Fading Suns 4 – Character Book is a role playing game supplement published by Ulisses Spiele for use with Fading Suns 4. This is one of three core books for the system, the other two being the Gamemaster Book and Universe Book.
The supplement is available as a 322-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $19.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, four pages are the inside covers, one is the front matter and three the Table of Contents.
The Introduction explains that all three books are needed to play the game, and it’s recommended that the Universe Book be read before this one, as it assumes the reader knows the setting. There are some brief details on roleplaying, then on the pilgrimage, which in this case is a group of heroes setting out through life in a manner similar to that of the Prophet and his Disciples. It explains that the game 322-page is modelled, very loosely, on the stage play, and that characters are a troupe, who originally were those who put on miracle plays about the Prophet, before religion became more formalised. It finally explains that the story is more important than the rules.
Chapter 1: The Rules starts by explaining that, like other role playing games, Fading Suns uses rules to determine the outcome of dramatic situations. Uncertain actions are determined by the roll of the dice, with various systems backing up those rolls. The collected rules are known as the Victory Point System, and should hopefully be usable for any situation that arises in a game. It also notes the difference between the player and the character.
The Basics looks at the fundamental system. This is divided into initiative, what the character is going to do, how that works within the rules, whether they accomplished it, how well they did it if they succeeded, what opposed them and the end result. There’s a note on interpreting the rules for different situations, as they are intended to be broad and applicable to most situations.
Time looks at how time is used in the game, which is seven abstract units, starting with the turn, the incremental burst of action a character performs, all the way through to epic, which is the campaign or chronicle. One thing that should be noted is that both “turn” and “round” are used, but in different ways to how they often are. A sidebar notes that the metric system is used. There are three different play scales; present tense, which is effectively real time, instantaneous, which is turn-based time, and narrated, which is the time between important things, such as the downtime between adventures.
How initiative works is covered next, along with some optional rules and alternative methods. In general, the character with any initiative edge goes first. Dice are rolled if more than one has such, and if no character has an edge, the troupe leader determines who goes first.
Dice explains that the only die used is the d20; unlike earlier editions of the system, this edition doesn’t use the d6. The different kinds of actions a character can perform are looked at next, including long-term tasks that need more than a single die roll to accomplish.
Trait ratings are briefly covered here, but are more extensively covered in Chapter 3: Traits; traits are specific abilities that have number ratings.
The goal roll is the roll made to determine whether an action is successful. These cover a range from 3-20 and the number rolled needs to be equal or lower. These should only be called for in meaningful circumstances and may sometimes be modified with a bonus, though GameMasters are advised to avoid modifying goal rolls directly, instead altering the Resistance to a roll. However, environmental conditions can modify the roll, and even if the goal number is reduced to zero, a roll of 1 still succeeds. Examples are given of favourable and unfavourable rolls. Critical hits are when the goal number is rolled exactly, and critical misses are when a 20 is rolled; a 20 always fails.
Victory Points are the key element of the game; physical tokens are recommended for this. Each player has their own cache of these, as well as a bank. VP left in the cache that haven’t been transferred to the bank are returned. The bank is imaginary, not represented by tokens. VP can be freely transferred between cache and bank. There may also be coffers, which are sub-banks for specific purposes. VP are gained with successful rolls and are spent to get various advantages. Should a character have no VP, they can use a surge, which transfers a number of VP to the character equivalent to their Surge rating.
Wyrd Points are a special type of VP that represent the touch of destiny and fate. They transfer to and from the character in the same manner as VP, and can also be spent to benefit the character, albeit in different ways to VP. The troupe has a coffer of shared WP.
Resistance is what is rolled against when trying to accomplish something; effortless has a rating of 0 and miraculous of 14+; examples are given of the levels. How Resistance works and how it can be boosted for self-defence are looked at.
Impact looks at what happens when a roll is successful and overcomes Resistance; this measures the success it has. In combat, this can include damage, though a character can withhold some of the damage caused. Characters can be put into various physical and psychological states that hinder them or alter their behaviour. A character can suffer from more than one state, though there are limits. How states can be overcome is looked at.
Physical combat, a fundamental part of many RPGs, is looked at, followed by influence, which could be described as being social combat. How influence and social manoeuvres work are looked at; just as with regular combat, there are abilities that can improve or harm attempts in this.
Finally, there are some optional rules and some tips on interpreting the rules.
Chapter 2: Characters starts with character creation. The first step is to form the troupe, as characters are part of the troupe and need to fit in with it. The next step is the character concept, the type of character the player wants to play. Next are choose the species, the class, which is the character’s upbringing and defined as one of four stations in society – noble, priest, merchant and yeoman – the faction, which is their apprenticeship and the calling, which is the early career. Most factions have one calling that is a “favoured calling” associated with the faction and the callings have patron saints. The final step is the personalisation and equipment. There are two ways of creating the character; the lifepath method which has a broad and stereotypical template, or the custom method, which is to assign all the traits.
Character concept is then looked into more detail, with a series of questions that can be answered, or a quickstart concept chart to create one rapidly.
Next, the various aspects are looked into in more detail. First is species, with the options being human, ur-obun, ur-ukar and vorox. Humans have no special birthright abilities but the other three species do; humans also have no limitations when it comes to classes and callings.
The class is looked at next. Each of the four classes is laid out the same way, with the traits, perks, factions and callings available for each class. Factions in this case are noble houses for nobles, sects for priests, guilds for merchants and society for yeoman, and each has different benefits.
How to create a custom character, instead of using one of the templates, is looked at, and then character growth. Characters get benefits as class level increases, and they can also perform major life changes, namely changing their class and changing their faction. These two changes are big deals, should not and can not be done casually and will affect the character and how others view them.
Chapter 3: Traits starts with the Bank, which is the characters store of stored victory points, explaining how VPs are transferred to and from it. This is followed by capabilities, which are bodies of knowledge a character has that allow them to apply their skills in certain areas. Capabilities are gained at character creation and some are restricted to certain types of characters. Characters may also lend a complementary capability to another character. The capabilities are then described; these are divided into equipment and lores, the latter being knowledge. Both are divided into more subtypes. Each is described with any prerequisites, what they do and whether or not they are restricted.
Characteristics are a character’s natural abilities, divided into Body, Mind and Spirit, each of which is divided into three; Strength, Dexterity and Endurance for Body, Wits, Perception and Will for Mind and Presence, Intuition and Faith for Spirit. What each does is covered, then it’s explained how actions can be divided into three types; Force, Finesse and Fortitude.
Perks come with class and calling; characters gain one calling perk each level and one class perk every other level after the 1st. There are different types of perks, which are described. Each has prerequisites and what they do for a character is covered. Perks allow characters to do things not already covered. Afflictions are negative perks, and are covered in the same way, only there is a disadvantage for having them. Only one Affliction can be had and is chosen in character creation; choosing one allows an extra perk and losing it loses the perk.
Resistance is divided into Body, Mind and Spirit and is how characters resist things that affect those. There are various ways of improving Resistance, though there is no base Resistance.
Revival is how a character can call on their abilities to resist fatigue and trauma through force of will; Revivals are limited and the GM has to agree it’s possible.
Skills are a character’s natural talents and learned abilities. Some are restricted, like capabilities. Skills are divided into different groups and what can be done in each is covered, as well as related information.
States are divided into Physical, Mental and Social, and are imposed on characters. They can have a game effect, or be mostly role playing in description.
Surge is how a character can draw on their last reserves in moments of crisis.
Techgnosis explains that technology is not neutral and has an effect, and characters can overload themselves with too much technology.
Vitality is a character’s health, stamina and will to live. It explains how this is determined, damage, unconsciousness, death, injury, healing, medical assistance and the problem of mangled wounds.
Finally, combat specialities are covered, which are three special forms of fighting, Fencing, Marksmanship and Martial Arts, that affect a character’s combat capabilities. These also have preconditions.
Chapter 4: Technology starts by explaining that humanity had proven itself less a master of their tools and more their unwilling partners. According to the Church, everyone has a degree of Techgnosis, or the ability of the soul to bear the burden of technology. There is a tech level chart ranging from 0, or Stone Age, to 10, which is Ur-tech and includes the jumpgate. It looks at technology’s development and how “user friendly” technology is a nightmare, as it’s relics intended to sync up with their owner, and in some cases this included altering the user with annites to make them “perfect” for their role. Following this is a list of tech compulsions which can affect characters who become overloaded due to insufficient Techgnosis. These are listed and have a game effect.
Money is looked at next. Though there is now a universal currency, the “firebird,” which is minted on Byzantium Secondus, there are regional currencies and some local lords and guilds have issued their own scrip in contradiction to Imperial law. Banking, item quality, the cost of goods depending on workmanship are also looked at.
The remainder of the chapter covers the various items of technology that can be bought and their stats, as well as an overview of weapon-tech proscription. What’s covered is armour and weapons of different types, equipment and services, think machines and transportation. This also includes starships, which effectively are not available to buy, though sometimes they may be on the market, and acquiring such is usually done in other ways. Starship combat is only briefly covered and it’s said that it will be covered in more detail in a later book.
Chapter 5: The Occult starts by explaining that the Age of Reason came to an end after the Fall of the Second Republic. Superstitions arose and there are strange powers classified as the occult, which are not limited to such as psychic powers.
Occultists, those who use such powers, have a stigma, a tell that happens when they use their occult abilities, which may be a nervous tic or a serious of gestures and words. For most occult powers, there is no way to be sure that someone is using them, and without knowing an occult power is being used on you, you cannot increase your defences against it. Wyrd points can be used to make occult powers even more potent.
Occult powers are divided into two categories, the first being Psi, the power of the mind. Psychics are loathed by the Church and suffer persecution with a few exceptions. Covens are covered, along with a calling, the Dervish. How psychic powers work is next; they have two faces, Psi and Urge, with the latter being the dark side that psychics avoid. A psi cloak defends against mental powers and the powers themselves come in paths, starting with a discrete elemental power and building into more potent variations. The paths are Far Hand, Omen, Psyche, Sixth Sense, Soma, Vis Craft and Urge. Each path has a variety of different powers described, with what they do and in game terms.
Theurgy is the power of faith. In many ways, it is similar to Psi, with two sides, Theurgy and Hubris, with the latter to be avoided in the same way as Urge. Theurgically imbued vestments can help with the power and Theurgy is divided into multiple rituals, handled in the same way as paths. The rituals are Ecumenical, usable by all, then those for sects, Brother Battle, Eskatonic Order, Sanctuary Aeon, Temple Avesti and Urth Orthodox. Hubris is another universal one. Finally, it looks at miracles, which are random acts that characters may be able to call upon, with the right motives, though they may not work in the way they want, and antimony, the congress with demons.
The final two pages of content are the character sheet.
Fading Suns 4 – Character Book
The PDF is bookmarked but only with the major subsections linked and the bookmarks all appear to point to the page before they should. The Table of Contents is much more thorough. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are a variety of colour illustrations, up to full page in size. Presentation is decent.
Naturally, as this is one of three core books, it doesn’t stand on its own and the other two books are needed to play. This book contains the various rules needed to create characters and play them; the book has the majority of the game’s rules in fact. The game is essentially beyond space opera and into science fantasy; it has spaceflight and star empires, but it also has what is effectively magic and the universe is a far more mysterious place. The end result is a different kind of game, and the “passion play” inspiration makes a difference too. Fading Suns 4 – Character Book can be found by clicking here.
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