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Fading Suns
Fading Suns is a future fantasy game of epic adventure and high tragedy. It's far-future setting allows stories from many fantasy, horror, post-apocalypse, and more. Characters wield swords and blasters and fly starships to lost worlds, ancient ruins, verdant jungles or blasted wastelands. They encounter conniving nobles, vain priests, cunning merchants, bizarre alien creatures, evil occultists, and bodiless entitites from across gulfs of space and time. In other words, Fading Suns has everything a roleplaying game setting could possibly need. The Second Edition hardcover rulebook includes new rules adjustments based on the extensive playtesting and suggestions by players from all over the world, as well as new history, psychic powers and rites, and extensive equipment rules.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 11, 2015
It's kind of like Dune and Mass Effect had a baby. Except this was published in the 90s, so it's more of an absentee father to ME. But then ... well. The metaphor breaks down.
The point is, you have jump-gate technology from a prior starfaring race, plus a bunch of noble houses and a big nasty religious organization and some guilds. And an emperor. There's no Spice, and instead of Reapers, all the stars are dying simultaneously. But whatever.
I'm not hugely impressed. The book spends a lot of time on the history of the setting, and it's just not that compelling. Big oppressive churches aren't a lot of fun for me in RPGs. And there's a lot of time spent on the noble houses that just bores me. It gets points for an interesting backstory, I guess, but I don't feel like I'm actually getting the setting as a read. This book doesn't make me care.
I dunno. For now, it'll go on my "meh, maybe eventually, if I run out of other stuff to play" list.
The point is, you have jump-gate technology from a prior starfaring race, plus a bunch of noble houses and a big nasty religious organization and some guilds. And an emperor. There's no Spice, and instead of Reapers, all the stars are dying simultaneously. But whatever.
I'm not hugely impressed. The book spends a lot of time on the history of the setting, and it's just not that compelling. Big oppressive churches aren't a lot of fun for me in RPGs. And there's a lot of time spent on the noble houses that just bores me. It gets points for an interesting backstory, I guess, but I don't feel like I'm actually getting the setting as a read. This book doesn't make me care.
I dunno. For now, it'll go on my "meh, maybe eventually, if I run out of other stuff to play" list.
January 6, 2019
The Dune you have when you're not having a Dune. Ambitious high space opera RPG originating from the '90s, and somewhat overwritten and rules-heavy as games from that period tend to be. A cool, dense, baroque neo-feudal setting is the chief appeal, but it's somewhat hobbled by the lack of focus thst comes from trying to be all things to all players. Still, a good GM and a cohesive group could work wonders with it and if "Dune but actually playable" appeals, this is probably your go-to.
Maybe run it in GURPS, though.
Maybe run it in GURPS, though.
August 21, 2015
A wonderful "sand box" rpg setting. It can be used to actually play everything u like! A space opera without limits. From dark fantasy or horror tentacles to space battles and cybernetic enhcanments. Interesting factions and houses to begin with that set a solid base to start whatever kind of story u love to!
November 27, 2012
Good rpg system, rich background, but with average to good rules
October 26, 2019
A favorite of mine since it first came out (yeah, I have a copy of the first edition, too), Fading Suns has so much that I love, which makes it so frustrating that I have had such a hard time getting others to enjoy it as much as I do. It's the game I've probably run the most, and definitely for the longest continuous time (about two years of mostly weekly sessions). But it's also a game that's produced some of my most disappointing failures as a game master. So, it's complicated.
I've been going back and reading some of my old favorites lately, and had to take this one off the shelf. And, like when I first read it, my head nearly exploded with ideas the whole time I was reading. Campaigns and characters, story arcs and new worlds...The game gets my creative juices flowing.
The setting is a bit kitchen sink Science Fiction. It's a bit Star Wars, more than a little Dune, a few dashes of Medieval Europe, even some Warhammer 40,000. That can probably make it overwhelming. However, it's also the kind of game you can fit to your style. Want to run a game about powerful lords and ladies forging interstellar empires? OK. Want to run a game set in the brutal shadow of war? Go for it. Want something with the paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Thing? This has you covered. What about a Western-styled game about a frontier town? Yup. The game I've been wanting to run for some time would be about peasants on a lost world, who explore the region around their village after something bad happens to the local lord. It might involve them finding a powerful ship and going off on a Blake's 7 type adventure, or it might be about taking over for the lord and making a better land. I figure, once I set up the pieces, it's up to the players how they should fall.
Anyway, the system is kinda meh. The second edition improved on some of the issues that were in the first, but it's still only OK. The basic mechanics aren't too difficult, but things can get clunky, especially in combat. My memory, which has clouded over the last 20 years, is of just skipping a lot of the extra crunch and using basic roles to cover most things. If I were to run it again, depending on the feel I'd want, I'd probably go with either Basic Role-Playing (Call of Cthulhu) or WaRP (Over the Edge). I once played in an EXTREMELY short-lived game where the GM was using Everway, and I thought that was really fascinating.
One of the game's biggest strengths is also its biggest weakness. It's not based on an existing property. It's similar to a lot of stuff, and can capture the vibe of those things very well, but it's not tied to them directly. I really like that, as I might want to run a Dune-like game without having to tie things slavishly to the original source material, or maybe I want something more like Star Wars, but don't want 40 years of baggage. However, one of the things I kept running into was players who, in their own words, didn't really 'get' the setting. Without direct books or movies to point them toward, I had a hard time selling it. Much harder than I expected, since again, the setting isn't that far removed from dozens of popular properties.
I highly recommend this for Science Fiction and Space Opera fans. Hopefully one day, I'll run this game again.
I've been going back and reading some of my old favorites lately, and had to take this one off the shelf. And, like when I first read it, my head nearly exploded with ideas the whole time I was reading. Campaigns and characters, story arcs and new worlds...The game gets my creative juices flowing.
The setting is a bit kitchen sink Science Fiction. It's a bit Star Wars, more than a little Dune, a few dashes of Medieval Europe, even some Warhammer 40,000. That can probably make it overwhelming. However, it's also the kind of game you can fit to your style. Want to run a game about powerful lords and ladies forging interstellar empires? OK. Want to run a game set in the brutal shadow of war? Go for it. Want something with the paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Thing? This has you covered. What about a Western-styled game about a frontier town? Yup. The game I've been wanting to run for some time would be about peasants on a lost world, who explore the region around their village after something bad happens to the local lord. It might involve them finding a powerful ship and going off on a Blake's 7 type adventure, or it might be about taking over for the lord and making a better land. I figure, once I set up the pieces, it's up to the players how they should fall.
Anyway, the system is kinda meh. The second edition improved on some of the issues that were in the first, but it's still only OK. The basic mechanics aren't too difficult, but things can get clunky, especially in combat. My memory, which has clouded over the last 20 years, is of just skipping a lot of the extra crunch and using basic roles to cover most things. If I were to run it again, depending on the feel I'd want, I'd probably go with either Basic Role-Playing (Call of Cthulhu) or WaRP (Over the Edge). I once played in an EXTREMELY short-lived game where the GM was using Everway, and I thought that was really fascinating.
One of the game's biggest strengths is also its biggest weakness. It's not based on an existing property. It's similar to a lot of stuff, and can capture the vibe of those things very well, but it's not tied to them directly. I really like that, as I might want to run a Dune-like game without having to tie things slavishly to the original source material, or maybe I want something more like Star Wars, but don't want 40 years of baggage. However, one of the things I kept running into was players who, in their own words, didn't really 'get' the setting. Without direct books or movies to point them toward, I had a hard time selling it. Much harder than I expected, since again, the setting isn't that far removed from dozens of popular properties.
I highly recommend this for Science Fiction and Space Opera fans. Hopefully one day, I'll run this game again.
August 6, 2023
Un juego bastante redondo que acaba siendo más que la suma de sus partes. Si bien es una suma de pastiches (Dune, WH40K, Fundación, la estética y la concepción de diseño de los juegos de rol de los 90, que pretendían ser "narrativos") el conjunto consigue, sobre todo a medida que va acumulando suplementos y profundidad (algo que ya se ve dado que esta es una segunda edición) se convierte en algo propio y bastante único, y el manual deja muy claro que hay realmente un rico y complejo mundo en el que sumergirse, del que este básico no es más que rascar la superficie.
El juego va ya por su cuarta edición que no he leído aún (Fading Suns - Universe Book) que introduce, entiendo, grandes cambios tanto en reglas como en la ambientación, en la que han transcurrido tantos años como en el mundo real desde la aparición del juego. Sin embargo, esta edición creo que ha envejecido bien, y la hemos disfrutado mucho en el más de un año que llevamos jugando una campaña. Muy recomendable, puede llamarse clásico.
El juego va ya por su cuarta edición que no he leído aún (Fading Suns - Universe Book) que introduce, entiendo, grandes cambios tanto en reglas como en la ambientación, en la que han transcurrido tantos años como en el mundo real desde la aparición del juego. Sin embargo, esta edición creo que ha envejecido bien, y la hemos disfrutado mucho en el más de un año que llevamos jugando una campaña. Muy recomendable, puede llamarse clásico.
September 8, 2025
Loved the setting more than the passion-play game design. But I LOVED the setting. Because it seemed more human than whatever 40k gave us and because I love the idea of the Holy Roman Empire IN SPACE.
November 6, 2018
Il s'agit du livre de base (en anglais) de mon jeu de rôles de science-fiction préféré.
August 12, 2019
Don't remember much of the game system for this one, but I do remember that I absolutely loved the setting. It's like the dark ages (the church, the inquisition, swords, etc.) in spaaaaace!
April 17, 2024
The rules organisation made me depressed.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews