So I finally managed to pin my buddy down for a campaign of FS.  It's kinda my white whale in that I've always wanted to play it, but no one else ever did.  That said, I'm running a fever of about 103 and can't keep the words in the book to hold still, I've tried threats and bribes, but nothing seems to work. Might be the Nyquil.

I'm looking to play a Decados Noble turned IK, in a revolt against family mores situation. He looks for redemption for past sins due to being a non penitent psychic and being a well trained torture technician during the wars.

He's got issues. And was compared to a Honor character named Victor something, which I don't think it was meant as a good thing.

In general, while is an excellent duelist, his main strength is making you want to talk to him.  My buddy suggested taking a Mist Sword.

TL;DR version: Please help me stat up a rich sociopath Knight who seeks redemption while kicking ass in the name of the Empra and looks good doing it. And is psychic cause my buddy has a Jedi fetish.

Edit: I am a boob. Questing Knight.

I've only played FS1e and FSD20 and both books are packed away unfortunately, but your character concept sounds great.

However, from a build standpoint, you got lots going on - Torture + Duellist + Psychic + Noble = lots of points running around creating flavor, but I am unsure how effective the PC will be at any one thing.

Very true. I think additional tours of duty are going to be required.

From a relatively purist aspect this is actually quite simple.

Second edition FS (the one on my shelf) includes the nice simple life path. Clearly your decados Noble is fairly linear. You're not asking if he's a rural noble or a dilettante, anything like that, so you're looking at tours.

Of course you've got to take the questing knight tour. As far as being a Jedi you really only get to try one flavor, which is Mist Sword or Psychic, since a Mist Sword pretty much sucks up all of your background points.

Of course, since its your Buddy's fetish, I say fuck him and make the character you want. If he's the GM and he wants you to be a Jedi, its up to him to give you all the crap he thinks you need to do it proper.  I'll point out the Mist Swords are rare in fluff, but are pretty god damn lootably common in actual play.  


Maybe its the fever/nyquil, but this isn't actually solvable by smart building. You literally want to have all the things. No game, aside from some hypothetically broken game, lets you make a legal character with all the things.  Clearly you have played enough games to realize that you can't cram every cool idea into one character.  The more shit you try to do, the crappier you will be at all of it, and this is actually a sign of good design (usually. Its not uncommon these days to find games so ruthlessly balanced that they are actually un-fun, because there are no meaningful choices, only illusionary choices...).

Once you've picked your most important concepts we can talk refining, and I'll even bust out my book to reference.

What if your Mist Sword was stolen from you?

Perhaps it was a family heirloom, thus more tension with family. Worse, you suspect it was another Decados who stole your inherited blade!

Then you have ties to a Mist Sword for the GM to weave into the story arc, but you don't spend any CPs on them.

Psychic is such a point suck if you're not primarily a psychic character. I don't remember off hand, but isn't there a Latent Psychic talent that's cheaper that allows you to become more full fledged during game play?

I'm using the life paths, and I think I've got most of what I want. I'll post it when I stop feeling like utter ass.

Your character concept is cool, Warboss, and I think you'll have much fun with it

MistSwords are rather expensive (13 extra points), so if your GM is absolutely set on your character having one (because it resembles a SW lightsaber), then I'd ask him to give your character one for free. The thing is not THAT powerful anyway. Of course, s/he might have to give any other players some freebie stuff as well if your GM is worried about player character balance.

(And no, there aren't a latent psychic thing in FS2, although you could just go and buy rank 1 in the PSI characteristic for 3 Extra Points).

Yeah, I noticed the Wireblade ignores armor, making it a great can opener, but the Flux and Mist Blades don't. Was rather surprised by that. I can hack through an assault shield, but can get slowed down by a guy in a leather jacket.

Not to be contrarian, but I could swear there is in fact a latent psychic trait in Fading Suns, just not in the main book.  Damn... now I've got to crack open some game books.. .work, work, work...




*Of course: when it comes to the various supplements I've never held any given book to be first or second edition, so maybe the trait I'm thinking of is from a first ed supplement? It never seemed to matter, but then I'm in Warboss Squee's position: FS is a game I'd dearly love to play, but no one else I know is even remotely interested in it

Quote from: Warboss Squee;788767So I finally managed to pin my buddy down for a campaign of FS.  It's kinda my white whale in that I've always wanted to play it, but no one else ever did.  That said, I'm running a fever of about 103 and can't keep the words in the book to hold still, I've tried threats and bribes, but nothing seems to work. Might be the Nyquil.

I'm looking to play a Decados Noble turned IK, in a revolt against family mores situation. He looks for redemption for past sins due to being a non penitent psychic and being a well trained torture technician during the wars.

He's got issues. And was compared to a Honor character named Victor something, which I don't think it was meant as a good thing.

In general, while is an excellent duelist, his main strength is making you want to talk to him.  My buddy suggested taking a Mist Sword.

TL;DR version: Please help me stat up a rich sociopath Knight who seeks redemption while kicking ass in the name of the Empra and looks good doing it. And is psychic cause my buddy has a Jedi fetish.

Edit: I am a boob. Questing Knight.

Wow, that one sentence would seem to be Hell enough for a character. What about his religion? I'd think that he would be questioning his place in the universe and if there was a God after that experience.

Quote from: jeff37923;789093Wow, that one sentence would seem to be Hell enough for a character. What about his religion? I'd think that he would be questioning his place in the universe and if there was a God after that experience.

He's certainly not a man of great faith, that's for certain. Now I may be misreading or misunderstood, but noble houses can sometimes get away with not turning their noble born psychics or to the church, right?

My reading on what they do to you is straight out of 1984 and by the end, you WILL love the Pancreator.

Also, taking Natal Psi isn't like taking an Imperial Tour right? No extra skills or rewards?

Quote from: jeff37923;789093Wow, that one sentence would seem to be Hell enough for a character. What about his religion? I'd think that he would be questioning his place in the universe and if there was a God after that experience.

In Fading Suns the primary Faith is the Church of the Pancreator, with several divisions within making up all the primary faith based roles in a party, such as the Eskatonic Order.

Beyond that you have a psuedo-Gaian faith, Gjarti, necromantic ancestor worshippers (man-somthing or other...), Antinomists (demon summoners), and a scattering of alien faiths, but pretty much all of them are dirty heretics to be burned by the faithful.

While in many ways the setting is EVERY Sci-Fi setting of note stuck in a blender on Frappe (seriously: You have warrior monks in power armor, telekinetic psychics with laser swords and holtzman shield generators with noble houses plotting against one another... ), the easiest way to grasp FS is 'Dune without arrakis, crossed with a more stereotypical than thou catholic church'.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;789099He's certainly not a man of great faith, that's for certain. Now I may be misreading or misunderstood, but noble houses can sometimes get away with not turning their noble born psychics or to the church, right?

My reading on what they do to you is straight out of 1984 and by the end, you WILL love the Pancreator.

Also, taking Natal Psi isn't like taking an Imperial Tour right? No extra skills or rewards?

Quote from: Spike;789106In Fading Suns the primary Faith is the Church of the Pancreator, with several divisions within making up all the primary faith based roles in a party, such as the Eskatonic Order.

Beyond that you have a psuedo-Gaian faith, Gjarti, necromantic ancestor worshippers (man-somthing or other...), Antinomists (demon summoners), and a scattering of alien faiths, but pretty much all of them are dirty heretics to be burned by the faithful.

While in many ways the setting is EVERY Sci-Fi setting of note stuck in a blender on Frappe (seriously: You have warrior monks in power armor, telekinetic psychics with laser swords and holtzman shield generators with noble houses plotting against one another... ), the easiest way to grasp FS is 'Dune without arrakis, crossed with a more stereotypical than thou catholic church'.

OK, thank you Spike. I am not very familiar with the Fading Suns setting.

With the above in mind, some options to consider:

A) Joan of Arc - the questing knight believes that the psi powers are a gift of the Pancreator who has endowed him with them in order to unite worlds for some great cause under one banner.

B) Redemption - Like Robert de Niro's character from The Mission, he has gone out into the wild to find himself again and restore his faith in the Pancreator.

C) Prophet - an extension of redemption except that he now must bring The Word to the people that he has gained through wisdom from his time in the wilderness. Perhaps even creating a new division of faith.

Quote from: jeff37923;789111With the above in mind, some options to consider:

A) Joan of Arc - the questing knight believes that the psi powers are a gift of the Pancreator who has endowed him with them in order to unite worlds for some great cause under one banner.

B) Redemption - Like Robert de Niro's character from The Mission, he has gone out into the wild to find himself again and restore his faith in the Pancreator.

C) Prophet - an extension of redemption except that he now must bring The Word to the people that he has gained through wisdom from his time in the wilderness. Perhaps even creating a new division of faith.

Actually, the Questing Knights are not a religious order, but rather the Emperor's retinue. Arthurian knights would therefore be a better match than the religious ones I think, although, the concepts you mention here would make for VERY cool player characters.


Spike: My memory is rather faulty, but I cannot remember any latent psychics in FS1 or FS2. We did work on a concept for that for the truncated FS3, however.

Quote from: Angelman;789141Actually, the Questing Knights are not a religious order, but rather the Emperor's retinue. Arthurian knights would therefore be a better match than the religious ones I think, although, the concepts you mention here would make for VERY cool player characters.


Spike: My memory is rather faulty, but I cannot remember any latent psychics in FS1 or FS2. We did work on a concept for that for the truncated FS3, however.

B would work for several concepts, but A and C would get you burned at the stake.