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[Kuildeous]

I am seriously considering running an RPG using Fate. I've played it once before and never ran it. I'm in the process of reading the SRD (http://fate-srd.com)

When I'm done reading this, I will go seek out forums where people discuss Fate, but I'm wondering if anyone on here have used it. Thought I'd check with people I quasi-know in addition to complete strangers online.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

I love FATE.  And FAE (FATE Accelerated.)

But only ran a couple of 1-shots so far, have been wanting to run a campaign but my group fell apart in the midst of a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and if we get back together would try to finish that first.

[Kuildeous]

Neat. So what makes FATE Accelerated so different from FATE?

[UmbrageOfSnow]

It's less crunchy (which is saying something.)

The big change is that action resolution is simplified a lot.  You get rid of skills altogether and have "approaches" instead.  You aren't better at Athletics vs Stealth or Deceiving, you are doing things Flashily than you are at doing things Sneakily or Cleverly.

Faster to explain, but you need players who aren't going to try to make up an excuse to call everything they do "Flashy".  Which isn't hard with mature players and inspires some good RP from people trying to game it a bit without going overboard.

Accelerated (FAE) is better for groups of characters that would all have the same skillset, IMO.  If your niche isn't "The Wizard" or "The Thief" but is "The Smart Guy" or "The Quiet One" or whatever.  In general I like Accelerated more when it's a group of people who all have the same profession and the differences come from character.

[Kuildeous]

Ah. I'm considering a Legend of Five Rings send-up using FATE rules, so Accelerated does not sound like it would meet my needs.

So another question: Are there really that many index cards flying around? It seems unnecessary to write a temporary aspect that may go away after 2 minutes. But I may be misinterpreting the rules.

[jonts26]

I have played two FATE campaigns. Or rather, one was spirit of the century, which is based on FATE. I also did a FATE accelerated one shot. I think it's an amazing system. The system itself offers a lot of flexibility in terms of the campaign and individual play styles. Though keep in mind, FATE core is pretty simplified and streamline, which is great, but it may require you to write some of your own rules, or find some other custom rules if you're looking for a little added complexity.

In regards to temporary aspects: it depends. Certain skills and abilities lend themselves to players just making up tons of aspects. You might need to write those down, but if its just a couple, which is most common, then memory should be fine. You could also have a list of pre-made aspects for a scene/character/whatever that are only revealed when the players discover them. Those you might write down on cards and then set out when relevant.

[Kuildeous]

Having prewritten aspects should be easy for what I'm attempting to do. I'll be running a game from a published adventure. I should be able to read through it and write out index cards. There are typically a lot of NPCs, so I really just need to make sure I keep the cards straight.

I'm now reading about extras in FATE. It seems to be a lot more words than necessary? I'm trying to think of the way to handle magical stuff. I was originally thinking of allowing a stunt for a person to use Lore in place of Shoot to represent ranged magic attacks. Lore in place of Fight would work for flaming fists or something. And perhaps a stunt tied to Lore that lets the person modify the environment and create aspects (wall of earth, fog cloud, etc.).

Then I'm debating on adding a skill for magic. Typical fantasy trope allows for wizards to be smart, so Lore makes sense. I'm looking to twist Legend of the Five Rings where magic comes from piety and not necessarily knowledge, though there are plenty of knowledgeable priests considering they spend much of their time studying in temples. So maybe a Prayer skill. Still, it seems like having stunts related to the skill would make sense for defining magic?

[jonts26]

There are three general types of stunts in FATE. 1. Use [skill X] instead of [skill Y] in [specific circumstance] 2. +2 to [skill roll] in [specific circumstance] and 3. Spend a FATE token to [do something more powerful with a skill].

So while you could allow a blanket use lore instead of shoot, keep in mind it's more powerful than a normal stunt. Ultimately, it's your game and you get to make it however you want. Maybe check out some other custom magic rules that others have written or read up this if you havent http://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/magic

[Kuildeous]

Well, so many options. Looks like I'll use just stunts to duplicate the magic. I'll have a separate skill to represent being able to call the spirits. To attack normally, you just need the skill. To wield a fire sword, you need the skill plus a stunt to allow you to use that skill to fight. It's a higher cost but hopefully it's worth it for the ability to take additional stunts for fun little magical tricks.

Hmm, what are your views on dice? Obviously the system is designed to roll four Fate dice (which I've seen shorthanded to 4dF). Not every player may have those. I even don't have those. Players could roll 4d6 and cancel out the lows and highs and count whatever remains. I think I could quickly use that system, but other players might take a while. I read someone using a d6-d6 system. That's a flatter curve. It also introduces -/+5. I could just force a reroll if that result comes up, but that doesn't change the fact that the odds of getting an extreme result quadruples when using the flatter curve. Is that a problem? It certainly makes the dice swingier.

I suppose I could let the players decide. As the GM, using 4dF is less likely to produce overly undesirable effects.

[jonts26]

Fudge dice aren't hard to find. Pretty much any game shop that sells dice should sell them. In a pinch, you can use a d6 and just use minus for 1,2, neutral for 3,4 and plus for 5,6. I'd be a little skeptical of d6-d6, because it's supposed to be really rare to get very nice (or bad) rolls. And with fudge dice, the majority of rolls are within +-1, or just a little fudging on the base skill.

[Kuildeous]

All right, I ran my first game of FATE. Though I didn't remember everything about the rules, it seemed to have gone smoothly. At least my part was fairly easy. It helped that one of the players is a FATE veteran, so I was able to get some guidance from him.

The only ruling that I had to go against him on was taking damage. I read the book differently than he did apparently When someone took a 7-shift hit, the experienced player was under the notion that you could knock off a 2-point and 3-point stress box, leaving you with 2 for the consequence. I read it as you can only use one stress box, so that 7-shift hit would require at least a 4-point consequence and then your 3-point stress box. If you didn't have a 3, then you may need to go 6 and 1. After rereading the SRD, I still feel like my interpretation is correct, though it is nicer on the players to allow multiple stress boxes to be ticked off. Perhaps he house-ruled it and accepted it as official, for which I couldn't blame him.

I'm also not sure about the GM Fate pool. I started with five. I offered FATE points to compel aspects, but I offered them from the generic pool and not the GM pool. When I had a villain invoke a broken collarbone on someone, I gave that player the FATE point from my pool. Does that seem right?

On a bright note, the rules are fast and loose enough that I could pretty much bullshit my way through an encounter. The experienced player didn't speak up against my rulings, which is actually more of a sign of a considerate player rather than adequate rules knowledge.

[jonts26]

I also played with you could check multiple stress boxes, but you might be right that it's a house rule.

When you compel a players aspect, you do give a FATE token from the general pool. But I'm a little fuzzy on the rules for the GM FATE tokens. I think those are just for using boosts to your own roles, as a player would. So if the GM controlled character has his own aspect he can compel, you spend a FATE token and it goes back to the pool. You can also compel negative aspects to gain more FATE tokens for yourself. The confusion comes when a GM controlled character wants to compel an aspect on a player character. I'm not sure what the actual rules are here, but giving a token from the GM pool to the player seems reasonable.