Just last night I ran the first session of a Fate Core campaign. The first session involves deciding what your game will be, what it will be about and the setting it will be in. It is also when the players make characters. It worked very well over all. It was a very organic game experience where we reached a game I am fairly convinced will work for us all.
My issue came during the character creation part of the evening. Most of the character creation worked for me. it was during the three phases of Aspect building that I ran into my difficulty. Basically a character comes up with their first adventure, and an aspect for it. Then they go t the first adventure of another player and they either help solve it or complicate it, then they write an aspect for that. So far, so good. It is phase three where the problem manifested.
In phase three of this Aspect building process you go to another players sheet, to the first adventure there and basically do the same thing that you did in phase two. the problem I am having is that their is already another PC in the mix. There is a good chance that the adventure is already complete. It just feels very tightly bound.
I guess that this is not a game issue I am having so much as a Me issue. I just find that this situation feels too coincidental...though to be fair a lot of fiction gets the group together in just such a coincidence. I don't know. I just found that part of character creation to not work for me.
Perhaps make a point of having Player A (person whose story will be added to by Players B and C) introduce/leave room for more than one driving action or threat in their initial description, and so Player C will have another thread to weave in or (if there's room) work themselves into the same thread Player B picked up.
ReplyDeleteAn example:
ReplyDelete"Tyrone was sent on the final step of his initiation, the stalking and assassination of a corrupt Guildmaster in a nearby city. With nothing but his wits and his knife he tracked his prey, only to discover that the man was a patsy for the real embezzlers. Despite having his knife to his target's throat, Tyrone found he could not kill an innocent, and renounced his oaths."
Aspect: My Knife Is For the Wicked
Then Player B can be all, "Being a dealer in information with an eye for new blood, Magda first tried to scam and then to help this dangerous young man. She eventually helped him gather the information he wanted, and when he didn't like the truth she told him that collecting only the answers he wanted to hear would have been much cheaper work."
Aspect: Careful What You Wish For
And Player C can maybe confirm that, or make it MORE complicated (a bodyguard, rival killer, magically hid him from his old order, outfitted him for the assassination, blackmailed him about his past, etc.)
Does that make sense?
You could also swap out that second guest-star phase for something more campaign-specific. What were you doing during the Great War? What faction are you affiliated with? What fantasy race are you? Etc.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate both of your examples and advice. in the future I think I will work on this issue. I will probably use both those ideas at one point or another.
ReplyDeleteI think of the second guest star as the "B plot"; think about TV shows, there. With many episodes, there's a strong "A" plot that's driving the action, but there's a second "B" plot that maybe slightly ties into the "A" plot but involves the rest of the cast that isn't tangled up in "A". The "B" plot usually reflects on/gives commentary to what's happening in "A", at least thematically, or achieves a secondary goal that's needed for "A" to wrap up neatly. So that's a lens to use when figuring out the involvement of that second guest.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for the advice Fred-er-Mr. Hicks-I mean(OMG Fred Hicks is on my website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111one) thanks. That really helps me see what they are for. I think maybe if I describe it to my players better I will get the results I am looking for.
ReplyDeleteHaha that's Fred for ya, he's a stand up guy!
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it. I don't think I have never seen him standing. Have you? Has anyone!?!
ReplyDeleteO.o you know....I think you may be right! OMG! He's a sitting down stand up guy!
ReplyDelete