Welcome to the now Reborn Fate Systems General. This thread is dedicated to all people who want to discuss about this flexible and yet so powerful system. If you are newfag, feel free to ask questions. If you are a oldfag, feel free to discuss about your newest modification and/or setting. Feel also free to share your campain stories as either a DM or Player.
Last Thread This thread questions are: What kind of improvements would you like to see in a possible 2E of Fate? What kind of settings are you playing/DMing right now?
>flexible and yet so powerful system Objectively false, and I even like Fate.
Fate is only really that good for certain kinds of games and even then you've got to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get a lot of stuff to work with it.
Nathaniel Evans
Tell me a setting/situation that isn't fit for Fate.
Nolan Evans
How hard is it to GM this game? A player would rather use it than Mutants and Masterminds 3e for a sequel to a solo game we ran beforehand.
Ryan Sanchez
Its a little tricky but once you have the core mechanics down you can use them in lieu of the more complicated minigames they sometimes have for specific actions. Watching a 15 min youtube of it being played usually enough to get the gist
Eli Gutierrez
Gritty dungeon crawling with a heavy dose of resource management. Formalized tactical combat like in D&D 4e or Strike. Operators operating operationally with maximum tacticool realism.
Christopher James
Which System? Core/Accellerated/Other? Well, it depends on the setting and by how much crunch he would like to use. But I generally find it quite easy and "instinctive", with really a few rules to actually remember. You can even create characters in an instant without having to become crazy in the process.
Samuel Watson
Here's something I've always wondered about FATE, but never ran into during the summer we ran it at the FLGS: are there mechanics or generally agreed upon rules for resolving disagreements over the GM's interpretations of Aspects?
Generally, if the GM tries to compel a character aspect an I have Fate Points left, my options are either to give him a Fate Point to resist the compel or take the fate point and accept the compel. If there's no Fate Points in my pool, I can't resist the compel at all. What if I think the GM has misread one of my aspects in a fundamental way, and I disagree with the nature of the compel rather than just seeing it as a temptation I want my character to "resist?"
Let's GM says "Amazo, you have your rival from the wizarding academy at your mercy. I'm going to invoke your trouble aspect, 'Never Forgets the Smallest Slight' and offer you a Fate Point to finish him off - permanently." Do I as the player have any leeway for saying "whoa, Amazo is petty and jealous, but he'd only want to embarrass the guy as revenge - He's already won the duel, he's no murdeter" without spending a Fate Point to resist, or is the GM in FATE entailed a certain authorial power over the player characters wherein Amazo as a result of the compel now IS the kind of person to kill over a rivalry unless I'm willing to spend the Fate Points to deny it?
Henry Reed
1) Have a low scale game with a limit of aspects to like 3 in total, but that's not obligatory. Conseguences based on the setting will be harder to heal. If people don't eat they gain aspects like "hungry" if they have a wound that wasn't properly treated, they gain "infected wound" Use Extra to write out your items, how many arrows you have left. For weapons use stress and conseguences like they were actual characters, so they can be old, worn out, and actually break. Use situational aspects to describe how dark the dungeon is, let them light a torch as an "Overcome" action to get rid of it momentarily. 2) With Situational Aspects you can define the zone you are fighting, like a thrift shop would have many stalls, and your players can use them by using the Action "Create an Advantage" so they take cover or use them to hide and sneak upon foes. 3) One player may take the role of the operator, with his particular skillset, like Computer Hacking, Information Gathering, Drone Piloting and various gadgets, other players will actually go to the battlefield while having the support of the other players. Never dreamed of actually play Otacon user?
Parker Campbell
>are there mechanics or generally agreed upon rules for resolving disagreements over the GM's interpretations of Aspects?
On the one hand you're supposed to discuss things like this so everyone has a good understanding of what aspects mean so you head off situations like this before they happen.
On the other hand FATE is about saying 'other people's interpretation of my character can be valid' whether you're player of GM
The most disappointing player I ever had was someone who came up with a really specific and nifty character but then treated them like they were a porcelain figure, actively shutting down any attempt at character development or god forbid other people having input on the character.
Bentley Long
When creating aspects (and generally the character in general) you usually do that with your DM and even the other players and there must be a general agreement on everything, so the risk of misreading or misinterpretation is really low. Also, remember, in Fate the main goal (usually) is to create a compelling story for everyone, the GM has the final take on everything, but the character is yours, and if you say that he's not a killer, then he would've to listen to you. Of course, if Amazo killed a a petty thief that tried to stole from him, as a GM I would remind you that and question what you just said. I usually suggest to my players to spend one aspect to describe their morality, or, at least talk about it in their background. (Yes, your characters can have a background in Fate)
Tyler Myers
Also, as a sidenote. When you defeat an enemy, you, as a player, can decide what you do with him, if you say "I will just laugh at him and let him run away, humiliated" then your decision must take priority, if the GM wants to do this twist, he can compel you, but if you make him notice that's not in line with your character he shall take note of that. Morality conflict can make up for really nice stories.
Leo Green
Just checking in to see if this thread's being shit on like Fate threads usually are. I'll check back in a few hours.
Brandon Ward
You sound like I did when I first read through fate. Maybe you even tried out your ideas, which sound great on paper.
It's a game by storytellers, for storytellers.Fate supports stories. Stories where the players have really personal things to do and really personal ways to accomplish them.
I tried it out for a dungeoncrawler it was hot garbage. Fate is not a game where torch count and encumbrance is tracked on a per-piece basis. It's not a game that handles someone getting smeared by a goblin.
Fate is a game about describing how you succeed. Fire-man creates fire, gets a bonus, succeeds. Sneak-man sneaks, gets a bonus, succeeds. It's all about style. Get a rock to hit someone in the back of the head with- sure, that's just as mechanically viable as any other choice you could have made. You forge your own path and that's cool, that's the point.
Your 'solutions' to support tactical play really don't get it. A player has an 'infected wound?' Well, sure, that might hinder them a bit, but it will also give them fate points to get back to succeeding in their own unique way. Mostly it doesn't do anything though, like that bullet in Action McHeroes shoulder. It's just fluff.
In an actually gritty game, an infected wound might mean you're fucking dead in 24 hours, you don't have time to accomplish anything cool, and that's it for you, all because some ghoul rolled well in a fight that was supposed to let you afford plate mail. The stories Fate tries to tell aren't the stories of meaningless death and people defined as much by their equipment as their feelings
I like Fate. But it's a 'generic system' in terms of setting only- in tone, you're playing Fate, and no amount of hacking and increasingly convoluted rules are going to reach the tone of OD&D or Gurps: Operating Operators.
Nolan Scott
The difference is that I tried these mechanics. As you say, Fate is a game about stories, a story about a group of adventures dying of starvation, or ice cold weather is STILL a story user, a sad, gritty one. > Fate is not a game where torch count and encumbrance is tracked on a per-piece basis That's where you, the GM, must act and act as a judge, you have all the right to say "No, you cannot bring 10 torches with you, you have only one small bag". You must announce the tone of the campain before and the settings, >It's not a game that handles someone getting smeared by a goblin. Why not? Game scale is there for a reason, user, feel free to lower it, or to make the enemy on par with the heroes, that's not a crime. >Your 'solutions' to support tactical play really don't get it. A player has an 'infected wound?' Well, sure, that might hinder them a bit, but it will also give them fate points to get back to succeeding in their own unique way. Why shall I? If I wounded you in the first place, that gave you a conseguence, and you didn't treat it properly,so I can just evolve the conseguence, and the enemies can just invoke it to make it easier to kill you, that's all about the setting, it's not unfair, this is how things are and you made it clear at your players. >In an actually gritty game, an infected wound might mean you're fucking dead in 24 hours In actual game time that's a lot, and a lot can happen in between, you can even try to amputate the arm that got mauled to try to save you, in that case the conseguence will become a permanent aspect. (Only one arm/Phantom Pain, and so on),if you succeed without dying of blood loss of course. >Your 'solutions' to support tactical play really don't get it. Mind to explain this further? >A player has an 'infected wound?' Well, sure... It's just fluff. No, Conseguences are different from stress because they have direct in game conseguences (hence the name) and they last until treated. they don't give Fate Points.
Benjamin Flores
Bump.
Parker Anderson
Fuck you, no one cares.
Mason Howard
I don't think you get fate. To me, fate is able to handle the most gritty campaigns and things. It's the other systems that feel unrealistic. Like hit points. I really don't get it.
In fate, breaking your arm plays like a broken arm because of consequences. You get the temporary aspect "broken left arm" and its up to the players to roleplay that. This is where some people have issue with fate, because 'that guy' can conveniently forget it capitalizing on the fact that the GM has so much to deal with already.
Anyway, FATE handles high unrealistic adventure great, and it can handle gritty realism just fine.
Mason Harris
>i do not like thing, therefore nobody else does
Colton White
No one cares.
Julian Thompson
I guess it's because they usually depict Fate with high pulp/heroic settings, where the heroes can take quite a punch and win the day, and everyone is awesome. I must say that it works perfectly with those with really little effort, so I may understand why user thinks that Fate is just about that, but it's also really easy to add some more details to make it work just fine in gritty settings as well. I must say that Fate is the general system that translates fluff into crunch in the best way possible with the least effort, but I also like Savage Worlds and GURPS as well for all different reasons.
Now I'll go to bed, I hope the thread will still be up when I'll be back.
Ethan Foster
Best way possible? Absolutely not. Least effort? Sure, I'll buy that.
Easton Bennett
Of course, I'm speaking about myself, and my opinion, not an objective fact.
Jackson Thomas
What's a good YT video to watch to get the basics of Fate Core and Accelerated? Preferably in german but english is also ok!
Cooper Myers
>What kind of improvements would you like to see in a possible 2E of Fate? 5E*, Core is 4E.
Maybe I want to see how they end up coalescing Overcome with Attack and Defense, so that it turns into just three actions: Overcome, CaA, and Discover.
I don't know what else could be great for Fate though, it does what it does pretty damn well. Maybe giving characters less aspects? I dunno.
>What kind of settings are you playing/DMing right now? I'm not even roleplaying ;_;
Henry Baker
>What kind of settings are you playing/DMing right now? DMing Deponia in german, last week my players were looking for Oil Dorado in the Compost (a jungle of biological waste) and the Billywoods (a jungle of IKEA furniture). They did a lot of funky stuff like taming a pelican tortoise with mold fur, burning down half the Compost and capturing a crazy adventurer with a pocket machete and an apple core and later launching him at a tentacle monster.
Next week they'll do drugs, Drequilla (kinda translates to 'dirtquilla'), death duels on top of a tar lake, hugging explosive trees and probably fighting off marauding AI-controlled windmills in the middle of Drecksiko (something like 'mucksico').
He's right, though. It's a game about the players doing things their characters do, because its' on their sheet.
Everything is very much cut an dry, every adventurer defined by a core fighting skill has the exact same capabilities in almost every scenario.
If a man with a polearm is fighting in a confined space, the 'confined space' aspect will affect him once, and then the tag is spent and he can't be affected by it again without the expenditure of resources.
Truth be told, you can activate any number of aspects with the vaguest of meanings if you word them correctly, and its' in your interest to meaningfully hamstring yourself in order to succeed at the things you want to succeed at.
It feels very adversarial as a player (anytime I have to examine strategy on how to hinder myself I feel very strange) and not particularly interesting as a GM, given the verisimilitude of bonuses and penalties. Every single thing is +2 or -2.
The dice have terrible variance, as well.
Aaron Parker
>The dice have terrible variance, as well. Opinions. I quite like it.
Nathaniel Nelson
>anytime I have to examine strategy on how to hinder myself I feel very strange Because you're supposed to build an interesting story around your character, and for that you must become a storyteller.
Parker Sullivan
Yes. This, this is why I dislike it as a roleplaying system, because it isn't one.
I'm supposed to get into my character's head and use what they know and can do to achieve their goals and interact with the world.
Thinking of things like "Well I should really remember that I am impulse and charge across the rain-slicked bridge towards the boss, because after I slip and put myself at a disadvantage and achieve a heroic scar for my indiscretion, I'll have the resources to destroy him."
You're right. It's a storytelling system, and I'm very much annoyed when my friends try to pitch it as a roleplaying game.
Mason Parker
based user, thank you!
David Rivera
What the hell? Did two anons just have a reasonable conversation on Veeky Forums about FATE?
Charles Jackson
I'm curious to know whether anyone thinks Fate could work as a system for horror. I've done a little reading on the topic and the suggestions I've seen make sense (make consequences absorb less damage, make players succeed with a cost often, compel the fuck out of everyone) but I've never tried it myself. Do you guys think Fate can provide a creepy game where the atmosphere weighs heavily on the players, or does giving players so much agency in the story inherently make it less effective at that? And if the latter, is it viable to take away some (SOME!) of that agency in the name of an oppressive atmosphere?
Ryder Cox
>If a man with a polearm is fighting in a confined space, the 'confined space' aspect will affect him once, and then the tag is spent and he can't be affected by it again without the expenditure of resources. This right here is one of my biggest gripes with Fate, and something I'd like to see changed in the future. There should be something like an Ongoing Effect Aspect which should have an actual, tangible, and CONTINUAL effect, not just being another notecard tossed down on the table and forgotten.
Also I hate the unnecessary codifying of basic concepts Core does. No, it doesn't always fucking matter what kind of action this roll counts as, just let it be a success/failure and shove your pretentious terminology up your fucking ass. And no, I'm going to "just say the player succeeds/fails," I wouldn't be having them roll if it wasn't going to add something to the game but I'm also not going to bother with bullshit mental gymnastics to justify how it's one of your stupid actions.
Ian Anderson
If the group is generally on board with it, it would work absolutely, just fine. You might want to reduce the number of skill points and refresh points PCs start with to make them feel less capable.
Fate Core REALLY assumes all the players 'get it' and are on the same page, though.
Adam Anderson
Yes, I did some kind of nightmare labyrinth once and it worked reasonably well. Limited and hard to gain fate points, hard to heal consequences the atmosphere (and background music) getting ever darker, in the end stress didn't even regenerate. There were quite a few scenes that the players really liked like timefuckery where they see themselves going down a corridor, bleeding walls, climbing a ringing bell tower in complete darkness while hunted by some faceless horrors. Also playing in the dark with candles as stress boxes that you blow out can create some fine atmosphere.
Levi Cox
I also use a lot of save and check type rolls that the system doesn't technically support as such.
Adam Rodriguez
Even the writers have said that Fate sucks at horror.
Logan Bennett
That's the advantage of the system, you can easily adapt it to fit horror scenarios better. The GM needs quite some understanding of the system though
