Fate (Fantasy)

[TomNC]

Fate? Did I hear Fate?

Yes, yes, you did I love Fate for the ease of creating things for one-shots. Though my friends and I used it for a collaborative/shared world where we took turns running the story. That was a lot of fun and it had a ton of creative freedom built into that allowed us to do things that other systems might not. I also helped one of those friends start a semi-organized game of it (20+ players and with 4 or 5 "fate masters") based in a comedy space setting. I dropped from it after the first season, but it went on for like 5 years.

Still, I think I prefer it for zany rules light gaming or one-shots. Lately, though, I have looked at Cypher as something that could replace it in my personal tool box.

I take it you like it?

 

[JochenL]

I take it you like it?

Yes, I do!

I used it for Sci-Fi mostly/lately. Traveller-esque using plain Fate Core/Condensed.
Before that, I got into Mindjammer, Eclipse Fate, and Dresden Files.
It all started with a Brothers Grimm/Krabat-ripoff medieval fairy tale fantasy game.

I like the versatility of the system. It's easy to improv, and it's story-driven.
The only thing I miss is crunch, as sometimes everything feels the same.
For that reason, I enjoyed Mindjammer and Strands of Fate.

I have yet to find a good fantasy implementation.
I like Malmsturm, but the setting is so densely woven into the rules that they are difficult to reuse.
I like Dungeons of Fate, too, and translated it into German.

If you have any pointers for Fate Fantasy, I am all ears!

 

[TomNC]

Yes, I do!

I used it for Sci-Fi mostly/lately. Traveller-esque using plain Fate Core/Condensed.
Before that, I got into Mindjammer, Eclipse Fate, and Dresden Files.
It all started with a Brothers Grimm/Krabat-ripoff medieval fairy tale fantasy game.

I like the versatility of the system. It's easy to improv, and it's story-driven.
The only thing I miss is crunch, as sometimes everything feels the same.
For that reason, I enjoyed Mindjammer and Strands of Fate.

I have yet to find a good fantasy implementation.
I like Malmsturm, but the setting is so densely woven into the rules that they are difficult to reuse.
I like Dungeons of Fate, too, and translated it into German.

If you have any pointers for Fate Fantasy, I am all ears!

For fantasy stuff I just made magic weapons and armor aspects. How do you handle it?

 

[JochenL]

For fantasy stuff I just made magic weapons and armor aspects. How do you handle it?

It depends.

• Versatile stuff that may influence the story becomes aspects. I would use this for personal heirlooms and artifacts.
• Always-on items (or powerful activation items) become stunts (with Fate Point or scene-/session-limited activation).
• Tomes, manuals, conjured spirits, golems, etc., that let you do things you cannot do yourself (or assist you in doing things better) become skills.

Depending on the feeling the game should provide, items must either be part of the character or are external. The first approach limits the number of items one can have as you need to "bind" them to you before they provide any benefit. The second approach makes items temporary, stealable limited NPC-like statblocks that add to your character as long as you have them (like magic items in 3.5 or Pathfinder 1).

I like how Malmsturm handles loot: You get limited loot slots (say two or four). You note down loot in these slots as situational aspects with one free invoke. That makes it easy to dish out loot and let the party decide what to take into slots. And if a player likes an item especially, they can make it permanent by spending aspects/stunts/skills to bind it to their character.

For magic users/casters/etc., I usually require your high concept to name your magic. A core skill will cover basic, low-key magic stuff, e.g., Lore for wizards that allows you to conjure a light like a Swords skill implies weapons, or a Survival skill implies brought torches. From there, stunts can add additional capabilities to the core skill, like using it instead of Shoot for magical remote attacks.

 

[TomNC]

For magic users/casters/etc., I usually require your high concept to name your magic. A core skill will cover basic, low-key magic stuff, e.g., Lore for wizards that allows you to conjure a light like a Swords skill implies weapons, or a Survival skill implies brought torches. From there, stunts can add additional capabilities to the core skill, like using it instead of Shoot for magical remote attacks.

This 100%. The existing skills work just fine. High Concept defines how the skills work. "Blah blah Ranger" has some built-in assumptions. Shoot is with that bow and arrow.

Now Dresden really confounds me with their magic system. I understand they are trying to keep the flavor of how magic works, from Butcher's descriptions, but it's overly complicated for a system that otherwise runs smoothly. At least in my opinion.

So, Loot are just aspects that get added to your character and you can swap out for other loot? "I have the Sword of Avenging Souls" welp that's an aspect you will use a free invoke on per encounter/scene on melee?

Tom

 

[JochenL]

So, Loot are just aspects that get added to your character and you can swap out for other loot? "I have the Sword of Avenging Souls" welp that's an aspect you will use a free invoke on per encounter/scene on melee?

As situational aspects, they are likely gone after that, i.e., they can no longer be invoked and provide a bonus. But I like the idea of keeping stuff in your slots as long as you switch it out.

 

[TomNC]

As situational aspects, they are likely gone after that, i.e., they can no longer be invoked and provide a bonus. But I like the idea of keeping stuff in your slots as long as you switch it out.

This reminds me of the Weapon and Armor Perm Aspects from some systems. It would work that you had your normal skills etc to roll to hit but the Weapon rating would add to the effect, and Armor would soak incoming hits.

I kind of trashed that a while and started using the aspects/loot style home hack for my one shots. "Oh, you have a powerful war hammer, but you need to invoke it for any bonuses" It was just an aspect on the character. I didn't play with changing them out except during milestones. It makes sense though to swap them when they upgraded gear.

 

[TomNC]

@JochenL Check this out. It's a stress clock. So that people can get a lucky shot and take down the critter/baddy in one hit.

I would adjust this so that normal people would have like a 4 or even 2 stress clock and just roll a d4 or d2. I think it adds an interesting level of tension to combat.

https://twitter.com/capacle/status/1628785542329520130

What do you think?

Tom

 

[JochenL]

It sounds interesting and worth trying it. I guess I will reserve this for special occasions, though.

Regarding clocks, I disliked that resources are treated as skills and/or stress tracks in Fate. Accumulating (and losing) wealth is a trope of some games, and giving away the situational aspect of "Windfall"/"Lots of Coin"/"Riches" is not that much fun there. Then I encountered Nova Praxis, based on Fate Core. It uses a 20-clock for counting a character's resource rating up and down. That's worth a look, too.

 

[TomNC]

What else can you tell me about Nova Praxis?

And, this is one thing I really like about Fate: you can hack it to your liking.

I like clocks like from PBtA games and am borrowing them into other games I'm playing. A friend of mine uses something similar in his OSR games. He assigns faction turns, and those factions all have goals. What they dedicate to the task, almost like aspects, is the better chance of moving the clock forward.

This is something else I am thinking of adopting for my hex crawl. Factions having goals and them triggering with or without the player involvement to add more verisimilitude to the setting.

 

[JochenL]

What else can you tell me about Nova Praxis?

Nova Praxis is transhuman sci-fi: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/112483/Nova-Praxis-Augmented-PDF-Fate

Humanity has made it to the stars. The singularity nearly happened. Earth has been Skynet'ed. You can switch bodies like in Altered Carbon. The economy is reputation-based. The player characters are black ops personnel in corporate wars (the major corporations call themselves houses and have taken over the government).

 

[TomNC]

For your games, do you run Core, Condensed or Accelerated?

 

[JochenL]

Mostly Core and some Condensed. Though, I like Dresden Files Accelerated (more than the Fate 2 version).

What do you prefer and run?

 

[TomNC]

For one-shots where I'm expecting newer players, I run Accelerated. For the campaigns we've done, it's been Core.

I really, as I've stated before, don't like the Dresden implementation. However, I do like DF Accelerated. Just haven't got to play it yet.

 

[Ahkmed]

So if I may chime in, I just came across Nova Praxis recently and fell in love with the story. I had not heard of or knew about Fate system before that. So we are starting it last week (made characters), and finishing that up this week and going to try some game play. For this first run with it I did get a copy of Machinations book and going to follow the story in there, just to help with the understanding of the system and rules. They have one aimed at beginning players.

Comparing it with the other Fate books I acquired, it does seem to change a few things. But with the built in flexibility you could easily change anything. Seeing as this is my first foray into the system I do not have any experience to offer, however if there are any suggestions of what to watch for as far as problem areas are concerned I would gladly accept them. I have read through the main Nova book and most of the Machinations one, so I might be able to help with what is written. I am unsure your personal thoughts on sharing, but I could pass you a copy of either of the books if you wanted to look through them before making the purchase yourself.

 

[JochenL]

I am unsure your personal thoughts on sharing, but I could pass you a copy of either of the books if you wanted to look through them before making the purchase yourself.

Please don't suggest such things here. Even if people don't object to "sharing" this would still be piracy in most places and we want to stay on the legal side with all our endeavors.

 

[JochenL]

Seeing as this is my first foray into the system I do not have any experience to offer, however if there are any suggestions of what to watch for as far as problem areas are concerned I would gladly accept them.

A few takeaways from my experience:

• Don't roll when nothing is at stake
• If you roll make the outcome matter
• Keep an eye on fate points - I am usually missing out on that!
  • FP can be spent on difficult actions - I usually don't make things difficult enough for FP to come into play
  • FP can be gained by bringing in aspects of the characters - a great chance for players to show off their characters' personalities
    • Keep a "cheat sheet" of aspects of PCs around

 

[Ahkmed]

Thanks, good points to remember. I have read that some people think Nova is aspect heavy, with this being my first time into it and nothing to compare it to, it doesn't seem too bad to me. Of course comparison and perspective are a subject of conversation and controversy on its own.