Disclosure: I've been intrigued by Fourth Millennium for years and have corresponded with James Maliszewski and taken part in the Fourth Millennium mailing list.
Introduction: Science Fiction Roleplaying at the End of History
Maybe. Its the year 3001 and in the millennium since the twenty first century mankind has scattered to numerous alternate worlds as reaching the stars was too much risk for very little pay off. After all, why do that when you can travel through a twist in space in the solar system and go to another one, one ready with an uninhabited earth? or mars? or some other solar body that can be inhabited?
And that's only one of Brennan and Maliszewski's twists on the traditional space opera. They also take on the transhuman movement, and craft what I think is an interesting setting.
Overview
Fourth Millennium is hard to sum up in a paragraph, but I'll try. Fourth Millennium is a espionage/space opera setting where humankind was nearly wiped out by an aggressively hegemonizing neohumans (called the Psaikailhou) in the 28th century. The majority of the survivors of the conflict with the Psaikailhou were the luddites of their era, in relatively remote systems beyond their easy reach. Everything since has been in reaction to that. The creation of the Svobodan League, the Syndicates that control nano-technology, the ascendancy and importance of religion and the technological Stasis that prevents the research and use of many technologies and some sciences. All of this combines to make for some interesting social explorations of technology and its impact on society while keeping the society and its members recognizably human and understandable by the players and GM's.
Appearance
As a .pdf file, it has a four color cover and a four color header on all of the pages. It has 45 pages, 1 of which is Open License agreement and another of which is the cover. There are minor illustrations – emblems of the member phyles of the Svobodan League in color sprinkled throughout the text. I have printed it and only felt the need to print the cover in color. It would have been nice to have explanations of what the emblems are and what phyle they're linked to.
Setting Summary
Instead of the traditional setting of worlds around different stars, Brennan and Maliszewski take a short cut – to alternate universes. Its built into the setting that the only universes mankind can reach are ones that are uninhabited, but contain worlds that can be inhabited (if you want the details you'll have to buy the download). I thought this to be one of the more interesting concepts of the setting and would have loved to have seen what the various earths, martes and veneres (plus miscellaneous others) looked like, or even been named.
Travel from universe to universe requires the parahuman navigators that can perceive the distortion in space time and use it to traverse the universes. Because its not easy to do this (and jumping from any one node to any other is impossible), routes have evolved making some worlds more important than others.
The traditional nation state is dead in Fourth Millennium, save for a few backwater worlds called Shards. The phyles replaced them. Phyles are culturally connected groups that are responsible for their citizens wherever they may be physically. These phyles range from easily recognizable (Sikh, Jewish, German), to fusions (Hispanglo-Slavic, Pan African) to recreations and the bizarre. These are covered on pages 26 to 30. The major cultures of the Svobodan League are (with very broad strokes):
Muutzha, the Hispanglo-Slavic culture mentioned earlier
Alahdad, an Arabic culture dominated by a religion that grew up in the intervening centuries
Donegal, originally a romantic attempt at recreating a Irish culture, that is barely holding onto its humanity
Anzani, a pan-African culture with elements from all African cultures
Sarvadharmaani, a multicultural phyle made up of the cultures of the Indian sub-continent
Yuan, the most broad-minded and ethical of the major league cultures.
Some minor cultures are included, but get very short descriptions, nor are there ideas and guidelines on how to cook up your own.
Technology is dominated by nano-technology, which is controlled by the Syndicates (which have their own cultures centered around the technologies they control. The Syndicates are an organization of scientists and engineers that are determined to prevent other emergences (as is the Svobodan League which backs them) and they do this by regulating technology.
Even for all these changes, humans are still recognizable in their motivations, interests and conflicts. Terrorism is still a problem. As is espionage, with the attendant covert operations, counter-espionage and on and on. In fact, this is one of the suggested campaign frameworks. Others are possible, especially a ship centered game around free traders like traveler, though they’d mainly be trading in information, artworks and things not easily replicated by nanotechnology.
System
D20 Modern, with the Future add on. There are tweaks for the Fourth Millennium setting, like new feats (Antithesis, Armor Proficiency (Reflex), Conviction, Enemy, Reputation for Loyalty), occupations (Activist, Crafter, Educator, Newslogger, Tribal) and a single lonely advanced class, Procuracy Field Agent (aka Syndicate Enforcer).
To be honest, this disappointed me. I'd have liked to see quite a few more occupations, how to use the feats from D20 Future and how to use class combinations to best simulate what the authors were shooting for, as well as how to identify the various parahumans and how to use the feats and/or mutations to simulate them. Additional feats suitable for spy games and the like would have been good (and it seems that LPJ Design has plenty of those now). Advice on how to use the prestige classes from D20 Future instead of just listing what can be used and not would have been good.
The technology rules got the largest changes, with the settings assumptions about technology and that played absolute havoc with the space operatic equipment lists from D20 Future. It honestly might have been worth reprinting just the weapons and gear available in the setting and adding more to help set it apart from the rest. Besides, I wanted stats on the spiders – a sort of infantry robot and battle suit with diamond armor and capable of supersonic movement, as well as substantial weapons load out.
Minor gripes aside, its OK. It convinced me to buy D20 Future.
Comments
Its not bad, but this really needs some dramatic expansion and a different rules set than D20 Modern. From following James Maliszewski's blog, he’s pondering a dramatically different system and emphasizing the espionage aspects of the setting.
The Good:
Neat setting
Interesting ideas
High technology and far future with recognizable motives for characters
Lots of adventure hooks and room for adventurers
Formerly active Yahoo! Group - good for archeology and plundering for ideas.
James Maliszewski's live journal that occasionally revisits Fourth Millennium along with other topics.
The Bad:
Needs expansion on how to use D20 Modern rules to best get what the authors were trying to accomplish. Specifically:
Examples of technology unique to the setting
Examples of using feats and mutations from D20 Future to simulate parahumans
Stats for the parahumans
How to use the existing advanced classes to best fit the setting
D20 Modern and D20 Future may not have been the best system to simulate what they were trying for.
Hard to explain in a nutshell to players.
Verdict
Its good, but not great. It was good enough to convince me to go buy D20 Future and D20 Modern. I hope that Fourth Millennium will be revisited by Brennan and Maliszewski and expanded on, ideally using a new rules system that better supports what the authors are aiming for: A space operatic techno-thriller at the end of history.
