Who here is doing cool shit with Fate Core? What is it? Why Fate? Why is it cool?
That fucking Gorilla. I don't know, about 60% of the art in the book is that goddamn cyborg primate.
Specifically, we're doing a Roman Era nWoD mage with a modified version of FATE core.
>>44387976
They must love the damned thing, because it is fucking everywhere...
Sounds sweet - what did you modify? Using Extras?
Doing a fantasy alt-history campaign where the Norse, Romans, Egyptains and Tibetans are great powers battling in the new world. Mostly been concentrating on a settlement in far north America. PCs are a jarl, a high priest and a half-native monster hunter.
There's been a lot of mass combats and city-management stuff that's been a breeze to do with Fate and I couldn't imagine being able to do as quickly or easily in other systems.
>>44387976
>the Consequences chapter where he loses his arm
I cry every time.
>>44387997
DESU I didn't have a particularly strong grasp of the core mechanics before we started houseruling the fuck out of it to get nWoD magic into it.
Arguably our extra is magic, but conviniently FATE skills go from 1-5 so the arcanum were pretty easy to include.
Basically, each of the spells works off a given skill, stunts to vary or boost things as usual. I don't recall how the base system for weapons/armour worked, but the way we've handled it, your arcanum or weapon rating is a base level of stress inflicted on a successful hit, rather than setting a minimum. Although armour at this stage tends to be more of a case of 'you can use X stat for your defense'. So it works in fairly neatly for the various magic abilities. Using investigate instead of athletics if you're a time mage (seeing ahead in time to dodge, sort of thing). Succeding with style grants you an automatic aspect on the target, which can be cashed in to boost the potency/stress inflicted of the spell.
Paradox hasn't come up, we've been pretty careful, and the setting is a bit less paradox inclined than core, but as far as we've discussed, paradox would turn up like a scene aspect to start with, and eventually become another character that would 'attack' the caster with various 'skills', NPC style. Dat FATE fractal, basically.
We're also trying something a bit different for FATE points. We only start each session with a small number, but in addition to our complications granting us more, critical misses give us fate points, as well as hypothetically critical hits (the critical hit is downgraded, though). The GM's been interesting in new nWoD's system, and apparently that idea was drawn from that.
It all boiled down to trying to avoid the usual FATE problem of 'lay down a dozen aspects on the target, and then haymaker him with one or two attacks'.
Mana's also way harder to come by, but is only required for rituals, where it sets the base level of shifts in the final spell.
>>44388115
Yeah, FATE's amazing for giving mechanics to just about anything. We're doing magical rituals in a similar fashion. Far more interesting that nWoD's 'roll x dice x times and blow up a mountain'. Aspects, the ritual 'fighting back', and various skills getting used really made it more interesting.
>>44388154
>a bit different for FATE points. We only start each session with a small number, but in addition to our complications granting us more, critical misses give us fate points, as well as hypothetically critical hits
That's interesting, failure giving you power was one aspect of PbtA systems I really like (XP in their case). Do you find you've got a ton of Fate points all the time?
> It all boiled down to trying to avoid the usual FATE problem of 'lay down a dozen aspects on the target, and then haymaker him with one or two attacks'.
I'm not sure I see how that help that problem, but I agree it definitely happens a lot. RIP hyped-up bosses who only got one turn. I feel like to make foes much more menacing without making them have a billion stress is to give them more turns in a sequence, one for each PC maybe.
>>44388166
I just enjoy not having to think about "how should I handle this mechanically?" since it's always the same for everything. Instead I can concentrate on the fluff and flow of things.
>>44388154
Sounds interesting. I love the idea of different armour determines what kinds of Skills can be used to Defend!
Loving the fractal as well.
>>44388115
Keen to hear more of this as well. How have you handled city-management? That's always a tough one in games, but an aspect I love, so would be very interested to hear what you've done.
>>44388221
>failure
Yeah, we were a bit sore at the general 'dice say no' nature of the D10 success curve from nWoD, so making random failure sting less was a bit of an imperative at that point.
>ton of FATE points
Not really. We don't fuck up much, and obviously complications are a bit hit and miss. Plus the GM has noted that keeping track of all the stunts and aspects of the players and NPCs can be a handful. The GM giveth, and the GM taketh away, though. I think I'd prefer more FATE points, but historically speaking they were mostly just generic buffs for every other roll that we needed. Mostly rerolling bad dice. If you're not running a very genre specific, goofy game, it's hard to work in complication aspects too often, so for the most part the game's just migrated towards a fairly low FATE point system. Our aspects tend to be used more to enable rolls in the first place rather than act as aimers for FATE point usage.
>one turn
Yeah, we JUST came out of a Trinity:Aeon game where it tended to happen a lot, and a FATE Superspies game where that was very common as well. Basically, the fact that their defense attribute effectively soaked stress, and against a lot of bosses, they had a defense stat that was comparable or better than our attack stats, there was a very strong incentive to stack up. With the present flat damage with maybe extras system, any hit is a good hit, and the benefit of a very high roll is mitigated. At best, you get an extra 2 points of stress to your next attack or two, but it's not the same charge charge haymaker system that it used to be.
>more turns
Our GM had that idea, actually. Single enemies tended to have multiple activations. We've only got 2 PCs in the present game though, so that action economy issue is less pronounced. Groups of enemies acting like a single big enemy helps there as well. Makes larger stress pools and good stats more justifiable.
>>44388223
>city-management
With non-replenishing stress tracks for Wealth and Manpower, and lots of Aspects for the going-ons. Add a couple of NPCs moving and shaking in there and its quite lively.
There's been lots of quests to mechanically fill up one or another of the stress tracks, or to remove a disadvantageous Aspect. Narratively this has taken the form of trade envoys, raiding natives for slaves and booty, rooting out criminal and monster dens, and gunboat diplomacy.
Its all kind of piling up though, I'm not sure if the town will last and what direction things will go if it doesn't.
We're doing Star Wars (not inspired by the new movie, just a nice coincidence) and a mecha game heavily inspired by Macross and Buck Rogers.
>>44387976
>>44388154
I am interested to hear more about this. Mage: the Ascension is possibly my very favorite game. I doubt I'd want to play a Fate version of it or Awakening but I am interested to learn about your experience and your game works.
>>44388221
>handle things mechanically
I admire the elegance of the system, but find it somewhat homogenising of game experiences. There's less room for the usual ruck of PC shenanigans when it boils down to stress and aspects and abstract combat. Which is kinda the point, really, but it's a double edged sword.
>>44388223
>different skills
Yeah, we had a problem with the first FATE!Mage game where our strong arcanum was more or less in constant use, rather than a skill. The numbers made sense, because typically they were between 2-5, which is nicely FATEy, but it also meant that we had the same problem as in mage. IE, why bother with mortal skills when your magic pool was so much more important. So this method sort of spread things out. The GM's been pretty flexible with specific stats as well, so we haven't been railroaded too much build wise.
>city management
I imagine the city could be like an NPC. It has stats like 'wealth', 'military power', 'civic spirit', 'diplomats', etc. And the stress boxes represent physical damage, international esteem, economic health, etc. Makes it easy for PC action to improve skills like 'Spy Corps', or 'High Tech Economy', or give it aspects like 'Diverse Economy', or for complications like 'Crossroad of Empires' to be compelled.
So you have a city with 'High Tech Economy' using it to attack another city, dealing economic stress, and the other city defending with it's 'Strong Manufacturing' skill, with a buff from 'Well Connected'. The PC's use their skills to give it a debuff from giving it a 'sketchy reputation' aspect, and roll Expression and Rapport to create a 'Civic Pride' aspect for their own.
>>44387976
I wonder if he's related to Gorilla Khan.
>>44388280
>If you're not running a very genre specific, goofy game, it's hard to work in complication aspects too often
That's no necessarily true, if you all agree to the sort of game you want to be running the Compels that happen should be reasonable. You can always turn them down, unless you're out of points.
Unfortunately you don't always get that level of understanding within a group.
>aspects tend to be used more to enable rolls in the first place rather than act as aimers for FATE point usage
Sounds like you're missing out on some of the fun and principle point of Fate, having PCs played to their weaknesses. It does take quite a bite more improv on everyone's part to work, but having some character flaw thrown in your face when you need it least is really fun and exciting.
But you guys are using Fate to have a more streamlined version of another system, so I guess you have different goals.
>the benefit of a very high roll is mitigated. At best, you get an extra 2 points of stress to your next attack or two, but it's not the same charge charge haymaker system that it used to be.
I'm not really sure what changes you've made to the system. Do you just have a cut-off for the amount of stress you can inflict in a single attack?
>homogenising of game experiences
Mechanically, yes absolutely, that's the point. And if you're really into fluff it would be disappointing. But for just getting on with the story its ace.
>city management
Basically yeah like that. A lot of the time though a single one of those Aspects is going to be the seed for a whole arc, and the other Aspects will come into it one way or another. You still roll and spend Fate on them of course, I just like doing things a bit more blow-by-blow than just me rolling "Spies" vs your "City watch".
>>44388286
Basically, nWoD is a steaming pile of shit mechanically for a few reasons.
Skill suck compared to magic.
Rotes are terribly done, and are objectively useless far too often. They also tend to force certain skill builds.
Rituals are grossly overpowered (see how many successes you can build as even a starting character?).
Mana is effectively free, particularly for the average level of expenditure.
Paradox is either nonexistant, or utterly fucks you (a single success paradox more or less reverses the spell, typically with disasterous results for the caster)
Armour spells are effectively ubiquitous, but don't really stand out from one another. They CAN reduce your dice pool to near zero. Which is real fun.
The D10 system is way, way too mathematically flawed, and the exploding dice mechanic mostly sucks (seriously, with 8 again, you need on average 10 dice to get a single extra success).
There's issues with various spells being either way too good or way too bad.
Combat, and rituals felt like a bit of a grind as well, a lot of the time.
Oh, and there's the usual nWoD issues of character generation being incredibly gameable.
FATE, or at least the type of mage!Fate we play, was crafted to avoid those problems, after a fairly heavy load of houseruling in the old mage game itself.
I mean, that campaign lasted 2 years, and ended up with us repairing the Celestial Ladder, and was probably my favourate RP group/game ever, but goddamn if the system didn't suck donkey dick.
>>44388380
>aspects
They're reasonable when they happen, but we're finding it fairly hard to work them in that often. One of the players has 'My Sight for the Wyrm'. He's blind. He has a stunt that gives him a sort of blind sense though. He's gotten a few fate points from times where being able to read, or see things, would REALLY have come in handy. My character has effectively a sort of 'maybe I will horribly fuck up everything just as bad as the Seers because I'm not a King, I'm a hack' aspect. Which hasn't actually come up. I mean, indecision and insecurity behind a mask of confident competance is a pretty common sort of heroic flaw, but it's not exactly going to happen every session, you know?
Our Superspy game worked it in easier because it was very genreish (made it right after Archer marathon), and so the ones we had were appropriately stereotypical spy movie stuff. Easy to fit in constantly without breaking tone.
>played to their weaknesses
Like I said, complications can't come up that often or it just ends up being farcial. A characters complication being "Dying for a Drink", or "Sucker for a Pretty Face" can't come up that often unless you want to reenact Aeroplane!. We did a lot of that in the Superspies game because it -was- fun and really enjoyable, but in a gritter space cyberpunk lovecraftian Trinity game it just wasn't that appropriate. Nor in the Mage game.
>changes made
Basically, hits deliver a base level of stress, rather than the difference in the attack and defense roll. That base level is improved only through aspect use. So you can succede by 1 or 5, it's doing the same amount of damage to begin with. The boosting of the attack roll doesn't affect the stress inflicted quite as directly.
>just getting on with the story
Yeah, particularly in situations where a more heterodox resolution mechanic would bog down horribly.
>spies vs city watch
Yeah, but I guess that's the beauty of FATE. It's really easy to change scale on the fly.
>>44388495
It depends a lot on the choice of Trouble, but another thing to keep in mind with Compels is that it can be on any Aspect at all, not necessarily just the Trouble or PC aspects.
Having a big tentacle beast come in and compelling a player to be snatched off the shoreline and now dangling above its mouth is totally kosher Fate. There's no mechanics involved there, but you're now playing a more exciting scene than when the tentacle beast just emerged from the water with the party intact on the shore. The thing is the GM probably has all sort of things like this lined up, but instead of introducing it and having PC-world interactions governed by the dice you are justified to throw them into the deep end by offering a Compel for it.
To my mind Compels are just a mechanisation of the "Wouldn't it be cool if..." trail of thought that occurs to people during play. With corresponding mechanics for other people going "No, that's a dumb idea" .
Compelling or Invoking Aspects "to make stuff true" is overlooked in the Core book and in games as well, which makes sense as its one of Fate's weirder ideas, but can lead to a lot of fun when both GM and players are doing it.
>>44388699
Motherfucker. Browser reset ate my post.
>compels
Our GM's never compelled from a non trouble aspect. Possibly because that kinda seems like you're getting a FATE point for something happening that you're good at anyway. FATE points seemed to be more like good things for the players that they got for problems happening, not things happening that the GM was going to happen anyway. Even if they are pseudotailored for the group, that's GMing 101, does the FATE system need to be in any way involved there?
>wouldn't it be cool if/no that's a dumb idea
That's a really good way of putting it, actually. I'll put that foward next group meeting.
>make stuff true
Yeah, the pseudoretonning. That happened a lot with Superspies. Gadgets, and Ancient Chinese Secrets turning up as needed. Most of that time that sort of thing wasn't quite a case of 'this is now true' so much as 'you get a bonus on this roll'. Which is part of where I get the homogenising comment comes from. Everything in FATE boils down to a fairly bland, generic resolution mechanic that has a tendency to turn every idea into a mechically standard unit of norishing gruel. That might be a GM thing though.
