Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Fading Suns d6 Melee Weapons

Most melee weapons in Fading Suns are constructed of hephaestium as normal steel weapons would harmlessly bounce off modern combat armour. Also, the incredible strength and hardness of the alloy allows it to hold a far keener edge than normal steel blades. Of course, peasants and yeomen would be limited to owning steel weapons, which work equally well against lightly armoured opponents. Assume the same stats for steel weapons against opponents wearing plasteel, polymer knit and leather. Vibro-blades cannot be constructed of steel. Below are listed the most common melee weapons including damage and difficulty of purchase.

sword, dueling +2D E
vibro-sword, dueling +3D M

sword, broad +2D+1 E
vibro-sword, broad +3D+1 M
sword, two-handed +3D+1 E
vibro-sword, two-handed +4D+1 M
battleaxe +3D+2 E
vibro-battleaxe +5D M
dagger +1D VE
vibro-dagger +2D M
cestus +1D E

truncheon +1D+1 E
flux sword +6D VD

The cestus is employed using the Brawling skill, rather than Melee Combat.

The flux sword is based on the same technology as the blaster, consisting of a magnetically-contained "blade" of plasma. Like the blaster, it incorporates Vautech and the secrets to its construction are known to very few. It does energy damage.


Fading Suns d6 Armour and Energy Shields

There are five materials used in the manufacture of various types of armour used in the Fading Suns. They are leather, polymer knit (i.e. Kevlar), plasteel, hephaestium and ceramsteel. Of these, only the first three are commonly available to average citizens of the Known Worlds. Hephaestium is popular among minor nobles and elite infantry units, while ceramsteel is limited to only the wealthy and powerful. Heavy armour is often baroque and anachronistic in design as the Known Worlds nobility have adopted many of the trappings of the High Middle Ages period of Holy Terra. Armour is rated according to how much damage resistance it offers. The armour rating is added to the character's Strength attribute value as well as any positive or negative modifiers based on special abilities or disadvantages to give a damage resistance total. I have created a somewhat more detailed rating system based on three types of damage; melee, ballistic and energy. Below is a list of available armour types and the damage resistance each provides as well as purchase difficulty.

padded leather jacket +1D/-/- VE
polymer knit vest and helmet +1D/+2D/- E
plasteel and polymer knit armour +2D/+2D+1/+1D E
hephaestium breastplate and mail +3D/+3D/+2D M
hephaestium field plate +3D+1/+3D+1/+2D+1 D
ceramsteel battle armour +4D/+3D+2/+3D+1 VD

Energy shields were exceedingly common in the Second Republic, used not only by military and security forces, but by anyone engaged in dangerous activities, even recreational pursuits. So, even though the knowhow to construct energy shields is limited to very few armoursmiths, there are many units still around and repair of energy shields is fairly routine. There are two types of energy shields, dueling and battle. The former cannot be used with any armour heavier than padded leather because the field is generated very close to the body and heavier armour disrupts it. This type of shield is very popular among the nobility who may, at any time, face a dueling challenge. Battle shields are tuned to generate a deeper energy field and can, therefore, be used with armour. They are much rarer and more difficult to find since elite military units and warlike noblemen tend to hoard them.

Energy shields respond to ballistic and energy attacks by creating a localized repulsion field. As such, they respond quite differently to different types of attacks. They provide no protection against lasers, because photons are without mass. Melee attacks can, with sufficient finesse, be made to bypass energy shields. It is only possible with piercing weapons such as swords and daggers and requires a Difficult (against dueling shields) or Very Difficult (against battle shields) Melee Combat attack roll to succeed. Vibro-blades reduce that to Moderate and Difficult respectively. Also, Brawling attacks can penetrate energy shields unimpeded. Of course, sufficiently powerful attacks can overcome an energy shield and may burn it out. Below are the damage resistance contributions of the two types of energy shields.

dueling shield +3D/+3D/+2D+1 M
battle shield +4D/+4D+1/+3D VD

Note: The maximum defense resistance before negative modifiers, Character Points or Fate Points are applied is 6D. Of this, no more than 4D can come from STR + lift skill. The remainder is derived from armour, energy and/or psychic shields.

-Rognar-

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Fading Suns d6 Guns

What follows is a list of ranged weapons which fall under the Firearms skill. After the name of the weapon is the damage, Short/Medium/Long range brackets, the no. of shots/rounds in a standard magazine and the difficulty of purchase. Note that shotgun damage decreases with each range bracket.

Handguns:
Light pistol 3D 10/20/50 8 E
Medium pistol 4D 10/20/50 15 M
Heavy pistol 4D+2 10/20/50 8 M
Holdout pistol 2D+1 8/15/30 3 M
Sub-machine gun (A) 4D 10/20/40 30 D
Laser pistol 3D+1 10/30/100 10 M
Palm laser 2D 8/25/50 3 D
Blaster pistol 5D 10/20/40 10 VD

Longarms:
Light rifle 3D 20/80/200 10 VE
Medium rifle 4D+1 20/100/300 10 E
Heavy rifle 5D+1 20/100/500 8 M
Assault rifle (A) 5D+1 20/40/300 30 D

Machine gun (A) 6D 20/50/500 100 VD
Light shotgun 3D/2D/1D+1 10/20/40 5 VE
Heavy shotgun 4D+2/3D+1/2D+1 10/20/40 5 E
Laser rifle 4D 20/100/1000 10 D

Pulse laser rifle 5D 20/100/1000 5 VD
Blaster rifle 6D+1 15/30/100 10 VD

Heavy blaster rifle 8D 15/30/150 H
Flamegun 6D 8/15/30 10 D

Attack Modifiers: Att Mod/Dmg Mod
Single Shot 0/0
Burst (3 rd) +1D/+1D
Full Auto (10 rd) +2D/+2D
Sweep (10 rd) +2D/-3D

Only weapons with (A) designation can perform Burst, Full Auto and Sweep options. Sweep attacks affect up to 1D targets within a 45 degree arc in front of attacker. Point Blank range (0-3 m) gives a Diff mod of -5, Short is 0, Medium is +5 and Long is +10. The use of a scope gives a +2 bonus to attacks at Medium and Long range
.

The pulse laser uses a special capacitor to build up more power. It uses twice as much energy for each shot and will overheat on a critical failure requiring a round to cool down.

A word on blasters, in Fading Suns, they more closely resemble the Phased Plasma Guns (PPGs) of Babylon 5 than the blasters of Star Wars. They incorporate some Vautech in their design and are, therefore, difficult for most weaponsmiths to even understand, let alone manufacture.

The flamegun is the preferred weapon of the Avestites. Though clumsy and heavy, its purifying flames cleanse the sins of the wicked as it sends them to the Light. Anyone hit by a flamegun takes an additional 4D of fire damage the following round.

-Rognar-

Monday, May 25, 2009

Fading Suns and d6 Space Metaphysics Pt.1

The Space d6 system doesn't have alternate forms of supernatural power the way Fading Suns does with Psi and Theurgy. All such powers are wrapped up under the banner of Metaphysics. Therefore, I will not create a Theurgist template as distinct from the Psychic. Such a distinction can exist in game terms by tinkering with the difficulty modifiers of manipulations. Fading Suns describes psychic powers as being more personal, while theurgical powers are more communal. So, I will add a new target size aspect, namely "Self", and give it a difficulty modifier of 0 for psychics and +2 for theurgists. The current "Person" target size aspect will apply to a single individual, other than the one creating the manipulation. "Person" and all other target size aspects denoting other people will have a difficulty modifier +1 higher for psychics. I will also make the difficulty modifier for range "Self" -2 (the same as "Touching") for psychics. It will remain 0 for theurgists. Beyond these changes, the Psychic template can be applied to Theurgists as well since they are subjected to the same restrictions and limitations as Psychics.

-Rognar-

Fading Suns d6 character template 4 - The Psychic

The Psychic template is more complicated than the previous ones provided, because psychic powers in general are outlawed by the Church. However, it is possible for psychics to operate somewhat freely if they submit to the Church and work on its behalf. This situation can be accounted for by the inclusion of appropriate Disadvantages in the template. It should be noted that most Church psychics are either Amaltheans or Eskatonics fighting the Symbiots. The different options are described below.

Attributes:
Agility 2D
Strength 2D
Knowledge 2D
Mechanical 2D
Perception 3D
Technical 2D
Metaphysics 3D

Advantages:
none

Disadvantages:

Enemy (R2) (Outlaw psychic)
Devotion (R2) (Church psychic)

Skills:

Outlaw psychic
channel 3D

sense 1D
transform 1D
sneak 2D


Church psychic (Amalthean)
channel 1D
sense 2D
transform 2D
medicine 2D

Church psychic (Eskatonic)
channel 2D
sense 2D
transform 1D
survival 1D
sneak 1D

Friday, May 22, 2009

Fading Suns d6 character template 3 - The Knave

One more straightforward template, the Knave:

Attributes:
Agility 3D
Strength 3D
Knowledge 2D
Mechanical 2D
Perception 4D
Technical 2D
Metaphysics 0D

Advantages:
none

Disadvantages:
none

Skills:
con 2D
forgery 1D
sneak 1D
streetwise 1D

Fading Suns d6 character template 2 - The Living Weapon

In keeping with getting the easy ones out of the way first, the second character template I will create is the Living Weapon. The d6 system doesn't have elaborate rules for martial arts, but I have often found such rule systems to be tiresome anyway. The player can add whatever colour he so desires to his attacks without requiring a rule. So here we have, the Living Weapon:

Attributes:
Agility 4D
Strength 3D
Knowledge 2D
Mechanical 2D
Perception 3D
Technical 2D
Metaphysics 0D

Advantages:
none

Disadvantages:
none

Skills:
brawling 2D
dodge 1D
acrobatics 1D
running 1D

Fading Suns d6 character template 1 - The Noble

The d6 system utilizes the concept of character templates to construct any sort of character. This is quite handy as it allows a starting point from which to flesh out a build and it allows a GM to enforce a certain amount of conformity on the characters in his campaign. In light of this, I will be creating a series of templates for the standard Fading Suns character types. Not wanting to completely tie the hands of the players, however, there will be a certain number of dice left open to allow some customization.

A starting character has 18 dice to spend on attributes. The attributes are Agility, Strength, Knowledge, Mechanical, Perception, Technical and Metaphysics. Typically, only Psychics and Theurgists will assign dice to Metaphysics. The maximum allowable for human characters in any attribute is 5 dice. There are also 7 dice to spend on skills and advantages. This small number of additional dice represents a certain level of specialization within the larger subset of skills associated with each attribute. In each template, I will assign 16 of the 18 attribute dice and 5 of the 7 skill dice. The remaining two in each category will be left to the player to assign. The player will also have the option of taking up to 3 dice in disadvantages which can then be assigned as desired, keeping in mind that no skill can have more than 3 dice to start. Additionally, a die can be divided up into pips. There are 3 pips to a die and can be assigned as either a +1 and a +2 modifier or 3 +1 modifiers. So, let us proceed with the first template, the Noble.

Attributes:
Agility 3D
Strength 3D
Knowledge 2D
Mechanical 2D
Perception 4D
Technical 2D
Metaphysics 0D

Advantages:
Authority (R1)
Wealth (R1)


Disadvantages:
none

Skills:
House Hawkwood
command 1D
persuasion 1D
melee combat 1D

House Hazat
command 1D
tactics 1D
melee combat 1D

House Decados
con 1D
persuasion 1D
melee combat 1D

House Li Halan
artist 1D
persuasion 1D
willpower 1D

House al-Malik
artist 1D
persuasion 1D
sneak 1D

d6 Space Metaphysics

WEG's d6 Space game system treats psionic effects differently from most other games I've tried. It is somewhat freeform, allowing the player to construct an effect from scratch. Each component of the effect has a difficulty modifier assigned to it and the sum of all these modifiers determines the overall difficulty. That difficulty is then compared to one of three metaphysical skills (the term "psionics" is not used, in favour of "metaphysics") which most closely describes the effect. The skills are channel (used for physical attacks, defense and other related effects), sense (anything related to detection) and transform (a catch-all skill that describes anything not covered by the other two skills, such as healing, telekinesis and teleportation).

-Rognar-

Friday, May 15, 2009

Fading Suns Campaign - The Race for Aspiration

The Merchant League has acquired a jumpkey to a Lost World deep in Kurgan space. Information acquired by the spy who stole the key indicates that the planet is inhospitable and uninhabited, but that an old Second Republic research facility exists there. The Emperor is known to have a jumpkey to the system and it is highly probable that the Caliph has one too. Given that this world is in Kurgan space, it is unclear why the Caliph hasn't already secured it, but we do know that House Hazat and the Avestites are vigorously pushing the Emperor to authorize a major crusade to take the system before the Caliph does. This could precipitate a major war over a planet which may not have anything of value on it. We need a small group to covertly travel into the Caliphate and find a way to get to this newly uncovered system. Find out why the Kurgans haven't yet claimed it and what, if anything, remains of the facility on the planet. This is a joint League/al-Malik venture of utmost secrecy. We are looking for highly-capable volunteers to undertake this dangerous mission.

-Rognar-

The Campaign Blog

This blog will cover all aspects of my new project, a conversion of the d6 Space game from West End Games (WEG) for the Fading Suns campaign setting of Holistic Design Inc. (HDI), and the campaign that will follow. Look to this site for future updates.

-Rognar-