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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:
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.
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