Character Creation: Fading Suns

Like an old galaxy tattoo.  

The Game: Fading Suns
The publisher: Holistic Designs
Degree of familiarity: Not a lot. I played it once at...Origins, I think? It was a few years back. I remember that the GM had more familiarity with the d20 rules than the real original rules, but that we didn't want no steekin' d20 rules. I remember enjoying the game and pounding the hell out of aliens with telekinesis.
Books required: Just the core, which is on my shelf though I can't remember where I got it. 

 
God damn, there are a lot of supplements for this game.

Anyway, Fading Suns is a sci-fi game including magic (theurgy), psi powers, aliens, and swordplay. In the future, the stars are going out, and the Church blames that ever-present enemy, "sin." Technology is evil...wait, what? Yeah, the Church decided sometime back that tech was a bad thing, but that the noble houses could use it, so as to take the burden off the rest of us poor peasants. The merchant leagues, of course, actually have the best figs, and among the three of them, the nobles, merchants and priesthood call the shots.

There are jumpgates on most of the known worlds, left there by ancient civilizations. You can travel offworld, but most people don't. The system is quite feudal, and despite the high-space setting, most people live fairly low tech. You could insert a reference to Firefly any old time, and it's not too far off the mark, though this is a much more high-fantasy setting, obviously.

Fading Suns isn't a White Wolf game, but it reads like one. There's a lot of dense history - it's not as dry as Mage: The Awakening, but neither is desert sand, of course. Fading Suns is quite readable, there's just a lot of it. But for all that, there's an awesome little summary of the known worlds and a full description of one planet (Pandemonium). This game definitely says "run me" to me.

And, as I mentioned a few posts back, I have a character concept. A priest.

Yeah, you read that right.

Step One: Formulate Character Concept. My character was a guy from Cadavus. Cadavus is one of the poorer planets in the Known Worlds, but has a number of monasteries, and they maintain historical records going back centuries. My character was an avid churchgoer from a very young age, and learned that arguments over "dogma" bore a very strong resemblance to "making this shit up as you go." And he was good at that. Any given argument over what the Pancreator wanted or would or would not approve of basically cooked down to who could remember the obscure quotes from the Prophet's texts in a pinch, and interpret the events of the world(s) in a manner consistent with those quotes without sounding like a boob. And so he took holy orders, because some folks thought he was gifted with divine insight. Turns out, Amat Lee is just a really, really good bullshitter.

Now, does that mean he doesn't believe? He doesn't think about it much. Everyone believes, and it's not safe to profess un-belief, so he worries more about answering the questions that people pose to him. He did his schooling on Cadavus, as much as he could, and then got shipped to Byzantium Secundus to take his vows. After that, he asked to become mendicant, traveling the Known Worlds in search of the Prophet's wisdom. Made a very convincing argument as to why he should be granted special status. And off he went, into the black.

Amat is searching for something that's really true. He would love to be enlightened, to have a real religious experience, but in his heart, he's upset - offended - by how stupid everyone acts in the name of "the Pancreator." The Inquisition kills people. People live in fear of technology, when it's what allowed us to reach the stars. We slaughter alien races and claim that God told us to. And when the proles need justification, they look to men like Amat Lee. He just wants one sign from God that all that he's doing is worthwhile, because he has thousands of arguments saying that it is.

Step Two: Character Role. This is easy: Amat's an Urth Orthodox priest.

Step Three: Select Characteristics. I get 20 points to divide up between my characteristics. Actually, first, I set my Spirit Characteristics. These are arranged into pairs, and I pick one half to be primary. Well, because Amat is human, the Human/Alien split has to be 3/0. For Introvert/Extrovert, I'll go 1/3; Amat's in his element among people. Passion/Calm is 1/3. Amat wishes he were more passionate. Faith/Ego...well, here could go either way. I'll make Faith primary. Amat wants to believe, but he doesn't want to believe in stupid things. He wants the true glory of God, and thinks it's really out there somewhere.

OK, now, I do the 20 points in other Characteristics, and they all start at 3. 8 is the max, and there are six of them. Let's see. I want Wits and Perception to be high, so I'll put five points in each for scores of 8. I'll put three into Tech, so that Amat has a chance of learning Tech stuff (I might also want cybernetics later). I'll put two into Endurance and Strength, and three into Dexterity. There we go.

Step Four: Select Skills. Some Skills are natural, which means you get a free rating, which I like. Some are learned, which also makes sense. I get 30 points to divvy up into Skills.

I'll put three into Charm; Amat's a great talker. I'll put two into Impress, three into Observe and one into Sneak. That leaves me with jack and shit for combat, but I'll get freebie points later. On to Learned Skills, with 21 left to spend.

Obviously I want Academia, and I'll sink 3 points there. Definitely want Bureaucracy; 3 points. I'll put 2 into Empathy and 1 into Focus. I'll take several Read Skills: Latin (2 points), Urthish (2 points) and Urthtech (1 point; in the future; 1337speak is a language). I'll put 4 into Debate and 3 into Oratory, and that's my 21 points.

Step Five: Benefices. I get 10 points here to buy lots of crazy shit, including stuff like psi and theurgy. Let's see. I'll take Ordained, obviously. I want to be pretty high up, so I'll take 9 points, giving me the rank of Priest. I'll take the Affliction: Dark Secrets. His dark secret is that he doesn't really believe, and since there are people are who can read minds, that's dangerous. I'd call that 3 points worth. That gives me 4 points to spend, and I'll dump 2 into Secrets (Church lore and history) and 2 into Retinue (he has a scribe/record-keeper with him at all times).

Step Six: Spend Extra Points. I get 40 of these puppies. I can raise anything on the sheet, and I'm thinking Skills need some attention, but I want to look at Blessings first.

I want Shrewd (+2 Wits when fast-talking). That's 2 points. I'll take 2 points in Reputation (Famous); people know him as a greater interpreter of Church dogma. I'll spend 3 and raise my Alien to 1, because that then allows cybernetics. Amat wants to remember everything he's heard, so he has an audio recorder implanted. That costs me 3 more points, and I've got 30 left to spend. Incidentally, the cyber gives me a mild stigma. There's always a slight crackle of static in the air around Amat, especially when there's a lull in conversation.

I want more Skills, like I said. And they're one point each, oh lordy. I'll buy up Oratory and Debate to 8, which costs me 9. I'll buy Lore (Theology), which I can't believe I missed earlier, that saps away 8 more. 14 left. Guess I'd better do something about the fact that I can't fight. I'll buy Melee up to 6 (three points), and buy Parry, Thrust and Flat of the Blade (7 points total).

Four points remaining. I'll put 2 points into Speak Latin, and two points into Curious (I get +2 Extrovert when seeing something new).

My Vitality is 5 + my Endurance (5), so 10. I don't have a Wyrd rating.

And that's it. Neato!