From Different Worlds #39, may 1985

Reviewed by Troy Christensen

Other Suns is a game of the far distant future and is the third science-fiction role-playing game from FGU. The science-fantasy genre, however, is populated with so many other games that a new system must be original and contain innovative rules. Oiher Suns offers nothing new or spectacular to the science-fiction scene to make it more playable or more enjoyable than those already populating the role-playing field.

Other Suns contain the following books and materials: one 71 page "Characters and Skills" rulebook, one 65-page "Starship and World Construction" rulebook, one gamemaster screen, three 6-sided dice, and two 20-sided dice.

Other Suns character generation is one of the most complicated and time-consuming systems I have ever seen. Characters in the game have twelve characteristics ranging from strength to telepathic strike capacity. Besides these twelve characteristics, which are rolled on 3D6 for humans, there are another twelve abilities derived from the characteristics. These abilities range from accuracy to stealth and all involve long mathematical formulae to derive their scores. The average formula is no more complicated than 9thgrade mathematics but they do slow down character generation considerably. An average calculation looks like this: PAR = (2 x DEX) + WIL + ((STR + INT)/2) SIZ - 22.

In Other Suns a player can choose between eleven races. Each race is deeply developed and thoroughly detailed. The races tend to be mammalian in form though each race possess unique qualities of its own. Each race is given six paragraphs of description. The first explains how to play the creature and its general game mechanics. The second paragraph describes the creature's biology, the third details the creature's homeworld, and the fourth explains the creature's particular weapons. The last two describes the races language, psychology, and attitudes towards the other playing races. This section of Other Suns is probably the best in the entire game. However, eleven detailed creatures, however well they may be described, is still not worthy enough to make this game a good buy.

The game comes with one hundred skills which are broken down into several categories. Besides the seven categories a character is given a speciality and a primary subfield skill list. A player picks the speciality and from that list picks the skills which will become his character's subfield skills. All the skills in the game are thoroughly described and all their possible applications in the game are detailed. There were, however, many rules which were difficult to understand because of the complexity of the language or terminology used.

Combat is fought in 12-second rounds, with each participant using action points to perform attacks, moues, or skills. A detailed list of all possible actions is provided so that it is easy to find out your character's action point cost. There are several modifiers that come into play-character's dexterity, length of the weapon, and size of the character all figure in the final calculation of action points. Each action, attack, or moue costs a number of points. By totalling the amount of points spent, a player determines when his character will be able to perform his desired action.

The game also uses a to-hit location system, where attackers roll a 20-sided die to determine where on their opponent's body their weapon hit. Other Suns uses two types of points for the life energies: hit points and endurance points. On most occasions, unless attackers are using melee weapons, damage is subtracted from both categories. Hit points are used to measure the total physical properties of the character while endurance measures the total ability of the character to withstand injury and pain.

Combat is worked on a percentile system which includes dodging, parrying, attacking, and other assorted offensive and defensive maneuvers. The opponent can dodge or he can try to parry the attack if the weapon has the capability to block the attacker's weapon. The system is quite similar to the RuneQuest rules. In addition to a normal hit, each weapon type has special hits, critical hits, and critical fumbles. In all three cases the to-hit number that is needed to be rolled is derived by dividing the adjusted to-hit score by a number. This is just another combat hindrance along with to-hit location, dodging, parrying, and the other assorted maneuvers.

Thinking that psionics would be a great addition to Other Suns, Mr. Shapero has added this system. He however gives only two pages to describe what and how it acts. Psionics, or mental powers, have almost become a steadfast rule in science-fiction games and any new system should at least try to bring something new to the topic. Other Suns, however, seems to have added psionics as an afterthought more than as a detailed and developed system.

In book two, Other Suns explains how to build starships, solar systems, and creatures to inhabit those worlds which can support life. Like the rest of the rules, Mr. Shapero uses endless formulae for deriving starships. In addition to these formulae, he presents charts which can be used instead. Building ships is much like Traveller in that players choose the weight of their ship in tons and then fill up the space with system units. There are many different systems which can be bought; life support, power generators, congravity systems, shield generators, and telepathic screens are only a few of the many varied units which can be implemented on the starship. OtherSuns offer many examples of constructed ships, they however offer no step-by-step example of building a starship which would have been helpful.

Other Suns does offer a unique planet and solar system creation system. Mr. Shapero has gone to great lengths to design a system which will generate realistic and detailed systems. However, I think he spends too much effort in this endeavor-for example, he spends twelve pages in endless columns of numbers which detail temperature and length of year for each spectral class and its planetary orbit. He goes on to show how to determine radius, orbital period, escape velocity, planetary atmospheres, atmospheric pressure, life forms, and technology ratings for those worlds with intelligent life forms. Many of these points of interest do not have charts but long and complicated formulae. In addition to the formulae, the typesetting seems to have mixed the symbol for one-half with the symbol for the square root. I will state that if a gamemaster or player is looking for a detailed planet generation system and they like to work with formulae and numbers, they may want to look into this game. But for the average gamer, this system rates ton complicated and ton bothersome to be of any real use.

Other Suns also lists a number of creatures which can be played into any environment. OtherSuns details these creatures thoroughly enough but the presentation of their characteristics are similar to other games in which each characteristic is given a die roll. I could see the sense of this if the creature played a significant role in the game. But to spend precious minutes of game time to simply determine the strength and intelligence of a Bailey Jumping Mouse is a little ridiculous. Creatures that are presented for encounters should be brief and to the point, gamemasters should not need to spend minutes before or during a game to roll up random encounters.

Overall I found OtherSuns to be just too complicated for the rewards that it gave. It does have some interesting rules but they are shadowed by the immense complexity which Other Suns is built around. I would strongly suggest new science-fantasy roleplayers to look elsewhere for excitement. For those who have been playing for many years I would give my recommendations only if the players deeply enjoyed playing with realistic solar systems and complicated rules.