Interest Check: Alternity Gamma World

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Dec 1, 2020 11:07 pm
Would anyone be interested in a Gamma World campaign run using the Alternity (original) ruleset? The setting would be the city of Hatsbur, right on the edge of the Vast Swamp. The Vast Swamp is what became of the Gulf Coast. When the waters rose, the new shoreline formed about 60 miles inland and everything that was south of that point became a great swampland. Hatsbur was once a center of learning for the Ancients and that tradition has been maintained by the local Sleeth population. Now, the community consists of a number of beings living in relative harmony under the banner of the Great Golden Eagle. And somewhere, buried deep within the swamp lay the ruins of the city of Orlan, a worship center of the Ancients where they pilgrimaged to see their greatest of gods, the Wonderful Dizy.
Dec 4, 2020 12:21 am
Oh man, I loved Alternity, never got to play Gamma World though so I would be interested in giving it a whirl. Has been many, many years since I last looked over the rules though so it may take me a bit to get up to speed
Dec 4, 2020 12:30 am
Gamma world would be interesting. Played it many many years ago.
Dec 4, 2020 5:58 pm
Well, that's two. Anyone else? Let me see what I can put together this week or next. In the meantime, if anyone else wants in, I'll take up to six people. Knowledge of the rules is not a barrier to participating. I can bring you up to speed with the basics pretty quickly.
Dec 4, 2020 9:15 pm
I've never played either Gamma World or Alternity but I've been playing rpgs for well over 40 years. Rules shouldn't be that hard to pick up. It's gotta be simpler than GURPS. Sign me on.
Dec 5, 2020 1:01 am
I'm looking for a game if you need one more--I've never played Gamma World but have vague, fond memories of reading through snippets in Dragon magazine about characters and scenarios. Full disclosure, the extent of my exposure to the Alternity system is I've download the free Fast Play rules sets and perused them.
Dec 5, 2020 2:44 am
I would love to play Gamma World, only have experience with the current addition thou.
Dec 5, 2020 3:00 am
Where can I get a current addition of the gamma world that we are going to play? Appears I don't have any at this time.
Dec 5, 2020 3:16 am
Alternity is a skills based rpg. Uses a d20 as a control die, the modifiers are +/- dice steps. For example: Lets say you need to make a Jury Rig roll. Your Jury Rig skill is 12 or less on a d20. You must roll lower than or equal to the 12. You roll a 9. That is a success. The lower you roll, the more likely you will succeed. How well you succeed is called the Margin of Success.

The Margin of Success is Ordinary (12) (your Jury Rig Skill). If you roll 6 or less that is a Good (6) success, and if you roll 3 or less that is an Amazing (3) success.

The Control die can be modified by a plus or minus die. Let's say the difficulty is raised one level. That would be a situation die of +d4. Your Jury Rig Skill is 12, but now you add a 1d4 to the die roll. You roll a 9 and a 4. That's 13. Failure.

That is the Alternity system in a nutshell. Dam I got too many things going on or I'd throw my lot in. I LOVE Gamma World!!!!!
Dec 5, 2020 4:30 am
Interested parties can acquire the fast-play rules here. This will give you an overview of the system mechanics (though umbraldragon did a pretty good job already). Unfortunately, WotC has chosen not to make the Alternity rules available through DriveThru RPG or DMs Guild, so we'll just have to muddle through as best we can. I have a hard copy (because I loved Alternity) and can assist in character creation and gameplay.
Dec 5, 2020 4:32 am
I have opened sign ups here.
Dec 5, 2020 5:24 am
I applied. Thank you WhtKnt.
Dec 5, 2020 7:33 pm
One thing I didn't see looking at your fast play rules is how to determine ability scores. And what adjustments there would be to non-human characters since humans would be between 4 and 14 points for each ability.
Dec 5, 2020 10:43 pm
I'll be posting detail in the game thread for this.
Dec 17, 2020 6:12 pm
I had a player unfortunately drop, so I still have room for one player if anyone is interested in some old-school style fun!

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