Fading Suns & Story Engine

Conversion Rules by Tim Koppang (25 Jan 2001)
Fading Suns™ by Holistic Design
Story Engine™ by Hubris Games

Introduction: Fading Suns had always tried to present itself as a game of passion play. The writers often included quips concerning the galaxy changing events in which the players could participate. This style of play, by nature, lends itself towards high adventure and cinematic action scenes. At the same time, Fading Suns players have been weaving plots of intrigue and grim circumstance with the emphasis on character and plot development.

The Story Engine is a set of rules lending themselves towards narrative play and quick scene resolution. Although sometimes seen as overly simplified and underdeveloped, they are truly meant as an adaptable tool for the players. They allow for a varied amount of character development, depending on the amount of background and effort you are willing to put into that persona. Those traits may not always show up immediately in the form of game mechanics, but this also works to present the player with goals.

In all, both the Fading Suns universe and the Story Engine outlook on rules can work especially well when combined. The following is meant as a set of guidelines when doing just that. As a side note, I only own the Fading Suns 2nd Edition core rulebook, and the material covered reflects this. If you own other books and develop a way of handling these extras, please drop me an email so that I can update this file. Of course you will receive due credit for your work.

Creating New Characters: This is the easiest option when attempting to combine the two systems. You won't have to worry about downsizing anything from the more detailed list of Fading Suns statistics. On the other hand, you will also have the opportunity to create a more exacting picture of the character you have in mind. This particularly applies if you are used to the Lifepath system presented in Fading Suns 2nd Edition.

Due to the fact that player characters in the FS universe tend to be of the heroic type, more Descriptor and Traits will probably suit them. I would recommend using the point-based system with 35 starting points. This will give characters anchored in the occult a chance to develop some power in the beginning, and the non-magical ones a few more points to boost their abilities. See below for advice on handling the occult in Story Engine.

Overall, character creation should not prove too difficult. Questions usually only arise when the player chooses to use a non-human or magical character. Aliens however can be represented with ease. Simply give the character the extra Descriptors needed to portray their enhanced abilities, or in come cases their weaknesses.

Depending on the power level of you game you may wish to let alien characters receive their extra Descriptors at no cost in relation to the 35 point limit. If your concern is to keep all characters balanced with each other, however, then simply require these to be purchased the same as all other Descriptors.

Converting Existing Characters: Chances are that if you own the Fading Suns core rulebook, you have a couple characters laying around that you wouldn't mind converting into Story Engine. It really doesn't mater what method you used to create the character originally, but you should note that some of the detailed statistical information in which the FS system is based will be lost. The beauty of this, however, is that most of it can be mentioned in your character concept and story. Keep in mind that the Story Engine assumes the character to have certain abilities, advantages, and disadvantages. This means that every painstaking detail need not be represented by a game mechanic linked attribute, but it couldn't hurt to mention them in your conceptual outline.

Besides the basic name, race, gender, and other more obvious conversions, the most important transfer to make is the story itself. Without a concept to go off of, your character will be lacking. After that, the rest remains a very subjective conversion. Talk with your game master to decide on the base amount of Story Points. If you have a new character 35 points should suffice, but more advanced characters will require extra Trait Affinities and Descriptors.

To derive suitable Descriptors you need to look at the character's attributes, Benefices, Blessings, and even his skills along with the story. Try to come up with the major strengths and describe them in terms of Descriptors. You may find that it's hard to condense so many specific details, but you'd be surprised how often one Descriptor can cover many aspects of a personality. For instance, Tuck is an Eskatonic who grew up on the streets and developed quite a following. Although in FS he has the Charm Trait, Multiple Allies, a Gossip Network, and the Lore (flock) skill, these can all be summed up with the Well-Liked (spirit) Descriptor. Of course there will be reasons for his being well liked, and Story Engine assumes this. The more detail you put into Tuck's story, the more fleshed out he becomes.

Trait Affinities follow in much the same way. Take a look at the character's existing skills in FS and try to combine or concentrate on the strongest ones. The same priest whose abilities are orientated towards preaching, public speaking, and empathy, can just take the Preaching skill. Similarly, due to his street kid background Tuck will have a Streetwise skill.

Don't forget to look at combat maneuvers when converting. Instead of taking a skill in an individual maneuver, use something general like Shaidan Martial Arts. As you level up the Trait Affinity it will be assumed that the character is learning more moves, and gaining more skill in the ones he already knows. During combat this will allow you more room for improvisation, instead of being locked into specifics.

When converting an alien character, try to keep in mind the extras they gain (see Creating a New Character) and the personality tendencies of the specific race.

Finally convert any occult powers that the character has. See below for details.

Occult Powers: Occult Power is the only area in which Story Engine lacks when converting from Fading Suns. With a little work similar effects can be achieved, but it takes some fudging from both the player and the game master to work.

In addition to your Prime Affinity, you must either purchase the Gift Affinity PSI, or Theurgy. This gives you access to the various powers and rites available in FS, however the character still needs Flux Affinities for the specifics. I find it more enjoyable if general Affinities are taken that give the character access to multiple powers. If you purchase the Far Hand Path Trait Affinity, for instance, you will gain access to all powers in that path, up to a certain level. At Mild, you gain use of all Far Hand powers up to level 3. Weak gives you up to level 6, and Strong up to level 9. This may be unbalancing if you have a huge database of powers, but I find that the improvisation players resort to is far more entertaining.

As an alternative, you may wish to give characters use of only so many powers in the path per level. These powers must be decided when the player purchases the Affinity, and can only be taken up to level 3, 6, or 9 depending on the level of Trait Affinity. Because Theurges usually remain within only one path, this may be the ideal way to handle church based magic as to prevent overpowered mages early in the game. With due role-playing a character may be allowed to add more rites to his repertoire at the cost of a story point or two.

If a Theurge wishes to purchase a path in an order other than his own, not including the general Church Rituals, double the story point cost to represent this rare occurrence.

Technology & Equipment: Most gear in the Fading Suns world can be directly translated into the Story Engine, but there are exceptions. Cyberware for instance could be handled as simply another piece of equipment that a character possesses. However it may be more realistic to consider cybered characters as having extra Gift Affinities. I would recommend two levels, tweaked and loaded-for-bear, each costing 7 and 14 Story Points respectfully. These levels are roughly equivalent to the amount of cyberware one would obtain if choosing this option during the FS life path creation method, but the Narrator should allow for some leeway. During game play if a player wishes to install more hardware they should be required to spend Story Points as well as the monetary cost. It is possible to replace the tweaked Affinity with loaded-for-bear, and you may wish to create more levels if your players are bordering on the non-human level, but keep in mind that the body can only accommodate so many pieces of foreign ware before loosing its grip on life.

To handle incompatibility, I would recommend against heavy number crunching and rely more on role-playing, along with common sense. If a character has particularly strong Spirit Descriptors, or many of them, allow for more cyberware. Work with the player to develop a believable way to play the character. Maybe suggest a couple of quirks that hint at the fact that reality is becoming more and more binary.

Force shield are the only other problem I've had while running FS using SE, but again role-playing works well to correct the difficulty. Because of the style Story Engine combats take on, pay attention to the tone the attacker uses while making his attack. That combined with the weapon, strength, and finesse of the aggressor should give you a better idea when judging the effectiveness of a force shield. Remember to take input from the players themselves, and work together when discussing the result. I also find it fun to keep track of how many hits a shield has left, but sometimes not knowing adds to the suspense when seen from the player's point of view, "Was that three hits or four?"

Summing Up: Once the gray areas of the occult and cyberware are taken care of, the Story Engine begins to shine. The system really tends to capture the universe altering events that so often make an appearance in Fading Suns campaigns. In my opinion, the reason many of us get involved with role-playing is to spin great adventures. We grow up on board games attempting to simulate movies and books, but they never give us the freedom to create the scenes of our imagination. When the emphasis is taken away from the rules, and put on the characters it allows for many humorous and exciting events to ensue. Although not the perfect system, and not the best representation of FS, the Story Engine does present itself as a valuable means to adapt and build your fiction.

As a note to game masters, there are other advantages to using a system with quick character creation rules along the lines of Story Engine. They allow for non-player characters to enter the scene with minimal effort. Even if you only have a sketchy outline of an individual worked out, you can throw that character into the action instantly. If you need stats for him, just write Descriptors for him based on how you have been playing him up to that point. In other words, fill in the blanks on a need to know basis. Because there aren't that many blanks that will need to be filled in, you can quickly build an NPC database. In future games just look back through you notes, mix and match, and now you have a new character with a unique personality.

• The pdf version of this file contains sample characters and a blank character sheet.
• The original Microsoft Word doc file can improve print quality.
• If you have a copy of Microsoft Works, you may find the wdb character sheets useful.

Copyright © 2001 by Tim C Koppang / desk & mind