Fading Suns

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Fading Suns
Fading Suns (2nd edition) cover
Designer(s)	Bill Bridges, Andrew Greenberg
Publisher(s)	Holistic Design, Inc.
Publication date	1996 (1st edition) 1999 (2nd edition) 2001 (d20 edition)
Genre(s)	Science fiction
System	Victory Point System, d20 System

Fading Suns is a science fiction space opera role-playing game published by Holistic Design. 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).

1 Game setting
2 Game system
3 Authors
4 External links

[edit] 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 is strongly reminiscent 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 orthodoxy 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 guilds 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 products have been increasingly hard to find in recent years. After several years with very few additions to the line, RedBrick Limited, a New Zealand company, has been granted a license to continue development of Fading Suns products.

[edit] Game system

Various Fading Suns characters

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. In 2000, an adaptation of the setting to the popular 3rd edition OGL system was also been published - D20 Fading Suns. For several years, supplements carried rules for both systems. RedBrick Limited, which took over development of the line in February 2007, has announced that it will initially support only the VPS version of the system.

Holistic Design has released a LARP version of Fading Suns entitled Passion Play.