My Issues with Fate

I know that title is a bit like click bait, but I do have a few niggling issues with Fate. The issues I have are nebulous and difficult to pin down. This is why I have been hesitant to bring these issues up so far. I play a lot of Fate. I have even designed games and systems for Fate. Heck looking through this blog's history is kind of like looking through my history with Fate. Needless to say I really dig the game. I think that is why I have difficulty nailing down what exactly my issues with Fate are. A lot of this is going to be stream of consciousness and me working through  these issues and trying to nail down what it is that I am really feeling. I apologize if it comes out a little garbled.

Compels
I think my issues with compels is this. They are individualistic in nature, yet they often affect more than one person. So you end up giving points to everyone hit by the compel whether they have the aspect or not. Which can make the character aspects feel less individual. I guess you could then only give fate points to the person with the aspect, but I could see that causing the others affected by the compel to get a little upset by having all the downsides of the compel with none of the upside. I am not certain if this is a real issue, or if it is just my brain going around in circles breaking things down to such a point that I get neurotic about piddly little things that no one else runs into.

Hostile Invocation
I am not of fan of GM side invocations. They make the game feel off to me. This is hard for me to properly express, so let me try and work through my issue with this. So when a GM invokes a player character aspect to add to an antagonist's rolls can feel...off to me. Sometimes(not always, just sometimes) it feels more like a tax on the players for taking their actions. I guess maybe its the GM scene fate point budget. Either it is too much or not enough. I am not sure. I know that a certain amount of hostile invokes are needed to balance in a conflict or contest. I am just not sure if I like this method. I think their might be a solution, though I am not fully sure of that. I think this could be reworked as a series of one use stunts that only NPCs can take.

Stress & Consequences
I think consequences are pretty spiffy in concept, but I have found that they can sometimes be an issue. I occasionally run into a situation where I have to get into a negotiation over a chosen consequence, as the GM will think it is not "bad" enough, or they think it is too "bad". This negotiation tends to take people out of the game and really feels awkward. It doesn't ruin consequences, i really like consequences. However it does occasionally come up in my games, and I am not sure if it is a big enough issue to really matter. I am becoming more and more fond of conditions as I go forward with Fate. They are more narrowly focused and predictable and I think are a really spiffy for a lot of situations I have run into in the past. I have kind been falling in love with conditions as the years have gone on. The other issue I have is Stress. Every time I see stress I keep thinking it needs to be more versatile, and I have the urge to make it do more. However each time I do that I end up using up the domain of fate points. SO my issue with stress is more an issue with me, I have an urge to fiddle with things and make them do other things. Not sure if that issue is fixable, come to that.

Concessions
I love the concept of concessions. I have never had them work in game in a satisfactory manner. I am not sure what exactly is the issue with concessions, but I know they are never satisfactory. This one keeps coming up in my game, and I have no real solution or even the hint of one. Of course I have yet to really nail down what feels off about concessions in play, I just know it feels off to me.

And those are my big issues Fate. As I said at the beginning of this post I love Fate. I love it. However I have these niggling issues that I can't seem to shake. I think I have solutions for some of them, but I am not sure if they will make the game more to my liking or if they will make the game unplayable to those who like Fate as is. Maybe both. Anyway, I will keep tweaking, hacking and designing and maybe I will get to the perfect game for me and people like me, provided there are people like me. You can check out my latest Fate game design right now. Its a game all about demigods dealing with godly factions and the inevitable magical destruction of the world.

A Far Off Land

Celestial Jade: War In the Heavens

+Megan Bennett-Burks and I are a little over a week into our kickstarter for A Far Off Land, a project we have been writing for over a year now. As the tension is killing me I figured I needed something to take my mind off of it. So in the spirit of lowering my tension levels, here goes.

I was lurking over on rpg.net a few days ago and ran into a discussion about science fiction wuxia. In the thread Jadepunk was brought up as an option for running that sort of game. While +Ryan M. Danks  and I designed the game to be something like mystic cyberpunk we had also discussed the idea of doing a couple of different riffs on the game system. One of those(the one I was most interested in currently) was a space opera style Jadepunk game. The reminder in the thread led me to realize I could do a quick workup of the basics of the setting and maybe some cool assets that would fit in the setting. Thus do I begin the rough outline of a space opera setting for use with Jadepunk.

Far far into the future of Jadepunk...

Humans and their Autamatect creations long ago left their home world and traveled out into the wider universe. The jade drive allows for travel faster than light through some sort of alternative dimension not fully understood. Humans and their jadetech were first out and so dominate the heavens, though many other sophonts live within the human sphere of influence. 25 years ago the Great Interstellar War raged across the skies of countless worlds. Devastating weapons were unleashed and billions perished in blood and fire. Since the end of the war peace and unity have reigned. The unification of the Guild, The Church,  and the Major Powers into The Galactic Concordat led to a unified economic, political, and social system that dominates a majority of civilized space. 

Jade still stands tall as the most powerful and useful material in the universe. All intergalactic travel is dependent on it. The concordat control the largest jade resources in the known galaxy. The capitol was built in a vast asteroid field rich in multiple kinds of jade. The center of the Concordat builds and grows, as it does so too does its decadence and corruption. On the edges of civilization enemies, ancient and new, gather forces. The war is not over, it has just been in a long reprieve. 

Welcome to Kausao Station, the biggest, most wealthy mining colony in the 'verse, throne of the Galactic Concordat, and center of the universe. 

What do you do?
You play members of the Jianghu, rebels against the Concordat and defenders of the weak and helpless. The rules for characters remains the same as in standard Jadepunk. The technology is a little different, go more baroque and elegant in description rather than clunky and mystic jadetech normally described in the books. Autamatects work on the same rules as in teh previous Jadepunk setting hack.

The Basics
The Great Interstellar War: A conflict between the four major powers and many smaller polities that lasted for decades. Many great and terrible weapons were used. Planets were destroyed, Ancient peoples fell. The causes of the war are shrouded, the various stellar states were tied up in treaties with many smaller factions and causes and this became a tangled web of allegiance and enmity with no clear starting point. The war began as several smaller wars with the major powers supporting this faction or that. Eventually more than mere assistance was needed and the galaxy was at war in truth. It generally broke down into to two main factional sides, The Kaiyumi-Naramel Alliance and the Tuyang-Aerum Coalition.   It finally came to an end with the battle of Shui Xing 4. Due to a series of strategic mistakes nearly every major fleet ended up near the planet an surprised that the other fleets where there. Millions died in the first salvo. The strategists panicked and sent more fleets in, and more after that. What was an unimportant system became the center of the largest, longest, and most costly battle in the history of space. The battle lasted nearly a month, by the end billions had died. Within weeks what was left of the four powers had sued for peace. The peace accords were what led to an eventual unification of the Galactic Concordat out of the remaining great powers the church and the guilds.

Setting Aspects: Endless Scars of War; Old World Has Fallen, But Is Not Forgotten

The Galactic Concordat: In the wake of the Great Interstellar War the Guild and the Church combined forces to halt any future war of such magnitude. The gathered the remnants of the Major Powers and through political and economic pressure they pushed through the Concord forming the basis for a new government, a higher government. Each state within the Concordat can rule itself as it sees fit, but in terms of military or trade they must all follow the dictums of the concordat.

Aspects: Barely Unified Factions; Money, Power, and Security At All Costs

Kausao Station: The center of the Guild, it has rapidly become the center of all trade in the galaxy. When the Concordat was formed Kausao Station was chosen as the capitol for this new government. Now it stands not only as a center for trade, but for diplomacy and peace as well. With so much money and power the station has become a massive and complex web of interconnected factions and displaced peoples.

Aspects: Center For Trade and Politics; Too Big To Manage Properly

The Guild:  fractious and tenuous union between the six most powerful Mega Corporations in Known Space. Each has a near monopoly on a given Technology and so the Guild has a monopoly on everything the average person might need. Each Corp has a number of Nobles in their pockets which has lead to the

Aspects: We Make Everything; The Money Flows Like Water

The Periphery States: The various smaller states that exist outside of the Concordat as well as anything that might exist outside of known space are known as the Periphery States. Many of these are very upset with the Galactic Concord and the results of the Great Interstellar War. Now the region is too vast to properly patrol or maintain but rich enough to draw in colonists, miners, and traders. This has led to huge amounts of piracy and privateers.

 Aspects: Rogues States and Pirate Clans; Lawless Edge of Known Space

Ka-Dosh: Large six-limbed green skinned aliens, the Ka-Dosh were one of the first alien species encountered by humans. As such they are found throughout known space. They are known for their physical strength and desire for challenge. Many of the best and brightest in the galaxy are Ka-Dosh, as are many of the worst and most violent. Their culture was originally quite primitive when first discovered by outsiders, but in the centuries since have become as advanced as any other sophont.

Sample Ka-Dosh AssetYotsu No-Kin: A martial art that use the unique physiology of the Ka-Dosh. It is focused around fighting using multiple limbs simultaneously and fight multiple opponents at the same time. The following asset is just an example of what assets in this martial art might look like.
Guiding Aspect: Something involving knowing Ka-Dosh Martial arts or Yotsu No-Kin specifically
Features: Focus 1(+1 Fighter), Harmful 1, Protective 1
Flaws: Situational(Only when facing opponents with fewer limbs than the user), Troubling(Collateral Damage)
Cost: 2

Bevrai: Quadrupedal shelled elephantine aliens of great intellect, the Bevrai are some of the greatest philosophers and theoretical scientists in the galaxy. They have more sensory organs than any other sophont in the known galaxy, which has given them something of a mystical reputation among many. They make extensive use of technology since their meeting with the galactic society. Their language is slow and lyrical in nature, much of it transmitted long distances  through ultra low frequency sound. Each Bevrai has a song they add to throughout their life. When they meet back up with family or friends after a long absence each will sing their song to the others. It builds into strange and alien harmonies that few outsiders have had the blessing to encounter.

Sample Bevrai AssetMechanical Waldoes: In order to use the technology of the external galaxy the Bevrai make use of mechanical arms designed to give them better ability with technology designed for sophonts with opposable digits. The Waldoes use black jade to read the desire of the wielder and translate that into mechanical movement. There are other types of waldoes that are designed for more specialized service, such as a rifleman mod for using guns.
Function Aspect: Black Jade Prosthesis
Features: Focus 2(+1 Engineer, +1 Scoundrel)
Flaw: Situational(Only when interacting with Technology that requires hands to use)
Cost: 1

Youxia: Ancient order or mystic knights who once defended an ancient stellar kingdom, now lost to history. The few remaining Youxia wander the cosmos as wandering troubleshooters and sometime heroes. Many a Jianghu Society has been led by powerful Youxia. The Shimah-Kan have a standing bounty on any Youxia brought in.

Sample Youxia Asset 

Blaze Edge: The weapon of a Youxia, spoken of in many legends. The Blaze edge uses multiple forms of jade to create an edge of pure plasma, capable of cutting through nearly anything. Youxia only attained the Blaze Edge upon mastering the martial arts ad mental disciplines of their order. Few remain, and few Youxia remain with the knowledge to make another.
Function Aspect: Multi Jade Plasma BladeFeatures: Exceptional(prevent opponent from checking stress boxes on a successful strike), Harmful 2
Flaws: Demanding 2(requires a turn and a Scholar roll against difficulty +2 in order to use it for the scene), Troubling(Wanted, For One Reason Or Another)
Cost: 1

Shimah-Kan: Chosen inquisitors of the Concordat. They have an edict to investigate any insurrection or disharmony. They are trained to be the best and most dangerous of all the forces of the Concordat. They have absolute loyalty to the state and are equal to any squad of lesser forces. Many of their techniques are expansions of Youxia martial arts. This has led to an enmity between these to forces. They often come into conflict with Jianghu Societies.

Sample Shimah-Kan Asset 

Inquisitor Armor: The Shimah-Kan have specialized suits of armor that grant them enhanced abilities and protection. Each set of armor is custom designed for each Shimah-Kan, and so each might have additional features beyond the basic set of features provided by the armor.
Function Aspect: Intimidating Inquisitor ArmorFeatures: Protective 1, Focus 2(+1 Explorer, +1 Fighter)
Flaws: Situational(only when facing enemies of the Concordat), Troubling(Iron Fist of the Concord)
Cost: 1

Jade Drive: the only known method of travel faster than light. To do this you must use all the colors of jade and pass a huge amount of electricity through it all at once. Ships use large capacitors to do this. The number of capacitors a ship contains alters the number of jumps a ship can rapidly make. The Jade Drive does not allow for slower than light travel, and so a ship must also have a normal space drive. To use the drive you must take a full scene and make a roll. First you must make a scholar roll based on knowledge and distance of of the location you are attempting to jump to(Nearby system +1, Mid Ranged System +2, Far off System +3, Well Known route +1, Somewhat Known Route +2, Briefly Explored Route +3, Unknown Route +4) Combine the difficulties from distance and knowledge to get the total difficulty of the roll. If you succeed with style you make the jump with no difficulty and you create a beneficial aspect relating to the new system you are coming into. If you succeed normally you arrive with no difficulty. If you fail your ship gains a primarily negative aspect relating to damage done by travelling faster than light.


And there sits the basics of a Jadepunk Space Opera Wuxia Setting. I hope you liked it. I would love any comments critiques or idea, so please share. Also please check out the new game I am currently Kickstarting, A Far Off Land. It is a game about people from our world who travel to another realm, a realm of myth and legend. Magic is real and you play those few who can use it in both worlds without terrible consequences. Check it out and spread the word. Thanks.

A Far Off Land

After Jade: An Alternate Setting for Jadepunk

I have been working on a project for a while now and so I have not been focusing on this blog. However I have had a real gut punch of news this week and I need to have something to distract me for a little bit. Help me calm down.

That in mind I am going to work up an old Idea I have had in the back of my mind for a few years now. Here is the basic pitch.

Sometime after the time Jadepunk is set in, something goes wrong...very very wrong. It has been over a hundred years since the fall and the world is a very changed place. It is a post apocalyptic wasteland filled with Jade. Clouds of mystic jade dust roil across the world and has been bound into everything on the world. Some people have been able to harness this omnipresent jade to become Jadecasters, manipulating the elements and the raw forces of nature. Beyond that humans now are not alone in the world. Automatects, clockwork beings with jadetech minds from before the Fall, wander the world doing their inscrutable duties for unknowable reasons; Kymiirs, uplifted animals, have formed their own communities in the Waste; and Mootares jade tainted mutations with strange powers and beliefs wander the land.  Despite the problems, despite the danger, life continues. The Jianghu travel the land and help those in need. Named after ancient legends of heroes of old, they wander the land and help people rebuild. 

Setting Aspects
Shadows of the Old World
Jade in Everything Now
Leftovers of A Fallen World

New Asset Types

Assets after Jade are different than in standard Jadepunk. The standard three types(Allies, Devices, and Techniques) still apply as normal, but there are a couple of other types of assets in this hack.

Automatect: If you take/make an Automatect asset it you use the device features list, but it must have a Guiding aspect related to your mechanical nature. These assets represent jadetech or clockwork abilities or additions to the mechanical frame of the core Automatect or its jadetech mind. 

Mootares: Mootares work the same as Automatects but the assets represent mutations and jade in the blood. The guiding aspect is related to their altered nature and can be compelled due to obvious jade markings or mutations making them stand out in the world. 

Kymiir: Uplifted animals created through Chymeric engineering before the Fall. You must have a guiding aspect related to your semi animal nature. Any asset created in this way represents your animal abilities or further understanding of your inhuman nature. 

Sample Assets
Here are some sample assets that fit within the wasteland that is After Jade.

Returner Staff(device)
The Returner movement began nearly immediately after the Fall. The desire to return to what was before. They see the glory of the past and minimize the faults. The Returners travel the Waste preaching of the glories of the old world and seeking jadetech to help rebuild. When they are initiated into the order they are granted a book and a staff. The book is empty and must be filled with knowledge from the past, the staff will help them in their travels.

Function aspect: Blue Jade Staff of the Return
Features: Exceptional(On a successful defense, deal shifts of harm equal to your margin of success), Focus 2(+2 to Fighter)
Flaws: Situational(may only be used in defense), Demanding(Must take the whole turn doing nothing but defending)
Refresh Cost: 2

Jadecaster(technique) 

When the old world fell it fell in jade-laced fire. now the winds themselves carry massive quantities of jade. it is in everything, even if only in small quantities. some folks have learned to perceive these forces in the world and manipulate them. These people have become mystics and sages deep in the Waste, controlling forces beyond the ken of most. Jadecasters can call up temporary assets related to the elements, or controlling/creating emotions.

Guiding aspect: Must have an aspect relating to your training as a jadecaster.
Features: Flexible(may use Scholar in place of Engineer)
Flaws: Situational(only when creating temporary assets related to manipulating the jade in the environment)
Refresh Cost: 1

Sample Jadecaster Workings
Call Fire
You draw out the red jade in the world around you and pull fire into existence, damaging your target.

Function Aspect: Fireball!
Features: Harmful 2, Focus 2(fighter +2)
Flaws: As per the creation roll

Wind Walker
You change to shifting motes of dust and can swiftly move through the air travelling from your current location to any nearby location not completely airtight.

Function Aspect: White Jade Transformation to Dust
Features: Exceptional(Instantly leave or appear in a scene, as long as air can get in or out)
Flaws: As per creation roll

Dangers of the Waste
In the waste there are many dangers, great and small. The world is changed and not for the peaceful. Even the very air has turned hostile.

Devil Winds: On occasion the winds will whip across the Waste in such speed that they will pull up vast amounts of jade dust. When the devil winds sweep down experienced travelers know to get to shelter and sit tight. The wind can strip the flesh from unexposed flesh to the bone. Their are rumors that the winds do more than harm flesh, that they can strip soul from a person and ensure their is no afterlife.

System: This is a series of rolls brought on by a compel(either against the characters aspects or against the setting aspects). Roll against explorer to find a good spot to hide out in(difficulty will vary based around the location).  If you succeed with style you find shelter and take no damage. If you succeed you take one harm before finding suitable shelter. If you fail you will take 2 harm and must roll again to get to shelter. Two rolls are all that will be needed in most circumstances in order to get to shelter.

And there it is, a rough outline of an alternate campaign and setting for Jadepunk. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think. 

The Far Marches: Stunt Trees

Moving forward with this project I am definitely getting a better sense for how things will look and what I am aiming for. I think I have a few ideas on fixing the unique skills from the last post, as well as a few clever ideas for down the line(at least, I hope they are clever ideas...we'll see). Now we will begin with how I see stunts working in this hack.

I wish to use stunt trees that fall into the general categories of the classic OSR roles of Fighter, Rogue, and Magic User. I will probably also do a few other stunt trees for other roles and maybe even a couple of smaller stunt trees for the different fantasy races, but I mustn't get too far ahead of myself. Right now I have worked out the basics for how I want the stunts to play out, and I have one complete stunt tree. I would love to hear any thoughts on how it could be improved or ideas for what to put in further stunt trees. My goal with the stunt trees is to have each stunt further down the branch be a little more powerful than the previous stunts.

My hope here is to incentivize specialization and thus allow for something that feels like a class without forcing that specialization. With these trees one could be a magic user and a fighter and a thief, but you would end up without a to of the cool fiddly bits that come later in the stunt trees. If that makes sense. Here, let me show you the stunt tree I currently have fleshed out, maybe that will make it make a little more sense.

Fighter Stunt Tree

A rough map of the stunt tree.

Fighter Basics: Gain a 3 Stress Box. This may be taken a second time to gain a 4 Stress Box.
Bend Bars Lift Gates: (requires Fighter Basics) Once per scene you may automatically succeed at a physique roll to destroy an inanimate object or lift a heavy object.
Weapon Mastery: (requires Fighter Basics) When using a specific weapon type you will deal an additional 2 stress on a successful attack action. You may take this stunt more than once. Each time you take it it must be for a different weapon type. Weapon Types: Swords, Pole arms, Clubs/maces, Chain Weapons, Bows and Crossbows, Daggers and Knives.
Leadership: (requires Fighter Basics) In combat when you use uplifting or inspiring words to aid your others with the create advantage action the subsequent use of that created aspect will grant a +3 on an invoke rather than the normal +2.
Powerful Physique: (requires Bend Bars Lift Gates) You may use your physique for defending against attacks by weapons. If you succeed with style on this defense you may choose to take one stress to destroy the weapon that just struck you.
Intimidating Presence: (requires Bend Bars Lift Gates) You may use Physique in place of provoke when attempting to be physically imposing or physically terrifying.
Counter-strike: (requires Weapon Mastery) When using a weapon type you have mastery in, when you have succeeded with style on a defense action, you may choose to do the difference in success level in stress to the attacker.
Extra Range: (requires Weapon Mastery) You may use a weapon type you have a mastery in as a ranged weapon even if it is not normally a ranged weapon. These weapons now have the ability to attack up to two zones away. If you have mastery with a ranged weapon you may double the normal range(out to four zones, normally)
Armor Specialization: (requires Weapon Mastery) You gain an additional condition when wearing armor, called Broken. This can be used to negate any single physical attack , however it does mean that you can no longer use your armor until you repair it or buy new armor.
Trusted Ally: (requires Leadership) You gain an ally who follows you around and will be of use, this ally has a +1 in three skills, two aspects(high concept which you create and trouble which the GM creates) and it has two stress boxes. You may take this stunt a second time to either increase one of their skills to a +3, or add another stress box to the ally.
Inspiration: (requires Leadership) Once per scene you may place an inspiring aspect on all allies in the scene and they will each get a free use of that aspect. This is very powerful and I am not sure I like it.

There you go, my first stunt tree for The Far Marches. I also have some ideas on how the other stunt trees will look. Here is the rough ideas for how those are going to look:

Rogue : Lucky Bastard; Assassin; Thief : Impossible Luck; Walking Curse; Sneak Attack; Ghost The Walks; Master of Poisons; Second Story Man; Friends In Low Places; Low Knowledge

Magic User : Conjuration; Evocation; Abjuration; High Knowledge : Familiar Strength; Familiar Endurance; Familiar Connection; Magic Missile; Shield; Blessing; Curse; Healing; Book Learning; Theoretical Magic

As I said, I would love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or critiques on how I am going about the stunt trees. I really like how they are turning out but it may be that I am not seeing the long term effects or short term flaws.

Previous: Skills
Next: Gear and Stress

The Far Marches: Skills

Before we get started on skills in this post I would like to point out that I have had a number really good comments on my previous posts in this series so far. Some people agreed with the decision I made and made some good points on them. Others disagreed with my decisions and called out flaws that they saw. It has been a good conversation overall and it has given me a lot to think about. So, thanks guys I really appreciate the back and forth of it all. In fact I think you have convinced me to work the reputation aspects a bit differently. I will get into that in a future post where I will talk about the Party Sheet.  And now, without further ado, lets dig into skills in The Far Marches.

Skills

Skills in the Far Marches will be the same basic skill list as in standard Fate Core. I am considering adding in Survival as a skill. I would also probably want to combine burglary and stealth into a single burglary skill. I always felt that stealth was pretty darn narrow in focus for a specific skill. Though I am not sold on that idea yet, and so I could easily be talked back from the brink on merging those two skills.

Another issue I have with skills is the importance of Will and Physique in relation to stress tracks. I have never been all that pleased with the way stress works in standard Fate Core, so do not be surprised if I make some changes in stress when we get to that. As a bit of a precursor to that Physique and Will will not add stress to the tracks in this hack.

The final issue with skills comes to the pyramid and the alternatives therein. I really like the skill pyramid, however I have noticed certain trends in games I have played and ran that lead me to look for an alternative. I have noticed a trend where people tend to work very hard to only have to roll there top three skills in the pyramid. I do not know if this is a good, bad, or neutral thing but it is something I noticed and I am not sure what to do about it. As of this moment I am still planning on using the skill pyramid, though I am very open to interesting alternatives.  

Unique Skills

Each player gets access to one additional, player designed, skill. These unique skills represent abilities, professions, unique traits, or your fantasy race. While not all elves will have the Elf skill, having the Elf skill would represent your character really focusing on his peoples history and traditions. Your elf would be more elfish than some other elf who did not have the elf unique skill. How you make unique skills is pretty simple. The skill will have access to all four basic actions, however you won't be able to use those basic actions in all circumstances. For example:

Elf: When in the forest you may use the elf skill to gather information about the natural surroundings and identify natural dangers. You may use the elf skill in place of social skills when dealing with eleven court. And you may use the elf skill in combat when using an elven bow or Shamshir.  

While the unique skill is powerful you must make sure that it does not overpower the game. The basic rule of thumb here is this: If everyone at the table agrees that the skill is over powered then it is probably overpowered. I am looking to make these skills a big part of the game without overpowering the game, so if you have ideas for improvement please let me know.

There you go. That is the very basics on how I see skills working in this hack of Fate. I know it is probably not different enough for some of you, and for others it is probably a step too far. I would love to hear your thoughts on this as this is the area I have gone back and forth on the most over time. I will probably go back and forth on it a bunch more moving forward. 

Previous: Aspect Creation
Next:  Stunt Trees

The Far Marches: Aspect Creation

They go by many names: Hunters, Slayers, Rangers, Explorers, and other more esoteric titles. Whatever they are called they they travel into the darkness in search of treasure, fame, and glory. They travel in squads, parties, groups, and cabals out into the wilderness, the forgotten ruins of the old world. They exist in a world of danger and adventure, outside of, but parallel to society at large. They are bring wealth and safety to the wild lands on the edge of civilization. They are disliked, but necessary. They are The Adventurers.

Alrighty, back when I first started this project I had a specific set of aspects I wanted to use for the PCs:
High Concept, You All Meet Up In A Bar, Your First Dungeon, Backstory, and Epic Destiny. As you can probably tell I was being a little bit flippant when I wrote those up. That said I like a lot of what those represent. The classic adventurer sits outside of civilization, yet is dependent on and supportive of it too. Like the classic western these are the dangerous people who go out into the world and tame the dangerous parts but once tamed those parts have no room for the dangerous people anymore. There is a bit of the shaman here as well. You stand outside the city and interact with the gods and demons for those who dwell within. Its also a bit like a lot of post apocalypse adventure fiction as well, where there was a great world once and now you travel into the ruins of the old world to gather resources to help you in the new world.

The World Uncharted

In the previous post I set out that I would like to have two types of personal aspects, Character Aspects and Reputation Aspects. There was a bit of discussion in the comments on how best to go about it and whether or not I should have players start out with reputations already or whether I should have the reputations grow outward from zero. So here is what I have come up with as of right now for character creation part 1, aspects:

Aspects

When you first make your character you will need to create three aspects that represent the more permanent and essential parts of your character. These three aspects are called Character Aspects(I know, right? how do I come up with such original and awesome terminology? It's like a gift or something).

High Concept: This represents the core of your character, very often a stunt tree or two will be attached to this Aspect as it is the least likely to change over time. I would like to come up with something a little more old school for the name of this aspect, but it is pretty standard Fate stuff here for this one.

Belief: I'ma steal this from Jadepunk and kind of mash it in with inciting incident(also from Jadepunk). For this aspect figure out why your character is adventuring and what keeps them adventuring. This could be wealth, fame, love , or even a total disconnect from normal society. Basically this aspect is your reason for adventuring.

Backstory: I just really like this as an aspect. I do think it it needs to be character focused though. This aspect should relate to how your character's history family and the like relates to why they are outsiders and why they adventure. Every aspect should relate to why you adventure.

Once you have those three aspects you may move on to work out your skills and the ladder and stunts from the stunt trees and all that stuff which will be in future posts. Very exciting, not gonna lie, I am excited. Now on to the second part of the aspects, the Reputation Aspects(again, not to toot my own horn but I am just nailing these super creative names for things). You do not start out with any Reputation aspects , but you do get two reputation slots. How you gain reputation aspects is like so.

At the end of an adventure, which should be roughly equivalent to a significant milestone, the person you your left will make a reputation aspect for you that represents something that happened in the adventure or how people respond to you do to the outcome of the adventure. That is how you get the first one. The second reputation aspect happens at the end of the second adventure(the next significant milestone)but instead of the person your left you get the aspect from the person on your right. Once you have two Reputation aspects they will change at every significant milestone, and be written by the person on your right or left depending on which aspect you are changing. If you want to start as less of a blank slate and more connected to the world around you you could start with one or both aspects already pre-created. This would be a more advanced character, more connected and known. If that makes sense.

I had a bit of a thought as I built this character aspect rules set. I want there to be a party character sheet. I am still not fully sure how I want it to work, but I think it would be interesting for you to get rid of one of your personal aspects at a major milestone(or something) and use that to alter and grow your Adventuring Party Sheet(man I am on fire with these names, just...so...creative). I would like this adventuring party sheet to cover something similar to what is used in Blades in the Dark for the group sheet and the maps and such. It is a really spiffy system and I think there is a lot there I can fiddle with. I think it would be interesting as well that you could take your reputation and give it to your group as a whole...in a way. Like I said this is just an idea I had as I was writing this post. It is incomplete, but I think there is something in it. So I will add a post on it later on.

And that is what I have for personal aspect creation in this hack. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Often it is difficult for me to keep writing if I don't have feedback. So if you have some feedback, by all means let me hear it. The next post, I think will delve into skills and the choices I have made along those lines here.

Previous Post: The basic premise and why I am doing this
Next Post: Skills

FATEsy Heartbreaker: Reworking Ideas and a Real Title

It has been a while since I last got any serious work done on this project, or any of my other solo projects either. For the last year or so I have been working on a joint project with +Megan Bennett-Burks that we hope to have out within the next couple of months, watch for Far Off Land coming soon. For some reason writing has been a great difficulty. I am not sure why. what I do know is that each day that went by with a minimum of writing the easier it became to write less the next day. This sort of spiraled for a while. This post is the first in what I hope is a series of posts that will help me move forward into steadier writing. I hope you like it, fingers crossed.

When I first started this project I was unsure what I was aiming for. Mostly it was a way of having a bit of fun with Fate. I like objects in motion and it was fun playing around with altering well worn tropes and seeing if I could find some new edges in Fate at the same time. As I went forward with the project I ended up building a bunch of interesting widgets and I saw hints of somethings even bigger and more interesting that needed more development.

That in mind I have decided to rework the mechanics I built and see what I can make out of what has come before. The end goal of this is to build the skeleton of a game that is at once old school and new. I want a game that feels a bit like old school D&D and a bit like the Comic Book Rat Queens. Basically I want something that feels like a Dungeon crawl(Fate Style, so more like the movie of a dungeon crawl) and also feels like a character driven story with relationships and the like evolving over time.

In this first post I will be breaking down the core elements of character creation as well as the large scale mechanical subsystems I currently intend to work on. I also have come up with a Title that works better for me than Heartbreaker. The Title I am leaning toward right now is...

The Far Marches

The game will focus around exploring a dangerous wilderness filled with ancient ruins and dangerous monsters. To that end the players will be playing a group of thrill seekers, treasure hunters, and other folk who just don't fit into polite society. This motley crew will be some of the very very few who purposely walk into dangerous lands in search of powerful magics and great wealth.

As I want this game to be a toolkit for making your own fantasy dungeon crawl games I need to breakdown the set up of the game to its very very core. No fantasy races(though I want to put in the option so that you may make your own), a very simple magic system(Fate will be a boon there), and such. I just want to work out the core mechanical necessities of the type of characters that would fit into this type of game.

World Building
Like many many Fate games world/campaign building should be a cooperatively built to some extent. Some parts of the world are going to be set fairly hard up front. The world is a fantasy world, so there is that. The world needs big dangerous wilderness filled with ancient ruins, dangerous monsters, and other mysteries that need to be explored and brought back to civilization. I would like that civilization to be represented by a single town that will be the headquarters of the player characters. This will allow me to use the really excellent city creation rules that many Fate Games use.

I would also like to use something like the city map from Blades in the Dark, or at least an idea that stems from that. I would like to have a character sheet for the town that would allow for the players to make alterations to the town so it can grow and change in response to player action. I also would like to have something similar for the surrounding lands to build in that classic Old School Mapping feeling. This would be a character facing map and as such it would only have stuff on it that they discover, crate, and interact with.

The world building section needs to answer a couple of big questions. Why are these treasure hunters allowed in society; Why is there ruin filled wilderness around the town; and How are the adventurers viewed by society as whole? I know I need to rework these questions and probably lay out a bunch of examples and explanations on how these questions might be answered and what that means to the game world. This is the area I am most uncertain on and yet it is the area I am most certain needs to be nailed down the clearest. So if you have any ideas on it I would love to hear it.

Character Creation Breakdown
When making a character there are a bunch of moving parts that need to be worked out. There are the core three bits: Aspects, Skills, and Stunts. However there are also a number of other moving parts that need to be examined. I already have a number of ideas on how I am going to use these moving parts, but if you see a flaw or an issue please let me know.

Aspects
Character aspects in Fate Core can vary in number and in potency. The choice of that number will have a huge effect on play. Aspects started at ten way back in Spirit of the Century, and for a long while after that 10 was the number in most Fate games. Then came Dresden Files RPG which lowered that number of character aspects to 7. Finally in Fate Core we saw the number of aspects lowered again to 5. This seems to be a solid number of character aspects. Not so many that the GM forgets them and enough so that the character isn't really one note.

For this hack I am leaning toward two types of character aspects. First I want there to be fairly standard character aspects as one would expect in Fate.  The other type would be a little different, they would be aspects that one gets as they advance through the game. My idea is this. At the end of a big adventure(dungeon crawl and the fallout from that dungeon crawl back in town) the players would get to give the person next to them an aspect related to their performance in the adventure. I think the number of these secondary character aspects should remain at around two or three, and would kind of represent something like the character's reputation and what stories are told about them in the town. As I want two to three adventure aspects I think that the initial number of aspects should also be kept fairly low. I am thinking three personal aspects. This could lead to a character that is a bit one note at first. Though this could be a problem I do think it fits with my idea of growing the characters through their reputations and the like. The characters will start out fairly simple, but over time and throughout adventuring they will become more complex and more linked to the hometown and its surrounding area.

Skills
I have gone back and forth on skills in this hack how many to have, how expansive whether there should be special skills with odd effects. In the end I am still unsure. Way back in the first version of this hack I went with the classic six attributes and then used stunts to represent specializations and skills. The more I think on it the more I lean away from that. I think what I would like to do is a custom skill list with some rules for building class and race skills. This would allow for fantasy race and classes without needing them to make the game work. The hard part comes to narrowing down the skills to what is needed without going over and without removing too many. I could just use the skills as listed in Fate Core, but I really do believe that for a custom game you need custom skills that reinforce the core game play both mechanically and thematically.

Stunts
Stunts often add specialization and special powers to the skills and aspects. They can be linked to both or to neither. Stunts are fun and fiddly, and as such I quite like them. I want to cover magic with stunts as well as cool techniques. The problem I have is not what to do with stunts, but when should I stop fiddling with stunts? Stunts invite manipulation and fiddling, so stopping that can be difficult. I am currently leaning toward stunt trees revolving around the core competencies one usually finds in the standard Old School Fantasy. Each spell will be in itself a stunt. As you can exchange a stunt for another stunt at a minor milestone, this fits pretty well with the extant Vancian Casting common in the old school fantasy. Stunt trees are tricky and I have never done them before, so I am unsure on how well that will work as I work forward with this hack. I also want each stunt tree to require certain types of character aspects. This does mean that if you change a connected aspect then you could lose access to the related stunts. Which suggests some tactical goals in a given conflict.

Other Character Facing Things I want in the Game
Wealth: I really hate the wealth system I developed way back in the first version of the hack. I hate it a lot. It just does not work very well in practice. It is fiddly and requires keeping track of two pools of rapidly shifting points for very little extra mechanical benefit. I am currently leaning toward something like the wealth system from Diaspora, though that does not fully work for me yet. I have a bunch of half Ideas on this but nothing that really suits my purpose. If you have any ideas on this I would love to hear them.

Stress: I would like to use conditions rather than consequences for this hack. I think that consequences fit the style of play a little bit better than the more free-form consequences.

Gear: Gear can get pretty darn complex and it can also get super simple. I want the gear in this game to matter, but I do not want it to overshadow the characters. I am leaning toward using the asset creation rules from Jadepunk in order to represent magic and special items. Then I would probably just use a list of gear to let the player keep track of what gear they have in any give situation.

Future Posts
Future posts will be going in depth into each o these issues and hopefully helping me suss out exactly what I am looking for in this Hack as well as breaking down the core mechanical subsystems I will be designing, specifically Dungeon Crawls, Overland Travel, and Relationship Mapping. That is it for today's post, I would love to hear you thoughts on the matter. Here is hoping that this will help me get back into the swing of things once again.

Next we delve into the nitty-gritty of...

The Far Marches