#RPGaDAY2023 Day 30: “OBSCURE RPG you’ve played”

In 1998, Alternity was published by TSR and had a brief but amazing life as my favourite RPG of all time. We played the crap out of it through into the mid-noughties alongside D&D 3e published in 2000. This is my choice for obscure game I’ve played.

Alternity had a strong starter set (pictured above) and a solid pair of core rulebooks. More than this, in just two years, TSR published a large range of supplements including the excellent Dark*Matter setting and the not-so-shabby Star*Drive universe. Of all the supplements, two stood out as definitive for me in terms of introducing me to exciting ideas.

Tangents is still a go-to book for the SF inter-dimensional travel genre (rivalled only by the GURPS offerings) and Beyond Science introduced me to the toolkit approach to special powers (FX) that I have looked for in games ever since. The designers of the Alternity line produced some of the best supplements I have seen.

What I loved about the game was the d20 core die paired with a variable modifier die rolling against the stat on the sheet. I enjoyed the levels of success built into the system which translated easily at the table into strong narrative effects. But most of all, this was the first science-fiction game that really encouraged me to imagine wild and different worlds.

Alternity is a forgotten game but it was a big step towards what Wizards would design with the d20-system. This game was dynamic and exciting to play – one of those games that doesn’t read anywhere near as well as it plays. It’s crunchy and detailed but it’s also very fast in play. We played the crap out of it!

And then it was buried by Wizards when they acquired TSR. I collected every known Alternity book (even a few unpublished titles) and I would not give them up for anything. This game shaped me as a GM, helping me to find my way into the longest-running campaign I have ever managed.

Alternity remains obscure but fondly remembered.

Game on!