RPGPundit Reviews: Commonwealth Space

This is a review of the RPG "Commonwealth Space", by Patrick Brady and Clash Bowley, published by Flying Mice Games. It is a review of the print edition, which is a really gigantic softcover.

The book is really, really big. My first impression when I saw the book was "this thing is like a fucking phone book"!

The book is about 500 pages long, which is quite big for a softcover. It has a full-colour cover, all inside illustrations are black and white, including some maps that are rather hard to read on account that they try to be "colour-coded" with different shades of Grey, not all that effectively. That isn't to say that all the maps, of which there are several, are very bad; the planetary maps are particularly nice. Overall, I think there's rather less artwork than might be typical for an RPG manual of this size, which only means that there's that much more text.

As for the cover, I thought it was nice, but reminiscent of a military/technical manual, which is in keeping, I suppose, with the theme of the book. The Wench also immediately felt that the game looked like a Phone Book, and she thought the cover only added to that impression.

Anyways, this game is a continuation of the series started with Cold Space, and continued with FTL Now.  It is set in the same "alternate history" of that setting, one that is certainly hard sci-fi, a world where the only real scientific diversion from our own is meant to be that effective and easy FTL drive is developed since the late 1940s.  The various nations and trans-national groups thus expand first to the solar system, and then to new worlds in a variety of other star systems. The Cold War is fought as much in space as it is on Earth, basically along similar lines. The Soviet Union collapses, and pretty much the history of this setting is similar to that of our own, with the addition of space travel and colonization, for the period between 1947 to 2001.

At that point, there's a second major divergence point, however, which I touched on in my review of FTL Now: instead of the World Trade Center being bombed in September of 2001, a meteorite is diverted to slam into New York city.  This asteroid destroys New York, ruins the eastern seaboard, and causes massive chaos worldwide, plunging the Earth into chaos.

In my review of FTL Now, I stated my dislike with this idea, feeling that it essentially ruins the basic concept that made Cold Space so good: that this is our own world, our own society, and mostly our own history, but with space travel. But thanks to this later twist, essentially from 2001 onward you're playing in a radically different world.

Commonwealth Space takes this further. For starters, the setting is expanded out into the future, in detail up to about 2020, and in more general terms beyond that. So now instead of "alt history" you are going directly into science fiction.  To the authors credit, you are given a number of optional alternatives as to how things develop, including more dystopian and more idealist versions of how the Commonwealth can evolve.

And yes, by Commonwealth, we are talking about the British Commonwealth.  This book is focused on playing characters from that background, as the Commonwealth in this setting is a bit more organized and structured than in our own, and apparently becomes more important to Britain (it is the Commonwealth that matters to them, not Europe; whereas in our own world any commonwealth-country citizen who's ever travelled to Britain could tell you that the opposite is very much the case). In this setting the necessity to travel to space, and become a serious alternative to the U.S. and U.S.S.R. means that the Commonwealth is more significant; but its not "the British Empire reborn"; it is very much a commonwealth system, where each country has its own sovereignty. It is a union. In the world of Commonwealth Space, Great Britain is the most important member of the Commonwealth until the 2001 disaster, after that its the Australians that gradually take the lead, as Australia becomes a post-disaster superpower.
In fact, the Commonwealth Authority (later called "The Authority") divides its member-states into tiers. The First Tier are similar to the UN Security Council, they have special powers and more influence over the Authority's direction; whereas other states, those who choose to have a membership with less rules and requirements, also end up having less privileges and opportunity to decide the direction in which the organization evolves.

The book spends the first 50 pages or so trying to detail the overall setting of Commonwealth Space.  After that, it goes into character creation; which is basically the same as most of Flying Mice's other games in the series. You use point-buy to determine base attributes, and then detail your skills based on the character's original background, divided into choices of sets for "colonial (earthlike) planets", "light gravity", "Earther", or "Micro-gravity"; and the sets themselves in each category can be chosen from backgrounds like "agricultural", "urban", "artistic", "social", "sport", "psychological", "scientific", "medical", "criminal", "urban plutocrat", "rural plutocrat", urban or rural "rich", urban or rural "wealthy", urban or rural "middle class", or urban or rural "working class".  Templates are provided if you want to speed up the process with some default-style character backgrounds.
After that, you get additional skills based on the type of secondary school, then sixth-form, then apprenticeships or colleges, graduate schools, and career skills (including military careers).  The older your character is, the more skills he's going to have.

After that, you get more specific details of the different nations of Commonwealth Space.  In terms of anything before 2001 in this setting, the various earth nations are not really different from our own world.  But after that, you get into serious "alternate history" and "sci fi" ideas: by 2020 Britain has become a sort of fascist police state; Australia is a thriving superpower, Canada is a state focused on survival on earth (where most of Canada has become geographically inhospitable, moreso than it is today), but that holds on to its multiculturalist principles and is a major player in the Authority thanks to its "soft power" and its off-planet diaspora.  Singapore (another "first tier" nation of the Authority) is a corporate giant within the authority disproportionate to its actual size, etc. Several nations have as such ceased to exist on Earth entirely, New Zealand being a case in point; but continue to be significant players thanks to their planetary colonies.

I should note here that the authors have little issue with making reference to historical and actual real-life people of significance used in the setting. Again, how well this is done is in sharp contrast when you compare the setting prior to 2001 with afterwards. Before, since much of the basic human history is not really changed, you can imagine characters like Einstein or Winston Churchill doing the things the setting has them do or saying the things they say. But afterwards, its just jarring. For example, in 2020 the U.S. president is apparently Sarah Palin, who we are told has some serious issues with the genetic engineering the Commonwealth is actively engaging in. Jack Straw is the Minister of Security of the ultra-fascist one-party-system Britain, and leader of the "Straw Men" paramilitaries, who are something like the brownshirts. Prince Henry is apparently the leader of a secret royalist resistance, Kenneth Livingstone (ex-mayor of London in the real world) is the leader of a leftist resistance movement, and Grant Morrison is the head of another resistance group called the Memetic Underground, based on the moon.

Frankly, to me, most of this just sounds ridiculous. In the book, the authors had listed a few of the "Cliches" game-masters should avoid when running Commonwealth Space; I wish they had considered avoiding the Cliche of making real-world people from our popular culture into absurd caricatures.

Although thankfully it seems Canada was spared that treatment in that none of its own political or social celebrities seem to be mentioned in the book, I still noticed as a Canadian that there were some elements I found rather implausible about the presentation of Canada, little things that I think are a product of the book about the Commonwealth being written by (I assume) two Americans. Even on the cover, the logo of the Canadian space authority, there titled "Spacecom", didn't seem quite right to me. I would think, knowing my country, that it would have been named something like Canspace or SpaceCan, or "Space Canada".  I'd be willing to bet that people from the other Commonwealth countries (particularly the UK and Australia, which get the most word space in the book) are likely to find a lot of these little details.  The book is very well researched in general, but you can tell that its not quite "native".

On the other hand, lots of good basic details are provided for American readers, as to basic differences in American vs. Commonwealth culture. Things like differences in legal systems, in driving, sport, healthcare, and even drinking (though again here, the authors make a sweeping statement, implying that pubs have to close before midnight; in my hometown in Canada bars stay open until 3am).

Lots of interesting detail is provided as to the military and governmental structure of both the Commonwealth itself, and the Commonwealth Authority as it relates to space. Material is provided on special groups and organizations, corporations, etc., including some notable "conspiracy" type groups, like the genetic-engineering Weymouth project. Equipment and vehicles are listed, including some nice illustrations. On the whole, the "technical" side of the setting material is quite completist and suitable for the needs of actual play.Extensive rules are also provided for spaceships, star travel, and space combat.

Oh yes, and while we're talking about "systems", there's actually an oddity in this book in that the same stats are used for three different mechanical game systems. You can choose to run Commonwealth Space using the "starperc" system (percentile-based), the "Starpool" system, based on D20 dice pools, or the "Star20" system based on a bell curve system generated by rolling 4d6-4.  It is fairly ingenious how the same stats are used for the three different task resolution systems, with each three being relatively quite different. Ultimately, the choice of which to use comes down to aesthetics; whether you prefer to use percentiles, a dice pool, d20s, d6s or a bell curve.

Next we get to the worlds of Commonwealth Space, which is, after all, the point of the setting. There is a great amount of details provided for the worlds of Commonwealth Space, though larger or more important colonies get more detail. The worlds are grouped by system; so for example you get the section on the "Epsilon Indi" star system, its political administration, important features, and a world for world summary. The main colonies of the system are detailed with an overview, a "why would I be here" section (for example, Epsilon Indi A III, aka the Adelaide Colony, is a place to go for smuggling precious metals), hazards of the world, a nice planetary map, geographical information, meteorology, geology, colonial history, details for creating a character from Adelaide Colony, politics, resources, important groups, and information of living on the world, with details about things that would be features to someone living or visiting there. In the case of Adelaide Colony, for example, we are told about the ubiquitousness of "Radio A" broadcasting, the Cricket Club, the important cities, the ecology, notable alien flora and fauna, and the economy.
Like I said, however, the length of each planetary entry varies enormously based on the significance of the place. Adelaide Colony, clearly a very important place, gets 32 pages of material! On the other hand, Broome Colony (Epsilon Indi A IV.2), gets only 4 pages.

In total, you get 135 pages for the colonies, PLUS 10 pages for the moon (which has a number of earth colonies on it), 21 pages for Mars, and a couple of pages for Europa.

It should be noted that, these being the same worlds and basic setting as FTL Now, what you get in this gamebook is a highly-detailed look at the colonies of the Commonwealth Authority, plus some glimpses at areas that are connected to or important to the Commonwealth in certain ways but are not the Commonwealth itself. However, you do not really get a complete view of human outer space with this book. This is a complete game, in the sense that you can make this the only book you buy and run it; but it is not quite a complete setting, in the sense that you would need to either buy FTL Now in order to get a complete view of space, or you'd need to fill in the rest of the setting yourself if you felt like homebrewing it.

It should also be noted that, this being hard sci-fi and a serious venture, the worlds of Commonwealth Space are not particularly stereotypical.  There are few of the concepts found in Space Opera here; there is instead a big emphasis on society-building, on making (an attempt at) realistic portrayals of what human colonization of other worlds might be like, and these worlds themselves, while greatly varied (you have worlds that are in ice ages, worlds that are mostly water, worlds that are extremely earth like, worlds with atmosphere or gravity problems, and humans adapting to try to survive and prosper in all of these), are not your standard space opera sci-fi worlds that can be easily summed up in one or two sentences ("Tatooine is a desert world full of gangsters" or "Endor is a big forest world").

You have to have a serious hard-on for Hard Sci Fi to like this setting. I admire this setting, for sure, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that I "Like" this setting. My own personal tastes are far more over at the Space-Opera side of the spectrum. I recognize that this isn't an objective criticism, it is entirely aesthetic; but this is still important. Because if your own aesthetic sense veers more toward space opera, you might not get much appeal from the kind of universe that Commonwealth Space presents.

What you should most certainly not expect from this book is a kind of update of Space:1889. Its not Victorians In Space, or even "Captain John Bull vs. the Space Monsters". You won't get pulp sci-fi action out of this setting. And if that's what you want, you'd best look elsewhere (I might recommend Starblazer Adventures).
If what you do want, however, is Traveller set in the Commonwealth, this is the book for you. The types of adventures you can have in this game are the same kind you would be familiar with in Traveller: rogue merchants, guns for hire, colonization, exploration, social roleplaying, political roleplaying, etc.

This is by far not a perfect game; the system (or should I say "systems") is (are) workable but nothing brilliant. The setting has a rich wealth of interesting material, and a few areas that seem to strain credulity (but never because of science/tech stuff, and there is no supernatural element in this game). What I can really say to sum up Commonwealth Space is that it is rather good at what it tries to do, and nothing more.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Poul Winslow 40th Anniversary "Tulip" + Altadis' Byzantium

I am indeed American, but Pat is a Brit. During beta playtest I asked playtesters from Commonwealth countries to comment on their own nation's portrayal in the game, as well as comment on the portrayal of the Commonwealth as a whole. These sections were revised after such feedback. We had playtesters from the UK, Australia, Canada, and Singapore. The UK section underwent little change, unlike the Canadian section, for example. So this is not a case of Americans-making-shit-up-about-other-countries-because-they-can't-be-arsed-to-ask. The setting info is basically Pat's, and the rest is basically mine, though we helped in the other direction when needed. This was a massive undertaking, and took almost three years to build, write, layout, playtest, and rewrite.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;357166I am indeed American, but Pat is a Brit. During beta playtest I asked playtesters from Commonwealth countries to comment on their own nation's portrayal in the game, as well as comment on the portrayal of the Commonwealth as a whole. These sections were revised after such feedback. We had playtesters from the UK, Australia, Canada, and Singapore. The UK section underwent little change, unlike the Canadian section, for example. So this is not a case of Americans-making-shit-up-about-other-countries-because-they-can't-be-arsed-to-ask. The setting info is basically Pat's, and the rest is basically mine, though we helped in the other direction when needed. This was a massive undertaking, and took almost three years to build, write, layout, playtest, and rewrite.

-clash

Well, I think on the whole there is a lot of great info in the book, and I certainly didn't mean to suggest that its like some of the other RPG books I've seen that are just "US writers make shit up". I think that there's a few details that are just kind of missed; but you can't expect it to be absolutely perfect; the game as it stands is enough for any American player to never, ever notice, and for any Canadian player to shrug off tiny details.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;357185Well, I think on the whole there is a lot of great info in the book, and I certainly didn't mean to suggest that its like some of the other RPG books I've seen that are just "US writers make shit up". I think that there's a few details that are just kind of missed; but you can't expect it to be absolutely perfect; the game as it stands is enough for any American player to never, ever notice, and for any Canadian player to shrug off tiny details.

RPGPundit

No sweat, Pundit! There's only so much one can do, and we researched this as much as we could. There certainly are a *lot* of examples of this!

That you picked up on the Sarah Palin thing was funny - Pat wrote that section long before the election -  in fact, I'm not sure McCaine had picked her as his running mate yet, and I barely knew who she was - and I left it alone because it amused me greatly.

-clash

Australia as a super power!? Cool, the Commonwealth will shut down at about 11:30am on a Friday as we all go to the pub and watch the cricket... or just drink. At least that's how it works at the joint I work at

On the other hand, the setting sounds pretty nifty, going to have to check it out, thanks for the review.

Australia as a Super Power....a nation of Kyles....

Looks interesting. What about Africa, Clash/Pundit ? How does it play out in this supplement ?

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David R;357220Australia as a Super Power....a nation of Kyles....

Looks interesting. What about Africa, Clash/Pundit ? How does it play out in this supplement ?

Regards,
David R

Africa has Problems. Among them, the UK. During the Cometary Winter, they move most of their population down there.

-clash

Quote from: tellius;357206Australia as a super power!? Cool, the Commonwealth will shut down at about 11:30am on a Friday as we all go to the pub and watch the cricket... or just drink. At least that's how it works at the joint I work at

On the other hand, the setting sounds pretty nifty, going to have to check it out, thanks for the review.

But Cricket is IMPORTANT in Commonwealth Space! Pat did a great illo of them playing cricket on Mars...

-clash

Clash, I read Pundys review as your game 'was well researched, but missed a detail here and there.' Rather than 'DUMB AMERICAN CALLS CANADA DUMB AND I HATE HIM!' ....Although that's probably what he wanted to say...

As far as Grant Morrison being the leader of the lunar resistance, are we talking the Comic Book author?  If so...how weird a pseudo-celebrity to pick for a book.

Quote from: KrakaJak;357329Clash, I read Pundys review as your game 'was well researched, but missed a detail here and there.' Rather than 'DUMB AMERICAN CALLS CANADA DUMB AND I HATE HIM!' ....Although that's probably what he wanted to say...

As far as Grant Morrison being the leader of the lunar resistance, are we talking the Comic Book author?  If so...how weird a pseudo-celebrity to pick for a book.

I assume its the comic book author. Pat came up with that.

-clash

Quote from: KrakaJak;357329Clash, I read Pundys review as your game 'was well researched, but missed a detail here and there.' Rather than 'DUMB AMERICAN CALLS CANADA DUMB AND I HATE HIM!' ....Although that's probably what he wanted to say...

Oops! I forgot to add that I realize now that Pundit was not saying it was the typical RPG Make-shit-up-cause-its-too-hard-to-do-actual-research. He said so in his reply, and that's enough for me. I may be touchy about it, but no one has ever said my games aren't well researched, whether or not they liked 'em. I think I was just plain reading something into what Pundit wrote that wasn't there. Apologies, Pundit!

-clash

Thanks for the review!

This was another game I'd wanted to help playtest more but wasn't able to last year. From what I did see it was a refreshing take on near future space and came off very very Commonwealthy*. And it was fun to see Australia with a big role, since usually Australia gets rocks and/or space colonies dropped on it (video)or a virus hits and it's game over for Oz. Singapore too, as traffic control and deal maker central. Also, while combat is certainly an option, it didn't come off as the main option, ala 2300AD. Sure there's been devastation and rebuidling, but we've survived before, put the kettle on, it's back to work lads!

Someday I do mean to complete my playtest characters. Really liked the range of chargen options, it's like Traveller advanced chargen on 11, in a good way and really tied into the setting.


* as opposed to say America Fuck Yeah!-y

Quote from: Casey777;357539Thanks for the review!

This was another game I'd wanted to help playtest more but wasn't able to last year. From what I did see it was a refreshing take on near future space and came off very very Commonwealthy*. And it was fun to see Australia with a big role, since usually Australia gets rocks and/or space colonies dropped on it (video)or a virus hits and it's game over for Oz. Singapore too, as traffic control and deal maker central. Also, while combat is certainly an option, it didn't come off as the main option, ala 2300AD. Sure there's been devastation and rebuidling, but we've survived before, put the kettle on, it's back to work lads!

Someday I do mean to complete my playtest characters. Really liked the range of chargen options, it's like Traveller advanced chargen on 11, in a good way and really tied into the setting.


* as opposed to say America Fuck Yeah!-y

Hi Casey!

It was New Zealand's turn to cop it this time. Megavolcanoes and tsunamis!

Glad you thought it was "very Commonwealthy"! We tried hard to get the right feel, and "put the kettle on, it's back to work, lads" is a big part of that feel.

-clash

Quote from: flyingmice;357434Oops! I forgot to add that I realize now that Pundit was not saying it was the typical RPG Make-shit-up-cause-its-too-hard-to-do-actual-research. He said so in his reply, and that's enough for me. I may be touchy about it, but no one has ever said my games aren't well researched, whether or not they liked 'em. I think I was just plain reading something into what Pundit wrote that wasn't there. Apologies, Pundit!

-clash

That's ok Clash, it happens to the best of us where we fixate on one point in a long series of arguments, and maybe everything else is saying the opposite of that but we get stuck on that.
Perhaps I should have been more clear that it wasn't all that bad, and certainly not a deal-breaker.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;357581That's ok Clash, it happens to the best of us where we fixate on one point in a long series of arguments, and maybe everything else is saying the opposite of that but we get stuck on that.
Perhaps I should have been more clear that it wasn't all that bad, and certainly not a deal-breaker.

RPGPundit

Yep! That's exactly what happened, Pundit. Thanks for understanding! This game took a long time to come to fruition, and much of that was research and rewriting to get the right non-american feel. Pat had an enormous amount of control over the setting, because he was a Brit and I was an American, and I wanted to make sure it all worked right. I hate it when I open an RPG or a supplement and start saying "That's wrong!" and I vowed long ago I wouldn't be releasing anything that would do that to people.

-clash