. It’s the age of plate armor, with iron or steel weaponry.
TE 4 (Enlightenment Era): Roughly 1500 to 1860 in our history. Guns
make plate armor mostly obsolete. Muzzle-loading, single-shot
firearms are the dominant weapons of the era.
TE 5 (Industrial Era): This era stretches from the mid-19th century
up to the dawn of the Information Age. Repeating firearms and
then automatic firearms are state of the art.
TE 6 (Modern Era): Today, more or less. Firearms are still pretty simi-
lar to the weapons of the WW2 era, but computers and communi-
cations and the Internet transform the world.
They aren't perfect
matches, but the
TE 7 (Solar Era): The Solar Era begins with humankind’s establishment
Expanse novels of colonies elsewhere in the solar system. Lasers come into general
would be TE 7, use as personal weapons, while projectile weapons shift away from
Star Wars is TE 8, chemical explosives to magnetic acceleration (rail guns).
and Star Trek is TE 9.
TE 8 (Stellar Era): Humankind begins settling worlds around other stars.
Powerful directed-energy weapons are the norm; practical personal
shield devices are developed. Artificial gravity comes into use.
TE 9 (Galactic Era): Humankind is spread across tens of thousands
of worlds throughout the Milky Way. Weaponry typically exploits
advanced forces such as gravity or quantum properties of matter;
energized armors and nanoengineered materials provide amaz-
ingly tough defense against attack.
TE 10 (Universal Era): Space and time no longer constrain us.
Technology is capable of things that would seem magical to us
now. This is “over the top” for the Alternity game, so we don’t
include any gear from TE 10 in this chapter.
102 4: Gear
OBSOLETE AND EXPERIMENTAL TECH
In general, technology “lingers” for a while after newer items
become available. You can buy items 1 TE behind the era of your
campaign at normal cost. Items 2 or more TE behind the campaign
era are harder to find—they’re now antiques. Increase the cost of
antique items by 1 class.
Conversely, some devices may be available a little before their Firefly is an example
proper tech era. Usually the cost is increased by 2 classes (or dou- of a TE 7 setting, but
the guns are mostly
bled, if that exceeds class 5), and the item has X restriction level. TE 6 and the ships
Check with your GM before you choose an item over your TE. have TE 8 artificial
gravity inside.
TECH SUPERIORITY
Armor and weapons from lower technology levels are less effective
against armor and weapons from higher technology levels. This is
represented by tech superiority.
• If you attack a target wearing armor from a tech era lower
than the tech era of your weapon, reduce the target’s armor
resistance value by 3.
• If you attack a target wearing armor that has the “tough” spe-
cial ability using a weapon from a lower tech era, increase
the target’s armor resistance value by 3.
• If both weapon and armor are from the same tech era, nei-
ther side has tech superiority.
For example, FBI agent Erica Bell steps through a time portal
and finds herself in the Middle Ages. When a knight in TE 3 plate
armor charges her, Agent Bell shoots the knight with her TE 6 light
pistol. Normally plate armor has resistance 6 to physical damage,
but the difference in tech means the plate armor’s resistance value
is reduced by 3, to an effective 3. It turns out plate armor isn’t great
against bullets.
WEAPONS
It’s a dangerous universe out there. Combat is a common occur-
rence in the sort of action-based stories that the Alternity game is
designed to portray, and every Alternity hero begins play with at
least a few basic weapon skills. Even if you hope you never need
to use it, you should carry a sidearm or a small melee weapon for
personal protection.
Weapons are divided into five groups that correspond with the
key combat skills: melee and hand-to-hand weapons, primitive
ranged weapons, firearms, energy weapons and heavy weapons.
Weapons 103
When you’re choosing your weapon, start with the table that corre-
sponds to your best combat skill.
READING THE WEAPON TABLES

The weapon tables present all kinds of stats for how each weapon
works in the game. Here’s how to make sense of the entries.
Class/Restriction: The weapon’s “level,” which also serves as
its price. If the weapon’s availability is restricted (R), military (M) or
experimental (X), it’s noted here.
Type: Most combat skills allow you to select a specialization
when you buy 1 or more points in the skill. This column identifies the
exact group the weapon falls in.
Range: The weapon’s maximum effective range. Under some cir-
cumstances, it may be possible to hit a stationary target at a longer
range; for example, projectiles can carry quite a distance in low
gravity and zero atmosphere.
Speed: The number of impulses required to make an attack with
the weapon.
Damage: The amount of damage the weapon inflicts. The number
or range to the left of the slash (“/”) is the damage for an Average hit,
while the number to the right is the damage for an Excellent or Stellar
hit. In addition, Stellar hits deal an extra wound box of damage. If a
weapon’s damage is given in a format such as 1d8 + 2/7, its damage is
1d8 + 2 for an Average hit and 1d8 + 7 for an Excellent or Stellar hit.
Blast weapons give damage for the primary blast area (second-
ary blast area). If a blast weapon’s damage is given in a format such
as 1d8 +7 (3), its damage is 1d8 + 7 in the primary blast and 1d8 + 3 in
the secondary blast.
104 4: Gear
Special: Most weapons have one or more special properties.
Some are helpful, and some are significant drawbacks. See the
ability descriptions below.
WEAPON SPECIAL ABILITIES

Most weapons have one or more special traits.
Accurate: This weapon gains a +1 step bonus to attacks.
Ammo Loadout: This weapon fires grenades or missiles with gre-
nade warheads. You must keep track of which grenades are loaded
and how many shots you take.
AP # (armor piercing): This weapon has exceptional firepower,
which gives it the ability to deal with large and heavily armored
targets. Reduce the target’s armor resistance value by the number
given. For example, AP 3 means you reduce the target’s armor
resistance by 3.
Autofire: This weapon can fire several shots in quick succession,
allowing you to use the autofire action with this weapon. Using auto-
fire consumes a lot of ammunition (or power charge) in a hurry; a burst
requires 3 rounds at once, and full-auto requires 10 rounds per attack.
Autofire, Improved: You use the autofire action with this weapon
and can attack up to five targets within 10 meters of each other.
Blast # (#): This is an area-effect weapon that creates a blast at a
target point. The first number is the radius of the primary blast area
in meters, and the second number is
the radius of the secondary blast area.
Damage for blast weapons is given WEAPON RANGES
for the primary blast first, then the Personal weapons have the follow-
secondary blast area. For example, a ing ranges:
concussion grenade’s damage is 2d6 • Adjacent (2 meters or less)
(1d8) energy, and its special ability is • Close (3 to 20 meters)
blast 3 (6). Anything within 3 m of the • Medium (21 to 50 meters)
blast’s target point takes 2d6 energy • Long (51 to 200 meters)
damage, and anything from 3 m to 6 • Very Long (201 to 500 meters)
m away takes 1d8 energy. Creatures • Extreme (501 to 2000 meters)
in a blast area can usually attempt
Dodge checks to avoid some or all of
the effects.
Blast, Minor (#): The weapon has a minor blast effect. Its primary
effect is normal damage against one target, but anything within the
blast distance (in meters) is subject to a blast. The damage of the
secondary blast is given in the weapon description.
Bleed: A creature hit by this weapon’s attack must make a Resil-
ience check or suffer a bleeding wound, which begins damage over
time (bleeding).
Weapons 105
Brutal: A brutal weapon is even more deadly at close range.

When you hit a target within close range, increase the damage
roll by 3.
Ignite: A creature hit by this weapon’s attack must make a Dodge
check or begin taking damage over time (fire).
Irradiate: A creature hit by this weapon’s attack must make an
Endurance check or begin taking damage over time (radiation).
We're intentionally Mag #: Most modern weapons have a 10-round clip or power
making reloading cell—you can make ten attacks before you run out of bullets or use
fast and easy. You
have better things to
up the charge and must reload. Weapons that vary from this stan-
do than count bullets dard have a special Magazine rating that indicates the number of
or charges. attacks you can make before you’re out of ammunition.
If your weapon is capable of burst fire and you use a burst, mark
off 3 rounds instead of 1. If you fire on full auto, mark off 10 rounds
instead of 1.
Reloading a weapon with an empty magazine or replacing a
power cell requires a 1-impulse action (and a full magazine or power
cell somewhere handy).
Nonlethal: If a creature loses its last wound box to a nonlethal
attack, it’s knocked unconscious for 1d6 × 10 minutes instead of suf-
fering a mortal injury. At the end of the scene, wounds inflicted by
nonlethal weapons are automatically reduced one level in severity
before healing and recovery begins (although an unconscious crea-
ture may remain unconscious for a while after the scene ends).
Reload #: This weapon fires only one shot at a time and then
must be reloaded. The number given is the number of impulses you
must spend reloading before the weapon is ready to fire again. For
example, after you fire a weapon with reload 4, you must spend a
4-impulse action to reload it.
Spread: You can use this weapon to attack two targets at the
same time if they’re adjacent to each other.
Stun: When you hit with a weapon that has this trait, make an
opposed check (your attack success against the target’s Endur-
ance check). If the target fails to counter your success, it’s stunned
3 impulses. If your success level is Stellar and the target fails to
counter it, the target instead falls unconscious for 1d10 minutes.
Two-Handed: The melee weapon requires two hands (or similar
appendages) to wield. Note that only melee weapons have this trait.
Assault weapons, rifles and heavy weapons also require two hands
for ranged attacks.
MELEE AND HAND-TO-HAND WEAPONS

While guns generally outperform melee weapons in most tactical
situations, melee weapons remain relevant for a variety of reasons:
They’re usually less strictly controlled, they offer more nonlethal
options and they might be all that’s available.
106 4: Gear
TE Weapon Class Skill Type Spd Damage Special
* Unarmed — HTH brawl 3 1d4+0/2 physical nonlethal
1 Club 1 Melee blunt 3 1d4+0/3 physical nonlethal, +1 dmg if
two-handed
1 Spear 1 Melee bladed 3 1d6+1/5 physical two-handed
2 Knife 1 HTH bladed 3 1d4+1/4 physical
2 Short 2 Melee bladed 3 1d6+1/5 physical
Sword
3 Polearm 1 Melee bladed 4 1d6+1/5 physical two-handed, AP 1
3 Long Sword 2 Melee bladed 3 1d6+1/5 physical +1 dmg if two-handed
3 Mace 1 Melee blunt 4 1d6+0/4 physical +1 dmg if two-handed
4 Bayonet 1 Melee bladed 4 1d6+1/5 physical two-handed
5 Combat 1 HTH bladed 3 1d6+1/5 physical
Knife
5 Tactical 1 Melee blunt 3 1d4+0/4 physical nonlethal
Baton
6 Stun Gun 2 Melee powered 3 1d6+0/2 energy stun, nonlethal
7 Shock 2 HTH brawl 4 1d6+2/3 energy stun, nonlethal
Glove
7 Vibroblade 2 Melee bladed 3 1d6+1/5 physical AP 2, +1 dmg if two-handed
7 Chainsaw 2 Melee powered 4 1d6+2/7 physical bleed, two-handed
bayonet
8 Forcespike 2 Melee powered 3 1d6+2/7 physical AP 1, two-handed
bayonet
8 Diskos 3 Melee powered 4 1d8+3/9 physical AP 3, two-handed
8 Power 3 HTH brawl 3 1d8+1/5 physical +1 step when grappling
Gauntlet
8 Force 3 Melee powered 4 1d8+2/7 physical minor blast 3 (except you);
Hammer two-handed
9 Nega-glaive 3 Melee powered 4 1d12+3/9 energy irradiate, two-handed
9 Star Sword 4 Melee powered 3 1d10+3/9 energy +1 dmg if two-handed
CUSTOMIZING MELEE WEAPONS

Not all knives are created equal. Minute differences in sharpness,
length and blade shape make a difference in the real world, but we
aren’t modeling sci-fi action in such excruciating detail. If you want
to make your melee weapon distinctive, give it one of the features
below. Melee weapons with custom features don’t cost more than
their more ordinary counterparts, but you can have only one custom
feature per melee weapon.
Concealable: A combination of thinness, retractability and (in
higher tech eras) scan-resistant materials make this weapon hard for
security guards and other nosy lifeforms to spot. One-handed weap-
ons gain a +2 step bonus on Misdirection checks, and two-handed
weapons gain a +1 step bonus.
Intimidating: Spikes and serrations on your weapon don’t add
meaningfully to the damage, but they do get the attention of whom-
ever you’re threatening. Your weapon looks fearsome enough to
Weapons 107
grant a +1 step bonus on Coercion checks when you’re brandishing

it and (directly or indirectly) threatening violence.
Throwable: You can throw this weapon at an enemy within
close range (up to 20 m), making an Athletics check to hit. Other
than the spear (which comes with this feature already), two-handed
weapons can’t ordinarily have this feature.
High-Penetration: This weapon is extra sharp, shaped to
pierce armor or otherwise designed to maximize penetration.
Reduce the target’s armor resistance by –1. Weapons that already
have the AP feature can’t stack it with this one.
Electro-Pulse (TE 7+): This weapon can deliver an electric
pulse on a hit. When used against robots, drones or other construct
enemies, it has the stun feature. It takes one impulse to turn this
feature on or off.
Energy Emitter (TE 8+): You can energize the striking surface
of an otherwise low-tech weapon (TE 5 or earlier) to deal energy
damage instead of physical damage. It takes one impulse to turn
this feature on or off.
Returning (TE 8+): The high-tech replacement for the throw-
able feature, this weapon returns to its thrower during the final
impulse of the attack using a grav impeller and simple navigation
AI. It works only with melee weapons from the industrial tech era
or lower, but the assist from the grav impeller also means you can
throw two-handed weapons.
In some settings, Field Disruption (TE 9+): This weapon emits a variable-phase
the ability to disrupt energy field that disrupts force fields and other high-tech shielding,
force fields is the
main reason melee
granting you AP 1 against enemies with armor that shields against
weapons still exist. energy attacks.
PRIMITIVE RANGED WEAPONS

Most Alternity campaigns are set in the modern day or the far
future, which means that ancient weapons such as slings or bows
are usually museum pieces. However, hero teams have a way of
finding themselves in the middle of survival situations or up against
tribes that time forgot.
TE Weapon Class Type Rng Spd Damage Special

1 Bolas 1 Bolas C 4 1d4+0/3 physical
1 Javelin 1 Javelin M 3 1d6+1/4 physical
1 Sling 1 Sling L 4 1d4+0/4 physical Reload 1
2 Bow 2 Bow L 3 1d6+0/3 physical Reload 1
3 Crossbow 2 Bow L 3 1d6+0/4 physical Reload 3, AP 3
108 4: Gear
FIREARMS
Guns of various types are the
weapons of choice in most tactical
situations. Bullets hit harder than
almost any muscle-powered weapon
around, and the development of mag-
netically accelerated projectile weapons in the
Solar Era and beyond ensures that firearms remain competi-
tive far into the future.

4 Musket, Flintlock 3 Rifle M 4 1d10+0/4 physical Reload 5
4 Pistol, Flintlock 2 Pistol C 4 1d8+0/4 physical Reload 3
5 Revolver 2 Pistol M 3 1d6+1/6 physical Mag 6
5 Rifle, Bolt-action 3 Rifle VL 4 1d8+2/6 physical Mag 5
5 Shotgun 2 Assault M 4 1d8+0/5 physical Mag 5, Brutal
6 Pistol, Light 2 Pistol M 3 1d6+1/5 physical
6 Pistol, Heavy 2 Pistol M 4 1d8+1/6 physical
6 Rifle, Assault 3 (R) Rifle VL 3 1d8+2/8 physical Mag 30, Autofire
6 Rifle, Sniper 3 Rifle VL 4 1d8+2/9 physical Accurate
6 SMG 3 (R) Assault L 3 1d6+1/5 physical Mag 20, Autofire
7 Flechette Pistol 2 Pistol C 3 1d6+1/5 physical Brutal
7 Flechette Gun 3 (R) Assault M 3 1d6+1/5 physical Mag 30,
Autofire, Brutal
8 Razor Pistol 2 Pistol L 3 1d10+0/4 physical Bleed, Mag 20
ENERGY WEAPONS
The development of various directed energy weapons in the Solar
Era and beyond increases the already frightening lethality of the
pistol and rifle.

6 Taser 2 Pistol C 3 1d4+0/1 energy Reload 2, Nonlethal, Stun
7 Laser Pistol 2 Pistol L 3 1d6+0/6 energy Accurate
7 Laser Rifle 3 Rifle VL 4 1d6+1/8 energy Accurate, Mag 20
7 Sonic Bore 2 Assault C 4 1d8+0/5 energy Spread, Stun
8 Plasma Pistol 2 Pistol M 3 2d4/2d8 energy
8 Plasma Rifle 3 (R) Rifle VL 4 2d6/2d12 energy
9 Phase Pistol 2 Pistol M 3 1d6+2/7 energy Accurate, Ignite
9 Phase Rifle 3 Rifle Ex 3 1d6+4/9 energy Accurate, Ignite, Mag 20
9 Disintegrator 4 (X) Assault L 3 1d10+0/6 energy AP 3, Irradiate
Weapons 109
HEAVY WEAPONS AND GRENADES

Highly restricted in all but the most lawless societies, heavy weap-
ons are meant to equip frontline infantry squads as fire-support
weapons or special assault groups that need exceptional firepower.
Authorities in any settlement or district take a dim view of anyone
walking around with this sort of excessive armament, but heroes
traveling to uncharted worlds or taking on overpowering foes might
need heavy weapons to deal with the threat.
TEWeapon Class Type Rng Spd Damage Special

5 Light MG 4 (M) Firearm VL 4 1d8+2/7 physical Improved Auto, Mag 100
5 Flamethrower 4 (M) Energy C 4 2d8 (1d8) energy Blast 2(4), Ignite, Mag 5
5Grenade, Frag 1(M) 4 2d6 (1d8) physical Blast 4(8)
5Grenade, Smoke 1 — Area 4m
6Grenade Launcher 3 (R) Indirect L 4 by grenade Ammo Loadout
6Grenade, 1 (R) 4 1d8+4(0) energy Blast 3(6)
Concussion
6 Rocket, Antitank 3 (M) Guided VL 5 1d10+1/6 energy AP 3, minor blast 2,
reload 3
7 Gauss Rifle 4 (M) Firearm VL 3 1d6+4/8 physical Improved Auto, Mag 100
7 Grenade, EMP 1 4 2d8 (1d10) energy Blast 4(8), EMP
7 Grenade, Thermal 1 (R) 4 1d8+6(2) energy Blast 3(6), Ignite
7 Laser Minigun 4 (X) Energy Ex 3 1d6+3/7 energy Accurate,
Improved Auto, Mag 50
7 Rail Rifle 3 (R) Firearm Ex 5 1d8+4/8 physical AP 3, Mag 20
7 Z-Missile Launcher 4 (M) Indirect VL 3 by grenade Ammo Loadout
8 Neutron Cannon 4 (M) Energy L 5 2d6/2d10 energy AP 6, Mag 20
8 Grenade, Swarm 2 (R) 4 2d8 (1d10) physical Blast 5(10)

8 Plasma Hurler 4 (X) Indirect VL 4 1d8+7(3) energy Blast 3(6), Reload 1
8 Razor Gun 3 (M) Firearm Ex 4 1d10+2/6 physical Bleed,
Improved Auto, Mag 50
9 Matter Beam 4 (R) Energy VL 4 2d6/2d12 energy AP 6, Mag 20
9 Gravity Render 4 (X) Indirect Ex 3 1d6+5/10 energy Improved Auto, Mag 50
9 Grenade, Null 2 (M) 4 2d10 (2d10) energy Blast 5(10), Irradiate
9 Shock Rifle 3 Energy Ex 4 1d10+3/7 energy Accurate, minor blast 2
Some custom CUSTOMIZING GUNS

features may As every gun enthusiast knows, buying the gun is only the first
strain credulity
when combined
step. Next comes the accessorizing. In general, pistols and assault
with specific guns weapons can have one of the following custom features, while rifles
(a modern-era and heavy weapons can have two. These custom features don’t add
silenced shotgun, to the gun’s cost.
for example).
Don’t use them if it Concealable: Scan-resistant materials, retractable stocks and a
troubles your sense low-profile design give you a +1 step bonus on Misdirection checks
of realism. to avoid your gun drawing undue attention.
110 4: Gear
High Capacity: Your weapon has a mag rating 50 percent
higher than it’d otherwise be.
Intimidating: Who says aesthetics don’t matter? This gun
looks particularly menacing and grants a +1 step bonus on Coercion
checks when brandished.
Magnification Scope: When aiming, you can also reduce the
range penalty by one step.
Silencer (TE 5+): Enemies suffer a –2 step penalty when
trying to identify the source of a shot from this gun—unless it’s
patently obvious.
Biometric Lock (TE 6+): The gun can be fired only by its owner.
Cracking the biometric lock requires a Security check, and takes 1
hour/1 minute/3 impulses on an Av/Ex/St result.
Grenade Launcher (TE 6+): Rifles only; you add an under-bar-
rel grenade launcher that functions like the heavy weapon except Anyone who's
that it holds only one grenade at a time and is Reload 2. watched action
Laser Sight (TE 6+): Grants a +1 step bonus against targets at movies knows that
the red dot of a laser
close range unless they’re actively dodging. sight grants a step
bonus to Coercion
checks, too.
WEAPON DESCRIPTIONS
Refer to the weapon tables for tech era, stats and special traits of
each weapon.
Assault Rifle: A modern-day military rifle such as a FN FAL, M4A1
or AK-74M, capable of burst fire or full auto fire. Civilian versions
are not capable of autofire, but are otherwise similar. A magazine
typically holds 30 rounds. Mass: 3.5 kg.
Bayonet: A long knife designed to be fixed to a musket or rifle,
converting the weapon into an effective spear for close-quarters
combat. Mass: 1 kg.
Bayonet, Chainsaw: Originally a brush-clearing tool for recon
soldiers, a chainsaw mounted under the barrel is unwieldy but deliv-
ers grievous wounds. Mass: 2 kg.
Bayonet, Forcespike: Bayonets famously make aiming more
difficult by adding weight to the far end of the rifle. The high-tech
solution? Generate a short blade of kinetic force only at the moment
the bayonet is needed. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Bolas: A simple weapon consisting of two or three weights linked
by a short length of tough cord, the bolas are only effective when
thrown. When you hit a medium or smaller target with bolas, the target
must make an opposed check (Dodge to counter your attack success).
If you win the check, the target falls prone and can’t stand until it suc-
ceeds on an Acrobatics or Athletics check to free itself. Mass: 2 kg.
Bolt-action Rifle: A repeating rifle such as a Springfield Model
1903 or a Mauser Gewehr 98. Lever-action rifles such as the Win-
chester Model 1873 are essentially the same (if a little more difficult
to use in a prone position). A 5-round magazine is typical. Mass: 4 kg.
Weapons 111
Bow: This is a simple bow of medium size, not a modern com-

pound bow or a longbow. It comes with a quiver and 12 arrows.
Mass: 1 kg (full quiver 1 kg).
Club: The oldest weapon in the book. Improvised weapons such as
baseball bats, wrenches or lead pipes use the same stats. Mass: 1.5 kg.
Most rifles and some
heavy weapons Combat Knife: A good-sized fighting knife such as a Bowie knife
function as clubs or Ka-Bar. More esoteric one-handed blades such as combat hatch-
in a pinch. ets and kukris use these stats but require the Melee skill, not Hand
to Hand. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Crossbow: This is a foot-stirrup hand-drawn weapon, not a
cranked model. Its rate of fire is terrible compared to a bow, but
it hits harder. The crossbow comes with 12 bolts in a small quiver.
Mass: 2 kg (full quiver 1 kg).
Disintegrator: This horrible weapon projects a beam of null-en-
ergy that causes the target’s atomic bonds to break down. A
grazing hit leaves an ugly but shallow abrasion; a solid hit can burn
a hole the size of a basketball in the target. A creature that loses its
last wound box to a disintegrator hit (or the continuing irradiation
damage) is, well, disintegrated. Mass: 2 kg.
Diskos: This weapon consists of a hyper-sharp disk spun by
magnets to a tremendous velocity, wielded with a 1-meter handle.
Its magazine is a power cell; if it runs out of charge, you can change
the power cell like you’d change a magazine. Mass: 2 kg.
Flamethrower: The flamethrower pumps a stream of burning
liquid fuel up to 50 meters away. The weapon creates a 4 m blast at
the target point, which must be the first creature or object in the line
of fire—you can’t shoot past or over a target to attack a more distant
one. Mass: 20 kg (magazine 10 kg).
Flechette Pistol: The Solar Era version of the shotgun, a flechette
pistol uses an electrical charge to hurl a tightly-packed bundle of
small darts at the target instead of a cartridge full of pellets. The clip
holds 8 rounds. Mass: 1.5 kg.
Flechette Gun: A larger, full-automatic version of the flechette
pistol, the flechette gun can fill the air with an awesome number of
flechettes in a very short time. It’s the best close-quarters assault
weapon available. The magazine holds 30 rounds. Mass: 2.5 kg.
Flintlock Musket: Notoriously slow to reload and inaccurate, the
musket excels at one thing: putting holes in medieval armor. Early
versions such as the matchlock or later versions such as the percus-
sion-cap musket are similar enough to use the same stats. The price
includes a powder horn and a pouch with 20 bullets. Mass: 5 kg.
Flintlock Pistol: Like the musket, the flintlock pistol is inaccurate
and hard to reload, but it makes short work of medieval armor. It
comes with a powder horn and a pouch with 20 bullets. Mass: 2 kg.
Force Hammer: A massive maul with gyroscopic stabilizers to help
manage its great mass. On impact, it generates a shockwave of kinetic
energy in all directions except back toward its wielder. Mass: 7 kg.
112 4: Gear
Gauss Rifle: The gauss rifle is a magnetic slug-thrower that fires
a veritable rain of small, needle-like projectiles at a very high rate of
fire. It can be used only in autofire mode (full auto). The magazine
is a sturdy, side-mounted plastic hopper holding 100 rounds. The
weapon also requires a power cell. Mass: 8 kg (magazine 2 kg).
Gravity Render: The render generates rapid gravitational pulses
that shake apart the target. Its magazine is a power cell usually
good for 50 shots or so. Mass: 6 kg.
Grenade Launcher: This weapon stores 5 grenades in a rotating
cylinder. The effect of its attack depends entirely on what kind of
grenades are loaded (usually frag grenades in battlefield situations).
The price includes a box of 10 grenades of your choice, as appropri-
ate for your tech era. Mass: 5 kg (maga-
zine 1 kg).
Grenade, Concussion: A weapon ANY WEAPON CAN BE LETHAL
that relies on the concussive power of According to the weapon table, a
its charge instead of deadly shrapnel, knife inflicts a maximum wound
the concussion grenade is favored in of 8 points, but it takes a 16-point
situations where it’s important to contain wound to kill the typical hero. So
collateral damage. Mass: 0.5 kg. why aren’t knives more deadly?
Grenade, EMP: This grenade produces First off, most people aren’t heroes.
a powerful electromagnetic burst. Living They have only one or two wound
creatures take no damage from an EMP— boxes, with lower damage thresh-
it damages only mechanisms (machine olds than a hero’s wound track;
creatures such as robots) and vulnerable knives are plenty dangerous to
equipment. Mass: 0.5 kg. them. Second, most weapons can
Grenade, Frag: The fragmentation gre- be used to execute a helpless crea-
nade causes injury by producing a deadly ture, checking off a mortal wound
shower of shrapnel. Mass: 0.5 kg. box regardless of the damage roll.
Grenade, Null: The null grenade If a villain’s holding a knife to your
creates an instantaneous flash of energy throat or a gun to your head, don’t
that breaks down atomic bonds, releasing assume that you can just soak up
a great amount of energy (and generally the hit and walk away.
disintegrating anything small or lightly
built). Mass: 0.5 kg.
Grenade, Smoke: This device produces a dense cloud of smoke
in a 4-meter radius from its origin. Visibility in the smoke is very
poor (see Visibility in Chapter 5), and the smoke blocks line of sight
through the cloud. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Grenade, Swarm: This smart grenade divides into dozens of
submunitions to attack every target in a wide area. Swarm grenades
can be programmed to avoid attacking creatures wearing or car-
rying a special “safe” signal device; any safe creatures in the blast
area ignore the blast. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Grenade, Thermal: The thermal grenade produces an especially
energetic blast that can easily ignite anything flammable in the area
(and a few things that aren’t especially flammable). Mass: 0.5 kg.
Weapons 113
Heavy Pistol: A large-caliber revolver or semi-automatic pistol

chambered for a heavy round with plenty of stopping power—say,
a .357, .44 or .45. The revolver version has the Mag 6 weapon trait.
Mass: 1 kg.
Javelin: A light spear intended to be thrown. You can use it as a
melee weapon (it counts as a spear), but you take a –1 step penalty
to your attack. Mass: 1 kg.
Knife: A small blade intended for combat, not cutlery. The differ-
ence between this weapon and a combat knife is the quality of steel
and excellent balance in the modern weapon. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Laser Minigun: Consisting of six rapidly spinning lasing elements
in a Gatling gun-like arrangement, the laser minigun is designed
to unleash a hail of laser bolts without overheating. The weapon’s
magazine is a large power cell. Mass: 7 kg (power cell 2 kg).
Laser Pistol: A small but powerful pulsed laser weapon that
As much as we’d like can burn a hole through light steel, the laser pistol has exceptional
to tell you that the range and accuracy for a pistol-sized weapon. Its magazine is a
laser fires a bright power cell about the size of a clip for a modern pistol. Mass: 1 kg.
red or blue beam of
light, the laser beam
Laser Rifle: Like the laser pistol, the laser rifle fires a pulsed
itself is pretty much beam that delivers a great deal of heat energy to one small point,
invisible. burning through or flash-vaporizing anything unlucky enough to be
in the way. The magazine is a power cell. Mass: 3 kg.
Light MG: A fully automatic weapon designed for firing from a
rest or from the shoulder, the light machine gun can be fired only in
autofire mode (burst or full auto). The magazine is a soft drum hold-
ing a 100-round belt. Mass: 7 kg (magazine 2 kg).
Light Pistol: A semi-automatic pistol of caliber 9 mm or lower,
easy to carry and conceal. Mass: 1 kg.
Mace: A medieval club with a flanged metal head or any
weighted metal stick with more heft than a club. Mass: 2 kg.
Matter Beam: The matter beam generates a thin “needle” of
incandescent metal atoms (usually lithium or beryllium) that hits like
a truck, dumping an amazing amount of heat energy into the target.
The weapon’s magazine is a power cell. Mass: 5 kg (magazine 1 kg).
Nega-Glaive: Utilizing the same principles as the null grenade,
this high-tech polearm irradiates what it doesn’t immediately disinte-
grate. Mass: 5 kg.
Neutron Cannon: This heavy energy rifle fires a beam of neutral-
ized particles that can slice through armor like a hot knife through
butter. The magazine is a power cell. Mass: 6 kg (magazine 1 kg).
Phase Pistol: The phase pistol fires a blast of electromagnetic
energy in several different wavelengths at once to achieve extremely
powerful constructive interference. It burns holes through targets even
more efficiently than a laser. The magazine is a power cell. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Phase Rifle: The phase pistol’s big brother, the phase rifle,
includes a holographic sight for extreme distance attacks. Its power
cell is usually good for about 20 shots. Mass: 2 kg.
114 4: Gear
Plasma Hurler: The plasma hurler generates a white-hot ball of
plasma confined in short-lived magnetic fields and lobs it down-
range. When it hits, the magnetic fields fail, creating a spectacular
plasma explosion. Mass: 7 kg.
Plasma Pistol: The iconic weapon of the Stellar Era, the plasma
pistol fires a bolt of densely compressed incandescent plasma
encased in a magnetic field. It hits faster and harder than a bullet
and adds a severe burn to the impact energy. The magazine is a clip
of cartridges, each containing the cool plasma mixture and a tiny
power cell to generate the bolt. Mass: 1.5 kg.
Plasma Rifle: The plasma rifle uses a larger cartridge than the
pistol, generating a hotter bolt with a longer lifespan. The magazine
holds 20 plasma cartridges. Mass: 3.5 kg.
Polearm: Combining the useful features of a spear and a two-
handed axe, the polearm often serves as a ceremonial weapon long
after its battlefield utility ends. Mass: 4 kg.
Power Gauntlet: Often included as part of high-tech powered
armor, this metal glove includes servomotors to assist its wearer’s
gripping and punching strength. Mass: 4 kg.
Rail Rifle: This massive weapon uses an electromagnetic charge
to throw a quarter-kilo tungsten slug downrange at ridiculous veloc-
ity. The magazine holds 20 rounds, and the weapon also includes a
heavy-duty power cell. Mass: 15 kg (magazine 3 kg).
Razor Gun: The razor gun fires a stream of small, spinning,
hyper-sharp disks. The razor disks often cause wounds that inflict
the bleed condition. The razor gun needs both a magazine (holding
50 rounds) and a power cell. Mass: 4 kg (magazine 2 kg).
Razor Pistol: A razor pistol is the personal, non-autofire version
of the razor gun. It requires a power cell and a magazine, which
holds 20 rounds. Mass: 1 kg.
Revolver: A medium-sized repeating pistol such as a .32, .38
or .40, a revolver usually has six rounds in the cylinder (although
in some models you should load only five for safety). Reloading a
revolver can be tedious—you load only 1 round per 1-impulse action
spent reloading, although if you have a speed loader (a small frame-
like device that holds six cartridges) you can reload all six with a
single reload action. Mass: 1 kg.
Rocket, Antitank: A light, one-shot weapon intended for use
against vehicles or bunkers, the AT rocket creates a minor blast in
a 2 m area around the primary target. The blast deals 1d8 energy
damage (the primary target isn’t affected by the blast). A tough plas-
tic crate with four additional rockets is included in the price. Mass: 7
kg (rocket 3 kg).
Shock Glove: This gauntlet delivers a powerful electric jolt that Be careful with
can stun the target. The glove has a small power cell that serves as those post-battle
high fives.
its magazine. Mass: 1 kg.
Weapons 115
Shock Rifle: This weapon fires a low-powered ionizing laser that

paves the way for a powerful electron stream—basically, it hurls a
bolt of lightning. The bolt shocks anything near the primary target,
creating a minor blast in a 2 m area that deals 1d10 energy damage
(the primary target isn’t affected by the blast). It does not function in
vacuum. Its magazine is a power cell that weighs 1 kg and supplies
20 shots. Mass: 5 kg.
Shotgun: This is a police model pump-action 12-gauge firing
buckshot cartridges. When you reload the shotgun, you can reload
only 1 shell per reloading action. Mass: 2.5 kg.
Sling: Simple to make but hard to master, the sling dates back
thousands of years. If you run out of lead or clay sling bullets, small
stones work almost as well. Mass: —.
SMG: The earliest submachine guns appeared at the end of
World War I, but this weapon is a modern-day compact or “mini”
SMG designed to spray a lot of bullets at close range. The magazine
usually holds 20 rounds. Mass: 2.5 kg.
Sniper Rifle: A bolt-action or semi-automatic 7.62 mm (.30 cal)
rifle such as a Dragunov or an M-14, the sniper rifle includes a tele-
scopic scope for long-range engagements. The magazine holds 10
rounds. Mass: 5 kg.
Sonic Bore: A powerful, short-ranged infrasonic device, the sonic
An unusual weapon.
"Destructive bore induces destructive resonance in a cone-shaped blast from its
resonance" is bulbous muzzle. It can injure multiple targets at once and produces
rarely boring. significant disorientation and pain. It does not function in vacuum.
The weapon uses no ammunition but requires a power cell instead.
Mass: 4 kg.
Spear: The earliest versions of the spear are tipped with stone
points; bronze, iron and steel follow in ensuring tech eras. You can
throw a spear (range C) or keep it for melee combat. Mass: 3 kg.
Star Sword: This is an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
Mass: 1.5 kg.
Stun Gun: This isn’t actually a gun—it’s a device that delivers a strong
shock by contact. You put the pronged end against the target and pull
the trigger; the battery is usually good for ten jolts. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Sword, Short: A thrusting weapon 50 cm to 70 cm long. Includes
dirks, gladiuses, wakizashis and anything bigger than a knife but
smaller than a full-fledged sword. Mass: 1 kg.
Sword, Long: A heavy blade about 80 cm to 110 cm in length,
designed for both slashing and stabbing. Sabers, rapiers, katanas
and pulp-novel broadswords all count as long swords. Mass: 2 kg.
Tactical Baton: A light side-handle baton or truncheon carried by
security guards and police. Mass: 1 kg.
Taser: The taser fires a pair of darts linked by wires to a powerful
battery, then zaps the target with a stunning jolt of electricity. If the
darts fail to penetrate the target’s armor (in other words, don’t cause
at least 1 damage), the stunning jolt is ineffective. Mass: 1 kg.
116 4: Gear
Vibroblade: A power cell within the grip makes the blade on
this sword vibrate several hundred times per second, adding to its
cutting power. Mass: 3 kg.
Z-Missile Launcher: The Z-missile is a lightweight, semi-au-
tonomous weapon not much larger than a grenade. Warheads for
Z-missiles include any available grenade type; the launcher holds 10
Z-missiles at a time, and you can choose which missile to launch if
you mix-and-match the types you load. The price includes a box of
10 Z-missile grenades of your choice, as appropriate for your tech
era. Mass: 4 kg (magazine 1 kg).
ARMOR AND DEFENSIVE GEAR

For thousands of years, humans have engaged in the race to
develop weapons and defenses against those weapons. Modern
armaments are powerful enough to make true bulletproof armor
impractical, but even so, the US Army’s Improved Outer Tactical
Vest can stop a 7.62 mm bullet … if the bullet strikes one of the
armor inserts. In future eras, the race continues with armor systems
designed to dissipate directed energy weapons and active defenses
that surround the wearer with various sorts of defensive fields.
READING THE ARMOR TABLE

Armor and defensive systems are described below. You can wear
only one suit of armor at a time. Some devices such as screens or
shields don’t count as armor suits.
TE: The tech era at which this armor becomes available.
Class/Restriction: The armor’s “level,” which also serves as its
price. Some armor and defense systems have restricted (R), military
(M) or experimental (X) availability.
Move: Heavy armor penalizes the wearer’s speed. Reduce Armor Training
your speed by this amount when you wear this armor (unless you is an enabling
are sufficiently skilled in Armor Training to ignore some or all of skill, discussed in
chapter 3.
the penalty).
Penalty: Some types of armor are big and bulky enough to inter-
fere with your ability to perform physically challenging tasks. Apply
this penalty to Acrobatics, Athletics, Dodge, Endurance, Extreme
Sports and Stealth checks (unless your Armor Training skill allows
you to reduce the penalty).
Physical: The armor’s resistance value against physical attacks.
Energy: The armor’s resistance value against energy attacks.
Special: The armor’s special traits or abilities (see below).
Armor and Defensive Gear 117

TE Armor Class Move Penalty Physical Energy Special

1 Hide Armor 2 –2m –1 step 2 0
2 Bronze Cuirass 4 –6m –2 steps 4 0 Tough
2 Shield 1 –2m –1 step Cover 2 (limited)
3 Chain Mail 3 –6m –3 steps 4 0
3 Plate Mail 4 –6m –2 steps 6 1 Tough
4 Breastplate 3 –4m –2 steps 4 0 Poor Coverage 3
5 Flak Jacket 2 –2m –1 step 2 0 Poor Coverage 4
6 Police Vest 2 — — 3 0 Poor Coverage 4
6 Riot Shield 2 — –1 step Cover 2 (limited)
6 Tactical Armor 3(R) –4m –2 steps 5 1 Poor Coverage 3
7 Carbon Fiber 3 –4m –2 steps 6 3 Ablative, Tough
Plate
7 Decelerator Belt 4(X) — — +3 +1 Bonus Resistance,
Screen
7 DuraWeb Coat 2 — — 1 3
7 Exoskeleton 4 (R) –2m –3 steps 5 4 Powered, Tough
7 Hardmesh 2 — — 2 2
Uniform
7 Polymer Mail 2 –4m –2 steps 4 2
7 Stealthsuit 4 (M) — — 3 3 Life Support
7 Vacuum Armor 3 –4m –2 steps 4 3 Life Support, Tough
8 Battlesuit, 5(M) –4m –3 steps 9 9 Life Support,
Assault Powered, Tough
8 Battlesuit, 4(M) –2m –3 steps 7 7 Life Support,
Raider Powered, Tough
8 Force Shield 3 — — Screen
8 Grav Deflector 2 — —- Deflect 2/1, Screen
8 Isihlangu 3 — — Cover 3 (all), Screen
8 Nanoweave Suit 2 — — 3 3
9 Adamant Mesh 2 — — 4 4 Tough
9 Aegis Field 3 — — +2 +3 Screen,
Bonus Resistance
9 Displacer Unit 2(R) — — Screen
9 Warsuit, Hussar 4(M) –4m –2 steps 10 10 Life Support,
Powered, Tough
118 4: Gear
ARMOR SPECIAL ABILITIES
Many types of armor and defensive devices possess one or more
special properties.
Ablative: Each time an attack deal-
ing 10 or more damage hits this armor,
reduce the armor’s resistance value
by 1 after applying the previous resis-
tance value to the damage.
Bonus Resistance: You can
add the resistance values of this
defense to the resistance value of
your armor.
Cover # (limited/all): Instead of
adding to your resistance value,
this device makes you harder to
hit by providing you with cover.
Enemies attacking you “across”
your cover take a step penalty
equal to your cover value on
their attack roll. (Usually, cover
devices work only against attacks
originating in front of you.) If the
cover value is limited, it works only
against hand-to-hand, melee and
primitive ranged attacks. Otherwise,
the penalty applies to any attack
against you. Cover devices don’t stack
with terrain cover—just use the best
cover value available to you.
Cover devices require one arm, so most
humanoids are limited to pistols or one-handed melee weapons
while using a cover device.
Deflect #: Like cover, the device penalizes your enemy’s attack
roll when he or she targets you. The attacker takes a step penalty
equal to your deflect value. Deflect devices don’t care about the
direction of the attack and do stack with other forms of cover.
Life Support: This armor has its own air supply and protection
against extremes of cold and heat. You can wear it comfortably
in a vacuum.
Poor Coverage #: The armor system mostly protects the center
of mass and not the extremities, which means that many attacks
that hit the wearer encounter no armor at all. When you’re hit by an
attack, roll a d10 and compare the result to your armor’s Poor Cover-
age rating. If your d10 roll is equal to or less than the Poor Coverage
value, the attack misses your armor entirely, and your armor’s resis-
tance value is 0 against this hit.

Powered: The armor augments the wearer’s strength with

mechanical actuators. This allows you to move around and fight in
a suit that weighs fifty or a hundred kilos, and it provides an effec-
tively superhuman Strength score for purposes of lifting, carrying,
breaking or moving things. If you use a Strength-based skill while
wearing powered armor, your skill check is not modified—powered
armor doesn’t make you a better brawler, but it does mean that the
consequences of landing a punch may be much more serious. (See
specific armor descriptions for details.)
Screen: This device creates an energy field around the wearer.
You can use only one screen device at a time; if you activate a
second, it fails to function.
Tough: This armor is considered to have tech superiority over
unarmed and natural attacks. Increase the resistance value by 3
against these types of attacks.
ARMOR AND DEFENSE SYSTEM DESCRIPTIONS

See the armor table for tech era, stats and special traits of these items.
Adamant Mesh: Light, flexible clothing made from artificial
diamond fiber, adamant mesh can stop bullets or dissipate laser
beams with amazing ease. Even better, it’s available in styles visually
indistinguishable from normal clothing. Mass: 2 kg.
Aegis Field: The aegis field is generated by a small belt-worn device.
It absorbs energy from fast-moving objects and directed beams, reduc-
ing their power and therefore increasing the effectiveness of whatever
armor you wear. The power cell is good for 24 hours. Mass: 1 kg.
If you build a
campaign around
Battlesuit, Assault: The best powered armor generally available
power-armored PCs, in the Stellar Era, the assault battlesuit provides several subsystems
use this battlesuit and benefits:
as the basis for your
own custom designs.
• Your effective Strength score is 11 for encumbrance, lifting or
breaking things.
• Your unarmed damage increases to 2d4 + 1/5 physical; you
gain a +3 damage bonus if you wield a melee weapon.
• The suit self-seals after being breached by damage, prevent-
ing decompression in a vacuum when you’re wounded.
• The sensor suite provides night vision, thermal vision and
radar (30 km range).
• The suit has an integrated comm system equal to a comm
patch (see Tools).
• A thruster pack lets you fly at a speed of 100 m in micro-
gravity or zero-g, or jump up to 100 m horizontally or 40 m
vertically in low or standard gravity.
• Five weapon storage points allow you to carry multiple
weapons; you can stow the weapon you’re holding and draw
a new one as a 1-impulse action.
120 4: Gear
• The power supply can maintain any defensive screen you
wear—as long as the suit has power—or recharge small
devices or tools as needed.
The on-board power cell and life support systems have an endur-
ance of 48 hours. Mass: 200 kg.
Battlesuit, Raider: A lighter (and cheaper) version of the assault
battlesuit, the raider battlesuit offers the same benefits with the
following exceptions: Your effective Strength is 10, your unarmed
damage is 2d4 + 0/4 physical, you have 3 weapon storage points
and your suit’s endurance is 24 hours. Mass: 120 kg.
Breastplate: A steel cuirass and helmet that covers the wearer’s
torso and head. Mass: 10 kg.
Bronze Cuirass: Ancient armor consisting of a breastplate,
helmet, greaves and a skirt of studded leather, such as that worn by
Greek hoplites or Roman legionaries. Mass: 30 kg.
Carbon Fiber Plate: This heavy Solar Era armor is designed to
dissipate impact through fracturing. Powerful hits degrade its value,
to a minimum 3 physical/0 energy. Mass: 12 kg.
Chain Mail: A medieval armor made from interlocked rings of
iron, bronze or steel. Mass: 25 kg.
Decelerator Belt: This experimental device generates a kinetic The decelerator belt
transfer field that slows down projectiles and particles before is kin to the Holtzman
they strike the wearer. Its power cell is good for two hours of use. generators used in
the Dune novels.
Mass: 2 kg.
Displacer Unit: This small unit clips to your belt or slips into a
pocket. When activated, it surrounds you in a spatial distortion field.
The first time an enemy targets you with an attack in a combat scene,
the attack automatically misses by 2d4 meters in a random direction
(like a miss with a blast attack). Subsequent attacks targeting you
take a –2 step penalty. The power cell is good for four hours of use.
DuraWeb Coat: A long coat of sturdy synthetic material, the
DuraWeb’s flexible internal circuits redistribute energy over the
whole body in order to prevent a burn-through at the point of con-
tact. It’s available in a variety of styles and doesn’t have to look like
armor. Mass: 2 kg.
Exoskeleton: The first practical version of powered armor, the
exoskeleton combines sturdy alloy plates with magnetic actuators
and a powerful on-board battery cell with an endurance of eight
hours. It increases your effective Strength to 9. Your unarmed
damage increases to 1d8 + 0/3 physical, and you gain a +2 bonus to
damage if you wield a melee weapon (your attack skill is still based
on your normal, unimproved Strength score, though). Mass: 80 kg.
Flak Jacket: More of a vest than a jacket, this consists of tough
synthetic fibers with small manganese steel plates. It can stop a
low-velocity bullet or shell fragment, but isn’t much help against a
high-velocity bullet. Mass: 5 kg.

Force Shield: This is a powerful personal deflector shield gener-

ated by a belt-and-power pack unit you can disguise under normal
clothing. All energy and physical attacks that hit you hit the force
shield instead. The force shield has armor 5 and 4 wound boxes:
(1–6) ; (7–9) ; (10–12) ; (13+) . When the force shield loses
its last wound box, it fails. (Any extra wounds “bleed through” to
you and are subject to the resistance of any other armor you wear.)
Once a force shield is destroyed, all subsequent attacks in the
scene ignore it. The force shield has an endurance of two hours.
Grav Deflector: This device generates a gravitational gradient a
half-meter or so from your body, bending the trajectory of objects
passing near you. The gradient is severe enough to “lens” directed
energy attacks away from you too, but not as effectively. Physical
attacks against you take a –2 step penalty, and energy attacks take
a –1 step penalty. The deflector’s power cell has an endurance of
two hours. Mass: 2 kg.
Hardmesh Uniform: Made from a dense weave of light but
strong synthetic materials, the hardmesh uniform is comfortable
and available in any number of styles; you can get a perfectly fine
business suit in hardmesh if you want. Mass: 2 kg.
Hide Armor: This primitive armor consists of tough animal hides
or heavy furs. Mass: 8 kg.
The word means "to Isihlangu: Named after the famous Zulu war shield, the isihlangu
brush aside" in the
is the Stellar Era version of an ancient form of protection. A heavy
Xhosa language.
vambrace on your left arm generates a 1.5-meter disk of impene-
trable, translucent force, which provides excellent cover from any
attack originating in front of you. The power cell has an endurance
of eight hours. Mass: 1 kg.
Nanoweave Suit: An improvement on the hardmesh of the
Solar Era, nanoweave is a cloth with a thin “sandwich” layer of gel
containing simple nanobots that mass to resist impact or link to dis-
sipate energy as needed. It can pass for “civilian clothes” at need.
Mass: 3 kg.
Plate Mail: The knight’s armor. The weight is better distributed
than in chain mail, making it easier to move around in than you
might think. Mass: 30 kg.
Police Vest: A modern-day bulletproof vest worn over your cloth-
ing. You can get a version designed to be worn under a shirt or coat,
but that’s a Class 1 upgrade. Mass: 3 kg.
Polymer Mail: Derived from the “liquid armor” tech of the early
21st century, polymer mail consists of tiny gel-filled tubes woven
together in a mail-like pattern. The polymer actually gets harder the
harder you hit it, offering excellent impact resistance. Mass: 8 kg.
Riot Shield: A modern police shield, suitable for use in crowd
control situations. It works against hand-to-hand, melee and prim-
itive ranged attacks (including Molotov cocktails) as long as the
attacks originate from in front of you. Mass: 5 kg.
122 4: Gear
Shield: This is the ancient warrior’s defense: a personal bulwark
of wood, metal or thick hide. You can deflect hand-to-hand, melee
and primitive ranged attacks as long as they originate from in front
of you. Mass: 8 kg.
Stealthsuit: A tough, tight-fitting bodysuit equipped with adaptive
camouflage panels, a stealthsuit allows you to become effectively
invisible against static backgrounds. The more you move and the
more things move around you, the less effective the camouflage.
In addition to its armor and environmental systems, the stealth-
suit makes you invisible to normal vision at any range if you’re not
moving, or invisible at medium and longer range if you are moving.
Otherwise, it provides a +4 step bonus to your Stealth checks. The
suit has an endurance of eight hours. Mass: 15 kg.
Tactical Armor: Heavy body armor intended for military use, this
armor includes metal or ceramic plate inserts sandwiched in a tough
synthetic fiber and covers a much larger area than the standard
bulletproof vest. Mass: 15 kg.
Vacuum Armor: Designed specifically for combat in space, Most military
vacuum armor includes a self-sealing inner liner that prevents the starships have extra
suits of vacuum
suit from being holed by routine combat injuries; you still suffer the armor stowed near
wound, but you won’t have to worry about decompression. The airlocks and turbolifts.
suit’s boots are magnetized (see Tools), and its built-in thrusters
allow you to fly at a speed of 20 m in zero-g or microgravity. Life
support endurance is 24 hours. Mass: 30 kg.
Warsuit, Hussar: Like the legendary knights for whom it’s named,
the Hussar warsuit features wings of striking appearance. These,
however, are functional: They deploy (or stow) with a 1-impulse
action, providing powered flight at a speed of 200 meters per move
action. The suit is otherwise similar to an assault battlesuit and
includes similar systems and capabilities. Mass: 100 kg.
TOOLS AND PROFESSIONAL KITS

Not all challenges in an Alternity game are combat scenes. Heroes
living in futuristic eras may find that access to advanced tools, pro-
fessional gear, vehicles or services are even more important to the
success of an adventure than a deadly laser pistol or a trusty suit of
vac-armor.
You can assume that ordinary household tools aren’t hard to
come by—any home, office, place of business or shipboard utility
locker has wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, duct table, a can of paint,
assorted screws and nails, bolts and what-have-you. Items listed
here are especially useful to heroes doing heroic things.
TE: The item’s tech era.
Class: The cost of the item (and any restrictions on its
availability).
Tools and Professional Kits 123

Key Skill: Tools usually just work; they do what you expect them
to. If you’re not sure whether you would know how to use it, how-
ever, or if you need to repair it or push its capabilities, this is the skill
that applies.
TE Item Class Key Skill

5 Bolt Cutters 1 Mechanics
5 Concealed Holster 1 Firearm or Energy
5 Flare Pistol 1 Survival
5 Medical Kit 2 Medicine
5 Padlock 1 Security
5 Portable Generator 2 Mechanics
5 Survival Knife 1 Survival
5 Walkie-Talkie 1 Mechanics
6 Comm Headset 1 Computer
6 Computer, Laptop 3 Computer
6 Goggles, Starlight 3 Awareness
6 Rope, Synthetic 1 Athletics
6 Satellite Comm Kit 4 Computer
6 Torch, Acetylene 2 Mechanics
6 Trauma Kit 2 Medicine
7 Analgesic Spray 1 Medicine
7 Antirad 2 Medicine
7 Boots, Magnetic 1 Engineering
7 Comm Link 1 Computer
7 Portable Fabricator 3 Mechanics
7 Grapnel Gun 2 Extreme Sports
7 Loader Harness 4 Mechanics
7 Med Pack 3 Medicine
7 Power Unit 3 Mechanics
7 Sonic Viewer 3(R) Security
7 Vacuum Collar 1 Mechanics
7 Virtual Tablet 2 Computer
8 Analyzer 2 Science
8 Automed Sled 4(R) Medicine
8 Comm Patch 1 Computer
8 Sentry Gun 4(M) Security
8 Thruster Belt 3 Extreme Sports
8 Wound Gel 1 Medicine
9 Caduceus Ray 3 Medicine
9 Excursion Field 1 Survival
9 Mass Negater 2 Mechanics
9 Resurrection Pod 5(X) Medicine
124 4: Gear
TOOL DESCRIPTIONS
Most of the tools described here come
in a wide variety of models from many
different manufacturers; if you want a
special feature or design, it’s probably available
somewhere at a modest increase in price.
Analgesic Spray: A potent painkiller, analgesic spray comes in a
small can containing 3 doses. It’s simple enough that anyone can use
it regardless of medical training. A dose of analgesic spray reduces the
subject’s penalty for being wounded by 1 step. You can’t “double up” to
reduce penalties by more than one step. Applying the spray requires a
3-impulse action, and a dose lasts for four hours. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Analyzer: This handheld sensor unit includes electromagnetic
and radiation detectors, a chemical sniffer and a spectroanalysis unit.
If you need to sweep an area to find a source of a particular phenom-
enon or study an object to determine its composition, the analyzer is
the first tool you reach for. Its onboard sensors have extreme range
for EM phenomena, medium range for chemical detection and close
range for determining object composition or fine details. Mass: 1 kg.
Antirad: This inhalant delivers radiation-resistant nanobots to the
bloodstream, helping to fight off the effects of radiation exposure.
After you inhale a dose of antirad (a 3-impulse action), you gain a
+3 step bonus on Endurance checks to resist radiation damage and
hazards for the next eight hours. Antirad comes in a small blister
pack containing three doses. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Automed Sled: This is essentially an automated emergency room
in the form of an anti-grav stretcher. Get an injured person onto the
sled, and the automated stabilization and treatment routines take
over. The sled has a Medicine skill score of 10/15/20. It automatically
stabilizes a creature with a mortal wound. It can treat wounds of up
to serious severity at no penalty, or critical wounds with a –2 step
penalty (see Healing in Chapter 5). Treating a patient depletes the
onboard supplies, so treatment checks on each patient after the first
suffer a cumulative –1 step penalty until the supplies are replenished
(which takes 10 minutes and access to advanced pharmaceuticals).

The sled’s grav repulsors allow it to float along at a walking pace,

and it can be set to follow an individual on foot (or easily be pushed
along by someone walking beside it). The sled is 2 meters long, 80
cm wide, 20 cm deep and includes a transparent plastic “cover” to
protect the patient once inside. Mass: 100 kg (when unpowered).
Bolt Cutters: These are handy for removing locks or snipping
chains. Mass: 2 kg.
Boots, Magnetic: These sturdy boots feature smart, magnetized
soles that automatically grip and release with your normal walking
motion. They allow you to walk on most metallic surfaces in or on a
ship in zero-g. Mass: 2 kg (pair).
Caduceus Ray: This staff-like device projects a healing matrix of
bio-energy in the form of a golden ray, guided by the wielder’s med-
ical knowledge. You can make a Medicine check on any wounded
character within close range. You gain a +3 bonus on checks to sta-
bilize mortally wounded characters. You can treat grazes and light,
moderate or serious wounds with a +3 step bonus. You can treat
critical wounds at no penalty. Mass: 4 kg.
Comm Headset: This is a hands-free personal radio for two-way
communication, rugged enough for use in tactical operations. The range
is about 5 km, although performance degrades indoors. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Comm Link: A powerful personal radio for two-way communi-
cations, the unit is about the size of your thumb. The range is 50
km in good terrain, or up to 1,000 km for an unobstructed line-of-
sight transmission (say, from the ground to an orbiting starship on
the right side of the planet). The comm link also can operate in
encrypted mode. Mass: —.
Unless the Comm Patch: A comm link miniaturized to the size of a dime. The
setting has FTL range is 1,000 km on a planetary surface or 1 AU in space (interplan-
communication,
there's an 8-minute
etary, so long as the planets are relatively close). Mass: —.
lag when talking to Computer, Laptop: Includes Wi-Fi capability. Mass: 2 kg.
someone 1 AU away. Concealed Holster: This holster is designed to let you conceal a
sidearm under a suit jacket or windbreaker, or hide one above your
ankle in your pants leg. You can carry any sort of pistol in the holster,
but it slows down your draw—it takes 2 impulses to draw a pistol
from a concealed holster instead of the normal 1. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Excursion Field: This small belt-worn generator produces a
snug-fitting, faintly golden energy field that surrounds the wearer
at a distance of about 10 cm. The field enables the wearer to
comfortably tolerate temperatures from extreme cold to extreme
heat, atmospheres from none to dense and areas with dangerous
radiation. The unit includes a compact oxygen recycler that provides
breathable air. The field does not interfere with the passage of phys-
ical objects or directed energy, so it provides no armor, but it quickly
seals itself after being pierced. The field’s endurance is eight hours
in mild conditions, four hours in severe conditions, or two hours in
extreme conditions. Mass: 2 kg.
126 4: Gear
Flare Pistol: This pistol launches a bright red flare about 300 m
into the air. The flare burns brightly as it drifts down beneath a small
parachute, remaining visible for about 30 seconds. It can be seen as
far as 40 km away under ideal conditions (a clear night on flat ter-
rain). If you shoot someone with it, treat it as a Firearm (pistol) attack
with a –2 step penalty for accuracy; the flare deals 1d6 + 0/3 energy
damage. The pistol comes with three flares. Mass: 1 kg.
Goggles, Starlight: Military-grade night-vision gear drastically
amplifies available light. When you wear starlight goggles, you can
see in darkness as though it were daylight, as long as there is at
least some small amount of ambient light. You can’t see quite as
well as normal, so you take a –1 step penalty to Awareness checks
while wearing the goggles. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Grapnel Gun: This device consists of a rocket-propelled grap-
pling hook, 100 meters of tough wire that can support 200 kg in a
dead hang, and a small but strong motorized reel that can lift 100 kg
at 5 meters per impulse. The grapnel’s hooks can snag branches,
pipes, low curbs and so on, or its point can pierce 10 cm of brick,
wood or soft stone. A magnetic head for use on metal hulls or sur-
faces is included in the kit. Mass: 3 kg.
Loader Harness: A heavy, powered exoskeleton that turns you
into a walking forklift. The harness gives you an effective Strength of
12, allowing you to pick up and carry objects weighing as much as 2
metric tons. Your speed in the harness is reduced to 6 meters, and you
are now a large creature. If you want to punch or grab someone with
the loader harness, you can do so by making a Hand to Hand (brawl)
attack at a –5 step penalty (it is not remotely fast). You deal 1d8 + 2/7
physical damage, armor piercing 3. The harness power cell lasts for 10
hours of heavy labor. Versions optimized for excavation, construction
and building demolition might also be available. Mass: 500 kg.
Mass Negater: Attach this disk-shaped device to an object of up
to 10 metric tons and activate it, and you render the attached object
weightless. You can lift or push the neutralized object with a bit of
effort, or you might find more creative uses—for example, turning a
wrecked car into a sailboat or a concrete slab into an elevator. The
negater’s power cell has an endurance of 10 hours. Mass: 2 kg.
Med Pack: A computer-assisted Solar Era medical kit. You gain a Most starships,
+2 bonus on checks to stabilize mortally wounded characters. You military bases and
public buildings have
can treat grazes, light wounds and moderate wounds with a +2 step wall-mounted med
bonus, you can treat serious wounds at no penalty, and you can treat packs in high-traffic
critical wounds with a –2 step penalty. If you are not trained in Medi- locations.
cine, the med pack allows you to make untrained skill checks with the
same bonuses. See Healing and Recovery in Chapter 5. Mass: 3 kg.
Medical Kit: Basically, a corpsman’s pack or well-stocked doctor’s
bag of WW2 vintage. You can attempt to stabilize mortally wounded
characters at no penalty. You can treat grazes and light wounds at

no penalty, and you can treat moderate wounds with a –2 step pen-
alty. See Healing and Recovery in Chapter 5. Mass: 5 kg.
Padlock: A high-grade heavy-duty padlock with a key. You can
pick a padlock with a Security check (–2 step penalty) or smash it
open with a heavy tool like a sledgehammer or crowbar and a suc-
cessful Athletics check (–4 step penalty).
No, the fabricator Portable Fabricator: Descended from the 3D printers of the
can't fabricate a early 21st century, the portable fabricator can produce a variety of
copy of itself. machine parts, simple tools or even relatively complex instruments
or weapons, provided a fabrication plan is available. It can produce
single parts or objects weighing up to 10 kg and requires one hour
per kg (or half that time for simple or low-quality objects). You must
supply it with a dense liquid metal-polymer mix equal in weight to
the size of the object you’re fabricating. The fabricator comes with
20 kg of mix; each 10 kg of additional mix is a Class 1 purchase.
Mass: 30 kg (not including the mix).
Portable Generator: Need to run your power tools or computer
equipment when you’re off the grid? The portable generator is a
small, gasoline-powered unit that runs for eight hours on 4 liters
(about 1 gallon) of gas. The unit’s tank holds 8 liters. Mass: 20 kg.
Power Unit: About the size of a small waste bin, this device con-
tains a compact, fail-safe, cold-running fusion generator. It produces
enough power to run a small machine shop or recharge a couple
groundcars after a day of routine use, and not even an idiot could
make it explode. The power unit runs for 30 days on 1 liter of a spe-
cial fuel mixture; the price includes 4 liters (an additional liter of fuel
is a Class 1 item). Mass: 15 kg.
Resurrection Pod: The ultimate in life-saving technology, the pod is
a coffin-sized automated medical device. Living creatures in the pod
heal 1 wound box per hour, beginning with their least severe injury. A
dead creature placed in the pod is restored to life in 24 hours with all
its injuries repaired. The subject must not have been dead for more
than seven days. If the brain was severely damaged or destroyed
before the subject could be treated, the subject wakes up as an amne-
siac with no more than dreams or feelings about her prior identity,
skills and talents (a new 1st level hero, in other words). Mass: 200 kg.
Rope, Synthetic: A high-quality climbing rope, 100 meters long,
capable of holding 1 metric ton in a sudden impact or 2 tons in a
static hang. Mass: 5 kg.
Satellite Com Kit: Need to get on the Internet from anywhere on
the globe? This portable transceiver can get you online. Be warned:
The data rate is highway robbery. Mass: 10 kg.
Sentry Gun: This system consists of a central control pylon and
a number of small gun drones (see Chapter 7 for details). It comes
with a command bracelet and 10 additional “safe” bracelets. As long
as you’re wearing the command bracelet, you can verbally program
the sentry gun to fire on specific types of creatures, creatures that
128 4: Gear
enter a specific area, anything that moves and so on. Mass: 25 kg
(case with control pylon and 12 gun drones).
Sonic Viewer: This device is a fist-sized transducer that you place
against a wall or object. It produces an inaudible sonic pulse that reveals
what’s in or behind the exterior, which you can view on any linked
tablet or smartphone. Basically, it turns your tablet into an X-ray viewing
screen. The pulse reveals anything within 10 m of the surface, but all you
really see is density and rough outline—you can tell how many humans
are in a room and whether they have guns, but you have no idea who
they are. Some sensitive sensors can pick up the transducer’s pulse,
which might warn enemies in the area you’re viewing. Mass: 1 kg.
Survival Knife: A medium-sized utility knife with a magnetic
compass in the pommel and a hollow hilt containing 10 matches, a
fishhook, and 50 meters of fishing line. It also serves as an effective
knife in a fight. Mass: 0.5 kg.
Thruster Belt: This consists of two hip-mounted thrust units
and a sturdy, stabilized harness and control unit. The thruster belt
allows you to fly up to 60 meters as a 2-impulse move, but you fall
if you don’t finish your flight on solid ground at the end of the move.
In microgravity or zero-g, the thruster belt allows you to fly with a
speed of 60 meters. The belt’s power cells have an endurance of
20 impulses of thrust. Mass: 4 kg.
Torch, Acetylene: The torch kit includes a two-tank backpack car-
rier, an oxygen tank, an acetylene tank, a short hose, a cutting head
and a welding head, thick working gloves and welder’s goggles.
The torch is good for both cutting through a few centimeters of most
metals and routine welding work. Dealing with heavy armor requires
a much bigger cart-mounted torch. Mass: 20 kg (with full tanks).
Trauma Kit: A modern-day EMT kit. You gain a +1 bonus on
checks to stabilize mortally wounded characters. You can treat
grazes and light wounds with a +2 step bonus, moderate wounds at
no penalty and serious wounds with a –2 step penalty. See Healing
and Recovery in Chapter 5. Mass: 5 kg.
Vacuum Collar: This soft, rolled tube is worn around the neck This device is the
like a neck gaiter or neck warmer. If you suddenly find yourself in real reason that
vacuum, you can pull it over your head into a soft hood and mask future fashion favors
ridiculous collars
and plug it into a belt-worn oxygen supply that will keep you alive and headgear.
for about an hour. In combination with a typical shipboard jumpsuit
or crew uniform, the vacuum collar serves as a reasonable emer-
gency spacesuit. Mass: 1 kg.
Virtual Tablet: This is a Solar Era portable computer. You use it
for the same sort of things you’d use a laptop or a tablet for today,
but you wear the device on your sleeve or in your clothing, and
it produces a holographic screen that serves as your display and
interface. Set it for privacy mode and you’re the only one who can
see or hear it (although you’ll need to wear a light headset with an
optic piece for that). Mass: 0.5 kg.

Walkie-Talkie: The earliest practical hand-held radio communi-

cation device, the walkie-talkie ranges from the brick-like radios of
WW2 to the belt-worn units with clip-on mics many police officers
wear today. The radio’s range is about 5 km, although it degrades
sharply if you go indoors. Mass: 1 kg.
Wound Gel: A tube of gel filled with smart, self-guiding, medical
nanobots designed for use by non-medical personnel. An application
of wound gel counts as 1 automatic success when attempting to sta-
bilize a mortally wounded character. You can also use it to treat less
serious wounds; wound gel immediately heals a graze, light wound
or moderate wound, or reduces the severity of a serious or critical
wound by one step. A tube contains 1 application. Mass: 0.5 kg.
DRONES
Duration is how Drone operation is described in chapter 5. Here are some com-
long a drone can
monly available drones, but they just scratch the surface of what
remain active. Once
a drone uses up its PCs can build, buy or “acquire” themselves.
energy supply, it
generally takes half
its duration to charge HELICOPTER DRONE
it back up again. Tech Era 6; Gear Class 2
Range 5 km; Duration 1 hr.
Senses video, audio
Speed fly 40 m
Commands Observe, Patrol
Defense small (–1 step to attack); Durability (1+ dmg):  destroyed
Attack none
WHEELED DRONE
Tech Era 6; Gear Class 2
Senses video, audio
Speed 20 m
Commands Observe, Patrol, Fetch
Defense small (–1 step to attack); Durability (1+ dmg):  destroyed
Attack none
Other Manipulator arms are effective Strength 1.
POLICE SWAT DRONE

Tech Era 6; Gear Class 3(R)
Senses video, audio, chemical sniffer
Speed 15 m
Commands Observe, Patrol, Fetch, Attack, Communicate
Taser 5 impulses; Close 1 target; Attack 15/20/25; Damage 1d4 + 0/1
energy (nonlethal, stun)
130 4: Gear
Defense armor 2 physical, 1 energy; Durability (1 to 3 dmg):  cos-
metic damage; (4 to 6 dmg):  weapons and video out; (7+ dmg)
 destroyed
Other Manipulator arms are effective Strength 1.
AERIAL PREDATOR
Tech Era 7; Gear Class 3(M)
Range: 10 km
Duration: 2 hr.
Senses video, low-light, thermal, audio
Speed fly 40 m
Commands Observe, Patrol, Attack, Track, Evade
Laser 4 impulses; Long 1 target; Attack 14/19/24; Damage 1d6 + 0/6
energy (accurate)
Defense armor 2 physical, 1 energy; Durability (1 to 3 dmg):  cos-
metic damage; (4 to 6 dmg):  weapons and video out; (7+ dmg)
 destroyed
STATION SECURITY DRONE

Tech Era 7; Gear Class 3(R)
Senses video, audio, 2-meter x-ray
Speed 20 m
Commands Observe, Patrol, Attack, Communicate, Track
Sonic Beam 4 impulses; Close 2 targets; Attack 14/19/24; Damage
1d8 + 0/5 energy (spread, stun)
Shocker 5 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 14/19/24; Damage 1d6 +
2/3 energy (nonlethal, stun)
Defense armor 3 physical, 1 energy; Durability (1 to 3 dmg):  flash-
ing lights/sirens; (4 to 6 dmg):  sonic beam out; (7 to 9 dmg) 
shocker and comms out; (10+ dmg)  destroyed
SPY DRONE
Tech Era 7; Gear Class 4(M)
Senses video, low-light, thermal, audio
Speed fly 40 m, “whisper mode” fly 20 m with Stealth 13/18/23
Commands Observe, Patrol, Attack, Communicate, Track, Evade, Link
Flechettes 4 impulses; Medium autofire; Attack 13/18/23; Damage
1d6 + 1/5 physical (Brutal)
Defense small (–1 step to attack); armor 2 physical, 1 energy; Dura-
bility (1 to 3 dmg):  cosmetic damage; (4 to 6 dmg):  weapons
and video out; (7+ dmg)  destroyed
Other The drone has internal ammo capacity sufficient for only one
autofire attack.

132 5: Combat and Challenges

5: COMBAT AND CHALLENGES
“I don’t think ... I’ve ever been more than three minutes away from some really
astonishing act of violence.”
—Samuel R. Delany
Just like an episode of a TV show, an Alternity adventure is

organized into some number of scenes. Some scenes are heavy on
action—car chases and shootouts, for example—while other scenes
advance the story of the adventure through character interactions or
revelations of previously hidden information. This chapter explains
how to resolve the various dangers and challenges the heroes
encounter during the course of an adventure.
Not all obstacles demand “full” treatment as combat scenes or
challenge scenes. For example, if the heroes decide to suddenly
jump an unsuspecting ordinary citizen—say, to steal an identification
card—there’s no need to come up with combat stats for the unfortu-
nate subject. Even 1st-level heroes are competent enough to quickly
subdue the average person, so if no one’s around to intervene, the
GM can just say, “OK, you got the guy. Now what?”
Scenes of all kinds are discussed in more detail in Chapter
6, but action scenes fall into two broad categories: combat and
challenges.
• Combat scenes occur when someone or something is trying

to physically overcome the heroes, or vice versa.
• Challenge scenes involve danger or important conse-
quences, but don’t have active adversaries. Surviving an ion
storm in a damaged ship or performing a delicate operation
to save an NPC’s life are challenge scenes.
SCENES AND ACTION ROUNDS

When seconds matter in a scene, it’s important to know what each
hero does moment by moment. To figure out what happens in these
sorts of life-or-death situations, combat scenes (and some challenge
scenes) switch to action rounds.
Action rounds are simply a system for taking turns when
heroes and their opponents are all trying to do different things
at the same time. Much of this chapter is devoted to explaining
exactly what a hero (or an adversary) can do in an action round and
how you figure out who beat who (see The Action Round, later in
this chapter).
133
SKILLS AND SKILL CHALLENGES

The core mechanic of the Alternity game is the skill check. When a
PC faces a challenge of some kind—repairing an engine, persuading
the planetary governor to release sealed records, hitting an enemy
in combat or surviving for hours in freezing temperatures—he or
she makes a skill check to determine whether the effort is success-
ful or not.
MAKING A SKILL CHECK

To make a skill check, tell the GM which skill you’re using, what
you’re trying to accomplish, what gear you’re using and any
bonuses or penalties to the check you’re aware of. For example:
“I’m shooting that first robot with my assault rifle—I’ve got +1 step
with rifles, but –2 steps because I’m badly wounded,” or “I’m using
my Mechanics skill and this laser torch to get that hatch open.” If
you’re not sure which skill applies, just tell the GM what you’re trying
to do, and she’ll decide what kind of skill check is called for.
If the final difficulty The GM decides whether the situation calls for additional bonuses
makes a skill check or penalties to your check and tells you what the final difficulty of
seem daunting, look
to the environment
the check is. Then you roll your dice: a base d20 +/– a difficulty die
and your allies for (which might be 0, or another d20). If your check result is equal to or
step bonuses. higher than your target number for the check, you succeed.
For a more in-depth look, check out the Anatomy of a Skill Check
section at the beginning of Chapter 3.
AUTOMATIC SUCCESS AND FAILURE

Some skill uses don’t need to be resolved with a die roll. A hero
can get into a groundcar and tune the entertainment system to his
favorite music without making a Driving check—it’s so routine that
success is automatic. Likewise, some things are just impossible. No
matter what dice you roll, you can’t make a radio work if you don’t
have a battery or power source. The GM can stipulate automatic
success or failure for a check at her discretion.
Checks that are nearly automatic or nearly impossible but still
carry a small chance of an unexpected result “extend” the difficulty
scale by an additional d20 for each step past +d20 or –d20. Usually
this isn’t necessary—if a check is truly that easy or that hard, the GM
can simply declare an automatic result. But if it’s important to know
whether a super-easy check resulted in Excellent or Stellar success,
the GM might have you roll anyway.
As the GM, knowing when to ask for a skill check and when to
just stipulate success is more art than science, but when in doubt, err
on the side of the automatic success for routine events. Alternity
characters are competent, and competent people routinely succeed
at routine things. (That’s why they’re called “routine”!)

TAKING TURNS
In tactical situations such as combat or fast-moving challenges, you
generally must wait until it’s your action to use your skill (see The
Action Round, later in this chapter). However, if the
GM isn’t running the current scene in action rounds,
it’s fine to just take turns with other players. The GM THE 1, 3, 5 RULE
describes the situation and then asks each player Is there something hap-
one at a time what he or she is doing in response. pening that makes this
Go around the table or pick one at a time—as long skill check harder and
as each player gets the same opportunity to make isn’t covered anywhere
decisions and do things, it’s fine. else? Assign a –1 step
penalty for a minor
complication, a –3 step
AIDING OTHER HEROES penalty for a serious
If you decide to help someone else do something, complication and a –5
you don’t make a skill check. Instead, you grant the step penalty for an
other character a bonus on their skill check: +1 step insane complication.
if you’re untrained in the skill the other character is
using, or +2 steps if you have at least 1 skill point in
the skill. Aiding another hero generally means you’re not taking an
action of your own at the same time—you’re giving up your turn to
help your ally. If you have to take the same action the other charac-
ter is taking (for example, you’re trying to help a poor swimmer stay
afloat while you’re both in the water), take a –1 step penalty on your
own skill check.
COMPLEX SKILL CHECKS

Many skill uses can’t be completely resolved by a single use of
a skill; for example, if you’re engaged in a months-long effort to
research a cure for an alien disease, your test is really a cumulative
effort of many Medicine checks, not just one. A complex skill check
models this kind of ongoing effort by assigning a success goal—the
number of times the hero (or heroes) must succeed to complete the
task—and a time interval, representing how often characters can
attempt the check.
Excellent and Stellar Success: Usually, an Excellent check result
counts as 2 successes in a complex skill check, and a Stellar check
result counts as 3 successes.
Success Goal
3 Mildly complex (a process of several steps)
6 Moderately complex (a process of many steps)
10 Highly complex (a process with steps and obstacles you can’t foresee when you start)
20 Extremely complex (a process of complex processes you can’t foresee when you start)
Skills and Skill Challenges 135

TIME INTERVAL
1 action A task you can fail or finish within a minute
1 minute A task you can fail or finish within 10 minutes
10 minutes A task you can fail or finish within an hour
1 hour A task you can fail or finish within a day
1 day A task you can fail or finish within a week
(more) Tasks that require months or years
Short-term checks require more or less constant effort to make
A normal working progress; if you take a few actions off from climbing the cliff, you’re
pace also allows for not going up during those actions. Depending on the task, failing to
interruptions in the
form of wandering continue to work on it might spell automatic failure. During longer
aliens, meteor challenges, you can assume you’re working at a normal working
storms, etc. pace with brief breaks to eat meals, answer email, sleep eight hours
and so on.
Example: The heroes are stranded on a desert island, but
they find an old wreck on the beach. They decide to try to make it
seaworthy to escape. The GM decides that repairing the hull and
fashioning a mast and sail is a pretty complex Mechanics skill chal-
lenge, and might take a few days—the heroes are going to need
to improvise ropes, glue and canvas as well as patching the holes.
She decides the heroes need to achieve 10 successes and assigns
a time interval of one day per check.
FAILING OUT
In some complex skill checks, failing one check simply means a
lack of progress during that time interval—you were searching the
jungle for the crash site, and you just didn’t find it. In others, failing
one check might be catastrophic; you cut the wrong wire when
defusing the bomb. When the GM sets up a complex skill challenge,
she’ll usually include a “fail out” condition that describes what failing
means for this check.
One fatal slip ruins everything: You fail the complex skill check
if you fail a single skill check before you accumulate the successes
you need. This is good for delicate work with no second chances,
like gem cutting or defusing a bomb.
Failure is possible, but one misstep isn’t fatal: You fail the com-
plex skill check if you fail 3 skill checks before you accumulate the
successes you need. A difficult repair job or arguing a tough court
case would be a good use of this type of failure.
You can keep trying as long as you like: You can’t fail out of the
complex skill check—a failed check just means that you failed to
make progress during that time interval. This model is best for races
against the clock, like getting a vault open before the security sys-
tems come back online.

Cost of Failure: Sometimes a failed skill check is important only
for determining the overall success or failure of the complex skill
check, but sometimes each accumulated failure comes with a cost:
a tool breaks, the system resets, a target for diplomacy becomes
suspicious. If a single failure can make things worse without causing
the entire complex check to fail, the GM can assign a penalty: All
future checks in this skill challenge now take a –1 step penalty or
the entire task advances to a higher complexity, requiring additional
successes to complete.
MULTIPLE SKILLS
Some complex skill challenges represent the repetitive use of one
specific skill—if you’re climbing an epic cliff, you’re going to make a
lot of Athletics checks—but sometimes a few different skills might
be useful for a particular obstacle. For example, crossing an alien
desert might involve Survival checks to find your way and find water,
Science checks to identify edible plants and Mechanics checks to
keep a jury-rigged engine running. If you can make a good case
for how a particular skill can meet a particular challenge, your GM
can allow checks against your secondary skills to contribute to the
complex skill challenge.
OPEN-ENDED CHECKS
Finally, some complex skill checks aren’t about completing a task— "The xenos come
they’re about measuring how much progress you make in the time out at night—we
you’ve got. In an open-ended check, you don’t have a specific better fortify until
then" situations are
success goal; you just want to see how many successes you can perfect for open-
accumulate by devoting effort to the task. Make a check for each ended checks.
time interval you spend engaged in the complex skill check, and
keep track of the number of successes you accumulate.
Successes Result
1 Minimally successful; it works, but at a penalty
3 A satisfactory effort; you get what you expected
6 An excellent effort; you get more than you needed or a small bonus
10 A stellar effort; you get a lot more than you needed or a large bonus
Example: A hero has only four hours to build a rocket-sled

out of discarded junk in a disused workshop. The GM asks for an
open-ended Mechanics check to see how good of a rocket-sled he
can build, allowing him 1 check per hour of work. The hero’s check
results are Average, Failure, Failure and Excellent, totaling 3 suc-
cesses (1 + 0 + 0 + 2). It’s not pretty, but it’ll work!
Skills and Skill Challenges 137

TAKING YOUR TIME

If you don’t care when you finish a task, you can slow down and
proceed with extra care. Generally, taking your time grants you a
+2 step bonus to your skill check, but increases the time that check
requires by 50 percent. If you can take all the time in the world, you
gain a +4 step bonus, but the amount of time required increases by
an additional 200 percent (tripling its original time).
Taking your time doesn’t apply for skill checks you make during
an action round; if you want to slow down and work more carefully,
use the aim or concentrate action modifiers. Taking your time is also
not applicable in open-ended skill challenges; the amount of time
you commit to the task is already reflected by how many skill checks
you get to make during the challenge.
GROUP SKILL CHECKS

In some challenge scenes, all heroes on the team have to make the
same check at the same time—for example, if they’re about to walk
into an ambush or are climbing a highly technical cliff together. In
these challenges, the GM might call for a group skill check instead
of several individual checks. After all, if six characters each roll a
check, odds are good someone’s going to get a lucky roll and spot
the lurking alien predator ... and odds are good someone’s going to
get a crummy roll and fall off the cliff. A group skill check is a good
way to balance the outcomes of a challenge when a few heroes are
great at something and others are terrible at it.
To make a group skill check, all heroes on the team make a check
against the key skill for that challenge. If at least half the heroes suc-
ceed at their individual skill checks, the group as a whole is consid-
ered to succeed at the check. Otherwise, the group as a whole fails.
The Stealth and Example: A five-hero team is trying to sneak past a dozing
Detection section security guard without waking him up. The GM decides that a group
of Chapter 6 covers Stealth check is the best way to see whether the group makes too
this situation in
more detail. much noise or not. Each hero makes a Stealth check; three succeed
and two fail. The GM rules that the group as a whole succeeds,
even though a couple klutzy heroes nearly blew it for the team.
OPPOSED CHECKS
Some skill challenges create a direct contest between one charac-
ter who’s trying to do something and an adversary who’s trying to
resist that action or affect the target at the same time. The classic
example is when two characters engage in a tug-of-war or struggle
for control of a gun, but an opposed check might involve something
like two characters issuing conflicting commands to a crewman or
trying to outdo each other in a rap battle.

Opposed checks fall into two categories: contesting checks and
countering checks.
Contesting a Check: Both participants make their skill checks Contesting checks
at the same time. Whoever achieves the highest level of success are often (but not
always) the same
(Average, Excellent, Stellar) with the check wins the contest. If both
skill from both
participants achieve the same success level, the struggle is unde- participants; Athletics
cided for the current action or time period, and continues to the next versus Athletics
opportunity for the participants to act. in a tug-of-war,
for example.
Countering a Check: After the character initiating the action
makes his or her skill check, the character opposing the action
Countering checks
attempts to reduce the initiating character’s check by making a are rarely the same
counter-check. The countering character reduces the initiating skill. Comedian
character’s success by 1, 2 or 3 levels for an Average, Excellent or versus heckler might
be Performance
Stellar result on the counter-check. In other words, if both charac- versus Coercion,
ters achieve the same level of success, the “defender” negates the for example.
initiator’s success.
THE ACTION ROUND

When you find yourself in a dangerous situation, it’s important to
figure out which character—hero, villain or alien—acts in which
order. Combat scenes (and some hazardous skill challenges) are
therefore organized into action rounds to help you determine who
takes their turn next, and what you can do in a turn.
INITIATIVE
At the beginning of a combat scene (or a challenge scene where
seconds matter), the GM asks all players in the scene to make an
initiative check. (The GM makes one check for each separate group
of NPCs or adversaries that are also in the scene.)
Your initiative score is equal to 20 minus (Agility + Focus). It’s like
a skill score, but it uses two ability ratings and you can’t spend skill
points to improve it. Rolling initiative works just like making a skill
check—you roll a base d20, and add or subtract the appropriate
difficulty die (if any). This provides you with a Stellar, Excellent, Aver-
age or Failure result for your initiative roll.
If you succeed at your initiative check, you can take your first
action of the scene in impulse 1. Characters and adversaries act in
order of initiative success on impulse 1 (so a Stellar result goes first,
then an Excellent result, and then Average results). In subsequent
impulses, take your turn as described below. If you fail on your initia-
tive check, take your first action for the scene in impulse 2.
It’s not unusual for multiple characters from either side in the
scene to have an action available in the same impulse. When this
happens, characters take turns as follows:
The Action Round 139

• When two combatants have the same level of success on

their initiative checks and both are taking their first action in
the scene, the highest actual die result goes first.
• In later impulses, use a “First-In, First-Out” priority. In other
words, the first character whose prior action places him in
impulse 5 (for instance) gets to act in impulse 5 before the
second character whose prior action placed her in impulse 5
and so on.
• Combatants who have not acted yet in the scene are con-
sidered “First-In” and act before combatants taking their
second action of the scene.
If there are any environmental effects or timed effects in play (for

example, a radiation field slowly killing everything in the compart-
ment), those effects are resolved at the end of impulse 8, after
all heroes and adversaries who act in that impulse have resolved
their actions.
INITIATIVE TRACKER
Start
Here!
1 2 3 4 5 6
Round Initiative begins in Impulse 1 in order of success
Ends level (Stellar, then Excellent, then Average).
Combatants that fail their initiative checks first
8 act in Impulse 2.
7
Each action requires a number of impulses,
moving your next action that many spaces
Round
clockwise around the track. Ends
7 End of round effects occur after Impulse 8. 8
6 5 4 3 2 1

ACTIONS
So what can you do when you take your turn? Anything you think
a hero in your position might try to do—shoot at an enemy, run for
cover, enter a course in the nav computer or shut
down a runaway reactor. Actions typically fall into
one of seven broad action types: attack, interact, TACTICAL SURPRISE
move, reposition, resist, total defense, or use a If you begin a combat
skill. In addition, you can ready an action or add scene by attacking an
an action modifier to aim, dodge or combine an enemy who doesn’t
attack with some movement. know you’re there, you
If you want to do something that seems to fall gain tactical surprise
completely outside those action types, the GM (see Contact in Chapter
assigns a cost in impulses (3 is a good standard) 6). Surprised creatures
and decides what effect your action has on the automatically fail their
combat or challenge scene. initiative roll with a check
Some actions don’t take any time and don’t result of 0—in other words,
cost any impulses. You can drop an item, release they get their first action
an opponent or speak any time you feel like doing of the fight on impulse 2
so. Shouting a warning to your comrades, calling after all non-surprised
for a retreat or pointing out which foe you want creatures act. If there
everybody to attack doesn’t take any time. How- are multiple surprised
ever, attempts to use skills (for example, Misdirec- creatures in the scene,
tion or Influence) belong in the use a skill action. they then act in order of
initiative skill score, best
(lowest) to worst.
ATTACK (2–5 IMPULSES)
Use a combat skill to attack a target. The impulse
cost of making an attack depends on your weap-
on’s speed—you can shoot more rapidly with an automatic pistol
than you can with a grenade launcher. If you don’t have a weapon,
you can make an unarmed attack. See Attacks in the next section
for more detail.
When you use the attack action, you can move up to 2 meters
before or after you attack (shooting and ducking behind cover, or
perhaps taking a step to get to a foe just out of reach).
INTERACT (1 IMPULSE)
Quickly interact with an object or area. Some examples of things
you can do with an interact action include:
• Open an unlocked door

• Draw a weapon
• Change a clip or magazine
• Enter a few numbers on a keypad
• Visually scan a room (and make an Awareness check)

If your interaction requires more than a couple seconds, you might

need to interact with the object multiple times or default to the using
a skill or tool action instead. Normally you can’t attempt a skill check
with an interact action, but Awareness checks are an exception.
MOVE (2 IMPULSES)
Move up to your speed (20 meters for a typical human hero). See
Movement later in this chapter for more details on moving. This
action refers to moving on foot; if you’re driving a vehicle or riding a
mount, some different rules apply.
Usually you can’t move and make skill checks at the same time,
but if some obstacle or situation complicates your movement, you
may need to make a skill check to get where you want to go. Acro-
batics, Athletics, Extreme Sport, Stealth and Survival can sometimes
be used while you’re moving.
READY AN ACTION (1 IMPULSE)

Unlike most other Ready some other action instead of resolving it immediately. For exam-
actions, you can't ple, you might ready an attack against an enemy so that you’re threat-
use action modifiers ening her instead of shooting her immediately, or you might point your
like aim or evade
while you ready gun at a doorway and wait to shoot the first robot that enters the room.
an action. You must specify to the GM what you’re getting ready to do and what
obvious action or development will cause you to do it.
Once you ready an action, simply delay your next action by 1
each impulse until the situation you’re waiting for occurs or you
decide to stop waiting and take a different action. Your readied
action is a reaction (see Reactions, below) that interrupts the trigger-
ing action you described. After resolving your readied action, pay
the normal impulse cost to determine when you get your next action
(with the 1-impulse delay for using a reaction).
REPOSITION (1 IMPULSE)
Adjust your position in some way. Choose one of the following:
move up to 2 meters; drop to a prone position; stand up from a
prone position; get into or behind some nearby bit of cover.
RESIST (1 IMPULSE)
Attempt to fight off or break free of some condition affecting you.
For example, you can use the resist action to pull free of an enemy
grabbing you, recover your senses when you’ve been stunned by
a shock glove or recover your stability when knocked off-balance
in zero-g. The exact type of check you need to successfully resist
depends on the condition. Sometimes you need multiple successful
checks to resist a tough-to-shake condition.

TOTAL DEFENSE (3 IMPULSES)
You can go on “total defense” if you don’t have a condition you’re
trying to recover from. Until your next action, any enemy attacking Often the evade
you takes a –2 step penalty to attack you, and you gain a +2 step action modifier is
bonus to any check you make to resist an attack (for example, a more useful than
total defense,
Dodge check to avoid blast damage). You can’t use the evade because you can do
action modifier (see below) while you’re on total defense—you’re other things at the
already trying not to avoid being hit. same time.
USE A SKILL OR TOOL (3 IMPULSES)

Use a non-combat skill suitable for a combat scene or challenge
scene. Common examples include treating wounded characters
with Medicine, working to activate or turn off something in the area
using Computers or Mechanics or using Misdirection on characters
nearby. See the skill descriptions in Chapter 3 for more information
on using specific skills during action scenes.
When you use this action, you can move up to 2 meters before or
after you use the skill or tool you’re trying to use.
DO NOTHING (1 IMPULSE)
You don’t have to act when your next action comes up. You can
always do nothing—just delay your next action 1 impulse. When your
turn comes up again, you can decide to act or continue delaying.
ACTION MODIFIERS
Some special actions modify other actions you’re taking—for exam-
ple, aim, charge and evade. These provide you with some extra
tactical flexibility at a small time cost. You can use only one action
modifier at a time.
• Aim: Take careful aim when you make an attack. Gain a +1

step bonus on your attack roll, but add a 1-impulse delay to
your next action.
• Autofire: If your weapon is capable of full automatic fire,
you can make a burst or full-auto attack (see Autofire, under
attacks). You delay your next action by 1 or 2 impulses (and
use up a lot of ammo).
• Charge: Move up to half your speed and make an attack Your charge
with a hand-to-hand or melee weapon. Charging adds a speed is affected
by armor and
1-impulse delay to your next action. encumbrance,
• Concentrate: Focus on a non-attack skill check. Gain a just like regular
+1 step bonus on your skill check by adding a 1-impulse movement is.
delay to your next action, or a +2 step bonus by adding a
3-impulse delay to your next action.

• Evade: You duck and dodge to avoid getting hit while you’re
performing any other action. Enemies attacking you suffer
a –1 step penalty on their attack roll (or more, if you’re
highly trained in Dodge), but you delay your next action by
1 impulse.
REACTIONS
Some character talents or situations give you the ability to react
to the actions of other characters. Most reactions are resolved after
the triggering action takes effect. If you have a talent that says you
can react to being hit by attacking the creature that hit you and
the attacking creature actually knocked you out with its attack,
sorry—you’re already unconscious, and you can’t use your reaction.
However, some reactions actually interrupt the triggering action,
and might in fact reduce or cancel its effects.
When you use a reaction, delay your next action by 1 impulse.
ATTACKS
When you try to punch, stab or shoot an adversary, you’re making
an attack. An attack is basically a skill check using the skill appro-
priate for your weapon. Making a Firearm check (or other relevant
weapon skill) is often referred to as “making an attack roll.”
Your target’s defensive ability or situation is measured by modify-
ing the difficulty die of your attack check. A target that’s small, well-
covered or dodging effectively is a tough shot and might subtract 3
or 4 steps from your attack roll. A target that you’ve had a chance to
zero in on or that you catch completely off-guard is easier to hit than
normal, so you might add a step or two to your attack roll.
Because the Damage: If your attack succeeds, make a damage roll to deter-
degree of success mine the severity of the wound your attack inflicts. (Your weapon’s
influences damage, damage can be found on the weapon tables in Chapter 4.) Wounds
a higher attack
roll implies both
and their effects are covered in Damage, later in this chapter, but
accuracy and the two basic things to know are that 1) the higher the success level
lethality. of your attack, the better your damage roll, and 2) the higher your
damage roll, the more likely you are to take out your target.
RANGE
In a combat scene, you might find yourself in a knife fight against an
opponent within arm’s reach, or you might be able to pick off targets
with 500-meter rifle shots. Personal weapon range is described by
Any colonial marine six range categories:
knows that 6
meters or less is
inside the room. • Adjacent (2 meters or less)
• Close (3 to 20 meters)

• Medium (21 to 50 meters)
• Long (51 to 200 meters)
• Very Long (201 to 500 meters)
• Extreme (501 to 2000 meters)
The range at which you can attack is determined by your

weapon. For example, a taser or a sawed-off shotgun might have a
range of close, while a typical rifle has a range of long or very long,
and a specialized sniper rifle allows you to make extreme-range
attacks. Heavier weapon systems (howitzers or cruise missiles, for
example) use special range rules.
SCAR
Lots of factors might make an attack easier or harder, but the most common
ones fall under the happy acronym SCAR: size, cover, activity, and range.
Modifier Target Size

+2 steps Huge target (elephant, light truck)
+1 step Large target (horse and rider, small car)
–1 step Small target (drone, raccoon)
–2 steps Tiny target (rat, soda can)
Target’s Cover
–1 step Target has 25 percent cover (a fireplug, tree, or prone vs. ranged attack)
–2 steps Target has 50 percent cover (a window, doorway, or low wall)
–3 steps Target has 75 percent cover (a foxhole or boulder jumble)
–5 steps Target has 90 percent cover (a loophole or gun port)
Target’s Activity
+2 steps Target stunned, blind, or unaware
+1 step Target distracted
+1 step Target prone (vs. melee attacks)
–1 step Target dodging
Target’s Range
–1 step Medium range
–2 steps Long range
–3 steps Very Long range
–4 steps Extreme range
Other Common Factors
+1 step Attacker aiming
+1 step Two or more attackers adjacent to the same target
–2 steps Attacker with rifle or heavy weapon adjacent to an enemy
–? steps Attacker wounded
Attacks 145
Some conditions may override the normal range categories. For

example, a heavy fog might make it impossible to see a target at
long range, while a rifle shot in zero-g vacuum could conceivably
How do you get carry for millions of kilometers. If you can see an enemy astronaut 10
a critical hit in km away, the GM could allow you to take the shot—at a hefty range
Alternity? Easy—roll
a Stellar success on penalty, of course.
an attack roll.
COVER
One of the best ways to stay alive in a firefight is to put something
bulletproof between you and the people who are shooting at you. If
you can’t find something bulletproof, something that obscures your
position—smoke, brush, light office furniture—can still make it harder
for an enemy to hit you.
Cover is rated by how much of your body it screens against
attack—25, 50 or 75 percent. Soft cover that conceals you without
actually stopping incoming fire is treated as one step less effective
than hard cover.
Cover generally applies to ranged attacks only. If you’re close
enough to throw a punch or stab, you’re close enough to strike
around the obstacle providing cover.
Total Cover: If a target is completely protected by whatever it’s
hiding behind, a direct attack isn’t possible—the attack automati-
cally misses.
Cover and Dodging: If a target is both dodging and behind
cover, don’t stack the attack penalties. Just use the best one that
applies. Either you’re trying to hide as much of your body as possi-
ble behind the cover, or you’re trying to keep moving to avoid being
an easy target. You can’t really do both at the same time.
People as Cover: It’s not very heroic, but you can use people
around you as protection of a sort. If there is someone standing in
the line of fire between you and your attacker, you gain 50 per-
cent cover against the attack. If the attacker misses you, there is a
50 percent chance that he must instead roll an attack against the
person in the line of fire.
AUTOFIRE
Some firearms and energy weapons are capable of automatic fire
(or autofire). Autofire uses up ammunition or weapon charges fast
but allows you to attack several targets at once (or one target multi-
ple times).
Burst: You can use a weapon with autofire to unleash a burst of
shots at a single target. Firing a burst delays your next action by 1
impulse, and doubles the penalty for the range to the target. If you
hit, your attack deals an extra box of damage. Roll damage normally
and subtract the target’s armor; if the hit deals at least 1 damage,

check off 2 wound boxes instead of 1. In the case of a Stellar suc-
cess, check off 3 wound boxes instead of 2. Bursts require 3 rounds
per attack.
Full Auto: Weapons capable of full auto unleash a hail of shots
over an area. When you make a full auto attack, make an attack
roll at each creature (enemy and ally) within a 6-meter square area.
Take a –2 step penalty on your first attack, and each additional
attack takes an additional –2 step penalty. Using full auto delays
your next action by 2 impulses, and uses up 10 rounds of ammu-
nition (or power charge). You cannot aim when making a full auto
attack action.
Improved Autofire: If your weapon is capable of improved
autofire, you can instead make full auto attacks on creatures within
an area up to 10 meters on a side.
Example: Dieter Frank opens up on a group of scary aliens with
an SMG. After accounting for range and other factors, his Firearm
check begins at +2 steps. His first full auto attack is at +0 steps, the
second is –2 steps and the third is at –4 steps.
THROWN WEAPONS
Some hand-to-hand or melee weapons can be thrown. When you In most cases,
throw a knife, spear or similar weapon at a target, make a normal throwing a melee
Martial Arts or Melee check. Yes, you’re actually attacking at range, weapon is also
a successful
but your training with that weapon covers all the ways you can use disarm attempt ...
it. The weapon descriptions in Chapter 4 spell out which weapons against you.
can be thrown and their range category as thrown weapons.
Grenades: Throwing a grenade (or a lit stick of dynamite or a
Molotov cocktail or whatever) works a little differently than a thrown
melee weapon. The maximum distance of your throw is 4 meters
× your Athletics skill modifier for standard grenades, or 2 meters
× your Athletics skill modifier for heavy or improvised grenades.
(Remember, your skill modifier is your ability rating plus your
skill points.)
Your Athletics check is your attack roll with a grenade. However,
most grenades produce blast effects (see below). If you miss, your
grenade might still land close enough to cause damage.
BLASTS AND AREA EFFECTS

Heroes are often found near explosions, especially the sort caused
by grenades, rocket launchers and similar weapons. These weap-
ons (and sometimes environmental effects like out-of-control power
plants) create blasts or area-effect attacks that can damage all crea-
tures and objects in the area.
Attacks 147
To use a blast or area-effect weapon in combat, first make an

attack roll to determine the blast origin. The blast then affects
everything within the blast radius. Creatures in the blast radius can
attempt to evade the effect.
BLAST ORIGIN
The blast origin is the center of the blast—the exact spot where
a grenade or mortar bomb lands. When you attack with a blast
weapon, your attack roll (usually a Heavy Weapon check, or
Athletics for a thrown grenade) determines just how close to your
intended target point you get:
Attack Success Indirect Fire Blast Origin Direct Fire Blast Origin
Excellent or better Exactly on target Exactly on target
Average 2 meters from the target Exactly on target
Failure 2d4 meters from target 2d4 meters from target
If a blast weapon lands off target, roll randomly to determine
the direction of the miss (a d12 and “clock face” works well, with
12 o’clock being an “over” and 6 o’clock as a “short”). Depending
on the blast, a failed attack might still get close enough to damage
the target.
BLAST RADIUS
The area affected by a blast weapon is referred to as the blast
radius. Blast radius depends entirely on the type of weapon used—
for example, a concussion grenade has a blast radius of 3 m (6 m)
for its primary and secondary blast, while a fragmentation grenade
has a blast radius of 4 m (8 m). Targets within the primary blast
radius suffer the primary blast effect, and targets within the second-
ary blast radius suffer the secondary blast effect.
EVADING A BLAST
Note that a Creatures threatened by a blast can use a reaction to make a Dodge
successful Dodge check. A successful check increases the creature’s distance from
check moves you, the blast origin by 2/4/6 meters on an Av/Ex/St success. If you’re
even though it's not
your turn. now out of the area of the blast, you take no damage. It’s possible
to dodge from the primary blast area into the secondary blast area,
reducing the damage you take without avoiding it altogether.
If you successfully dodge out of the area or take damage from
the blast, you’re now prone. If you’re in the blast but take no
damage, you’re still on your feet.
Hard cover also protects against blasts. If you have hard cover
between you and the blast origin, you gain a +1, +2, +3 or +5 step
bonus on your Dodge check (for 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent
or 90 percent cover). Success increases your effective distance

from the blast origin as described above, but you don’t actually
need to move—you just duck in place and let your cover take some
or all of the blast.
AREA EFFECTS
Gas grenades, EMP bursts and similar weapons don’t create The Endurance
explosions—they simply threaten an area with a specific effect. check counts as a
"resist" action, not a
Usually, you’ll make an Endurance check instead of a Dodge check "use a skill" action.
to resist the weapon’s effect, and you aren’t knocked prone if you
take damage.
EXECUTIONS
Sometimes heroes find themselves at the mercy of villains who don’t
have any or who decide that a defeated enemy is too dangerous to
leave alive. If you attack a helpless target (unconscious or completely
restrained) and take an impulse to aim, you automatically score a
Stellar success on your attack and deal maximum damage with your
weapon. If the victim has no armor or other defenses, you instead
inflict a mortal wound automatically (see Damage, later in this chapter).
NONLETHAL AND UNARMED COMBAT

Most combat scenes involve potentially lethal weapons such as
knives, guns or lasers. However, it’s often a good idea to avoid
killing your adversaries, and sometimes you might not have a lethal
weapon available.
Nonlethal Weapons: Some weapons have the nonlethal trait.
When you lose your last wound box to a nonlethal weapon, you
don’t suffer a mortal wound. Instead, you’re knocked out for a short
time. In addition, wounds you suffer from a nonlethal weapon are
automatically reduced in severity at the end of the combat scene
(see the nonlethal trait in Chapter 4).
Weapons with the nonlethal trait suffer no penalty for use in
nonlethal attacks. At the GM’s discretion, you can use normal weap-
ons to attempt a nonlethal attack—for example, using a pistol as
an improvised club to pistol-whip an enemy or striking with the flat
of a blade. Usually, you take a –1 step penalty to your attack roll to
use a lethal weapon in a nonlethal attack (if it’s even possible—any
gunshot is a lethal attack, period).
Unarmed Attack: You can always punch, kick, head-butt or bite if
you don’t have a weapon handy. Your unarmed attack is a nonlethal
weapon that deals 1d4 + 0/2 physical damage, although your talents
can improve on that.
Attacks 149
SPECIAL ACTIONS
Modern firearms and futuristic energy weapons are quite deadly,
but sometimes you don’t need to kill your opponent—or you don’t
have a weapon handy. Anyone can use these special attacks, but
whether they’re effective or not depends entirely on the target.
GRAPPLE
Most melee combat in Alternity is based on strikes: punches, knife
stabs, chainsaw bayonets, force-projection swords and so forth. But
sometimes you want to grab and hold an enemy to apply sustained
leverage and pressure. That’s where grappling comes in.
When we say "one If you have at least one hand free, you can grapple another
hand free," note character so your opponent can’t move away from you. Make
that tentacles, an opposed check, using your Hand to Hand skill against your
manipulator claws,
and amorphic
opponent’s. If you win, your target gains the grappled condition
extrusions (cannot move away and suffers a –1 step penalty on all skill checks
also suffice. that require physical motion except for Hand to Hand checks
against you).
THE GRAPPLED CONDITION

This condition is key to the grappling rules.
Grappled: You can’t move away from the creature grappling you, and you
take a –1 step penalty on all skill checks that require physical motion except
Hand to Hand attacks against your grappler or resist actions to attempt an
escape. If you’re prone, you can’t stand up. Some skills (Stealth or Computers,
as examples) are obviously impossible when you have the grappled condition.
You can use the resist action to break free by defeating your opponent in an
opposed Hand to Hand check.
Tackling: When you start a grapple with someone, you can

choose to make it a tackle. You gain a +2 step bonus on the
opposed Hand to Hand check, but you automatically fall prone.
If you win, your opponent falls prone too and gains the grappled
condition. Some very large or very strong targets may be too big
for you to take down with a tackle (generally, anything more than 5
times your weight).
If your enemy is unaware of you or doesn’t regard you as a threat,
it’s not an opposed check. Just make a Hand to Hand check (with
step bonuses for surprise, if appropriate), and if you succeed, your
target gains the grappled condition.
Maintaining a Grapple: If you’re grappling someone at the start
of your next action, you gain a +2 step bonus on Hand to Hand
attacks against that enemy, but not on Hand to Hand checks you’ll
make when they try to escape. If you move, you travel at half speed.

Human (or Alien…) Shields: When you’re grappling someone,
you effectively have 75 percent cover (–3 step penalty on attacks
against you) because the enemy you’re grappling with is in the way. Human shields will
almost always take
The enemy you’re grappling does not have cover unless it’s a mutual the resist action to
grapple. If the attack misses, there’s a 50 percent chance the attacker escape the grapple
must reroll the attack—but with the human shield as the new target. or the grab object
action to go for a
Ending a Grapple: You can let go of someone you’re grappling weapon the grappler
any time you want (no action required; just declare it). is holding.
When You’re Grappled: When it’s your turn and you have the
grappled condition, you can use the resist action to break free by
defeating your opponent in an opposed Hand to Hand check. If the
enemy grappling you has only one hand free, you gain a +1 step
bonus on the Hand to Hand check to escape. You lose the grappled
condition, can move 2 meters and can stand up if you’re prone.
You can also make unarmed attacks normally against the enemy
who’s grappling you or grapple your enemy back to turn it into a
mutual grapple—a proper wrestling match. If you grapple back, it’s
an opposed Hand to Hand check. If you win, your opponent also
gains the grappled condition and must take the resist action and win
the opposed Hand to Hand check to escape and end the grapple.
It doesn’t come up often, but in a mutual grapple, you can
intentionally fail when the other combatant makes a resist check to
escape. That ends the grapple because neither wrestler wants to be
part of it anymore.
GRAB OBJECT
You can try to grab something another character is holding. As a
3-impulse action, make an opposed check using your Hand to Hand
skill against the target’s skill with the weapon she’s using (or the
Hand to Hand skill if it’s not a weapon). If your opponent is on guard
against you (and most people holding weapons in combat are),
your opponent gains a +2 step bonus on the opposed check. If your
opponent is holding the object in both hands, that’s an additional +1
step bonus for her.
If you win the opposed check, you now hold the item; if you
tie the opposed check, you’re both holding it, and neither of you
can use it. You’ll need to make another grab object attempt to
get sole possession of the item you’re fighting over—and so will
your opponent.
You can let go of something you’re grabbing any time you want
(no action required). If you and an enemy are both holding an item,
neither of you can move without letting go of it first.
Attacks 151
SHOVE
You can move through someone else, shoving them backward. You
can attempt to shove as part of a move action. Your opponent can
choose to block or use a reaction to sidestep.
Block: If your opponent stands his ground, make an opposed
In zero-g
environments,
Athletics check. If you win, you shove back your opponent by 2
the shove might meters for each level of success you beat him by, and your oppo-
extend beyond nent must make a Dodge check or fall prone. If you don’t win, you
just 2 meters. stop moving. You gain a +1 step bonus on your check if you move
at least 4 meters before trying to shove someone and a +1 step
bonus if you’re significantly bigger than your opponent (at least 50
percent heavier).
Sidestep: To use this reaction, there must be someplace to
stand out of your path but within 2 meters. As with all reactions, this
delays your opponent’s next action by 1 impulse. You continue your
movement as you wish.
DRONE OPERATION
In high-tech settings, Issuing a command to a drone is ordinarily a 3-impulse action. The
a vehicle AI will drone itself acts during the same impulse in which you issue the
respond to some command or in the first impulse after it finishes its current command.
or all of these
commands as well. Under ordinary circumstances, you and the drone act in the same
impulse. You can also issue a command to a drone while it’s carrying
out its current instruction, and it’ll undertake the new command in
the first impulse it’s available to act.
Here are some of the commands you can give a drone, subject
to the tech era and the drone’s software.
Observe (TE 6+): The drone moves to a designated point within
its range and broadcasts what it sees and hears to the drone oper-
ator and others the operator designates. The drone also records
what it observes. The drone remains in place until its duration nearly
runs out (saving enough power to get back to the operator) or until
the operator recalls it with a command.
Patrol (TE 6+): The drone moves along a path its operator des-
ignates. Straightforward paths can be programmed as part of the
3-impulse action, but elaborate paths require several minutes to
program. The drone can continue on a looping path until its duration
nearly runs out or perform the patrol once. While patrolling, it broad-
casts and records what it sees and hears.
Attack (TE 6+): The drone attacks according to its targeting crite-
ria. It performs this action only once; sustained attacks are some-
thing only full-fledged robots can do.
Fetch (TE 6+): The drone moves toward a designated object,
grasps it with manipulator arms and delivers it to a point designated
by the operator.

Communicate (TE 6+): The drone broadcasts the operator’s voice
(and video if the drone can display it), enabling remote conversation.
Track (TE 7+): As the Observe command, but the drone will
follow a designated target to the limits of its range and duration.
Evade (TE 7+): The drone moves away from hostiles designated
by the drone operator and adds random motion to its travel path.
Link (TE 7+): The drone establishes a short-range wireless link with
nearby computers. The operator can use (and hack) the computer
subject to limits imposed by security and the wireless connection.
In most science fiction, drones are a feature of tech eras 6 and 7.
By the Stellar Era (TE 8), drones are fully intelligent robots and built
like NPCs.
MOVEMENT
Combat scenes aren’t stationary. Heroes constantly adjust their If the PCs aren't
positions to take advantage of cover, get to a clear line of fire, close moving around, use
in for hand-to-hand attacks or get out of dangerous spots. Their the Props for Your Set
enemies likewise move to make attacks or avoid danger. Challenge section of Chapter 7
to "encourage" them.
scenes might not include enemies trying to get at you, but you
might have to deal with hazards such as blazing fires, falling debris
or unpredictable energy discharges. Standing in the wrong spot can
be a fatal mistake!
SPEED
All creatures capable of movement have a Speed statistic, which
represents how far a creature can move on foot by spending 2
impulses to use the move action. For most human heroes, Speed
is 20 meters. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you
want when you use your action to move (although if you’re moving
only a meter or two, you might want to use the reposition action
instead). You can also move a short distance while using actions
such as attack or use a skill.
SLOW TERRAIN
Terrain such as mud, shallow water, deep snow, heavy brush, badly
cluttered furniture or loose rubble impedes your ability to move fast.
Each meter of slow terrain you cross counts as 2 meters of your
movement. For example, if you have to pick your way through a
4-meter wide patch of thick mud, you must spend 8 meters of move-
ment to get through it, leaving you 12 meters of normal movement
available for the rest of your move action.
Movement 153
SPECIAL MOVEMENT
You can include activities such as climbing, jumping or swimming
in your move action. Any distance you move in these ways counts
against your Speed for that move action (so if you run 18 meters
and then start climbing a tree, you can’t get more than 2 meters up
the tree no matter what kind of success you get on your Athletics
check to climb).
Some creatures (or heroes with the right gear) might have access
to other types of movement, such as teleporting or flying.
USING A GRID
If you decide to use miniatures and a grid, hex map or other such surface to
represent tactical positioning, we recommend a scale of 2 meters to a square
(or hex). For ease of play, make 2 meters the base size for human-sized heroes
and creatures—if you’re in a square, enemies can’t move through it. (It’s a
little big, but it isn’t crazy.) Most ranges, speeds and areas in the game are
given in multiples of 2 meters, so it’s easy to cut the values in half to find out
how many squares (or hexes) a creature can move in a move action or how
many hexes a blast affects.
Climb: You must make an Athletics check to climb (although

some climbing checks are pretty easy). You climb 2/4/6 meters on
an Av/Ex/St success.
Fly: Your Speed depends on the gear (or natural ability) that
provides you with the ability to fly. When you fly in an area of normal
gravity, gaining altitude is considered slow terrain.
Jump: You must make an Athletics check to jump (see the Athlet-
ics skill for details). Most heroes can jump 2 meters horizontally or
jump over a 0.5-meter high obstacle with no check needed.
Swim: If you’re a trained swimmer (at least 1 skill point in Athlet-
ics), you can swim 4 meters per move action. If you’re not trained,
you swim at half that speed (2 meters per move action).
Tight Fit: Ordinary cramped spaces count as slow terrain. If a
cramped space is extremely tight (say, a small air duct or crawling
under a vehicle), you must make an Acrobatics check to success-
fully enter. You wriggle 2/4/6 meters on an Av/Ex/St success.
Zero-G: If you’re trained in Acrobatics (at least 1 skill point), you
can move at full speed in zero-g conditions. Otherwise, zero-g is
considered slow terrain for you. To move in zero-g, you must begin
your move adjacent to a wall, deck or other push-off point or have
some other way to provide yourself with thrust.

POSITION
In many scenes, you can skip exact position—if you’re in a barroom
brawl, you can assume that everyone in the room is mixed up in the
melee throwing punches. However, position can be very important
if you’re trying to move around enemies or keep them from moving
around you, or when one person in the fight is trying to keep the
range open for gunplay while the other is trying to close in for hand-
to-hand combat.
Facing isn’t important in an Alternity game combat scene—
you can assume that most creatures instantly turn to meet any
approaching threat, even when it isn’t their turn to act.
Adjacent: Creatures within 2 meters of you are considered
adjacent. You must be adjacent to a target to attack it in hand-
to-hand or melee combat (although some melee weapons may
have longer reach). Most animals and animal-like aliens try to
move adjacent to you to attack with claws, teeth and other natu-
ral weapons.
Moving Through Creatures: Other creatures block your move- One key test for the
ment. You can’t move through an enemy’s base (see Size, below) players is getting
and must go around them or use the shove special action to get the impulse timing
right when they're
your enemy out of the way. You can move through a friendly crea- moving through a
ture’s base, but your friend must be prone or must use a reaction to choke point.
make room for you to pass.
BASE SIZE
If you need to know exactly how much space a creature or object
takes up, you can assign it a base size—a circular area that a crea-
ture effectively controls. Humans aren’t really meter-wide cylinders,
but a hostile human can easily block a meter-wide passage and
keep you from moving past him or her.
0.5 meter small creature (small dog, raccoon, cat)

1 meter average-sized creature (large dog, human)
2–3 meters big creature (large bear, horse, rhino, large shark)
4–5 meters very big creature (elephant, orca)
6–9 meters huge creature (dinosaur, whale)
10+ meters enormous creature (big dinosaur, immense whale)
Damage and Wounds 155

DAMAGE AND WOUNDS

The universe is a dangerous place. When an enemy successfully
attacks you or you run into a hazard that physically injures you, you
become wounded. The severity of your wound depends on the
damage caused by the attack (or the hazard). An attack or hazard
might inflict anywhere from 1 to 20 or more damage, causing an
injury ranging from a graze that you recover from in a matter of min-
utes to a potentially mortal wound.
Damage comes in two basic types: physical (bullets, blades,
impact and so on) and energy (lasers, fire, radiation and so on). Both
types can cause minor or lethal injuries, but some targets are more
resistant (or vulnerable) to one kind than the other.
ENERGY TYPES
Usually the exact composition of an energy attack doesn’t matter: lasers,
flamethrowers, cold rays and lightning guns all just deal energy damage, and
armor energy resistance works the same against any of them. However, a few
unusual aliens or pieces of gear are especially resistant (or vulnerable) to spe-
cific types of energy. Here are the energy types you might see:
• Acid
• Cold
• Electricity (EMP grenade, shock glove, shock rifle, stun gun, taser)
• Fire (flamethrower, thermal grenade, plasma weapons)
• Gravity (gravity render)
• Laser (laser, phase weapons, star sword)
• Radiation (matter beam, neutron cannon, nega-glaive, null grenade)
• Sonic (sonic bore)
In addition, you might run into poison and psychic attacks. They aren’t
“energy” so they don’t interact with armor.
ARMOR
Your armor reduces incoming damage, potentially turning a mortal
wound to a light one, or a light wound to no injury at all. Subtract
your armor resistance from the damage of the incoming attack
to determine the actual severity of your wound. For example, if
you’re wearing a ballistic vest that has a resistance of 3, and you
get hit with a rifle shot for 8 damage, your armor reduces the injury
to 5 damage.
If an incoming attack has no damage type or a damage type
other than physical or energy, your armor’s resistance does not
apply—your powered plate armor doesn’t help much against an
alien’s mind blast or the poison already in your bloodstream.

WOUNDS AND DURABILITY
Alternity heroes don’t have hit points. Instead, every hero or
adversary can withstand some number of wounds. When you suffer
10 points of damage from a laser rifle, you don’t subtract 10 from
anything; you have a wound of severity 10, which for most heroes
represents a serious wound.
Damage from the attack Wound Severity Check Penalty

16+ Mortal Wound Incapacitated
13 to 15 Critical wound –3 steps
10 to 12 Serious wound –2 steps
7 to 9 Moderate wound –1 step
4 to 6 Light wound —
1 to 3 Graze —
0 or less No injury —
When you take damage, mark off a wound box that corresponds
to the severity of the wound. When a wound doesn’t specify sever-
ity, you can choose which open box to mark off (usually you choose
your lowest available wound box). Wounds may also impair your
ability to keep fighting by penalizing your skill checks; see Effects of
Wounds, below.
Your durability is the number and type of wound boxes you pos-
sess at full health; Vitality and talent selection influence your wound
track. A typical hero has two wound boxes in each wound type in
the lowest three rows and one box in the highest three rows. Adver-
saries might have as few as one wound box of any kind or wound
boxes for damage much heavier
than heroes can sustain.
Wounds Escalate: If you don’t
have a wound box available for
a new wound of a given severity,
you instead suffer a wound of
the next-worse severity with an
open wound box. For example, if
you normally have 2 light wound
boxes but you’ve already sus-
tained two light wounds, the next
light wound you sustain becomes
a moderate wound instead—and
if you were out of moderate
wound boxes too, that light wound
would escalate all the way up to a
serious wound.

EFFECTS OF WOUNDS
You suffer negative effects from taking too much damage. If you
have a moderate, serious or critical wound, you suffer a check pen-
alty that applies to every skill check you make. If you are suffering
from multiple wounds, only the worst check penalty applies—your
wound penalties don’t stack. A hero can usually shrug off a few
small hits, but too many small hits—or one solid shot from an
enemy—can seriously affect your actions.
Incapacitated: When you lose your mortal wound box, you’re
incapacitated. You fall unconscious and can take no actions. What
happens next depends on the lethality of the game—think of it as
the difficulty level selected by the GM.
LOW LETHALITY
When you lose your mortal wound box, you remain unconscious
until you receive medical attention. If medical attention is not avail-
able (for example, because all your allies
are dead or because you’re drifting off into
LETHALITY RULES CAN VARY space and no one can reach you), make a
Resilience check after four hours. On a suc-
Some campaigns might feature
cess, you awaken on your own and reduce
special rules for death and
your mortal wound to a critical wound (or
dying. For example, death in a
the most serious available wound box). On
post-singularity setting might be
a failure, you gain one “strike.” You die if
instantaneous ... but the charac-
you accumulate three strikes before waking
ter quickly returns to life after a
up, or if you take any more damage while
brief period of regeneration and
mortally wounded.
repair or awakens in his or her
data cache with a new body a
few moments after “dying.” STANDARD LETHALITY
When you sustain a mortal wound, you’re
in imminent danger of dying. You immedi-
ately fall unconscious, and begin a special skill challenge on your
next action: You must achieve 3 successes on Resilience checks
before you accumulate 3 failures, or you die. Each Resilience
check takes 3 impulses, and you can use the skill even though
you’re unconscious. On your first success, you stabilize for the
rest of the scene, and the time interval for your Resilience checks
becomes one hour; on your second success, the time interval
becomes eight hours. If you succeed in your Resilience challenge,
you wake up on your own and reduce your mortal wound to a crit-
ical wound (or the most serious available wound box). You recover
normally after that.

HIGH LETHALITY
High lethality works like standard lethality, except that you must
make a Resilience check immediately when you suffer a mortal
wound. If this check fails, you die. If it succeeds, you fall uncon-
scious, and begin the Resilience challenge described above.
HEALING AND RECOVERY

Modern medicine can bring injured people back from death’s door,
but severe injuries may require complicated surgery or weeks (even
months) of treatment and rest. Fortunately, the heroes of more
advanced technological eras often have access to medical devices
that can repair wounds in a matter of minutes or preserve life
despite the most grievous injuries.
Dealing with wounds falls into four categories: stabilizing, treat-
ment, surgery and recovery.
STABILIZING
In the context of the Alternity game, stabilizing a wounded character
The Resilience skill
means keeping a mortally wounded character from dying. To stabi- (described in Chapter
lize someone, you must be adjacent to them and you must spend 3) covers efforts to
an action to use your skill. Your Medicine check counts as 1, 2 or 3 self-stabilize.
successes on an Av/Ex/St result toward the target’s Resilience checks
to keep from dying. You can continue to aid the victim, although once
the interval of the Resilience checks moves to one minute or one hour,
you must devote the appropriate amount of time to aiding the victim.
If you don’t have a medical kit or supplies on hand, you take a –2
step penalty to your Medicine check. High-tech gear may grant you
a bonus on your Medicine check or allow you to resuscitate a victim
who just died.
TREATMENT
To actually repair a wound and “uncheck” the wound box, you must
treat the victim. You can treat grazes and light wounds during an
action scene without any specialized equipment. To treat moderate,
serious or critical wounds during an action scene, you must have
medical equipment that specifically allows you to. You can’t treat
mortal wounds during an action scene—first you have to stabilize
the victim and convert the mortal wound to a critical wound, at
which point you can attempt treatment if you have the right gear.
Using Medicine for treatment is a skill challenge; see the Medi-
cine skill description in Chapter 3 for details.
Each wound you treat is a separate challenge. You must be adja-
cent to the injured person. Failing a treatment check doesn’t hurt the
victim—it just means you didn’t make progress during that check.

SURGERY
Most surgery leaves Surgery is a slower alternative than treatment, but it allows you to
the patient with treat multiple wounds at the same time and address severe wounds
a serious wound, that you might not be able to fix with a quick treatment. Performing
which heals normally.
surgery is a Medicine skill challenge with a time interval of one hour
per check (normal) or 10 minutes per check (emergency surgery,
–2 steps on your skill checks). See the Medicine skill description in
Chapter 3 for details.
RECOVERY
Living creatures (and artificial beings with self-repair systems) nat-
urally heal up over time. Minor wounds improve automatically, but
wounds of moderate severity or higher require a successful Resil-
ience check to heal. If you’re receiving medical care during your
recovery, the character helping you can make a Medicine check to
add +1, +2 or +3 steps to your Resilience check to heal up during
that time period.
• Grazes heal up completely at the end of the scene.

• Light wounds heal up completely at the end of the day.
• A moderate wound is converted to a light wound after 1
day of rest if you succeed at a Resilience check. (Check for
each wound.)
• A serious wound is converted to a moderate wound after 3
days of rest if you succeed at a Resilience check. (Check for
each wound.)

• A critical wound is converted to a serious wound after 10
days of rest if you succeed at a Resilience check. (Check for
each wound.)
If you don’t rest, double the time required to recover from a

wound. (In general, light activity such as walking, desk work or
interacting with other people is fine, so long as you get at least
eight hours of sleep a night and you don’t get involved in any
action scenes.)
STATUS EFFECTS
Heroes run into all kinds of troubles during adventures. In addition
to the risks posed by bullets, blades and energy beams, you might
fall prey to effects like being stunned, blinded, poisoned or tempo-
rarily driven insane. These sorts of special conditions are known as
status effects.
DURATION
Status effects might hinder you for an impulse or two, or they might
last for hours; refer to the specific hazard or weapon creating the
effect for details on its duration. Common durations include the
following:
# Impulses: The effect lasts for a certain number of impulses
from the moment it begins to affect you. Place a marker on the
impulse track in the last impulse of the effect so that you remem-
ber when it ends. This type of status effect might instead affect
your next action; for example, a stun effect usually delays your next
action by 3 impulses.
Resist, Active: The effect lasts until you resist it by using the Usually an average
resist action and succeeding at the skill check noted for the effect. success is sufficient
For example, a flash grenade blinds you until you succeed at a to clear the effect.
Dodge check to resist the effect. (No, you don’t clear the spots out
of your eyes by leaping around. We just figure if you’re good at
Dodge, you were a little more likely to look away when the grenade
went off.)
You don’t have to use your next action to start making resist
attempts, but it’s usually in your best interest to clear the effect as
quickly as you can.
Resist, Passive: Some ongoing effects may end without requiring Passive resist effects
active action on your part. At the end of each round, after impulse work best for slow-
acting poisons, thin
8 but before the next round begins, you may make a skill check to atmospheres, etc.
resist the effect. If your check succeeds, the effect ends. You can’t
take the resist action to end the effect early—you can only check at
the end of the round.
Status Effects 161

Resist #: As active or passive resist, but you must achieve a

number of successes with your checks to end the effect. For exam-
ple, active resist 3 (Willpower) means you need 3 successes with
Willpower checks to end the effect.
Resist (Fail): If you fail your skill check to resist the effect, you
fall prey to additional or increased effects. For example, a knockout
gas may begin as an effect that distracts you, but when you fail your
resist action, you fall unconscious for several hours. If you have
an active resist (fail) status, choosing to take an action other than
resist counts as failing the check (but you can resolve that other
action first).
Round End: The effect lasts until the end of the action round, and
usually does something like causing or worsening a wound at that
time. Each action round—at the end of impulse 8—the effect repeats
(and, after affecting you, may allow you another resist check as a
reaction).
Special: Some status effects end in different ways. For example,
if you’re prone, you can just choose to stand up when you get a
chance to do so, or your grappled status ends immediately if the
creature grappling you becomes incapacitated.
EFFECTS
Common status effects include the following:
Blinded: You can’t see. Enemies gain a +2 step bonus on attacks
against you, and your speed is reduced by 50 percent. You suffer
a –5 step penalty to hand-to-hand and melee attacks unless you’re
already grabbing or holding the target. You can’t target anyone
with a ranged attack unless you first fix your target’s location, which
requires a successful Awareness check. Even if you do fix a target
location, you take a –5 step penalty to your attack.
Damage Over Time: An ongoing effect that continues to cause
damage until you end it. At the start of each round at the beginning
of impulse 1, if the DoT effect has not yet been dealt with, you suffer
1 wound box of damage of the specified damage type.
Usually you fight off DoT with active or passive resistance, but
some types of DoT allow your teammates to help you—for example,
by making a Medicine check to treat you for DoT (bleeding). Typical
methods for resisting DoT effects are as follows:
Type Resist Type Resist Skill or Method

Acid Active Resist 2 (Endurance)
Bleeding Passive Endurance or treatment (Medicine)
Fire Active Dodge; +1 step on resist checks if you fall prone
Poison Passive Endurance or treatment (Medicine)
Radiation Passive Resist 3 (Endurance)

Some items or alien attacks may deal more damage or be
harder to resist; for example, an extremely lethal poison could be
“poison damage over time (2 damage),” or “poison damage over
time (passive resist 3, fail: death).” At the GM’s discretion, heroes
might be able to end damage-over-time effects by common-sense
counter-actions, such as extinguishing a fire by jumping into a lake
or neutralizing an acid with a strong base.
Dazed: You have all your faculties, but you aren’t operating at
peak efficiency. Every action you take requires one extra impulse
(including the resist action to end the dazed status effect, if
applicable).
Dead: You fall prone and can take no actions. If you’re lucky, your
friends might be able to resuscitate you with the right medical gear.
Distracted: You’re not able to pay full attention to your foes for You can counteract
some reason. Enemies attacking you get a +1 step bonus to their the distracted effect
attacks. Usually you’re distracted by your own actions and cease with the evade action
modifier, but that
being distracted when you stop doing those actions. just means that the
Grappled (Held): You can’t move away from the creature grap- distraction is now
pling you, and you take a –1 step penalty on all skill checks except slowing you down.
hand-to-hand attacks against your grappler or attempts to break
free. You can use the resist action to break free by defeating your
opponent in an opposed Hand to Hand check.
Incapacitated: You’re unconscious and completely unable to act.
You immediately fall prone (unless you’re in zero-g), and you can
take no actions. At the GM’s discretion, an incapacitated character
might be just conscious enough to notice other people in the room
or mumble a few words in response to a question (a Resilience
check would be appropriate).
Impaired: You’re not at your best—you might be severely disori-
ented, exhausted or fighting off a sedative. You take a –2 step pen-
alty on all skill checks, and your speed is reduced by 50 percent. In
addition, you’re considered to be distracted.
Insane: You are not in control of your actions. The next time you
take an action, roll a d10 to determine what you do:
1–3 Flee, moving away from all other creatures

4–6 Do nothing for 3 impulses
7–8 Attack the last creature that attacked you
9 Attack the closest creature, friend or foe
10 Act normally
After you take the action dictated by your insanity, you can
attempt to shake off the condition by making a Willpower check (0
additional impulses). If you fail, you’re still insane at the start of your
next action.
Off-Balance: You take a –2 step penalty on any skill check you
make on your next action.
Status Effects 163

Prone: You’re on the ground. Enemies gain a +1 step bonus to

In zero-g, prone
can mean flattened attack you in hand-to-hand or melee combat, but suffer a –1 step
against a wall penalty to hit you with ranged attacks. While prone, your Speed is 2
or ceiling. meters. You can stand up from prone with the reposition action.
Slowed: You’re unable to move or act quickly. Reduce your
speed by 50 percent. Any action you take other than the active
resist action requires 1 more impulse than normal.
Stun #: Delay your next action by the number of impulses given
in the effect description. (If no duration is specified, it’s a Stun 3
effect.) You can’t use reactions while stunned. If you were dodging,
you stop dodging.
Weakened: You’re suffering from fatigue, illness or some other
mildly debilitating condition. You take a –1 step penalty on all
skill checks.
HERO POINTS
An Alternity PC is already a cut above the average person in
the world. Your ability ratings provide you with some noteworthy
strengths, your skill points and talents mark you as highly compe-
tent, and you often have access to top-grade gear that ordinary
citizens just can’t get their hands on. But, more important, you’re
a hero. You’re the protagonist of the story, the star of the action
movie, the individual who can step up and make a difference in a
dangerous situation. To measure this otherwise intangible quality,
you’ve got access to one additional resource no one else does:
hero points.
Hero points represent extraordinary luck, resilience or perse-
verance. When the situation appears to be unwinnable, you have a
knack for finding your way through; when anyone else would die,
you somehow pull through. This special resource gives you, the
player, a chance to reach into the game and, just maybe, change
defeat into victory.
USING HERO POINTS

Hero points are an expendable resource—a pool of good karma, if
you will. You can spend a hero point to do one of the following:
• Immediately take any action you could normally take in a

combat or challenge scene as a 1-impulse reaction. You can
interrupt another creature’s action with a hero point reaction
or simply act again immediately after you finish an action. You
must be able to take a reaction to use a hero point this way.

• Improve the success of a skill check in a non-combat scene
by one level (Failure to Average, Average to Excellent, or
Excellent to Stellar).
• Change 1 or more critical wounds or mortal wounds you just
received into light wounds.
• Change 1 or more light, moderate or serious wounds you just
received into grazes.
• Catch some other lucky break (GM discretion applies).
GAINING HERO POINTS

You begin an adventure with 1 hero point. You gain an additional
hero point each time you complete an important milestone in the
adventure. It’s up to the GM what constitutes an important mile-
stone, but generally speaking, awarding 1 hero point per game ses-
sion or 1 hero point per three combat or challenge scenes is a good
pace. In addition, some character talents provide more hero points
under certain circumstances.
NPC HERO POINTS

The GM may assign key NPCs a small number of hero points. In
general, a minor boss or elite enemy (the most important foe within
a milestone stage or small group of scenes) has 1 hero point, and a
major boss (the most important foe in the whole adventure) has
3 hero points.
HIGH HEROIC GAMES

Want to play a game where the heroes don’t stop so many bullets? Award
more hero points. In effect, your pool of hero points becomes your first line
of defense against serious injury. A hero in a high heroic game begins each
adventure with 5 hero points, and gains 1 hero point per scene. In a high heroic
game, NPCs gain more hero points, too. Minor bosses have 2 hero points, and
major bosses have 5.
Hero Points 165

166
6: Running the Game
6: RUNNING THE GAME
“Don’t say where we are! Once we know where we are, then the world
becomes as narrow as a map. When we don’t know, the world feels unlimited.”
—Liu Cixin
A roleplaying game is basically an interactive story or a movie where you can choose
what the characters do next. In Chapter 5, we covered the mechanics of combat and
challenge scenes. In this chapter, we take a look at how to move from one scene to
another, how to begin new scenes, and how to incorporate interesting environments
and supporting characters (or NPCs) into your Alternity game. But before all that,
let’s begin with two rules every GM needs to know.
WHEN TO ROLL THE DICE

The core mechanic (compare dice to your skill score) is designed
to tell you whether an action succeeds or fails when the outcome is
uncertain. But rolling the dice isn’t always the best way to determine
success or failure. Here are times when the GM should just dictate
the outcome of an action:
• Physically impossible actions just fail. No matter how good of

an escape artist you are, you can’t fit a human body through
a 5-centimeter opening.
• Routine tasks in routine circumstances don’t need skill checks. If a
pilot calculates jumps to other stars all the time, you can assume
she succeeds unless some unusual complication is at work (a
deadline to beat, faulty equipment or bad coordinates, say).
• Reward good preparation and engagement by the players. If
a player makes a persuasive argument when her character is
speaking with an NPC, it’s OK to let the NPC be persuaded.
(But remember, people aren’t always rational.)
GM’S DISCRETION
If something comes up that the rules don’t cover, the GM’s allowed
to use plain common sense to make a ruling and move on. Can
a hero fire a laser pistol through the cockpit window of a starship
without melting a hole in the glass? It’s your call. Low-power lasers
pass through ordinary windows pretty easily, so you’d have good
reason to say yes. High-power lasers melt things, and there might be
enough interaction with the glass to transfer energy to the window,
so you also have good reason to say no.
Try to be consistent with your rulings; if you decide lasers melt glass
in one game session and they don’t in the next session, your players
won’t have a fair chance to predict the consequences of their decisions.
Other than that, use common sense and keep the game moving.
167
SCENES AND NARRATION

Like a movie or a television show, an Alternity adventure is orga-
nized into scenes. A scene in an Alternity game is one distinct
fight, interaction or challenge. Some scenes present the heroes
with threats or obstacles to overcome. Other scenes are in the story
primarily to provide information to the heroes (and thus the players),
The best Alternity helping to move the narrative forward. A short adventure usually
adventures feature consists of three to five scenes; longer adventures are organized
a good mix of
scenes. Even the
into acts of three to five scenes each.
most combat-heavy
stories can use the
occasional decision TYPES OF SCENE
scene as the players
debate which way Scenes fall into five general categories: combat, challenge,
to go next. decision, interaction and narration. In addition, you’ll often have
downtime or rest periods, which aren’t really scenes at all. It’s also
not unusual for a scene to combine types—if two heroes are trying
to get information from an NPC while two other heroes are fighting
off the assassins sent to silence her, you could easily be running a
combat and an interaction scene at the same time.
COMBAT SCENES
Is someone using violence to solve a problem? Then it’s a combat
scene. Combat scenes follow the rules presented in Chapter 5, so
they’re fairly simple to run: Just roll initiative and decide which action
a villain or hungry alien takes when its turn comes up. Combat scenes
usually end when one side is wiped out, runs away or surrenders.
However, you might find that a combat scene transforms into an
interaction if the heroes manage to convince their enemies to stop
shooting and talk instead. (Usually that involves someone using an
action to use a skill such as Culture, Influence or Misdirection instead
of attacking, or an NPC offering the heroes a persuasive argument.)
Retreat: To end a combat scene by retreating, move far enough
away to break contact (or break line of sight). If your enemies
choose not to follow you, you successfully retreat. If your ene-
mies wish to pursue after they can no longer attack you, escaping
Most intelligent becomes a challenge scene. Depending on the setting, you may
creatures expect
surrendering
be able to outrun your foes with opposed Endurance checks or
enemies to drop their slip away unseen with Stealth checks. If you fail to escape, a new
weapons and hold combat scene begins when your pursuers reestablish contact.
their positions. Surrender: To surrender, use your action to signal that you’re
surrendering. Proceed through all combatants’ next actions; if no
one else attacks, the combat scene ends (and an interaction scene
might begin, if you’ve got some bargaining to do). The conse-
quences of a surrender or a negotiated ceasefire depend greatly on
the circumstances.
168 6: Running the Game

CHALLENGE SCENES
Challenge scenes are obstacles or tests in which success is
uncertain and something important is at stake, but it’s not actually
a fight. If you’re using a skill, but you’re not shooting or talking to
someone, it’s a challenge scene. Some challenge scenes might go
on for hours or days, while others might last only a few seconds.
If time is critical and seconds count—for example, the heroes are
trying to defuse a bomb or repair an energy shield to resist an
attack coming at any moment—roll initiative and resolve the chal-
lenge scene in action rounds.
Retries: In general, you can’t retry a challenge you failed unless
you change the circumstances in some way: find a better tool, try a
different strategy, use different skills or improve your skill level. The
GM can permit a retry at his or her discretion.
DECISION SCENES
Many adventures feature decision points where the players
choose what they’re going to do next. Sometimes that involves
choosing which way to go next or which lead to follow, and
sometimes that involves spending time or resources to prepare
for a challenge. If the heroes are under significant time pressure
(for example, they’ve got mere minutes to come up with a plan to
impress a criminal warlord) you can put the players “on the clock”
and give them five or ten minutes of table time to arrive at a deci-
sion. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of how long the players want to
spend talking about their choices.
Decision scenes also cover making choices about preparations
or gear purchases within the heroes’ control. If the players tell you
“we go buy five sets of scuba gear” and there’s no reason to think
that scuba gear might be hard to find, you can resolve the scene by
saying something like, “OK, it takes a few hours to find a dive shop
and it costs you $500 each to buy decent used gear, but you get
your scuba equipment.”
INTERACTION
Any time the heroes are talking to an NPC, it’s an interaction scene.
Some interaction scenes are skill challenges based on “talky” skills
such as Influence or Misdirection, while other interaction scenes
don’t use any skill checks at all—sometimes the NPC just has some-
thing to tell the heroes, and no special skill is needed to get the
information. See NPCs later in this chapter for more information on
NPC attitudes and cooperation.
Scenes and Narration 169

Roleplaying Resolution: The best way to handle interaction

scenes is to ask the players what their characters are saying; if the
player comes up with a convincing argument or a good offer, don’t
Players who are let a bit of bad luck in a skill check spoil the outcome.
thinking hard
about what their
characters would
say to convince an
NARRATION
NPC to cooperate If you’re just telling the players what happens next, and they don’t
are players who have any decisions to make for their characters, it’s a narration
are engaged in scene. Narration scenes cover the “blank spots” between the
your game.
fights, challenges or decisions facing the heroes. In a narration
scene, the GM simply moves the story along to the next point
where the PCs have a decision to make or a challenge to face.
Avoid making decisions for the players in narration (for example,
“You all decide to investigate the abandoned lab, and since it’s
dark, you turn on the lights ...”); players get to decide how their
characters do things.
Don’t spend a lot
of time in narration
mode; the game is DOWNTIME
about player choices,
not GM monologues. Heroes don’t lead lives of nonstop danger. Between adventures,
they might pursue ordinary careers or just lay low for days, weeks
or months at a time. Downtime can also come in the middle of
adventures thanks to travel requirements or long-term projects; for
example, if the party’s going to be on the Earth-Mars rocket liner
for 17 days and the next scene of the adventure doesn’t occur until
they reach their destination, the characters have 17 days to pursue
whatever sort of non-adventure interests they might have (and that
they can reasonably take up while in transit). Common downtime
activities include:
• Resting and recuperating from injuries

• Maintenance and repair of gear or vehicles
• Research projects
• Building or customizing equipment
• Pursuing a career or running a business
• Fulfilling duty or service obligations to an organization
• Travel
Downtime usually doesn’t require a skill check; you just do it.

(Research and customizing gear might be exceptions; if you’re trying
to cure a rare disease in your downtime, you’re probably taking part
in a very long-term skill challenge that allows you to attempt a skill
check once per month or two of time you put into it.)

CONTACT
When the heroes encounter other creatures that may be hostile, it’s
referred to as a contact situation. Many contact situations immedi-
ately turn into combat scenes or come with fairly obvious set-ups:
If a sentry robot is guarding the hatch to Engineering and the PCs
decide to shoot their way past it, you pretty much know where the
good guys and bad guys are and there isn’t much doubt about their
intentions. Other contact situations might lead to one side ambush-
ing the other, fights at different ranges or even efforts to avoid
contact altogether.
In general, contact begins as soon as one side becomes aware
of the other (although sometimes both sides become aware of each
other at the same time).
STARTING POSITIONS
To determine starting positions, first decide whether the scene has a
set starting range. If the enemies kick in the door, you already know
where everyone is when the scene opens. If the PCs need to get
into Engineering and there’s a sentry robot guarding the hatch, let
the PCs decide where they want to be before they open fire.
If the situation doesn’t have an obvious starting range—for
example, the heroes are driving across a wasteland and a gang of
marauders is searching for them—you’ll need to figure out how far
away the groups are from each other when they can first begin to
interact, and whether one or both sides are trying to not be seen.
SPOTTING RANGE AND OPENING RANGE

The distance at which two potentially hostile forces can begin to
interact with each other varies greatly with the terrain, weather and
light conditions. Spotting range is the distance at which you first
have a chance to detect the other side. If neither group manages to
spot the other, both sides become aware of each other when they
reach opening range (see the table below).
If no one’s trying to be sneaky, have the heroes make a group Group skill checks
Awareness check to spot the other group (if someone is trying to be are covered in
sneaky, see Stealth and Detection, below). If the heroes have some- Chapter 5.
one on point or a scout ahead of the rest of the team, that character
instead makes a single Awareness check. If the check is successful,
the heroes can choose whether to start the scene at spotting range
or opening range. Excellent and Stellar successes should give the
hero team some additional advantage, such as cover or a superior
vantage point. If the heroes fail the Awareness check, the scene
begins at opening range.
Contact 171
Terrain: You can see potential enemies a lot farther away on

open ground than in dense jungle. Open terrain includes plains,
desert, barren hills, highways or lightly trafficked roads. Dense ter-
rain includes heavy forest, jungle, swamp or heavily built-up areas
such as urban alleyways or shanty-towns. Anything in between is
considered typical terrain—light woodland, suburbs, average city
streets and so on. It’s possible to have a great line of sight in one
direction along an open feature like a river or a highway, and much
denser terrain in other directions (like the thick woods alongside
the highway).
Weather: Bad weather can shorten spotting and encounter
ranges drastically. Poor weather includes rain, light fog, smoke
or snow. Awful weather includes thick fog, blizzards, downpours
and the like.
Light: Creatures with typical human vision can’t see very well
in the dark. Streetlights include typical artificial outdoor lighting
(although some areas may be very well lit after dark). Starlight
includes a typical moonless night or area lit by only a glimmer of
light. If there’s no light at all, the area is completely dark, and you
can’t see anything until you walk into it.
Indoors: When you’re inside, your opening range is the size of
the room or compartment you’re in. If an interior space is really
big (say, an enormous cargo bay or warehouse) treat it as outdoor
terrain instead depending on how cluttered it is.
Conditions Spotting Range Opening Range
Open Terrain, Clear Weather, Daylight Extreme (2d6 × 200 m) Very Long (2d6 × 50 m)
Typical Terrain, Poor Weather, Moonlight or Long (2d6 × 20 m) Medium (2d6 × 5 m)
Streetlights
Dense Terrain, Awful Weather, Starlight Medium (2d6 × 5 m) Close (2d6 × 2 m)
Indoors — Room Size
You can see large objects from much farther away if the terrain is
open and the conditions are good. Very large objects such as trucks
or small buildings can be spotted at double the normal range; large
buildings or medium starships can be seen at 10 times the given
distance. (Detection range between ships in space is covered under
vehicle combat.)
STEALTH AND DETECTION

When one or both groups in the contact situation are trying to
remain undetected, some combination of Awareness and Stealth
checks determines who surprises who.
If the heroes are trying to be sneaky but the NPCs aren’t, have
the heroes make a group Stealth check. Apply a bonus or penalty
depending on the NPCs’ alertness and any sensors they have
beyond the human norm (a +2 step bonus for enemies who aren’t

paying attention or a –2 step penalty for enemies who are on high
alert is fair).
On a success, the heroes can choose whether to start at spotting
range or opening range and gain tactical surprise against the NPCs
(who are unaware of the heroes—at least until the shooting starts).
Excellent and Stellar successes likewise grant the PCs some sort of If the PCs aren’t in
positional advantage. close proximity (“wait
around this corner
If the NPCs are trying to sneak up on the heroes, have the hero while I sneak ahead”),
team make a group Awareness check, and apply a bonus or penalty it’s a good idea to
based on the NPCs’ general stealthiness (a +2 step bonus for big have each individual
or subgroup make
or clumsy enemies or a –2 step penalty for enemies with camou- Awareness and/
flage or trained in Stealth is fair). On a success, the heroes can or Stealth checks
choose spotting range or opening range, with Excellent and Stellar separately.
successes granting positional advantage. On a failure, the scene
starts at opening range, and the NPCs have tactical surprise against
the heroes.
If both the NPCs and heroes are trying to be sneaky, make an
Every once in a while,
opposed check: The team’s group Awareness check versus the the NPCs are trying
NPCs’ group Awareness check. Add a bonus or penalty to each to sneak away from
check reflecting the general stealthiness of the enemy side. The the PCs. If that’s the
case, they get away
side that wins the opposed check gains tactical surprise and can on an Awareness
choose to start the scene at spotting range or opening range. If both failure and the scene
sides tie, the scene starts at opening range. No one is surprised. starts at opening
range on a success.
Once you know the starting positions, the scene plays out based
on the initial decisions both sides make in the Fight, Flight or Other
section below.
FIGHT, FLIGHT OR OTHER

When two groups come into contact, a variety of things can happen.
You have five basic choices: attack, retreat, interact, ignore or wait
to see what the other group does. Usually the GM secretly decides
what the NPC group is going to do, and then asks the players how
they want to handle the situation.
If one side is undetected by the other, the detected side automat-
ically chooses the Ignore option. The undetected side gains tactical
surprise if they choose to attack.
Attack: If either side chooses to attack, it’s a combat scene. Roll
initiative!
Retreat: If one side retreats and the other side does anything but
attack, the retreating side breaks contact—the encounter is over.
Interact: One side attempts to engage the other in social inter-
action. If the other side decides to listen, it’s an interaction scene. At
the GM’s discretion, you may be at a disadvantage if you choose to
interact and the other side chooses to attack (a –2 step penalty on
your initiative roll would be appropriate).
Contact 173
Ignore: You carry on with your business. If you fail to detect the
other group (see Stealth and Detection, above), you automatically
choose this option. Unless the other side attacks you or interacts
with you, the encounter is over.
Wait: You hold your position and see what the other side does. If
both sides wait, choose again.
Naturally, some behaviors are more likely than others in different
situations. On a crowded city street, you ignore 99 percent of the
people you pass by, and they ignore you. In game terms, you have
an encounter only if it’s likely to lead to a significant scene in the
story the GM is weaving.
EXPLORATION
Mysterious alien ruins, derelict spaceships, lawless cities, strange
planets … heroes spend a lot of time searching through areas
they’ve never visited before to find people, places or things import-
ant to the current narrative. Sometimes you know what you’re look-
ing for; you might be searching a jungle for the wreckage of a plane,
trying to track down a criminal hiding in the atmosphere plant of an
asteroid city or searching an alien shrine for the legendary Jewel of
Narlok. Sometimes you have no idea what might be waiting for you,
and you’re truly exploring the unknown to satisfy your curiosity (or
perhaps strike it rich).
Regardless of your motivations, exploration follows the same
basic process all RPGs use: the GM tells you what you find, you tell
the GM what you want to do next and the GM tells you the results
of your choices, which often lead to a new area or possible paths of
investigation.
TIME AND SCALE

How long does it take the heroes to search a large island from an
aircar? How often should you update the players on where their
characters are or ask them which way they’re going? It depends
how big the area is and how the heroes are traveling (see the
table below). Exploration falls into three rough categories of time
and scale: site, area and region. You might also find time and scale
useful for keeping track of long-distance travel.
The scales are Site: Anything you can reasonably cover in 10 to 20 minutes. For
different, but you
characters on foot, that’s a city block, a warehouse or large build-
can also use site,
area and region ing, or a small hillock or hollow. The best time unit is 1 minute per
categories for ship- “move,” and a map scale of 20 to 50 meters works well.
based exploration. Area: Anything you can cover in a couple hours. For characters
on foot, that’s an average town or a city district, a spaceport or a

patch of ground maybe 5–6 km across. Use a 10-minute time unit,
and a map scale of 200 to 500 meters.
Region: A stretch of ground you can cover in a couple hours by
bike or car (say, 10–100 km in size); characters on foot would take
days to explore a region. Use a 1-hour time unit; the scale depends
entirely on what sort of vehicle the heroes have.
Long-Distance Travel: If your objective is to just cover ground,
you travel about 10 hours per day. For a couple days, you can push
that quite a bit by driving 24 hours straight, for example. (A 1-day
time unit assumes 10 hours of travel.)
Travel Speed
Time Unit 5 kph 25 kph 80 kph 200 kph 600 kph 25,000 15 million kph
(foot) (bike, ship) (car) (helo) (plane)
kph (orbiter) (interplanet
transport)
1 minute 80 m 400 m 1 km 3 km 10 km 400 km 250,000 km
10 minutes 800 m 4 km 10 km 30 km 100 km 4,000 km 2.5 million km
1 hour 5 km 20 km 80 km 200 km 600 km 25,000 km 0.1 AU
1 day 50 km 200 km 800 km 2,000 km 6,000 km 250,000 km 1 AU
The distances given on the table don’t account for good or bad
conditions (see below). They’re also approximated for GM con-
venience. Don’t be afraid to substitute better numbers if they’re
available; if you know the heroes’ aircar can hit Mach 2 (about 2,500
kph), then they go 2,500 kilometers in an hour of travel.
Speed in space is a complicated question: It’s really how much For ideas on how
acceleration you have available and how long you choose to space travel works
accelerate. The figures given for an orbiter are typical near-planet in your setting, see
Chapter 7.
“working speeds,” while the interplanet transport represents a typi-
cal velocity achieved by a ship that can pull 10g acceleration during
a voyage from Earth to Mars. Ships that can travel faster than light
are much, much faster; if your ship can hit 10c, you can get to Mars
in just a minute or two.
Terrain: Superhighways are easy going for drivers; mountains
can drastically slow down characters traveling on foot. Terrain falls
into four general categories:
• Optimal (highway, gentle plain): Increase travel speed

25 percent.
• Normal (rolling plains, light forest, typical urban): Maintain
normal travel speed.
• Bad (marsh, heavy forest, rough hills, cluttered urban):
Reduce travel speed by 50 percent.
• Extreme (swamp, jungle, steep mountains): Reduce travel
speed by 33 percent.
• Impossible: No movement is possible under current condi-
tions without special equipment or specialized vehicles.
Exploration 175
Following roads or similar improved tracks allows heroes to

reduce the penalty for moving through bad terrain by one level—if
there are any roads to follow.
Weather: A little rain or a stiff breeze won’t slow you down much,
but severe weather (downpours, heavy snow, severe heat or cold)
makes terrain one category worse than normal. Extreme weather
The average distance (hurricanes, whiteouts, sandstorms, extreme heat or cold) makes
between asteroids in terrain two categories worse than normal; you might need to wait for
our asteroid belt is
conditions to improve before pressing on.
about 1,000,000 km.
The distance from
Earth to Mars varies
from about 54 million VISION
to 400 million km.
It’s hard to explore an area, let alone fight effectively, if you can’t see
your hand in front of your face. Usually poor visibility is the result of
a lack of illumination, but dense fog or thick smoke pose a similar
challenge. Visibility can be good, fair, poor, very poor or none.
Visibility is not quite the same thing as spotting range or opening
range in contact situations; terrain and obstacles like trees mean
you usually don’t spot other creatures until you’re well within your
maximum visibility range.
Level Example Max Visibility Effect

Good Daylight, clear unlimited none
Fair Dusk, haze or streetlights 500 meters –1 step to Awareness checks
Poor Dim moonlight, light smoke or fog, 50 meters –1 step to Awareness checks
inferior streetlights and ranged attacks
Very Poor Starlight, thick smoke or fog 5 meters Impaired
None No light 0 meters Blinded
Max Visibility: This is the distance at which you can make out
creatures or details in your surroundings. You can discern very
large objects (buildings, mountains or starships) at much greater
distances if your vision is not actually obscured by fog or smoke,
but all you can see is a dark outline. You can also detect objects or
creatures showing lights in dark but otherwise clear conditions as if
the visibility is good.
Effect: This is the combat effect on creatures whose vision
is limited.
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS
Flashlights, suit lights or other sorts of artificial illumination provide
fair light level to the range given in the item description and poor
light level to twice that range. Of course, artificial lights can be seen
from much farther away (several kilometers, usually) and can’t help
much with thick smoke or fog. If you make a ranged attack against
someone you can see only by the light they’re carrying, you take a
–1 step penalty to your attack roll.

SPECIAL VISION
Advanced gear or natural adaptation may provide you with the
ability to see better in conditions that otherwise might seriously
hinder you.
Low-light Vision: The “night vision” goggles available today
improve very poor or poor visibility to fair visibility for darkness only,
but don’t help with obscuring smoke or fog. You can’t make out
colors or fine details, such as small print on a page. You still need at
least a little light for low-light vision to amplify, so in total darkness it
doesn’t help you.
Sonar/Radar: You “see” by generating a ping of sound (or radio
waves) and discerning the echo produced by objects in your vicinity.
Sonar or radar lets you see in total darkness and through fog or
smoke; the range of your sight is given in the gear or ability descrip-
tion. You can’t make out colors or fine details; everything looks like
an outline to you.
Thermal: You see infrared radiation—the heat given off by
various creatures or objects. This allows you to ignore darkness
and obscuring conditions like smoke or fog; refer to the gear or
ability description for the range of thermal vision. You can’t make
out colors or fine details, but you can tell how hot something is, and
things that are warmer or colder than their surroundings are fairly
obvious—you can tell which car in the parking lot was most recently
in use, or which seat someone was sitting in a few minutes ago (the
GM may allow Awareness or Survival checks as appropriate).
NAVIGATION
Street signs, map apps or system charts are often hard to come by
in remote areas. Heroes venturing into unexplored territory with no
idea of where they’re going stand a good chance of getting lost. At
best, getting lost causes delay and wasted effort, but getting lost in
dangerous terrain can be a fatal mistake.
You may need to make a skill check to determine your location
or travel in the direction you intend to go; Academics (for historical
sites), Culture (for sites in a foreign country or alien system), Survival
(for wilderness orienteering) or Piloting (for setting a course or stay-
ing on it) are all appropriate. Usually, just one character makes the
skill check—it’s up to the players to decide which hero is choosing
the team’s course.
Following a Path: If you have something to follow such as a road, In higher tech
a river, a good set of directions, the signal of a homing beacon or eras, vehicles
even a distant landmark to aim at, you’ll eventually get to wherever with autopilot can
navigate for you ...
your trail leads, no skill checks needed. Whether the path leads to in settled areas.
someplace you want to go is an entirely different question.
Finding a Point: Sometimes you don’t have a path to follow—
you’re looking for something, even if it’s just “the fastest way out of
Exploration 177
these damned hills” or “the clearing where we parked our orbiter.”

Navigating to a point is a complex skill check (success goal of 3, 6
or 10 successes; time interval appropriate for the travel distance).
Each success represents progress toward the goal; usually the
character leading the way or choosing the course makes the skill
check. Clear terrain or prominent landmarks provide a bonus of +2
steps to the skill check; difficult or confusing terrain imposes a –2
step penalty.
Usually you can’t “fail out” of a navigation challenge—you’re wel-
come to keep marching in circles as long as you want.
ENVIRONMENTAL DANGERS
AND DEBILITY
The rule of three: Heroes have a habit of finding reasons to venture into dangerous
fit humans can places and situations. Wounds caused by bullets and laser beams
survive 3 minutes
without air, 3 hours
are bad enough, but there are plenty of other ways the universe can
without shelter in the do you in: starvation, exotic diseases, a few hours of winter in North
cold, 3 days without Dakota without a coat. In this section, we’ll take a look at the sort of
water, and 3 weeks environmental dangers Alternity heroes run into from time to time.
without food.
Debility: Debility is a special sort of damage that measures
the slow breakdown of the body from slow-acting environmental
causes, as opposed to bullets or fangs. Debility is measured in
levels; you gain levels of debility when you fail Endurance checks
to resist the effects of dangerous environments. The effects of
debility depend on how many levels of debility you have and your
Vitality score:
Debility 0 No effect; you’re fine!

Debility < half your Vitality Weakened
Debility ≥ half your Vitality Impaired
Debility = your Vitality Incapacitated
Debility > your Vitality Dead
Debility and Wounds: Each time you gain a level of debility, mark
off 2 wound boxes. Begin by marking off graze boxes, but you can’t
heal these wound boxes until you remove a level of debility. (Mark
them with an X or different-color pen if you need to keep them
straight from ordinary wounds.) Moderate levels of debility don’t kill
you directly, but they do make you easier to kill.
Removing Debility: Once you are no longer suffering from the
situation or condition that caused your debility, you begin to recover.
If you are incapacitated or impaired by debility, it takes 3 days of
rest to remove a level of debility. Otherwise, it takes 1 day of rest to
remove a level of debility. (The right medical devices or expert care
can speed up your recovery.)

DISEASE
Bioweapons, alien bugs, infected wounds ... characters occasion-
ally discover that the most dangerous enemies are the microscopic
ones. When you’re exposed to disease, you’re usually required to
make an Endurance check to avoid catching it. If your check fails
and you catch it anyway, you’re now an unwilling participant in a skill
challenge to get better before the disease kills you. Each time you
fail an Endurance check in your skill challenge, you gain 1 level of
debility (see above).
Diseases have four characteristics: contagiousness, rapidity, In terms of narrative
deadliness and persistence. Each characteristic varies from disease structure, the threat
to disease. For example, something easy to catch but not terribly of a disease is
more impactful than
lethal could have high contagiousness, high rapidity, low deadliness actually catching one.
and low persistence. A really nasty bioweapon could have extreme
ratings in all four characteristics.
Severity Contagiousness Rapidity Deadliness Persistence

Low +2 steps 3 days +1 step 1 success
Moderate +0 steps 1 day +0 steps 3 successes
High –2 steps 8 hours –1 step 6 successes
Critical –4 steps 1 hour –2 steps 10 successes
Extreme –5 steps 1 minute –3 steps 10 successes
Contagiousness: The step modifier to your Endurance check to
avoid catching the disease upon exposure.
Rapidity: The time interval of your Endurance skill challenge to
survive the disease.
Deadliness: The step modifier to your Endurance checks to sur-
vive the disease. Each time you fail an Endurance check, you gain 1
level of debility.
Persistence: The number of successful Endurance checks you
must make to complete the skill challenge and fight off the disease.
Exposure: Some diseases are airborne, which means you can
catch them simply by being near someone who’s sick or a disease
source open to the air. Other diseases are foodborne or water-
borne—you catch them by ingesting contaminated food or water.
Finally, some are communicable only through close contact with a
victim’s blood or fluids; if you’re not in close contact with someone
who’s contagious, you won’t catch it. In the context of an Alternity
adventure, the GM decides what constitutes “exposure” and what
precautions can keep you safe (for example, a biohazard suit or
sealed spacesuit is a pretty good defense against airborne diseases).
Sample Disease: The GM decides the streams and lakes of the
planet Pasteur IV harbor a dangerous pathogen. Heroes who fail
their Survival checks on the planet may be exposed by drinking
unsafe water. The pathogen is highly contagious, moderately rapid,
highly deadly and moderately persistent. Heroes exposed must
Environmental Dangers and Debility 179

make an Endurance check at a –2 step penalty to avoid becoming

infected and make an Endurance check at a –2 step penalty once
per day during the disease skill challenge. They require 3 suc-
cesses to recover.
Infected Wounds: Some diseases are transmitted through open
wounds. Characters who sustain a light wound (or worse) from a
diseased creature must make an Endurance check or catch the
disease. No matter how many wounds the character receives during
the scene, he or she makes just one Endurance check at the end of
the scene to resist catching the disease.
Sometimes, just being wounded in an area with disease present
is a potential condition of exposure—an uninjured character might
have nothing to fear from a local microorganism, but a character
with an open wound could be at risk.
DROWNING
We cover other
If you have a moment to prepare, you can automatically hold your
asphyxiation breath for 2 minutes (or 8 action rounds); otherwise, you can hold
scenarios in the your breath for 1 minute (4 action rounds). After that, you must make
Poison and Vacuum an Endurance check at the end of each action round (or 15 seconds)
sections below.
to continue holding your breath. Your first check is at a +3 step
bonus, but each subsequent check reduces the bonus by 1 step
(and imposes a worsening penalty by your fourth check). When you
fail the check, you become incapacitated and drown.
If no one aids you, that’s it for you. If you are rescued within
10 minutes of drowning, you’ve at least got a chance. Reviving a
drowning victim is a complex skill challenge: Medicine, time interval
1 minute, 3 successes to revive, –2 step penalty for 5 minutes or
more of submersion, victim dies after 3 failed checks.
EXPOSURE
Dangerous cold or dangerous heat are not uncommon on Earth,
but on alien worlds, climate extremes may easily exceed the worst
extremes that our own arctic regions and deserts can dish up.
Characters who don’t have protection from the elements must make
Endurance checks; each time you fail a check, you gain 1 level
of debility.
Cold Water: Immersion in cold water is not good for you. Water
temperatures below 10° C are dangerous, water temperatures below
5° C are very dangerous, and water temperatures at or below the
freezing mark (unusual, but possible) are extremely dangerous.
Dry Heat: Arid conditions are much more tolerable than humid
conditions. You gain a +2 step bonus on your Endurance checks to
survive hot temperatures if the humidity is low, although you’ll need
to drink lots of water (otherwise, you do not receive the bonus).

Wind Chill: High winds make cold temperatures more hazardous;
you suffer a –2 step penalty to your Endurance checks to survive
cold temperatures if the wind is above 30 kph.
Hazard Level Cold Heat Endurance Check Interval

Moderate < 5° C (40° F) > 35° C (95° F) 4 hours
Dangerous < –10° C (15° F) > 50° C (120° F) 1 hour
Very Dangerous < –30° C (–20° F) > 60° C (140° F) 10 minutes
Extremely Dangerous < –50° C (–60° F) > 75° C (165° F) 1 minute
FALLING AND IMPACTS

Hitting the ground at high velocity is dangerous to your health; avoid
falling from high places. If you’re pushed over a cliff or knocked off
a narrow ledge, you can attempt an Acrobatics check as a reaction
to catch yourself before you fall; if you succeed, you fall prone at the
edge. The damage you sustain from a fall depends on how far you
fall; bad falls can inflict multiple wounds at the same time.
Different Gravity: The distances given below assume Earthlike
gravity. On low-gravity worlds, halve the actual fall height to deter-
mine your fall severity; on high-gravity worlds, double the actual fall
height to determine severity.
Severity Damage Fall of . . . Vehicle Speed

Minor 1d6 damage 2–3 meters 1–19 kph
Moderate 1d10 damage 4–5 meters 20–39 kph
Serious 1d12 damage (inflicts 1d3 wounds) 6–10 meters 40–69 kph
Critical 2d8 damage (inflicts 1d4 wounds) 11–24 meters 70–99 kph
Lethal 2d12 damage (inflicts 1d6 wounds) 25+ meters 100+ kph
Impact: Getting hit by a large, fast-moving object like a car is
similar to falling—you collide with something bigger than you at a
Real world: The
high rate of speed. The severity of the impact depends on how fast average person
the vehicle (or other object) is moving. You can attempt an Acrobat- has a fifty-fifty shot
ics check as a reaction to throw yourself out of the way, assuming of surviving a 15
m fall or surviving
it’s possible to get out of the object’s path by moving a few meters. being hit by a car
If you succeed, you fall prone in the closest safe space. going 70 kph.
GRAVITY
Earth-normal gravity (or g) isn’t all that common in the universe.
Heroes might visit massive planets with extremely heavy gravity or
find themselves on derelict spaceships with zero gravity. Remember,
gravity is acceleration—if you’re in a ship boosting at 5 g and you’re
not in an acceleration couch, you’re going to be glued to the floor.
For our purposes, gravity comes in six levels: zero-g, micro, low,
standard, high and extreme.

Zero gravity is awkward for people unac-

customed to it.
• If you have no surface to push off from or

move along, you can’t move. Otherwise, you
must make an Acrobatics check when you
move. On a failure, you’re slowed (see Status
Effects) until your next action.
• You can “jump” across wide gaps with a
strong push-off. Essentially, you’re ballistic and can’t
steer; you automatically move a number of meters equal
to your half your speed at the end of each impulse (and
can take other actions while your momentum carries you).
If you need to hit a precise or difficult landing point, make an
Acrobatics check when you begin your jump to see whether
you hit your target.
• You suffer a –1 step penalty to any skill check you
make for physical activity (including hand-to-hand
and melee attacks).
• Each time you make an attack, you must make an
Acrobatics check or knock yourself off-balance (see
Status Effects).
• Heroes with zero-g training ignore the penalty for skill
checks, and gain a +3 step bonus to Acrobatics checks in
zero gravity.
Microgravity (less than 0.1 g) is effectively the same as zero

gravity, except objects and creatures very slowly fall to the floor or
ground, whatever that is. For example, water puddles on the floor
and flames burn “up.”
Low gravity (0.1 g to 0.6 g) is generally comfortable for people
used to standard gravity. You gain a +1 step bonus to skill checks to
climb, jump or lift heavy loads. Reduce falls by one severity level.
Standard gravity is generally Earthlike (0.7 g to 1.2 g). Heroes
native to Earthlike worlds suffer no penalties in standard gravity. If
you’re native to a low-gravity planet, standard gravity is considered
high, and if you’re native to a high-gravity planet, standard gravity is
considered low.

High gravity is significantly heavier than Earth’s (1.2 g to 2 g).
You suffer a –1 step penalty to all skill checks for physical activity
(including hand-to-hand or melee combat, but not ranged combat).
Falls increase one severity level.
Extreme gravity ranges from 2 g up to 4 g; it’s the heaviest in
which heroes can still move around (with great difficulty). You’re
impaired (see Status Effects), and falls increase one severity level.
Gravity above 4 g immobilizes human heroes and is generally
not survivable for more than a few hours without artificial support.
Humans can briefly endure higher g-forces; a good rollercoaster
Colonel John Stapp,
reaches 5 g or 6 g for a few seconds at a time, fighter pilots can USAF, is the current
take 9 g or so with special suits. It may be possible to survive as record-holder. He
much as 50 g ... for a few seconds. survived 46.2 g in a
decelerator sled.
POISON
Venomous animals, poisoned arrows, chemical weapons ... poisons
of various sorts pose a significant threat to heroes. In the Alternity
game, poison comes in two basic types: fast-acting poisons that
deal damage over time in combat situations or slow-acting poisons
that kill over hours or days by inflicting debility on the victim.
Delivery: Poisons can be introduced into your body through
several different mechanisms. If the delivery method succeeds (you
drink the poisoned wine, the poisoned arrow inflicts a wound and so
on), you are now poisoned.
• Contact: Mere contact with exposed skin delivers the poison.

If you’re wearing chem warfare gear, or you avoid touching
or handling a poisoned object, you’re safe.
• Ingested: Eating or drinking poisoned food or beverages
delivers the poison.
• Inhaled: Breathing in a vapor or gas delivers the poison. A
gas mask or an independent breathing system like that in a
typical space suit or breathing mask protects you, as does
holding your breath (if you know you’re in danger).
• Injected: Receiving a wound from a poisoned weapon, being
stung or bitten by a venomous animal or being injected with
a hypodermic needle delivers the poison.
Fast-Acting Poison: Fast poisons tend to be “tactical”—they

take effect swiftly enough to disable or kill a victim over the course
of a combat or challenge scene. A selection of common poisons
appears on the table below.
Onset: The time it takes for a poison to begin working.
Dmg Over Time: How many wound boxes of damage it deals at
the start of each round once it begins working. Fast-acting poisons

deal lots of damage quickly, while slower poisons might deal only
one wound per round.
Effect: A secondary condition of the poison. Secondary effects
begin after the onset and last until you end the poisoned status by
succeeding at the required number of Endurance checks to resist
the poison (or until you receive an antidote).
# Resist: The number of times you must succeed at an Endur-
ance check to fight off the poison’s effect. You resist poison pas-
sively at the end of the round, not actively by using the resist action.
Fail: The effect of failing an Endurance check to resist a poison.
Dmg
Poison Delivery Onset over Time Effect #Resist Fail
Chloroform Inhaled 1 round none Impaired 1 Incapacitated
1d6 × 10 min.
Cyanide Ingested Instant 2 wounds Incapacitated 3 Death
Gas, Chlorine Inhaled 1 round 1 wound Distracted 1
Gas, Mustard Contact 1 minute 1 wound Impaired 1
Gas, Nerve Contact Instant 1 wound Blinded, slowed 6 Death
Sedative, strong Ingested 10 minutes none Impaired 1 Incapacitated
1d6 hours
Tranquilizer Injected 1 round none Impaired 3 Incapacitated
1d6 x 10 min.
Venom, Injected 2 rounds 1 wound Distracted 1
moderate
Venom, strong Injected 1 round 2 wounds Impaired 3
Venom, lethal Injected Instant 2 wounds Impaired, slowed 3 Death
Slow-Acting Poison: Slow-acting poisons function like diseases

(see Disease, earlier in this chapter). Instead of contagiousness,
slow poisons are measured by toxicity. When you’re exposed to a
slow-acting poison dose, make an Endurance check modified by the
poison toxicity. If you fail, you are now poisoned. The poison then
progresses like a disease of the corresponding severity; for exam-
ple, arsenic poisoning is a “disease” of moderate severity, while ricin
poisoning is a “disease” of critical severity.
RADIATION
Dangerous radiation is a common hazard in science fiction set-
tings. Heroes might find themselves facing damaged power plants,
irradiated ruins, radiological weapons and cosmic phenomena such
as solar flares or pulsars. Radiation injury is a pretty complex topic,
but we’ll reduce it to a relatively simple “game hazard” so you won’t
be tracking rems or enforcing decontamination procedures on
your players.

You are exposed to radiation in one of two ways: by suffering a
radiation injury in a combat or challenge scene (usually as a result
of taking damage over time from a radiation effect) or by spending
time in a dangerous area. The more serious the radiation injury, or
the more time you’re in the dangerous area, the higher the radiation
exposure. Your radiation exposure determines just how sick you’ll
become later.
Time of Exposure in Time of Exposure in Sickness

Radiation Injury Dangerous Area Extreme Area Severity
— 10 minutes 1 impulse Low
Graze 1 hour 1 action round Moderate
Light wound 4 hours 1 minute High
Moderate or serious wound 8 hours 2 minutes Critical
Critical or mortal wound 24 hours 5 minutes Extreme
Radiation Danger: For game purposes, area radiation comes in
two intensities: dangerous (an hour or two of exposure will make
you pretty sick) and extremely dangerous (mere minutes of expo-
sure could be lethal). Realistically, you can accumulate very harmful
doses over days or weeks of exposure in areas bombarded by
moderate levels of radiation or face serious illnesses later in life, but
we’re ignoring that for now—we’re interested in the sort of radiation
hazards you see in action movies or sci-fi blockbusters.
Dangerous radiation sources include damaged power systems
(especially fission or antimatter technology), solar flares or plane-
tary radiation belts, fallout from nuclear explosions and weird alien
artifacts.
Sources of extremely dangerous radiation include critically
breached (or melted-down) power systems, cosmic phenomena
such as gamma ray bursters or the accretion disks of black holes,
nuclear weapons (especially neutron bombs), or very nasty radiolog-
ical weapons.
Radiation Sickness: After you receive a significant dose of radi-
ation, you’re facing a bout of radiation sickness. Radiation sickness
We’re not going to
works like a disease (see Disease, earlier in this chapter), except
worry about cancer
you don’t check for contagiousness—if you soak up a bad dose of down the road or
radiation, you have radiation sickness, period. The severity of your whether you should
radiation sickness depends on what sort of radiation injury you suf- have kids or not. It’s a
game, after all.
fered. Fortunately, high-tech medical equipment and treatments can
often save even the most hopeless of cases.
STARVATION AND DEHYDRATION

Heroes venturing a long way from civilization risk running out of
food and water. You track your supplies in “days” of rations; for
example, a character with a full pack might carry 10 days of rations.
One day’s rations typically weigh about 1 kg. In addition, humans

need about 4 liters (or 4 kg) of water per day. Characters without
stores of food or water might be able to forage or hunt for food and
find local water sources if a planet is reasonably Earthlike; see the
Survival skill.
After two days without water or two weeks without food, you
must begin to make Endurance checks to avoid gaining 1 level of
debility. Continue to make checks for each
day without water or week without food until
SUCKED OUT INTO SPACE
you either improve your supply situation
While you don’t explode in or succumb.
vacuum, you can easily get
blown out into space if some-
thing puts an unexpected hole in VACUUM
your ship or station. Air escaping Sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself
through a large hole creates a outside your ship without a spacesuit, and
powerful wind “blowing” out. In that’s not where you want to be. Contrary to
zero-g or microgravity, you’re popular depiction, you generally don’t freeze
picked up and swept along; at in vacuum—it’s hard to lose heat without
the end of each impulse, you’re any sort of matter in contact with you. You’re
carried 20 meters closer to the also not going to explode, but you can suffer
hole unless you find something lethal injury if your lungs rupture.
to hold onto. If you’re actually Initial Exposure: Make a Resilience
blown out through a large hole, check. On a failure, you sustain a mortal
you’re now drifting away from wound. If you have a moment to ready your-
your ship at the speed of 20 self—your suit leak is slow or you’re choos-
meters per impulse. ing to open the airlock—you can empty your
If the area now exposed to lungs of air, and you don’t need to make the
space is small, it can empty out Resilience check.
very quickly. A large hole in a Acting in Vacuum: You’re distracted. At
small room means that room the end of each even-numbered impulse,
is immediately emptied of air, make an Endurance check; you have a
becoming a vacuum. A large cumulative –1 step penalty for each check
hole in a large room, or a small after the first. On your first failed check, you
hole in a small room, causes the become impaired. On your second failed
room to depressurize over the check, you fall unconscious and start to
course of 2d6 action rounds asphyxiate.
(or more, if the area venting is Asphyxiation: The combination of asphyx-
really big). iation and ebullism (your body fluids boiling
in low pressure) finish you off in a couple
minutes. Mercifully, you’re unconscious by
this point. At the end of each minute you’re unconscious in vacuum,
make an Endurance check. On a failure, you die. You have a cumu-
lative –1 step penalty for each check after the first.

OBJECTS
Take a look around you—if the room where you’re sitting suddenly
became the focus of an action scene in a movie, what sort of things
would get in the heroes’ way? What sort of things could be broken or
destroyed? If the heroes blasted something with a plasma burst, how
might that affect the scene? For the most part, everyday furnishings,
appliances and knickknacks aren’t worth paying attention to—you can
assume a gunfight in an office lobby leaves a few bullet-ridden chairs
and broken windows behind. However, sometimes it’s important to
know if you can punch a hole in a fusion plant’s containment unit with
a pistol shot, destroy a desktop computer by throwing it against a
wall, or blast through an armored hatch with a rocket launcher.
OBJECT CHARACTERISTICS
If you need to describe an object in game statistics, use the follow-
ing characteristics:
Size and Mass: The object’s size and weight; handy for figuring
out how hard it is to target with an attack or shove.
• Tiny (1 kg): soda can

• Small (10 kg): microwave, office chair
• Medium (50 kg): desk, shrub, lawnmower, interior door
• Large (250 kg): refrigerator, large bush, motorcycle,
armored door
• Huge (1,200 kg): car, light truck, walk-in freezer, airlock,
small tree
• Enormous (5,000 kg): heavy truck, large tree, water tank
Anything bigger than “enormous” is probably a building, ship or Appendix 2 covers

piece of terrain, not an object per se. Very big objects usually have shooting at (and
some natural resistance to damage by virtue of their size; bullet from) vehicles in
greater detail.
holes might impair the working of a typical car, but they won’t physi-
cally destroy it. (See Firepower and Big Targets in this section.)
Breakage: Things a hero might break, shatter or bust through
with sheer physical muscle are usually assigned a breakage modifi-
er—a step bonus or penalty to the Athletics check of anyone trying
to break open or break through the object.
• Fragile: +2 step bonus (screen door, glass window)

• Normal: +0 step (interior door, light furniture)
• Tough: –2 step penalty (exterior door, sturdy furniture,
safety glass)
• Very Tough: –4 step penalty (fire door, armored glass)
• Unbreakable: Not possible without a powerful weapon or
explosives
Objects 187
Resistance: The amount of armor or toughness the object pos-

sesses. Does a bullet punch into it, pock or dent it, or just bounce
right off? Resistance generally depends on what the object is made
of or protected by:
• Cloth, leather, soft plastic: Resistance 0–1

• Plastic, wood, thin metal: Resistance 2–3
• Stone, concrete, dense plastic, average metal (0.5 cm):
Resistance 4–5
• Sturdy metal (1 cm) or personal armor: Resistance 6–8
• Heavy metal (2 cm) or vehicular armor: Resistance 9–12
• Super-heavy metal (5 cm) or extreme vehicular armor: Resis-
tance 13–15
Durability: The number and type of wound boxes the object pos-
sesses. Size, redundancy, quality of construction, compartmentaliza-
tion or plain physical toughness all influence the object’s durability
track. Think of durability as “how many shots can this thing take
before it’s wrecked.” Use the table below as a guide:
Just like wounded characters take a penalty to their actions,
objects with significant damage may not work as well as they’re
supposed to. For example, trying to operate a reactor console that
has suffered critical damage means you’re taking a –3 step penalty
on your Engineering checks. (We advise running at that point.)
OBJECT DURABILITY
Object Size/Toughness
Wound Box Type Tiny Small Average Large Huge
Total (destroyed) 7+:  10+:  13+:  16+:  20+: 
Critical (–3 steps) 1–6:  1–9:  10–12:  13–15:  16–19:  
Serious (–2 steps) 7–9:  10–12:   13–15:   
Moderate (–1 step) 1–6:  7–9:   10–12:   
Minor 1–6:   1–9:   
Shift 1 column to the left if the object is fragile for its size.
Shift 1 column to the right if the object is tough for its size.
FIREPOWER AND BIG TARGETS

Some targets are so massive that handheld weapons are basically
ineffective against them—a handgun just isn’t going to do much to
stop a tank. If you want to stop a tank, you need a bazooka or an
anti-tank gun. Targets that are big and tough have extremely high
armor values. Good examples include:

Target Resistance
Light vehicle, small house 5 + material
Heavy vehicle, light ship, bunker, building 10 + material
Medium ship, tank, vault 15 + material
Heavy ship, fortress 20 + material
For example, a bunker made from concrete (a material with resis-
tance 4–5) should have an armor value of 14 or 15.
Weapons designed to damage or destroy massive targets either
deal extreme damage (perhaps 6d10 energy for a battleship’s laser)
or have an armor piercing (AP) value of 10 or more.
INTERACTION
Many scenes in adventures fall into the category of social interac-
tions: The heroes are trying to negotiate with an NPC for something
they want or convince an NPC to treat them differently than usual.
Scenes that revolve around the heroes talking with NPCs are gener-
ally referred to as “interaction” scenes or encounters—and if it’s not
clear whether the heroes can get what they want from someone, an
interaction skill challenge may be called for.
Automatic Success and Failure: While a hero with a winning Per-
sonality and a bunch of skill points in Influence or Misdirection can
talk his way out of quite a lot of trouble, the GM should begin inter-
actions with a strong bias toward common sense. You don’t have to
succeed at an Influence check to get the cashier at a fast-food joint
to sell you a hamburger; that’s the cashier’s job. (You might need to
make an Influence check to persuade the manager to fix you a ham-
burger if they’re closing for the night or if they’re saving the ham-
burger for someone else, though.) Routine interactions for ordinary
stakes should just succeed.
Likewise, some interactions don’t succeed regardless of skill
checks. If the GM determines a spaceport security chief is incor-
ruptible, no attempt to bribe that NPC is going to work, regardless
of check results. (However, convincing the honest security chief
that your cargo is one thing instead of another might be possible.)
People don’t just give valuables to strangers or take insane risks
for them on a whim; you’ll need to create the right conditions first
by winning the target’s confidence, which takes time and may
involve extensive research and a Misdirection skill challenge in its
own right.
Interaction 189
NPC ATTITUDE
Most NPCs you interact with in an Alternity adventure begin with
an attitude appropriate for their role. A xenophobic alien tribe is
hostile to off-worlders and attacks any humans they see, unless
they’ve learned to fear human firepower ... in which case they might
flee, hide or quietly track the team looking for chances to ambush
stray or unaware heroes. A conscientious security guard does her
job, doing her best to protect the facility she’s assigned to, while a
disgruntled security guard does the absolute minimum she needs to
do to avoid getting fired.
Attitudes fall into five basic categories:
• Hostile: The NPC takes action to hurt the heroes, report

them to authorities or avoid contact if they appear too
dangerous.
• Suspicious or Unfriendly: The NPC takes action to avoid the
heroes or chase them away (and may become hostile if the
heroes don’t back off).
• Indifferent: The NPC interacts with the heroes as expected,
but may become friendly or unfriendly depending on how
the heroes interact.
• Helpful: The NPC interacts as expected, but adds minor
assistance, advice or support.
• Friendly: The NPC gives you major support, even when you
didn’t ask for it. A friend will accept personal risk to aid you.
Your contacts are generally friendly.
With most Coercion and Influence checks (plus many Deception

checks), it takes a certain threshold of successes to change an
NPC’s attitude. If the bad guys are shooting at you—and thus hos-
tile—it takes more than an Average Influence success to get them to
lower their weapons.
Check required to
Initial Attitude improve by 1 category ...by 2 categories
Hostile Excellent Stellar
Suspicious Average Excellent
Indifferent Average Excellent
Helpful Excellent —
Friendly — —
A failed check either leaves the NPC’s attitude where it is or
worsens it by one category, depending on the situation and the
stakes involved.
Improving an NPC’s attitude by more than two categories gen-
erally requires an extended skill challenge. In this case, an Av/Ex/
St result tallies 1/2/3 successes, and it takes 3 successes for each

attitude improvement. Once you’ve failed three times, the interac-
tion has reached an impasse, and attitudes won’t change further
until time passes or the underlying conditions change.
In the case of Coercion, a successful act doesn’t improve the
NPC’s actual attitude or demeanor, but it temporarily improves the
NPC’s behavior. The dirty cop you’re intimidating is still suspicious,
but she’ll act helpful for the moment, muttering curses under her
breath the whole time.
ROLEPLAYING
Sometimes, players hit upon the exact right thing for their characters
to say in the exact right situation. If the GM feels the players, speak-
ing for their characters, found the exact right argument or induce-
ment to convince an NPC to do what they want, there’s no need to
roll the dice. Your reward for engaging with the story and thinking
hard about how your character can change someone else’s mind—
or buy them off with an offer they can’t refuse—is you automatically As long as your
succeed at the interaction scene. table is consistent,
Alternity works just
If your argument or inducement is strong but the GM feels it’s fine whether you’re
not a sure thing, the GM can simply award you a bonus on your skill more of an “act it out”
check. A bonus of +1 step for a point well made to +3 steps for a type or a “roll the
dice” sort.
compelling case would be appropriate; anything more probably falls
into the realm of automatic success.
NEGOTIATIONS
If a skill check is called for, a negotiation ranges from a single check
for a simple decision to a lengthy skill challenge for a complex or
time-consuming decision. Brokering a peace deal between warring
planets isn’t the sort of thing you do with one roll of the dice. The
three biggest components of a negotiation challenge are commit-
ment, risk and reward.
Commitment: How much effort are you requesting from the NPC
you’re dealing with? Convincing villagers to delay an unimportant
hunt by a day is not too hard, but convincing them to never again
hunt a rare prey animal that represents an important rite of passage
for their warriors is a much tougher sell.
• Simple decision/a few minutes: 1 success

• It’ll take a few hours, tops: 3 successes
• It could go on for days or weeks: 6 successes
• You’re asking for years of commitment: 10 successes
Risk: How dangerous is it for the NPC to go along with what

you’re suggesting? If a gate guard is likely to be fired for letting
the wrong person into the facility, it doesn’t matter that it would
Interaction 191
take only a moment for her to buzz you in—she’s likely to say no.
Risk imposes a penalty depending on the potential consequences
to the NPC:
• Risk of mild consequences (demerit, small fine): –1 step

• Risk of serious consequences (fired or injured): –3 steps
• Risk of extreme consequences (killed): –5 steps
Reward: What’s the upside for the NPC? Minor rewards include
It doesn’t matter
a gift equal to a few hours’ pay, a good word with a supervisor or
if you can really a chance to spend time with someone the NPC finds congenial or
provide the reward attractive. Major rewards are things like a few month’s pay, a promo-
to the NPC; the NPC tion or the promise of a serious relationship with the right person.
just has to believe
you’ll live up to your Extreme rewards include gifts of “quit your job” money, promotions
end of the deal. of several steps and so on. Rewards provide bonuses to your nego-
tiation skill challenge (+1 to +5 steps).
INTERROGATIONS
If the heroes capture an important NPC who has information
they want, you can play out the interrogation as a negotiation as
described above. The key aspects of commitment, risk and reward
still apply. But for less important interrogations (the quintessential
“find out what the guard knows” situation), you can use a more
streamlined technique.
Set Success Categories: Decide what the NPC reveals with each
category of success:
• Average: Basic/limited answers to direct questions. The

NPC’s attitude is effectively indifferent.
• Excellent: Answers include extra context and volunteered
information. Attitude is effectively helpful.
• Stellar: The NPC “flips” and becomes effectively friendly as
long as the consequences for cooperation (described below)
are intact.
The players don’t know what specific information is associated

with each category, but you should give it some thought ahead of
time so you can roleplay the interrogation subject effectively.
RESISTANCE OR COOPERATION
Interrogation subjects tend to view their “should I talk or not?” deci-
sion through two lenses: the consequences for resisting the heroes’
interrogation versus the consequences for cooperating. As the GM,
you have the best insight into how the NPC would initially weigh
those competing consequences; decide on a step bonus or step

penalty as appropriate. If the heroes threaten a helpless NPC with
violence or imprisonment, that’s a significant step bonus – unless
talking will subject the NPC to the proverbial “fate worse than
death,” in which case there’s a step penalty.
INTERROGATION METHODS
Once you’ve figured out your categories for success and set an
overall step bonus/penalty for the consequences of resistance
versus cooperation, it’s time for the players to engage in the actual
interrogation. Depending on your table’s style, this can fall any-
where on the act-it-out to roll-the-dice spectrum (described in the
Roleplaying section above).
Good Cop/Bad Cop: Players love using this interrogation tech-
nique, and they should—it’s fun! To quickly adjudicate this approach,
give the “good cop” PC and the “bad cop” PC each a turn to role-
play their part of the interrogation, then have one make an Influence
check while the other makes a Coercion check. The PCs collectively
gain the benefit of the better result.
False Confederate: Another trick is to convince the interrogation
subject that you’re really on their side. That’s a matter of Deception
checks, with a significant step bonus or penalty depending on how
plausible the ruse is.
Technological Aid: Law enforcement agencies of TE 7 or higher
have access to sensors that function as more reliable versions of
modern-day lie detectors. At TE 7 they’re hard-wired into inter-
rogation rooms, but portable units emerge by TE 8. Treat the
presence of those sensors as a step bonus (generally +1 or +2) for
an interrogation. They can be hacked like other high-tech devices,
and they don’t work on alien physiologies unless they were built
to do so.
Finally, some TE 9 settings have thought-reading sensors that not The psionic
only detect lies, but make it hard or impossible for the interrogation techniques
subject to reveal the truth. Using such mind probes grants a +3 or in Appendix 1
are useful in
higher step bonus on the interrogation, but the consequence for interrogations, too...
failure might be a brain-dead subject, not just a silent one.
WHEN THE TABLES ARE TURNED

Sometimes heroes find themselves on the receiving end of an
interrogation, or someone is trying to negotiate for something the
heroes have. When this happens, act it out at the table, but let
player choice be the deciding factor, not the dice. In other words,
NPCs can’t make Influence, Coercion or Deception checks to have
their way with the player characters. As the GM, you can certainly
influence, coerce, or misdirect them, but the NPCs are doing it
solely with their words and the overall circumstances.
Interaction 193
That doesn’t mean you should put the dice away entirely, though.
When the heroes are being interrogated or negotiated with, there
are all sorts of things they can be doing:
• Turn an interrogation into a “plea bargain”-style exchange of

information: Influence or Deception.
• Pick up clues (which may lead to future step bonuses) during
the conversation: Empathy.
• Discouraging certain “dangerous” lines of inquiry: Coercion.
WHEN NEGOTIATIONS FAIL

Both in science fiction generally and roleplaying games specifically,
a significant percentage of verbal confrontations turn violent. While
harsh language won’t stop an oncoming xenomorph, characters
with expertise in social interactions sense when the conversation
is going south and are better prepared to draw their blasters if it
comes to that.
Attack Out of the Blue: If the social interaction is one where vio-
lence would be exceedingly rare (a transaction with a merchant or
a trade summit between planetary leaders), then the side who first
commits to violence gains tactical surprise (described in Chapter 5)
against everyone on the other side who fails an Empathy check to
pick up a moment’s warning through body language. Assess a step
penalty on the Empathy check depending on just how unlikely the
attack was, given the social circumstance. Characters who succeed
at the Empathy check roll initiative normally.
We All Knew the Risks: If the social interaction is one where both
sides are anticipating the possibility of violence, then set up the start
of the fight depending on whether the heroes or the NPCs commit-
ted to violence first.
The Heroes Commit First: Before the fight begins, have the
heroes make Misdirection checks to disguise their body language
and avoid tipping off the bad guys. On an Av/Ex/St check result, a
PC gains a +1/+2/+3 step bonus on the subsequent initiative check.
The NPCs Commit First: In this case, have the heroes make
Between Stealth/ Empathy checks to notice that the bad guys are reaching for weap-
Awareness ons or otherwise about to end the conversation violently. On an
and Empathy/
Misdirection, Av/Ex/St check result, each PC gains a +1/+2/+3 step bonus on the
there's almost subsequent initiative check.
always a way to As a reminder, these checks and bonuses are appropriate only
get an edge on an
when a social interaction becomes a combat scene. If the PCs meet
initiative check.
an enemy patrol in the forest, initiative depends on Stealth and
Awareness interactions, not Empathy and Misdirection.

NPCS
On rare occasions, a small team of heroes exploring a distant planet
with no intelligent natives might not have any social interactions
during the course of their adventure, but most Alternity adven-
tures take place in settings populated by a supporting cast of NPCs.
In fact, creating a vibrant and interesting universe of memorable
people for the heroes to meet, battle against, fight alongside or help
out in times of danger is a great way for the GM to build a game the
players will long remember.
While you can create NPCs exactly the way you’d create a PC,
the universe isn’t full of only highly competent heroes. Most NPCs
are noteworthy only because they provide a key skill use on the
heroes’ behalf (for example, a top surgeon operating on a badly
wounded PC) or know information the heroes might need for the
current adventure (for example, an eyewitness to a crime the heroes
are trying to solve or an informant who can tell the heroes where
to find the gang hideout). Only the most important villains or allies
need anything like a full character description.
NPC ROLE
An NPC’s role is simply the reason he or she is in the adventure.
Is the NPC a faceless adversary the heroes battle in one combat
scene, a helpful bystander with a key piece of information or a
master villain with a world-threatening plot? NPC roles include allies,
contacts, extras, professionals and villains.
ALLIES
Sometimes, a team of PCs needs a little help. An NPC ally is an
additional hero character under the GM’s control. An ally may be a
temporary addition to the team for a single episode or adventure—
for example, extra firepower the heroes’ employer assigns to help
with a tough mission—or a faithful sidekick who sticks with a hero
through many adventures. For ally NPCs, some
skills are more useful
Allies are “full” characters with ability ratings, archetypes and skill than others. You'll
point assignments. Allies are usually a level or two lower than most almost never roll
heroes in the party (the game is about the heroes, after all). Allies an NPC-vs.-NPC
Influence check,
might join the team for a fair cut of the job’s proceeds or dividends,
for example.
because some higher authority assigns them to the team for a while,
or as sidekicks acquired by heroes who choose the sidekick talent.
The GM designs the ally character and controls the ally during
action scenes (although most GMs allow players to control their
own sidekicks and only overrule the players’ decisions if it seems
clear a sidekick wouldn’t do what the player wants the sidekick to
do). Allies generally don’t take suicidal chances or meekly tolerate
NPCs 195
abusive or negligent behavior from the heroes they’re supposed to

be working with; they’ll leave, surrender or decline to participate in
Declining to a highly risky plan if that’s what any rational person would do.
participate could
be staying behind
full cover and
allowing someone
CONTACTS
else to charge the A contact is an NPC who can provide the heroes with information,
machine-gun nest. resources or favors. Heroes acquire contacts during adventures by
doing things for people. In addition, some character backgrounds
come with contacts (and if you choose the right talents, you may
have even more contacts than other heroes in the campaign).
Don’t confuse contacts with organizations. If you’re a CIA agent,
the agency’s going to provide you with the information you need
to perform your mission, resources such as standard weapons or
satellite phones, and favors like diplomatic cover. If you’re a CIA
agent with a contact, you’ve got access to someone outside Lang-
ley who can do things for you that the Company can’t—a senator
on the Intelligence Committee, a Russian mob boss who owes
you big-time or maybe a white-hat hacker who helps you out from
time to time.
The sort of help a contact provides is up to the GM. Moderate
assistance includes a tip, a ride, posting bail or providing a piece
of normal equipment that otherwise might be hard to find on short
notice. Significant assistance includes short-term surveillance,
the loan of a vehicle, posting a very expensive bail or normally
restricted equipment. Critical assistance consists of a detailed
target list, the loan of a starship, a governor’s pardon or providing
highly regulated gear such as a squad’s worth of powered armor.
If it’s not clear how much help a contact can provide, the GM can
call for a contact check. To make a contact check, the hero with the
contact makes an Influence check; the amount of help the contact
provides is proportional to the success of the hero’s check.
Contacts come in three grades:
• Average contacts: moderate assistance; no bonus to con-

tact checks
• Excellent contacts: significant assistance; +2 step bonus to
contact checks
• Stellar contacts: critical assistance; +4 step bonus to con-
tact checks
EXTRAS
Most of the people the heroes pass by on the street are average
in all respects—they’re literally extras (in the cinematic sense) who
are present only to create the illusion of a realistic world. When
you touch down at an outpost on a distant world, you could meet

lots of interesting people: shopkeepers or dealers who can sell you
gear you need, colony administrators who might hire you for a job,
a gang of kids impressed by someone who’s actually been to other
planets. Extras can’t provide you with unusual assistance or watch
your back during a firefight, but they’re often an important part of
an adventure narrative (for example, the “quest givers” you see in
many MMOs).
Dealers are NPCs who sell you stuff. If you’re a good cus-
tomer or it’s clearly in their own interest to help you get what The dealers who
you need, they’re friendly (and they might occasionally cut you matter are the
dealers who sell guns
a break on an item’s price or buy back lightly used gear you’re and other items that
done with). enable a hero's skills.
Employers hire you to do a job. You’re a hero, so you don’t get Develop them first.
hired to deliver pizzas—you get hired to take care of a problem.
How much an employer can offer and whether they’re on the level
varies quite a bit from adventure to adventure.
Friends are people you’d help out even if they couldn’t pay
you and who help you out in small ways that don’t really rise to
the level of being a formal contact. It’s up to you to decide if a
particular NPC is someone your character feels obligated to assist,
but most heroes have at least a few people they look out for just
because they like ’em. Relatives or romantic interests also fall into
this category.
Informants are NPCs who know something of value in the
current adventure but aren’t persistent or long-lasting contacts.
The moisture farmer who saw which way the desert raiders fled?
She’s an informant. The only reason she exists in your campaign is
to provide the heroes with a useful bit of information when they ask
the right question.
Adversaries are often extras, too. The thugs, mooks, storm-
troopers or guards who only exist to shoot at the heroes in one
combat scene? They’re just not that important. In fact, most don’t
even need a name (although you might need to decide how much
a particular mook or soldier knows about the villain’s master plan
and whether or not he’ll talk if the heroes capture him alive).
PROFESSIONALS
Sometimes, it pays to just hire a pro. A professional is an NPC
you hire because they’ve got a skill you need—for example, a
doctor for an injured character, an engineer to repair a dam-
aged ship, or a lawyer to get an injunction slapped on the
megacorp before they remove artifacts from the alien tomb they
think they own.
Professionals come in three grades:
NPCs 197
• Average professionals (key skill 11+, +1 step bonus; second-

ary skills 13+): $200/hour.
• Excellent professionals (key skill 10+, +1 step bonus; second-
ary skills 12+): $500/hour.
• Stellar professionals (key skill 9+, +2 step bonus; secondary
skills 11+): $1000/hour.
A professional has a key skill—the specific one you need to

hire—and several related secondary skills appropriate to their spe-
cialty. For example, an expert guide could have Survival as a key
skill, and Awareness, Firearm and Stealth as secondary skills.
Facilities: Professionals often have access to superior facilities—
for example, an OR and a crack surgical team at a hospital or a
well-equipped repair yard. Excellent or superior facilities provide an
additional +1 or +2 step bonus on the appropriate skill checks, but
renting facilities (and a supporting team of experts) generally costs
10 to 100 times as much as hiring the professional.
VILLAINS
Most adventures feature a villain—an NPC who serves as the pri-
mary driver of the plot, and the center of resistance to the heroes’
efforts. Villains come in all shapes and sizes; many are very formi-
dable adversaries who can singlehandedly take on a whole team of
heroes while others throw hordes of thugs or soldiers in the heroes’
path. Still others pose no physical threat to the heroes at all—they’re
dangerous because they can use authority or misdirection to
stymie the heroes. The important thing is that a villain has a place
in the narrative: She’s trying to do something the heroes need to
stop, or she’s trying to stop the heroes from doing something they
need to do.
Villains generally require a “full” character or creature design; the
GM needs to know what happens if the heroes confront them, even
if the villains in question have no particular desire to shoot it out
with the good guys. However, villains don’t have to be built on the
same chassis as a PC. Many villains are aliens or monsters of some
sort and don’t have an archetype or full skill selection. Even human
villains rarely need to be constructed like evil heroes.
When in doubt, Villains and Hero Points: Just as heroes have hero points to help
save that last "hero" them shine at dramatic moments in an adventure, important villains
point for a getaway
... or at least to also have hero points. Villains spend their hero points defensively
keep them from to reduce the success of hero attacks (especially Excellent or Stellar
finding the body. successes). They can also spend hero points to succeed at an
important skill check that isn’t a direct attack on one of the PCs—for
example, a Piloting check to vanish into a nebula or an Engineering
check to sabotage a ship’s power plant and create a new problem
for the heroes to deal with.

• Minor Villain (a level boss or a single signature encounter):
1 hero point
• Major Villain (an adventure boss): 2–4 hero points
• Epic Villain (a threat in multiple adventures): 5–6 hero points
THE AVERAGE PERSON

The typical human has ability ratings 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2; one skill at 3 points, and two
at 1 point; initiative score 15/20/25; and durability of 1–9: ; 10+: .
Don’t assign specific abilities or spend skill points unless you have to.
Instead, just give a quick NPC one key skill (skill score 14+) and two secondary
skills (skill score 16+). Any other skill check is untrained (skill score 18+).
QUICK NPC DESCRIPTION

Most NPCs that heroes interact with can be reduced to a few
crucial elements of description. You don’t need to know the NPC’s
biography; you just need to identify a couple salient characteristics
that make a character distinctive and a little memorable. A quick
NPC description entails 1- or 2-word details in some or all of the fol-
lowing areas: name, first impression, age/species/sex, job, motive
and personality.
Name is obvious: What do the heroes call the NPC? It’s often
helpful to give NPCs in the same area very different names just to
avoid player confusion.
First Impression: What salient physical feature do the heroes see
at first glance?
Age/Species/Sex: This is more physical description (although
sex in this case indicates presentation).
Job: What does the NPC do for a living? What’s he or
she good at?
Motive: What does the NPC want in this adventure? Keep it short
and pithy: “help make the town safe from pirates,” “organize a
strike for better working conditions” or “chase off the aliens so the
wreck can be profitably salvaged” are all good examples.
Personality: What’s the key personality trait heroes interacting
with the NPC notice? All you really need is something to hang a
bit of roleplaying on, such as “nervous,” “overconfident,” “bully” or
“dignified.”
Hero Advancement 199

HERO ADVANCEMENT
The Alternity game isn’t a “zero to hero” system—a beginning
character is already a competent hero and a cut above most of the
people in the universe. Even so, characters definitely grow over the
course of their careers, learning new skills and mastering old ones.
In some campaigns, highly experienced heroes also gain access
to better gear and more powerful weapons. A suit of powered
assault armor is never going to be something you just wear all the
time, but as you approach 10th level, it might be something you can
keep stashed on board your ship or easily requisition from the local
authorities when you need it.
AWARDING LEVELS
Heroes level up when the GM decides it’s appropriate for them to
do so; this isn’t an XP or kill-point system. We recommend awarding
a new level to the heroes at the completion of two to three short
adventures, or one medium-sized one (an adventure of about a
dozen scenes). To put it another way, heroes should level up once
every three to six game sessions.
LEVELING UP
When you gain a level, you can learn a new talent. You also gain 5
skill points. The maximum number of skill points you can assign to
a skill is equal to 4 plus your new level, topping out at 10 skill points
by the time you’re level 6. (Later in your career it may be useful to
take up some new skills and expand your horizons a bit.)
RETRAINING
In higher tech eras, Over the course of your career, you might find that some element of
retraining may your early training just isn’t relevant anymore and refocus on skills
involve directly
or talents that are more useful to you. When you gain a level, you
rewiring the heroes'
brains or altering can “forget” a talent and learn a new one in its place. You can also
their memories. remove up to 2 skill points from one existing skill and spend them
on different skills. You can’t choose to remove talents or skill points
that are requirements for a different talent you still have.
GEAR
In fantasy games, heroes gain ever-more powerful magic swords
and magic armor as they gain levels. There’s a limit to just how
believable this is in a sci-fi RPG, but it’s still possible to improve your
combat ability with weapons and armor or to obtain a kit that helps
you succeed at difficult skill challenges with non-combat skills. You

could get your hands on a laser pistol of exceptional quality (per-
haps with a more powerful beam than the standard mass-produced
models or a larger and more efficient power cell) or a heavy-duty
suit of carbon-fiber plate that offers better-than-normal damage
resistance. If you can find a company specializing in limited runs of
superior heavy pistols today, why couldn’t you find it in the future?
Improving through gear upgrades generally involves using Advanced characters
your mission earnings or calling in special favors to purchase Gear are particularly
good for one-shot
Modifications (see Rewards in Chapter 7). You might also just find a adventures featuring
particularly choice piece of gear—for example, a prototype heavy PCs who are the
laser in the evil corporation’s weapons development facility. "best of the best."
STARTING WITH ADVANCED CHARACTERS

As we noted earlier, an Alternity character is a hero right from
1st level. However, a GM might want to let players begin with a
broader array of skills and talents than normal. If you decide to start
a campaign with heroes above 1st level, here are the cumulative skill
points and talent selections for each level:
Starting Skill Max Pts Gear Class or Wealth

Level Pts per Skill Talents 1 2 3 4 5 Wealth
1st 15 5 3 3 2 1 $4,000
2nd 20 6 4 3 2 2 $7,000
3rd 25 7 5 3 3 2 $10,000
4th 30 8 6 3 3 2 1 $20,000
5th 35 9 7 2 3 3 2 $35,000
6th 40 10 8 2 3 3 2 $50,000
7th 45 10 9 3 3 2 1 $80,000
8th 50 10 10 2 3 3 2 $120,000
9th 55 10 11 2 3 3 2 $160,000
10th 60 10 12 4 4 3 $250,000
Skill Points: The number of total skill points you can spend in
addition to the starting skills provided by your choice of archetype.
Maximum Skill Points per Skill: The maximum number of skill
points you can assign to any one skill.
Talents: The number of talents you know.
Gear: This table presents two different systems for gear: choos-
ing items by class or using a pay-as-you-go approach. You either
have the number of items specified at each cost class, or you have
the wealth specified in the last column. For example, a 4th-level
character begins with three Class 1 items, three Class 2 items, two
Class 3 items and one Class 4 item, or instead begins with $20,000
to go shopping with.
You have access to gear of limited availability at higher levels:
restricted at 3rd level, military at 6th level and experimental at
9th level.
Hero Advancement 201

202 7: Creating Adventures

7: CREATING ADVENTURES
“Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the
desert sands and never reach the sea.”
—Isaac Asimov
If you’re the gamemaster of your RPG group, you get to take the lead in choosing
what kind of future you’re going to explore in your game. Revolution in a far-future
dystopia? Galactic exploration? A series of special forces ops to prevent time-trav-
eling aliens from changing the past? It’s all up to you. But that means you’ll need to
know how to create interesting and well-balanced adventures for your players to
participate in.
If you don’t know where to start, we recommend downloading some of the free
Alternity adventures available at sites such as DriveThruRPG.com. Read through a
couple; you’ll see what sort of scenes, decision points and adversaries an adventure
needs. Now here’s the most important advice: You don’t need to write thousands of
words to create an adventure. We write a lot because we don’t know who’s going
to try to run the adventures we create, and we want to provide all the necessary
background so you’ll know how the story ought to change as the players move
through the plot. But if you’re creating an adventure you’re going to run yourself, all
you really need to do is go scene by scene and jot down enough notes to:
• Tell the players what the situation is

• Anticipate the most likely player responses
• Know which skill checks to call for when the players tell you
what they want to do
• Run the adversaries in a combat scene
• Wrap up the scene and move on when the heroes succeed or fail
SCENES AND ACTS

The basic building block of an Alternity adventure is a scene: a
single discrete fight, challenge, or interaction that gives the heroes
a chance to make choices about the unfolding story. Sometimes
a scene represents only a few seconds of time—for example, a
lightning-quick barroom gunfight that ends in a single shot—or
sometimes it might represent days and days, such as a trek across a
desert or an effort to repair a damaged spaceship.
Short adventures consist of three to five scenes; you can usually
get through them in one evening of play. Medium-sized adventures
consist of three to five acts, each with three to five scenes; you can
usually get through one act of a medium-sized adventure in a single
evening. If a scene is a single “room” of a complex, an act rep-
resents a single “level” or building the heroes explore.
203
EPISODES AND SEASONS

In planning an ongoing Alternity campaign, it can be helpful to
think of the campaign structure like that of a television show. Each
adventure is an episode in a larger narrative. Think of the collec-
tions of episodes as a season. While each episode should reach a
conclusion, it should also contribute to the story arc of the season.
Your season could be made up of lots of short episodes or many
long “two-parters” (a set of seven to nine acts with a neat mini-cli-
max in the middle). The final episode should wrap up the sea-
son-long plot lines with a climactic finish!
A season should comprise about five or ten medium-length
adventures. A 5-episode season means the PCs will be level 6 at
the end (assuming they began at level 1), and the same characters
can be ready for a second season in the same campaign setting. A
longer, 10-episode season means the PCs should be able to experi-
ence the full level curve, from 1st to 10th.
COMBAT DIFFICULTY
Combat scenes in Alternity should be both relevant to your story
and a significant enough challenge to merit rolling initiative. Setting
the difficulty of a combat scene is equal parts art and science. The
foes the PCs fight are part of the puzzle, but so is all the set design
(we cover set design later in this chapter).
Adversaries are described in more detail in Chapter 8, but for
purposes of this discussion, here’s what you need to know. Adver-
saries have a threat rating (or TR) describing what level of heroes
they “match up” best against. In addition, you
might find them in big mobs or as tough solos;
GEAR AND COMBAT in order of increasing power and decreasing
DIFFICULTY numbers, adversaries include minions, stan-
Heroes armed with Class 3 dards, champions and bosses.
weapons and defenses are Guidelines for adding adversaries to your
effectively one level higher combat scene are as follows:
than their actual level for A combat scene of average difficulty pits
purposes of Combat Difficulty. a team of heroes against an equal number
Heroes armed with Class 4 or 5 of standard adversaries of their level. You
gear are effectively two levels can substitute a champion in place of two
higher. Likewise, heroes limited standard adversaries or a boss in place of
to Class 1 gear are effectively four. You can also replace a standard adver-
2 levels lower than their sary with three minions of the same level.
actual level. If you know you’re So, for example, your scene might have two
going into a tough fight, get standards and one champion, or one cham-
your hands on some serious pion and six minions. This sort of encounter is
firepower! not usually deadly for the heroes, but it serves
to deplete their resources.

A challenging combat scene involves more enemies or
igher-threat adversaries. Increasing the number of enemies to six
h
standard enemies or increasing the average adversary threat rating
by 2 present the same rough increase in difficulty. In this sort of
fight, expect one or more of the heroes to be seriously wounded.
A climactic battle scene involves even tougher odds for the
heroes. Double the number of foes or use adversaries whose TR is 3
or 4 above than the heroes’ average level. Such a combat will involve
heroic acts and noble sacrifices!
Of course, these guidelines make several baseline assumptions
about party makeup, character choices, tactics and gear level. Simple
probability dictates that while a typical fight might be over within three
combat rounds (24 impulses), over time you’ll have quick scenes that
end after a lucky string of dice rolls, and you’ll have longer combats
that stretch out due to the PCs constantly missing checks. PCs more
focused on combat or better equipped will make short work of typical
fights and be able to more easily take on adversaries a level or two
higher. As you get a feel for the level of challenge your PCs can handle,
you should increase or decrease the combat difficulty accordingly.
ACTION SCENE SETS

Rule Number One: No bad guys standing around in minimally fur-
nished rooms, waiting for the heroes to arrive.
Alternity doesn’t work like that. This game sings when you
spend as much time designing the environment for a scene as you
do the NPCs within it. Whether you’re trying to evoke a sense of sci-
ence fiction grandeur or a gritty, tough-as-nails wasteland, the effort
you spend on your game’s places pays big dividends.
To state Rule Number One in a different way, if you’re the director Minimalist sets are
of the sci-fi movie playing out at your table, spend as much time in a bigger damper
on your table's fun
set design as you do in casting. If you deliver awe-inspiring, fear-in-
than minimalist
voking sets, your game sessions will be the richer for it. You’ll chal- adversaries.
lenge the characters—and your players—in ways that encourage
them to stretch and grow. Good sets are the rich soil where great
characters and compelling stories grow.
With that goal in mind, here are key guidelines for Alternity
“set design”:
REWARD—OR MANDATE—MOVEMENT
As you build the set for the scene, you’ll quickly get a sense for
where the heroes will arrive (generally an obvious entry door, hall-
way or outdoor path). Conversely, if NPCs are arriving to confront
the PCs, you know where they’ll be. Make sure there’s a reason for
the arriving group to move away from that entry point and for the
“home team” to move around within the set as well. Alternity is
Action Scene Sets 205

a game that challenges characters to move as well as act—and to

balance it all in the impulse system. The game can devolve into a
static exercise in dice-rolling if the PCs never need to move beyond
the doorway and the bad guys are on the far end of the room.
Provide cover elsewhere in the set or use manipulables
(described below) to get the PCs to move through the set you’ve
created. When you run the NPCs in the scene, make sure they move
around, too. Think of what a “heat map” of your set would look like,
and make sure the hot spots are spread out.
Mandating movement is most important in action scenes, but
it has a place in interaction and narration scenes, too. Many an
Alternity adventure starts with a dialogue scene where the PCs
meet a patron of some sort who outlines a mission for them to
undertake. Rather than have this scene take place in a wardroom or
office, make it a “walk and talk” where the commander describes a
dangerous mission as she guides you through the secret base. You
can break up the dialogue with descriptions of nervous workers in
jumpsuits fueling up the assault hovercraft, loading the weapons and
so forth. You’re killing several birds with one stone: launching a new
adventure, showing a recurring NPC in her element, offering some
background tone and color, and giving the heroes a preview of the
secret base they might be defending a dozen scenes from now.
INCLUDE A DYNAMIC ELEMENT

This guideline is intentionally broad—have the set change in some
way mid-scene. The change can be entirely cosmetic. The sun might
rise on the viewscreen behind the commander, revealing the pock-
marked moonscape beyond the airlock. Planetary defense fighters
might zoom overhead, going too fast to contribute to the local battle
but making it clear that fighting is widespread.
If you favor The set change can be ominous: the hiss of poison gas seeping
improvisation, into the room or a spiderweb of cracks on the porthole glass. Or it
describe the
dynamic element
can be immediately meaningful, such as reinforcements arriving, a
early in the scene, sandstorm blowing in or the artificial gravity turning off. There are
then figure out how infinite ways to make your set dynamic; just make sure it somehow
it works as you go. changes between the scene’s start and its conclusion.
Sometimes your PCs will do this work for you; some players rarely
leave a set unscathed. There’s one easy way to ensure a dynamic set ...
MAKE THE SETTING MANIPULABLE

… and that’s to festoon it with buttons, levers, computer terminals
and other objects the players can manipulate for good or ill. Give
the players some way to make the encounter easier for them. It can
be as easy as flipping over a table to gain cover or as complex as
hacking the fabrication bot to fight on their behalf.

The manipulable object doesn’t have to work the way players
want it to, and there may be challenging skill checks involved. The
key is that you offer a likely reward for engaging with the set and
exploring the environment. One key difference between science
fiction and fantasy is the prevalence of “moving parts”—tools,
machines, computers and motors—in the environment. In an action
scene, give the PCs security drones to deactivate, blast doors to
divide their enemies and turbolifts that whisk them to safety in the
nick of time. Mid-battle, give them opportunities to sound alarms,
hack the lighting system, fire up the robotic assembly line and blow
the bad guys out the airlock.
In an interaction scene, give one or both sides the opportunity to
change the set as the conversation develops. The Inquisitron can
slowly lower you closer to the lava as you negotiate for your lives.
The scientist can demonstrate the runaway terraforming crisis by
showing the heroes time-lapse holograms of the surface of Mars.
Manipulation of the set isn’t just a PC thing, of course. The NPCs
can—and should—manipulate objects too. If they’re the “home team,”
they probably know more about how things work than the heroes do.
EVERYONE LOVES DESTRUCTION

One way to manipulate an environment is to blow it up. The explo-
sions can be literal: a ticking time bomb, a reactor going full-on
“China Syndrome,” or barrage after barrage of heavy artillery.
Localized destruction works, too. Think about what happens to stray
bullets. Do they hit a steam pipe or a server rack? As you design
your set, make sure it has destructible elements and consider the
consequences of that destruction.
Sometimes destruction has an immediate tactical impact, like the
cover that PCs and NPCs alike love to crouch behind. Sometimes As shorthand, ask
it’s just cosmetic—a shower of sparks when a bank of electronics yourself:
What can I jump?
gear gets hit or broken glass when someone gets thrown through a What can I press?
window. You don’t have to pay a crew to clean up after the PCs, so What can I blow up?
don’t be shy about destroying part or all of each set you create.
CHALLENGE THE CHARACTERS

Alternity characters are intentionally well-rounded, so make sure
your set rewards a broad set of skills. If the players make only attack
rolls, you aren’t getting the most out of the scene. As a start, try to
build something that rewards skilled movement, such as an advan-
tage for characters who are stealthy, acrobatic or athletic (good
at jumping and climbing). Have one or more of the manipulable
elements in the setting demand a technical skill check, and intro-
duce something dangerous in the environment that will test their
defenses and sturdiness.
Action Scene Sets 207

CHALLENGE THE PLAYERS

A good Alternity scene is more than just dice-rolling and check-
ing numbers on a character sheet, of course. Design your set so it
challenges the players, not just the PCs. Any robust combat scene is
a tactical puzzle for the players to solve. Can they survive the battle,
minimize resources lost and maximize the spoils of victory? As you
add dynamic elements, manipulable objects and other aspects of
set design, keep an eye on the whole; make sure you’re giving the
players a tactical exercise.
We steal things Interaction scenes likewise test the players’ social acumen,
like the pressure- acting ability and persuasiveness. Don’t let them devolve into a
valve puzzle from mere Influence check or two. Sometimes you can challenge the
high-school math
"story problems" players with a literal puzzle. Can they negotiate with aliens who only
all the time. communicate with holo-glyphs? It’s a matter of deciphering their
high-tech hieroglyphics. Can you open the right valves to let the
extra steam escape the boiler room without bleeding off so much
steam that the airship crashes? Sure, that could be a Mechanics
check, but it’s better if you tell the players, “You have five valves to
choose from—which one do you want to try?”
INCLUDE AN IMPRESSIVE VISUAL

Unlike TV and movie set designers, you have an infinite special-ef-
fects budget. Go nuts with it! Even mundane places such as offices,
hotel rooms and empty deserts should have an element of sci-fi
spectacle. The office should have the holographic equivalent of
PowerPoint floating over the desk plus an aquarium full of alien life.
The hotel room should have a balcony offering a vista of an orange-
red forest of flytrap-style plants snapping at gas-borne giant insects
overhead. Sunset on the empty desert? Twin suns, of course.
ADVANCE THE NARRATIVE

Make sure each scene offers more than dice rolling and a tactical
puzzle. Each scene—whether it’s grounded in action or dialogue—
should develop the plot, illuminate the characters or reveal the setting.
No random fights with security guards or street thugs! Those security
guards have radios with Overlord Krang haranguing them (character
illumination), and those street thugs have gear and tactics that show
they were once child soldiers in the outback (revealing setting).
Every scene can and should provide narrative propulsion, but
that doesn’t mean each scene brings the players closer to their
goal. Setbacks are part of the game, too. As you design your set,
ask yourself whether this scene advances the narrative if the PCs
succeed ... and if it advances the narrative in a different way if the
PCs fail. If the answers don’t readily spring to mind, you’ve got some
more narrative design ahead of you.

PROPS FOR YOUR SET
It’s a big universe, and Alternity has countless worlds full of alien,
futuristic architecture. Below, we’ve provided a sampling of props—
everything from doors and furniture to sentry lasers and teleport-
ers. Use them (or adapt them) as you create sets for the scenes in
your game.
One trick we often employ ourselves is to establish some key
defaults for the sets in a particular area, then explain to the players,
“Unless I say otherwise, they’re all like this.” Particularly for basic
manipulables like doors and computer terminals, describing the
On all these tables,
default saves everyone time and helps players imagine themselves the listed tech
in the world. era is when the
prop becomes
widespread, not its
DOORS first use.
Doors are an easy way to add something manipulable to a scene
or to make a scene dynamic—slamming a door shut to prevent the
arrival of reinforcements is fun and dramatic. You can attempt to
break through a door with an Athletics check or blast a hole through
it by defeating its resistance and durability. You can also attempt to
eavesdrop through a door, although thicker doors impose a tougher
penalty to any Awareness checks you attempt.
Awareness
Door Type TE Breakage Res. Durability Penalty
Light interior door 1+ +2 steps 2 1–9: ; 10+  –1 step
Ordinary door 1+ +0 steps 2 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –2 steps
Sturdy door 2+ –2 steps 3 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –2 steps
Fire/security door 3+ –4 steps 5 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –3 steps
Glass door 4+ +4 steps 0 1–9: ; 10+  –1 step
Ordinary metal hatch 4+ — 7 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –3 steps
Armored metal hatch 4+ — 10 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –4 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Garage door 5+ –3 steps 5 1–6: ; 7–9: ; –2 steps
10–12: ; 13+ 
Vehicle door 5+ –4 steps 4 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –3 steps
Autoslide 6+ +1 step 2 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –2 steps
EVA airlock 7+ — 8 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –4 steps
Docking collar 7+ — 10 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –5 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Landing bay 8+ — 10 1–6: ; 7–9: ; –5 steps
10–12: ; 13–15: ; 16+: 
Forcefield door 9+ — 14 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –5 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Teleportal 9+ — 3 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  —
Props for Your Set 209

Bar: A door that can be barred on one side (typically a 1-impulse

action) cannot be opened from the other side and adds a –2 step
penalty on attempts to break it down. In higher tech eras, some
facilities have doors that automatically bar themselves when the site
is under a security alert.
Vehicle Door: If the vehicle door has a window, treat it as a glass
door for break/damage purposes.
Even at TE 9+, Autoslide: Covers everything from the automatic doors in modern
the autoslide supermarkets to the higher-tech sliding doors on sci-fi starships. Typi-
doors make a cally triggers on movement within 2 meters; no action required to open.
hissing sound.
Hatch: If water- or airtight, it takes 3 impulses to open them man-
ually. At TE 7+ they often open like autoslide doors.
Airlock, Collar and Landing Bay: Typically takes a 1-impulse
action to engage the open/close cycle, but there’s a 3- to 6-impulse
delay while the environmental controls and safety sensors prepare
to open. EVA airlocks allow access to/from a ship exterior, while
docking collars typically connect one ship to another ship or to a
space station. Landing bays are like giant airlocks, found on larger
ships that stow cargo and smaller ships within them.
Teleportal: Can be installed into a wall or placed on the floor.
Allows instantaneous travel within a given range, typically measured
in kilometers. They can be set to automatically send travelers to a
specific destination (no action required to activate) or can be pro-
grammed with specific coordinates (a 3-impulse action).
LOCKS
In general, an Average success with the Security skill opens a lock
but breaks it, makes it obvious it has been picked or triggers a
security alert. An Excellent success gets the lock open, leaving only
miniscule forensic evidence behind. A Stellar success is undetect-
able and (if it’s a high-tech lock) allows future bypasses to automati-
cally succeed.
Lock TE Unlock time Bypass mod Bypass time Res. Durability

Mechanical Key, simple 3+ 1 impulse — 6 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Mechanical Key, complex 5+ 1 impulse –1 step 8 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Passcode, simple 6+ 1 impulse –1 step 8 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Passcode, complex 6+ 2 impulses –2 steps 10 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Keycard, simple 6+ 1 impulse –2 steps 4 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Keycard, complex 6+ 1 impulse –3 steps 8 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Voice, simple 7+ 1 impulse –3 steps 6 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Voice, complex 7+ 2 impulses –3 steps 6 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Visual, simple 7+ 1 impulse –4 steps 8 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Visual, complex 7+ 1 impulse –5 steps 8 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 
Biometric 8+ 3 impulses –5 steps 16 impulses 5 1–9: ; 10+ 

Rapid Bypass: A character can accept to bypass a lock in half the
time; doing so means an additional –2 step penalty.
Voice/Visual: Typically requires the user to be within 2 meters
of the door to open. These locks can also be bypassed with the
Misdirection skill (Average success required for the simple versions,
Excellent required for complex). The listed bypass mod doesn’t
apply, but the GM should assess a step bonus/penalty based on the
quality of the disguise attempt.
ELEVATORS, LIFTS AND WALKWAYS

Regardless of the tech era, elevators take only a 1-impulse action to
summon and another 1-impulse action to select a destination. As in
real life, the real delay comes from waiting for it to arrive.
From the modern era onward, some elevators are locked (see
above)—at least for certain floors.
Escalators: Ordinary escalators rise at a 30-degree angle,
stretching 8 meters on the angle to ascend 4 meters (one floor on a
typical office building). Characters moving in the same direction as
the escalator gain a 4-meter bonus when taking a move action, or a
4-meter penalty if they’re running the wrong way.
Moving walkway: This includes conveyor belts in typical facto-
ries and airports.
Slidewalk: These automatically accelerate/decelerate users at
the start and end. Getting on or off elsewhere requires an Acrobat-
ics check to avoid falling prone.
Prop TE Arrival Time Door close delay Speed per impulse

Escalator 5+ — — 1 m vertical
Moving walkway 5+ — — 3 m horizontal
Office elevator 5+ 1d6 x 2 impulses 4 m vertical
Cargo lift 6+ 1d6 x 4 impulses 2 m vertical
Express elevator 6+ 1d6 x 2 impulses 12 m vertical
Slidewalk 7+ — — 10 m horizontal
Turbo-lift 8+ 1d6 impulses 30 m horizontal
WALLS AND BULKHEADS

Walls are tough to get through, but heroes are nothing if not
determined. The break and durability numbers represent what it
takes to make a hole in a wall big enough to clamber through. The
wall, if load-bearing, is still otherwise intact. If it makes sense in the
scene, a critical wound to the wall is enough to make a hole you can
shoot a weapon through.
Climb Modifier: The presence of pipes, cabling and other foot-
and handholds may make climbing significantly easier, reducing or
eliminating the step penalty.

Starship Glass: Covers any transparent substance used to allow

direct vision out of space-capable vehicles.
Prefab Composite: Typically used for habitats on planets with
minimal or dangerous atmospheres.
Windows: Use glass, impact glass or starship glass as appropriate.
Wall Type TE Break Res. Durability Climb Mod

Brick/Cinder Block 2+ — 4 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –2 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Wooden Siding 2+ — 3 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –2 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Glass 3+ +2 steps 0 1–9: ; 10+  –5 steps
Plaster/Drywall 4+ –2 steps 2 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –3 steps
Heavy Concrete 5+ — 5 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –2 steps
13–15: ; 16–19: ; 20: 
Steel Bulkhead 5+ — 7 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –4 steps
13–15: ; 16–19: ; 20: 
Armored Bulkhead 5+ — 10 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –4 steps
13–15: ; 16–19: ; 20: 
Impact Glass/Plexi 6+ –2 steps 0 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; 13+  –5 steps
Starship Glass 7+ — 4 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –5 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
Prefab Composite 7+ — 4 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10–12: ; –2 steps
13–15: ; 16+: 
CEILINGS AND LIGHT

For your interior sets, the light doesn’t have to come from the
ceiling, but bundling ceilings and lights together ensures you
give both some basic attention during set design. In a zero-g
environment, construct ceilings as you would walls and/or floors
(described below).
When lighting your set, decide roughly how many fixtures there
are and where they’re located. In general, any hit from a weapon
breaks a light, and turning a light on or off from a switch is a
1-impulse action.
Max Visibility: Ranges are for the unaided human eye. Magnifica-
tion gear can enable vision at greater distances.
Strong Directional Light: Common during EVA near stars or
on inner-orbit planets with minimal atmospheres. Shielded visors
enable normal sight.
Concert/Discotheque: Use this for other cases of flashing/strob-
ing lights, such as artillery barrages and the immediate aftermath of
huge explosions.

Ambient Light Max Visibility Awareness Mod. Stealth Mod.
Moonlight/Starlight 5m –2 steps +2 steps
Candlelight 20 m –1 step +1 step
“Battle Stations” lighting 50 m — —
Nightclub/Casino Office/Residence 20 m — —
Outdoor daylight unlimited — —
Concert/Discotheque unlimited –2 steps +2 steps
Strong Directional Light unlimited –2 steps +2 steps
FLOORS AND SURFACES

This category includes the ground in an outdoor setting, of course—
in a zero-g environment, it includes ceilings and walls as well. Your
primary concern as a set designer is how the surface underneath
the characters impacts their movement.
Shallow Water: Anything deeper than a puddle but shallower
than about a meter. Any deeper than that, and you’re swimming.
Cluttered Furniture: Rather than define the location of every
table and chair in a restaurant, for example, you can define large
swaths of your set as “cluttered furniture.”
Toxic Goo and Lava: Adapt this for any hazardous substance on
the ground. Use toxic goo as your model if you want the damage to
end upon the character leaving the hazard, or use lava if you want
the threat to linger afterward.
Surface Effect
Broken glass –2 m speed; take a graze wound if you go prone
Light underbrush –2 m speed, +1 step on Stealth checks
Mud/snow half movement
Rubble/debris half movement
Cluttered furniture half movement; enemies attacking you suffer –1 step cover penalty
Shallow water half movement
Heavy underbrush half movement, +2 steps on Stealth checks
Heavy rubble Athletics check required to move; enemies attacking you suffer –2 steps
cover penalty
Toxic goo half movement; when you enter, you begin damage over time (acid)
Lava half movement; when you enter and at start of even impulses take 2d8 energy
damage begin damage over time (fire)
SHAFTS AND PRECIPICES

Sometimes there’s no surface at all underneath a character ... not a
problem in a zero-g environment, but potentially deadly when grav-
ity gets involved (see Falling and Impacts in Chapter 6).
Anyone who has seen sci-fi movies knows there’s almost always
a ledge, antenna or other protrusion partway down even the deep-
est shaft. In Alternity, we lean into that principle of set design. Get-
ting thrown down a shaft probably won’t kill you, but you’ll probably
be wounded and have to climb back up to rejoin the action scene.

A character pushed over a cliff or off a catwalk gets an Acrobat-

ics check as a reaction to avoid the fall; if successful, the character
is prone at the edge. You get a bonus to the check depending on
what’s nearby, so as you design your set, decide what the edge of
the precipice looks like.
Object Skill modifier

Safety railing +4 steps
Window/door frame, nearby ladder, major protrusion +3 steps
Rope or cabling +2 steps
Natural rock or minor protrusions +1 step
Bare ledge +0 steps
To add a dramatic falling hazard to your set, allow a plummeting

character to repeat the Acrobatics check at 2 m, 4 m, 10 m and 20 m (if
the fall is that long). Place something in the shaft to grab onto (railing,
cables, a ledge and so on) at those points to give the falling character
a step bonus. If the Acrobatics check succeeds, the character takes
damage for the fall distance down to that point and can climb back up.
For example, a character who fails the Acrobatics check at the
ledge and fails to grab a power cable 2 meters down might succeed
at grabbing a bracing strut (major protrusion, +3 step) 4 meters
down the shaft. The character takes damage for a 4-meter fall
instead of the full depth of the shaft, and it’ll take 4 meters of climb-
ing to get back to the upper edge of the shaft.
DEVICES AND MACHINES

Alternity is a game that spans galaxies and millennia, so an
exhaustive definition of all the devices and machines you can use
as props would be, well, exhausting. Rather than define them by
their purpose and function, we’ll define devices as the props they
are. What do they look/sound like? What happens when the players
interact with them—and blow them up?
In general, devices have three damaged states: cosmetic damage
(the first box), significant damage (the second box) and nonfunc-
tional (the third box). Cosmetic damage doesn’t impact the device’s
intended function. Significant damage means a step penalty (usually
–2 steps) on skill checks using it, or slow/imperfect results.
Device Breakage Resistance Durability

Fragile +4 steps 0 1–3: ; 4–6 ; 7+ 
Ordinary +0 steps 2 1–3: ; 4–6 ; 7+ 
Durable –2 steps 3 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10+ 
Hardened — 6 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10+ 
For the effects of damage, you can either choose a row from the
table below or determine randomly what happens (useful if it’s just

a random machine in the background that gets hit with lasers). If the
device is an important prop within the scene (the space station’s trac- You can choose one
row per device or
tor beam, Doctor Prometheus’s time machine, and so on), it’s worth mix it up randomly
coming up with special effects when it’s damaged or destroyed. as the damage
Remember, you have an unlimited special effects budget ... gets piled on.
MACHINE DAMAGE
d20 cosmetic significant nonfunctional
1 harmless sparks flash of light (–2 steps electrical arcs (1d6 energy damage
Awareness for 1 rd) within 2 m every even impulse)
2 wisps of smoke smoke (poor visibility within 4 m)dense smoke (very poor visibility within
4 m, blocks line of sight)
3 ominous hissing dangerous vapor (1d4 damage toxic vapor within 2 m (poison damage
within 2 m every even impulse) over time)
4 paneling falls off broken glass within 2 m light debris within 2 m
5 popping/clanking explosive boom (–1 step ear-splitting screech/roar
sounds Awareness for 1 round) (–2 step Awareness for 1 round)
6 small puddle of slippery puddle (rough terrain) toxic goo (see Floor section above)
leaking fluid within 2 m within 2 m
7 crackling sounds heat/fire (1d4 energy if touched) fire spreads (floor is effectively lava
within 2 m)
8 alert tones/chimes computer voice warns of computer voice announces shutdown
malfunction
9 sporadic jets of floor is slippery (see Floor floor is slippery and 1d4 energy from cold
escaping coolant section above) within 2 m if touched
10 device enters low- device reboots or powers off/on device briefly flickers back to life
power mode
11 maintenance panel device enters device tries to repair itself
pops off maintenance mode
12 leak of effluent/ sludge is effectively mud sludge is effectively toxic goo
sludge (see floors) within 2 m (see Floors) within 2 m
13 device changes device performs elaborate but device slowly ... stops ... working
language random function
14 parts fly off minor explosion; fragments major explosion dealing 1d8/2d6 physical
harmlessly, land deal 1d6 physical within 2 m in an 8 m/4 m blast
within 10 m (Dodge to avoid)
15 alarm/voice 1d6 energy and irradiate 1d10/2d10 energy and irradiate
announces within 2 m within 8 m/4 m
radiation leak
16 device becomes device is painfully hot parts of device melt and leak out
warm to the touch
17 device goes dark device flickers back to device goes dark again,
normal function humming ominously
18 device rattles device shivers and device falls apart (debris within 2 m)
shakes in place
19 device functions device goes into overdrive device hisses and dies
autonomously but
randomly
20 device vibrates device falls over/ device moves 1 m in random direction,
breaks moorings then falls apart (debris within 2 m)

WEAPON EMPLACEMENTS
Weapon emplacements occupy a middle ground between devices
(described above) and adversaries. To use a weapon emplacement
in one of your sets, choose an enclosure, a weapons system and
one or more target criteria.
ENCLOSURE
Like devices, enclosures have three damaged states: cosmetic,
damaged (–2 step penalty on attacks) and nonfunctional.
Enclosure Breakage Resistance Durability

Fragile +4 steps 0 1–3: ; 4–6 ; 7+ 
Ordinary +0 steps 2 1–3: ; 4–6 ; 7+ 
Durable –2 steps 3 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10+ 
Hardened — 6 1–6: ; 7–9: ; 10+ 
WEAPON SYSTEM
At its heart, a weapon system is just a weapon and an attack score.
Weapon emplacements act last in a given impulse, and they just
attack; they cannot dodge, aim or delay. More primitive weapon
emplacements attack only once and must be manually reset.
Advanced models have internal magazines or are connected to a
power supply.
TARGET CRITERIA
As technology advances, designers of weapon emplacements
develop more sophisticated ways of telling friend from foe.
Physical Trigger (TE 2+): Stepping on a pressure plate, opening
a door or pulling the idol off its pedestal instructs the weapon
system to attack whomever is standing in the designated spot.
Visual Camera (TE 6+): The camera knows (in general terms)
what friendlies look like. Its effective Awareness is 18/23/28, or
16/21/26 for advanced models.
Transponder IFF (TE 7+): In addition to a camera, the weapon
emplacement has a receiver tuned to short-distance
broadcasts from a keycard or other small object
possessed by friendlies. Its effective Awareness is
15/20/25, but there’s a –3 step penalty on both Aware-
ness and attack rolls if the friend-or-foe data doesn’t
match what it observes through its camera.
AI-Augmented IFF (TE 8+): The system visually identifies
friends and foes as a human might and learns as it goes. It has
an effective Awareness of 13/18/23. Some advanced models are
capable of basic conversation; social skills like Influence may
convince them friends are foes or vice versa.

Weapon TE Attack Range Speed Damage Other
Spring-loaded spear 2+ 14/19/24 melee once 1d6+1/5 physical
Remote-triggered 3+ 15/20/25 M once 1d6+0/4 physical AP 3
crossbow
Wall scythe 3+ 13/18/23 melee once 1d6+2/6 physical
Saw blade disk 3+ 16/21/26 C once 1d6+2/6 physical spread
Land mine 4+ 13/18/23 melee once 2d6(1d8) physical blast 4(8)
Claymore mine 5+ 14/19/24 C once 1d6+6(3) physical blast 4(8)
Sentry gun 6+ 15/20/25 M 4 1d8+2/6 physical Mag 4
Mounted taser 6+ 14/19/24 C 6 1d4+0/1 energy nonlethal, stun
Flechette launcher 7+ 14/19/24 C 3 1d6+1/5 physical Mag 3, Brutal
Autochain turret 7+ 16/21/26 M 3 1d6+1/5 physical Mag 10, autofire
(3 targets within 6m)
Laser sentry 7+ 14/19/24 L 5 1d6+0/6 energy
Plasma sentry 8+ 15/20/25 M 4 2d4/2d8 energy
Phase projector 9+ 14/19/24 M 4 1d6+2/7 energy Ignite
REWARDS
Some heroes undertake missions with no expectation of reward,
and sometimes heroes find themselves caught up in adventures
in which the only reward is survival. But most heroes like to get
paid for their work or at least win some well-deserved recognition.
When you design an Alternity adventure, you’re not finished
until you establish the rewards the heroes stand to gain for
their work.
Adventure rewards are an important part of character improve-
ment over the course of a hero’s career. They provide a tangible
motivation for heroes to risk their necks in dangerous circumstances
and take on challenges other people don’t want to face. Rewards
also help to reinforce the “realism” of the narrative—your players
naturally think about what their heroes want, and it builds their
engagement in the campaign when they see opportunities for their
heroes to get it, whatever it is.
Rewards fall into three categories: hero progress, gear or wealth,
and story rewards.
HERO PROGRESS
In a campaign spanning multiple adventures, heroes naturally grow
and learn over time. While even a 1st-level Alternity hero is a
competent protagonist in his or her adventure, high-level heroes
continue to advance their skills, learn new talents and generally
become tougher and more capable. An Alternity adventure can
account for this in the following ways:
Rewards 217
• Hero Point: When the hero team succeeds in a major mile-

stone within the adventure, award each hero a hero point.
Milestone opportunities should come up once every two to
four scenes in an adventure.
• Standout Success: When a player comes up with a great
idea and her hero achieves a Stellar success on the ensuing
check, you can declare a standout success. Award the hero
+1 skill point in the relevant skill.
• Level Up: When the heroes complete a medium-length adven-
ture, allow them to level up (see Hero Advancement in Chapter
6). Completing two to four short adventures or one major sec-
tion of a long adventure would also qualify for leveling up.
We recommend awarding hero points about once per game

session. A standout success is something we see as a spontaneous
Don’t let players reward for a great moment at the game table; don’t reward players
go “fishing” for for doing ordinary things well, reward them for making your adven-
standout success. ture session more enjoyable for everybody. Finally, leveling up is
It’s a micro-reward,
not a standardized something that should happen about once every month or two in
advancement system. real time—you want players to have at least a couple game sessions
at each level, but experience steady progress through the campaign.
GEAR
Heroes can gain better gear in a number of ways. They might find
a valuable piece of gear in a location they’re exploring or take
something useful from an adversary they defeat. The NPC hiring the
heroes for their current mission might issue the improved gear at
the start of the adventure to make their job easier, or the improved
gear might be a specifically negotiated payment for a successful
mission. A hero might even gain improved gear in recognition for
valor or exceptional service.
New or Upgraded Gear: A gear reward can either be a piece of
brand-new equipment of a specific item class (say, a Class 3 suit of
armor), or an opportunity to upgrade an existing piece of gear (for
example, a +1 Class upgrade to a Class 2 pistol). They’re roughly the
same—a Class 2 weapon with a +1 Class upgrade is roughly equal to
a Class 3 weapon. In general, pistols are Class 2, rifles are Class 3
and heavy weapons are Class 4—so if you want to stick with pistols,
you’ll find it easier to choose a good weapon upgrade than a brand-
new Class 3 weapon.
WEAPON UPGRADES
An upgraded weapon might represent a normal model “tricked out”
with a fancy accessory or a custom-built version of exceptional quality.
Most weapon upgrades are permanent, but some special ammu-
nition is considered consumable and is priced separately. At the end

of any combat scene in which you fire a weapon with special ammo,
roll a d20; on a 10 or lower, you used up all your special ammo and
revert to normal ammo for future scenes.
Ammo, Armor Piercing: You acquire a box of high-quality ammu-
nition or a special focusing crystal for an energy weapon that gives
your weapon armor piercing 3 (or improves its existing AP quality
by 3). Class 2 Consumable, any weapon.
Ammo, Hollow Point: These rounds are designed to “mush-
room” on impact, creating extra trauma. Your weapon gains the
bleeding trait, but your target’s armor resistance value improves
by 3 if has any armor. Class 1 Consumable, firearm only.
Ammo, Incendiary: This special ammunition or focusing crystal
gives your weapon the Ignite trait. Class 3 Consumable, TE 7+ only.
Deto-Max: An extremely powerful explosive, Deto-Max increases Increased blast
the blast radius of grenades, rockets and similar explosive pro- radius isn't always a
good thing...
jectiles by 2 meters and adds a +1 bonus to the damage. Class 3
Consumable, any grenade or rocket warhead.
Good Balance: The weapon is light and quick for its size. A
weapon with a speed of 4 or 5 improves (lessens) its speed by 1.
Upgrade +1 Class, speed 4 or 5 weapon only.
High Accuracy: It just shoots well. You gain a +1 step bonus to all
attacks with this weapon. You can’t add this upgrade to a weapon
that already has the accurate trait. Upgrade +1 Class.
High Power: This weapon fires an especially powerful cartridge
or intense beam. You gain a +1 bonus to all damage rolls with this
weapon. Upgrade +1 Class.
Holographic Sight: Increase the weapon’s range by 1 range cat-
egory. If you use the aim action modifier with this weapon, you gain
a +2 step bonus to your attack instead of the normal +1 step bonus.
Upgrade +1 Class.
Stealthed: The weapon is made from materials that don’t trip rou-
tine security scanners and is compact enough to be easily conceal-
able, imposing a –3 step penalty on any effort to search or scan you
for weapons. Upgrade +1 Class, knife or pistol only.
ARMOR UPGRADES
Like weapons, armor upgrades might represent field modifications
to existing gear or a brand-new suit of exceptional quality.
Environment-Capable: This armor gains the life support trait.
Upgrade +1 Class.
Extra Toughness: This armor gains the tough trait.
Upgrade +1 Class.
Hardened: Made from advanced alloys, this armor shrugs off
many armor-piercing attacks. Reduce the attacking weapon’s AP
value by 3 (to a minimum of 0). Upgrade +1 Class, any armor with
resistance.
Rewards 219
High Capacity: The energy field produced by this device is

especially resilient. Increase its deflection or cover value by 1 step.
Upgrade +1 Class, any TE 7+ defense with cover or deflect.
Insulated: This suit dissipates energy damage better than most;
increase the energy resistance value by 1. Upgrade +1 Class, any
armor with resistance.
Light: Designed to be easier to wear than most armor of the
same type, light armor reduces the armor penalty to speed by 2
meters and the penalty to various physical skills by 1 step. Upgrade
+1 Class, any armor with a speed penalty or check penalty.
Reinforced: Extra armor panels help this suit handle impacts.
Increase the physical resistance value by 1. Upgrade +1 Class, any
armor with resistance.
Wound Amelioration: Advanced medical systems such as pres-
sure cuffs, vital sign monitors and auto-injection of special coagu-
lants and stimulants are built into the armor. You ignore bleeding
effects and reduce your wound penalty by 1 step. Upgrade +1 Class,
any TE 7+ powered armor or life support armor.
TOOL UPGRADES
The tool category covers a lot of territory, and some items proba-
bly aren’t worth upgrading; it’s hard to see why you might need an
upgraded rope, for example.
Fast: Due to excellent ergonomics or high-powered internal
processors, this device lets you get results quickly. When you’re
engaged in a skill challenge, each check after the first requires 1
fewer impulse than normal (usually, this means every check after the
first takes 2 impulses, not 3). Upgrade +1 Class.
High-quality High Quality: The device is well made and works better. You
medical gear of the gain a +1 step bonus on skill checks you make using this device.
appropriate tech
era saves lives. Upgrade +1 Class.
When that step Automated: The device is automated and can activate or deploy
bonus matters, it with minimal effort on your part. After you use an action to start the
really matters.
device, it can continue executing the program or conducting the
operation you instructed it to. For example, an automated tablet
running a decryption program could carry out the skill challenge for
you while you do something else, or an automated med pack could
treat a wounded character. The device takes a –1 step penalty on
checks it makes for you when you’re not actively guiding it. The GM
is free to rule that some devices can’t be automated, or are auto-
mated already (for example, the automed sled). Upgrade +2 Class.
Superior Quality: The best version of the device you can find.
You gain a +2 step bonus on skill checks you make using this
device. Upgrade +2 Class.

SPECIAL REWARDS
Equipment quality and skill points aren’t the only ways to reward
characters. Special rewards cover a whole range of more sto-
ry-based forms of recognition—things that characters would care
about, even if they won’t necessarily provide measurable benefits
on the next adventure they face. Typically, a successful adventure
provides 0 to 2 special rewards that all surviving heroes can share.
Special rewards come in three grades: Average, Excellent or
Stellar. In general, an Average reward is something with local signif-
icance (one city, one planet or one star system, depending on your
campaign); an Excellent reward carries regional significance (one
country); and a Stellar reward carries global (or galactic) significance.
Special rewards include:
• Contacts (common) • Promotions (rare)

• Fame (uncommon) • Property (uncommon)
• Favors (common)
CONTACT
One or more heroes on the team earn an important new contact Giving heroes a
(see Contacts under NPCs in Chapter 6). The level of the contact shared contact
as a reward can
you gain is determined by the level of the special reward, so an build around-the-
Excellent special reward should result in an Excellent contact. table cohesion.
FAME
You rescued the Premier from the terrorists and disarmed the fusion
bomb planted to destroy the colony dome? Guess what, you made
the evening news. Fame is fickle and it presents problems such
as paparazzi, stalkers and the chance of being recognized when
you do something illegal, but it has its advantages: You can get
audiences with NPCs who otherwise might ignore you, command
the attention of a lot of people with a public statement or get an
invitation to an exclusive event. The level of your fame dictates how
well known you are (the planet, the quadrant, the whole galaxy) and
provides a bonus to interactions with people who are likely to be
impressed by celebrity: +1 step for Average, +2 steps for Excellent or
+3 steps for Stellar.
FAVOR
Someone’s willing to bend the rules for you, just this one time.
Average: Select or purchase restricted gear; get a pardon for
an ordinary crime; have a lost or destroyed personal item replaced;
gain access to sealed files or a confidential intelligence report.
Rewards 221
Excellent: Select or purchase military gear; get a pardon for a

serious crime; have a damaged ship repaired; gain access to con-
cealed files or a secret intel report.
Stellar: Select or purchase experimental gear; get a pardon for
a capital crime; have a destroyed ship replaced; gain access to vital
national security records or top secret info.
JUNK PROMOTION
Sometimes you find equipment that If you’re a member of an organization, gain-
isn’t up to snuff. The good news is ing status and authority can be a very useful
junk-level gear is usually 1 class reward. A high rank means fewer people
lower (and cheaper) than normal, can order you to do things you don’t want
so it’s a way to get your hands on to do and makes it easier to commandeer
something you otherwise couldn’t the organization’s people and resources for
afford. Junk gear possesses one or causes you think are important. You can’t
more of these traits: completely bypass the chain of command,
Bulky: When you use this item but personnel of lower ranks are strongly
to make a skill check, it takes 1 inclined to act on your orders and don’t ask
impulse longer than normal. questions unless you’re instructing them to
Inferior: You take a –1 step abandon their current duties or do some-
penalty to skill checks requiring thing that seems questionable.
this item. Average: You’re equal to a mid-ranking
Jam-Prone: If the base d20 officer, such as the commander of a Marine
in your skill check comes up 5 company, a small scout ship or a local
or lower, the item jams or stops research station.
functioning. You must use a Excellent: You’re equal to a high-rank-
3-impulse action to restart the ing officer, such as the commander of a
item or clear the jam before you regiment, a major warship or a planetary
can use it again. research facility.
Underpowered (weapon): The Stellar: You’re equal to a flag officer,
weapon takes a –1 penalty on all such as a general, an admiral or the
damage rolls. vice president of a major division in a
mega-corporation.
PROPERTY
Mostly this is about bragging rights and the comfort level of your
retirement, but you might find ways to make use of real estate,
investments or luxury items during an adventure. Property of Aver-
age value includes a high-end condo, a sports car or investment in a
prosperous local business. Excellent property includes a penthouse
suite or vacation spread, a top-end sports car or investment in an
important regional business. Stellar property includes such con-
spicuous consumption as a private island (or asteroid), a yacht or a
multi-millionaire’s stock portfolio.

REWARD PACING
How quickly should you give out rewards? It depends a great deal
on your campaign. In a post-apocalyptic game, finding a box of pistol
ammo in good condition is a big deal; in a high-tech game about star
marines, finding weapons isn’t important because the Corps issues you
all the Bug-killing gear you need to do your job. The table below pro-
vides a “standard” pacing scheme to serve as a guideline for middle-of-
the-road campaigns in which the heroes count on getting paid for their
work and upgrade their gear accordingly.
ADVENTURE REWARDS
Adventure Gear Class or Pay (per Hero) Special
Level 1 2 3 4 5 Pay Rewards
1st 1* 1 $3,000 Average
2nd 1* 1 $4,000 Average
3rd 1* 1 $10,000 Average
4th 1* 1 $15,000 Excellent
7th 1* 1 $40,000 Stellar
8th 1* 1 $50,000 Stellar
9th 1* 1 $70,000 Stellar
10th 1* 1 $100,000 Stellar
* Consumable Item
Gear: If you use a “quick and dirty” gear system, you can simply
assign bonus gear selections of specific class or quality as shown on the
table. For example, heroes engaged in a 3rd-level adventure stand a
good chance of gaining a Class 4 item (or an upgrade to a Class 3 item).
If you prefer to use a pay-as-you-go gear system, the pay (or loot) for the
mission should be something close to the value given under the Pay
column. Note that these rewards are per character—if you’re running a
game for a three-hero team, you’ll need to make sure the total pay for
the adventure is three times the figure given or that three Class 4 items
are present in the adventure for the heroes to requisition or find.
Consumable items include medical supplies (such as analgesic Ordinary
spray or wound gel) or limited-use weapons such as grenades or ammunition
and power cells
special ammunition (see Weapon Upgrades). If you find a consumable don't count as
item, you usually find enough for three uses (one full can of analgesic consumable
spray or three actual grenades). Most adventures provide at least a rewards. They just
few of these sorts of items regardless of which gear acquisition system enable an object's
baseline function.
you use in your campaign.
Rewards 223
CAMPAIGN DESIGN
You can run a regular Alternity game as a succession of unrelated
adventures that feature different PCs and different flavors of science
fiction. However, many GMs prefer to run their game as a campaign:
a persistent setting that lasts for several adventures and invests the
players in the ongoing story of the heroes. Creating a campaign
setting provides you with a wonderful opportunity to exercise your
creative muscles and decide on the sort of sci-fi stories you’d like to
tell with your Alternity game.
You can create a campaign by modeling your universe after
your favorite movie, TV series, book or video game—after all, if you
and your friends love those stories, why not make up some adven-
tures to play in that universe? Or you can create a campaign “from
scratch” by thinking up your own sci-fi setting: stellar exploration,
alien invasion, dystopia, post-apocalypse, human transcendence—
whatever you like. We can’t possibly provide thorough directions for
such a creative endeavor, so this section simply walks you through
some of the big decisions you might want to consider:
• What’s the technology of your setting? How far in the

future are you?
• Does your setting feature FTL (faster-than-light) travel? How
does it work?
• Does your setting have aliens? How common are they?
• Who are the heroes, and what do they do?
Your answers to these questions are a great starting point for

creating your own sci-fi setting. We’ll briefly explore each of those
topics in the rest of this section.
TECH ERA
For TE purposes, Technology Era (or TE) is a rough measurement of a civilization’s tech-
look more at ends nological progress. It’s shorthand for describing whether you’re playing
than means. A a modern-day game set on Earth or a far-future game that spans the
steampunk society
might be functionally galaxy. Progress can vary wildly from place to place within a setting—in
TE 6, even though a starfaring campaign, the heroes could easily discover uncharted
they're still relying on worlds with Stone Age tribes, alien species that still haven’t mastered
coal for everything.
gunpowder or electricity, or super-advanced societies whose godlike
powers put the heroes’ fusion plants and jump drives to shame.
Technological advances are rarely as uniform as the descriptions
below suggest. It’s entirely possible to find areas that excel in one
aspect of progress—say, medical science—but lag behind in others,
like high-energy physics or heavy industry. You can create societies
such as those by simply noting “TE 5 planet (TE 6 for medicine)”
or “TE 7 city (TE 6 for power)” if you need to describe them briefly.

Finally, eras have fuzzy edges; specific items like a particular
weapon might come into use right at the end of a preceding era or
might not be widely adopted until quite late in an era.
TE 1: PREHISTORIC ERA
Welcome to the Stone Age. Weapons and tools are made from
stone, wood or bone. Some groups can domesticate animals or
engage in simple agriculture or fishing. People know how to use fire
and have a reasonably advanced language, but writing is still a long
way off. Simple canoes and rafts are the most advanced vehicles
available. Prehistoric settings tend to be places the heroes visit, not
the main setting of the campaign.
TE 2: ANCIENT ERA
The Ancient Era marks the beginning of civilization. Metal weapons
and tools come into use—first copper, then bronze, then iron. Cities
become possible, supported by widespread agriculture, writing,
laws and armies. Simple machines like mills or catapults come into
use; vehicles include animal-drawn carts or chariots and oared gal-
leys. Whatever it is, if the Babylonians, Egyptians or Romans could
do it, a TE 2 society can probably do it. Like TE 1, TE 2 settings are
usually places heroes visit, not live in.
TE 3: MEDIEVAL ERA
There isn’t much difference between the Ancient Era and the Medieval
Era. Metal use, animal power, stone fortifications, sailing ships—they’re
all fairly similar. But your players will notice a significant difference
between a “Roman Empire world” and a “knights and castles world”
just in terms of look and feel. Metallurgy improves with the devel-
opment of early steel, more complex machines such as crossbows,
watermills, trebuchets and printing presses come into use, and seafar-
ers develop sailing vessels capable of crossing oceans. The first prim-
itive guns appear at the end of this era. Shogunate Japan, Norman
England or Renaissance Italy are good examples of TE 3 societies.
TE 4: ENLIGHTENMENT ERA
The Age of Reason marks the beginning of the transition away from
muscle-powered technology. Simple, cheap and reliable firearms
transform warfare, although swords and pikes remain useful enough
to linger for centuries. The development of the scientific method and
the spread of the printed word leads to an explosion of literature,
philosophy and science. Steam engines begin to replace animal power
in simple applications. Large, sturdy sailing ships chart the globe and
make intercontinental trade possible. The France of Louis XIV, Revolu-
tionary War America or Qinq Dynasty China are examples of TE 4.
Campaign Design 225

In starfaring campaigns, worlds that deliberately choose to

forego technological advancement—or that “backslide” after long
isolation—tend to stop around TE 4.
TE 5: INDUSTRIAL ERA
Steam engines replace animal power and sail in the Industrial Era;
fuel sources move rapidly from wood to coal to oil. Advanced steel
and mass production techniques lead to repeating firearms such
as revolvers and bolt-action rifles, followed by the introduction of
machine guns and personal automatic weapons—this is the age of
the gun. Railroads, airplanes, submarines, the automobile, electricity,
radio, germ theory, anesthesia ... it all shows up in this era. It’s easier
to list the things we have in the present day that aren’t available in
TE 5: computers, television, the Internet, jet travel, satellites and
manned space exploration. Anything from the American Civil War to
the end of World War II falls into TE 5.
TE 6: MODERN ERA
Want to set your Alternity game in the modern day? This is the era
for you. We assume we don’t need to explain this to you, although
we’ll note that a “retro” game set in the 1960s or 1970s might not
have things we take for granted, like the Internet or a cell phone in
everybody’s pocket.
TE 7: SOLAR ERA
Imperfect examples: Move ahead 50 or 100 years from the Modern Era, and you’re
Firefly, the Expanse. into the Solar Era—so named because humankind now maintains
colonies on other bodies in the solar system and significant space-
borne industry in places such as the asteroid belt. Firearms are still
common, but more advanced weapons such as lasers and mag-
netically powered rail guns have finally dethroned gunpowder as
king. Fusion power and electric vehicles have replaced the internal
combustion engine; advanced genetic therapies defeat many dis-
eases and prolong human lifespan (at least for the rich). Computer
systems now feature virtual reality and AI; some people spend
almost their entire lives in virtual jobs and entertainment. Space-
ships powered by fusion drives can reach any of the inner planets
within a few weeks, or the outer portions of the solar system in a
couple months. The nearest stars remain many years away, but
with hibernation technology and massive investment, it’s just barely
possible to send humans in search of a new home.
TE 8: STELLAR ERA
Imperfect examples:
Star Wars, The advent of faster-than-light travel leads to a golden age of
Battlestar Galactica. exploration and settlement. If there are other intelligent species

nearby, we finally meet them—otherwise, anybody with an idea of
how people should live or who finds a resource worth exploiting
looks for an opportunity to claim a planet for their own. Personal
energy weapons generally replace projectile throwers, although old-
style magnetic weapons (and very old firearms) remain popular with
people who can’t afford newer tech. Artificial gravity means hov-
erbikes and flyers largely replace ground-bound transportation in
most advanced worlds. Medical science can repair almost any injury
that is not immediately lethal.
The exact nature of the campaign’s FTL travel is important; does
it take months and months to reach a nearby star, a few weeks or a
few hours? Is a trip to another world a routine “scene change” in an
adventure, is it an adventure in itself, or is it something that happens
between adventures? Even if starships can easily travel from one world
to another, real-time FTL communication is not possible; news travels at
the speed of whatever ship happens to be going in the right direction.
TE 9: GALACTIC ERA
Just as the Medieval Era is like a grander version of the Ancient Era, Imperfect
the Galactic Era is like the Stellar Era—but bigger in every regard. examples: Star Trek,
Culture novels.
FTL drives are so powerful and reliable that a ship can reach any
corner of the galaxy in a matter of weeks—which means that a trip
to a world around a star just a few light-years away is no more than
a day or two of travel. Interstellar commerce is routine; worlds can
easily specialize as industrial planets, agrarian planets or resort des-
tinations. Real-time FTL communications permit conversations with
people in different star systems, although the range or bandwidth
might be limited in some way.
Militarily, energy weapons continue to improve; personal energy
defenses such as force shields and deflector belts become com-
monplace. Power plants fueled by antimatter or other exotic forms
of matter provide virtually limitless amounts of energy. Medical sci-
ence can restore life to the dead, provided the brain has not been
badly damaged.
TE 10+: UNIVERSAL ERA

In this era, technology becomes so advanced it might as well be
magic, TE 10 makes impossible things routine—traveling to other uni-
verses through black holes, serial immortality, resurrecting individuals
who died millions of years ago, personal force fields impervious to all
harm, teleporting to other planets with a mere thought. This level of
technology is beyond the scope of the Alternity game, but it’s possi-
ble heroes playing in lower tech eras might encounter TE 10 enigmas
or entities during their adventures (and should be scared out of their
wits when they do run into something so advanced).
Campaign Design 227

FTL METHOD
Many Alternity campaigns feature FTL (faster than light) travel
How fast can your
heroes travel? The between the stars. It’s a classic of science fiction; who doesn’t want
best answer is the to visit strange new worlds and boldly go where no one has gone
speed of plot. Most before? The type of FTL drive you choose for your campaign comes
adventures happen
at destinations, not
with ready-made universe-building implications and fascinating
in transit. adventure opportunities.
NO FTL
Even if your universe doesn’t accommodate FTL drives, humans
might still reach the stars someday. The best options are either
You catch a break
“sleeper ships” in which the passengers are frozen for the trip, or
from time dilation if “generation ships,” in which the original passengers don’t reach
you’re traveling close their destination—instead, their descendants do.
to the speed of light. A generation ship is a campaign setting in and of itself. Imagine
At 99 percent c, you
age 1 day for every a dark dystopia between the stars, or barbarian heroes who learn of
7 days of “actual” their world’s true nature when the ship reaches its destination.
travel time.
PLANETARY GATE
In some settings, you might not need a starship to reach another
planet. A planetary gate is a device that teleports a traveler on foot
to a matching gate on some other world. Gates of this sort provide
the GM with a wide variety of tools for controlling and steering the
heroes’ explorations; after all, you can only go to a spot that the
gate connects to.
Planetary gates also invite the question of who built them and
why. If humans are building gates, how are we establishing new
gates on planets we haven’t visited yet? If aliens built the gates, are
they friendly or hostile? Are they still around, or are they long gone?
WORMHOLE OR SYSTEM GATE

A wormhole gate works a lot like a planetary gate, except it’s in
space and it’s big enough to drive a ship through. Like a planetary
gate, the wormhole leads to a specific destination (or a set of desti-
The Triton Gate
of our Protostar nations, possibly random). However, it spits out the traveler at some
setting is basically a point in space in a different star system.
wormhole gate with If the gate only permits small ships, you’ve got a perfect reason for
multiple destinations.
hero teams to form: They’re the crew of a ship that can fit in the gate.
JUMP DRIVE
The jump drive is basically a teleportation device. You carefully plot
the coordinates you want to teleport to, and when you activate the
drive, you disappear from your origin and appear at your destina-
tion. A jump doesn’t have to be instantaneous; you might spend

hours, days or months in some other reality before returning to
normal space.
Jump drives can be open-ended (you can jump from any place
to any other place within your jump range) or tied to specific jump
points. A jump point is a special location in a star system where it’s
possible to turn on your jump drive and travel to a matching jump
point somewhere else.
WARP DRIVES AND HYPER DRIVES SUBLIGHT DRIVES

If you want to build a campaign that’s truly wide-
Although they’re not as
open, your FTL technology is probably a warp
critical to campaign-build-
drive or hyper drive: A ship with the right kind
ing as FTL drives, sublight
of engine can, at any time, start traveling faster-
drives are also worth
than-light and go wherever it wants. Note that
thinking about. Our current
even if you can break the light-speed barrier, it
chemical-rocket technology
still might take a very long time to reach distant
means a trip to a nearby
destinations; if you can go 10 times the speed of
planet like Mars takes
light, it will still take you about 134 years to reach
months and months; going
the Orion Nebula, which is about 1,340 light-years
someplace in the outer part
from Earth. Choose a “warp ratio” that feels right
of the solar system is a
to you and disperse your campaign’s key worlds
journey of years. The Holy
a few days’ travel from each other. The key to
Grail of in-system travel is
keeping this sort of campaign manageable is to
a reactionless drive—some-
give the heroes reasons to visit specific planets.
thing that provides thrust
The difference between a warp drive and
without the need to expel
a hyper drive is whether you’re still in “normal
reaction mass. If you have a
space” during transit. In hyperspace, you can’t
reactionless drive, you can
see where you’re going—you plot your course,
maintain constant accelera-
jump to lightspeed and then don’t interact with
tion over days or weeks and
anything outside your ship until you arrive at
build up to an extremely
your destination. A ship that just tears around
high velocity. Typically, you’d
in normal space but goes faster than light can
“flip ship” at the halfway
choose to stop, change course or potentially
point to your destination
receive or transmit messages while en route.
and decelerate the rest of
the way. As a bonus, you’ll
WEIRD DRIVES also simulate gravity with
Finally, your campaign may be based on a FTL constant thrust.
system outside the bounds of any futuristic
science or speculation. For example, you might
travel by folding space with psionic talent, with a drive that makes
your ship exist simultaneously at every point in the universe until
you turn it off and appear at your destination, or by “sailing” on the
stellar winds of some strange subethereal reality. The important
consideration for the GM is whether the potential destinations are
restricted in some way.
Campaign Design 229

ALIEN CONTACT
Are we alone in the universe? Exploring that question is a classic
element of science fiction. If aliens do exist in your campaign, where
are they? Do humans venture into the distant frontiers of space to
meet them, or do they come visit us on Earth? Aliens don’t have
to be from distant stars; you can build a campaign in which aliens
come from alternate realities or dimensional doorways accessible
from Earth—or perhaps as time-travelers from a distant era. For that
matter, “aliens” could even be the result of genetic experimentation
that creates radically different branches of homo sapiens.
NO ALIENS
Interested in a campaign built around modern-day espionage or
near-future technothrillers? You might not want to include aliens in
your game at all. Plenty of outstanding action movies work quite
well by using terrorists, criminals or Nazis as bad guys.
DEAD ALIENS
Aliens could easily be separated from human civilization by vast
expanses of time as well as space. In this scenario, the heroes don’t
run into any alien adversaries, but they might explore alien ruins or
discover alien artifacts. Some of the most important mysteries in the
setting could revolve around who the Builders or the Gatemakers
or the Terraformers were, why they did what they did, and whether
they’re really gone forever.
ALIENS AS NPCS ONLY

Aliens exist in the campaign, but they’re so rare, inimical, primitive
or weird that it just wouldn’t make sense to include one in the hero
team. Perhaps humans are the only starfaring race, and the charac-
ters are explorers who visit worlds inhabited by uncontacted alien
races. Or perhaps humans are up against another species that’s
completely hostile and uninterested in (or incapable of) communica-
tion; “Bugs,” so to speak.
For a real twist, how
about a setting with ALIEN HEROES
no humans at all?
The default assumption of the Alternity game is that our part of the
galaxy is inhabited by at least a small number of alien species who
are inclined to work with humans under the right circumstances. Alien
heroes offer players the chance to try out interesting new abilities or
characters with unusual strengths and weaknesses, as well as imagin-
ing how someone from a very different background might see things.
In Chapter 2, we present three distinct alien species for use as PCs,
but there’s no reason you can’t create PC alien species of your own.

WHO ARE THE HEROES?
What do the heroes do in your campaign? What sort of problems
and challenges are they called upon to face? To put it another way,
who exactly are the stars of the show?
AGENTS
The heroes work for someone—a government, a corporation or per-
haps a private foundation—and their superiors assign them to mis-
sions. Agents could be spies, investigators, law keepers, soldiers or
even straight-up bug-hunters. Any campaign in which you go where
you’re told to go and do what you’re told to do fits this model.
EXPLORERS
It’s a sci-fi staple: Find new worlds, meet interesting aliens, discover
amazing wonders. Your hero team could be the crew of a small
survey ship operating on their own, or an elite first-contact team
supported by the resources of a large and well-equipped ship.
The obvious model for an explorer campaign is “the planet
of the week”—each adventure brings the heroes to a new
world. So, who are the heroes exploring for?
What are they likely to find out there?
FREELANCERS
Freelance heroes sell their services to
anyone who can afford them. One mission
might involve recovering stolen property, the
next could revolve around providing protection
to a scientist visiting a dangerous planet, and the
one after involves salvaging a wrecked ship from a
pirate-controlled asteroid belt. The challenging part of being
a freelancer is finding your next paycheck.
TRADERS
It’s a big galaxy, and you can make a fortune by selling
people what they want. In the trader campaign, the heroes
are star-traders with a ship of their own and a keen eye for
opportunity. The fire-gems of Wulreth II are worth a fortune
to the jewelers of Iado Station, the laser rifles you can buy
on Iado will fetch a pretty price from the rebels on Klaarth,
and you can sell the thoator furs you collect on Klaarth to
the miners of Wulreth II for fire-gems. The typical trade
adventure involves tracking down new commodities, finding
a market for goods you already have or doing something
dangerous to acquire goods to sell.
Campaign Design 231

232 8: Aliens and Adversaries

8: ALIENS AND ADVERSARIES
“We are fashioned creatures, but half made up.”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
The universe can be a dangerous place. In civilized areas, heroes

run into criminals, assassins, hostile security and villains of all kinds.
Out in the wilderness, hungry predators can pose a threat to parties
who aren’t ready for trouble—a threat that becomes infinitely more
complex on alien worlds. Not every Alternity episode features
someone or something trying to kill you, but it’s a rare adventure
that doesn’t pit the heroes against some enemy.
This chapter presents a selection of common adversaries and
an easy-to-use system for designing aliens and villains of your own
to throw at the PCs. We don’t know what kinds of planets or strange
dimensions your Alternity game might visit, but we do know the
game stats you’ll need for a range of interesting combat scenes.
All you need to do is pick a creature template, a threat level and
a couple signature powers or traits, and you’ll have just the oppo-
nent you need.
ADVERSARY STATS
Just like PCs, adversaries have initiative scores, movement speed, In this chapter,
some sort of durability track, and various forms of attack. How- "creature" includes
anything alive or
ever, adversary stats are not derived from skill selections or talent
artifically animated,
choices. Adversaries are not PCs. You don’t need to know how including humans,
many skill points an alien ursoid has invested in its bite attack—you robots and weird
just need to know what its attack score is. alien lifeforms.
NAME AND DESCRIPTION

So, what do you call this enemy, and what is its place in the world?
Include as much or as little detail as you like. Sometimes it’s fine to
just describe an adversary as “Hypertech Security Goon” or “Heavy
Laserbot”—you don’t need to create different types of security
officers for Hypertech, and as far as the PCs know or care, all heavy
laserbots are the same. It’s helpful to add a couple quick-read visual
cues to an adversary, just so when the players ask, “What do we
see in this room?” you can give them an answer such as, “a security
officer in green and gray body armor,” or “a yellow-painted, tracked
robot with a laser turret.”
Adversary Stats 233

THREAT RATING, SIZE, TEMPLATE, TYPE

Ex. TR 3 Medium Minion Humanoid, TR 6 Large Champion
Mechanical
Threat rating, size, template and type provide the basic game
description for an adversary—how dangerous it is, how big it is, how
it fits in a combat scene, and what sort of creature it is. Many game
rules interact with these basic descriptors; for example, EMP weap-
ons are most effective against mechanical beings and worthless
against living creatures that have no cyberware or powered gear.
Threat Rating (TR) is the creature’s “level” on a scale from 0
(a minor nuisance) to 13 (deadly dangerous even to a full group of
max-level heroes). When you build a combat encounter, a group of
8 minions, 4 standard, 2 champion or 1 boss adversary of a level
equal to the heroes’ level is a fight of average difficulty. If you want
to create an easy fight, choose adversaries whose threat rating is
below the heroes’ level; if you want a hard fight, choose adversaries
whose TR is higher (see Scene Design in Chapter 7).
Size is important because small creatures are smaller targets (see
Attacks in Chapter 5). Common sizes from smallest to biggest are:
tiny (a rat), small (a child or an average dog), medium (most adult
humans), large (a horse or small car) and huge (an elephant or truck).
Template is the creature’s basic role and function in combat: minion,
standard, champion or boss. Template affects the creature’s durability
and attack potential, and it guides encounter-building. For example,
minions are usually encountered in large numbers, but they’re individu-
ally fragile and often go down with just one hit. Champions and bosses
are much tougher, but you rarely fight more than one or two at a time.
Different settings Type describes a creature’s basic nature: animal, human (or
will feature different human-like), plant, mechanical, supernatural or something weird like
categories of
creature type.
an energy being. It doesn’t come up in combat very often, but it’s
a quick way of assessing whether something cares about being in
vacuum or subjected to an EMP (for example).
INITIATIVE AND SPEED

The creature’s initiative check score and its movement rate are
noted on this line. Initiative is based on its threat and template, while
speed depends on its type and special traits. Unless stated other-
wise, assume a creature’s speed is 20 meters per 2-impulse action.
Types of Movement: Unless otherwise stated, speed refers to
a creature’s ability to cover distance by moving along the ground.
Many creatures are able to fly. Flying creatures must move each
time they take an action in order to stay in the air unless they have
the ability to hover (many natural fliers have actions that combine
moving and attacking). Gaining elevation in normal or heavier gravity
is treated like moving in difficult terrain—the flyer “pays” 2 meters of
movement to move forward 1 meter and gain 1 meter of elevation.

AWARENESS AND SENSES
It doesn’t come up in every combat scene, but sometimes you need
to know how hard it is for the heroes to sneak past an adversary and
what kind of unusual senses it might possess. For most creatures,
Awareness is a Focus ability check. If senses are “normal,” that
means they’re average for a human. Anything else is a special trait.
ABILITIES
The creature’s ability ratings, expressed as shorthand skill scores
for Average success; for example, Str 16+, Agi 15+, Vit 13+ and so
on. Creatures can get Excellent or Stellar successes on their ability
checks by achieving a check result 5 or 10 higher than the score
given, so if a creature with Vit 13+ gets an 18 on its check result,
that’s an Excellent success.
In general, adversaries don’t have specific skills. They default to Active social skills
ability checks against the key ability for a skill. We can’t imagine why are particularly rare.
you might need a security goon to make an Academics check, but if Influence doesn't
work on PCs for
it comes up at your game table for some reason, just have that NPC example, and it's
make an Intelligence check instead. rarely worth it to use
If you need to know the actual ability rating instead of the check dice to adjudicate all-
NPC interactions.
score, just subtract the shorthand score from 20 (so a Strength
check of 16+ means a Strength rating of 4).
Intelligence: In addition to a skill score, the Intelligence ability
notes whether a creature’s basic intellect is instinctive, animal, pro-
grammed or sentient.
• Instinctive: Low-order animal with limited behaviors, such as

a worm, jellyfish or scorpion.
• Animal: Higher-order animal with complex behaviors (like
most vertebrates).
• Programmed: Machine intelligence designed to act only
within a narrow function or set of functions (for example,
detecting and attacking intruders). Full AI or adaptive pro-
gramming is better described as sentient, not programmed.
• Sentient: Self-aware intelligence ranging from near-human to
super-human capability.
ACTIONS
This section describes the actions the creature typically takes in
combat. The most common entry here is some form of attack. Attack
actions list the speed (impulse cost), range (melee or ranged),
targets (usually 1) and attack score for the attack form, followed by
the damage inflicted by an Average hit or an Excellent/Stellar hit and
any special effects. Damage is given as either physical or energy; if
the damage has no type, it bypasses armor.
Adversary Stats 235

Just like characters, creatures that score Stellar

WOUND PENALTIES hits deal a bonus wound box of damage.
FOR ADVERSARIES? In addition to the actions listed in this section,
You’ll notice that most of creatures have access to the full menu of action
the creatures appear- types and action modifiers described under Actions
ing later in this chapter (see Chapter 5). If an alien beast needs to get closer
don’t suffer the same to a hero to maul her with its claws, it can use 2
check penalties for being impulses to move—or if it’s only a few meters away,
wounded that PCs with it can add the charge action modifier to one of the
similar injuries suffer. attacks listed in this section to close the distance
That’s deliberate. Using and get to work.
different wound effects Creatures of low intelligence (or without hands)
adds texture to enemies
might not be able to take advantage of the interact
and makes them more
action; doors have foiled dogs’ ambitions for thou-
distinct. In many cases,
sands of years. Likewise, creatures driven by pure
a severe wound effect
instinct probably don’t have the self-awareness to
does impact a foe’s ability
consider the evade action modifier or the patience
to fight (by blowing off
to try aiming when confronted with a tough target.
a laser turret from a
The GM should use common sense in deciding what
combat droid or damag-
ing an adversary’s move-
animals—even alien animals—are really capable of.
ment mode, for example).
In other cases, wounds REACTIONS
might make the foe even
If a creature has any special reactions it can take
more dangerous, like the
during combat, they’re described in this section. Just
alien warrior that enters
like the heroes, creatures using reactions delay their
a berserk frenzy when
next action by some number of impulses (usually
close to death. Of course,
1). Creatures without a reaction section can still use
some humanoid NPCs are
generic reactions available to any creature (for exam-
built to work like PCs, and
ple, making a Dodge check when exposed to a blast).
you can bet an NPC with
a bad wound penalty is
looking for a way to end DEFENSE
the fight through retreat, This section describes how difficult it is to attack and
negotiation or surrender. damage or destroy the creature.
Size: If the creature’s size makes it easier or
harder to attack, it’s noted here.
Armor: This is the creature’s resistance value against physical
and energy attacks. In many cases, it represents a tough hide or
unusual physiology, not actual armor the creature wears.
Immune: Some creatures are immune to certain types of damage
or effect. If the attack hits, the creature ignores the effect.
Stun Resistant: Many champions and bosses are hard to disable
through stunning attacks. Creatures that are stun resistant treat any
stun effect they suffer as a daze effect of the same duration.
Vulnerable: Some creatures are especially susceptible to certain
types of damage or effect. The details are described here.

Durability: The creature’s wound boxes and the effects it suffers
when it’s wounded make up its durability. Just like a PC, a creature
who doesn’t have an open wound box available at a particular
severity level “rolls up” to the next highest wound level and marks
off a wound box there. Some creatures, especially higher-level
champions and bosses, may have two or more severity levels for
the same damage amount. When such a creature takes a wound,
use the lowest available severity listed for the adversary.
Most creatures also suffer a wound effect for receiving a serious Note that unlike
wound. Wound effects happen the first time (and only the first time) heroes, NPCs
a creature sustains a wound in that row (but feel free to use the sometimes have
wound effects that
flavor text for the wound effects whenever it’s appropriate). aren't penalties.
OTHER
Special traits and characteristics not described elsewhere are
noted here. If a creature actually has some amount of skill points
in a specific skill, it’s listed here, along with its shorthand skill score
for an Average success. Standard gear or valuables might also
appear here.
READY-TO-USE ADVERSARIES
This chapter presents 20 pre-designed adversaries suitable for use
in a wide variety of Alternity campaigns. You may find it useful to
“re-skin” creatures to create new adversaries for the heroes; for
example, take away the wings, and a chiirth is a reasonable facsim-
ile of a particularly vicious pack-hunting wild dog.
TR Creature Template
1 Android Worker Minion
1 Human Gangster Minion
1 Human Guard Standard
1 Robot Floating Eye Standard
2 Chiirth Minion
2 Human Enforcer Champion
3 Android Agent Standard
3 Psuur Boss
4 Robot Explorer Probe Champion
4 Human Assault Trooper Minion
5 Marzog Warrior Minion
5 Marzog Berserker Standard
5 Raigath Standard
6 Energon Boss
6 Human Operative Standard
7 Arachnoid Champion
8 Robot Jägerbot Standard
9 Android Exterminator Boss
10 Human Armored Marine Standard
11 Behemoth Boss
Ready-to-Use Adversaries 237

ANDROID
Androids appear human, but their innards are mostly feats of
electronic and mechanical engineering, not biology. Depending on
the culture, they may have a distinctive eye or skin color or obvious
tattoo to signify their artificial nature, or they might blend in with the
human populace.
EPSILON-CLASS WORKER
TR 1 Medium Minion Mechanism
Senses normal; Awareness 17+
Initiative 14/19/24; Speed 20 meters
Str 13+ Agi 16+ Vit 15+ Int 16+ (sentient) Foc 17+ Per 17+
ACTIONS
Improvised Weapon (Tool) 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 16/21/26;
Damage 2/5 physical.
Mob Attack 3 impulses. Five androids within 10 meters of each other acting
at the same time can make a mob attack. Instead of making attack
checks, the androids threaten all targets adjacent to at least one member
of the mob. Each threatened creature must make a Dodge check with a
step penalty equal to the number of adjacent mob attackers or suffer one
Average hit from an improvised weapon.
REACTIONS
Defensive Cower 1-impulse reaction. When missed by an attack, android
goes prone and begins evading.
DEFENSE
Armor: 1 physical, 1 energy
(1+ dmg)  incapacitated Announces system failure
OTHER
Skills Technical skill of your choice 12+
Minion Attack This creature’s attack deals one wound of the lowest sever-
ity if its damage overcomes the target’s armor.
Gear Tool such as a wrench or heavy screwdriver, basic datapad
GAMMA-CLASS AGENT
TR 3 Medium Standard Mechanism
ACTIONS
Laser Pistol 3 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 14/19/24 (+2 steps);
Damage 1d6 + 3/6 energy.
Surprising Strength 4 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 14/19/24 (+1 step);
Damage 1d4 + 1/3 physical, and target must make Resilience check or be
knocked off balance.

REACTIONS
Threat Reassessment 2-impulse reaction when wounded by an attack;
make Laser Pistol or Surprising Strength attack with +2 step bonus
against enemy that wounded it.
DEFENSE
Armor: 2 physical, 2 energy
(12+ dmg)  incapacitated “But I never truly lived…”
(9 to 11 dmg)  –2 step penalty to checks “System failure imminent.”
(6 to 8 dmg)  –1 step penalty to checks “Engaging backup systems.”
(1 to 5 dmg)  “Threats detected.”
OTHER
Skills Athletics 12+, Resilience 13+
Gear Laser pistol with biometric lock
ALPHA-CLASS EXTERMINATOR
TR 9 Medium Boss Mechanism
Senses normal, low-light vision, thermal vision; Awareness 16+
ACTIONS
Dual Wielded Lasers 4 impulses; Medium 1 or 2 targets; Attack 14/19/24 (–1
step, attack twice); Damage 1d8 + 7/11 energy.
Grab 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 8/13/18 (+1 step); Damage 1d8 + 3/7
physical, and target must make Athletics check or be grappled.
Robo-Crush 3 impulses; Melee 1 grappled target; Attack 8/13/18 (+4 steps);
Damage 1d8 + 7/11 physical.
REACTIONS
Android Escalation 2-impulse delay when android receives the first box of
damage in a new row; this android gains a step bonus when damaged
(reflected in table below).
DEFENSE
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the android are treated as daze effects
instead.
Armor 2 physical, 2 energy
(16+ dmg)  incapacitated “Termination… incomplete...”
(16+ dmg)  +2 step bonus to Organic layer destroyed
checks
(13 to 15 dmg)  +1 step bonus to checks Robotic parts begin to show
(1 to 12 dmg)  Stares at you dispassionately
OTHER
Skills Athletics 10+, Resilience 10+
Gear Two laser pistols (or other guns; this android is strong enough to dual-
wield long arms and look cool doing it)

ARACHNOID
A horrible, spider-like alien predator the size of a large horse, the
arachnoid is driven by its voracious hunger to try its luck on any
potential prey smaller than itself.
ARACHNOID TRAPPER
TR 7 Large Champion Animal (Alien)
Senses thermal vision; Awareness 15+
Str 12+ Agi 15+ Vit 13+ Int 19+ (instinct) Foc 15+ Per 19+
ACTIONS
Web Net 3 impulses; Close 1 target; Attack 11/16/21; Effect target grappled
(resist action to escape, opposed by trapper’s Agility 15+).
Drag 1 impulse; 1 target grappled by web net; opposed check (arachnoid
Str vs. target Athletics; arachnoid gains +2 steps vs. smaller targets). If
the arachnoid wins, the target falls prone and the arachnoid drags it 10
meters closer.
Mandibles 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 8/13/18 (+1 step, or +3 steps
vs. grappled target); Damage 2d4/2d8 physical.
REACTIONS
Spiny Legs 1-impulse reaction. When hit by an attack, move up to 2 meters
and make the following attack: Melee 1 target; Attack 8/13/18 (+1 step);
Damage 1d4/1d4 + 3 physical, and target must make a Dodge check or be
knocked prone.
DEFENSE
Large Enemies gain +1 step bonus to attack the arachnoid.
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the arachnoid are treated as daze effects
instead.
(16+ dmg)  dead Collapses in twitching legs
(16+ dmg)  Can no longer use reactions Spurt of dark ichor, shrieks
(13 to 15 dmg)  Releases grappled targets Leg shot away, clacking
(10 to 12 dmg)  Distracted until next action Hisses at attacker
(1 to 9 dmg)  Ignores the injury

OTHER
Camouflage +4 step bonus to Stealth checks to hide in its native
environment.
Ambush The arachnoid hunts by hiding with a hidden web net already
deployed 10–20 meters away in a spot where prey is likely to pass by. A
creature that enters an arachnoid’s ambush makes an Awareness check
to spot the web net before stepping on it. If the check fails, the creature
is automatically grappled by the web net, and the arachnoid gains tactical
surprise.
BEHEMOTH
Whether genetically engineered for war or the product of evolution
run amok on some savage world, the behemoth is a living armored
assault. Worse yet, the creature possesses powerful bioelectric
organs that shock anyone nearby when the behemoth is provoked,
which is just about any time it sees another living creature.
BEHEMOTH
TR 11 Huge Boss Animal (Alien)
Senses normal, electrosense; Awareness 12+
Str 5+ Agi 17+ Vit 8+ Int 18+ (animal) Foc 14+ Per 18+
ACTIONS
Rampage 5 impulses. The behemoth moves 20 meters and makes up to three
Gore attacks against different targets at any point in its move. It can move
through the spaces of medium and smaller creatures during this action.
Gore 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 5/10/15 (+1 step); Damage 2d6/1d12
+ 8 physical, armor piercing 3, and a large or smaller target must make an
Athletics check or be pushed 6 meters and knocked prone.
AUTOMATIC ACTIONS
Shock Aura Resolve at end of impulse 4 and impulse 8. Effect all targets
within 6 meters must make Endurance check or suffer 2d6 energy
damage (electricity) and be stunned (3 impulses).
DEFENSE
Huge Enemies gain +2 step bonus to attack the behemoth.
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the behemoth are treated as daze effects
instead.
Immune damage and effects caused by electricity
(16+ dmg)  dead Falls with earth-shaking thud
(16+ dmg)  uses Rampage as a Bellows and goes berserk!
reaction
(16+ dmg)  knocked off-balance Jolted to one knee, roars
(13 to 15  Distracted until next Maddened by pain
dmg) action
(1 to 12 dmg)  Roars and stomps the ground

OTHER
Electrosense The behemoth detects creatures within close range by their
bioelectric fields.
Electroheal The behemoth heals 1 wound box when hit by an attack or
effect that would deal at least 5 energy (electricity) damage before its
armor. Its own shock aura does not count.
CHIIRTH
Chiirthi are small, scaly, winged creatures about the size of a goose
or pelican. They’re skittish and elusive as individuals, generally
avoiding larger foes, but chiirthi are rarely found alone. They’re pack
hunters that greedily swarm to attack anything resembling prey.
CHIIRTH
TR 2 Small Minion Animal (Alien)
Senses normal, echolocation; Awareness 14+
Initiative 9/14/19; Speed 20 meters, fly 50 meters
ACTIONS
Swoop 3 impulses. The chiirth flies up to 30 meters and attacks at the end
of its move; Melee 1 target; Attack 14/19/24; 2/6 physical, and target
grappled.
Gnaw 3 impulses; 1 grappled target; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step); 3/7 physical,
and target suffers damage over time (bleeding; passive resist Endurance
or Medicine treatment ends the effect).
DEFENSE
Small Enemies suffer a –1 step penalty to attack the chiirth.
(1+ dmg)  dead flaps, thrashes, croaks, dies
OTHER
Swarm Attack The chiirth gains a +1 step bonus with its swoop attack
for each other chiirth swooping at the same target in this impulse, to a
maximum of +3 steps for 4 chiirthi
attacking the same target.
Minion Attack This creature’s
attack deals one wound
of the lowest severity if
its damage overcomes the
target’s armor.
Echolocation Chirrthi
can detect crea-
tures and objects
at medium range
even in total
darkness.

ENERGON
An example of life as we do not know it, the energon is a
being made up of energized plasmas and magnetic fields.
Under normal circumstances, it shows little interest in humans,
but the energon is very interested in powered devices,
which it regards as rich food sources.
ENERGON
TR 6 Medium Boss Enigma (Alien)
Senses normal, energy sense; Awareness 12+
Initiative 5/10/15; Speed fly 30 meters
ACTIONS
Plasma Lash 3 impulses; Melee (6 meters) 1 target; Attack
10/15/20 (+2 steps); Damage 1d8 + 2/6 energy, and target
must make a Dodge check or suffer damage over time (fire).
Drain Charge 2 impulses; Close 1 target item with power cells;
Attack 10/15/20; target’s power cells lose 50 percent of their
full charge if equipped or 20 percent if carried, and the ener-
gon heals 1 wound box, or 2 wound boxes on a Stellar success.
REACTIONS
Shock Bolt 0-impulse reaction when a creature within close
range takes an action of at least 3 impulses; the energon
attacks the acting creature. Close 1 target; Attack 10/15/20;
Damage 1d8 + 0/4 energy.
DEFENSE
Insubstantial Physical attacks against the energon suffer a –5 step penalty;
energy attacks suffer a –2 step penalty.
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the energon are treated as daze effects
instead.
Immune fire, grapple, knocked prone, poison, push
(15+ dmg)  dead (see Death Burst) Explodes!
(15+ dmg)  shock bolt now 1-impulse energy discharges slow
reaction down
(12 to 14 dmg)  loses insubstantial for 1 briefly flickers into
impulse solidity
(9 to 11 dmg)  weakened until end of next crackling aura dims a
action little
(1 to 8 dmg)  FZZZT.
OTHER
Death Burst The energon explodes upon death. Blast 4 m (8 m); Primary
Damage 2d6 energy and target stunned (3 impulses); Secondary Damage
1d8 energy; successful Dodge check reduces damage by 5 and negates stun.
Energy Sense The energon detects all devices that store or generate
energy within long range.

HUMAN
Most humans do their best to stay out of dangerous situations such
as gunfights with teams of trained killers. However, heroes have an
unusual talent for finding foes who think it’s their job to take what
the heroes have or stop them from getting what they want.
GANGSTER
Punks, hoodlums, goons, criminals—whatever they’re called in a
particular setting, they’re trouble, especially on their home turf.
Gangsters carry a variety of weapons: 25 percent have only a knife,
50 percent have a knife and pistol, and 25 percent have a knife
and SMG (and happily attempt burst attacks if they have a good
opportunity).
HUMAN GANGSTER
TR 1 Medium Minion Humanoid (Human)
ACTIONS
Knife 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 16/21/26 (+1 step); Damage 3/8
physical.
Pistol 3 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 16/21/26; Damage 3/8 physical.
SMG burst 4 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 16/21/26 (+1 step); Damage
3/8 physical.
DEFENSE
(1+ dmg)  incapacitated swears,staggers and falls
OTHER
Cheap Shot The gangster gains a +1 step bonus to attack a distracted or
unaware opponent in addition to the normal bonuses.
Skills Acrobatics 14+, Athletics 14+, Stealth 14+
Gear weapon, $50
GUARD
Many guards are just civilians with a flashlight and maybe a stun
gun, but this guard is a trained member of an armed security staff.
The guard’s most dangerous weapon is the radio—one quick call,
and every guard in the place is on alert.
A typical police officer in an ordinary city could also use these
game stats.

HUMAN GUARD
TR 1 Medium Standard Humanoid (Human)
ACTIONS
Stun Baton 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 15/20/25 (+1 step); Damage
1d6 + 0/3 physical, target is stunned (3 impulses).
Pistol 3 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 15/20/25 (+1 step); Damage 1d6 +
1/5 physical.
Tactical Comm 2 impulses; report intrusion or disturbance to all guards on
site.
DEFENSE
(10+ dmg)  incapacitated drops in a nerveless heap
(7 to 9 dmg)  –2 step penalty to all checks “I’m hit! I’m hit!”
(4 to 6 dmg)  –1 step penalty to all checks grunts and ducks a second late
(1 to 3 dmg)  “Freeze! Drop your weapon!”
OTHER
Skills Athletics 14+, Medicine 15+, Security 15+
Gear ballistic vest, combat baton, light pistol, two clips, comm device, $100
ENFORCER
There are criminals, and there are killers. The enforcer is a compe-
tent and ruthless gun for hire. Some enforcers sell their services as
bodyguards to major crime bosses, some work as mercenaries and
some lead bloodthirsty crews of pirates or raiders.
HUMAN ENFORCER
TR 2 Medium Champion Humanoid (Human)
ACTIONS
Twin Pistols 4 impulses; make two heavy pistol attacks each with –1 step
penalty.
Heavy Pistol 4 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 14/19/24 (+1 step); Damage
1d8 + 1/5 physical.
Brawl 2 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 14/19/24 (+1 step); Damage 1d4
+ 0/3 physical, and target must make Resilience check or be knocked
off-balance.
REACTIONS
Return Fire 1-impulse reaction when wounded (once per scene). The
enforcer makes a heavy pistol attack against the creature that wounded
him or her.

DEFENSE
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the enforcer are treated as daze effects.
Improved Cover The enforcer improves the defensive effect of any cover
he uses by 1 step.
(11+ dmg)  incapacitated sinks to ground, groaning
(11+ dmg)  –2 step penalty to all checks staggers, clutching wound
(8 to 10 dmg)  –1 step penalty to all checks roars in anger, blood dripping
(5 to 7 dmg)  winces and snarls a curse
(1 to 4 dmg)  “Is that all ya got?!”
OTHER
Skills Acrobatics 14+, Influence 13+, Security 13+, Stealth 13+
Gear ballistic vest, two heavy pistols, two clips, comm device, $500
ASSAULT TROOPER
Disciplined, professional and unquestioningly loyal, assault troopers
are rank-and-file infantry often employed as base garrisons or in
counterinsurgency operations. They lack the powered armor and
firepower support of armored infantry, but they’re more than capa-
ble of handling local unrest and insurgents.
HUMAN ASSAULT TROOPER

TR 4 Medium Minion Humanoid (Human)
ACTIONS
Plasma Carbine 3 impulses; Long 1 target; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step); Damage
4/8 energy.
Brawl 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); Damage 3/7
physical.
Combined Fire Three assault troopers within 6 meters of each other acting
at the same time can combine fire. Instead of making attack checks, the
troopers choose a target point. Any creature within 4 meters of the
target point must make a Dodge check or suffer one wound. Targets
behind cover add their cover bonus to their Dodge checks.
DEFENSE
(1+ dmg)  incapacitated Sprawls to the ground
OTHER
Skills Armor Training 14+, Athletics 14+
Gear Carbon enamel armor, plasma carbine, two concussion grenades,
medkit

OPERATIVE
The operative is a smart, capable agent who combines excellent
combat skills with the ability to blend in with a crowd. Some work as
government investigators, some are top corporate problem-solvers
and some are ruthless assassins.
HUMAN OPERATIVE
Senses normal, low-light vision; Awareness 12+
Initiative 11/16/21 (+1 step); Speed 20 meters
ACTIONS
Laser Pistol 3 impulses; Long 1 target; Attack 11/16/21 (+2 steps); Damage
1d6 + 1/6 energy (1d6 + 4/9 energy vs. a wounded, distracted or unaware
target).
Martial Arts 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); Damage
1d4 + 0/3 physical (1d4 + 3/6 vs. a wounded, distracted or unaware
target).
DEFENSE
Defensive Martial Arts Melee attacks against the operative suffer a –1 step
penalty.
Holo Displacer Ranged attacks against the operative suffer a –3 step pen-
alty (does not stack with cover effects).
(15+ dmg)  incapacitated spins away from blow and collapses
(12 to 14 dmg)  –2 step penalty to all checks hisses in pain, looks for a way out
(9 to 11 dmg)  –1 step penalty to all checks “Argh! Damn you!”
(1 to 8 dmg)  “Seriously?”
OTHER
Finisher Gains a +3 damage bonus when attacking a wounded, distracted or
unaware target (included above).
Skills Acrobatics 11+, Computers 11+, Misdirection 11+, Security 11+, Stealth 11+
Gear hardmesh suit, laser pistol, comm device, low-light contacts, $1000
ARMORED MARINE
The most heavily armed and armored troops anywhere in space, the
Armored Marines are an elite outfit of powered-armor specialists trained
for extreme space-to-ground operations. On rare occasions they’re
called upon to deal with problems no ordinary troops can handle.
HUMAN ARMORED MARINE

Senses normal, low-light, thermal, radar; Awareness 15+
Initiative 11/16/21 (+1 step); Speed 20 meters, fly 30 meters

ACTIONS
Jump Attack 5 impulses. Jump up to 60 meters horizontally or 30 meters verti-
cally and make a rail rifle or Z-missile attack at any point during the move.
Rail Rifle 4 impulses; Extreme 1 target; Attack 6/11/16 (+1 step); Damage 1d8
+ 5/10 physical.
Z-Missile 4 impulses; Very Long blast; Blast 6 m (10 m); Primary Damage
2d8 energy, armor-piercing 5; Secondary Damage 1d10 energy. Successful
Dodge reduces damage by half.
Punch 4 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 6/11/16 (+1 step); Damage 2d4 +
0/4 physical, and medium or smaller target must make an Endurance
check or be stunned.
Thruster Jump 2 impulses. Jump up to 100 meters horizontally or 40 meters
vertically.
DEFENSE
Life Support Immune to most environmental conditions.
Grav Deflector Physical attacks against the marine suffer a –3 step penalty.
Energy attacks suffer a –1 step penalty.
(16+ dmg)  incapacitated Pieces of armor go flying, collapses
(16+ dmg)  –2 step penalty to all checks Armor rocked, shower of sparks
(13 to 15 dmg)  –1 step penalty to all checks CLANG! “Damn! Taking fire!”
(1 to 12 dmg)  “Getting some rain on the roof.”
OTHER
Skills Athletics 6+, Armor Training 6+, Mechanics 14+, Security 13+
Gear Centurion V assault battlesuit powered armor, three Z-missiles,
tactical net
MARZOG
Hulking, bloodthirsty and utterly fearless in battle, marzogs are the
primitive denizens of an alien world. They hate all other sentient
species and furiously attack any offworld travelers who make the
mistake of landing on the marzogs’ home planet. While their Stone
Age technology might seem laughable at first glance, the marzogs’
sheer strength and reckless savagery makes them very dangerous
at close quarters. Worse yet, they understand small beings with fiery
weapons and metal chariots aren’t gods and can die just like any
other creature.
WARRIOR
Every marzog from early adulthood to the end of its life considers
itself a warrior. Marzog tribes organize themselves into great hordes
of spear-wielding maniacs, who eagerly hurl themselves into battle
with single-minded ferocity. If their initial attack fails, warriors are
willing to reorganize their efforts for ambush and stealthy arrows
from the forest shadows.

MARZOG WARRIOR
TR 5 Medium Minion Humanoid (Alien)
ACTIONS
Bow 4 impulses; Medium 1 target; Attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); Damage 3/7
physical.
Spear 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step); Damage 4/8
physical.
DEFENSE
(1+ dmg)  dead stabs weakly at the air, coughs, falls
OTHER
Gang Up The warrior gains a +1 step bonus to its melee attack if at least one
other marzog is adjacent to the target.
Skills Athletics 12+, Stealth 14+ (10+ in forest or jungle), Survival 14+
Gear bone armor, bow, spear, 12 arrows
BERSERKER
The strongest and most fierce of a strong and fierce species, ber-
serkers are battle-scarred champions of a hundred tribal skirmishes.
Their sheer ferocity enables them to ignore terrible injuries, fighting
through seemingly critical wounds as if they were mere grazes.
MARZOG BERSERKER
TR 5 Medium Standard Humanoid (Alien)
Initiative 10/15/20 (+1 step); Speed 24 meters
ACTIONS
Berserk Charge 4 impulses; move up to its speed and make an axe attack
(replaces charge action modifier).
Axe 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); Damage 1d8 + 3/7
physical, and the target is pushed 2 meters and knocked prone (Athletics
check negates).
REACTIONS
Fierce Will 1-impulse reaction. When the berserker is hit by an attack, it
can attempt an immediate Resilience check (+2 step bonus) to reduce the
damage by 5.
DEFENSE

(14+ dmg)  dead Dies, axe broken in its hand

(11 to 13 dmg)  –2 step penalty to all Roars in rage, shaking its weapon
checks
(8 to 10 dmg)  –1 step penalty to all Snarls, dabs its own blood on face
checks
(1 to 7 dmg)  Doesn’t even seem to notice!
OTHER
Blood-Crazed The berserker gains a +1 step bonus to attack if it’s wounded.
Skills Athletics 11+, Stealth 13+ (9+ in forest or jungle), Resilience 12+,
Survival 13+
Gear bone armor, axe
PSUUR
Sly and secretive, the psuur is a degenerate descendant of a
once-technological species that haunts the ruins of its long-van-
ished civilization. It is a scuttling horror that looks a little like a
50-kilo centipede with a head crowned by lashing tendrils. These
barbed tendrils house invasive neural filaments to take over the vic-
tim’s nervous system and hold it motionless while the psuur feeds.
PSUUR
TR 3 Medium Boss Animal (Alien)
Senses normal, thermal vision; Awareness 12+
ACTIONS
Tendril 2 impulses; Melee (8 meters) 1 target; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step);
Damage 1d6 + 0/3 physical. If the damage results in a wound, the target
must make a Willpower check or be stunned (3 impulses) and become
grappled. The target can resist the grapple with an opposed check
(Willpower vs. psuur’s tendril skill). The psuur can’t use this action if it’s
already grappling three targets.
Neural Control 2 impulses; 1 grappled target. The target must make a
Willpower check. On failure, the target uses a 1-impulse reaction to attack
the closest creature other than the psuur with whatever weapon it has in
hand (–2 step penalty to the attack).
Feed 3 impulses; 1 grappled target; Attack 13/18/23 (+3 steps); Damage 1d8
+ 0/4 physical, and the target is impaired (resist Endurance to end the
impaired effect).
REACTIONS
Human Shield 1-impulse reaction. If the psuur is targeted by an attack while
it is adjacent to a creature it is grappling, one such creature becomes the
target of the attack, and the psuur releases that creature.
DEFENSE

Skulk If the psuur has cover, an attacker must make an Awareness check
(+2 step bonus if the psuur is grappling a victim) to target the psuur with
a ranged attack.
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the psuur are treated as daze effects
instead.
(12+ dmg)  dead Shrieks horribly and goes still
(12+ dmg)  can only grapple 2 A lashing tendril is shot away!
targets
(9 to 11 dmg)  releases a grappled Shrieks and lets go
creature
(6 to 8 dmg)  knocked off-balance Knocked over, twists upright
again
(1 to 5 dmg)  Clicks menacingly at you
OTHER
Camouflage +4 step bonus to Stealth checks to hide in its native
environment
RAIGATH
A vicious, clever pack hunter, the raigoth specializes in hit-and-run
attacks designed to weaken and herd its prey into the teeth of its
waiting packmates.
RAIGATH
TR 5 Medium Standard Animal (Alien)
Initiative 8/13/18 (+1 step);
Speed 30 meters
Str 14+ Agi 14+
Vit 15+ Int 18+ (animal)
Foc 14+ Per 17+
ACTIONS
Hamstring Rush 4 impulses;
move up to its speed,
make a bite attack and
move another 10 meters. If
the bite attack inflicts a wound,
the target is impaired (resist
Resilience).
Bite 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 11/16/21
(+1 step); Damage 1d8 + 1/5 physical (1d8 + 3/7
vs. a prone target), and the target must make an
Athletics check or be knocked prone.
REACTIONS
Elusive 1-impulse reaction. When targeted by a melee attack, the raigath
can attempt a Dodge check. If it succeeds, it moves up to 6 meters and
the attack automatically misses.

DEFENSE
(14+ dmg)  dead Dies, snapping at the air
(11 to 13 dmg)  slowed, loses Lamed by deep wound in flank
hamstring rush
(8 to 10 dmg)  knocked prone Knocked over on its side, thrashing
(1 to 7 dmg)  Screams and snaps at you
OTHER
Savage Inflicts +2 damage vs. prone targets
Skills Dodge 11+, Stealth 11+, Survival 11+
ROBOT
First becoming generally available at TE 7, robots quickly become
ubiquitous, built with nigh-infinite configurations and capabilities. Use
the following examples as a launching point for your own designs.
FLOATING EYE
A basketball-sized security robot powered by hover-jets, the floating
eye is armed with a stunner that is supposedly nonlethal. It’s com-
monly used to monitor medium-security areas and patrol areas that
are hard to monitor with fixed security systems.
FLOATING EYE
TR 1 Small Standard Mechanism (Robot)
Senses normal, weapon detector (2 m range); Awareness 16+
Initiative 12/17/22; Speed fly 25 meters (hover)
Str 16+ Agi 16+ Vit 17+ Int 17+ (programmed) Foc 18+ Per 20+
ACTIONS
Stunner 3 impulses; Close 1 target; Attack 16/21/26; Damage 1d4/2d4 energy,
and target must make an Endurance check or be stunned (3 impulses).
Tactical Update 3 impulses; the robot reports to its networked security
system.
REACTIONS
Evasive Flight 1-impulse action when targeted by a ranged attack; Make a
Dodge check and move 4 m if the check succeeds, causing the attack to
miss.
DEFENSE
Small Enemies suffer a –1 step penalty to attack the floating eye.
Life Support
(10+ dmg)  incapacitated sphere clanks to ground
(7 to 9 dmg)  –2 step penalty to checks smoke emerges from chassis
(4 to 6 dmg)  –1 step penalty to checks panels pop off, sparks fly
(1 to 3 dmg)  “Hostile action detected!”

OTHER
Networked The floating eye is linked to its parent security system. Its video
feed can be accessed remotely from a security station (although it might
not be monitored continuously).
EXPLORER PROBE
A rugged, tracked robot the size of a refrigerator, the explorer probe
is designed for extended autonomous activities on hostile planets.
It’s equipped with defense systems to drive off local lifeforms that
interfere with its mission.
EXPLORER PROBE
TR 4 Large Champion Mechanism (Robot, Amphibious)
Senses normal, low-light, thermal; Awareness 15+
Str 13+ Agi 16+ Vit 14+ Int 17+ (programmed) Foc 18+ Per 20+
ACTIONS
Manipulator Arms 4 impulses; Melee 2 targets; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step, or
+2 steps vs. prone target); Damage 1d8 + 3/7 physical, and target must
make an Athletics check or be knocked prone.
Sonic Emitter 3 impulses; Close spread; Attack 13/18/23 (+1 step); Damage
1d8 + 3/7 energy, and target must make an Endurance check or be
stunned (3 impulses).
Flamer 4 impulses, once per scene; Medium 1 target; Attack 13/18/23 (+1
step); Damage 2d6/2d10 energy and ignite (minor blast 4 m, 2d6 energy).
REACTIONS
Pressor Shield 1-impulse reaction when targeted by physical ranged attack;
make an opposed Strength check to counter the attacker’s check result.
DEFENSE
Large Enemies gain +1 step bonus to attack the probe.
Stun Resistant Stun effects on the probe are treated as daze effects
instead.
Life Support
(13+ dmg)  incapacitated smoke pours out, humming stops
(10 to 12 dmg)  –2 step penalty to humming sound gets louder
checks
(7 to 9 dmg)  –1 step penalty to robot emits low, throbbing hum
checks
(1 to 6 dmg)  “Investigating anomaly.”
OTHER
Skills Dodge 15+, Science (planetology) 15+, Survival 15+

JÄGERBOT
Sturdy, all-terrain robots fitted with multiple legs and a powerful
laser, jägerbots are cheap and effective replacements for human
infantry. They’re often used as heavy garrison forces because
of their good firepower or sometimes as disposable “first-wave”
assault assets.
JÄGERBOT
TR 8 Medium Standard Mechanism (Robot)
Str 16+ Agi 16+ Vit 16+ Int 18+ Foc 18+ Per 19+
ACTIONS
Laser Cannon 4 impulses; Long 1 target; Attack 9/14/19 (+1 step); Damage
2d10 + 0/4 energy.
Restraint Arm 3 impulses; Melee 1 target; Attack 9/14/19 (+1 step); Damage
1d4 + 1/6 physical, and target must make an Athletics check or be
grappled.
REACTIONS
Reflective Shield 2-impulse reaction when targeted by energy ranged
attack; make a Dodge check to counter attacker’s check result. If
opposed check results in a miss, attack instead reflects to a target of the
robot’s choice within medium range. Original attacker attacks the new
target at a –2 step penalty.
DEFENSES
Life Support
(16+ dmg)  incapacitated collapses in heap of wires and
struts
(14 to 15 dmg)  –2 step penalty to checks hitches and jerks when it moves
(11 to 13 dmg)  –1 step penalty to checks fluids leak from servomotors
(1 to 10 dmg)  “Engaging defensive protocol”
OTHER
Skills Dodge 13+

CREATING ADVERSARIES
Alternity heroes face an astounding variety of potential foes, from
dangerous wild animals (like bears or snakes) to hostile humans (like
criminals or enemy soldiers) to alien creatures from other planets
or dimensions. The ready-to-use adversaries presented earlier in
this chapter represent only a small selection of the foes a typi-
cal Alternity campaign might eventually include. Since we can’t You’ll find more foes
devote hundreds of pages in this book to monsters the GM might or in the Alternity
might not use, this section provides you with simple rules and guide- Xenologist’s
Guide supplement
lines for quickly creating almost any monster you can imagine. and other
Creating the stat block for an adversary involves these five steps: appropriate products.
1. Choose a Threat Rating (1 to 13). This is the level of hero

you expect this adversary to be a fair fight for. If it’s higher
than 10, it’s a difficult challenge even for high-level heroes.
2. Choose a Template. Is the creature something the heroes
meet in large groups or something intended to stand
up against the entire team all by itself? Your choices are
minion, standard, champion or boss.
3. Get the Stats. Refer to the template and threat rating
tables later in this section. Find the appropriate template
table, and find the row for the desired threat rating. Your
creature begins with the game stats described there.
4. Choose a Size and Type. Decide how big your creature is,
and then choose a type. This describes its basic nature and
body form—for example, animal, humanoid, mechanism
and so on. See Description at the beginning of this chapter.
5. Choose Attacks, Defenses and Actions. Decide how the
creature attacks and whether it has any special defenses
or actions (the ready-to-use adversaries in this chapter
provide a number of good examples).
A quick example: Need a tiger-like beast for your adventure?

That’s probably a TR 2 Champion—a hero team might run into
one or two at a time, but probably not more than that. Tigers are
bigger than humans, so it’s large, and it’s clearly an animal. Tigers
attack with claws and fangs, so a simple maul attack is all you
need. Tigers don’t have particularly thick hides or force fields, so a
defense themed around being fast and hard to hit is probably the
right choice; it could be naturally elusive, like the raigath earlier in
this chapter.
Creating Adversaries 255

CHAMPION AND BOSS ATTACKS

Champions and bosses face a special challenge in combat—they’re usually
outnumbered. That means a champion needs to play the part of two standard
adversaries, and a boss needs to play the part of four. The durability tracks for
champions and bosses handle this on the defensive side, but you’ll also need
to assign these creatures special offensive abilities to keep pace. Some good
choices include:
• An attack that affects 2 or more targets at once

• An attack action that includes multiple attacks against different targets.
• A reaction that includes an attack
• A very fast attack (1 or 2 impulses—although a 1-impulse attack proba-
bly shouldn’t be usable in consecutive actions)
TEMPLATE TABLES
The adversary’s attack skill score, defense skill score, hit boxes
and basic damage range are listed for each level.
Attack: The creature’s target number for an Average success
with an attack. As with all attacks, exceeding this number by 5 or
more results in an Excellent hit, and exceeding it by 10 or more
results in a Stellar hit.
Defense: The creature’s skill score for a defense roll (for exam-
ple, a Dodge check to get out of a blast area).
Wounds: The creature’s wound boxes, with the damage num-
bers required to inflict a wound of that severity. The “last” box in
the critical column serves as the creature’s mortal wound box (if
there’s only one, that’s both the critical and mortal wound for the
creature).
Damage: The expected damage the creature deals with a
successful attack, listed with both Average and Excellent damage
results. While the damage listed is a flat number, you should
create a damage expression that approximates the target. For
example, a level 1 standard foe deals 5 damage on an Average
hit; that could be 1d6 + 2 or 1d4 + 3. On an Excellent hit, that crea-
ture deals 9 damage, which could be 1d6 + 6 or 2d6 + 2.
Example: Steve is building a mutant bear-monster and decides
it’s a TR 4 champion. He refers to the Champion Adversary Tem-
plate. The mutant bear’s skill score for its attacks should be
13+ (or 13/18/23), and its attacks should deal 8 damage on an
Average hit. Its skill score for defensive checks such as Dodge
should be 15+. Finally, reading across the wound categories,
the mutant bear should have 2 light wound boxes, 2 moderate
wound boxes, 2 severe wound boxes and 2 mortal wound boxes,
arranged as shown:

(13+ dmg)  dead
(13+ dmg)  critical wound
(10 to 12 dmg)  severe wound
(7 to 9 dmg)  moderate wound
(1 to 6 dmg)  light wound
That’s a lot of bear!
MINION
Minions are a special category of adversary. These are the simple
grunts and cannon fodder. Individually, they aren’t much of a
threat to most heroes, but they are dangerous in larger numbers.
Because they are intended to be used in large numbers, they have
special rules for attacks and damage.
• Minions have one hit box. Any hit that penetrates armor
defeats a minion.
• An Average hit from a minion’s attack overcomes armor
equal to 1 plus half its level. An Excellent hit overcomes
armor equal to 5 plus half the minion’s level.
• When a minion hits a target and overcomes the target’s
armor, that target takes a 1-damage wound.
• Stellar hits from minions deal only one wound, not two, but
they ignore armor.
Minions have suggested attack and defense values, just like When you use
other adversaries. However, they don’t need durability or damage minions, include
entries. Instead, they have the following characteristic: something with an
area effect in your
Armor Penetration: This is the resistance value of armor the set design; see
minion’s attack overcomes. Chapter 7.
MINION ADVERSARY TEMPLATE

Level Attack Defense Armor Penetration
1 16 16 1
2 15 16 2
3 14 15 2
4 13 15 3
5 12 14 3
6 11 14 4
7 10 13 4
8 9 13 5
9 8 12 5
10 7 12 6

STANDARD ADVERSARY TEMPLATE

Light Moderate Severe Critical/
Level Attack Defense Wound Wound Wound Mortal Wd. Damage
1 16 16  1–3  4–6  7–9  10+ 5/9
2 15 16  1–4  5–7  8–10  11+ 5/9
3 14 15  1–5  6–8  9–11  12+ 6 / 10
4 13 15  1–6  7–9 10–12  13+ 6 / 10
5 12 14  1–7  8–10  11–13  14+ 7 / 11
6 11 14  1–8  9–11  12–14  15+ 7 / 11
7 10 13  1–9 10–12  13–15  16+ 8 / 12
8 9 13  1–10  11–13  14–15  16+ 8 / 12
9 8 12  1–11  12–14  15  16+ 9 / 13
10 7 12  1–12  13–15  16+  16+ 9 / 13
11 6 11  1–12  13–15  16+  16+ 10 / 14
12 5 10  1–12  13–15 16+  16+ 11 / 15
13 4 9  1–12  13–15 16+  16+ 12 / 16
CHAMPION ADVERSARY TEMPLATE

1 16 16  1–3  4–6  7–9  10+ 7 / 11
2 15 16  1–4  5–7 8–10  11+ 7 / 11
3 14 15  1–5  6–8  9–11  12+ 8 / 12
4 13 15  1–6  7–9 10–12  13+ 8 / 12
5 12 14  1–7  8–10 11–13  14+ 9 / 13
6 11 14  1–8  9–11  12–14  15+ 9 / 13
7 10 13  1–9 10–12  13–15  16+ 10 / 14
8 9 13  1–10 11–13 14–15  16+ 10 / 14
9 8 12  1–11  12–14  15 16+ 11 / 15
10 7 12  1–12  13–15  16+  16+ 11 / 15
11 6 11  1–13 14–15 16+  16+ 12 / 16
12 5 10 1–14  15–16 16+  16+ 12 / 16
13 4 9 1–15  16+  16+  16+ 13 / 17

BOSS ADVERSARY TEMPLATE
1 16 16 1–3  4–6  7–9  10+ 7 / 11
2 15 16  1–4  5–7  8–10 11+ 7 / 11
3 14 15  1–5  6–8  9–11  12+ 8 / 12
4 13 15  1–6  7–9 10–12  13+ 8 / 12
5 12 14  1–7  8–10  11–13 14+ 9 / 13
6 11 14  1–8  9–11 12–14 15+ 9 / 13
7 10 13  1–9 10–12 13–14 16+ 10 / 14
8 9 13  1–10 11–13 14–16  16+ 10 / 14
9 8 12  1–11  12–14 15–16  16+ 11 / 15
10 7 12  1–12  13–15  16+  16+ 11 / 15
11 6 11  1–13  14–15  16+ 16+ 12 / 16
12 5 10  1–14  15 16+ 16+ 12 / 16
13 4 9 1–15  16+ 16+ 16+ 13 / 17
CREATURE TYPE
A creature’s type describes its basic nature: Is it an animal that
evolved on some world, a human (or human-like alien), a mechanical
creation like a robot, or something else altogether? Type determines
a creature’s innate vulnerabilities and resistances—for example,
animals need to breathe, and mechanisms don’t.
Animal: Animals are living creatures that move, eat, and respire.
They are not sentient and don’t use tools or weapons. Most animals
have Intelligence scores of 0 (instinct only) or 1 (animal), resulting in
a check score of 20+ or 19+ respectively.
Enigma: An enigma is alive, but has bizarre or nonorganic life
processes. It is immune to effects that work on ordinary biochemis-
try (poison, for example) and may not need to breathe.
Humanoid: A living creature reasonably close to human in intelli-
gence, tool use, and ability to communicate.
Mechanism: Artificial beings that are not alive. They do not need
to breathe and are immune to effects that require living biochem-
istry, but they require power in the form of fuel, charge cells, or
internal generators.
(Alien): This descriptor is added to a creature that is not
descended from Earthly lifeforms. Characters unfamiliar with its
native ecosystem take a -2 step penalty to interact with the creature.

APPENDIX 1: PSIONICS
Mental powers such as telepathy, ESP, telekinesis and other strange abilities are
commonplace in some settings, rare in others and completely absent from many
more. Heroes armed with psionic abilities can be perfect spies, undetectable assas-
sins or near-omniscient directors and controllers. No secret is safe from a spy who
can read minds; no VIP is protected from an enemy who can compel a bodyguard to
fire a weapon with a mere thought.
Mental powers aren’t part of every Alternity game. They’re a great fit for
a wide-open space opera with hundreds of potentially psionic alien races or a
modern-day conspiracy campaign touching on paranormal situations, but they
might seem out of place in a post-apocalyptic or hard sci-fi environment. Deciding
whether to include psionics is an important point of world-building for the GM.
PSIONICS IN PLAY
A character’s psionic ability consists of psionic skills and psionic
talents. Any character or creature that has at least 1 skill point in a
psionic skill or possesses a psionic talent is considered psionic; all
other characters and creatures are nonpsionic. Powerful psionic
characters have a lot of skill points and talent selections invested in
psionic options, while characters with little ability—say, occasional
premonitions of danger or an uncanny knack for sensing a lie—
might have only a handful of points in a single psionic skill.
To use a psionic ability in a combat or challenge scene, you need
to make a skill check against the appropriate psionic skill. If your
check succeeds, you activate or perform the psionic action you are
attempting. (The things you can do with psionic skills are covered
in the skill descriptions.) If your check fails, you can’t successfully
initiate your psionic power.
You can use psionic skills as often as you like, but some uses
of your ability require exceptional effort and might lead to psionic
fatigue (see below).
PSIONIC EFFORT AND PSIONIC FATIGUE

Many uses of psionics are fairly routine; a telepath can quickly send
a thought to a nearby friend as easily as he or she might speak to
that person, while a psychokinetic can scoop a coin off a table just
by taking an action to do so. However, serious displays of mental
power such as taking control of an enemy’s mind or lifting a car out
of a swamp require psionic effort. After attempting to use a psionic
skill that requires effort, you must make a fatigue check (your
choice of a Resilience or Willpower check).
On a failed fatigue check, you increase your psionic fatigue
by 1 level.
260 Appendix 1: Psionics

0 No fatigue
1 Mild: –1 step penalty to all psionic skill checks and fatigue checks.
2 Moderate: –2 step penalty to all psionic skill checks and fatigue checks.
3 Severe: –3 step penalty to all psionic skill checks and fatigue checks. You suffer a psionic wound
of 1d6 damage.
4 Brain Burn: As severe, but you suffer a psionic wound of 2d6 damage instead of 1d6, and you
cannot expend effort until you reduce your psionic fatigue level.
Recovering From Fatigue: At the end of any scene in which you
have at least 1 level of fatigue, you can attempt a new fatigue check
to reduce your fatigue by 1 level. In addition, when you rest at least
8 hours, you reduce your fatigue level by 1 and can make a fatigue
check to reduce your fatigue by an additional level.
PSIONIC COMBAT
Psionic attacks fall into two broad categories: psychokinetic attacks
and telepathic attacks.
Psychokinetic attacks are real manifestations of physical force or
energy. The target’s armor (if any) resists psychokinetic attacks nor-
mally—a telekinetic punch deals physical damage, while a pyrokinetic
burst deals energy damage. Psychokinetic attacks are invisible; no
visible energy connects the attacker and target. However, a charac-
ter launching an attack is clearly concentrating on something at the
moment of the attack, and the effects on the target may be obvious.
Psychokinetic attacks can pass through any medium unless stated
otherwise, but the attacker must have line of sight to the target.
Telepathic attacks are intangible strikes of projected thought and
can affect only living creatures. They are not physical and directly
affect the target’s consciousness. Like psychokinetic attacks, they
are invisible and can pass through any medium. The attacker must
have line of sight to the target or otherwise be able to perceive the
mind of the target (for example, a live video connection to a target
who is close enough to be within range of the attack or hearing
someone speak on the other side of a door).
PSIONIC INJURY
Wounds inflicted by telepathic attack work just like wounds inflicted
by other attacks and force the target to mark off wound boxes
normally: You can defeat a badly wounded target with your mind
blasts more easily than you can defeat a fresh foe. However, you
can choose whether your psionic attack is lethal or nonlethal after
you roll for damage.
Some psionic attacks inflict harmful conditions as well as damage—
for example, temporary insanity or paralyzing fear. You can attempt to
recover from a psionically inflicted condition by spending 1 impulse to
make a Willpower check unless stated otherwise by the effect.
Psionics in Play 261

PSIONIC SKILLS
Four skills serve as the gateway to psionic powers: ESP, Mind Over
Body, Psychokinesis and Telepathy. These skills work like other
skills in the game, except you can’t attempt a skill check with a
psionic skill if you’re not psionic.
Skill Key Ability

ESP Focus/Personality
Mind Over Body Focus
Psychokinesis Intelligence
Telepathy Intelligence/Personality
When you make a check using a psionic skill, you can choose
to expend psionic effort. If you do, you gain a +3 step bonus to that
skill check. Some skills might suggest other ways to expend effort.
ESP
Extra-sensory perception allows you to perceive things you
shouldn’t be able to perceive: distant people or places, psychic
impressions left behind by past stress or trauma, or glimpses of
the future. When you assign a skill point to ESP, choose one of
the following specialties: premonition, psychic history or remote
viewing. You gain a +1 step bonus to ESP checks in your field of
specialization.
Premonition: You can make an ESP check at the beginning of an
adventure to determine the strength and usefulness of your premoni-
tions. At any point during the adventure, you can “spend” your premo-
nition as a free action to gain a bonus on a check you make or inflict a
penalty on a check an opponent makes against you. The value of the
premonition bonus (or penalty) depends on the success of your ESP
check: 3 steps (Average), 4 steps (Excellent) or 5 steps (Stellar).
You can tie your premonition to another character who is well
known to you, in which case you decide when to grant that char-
acter the premonition bonus (or penalty to someone acting against
that character). However, you must be able to convey a quick warn-
ing to the subject of your premonition to grant the bonus, so they
must be able to hear you, and you can’t be unconscious when the
moment arrives.
You can expend effort to continue a premonition after you use its
bonus or penalty. In effect, spending effort buys you a second (or
third or fourth) use of the premonition bonus. You can also expend
effort to create a new premonition in an adventure after you use up
the original one.
Psychic History: Use ESP to read a place or object for psychic
impressions. You must physically handle the object or be in the loca-
tion you’re examining to make a check. In general, impressions are
created only when people experience intense emotion in a place

or while holding or using an object; the more powerful the emotion,
the stronger the impression. For example, a gun used occasionally
for target shooting has a much weaker psychic impression than one
used to commit murder. Impressions fade over time, so long-ago
events are “weaker” than more recent ones.
Your success level determines the amount of information you gain:
• Average Success: You gain a sense of the emotions or per-

sonality involved, such as “A woman met her death bravely
in this room,” or “This watch belonged to a remorseless killer
driven by a compulsive disorder.”
• Excellent Success: You gain a strong image (or other sensory
signature) of the person who left the impression sufficient
enough to recognize him or her later.
• Stellar Success: You “see” the event that caused the impres-
sion as if you’d been there in person.
Old impressions call for a penalty of –1 step (a year or so) to –5

steps (many centuries). Strong impressions provide a bonus of +1
step (a single death) to +3 steps (thousands of deaths). Most ordi-
nary objects and places retain no readable psychic history at all.
Remote Viewing: Use your ESP to view a distant scene in your
mind’s eye as if you were there. On a successful check, you observe
the target location for 3 impulses (and you are distracted from your
actual location). You can continue observing by making another ESP
check; you gain a +2 step bonus to keep watching a location you
are already watching. The success level of your check indicates the
quality of your view:
• Average Success: You “see” the site as if you are at very

long range (200 meters). You can identify vehicles and note
the presence of people without identifying them.
• Excellent Success: You “see” the site as if you are at medium
range (10 meters). You can recognize individuals and obvious
emotions or actions.
• Stellar Success: You “see” the site as if you are adjacent
to it (2 meters). You can read documents or computer
screens in view.
You must be familiar with the site you are attempting to view
or able to make an informed guess about it. For example, you can
attempt to view “the bridge of that starship over there” because you
know it has a bridge, but you can’t view “whatever’s on the other side
of this hatch” because you don’t know what might be in that com-
partment. You can view a spot you’ve seen a picture of (for example,
a postcard) or even a town you know just by a name on a map. You
gain a +2 step bonus if you are very familiar with the target, and a –2
Psionic Skills 263

step penalty if the only thing you know is a name. You can’t target
people; you have to target a site you know something about (so you
can’t try to view “Tyrant Gannel’s secret hideout, wherever that is.”)
Remote viewing works at extreme ranges: close range is 10 kilo-
meters, medium is 100 km, long is 1,000 km, very long is 10,000 km
and extreme is 100 AU (a star system).
MIND OVER BODY

You possess an uncanny ability to control your body with your mind.
You can perform incredible feats of balance, endure extreme condi-
tions or even staunch your wounds.
Adaptation: At rank 2, your mastery of this psionic skill grants
you a +1 step bonus on any Endurance check you must make. The
bonus improves to +2 steps at rank 5 and +3 steps at rank 8. You
can expend psionic effort to increase these bonuses by +3 steps.
Balance: At rank 1, your uncanny balance grants you a +1 step bonus
on any Acrobatics or Dodge check you attempt. This bonus improves
to +2 steps at rank 3, +3 steps at rank 6 and +4 steps at rank 9. You can
expend psionic effort to increase these bonuses by +3 steps.
Movement: At rank 4, increase the distance of any jump you
attempt by 50 percent. This bonus improves to 100 percent at rank
7 and 200 percent at rank 10. You can expend psionic effort to
double this bonus.
Self-healing: You can attempt a Mind Over Body check to reduce
wound penalties for the duration of the scene by 1, 2 or 3 steps for
an Average, Excellent or Stellar result. If you expend effort, you also
heal 1, 2 or 3 wound boxes depending on your success level.
PSYCHOKINESIS
You can move distant objects with the power of your mind. You can
levitate objects far heavier than you could normally lift, turn a small
object into a dangerous missile, or seize your enemies with invisible
force and hold them motionless.
Psychokinesis observes the normal range categories and pen-
alties; it’s easier to pick up something close to you than something
far away. In addition, you can affect multiple targets at once with a
penalty of –1 step for each additional object. At the GM’s discretion,
a number of small but similar objects (a drawer full of silverware or
a pile of gravel) count as just one object as long as you’re moving
them together. You can operate devices with complex moving parts
(for example, aiming and firing a gun you’re levitating) with an addi-
tional –2 step penalty to your Psychokinesis check.
If you try to grab something another creature is holding, make
an opposed check (your Psychokinesis versus your opponent’s

Athletics). You must win the check to yank the target object away
from your opponent.
Lift: Make a Psychokinesis check to move an object within range.
Your success level dictates how far you can move the object; up
to 5 meters (Average), 20 meters (Excellent) or 50 meters (Stellar).
If you don’t set down the object before your next action, you must
make a new Psychokinesis check to continue lifting it.
The mass of the target object adds a bonus or penalty to the
check, as shown below.
<1 kg +2 steps
1–10 kg +1 step
10–100 kg no modifier
100–250 kg –1 step
250–500 kg –2 steps
500–1,000 kg –3 steps
1–2 tons –4 steps
2–5 tons –5 steps
Missile: Pick up something close by and hurl it as an attack at
a target within long range. The missile must be 10 kg or less and
within 10 meters of you. Your Psychokinesis check is your attack
roll (normal range penalties apply). Your missile inflicts 1d6 + 0/4
physical damage if your attack succeeds; you can expend psionic
effort to increase damage to 1d6 + 4/8. Some missiles might have
additional effects—you can “throw” an armed grenade much further
than you could with arm strength alone, or you can stick a hypo-
dermic needle into a distant foe. At the GM’s discretion, very soft or
delicate objects might deal half damage or no damage at all when
used as missiles.
Restrain: Make a Psychokinesis check to seize a creature or
small vehicle with telekinetic force until your next action. The
success level of your check determines how firmly you’re holding
the target:
• Average Success: Target speed is reduced by 50 percent,

and the target takes a –2 step penalty on any physical skill
check. The target can’t aim, charge or dodge.
• Excellent Success: As above, but the target is immobilized.
• Stellar Success: As above, but the target can take no
physical actions at all, and you can move the target up to
10 meters.
You are distracted while using Psychokinesis to restrain

a creature.
A creature restrained by Psychokinesis can attempt an Athletics
check as a 1-impulse action to struggle free. If the creature equals or
beats your level of success, the restraint ends.
Psionic Skills 265

Massive targets are difficult to restrain; see Lift (above) for check
modifiers based on the target weight. You gain a +1 step bonus to
continue restraining a creature you are already restraining.
TELEPATHY
You can communicate with other creatures via direct mind-to-mind
contact, read their thoughts or compel them to act as you direct.
When you assign a skill point to Telepathy, choose one of the fol-
lowing specialties: contact, probe or suggestion. You gain a +1 step
bonus to Telepathy checks in your field of specialization.
You can use Telepathy only on living creatures. You must be
within range of the telepathic discipline you’re using, and you must
have line of sight to the target or be able to perceive its existence
(for example, by engaging in a video conversation or hearing some-
one nearby).
You can affect multiple targets at once with a penalty of –1 step
for each additional creature.
It’s difficult to interact with creatures whose minds are very differ-
ent from yours; you take a –1 step penalty to interact with a creature
with an Intelligence of 1, and a –2 step penalty to interact with an
Intelligence 0 creature. Truly mindless creatures such as plants or
jellyfish just don’t have nervous systems that harbor a mind, and
you can’t use Telepathy on them at all. In addition, minds that are
very alien (GM’s discretion) inflict an additional –2 step penalty to
your check.
Contact: Make a Telepathy check to establish mind-to-mind
communication with a creature you know or that you can see or
perceive. The success level of your check indicates the clarity of
your communication:
• Average Success: You can transmit a simple message and

receive an answer. The message can’t be more complex
than 10 words (a single clear image or emotion counts as a
“word”).
• Excellent Success: You can exchange ideas as if holding a
conversation with the target, including emotions or images
as needed.
• Stellar Success: You can see through the target’s eyes
(or experience other senses) and allow the target to see
through yours.
Telepathic contact is simply communication; you can’t compel the

target to act or read thoughts not directed at you, and non-sentient
creatures are limited in their ability to understand you. If you don’t
share a language, you can still communicate effectively through
images and emotions, although delivering precise instructions

may be difficult or impossible. Once you establish contact, you can
remain in contact indefinitely or until you use Telepathy against a
different target.
Telepathic contact can work at extreme ranges: close range
is 10 kilometers, medium is 100 km, long is 1,000 km, very long is
10,000 km and extreme range is 100 AU (a star system).
Probe: Use your Telepathy skill to read someone’s thoughts.
The target must be within medium range. You normally perceive the
target’s thoughts until your next action, and you are distracted while
doing so. You can continue reading the target’s thoughts by making
another Telepathy check.
The success level of your check indicates the quality of
your view:
• Average Success: You can read surface thoughts (things the

target thinks about often or is currently considering).
• Excellent Success: You can read guarded thoughts (things
the target would not willingly reveal, even under duress) or
any recent memories.
• Stellar Success: You can access old memories, as well as
secrets the target has been conditioned or trained to protect
(things the target would rather die than reveal).
The target may attempt an Awareness or Telepathy check to

notice some force is attempting to discern its thoughts. You can
expend psionic effort to cover your tracks, imposing a –3 step
penalty on the target’s check to notice your probe. If the target is on
guard, your probe attempt becomes an opposed skill check (your
Telepathy against the target’s Willpower).
Suggestion: Use Telepathy to cause a creature within medium
range to perform a task you direct it to perform, or otherwise
influence your interaction with it. Creatures naturally resist foreign
influences; the target counters your Telepathy check with a Will-
power check. If your attempt fails, the target knows some outside
force tried to influence it.
Creatures operating under a telepathic suggestion don’t realize
they are being influenced, and they react normally if interrupted
in the task. For example, a creature carrying out a task you give it
abandons that task and defends itself if attacked or stops immedi-
ately if someone challenges its actions.
The success level of your Telepathy check determines the dura-
tion and complexity of the suggestion you can implant:
• Average Success (1 action round): Distract a target, or cause

it to perform a simple task it has no reason not to, such as
waving an official-looking person through a checkpoint.
Psionic Skills 267

• Excellent Success (1 minute): Cause a target to perform a

long task it might ordinarily take (start a coffee break, moni-
tor an irrelevant screen) or a simple task it might not normally
take (wave a suspicious individual through a checkpoint).
• Stellar Success (10 minutes): Cause a target to perform a
long, complex task it would not normally do (for example,
open a gate for a delivery or go download a file to a USB
drive when those aren’t part of the target’s job).
Targets ignore obviously violent or self-destructive suggestions.

You can get a guard to distract or misinform a coworker, but you
can’t get her to shoot the guy.
MENTALIST ARCHETYPE
Your mind is your weapon. Your special gift makes you a prized
asset for governments and corporations ... or a deadly threat to the
powers that be. Whether you use your powers to enrich yourself or
place them at the service of people who uphold the law and defend
society, you are the object of fear and misunderstanding. Choose
your friends wisely, because many people are eager to make use of
your abilities, and their purposes may not be yours.
If you want to be a mentalist, make the following choices:
• Initiative Bonus: You have a +1 step bonus on initia-

tive checks.
• Mandated Talent: Choose the Kinetic Control, Mental
Combat or Psychic Intuition talent.
• Discretionary Talents: Choose two more talents. These two
talents cannot be from the same constellation, but one of them
can be from the same constellation as your mandated talent.
categories: attack, defense, psionic, social and environmen-
tal. Assign 4 skill points to each skill you select.
on additional skills or improve mandated skills. You can’t
begin play with more than 5 skill points in any individual skill.
• Mental Power: You have a +1 step bonus on skill checks to
resist or recover from psionic fatigue.
PSIONIC TALENTS
Most psionic talents are available only to psionic characters.
However, at the GM’s discretion a nonpsionic character can select
Mental Block (in settings where psionics are commonplace, training
to resist telepathic attack is likewise common).

★Kinetic Power: You gain a +2 step bonus on all psionic fatigue
checks. You must be trained in Psychokinesis to choose this talent.
Electrogeneration: You can generate electrical current to run
devices that run on batteries, power cells or electrical power
systems. Your check result determines how long the device runs:
3 impulses, 1 round or the duration of the scene for an Average/
Excellent/Stellar result. The object mass step modifiers described
in the Lift function of Psychokinesis apply to your skill check.
Kinetic Block: You can use a reaction to make a Psychokine-
sis check when you are hit by an attack that deals physical
damage. Reduce the damage by 3, 6 or 9 for an Average,
Excellent or Stellar success. Each additional block you attempt
in a scene takes a cumulative –1 step penalty.
Levitation: You can use telekinesis to fly. As a 3-impulse
action, make a Psychokinesis check; you can fly 5 m, 20 m or
50 m for an Average, Excellent or Stellar success. If you begin
your turn in mid-air, you must expend psionic effort to remain
aloft, or you fall.
Pyrokinesis: You can expend psionic effort and use your
Psychokinesis skill to accelerate molecular motion, caus-
ing something to become blisteringly hot or even burst into
flames. Choose a single target or an area. If you choose a
single target, this is an attack based on your Psychokinesis
skill (range long; speed 4; damage 1d10 + 2/6 energy; target
must succeed at a Dodge check or catch fire). If you choose
an area, you create 6-meter burst within long range. Your
Psychokinesis check determines the damage of the blast: 1d6
+ 2/5/8 energy for an Average, Excellent or Stellar success.
★Mental Block: Enemies suffer a –2 step penalty to Telepathy

checks and attacks that target you. You must be trained in Telepa-
thy to choose this talent.
Compulsion: When you achieve a Stellar success on a Telepathy
check to implant a suggestion in a target, you can force the target
to take an action that it would normally be violently opposed to
taking (attacking an ally or opening an airlock, for example).
Mind Bolt: You can launch a bolt of mental force that sup-
presses or destroys the target’s consciousness. This is an
attack based on your Telepathy skill (target living creatures
only; range medium; speed 3; damage 1d8 +0/5; ignores
target armor). If you incapacitate a target with mind bolt, you
can decide whether it is lethal or nonlethal damage.
↪Long-Range Bolt: Increase the range of your mind bolt
attack to very long.
↪Powerful Bolt: Increase your mind bolt damage by 1.
Psionic Talents 269

↪Stunning Bolt: When you successfully attack a target

with your mind bolt, you can expend psionic effort to
stun the target. The target must make a Willpower check
or become stunned for 3 impulses. If your attack reached
an Excellent (or Stellar) success level, the target takes a
–1 step (or –2 step) penalty on its Willpower check.
Mind Shield: Reduce damage you suffer from mind bolt
attacks (or similar effects) by 3.
Unleash Fear: You cause the target to perceive the thing he
or she most fears. This is an attack based on your Telepathy
skill (target living creatures only; range medium; speed 3). On
a successful attack, the target must make a Willpower check
or gain the insane condition. Your success level modifies the
target’s Willpower check: –2 steps if your success is Excellent
or –4 steps if your success is Stellar.
★Psychic Intuition: When someone observes you, you can attempt

an ESP check to notice their attention even if you could not oth-
erwise see them (for example, if you are being watched through
a hidden camera or by remote viewing). On an Excellent success,
you gain a general sense of who’s watching you and how; on a
Stellar success, you know exactly who and where they are. If you
want, you can end a remote viewing attempt against you when
Remind your GM
you notice it.
you have this ability
from time to time. You must be trained in ESP to choose this talent.
You don’t know
Living History: You can use ESP to search the psychic history
when to use it.
of a living creature in your presence, not just an object or
place. You must choose a specific event the creature was
present for; if you don’t specify something, you instead gain
a glimpse of the most powerful event in that creature’s life.
You can often see things the subject does not recall or was
unaware of at the time.
Powerful Premonitions: You gain a +2 step bonus on ESP
checks to gain a premonition.
Psychic Search: You can choose to target a person instead
of a place when you use remote viewing. You must know the
person you’re looking for or have a photo (or other image) of
them. If your ESP check succeeds, you recognize the tar-
get’s location if you are already familiar with it; otherwise you
gain only a rough sense of distance and general direction to
the target.

APPENDIX 2: SHIPS AND VEHICLES
From Mad Max’s Pursuit Special to the starship Enterprise, vehicles and ships are
part of Alternity’s DNA. Players love acquiring them, upgrading them, and perform-
ing stunts with them that their manufacturers never imagined. Starships in particular
are complex enough to warrant their own sourcebook (the forthcoming Shipyard),
but a brief overview here should get the characters moving.
Before we proceed, a quick terminology note: for our purposes, the difference
between a vehicle and a ship is that a ship includes living/sleeping quarters, but
a vehicle doesn’t. Of course you can sleep in a car, but it wasn’t designed for that.
Another way to understand the difference is to think of it in terms of set design. If
the Alternity film in your head uses just one or two camera angles for your char-
acter, it’s a vehicle. (A jet fighter is a good example.) If the characters are moving
around within it and you’d build it like a set, then it’s a ship (the Millennium Falcon
falls into this category).
For purposes of the rules below, any time we say “vehicle,” we mean both ships
and vehicles.
ACTION SCENES WITH SHIPS

AND VEHICLES
Heroes get into all sorts of trouble with their vehicles. To design
an action scene where vehicles are prominent, first answer a
fundamental question: Is vehicle position in this scene absolute
or relative?
• Absolute: Each vehicle moves its speed in meters when its

operator takes the control action (see below). Distances are
measured in absolute terms, just like they are in non-vehicle
combat scenes.
• Relative: Positions are described in general terms from a
key vehicle (usually the one the heroes are in). Operators
use the control action (see below) to increase or decrease
their distance from the key vehicle, and the stationary terrain
(buildings, starports, etc.) is an abstracted background that
the vehicles are maneuvering through.
If you’re trying to build a classic starfighter dogfight or car chase,

then relative position feels more cinematic. Absolute position works
best when there’s only one vehicle in the scene, when vehicles are
mixed with people on foot, or when the vehicles are mostly being
used to arrive or depart from the scene entirely.
Absolute Distance: Absolute position is straightforward—if a
marauder’s dune buggy is 300 meters away and it’s moving at a
speed of 100 meters, it moves 100 meters closer or further away when
Action Scenes with Ships and Vehicles 271

the operator acts. If you can jump 6 meters and the marauder’s buggy
is 5 meters away, you can board it. If your weapon has a range of 200
meters and the marauder is 220 meters away, it’s too far away to hit.
Relative Distance: Relative position is deliberately imprecise. All
that matters is the “cinematic” distance between the key vehi-
cle (generally the heroes’ vehicle) and each of the other vehicles
involved in the scene. Relative position is described as immediate,
near, or far.
• Immediate: The vehicles are side-by-side, bumper-to-

bumper, or right on the other one’s tail. They’re close
enough to collide with each other or for particularly brave
characters to leap from one to another.
• Near: The vehicles are a couple of seconds apart. Some
personal ranged attacks may be possible.
• Far: The vehicles are about ten seconds apart.
If a vehicle gets farther than Far from the key vehicle in the
scene, it’s no longer part of the scene—either it escaped, or the key
vehicle did.
The exact distance represented by immediate, near, and
far varies with the kind of vehicles involved in the scene. For a
modern-day car chase, it might be 5 meters, 100 meters, and 300
meters. In an asteroid-field starfighter duel, those distances could
be 1 kilometer, 5 kilometers, and 20 kilometers. Characters with
personal weapons can take shots at enemies in a car chase, but
pistols won’t be terribly effective unless you’re right on the other
guy’s bumper … and if you’re in jet fighters screaming along at
supersonic speeds, personal weapons are pretty much not a factor.
CONTROLLING VEHICLES
Most vehicles need someone at the controls to direct the vehicle’s
movement. You must keep a vehicle under control, or it becomes
uncontrolled. To control a vehicle:
• Use the control action and make a skill check (usually Driv-
ing or Piloting, depending on the kind of vehicle), or add the
maintain control action modifier when you take a differ-
ent action.
• You must use the control action and make the skill check
at least once every other action (in other words, half the
actions you take in the scene must be the control action).
• Your vehicle becomes uncontrolled if you do anything other
than use the control action or an action combined with the
maintain control action modifier, take a second consecutive
action other than control, or fail the appropriate skill check.
272 Appendix 2: Ships and Vehicles

CONTROL (3 IMPULSES)
Drive, fly, or otherwise guide a vehicle you’re operating. You must
make a Driving or Piloting skill check, as appropriate.
Absolute Movement: Any successful check means the vehi-
cle moves in the direction and speed you intend, subject to the
dictates of physics and common sense. Alternity isn’t so gran-
ular that you need to worry about a vehicle’s exact performance
details; just be reasonable about pushing the limits of the vehicle’s
maneuverability.
Relative Movement: Your ability to alter your position relative to
the key vehicle (or, if you’re in the key vehicle, relative to all other
vehicles) depends on the results of your Driving or Piloting check:
• On a failure, you lose control of the vehicle at least tempo-

rarily. The vehicle has the uncontrolled condition.
• On an Average success, you maintain position relative to the The operator makes
other vehicles in the scene. checks only during
• On an Excellent success, you can increase or decrease the an action scene.
There’s no chance of
distance to other vehicles by one category. If the distance is going uncontrolled
already immediate, then decreasing the distance allows you during routine travel.
to make a ram attack (described below). If the distance is
already far, then increasing the distance removes one of the
vehicles from the scene.
• On a Stellar success, you can increase or decrease the
range to other vehicles by one category, and other vehicles
who try to alter the range in the other direction before your
next action suffer a –2 step penalty on their Driving or Pilot-
ing checks.

Maintain Control (Action Modifier): Keep one hand on the wheel

or the stick while you do something unrelated to operating your
vehicle (for example, shooting a pistol out the window or inter-
acting with your smart phone). Add a 1-impulse delay to your next
action. Your vehicle remains under control until your next action
(which must be the control action, or else your vehicle becomes
uncontrolled).
VEHICLE CONDITIONS
If a vehicle is uncontrolled, everyone in or on the vehicle suffers
a –1 step penalty to Driving and Piloting checks and any attacks.
This condition lasts until an operator gets at least an Average suc-
cess to regain control (or the vehicle crashes into something and
becomes halted).
If a vehicle is halted, it’s not moving. If you’re using relative posi-
tion, other operators gain a +5 step bonus on checks to increase or
decrease distance. If you’re using absolute position, then the halted
vehicle’s speed is 0. This condition lasts until an operator takes a
control action to get the vehicle moving (whether the skill check is
successful or not). Its ability to regain speed is limited to the acceler-
ation given in the vehicle description.
Momentum: If you’re using relative position, the system already
accounts for an uncontrolled vehicle continuing forward while
it swerves, veers, or drifts. If you’re using absolute position, an
uncontrolled vehicle continues on its existing course and speed
every third impulse, subject to common sense and the prevailing
terrain. When the vehicle contacts something sizable, it crashes
and becomes halted.
OTHER OPERATOR ACTIONS

While most operators concentrate on control actions, other options
exist. You must spend half your actions driving, but you can find
moments to do other things on alternating actions … as long as
you aren’t suddenly required to avoid a hazard or attempt to
regain control.
Attack: Whether firing a pistol out the window or launching a
nacelle-mounted grav-torpedo, attacks follow the normal rules out-
lined in Chapter 5.
Activate/Deactivate Autopilot: This 1-impulse action, generally
available on vehicles of TE 7 or higher, switches the vehicle from
operator control to autonomous control. While the autopilot is active,
whomever is sitting at the controls is free to take other actions. The
autopilot takes the control action whenever it needs to, automatically
scoring an Average success. If the vehicle is uncontrolled, activating
the autopilot brings it back under control in 1d3 impulses.

Stunt: Operators can make matters more difficult for other
drivers by using berms as makeshift ramps, swerving into oncoming
traffic, or flying just a few meters above the hull of a dreadnought.
A stunt attempt works like a normal control action, except that you
voluntarily accept a –1 step penalty to your check. If your Driving or
Piloting check succeeds, then other vehicle operators attempting to
match your maneuver (or maintain their relative position) suffer a –3
step penalty on their next Driving or Piloting check.
A stunt isn’t always available; sometimes there isn’t enough
oncoming traffic to make it a sufficient challenge. See the Dynamic
Environments section below for the timing on stunt opportunities.
RAMMING ATTACKS
If a vehicle reaches zero range (or immediate distance in relative
position), its operator can ram another vehicle by attempting a
Driving or Piloting check at a –2 step penalty. Doing so deals
damage to the target vehicle equal to the ramming vehicle’s ram
damage, and the ramming vehicle takes damage equal to the
target vehicle’s ram damage, –3. If the operators of both vehicles
were trying to decrease range (and it’s thus more of a head-on col-
lision), then the ram deals double damage boxes to both vehicles.
On a Stellar success with a ram attack, the target vehicle
takes double ram damage—or triple ram damage if it’s a head-on
collision.
ATTACKING VEHICLE OCCUPANTS

If an attacker can see occupants of a vehicle (including the opera-
tor), they’re subject to attack. On the defensive side of the equa-
tion, most vehicles provide some semblance of cover as noted in
the vehicle descriptions. Occupants cannot usually take the evade
action modifier.
ATTACKING THE VEHICLE ITSELF

Vehicles take damage just like characters do. When a vehicle is
“wounded,” the step penalty applies to any Driving or Piloting
checks the operator makes. Attacks made by occupants of the vehi-
cle don’t suffer that step penalty, but if the vehicle becomes uncon-
trolled because the Driving checks got too difficult, then attackers
are penalized by that condition.
When a vehicle is destroyed, its occupants sustain Falling
and Impact damage (see Chapter 6) based on the speed the
vehicle was going when it was destroyed. At TE 6 and 7, reduce
the impact severity by one level; at TE 8 or higher, reduce it by
two levels. Airbags and far-future safety features make a big
difference!

DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS
Once you’ve decided on absolute or relative position, then answer a
second fundamental question: Where is the scene taking place?
The key to a satisfying action scene with vehicles is creating
a dynamic environment that changes as the heroes traverse it.
Your description of the passing landscape each round makes the
action scene seem more real. Tell the players what kind of build-
ing their characters are driving past, what sort of starship debris
they’re maneuvering around, and what the holo-billboard they just
careened through was advertising.
It’s useful to think of the vehicle environment like you would the
set design for a ground combat scene. Just as empty rooms and flat
plains are boring for Alternity ground combat, featureless deep
space or empty highways aren’t interesting for vehicle combat.
Heroes need environmental elements to move through or around:
asteroids, rush-hour hovercar traffic, dust clouds, or even a nearby
gas giant (and its attendant gravity well) to provide a little challenge.
In general, a vehicle-based action scene begins with an environ-
Try to make roughly
mental challenge at the start of the scene and changes to a new
half the results
enable stunts, challenge each round after impulse 8. Typically the challenge gives
and half punish operators a chance to attempt stunts or imposes extra difficulty or
uncontrolled vehicles. complications for all participants.
To determine what environmental challenge matters for the next
round, choose or roll 1d10 on a table created for the encounter.
Designing the table is the equivalent of doing the set design work
for a ground-based action scene. Once you’ve done that, define
immediate, near and far distance bands for relative movement.
To give you some ideas, here are tables for two quintessential
vehicle scenes: a car chase through a present-day city and a dogfight
that’s part of a wider engagement between two massive starfleets.

MODERN-DAY DOWNTOWN CAR CHASE
(immediate 0–10 m, near 11–50 m, far 51–200 m)
d10 Environmental Challenge
1 Knot of traffic. All Driving checks suffer –1 step penalty. Stunts (tight passing) are available.
2 Police join the chase. Add 1d3 motorcycles or sedans chasing all operators, unless one side
is already aligned with law enforcement.
3 Gridlock. All Driving checks suffer –1 step penalty, and failed checks on the control action
result in the vehicle halting.
4 Streets narrow. Stunts (alley driving) are available. At end of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled
vehicles collide with a building, suffering ram damage and coming to a halt.
5 Pedestrians get in the way. Operators can choose to take a –1 step penalty and avoid them,
or heartlessly mow them down.
6 Construction zone. Stunts (jumps) are available. At end of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled
vehicles crash into construction barriers or equipment, suffering ram damage and coming
to a halt.
7 Minor obstacles (wooden barriers, café tables, etc.) cause cosmetic/collateral damage.
Stunts (tight maneuvering) are available.
8 Large truck backing up. At end of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled vehicles crash into it,
suffering ram damage and coming to a halt.
9 Slippery pavement (ice, water, or oil). All Driving checks suffer –1 penalty.
10 Fruit cart! First failed Driving check this round collides with the cart, sending produce
everywhere and bringing vehicle to a halt.
FLEET BATTLE DOGFIGHT

(immediate 0–500 m, near 500 m – 2 km, far 2 km – 10 km)
d10 Environmental Challenge
1 Intervening debris. All attacks from one vehicle to another suffer –1 step penalty.
2 Disintegrating wreck. Stunts (close flyby) are available. At end of next impulse 8, all
uncontrolled vehicles crash into the wreckage, suffering ram damage and coming to a halt.
3 Indiscriminate laser barrage. First failed Piloting check this round takes 2d8 energy damage.
4 Grav-wake disturbance. All Piloting checks suffer –1 step penalty.
5 Two ships ram each other nearby. Stunts (flying through the gap between them) are
available. At end of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled vehicles join the collision, suffering ram
damage and coming to a halt.
6 Interceptors join the chase. Add 1d3 interceptors to the scene, letting the prevailing situation
or the dice determine whose side they’re on.
7 Massive ship changes course suddenly. Stunts (flying along the hull) are available. At end
of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled vehicles crash into the ship, suffering ram damage and
coming to a halt.
8 Capital ship dead ahead! At end of next impulse 8, all uncontrolled vehicles crash into it,
suffering ram damage and coming to a halt.
9 Large debris field. Stunts (weaving through the wreckage) are available. First failed Piloting
check this round takes 1d8 physical damage.
10 Stray homing missiles. Each operator can accept a –1 penalty on Piloting checks to avoid the
missiles, or ignore them and take 2d8 physical damage.
Vehicles in the Campaign 277

VEHICLES IN THE CAMPAIGN

In some Alternity campaigns, vehicles exist only in the back-
ground, as conveyances to get the heroes from scene to scene. If
that’s true for your game, then give the heroes access to vehicles
with a minimum of fuss. If you foresee lots of action scenes with
vehicles or the player characters are keenly interested in them, here
are a few ways to give them vehicles to call their own.
The maximum Special Reward: As described in the Property section in Chap-
speeds rarely ter 7, characters can receive property—including vehicles—as a
matter in an
action sequence.
level-based reward. As long as you invent a story justification for
What matters is vehicle ownership (financial windfall, special requisition from head-
the operator’s quarters, built from spare parts, etc.), you don’t need to worry about
skill within a the exact sticker price of a vehicle.
dangerous, dynamic
environment. Adventure Specific: If the heroes need a vehicle for the adven-
ture, ensure they have access to one, but inform the players that it’s
not necessarily for the PCs to keep. If the players grow fond of the
vehicle or find themselves working on ways to keep it, you have a
new motivational tool.
“The Keys Were in It:” Sometimes the heroes abscond with a
vehicle that doesn’t belong to them, or they find one unattended
in the aftermath of a battle. They can keep it as long as it’s in good
repair and neither the authorities nor the prior owner are able to
recover it.
SAMPLE VEHICLES
Most Alternity campaigns feature setting-specific vehicles—and
the more specific, the better. Give your vehicles makes, models and
reputations just as real-world cars and airplanes have. The following
sample vehicles are just as jumping-off points for your own designs.
MOTORCYCLE
Tech Era 6
Speed Max 200 kph (330 m per action); accel/decel 50 m per action
Capacity 1 driver, 10 kg cargo
Cover None
Ram Damage 1d6 physical
Durability
(7+ dmg)  destroyed
(4 to 6 damage)  –1 step penalty
(1 to 3 damage) 
Features Nimble handling (+1 step on Driving checks for control
action)
Reward Class Average

POLICE SEDAN
Tech Era 6
Capacity 1 driver, 4 passengers, 250 kg cargo
Cover Heavy (–3 steps to enemy attacks)
Durability
(16+ damage)  destroyed
(10 to 12 damage)  –2 step penalty
(1 to 6 damage) 
Features Radio, dash-cam, computer
Reward Class Excellent
SPORTS CAR
Tech Era 6
Capacity 1 driver, 1 passenger, 50 kg cargo
Cover Medium (–2 steps to enemy attacks)
Durability
Features Nimble handling (+1 step on Driving checks for control action),
performance suspension (+1 step on Driving checks for stunts)
SPEEDER
Tech Era 7
Capacity 1 pilot, 7 passengers, 500 kg cargo
Cover Heavy (–3 steps to enemy attacks)
Durability
Vehicles in the Campaign 279

Features Autopilot, communicator, computer linked to global data

network
INTERCEPTOR
Tech Era 8
Speed Max 6 g accel in space, max 3,000 kph in typical atmosphere
(4,800 m per action); accel/decel 400 m per action in atmosphere
Capacity 1 pilot, 1 gunner
Cover Total unless canopy opened; then Medium (–2 steps to enemy
attacks)
Durability
(16+ dmg)  destroyed
(16+ dmg)  –3 step penalty
(13 to 15 dmg)  –2 step penalty
(10 to 12 dmg)  –1 step penalty
(1 to 9 dmg) 
Features Autopilot, communicator, computer linked to global data
network, life support for 3 days, neutron cannon, z-missile
launcher
Reward Class Stellar
SHIPS
An Alternity ship is transportation, but it’s so much more than
that. Whether it’s a tramp freighter, a stealth cruiser, or a vast capital
vessel, a ship is also a resource, a set for all sorts of scenes, and
quite probably the heroes’ home base for the campaign.
SHIPS AS RESOURCES
For the heroes, the ship isn’t just a means of transport. It’s a pur-
veyor of goods and a dispenser of information, too—a sort of
Batcave where the PCs can do research, build high-tech gear, store
artifacts and mementos from their adventures. At a minimum, any
ship capable of a long voyage has certain basics:
• Food/water/air for a significant multiple of a typical journey.

• Mechanical and electronic tool sets, and at least some abil-
ity to fabricate new parts from raw materials as needed.
• A computer capable of complex navigation computation,
plus access to a Wikipedia-equivalent database of gen-
eral information. (In interstellar societies, this database

is updated automatically whenever a ship reaches a
new system.)
• Leisure activities to keep the crew content and entertained.
• Emergency power (batteries and backup generators) to keep
the ship functional for weeks.
• Emergency communicators capable of sending messages to
orbit (if on a planet) or throughout the system (if in space).
• EVA suits or vacuum armor for the crew, plus signifi-
cant extras.
• A dedicated sick bay or other medical area, plus emergency
medical supplies stowed throughout the ship.
Beyond those basics, ships have further resources depending

on their purpose. Trade ships have grav-sleds, exoskeleton lifters,
and other means of loading/unloading their cargo. Exploration ships
have scientific laboratories devoted to botany, geology, and other
hard sciences, plus drones with an array of specialized sensors.
Military vessels devote space to their armaments, shields and
ordnance, plus sensor and communication options their civilian
counterparts lack.
SHIPS AS SETS
Consider the various incarnations of Star Trek’s Enterprise. The
bridge was a set used in almost every episode, even though full-
fledged combat engagements were relatively rare. Likewise the sick
bay, engineering and a scattering of other locations were key sets
for decision, interaction and challenge scenes.
When a ship becomes prominent in your ongoing game, give
extra attention to describing the setting for these scenes. The
heroes should feel at home and be able to easily imagine them-
selves in various places on the ship. When the players are talking
among themselves, a simple “Where on the ship are you guys
right now?” snaps them into imagining the fictional world as they
converse.
You can also use the ship as the set for an action scene, but if the
players have a sentimental attachment to the ship, do so sparingly.
Boarding actions can be riveting scenes, but some players don’t
like being attacked on their “home turf.” If your table is amenable,
though, use the set dressing elements described in Chapter 7 to
define the basics, like how the hatches function, where the gravity
controls are, and what happens when someone vents the crew
quarters out into space.
Ships 281
SHIPS AS COMBATANTS
A ship-versus-ship battle, where the PCs are on the bridge operat-
ing various systems in concert, is beyond the scope of this book.
Those action scenes—plus the rules for building your own ships—
are covered in the Shipyard sourcebook. If you want to run the
occasional scene where the PCs’ ship is essentially the key combat-
ant in a battle, use the following guidelines.
SHIPS WITH PERSONALITY

If the heroes’ ship is important to your game, lavish attention on it. Give it per-
sonality—perhaps literally. If your setting includes artificial intelligence, then a
ship can become an important NPC. In some ways a ship is the perfect GM-con-
trolled companion for the players. It’s an invaluable aid in the logistics of an
adventure and can literally swoop in to save the day, but it doesn’t compete
with the players for the spotlight and doesn’t mind fading into the background
when it’s time for the PCs to take center stage. Simply build the ship’s AI like
you would any other NPC. You can give the ship access to technical skills that
the PCs lack, enabling exploration and investigation scenes that would other-
wise be beyond the PCs’ abilities. And if the ship is in the habit of flying itself,
give it the Piloting skill too!
Lean on the vehicle rules presented above. Set up the ship like
you would a vehicle, with damage boxes, speeds, weapons, and rel-
evant features like autopilots and systems that grant the characters
step bonuses for certain actions.
Set the scene in a dynamic environment. Deep space is not
OK! Even a gas cloud or derelict space station gives the heroes and
their enemies something to maneuver around. Create a dynamic
environment with new challenges every round, just like the vehicle
environments described in that section. Everyone likes dodging
asteroids, lurking in nebulas, coming at enemies out of the sun and
blasting the wreckage to clear a path ahead.
Nobody sits it out. Make sure every character has something
to do every round. Firing weapons, performing sensor sweeps
to find enemies and grant bonuses to the gunners, and flying
the ship are just the start. Someone can operate the damage
control system and make Engineering checks to “heal” the ship
mid-battle. Another character can take control of the power
plant and reroute power from shields to weapons or vice versa
to make their ship hit harder or survive an enemy barrage. Every
Alternity character has some technical skills—this is the time to
put them to use.

SAMPLE SHIPS
To ignite your imagination, here are stat blocks for a few basic craft.
Building a ship is a matter of choosing a hull size (as low as 50 tons
of displacement for civilian yachts and more than 500,000 tons for
planet-busting dreadnoughts), then adding modules for crew, cargo,
drives, weapons and other systems until the hull is filled. Extrapolate
from following sample ships as you invent your own and provide the
heroes with the means to reach the stars.
DEEP SPACE SURVEILLANCE CRAFT

Tech Era 7
Hull 200 tons
Drive 3 g reactionless sublight drive.
Modules Small bridge, common crew ×8, galley, passive long-range
sensor suite, active long-range sensor suite, drone launch bay,
laser turret, 10 tons of cargo.
Features Electromagnetic hull masking
LIGHT TRANSPORT
Tech Era 8
Hull 600 tons
Drive 4 g reactionless sublight drive, jump drive with 15 ly range, 3
ly/day speed, 1 day recharge.
Modules Medium bridge, officer cabins ×6, passenger cabins ×6,
galley, wardroom, medbay, passive sensor suite, active sensor
suite, vehicle launch bay, plasma turret, grav-mine launcher, 200
tons of cargo.
Features Adaptive cargo modules, atmospheric maneuver thrusters
INTERDICTION DESTROYER
Tech Era 9
Hull 5,000 tons
Drive 1000c warp drive (milspec)
Modules Large bridge, officer cabins ×15, common crew ×85, galley
×3, wardroom, medbay, milspec sensor suite, encrypted ansible,
vehicle launch bay, drone launch bay, dynamic milspec shields,
dorsal matter beam, forward torpedo launcher ×4, rear torpedo
launcher ×4, hostile boarding apparatus, tractor beam (1,000-ton
capacity), 200 tons of cargo
Features Milspec anti-piracy suite
Ships 283
INDEX
A B Devices and Machines
Ability Scores 23 Baromorph 27 214
Assigning 24 Base Die 11 Dice and Checks 10
Academics 57 Base Size 155 Die Step 13
Acrobatics 58 Battler 40 Difficulty Die 12
Action Modifier 141, 143 Behemoth 241 Disease 179
Aim 143 Blasts 147 Distracted 163
Autofire 143 Evading a Blast 148 Dodge 65
Charge 143 Blinded 162 Doors 209
Concentrate 143 Briith 30 Downtime 170
Evade 144 Driving 66
Maintain Control 274 Drones 130, 152
Action Rounds 14, 133, Drowning 180
C
139 Durability 48, 157
Ceilings 212
Adjacent 155
Check Result 12
Advanced Characters
Chiirth 242
201 E
Choosing Skills 51
Advancement 200 Elaphromorph 26
Climbing 61, 154
Aiding Other Heroes 135 Elevators 211
Coercion 62
Alien Contact 230 Empathy 66
Combat Difficulty 204
Android (Adversary) 238 Encumbrance 49
Complex Skill Checks
Android (Hero) 28 Endurance 67
135
Arachnoid 240 Energon 243
Computer 63
Archetypes 39 Energy Types 156
Contact (Encounters) 171
Area Effects 147 Energy Weapons (Gear)
Contact (NPC) 196
Armor 156 109
Contesting a Check 139
Resistance 156 Energy Weapon (Skill) 67
Control (Action) 273
Armor (Gear) 117 Engineering 68
Countering a Check 139
Armor Special Abilities ESP 262
Cover 146
119 Executions 149
Culture 64
Armor Upgrades 219 Expert 41
Customizing Weapons
Armor Training 58 Exploration 174
107, 110
Athletics 59 Exposure 180
Attack (Action) 141 Extreme Sports 69
Attack Modifier 145
Autofire 146 D
Burst 146 Damage and Wounds
F
Full Auto 147 155
Improved Autofire 147 Damage Over Time 162 Falling and Impacts 181
Automatic Failure 134 Damage Type 156 Fight or Flight 173
Automatic Success 134 Dazed 163 Firearms (Gear) 109
Average Person 199 Debility 178 Firearm (Skill) 69
Awareness 62 Deception 65 Floors 213
Defining Failure 54 Freeform Characters 44
Detection 172 FTL 228
284 Index
G L P
Gear 99 Leader 42 Performance 74
Gear Class 99 Lethality 158 Piloting 75
Gear Rewards 218 Light 212 Poison 162, 183
Restriction Levels 101 Locks 210 Position 155
Starting Gear 99 Powerlifting 61
Grab 151 Primitive Weapon (Skill)
Grappled 150 M 76
Grappled Condition Profession 76
Machine Damage 215
150, 163 Prone 164
Marzog 248
Gravity 181 Psionic Combat 261
Mechanics 71
Grenades 110, 147 Psionic Effort 260
Medical Rehab 73
Psuur 250
Medicine 71
Psychokinesis 264
Battlefield Medicine
H 72
Hand to Hand 69 Melee 73
Healing 159 Mentalist 268 R
Heavy Weapon (Gear) Mind Over Body 264 Radiation 162, 184
110 Minion 257 Raigath 251
Heavy Weapon (Skill) 70 Misdirection 74 Range 144
Hero Points 164 Move (Action) 142 Reactions 144
Human (Adversary) 244 Movement 153 Ready an Action 142
Human (Hero) 26 Moving Through Recovery 78, 159, 160
Baromorph 27 Creatures 155 Reposition (Action) 142
Elaphromorph 26 Tight Fit 154 Resilience 77
Resist (Action) 142
Retreat 168
I N Rewards 217
Fame 221
Ignoring Pain 77 Navigation 177
Favor 221
Impaired 163 Negotiations 191
Gear 218
Impulse 139 Nesh 33
Reward Pacing 223
Incapacitated 158, 163 Next Action 142
Robot 252
Influence 70 Nonlethal Combat 149
Initiative 47, 139 NPC Attitude 190
Initiative Check 139 NPCs 195
Insane 163 Contacts 196, 221
Interact (Action) 141
Interaction 169, 189
O
Objects 187
J Off-Balance 163
Jumping 60, 154 Opening Range 171
Junk 222
285
S T W
Scenes 133, 168 Tackling 150 Walls 211
Science 78 Tactical Surprise 141 Weakened 164
Security 79 Talents 45 Weapons 103
Self-Stabilizing 77 Restricted Talents 95 Energy Weapons 109
Shafts 213 Talent Descriptions 81 Firearms 109
Shove (Special Action) Technology Era 102, 224 Heavy Weapons 110
152 Tech Superiority 103 Melee Weapons 106
Size 255 Telepathy 266 Primitive Weapons
Skill 51 Template, Adversary 108
Adding New Skills 81 234, 255 Thrown Weapons 147
Maximum Skill Points Terrain, Slow 153 Weapon
51 Threat Rating 234, 255 Emplacements 216
Skill Categories 23 Time 174 Weapon Special
Skill Check 52, 134 Tools 123 Abilities 105
Complex Skill Tool Upgrades 220 Weapon Upgrades
Checks 135 Total Defense (Action) 218
Group Skill Checks 143 Willpower 80
138 Travel Speed 175 Wounds 15, 73, 157
Open-Ended Turn Order 14 Severity 156
Checks 137 Type, Creature 234, 259 Stabilizing 72, 159
Opposed Checks Animal 259 Treatment 72, 159
138 Enigma 259 Wound Check Penalty
Taking Your Time Humanoid 259 157
138 Mechanism 259
Skill List 56 X
Skills, Choosing 51 U Xayon 35
Skill Score 11
Unarmed Combat 149
Slowed (Condition) 164
Use a Skill (Action) 143
Slow Terrain 153
Species 26 Z
Speed 48, 153 Zero-G 154, 182
Spotting Range 171 V
Sprinting 61 Vacuum 186
Starting Gear 99 Vision 176
Starting Positions 171
Starvation 185
Stealth 79, 172
Striker 42
Stunned 164
Success Levels 14
Sucked Into Space 186
Surgery 72, 160
Surprise 141
Surrender 168
Survival 80
Survivor 43
Swimming 60, 154
286 Index
____________________________ ____________________________
Name Archetype
Level: _____ Hero points: _____ Initiative: _______________________ Speed: ______ Encumbrance: ______
STRENGTH ___ FOCUS ___ TALENTS

INTELLIGENCE ___ VITALITY ___ ___________________
AGILITY ___ PERSONALITY ___ ___________________
___________________
WEAPONS ___________________
weapon range speed damage special
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______ ___________________
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______ SPECIES NOTES
___________________
_______________ ____ ____ __________ _______
___________________
___________________
ARMOR AND DAMAGE
Armor reduces physical by ____, energy by ____
OTHER GEAR
severity description wounds
gear mass
16+ Mortal wound (cannot act) p _______________ ___
13–15 Critical wound (–3 die steps) ppp _______________ ___
10–12 Serious wound (–2 die steps) ppp _______________ ___
7–9 Moderate wound (–1 die step) ppp _______________ ___
4–6 Light wound (no effect) pppp
_______________ ___
1–3 Graze (no effect) pppp
_______________ ___
Every PC has the black boxes. A high Vitality score and the Rugged
talent constellation grant some or all of the gray boxes. _______________ ___
SKILLS
Academics (Int) ___/___/___ Hand to Hand (Str/Agi) ___/___/___
Acrobatics (Agi) ___/___/___ Heavy Weapon (Str/Int) ___/___/___
Armor Training (Str/Int) ___/___/___ Influence (Per) ___/___/___
Athletics (Str) ___/___/___ Mechanics (Int) ___/___/___
Awareness (Foc) ___/___/___ Medicine (Int) ___/___/___
Coercion (Per) ___/___/___ Melee (Str/Agi) ___/___/___
Computer (Int) ___/___/___ Misdirection (Per) ___/___/___
Culture (Per) ___/___/___ Performance (Per) ___/___/___
Deception (Per) ___/___/___ Piloting (Agi/Int) ___/___/___
Driving (Agi) ___/___/___ Primitive Wpn (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___
Dodge (Agi) ___/___/___ Profession (any) ___/___/___
Empathy (Foc/Per) ___/___/___ Resilience (Vit) ___/___/___
Endurance (Vit) ___/___/___ Science (Int) ___/___/___
Energy Weapon (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___ Security (Agi/Int) ___/___/___
Engineering (Int) ___/___/___ Stealth (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___
Extreme Sports (Agi/Vit) ___/___/___ Survival (Vit/Foc) ___/___/___
Firearm (Agi/Foc) ___/___/___ Willpower (Foc) ___/___/___
©2018 Sasquatch Game Studio. Permission granted to reproduce for personal use.
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CORE RULEBOOK

Richard Baker  David Noonan  Stephen Schubert

Sasquatch Game Studio, LLC | Auburn, WA 98092 | sasquatchgamestudio.com

ALTERNITY: Core Rulebook Playtest Edition 1

Writing Richard Baker, David Noonan

Creative Direction Richard Baker

Cover Illustration Klaus Pillon

Cover Design Corey Macourek

Concept Artists Roberto Gatto, Ayan Nag

Interior Illustrators Lucas Durham, Justin Mayhew,

Art Direction Richard Baker

Production Specialist Nissa McCormack

This game exists today because of 703 generous backers

2 CHAPTER 1: System Basics

ALTERNITY: Core Rulebook Playtest Edition 3

ABOUT ROLEPLAYING GAMES

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK NEW TO ROLEPLAYING

How to Use This Book 5

Player: That’s you. A player creates a heroic character to play in an

CHOOSING YOUR FUTURE

PUBLISHED, HOMAGE, OR ORIGINAL?

Choosing Your Future 9

HOW THE GAME WORKS

1. The GM describes the situation to the players: where their

How the Game Works 11

DIFFICULTY STEPS DIE MODIFIER

+d8 +3 Very Easy

THE DIFFICULTY DIE

THE DIFFICULTY SCALE

• A minor factor is worth a +1 step bonus (helpful) or –1 step

How the Game Works 13

• 1 impulse: open a door, go prone, draw a weapon, reload.

If it’s your turn on impulse 2 and you take a 3-impulse action to

BIG CONCEPT: THE WOUND SYSTEM

severity description wounds

How the Game Works 15

YOUR ALTERNITY CHARACTER

Name: You get to come up with a name for your character.

Plasma Pistol M 3 2d4/2d8 +1

1. Come up with a concept and some connections to the

YOUR CHARACTER CONCEPT

FIRST, FOCUS ON THE PRESENT

GMS, HELP YOUR PLAYERS OUT

BACKGROUND: YOUR CHARACTER’S ROOTS

• Family/Friends: This is often a good way to get at your Boil down a

You don’t have to develop an entire family tree or write thou-

character to life. More importantly, it can echo through the ongoing

THINK OF THE FUTURE: CHARACTER GOALS

Goals Arise from Identity and Background: You’ve already

adventure. It’s good for invention, research, computation

HOW TO ASSIGN ABILITY SCORES

• Old-School Rolling: Roll 1d4 + 2 in order for Strength, Agility,

SEVENS AND TWOS

ABILITY RATINGS AS ROLEPLAYING HOOKS

• Ability Scores: To play an elaphromorph, you must have an

Quirks: Growing up in a low-gravity environment changes your

• You find it difficult to sleep in an old-fashioned bed or on the

• Ability Scores: To play a baromorph character, you must

to carrying heavy loads. The penalties for encumbrance are

Writing Richard Baker, David Noonan

Interior Illustrators Lucas Durham, Justin Mayhew,