Mindjammer lays out some interesting ideas and a good FATE based rule system.
But, I find myself having some issues.
1 - IMHO, the “Fate Fractal” is abused. Too much is focused on culture and organizational conflict. In effect, the game is too big in scale.
2 - The setting is very HARD science fiction - which they then blow by giving the Venu psychic powers. If they were going to include psionics, then why the restrictions?
3 - Speaking of the Venu, they need to be more capable antagonists. They need to be more powerful (individually, collectively, and technologically) if they are to be a legitimate threat to the Commonality.
4 - Resource costs/requirements need to be added to aid in acquiring stuff during play. While the extras cost is fine for character creation, it doesn’t work at all after play starts.
I think this is a valid concern, but remember that for any given game you do not need to use all the tools you are given. If you want to play as small time traders making ends meet then you can safely ignore the culture stuff (although your GM might want to track the effects of trading high tech items into a primitive culture). If you want to play a more epic game about the clash of cultures however, then the tools are nice to have.
The game is essentially modular. Take what you need and ignore the rest.
as someone who loves magic and psychics I can see your point. However the commonality simply doesn’t need psychics - everything they can do can be mimicked with technology.
The venu psychics seem to be linked to 3 space somehow. It would not be inconceivable that commonality scientists working with 3 space might find a way to replicate them. Of course 3 space seems to be occupied. Perhaps the ‘psychic’ powers are simply super science utilising the properties of 3 space. If the occupants of 3 space ‘altered’ venu psykers in some way then they might not even understand it themselves. They are just recipients of genurgic mods.
I agree. The only reason the venu ever posed a threat was because the commonality were woefully unprepared. The one thing mindjammer desperately needs is a credible T9 or T10 threat. Preferably several.
This could be internal (rival factions) which seems to be the intended default, or external.
Currently we have Starfleet without any klingons to challenge them. It still leaves plenty of great stories, but it is a glaring omission.
In play i tend to use create advantage actions to gain extras, with stunt costs being paid by adding to the GMs fate point pool for any scene where the extra is present. Extras with skills are trickier. My tendency is to class each skill point as equivalent to a stunt.
I agree they are useable. And they are perfectly fine as opponents for player characters.
The wargamer in me just wants a foe that can threatens the commonality as a whole
I don’t have any problem with Mindjammer, the setting is vast but it can be played on any scale. Most games I have played have focused on specific aspects people were interested in, particularly one or two specific rim cultures. I recommend reading a few Iain M Banks science fiction novels to get a sense of the intended level of focus for Mindjammer arcs. The game was very heavily informed by his amazing work.
As for the Venu? PMSL… you do understand the Venu are basically a joke? Sarah specifically put them in to mock sweaty fanboys of Warhammer 40K. If you haven’t already guessed from the base book, then Children of Orion will clarify for you that they are very much a reskinned Imperium of Man. The Psychic powers are part and parcel of that. Also, it doesn’t mean its not science, just that the Commonality doesn’t yet understand it fully, mainly because its source is so detrimental and dangerous to organic life that its not an avenue that has yet been pursued by the commonality culture.
They aren’t really meant to be a serious threat, rather a cautionary tale, and a vague ‘bogeyman’ - a thorn in the side of the smug societal engineers of the Commonality in their resistance to being pacified and reintroduced into Commonality Culture. They fulfil a similar role to that of the Idirans in Consider Phlebas and Chelgrians in Look to Windward.
