The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Having reviewed another book in this series, al-Malik Fiefs, last week I’m going to keep this one shorter. The main Fading Suns rulebook gives scant detail on the Known Worlds but they are being detailed in short books, the Imperial Surveys, covering the worlds held by each of the major noble houses. Each is presented as a report to the Emperor by a Questing Knight belonging to that house. The Li Halan trace their ancestry to China and the orient. Once they had a reputation for depravity and foul spiritual practices, but around 80 years ago their prince had a religious experience and now they are the most pious of the houses. The two combine to create a feeling of formality and manners throughout.

The booklet is 34 pages long (it uses the inside covers), layout is adequate, and there are four pieces of artwork (apart from the maps) which are totally expendable. As seems standard for Fading Suns, editing is a bit dodgy - in this case it’s mostly place names having differing spelling in different places, though some blocks of text covering the same subject seemed to be written at different times and not harmonised. Each of the major worlds follows the same format: history; a sentence about each planet in the system; a box-out with the world’s main stats, like population and exports; a small map showing the world’s main features; and ‘people and places’ listing the main regions.

Overall there seems to be much less in this than the al-Malik book. It seemed much easier to read, partly because I’m now used to the format and partly because it’s less densely packed with bits of information and goodies like creature stats. (It may also actually be easier to read - the other was quite heavy in places, especially the complex history sections.) This is substantially due to the inclusion of an adventure for the narrator, whose travels through the worlds are spurred by the hunt for an enemy who’s stolen a holy family relic. Some of this helps to display the setting, but it means less space is available for the raw information. In general, the content is more focused on people (detailing meetings with local nobles) than places. The organisation seems somehow less helpful, too. Both books would repay reading more than once - I found my state of mind made a big difference to how much I got out of them.

These are the major worlds covered.

Kish is a lightly populated desert world, and centre of Li Halan power. The capital has a feel of oriental splendour, full of colourful banners, sounding bells and grand fountains defying the desert, with a walled off area of palaces and gardens for the court. There are also shades of the Arabian, with groups of quaint desert peoples. But really, there’s little interesting outside the capital.
Icon is important to Li Halan as the site of their conversion (there are some interesting hints about this); by the same token its history includes many of their previous excesses. In the forests are man-sized fire-breathing reptiles, the leaping dragons. There’s a 100-mile radius devastated area where a gate to the demonic realms was opened, centered on Ur ruins.
Midian is the place where Palamedes founded the Universal Church after the disappearance of the Prophet Zebulon, with a great monastery and cathedral (and a politically savvy archbishop who reminded me of characters written by David Eddings and others). The independent continent of Lyonesse is the technological supply centre for the Li Halan, with unusually high-tech cities linked by monorail. Other cities are sleepy, even dream-like; one suffers grinding poverty. There’s negligible information about the capital.
Rampart is a young, temperate world with a history of technological advancement. The Li Halan took it from the Merchant League a little under 50 years ago; there are resistance groups and a heretical sect in the remoter areas. Li Halan unhappy with the family’s religious conversion had come here, and retain some “quaint traditions”. The capital has only a short description - it’s high-tech, with buildings that change colour in response to the moods of the populace. There are relics of unethical experimentation, including a forest rife with genetically altered human-animal combinations.

The section on holdings on worlds not controlled by the house is longer than in the al-Malik book, mainly due to a chunk of character story which pads out the setting details on Malignatius. The others mentioned are Byzantium Secundus, Ungavorox and Holy Terra. None of these are much use on their own, but might add flavour to fuller write-ups elsewhere.

Overall, it’s worth getting this for completeness, but if you’re buying just one Survey book this may not be the one to go for. I was interested in it because the Li Halan worlds are adjacent to Pandemonium, which is detailed in the rulebook and GM screen pack - PCs will probably pass through their systems to get to other worlds. It just falls a bit short of the mark.

Li Halan Fiefs - Imperial Survey vol 4
Li Halan Fiefs - Imperial Survey vol 4 Capsule Review by Tim Gray on 23/02/02 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average) Adequate description of four of the Known Worlds - would have benefitted from more setting detail. Product: Li Halan Fiefs - Imperial Survey vol 4 Author: Rustin Quaide Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Holistic Design Line: Fading Suns Cost: UKP4.99/USD6.95 Page count: 34 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 1-888906-26-X SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Tim Gray on 23/02/02 Genre tags: Science Fiction Far Future Space	Having reviewed another book in this series, al-Malik Fiefs, last week I’m going to keep this one shorter. The main Fading Suns rulebook gives scant detail on the Known Worlds but they are being detailed in short books, the Imperial Surveys, covering the worlds held by each of the major noble houses. Each is presented as a report to the Emperor by a Questing Knight belonging to that house. The Li Halan trace their ancestry to China and the orient. Once they had a reputation for depravity and foul spiritual practices, but around 80 years ago their prince had a religious experience and now they are the most pious of the houses. The two combine to create a feeling of formality and manners throughout. The booklet is 34 pages long (it uses the inside covers), layout is adequate, and there are four pieces of artwork (apart from the maps) which are totally expendable. As seems standard for Fading Suns, editing is a bit dodgy - in this case it’s mostly place names having differing spelling in different places, though some blocks of text covering the same subject seemed to be written at different times and not harmonised. Each of the major worlds follows the same format: history; a sentence about each planet in the system; a box-out with the world’s main stats, like population and exports; a small map showing the world’s main features; and ‘people and places’ listing the main regions. Overall there seems to be much less in this than the al-Malik book. It seemed much easier to read, partly because I’m now used to the format and partly because it’s less densely packed with bits of information and goodies like creature stats. (It may also actually be easier to read - the other was quite heavy in places, especially the complex history sections.) This is substantially due to the inclusion of an adventure for the narrator, whose travels through the worlds are spurred by the hunt for an enemy who’s stolen a holy family relic. Some of this helps to display the setting, but it means less space is available for the raw information. In general, the content is more focused on people (detailing meetings with local nobles) than places. The organisation seems somehow less helpful, too. Both books would repay reading more than once - I found my state of mind made a big difference to how much I got out of them. These are the major worlds covered. Kish is a lightly populated desert world, and centre of Li Halan power. The capital has a feel of oriental splendour, full of colourful banners, sounding bells and grand fountains defying the desert, with a walled off area of palaces and gardens for the court. There are also shades of the Arabian, with groups of quaint desert peoples. But really, there’s little interesting outside the capital. Icon is important to Li Halan as the site of their conversion (there are some interesting hints about this); by the same token its history includes many of their previous excesses. In the forests are man-sized fire-breathing reptiles, the leaping dragons. There’s a 100-mile radius devastated area where a gate to the demonic realms was opened, centered on Ur ruins. Midian is the place where Palamedes founded the Universal Church after the disappearance of the Prophet Zebulon, with a great monastery and cathedral (and a politically savvy archbishop who reminded me of characters written by David Eddings and others). The independent continent of Lyonesse is the technological supply centre for the Li Halan, with unusually high-tech cities linked by monorail. Other cities are sleepy, even dream-like; one suffers grinding poverty. There’s negligible information about the capital. Rampart is a young, temperate world with a history of technological advancement. The Li Halan took it from the Merchant League a little under 50 years ago; there are resistance groups and a heretical sect in the remoter areas. Li Halan unhappy with the family’s religious conversion had come here, and retain some “quaint traditions”. The capital has only a short description - it’s high-tech, with buildings that change colour in response to the moods of the populace. There are relics of unethical experimentation, including a forest rife with genetically altered human-animal combinations. The section on holdings on worlds not controlled by the house is longer than in the al-Malik book, mainly due to a chunk of character story which pads out the setting details on Malignatius. The others mentioned are Byzantium Secundus, Ungavorox and Holy Terra. None of these are much use on their own, but might add flavour to fuller write-ups elsewhere. Overall, it’s worth getting this for completeness, but if you’re buying just one Survey book this may not be the one to go for. I was interested in it because the Li Halan worlds are adjacent to Pandemonium, which is detailed in the rulebook and GM screen pack - PCs will probably pass through their systems to get to other worlds. It just falls a bit short of the mark.

Li Halan Fiefs - Imperial Survey vol 4