Steal This Game: Baroque Space Opera

I've already talked about how FATE, for all it's flaws (in that it's barely an RPG), has certainly produced games which were full of material worth mining and/or setting worth using as long as you're willing to adapt them to a system which is more comfortable and to your liking. Today's case is Baroque Space Opera.

Some 'scifi settings' attempt to be science-fiction. And then some completely throw away any pretense of serious and plausible scientific advancement to simply keep the window dressing of 'soft science fiction' and prefer to focus on creating interesting universe and stories rather than examine possible scientific concepts.

Baroque Space Opera may very well have one of the most basic-yet-descriptive name ever. It's a truly simple name, possibly even more descriptive and bare bones than Star Wars. It's a Space Opera world. That is baroque. Now such description may appear somewhat bland or simple but the simplicity of this game's title doesn't do justice to it's amazing and rich setting oozing with great and evocative ideas.

The best way I can explain or describe BSO is to compare it to one of my all-time favorite comic books, which would be 'The Metabarons' (or 'La Caste des Méta-Barons' in French). This setting combine the over the top, overly fancy and scientifically implausible nature of soft science fiction with the sprawling epic scale of space opera and the unique aesthetic of the ancient world, such as ancient Egypt and Babylon. Imagine Stargate but with the ancient mythology elements cranked to twelve combined with the scope of Warhammer 40 000.

In fact, in many ways BSO reminds me quite a lot of Warhammer 40 000...if it had been made by someone else. All the setting elements are there: an immortal tyrannical emperor who rule a galaxy-spanning hegemonic empire, secretive techno-wizard orders, super soldiers, alien menace aplenty and a love for putting in mythological terms to sound cooler. The difference, however, is in execution: the Baroque-verse is steeped in tradition, decorum and decadence as opposed to constant mind-numbing war. It also features quite a bit of 'biopunk' elements, making use of cloning technology as well as genetic engineering to to modify or create entire species, resulting in an even wider range of characters than any Warhammer 40k RPG could provide. It's a very unique setting not because of it's overused (and to some people, stale) elements but rather HOW it uses them to create a rich and fascinating tapestry which shows how much tone and presentation can go a long way to make a setting unique.