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Action Check Disclaimers Ta ble of Co ntent s Action Check is an on-line magazine dedicated to the Cover Art: “Lost Souls” by Dragan Ciric Alternity Science Fiction Role- [email protected] playing Game. This work is offered free of Page 3 Editorial [Neil Spicer] charge to all interested par- Gaming and the Real World ties and is not to be sold in any form. It may be printed if Page 4 The Reaction Score distributed free of charge. Letters from our readers This work supports the Alter- nity roleplaying line, specifi- Page 8 Interview with a game designer [Staff] cally the Alternity Players The ghost of Rich Baker shares some insights Handbook and Gamemaster TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENTS OF TABLE Guide. In addition it supports into Alternity. the Campaign Settings Star*Drive, Gamma World, Page 11 Visions From Beyond [Gary Astleford] Dark*Matter, and Tangents 12 new Careers for Dark*Matter games. by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Alternity is a registered trade- mark of Wizards of the Coast, Page 20 The Silver Goose [Stephen Dunaway] Inc. Starship stats and deckplans for Star*Drive The staff is not associated Page 22 Zane’s Fighting Ships [Gary Astleford] with Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Starships from the Second Galactic War Wizards of the Coast, Inc.: Page 26 Gridsites [Dawn Ibach] http://www.wizards.com Some websites for your Dark*Matter research STAFF Publisher/Layout: Jeff Ibach Page 27 Ask the Oracle [Neil Spicer] Editor: Jim Sharkey Your questions on Alternity answered! Oracle and Submission Coordinator: Neil Spicer Cover Design: Daryl Blasi Happy Halloween from Action Check! HOW TO SUBSCRIBE E-Mail: ac- [email protected] As a special presentation, Action Check BACK ISSUES proudly presents Neil Spicer’s full-length www.alternity.net Alternity Dark*Matter adventure “Of Ghosts and Goblins” available now at http://www.alternity.net! Action Check On-Line Magazine is published bimonthly by Jeff Ibach Issue #14, September-October 2001 2 Editorial: Gaming and the Real World AActionction Check As I write this in mid-October, very few people are thinking about gaming. Instead, EDITORIAL for most of us (especially those living in America), our thoughts are with the victims, Submissions families, rescue workers, and soldiers affected by the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. And though this is a Halloween issue of Action Check dedicated to the To submit an article to Ac- horror genre, nothing can compare to the horror we’ve seen played out on the tion Check magazine, read news networks over and over again. I’ve heard a number of people comment that and follow the guidelines the act of terrorism seemed like a plot straight out of a Hollywood action thriller. laid out at: Indeed, I had the same thought myself as I watched the second plane slam into the World Trade Center on TV. But of course, it was all too real. The crash of each and www.alternity.net every plane touched us all. For me, it was personal. I lost a good friend and high school classmate at the Pentagon when his office was hit. Lieutenant Eric Cranford And send all submissions joined the Navy straight out of college, enlisting as an officer, and eventually he (in txt, rtf or doc) to: transferred to the Pentagon to prepare briefings for his superiors. His remains were positively identified two weeks after the attack and, according to the official [email protected] report, he died at his post that day. I guess that’s what brought all of this home to me. Regular Features: Everyone probably values at least some element of “realism” in our games. I know The Oracle: Ask your Alter- I do. And I’m sure we’ve all turned to such storylines in order to make them more nity rules questions to our “realistic” and captivating for our players. I even know of some gamers who began all-knowing Oracle and imagining new plots based loosely on what occurred in New York and Washington watch the answers appear! just days after the tragedy. They would say, “It makes for such a great Dark*Matter scenario! Maybe the Greys were behind it?” And for me, well frankly, I found such Transmissions: adventure insensitivity saddening. As much as I recognize what occurred on September 11th hooks, along the lines of could make for a good plot, I certainly have no desire to explore it right now. In those previously found in fact, I recently started work on a new adventure/project myself, intending to publish Dragon Magazine for the it in this month’s Action Check. The premise involves a Sandman-inspired out- various campaign settings. break of a new cyber-virus. But, with the Anthrax scare that’s recently made the news, I don’t think it’s the appropriate time to explore that particular subject right Gridsites: Alternity related now. And so, I’ve set it aside. I’ll certainly get around to completing the piece Web sites that deserve rec- eventually, but for the moment, I need to escape into something different. It just ognition and serve a spe- makes common sense. And I know it’s important for everyone to get on with their cific purpose. daily lives, not allowing the terrorists to “succeed” by disrupting what we do…but still, it should be clear that we cannot ignore what happened entirely or dishonor Creature Feature: Aliens, the victims by reacting in a flippant manner about it. Creatures, Xenoforms, etc. for the Alternity campaign As I see it, there are really just four options available to gamers still wrestling with settings. what’s happened in real life. One, we can set aside gaming entirely in order to fo- cus upon the non-fictional world. Two, we can keep on gaming and adjust the na- Futuretech: Gear, equip- ture of the plots so they don’t reach too deeply into subjects that are still too fresh ment, vehicles, weapons, and painful to explore. Three, we can steer ourselves straight into the wind and armor and other hardware explore the subject head on so as to give ourselves an element of release by role- for the Alternity game. playing a band of heroes against the perceived ‘enemy’. Or, lastly, we could ig- nore the whole incident entirely…not allowing it to affect us, or how we play the Supporting Cast: NPC stats for insertion in Alternity games, at all. games. All submissions must follow the Supporting I’m sure that not everyone will share my personal view, but I’d like to go for the sec- Cast Template in the Alter- ond option for now. If nothing else, it gives me the time to absorb what’s happened nity GMG! and decide how I want to eventually move on to options three and four. In many ways RPG’s can be therapeutic, after all. I certainly recognize that, and often use Reviews: of Alternity or re- them as a release from “reality.” Regardless, I would urge each and every Game- lated-use product. master to assess his or her group and determine just how much realism is appro- priate right now. As always, be considerate to your players. Some of them might Special FX: New FX/Psi or have been more deeply affected by the events than you realize. It could take some mutations. time to progress through the different options or “stages” listed above, but eventu- ally we all want to get back to dreaming about heroes and villains clashing in a far- Plus cartoons, details of away, imaginary world. Let’s just hope the truly dangerous scenarios stay there, campaign ideas, star sys- instead of bleeding over into real life. tems, full adventures, etc. -- Neil Spicer, Action Check Coordinator 3 The Reaction Score Letters from our Readers Tell us what you think of this issue’s articles, venting people from downloading the Exter- or even a previous issue or publication from nals ESD is the information that you provide Action Check. We appreciate any and all at the time of the purchase request on the feedback. Your comments go a long way to- online system. If you indicate you're buying ward providing encouragement for our con- the product with an overseas mailing ad- tributors as well as an indication of what the dress, that's what will deny you access. But, Alternity community looks for in a support this particularly clever Canadian faked out publication. the system by giving it an American address REACTION SCORE SCORE REACTION instead, I believe. The system allowed him to OVERSEAS EXTERNALS then download the product as long as he Hey, I'm writing all the way from Finland and gave it a valid credit card number (Visa or was wondering about the fate of the Externals Mastercard, I think). After that, he was in ESD. Will we ever be able to order it frofromm business. We don’t necessarily condone that WOTC or acquire it some other way? Thanks you use that option, but still we felt obliged to for a great magazine. – Juha. inform you that loopholes do exist in the proc- ess. Hi, Juha. I did a little research for you and the only conclusion I can draw is that the Exter- The only other "legal" alternative you have is nals ESD won't be made available overseas to wait and see if Wizards eventually makes anytime soon. If you navigate to the following all of their ESD's available overseas. Jim But- link: ler from Bastion Press is still scanning old TSR publications into Adobe Acrobat format http://store.wizards.com/product.asp? for resale as ESD's...so they're still pursuing ProductID=3490 the concept of electronic commerce.