Fading Suns (1995)

Holistic Design, Inc.

Date Reviewed: 5-6-04

Critical Kobold Rating:  (2 out of 5 Dice)

 

Why's it so dark in here?

      Players in the Fading Suns sci-fi rpg step into a time of rebirth in the universe. Mankind once traveled amongst the stars, inhabiting hundreds or thousands of worlds, dominating, exploring, discovering, that sort of thing. There was an interstellar community and government known as the Second Republic, and technology was at an advanced stage.  

     Then, right when things were getting good, along comes the Fall; war breaks out, and the various star systems lose contact with each other. Humankind plunges into a new era of Dark Ages. Governments tumble, and merchant and trade guilds become the powerful forces in the citizens' lives. The strongest and richest families of humans often owned planets, and after the collapse of society, these clans set themselves up as nobles, ruling planets and solar systems like fiefdoms.

     For centuries, the various planetary civilizations regress to a standard of living akin to Victorian era Earth. Anyone not a noble or a skilled guild member was a serf, a peasant who lived and died under the rule of the noble class.  The majority of humans living in the year 4996 AD dwell in huts, ride in carts pulled by animals, and use torches and oil lamps for light.

     Partially due to the regression into primitive means of living, the Church has again become a predominant factor in humans' lives. The Universal Church of the Celestial Sun is easily as powerful as the Imperial government, and has perhaps more influence on the workings of the galaxy.  

     A new Emperor eventually unites the remnants of the most civilized planets into a new cohesive human empire, and now mankind is setting about rediscovering technology, making contact with lost civilizations, and generally mucking around in space again.

Now, the wondrous technology of the Second Republic is still around, it's just that nobody remembers how it works, or knows how to fix it. Aircars, computers, space ships, laser weapons… these are all the accoutrements of the wealthy noble class who can afford such things. However, the only people who have any real idea how the things actually function are in the Engineers Guild, and even they specialize more in keeping things running than in knowing how to design new technology. Only the nobles, governments, the church, guilds, and other staple institutions in the galaxy can afford spacecraft, or have the personnel trained to fly them.

     In Fading Suns, star travel was made easy by the discovery of jumpgates, which are huge-ass floating donuts in space, usually found out beyond the farthest planet in any given solar system. As large as moons, these rings were the work of an archetypal mysterious ancient race, who left the jumpgates behind and disappeared long before humans took to flying. The jumpgates acted as a sort of interstellar highway, instantly transporting space ships passing though them to another jumpgate somewhere in the galaxy. To operate a jumpgate, you need a computer key that programs the gate, rather like "dialing" your destination. (Think of the stargate in the excellent movie of the same name, and you've got the idea.) The problem is, most of the jumpgate coordinates for the planets humans used to live on were lost during the Fall. (Pizza delivery is a bitch!)

Gonna Roll Us Up Some Space Men!

          Players designing Suns PCs first choose a Role, which is analogous to a class. The four major role categories are Noble, Priest, Merchant, or Alien. Within these roles are several more specific roles. For example, if you want to be a merchant, you'd choose from a Charioteer (space pilot), Engineer (mechanic), Scraver (salvage and repo), Muster (slavers), etc. Altogether there are 23 roles to choose from.

          PCs have four characteristics.

     Mind

     Body

     Spirit

     Occult

          These are rated form one to ten, and beginning PCs start with a "3" in Mind and Body. These two traits are broken down into sub-traits:

          Mind has the sub-abilities of Wits, Perception, and Tech.

          Body is divided into Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance.

          The Spirit characteristic is further broken down into "pair traits" of Passion vs. Calm, Extrovert vs. Introvert, Faith vs. Ego, and Human vs. Alien.  These represent facets of the PC’s personality, and are used for more social aspects of the game. For the opposed traits, the player chooses one trait to start at a score of "3", and its pair starts at "1". (So a beginning PC will be either more Calm or more Passionate, depending on which part of their personality they want their space guy to personify.)

          The Occult score is used for psionics, magic, and other more mystical aspects of the game, and not every character will have occult skills or powers. PCs start with no score for Occult, but may modify this during char gen.

          Players then get 20 points to divide among their characteristics, with the stipulation of not being able to raise any one score above "8".

I Got Some Mad Skillz, Boyeeeee!

          All PCs start with the same set of nine Natural Skills, all at level 3. These are rudimentary skills anyone could have picked up, like Dodge, Charm, Observe, Melee, and Sneak.

          Players may then choose Learned Skills, which are particular to your PC’s role or your character concept. Learned Skills are such things as Alchemy, Arts, Gambling, Knavery, Read, Science, Streetwise, Torture, or Xeno-Empathy. You know, the usual college stuff…

          Next come the  Blessings  and  Curses . Not quite skills, these are just handy extras your PC may want, and represent "features inherent to an individual". You have 10 points to purchase blessings and curses, with each having its own cost. For example, for 4 pts, I can be Ambidextrous, or for only 2 pts I can have Keen Ears, or maybe Fast Draw. If you feel like playing with a handicap, take the curse of Mechanically Disinclined; you get negative modifiers to using tech equipment, but for accepting a curse you get two extra points to spend customizing your PC.

          Think you're done? Oh, no, my little galactic voyager! Next come the Benefices and Afflictions. These work just like Blessings and Curses, only they're based on your caste in society and your background. There are buttloads of these in the game. Samples include Dark Secret, Alien Upbringing, Orphan, and Vendetta. You can spend points to buy yourself a title of Nobility, or some tech Equipment. Take the affliction of being a Bastard for some extra points. ("Dammit, Drake! You are one noble bastard!") Wanna be an Escaped Serf?  It'll give ya two extra points to spend, but if you get caught, you'll prob'ly be sold to the Chainers guild as a slave.

          After all this, players receive a final 40 points to modify any aspect of their characters that they want. Crank up the abilities, buy some skills, some blessings, some benefices, whatever you want.

‘Flesh Wound'? Dude, That's Your Spleen On the Ground!

          Damage is checked off a PC's Vitality score. Vitality equals your Endurance plus five. The levels granted by your Endurance are checked off first when you get nailed for damage. They sting, but you can shrug them off. The five basic levels of Vitality are your Vital levels (your vital vitality, I guess).  

          When you start losing the last five levels, you suffer impairment on all your actions. Fighting, running, using skills all become harder. When you're down to one lousy vitality level, it's a struggle to remain conscious. Lose 'em all, and it's goodbye to you.  

          PCs heal one Vital vitality level per month. After those five heal, your Endurance vitality heals at a rate of one per week.

Mechanics of the Game

          Fading Suns uses the simplest of resolution systems: the good ol' d20, baby!

          To perform an action, PCs have to beat a Goal Roll on a d20, by rolling less than a target number. The Goal number is usually found by adding abilities and skill levels. For example, if you wanna blast someone with a laser, you add your Dexterity and your Shoot skill levels. If my Dex is 5 and my Shoot skill is 8, my goal number is 13. If I roll a thirteen or less on a d20, I hit the sucker.

          Bonuses or penalties to the Goal Roll are of course added depending on the difficulty of the situation.

          The d20 roll also determines how well you succeeded, however. The number you actually roll is compared to a "Victory Chart", and the higher your number, the more successful you were. If you roll a 5, you check the chart and see that a roll of 5 is "Mediocre". This chart tells you how much damage you add to your weapon in combat, but also tells you how well you disguised yourself, how well you fast-talked your way past the sentry, how well you seduced the fat old geezer of a noble whose hover car you need to borrow, that sort of thing. A mediocre result means you weren't too swift, but a roll of 18 will get you a "Virtuoso performance" result, which means you pull off whatever you attempt with panache and aplomb and style.

Houston, We Have a Problem.

          So, where's this all leave us?

          I'm unsatisfied.

          While the game system is simplicity itself, I'm not thrilled with the background and feel of the game. I bought the rules wanting to like the game, but I was unaware of its rather dark and depressing atmosphere.

          Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with this game, if you're looking for a gritty, fatalistic mood for your sci-fi role playing. And there's nothing that says you can't play this game system as a light hearted adventure romp, or even with comedic overtones. (Hell, you buy the game, you do what ya want.) But the overall environment from the authors' standpoint is a dark, paranoid, oppressive, backwater galaxy run by an arrogant and ruthless wealthy class, while 98% of humanity is reduced to near-poverty levels of existence, with an ignorant and jealous church nosing in on everyone's business. (They've even brought back the Inquisition!)

          I think the idea of lost technology and rebuilding the human's space dynasty is a great premise, but it's been done much better in other games. (See this kobold's review of Marc Miller's Traveller for an idea of the goodies goin' on in that part of the universe.)

          It's hard to place my clawed finger on, but I just didn't find this game presentation attractive. I guess I like my futuristic games a bit more optimistic and hi-tech. I mean, I grant you that it's a bold maneuver to develop a science fiction game where the science isn't up to speed, it's just very odd. I would think most players involved in a space rpg would want access to, y’know, more space-y stuff. The rule book mentions space ships, but there are no rules at all for using or designing them.  Hardware is hard to repair. No robots. My god, even simple computers are rare and mysterious tools for the rich!

   The GOOD

          The method of rolling a single d20 to undertake any task in the game is sweet, fast resolution at its greatest. While I admitted I'm no fan of the mood of this game, for those of you who might like this melodramatic atmosphere, damn, it's done well! (It's kinda' like Vampire: The Masquerade in Space.)

          Rules options include sections on magic, priestly and otherwise, and psionics, which I have a feeling are meant to replace the techno-goodies that are lacking in this game. There's a section devoted to a starter adventure, and plenty of examples in the book for newbie players.

   The NEUTRAL

          While I mentioned that there are plenty of examples in

 the rules, they seem out of place on occasion. The book

 gives a fairly lengthy example of making a PC, but it comes

 before the extensive sections on choosing skills/ curses/

 afflictions, etc. The example would have been more useful if

 I'd known what all these terms meant before they were used

 in a sample PC creation summary.

          The aliens are there, as they should be in a space

 game, but I don't feel like I really know anything about them.

 They receive cursory coverage, which might be OK if they

 were only NPCs, but players may certainly choose to be

 aliens as PCs. I'd feel better having some more info on our

 neighbors, the aliens. Especially if there's one in my party

 with a large weapon...

   The EVIL

          Aside from my previous gripe about the atmosphere of the game, it's really not a bad little system.

          Those of you who visit my cave frequently for reviews know I'm no fan of "benefit/ drawback" mechanics, and unfortunately this game is chock full of 'em. I've never understood how my PC being "Clumsy" should positively affect my Strength, or give me another level of skill at, say, Motor Home Repair. Which is exactly what these systems do; you take a drawback in exchange for  'points'  to improve your character in some other, but usually unrelated, way. Fading Suns basically relies on this cheesy mechanic to design characters even an iota above average.

          I guess the worst thing I can say is that the name of the game isn't only allegorical to the premise of mankind's galactic power fading. It's also actually happening. The suns in the solar system, the stars, are fading, and no one knows why. This has absolutely no effect at all on the game, and in fact, the authors don't even address it more than two or three times in passing. What the hell, dudes? That's just weird.

          So, I won't be blasting off into high adventure here any time soon with Fading Suns. Maybe plodding laboriously into adventure, but that's about it.

          Now, you'll excuse me while I go roll up a Vrusk…

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