The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Plain and simple, I bought Project Utopia--at full price mind you--because I wanted to find out who was on the roster for Team Tomorrow, and maybe learn a little about it, and what part Project Proteus plays in it all. One question didn't get answered, the other was over-killed, and the other was addressed reasonably well. All in all it left me a little frustrated.

So, we start with the cover. Nice artwork, well done, but it did leave me wondering do *all* Nova's fly? (Okay, Splash isn't flying on the cover, she's propelling herself with water. and there's some guy in the background propelling himself with quantum energy... and they're all Caucasian. Even the Indian is Caucasian. And I was hot, and it had been a long day, and they didn't have the book on the shelf, so I had to ask for it specifically... so maybe you should take this review with a grain of salt. Or a teaspoon.

Or just wait 'til low tide.

The sourcebook is organized into six distinct sections:

Genesis - which goes on and on, and gives you a whole bunch of information that's available in the core book. Now, granted, this is from a Project Utopia PR docket, so the spin is slightly different. But out of the 25 pages in this section, maybe 5 pages of it is new stuff relating specifically to Project Utopia... The rest of it is covered elsewhere--the Galatea blowing up, little clips of fluff transcribed from a radio show where people argue back and forth about whether Novas are good, bad, whether the term "baseline" is an insult, why the UN gave the nova issue to Project Utopia in the first place... etc.
Structure and Goals - Another twenty pages on the structure and missioning of the Project Utopia organization... Not a lot to say about this part. I did skim through it. It didn't look too in depth. Probably good stuff if you plan on playing part of the Utopic faction... learn to toe the line, say only what marketing and PR says you can...
Team Tomorrow - Didn't notice the transition. This section doesn't feel much differentiated from the previous section. It does list the starting roster for Team Tomorrow, which is what I kinda wanted to see, but it never addresses who the current rosters hold, on which continents. More history, some really good bits, and more of that irritating talk-show fluff (this time, why did Project Utopia build a base in India? Did they have anything to do with fermenting tension in the middle east?) Some reasonably nice team drawings here, though.
External Relations - This section is short, covering Utopia's relationship with the UN (barely), the Aeon Society, Triton Foundation, and various nations. There's a two-page comic-strip of a talk-show (imagine that) with a woman from Utopia attempting to deny accusations of a conspiracy in Utopia. Its style is a little different, as if it were inked by someone different from the other artwork in the book. And quite frankly this strip isn't pulling its weight.
Project Proteus - Then I discovered that the comic strip was the means of introducing project proteus... Okay...This is probably the most useful 20 pages (excluding the 2-page comic) in the entire book. Not that I don't care about how Project Utopia is structured. I've just got a thing for conspiracies... I'm not going to give any spoilers. It's worth the read. I think the other thing I really liked about this section is that it had a minimum of fluff memos or talk-show transcriptions... It made the reading more linear and informative without the constant commercial-like interruptions.
Storytelling - Just 12 pages long, this section has the feeling of an afterthought added in at the last moment. It's like the developers decided they needed to have an out-of-character voice step in somewhere in the book to explain things. There are some good ideas, but the change in voice is a little jarring. It's also worth the read, especially if you've no idea how to approach the super-hero genre as a storyteller.
Appendices - 4 character sheets for non-team-tomorrow personnel (but novas nonetheless) in project utopia, six character sheets for tam-tomorrow novas. A prose history of four others in project proteus (apparently, they only get stats thrown in if they're novas--so no information creating baselines yet), and stats for a random baseline thug. As an afterthought, they added in three additional powers--"Bounce", "Transmit", and "Silence." I say as an afterthought because it is quite literally the end of the appendices.. Good stuff, and it should show people that coming up with your own powers is okay in the aberrant universe... even applauded.

So, I found out who the founding members of Team Tomorrow were, but I didn't really get an idea of who was on the team now. Did I just miss some of it? I did start glossing over much of what I was reading. I found out how Proteus is involved in it all. And I got more information than I needed for what Project Utopia is about.

But I've got some problems with it all... Luckily (and a smart move on the developers' part) these problems are addressed or at the very least questioned in Project Utopia.

Novas were caused by an immense exposure to radiation because a satellite fell to earth? (this is questioned in the book).
The United Nations granted Project Utopia an advisory seat on the UN Council, even though it's not a nation? (also questioned in the book),
The United Nations granted the right to "take care of the Nova Issue" to a private company.... Isn't that outside of their jurisdictional empowerment? (also addressed.)
The United Nations granted Project Utopia regulatory control over Technological research and development> what the hell? (also addressed in the book)

All my qualms and areas where I'd have serious suspension of disbelief problems are addressed in one way or another in the book. Even if it's just pointing it out to agree with me. Leaving it open-ended is okay, so long as the developer isn't trying to pass it off as if everything's okay, and this is the way it should be. A lot of things happen in the world that I don't think are right, but I don't know even half of what's behind it.

One of the big questions I've got is: Who puts the table of contents at the back of the book? White Wolf did, for this one. Silly? yes. Evidence, I think, that they were up against a deadline, and had to rush to get this to the printer... I admit to being surprised to not see an ad for another book or game on the back page. I thought they were doing that for all their books...

I find it a little ironic that the stats for the major face-time novas (Caestus Pax, Anteus, Skew) are not presented. The benefit to having such novas presented is that it gives the players something to gauge their characters by. It also neatly side-steps the issue of defining just how powerful they are (and what kind of taint they need in order to become that powerful).

I still would really liked to have seen a listing of the current rosters for each of the Team Tomorrow teams. So my players would know who they're up against... I can make them up, of course... and I know team rosters change a lot (look at the mutant rosters in Marvel comics over the years... never the same over a six month period).

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Project Utopia
Author: Carl Bowen, Steven Long, Angel McCoy Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Studios Line: Aberrant Cost: $19.95 Page count: 144 ISBN: 1-56504-631-5 SKU: WW8504 Capsule Review by Jason W. Tice on 05/31/00. Genre tags: Superhero Science_fiction Espionage	Plain and simple, I bought Project Utopia--at full price mind you--because I wanted to find out who was on the roster for Team Tomorrow, and maybe learn a little about it, and what part Project Proteus plays in it all. One question didn't get answered, the other was over-killed, and the other was addressed reasonably well. All in all it left me a little frustrated. So, we start with the cover. Nice artwork, well done, but it did leave me wondering do all Nova's fly? (Okay, Splash isn't flying on the cover, she's propelling herself with water. and there's some guy in the background propelling himself with quantum energy... and they're all Caucasian. Even the Indian is Caucasian. And I was hot, and it had been a long day, and they didn't have the book on the shelf, so I had to ask for it specifically... so maybe you should take this review with a grain of salt. Or a teaspoon. Or just wait 'til low tide. The sourcebook is organized into six distinct sections: Genesis - which goes on and on, and gives you a whole bunch of information that's available in the core book. Now, granted, this is from a Project Utopia PR docket, so the spin is slightly different. But out of the 25 pages in this section, maybe 5 pages of it is new stuff relating specifically to Project Utopia... The rest of it is covered elsewhere--the Galatea blowing up, little clips of fluff transcribed from a radio show where people argue back and forth about whether Novas are good, bad, whether the term "baseline" is an insult, why the UN gave the nova issue to Project Utopia in the first place... etc. Structure and Goals - Another twenty pages on the structure and missioning of the Project Utopia organization... Not a lot to say about this part. I did skim through it. It didn't look too in depth. Probably good stuff if you plan on playing part of the Utopic faction... learn to toe the line, say only what marketing and PR says you can... Team Tomorrow - Didn't notice the transition. This section doesn't feel much differentiated from the previous section. It does list the starting roster for Team Tomorrow, which is what I kinda wanted to see, but it never addresses who the current rosters hold, on which continents. More history, some really good bits, and more of that irritating talk-show fluff (this time, why did Project Utopia build a base in India? Did they have anything to do with fermenting tension in the middle east?) Some reasonably nice team drawings here, though. External Relations - This section is short, covering Utopia's relationship with the UN (barely), the Aeon Society, Triton Foundation, and various nations. There's a two-page comic-strip of a talk-show (imagine that) with a woman from Utopia attempting to deny accusations of a conspiracy in Utopia. Its style is a little different, as if it were inked by someone different from the other artwork in the book. And quite frankly this strip isn't pulling its weight. Project Proteus - Then I discovered that the comic strip was the means of introducing project proteus... Okay...This is probably the most useful 20 pages (excluding the 2-page comic) in the entire book. Not that I don't care about how Project Utopia is structured. I've just got a thing for conspiracies... I'm not going to give any spoilers. It's worth the read. I think the other thing I really liked about this section is that it had a minimum of fluff memos or talk-show transcriptions... It made the reading more linear and informative without the constant commercial-like interruptions. Storytelling - Just 12 pages long, this section has the feeling of an afterthought added in at the last moment. It's like the developers decided they needed to have an out-of-character voice step in somewhere in the book to explain things. There are some good ideas, but the change in voice is a little jarring. It's also worth the read, especially if you've no idea how to approach the super-hero genre as a storyteller. Appendices - 4 character sheets for non-team-tomorrow personnel (but novas nonetheless) in project utopia, six character sheets for tam-tomorrow novas. A prose history of four others in project proteus (apparently, they only get stats thrown in if they're novas--so no information creating baselines yet), and stats for a random baseline thug. As an afterthought, they added in three additional powers--"Bounce", "Transmit", and "Silence." I say as an afterthought because it is quite literally the end of the appendices.. Good stuff, and it should show people that coming up with your own powers is okay in the aberrant universe... even applauded. So, I found out who the founding members of Team Tomorrow were, but I didn't really get an idea of who was on the team now. Did I just miss some of it? I did start glossing over much of what I was reading. I found out how Proteus is involved in it all. And I got more information than I needed for what Project Utopia is about. But I've got some problems with it all... Luckily (and a smart move on the developers' part) these problems are addressed or at the very least questioned in Project Utopia. Novas were caused by an immense exposure to radiation because a satellite fell to earth? (this is questioned in the book). The United Nations granted Project Utopia an advisory seat on the UN Council, even though it's not a nation? (also questioned in the book), The United Nations granted the right to "take care of the Nova Issue" to a private company.... Isn't that outside of their jurisdictional empowerment? (also addressed.) The United Nations granted Project Utopia regulatory control over Technological research and development> what the hell? (also addressed in the book) All my qualms and areas where I'd have serious suspension of disbelief problems are addressed in one way or another in the book. Even if it's just pointing it out to agree with me. Leaving it open-ended is okay, so long as the developer isn't trying to pass it off as if everything's okay, and this is the way it should be. A lot of things happen in the world that I don't think are right, but I don't know even half of what's behind it. One of the big questions I've got is: Who puts the table of contents at the back of the book? White Wolf did, for this one. Silly? yes. Evidence, I think, that they were up against a deadline, and had to rush to get this to the printer... I admit to being surprised to not see an ad for another book or game on the back page. I thought they were doing that for all their books... I find it a little ironic that the stats for the major face-time novas (Caestus Pax, Anteus, Skew) are not presented. The benefit to having such novas presented is that it gives the players something to gauge their characters by. It also neatly side-steps the issue of defining just how powerful they are (and what kind of taint they need in order to become that powerful). I still would really liked to have seen a listing of the current rosters for each of the Team Tomorrow teams. So my players would know who they're up against... I can make them up, of course... and I know team rosters change a lot (look at the mutant rosters in Marvel comics over the years... never the same over a six month period). Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)