TEXT: QUICKSTART GUIDE
  
   
  CREDITS
  System Design
  Richard Baker, David Noonan, Stephen Schubert
  Adventure Design
  Richard Baker
  Editing and Layout
  David Noonan 
  Cover Illustration
  Roberto Gatto
  Cover Design
  Corey Macourek
  Interior Illustrators
  Ayan Nag, Roberto Gatto
  Art Direction
  Richard Baker
  Production Specialist
  Nissa McCormack
  CONTENTS
  CREDITS, 1
  INTRODUCTION, 2
  HOW TO GET STARTED, 2
  YOUR Alternity CHARACTER, 2
  SKILLS, 5
  GEAR DESCRIPTIONS, 8
  HAND-TO-HAND AND MELEE WEAPON STATS, 9
  THE CORE MECHANIC, 10
  COMBAT, 12
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN, 17
  JETTISONED CARGO: THE CAVE, 24
  THE SINGING DOME, 26
  CONCLUSION, 27
  ADVERSARIES, 28
  PREGEN HEROES, 30
  Sasquatch Game Studio, LLC | Auburn, WA 98092 | sasquatchgamestudio.com
  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.
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  2
  If you have questions—
  ones we can answer 
  briefly— during your 
  game, send us a 
  message on facebook/
  twitter: facebook.com/
  SasquatchGameStudio 
  or @Sasquatch_Games
  INTRODUCTION
  Welcome to Alternity, the science fiction 
  roleplaying game where you choose your own 
  future! This playtest packet provides the core 
  elements you need to run a quick RPG session:
  • About Your Character
  • Skill Descriptions
  • Gear Descriptions
  • The Core Mechanic
  • Combat Rules
  • Wreck of the Magellan, a 
  short adventure
  • Adversaries for the adventure
  • 6 pregen PCs
  We aren’t including any character creation 
  information in this guide, since we just want 
  to provide a demonstration of how the system 
  plays. Character creation is described in the 
  Alternity Core Rules.
  ABOUT THIS GUIDE
  This guide is intended to serve as a bare-
  bones rulebook and sample adventure for the 
  Alternity Demonstration Pack. If you’re just 
  getting started, we suggest beginning with The 
  Institute introductory adventure (the other PDF 
  in this pack). 
  We think you are an experienced RPG 
  player. In this guide we’re not going to try to 
  explain how you have a talky encounter with a 
  NPC or fully define skills and special abilities—
  we’re providing the bare minimum for a sharp 
  player like you to infer the details. For example, 
  our Athletics skill description notes that you 
  use that skill for climbing things, but we’re not 
  going to tell you much more than that because 
  it’s not important for trying out the system. So, 
  don’t be alarmed if some things like detailed 
  skill definitions have been left for later.
  HOW TO GET STARTED
  Pick out someone in your group to be the  
  Gamemaster (GM). The GM should read 
  through the rules and the sample adventure 
  ahead of the game session.
  Other players should pick out one pregen-
  erated character each. Each player should read 
  through the “Your Alternity Character” section 
  of this guide, and then review their charac-
  ter sheet and the skill and gear descriptions 
  as needed.
  If you’ve got the time, it wouldn’t hurt for 
  the players to become familiar with the Core 
  Mechanic and Combat sections too. But 
  things should work okay if players just pick up 
  the mechanics and combat rules by playing 
  through the adventure.
  YOUR ALTERNITY 
  CHARACTER
  This section explains how to read the informa-
  tion provided on each of the pregen character 
  sheets included in this guide. Choose one of 
  the characters and refer to the sheet as you 
  read this section—it’ll help you make sense of 
  this part of the packet.
  NAME, ARCHETYPE, STORY
  The basic introduction of your character. Feel 
  free to change the name if you like, or come up 
  with a different story. Archetype describes your 
  heroic role in the party: Are you the muscle, 
  the brains, or the everyman who steps in to 
  make a difference? You probably don’t think of 
  yourself by your archetype name, since it’s not 
  your career or profession. It’s more of a way of 
  describing the role you’re going to play in the 
  action movie you’re starring in.
  All the characters are Level 1, but that 
  doesn’t mean they’re barely heroes. We 
  assume that any Alternity PC is already a 
  hero capable of handling a mook (or three) 
  in a brawl or a shootout. Higher levels mean 
  moderately better skill scores, more training to 
  spread around, and some new talents. You’re 
  not going to be ten times tougher at 10th level. 
  ABILITIES
  Your character’s natural strengths and weak-
  nesses are described by six Ability ratings. 
  These are: Strength, Agility, Vitality, Intelli-
  gence, Focus, and Personality. Scores range 
  from 0 to 10, with a typical human having a 
  score of 2 to 4 in each Ability.
  Strength measures 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 represents hand-eye coordination, 
  balance, and flexibility. A good Agility is help-
  ful in ranged combat, initiative checks, and 
  for getting out of the way of blasts or simi-
  lar threats.
  
  YOUR ALTERNITY CHARACTER
  3
  Pictured: Sasquatch game designers launching a new game.
  Intelligence 
  scores for game 
  designers are left 
  as an exercise for 
  the reader.
  Your ability ratings 
  are a lot like playing 
  a d20 game using 
  your ability modifier 
  without a score 
  attached. A ‘3’ is 
  about the same as a 
  10–11 in a d20 game.
  Vitality represents your health, endurance, 
  and physical resilience. It contributes to your 
  character’s overall durability (the ability to 
  absorb damage and keep going), and your 
  ability to fight off or resist the effects of poison, 
  radiation, partial vacuum, and other hazards 
  you’re exposed to.
  Intelligence is a combination of your rea-
  soning ability and your education. It’s good for 
  invention, mechanics, sciences, and skills of 
  that sort. It doesn’t often come up in combat 
  situations, but a good Intelligence score might 
  be handy for improvising defensive measures 
  or disabling foes by making good use of the 
  environment around you.
  (In case you’re curious, most animals have 
  an Intelligence of 0. Animals with significant 
  “language” ability or sophisticated group 
  behaviors have an Intelligence of 1. Any human 
  child older than four or five has an Intelligence 
  of at least 2. This is not a linear scale.)
  Focus is a measure of awareness, resolve, 
  determination, and the ability to “zero in” 
  and concentrate on tasks that demand your 
  full attention. A good Focus rating helps with 
  marksmanship, initiative, noticing concealed 
  danger, and resisting efforts to distract you.  
  Personality describes your natural persua-
  siveness, charisma, likeability, and talent for 
  leadership. It’s the key ability for interacting 
  with NPCs or exercising effective command.
  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 greatly on what sort of setting 
  your Gamemaster has created for your game. 
  For right now, we’re keeping it simple: Your 
  Alternity character is human.
  HERO POINTS
  Your hero points represent extraordinary luck, 
  resilience, or perseverance. You can spend 
  a hero point to improve the success of a skill 
  check you make by one level (see the Core 
  Mechanic). For example, you can change a 
  Failure to an Average success.
  You can also use a hero point to reduce 
  the severity of a wound you receive. You can 
  change a mortal or critical wound to a serious 
  wound, or a serious, moderate, or light wound 
  to a graze.
  You can use 1 hero point during the sample 
  adventure. 
  INITIATIVE
  At the beginning of an action scene, you make 
  an initiative check to determine when you get 
  to take your first turn. To make an initiative 
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  4
  We’ll explain 
  average, excellent, 
  and stellar in more 
  detail later, but for 
  now, suffice it to say 
  that the better your 
  attack roll, the more 
  damage you’ll do.
  check, roll d20 and compare it to your initiative 
  score. Some characters also gain a difficulty 
  die bonus when they make an initiative check. 
  If your initiative says “+1 die step,” you’ll nor-
  mally roll d20+d4 when you roll for initiative. 
  We’ll cover difficulty die steps in the Core 
  Mechanic section.
  WEAPONS
  This section of the sheet notes the weapons 
  or attack forms you’re likely to have available 
  and your attack bonus with each. The numbers 
  also tell you how much damage you inflict 
  with each weapon on an Average or Excel-
  lent hit (so a light pistol deals 1d6+1 damage 
  on an Average hit, or 1d6+5 damage on an 
  Excellent hit). If you get a Stellar hit, you deal 
  Excellent damage twice. The type of damage 
  a weapon inflicts is usually physical or energy. 
  We’ll cover grades of success in the Core 
  Mechanic section. 
  DURABILITY
  Your character’s durability describes how much 
  physical punishment you can take and keep 
  on going. When an enemy successfully attacks 
  you, its weapon deals a single box of damage 
  ranging from 1 to 16 (or more) in severity. 
  You subtract your armor’s resistance value 
  from the damage dealt by the enemy attack; 
  armor is rated for its effectiveness against 
  physical or energy damage.
  After reducing the damage of the attack for 
  your armor, you mark off 1 box in the corre-
  sponding injury band. If you have no boxes 
  available for a wound of that severity (usually 
  because of previous injuries you sustained), 
  mark off a box in the next highest severity with 
  an open wound box.
  The description for the wound categories 
  notes the amount of penalty you take for 
  having a wound of that kind. For example, if 
  you have a serious wound, you take a –2 die 
  step penalty on all skill checks you make. Just 
  use the worst one that applies—these penal-
  ties don’t stack.
  If you have to mark off your last (highest) 
  wound box, you’re incapacitated: unconscious, 
  dying, or dead. See the Combat section for 
  more information on taking damage.
  TALENTS
  Your talents are special abilities, weapon tricks, 
  or advanced tactics that give you an edge in 
  an action scene. Your archetype provides a 
  variety of talent choices, but for this playtest 
  document we’ve picked out a few for the 
  pregen characters. The descriptions of your 
  talents are simply concise summaries provid-
  ing just enough information to use them in 
  play—we describe them more carefully in the 
  Core Rules.
  CHARACTER SKILLS
  The right-hand column of your character 
  sheet lists all of the skills in the core module 
  of the Alternity game. Each skill has a 
  key ability, which tells you which ability (or 
  two abilities) serve as the basis for checks 
  against that skill. The Points column lists the 
  number of skill points your character has 
  assigned to each skill. If you don’t have any 
  points assigned to a skill, you’re untrained 
  in it, which means you’re no better or worse 
  than any average person in trying to use that 
  skill. The skill score shows the target number 
  for your skill check when you use that skill: 
  for example, 12/17/22. The first result is an 
  Average success; the second is an Excellent 
  success; and the highest number is your 
  threshold for a Stellar success.
  GEAR
  Special protective gear, weaponry, or handy 
  items your character typically carries are listed 
  here. You can assume that you also have what-
  ever might be typical for the average person 
  in the street—a shirt or blouse, pants or skirt, 
  belt, shoes, light jacket or coat, wallet, key ring, 
  and a personal communication device (what-
  ever the future version of a smart phone turns 
  out to be).
  
  SKILLS 
  5
  Whether you’re 
  trained or untrained, 
  a good rule of thumb 
  is to ask for a skill 
  check only when 
  success and failure 
  are both a) possible; 
  and b) interesting. 
  If that isn’t true, 
  don’t roll.
  SKILLS 
  Since the Alternity game is a skill-based 
  game system (mostly), your skills are your pri-
  mary tool for interacting with the world around 
  you and overcoming dangers. In the complete 
  rules, each of these skills has a better descrip-
  tion with notes about what’s an easy or hard 
  skill check. For purposes of this packet, we’re 
  just providing a minimal description. Use your 
  best judgment about what a skill entails, and 
  move on with the sample adventure. 
  Key Ability: Each skill is tied to one or two 
  key abilities. Your skill score is equal to d20 – 
  your skill bonus (your skill ranks + the key abil-
  ity), plus or minus a difficulty die. If a skill lists 
  two key abilities, you can choose whichever is 
  best for you when you figure your skill score. 
  (We did this already for the pregen characters.)
  Untrained: If you don’t have any skill points 
  in a skill, you’re effectively untrained in it. You 
  know as much about it as any typical person 
  on the street would know (so, if you have no 
  skill points in Computers, you can still turn on a 
  computer and use a word processor program 
  or do a basic web search). Likewise, you can 
  drive a car even if you don’t have any specific 
  training in Driving because most people can. 
  But you can’t fly a helicopter without points in 
  Piloting, because most people can’t.
  If you need to make a check with an 
  untrained skill, your skill bonus is your key 
  ability (you have no skill points to add, but you 
  may have some natural aptitude).
  SKILL DESCRIPTIONS
  The skills that appear on the pregenerated 
  character sheets are described below.
  Academics (Intelligence): You have studied 
  a “soft” science such as archeology, anthro-
  pology, history, linguistics, political science, or 
  sociology. Choose one field as your specialty; 
  you gain a +1 die step bonus when you make 
  checks related to your special field.
  Acrobatics (Agility): This skill covers 
  balance, tumbling, tightrope walking, tests of 
  contortion or flexibility, and moving in zero-G 
  environments.
  Armor Training (Strength or Intelligence): 
  Your training in the use, maintenance, and 
  repair of heavy armor. Powered or unpow-
  ered, heavy armor generally impedes your 
  movement and fighting ability, but you can 
  overcome these penalties with Armor Training. 
  And using advanced powered armor definitely 
  requires some specialized training.
  At rank 1, 3, and 7, reduce your armor’s pen-
  alty to movement skills by 1 step.
  At rank 2, 5, and 8, reduce your movement 
  penalty by 2 meters.
  Athletics (Strength): Your skill at climbing, 
  jumping, throwing, swimming, and general 
  feats of strength. Throwing grenades is an 
  Athletics skill check. If you need to make a 
  check for something that seems to be a test 
  of physical strength or power and you don’t 
  know what other skill to use, it’s probably an 
  Athletics check.
  Awareness (Focus): Your ability to notice 
  that something’s wrong or out of place in your 
  environment. Usually, the GM asks you to 
  make this check.
   Coercion (Personality): You know how to 
  get other people to do what you want through 
  bullying, threats, or sheer weight of authority. 
  Use this skill to intimidate a thug, interrogate a 
  prisoner, or insist on priority service. 
  Computers (Intelligence): Your training in 
  advanced computer use. Anybody can run 
  ordinary software or do a basic online search, 
  but if you have skill points in Computers, you’re 
  good for programming, customizing hardware, 
  hacking, and fixing the Blue Screen of Death.
  Culture (Personality): You’re familiar with 
  the language, customs, history, and popu-
  lar culture of a particular species or country 
  (depending on the scope of your campaign). 
  ABILITIES AND CHECKS
  In the Alternity game, most checks you make are based on 
  your skills, not your raw ability ratings. If you’re not sure 
  what kind of check to make, here’s a quick guide.
  • Use Athletics for general Strength tests such as 
  attempts to break something, pick up something, or 
  resist someone else pushing you.
  • Use Dodge for general Agility-based tests, such as 
  getting out of the way of something dangerous (a 
  “save vs. explosion,” basically). 
  • Use Endurance for general Vitality tests, such as 
  resisting poisons or the effects of serious injuries.
  • Use Science for broad Intelligence tests such as 
  decoding alien symbols or solving a tough math prob-
  lem in your head.
  • Make an Awareness check for general Focus tests, 
  such as noticing a hidden danger or ignoring a 
  distraction.
  • Use Influence for Personality tests such as an 
  attempt to persuade someone to do something you 
  ask them to or believe something you say.  
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  6
  You flipped straight 
  to the combat 
  skills, didn’t you? 
  DIDN’T YOU?!?
  Each time you spend a skill point in Culture, 
  you can pick another species or country. Make 
  a Culture check to identify useful contacts or 
  as part of an interaction challenge scene. 
  Deception (Personality): If you’re trying to 
  convince someone of something that’s funda-
  mentally untrue, it’s a Deception skill check. 
  Lies, bluffs, impersonations—they’re all cov-
  ered by this skill.
  Dodge (Agility): Your ability to get out of the 
  way of things. Usually you don’t make a Dodge 
  check on your turn—you attempt a Dodge 
  check when the GM tells you that something is 
  exploding near you, falling on you, or speeding 
  in your direction.
  Characters who are highly trained in the 
  Dodge skill gain more benefit from the evade 
  action modifier. If you have at least 5 skill 
  points in this skill, enemies attacking you while 
  you’re dodging take a –2 step penalty instead 
  of a –1 step penalty; if you have 10 points in 
  this skill, the penalty is –3 steps.
  Driving (Agility): Your training for challeng-
  ing driving such as high-speed chases, street 
  races, or serious off-roading. Most people can 
  drive in routine conditions without any particu-
  lar skill in Driving.
  Empathy (Focus or Personality): Your 
  ability to draw out information from people 
  you’re interacting with or pick up subtle social 
  cues. This might cover broad efforts to gather 
  information by talking to lots of people in an 
  area, interrogating a hostile prisoner, or help-
  ing a confused witness to recall a potentially 
  vital clue. 
  Endurance (Vitality): This skill represents 
  your physical conditioning and acclimatization 
  to challenging environments. You can’t breathe 
  vacuum, but a great Endurance check means 
  you might survive exposure a few seconds 
  longer than most people and perhaps give 
  yourself a chance to shut the airlock or repair 
  a damaged suit. Like Dodge, this is a skill you 
  usually make when the GM asks you to make a 
  check against it. 
  Energy Weapon (Agility or Focus): Your 
  training in the use and maintenance of per-
  sonal energy weapons ranging from laser 
  pistols to plasma rifles. They’re a little different 
  from firearms because they generally don’t 
  have much recoil, don’t require you to lead the 
  target or account for a drop over distance, and 
  operate on completely different mechanisms 
  if you need to repair them. When you assign 
  a skill point to this skill, choose a specialty: 
  pistols, rifles, or assault weapons. You gain a +1 
  die step bonus on attacks when you use your 
  specialty energy weapon. 
  Engineering (Intelligence): Your knowl-
  edge of applied technology such as systems, 
  installations, power plants, construction, dem-
  olitions, and starships. In general, Engineering 
  lets you operate and maintain systems, while 
  Mechanics lets you do hands-on work or jury-
  rig improvised repairs.
  Extreme Sports (Agility or Vitality): Your 
  skill with sports or activities that most people 
  consider to be daredevil or stunt work: 
   double-diamond skiing, hang gliding, big-wave 
  surfing, extreme mountain biking and dirt jump-
  ing, that kind of stuff.
  Firearm (Agility or Focus): Firearms 
  covers any repeating projectile weapon 
  with cartridge-type ammunition—anything 
  from a Colt .45 revolver up to a 21st-century 
  bullpup- design assault rifle. When you assign 
  a skill point to Combat: Firearms, choose a 
  specialty: pistols, rifles, or assault weapons 
  (SMGs and shotguns). You gain a +1 die step 
  bonus on attacks when you use your spe-
  cialty weapon. 
  Hand to Hand (Strength or Agility): Your 
  ability to attack effectively at very close quar-
  ters. This covers unarmed styles like brawling 
  or martial arts, as well as small weapons that 
  basically serve as extensions of your hands 
  (knives, brass knuckles, etc.). When you assign 
  a skill point to Combat: Hand to Hand, choose 
  a specialty: brawling, martial arts, knives, wres-
  tling. You gain a +1 die step bonus on attacks 
  when you use your specialty style.
  Heavy Weapons (Strength or Intelli-
  gence): Your training in heavy weaponry such 
  as mortars, rocket launchers, crew-served 
  machine guns, flamethrowers, or other such 
  implements of mayhem. As with other combat 
  skills, choose your specialty: heavy energy, 
  heavy firearm, or indirect fire weapons. You 
  gain a +1 die step bonus on attacks with your 
  specialty. 
  Influence (Personality): Your ability to 
  convince someone to do something you want 
  them to do, or adopt a particular attitude 
  toward some person or situation. You might 
  influence people through persuasion, flattery, 
  sincerity, or seduction—all that matters is that 
  you can influence their actions or attitudes.
  Mechanics (Intelligence): Your knowledge 
  of motors, vehicles, small machinery, basic 
  chemistry, and mechanical repair and fabrica-
  tion. You know how to use most machine-shop 
  tools, including various types of cutting torches 
  
  SKILLS 
  7
  This is  a game 
  without a dedicated 
  magic healer, 
  so the Medicine 
  skill matters. 
  Even a point or 
  two can make all 
  the difference in 
  the world. 
  Science works best 
  when you exclaim it 
  loudly as you roll the 
  dice: “Science!”
  or welding kits. This skill covers jury-rigging 
  and improvisation, such as sabotaging a power 
  conduit to electrocute bad guys nearby or 
  triggering the fire suppression system to cover 
  your escape.
  Medicine (Intelligence): Your medical 
  training. If you only have a skill point or two in 
  Medicine, you probably have some good first 
  aid training. Using Medicine to help someone 
  in an action scene is a complex skill check—
  you must accumulate a number of successes 
  over the course of several skill checks to 
  accomplish your task. Choose the Use a Skill 
  action when your turn comes up and make 
  a Medicine check; you accumulate 1, 2, or 3 
  successes for an Average, Excellent, or Stellar 
  success. The total number of successes you 
  need to treat a wound depends on its severity.
  If you have a med pack, you can treat 
  (uncheck) a light wound with 1 success, a 
  moderate wound with 2 successes, a seri-
  ous wound with 3 successes, or a critical 
  wound with 6 successes. If you don’t have a 
  med pack, you can treat a light wound with 
  1 success.
  Melee (Strength or Agility): Your skill 
  with handheld striking or stabbing weapons 
  like clubs, swords, spears, or axes. When 
  you assign a skill point to Melee, choose a 
  specialty: light blade, heavy blade, striking 
  weapon, or energized weapon (sci-fi powered 
  melee weapons like laser swords or energy 
  maces). You gain a +1 die step bonus on 
  attacks when you use your specialty weapon. 
  Misdirection (Personality): Your ability 
  to deceive, distract, or misinform another 
  person. You can also use Misdirection to “fit 
  in” with your surroundings and look like you 
  belong where you are. In combat, a success-
  ful Misdirection check can make your enemy 
  Distracted.
  Performance (Personality): Your ability 
  to entertain others with some kind of perfor-
  mance—acting, dancing, juggling, singing, or 
  maybe even a really blue stand-up routine. 
  Your check result is a good indication of the 
  quality of your act.
  Piloting (Agility or Intelligence): Your 
  ability to fly or pilot craft such as helicopters, 
  light planes, multiengine planes, orbiters, or 
  starships. The Piloting skill includes navigation, 
  comm procedures, and the use of weaponry or 
  special systems you’d normally expect the pilot 
  to handle from the cockpit.
  Primitive Weapon (Agility or Focus): You’ve 
  studied bows, slings, throwing weapons, or 
  some other type of primitive ranged weapon. 
  When you assign a skill point to Combat: 
  Primitive, choose a specialty: bow, sling, bola, 
  javelin. You gain a +1 die step bonus on attacks 
  when you use your specialty weapon.
  Profession (any): Your education and prac-
  tical experience in a specific trade or profes-
  sion not otherwise covered by this selection 
  of skills. For example, if you want to be a 
  highly skilled lawyer, assign some skill points 
  to Profession (lawyer). Other professions 
  might include interstellar trader, criminal, or 
  businessperson.
  Resilience (Vitality): Your ability to fight 
  through or minimize injuries with sheer will-
  power and a high pain tolerance. As an action 
  in a combat scene, you can attempt a Resil-
  ience check to reduce the skill check penalty 
  for a wound you’ve suffered by 1/2/3 steps 
  for an Average/Excellent/Stellar success. You 
  suffer the normal penalty for being wounded 
  when you make the check. When you reduce a 
  wound penalty, you don’t un-check the wound 
  box; you just ignore some of the penalty. You 
  can only attempt a Resilience check once per 
  action scene. 
  Science (Intelligence): You’re trained in a 
  science such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, 
  genetics, physics, or planetology (a combina-
  tion of geology, meteorology, and environmen-
  tal science). Choose a field to specialize in; you 
  gain a +1 step bonus on checks related to that 
  specific field of study.
  Security (Agility or Intelligence): Knowl-
  edge of alarms, detectors, locks, and moni-
  toring systems, both physical and electronic. 
  Burglars and safecrackers take this skill to be 
  good at opening things, while security profes-
  sionals and law enforcers take this skill to set 
  up systems criminals can’t get through.
  Stealth (Agility or Focus): The ability to not 
  be noticed. In a natural setting, this involves 
  making good use of cover and camouflage, 
  staying downwind of one’s target, and avoid-
  ing noisy twigs on the ground. Trying to not 
  be noticed by “fitting in” with an urban set-
  ting should be a Misdirection check, not a 
  Stealth check. 
  Survival (Vitality or Focus): Knowledge of 
  survival techniques and training for difficult 
  environments. Freezing cold or days without 
  water might call for Endurance checks, but a 
  successful Survival check means you avoid 
  that risk of exposure from freezing cold or 
  find a way to get water before you’re actually 
  threatened with harm.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  8
  ARMOR STATS 
  Armor
  Physical
  Energy
  Move
  Penalty
  Special
  DuraWeb Coat
  1
  3
  Hardmesh Uniform
  2
  2
  Polymer Mail
  4
  2
  –4 meters
  –2 steps
  Carbon Fiber Plate
  6
  3
  –4 meters
  –2 steps
  Degrades 1 after reducing hit of 10 or more
  Exoskeleton
  5
  4
  –2 meters
  –3 steps
  +2 steps on Strength checks
  Willpower (Focus): The ability to concen-
  trate or maintain one’s determination in the 
  face of distractions, as well as resist unusual 
  influences or mental attacks (in settings where 
  that sort of thing can happen). Like Dodge 
  or Endurance, your GM will tell you when a 
  Willpower skill check is called for.
  GEAR DESCRIPTIONS
  Every character must be properly outfitted for 
  adventure. This playtest provides a selection 
  of weapons, armor, and other gear for PCs.
  ARMOR
  Armor ranges from 20th-century Kevlar vests 
  to various advanced-material garments and 
  suits of powered or unpowered plate armor.
  Physical and Energy: The amount of 
  damage reduction the armor provides against 
  this type of damage.
  Move: The reduction in the wearer’s 
  movement speed. Armor Training reduces 
  this penalty.
  Armor Penalty: Some physical skills are 
  harder to perform in heavy or bulky armor (for 
  example, Initiative checks, Acrobatics, Athlet-
  ics, Dodge, Extreme Sports, or Stealth). Armor 
  Training reduces this penalty.
  SPECIAL ARMOR DESCRIPTIONS
  Carbon Fiber Plate: This armor offers 
  excellent physical protection, but degrades 
  in effectiveness with repeated hits. Each 
  time the wearer is hit for 10+ damage before 
  the armor’s resistance is applied, reduce the 
  armor’s resistance values by 1.
  Exoskeleton: Actuators in the suit boost 
  the wearer’s Strength to an effective 9 for 
  purposes of lifting and carrying things. The 
  wearer’s unarmed damage increases to 
  1d8+0/3 physical.
  WEAPONS
  Weapons range from simple melee knives to 
  high-powered energy rifles. The tables below 
  list the following attributes for each weapon:
  Skill: Which combat skill you use to attack 
  with the weapon.
  Type: When you choose a weapon skill, 
  you can choose a weapon type to specialize 
  in. This indicates what specialty the weapon 
  falls under.
  Range: The maximum effective range is 
  indicated for each weapon. From nearest 
  to furthest, the ranges are Adjacent, Close 
  (20m), Medium (50m), Long (200m), and Very 
  Long range (500m). Some weapons might 
  have special properties that make Very Long 
  range longer.
  Mag: Indicates how many shots the 
  weapon can typically take before requiring a 
  reload action.
  Speed: The number of impulses it takes 
  you to make an attack with this weapon (see 
  Initiative in the Combat section for more 
  information).
  Damage: There are two levels of weapon 
  damage that correspond to the varying degree 
  of success of an attack, separated by slashes 
  in the damage expression. For example, 
  1d6+1/5 indicates that the weapon’s damage is 
  1d6+1 for an Average success or 1d6+5 for an 
  Excellent success. A Stellar success deals two 
  wound boxes using the Excellent damage roll. 
  Weapon damage has a “type” such as physical 
  or energy, which may result in the damage 
  being reduced by the target’s armor rating.
  SPECIAL WEAPON DESCRIPTIONS
  Diskos: It’s a hyper-sharp circular saw 
  on a 1-meter handle. (Hat tip to William 
  Hope Hodgson.)
  Flechette Gun: The flechette gun shoots 
  a pattern of small but lethal darts. It has the 
  Brutal property: When you hit a target at Close 
  range, roll damage normally but mark off one 
  extra wound box. 
  
  GEAR DESCRIPTIONS
  9
  HAND-TO-HAND AND MELEE WEAPON STATS
  Weapon
  Skill
  Type
  Speed
  Damage
  Special
  Unarmed
  Hand
  Brawl
  3
  1d4 + 0/2 physical
  Combat Knife
  Hand
  Knife
  3
  1d6 + 1/5 physical
  Shock Glove
  Hand
  Brawl
  4
  1d6 + 2/3 energy
  Endurance check or stun
  Tactical Baton
  Melee
  Striking
  3
  1d4 + 0/4 physical
  Diskos
  Melee
  Powered
  4
  1d8 + 3/9 physical
  RANGED AND HEAVY WEAPON STATS
  Weapon
  Skill
  Type
  Rng
  Mag
  Speed
  Damage
  Special
  Light Pistol
  Firearms
  Pistol
  M
  10
  3
  1d6 + 1/5 physical
  Heavy Pistol
  Firearms
  Pistol
  M
  10
  4
  1d8 +1/6 physical
  Shotgun
  Firearms
  Assault
  M
  5
  4
  1d8 + 0/5 physical
  Brutal
  Assault Rifle
  Firearms
  Rifle
  VL
  20
  3
  1d8 + 2/8 physical
  Sniper Rifle
  Firearms
  Rifle
  VL
  5
  4
  1d8 + 2/9 physical
  +1 step accuracy
  Laser Pistol
  Energy 
  Pistol
  L
  10
  3
  1d6 + 0/6 energy
  +1 step accuracy
  Laser Rifle
  Energy 
  Rifle
  VL
  15
  4
  1d6 + 1/8 energy
  +1 step accuracy
  Sonic Bore
  Energy 
  Assault
  C
  10
  4
  1d8 + 0/5 energy
  2 adjacent targets 
  Flechette Gun
  Firearms
  Assault
  M
  10
  3
  1d6 + 1/5 physical
  +1 step accuracy, Brutal
  Plasma Pistol
  Energy
  Pistol
  M
  5
  3
  2d4/2d8 energy
  Plasma Rifle
  Energy 
  Rifle
  L
  10
  4
  2d6/2d12 energy
  Rail Rifle
  Heavy 
  Direct
  VL
  20
  5
  1d8+4/8 physical
  Armor Piercing 3
  Grenade, Blast
  Athletics
  *
  4
  1d8 + 4(0) energy
  Blast 3(6) m
  Grenade, Thermal
  Athletics
  *
  4
  1d8 + 6(2) energy
  Blast 3 (6) m, Ignite
  This is just an 
  appetizer for all 
  the weapons that 
  you’ll find in the full-
  fledged Alternity 
  game. We love our 
  fictional guns, power 
  armor, and power-
  tools-repurposed-
  for-combat 
  around here.
  Grenade: You can throw a grenade up to 
  20 meters.
  Blast Grenade: A simple high- 
  explosive bomb.
  Thermal Grenade: A target hit by a ther-
  mal grenade begins taking damage over 
  time (fire). At the end of the action round, 
  the target makes a Dodge check as a free 
  action. On a success, the fire goes out. On 
  a failure, the target suffers 1 wound in the 
  least severe open box and must check again 
  next round.
  Lasers: Lasers are very accurate. When 
  you attack with a laser, you gain a +1 die step 
  bonus on your attack roll.
  Rail Rifle: The rail rifle is armor-piercing. 
  Reduce the target’s physical armor value 
  by 3 when you roll damage for your rail 
  rifle attack
  Shock Glove: When you hit a target with a 
  shock glove, the target must make an Endur-
  ance check with a +2 die step bonus or be 
  stunned for 1 round. If you got an Excellent 
  success on your attack, the target’s Endur-
  ance check is at +0 steps. If you got a Stellar 
  success on your attack, the target’s Endur-
  ance check is at –2 die steps.
  Shotgun: The shotgun has the Brutal 
  property. When you hit a target at Close 
  range with a shotgun, roll damage normally 
  but mark off one extra wound box.
  Sonic Bore: You can attack two targets at 
  the same time with this weapon, provided 
  the two targets are adjacent to each other. 
  Make separate attack and damage rolls.
  OTHER GEAR
  We’ll cover more tools and special items in 
  the Core Rules. Here are a couple of sample 
  items mentioned on the pregen charac-
  ter sheets.
  Com Set: A light hands-free headset that 
  gives you radio comms with a range of 50 km 
  or phone comms if there’s any local communi-
  cation net.
  The sonic bore  is 
  hideously LOUD.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  10
  Depending on your 
  campaign setting 
  and tech level, 
  characters might not 
  benefit from a med 
  pack if a med pack 
  was recently applied 
  to that character. 
  Effective frequency 
  may be limited to 
  once per combat, 
  once per hour, or 
  even once per day. 
  For this playtest, 
  there is no such 
  restriction.
  To put it another 
  way, the target DC 
  for any skill check 
  is 20. Roll d20 and 
  add your ability 
  score and your skill 
  points. It’s the exact 
  same math, it’s just 
  a matter of whether 
  you want to figure 
  out your target die 
  rolls ahead of time 
  as skill scores or 
  record your check 
  bonus instead.
  Datapad: A portable handheld computer 
  with a touch-screen interface and a number of 
  useful apps. It’s got satellite-datalink capabil-
  ity so it can draw on the ship’s computer from 
  anywhere in the same hemisphere (and the 
  ship’s computer has a local clone of the world 
  internet).
  Geoscanner: A handheld ground- 
  penetrating radar. You can see up to 10 
  meters into or through a surface such as 
  earth, rock, dirt, or even water to find buried 
  or sunken objects. You can detect open 
  spaces inside the surface (a cave or cavity) 
  but you can’t see what’s in them.
  Med Pack: You can treat a wounded char-
  acter as a 3-impulse action. When you do, roll 
  a Medicine skill check (see the Medicine skill 
  description for details). A med pack can treat 
  10 wounds before it’s expended.
  Repair Kit: An assortment of tools needed 
  to repair broken gear: wrench, pliers, hammer, 
  screwdriver, fasteners like nails, bolts, and 
  screws, power meters, replacement wiring, 
  and so on. Also includes a laser cutting torch.
  Survival Pack: A light backpack containing 
  two 1-liter water bottles, a water purifier, a 
  2-person tent, a highly compressed sleeping 
  bag, 5 kg of rations (sufficient for 7 days), 
  a firestarter, 30 meters of light nylon cord 
  (strong enough to support 200 kg), a com-
  pass, a small knife, and a roll of duct tape.
  Thruster Belt: You can jump or fly up to 
  60 meters in a short burst. This requires 2 
  impulses (see The Action Round), so you can’t 
  jet and attack at the same time. If you don’t 
  alight on a solid surface within 60 meters, 
  you’ll fall from whatever height you’re at when 
  the jets cut out.
  Wound Gel: This tube contains goo filled 
  with healing nanobots. Applying the gel heals 
  a graze, light wound, or moderate wound; 
  reduces a serious wound to moderate; or 
  reduces a critical wound to serious. You don’t 
  need any medical training to use wound gel. 
  A tube contains a single dose.
  THE CORE MECHANIC
  In the Alternity Roleplaying Game, your 
  Gamemaster presents a narrative that features 
  a variety of mysterious, challenging, or danger-
  ous situations. You decide how your character 
  interacts with the story the GM presents: 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, con-
  vince it that you have the proper authorization 
  to pass, or simply blow it to bits with your 
  plasma pistol? 
  Sometimes the GM simply incorporates your 
  decision into the narrative, and then describes 
  what happens next. But in situations where fail-
  ure is a real possibility and comes with serious 
  consequences—for example, failing to stop an 
  orbiter from crashing or losing a gunfight—the 
  narrative can’t go forward until you find out 
  whether your character succeeds or fails in the 
  scene at hand.
  Checks: To determine whether your char-
  acter’s action succeeds or not, you’ll make a 
  check of some kind. Usually this will be a skill 
  check. To make a check, roll a d20 and com-
  pare it to your character’s skill score. If your 
  die roll equals or exceeds your check score, 
  you succeed on the check.
  FIGURING YOUR SKILL SCORE
  Your skill score is equal to 20 – (your key 
  ability + your skill training). For example, if you 
  have Strength 5 and 4 skill points in Athletics, 
  your Athletics skill score is (20 –9) 11. When-
  ever you make an Athletics check, you’re 
  trying to roll an 11 or better to get an Aver-
  age success.
  THE DIFFICULTY DIE
  Your check scores are the same each time 
  you test them—if your Strength is 4, your 
  untrained Strength skill score 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 die to the result of the d20 
  you roll when you make a check.
  
  THE CORE MECHANIC
  11
  If it’s a key check 
  you’re making, talk 
  with the GM and 
  briefly “negotiate” 
  for positive steps 
  depending on the 
  environment, the 
  tools at hand, and 
  other circumstances 
  that may be in 
  your favor. That 
  conversation is the 
  heart of the game, 
  and it sets you up for 
  a dramatic die roll.
  Tests that are harder than normal require 
  you to subtract a difficulty die 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 check score you’re testing to see if you 
  succeed or fail.
  Difficulty
  Die Modifier
  Piece of cake
  +d20
  Extremely easy
  +d12
  Very easy
  +d8
  Easy
  +d6
  Moderately easy
  +d4
  Ordinary
  —
  Moderately hard
  –d4
  Hard
  –d6
  Very hard
  –d8
  Extremely hard
  –d12
  Brutal
  –d20
  Design Note: A trained character has about 
  a 50–50 shot of succeeding on a check of 
  Ordinary difficulty. If you think the test is some-
  thing a trained character should have about a 
  75% or 80% success rate on, make it Very Easy 
  or Extremely Easy. If you think the trained char-
  acter shouldn’t really fail the check, don’t make 
  a check at all. The GM can stipulate success in 
  routine tasks.
  Untrained characters only have about a 
  20% chance to succeed on an Ordinary check. 
  They’ll probably fail unless they can find a way 
  to make the check easier.
  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 die step bonus 
  winds up being canceled out by a –1 die 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 effec-
  tively move up or down the “scale.”
  Example: Martin Ramirez finds himself in 
  a gunfight in the middle of a nightclub that’s 
  on fire. He draws his pistol and targets the 
  nearest thug, who’s half-concealed in the 
  doorway to the kitchen. The GM decides 
  that the thug’s cover is worth a 1-step pen-
  alty to the attack, and the thin smoke filling 
  the room is worth another 1-step penalty. 
  The attack goes from Ordinary difficulty 
  (no bonus or penalty) to Hard (a –d6 diffi-
  culty die). 
   The next time Martin gets to shoot, that 
  thug is suddenly badly distracted by the fact 
  that his clothes just caught on fire. When 
  you attack a distracted target you gain a 
  +1 die step bonus to your roll. This offsets 
  some of the previous penalty, making this 
  next attack only Moderately Hard (a –d4 
  difficulty die).
  In general, assigning the difficulty die and 
  deciding which factors merit increasing or 
  decreasing the size of the die are up to the 
  GM. Some common penalties or bonuses 
  in combat situations are summarized in the 
  next section. 
  SUCCESS LEVELS
  When your check result exceeds your 
  check score by a wide margin, you not only 
  succeed—you succeed with better than 
  normal results.
  If your check result is equal to or better 
  than your skill score, you achieve an Aver-
  age success.
  If your check result is at least 5 more 
  than your skill score, you achieve an Excel-
  lent success.
  If your check result is at least 10 more than 
  your skill score, you achieve a Stellar success 
  on this check. 
  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 work-
  ing your way through some kind of challenge 
  scene, a high success grade might mean that 
  you make better progress in climbing the wall, 
  solving the puzzle, completing the surgery, or 
  whatever it is you’re trying to do.
  One of the great 
  things about success 
  levels is that you 
  can improvise 
  a bit and model 
  degrees of success, 
  depending on the 
  Average/Excellent/
  Stellar result.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  12
  As you play, plan 
  ahead! Know when 
  you’ll act next on 
  the wheel — and 
  what can go 
  wrong between 
  now and then.
  COMBAT
  Characters in the Alternity game aren’t rou-
  tinely wading into the science-fiction equiva-
  lent of dungeons and chopping up hordes of 
  aliens with laser swords (although sometimes 
  that sort of thing can happen). Combat scenes 
  are intended to serve as important obstacles 
  and challenges in the typical Alternity adven-
  ture. They’re situations in which the characters 
  are in real danger of getting hurt or killed as 
  the story unfolds. Most Alternity adventures 
  feature at least a few combat scenes as the 
  heroes encounter dangerous aliens, fight their 
  way through a crime boss’s thugs, or resort to 
  force to stop a master villain from doing some-
  thing terrible.
  THE ACTION ROUND
  When you find yourself in a combat situation, 
  it’s important to figure out which charac-
  ter—hero, villain, or alien—acts in what order. 
  Combat is therefore organized into action 
  rounds. An action round is in turn broken into 
  eight impulses. The best way to think of the 
  action round and the impulses is like a clock. 
  After you complete impulse 8 of one round, 
  you begin impulse 1 of the next round—and 
  characters that act late in the round might 
  not act again until impulse 2 or 3 of the 
  new round.
  INITIATIVE
  At the beginning of a combat scene, the 
  GM asks all players in the scene to make an 
  Initiative check. (The GM makes one check for 
  each separate group of enemies in the scene.) 
  A character or creature’s initiative score works 
  just like a skill score—the character rolls a 
  d20 and adds or subtracts the appropriate 
  difficulty die. This provides a Stellar, Excellent, 
  Average, or Failure result for the character’s 
  initiative roll.
  Combatants that succeed on their initiative 
  check can take their first action in Impulse 1.
  Combatants act in order of initiative success 
  on the first impulse of a combat scene (so a 
  Stellar result goes first, then an Excellent result, 
  then Average results). In subsequent rounds, 
  combatants act as described below.
  Combatants that fail on their initiative check 
  can take their first action in Impulse 2.
  It’s not unusual for multiple characters from 
  either side in the combat to have an action 
  available in the same impulse. When this hap-
  pens, combatants act as follows:
  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 total serves as the tiebreaker.
  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, who acts before the third 
  character with an action to take in Impulse 5, 
  and so on.
  Combatants who have not acted yet in the 
  scene are considered “First-In” and act before 
  combatants who took 1-impulse actions in 
  Impulse 1.
  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.
  THE NEXT ACTION
  When a creature acts in an impulse, the action 
  usually requires 1 to 5 impulses. That means 
  that a character who takes a 3-impulse action 
  in Impulse 2 gets to take his or her next 
  action in Impulse 5.  The “next action” wraps 
  around the end of the round, so a creature 
  that takes a 3-impulse action in Impulse 7 acts 
  
  COMBAT
  13
  Terrain can be your best ally in combat — or your worst enemy. Get to the good ground first!
  Two meters? That’s 
  inside the room!
  One of the ways 
  SF settings like 
  Alternity differ from 
  their dungeonbound 
  counterparts is that 
  there’s a lot more to 
  interact with. Most 
  encounters have 
  computers to hack, 
  buttons to press, 
  and death rays 
  to activate.
  again in Impulse 2 of the next round. We sug-
  gest using markers or tokens to keep track of 
  when each character or adversary gets his or 
  her next action in the combat scene.
  ACTIONS AND IMPULSES
  Actions in combat (or other time-sensitive 
  scenes) require some number of impulses. A 
  list of common actions appears below.
  • Attack (3–5 impulses): Use a combat 
  skill to make an attack, and move up 
  to 2 meters. Requires a number of 
  impulses equal to the weapon’s speed.
  • Use a Skill (3 impulses): Use a non-com-
  bat skill suitable for an action scene. 
  You can also move up to 2 meters.
  • Move (2 impulses): Move up to 
  20 meters.
  • Interact (1 impulse): Interact with an 
  object. For example, draw a weapon, 
  open a door, enter something 
  on a keypad.
  • Stand or Fall Prone (1 impulse): Get 
  up from the ground, or throw your-
  self prone.
  In addition, there are three  special actions 
  that modify other actions you’re taking—aim, 
  charge, and  evade (sorry, you can only use 
  one of these at a time).
  Aim: You take careful aim when you make 
  an attack. You gain a +1 die step bonus on your 
  attack roll if you aim, but you increase the time 
  it takes to make the attack by 1 impulse.
  Charge: You move up to half your speed 
  and make an attack with a hand-to-hand or 
  melee weapon. Charging requires 1 impulse 
  more than making a normal attack. 
  Evade: You concentrate on not getting hit 
  while you’re performing any other action. Ene-
  mies attacking you suffer a –1 die step penalty 
  on their attack roll, but you increase the time 
  it takes to complete the action by 1 impulse. 
  For example, if you evade while moving, it’s a 
  3-impulse action. If you are highly trained in 
  the Dodge skill, the penalty to attack you could 
  be 2, 3, or even 4 steps; see the Dodge skill 
  for details.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  14
  GMs: At the point 
  where Alternity 
  has a GM screen, 
  you can bet 
  these modifiers 
  will be front and 
  center on it.
  The aim, charge, 
  and evade add-
  ons really make 
  tactical combat 
  come alive. Whether 
  you’re a player or 
  a GM, remember 
  to use them!
  MOVEMENT AND POSITION
  Creatures that are within 2 meters of each 
  other are adjacent. In general, you need to be 
  adjacent to a target to attack it in hand to hand 
  combat or melee combat.
  Facing isn’t important in an Alternity game 
  combat scene—we assume that most crea-
  tures can quickly turn to meet any approach-
  ing threat, even when it isn’t their turn to act. 
  However, there are two times when position is 
  important:
  • If two or more allies are adjacent to the 
  same enemy, the allied creatures gain a 
  +1 step bonus on their attacks.
  • Cover is often directional—just because 
  you can turn to face the mutant sneak-
  ing up behind you, it doesn’t mean 
  the wall you’re hiding behind moves 
  too. Moving to a spot where you can 
  attack around your enemy’s cover is 
  Tactics 101. 
  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). Most people take 
  up a lot less space than that, but in a fight an 
  average human can control about a meter of 
  space all around her. 
  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. (The weapons table 
  in the Equipment chapter lists the relevant 
  skill for each weapon.) Making a weapon 
  skill check is often referred to as “making an 
  attack roll.”
  Your target’s defensive ability or situation 
  is measured by modifying 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 die steps from 
  your attack roll. A target that you’ve had a 
  chance to zero in on or that you catch com-
  pletely off-guard is easier to hit than normal, 
  so you might add a die step or two to your 
  attack roll. Here’s a list of common attack 
  modifiers:
  +2 steps
  Stunned or unaware target
  +2 steps
  Very big target (elephant, car)
  +1 step
  Big target (horse and rider)
  +1 step
  Attacker aimed 
  +1 step
  Target is dazed or distracted
  +1 step
  Target prone (vs. melee attacks)
  –1 step
  Target prone (vs. ranged attacks)
  –1 step
  Target is at Medium range
  –1 step
  Target has some cover
  –1 step
  Target is evading
  –1 step
  Small target (drone, raccoon)
  –2 steps
  Very small target (rat, soda can)
  –2 steps
  Target has good cover
  –2 steps
  Target is at Long range
  –3 steps
  Target is at Very Long range
  Cover and Evading: If a target is both 
  evading 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 possible 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.
  RANGE
  In the Alternity game, your heroes might 
  mix it up in a knife-fight against an opponent 
  within arm’s reach or try to pick off enemies 
  with 500-meter rifle shots—it all depends on 
  the situation. There are five range categories 
  in the game:
  • Adjacent (2 meters or less)
  • Close (2 to 20 meters)
  • Medium (21 to 50 meters)
  • Long (51 to 200 meters)
  • Very Long (201 to 500 meters)
  Some weapons have special characteris-
  tics that extend range—a powerful sniper rifle 
  might allow a shot of 1,500 meters or more, 
  while a shotgun firing a rifled slug could attack 
  at Long range.
  BLASTS
  If you have a grenade, you’re not trying to 
  hit the bad guy with it. You just need to get 
  it near him. The attack roll of a blast weapon 
  measures how close you got. Usually this is a 
  
  COMBAT
  15
  SKILLS IN COMBAT
  Here’s a quick summary of the skills you may need in combat:
  • Use a weapon skill to make an attack.
  • A high Dodge skill makes your evade actions better.
  • Dodge also serves as a “saving throw” against 
  area attacks.
  • Endurance is your “saving throw” against poison, 
  radiation, disease, or similar deleterious conditions.
  • Resilience allows you to minimize the effect of a 
  wound you receive.
  • Medicine can allow you to treat the injuries of others.
  The effects of losing 
  your last wound box 
  might actually vary 
  with genre. In a gritty 
  post-apocalyptic 
  game, your 
  character might be 
  dead, no questions 
  asked. In a far-future 
  post-Singularity 
  game, your 
  consciousness might 
  instantly download 
  to a clone or artificial 
  body. A “middle of 
  the road” genre 
  might give your 
  character a chance 
  to pull through with 
  medical attention or 
  a great Resilience 
  roll and a chance 
  to die without that 
  sort of help.
  Heavy Weapons skill check for something like 
  a mortar, or an Athletics skill check for a thrown 
  weapon such as a grenade.
  • On an Excellent or Stellar success, you 
  hit the point you aimed for. That is now 
  the center of the blast. On an Average 
  success, you hit 2 meters from your 
  aim point.
  • On a failure, you miss your aiming point 
  by 2d4 meters in a random direction. 
  You might still be close enough to injure 
  your intended target.
  • Creatures in the blast radius can 
  attempt Dodge checks to escape or 
  hit the deck.
  • Any creatures remaining in the area 
  take damage from the blast.
  Blasts simply deal a set amount of damage 
  in a radius. For example, a blast grenade deals 
  1d8 + 4 damage to targets within 3 meters, or 
  1d8 + 0 damage to targets within 6 meters.
  Creatures threatened by a blast are allowed 
  to make a Dodge skill check to get out of the 
  blast radius. A successful check increases the 
  creature’s distance from the blast center by 
  2, 4, or 6 meters for an Average, Excellent, 
  or Stellar success. If the threatened creature 
  is now out of the area of the blast, he or she 
  takes no damage. 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. 
  A character with cover between him and the 
  center of the blast gains a +1, +2, or +3 die 
  step bonus on the Dodge check (for half, 
  three-quarters, or nine-tenths cover). Success 
  increases the effective distance 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.
  DAMAGE AND DURABILITY
  A successful attack deals damage based upon 
  its success level. Each weapon or ability indi-
  cates the base damage for Average, Excellent, 
  or Stellar attacks.
  Damage Severity: The effect of a successful 
  hit is a single wound or injury with a severity 
  of 0 to 16 or more. A laser pistol that hits for 8 
  damage does NOT deal 8 points of damage—it 
  deals one wound with a severity of 8. These 
  aren’t hit points!
  Severity
  Result
  0 or less
  No damage
  1 to 3
  Graze
  4 to 6
  Light wound
  7 to 9
  Moderate wound
  10 to 12
  Serious wound
  13 to 15
  Critical wound
  16+
  Mortal Wound
  Armor Resistance: A target’s armor reduces 
  incoming damage. Subtract the armor resis-
  tance value from the damage severity to 
  determine the actual severity of the wound 
  the target suffers. For example, if the target is 
  wearing a ballistic vest that has a resistance of 
  3 and you hit him with a rifle shot for damage 
  8, the target’s armor reduces the injury to a 
  light wound of 5.
  Damage Type: Damage is described as 
  physical (bullets, blades, impact, etc.) or energy 
  (lasers, radiation, plasma, electricity, and so 
  on). Some types of armor are more effective 
  against one kind of damage than others—a 
  knight’s plate armor does okay with physi-
  cal damage but doesn’t help much against 
  energy weapons.
  THE DURABILITY TRACK
  Your hero has a number of wound boxes that 
  correspond to the severity of damage results. 
  These boxes are grouped into damage bands. 
  A typical character has two wound boxes in 
  each band except the top band, where all char-
  acters have just one. Some characters might 
  have more or fewer wound boxes based upon 
  their archetype, attributes, and gear. 
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  16
  The distracted 
  condition is a pretty 
  good catch-all 
  for mild physical 
  distress, like sudden 
  zero-G or temporary 
  extremes of 
  heat or cold. 
  When your character takes damage, mark 
  off a wound box that corresponds to the 
  severity of the damage. If you have no wound 
  boxes remaining in that damage band, then 
  you instead mark off an open box in the next 
  highest damage band.
  TYPICAL HERO DURABILITY TRACK
  Band
  Wds.
  Effects
  1–3
  qq
  No ill effects
  4–6
  qq
  No ill effects
  7–9
  qq
  1-step penalty to all checks
  10–12
  qq
  2-step penalty to all checks
  13–15
  qq
  3-step penalty to all checks
  16+
  q
  Incapacitated
  Example: A laser blast hits Martin 
  Ramirez for damage 8. His carbon fiber 
  armor provides 3 resistance, so the actual 
  wound severity is 5. Martin’s player marks 
  off a wound box in the 4–6 tier. If Martin had 
  no wound boxes remaining in the 4–6 tier, 
  his player would instead mark off the first 
  available box in the 7–9 tier.
  EFFECTS OF DAMAGE
  A character suffers negative effects from 
  taking too much damage, determined by the 
  highest band in which the character has a 
  marked wound box (in other words, multiple 
  wounds don’t produce stacking penalties—you 
  just suffer the worst penalty you have). 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 the hero’s actions.
  Incapacitated: When a character checks 
  off the highest wound box, he or she is inca-
  pacitated. An incapacitated character falls 
  unconscious and can take no actions. Instead, 
  he or she immediately attempts a Resilience 
  skill check (do not include the step penalty for 
  injuries). If the character fails the Resilience 
  check, he or she is unconscious and mortally 
  wounded and will not survive the injury without 
  urgent medical intervention. If the character 
  succeeds on the check, he or she is uncon-
  scious but stable, and might pull through. 
  For purposes of this Quickstart Guide, you 
  can assume that an incapacitated character 
  cannot be revived without at least an hour of 
  urgent medical treatment in a trauma center. 
  More detailed death and dying rules appear in 
  the Alternity SFRPG Core Rules.
  STATUS EFFECTS
  In general, you can attempt to end a condition 
  affecting you by making an appropriate skill 
  check as a 1-impulse action.
  Distracted: You’re not able to pay full atten-
  tion to your foes for some reason. Enemies 
  attacking you get a +1 die step bonus. Usually 
  you aren’t distracted for more than one action, 
  but if the effect is persistent, you can attempt a 
  Willpower check to shake it off.  
  Grappled: If you’re grappled, you can’t 
  move, and you take a –1 die step penalty on 
  all skill checks except hand-to-hand attacks 
  against your grappler or escape attempts. 
  To escape, make an opposed Hand to Hand 
  check against your grappler—if you equal or 
  beat your opponent’s level of success, you 
  pull free.
  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 con-
  dition by making a Willpower check (0 addi-
  tional impulses). If you fail, you’re still insane at 
  the start of your next action.
  Prone: Prone characters have a speed of 
  2 meters. Standing up from prone takes a 
  1-impulse action.
  Stunned: Delay your next action by 
  3 impulses. If you were evading, you 
  stop evading.
  
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  17
  INTRODUCTORY NARRATION
  The Icarus Foundation is at the forefront of humanity’s 
  efforts to explore the stars—an expensive effort that Stellar 
  Union bureaucrats are all too happy to outsource to licensed 
  exploration organizations. Icarus operates a dozen survey 
  driveships, but two weeks ago one of them—the Magellan—
  reported its destruction via its automated beacon. 
  Magellan had previously reported the discovery of an 
  important H’naal artifact at Xi Scorpii, a multistar system 
  about 90 light-years from Earth. (The H’naal are a long-van-
  ished alien civilization; humans have found no H’naal sites less 
  than a million years old.) Strangely, the last message Magel-
  lan sent was almost incomprehensible: “G’nah . . . it calls, it 
  calls, hishnaga zor g’nah . . . help us, for the love of God . . . free 
  us, G’nah!”
  Most of you are Icarus employees, the crew and science 
  team of the drivescout Simon Fraser. Your mission: Inves-
  tigate the disappearance or destruction of Magellan, and 
  recover the artifact if possible.
  If you have a smaller 
  group, encourage at 
  least one player to 
  be either Vance or 
  Grace, and run any 
  unchosen characters 
  as NPCs. They’re 
  still present, even 
  if the PCs aren’t 
  running them.
  In the absence 
  of actual Greeks, 
  pronounce it 
  “scorpie-eye.” 
  It sounds more 
  SF that way.
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  Welcome to the 26th Century. Human government is in the power of an overbearing Stellar 
  Union bureaucracy and dozens of powerful megacorps, but a few forward-thinkers are dedicated 
  to expanding the frontiers of human space. A leading light in this effort is the Icarus Foundation 
  . . . but now one of the Foundation’s survey ships, the Magellan, is missing.
  SETUP
  The Icarus Foundation has received a “destruc-
  tion beacon” signal from Magellan, a scout 
  cruiser returning from an exploration of H’naal 
  ruins in the Scorpius Sector. Interestingly 
  enough, Magellan reported the discovery of 
  an important artifact just before its destruction. 
  Dr. Tharsi and Captain Carr of the drivescout 
  Simon Fraser have been ordered to find the 
  cruiser’s wreckage, determine what happened, 
  and recover its cargo.
  Hand out one pregenerated character to 
  each player. Encourage your players to share 
  who their characters are and why they’re 
  on board Fraser—the party’s been traveling 
  together for days and they’ve had plenty of 
  time to make each other’s acquaintance.
  When you’re ready to begin, read the boxed 
  “Introductory Narration” text.
  CHARACTERS
  • Dr. Grace Tharsi, Senior Scientist
  • Captain Vance Carr, commander of 
  the Fraser
  • Engineer Omari Temu of Fraser 
  • Specialist Dieter Frank of Fraser
  • Archeologist Miles Montero, the antiqui-
  ties dealer
  • Agent Masako Wade, Stellar Union 
  Investigative Service
  Some additional guidance, if needed:
  Who’s in charge? Captain Vance and Dr. 
  Tharsi share command. They have about as 
  much authority as any mid-tier managers do, 
  so they can’t legally shoot subordinates for 
  refusing commands (for example).
  What do we know about Magellan? Do 
  we have a crew list or manifest? Magellan is 
  another drivescout, a little bigger than Simon 
  Fraser. It had orders to explore H’naal sites 
  around Xi Scorpii A, a week’s travel from Xi 
  Scorpii D. Its crew consisted of Captain Brock; 
  Dr. Ayers, science team leader; scientists 
  Falco, Perez, and Wirt; and crewhands Kemal, 
  Morales, Rogers, and Zhang.
  Is there anything dangerous out here? 
  Humans haven’t met any other starfaring 
  species yet, but we’ve run across evidence of 
  older starfaring races that explored this part of 
  the galaxy in the distant past. Human outlaws 
  or corporate conflicts are a possibility closer to 
  inhabited worlds, but Xi Scorpii is a long way 
  from any populated areas. It’s very unlikely that 
  other humans are out this far.
  Do we have a warp drive? How fast can 
  our ship go? The ship has a FTL drive that can 
  cover about a light-year per day. For in-system 
  maneuvering ships use a reactionless EM drive 
  that can generate about 5G of thrust at full 
  power. (That’ll get you from the Earth to the 
  Moon in about 2 hours.) 
  FOR THE GM: THE REAL STORY
  Magellan found a H’naal artifact on a barren 
  world orbiting Xi Scorpii A (a different part 
  of this large and complex star system). The 
  artifact was a stasis chamber of some kind; the 
  crew brought their find on board and headed 
  back to civilization to begin the process of 
  carefully salvaging its contents—several similar 
  chambers have been recovered in recent 
  years and usually contain interesting artifacts. 
  Unfortunately, Magellan’s chief scientist inad-
  vertently opened the chamber and released 
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  18
  jettisoned cargo
  wreck site
  singing dome
  flight path
  projected path
  0km   50    100    150
  Xi Scorpii D Sites
  Without chewing 
  the scenery too 
  much, give Simon a 
  personality of “his” 
  own. The PCs will 
  likely interact with 
  Simon more than 
  any other NPC.
  a dangerous alien—a living H’naal anxious to 
  return to its homeworld at Xi Scorpii D.
  The H’naal are powerful telepaths. The 
  creature compelled Magellan’s crew to set 
  course for Xi Scorpii D while clouding their 
  minds to keep them from realizing it had 
  escaped stasis. But controlling the whole crew 
  at once proved too difficult, and in the end 
  the H’naal’s control slipped. Two of Magel-
  lan’s crew managed to escape by jettisoning 
  themselves in the ship’s cargo pod. Magellan’s 
  pilot, struggling to resist the alien compul-
  sion, lost control of the ship during planetary 
  approach and wound up crashing hard on Xi 
  Scorpii D–1, resulting in the deaths of most of 
  the crew. However, the H’naal and Dr. Ayers 
  survived the crash. The alien salvaged some 
  materials from the crash site, and set out 
  on foot for the ancient H’naal station it was 
  trying to reach with Dr. Ayers under its tele-
  pathic control.
  When the heroes arrive aboard their own 
  ship, Magellan is wrecked on the surface of Xi 
  Scorpii D–1. Two survivors are hiding out near 
  the hard-to-spot remains of the cargo pod two 
  hundred kilometers away. And the H’naal and 
  its captive are at a long-lost H’naal site hidden 
  in a mountain valley about fifty kilometers from 
  the wreck.
  DS SIMON FRASER
  The heroes’ ship is a drivescout named Simon 
  Fraser, after the Old Earth explorer. The ship is 
  about 80 meters long and 15 meters in diame-
  ter. Most of its hull volume is taken up by drives 
  and power plants; the actual living space is a 
  module at the forward end, about the size of 
  decent 3-bedroom apartment. There are ten 
  small private cubicles for personal quarters, 
  plus a cramped captain’s cabin and a mission 
  commander’s cabin. It carries sufficient food 
  supplies to support a crew of 6 for about 60 
  days; the journey from the nearest Icarus base 
  to Xi Scorpii takes about 10 days in drivespace.
  Simon Fraser has no weapons, but it’s tough 
  enough to stand up to just about any amount 
  of small arms fire or even light anti-vehicular 
  weaponry. The ship is equipped with aerofoils 
  and heavy landing struts for entering atmo-
  sphere and landing on any reasonably clear 
  patch of ground. The ship carries no separate 
  landing vehicles or shuttles.
  Fraser has a simple onboard computer 
  system (nicknamed Simon, of course) that is 
  about as sophisticated as your typical iPhone. 
  Simon can open and close hatches or safely 
  “button up” the ship when the heroes are 
  absent, but it can’t fly Fraser on its own.
  Finally, Fraser does have a drivecomm 
  system that allows contact across interstellar 
  distances. But drivecomms have very limited 
  bandwidth (not much more than an early 
  20th-century telegram), and it takes several 
  days of “real time” for the message to reach its 
  destination. 
  XI SCORPII D–1
  All of the action in this adventure takes place 
  on one planet of this system: Xi Scorpii D–1. 
  The Xi Scorpii star system is actually a five-star 
  system with three stars in one group, and two 
  stars in a second group about 8000 AU dis-
  tant. Xi Scorpii A is home to a Mars-like world 
  with H’naal ruins (this is the planet Magellan 
  was sent to explore). 
  
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  19
  Success in the skill 
  challenge to search 
  for the Magellan is 
  automatic. It’s just a 
  matter of how long 
  it takes the PCs to 
  conduct the search.
  D and E are a pair of orange dwarfs. Each 
  has several barren rocky planets, but D is also 
  home to a terran-type world with a nitrogen- 
  oxygen atmosphere and a thriving biosphere. 
  This is Xi Scorpii D–1, the scene of the action 
  in this adventure.
  D–1 is a little smaller than Earth, with 
  about three-quarters Earth’s gravity and 
  prominent highlands. If you have to reduce 
  it to one quick description, call it a “moun-
  tain-jungle world” like the Andes Mountains. 
  There are a number of H’naal sites hidden in 
  its rugged terrain, but it will take months of 
  careful survey to discover them all. It would 
  be a good candidate for human settlement, 
  although its native lifeforms are pretty dan-
  gerous (as the heroes may learn).
  SCENE 1: ARRIVAL
  The adventure begins when the heroes arrive 
  near Magellan’s last reported position.
  Proceeding to D–1 is routine—no skill 
  checks are needed for just moving around the 
  system. Some other things your players might 
  want to try at this point include:
  Scan for wreckage: There’s nothing in 
  space here. If there’s wreckage down on the 
  planet, you’ll have to get closer and establish 
  orbit to make a good search and localize the 
  exact source of Magellan’s distress beacon.
  Look for aliens: Using the ship’s sensors to 
  scan the nearby area is a skill check: Science 
  or Piloting are most appropriate. However, 
  there isn’t anything to see here, so even if the 
  PCs succeed they don’t find anything. There 
  are no signs of habitation on any nearby 
  planet, no structures in space, and no other 
  ships in sight.
  Can we explore the system? Sure, but it’s 
  big and empty. Xi Scorpii is enormous, and 
  moving around the system at sub-light speeds 
  takes weeks and weeks. Even searching the 
  asteroid belt or other planets in the vicinity of 
  D will take several days. If there are any survi-
  vors from Magellan, they might not be able to 
  wait that long.
  SCENE 2: ORBIT
  When the heroes approach Xi Scorpii D–1, 
  read the scene narration.
  To localize the automated beacon, the 
  heroes must make a careful search with 
  orbital cams and radar. They might also 
  decide to study the planet for other reasons 
  while they’re at it. 
  Ask each player what he or she wants to 
  do while Fraser is in orbit: search for Magel-
  lan, study the planet’s conditions and life-
  forms, scan for anomalies (basically, looking 
  for anything else), or helping other characters.
  Helping: Characters who aren’t good at 
  operating ship systems can still help. If a 
  character has at least 1 skill point in the rele-
  vant skill, he or she can provide a +2 die step 
  bonus to the character he or she is helping. 
  If not, the bonus is only +1 die step (even an 
  untrained character can help by providing a 
  second set of eyes). 
  SCENE 1: ARRIVAL NARRATION
  You cut your drivespace generator and arrive in the Xi Scor-
  pii star system as predicted by your nav systems. You’re in a 
  solar orbit around Xi Scorpii D, the fourth of the five stars in 
  this complex system. It’s a K-type orange dwarf with three 
  rocky planets in the inner system, an asteroid belt, and two 
  medium-sized gas giants.
  Magellan’s automated distress beacon is continuing to 
  transmit. Now that you’re in the same star system, you can 
  localize the signal. It’s coming from the surface of Xi Scorpii 
  D–1, the first of the planets. It’s a terran-type world that 
  looks like it supports a rich biosphere. It’s a couple of million 
  kilometers from your position, a few hours’ travel at sub-
  light speeds.
  SCENE 2: ORBIT NARRATION
  Xi Scorpii D–1 is covered in rich green and gold hues, with 
  small burgundy-colored seas. It’s a Mars-sized world with 
  striking ten-kilometer mountains and a surprisingly dense 
  nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. From orbit there are no signs 
  of civilization or obvious wreck sites, but you can tell the 
  distress beacon is transmitting from somewhere in the 
  foothills of a mountain range a little north of the equator.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  20
  Landing the Simon 
  Fraser is pretty 
  routine—the heroes 
  don’t have to make 
  any skill checks to 
  put Fraser on the 
  ground. It’s just a 
  matter of choosing 
  where to land. The 
  heroes can land as 
  close to a site as 
  they like, although 
  they probably 
  should land at least 
  100–200 meters 
  away to make sure 
  they don’t crush any 
  evidence under their 
  landing struts.
  Multiple successes 
  are another way 
  to model success 
  above and beyond 
  the norm. In this 
  case it represents 
  thoroughness rather 
  than expertise.
  Find Magellan: Locating the wreck requires 
  a successful skill check with Science or Piloting 
  at a +3 die step bonus (there’s a beacon, after 
  all). The heroes need 3 successes to locate the 
  beacon. An Excellent skill check counts as 2 
  successes, and a Stellar skill check counts as 
  3. Each character participating in the search 
  can make 1 check per hour of searching. When 
  the heroes succeed, they find the Wreck 
  Site and can proceed to Scene 3 whenever 
  they like.
  When the heroes find the wreck site, read:
  You find a wreck site scattered across 
  the foothills of one of the big mountain 
  ranges. From orbit you can make out a 
  long, plowed impact scar across grassy 
  highlands leading to broken wreckage 
  around a small crater. The ship’s in a 
  number of pieces, but it looks like Magel-
  lan, and it’s clear that the wreck happened 
  recently—not much more than a month ago 
  based on the burned patches of grass and 
  freshly turned-up dirt.
  If the heroes accumulate 5 or more suc-
  cesses in the search (most likely because 
  multiple characters succeeded, or because 
  the players decided to take a little extra time 
  to be extremely thorough), they also spot the 
  Jettisoned Cargo site (see Scene 4) and can 
  go there when they like.
  Read the text below if the heroes spot the 
  Jettisoned Cargo site:
  You discover a large piece of wreckage 
  located in dense jungle 200 kilometers from 
  the primary wreck site, back along Magel-
  lan’s plotted impact course. It’s about the 
  size of a standard cargo module, and must 
  have detached quite a distance before 
  Magellan would have broken up on its own. 
  A quick comparison of the pieces you can 
  observe at the primary wreck site suggests 
  that the secondary site is indeed Magellan’s 
  cargo module.
  Study Lifeforms or Conditions: Characters 
  who spend time studying D–1’s planetology or 
  biosphere from orbit can attempt 1 Science skill 
  check per hour. Since there isn’t any real end 
  point to this effort, the amount of information 
  the heroes collect is based on the number of 
  successes they accumulate in this effort before 
  they move on to something else. (An Excellent 
  skill check counts as 2 successes, and a Stellar 
  result counts as 3.)
  0: It’s a Mars-sized planet with a nitro-
  gen-oxygen atmosphere, densely covered 
  with grasslands and forests. 
   
  1: The atmosphere is safe for humans to 
  breathe. It’s a little warmer than Earth. Bio-
  chemistry appears similar—the plants use 
  photosynthesis, and might be edible. 
   
  2: Large animals are fairly common. You 
  can spot herds of big grazers in the high-lat-
  itude steppes and a variety of flying animals 
  above the forests. 
   
  3: The animal life is comparable to Ice 
  Age Earth in size and prevalence. 
   
  4: Biodiversity is surprisingly low—there 
  are a lot of animals, but a smaller number of 
  species than you would expect.  
   
  5: The low biodiversity appears artifi-
  cial. Either the planet’s natural variety was 
  deliberately engineered at some point in 
  the past, or the remaining species represent 
  survivors from a mass extinction caused by 
  intelligent action (or carelessness). 
   
  6+: The mass extinction took place about 
  a million years ago. Many animals and 
  plants were clearly bioengineered before 
  that time.
   If the heroes have the information of 
  at least 3 successes when they land, they 
  gain a +1 die step bonus to initiative checks 
  and non-combat skill checks (for example, 
  Awareness or Survival) when dealing with the 
  lifeforms of D–1 in Scene 3 and Scene 4.
  Search for Anomalies: The heroes may 
  study D–1 just to see if anything unusual or 
  out of the ordinary turns up. Academics, Sci-
  ence, or Survival are the primary skills for this 
  kind of search, although a character can also 
  use Computers to refine search algorithms 
  and make the best use of Simon’s ability to 
  collect and sort data. As before, each search 
  requires 1 hour, and characters earn 1, 2, or 3 
  successes for an Average, Excellent, or Stellar 
  skill check.
  If the heroes collect 3 or more successes, 
  they spot the Singing Dome site from orbit 
  (Scene 5). Read the following:
  
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  21
  SCENE 3A: WRECK SITE NARRATION
  Magellan’s wreck is scattered over a path roughly 1500 
  meters long and 300 meters wide, scarring a grassy ridge 
  that rises above dense forest-covered valleys. It looks like 
  the ship nosed in pretty hard at the beginning of the debris 
  field and cartwheeled, breaking up into half a dozen big hull 
  pieces in the process and flinging smaller debris all over the 
  place. The bridge and crew module are near the lower end 
  of the debris field, while the drive, power plant, and stores 
  carried farther up the hillside.
  Tattered scraps of mist blow across the site; it’s warm 
  and humid out there. Nothing big seems to be moving near the 
  wreck, but your audio pickups relay animal calls and chat-
  ter from the forest edge a few hundred meters away. The 
  distress beacon is still transmitting from the sensor and nav 
  module, a short distance from what’s left of the bridge. 
  crew module
  bridge
  x Perez
  x campsite
  x Zhang
  engines
  power plant
  0m   100    200    300
  Wreck of the Magellan
  At first you don’t find much out of the 
  ordinary, but with the help of the ship’s com-
  puter and some pattern-recognition filters, 
  you spot something interesting—a slightly 
  too symmetrical site in a high altitude pla-
  teau near the planet’s equator. It lies about 
  a hundred kilometers further along Magel-
  lan’s final course if you were to extrapolate 
  the ship’s intended course from the wreck 
  site. The site consists of a domelike struc-
  ture about 40 meters in diameter, partially 
  buried by the surrounding soil and scrubby 
  vegetation.
  Characters trained in Academics recog-
  nize the site’s plan as generally consistent 
  with H’naal ruins that have been found on 
  other worlds.
  Next: The heroes can’t do much more from 
  orbit. They’ll need to set down at the Wreck 
  Site (Scene 3), or—if they happened to spot it 
  and choose to go there first—the Jettisoned 
  Cargo (Scene 4) or Singing Dome (Scene 5).
  SCENE 3A: THE WRECK SITE
  The obvious place to start looking for answers 
  is the main wreck site. Unfortunately, the local 
  wildlife is interested in the site, too. 
  Begin this scene by asking the players what 
  their characters are doing. If they’re investigat-
  ing the wreck, ask them what they’re specifi-
  cally looking for. Each hour, each character can 
  make a skill check to see whether he or she’s 
  found the evidence available. 
  After 1 hour of searching, interrupt with the 
  Local Denizens encounter (Scene 3b).
  Standing Watch: No dangerous creatures 
  are in sight when the heroes reach the wreck-
  age. Characters may choose to not participate 
  in the investigation, and instead keep watch for 
  anything dangerous. When you begin the Local 
  Denizens encounter (Scene 3b), characters 
  standing watch have a better chance to spot 
  the mist hunters before they attack.
  Investigate the Wreck: If your players aren’t 
  sure what else they ought to be doing, you can 
  remind them that they’re supposed to be look-
  ing for survivors and that ships carry “black 
  box”-style flight recorders.
  Find the Black Box: The black box is usually 
  located near the pilot’s station on the bridge, 
  but the bridge sustained a lot of damage in 
  the crash and it’s going to take some effort 
  to retrieve the flight recorder. Finding the 
  black box requires 1 success in Awareness, 
  Engineering, or Piloting (+2 die step bonus). 
  Removing it requires 1 success in Mechanics 
  (a repair kit is useful here). The black box can 
  be linked to Fraser’s computer to access the 
  Flight Record clue (see the sidebar). 
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  22
  CLUES AT MAGELLAN’S WRECK
  The heroes may turn up several valuable clues in their inves-
  tigation of the wreck site.
  Flight Record: Analysis of the black box date reveals that 
  Magellan attempted to land, but was piloted with an extreme 
  lack of skill that probably caused the crash. The record also 
  indicates the cargo module was jettisoned shortly before 
  the crash.
  The Campsite: A short distance from the wreck someone 
  set up a temporary camp. Survival supplies are stockpiled by 
  the remains of a campfire, along with the discarded wrap-
  pers of rations. Small pieces of hull debris have been dragged 
  to the campsite and show signs of cutting and welding with 
  a laser torch. Drag marks leading away from the campsite 
  suggest that somebody hauled away a simple sled, heading 
  east (the trail is impossible to follow for more than a few 
  hundred meters).
  Security Footage: A review of internal security cam footage 
  shows Magellan’s crew loading a big golden egg-shaped object 
  in the cargo hold about 4 weeks ago. Recording cubes are 
  then missing for the next 6 days, but a few minutes of foot-
  age immediately before the crash are still on hand. They show 
  Captain Brock staggering up onto the bridge and initiating the 
  landing procedure, only to stop and start again several times.
  This is likely the first 
  battle. Take your 
  time, but don’t sweat 
  the details too much. 
  If the players end 
  this fight with an 
  understanding of 
  the die step system 
  and how damage 
  works, you’ve 
  done your job.
  Look for Bodies: Two bodies are on the 
  bridge; they’re easy to find, but they’re in bad 
  shape with extensive burns and gruesome crash 
  injuries. Searching the rest of the crew module 
  requires 1 hour, but no skill check is needed to 
  find two more bodies here. Five bodies are not 
  in the wreckage (although characters who scout 
  the area may find two of those).
  Identifying the bodies requires careful 
  comparison to medical records provided to 
  Fraser’s computer back at base. Any character 
  trained in Medicine can identify all the bodies 
  recovered with 1 hour of work (no check 
  needed). The two on the bridge are Brock (the 
  captain) and Kemal (a crewhand). The two in 
  the module are Wirt (scientist) and Morales 
  (crewhand). And, if the heroes find them, the 
  two bodies thrown clear from the wreckage 
  are Perez (scientist) and Zhang (crewhand). 
  Falco, Rogers, and Ayers are not at this site. 
  Examine the Debris: A character who stud-
  ies the debris field can attempt an Engineering 
  check at a +2 die step bonus to discover that the 
  ship’s cargo module is missing. (If the player tells 
  you he or she is specifically checking to see if all 
  the wreckage is accounted for, success is auto-
  matic.) The character can also attempt a Survival 
  check to observe that debris has already been 
  moved aside and survival supply lockers are 
  empty (again, if the player specifically tells you 
  he or she is checking survival stores, they auto-
  matically succeed on this check).  
  Find the Beacon: Any character trained 
  in Engineering or Piloting can find the dis-
  tress beacon with a little time and effort. It’s 
  located in the ship’s avionics and nav system 
  bay, just behind the crew module. It triggered 
  automatically on the ship’s destruction, and 
  hasn’t been tampered with since. It’s got its 
  own power supply and runs for another month 
  unless shut off.
  Scout the Area: A character who searches 
  around the site automatically finds one of 
  the missing bodies (Perez) and can attempt 
  an Awareness or Survival skill check at a +3 
  die step bonus. With 1 success, the character 
  finds the Campsite clue. With 3 successes, the 
  outside search turns up another missing body 
  (Zhang) that was thrown completely clear of 
  the wreckage.  
  Check the Engines: Sorry, but Magellan is 
  never going to fly again. A successful Com-
  puters or Engineering check reveals that the 
  ship appeared to be in fine working order until 
  it crashed.
  Check the Computer: Magellan’s computer 
  system was damaged in the wreck, but a char-
  acter who jury-rigs a power supply (1 success-
  ful Computers or Engineering skill check) and 
  then searches for something out of the ordi-
  nary (3 successes with Computers or Security) 
  can find the Security Footage clue.
  Next: The heroes should be able to deter-
  mine that several of Magellan’s personnel are 
  not accounted for. They may also learn the 
  cargo module was jettisoned, and that some-
  one at the site left on foot heading up toward 
  the highlands. If the heroes did not find the 
  Jettisoned Cargo or Singing Dome sites in their 
  planetary survey in Scene 2, they may need to 
  return to Fraser and conduct a more thorough 
  search (they gain a +3 die step bonus on 
  checks to locate those two sites if they find the 
  Flight Record or Campsite clues, respectively).
  SCENE 3B: LOCAL DENIZENS
  The wreck site is not as abandoned as it looks. 
  A pack of mist hunters—dangerous local pred-
  ators with claws, fangs, and chimpanzee-level 
  intelligence—regard the wreck site as their ter-
  ritory. Initially scared off by the arrival or over-
  flight of Simon Fraser, they return in an hour 
  and attack any characters who are engaged in 
  searching the site.
  • 4 mist hunters (see Adversaries)
  
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  23
  Like Anton Chekhov 
  once said, if you put 
  a golden artifact in 
  the first chapter, it 
  has to summon a 
  transdimensional 
  gate by the second 
  or third...
  You can assume the party is generally 
  concentrated around the wreckage of the 
  bridge when the pack appears, and that the 
  characters are all within about 40 meters of 
  each other. 
  Beginning the Encounter: Allow any char-
  acter standing watch to make an Awareness 
  check with a +3 die step bonus. On a success, 
  the character on watch spots the pack 90 
  meters distant. Otherwise, the mist hunters are 
  only 50 meters distant when the character on 
  watch spots them. If no one is on watch, the 
  mist hunters get within 30 meters when the 
  encounter begins.
  When the heroes see the mist hunters, read:
  A sudden movement in the drifting mists 
  catches your eye. Something is picking its 
  way through the debris field—a large alien 
  quadruped with taloned feet, powerful jaws, 
  and a leathery crest atop its bullet-shaped 
  head. It looks a bit like a blue-scaled lion . . 
  . and you realize there’s a small pack of the 
  creatures trotting toward you, fangs gleaming.
  Have everyone roll initiative. Make one roll 
  for the mist hunters. The hunters are hungry 
  and hostile, and they really can’t be rea-
  soned with.
  Tactics: The mist hunters use their actions 
  to move as fast as they can toward the heroes, 
  relying on their scattering hide to protect them 
  on the way in.
  Mist hunters use their claw attack to rake 
  their prey and grab it; if a mist hunter begins 
  its turn with a grabbed target in its claws, it 
  can use its rend attack to maul the target with 
  its fearsome jaws. The hunters are eager to 
  make their own kills and avoid ganging up on 
  the same prey. They split up to attack different 
  heroes if possible.
  If three of the mist hunters are incapaci-
  tated, the last one flees.
  Retreat: If the heroes are close to Simon 
  Fraser, they might be tempted to run back to 
  their ship. The mist hunters are about twice as 
  fast as the heroes are, so it depends on where 
  the ship landed. You can assume it’s about 
  100 meters from the wreckage of Magellan’s 
  bridge if the players didn’t tell you anything 
  else. However, if the heroes get to their ship, 
  it’s simple to close the door. The mist hunters 
  wander off after a few minutes of prowling 
  around Fraser.
  Next: Return to the Wreck Site investi-
  gation—the heroes probably have more 
  clues to find.
  SCENE 4: JETTISONED CARGO
  Before Magellan crashed, two of her crew—
  scientist Jim Falco and engineer Toshira 
  Rogers— jettisoned themselves in the ship’s 
  cargo module to escape from the H’naal. The 
  module’s maneuvering thrusters couldn’t quite 
  handle the landing, creating a second crash 
  site about 200 kilometers west of Magellan’s 
  final resting place.
  When the heroes locate the cargo module 
  and investigate, read:
  You find the jettisoned cargo module in 
  a dense forest a couple of hundred kilome-
  ters from Magellan’s wreckage. The module 
  is equipped with maneuvering thrusters, 
  but it looks like they couldn’t stand up to 
  the impact—the module is badly damaged, 
  lying half-crumpled in a steep-sided stream-
  bed surrounded by broken tree trunks. It’s 
  a little tight, but there’s enough room to set 
  down Fraser in the forest clearing provided 
  by the stream.
  No one is at the crashed module, but if the 
  heroes land and investigate, add:
  Inside the cargo module you find a large 
  all-terrain groundcar, still chained down to 
  the deck. The groundcar is pinned in place 
  by the crumpled hull of the cargo module, 
  and can’t be extricated now. You also find 
  a strange block of golden metal inscribed 
  with weird hieroglyphs chained in place 
  beside it. The block is about 1 meter by 1 
  meter, and is about 20 centimeters tall.
  The groundcar’s survival kits are missing. 
  (Falco and Rogers removed them after giving 
  up on trying to get the groundcar out of the 
  wreckage.)
  The golden metal block is a H’naal artifact; 
  any character trained in Academics recognizes 
  the hieroglyphs and the general appearance. 
  A trained character can attempt a skill check 
  to guess at the block’s function; on a success, 
  he or she recognizes it as the mechanism of a 
  now non-functioning H’naal stasis chamber.
  The Missing Crew: No one is around the 
  cargo module site, but heroes searching the 
  area may attempt Awareness or Survival skill 
  checks with a +3 step bonus. On a success, the 
  searching character discovers a rough footpath 
  marked by tree blazes—small squares of bark 
  cut out of trees alongside the path to mark the 
  way. The path leads about 300 meters up the 
  hillside to a cave (see below).
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  24
  R
  F
  worm
  emergence
  point
  0m     2        4        6
  fire
  rough footpath
  300m to cargo module
  Jettisoned Cargo: The Cave
  FOUND SECURITY FOOTAGE
  If the heroes review the data cubes from Falco and Roger’s 
  cave, they’re in for a shock. The cubes clearly show a tall 
  alien creature with three tentacle-like arms moving about 
  Magellan. It’s often seen in the same room as one or more of 
  Magellan’s crew, but the humans seem to just not notice it. 
  A character trained in Academics recognizes the tentacled 
  creature as a H’naal from what little is known of the aliens’ 
  hieroglyphic language.
  If the heroes miss the blazes, they might 
  also find the path or the cave by searching the 
  area. An area search requires 1 hour per check, 
  and the heroes must accumulate 3 successes 
  to locate the cave. Each group of heroes 
  searching together makes one check, using 
  the best skill check of any character in the 
  group. If the heroes don’t find the cave within 1 
  hour, they’re too late to save Falco and Rogers.
  The Cave: The two Magellan crewhands 
  found a cave to serve as a temporary shelter 
  and set up camp to await rescue. However, 
  they’ve got a big problem: A voracious forest 
  predator is trying to dig them out of their hole 
  when the heroes arrive. If the heroes find the 
  cave in time, read:
  You find a rough new footpath leading 
  about 300 meters from the streambed up 
  to a cave in the forested hillside. A crude 
  barrier of logs and sharpened stakes blocks 
  the mouth of the cave, but between you 
  and the cave mouth stands a big, wormlike 
  creature the size of a small car. The crea-
  ture is digging steadily at one side of the 
  barrier; you hear human voices shouting 
  from inside the cave. 
  If the heroes don’t find the cave in 
  time, read:
  You find a rough new footpath leading 
  about 300 meters from the streambed up 
  to a cave in the forested hillside. A crude 
  barrier of logs and sharpened stakes lies on 
  the ground in front of the cave.
  Assuming the heroes are in time, they’ll 
  need to deal with the forest worm before 
  they can get to the cave. It’s a dumb, hungry 
  brute, and it’s more than happy to try to make 
  a meal out of would-be rescuers that present 
  themselves. 
  • 1 forest worm (see Adversaries)
  THE CAVE
  Thick foliage limits line of sight near the cave, 
  so the heroes don’t spot the forest worm until 
  they’re 30 meters away from the creature. It’s 
  possible to lure the forest worm away by entic-
  ing it with another meal (say, a PC serving as 
  bait) or to startle it into fleeing with a very loud 
  noise, such as an explosion. Otherwise, the 
  heroes can solve the problem with firepower. 
  Make an initiative check; the worm moves 
  toward the closest character and tries to eat it.
  Survivors: Two injured Magellan survivors 
  are in the cave: Jim Falco and Toshira Rogers. 
  They are delighted to see rescuers and thank 
  the heroes profusely. They explain that they 
  set up camp inside the cave to await rescue 
  after failing to get the groundcar out of the 
  module, only to find themselves under siege 
  from local predators.
  
  WRECK OF THE MAGELLAN
  25
  SCENE 5: SINGING DOME SITE 
  NARRATION
  This plateau is high and arid, a desolate spot nearly 6000 
  meters above sea level. Now that you are closer, you can 
  make out faint hints that some larger complex might have 
  once stood in the middle of this plain—there are fragments 
  of stone walls, odd well-like depressions, and black columns 
  of volcanic glass that clearly don’t belong here. At the center 
  of the site stands a domelike structure about 40 meters in 
  diameter, half- buried in the earth. A crude sledge heaped 
  with supplies stands just outside a round door in the side of 
  the dome. Two more doors lead inside, spaced equally around 
  the perimeter. However, one of the other doorways is almost 
  completely buried in the ground.
  Your audio feed provides an eerie sighing sound from out-
  side—the wind blowing through odd perforations in the dome.
  The H’naal’s ability 
  ot erase itself from 
  perception entirely 
  can be played up for 
  horror, if your table 
  is up for it. There’s 
  a particular fright 
  when the boogey-
  man is something 
  others can see, but 
  you cannot.
  When the heroes question Falco and 
  Rogers about Magellan, read:
  “We spent our mission exploring H’naal 
  ruins on Xi Scorpii A–3,” Falco explains. “It 
  was pretty routine stuff, but on our last day 
  there we found a big stasis unit that was 
  still running. Well, opening those is a real 
  challenge, so we loaded it on board to take 
  back to base for full analysis and lifted off. 
  But the next day when I went to check on it 
  I found that the stasis field had cut off, and 
  there was nothing inside.” 
   “That’s when things started getting weird,” 
  Rogers says. “Neither of us can remember 
  much of anything about the trip from A–3. 
  You’d find yourself standing in the room 
  with no idea why you were there or what 
  you were doing. Sometimes you’d get this 
  sense that you were being watched, but 
  there was nothing there.” 
   “I finally woke up enough to realize that 
  someone had changed our course for this 
  planet,” Falco continues. “And I knew that 
  as soon as whatever it was noticed that 
  I was awake that it was going to put me 
  under again. So I decided to get off the 
  ship before we set down. I pulled the ship’s 
  security records so that it wouldn’t be able 
  to tell what we’d done, then I got Rogers 
  to jettison the cargo module with us in the 
  groundcar. Didn’t work as well as I would 
  have hoped, though.”
  Both Falco and Rogers are very distressed 
  to learn that Magellan crashed and that most 
  of their shipmates were killed. Falco still has 
  the data cubes from Magellan’s computer, with 
  the six days of missing footage (see the Found 
  Security Footage sidebar). He has not watched 
  them yet, because he doesn’t have anything 
  that can play them.
  If the heroes encourage them to keep 
  going or try to draw out details, an Empathy 
  skill check is appropriate—Falco and Rogers 
  want to cooperate but it’s difficult to sort 
  out for them.
  Who opened the stasis chamber?  “Maybe 
  Dr. Ayers? You shouldn’t tamper with them until 
  you get them to a lab, but she spent a lot of 
  time looking at the device. Maybe she opened 
  it by accident.”
  Was there an alien on board? “I don’t know. 
  I remember feeling a presence, something that 
  didn’t like us, but I can’t remember seeing any-
  thing. There was something there, though!”
  How did you wake up? “I think I was just far 
  enough away for long enough that I came out 
  of it. I was working back in a core-sampling lab 
  a good ways from the crew area.”
  A thorough medical checkup of Falco and 
  Rogers requires at least 1 hour in Fraser’s sick bay. 
  The examining character can attempt a Medicine 
  check with a –2 die step penalty; if the check suc-
  ceeds, the character finds subtle changes in brain 
  chemistry consistent with dreaming or hypnosis, 
  which are now wearing off.  
  No Survivors: If the heroes don’t find Falco 
  and Rogers in time, the forest worm kills them, 
  then leaves. Their partially devoured bodies 
  remain in the cave, along with the data cubes. 
  The data cubes hold the six days of miss-
  ing security footage removed from Magel-
  lan’s computer.
  Next: If the heroes missed the Campsite 
  clue at Magellan’s wreck and didn’t spot the 
  Singing Dome from orbit, they may believe 
  they’re done. Falco and Rogers can fill them 
  in on most of what happened, and Dr. Ayers’s 
  fate simply remains a mystery. However, if the 
  heroes realize they need to keep searching, 
  they can return to orbit and search until they 
  find the Singing Dome.
  SCENE 5: SINGING DOME SITE
  The H’naal and Dr. Ayers survived Magellan’s 
  crash by strapping down in the most secure 
  part of the crew module just before impact. 
  Both were injured, but not severely. The H’naal 
  realized that its commandeered ship had 
  crashed just a short distance from its objec-
  tive—the Singing Dome, a spatial gate in the 
  highlands of D–1.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  26
  crystal column
  buried door
  column
  column
  column
  ruined wall
  track
  sledge
  A
  H
  0m     4        8       12
  The Singing Dome
  What better way 
  to test Alternity’s 
  combat than to pit 
  the PCs against 
  each other?
  The H’naal kept Dr. Ayers under its control, 
  and with her assistance fabricated a sledge 
  from the ship’s debris and set out to reach the 
  Singing Dome. They’ve been here for about a 
  week now; the H’naal is trying to reactivate the 
  ancient mechanisms so that it can find more 
  of its kind.
  When the heroes visit the site, read the 
  opening narration above.
  The H’naal is working inside the dome. It’s 
  attempting to repair the ancient machinery, 
  while Dr. Ayers stands mutely by in a hypnotic 
  trance. The creature is arrogant and believes 
  humans are no match for it—and it might be 
  right. Its telepathic powers allow the H’naal to 
  simply erase awareness of itself from any mind 
  within 100 meters. When one or more heroes 
  enters the dome, have each player whose 
  character is looking inside attempt a Willpower 
  skill check. If the check fails, read:
  The perforated dome covers a strange 
  collection of dull-colored crystals embedded 
  in a column of fluted rock. Most of the floor 
  is sand that seems to have drifted in over 
  the years, and a strange sighing sound—the 
  wind moaning through the dome’s open-
  ings—rises and falls as the wind shifts. 
  Dozens of fist-sized crystals lay scattered on 
  the floor around the column in the middle of 
  the chamber, along with a collection of tools 
  from a typical ship’s repair kit. 
   A single human figure stands silently 
  against the wall: Dr. Regina Ayers. She 
  looks gaunt and her clothing is torn and 
  tattered. She doesn’t acknowledge you at 
  all, simply staring blankly ahead.  
  If any character viewing the scene succeeds 
  on the Willpower skill check, add:
  A strange-looking alien creature stands 
  by the rock column, regarding you with 
  some interest. It’s tall, easily two meters or 
  more, and it has three tentacle-like arms 
  and three sturdy, compact legs. It holds 
  a human plasma pistol in one arm. But a 
  moment later it seems to simply vanish, and 
  you realize that there isn’t anything here.
  Roll initiative. The H’naal has no interest in 
  more slaves and wants to deal with this inter-
  ruption as swiftly and ruthlessly as possible.
  • 1 H’naal (see Adversaries)
  • Dr. Ayers (see Adversaries)
  THE SINGING DOME
  Dr. Ayers takes no part in this encounter unless 
  the H’naal makes her, and doesn’t even defend 
  herself if attacked. She is virtually catatonic 
  after a week of constant control by the H’naal. 
  H’naal Invisibility: Each time that a player 
  character begins his or her turn, the charac-
  ter must attempt a Willpower skill check. On 
  a success, the character sees the H’naal and 
  LEVEL UP!
  At the end of the adventure, the heroes gain a level. When 
  you gain a level, you gain 5 skill points to assign. A 2nd-level 
  hero can have a maximum of 6 skill points in any one skill. 
  You gain 1 hero point.
  You can pick a new talent. Here are a couple of sample tal-
  ents to choose from:
  Alertness: You gain a +2 step bonus on initiative checks.
  Melee Expert: You gain a +1 step attack bonus when you use 
  the charge action modifier to attack with a melee weapon.
  Rugged: Gain bonus wound boxes on the graze and light 
  wound rows of your durability table.
  
  CONCLUSION 
  27
  The roar of the liftoff thrusters... sounds like “victory.” 
  remembers what is going on in this scene. On 
  a failure, the character does not see the H’naal 
  and has no memory of the creature at all. 
  Characters whose minds are clouded in 
  this way can’t attack the H’naal directly, but 
  they can do other things like tend to wounded 
  characters, study the surroundings, or possibly 
  even return fire if shot at—although all they see 
  is that plasma bolts appear to be hitting around 
  them, without any clear idea of where they’re 
  coming from or who’s shooting at them.
  Tactics: The H’naal begins by using its 
  Mental Command ability to dominate the first 
  hero it sees. It intends to use a hero to kill as 
  many of its enemies as possible without giving 
  itself away. However, if the H’naal is directly 
  attacked, it returns fire with its borrowed 
  plasma pistol. Naturally, it focuses its fire on 
  characters who seem to be better able to 
  perceive it. If an enemy corners the creature in 
  melee, it attacks with its tentacles instead.
  If the H’naal decides it needs a distraction, 
  it uses its Mental Command on Dr. Ayers and 
  directs her to attack the heroes. Dr. Ayers is 
  not much of a combatant, but she grabs a 
  heavy wrench from a toolbox and may catch 
  the heroes off-guard.
  If the H’naal marks off 5 wound boxes or 
  at least 2 boxes in the 13–15 band, it attempts 
  to flee through the open door. It attempts to 
  skulk around the site and hide nearby, using 
  the fragmentary walls and old stone columns 
  for cover. It knows that if it moves too far away 
  from the dome it would easily be spotted on 
  the open plain.
  Dr. Ayers: If a hero tries to bring Ayers 
  out of her stupor, make a Medicine check to 
  diagnose her condition. On a success, the 
  character examining Ayers realizes she can be 
  brought around with a stimulant shot. Admin-
  istering the shot requires a med pack and a 
  3-impulse action. Ayers is confused at first, but 
  soon comes to her senses and tries to help the 
  heroes against the H’naal. 
  CONCLUSION 
  The adventure ends when the heroes save 
  Dr. Ayers from the H’naal, rescue Falco and 
  Rogers, and recover the black box from the 
  wreck of the Magellan. That solves the mystery 
  to the satisfaction of the Stellar Union Inves-
  tigative Service and the Icarus Foundation. 
  While the chance to communicate with a living 
  H’naal is a lost opportunity, the H’naal in this 
  case cannot be reasoned with—in its time it 
  was a monstrous criminal to its own people, 
  and it sees nothing in humankind that entices 
  it to go along with any effort to establish some 
  sort of friendly relations.
  
  QUICKSTART GUIDE
  28
  ADVERSARIES
  Adversaries have ability checks, not abil-
  ity scores. For example, an adversary has 
  Strength 15+ instead of 5. If you need to make 
  a check for an adversary’s Strength-based skill, 
  your skill score is 15/20/25.
  Adversaries aren’t incapacitated until they 
  lose the last wound box in their highest row.
  MIST HUNTER
  This powerful predator is a meter tall at the 
  shoulder and resembles a scaly, saurian lion 
  with a leathery crest instead of a mane. Its 
  scales are a mottled dark and light blue.
  Mist hunters are clever pack predators. 
  They are aggressive and highly territorial. They 
  were engineered as guard-beasts long ago, 
  and their hides have a natural ability to dissi-
  pate laser fire.
  Senses low-light vision, scent
  Awareness 14/19/24
  Initiative 11/16/21
  Speed 40 meters
  Str 14+, Agi 15+, Vit 16+, 
  Int 18+, Foc 16+, Per 17+
  ATTACK ACTIONS
  Claws (Speed 3): Melee; 15/20/25; 1d6+1/3 
  physical. A target hit by a claw attack must 
  make a Hand to Hand check or become 
  grappled until the end of the hunter’s next 
  turn (or until the target breaks free). 
  Rend (Speed 3): Grappled target; 15/20/25 (+2 
  step attack bonus); 1d6+2/6 physical.
  DURABILITY
  Armor 2 physical, 2 energy (5 vs. laser)
  (10+ dmg) 
  q	
  incapacitated
  (7 to 9 dmg) 
  q 
  –2 steps on checks
  (4 to 6 dmg) 
  q 
  –1 step on checks
  (1 to 3 dmg) 
  q 
  Dodge: 15/20/25 
  Endurance: 16/21/26 
  Willpower: 16/21/26
  TRAITS
  Scattering Hide Mist hunters have improved 
  armor against laser weapons and similar 
  effects (shown above).
  OTHER
  Skills Awareness 14/19/24, Survival 13/18/23
  FOREST WORM
  Nearly 6 meters in length and as thickly built 
  as a horse, this multi-eyed, multi-legged crea-
  ture looks like a gigantic centipede with a gold 
  and green carapace and jaws like bolt-cutters. 
  The forest worm is a natural predator of Xi 
  Scorpii D–1. It’s hungry and ferocious, if not 
  particularly bright. 
  Senses low-light, infrared 
  Awareness 15/20/25
  Initiative 13/18/23
  Speed 16 meters
  Str 12+, Agi 18+, Vit 15+, 
  Int 20+, Foc 15+, Per 19+
  ATTACK ACTIONS
  Thrash (Speed 3): Melee, one or two adjacent 
  targets, 16/21/26 (+1 step bonus); 1d8+1/5 
  physical, and the target is knocked prone.
  Crushing Bite (Speed 3): Grappled 
  target; 16/21/26 attack (+2 step bonus); 
  1d8+4/8 physical.
  Tongue Barb (Speed 1): Close range, one 
  target, 16/21/26 (+1 step bonus); 1d6+0/3 phys-
  ical, and the target is grappled. 
  SPECIAL ACTIONS
  Drag: As a 1-impulse action, the worm can 
  pull a grappled target 6 meters closer. The 
  dragged target can attempt an Athletics 
  check to resist being dragged.
  DURABILITY
  Armor 4 physical, 2 energy
  (10+ dmg) 
  qqqq 
  incapacitated
  (7 to 9 dmg) 
  qqqq  
  –1 step on checks
  (4 to 6 dmg) 
  qqqq	
  –4 meters Speed
  (1 to 3 dmg) 
  qqqq
  Dodge 18/23/28
  Endurance 15/20/25
  Willpower 15/20/25
  TRAITS
  Infrared Sight Forest worms can “see” 
  heat, and can easily find their prey even in 
  total darkness.
  OTHER
  Skills none 
  
  ADVERSARIES
  29
  H’NAAL
  Dark and rubbery in appearance, this tripedal 
  creature has three stubby legs, a long torso, 
  and three strong tentacles just below its 
  bullet-shaped head. Its three eyes are a 
  baleful red. 
  The H’naal were a starfaring species that 
  colonized many worlds in this part of the 
  galaxy more than a million years ago. They 
  were aggressive conquerors with a powerful 
  telepathic ability to cloud or control weaker 
  minds. Only a few remain alive today, mostly 
  hidden in deep refuges or trapped in temporal 
  stasis chambers. 
  Senses low-light, infrared
  Awareness 13/18/23
  Initiative 12/17/22
  Speed 20 meters
  Str 13+, Agi 17+, Vit 13+, 
  Int 14+, Foc 15+, Per 15+
  ATTACK ACTIONS
  Tentacles (Speed 3, make 3 attacks): Melee; 
  13/18/23; 1d6+1/4 physical.
  Plasma Pistol (Speed 4): Medium range; 
  15/20/25; 2d4/2d8 energy.
  Compulsion (Speed 3): Close range, one 
  target. The target must make a Willpower 
  check; on failure, it becomes temporar-
  ily insane.
  SPECIAL ACTIONS
  Mental Command (1 impulse): Close range, 
  one target affected by compulsion. The 
  H’naal chooses which insanity effect applies 
  to the target’s next action. If the H’naal uses 
  this power on a second target while another 
  creature is already affected, the effect ends 
  on the first target.
  DURABILITY
  Armor 3 physical, 3 energy
  (12+ dmg) 
  qqqq 
   incapacitated
  (9 to 11 dmg) 
  qqqq  
  –2 steps on checks
  (6 to 8 dmg) 
  qqqq  
  –1 step on checks
  (1 to 5 dmg) 
  qqqq 
  no effect
  Dodge 15/20/25
  Endurance 11/16/21
  Willpower 15/20/25
  TRAITS
  Cloud the Mind Living creatures that begin 
  their turn within 50 meters of the H’naal 
  must make Willpower checks. On a failure, 
  the creature does not see the H’naal and is 
  temporarily unaware of its existence.
  Telepathy The H’naal can communicate tele-
  pathically with any creature it can see within 
  Long range. If they do not share a language, 
  it can only convey feelings and images.
  OTHER
  Skills Awareness 12/17/22, Coercion 12/17/22, 
  Engineering 11/16/21, Science 11/16/21, Stealth 
  13/18/23. 
  DR. AYERS
  Regina Ayers is a confident, assertive sci-
  entist who has studied H’naal artifacts her 
  entire career. She is currently so deeply under 
  the H’naal’s mental domination that she can 
  take no action unless it thinks to compel 
  her to move.
  Senses normal
  Awareness 14/19/24
  Initiative 13/18/23, –1 step
  Speed 20 meters
  Str 17+, Agi 16+, Vit 16+, 
  Int 15+, Foc 17+, Per 16+
  ATTACK ACTIONS
  Heavy Wrench (Speed 4): 15/20/25; 1d6+0/3 
  physical. 
  DURABILITY
  Armor 2 physical, 2 energy
  (10+ dmg)  
  q 
  incapacitated
  (7 to 9 dmg)  
  q  
  –2 steps on checks
  (4 to 6 dmg)  
  q  
  –1 step on checks
  (1 to 3 dmg)  
  q  
  no effect
  Dodge 16/21/26
  Endurance 16/21/26
  Willpower 17/22/27
  OTHER
  Skills Academics 10/15/20, Computers 
  12/17/22, Culture 13/18/23, Science 12/17/22, 
  Piloting 12/17/22 
  Gear hardmesh uniform, heavy wrench
  
  DR. GRACE THARSI
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN LEADER
  A Senior Scientist of the Icarus Foundation, Dr. Tharsi shares command of the Magellan Recovery Mission with 
  Captain Carr of the Fraser. She is a native of Mars with specialties in life science and medicine. Smart, ambitious, 
  and determined, she worked tirelessly at Icarus to gain her Exploration and Command ratings, eager to make her 
  mark in the annals of discovery. 
  STRENGTH 
  3  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  6
  AGILITY 
   5  
  FOCUS  
  4
  VITALITY  
  4  
  PERSONALITY 
  4
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  11/16/21, +3 steps
  Laser Pistol 3 impulses; attack 11/16/21 (+2 steps); 
  1d6+0/6 energy 
  Unarmed 3 impulses; attack 13/18/23 (+1 step);  
  1d4+0/2 physical
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  q
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  qq
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qq
  When you evade: Attacker takes –2 step penalty
  Armor: Resist 2 physical, 2 energy
  TALENTS
  Dr. Tharsi is at her best with a good team around her. 
  She’s a skilled medic and quick-thinking leader.
  Alertness: You gain a +2 step bonus on initiative checks 
  (included above).  
  Medic: You gain a +1 step bonus on Medicine checks 
  during an action scene.
  Prepared Action: Your first action in an encounter takes 
  1 fewer impulse. If that reduces it to zero impulses, per-
  form that action and act again immediately.
  GEAR
  Hardmesh Uniform (2 physical, 2 energy)
  Laser Pistol (Long Range, 1d6+0/6 energy, accurate)
  Med Pack (treat wounds; 1 success for Light, 2 for Moder-
  ate, 3 for Serious, or 6 for Critical)
  Com Set, Flashlight, Datapad, Survival Pack
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int 
  3 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with psychology
  Acrobatics  
  Agi 
  4 
  11/16/21
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  Athletics 
  Str 
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  1 
  15/20/25
  Coercion 
  Per
  Computer 
  Int 
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  5 
  10/15/20
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe
  Endurance 
  Vit
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo 
  4 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with pistols (included to left)
  Engineering 
  Int
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag 
  2 
  13/18/23
  +1 step with grappling (included to left)
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In
  Influence 
  Per 
  4 
  12/17/22
  +1 step with all checks
  Mechanics 
  Int
  Medicine 
  Int 
  5 
  9/14/19
  +1 step with treatment
  Melee 
  St/Ag
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  Science 
  Int 
  5 
  9/14/19
  +1 step with biology
  Security 
  Ag/In
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  2 
  14/19/24
  
  CAPTAIN  VANCE CARR
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  STRENGTH 
  5  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  4
  AGILITY  
  5  
  FOCUS  
  4
  VITALITY  
  4  
  PERSONALITY 
  5
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  11/16/21, +1 step
  Plasma Pistol 3 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 
  2d4/2d8 energy 
  Unarmed 3 impulses; attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); 
  1d4+0/2 physical 
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  q
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  qq
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qq
  Armor: Resist 2 physical, 2 energy
  TALENTS
  Vance Carr has an uncanny knack for taking charge in 
  dangerous situations and inspiring the crew. He’s also 
  lightning-quick on the draw.
  Commander: You gain a +1 step bonus on Coercion and 
  Influence checks made during combat.
  Combat Leader: As a 3-impulse action, make an Influ-
  ence check to spur your allies on to greater effective-
  ness. If you succeed, designate an enemy. Your allies 
  each gain a +1 step bonus on their next attack against 
  that enemy in this scene.
  Gunslinger: You can draw a pistol as a free action when 
  you attack with a pistol.
  GEAR
  Hardmesh Uniform (2 physical, 2 energy)
  Plasma Pistol (Medium Range, 2d4/2d8 energy)
  3 blast grenades (Athletics check, can throw up to 
  32 meters; 1d8+4(0) energy damage in a 3 m (6 m) 
  blast radius)
  Com Set, Binoculars, Survival Pack
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int
  Acrobatics  
  Agi 
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  Athletics 
  Str 
  3 
  12/17/22
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  Coercion 
  Per 
  3 
  12/17/22
  +1 step on all checks (+2 steps in combat)
  Computer 
  Int 
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe
  Endurance 
  Vit 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo 
  5 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with pistols (included to left)
  Engineering 
  Int 
  4 
  12/17/22
  +1 step with life support or propulsion
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag 
  3 
  12/17/22
  +1 step with brawling (included to left)
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In
  Influence 
  Per 
  4 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with all checks (+2 steps in combat)
  Mechanics 
  Int 
  1 
  15/20/25
  Medicine 
  Int 
  Melee 
  St/Ag
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  3 
  12/17/22
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In 
  5 
  10/15/20
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  Science 
  Int 
  Security 
  Ag/In
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN LEADER
  Assertive and confident, Captain Carr is the commander of the drivescout Fraser, an exploration vessel in the ser-
  vice of the Icarus Foundation. The Foundation believes in a shared-command philosophy under which the leader 
  of the embarked scientific contingent is responsible for the overall mission while the ship commander is respon-
  sible for the safety of the ship. As a result, Captain Carr has a new co-commander for the Magellan Recovery 
  Mission: Senior Scientist Grace Tharsi. 
  
  ENGINEER OMARI TEMU
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  STRENGTH 
  5  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  5
  AGILITY  
  3  
  FOCUS  
  5
  VITALITY  
  5  
  PERSONALITY 
  3
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  12/17/22, +1 step
  Flechette Gun 3 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+2 steps); 
  1d6+1/5 physical (deals +1 wound at Close range)
  Combat Knife 3 impulses; attack 12/17/22 (+1 step); 
  1d6+1/5 physical
  Unarmed 3 impulses; attack 12/17/22; 1d4+0/2 physical 
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  qq
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  qq
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qq
  Armor: Resist 1 physical, 3 energy
  TALENTS
  Omari is a scrapper. She’s tough, determined, and surpris-
  ingly sneaky when she needs to be.
  Commando: You gain an additional +1 step bonus to 
  attacks and skill checks against enemies who are 
  unaware of you.
  Dirty Fighting: Gain +3 damage when you successfully 
  attack a distracted or surprised target.
  Gearhead: You gain a +1 step bonus on any technical skill 
  check you make to maintain or repair a machine, vehi-
  cle, ship or installation you’ve worked on before.
  GEAR
  DuraWeb Coat (1 physical, 3 energy)
  Flechette Gun (Medium, 1d6+1/5 physical, deals +1 wound 
  at Close range, accurate)
  Datapad
  Repair Kit (+2 step bonus with Mechanics)
  Wound Gel (1 dose)
  Com Set, Flashlight, Survival Pack
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int
  Acrobatics 
  Agi 
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  Athletics 
  Str 
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  3 
  12/17/22
  +1 step bonus on all checks
  Coercion 
  Per
  Compute 
  Int 
  3 
  12/17/22
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe
  Endurance 
  Vit
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Engineering 
  Int 
  4 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with power systems
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo 
  5 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with assault weapons (included to left)
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag 
  3 
  12/17/22
  +1 step with knives (included to left)
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In
  Influence 
  Per
  Mechanics 
  Int 
  5 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with repair, salvage, or vehicles
  Medicine 
  Int 
  Melee 
  St/Ag
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  3 
  14/19/24
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  4 
  11/16/21
  Science 
  Int 
  Security 
  Ag/In
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  5 
  10/15/20
  +1 step bonus on all checks 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN SURVIVOR
  A former merchant spacer with a checkered past, Omari Temu won a job with the Icarus Foundation when she 
  traded repair work on a drivescout’s balky nav system for passage out of a station where she was in trouble with 
  the authorities. One mission led to another, and then another, until the Foundation HR team decided to make 
  the position permanent. She’s been assigned to the drivescout Fraser for six months now, working for Captain 
  Vance Carr.    
  
  SPEC. DIETER FRANK
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  STRENGTH 
  6  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  3
  AGILITY  
  4  
  FOCUS  
  5
  VITALITY  
  4  
  PERSONALITY 
  4
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  11/16/21
  Rail Rifle 5 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 1d8+4/8 
  physical (armor piercing 3)
  Diskos 4 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 1d8+3/9 
  physical (armor piercing 3)
  Unarmed 3 impulses; attack 11/16/21 (+1 step); 
  1d4+0/2 physical
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  qq
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  qq
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qqq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qqq
  Armor: Resist 4 physical, 2 energy
  TALENTS
  Dieter can protect his allies and stand up to a great deal 
  of punishment.
  Gunner: When you use the aim action modifier with a 
  heavy weapon, you do not add a 1-impulse delay to your 
  next action.
  Rugged: Gain bonus wound boxes on the graze and light 
  wound rows of your durability table (included above).
  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.
  GEAR
  Polymer Mail (4 physical, 2 energy)
  Rail Rifle (Very Long, 1d8+4/8 energy, armor piercing 3)
  Diskos (Melee, 1d8+3/9 physical, armor piercing)
  Survival Pack, Flashlight 
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int
  Acrobatics  
  Agi 
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  4 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with all checks
  Athletics 
  Str 
   
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  Coercion 
  Per 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Computer 
  Int 
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  1 
  15/20/25
  +1 step with all checks
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe
  Endurance 
  Vit 
  3 
  13/18/23
  +1 step with all checks
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Engineering 
  Int
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag 
  3 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with brawling (included to left)
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In 
  4 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with direct fire (included to left)
  Influence 
  Per
  Mechanics 
  Int 
  4 
  13/18/23
  +1 step with environmental systems, repair
  Medicine 
  Int 
  Melee 
  St/Ag 
  4 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with energized weapons (included to left)
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In 
  1 
  15/20/25
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  3 
  13/18/23
  +1 step with all checks
  Science 
  Int 
  Security 
  Ag/In 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN BATTLER
  Something of a jack-of-all-trades on board Fraser, Specialist Frank is a cargo handler, mess steward, maintenance 
  technician, and janitor . . . and he’s also the ship’s resident expert in heavy weapons and combat armor. He’s used 
  to providing security for all kinds of scientific expeditions, standing watch with a rail rifle while happy scientists dig, 
  sample, catalog, or observe strange things on planets all over the galaxy. Someone’s got to watch their backs. 
  
  ARCHEOLOGIST MILES MONTERO
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  STRENGTH 
  4  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  5
  AGILITY  
  6  
  FOCUS  
  4
  VITALITY  
  3  
  PERSONALITY 
  4
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  10/15/20 (+2 die step bonus)
  Laser Pistol 3 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+2 steps); 
  1d6+1/7 energy
  Unarmed 3 impulses; attack 14/19/24; 1d4+1/3 physical 
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  q
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  q
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qq
  Elusive: Medium-range attacks against you take a   –1 
  step penalty
  When you evade: Attacker takes –2 step penalty
  Armor: Resist 1 physical, 3 energy
  TALENTS
  Miles wins fights by shooting first and shooting often.
  Dual Pistols: If you are armed with two pistols, 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.
  Elusive: Ranged attacks against you that originate at 
  Medium range (20 m) or longer suffer an additional –1 
  step penalty.
  Gunslinger: You can draw one or more pistols as a free 
  action when you attack with a pistol.
  GEAR
  DuraWeb Coat (1 physical, 3 energy)
  2 Laser Pistols (Long Range, 1d6+0/6 energy, accurate)
  Geoscanner (Close Range, find buried objects)
  Thruster Belt (jump 60 meters as a 2-impulse action, must 
  land at end of move)
  Com Unit, Survival Pack, Flashlight
   
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int 
  4 
  11/16/21
  +1 step with archeology, history
  Acrobatics  
  Agi 
  2 
  12/17/22
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  Athletics 
  Str 
  2 
  14/19/24
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  2 
  14/19/24
  Coercion 
  Per
  Computer 
  Int 
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  5 
  9/14/19
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe 
  3 
  13/18/23
  Endurance 
  Vit
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo 
  5 
  9/14/19
  +1 step with pistols (included to left)
  Engineering 
  Int
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi 
  3 
  11/16/21
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In
  Influence 
  Per
  Mechanics 
  Int
  Medicine 
  Int 
  2 
  13/18/23
  +1 step with first aid
  Melee 
  St/Ag
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In 
  2 
  12/17/22
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  Science 
  Int 
  Security 
  Ag/In 
  1 
  13/18/23
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN STRIKER
  Scientists of the Icarus Foundation represent the best of the best—experts in their fields who are fearless, physi-
  cally fit, and morally upstanding. Miles Montero is not that kind of scientist. He’s a wildcat hunter of alien artifacts, 
  comfortable with black market deals and collectors who don’t ask questions. But he happens to be one of the few 
  humans familiar with H’naal relics, which is why Icarus paid him well to join Fraser’s mission to find the Magellan. 
  
  AGENT MASAKO WADE
  QUICKSTART GUIDE CHARACTERS
  STRENGTH 
  5  
  INTELLIGENCE 
  4
  AGILITY  
  4  
  FOCUS  
  6
  VITALITY  
  4  
  PERSONALITY 
  3
  Move 
  20 m 
  Hero Points  
  1
  Initiative  
  10/15/20, +3 steps
  Heavy Pistol 4 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 
  1d8+1/6 physical
  Shock Glove 3 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 
  1d6+2/3 energy and stun (compare your attack success 
  to target Endurance check; if your success is higher, 
  target is stunned 3 impulses) 
  Unarmed 2 impulses; attack 10/15/20 (+1 step); 
  1d6+0/4 physical
  DURABILITY
  Dmg 
  Description 
   
   
  Wounds
  16+ 
  Mortal Wound (incapacitated) 
  q
  13–15 
  Critical Wound (–3 steps)  
  q
  10–12 
  Serious Wound (–2 steps) 
  qq
  7–9 
  Moderate Wound (–1 step) 
  qq
  4–6 
  Light Wound (no effect)  
  qq
  1–3 
  Graze (no effect)  
   
  qq
  Defensive Stance: Enemies attacking you with unarmed 
  or melee attacks take a –2 step penalty
  Armor: Resist 2 physical, 2 energy
  TALENTS
  Masako is skilled with small arms and martial arts tech-
  niques for taking down dangerous criminals fast.
  Alertness: You gain a +2 step bonus on initiative checks 
  (included above).
  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.
  Martial Arts, Striking: Your unarmed damage improves to 
  1d6+0/4 physical (included above).
  GEAR
  Hardmesh Uniform (2 physical, 2 energy)
  Heavy Pistol (Medium Range, 1d8+1/6 physical)
  Shock Glove (Melee, 1d6+2/3 energy, stun)
  2 sets of restraints
  Datapad with chemical analysis probe
  Com Unit, Survival Pack, Flashlight 
  SKILLS
  Name 
  Ability 
  Pts 
  Skill Score
  Academics 
  Int
  Acrobatics  
  Agi 
  Armor Training 
  St/In 
  Athletics 
  Str 
  3 
  12/17/22
  +1 step on all checks
  Awareness 
  Foc 
  4 
  10/15/20
  +1 step on all checks
  Coercion 
  Per
  Computer 
  Int 
  Culture 
  Per 
  Deception 
  Per
  Dodge 
  Agi 
  Driving 
  Agi
  Empathy 
  Fo/Pe 
  4 
  10/15/20
  Endurance 
  Vit
  Energy Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Engineering 
  Int
  Extreme Sport 
  Agi
  Firearm 
  Ag/Fo 
  4 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with pistols (included to left)
  Hand to Hand 
  St/Ag 
  5 
  10/15/20
  +1 step with brawling (included to left)
  Heavy Weapon 
  St/In
  Influence 
  Per
  Mechanics 
  Int
  Medicine 
  Int 
  Melee 
  St/Ag
  Misdirection 
  Per 
  Performance 
  Per
  Piloting 
  Ag/In
  Primitive Weapon 
  Ag/Fo
  Profession 
  In/Pe 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Law enforcement investigations and procedures
  Resilience 
  Vit 
  4 
  12/17/22
  Science 
  Int 
  Security 
  Ag/In 
  1 
  15/20/25
  +1 step on all checks
  Stealth 
  Ag/Fo 
  Survival 
  Vi/Fo 
  3 
  11/16/21
  +1 step on all checks
  Willpower 
  Foc 
  3 
  11/16/21
  LEVEL 1 HUMAN SURVIVOR
  Agent Wade is the only person on board Fraser not directly employed by the Icarus Foundation. She serves in the 
  National Investigative Service of the Stellar Union. She’s been assigned to investigate the presumed destruction 
  of the driveship Magellan and determine whether some race or entity hostile to humanity may have been respon-
  sible. Agent Wade has broad authority to require cooperation from Icarus Foundation employees . . . but Fraser 
  isn’t her ship, and she isn’t in charge. 
  
  Find more ALTERNITY at
  What’s your future?
  Imagine the infinite
  Customize 
  and create
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Alternity/AlternityQuickstartGuide_2018.pdf