Hi Nerhesi,
Here are some first impressions. They might not be accurate, since I went through the book very fast. 20 minutes can hardly do justice to 300 pages. Still, some of this might be useful. Before I started reading, I was expecting a Traveller heartbreaker, but there's a lot of D20 DNA in here. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing, D20 has some good bits. Here's a legend to my thoughts: (+) is Good, (=) is Ok, (-) is Not so good, and (?) is Don't understand.
(=) I don't really get the title of the game. Void Empires: 2750. I'm assuming 2750 is the year the game is set in, but I don't get the Void Empires part. Maybe it's in the body of the book. but I went too fast?
(+) Love the cover art.
(-) I would have liked a stronger (or more defined) premise. I understand you're making a toolkit for a variety of sci-fi genres, and I like that you mention that even though it's a toolkit, there are underlying elements that will be an influence (I'm guessing Sanity is one.) However, I think I would have liked it better if those things were brought front and center more.
(+) Appreciate the way you open the game with a "What's in the box" approach. You tell us right up front what you're doing with FTL, FTL Comms, Psionics, Augmentations, etc. And I really like the "Whats not in the box." With the exception of mecha, I like your selections.
(+) Attributes: I like the five you picked, and the icons are cool. STR usually is devalued in sci-fi games due to tech and ranged weapons, and you've smartly combined STR and CON.
(?) But I wonder why you use a 1 to 10 scale, then covert that into -1 to +4 modifiers, when a more elegant solution would be to use the mods only. Is the 1 to 10 scale ever used again?
(+) Skills: I like the number and selection of skills. The trend in game design these days is to have short skills lists, and I'm happy to see you didn't do that.
(+) Core mech: 2d6 is a good choice. I can't stand core mechs that try to be different just to be different.
(?) Fate: Choose to ignore a random event and replace it with one you prefer? Need some examples. Can I replace "I got shot in my head" with "Missed me entirely?"
(+) Legendary: Love the +10 bonus once per game if you have rank 5. I might steal that.
(+) Alien races: Original but not too weird. All of them are interesting choices. Love the "tropes" after the names, which tells me instantly what's going on. Space elves! I always get a chuckle when I see the "enlightened, philosophical, ancient race that's smarter, prettier, and just better than humans in every way" race. The racial abilities are fun and varied. Good work here.
(=) Origins and Paths: I like the approach, but I can't help but feel like there should be more (especially Paths.)
(-) Personas: I don't get these. There are only 3: Talent, Expert, and Tragic Hero, and I'm not sure the last fits with the other two, thematically. I feel like you should have designed more or left them out.
(=) Traits: I didn't go through all of these, but I worry about exploitable combos. This can break the game, if you're not careful. In general, I don't like feats that are "skill adders," i.e. Persasive feat adds to the Persuasion skill. I prefer feats to be the stuff that skills and atts don't do.
(+) Psionics: I like the general setup (psi rating and pool) and how Aguments and Psi don't work well together. But I started to fast-forward here.
(+) Advanced & Older Characters: An elegant way to do the Traveller aging bit.
(+) You cannot know everything: Nice bit.
(+) Extended tests: I like what you've done here, with the formulas: Stats (Difficulty, Margin, Frequency.)
(-) Initiative: Declaring lowest to highest, then acting highest to lowest is AWFUL. Tried that with Star Wars d6 2nd Edition. Never doing it again.
(-) Health & Fatigue: This seems too complex. Maybe it works in play, but from a read-through, I'd just use simple HP.
(=) Sanity: Could be fun. I'm not getting the standard "horror/Cthulhu" vibe often associated with Sanity. Looks like you're going for violence causes Sanity loss?
(+) Weapon and armor traits: Very cool.
(+) Med-tech: Great list. Love the drugs.
(+) Bots & Drones: I like the thematic inclusion, which is something I miss in vanilla Traveller.
(+) Augmentation: Same as above.
(-) Warwalkers: Not a fan of mecha, just a personal preference.
(+) Displacement Drive: Interesting. Is this an original creation? I don't think I've seen it before. I like the tactical options and unique situations that it implies (i.e. "bubbles of air.")
(=) Space Combat: Space Combat is probably my least favorite aspect of sci-fi games, so I skipped over most of this section. It looks like you've got four core roles, and they are well thought out, probably an attempt to give everyone something to do.
(+) The Near Quadrant: This looks very cool. I wish you had included the alien name with the polity on the map legend (i.e. Cr’k’t Domains v The Domains.)
(+) Stellar Trade: This looks like a fun mini-game, with placing the dice on the grid.
Conclusion: You've done an amazing amount of work. The subsystems look well-thought out. But I don't think it would drag me away from my Traveller + house rules, which I seldom get to play as it is. Everyone wants to do Star Wars.