Farsight | Review

I am pleased to present to you my review of Farsight, the all-Italian science fiction role-playing game designed and written by Dario Pesce and Francesco Lucenti (Lightfish Games), who we thank for sending us a copy.

If you are interested in purchasing it, you can find it on the official website at the price of € 18.90 in digital copy.

The Farsight Style

The manual has a hardcover and easily resists the typical mistreatment of the table (but also to improper use as an improvised weapon against the less attentive); and as we know, this quality is much appreciated!

It consists of 352 beautiful dense pages, with original graphics and images. The layout is in two columns, ordered in paragraphs; the writing is clear and embellished with useful tables that do not break the harmony of the page. In short, a quality product that brings excellent sensations at an accessible and fair price.

The combination of these elements helps to convey that science fiction sensation brought to light by many films and video games in recent years.

The manual is essentially divided into two parts:

• Axiom is the one reserved for players; it is in turn divided into chapters that explain character creation, rules, equipment and everything you need to delve into this role-playing game.
• Nexus is instead reserved for the master; inside it presents various tips on how to create a campaign, build planets and alien societies and, obviously, a rather complete bestiary.

The structure of the manual is therefore well thought out and above all makes it easy to browse. And what’s more, it makes those obsessed with order happy; we are many! And we are everywhere!

Review of Chapter 1 of Farsight: Character Creation

Each player creates his own character, providing him with Skills and Qualifications, Race, Background and Class. But let’s try to understand better what it is.

There are seven Skills: Combativeness, Toughness, Dexterity, Perception, Intelligence, Willpower and Technique. The player can generate them with a random roll of 3d6 and by viewing a specific table or distributing them according to a fixed scheme, with scores ranging from -1 to 4. Qualifications are added to the skills, which are specializations capable of providing a bonus in certain fields.

The character’s Species introduces some initial context to the player and some mechanical benefits. In fact, it will provide one or two additional skill points, qualifications and different bonuses for each species. The Species provided to the player are in good numbers, to which some taken from the Bestiary can also be added.

The Background gives the player interpretative insights into their character’s past, as well as mechanical advantages such as Qualifications, equipment and some unique abilities.

Finally, the Class defines abilities, further Qualifications and Vitality Points. There are three of them and, as with the Species, we will talk more about them shortly.

The Playable Species

Farsight features ten starting Species. This is an important number, especially for the biological and social in-depth analysis that the authors have done on each of them.

These are humanoid species, a suitable choice to allow greater identification and ease of interpretation. This decision is also justified by the setting, giving them all a possible unique origin, something seen in countless pop products and which always works.

Each Species provides Skill points and Qualifications, as well as features such as radiation resistance, night vision, metamorphosis ability or psionic powers. Yes, there are Psykers!

Although there is a very pop aesthetic (Mass Effect, is that you?) and a rather classic division between the specializations of each Species, their variability and the in-depth analysis made is undoubtedly a point in favour of the game.

Few but Interesting Classes

There are three. Three! Ok, like me you probably turned up your nose thinking it was too small a number. Or not, because you are normal people.

In any case, the classes are divided into Delta (specialists in combat of various kinds), Sigma (the all-rounders of the game and have particular skills) and finally the possessors of psionic powers, the Psi.

Although the classes tend to have a specific field of action, the wide customization allowed by the system (between class abilities and talents) allows you to create any kind of character, always guaranteeing freedom and uniqueness. This applies slightly less to Psi, but we are still talking about a much more specialized and theoretically rare class in the setting.

The Personality of the Characters

The manual creates a personality system with a mechanic called the Disposition Wheel; it aims to bring two characters with close natures to get along better and create contrasts with opposite natures. Although the work behind it and the desire to provide ideas is clear, the system presented risks being limiting in certain situations (and if not applied with a certain elasticity), especially in a sci-fi and mature setting like that of Farsight.

It must be said that, as it is presented, the Wheel of Dispositions is completely optional and can be ignored without any consequences.

Review of Chapter 2 of Farsight: the Rules

Farsight’s rules are quite classic, welcoming players in a warm maternal embrace; but at the same time, it is simple and fast, as it should be.

The Master requires a Test only when the outcome is uncertain. So no hazing for a technician who repairs a toaster or for a doctor who puts on a band-aid. The player must then roll 2d12 and add Skill, Qualification and any contingent bonuses. If the result is equal to or higher than the required DC (Difficulty Class), the Test is passed.

In situations of Advantage or Disadvantage, a very successful mechanic of recent years, the player rolls an additional 1d12 and keeps the two highest or two lowest results respectively.

Getting a 12 activates the Prowess mechanic, while getting a 1 activates an Unforeseen Event, both placed on a neat table. Consequently, getting two 12s leads to epicness, but a double 1 will be the worst failure.

The manual then explains the various situations players can encounter and the combat mechanics. The entire section tries to give a 360° view of what the characters could encounter and gives the players and the master all the tools to face them.

As mentioned, it is a very classic system but also quick and easy, capable of providing many game ideas with Prowess and Unforeseen Events. All with clear and easy-to-use writing.

EDGE Cards

The use of EDGE cards is an optional rule that allows the GM to reward players for a good interpretation.

After the assignment, the EDGE cards can only be used once per Scene by choosing one of the two sentences shown and describing how this influences the situation in which the character finds himself. Each player can have a maximum of three EDGE cards and if they can draw another one they will first have to discard one of those they have.

Even though I don’t particularly like such direct intervention by players in the narrative, the fact that they are optional and with stringent rules on use makes them a precious additional tool to try.

Review of Chapters 3 and 4 of Farsight: Equipment, Vehicles and Spaceships

This section collects the many, countless and gargantuan equipment, instruments and other amazing technologies that the characters can come to possess. These are well-detailed pages and pages that include the classic weapons and armor, communication equipment, cybernetic implants, drones and much more. All well described in the features and bonuses they provide. And there are lots of beautiful tables!

Honestly, just the name of the fourth chapter would be enough to win me over, but let’s go in order. The entire section is dedicated to what players can pilot and what they can do with their own means; be they land vehicles, aircraft or spaceships. The vehicles and spaceships are described in detail with their own statistics that relate perfectly to those of the characters. It is also possible to modify, improve and arm your vehicles thanks to a purchasing system. You are therefore able to radically change the setup of your car based on your tastes and needs. At the end of the chapter there are also the rules necessary to carry out actions on board vehicles, such as combat between spaceships. All excellent precautions for a game that makes sci-fi and science fiction action its fulcrum.

Review of Chapter 5 of Farsight: Psionic Powers

Psionic Powers, peculiar mental abilities, are divided into six large branches, here called Disciplines: Illusion, Metabiosis, Metareality, Telepathy, Telekinesis and Clairvoyance. Each Discipline has various powers that can be activated through the use of Psi Points.

There are also Praxis, which are low-level psionic powers that can be activated at will.

The Chapter then explains how Psychic Powers should be used and the special actions that can be done with them, such as the possibility of Over-Fueling one’s powers at the cost of the character’s health or dispelling other Psychic Powers.

Review of Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Farsight: the Storyteller’s Section

These are Nexus chapters and, consequently, for the sole use of the Master. They aim to explain how to manage the characters’ actions and develop the campaign, providing a quick but well-organized guide.

A general introduction to science fiction and its various genres can also be clarifying and can all be explored on multiple levels in Farsight.

It is a triptych of chapters that provide excellent advice for those starting to manage campaigns, but also act as a useful refresher for more experienced storytellers.

Review of Chapter 9 of Farsight: How to Create Scenarios

I admit that this is one of the chapters that I found most interesting and well done. Here the master is given all the tools to manage the environmental dangers of the worlds in which the characters set foot; be it acid rain, volcanoes, traps or random events in space.

What I found even more tantalizing is the possibility given to the Masters to create planets with their own peculiar characteristics, natural dangers, populations and factions. I especially appreciated the events and characteristics of the inhabited and more civilized planets, where presumably the players will experience most of the adventures and the most complicated situations.

It is painstaking and careful work that allows you to generate if followed, a coherent world that is well integrated into the setting. And yes, there are a lot of beautiful tables here too!

We can simply call the next section the Bestiary. This Chapter collects the various wild creatures and intelligent Species that the characters will encounter on their adventurous travels. Each creature is described and classified by type, intelligence, tactics and finally danger. Furthermore, the number of creatures allows the GM a wide choice on how to adequately torment his players.

The Creatures are grouped into large categories, without ever going into too much detail so that they can be used in the most varied worlds without coherence problems. A couple of examples are the Feliform Beasts or the Primates, which quickly return to a basic form that can be uniquely describable in each world. In addition to animal creatures, examples of flora and robots are similarly described.

Extraordinary Creatures also appear capable of exploiting special abilities and influencing the region in which they reside; they are perfect bosses for the adventures of the protagonists.

Unlike the rest of the creatures presented in the Chapter, the seven Sentient Species presented here can be used by players to create a unique character. However, these are even more “alien” species than the ten presented in creation. The Master will have to think carefully about whether to allow their use or keep them to present an unknown and interesting civilization to his players. It is a dangerous tool, but certainly very fascinating.

Then there is a section for the rapid creation of NPCs, much appreciated by Masters who need to quickly give mechanics to the characters they encounter.

The Appendices of the Manual

As Appendices, we can find the Character Sheets (with a small guide and summary of the creation of your role-playing alter ego), the spaceship sheet, everything you need to create and update your star map and a summary of the Edge cards.

The whole thing concludes with a long and appreciable list of sources of inspiration (also an excellent guide for recovering films and books) and a very detailed analytical index. No one can understand the beauty of an analytical index if they have never picked up a manual that does not have one!

Final Considerations

We can conclude this review by saying that the Farsight Core Manual is a solid and intriguing product. It is a very classic system, which takes some bases from D&D5e, evolving and transforming them according to its own needs and needs, with a more than good result. Some examples of this are the Species which clearly reflect some stereotypes of the more classic fantasy races, but modifying them and making them well suited to a sci-fi game.

It is in fact a game in which, by focusing on the events of a small group of adventurers and explorers, you can easily slip into the purest action as well as into something more introspective or political. A plus point for the entire project, which certainly gains versatility.

What is missing is a general context in which the characters move. There are vague references in the description of the Species, but there is no exposition of their relationships on a political level in the galaxy. This is therefore left to the Master’s efforts or to future setting manuals such as Cronache dall’Orlo.

Farsight is a more than recommended product for those who want to explore the sci-fi genre in its various forms, with a solid system and excellent adventure ideas at its core.

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