RPGPundit Reviews:  Hardnova II: The Intercosm

This is a review of the RPG setting book, "The Intercosm" for the Hardnova II system, published by Precis Intermedia.  Its written by Peter Spahn.  This is a review of the print version, which is a softcover in rpg-size booklet format, with 45 pages not counting a large section of sample characters and a starmap at the back.

The Intercosm is a sourcebook for the Hard Nova RPG, which I previously reviewed.  That game is basically a hard Sci-fi RPG, that uses the Genre Division-i system, the same system that Precis Games has used in many other RPGs, most notably the Coyote Trail wild west RPG.  It already had its own "Sovereign Space" default setting, and the Intercosm is its own potential setting, but it is also set up that it could theoretically be a distant part of the previous "United Sovereign Worlds" setting.

The Intercosm setting is described as "a galaxy-spanning empire in decline that is populated by thousands of different races living on thousands of different worlds".  Obviously, the setting with just 45 pages isn't able to actually catalogue those thousands of world (well, it could if it was a Traveller supplement and used only the shorthand; but its not and this isn't).  Instead, the book gives you only a glimpse of the supposedly vast setting, though certainly enough information to give one a more or less clear picture of the intended style of the setting, and its assumed that the GM will fill in things from there.

To be more specific, the setting contains a total of 27 races, 4 creatures, 6 fleshed-out worlds, maybe a few dozen mentioned in vague generality, 21 vessel statblocks, and, well, 45 pages of general setting detail in general.

Most of this material is presented in such a way that there's relatively little system material getting in the way of things; the fluff and the crunch are mostly kept out of each others' way, so that if a reader were to want to use the setting with a different game, he wouldn't have much trouble.  That said, there are a number of new system-related crunchy tidbits in the book, aside from the aforementioned ship stats (which are together, along with about a dozen sample characters, at the end of the book, after the p.45 mark).  There are some new gimmicks, including some "enhancement gimmicks" like "amphibious", "aquatic", "arm spikes", "gliding" or "horns".  There's also a new psychic gimmick, "Mental deflection", which lets you use the psychic "Mental shield" gimmick to deflect blaster fire. There are a couple of new personal weapons, including the "Aprilisu leg Spurs".

In each of the race sections there are character rules, but since in Hard Nova a complete set of rules for an alien species would be something like this:
"Akabal Characters"
Limitations: None
Required Gimmicks: Amphibious, Claws, Pious
Optional Gimmicks: Cultural, Toughness

Its not exactly onerous.  If you don't really care about the Hard Nova system, you don't have to worry about 35 pages of Feats or something like that.

So what's the story of the setting, though? Is the fluff worth its salt?  Well, as mentioned, the Intercosm is a large old decadent space empire; not particularly different or special in comparison from every other Large Old Decadent Space Empire you may have seen. In fact, it feels fairly generic.  In the span of about 8 pages, the book details the history of the Empire, how it went through several dynasties, rises and falls and is currently in a slow and unsteady decline. There are details about the government (its an empire); Imperial Laws (it has a kind of federalist system, where individual worlds make their own laws); Currency (they use "credits"); Space Travel (there are "space lanes"); Communications (there's a vast interplanetary communication system); and Religion (the empire is mostly non-religious, some people believe in a generic "Divinity of All"). Sound predictable enough yet?

Groups are also detailed: including the vast imperial military, the department of interstellar transportation, IDE Tech (a vast manufacturing concern), a couple of security companies, the Bounty Hunter's Coalition, the Organic Liberation Front (an interstellar Luddite group, which is kind of an amusing concept), the Merchant's Alliance, the Children of Letoria (a crazy cult), Overgrown (an eco-terrorist organization), plus pirates, corporations, psionic orders, and a few other such groups.

Near the beginning of the book there is some recommendation as to what kind of group the player characters can be (and thus, the kind of adventures the setting is made for): suggestions include explorers of unknown worlds, Bounty Hunters, Colonists in a new planetary enterprise, criminals (pirates, slave-traders, drug traffickers), Imperial Military (active or retired mercs), independent merchants, rebels seeking to overthrow the empire, or an all-psionic group.

On the whole, the setting fails to impress. Oh, there's nothing at all wrong with it, its a fine little setting, but it offers nothing really new or interesting. There are some groups and culture details that are kind of nice, but you can't quite say its even "hard sci-fi decadent empire with a twist", its just "hard sci-fi decadent empire".  You could take any number of homebrew Traveller settings and they would be much the same. Even the single sample adventure is an average affair; regarding a salvage operation that is incidentally meant to introduce characters from the default Hard Nova setting to the Intercosm, which is not particularly useful to anyone who hasn't already been running a campaign in that setting.

Are there any really good elements? Well, the aforementioned couple of interesting groups.  And those few worlds that are fleshed out aren't bad; again, nothing radical, but not bad.  You have an ocean resort world that's an interesting "pleasure planet" type of place, for example. Or an asteroid-belt criminal-underworld base. Or Dahren, the capital planet of the Dahren empire (the aforementioned decadent empire of the setting), which is kind of like a sci-fi version of Rome.

Perhaps more interesting, though, and the closest thing to really special in the setting are the races of the setting.  Spahn has made a point of having more than one human race, for starters.  There are eight detailed ones in fact, which are all relatively moderate variations on default humanity based on long-term parallel evolution.  On the other hand, the non-human races are mostly very non-human.  They are crustacean humanoids, or intelligent giant centipedes, or weird turtle-centaurs, or tree-like aliens. They're not just humans with funny ears.  And they're quite interesting.
So, kudos for that at least.  If everything else was as original as the aliens, the Intercosm would be really fantastic.

As it stands, I would be hard-pressed to find anything really wrong about it.  That's because for the most part the creative-side of the setting is so timid that there's little room for anything to be really bad.  If you're looking for a really basic outline of a generic hard sci-fi setting to get you started while you put all the elbow-grease of the weird or wonderful into the setting, then the Intercosm might be a good choice for you.  Or of course, if what you like is absolutely bog-standard hard sci-fi, then I guess the Intercosm would be perfection itself.  Alternately, if you're a big Hard Nova fan and you really want to expand the Sovereign Space setting into new territory, well, here's a sourcebook for you.

Otherwise, its hard to recommend this setting. I can't pan it, but there's quite a few hard sci-fi settings that are very very similar. Aside from having more unusual aliens, there's little to differentiate this setting in terms of concepts and originality from the default Traveller Imperial setting, and that was like, the second RPG ever made. And frankly, I found that setting a little too whitebread even back then.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Solitario Egg + Altadis' Count Pulaski

Thanks for taking the time to offer your opinion.

I'm quite fond of Intercosm. I like that it didn't try to reinvent the sci-fi wheel. Just a cool, classic sci-fi setting.

Might be worth mentioning that I never played Traveller.

Quote from: brettmb;412043Thanks for taking the time to offer your opinion.

You're welcome; I'm sorry I couldn't bring myself to have a more stellar opinion (pardon the pun) of the setting.  It is like Insufficient Metal said, if what you want is a "classic" sci-fi setting that won't have anything really out in left-field about it, this is a good choice.

RPGPundit

Hey Pundit thanks for the review! I think one day I'll have a setting that's really going to wow you, but I didn't think this one would be it.  Maybe it'll be Stormrift. For what its worth, I felt HardNova needed a more far reaching space opera type setting than the included USU setting which always felt more like Trek or Bab 5 to me. The Intercosm was pulled mostly from my own Star Wars WEG campaign so I'm surprised you didn't see more of that as the inspiration. Like Metal I never played Traveller.

Thanks again!

Pete

Thank you Pete, I did quite like your aliens. Very well thought-out.

RPGpundit

As I don't own any space opera game yet - HN ][ can hardly be called "hard SF", really - and have been eyeballing Hard Nova ][ for some time now, this  seems like a very decent option to me. As Pundit stated, it's probably nothing groundbreaking but that's not what I am looking for here anyway. IMHO 5/10 is a bit harsh on a perfectly decent setting even if it's not very original, but YMMV.
I am, however, going to wait and see what material exactly will make it into the Deluxe Edition of Hard Nova ][ before making any purchases.

EDIT: I saw a post by Pundit elsewhere explaining his definition of "hard SF" and it now makes sense why he'd classify Hard Nova ][ as such.

EDIT2: I picked this up recently and like it a lot.