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Terran Empire is the official Star Hero setting for Hero 5th Edition. (So it’s the setting for the Sci-Fi genre played using the Hero rules.) Giving the Herophile a whole galaxy and several centuries in which to play, Terran Empire continues the tradition of Champions Universe by giving us a setting that is detailed enough to be interesting, but wide open and malleable enough to let GMs and Players still take their story in the direction they want it to go. While it’s not quite as stylistically dazzling as Champions Universe, Terran Empire is none-the-less a solid work full of fun ideas.
The Book
At 207 pages Terran Empire is the perfect companion to the massive Star Hero -- if you drop both of them on the surface of a planet at one time the planets crust will be fractured, leading to the inevitable destruction of the pathetic life-forms that live on the unfortunate orb. The fact that both books are soft-cover is all that keeps them from having their own gravitational pull.
The art in Terran Empire is quite good and shows a slightly improved focus over previous Hero products. While the cover is not as good as Star Hero’s (what is?) the interior art is slightly better. Best of all the archetypal images of the alien races of the setting are wonderfully done, giving a clear, clean, realistic and yet aesthetically appealing view of the species that gives everyone in the game an easily referenced common set of imagery.
The Stuff
Terran Empire gives us the history, the peoples, the enemies, the professions, the ships, the weapons, the secrets, and the dirty underwear of a galactic empire, and thus is a very stuffed book. It starts out with a quick introduction in which we’re informed that the Empire is, in fact, the far, far future of the Champions world – but as magic has gone to low ebb there are no longer super-heroes. I decided to ignore this section, as I don’t plan any cross-overs, but for those eager to have your Jedi fight Superman it might do the trick.
Chapter One, “Three Centuries in Space” then gives us the full history of the setting, from beginning to end. We get the foundation, we get apogee, and we get the fall. Great pains were taken in this chapter to make sure that the information was usable without crippling or handcuffing GMs who don’t want the history to control the actions of their PCs.
The next four chapters cover the people, places, and institutions of the galaxy – both the Empire and its foes. Chapter Two covers the alien and human races that fill the universe (the se’ecra being my favorite). Chapter Three gives us a look at the institutions and bureaucracy of the Empire and its historical enemies, as well as a bit of black-market and criminality. Chapter Four covers the day-to-day details of the setting, what its like to live and work there, what religions are present, the niceties of trade, crime, communications, and how they can all screw up and cause adventures for the PCs. Chapter Five covers character creation, giving massive numbers of new packages, notes on skills, powers, and flaws and ways to make PCs that really fit the setting.
Chapters 6 and 7 are the toy boxes, the busting bins filled with high-tech toys for digital age girls and boys. Chapter 6 covers the general tech of the setting, with a large focus on weapons and armor, but a good selection of other gear such as medical kits and survival suits. Chapter 7 gives us ships – the “Chariots of the Spacelanes.” There are dozens of ships of all sizes and shapes, from all the major players in the setting, and all with full stats. So many ships, it will make you head-butt your dog so hard you both scream.
Finally, Chapter 8 is the GM’s area. Here we get advice on running a Terran Empire game (as opposed to a general Star Hero game – for that you get referred back to the other book). There are plot hooks, scenarios, and advice on using different historical eras to gain the feeling you want. Finally there is the GM’s Vault, a section which goes over the material from the rest of the book and gives us the secrets behind the screen, the dirty deeds the PCs shouldn’t know about starting off.
The only thing we don’t get is an adventure. Shame, really, as I certainly would have liked one, if only to see how the author would actually use all his wonderful tools.
The Good
Terran Empire focuses most of its attention on one historical period of the Empire, that of Empress Marissa III (2633-2651). Doing this allows the book to have a degree of specificity and detail that gives a clear picture of an empire starting to fall into corruption, setting a very good stage for all sorts of sci-fi adventures from free-traders to freedom fighters and imperial spies. However, the book also gives a solid history and future for that core setting, and advice on how to modify the details over the course of that history, so that the whole 3 century long sweep of the empire becomes a playable setting. This worked quite well for my group, as though we liked the Marissa timeframe well enough, we were far more interested in a Star Wars type of game at the death of the empire. Though it did take a little more work to set up than it would to have played in Marissa’s time, we were able to quickly and easily set up a game in which my players brought the evil Imperial Governor Narushima Tankio to his knees. (“All the better” said one of the rather unsavory PCs “for shooting him in the back of the head.”)
Overall Terran Empire’s flexibility works to its advantage, combining art, game stats, history, and GM advice to make a very coherent and flexible package. Plus there are the now standard good things about a Hero book – a very good index, and a large amount of new crunchy bits (weapons, ships, races).
The Bad
Terran Empire lacks the “look at me and awe!” flare that Champions Universe had in perfectly capturing its genre. This is probably because 4 color super comics is a narrower field than space opera, and thus easier to create a truly iconic setting for. Never the less when I read Champions Universe I got a feeling of “YES NOW!” that Terran Empire just didn’t provide. I have to wonder if the increase crunch factor of Terran Empire (as it does have more new packages, stats, and stuff than Champions Universe) might have crowded out the little bits of fun and dazzle that made Champions Universe shine.
The Ugly
In the past I have ranted a great deal about the ugliness of the layout of some Hero products, especially when it came to pages choked full of gamestats that were not always easily readable in the heat of game. To be honest Terran Empire wasn’t as bad as some, but more work is still needed before this semi-blind GM will be able to run the game out of the book rather than writing down the relevant stats before game. In general the weapons (The Plasma and Ion weapons sections were actually very well set out) and NPC stats were well enough formatted, but the ships still tended to run into each other.
The End
Terran Empire is a very solid setting, full of good crunch, nice history, and an iconic space opera feeling that will make even casual fans of the genre feel right at home. The book is a very good purchase if you want the grunt work of setting out the basics of a good space-opera setting done for you. Don’t let the lack of flare disturb you, young Jedi, for you will provide your own.
For having a solid but boring layout with occasional clutter but good art, Terran Empire gets a 3.75 in style (I wanted to give it a 4, but couldn’t quite). For having lots of solid gaming crunch, a fun and versatile setting, and se’ecra it gets a 4 in substance.
