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The Good: System is easy to learn and to use. Toolkit approach provides readers with a good base point for creating their own setting.
The Bad: The system and setting are a little bland, and many gamers may have better options for generic science fiction. The system doesn’t particularly support Imperial science fiction more or less than any other type, except in its lack of support for playing modified humans. Lack of artwork may detract from the product for some readers. There may be a high failure rate for some characters without Action Points.
The Physical Thing
This 272 page 6x9 perfect bound softcover showcases below average production values for its $24.99 price tag. The editing and formatting are below average, and the lack of an index results in a little more page flipping than I would prefer. Earlier revisions of the text seem to still be present, causing confusion to some readers. A substantial lack of artwork may not work well for readers who enjoy illustrated text rather than a presentation similar to an instruction manual, but those readers who prefer just the rules and nothing else should find it pleasing. The book could really benefit from some examples.Under the Cover
Make no mistake that the majority of this product is the 12 Degrees rule system with only a small setting provided at the end. The system is a simple roll under attribute + skill system using 2d12, and rules are provided for combat, social combat, psionics, and various pieces of equipment. This is a good choice for someone looking for a generic science fiction game that provides a bare bones system to play with.Let’s walk through the mechanics with some character creation!
| Example: I’m building Xeria Sanchez, a career navy officer with a touch of psychic powers. |
Thousand Suns makes use of 5 Ability scores – Body, Dexterity, Perception, Presence, and Will. There is no intelligence Ability, but Perception does absolutely everything an intelligence Ability would. In effect, Perception is simply a renamed intelligence which makes the author’s attention to not having an intelligence Ability a little surprising. Just as this is a very generic sci-fi game dressed up to be about Imperial science fiction, the lack of an intelligence Ability is simple misdirection. It’s right there from the start.
Characters receive 25 points to distribute among the 5 Abilities, and those ratings influence secondary Abilities as well.
| Example: I want a well balanced character who is competent in all areas but excels at none. I take Body 5, Dexterity 5, Perception 5, Presence 5, and Will 5. This gives me the derived values of Vitality 25 and Resolve 25 as well, effectively physical and mental hit points. |
Species selection includes Terran, two genetically drifted types of Terrans called Clades, and three very alien species. Simple rules are provided at the end of the book for GMs who want to build their own alien species, and while each of these species are very strange they’re represented by simple mechanics. I’m pleased to see that the alien races are wonderfully strange, though I really wish a simple picture had been included.
| Example: Terrans receive an additional 10 points to spend on Abilities and Skills, at a 2 for 1 and 1 for 1 basis. I use mine to increase all 5 of my core Ability scores to 6. Note that even with this expenditure my character isn’t average by the rules. An average human has a 7 in all Abilities. |
Homeworld Packages provide set Skill and Ability modifications. Split into Core, Marches, Civilized, and Wildspace and further differentiated by social class, population, or technology. These packages provide a solid character basis and give players a good idea of the sort of upbringing their character experienced.
| Example: I like the idea of Xeria rising up the ranks from the lower class on a core world to her current position of importance. I choose Core: Lower Class and add Bureaucracy 2, Computers 2, Language (Lingua Terra) 2, Streetwise 2, and Perception +1. |
Characters also receive 3 Career Packages which include Abilities and Skills. Each Career has three Ranks, each of which provide increasingly specialized bonuses. Characters can mix and match these three picks between professions as they desire, and with twenty two Careers to choose from everyone should easily find a profession that fits their character.
| Example: I decide to take Navy twice (Experienced) and Psion once (Novice). This provides me with a host of Ability and Skill modifiers including: Acrobatics 3, Athletics 3, Bureaucracy 3, Computers 4, Defend 3, Diplomacy 2, Dodge 3, Medical Science 2, Melee 2, Profession (Navy) 4, Shoot 3, Tactics 3, Technical Sciences 4, Unarmed Combat 3, Engineering 4, Piloting 4, and a range of rank choices (Commander). That’s just the Navy, Psion gives me +2 Will, Empathy 1, Observe 1, Profession (Spy) 2, Resist 2, Telepathy 3, Suggestion 2, Mind Reading 2, and three more psychic Skills at 1. All of this stacks. |
Every character has five Hooks, one for species, another for homeworld, and three that are user defined. These are used to gain and spend Action Points. Characters may gain more Action Points by having negative Hooks that make their lives more difficult, and they may spend Action Points by using Hooks as part of their action. Since Action Points can grant a +2 bonus or a re-roll, they’re very desirable in this game. That they can also be used for scene editing (spend points to change the narrative) will make them highly desirable to players who like to play around with scene details.
| Example: Xeria’s Hooks are: Adventurous (Terran), Site Zero Refugee (Homeworld), Commander of the I.S.S. Cavalier, Dangerous Reputation, and Psi Spy. |
Finally, characters start with between 1 and 3 Benefit Points depending on how deep they went into a given Career. These translate directly into money or, in the case of a personal starship, 1/40 of the value of the ship per point. A ship captain could start with up to 3/40s of their own ship at the end of a lengthy career. The Benefit Point system does so little I’m surprised it was even included instead of just a simple quantity of starting funds based on Career. While I appreciate the desire to impoverish starting characters so they can adventure for money, it’s a little sad that that would be seen as a major motivation here. The game doesn’t otherwise seem to be encouraging roving bands of free traders, but then it’s not clear what sort of play Thousand Suns is striving for. Only the fictional works it draws inspiration from are clear.
Other than equipment, that’s it for character creation! Note that the example character has under a 50% chance of success on a 2d12 roll for all rolls, though it is a more general build. Even a character built to have high amounts of Ability and Skill is probably not going to go beyond 70% or on standard rolls, before any difficulty modifiers are included. This could be a concern for some groups because it suggests moderately frequent Skill failures, at least when Action Points aren’t being used, and that may not work well for some folk. Note that degree of success is very important in this system. Weapon damage, for example, involves multiplying the amount of success (number achieved – number needed) by the weapon damage value. Thus, higher degrees of success result in significant increases in effectiveness.
As you may have discerned from the character creation, Skills are a moderately focused. In addition to all of the Skills you would expect from a science fiction game, Psychic powers are handled through the Skill system. Difficulties depend on what the user wants to do (multiple targets, distance, effectiveness) and a Vitality point expenditure prevents the powers from being frequently used. Otherwise it’s a fairly unremarkable psionics system except in the specificity of some of the powers. Telepathy lets you talk to someone, Teleempathy allows you to sense their emotions, and Mind Reading allows you to read their thoughts.
Combat is a simple affair. Characters simply take turns making attack and defense rolls, with successful attacks dealing damage based on the weapon used and the degree of success on the attack. Vitality loss is both a hit point and death spiral system in that as points are lost the character suffers increasing penalties until they’re taken out of the fight. Social combat works the same way, only instead of wounds the opposing character has their demeanor adjusted up or down as the attacker desires. Thus, a crippling attack in social combat might be something as simple as saying all the right things and making a friend. The only potential problems with social combat are that it looks like it might take awhile to resolve by the rules and it offers no strategy.
Equipment receives a lot of attention and when it has game mechanics at all those mechanics are simple. Weapons multiple degree of success to determine damage, armor offers flat damage reduction, and ships offer simple values that are modified by character skill. Two things stand out and are worthy of note. First, there’s a lot of equipment here which is good for players who enjoy playing around with futuristic devices. The devices definitely have an Imperial Science Fiction feel to them as well. Second, the starship mechanics use 2d12 set out on the table to track up/down ship position. That, combined with the simple but dangerous ship combat rules results in ship battles that are somewhat realistic.
Finally, the setting and setting support material are just enough to get a GM started. Simple alien creation rules are a random planet generator may see use in some games, and the small amount of GM advice is excellent in that it pays attention to using Imperial SF themes rather than offering up standard GM advice. The included setting is 32 pages of options that both provide a stock setting to play in and opportunities to tweak it to best fit the group.
My Take
Thousand Suns doesn’t impress with its setting or system, but it does offer a solid foundation for groups that want a simple sci-fi game to integrate with their own settings and ideas. While the Action Point mechanic is a wonderful mechanic, the rest of the system is very traditional and offers little that its predecessors don’t already do. I remain a little concerned over character success rate without Action Point expenditures, as it seems fairly low, and I’m not convinced that the social combat system will work quickly enough in play to still be fun. All that said, for groups who just want to grab a low-work system and go this can be an excellent choice. Careers and Hooks generate an instant character background, Action Points allow characters to succeed when it really matters, and the core game is easily modified to do whatever the group wants.Please help support RPGnet by purchasing the following (probably) related items through DriveThruRPG.
