The galaxy in which The Fade takes place, Morta IV, is set light-years away from the Milky Way Galaxy. In history that has long since passed, the Milky Way was the home of the many species that now inhabit Morta IV. The galaxies are similar in size, and possess many similar planets save that the planets of Morta IV are mostly habitable. This made it the ideal location for populating it with the leftover species from the Milky Way.
The current year is 3950 BY (Berngulsh Year) which when translated to Earth years as 2016 AD. BY is not used on every planet, however most are congruent with the BY system with a difference of 20-40 years. Months are similar to Earth months thanks to Heion bringing the system to those of many different planets. Some planets (such as Goblinian) take Heion’s month system and named the months after their own Goblin legends. The most common systems are detailed below.
Good vs. Evil
Morality is an incredibly muddled and complicated issue within the world of The Fade. Mortals have a tough time tackling this issue, even more-so when tackling the morality of a deity’s actions. Every being has a different interpretation of what is “good and evil”, and in different cultures these can also change. Even religious members of traditionally heroic and “good” deities such as Shinda and YHVH can go against these tenants, becoming “evil” in the eyes of the fellow worshipers. Those who receive their power from their deity cannot go against the tenants of the deity (although some may wish to find loopholes), those who do not receive power from their deity aren’t required to do this and thus even a traditionally “good” deity may have “evil” worshipers.
Though it is not included in the rules presented here, you as the GM can include alignment in your game if you so wish. Typically this includes three alignments: Good, Neutral, and Evil. Some games may wish to add more alignments, or add alignment combinations as a possibility.
Planetary Travel
In order to travel between the various planets, Dimensional Gates are used to instantly transport people across the galaxy. These portals are complicated devices which must be either forged or summoned by practiced crafters and/or mages. Permanent Dimensional Gates exist on most planets, and temporary ones are forged by people as a means to quickly traverse large landscapes, or to travel between worlds in a pinch. The portals which aren’t permanent end up more unstable, and thus must be used within a minute of their creation.
In order to craft a temporary Dimensional Gate, you must use Spellcraft. In order to craft a permanent Dimensional Gate you need both a Spellcraft and an Artisan (Dimensional Gate) made, both do not need to be made by the same person.
Setting the destination of a Dimensional Gate is a Spellcraft check with a DC equal to 10 + (price / 250), this is listed next to the Craft DC. If the destination matches a cheaper variant of the Dimensional Gate (example, a Planetary Dimensional Gate being used to teleport within the confines of a Minor Dimensional Gate) there is no Spellcraft check needed.
Name: Minor Dimensional Gate
Price: 500 G | Weight: N/A | Craft DC: 20 | Destination DC: 12
Description: This portal lasts for 3 rounds and is restricted to travel within the same country (or roughly 1,000 mile radius). Upon the second round those entering have a 50% chance of landing in an unintended location 1d100 miles from the intended one.
Name: Planetary Dimensional Gate
Price: 1,500 G | Weight: N/A | Craft DC: 25 | Destination DC: 16
Description: This portal lasts for 6 rounds and is more stable than the minor ones, and allows for travel across the planet (but not outside of the planet). Alternatively this can be used for travel out to the moon of a planet, but doing this decreases the stability of the portal and it’ll only last 1 round.
Name: Interplanetary Dimensional Gate
Price: 4,000 G | Weight: N/A | Craft DC: 30 | Destination DC: 26
Description: This portal lasts for 10 rounds and allows those within it to hop between different planets, moons, and celestial bodies so long as they’re within the same solar system.
Name: Galactic Dimensional Gate
Price: 10,000 G | Weight: N/A | Craft DC: 40 | Destination DC: 50
Description: This portal lasts for 1 minute and is the largest standard portal, allowing for droves of people to travel and for the travel to extend outwards far enough that it can lead people anywhere within Morta IV.
Name: True Dimensional Gate
Price: 30,000 G | Weight: N/A | Craft DC: 60 | Destination DC: 130
Description: This portal lasts for 8 rounds. These gates don’t transport people across planets, but instead transport people into different realms such as between Heaven, Hell, or the Dark Lands.
Name: Gate Stabilizer
Price: 8,500 G | Weight: 50 lbs. | Craft DC: 30
Description: Gate Stabilizers are required to make a Dimensional Gate permanent. These allow them also to be turned on and off as a swift action. In addition to this, they negate the chance of landing in an unwanted area as with the Minor Dimensional Gate. Gate Stabilizers halve the Spellcraft check needed to set the destination.
Created Hastily: The creation of a Dimensional Gate through Spellcraft takes about an hour before completion, however the creation time can be cut in half to either one of the two effects:
The latter cannot be chosen on Minor Dimensional Gates. The off-target location is up to the GM.
Starship Planetary Travel
Starships are expensive, and travel across the galaxy is made incredibly easy through the use of the Dimensional Gates, however starships are used by those who wish to transport masses of troops across the stars or to transport massive weapons that starships are able to carry and use.
All starships (except for Escape Pods) are able to enter into Relativistic Speed after 10 minutes, allowing the ship to travel across the galaxy with ease. Ships can upgrade their Relativistic Speed engines to decrease the start-up time (4,000 G per minute reduced down to a minimum of entering Relativistic Speed after 30 seconds).