The Riddle of the Fading Suns

[greyorm]

I just recieved my TROS books (thanks Jake!) and besides indulgence in a sudden and growing addiction to Dungeon Siege that I blame on my gaming friends, I've been pawing through them in my few spare minutes.

Now, I recalled this morning that someone had once mentioned the idea of a Sci-Fi Riddle, and in conjunction with this, it occurred to me that universe of the Fading Suns might be an appropriate candidate to use with the TROS system.

The reason I considered this is because FS's main claim to fame was that it was a way to create, through gaming, a "passion play" experience. For the life of me, however, I could never figure out how it was supposed to actually do that -- I bought the book and, beyond the setting, it looked to be pretty bog-standard RPG design.

So, unfortunately, feeling that it was alot of undelivered promises, a high concept that failed to be so in design, the game was shelved -- though I pull it out occassionally and lovingly read the setting material.

Thus my question, what does everyone think? Does the Riddle fit the universe of Fading Suns well? What sorts of additions, alterations, or notations about the core rules would have to be made? (Particularly in how sorcery is conceived and handled -- given the realities of thaumaturgy, demonology, and psychic abilities, among others).

Most places are feudal and medieval technologically speaking, people still fight with swords and armor. The known galaxy is a feudal empire, surrounded by inscrutable aliens, savage enemies and barbarian states.

Comments?

[Matt Wilson]

I think that idea has been put forth before. You might want to do a thread search.

In any case, I think the skill packets would be easy to do, and there's been a ton of work done around here regarding modern firearms and such. The priorities map pretty well, considering the importance of social class in the setting.

If you wanted to try to stick close to FS canon, you'd need to revamp the magic system. Each school has a "cost" that might correllate pretty well to TROS's aging, so you wouldn't have to start entirely from scratch. And you'd need to create templates for the aliens, and come up with maybe new perks and flaws for the changed.

I was really into FS for a while but never played it much. Great color, lousy system. John Bridges' artwork is really evocative.

[greyorm]

Heya Matt,

I think that idea has been put forth before. You might want to do a thread search.

I did. Turned up one thing about personal energy shields. And some things about Dune.

I was really into FS for a while but never played it much. Great color, lousy system. John Bridges' artwork is really evocative.

I agree. Same problems for me with the game.

Thanks for the advice! I'll have to see if my players are willing to give it a shot, then do some conversions (and report about them here).

[montag]

FWIW, though I only played it once so far, I'd like to echo Matt's comment: great colour, interesting setting, but the system does nothing to bring about the style of play the colour text (Alustro(?)'s  journey?) suggests.

Thus my question, what does everyone think? Does the Riddle fit the universe of Fading Suns well? What sorts of additions, alterations, or notations about the core rules would have to be made? (Particularly in how sorcery is conceived and handled -- given the realities of thaumaturgy, demonology, and psychic abilities, among others).

I too once considered TROS ideal for FS, but I'm no longer so sure. To me, FS has an overall tone of "quiet desperation", "it's the end of the world ..." and so on, and I don't really see that in TROS. Sure, TROS isn't light-hearted, but AFAICT it works best for evoking a feeling of "grim resolve", "desperately putting one's life on the line against incredible odds ... and making it".
As such, colour wise FS sounds more like CoC to me and just because of that – admittedly weak – association, I'd probably tend more towards including a couple of ideas from Unknown Armies (Madness Meters; Fear, Rage, Noble Stimuli), switch to conflict resolution and possibly add some Drama Point mechanic.
Still, I'm terribly interested and looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

FWIW: Fadings Suns is supposed to be available for free next week at DriveThruRPG (dunno if "free of charge" offsets "bound by DRM, hence not free" in your book) and in the context of a search for a DUNE-like RPG I once googled up these two links – which probably are not that helpful for your purpose, but I wanted to mention them anyway:
http://storygame.free.fr/imperium/
french Dune-game, no idea if it's any good, don't speak french *g*
http://www.erinyes.org/gurps/dune/
GURPS-Dune

[Caz]

I think tros would be great for fs.  The feel of the game is what you make it.  I've messed with it a bit.  It takes almost no modification, only addition.  Except for the magic.  That's the one part I haven't figured out as well.  I'm considering making magic unplayable, ignoring it, or using it as is, cramming it into the fs world.

[jeffd]

I've thought of doing this conversion myself.

I think Riddle would work well for Fading Suns.  The FS system as it stands is pretty crappy - I wrote a review of it you can find somewhere in Actual Play.  That's a shame, because the setting of the game is really evocative.

JD