What do you like about Fading Suns?

Being Dune-ish space opera with handy White Wolf-like splats is what I best love and what I hate the most about Fading Suns. But then I never got to actually play it beyond character generation.

I liked the PC strategy game.

It was insane. It was like Empire on a bunch of different planets at once.


As to the RPG, it was a neat setting, but like a lot of RPGs with neat settings, I had no idea how you were supposed to play it. Like Rifts or Vampire, I never really grokked what you were supposed to do.

The idea of mixed tech levels, noble houses in space, four armed wookies!  There was a lot to love about this game, but I didn't know what to do with it, either.  I also had trouble coming up with why a noble, a merchant, and a flamethrower-wielding religious zealot would EVER hang out long enough to get any adventuring done.

I've run lots of Fading Suns and look forward to more in the future. What do you want to know about the game?


BTW, if anyone is a D20 fan, the D20 Fading Suns is good, and that's coming from someone who doesn't prefer D20.

I missed out on it.  It was 1996 and I went into a local shop to find a new RPG, having tried a few other games and played an endless amount of AD&D2E.  I remember thumbing through the book and being interested, but something else ended up catching my eye instead.

Apparently there was a new version recently.

http://fadingsuns.fasagames.com/fsr-core-rulebooks.html

Quote from: The Butcher;735433Being Dune-ish space opera with handy White Wolf-like splats is what I best love and what I hate the most about Fading Suns. But then I never got to actually play it beyond character generation.

I like the spats in this game a lot better, because they aren't as ideological as the ones in the WoD. They all have practical goals and the relationship between them isn't as central to the game as WoD games. You can easily start a career as a smuggler for the Scrappers and not run into one of the other groups, unless the GM wants to. Or become a mercenary for the Musters, or finding relics for the Eskatonic Order, or become a spy for the Decados etc.

I also like the history of the game. If a game was something like the Age of ... or the ... War, I am usually game for it. Let me see: First Republic, Diaspora, Dark Ages, Emperor Wars, Age of Miracles, Symbiot Wars etc. Yep, I am game. I am a sucker for that stuff. This is also absent in the new WoD, which makes me very upset. :banghead:

Quote from: Patrick;735451The idea of mixed tech levels, noble houses in space, four armed wookies!  There was a lot to love about this game, but I didn't know what to do with it, either.  I also had trouble coming up with why a noble, a merchant, and a flamethrower-wielding religious zealot would EVER hang out long enough to get any adventuring done.

I guess you gotta have a more cohesive group. All smugglers, nobles or religious fanatics. I always have the same problem with vampire the requiem. In that game your group could exist out of a noble, a Marxist rebel, a religious zealot (burn the witch), another religious zealot (sacrifice the virgin) and an immoral scientist. Good luck with that.

I do like the splats are covering three different bases: merchants, nobles and the church. Very broad indeed.

Quote from: NathanIW;735481I missed out on it.  It was 1996 and I went into a local shop to find a new RPG, having tried a few other games and played an endless amount of AD&D2E.  I remember thumbing through the book and being interested, but something else ended up catching my eye instead.

Apparently there was a new version recently.

http://fadingsuns.fasagames.com/fsr-core-rulebooks.html

Cool, wasn't this intended to be the Third Edition, but something went wrong?

Quote from: jan paparazzi;735526Cool, wasn't this intended to be the Third Edition, but something went wrong?

I have no idea.  Apparently this newer revised edition is 2nd edition but with errata and some planned minor changes.

Quote from: NathanIW;735552I have no idea.  Apparently this newer revised edition is 2nd edition but with errata and some planned minor changes.

Correct third edition was being developed, but was canceled. So they reprinted an updated version of second edition.

I bought the D20 stuff a while back, as it looked interesting, but never really dug into it.

Am I missing much from the non-D20 books?

Quote from: jan paparazzi;735659Correct third edition was being developed, but was canceled. So they reprinted an updated version of second edition.

I find FASA a rather confusing company. Look at what happend with Blue Planet before they lost the license. FASA did three books for it and all three were available in different formats (softcover, hardcover, pdf, B&W, full color) and through different channels (DTRPG, FASA shop). Capricious Games got the license and went back to Blue Planet 2E...

You get the impression any FASA gameline or edition may be abandoned prematurely at any moment.

Quote from: kythri;735678I bought the D20 stuff a while back, as it looked interesting, but never really dug into it.

Am I missing much from the non-D20 books?

No idea, but I love your avatar. It's Y-Y-Zed!

Quote from: kythri;735678Am I missing much from the non-D20 books?

Yes and no.

Yes, if you want deeper involvement into the canon of the setting.

No, if you just want to run a D20 Fading Suns campaign for a group who doesn't need more canon than what's in a core book.