Space Opera d20: Which game is best?

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

What's the FS magic system like? How does it differ from 3e? Is it like Sovereign Stone?

Man, Holistic (publishers of FS) sure have bad distribution. I never even heard of them until those full page ads for prepainted minis in Dragon a few months back, and never heard about Fading Suns until recently on these boards...

 

[Castaigne]

You forgot: they're all bad and d20 hasn't worked for space opera so far at all.

Now, if someone can manage to get a d20 Lensman out, it might be a different story.

 

[hong]

Like someone joked above, Fading Suns is _VERY_ dune-ish.

Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that FS is Byzantium in space. Instead of an evil empire, you have a decadent empire. Haven't read Dune, but if it draws from the same sources, they'll naturally be similar to each other. There's only so many ways you can describe a decadent empire, after all.

Speaking of which, since FS is Byzantium in space, can you get baklava in FS?

 

[Tsyr]

Uhhhmmm...
It's sorta hard to explain the FS magic system, I'm not even totaly sure I quite understand it yet (Thankfully no need to deal with it in a Dune-ish setting unless I start whipping out some bene geserit or something...). It's sorta skill based at times, sorta wheel of time-ish at times... basicly you learn occult disciplines, which are individualy quite vaugue in their power but have a lot of flexibility, and how "well" you cast the spell determines how much you are able to do. You learn new disciplines as you rise in levels, but it's not a case of distinct power levels... The discipline you got at first level is never going to be "out dated" like most first-level wizard spells, etc...

 

[Desdichado]

I don't own Fading Suns, but I kinda like a mix of Dragonstar (vehicle rules rock Star Wars hard) and Star Wars, but in a custom setting. Maybe use Psionics as well instead of magic.

What really chaps my hide, though, is that Star Wars is having a revision already. The original book is only what; a year old? Year and a half? If they don't offer a PDF for just a few bucks that updates the old book to the new, I'm gonna be pissed.

 

[Zarrock God of Evil]

I don't own Fading Suns, but I kinda like a mix of Dragonstar (vehicle rules rock Star Wars hard) and Star Wars, but in a custom setting. Maybe use Psionics as well instead of magic.

What really chaps my hide, though, is that Star Wars is having a revision already. The original book is only what; a year old? Year and a half? If they don't offer a PDF for just a few bucks that updates the old book to the new, I'm gonna be pissed.

No way they'll do that mate....

-Zarrock

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

No way they'll do that mate....

-Zarrock

Oh, come on. You know WoTC isn't drooling at the thought of all the SW gamers forking over $40 for practically the same thing they paid for a year and a half ago, LOL. And for something WoTC should have got "right" the first time, if it hadn't been so rushed...

Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, though. I mean, on the other hand, it is a great way to suck new SW gamers in now that they know the problems are going to be fixed. And it is convenient to have all the errata and new rules in one place, under one cover (the core rulebook, where they belong). Would I feel cheated if I bought the first edition? Yes! But I didn't, and will probably buy the second ("revised") edition once the reviews are in.

WoTC is supposedly going to provide a free pdf of the errata, BTW.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, there's already an errata PDF. This would be an update PDF. Are there plans to do so? I'm not really expecting it, although I think it should be something I could expect.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Well, there's already an errata PDF. This would be an update PDF. Are there plans to do so? I'm not really expecting it, although I think it should be something I could expect.

I heard (and may be wrong) that the new pdf was going to have everything necessary to update SW1 with SW2 and ensure compatibility. The pdf will not have the new Ep.2 material (who cares, right?) or the excerpts from the other SW books (Dark Side, Alien Anthology, etc.).

 

[Desdichado]

OK, so it's supposed to fix the mechanics, but not add any of the new stuff. <sigh> Maybe that's as good as I can expect.