Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 10:22:36 -0800 From: Rich Baker Subject: Rules Upgrades Hello, everybody! I'm Rich Baker, the Creative Director for the ALTERNITY game lines. We've been considering a short set of optional rules upgrades for the ALTERNITY game. We may or may not try to implement these changes in future ALTERNITY products, but before we decide, we'd like to know what you folks think. Please take a few minutes to look over the rest of this message (or the attached file, if you prefer) and think about whether you'd like to make these rules changes in your own game. Do they make sense? And would they improve the game as you play it? Before you dash off a lengthy response, I'll ask you to hold on to your thoughts for a day or two -- Jim Butler will post a survey for you guys to fill out, which will greatly aid us in organizing your responses to some of these proposed rules. Here is the text of the rule upgrade: Since the ALTERNITY game debuted in the spring of 1998, we've come up with a couple of improvements to the game rules. While all future ALTERNITY products will make use of the rules contained in this upgrade, you don't have to incorporate these changes in your game if you don't want to; they're basically transparent to existing material. There are two basic effects of this rules upgrade. Combat will become deadlier in your game. Second, characters will be able to buy more skills at character creation and will have a much easier time advancing skill ranks as they gain experience. The rules changes are: *Each point of mortal damage causes one wound point and one stun point as secondary damage.* This rule replaces the rule under Secondary Damage on page 53 of the Player's Handbook. Under the old rules, an injury that inflicted 4 points of mortal damage would inflict 2 points of wound and stun damage as secondary damage; under the upgraded rule, an injury that inflicts 4 points of mortal damage also inflicts 4 points of wound and stun secondary damage. *If a weapon's Firepower rating exceeds the target's Toughness rating, the primary damage inflicted is upgraded one class before secondary damage and armor are applied. Stun damage upgrades to wounds, wounds upgrade to mortal, and mortal damage upgrades to double the listed die range for that weapon.* This rule replaces the optional rule for upgrading damage that appears on page 52 of the Gamemaster's Guide. Previously there was no official rule for upgrading the effects of Good and Amazing firepower weapons against weaker targets. Under this rule, a fragmentation grenade (Good firepower) that inflicts 6 points of wound damage would upgrade to 6 points of mortal damage against a target wearing armor of Ordinary toughness, such as a CF coat. Be warned: This rule makes weapons of Good firepower exceedingly dangerous against lightly armored targets. If you upgrade mortal damage, simply double the dice without doubling any added damage. For instance, the tracer grenade would upgrade from d4+2 mortals to 2d4+2 mortals against a target of Ordinary toughness. Exceeding the target's toughness by two firepower grades does not upgrade the damage twice. *In addition to the free broad skills determined by race selection, a new character has a number of skill points equal to 30 plus 3 times his Intelligence score available to purchase skills during character creation. Human heroes receive a special bonus of 5 additional skill points at character creation.* This replaces the skill point allocations indicated on Table P5 of the Player'' Handbook. Under the old system, an alien hero with an Intelligence score of 9 received 40 skill points for initial skill purchase; under the upgrade, he receives 30 + (3 x 9) or 57 skill points. A human hero of the same Intelligence score would begin with 62 skill points. *During initial skill purchase, a character may not learn more than six additional broad skills, not counting his racial broad skills. Modify this number by the hero's Intelligence-based resistance modifier.* Since low-Intelligence characters receive a much greater number of skill points in this upgrade, the limitation on purchasing new broad skills is relaxed somewhat. This replaces the limits given on Table P5. Previously, a character of Intelligence 6 would be able to purchase no more than 3 broad skills during initial skill purchase, but this upgrade increases that number to 5 (6, less 1 for his -1 Intelligence resistance modifier). *The cost to purchase rank 2 or higher in a specialty skill is either the list price or the list price -1. The number of ranks a character currently possesses in the specialty skill does not increase the cost of advancing that skill.* This replaces the second bullet point under Cost of Skills on page 61 of the Player's Handbook. As originally written, advancing a specialty skill from rank 4 to rank 5 (for instance) would cost a number of skill points equal to the original purchase price +4, for the 4 ranks the character has in that skill. This upgrade changes the advancement of skills so that a character simply buys the skill again at its normal purchase price in order to advance his skill rank. Note that a hero may not begin with a specialty skill rank of more than 3 at character creation, and that a character cannot improve a skill rank more than once per achievement level. In other words, a character must reach level 10 before he can max out a specialty skill at rank 12.