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The Good: I like some of the career path options, especially those that incorporate past setting events into the character's background.
The Bad: The presentation is simply difficult to read. The writing is uninspired and lacks flow as it describes various details from the show. The use of images from the show is poor. Recycled d20 ideas are a poor fit here, a problem seen most prominently with the alien races. Little discussion of actually playing in the setting is included, and the game tends to assume the PCs take on the role of minor operatives taking a back seat in the setting.
The Physical Thing
At 200 black and white pages for $34.95, Universe presents very poor production qualities. The black text on dark grey background is readable but unpleasant. It's the sort of thing that I thought little of at first, but as I continued to read the book it became apparent that this was a serious oversight. The pictures from the show are severely pixilated and, when combined with the harsh black on grey format, difficult to even make out at times. The book also has flow issues and could have used an editor willing to dramatically rearrange (and, perhaps, ask for a rewrite of) the content (and to correct various errors). Finally, both the lack of an index and lack of show-specific features (such as a well done timeline) make the book a missed opportunity.Several pages of errata, especially for the space travel section, can be found on the publisher’s website. I don’t consider the errata to be particularly noteworthy when compared to other games, and I did note that they offer a nice looking free adventure along with the errata.
Under the Cover
In order to address content and point out what works and doesn’t work for me I’m performing a chapter based review, though I hope the transitions keep it lively. Before we delve into the book directly I’d like to point out some content that should be here but isn’t. First, there is no discussion of the different eras of the series. This is an astonishing flaw, as the entire product is focused on playing a game right at the start of Season One while the blurb on the back claims it supports all eras. This book simply needs a section that discusses more of the universe history and roleplaying concerns and ideas for each era.Second, there is no episode summary. While this is forgivable, to an extent, there is no useful season summary either. All of the information is presented in isolated paragraphs that technically describe the Season One start universe with vague detail, which provides less information than a person might obtain from a wiki. Third, there is no discussion of roleplaying in the Babylon 5 universe. How do I make my game feel like the show? How do I incorporate well known NPCs without overshadowing the player characters? Finally, the author clearly does not care for providing plot hooks. The closest he comes is in character generation, and many of these cause serious character interaction problems which are not addressed.
Keep in mind that this is the Universe of Babylon 5 as presented at the very start of Season One, with only a few exceptions. With that said, let’s dig in!
Welcome to Babylon 5 - 19 pages.
The Earth Alliance receives the most attention here, with a short timeline assisting readers in getting up to speed. This chapter, and the book generally, assumes the reader is only interested in the Babylon 5 setting as it is at the start of Season One and presents information appropriately. Some attention is paid to Mars Colony, and every major race (Minbari, Centauri, Narn) receives a few pages of attention with much less provided to the Vorlon and League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Unfortunately, this setting chapter isn’t as helpful as some readers might wish.
What the chapter does do is provide technically accurate descriptions of each of the races and the Earth Alliance. Since this is only Season One information it, by necessity, tends to be vague and short. This results in an uninspired section that can only be of use to those who are completely unfamiliar with the Babylon 5 setting, and even then I don’t think it provides enough of a background to make the setting really work for such a reader. In essence, this is wasted space both for those who are familiar with the setting and those who have never before encountered it.
While the Season One focus is a little surprising, it’s nothing compared to the stat modifications suggested for the various alien species. Let’s take a look at those next!
Characters in the Universe of Bablon 5 - 8 pages.
This section is dedicated to providing species modifications to character stats and skills, but the reason behind some of the modifications isn’t obvious to me. Some of the text seems to be cut and pasted from the d20 version of the Babylon 5 RPG, and the racial modifiers were directly modified from that version. Let’s take a look at what’s here.
Humans remain the same, though they (and most species) gain several level zero skills. The Centauri gain a +1 bonus to both Intelligence and Endurance. The Minbari gain a large strength bonus (+2), a large social penalty (-2), and an initiative bonus (+1). The Narn receive an Endurance bonus (+2) and an Education penalty (-2). The Abbai, Brakiri, Drazi, and Pak’ma’ra also receive bonuses and penalties though they don’t appear quite as often as the others and thus are a little more difficult to criticize. The Park’ma’ra are no worse at Social interaction than the Minbari, though.
If you look at some of those numbers and say “What?” then you’re working right alongside me here. Why do Minbari receive a social penalty? They seem extraordinarily socially insightful throughout the series, and we often see them having pleasant social interactions with others. The Narn Education penalty almost makes sense except for the fact that they’ve rebuilt and their diplomats and starship captains have to be getting educated somewhere. I simply don’t understand the Centauri bonus to Intelligence, either. Most of the Centauri we see during the series don’t instill a sense of the people being particularly intelligent.
Another weird choice is the career restrictions imposed on the species. Centauri can be Rangers while Narn are not allowed. Narn also are not allowed to enter the Diplomat career, which is even more surprising to me. Surely G’kar can be considered in that career during his four year stay on Babylon 5, and since he is the most prominent Narn on the show I don’t understand why other Narn diplomats are prohibited.
Will this work mechanically for your game? Sure, though I think a fan of the show could easily homebrew something that’s better than this. I feel that way about most of the product though, so rather than dwell on it let’s take a look at one portion that shows some promise – careers!
Careers - 45 pages.
One quarter of the book is dedicated to new careers (Diplomat, Ranger) as well as new tables for the existing careers. Some past careers have been renamed to make them more setting appropriate, but the only thing significant is that the Scout career is not used (despite how common scouts seem to be). Careers assume that the character is human.
Diplomat requires Edu 8+ and provides a bonus to the qualifying roll for high intelligence along with a penalty for any past career served. This is very surprising to me as many diplomats often have careers in another field before becoming a diplomat. Certainly in Babylon 5 it wouldn’t be unusual to encounter a diplomat who had military service somewhere in their past. In fact, this is the very road Sinclair takes as the series progresses. Mechanically, however, the career works fine. The bonuses are quite reasonable and a player taking this career for their character will find a socially more rounded PC with an appropriate complement of skills.
Ranger requires an End10+ throw to join with a bonus if you are Minbari, a penalty if you are Human or a younger race, and a penalty for each previous career. These entry requirements are also surprising. There are many, many human Rangers in the show and every single Ranger had a career before becoming a Ranger. Otherwise, though, the career is fine. It provides a wide variety of potential bonuses with a focus on the sorts of skills we see the Rangers using on the show. The mishaps and events tables work just fine for this career.
New tables have been inserted for existing Careers (except Scout), for Life Events (by major species), and for Campaign Events. On the whole the tables are alright, with both good and bad qualities. The good ones involve tying the characters into setting and events by including entries like serving on the Battle of the Line. In general I find the Life and Campaign events to be worth using.
I have a problem with some of the career tables, though, especially involving mishaps. It is entirely possible to end up with a character who is either corrupted by the Shadows or is working alongside them. I don’t care for this because it seems to instantly result in PC conflict within the game. I’m not always thrilled, either, with random results that tie the character in with one of the show characters. It seems to encourage play wherein the PCs are second fiddle to the much more awesome core setting characters.
As we leave careers, let me stress that if you have your heart set on playing Babylon 5 with Traveller then they will do an adequate job, even a good job with a moderate number of modifications. There are problems here and I don’t think the careers are nearly as polished as they could be, but they will work fine for many groups. Now that you are considering that Diplomat career option let’s take a look at the guns and accessories she uses to defend herself.
Equipment - 14 pages.
Most of the equipment here is just re-skinned equipment from Traveller. PPGs and other weapons aren’t any different than guns and laser rifles except for the name. Armor translates the same way, and anyone with access to the Traveller rules isn’t going to find anything of interest to take away here. The best that can be said is that the weapons, drugs, and other material at least borrow concepts from the TV show and can serve as a reminder of story elements.
Space Travel and Ships - 25 pages.
The best I can say for this section is that it’s not terrible. The overview of hyperspace, jumpgates, travel time, and related information is just fine though some if does leave a bit to be desired. The starships include two Starfury models, a couple of other combat oriented ships, and a bunch of freighters and civilian ships. Needless to say, there’s not enough here to really do anything with it in your game. You’ll either need to be building your own ships or purchase another product to have enough material to really use the ships in the setting. I consider this to be a shame considering that the setting support is already so weak. Yet another book just to have the ability to play with commonly seen ships doesn’t work for me.
The errata for this section focuses primarily on a few setting errors, and I don’t have any objections to the stats provided for the Starfuries or the merchant ships. The rules do make it abundantly clear that the Minbari have vastly more powerful ships than the other civilizations, based at least on the weapons they bring to bear, though we don’t have any Minbari ships to use here.
Telepaths and Psi Corp - 16 pages.
In general, the psi additions here are alright and do reflect things we see psychics doing in the Babylon 5 universe. Some I don’t quite remember, and not all are presented in the best way. Sphincter Mastery, forcing the target to vomit and excrete, isn’t one I remember Bester tossing around much. False memories, scans, and blocks are the sorts of things focused on most often and that’s a good thing because they’re the mainstay psi powers of the show.
I do think that it may be a little too easy for a lower powered telepath to pull off some of the niftier tricks here, and I’m not sure the Traveller psi system really works well for the characters we see on the show. It was always presented as an all or nothing proposition – either a character is powerful enough to do something or they fail. With this presentation it seems like anyone can make an attempt at an effect, and that doesn’t really mesh with the show.
The Psi-Corp career doesn’t really work for me because it enables a psychic to increase his Psi. One of the things we hear repeatedly from Bester and others is that a psychic of a given level is always a psychic of that level. While we do see a few characters change in ability through dramatic events in the show, it always foreshadows something bad happening to them. Other than that nitpick, however, the career is alright though awfully heavy on psychic and combat skills.
Babylon 5 Revealed - 29 pages.
Here we have the real setting information. While it isn’t exclusively Babylon 5 as of Season One, instead being a sort of confused mix of information from different seasons, it’s no more useful than that. Characters are given career stats based on a single point in the show (though what that point is isn’t very clear) and a few paragraphs of general description are provided along with grainy grey on grey pictures. The major characters as NPCs isn’t useful to me, though I can see how it might be to some folk. It’s unfortunate that the main characters are all so highly experienced because there’s little inspiration for playing a character who hasn’t seen five or six terms of duty yet.
The station setting information is, without a doubt, the most useful part of the chapter. Keeping the colored sections straight is useful, and remembering locations like the Zocalo aids in maintaining the unique feel of the station. Unfortunately, there’s no support here at all for the broader Babylon 5 setting. Characters from Crusade aren’t found here, nor is any support for playing in the universe but not on the Babylon 5 space station.
Voices in the Wilderness - 40 pages.
I consider this chapter to be the shining gem of the book. Jump gate routes presented in standard Traveller hex format are included so that the group can plot out journeys throughout the Babylon 5 setting. They aren’t heavily detailed, but they hit the high points and that’s good enough for me. We also get a little more description of other locations in the setting here, which is extremely helpful for anyone wanting to run a game off of the space station. This is the sort of content I expected from the book, I just wish the rest of the product could have delivered.
