Fading Suns
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Fading Suns is a science fiction space opera role-playing game published by Holistic Designs. The setting was also used for a PC game (Emperor of the Fading Suns), a live action role-playing game (Passion Play), and for a space combat miniature game (Noble Armada).
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Game setting
The action is set in a future medieval-style empire built on the remains of a previous, more sophisticated human galaxy-spanning civilization made possible by ancient “gates”, themselves the relics of an even older, not necessarily human civilization. The atmosphere reminds one strongly of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and of the Hyperion stories by Dan Simmons. Power is administered by noble houses, guilds and by the monolithic Holy Church. Psionic powers exist but psionicists are often hunted down and killed by the Church (or led back to ortodoxy and enrolled in the Church’s ranks - where psionics are considered miracles of faith). While most roleplaying situations arise from the strict codes regulating the everyday life of the empire’s citizens, the imperial age is rife with opportunities for adventure: following the fall of the old regime and the following centuries of darkness and warfare, many worlds have slipped back to a pre-civilized state, and a number of alien threats lurk in the shadows. Players take the roles of members of the aristocracy, of the various merchant guids or of a number of religious sects, and alien characters are also available.
A large library of supplements provides description of locales (planets, space stations, whole sections of space), alien societies, minor houses, guilds and sects, monsters and secret conspiracies, thus expanding the thematic possibilities offered by the setting. The quality of the products is normally high.
Game System
The Fading Suns engine uses a simple attribute & skill, level- and classless, dice-pool powered system, called Victory Point System (VPS). The second edition of the game rules has solved many of the issues raised by the earlier rulebook, while increasing the amount of data available. While generally stereotypical in their template-like form, characters are easily personalized. A recent adaptation of the setting to the popular 3rd edition OGL system has also been published - D20 Fading Suns. Recent supplements normally carry rules for both systems.
Authors
Fading Suns was written by Andrew Greenberg and Bill Bridges, known for having created the original Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse roleplaying games for White Wolf.
External Links
- Holistic Design (http://www.holistic-design.com/) - The Publishers of the Fading Suns line of products.
- Review of the 2nd Edition Fading Suns Core Rulebook (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10580.phtml)
- http://dmoz.org/Games/Roleplaying/Genres/Science_Fiction/Fading_Suns/it:Fading Suns