Some of my fondest gaming moments come from about 20 years or so back when I was playing Alternity and using the Tangents supplement to run alternate reality scenarios in the near future. Sending characters across dimensions and through time has always been, for me, one of the most inspiring elements of science-fiction gaming.

In all my many years of reading and collecting gaming books, however, no single supplement has given me more to think about than Alternity’s Tangents. It’s a gem because it has so many little ideas hidden away inside several cool adventures. It’s a book that, no matter how many times I pull it off the shelf, never fails to inspire me to want to run another scenario across realities.

As I look back over the years, some games have made a bigger impact than they might have expected to have achieved. Alternity showed me the possibilities that a good, solid set of game rules married to a range of strong, inventive worlds can offer the GM. Although fashion and the d20 revolution in roleplaying left Alternity behind, it’s still a set of books that I will never willingly let go. Now that I am learning to focus more on fantastic worlds, I can’t help but wonder what I might be able to achieve if I brought that richness off the shelf and into a more modern system. Much to think about.

Game on!