Farscape
Farscape is AEG's d20 system roleplaying game based on the SciFi Channel series of the same name. The series covers the travels of John Crichton, a human astronaut who is involuntarily propelled across the galaxy to an alien sector of space called the
uncharted territories, where he joins forces with a group of escaped alien prisoners in fleeing from a fleet of human-looking militants called the
peacekeepers aboard a living ship called Moya.
The
Farscape game has been a long time coming. AEG announced the game some time ago, but it has spent a long time in the hands of the licensing folks. It is finally here, but it comes on the eve of the disappointing news that the SciFi Channel intends to cancel the series.
A First Look
The
Farscape RPG is a 320 page hardcover book priced at $39.95. This is comparable to WotC's
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting.
The front cover depicts two of the show's main characters, the human astronaut John Crichton (portrayed by Ben Browder) and the sebacean (near human) officer Aeryn Sun (portrayed by Claudia Black.) The back cover has the typical cover blurb and a shot of the all of Moya's crew (well, as of the end of season 2; fans will realize that quite a bit has changed since then.)
The interior is color. The book features many stills from the series, as well as artists depictions (primarily for pictures of the races in the introductory section as well as the creatures in the lifeforms chapter.)
The body text is dense, similar to WotC products and other AEG d20 system hardbounds. Some header text is pleasant and readable, with a style similar to the show logo. However, the chapter headers and table titles use an alien looking font that is, unfortunately, very difficult to read. Finally, multiple tables in the book seem to be missing asterisked footnotes.
A Deeper Look
Note: The following review assumes you have at least a passing familiarity with the Farscape
series. The numerous details of the races and other setting elements are beyond the scope of this review.
The introduction and first four chapters of
Farscape are an introduction to the setting. The introduction is story showing the some of the show cast in what might be a typical
Farscape episode (or adveture). The first chapter is an overview of the first two seasons, convenient for folks new to the setting -- or folks like me, who miss a show now and then due to the weekly game being on the same night as the show.
The second chapter outlines personalities of the show. The third chapter outlines the major (non-mechanical) details of major races of the show. The fourth chapter describes several worlds of the
uncharted territories.
The fifth chapter (which begins on page 146), character creation, is the first sight of mechanics in the book. The handling of ability scores is similar to the d20 core rules. The first major deviation is that hit points are not used
per se. Instead, characters have values called
wound points and
control points.
Wound points perform a function similar to hit points, and like hp, they increase by rolling a number of dice equal to the character's level. The first difference is that the type of dice is not determined by the character's class. Rather, the character's race determines the die type, though there is a modifier to each dice derived from the character's class. Constitution modifies wound points just like hp.
The only difference in the way hp are handled in the system is that there are effects on the character other than death at zero wound points. When characters are reduced to a small portion of their original hp, they suffer side effects. Also, when a character loses half of their wound points in one shot, they must make a fortitude save or fall unconscious and start losing wound points similar to as if they were reduced below zero wound points. One unfortunate omission is that the rules do not mention what the DC of this fortitude save is supposed to be.
Control points are a new mechanic. They are accumulated like hp in that the dice used is determined by the character's class, though there are modifiers for race and the character's wisdom. Control points can be expended to add to dice rolls, temporarily gain a skill, take an extra action, or reroll dice rolls, as a means of giving the character a bit of heroism. It is also used when a character uses a power, special abilities available to priests and mystics.
The character races defined in the books are baniks, delvians, hynerians, ilanics, luxans, nebari, scarrans, sebaceans, sheyangs, tavleks, vorcarians, and zenetans. For the most part, the feel of the races was captured, with a few problems. The first thing that you notice is that many races use odd numbers for racial ability modifiers, with no good reason. It's not as if many of these races aren't significantly different from humans, and in general, the modifiers look to small for me. For example, the physically powerful scarrans (which tend to throw cast characters around like rag dolls) only have a +2 strength. Further scarrans, who are near immune to light weapons fire, only have a +2 natural armor bonus to show for it.
There are eleven character classes in
Farscape. The classes are mostly self-explanatory, but I'll throw in a few sample characters from the series: Aristocrat (Rygel), Commando (Aeryn), Diplomat, Mystic, Pirate, Priest (Zhaan), Rogue (Chiana), Scavenger, Scientist (John, Scorpius), Tech (Gilina), and Warrior (D'Argo, Crais, John). John Crichton is, of course, a multi-classed character. As you can see, the dynamics of the
Farscape series lend themselves well to a class-based system.
Commando and warrior are similar. A commando has more class skills and skill points, but a warrior has a better attack bonus progression and more bonus feats.
Similar to
Star Wars and
Spycraft,
Farscape characters receive a defense rating according to class and level. Like the first edition of the
Star Wars game, armor replaces the class defense modifier.
Farscape characters have an additional feature:
backgrounds. Backgrounds cost the character skill points (or a feat) and say a little about the character's history. A character can take up to two backgrounds, and they provide benefits similar to feats.
The skills used by
Farscape are similar to those in the d20 core rules, except for the addition of some skills and categories appropriate to the sf setting. Overall the skill descriptions seem well executed, but there is one choice that I found dubious. The game has a
negotiation skill in addition to the
diplomacy skill, which I find redundant.
Similarly, the feats use resemble those in the d20 core rules, adapted to the setting. Some of the new feats involve the futuristic weapons and technology, such as the
burstfire feat (allows the character to more quickly fire a burst with an automatic weapon) and
evasive manuevers (allows a pilot of a starship to evade incoming fire).
Powers are a new feature of the game. Powers represent the seemingly supernatural abilities exhibited by many creatures in the show. In the game, one gains powers as class abilities through the expenditure of control points. Powers require concentration checks in situations where the character may be distracted, and some powers cannot be used while injured. Powers allow characters to do things like plant suggestions, attack others, heal others, enhance senses, or defend against attacks, among other things.
The equipment chapter provides game statistics for many items from the show.
The combat system is similar to the d20 baseline, with a few features added that you may recognize from AEG's
Spycraft. Like
Spycraft, instead of using the "standard" and "attack" action dichotomy of the d20 core system,
Farscape uses full and half actions. Any character can make 2 half actions or a full action in a round.
This does lead to a little confusion, however. Unlike
Spycraft,
Farscape continues to use the iterative attacks used by the core rules. However, unlike the d20 core rules, there is no full attack action in
Farscape. It never says exactly when you can use your multiple attacks, but the implication is that you would use them in a normal attack action, which only takes a half action in
Farscape.
The combat chapter has rules for other situations as well that could come up in a
Farscape game. Rules are included for different environments (including space) as well as a simplified XP system that takes into account heroic actions. I am left a little confused by the XP rules, as little is said about how the simplified rules and the XP for actions and encounters are supposed to work together.
The
Farscape game has a ship construction and combat system. However, the construction system is a bit more like a character generation system than a typical construction system. Ships are defined by the typical Fine to Colossal scale used by creatures in the d20 system, though in this case it is relative to various starships. Fine ships are escape pods, where Colossal ships are command carriers (a slight hiccup in the table suggests that command carriers are only gargantuan, while later in the book they are listed as Colossal.) Stats are included for a number of different ships included in the series.
The combat system is tactical in nature, but otherwise fairly simple. The system utilized a hex map and relies on the underpinnings of the basic d20 combat system. The system looks fairly fast and fun, but one thing struck me as odd. When a ship take significant damage, the pilot of a ship must make a
Wisdom check to avoid a hull breach in the ship; what relevance the pilot's wisdom has I am uncertain.
The GM chapter provides a lot of the typical advice for GMing games, as well as some good insight to the elements of a campaign that would capture the
Farscape "feel." The only thing I might want for here is, perhaps, a list of starting situations and adventure ideas. As fun as the
Farscape series is, the situation seems rather unique. I am sure if I was running this game, I could use some inspiration on coming up with who the PCs are and what they are doing.
The last two chapters of the book cover creatures that the characters might run into in the uncharted territories, as well as NPC statblocks, including stock NPCs of various archetypes as well as the major characters of the show as of season two. The stock NPCs are assumed to be sebacean; the GM will have to do the footwork if another race is desired.
The cast NPCs are interesting for any gaming fan of the show. As a fan of the show, I naturally have quibbles. First, Scorpius is only given a 9 strength. This is patently ridiculous. Scorpius regularly bats around humans (er, sebaceans) like rag dolls in the show. Second (and much more minor), I always pictured John and Aeryn having a higher pilot score than +4 and +5 respectively.
Conclusions
Farscape is a graphically impressive product, which goes a long ways to recapture the feel of the show.
Mechanically, the game has a few warts, but is still a very good effort. The racial ability score modifiers should probably be higher, some classes are out of balance, and the combat system would work better if you adopted some of SWRCRB's armor conventions.
Farscape seems a bit more rules light than most d20 SF games I have seen, and would be more accomodating to a fast-and-loose type of gaming experience.
-Alan D. Kohler
