The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Well this is my first review of a game here so hello. Some of you may have heard of or meet me at conventions here on the West coast. John Polack yep thats me the smooze master as one of my friends calls me! :-)

I have been playing RPG's for 15yrs now and I have seen good ones as well as bad ones and let me say that the D20 system so far has been good to the RPG world!

Okay that off my chest! Fading Suns D20: the Basics: D20 system for the Fading suns game - as with all D20 licensed products you will need the core rulebooks 1&2.

The cover: Brom no need to say more! Excellent ! Inside: Well done all space is used and there is no silly borders to eat page space and the art while I thought sparse was well done and very much in theme with 1st and 2nd ed. of the game. The writing appears clear and concise and of course what you would expect from ex-white Wolfers. As I feel for all of the books I have purchased from HDI (Holistic Design Inc.) the content was well worth the purchase. Binding: well done appears that it will hold as my first ed. is still in one piece!

Now the meat: I was really a big fan of 2nd edition of FS (Fading Suns) And I was really not sure how it would look as a D20 game as there is some rather complex character creation process in the 2nd.ed. which allow for some really diverse characters. I was not sure if a level based game could pull it off? Well let me say they did! now its kinda hard to just jump in and start playing with first level pc's so FS rule's suggest that you start characters off at 3rd lvl. just so they have some "character to them!" Now as a brother battle, you dont have access to any of the powers so to speak so no theurgy to start with but at 5th lvl you get the ability to start using powers. So this does take away a little of the feel of old FS but did allow for me to make a very capable Brother battle as a 4th lvl character. My other player did a engineer and took some intresting feats that pretty much realy made his character come alive. So after playing for about 3 hrs. we where able to get a good feel for the game and I felt compelled to write this little review.

So all in all I think a very well done version of a classic! If you know a fan of RPG's who may or may not have a copy of the 1st./2nd ed. of the game go ahead and get him/her a copy I am sure they will not mind. Oh and I forgot if you are already playing a D&D3e game then the learning curve is minimal as you already know the basic rules.

Fading Suns D20
Fading Suns D20 Capsule Review by John Polack on 16/12/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Well done setting, great art and easy system Product: Fading Suns D20 Author: Bill Bridges and Andy Harmon Category: RPG Company/Publisher: HDI Line: Fading Suns D20 Cost: 25.00 Page count: 200 Year published: 2001 ISBN: ISBN 1-888906-32-4 SKU: #204 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by John Polack on 16/12/01 Genre tags: Fantasy Science Fiction Far Future	Well this is my first review of a game here so hello. Some of you may have heard of or meet me at conventions here on the West coast. John Polack yep thats me the smooze master as one of my friends calls me! :-) I have been playing RPG's for 15yrs now and I have seen good ones as well as bad ones and let me say that the D20 system so far has been good to the RPG world! Okay that off my chest! Fading Suns D20: the Basics: D20 system for the Fading suns game - as with all D20 licensed products you will need the core rulebooks 1&2. The cover: Brom no need to say more! Excellent ! Inside: Well done all space is used and there is no silly borders to eat page space and the art while I thought sparse was well done and very much in theme with 1st and 2nd ed. of the game. The writing appears clear and concise and of course what you would expect from ex-white Wolfers. As I feel for all of the books I have purchased from HDI (Holistic Design Inc.) the content was well worth the purchase. Binding: well done appears that it will hold as my first ed. is still in one piece! Now the meat: I was really a big fan of 2nd edition of FS (Fading Suns) And I was really not sure how it would look as a D20 game as there is some rather complex character creation process in the 2nd.ed. which allow for some really diverse characters. I was not sure if a level based game could pull it off? Well let me say they did! now its kinda hard to just jump in and start playing with first level pc's so FS rule's suggest that you start characters off at 3rd lvl. just so they have some "character to them!" Now as a brother battle, you dont have access to any of the powers so to speak so no theurgy to start with but at 5th lvl you get the ability to start using powers. So this does take away a little of the feel of old FS but did allow for me to make a very capable Brother battle as a 4th lvl character. My other player did a engineer and took some intresting feats that pretty much realy made his character come alive. So after playing for about 3 hrs. we where able to get a good feel for the game and I felt compelled to write this little review. So all in all I think a very well done version of a classic! If you know a fan of RPG's who may or may not have a copy of the 1st./2nd ed. of the game go ahead and get him/her a copy I am sure they will not mind. Oh and I forgot if you are already playing a D&D3e game then the learning curve is minimal as you already know the basic rules.