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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008667" data-attributes="member: 18387">Fading Suns d20 is well portrayed by its front cover.  In a few words it is Gothic, Survivalist, Feudal, Declining Renaissance Period in Space.  It distinguishes itself well and the whole manual exudes character.  Overall the layout is well done with a good number of illustrations to break the words up.  The quality of the illustrations are of above average quality. The following is a review of the manual on a Chapter basis:Alustro's Journal:  Aeolus SolarisA solid short story that quickly brings the reader into the world of Fading Suns. IntroductionHigh level run-down of the game and the various themes it deals with.  It describes itself predominantly as a "Futuristic Passion Play".Chapter One:  The UniverseA history of the Fading Suns Universe from the rise of mankind to the stars, rise of the First Republic, discovering the first Jumpgate that enabled them to travel huge distances, encountering of other alien races, development of the present religion, the rise of the Second Republic, its decline, the present being the recent unification of the known worlds by the Emperor Alexius.The chapter also describes the different Houses serving under the Emperor, sects of the Church, different Guilds under the banner of the Merchant League, and the history of different PC alien races.I found this chapter to be a rather dry read and hard going due to its dull exposition.  It is like attending a History class.Chapter Two:  CharactersNuts and bolts of character creation being PC races, and classes.  Races include the Ur-Obun and Ur-Ukar (decendents of a mythical god-like alien race who left the Jumpgate technology behind and has disappeared for thousands of years), and Vorox (six legged furry beasts who are physically powerful).Classes include the Beastfriend, Brother Battle, Guilder, Knave, Living Weapon, Noble, Priest, Psychic, Soldier, Starwolf (space barbarian), Techie, and the Theurgist.Interestingly the Priest cannot cast spells!  That belongs in the province of the Theurgist.  Rather the Priest, like the Noble, has a lot of options as they level up, to gain Bonus Social Feats which includes advancing in status.  A very good chapter overall.  The classes are well balanced.  Brother Battle however stands out slightly as more powerful.  Powerful fighting abilities coupled with spells.  For all those Prestige Class enthusiasts out there, you are going to be disappointed as there are none in this manual.Chapter Three:  SkillsNew uses for old skills, and new skills including Academia, Arts, Drive, Occultcraft, Starship Gunnery, Use Artifact, and Use Think Machine (Computer).Standard fare but suitable for the setting.Chapter Four:  FeatsA whole load of new feats.  Again standard fare but suitable for the setting.Chapter Five:  EquipmentA lot of interesting equipment ranging from medieval weapons to high tech weaponary.  It is relatively hard to get high tech equipment as they are progressively rare and few people know how to maintain them now.  The flavour of the equipment is well done blending medieval with technology such as Mercurium Full-Plate.We get given stats of starships and vehicles but are not provided with rules for such combat which is a little frustrating and a let down of the manual.  However, the rules could be derived by the reader by extrapolation of existing information.Chapter Six:  Occult PowersSpells / Psychic Abilities work in a very different way.  They are more like skills with a level prerequsite and you have to level it up like a skill.  Higher levels of applications of a Spells / Psychic Abilities require the overcoming of harder DC's.I also found the huge variety of spells in D&D to be too much with not enough offsetting liabilities for its use.  Here however, spells/psychic abilities are far fewer but their uses are very flexible.  They are more to add an occult element than a major area of the game.  The danger of their use is very well done and flavoursome.  For example, use of psychic abilities for evil purposes could awaken an "evil twin" in your psyche.  Enforces and complements the religious overtones of occult usage.An area of magic not covered (presumably to be covered in another sourcebook) is Antinomy which deals with attaining power via pacts with dark demonic entities.Chapter Seven:  GamemasteringThis chapter is a bit of a let down with no advice on how to gamemaster in Fading Suns.  (The original Fading Suns rulebook with the Victory Point system does this very well but this is totally missing from this version.)  What is here is a listing of important NPC's and organisations, some monsters, and ways of awarding experience.Appendix:  PlanetsA listing of some planets in the known worlds of Fading Suns and brief descriptions of each.  Informative but dull.In summary I found the manual very atmospheric and achieves in distinguishing itself as a product from the mass of d20 worlds out in the market.  I would recommend it to people who like the idea of adventuring in space but still want the elements of fantasy.  This products merges the two very well in a seamless fashion.</blockquote>

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