The Mandate
is a Space Opera RPG set several thousand years in humanity's future. Made by Perihelion Interactive LLC and successfully funded by Kickstarter, it aims to be a full Sci-Fi experience. Everything from player run fleets to starbases, and more. The trailer can be seen here. The game was planned to be released in early 2016 as of this writing, but the game company has been dissolved without any news.
The story of the Mandate begins with the depletion of Earth's natural resources. In desperation Humanity began to evacuate by hollowing out asteroids and filling them full with colonists put in suspended animation. These slower than FTL colony ships eventually settled all over the galaxy and slowly Humanity began to rebuild. Eventually the descendants of one of the colony ships discovered the means of FTL travel by constructing a massive gate network. Through this way they subsumed all other existing colonies through a combination of peaceful trading and hostile takeover. In this way the Mandate was formed and the Empire took total control of the galaxy.
The game picks up with the current Emperor dead under mysterious circumstances its up to his daughter to take the throne. This meant she had to be the one to deal with a rebellion, so she sends the Grand Fleet to put it down. Unfortunately the gate network ends up sabotaged and the Grand Fleet scattered. The only hope that the Mandate now has is the player, a currently disgraced Captain.
As of 2017, the entire game has not updated and no information on the creators.
The Mandate provides example of:
- Anyone Can Die: Despite your crew having their own backstories, this won't stop them from dying.
- Casual Interstellar Travel: Played with, as the gate network is the only means to getting from system to system. However inter system travel seems to be pretty quick and effective.
- The Chains of Commanding: One of the primary points of the game is to make you care about your crew so you feel each death and choice.
- Colony Ship: Hollowed out asteroids traveling at sub-light speeds was the choice for Humanity in this universe.
- Decadent Court: One of the current problems of Romanovs are the increasingly politicking and conspiring nobles within its court after the death of the previous Emperor.
- Earth That Was: No mention of Earth is made in current background info other than the exodus from it. Its assumed Humanity simply never looked back after we exhausted the Sol system for resources.
- Fantastic Racism: Osmani were widely distrusted by all powers of Mandate due to their extensive cybernetic implants.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
- The eponymous Mandate is essentially Tsarist Russia in Space, and its ruling dynasty is even called the Romanovs, though whether they are actual descendants of the family or having just taken the title for prestige remains to be seen. This was implied that their name came from the title of arkship that the aforementioned dynasty originated from.
- According to the game's website, other factions include Europan (France, especially the Fin de siècle, including the mirror between their fine culture influencing Romanov's nobles and the Russian nobility's penchant for French culture and language), Arkwright (Victorian Steampunk, based on aesthetics and industrialization), Blackhawk (Prussia and Cossacks with former for their martial culture and divided states until their unification while the latter being same as former but their main difference being their Undying Loyalty to the Tsars), and Osmani (Cyborg version of Ottoman Empire).
- Also the rebels would be Bolsheviks based on their logos (Red stars iconography) and their rebellion against the Mandate/Tsarist Russia.
- Hegemonic Empire: Europan managed to establish cultural foothold in their high society where half of the Mandate's emperor were influenced by them.
- Human Popsicle: As many humans as possible were stuffed into hollowed out asteroids to escape a dying Earth.
- Mauve Shirt: Most of your crew are designed to be this. Each one is planned to have their own personality and history.
- Portal Network: The gate network that helped humanity create their galaxy spanning empire.
- Proud Merchant Race: Arkwright, though they tend to be engineers but wealth played a role in politics and social life.
- Proud Scholar Race: Europan are known for their intellectual prowess.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Black Eagles adopted martial culture as a result on living on four Death Worlds and internecine conflicts based on these conditions.
- Space Opera: Obviously attempting to be one, and the creators are heavily inspired by the likes of Star Trek and other shows.
- The War of Earthly Aggression: Well, the main plot lies with conflict between The Mandate and the fringe worlds rebellion, which the latter sabotaged the gates that scattered the Grand Fleet that the player had to find.
- Unexpected Successor: Anastasia is the third-in-line but the only successor to the throne after her father's death.
