Rules

Let's take a look at how Fading Suns helps players and gamemasters run games.

Dice

Like most roleplaying games, Fading Suns uses dice to determine the outcome of situations where luck plays a role. These dice are not the standard six-sided dice seen in many popular board games, but are 20-sided. 20-sided dice can be found in most comic and hobby stores -- anywhere that roleplaying games are sold.

Character Creation

So, what kind of character do you want to play? In Fading Suns, the choice is up to you. Your character's abilities are not subject to the whim of fickle dice -- Fading Suns players can choose what traits their character possesses. Each trait has a point cost. The player is allowed a number of points with which to pick and choose those traits he wishes his character to possess. Is the character nimble and agile? Buy levels in Dexterity. Is he smart and robust? Buy Wits and Endurance. Is he a psychic? Buy Psi and some psychic powers. The Fading Suns rulebook gives guidelines on the standard traits found among each faction or character role, but these are guidelines only. In the end, the choice is yours.

Traits

All Fading Suns characters are defined by trait ratings. For human characters, trait ratings generally range from 1 to 10, though aliens and other nonhuman entities can have higher or lower ratings. These 1 to 10 ratings measure characters' innate ability or prowess with their traits, and basically correspond to the classic, informal 1 to 10 scale used to measure athletic performances, product quality, potential significant others' (or innocent bystanders') desirability, etc. Basically, having a 1 in a trait indicates that the character is either naturally inept or a rank beginner, while having a 10 means that the character has achieved near-perfection or total mastery of the trait. So, a character with a 1 in Dexterity is a real klutz (virtually an invalid, in fact), while a character with a 10 is one of the universe's finest athletes. Likewise, a character with a 1 in Xenobiology is a beginning student, while a character with a Xenobiology rating of 10 is a universally respected, Einstein-class savant of alien lore.

Trait ratings are used to determine the outcome of actions. Obviously, the higher a character's trait ratings, the better that character will be at actions corresponding to those traits. A weak character has a chance to budge a heavy trapdoor, but a strong character will have a much better chance and will probably perform the feat in far less time.

Characters have two major types of traits: characteristics and skills. Characteristics represent a character's natural, inborn capabilities, whether physical, mental or emotional: strength, dexterity, wits, and even passion. Skills represent a characters learned or trained abilities: shooting a gun, charming an audience, painting a picture, inventing a device, etc. Each of these types of traits is rated from 1 to 10.

Goal Roll

Whenever the outcome of an action is in doubt, the gamemaster calls for a goal roll. This roll is made using one 20-sided die. The player (or gamemaster, in the case of gamemaster characters and environmental phenomena) must roll a score on this die that is equal to or less than the assigned goal number.

A player's base goal number is determined by adding the character's relevant characteristic trait rating to his skill trait rating. Thus, if a character wanted to fire a pistol at a foe, and the character had a Dexterity characteristic of 7 and a Shoot skill of 6, the player would need to roll "13" or less on the 20-sided die.

Things aren't always that simple, however. In many cases, the goal roll is adjusted up or down by situational modifiers. Consider the case of the aforementioned pistol shot. All other things being equal, it's easier to hit a dinosaur-sized foe than a rabbit-sized one. Thus, the gamemaster might assign a bonus to the player's roll if his character was trying to shoot a rampaging T. Rex, and might assign a penalty if the character was firing at a speeding jackrabbit.

Any die roll equal to or less than the goal number indicates a success, but a player whose action succeeds should remember the exact number rolled; this is important for calculating the subsequent effect roll (see below).

Effects of Success

Unlike many roleplaying games, Fading Suns measures the degree of success a character achieves in his endeavors. It's not just a matter of hitting or missing -- how well one hits is important. For instance, the better one hits in combat, the more damage one inflicts on a foe. It's not just a matter of the weapon's lethality -- a character's skill and luck also counts.

The goal roll, above, determines whether a character's action succeeds or fails. If the action fails, that's that; go on to the next character. If an action succeeds, however, the player must still determine how well the action succeeds. Consider the pistol shot described above. There's a big difference between grazing a foe in the shoulder and blasting fiery doom straight through his left eye to incinerate his brain pan and send the shards of his charbroiled skull spraying hither and yon -- even though both results are, technically, successful shots.

The number rolled on the goal roll is the number of successes scored. These successes can be used directly to gauge how poorly or how well a character succeeded in a task: the more successes, the better the character did at the task. However, the number of possible successes (from 1 to 18*) leaves a lot of room for interpretation. For some situations, such as rolls to determine weapon damage or how well a complimentary skill aided in another person's task, a smaller scale is more useful. To make things a little easier, Fading Suns successes translate directly into "victory points," which can be calculated by consulting the Victory Chart, below. For most actions, the player can simply consult the Victory Chart to determine the level of success. One victory point is minimal -- the character squeaked through by the skin of her teeth. Two victory points indicate a decent job -- onlookers will accept the feat as satisfactory, though they certainly won't be awestruck. Five or six victory points indicate a virtuoso performance, and so on.

Victory Chart

Successes

Victory Pts/ Dmg

Accomplishment

1-2

1 / +0

Barely satisfactory

3-5

1 / +1

Mediocre

6-8

2 / +2

Pretty good

9-11

3 / +3

Good job

12-14

4 / +4

Excellent

15-17

5 / +5

Brilliant

18

6 / +6

Virtuoso performance

A roll of "19" is considered an automatically failure, while a roll of "20" is a critical failure. A roll of "1" is an automatic success, no matter what the actual goal number is. Rolling the goal number exactly is a critical success - double the victory dice!

An Example Action

Gorgool the bard is entertaining at a Hawkwood soiree. He begins an improvised epic praising the virtues of his host, and the crowd falls silent. The gamemaster asks Gorgool's player to make a goal roll using his Wits characteristic and his Perform (lute) skill.

Gorgool's Wits rating is 6, and his Perform (Lute) rating is 7 (he's a talented boy). Thus, the goal roll would normally be 13. However, the gamemaster gleefully informs Gorgool's player that the task is a demanding one and levies a -4 penalty to Gorgool's roll: Gorgool's doing this off the cuff, he's a little drunk, and the host doesn't have that many virtues to sing about. The goal roll is thus 9.

Gorgool's player grits his teeth and makes the roll. Luckily, he scores an "8" -- a success. Consulting the Victory Chart, the player sees that 8 translates into two victory points -- okay, but not wonderful. Gorgool's performance will definitely not live in the annals of bardic history, but the gamemaster tells the player that Gorgool entertains the crowd, receives a small bag of coin tossed at him by a sentimental old fart of a noble, and catches the eye of a mildly appreciative, moderately attractive maiden.

Bonus Damage Dice

In activities such as combat, how well a combatant hits his target can greatly add to his weapon's lethality. The goal roll is made and the Victory Chart is consulted as usual, but victory points are now converted into "damage dice." These bonus dice are added to the weapon's dice (a knife may do three dice of damage, while a blaster may do seven).

Once the number of dice has been calculated, the damage roll is made. It is similar to a goal roll, but the goal number is always 13. Each success on the damage roll translates into one "damage point," directly applied against the target's Vitality (although armor or energy shields can often reduce the damage).

A player does not have to use the entire number of effect dice generated -- she may choose to "pull her punch" by using as few as one die. The task or weapon dice must still be used in full, however - it's impossible to "be gentle" with a greatsword!

Combat Example

Felix Decados is fencing with his rival, Estaban de Aragon of House Hazat. He thrusts his sword at the smirking lord. His Dexterity is 6 and his Melee skill is 7, for a goal number of 13. He rolls a "10", a success. This gives him (according to the Victory Chart) three victory points or bonus damage dice. His rapier does five dice, so he has a total of eight damage dice to roll.

He rolls damage and gets: 9, 13, 16, 2, 6, 19, 7, 1. Those dice which roll over "13" are discarded, leaving six successful dice, or six "damage points." Estaban better have some armor or an energy shield, otherwise, he's going to be hurting.

Summary

There are, of course, more details, including optional rules for those players seeking more complexity: martial arts actions, fencing actions, "accenting" rolls (pulling punches or giving it all you've got), and many more. Complete rules are provided in the Fading Suns rulebook, while additional helpful rules can be found in each Fading Suns supplement.