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ChronicFate: Accelerated (Play-By-Post) Edition
Hello there! This wall of text is a guide to the Fate: Accelerated Roleplaying system, and how you can adapt it to Play-By-Post. I aim to update it now and then based on experiences using it in play. Please contact me if you have questions or suggestions. Enjoy! :)
Fate: Accelerated, by Evil Hat Productions is a minimalistic roleplaying system. As a fiction-first system, play will not be very different from your usual RPG on this site, but it adds a controlled randomness and reward system that you can use in PBP to help guide your storytelling. It is not as free-form as some games, nor as specific or defined as DND or wargames. Rather, it is generic and customizable, so that you can apply it to any setting, and decide on-the-fly which gameplay mechanics to focus on, change or even drop.
The Guide is structured as follows:
- Summary: a one-page Quick Reference sheet and the essence of the system in just five (!) bulletpoints.
- Playing Fate: containing explanations and examples on how to play using the Fate System.
- GMing Fate: containing explanations and examples on how to GM using the Fate System.
- Resources: useful resources you can use for your games, including character sheet and post templates.
- Acknowledgments: further references like the System Reference Document and example Let’s Plays.
So, without further ado...
Summary
Click here for the One-Page Quickref Cheatsheet.
The Essence of the Fate System in 5 Bulletpoints:
- Play as you normally would. Don’t focus on the rules, but let them inspire and guide your storytelling.
- Roll Checks if success or failure both would be interesting outcomes.
- Compel Aspects that you think would make for interesting complications to the scene.
- Introduce new Facts that you think are fitting and interesting to the scene.
- Reward yourselves for both the Ups and the Downs in the story.
That’s it. That’s all. The rest are implementation details that you can refer back to through the cheatsheet above, this guide, or through custom rules you agree on between GM and players. The rest of this guide will give you a good enough understanding of the default Fate: Accelerated system to play and GM using it. And on that note: Happy playing!
Playing Fate
Playing with the Fate system isn’t very different from playing your regular ol’ RPG: you go back and forth with other players and your GM, narrating your character’s thoughts and actions, peppering the world with facts you think fit well, and driving the story forward. Because Fate works with Randomness and Reward mechanics, we’ll need to put in some extra attention into Character Creation (Aspects, Approaches and Stunts), Rolling (Actions, Invokes, Stress and Consequences), How to Create Ups and Downs in the story (Compels), and How to Introduce Elements to the World. That said, the Fate system is very forgiving - if you forget something or do something not fully ‘according to the book’, the worst that can happen is that the story just continues.
The core of the system revolves around Fate Points. These are points you can use for Stunts (your character’s very special abilities), and Aspects (using your character’s essential qualities to impact the story or a Roll’s Outcome in significant ways). Though you only have a limited amount that gets refreshed periodically, you can earn more by acting in ways that generally complicates things for your character (Compels and Concessions).
First, let’s embrace Fate’s Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. So whatever you do in Fate, don’t get bogged down in trying to make your character fit the rules. Instead, see how the rules fit your character! The rules provide guidance (limited Aspects make you think about what’s the most important things about your character, limited Stunts about what are the truly special abilities/traits/items they have, Approaches makes it so your character can’t be good at everything, Stress and Consequences guide how your character is meaningfully impacted by adversity), but in general, don’t let the rules dictate your character. Consult GM how to fit in an idea you have if something is unclear.
Aspects: Aspects are things that are True in-game. They arguably are the most important parts of the Fate system, but can be difficult to understand when first starting. View them as those things that truly define a character or situation, and that inform and guide your roleplay. For characters, aspects are short summaries about the essence of the character. Each character sheet has 5 Aspect slots. Each of these slots can hold 1 Aspect, one essential fact about your character. The most important Aspects are the High Concept - what is the essence of the character -, and their Trouble - what obstacle or flaw gets them in frequent trouble -, but other aspects can be about what they Want, their Relationships, and Extra things about them that are important; in the examples below I use High Concept, Trouble, Want, Relationship and Extra as I think they work well, but feel free to change these up to fit your game. The only two Aspects that are essential and must always be included in character sheets are the High Concept and the Trouble. Aspects state and imply what the character is, is like, what they can do, what choices they would make, what reputation they might have, etc. When creating your character, try to make them punchy phrases, short but sweet, and don’t underestimate their brevity: in the examples below, what do they say about the character? What image about them pops up in your mind immediately? What do you know is true about them based on these Aspects? What do you think you could do with them during play? What abilities and properties do they have that you could use? What problems could they encounter because of them? All these are things you can call upon through these Aspects (in Fate’s terms: through Invoking or Compelling Aspects), and you will learn to use them later on.
Approaches: Approaches are ways in which a character can do things. These apply broadly, from physical to social, political, magical contexts, and even more. Think of it a little like they describe your character’s personality: how does your character approach problems? The standard Approaches are: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky (though these can be altered to fit the setting or even to the character, if desired, and if GM agrees). Note how the decoupling of aspects and approaches means your character isn’t beholden to certain stereotypes, so don’t let your imagination be limited. On your character sheet, you will rank-divide them between what your character is Good at (1 approach), Fair at (2 approaches), Average at (2 approaches) and Mediocre at (1 approach), which influences the bonus you get on Actions in Roll Checks, when using these Approaches. You can increase these through Milestone rewards (more on these later).
Stunts: Stunts are the awesome things a character can do that’s more than what their Aspects imply. They describe what truly exceptional things a character can do. And that can be taken quite literally: Stunts function as in-game exceptions to the default rules of the game. Think of them like the Feats, Skills or Spells of other systems, except in Fate you can make them yourself! They cost 1 FP to use (representing how truly exceptional skills do not come without effort or price). You can have a max. of 5, but any stunt past 3 decreases your Refresh (how many fate points you start each session/chapter with) by 1. It can be difficult when just starting with Fate to immediately create a trait or ability referencing Fate’s gameplay mechanics. So don’t: express the idea of the stunt first, and only then see if there are rules that can express this (again, ask GM for help if you find this difficult). Most Stunts can be formulated using the following 2 templates:
With that, let’s look at an example of a Fate Character Sheet below. Note how it is quite minimal. This is on purpose: this lets other players quickly understand your character and how to interact with them, it gives you a lot of freedom in how to apply and develop your character in-game without having to strictly pre-define everything beforehand, and through the Fate system, these aspects can come back to help you (without your character becoming overpowered), or bite you in the ass. In short: you better make your descriptions count! Save the rest for the actual RP.
When you read the above example character, it is likely that interesting scenario’s start popping up in your mind immediately, despite the brevity of the Aspects. What happened with Holo and the Thuggs? What if they were to find her again? What would she do when she meets someone who needs help? How would she respond if things didn’t go her way? What crazy things can the Centurion do? This is exactly what Fate facilitates you to explore in your play. Indeed: players are rewarded for creating these ups and downs in their stories!
Things would become boring if everything always worked out, wouldn’t it? This is where opposition scenes come in. These are scenes in which players come up against adversity in which success or failure could meaningfully impact them, and where its outcome is also dependent on some randomness. For the different types of scenes, please see the GM section. For now, let’s see how to deal with opposition scenes as players.
Remind yourself of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. This is extremely important to this section. Do not, never ever, never never never ever, think in purely mechanistic actions and approaches, stunts and aspects. You can let yourself be inspired by them (do I want to attack the enemy, use my special ability, or do I try to overcome an annoying obstacle first?), but don’t start off trying to optimize which actions, approaches, aspects or stunts you want to use. Narrate what you do, and only then choose what action, approach, aspect or stunt fits that. Roll (applying any aspects or stunts if wanted), resolve the outcome, and narrate the success or failure. The most important thing in this whole thing is the narration! What do you do? Only then worry about what rules to consult.
Actions: Fate’s Actions are generic things you can do during opposition scenes (Attack, Overcome, Create Advantage, Defend, Move, Concede/Give In, Help). They are applicable to any context (whether it is a physical challenge or magical space battle, a social argument, a political conflict between nations, or a spiritual test of willpower, even a test of engineering). They influence what Stunts are applicable to them, and what Outcomes may result from these depending on how well the rolls succeed or fail (see the one-page cheat sheet at the start, or the Outcome matrix further down). Actions are always executed using one of the Approaches from earlier (so, you could Attack Sneakily, or Defend Forcefully, or Cleverly try to Create an Advantage, etc.), which influences the bonus you take on your rolls. But again, whenever you do an action during opposition, narrate what you do first, then figure out which Action and Approach fits best.
Invoking Aspects and Stunts: During opposition, there are several kinds of methods to influence the outcome of dice rolls. These may include the Stunts we covered earlier, but also Invoking Aspects. Invoking Aspects is different from Compelling Aspects. Invoking Aspects uses the Aspect as an explanation for gaining a +2 bonus on the roll, getting to re-roll a roll, or making things more difficult for the opposition by +2. Aspects that can be invoked are your own character aspects, but also Situational Aspects (aspects in the scene, not on any one character) and Boosts (single-use aspects only invokable for one round before vanishing), even opposing character aspects (a so-called Hostile Invoke). You can do this as long as it makes narrative sense. Invoking aspects or stunts both cost 1 FP to use (in the case of Hostile Invokes, you give this FP to the invoked opposing player/GM, though they can only be used after the scene ends). You can ‘stack’ bonuses from Aspects and Stunts technically for as long as you have FP, and while it still makes narrative sense. Some Actions can result in you gaining Free Invokes on Aspects or Boosts. In that case, you don’t need to use 1 FP to use them.
Roll Checks: in general, when you think the success or failure of an Action would make for an interesting story development (instead of just being annoying), rolling is warranted. Usually you will be prompted by the GM to roll, or you may ask for it yourself as you write your post (whether you do this through OOC or through a back-and-forth in IC is up to you). Depending on the kind of opposition, you may deal with the opposition yourself or hand it back to other players or GM (ex. Passive opposition can be handled on your own based on GM-given target difficulty, whereas active opposition from players or NPCs may be given back to them). Rolling a Roll Check itself is quite easy:
Note that sometimes rolling gives less than favorable results. This can be remedied by applying Aspects, Stunts, or asking for Help for bonuses, but sometimes you just have bad luck and you’ll have to roll with it (ha!). DON'T BE AFRAID OF BAD ROLLS! The Fate System is built such that you always have some measure of control (even in a failed roll, you have choices as to how that looks, from an outright failure, to a success, but at a cost!). Failure and getting into trouble isn't always a disaster, but makes for more interesting stories! And remember: Fate is a cooperative storytelling system, that means the GM is on your side! Even if an action doesn't work out as you thought (or wanted), the GM will have to roll with it as much as you do, and that means giving you other options or opportunities to advance the story, and be awesome.
Click here for the Action-Outcome Matrix that show what outcomes each action may have. In general, a roll’s success is measured by the difference between the roll result (with any and all bonuses applied) and target difficulty or opposing roll. This difference is also called the Shift. Based on this:
When it comes to the outcomes of rolls (as well as target difficulties and bonuses), Fate uses something called The Ladder to express in words (and numbers) how good the roll is, how difficult a task is, how skilled your bonus. It ranges from -2 (Terrible) through 0 (Mediocre) all the way to +8 (Legendary). See the one-pager at the beginning for the full Ladder. Suffice it to say: the higher the score, the better an outcome is or more difficult the task; and the lower the score, the easier the task or the worse the outcome is.
It is generally good to narrate your rolls, aspects and stunts in a way that makes sense in-game, instead of only using them as mechanical aspects of the system. This way, you also include the ‘ups and downs’ of even a single roll check. Really view a Roll Check as what it is: a small moment of tension in the scene. A useful trick to structure your narration is the Ellipsis trick, where you narrate each ‘step’ of the Roll, punctuated by ellipsis for roll results. If the roll succeeds, then yay! If they are less-than-satisfactory, and you use FP to alter the roll or re-roll, you narrate this too. By doing this, you get all of the action step by step: the initial failure, the sudden surge of determination or insight, the special skill you decide to use, and only then the final outcome. You can even choose to style the narration based on the difficulty of the roll or the final outcome of the roll. Note that you can then remove these ellipses in your final post/narration. They simply serve as a framework for you to write the roleplay narration around.
One final note on this is that sometimes player characters can have an opposition scene/drama scene between each other. This is where making a Collab post can come in handy. Here, you don't have to go back and forth all the time, but can work in one single document at the same time (ex. google docs or some other doc sharing workflow), taking turns writing RP sections, and then posting the completed exchange as a single post.
Stress and Consequences:
Sometimes things don't go the way they planned. This is OK, you can’t win everything. That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be consequences for failure, though. Fate’s Stress and Consequence mechanic allows you to model these explicitly in-game. In conflicts where the involved parties’ (both NPC and/or player characters’) wellbeing are on the line, whenever the active opposition scores a ‘hit’ (whether that be a bruising of egos, a grazing laser bolt on a spaceship, or a flesh wound), the hit character takes Stress (the exact amount is dependent on the outcome of the Attack roll, see the outcome matrix above or the one-pager). ALL of that stress will have to be incurred by the character in one way or another. In Fate, this can be done in two ways (or a combination of both):
Remind yourself again of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. During play, this means that you should play as usual, but that there are rules that you can use to really put your characters to the test, where they have to use everything they’ve got in creative ways, to put them in situations where they’ll be tempted to do things that are not optimal, and where sometimes… things won’t work out the way you hoped, and other interesting things happen!
In Fate, this is done not only through the Roll Checks described previously, but also through Compelling Aspects of characters.
Compelling Aspects: Compelling Aspects is different from Invoking them. Where Invoking Aspects gives you bonuses, Compelling Aspects creates a complication. Compelling is when you try to get a character to do something, or have something happen to them, that would complicate their life or the scene, based on one of their Aspects. Note that compelling isn't to bully, annoy, or to make life miserable for the player. Rather, view it as a 'playing the RP ball' towards them, to offer them a personal scenario to RP. In gameplay terms, when you Compel, you offer 1 FP to the player in question and hint at what the character might or would usually do in this situation. The player can then choose to accept the compel and play it out (and gain 1 FP at the end of the scene), or deny it by paying 1 FP of their own (then, both FP are discarded, so both players will have lost 1 FP). Do note that a compel should always make things more difficult in some way or another. Both GM and other players can generally compel, and indeed: a player may even choose to compel themselves (in which case they are gifted 1 FP from GM).
At first glance, this sounds strange: why would I want to have a system where I make things more complicated for myself? And this is understandable, but do also notice that this doesn’t have to be negative: a hero can also be compelled to help someone, for example, just as much as a character flaw can sometimes be a burden. Compels can thus make for powerful character moments in which the character can really shine (or where they have to overcome a hard time), and make it so that individual characters each get their own little challenges and moments in the story! Not only that, but players can do it to each other through their characters too, creating interesting and meaningful character dynamics. There are 2 generic types of Compels you can use to think about how to Compel yourself or another character:
Note that when it comes to Compels, You might want to make agreements between GM and the players (whether at the start or flexibly during play) on:
Notice how there is a balance to the Fate Point ‘economy’: they allow you to do truly awesome things, change your rolls so you may succeed, even succeed in style, and do awesome stunts. But if you only ever did awesome stuff, your Fate Points would be gone in no time. The only way (apart from waiting for a Refresh) to get more Fate Points is to engage in Compels and Concession mechanics of Fate, to introduce complications to your character. Even ‘defeat’ is rewarded. This makes it so there is a natural flow in the story, a balance between Ups and Downs. In this way, no one person dominates the story, no one is godlike. Everyone has their difficulties as well as their high points. And you can all work together to create these stories for yourselves: if you have a lot of FP let and you notice someone getting low on Fate Points, why not try Compelling them?
Sometimes there are non-trivial things your character may know, or have access to, that can help the scene or make the scene more interesting. It is OK to introduce these during play, with one caveat: they must be explainable by your Aspects. Remind yourself of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. If you choose to introduce elements to the world, try not to do it willy-nilly or randomly. You can do this when you feel it could add an interesting element or dimension to the scene, if it could help with something that the group feels stuck by. The general question you could ask yourself is: does this help in driving the story forward? Does this open up a new possibility or complication? Does this help with the ‘flavoring’ of the world? That said, consider it a good practice to check in (OOC) with the others and the GM if the element you'd like to introduce is fitting. Perhaps other players have another nice idea or addition, GM sets some condition on the idea, or make you roll to make at least some aspect to the introduced element random.
RP Guidelines when using Fate:
The core of the system revolves around Fate Points. These are points you can use for Stunts (your character’s very special abilities), and Aspects (using your character’s essential qualities to impact the story or a Roll’s Outcome in significant ways). Though you only have a limited amount that gets refreshed periodically, you can earn more by acting in ways that generally complicates things for your character (Compels and Concessions).
Character Creation
First, let’s embrace Fate’s Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. So whatever you do in Fate, don’t get bogged down in trying to make your character fit the rules. Instead, see how the rules fit your character! The rules provide guidance (limited Aspects make you think about what’s the most important things about your character, limited Stunts about what are the truly special abilities/traits/items they have, Approaches makes it so your character can’t be good at everything, Stress and Consequences guide how your character is meaningfully impacted by adversity), but in general, don’t let the rules dictate your character. Consult GM how to fit in an idea you have if something is unclear.
Aspects: Aspects are things that are True in-game. They arguably are the most important parts of the Fate system, but can be difficult to understand when first starting. View them as those things that truly define a character or situation, and that inform and guide your roleplay. For characters, aspects are short summaries about the essence of the character. Each character sheet has 5 Aspect slots. Each of these slots can hold 1 Aspect, one essential fact about your character. The most important Aspects are the High Concept - what is the essence of the character -, and their Trouble - what obstacle or flaw gets them in frequent trouble -, but other aspects can be about what they Want, their Relationships, and Extra things about them that are important; in the examples below I use High Concept, Trouble, Want, Relationship and Extra as I think they work well, but feel free to change these up to fit your game. The only two Aspects that are essential and must always be included in character sheets are the High Concept and the Trouble. Aspects state and imply what the character is, is like, what they can do, what choices they would make, what reputation they might have, etc. When creating your character, try to make them punchy phrases, short but sweet, and don’t underestimate their brevity: in the examples below, what do they say about the character? What image about them pops up in your mind immediately? What do you know is true about them based on these Aspects? What do you think you could do with them during play? What abilities and properties do they have that you could use? What problems could they encounter because of them? All these are things you can call upon through these Aspects (in Fate’s terms: through Invoking or Compelling Aspects), and you will learn to use them later on.
- High Concept: what phrase summarizes the main idea of your character. Dragon Queen on the Edge of Madness, Genius Playboy Millionaire by day and Vigilante at night, I’m going to be Future Pirate King, I See Dead People, Suave Spy For Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
- Trouble: what flaw/obstacle frequently complicates their life. Overzealous Rule-Follower, Haunted by Prophecy, Survivors Guilt, Prejudicial Classmates, I Struggle with my Identity, I Push My Luck for All It’s Worth.
- Wants: what does the character want or desire? I Want To Watch the World Burn, I Want To Solve The Unsolvable Cases, I Want To Find My Sister’s Killer, I Want The Moon To Be Independent.
- Relationship: what is their relationship with others like, is there anyone important to them? Estranged from the Royal House, Rival to the Captain, Secretly In Love With (Another Player Character), Blood-slave to a Vampire, Oath-Bound to (Another Player Character).
- Extra: what else is important or interesting about this character? Mech-Suit Mk. 7, I Have a Royal Signet Ring, I Know the Ancient Language, I Have the Map to El Dorado.
- Situational: NON-character-bound aspects, belonging to a scene or situation (will be discussed further later). On Fire, Locked, Can barely see anything, Overcrowded, Rainy and miserable, Beware of the Dog, Well-Planned Patrol Schedule, Very overdressed occasion, Broken lightspeed booster.
- Boosts: single-use situational aspects that will disappear at the end of a round during conflict scenes, can be invoked to gain a bonus, usually created via an Action or Stunt (will be discussed further later). Distracted by the sights, Flashbanged, I have the High Ground!, Cramp in my leg, Entangled in ropes, Enchanted by beauty, Insulted.
- Consequences: aspects that represent stress/damage taken (will be discussed further later). Concussion, Dislocated/Recovering Arm, My reputation is ruined!, Feverish, Severe burn wounds.
Approaches: Approaches are ways in which a character can do things. These apply broadly, from physical to social, political, magical contexts, and even more. Think of it a little like they describe your character’s personality: how does your character approach problems? The standard Approaches are: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick and Sneaky (though these can be altered to fit the setting or even to the character, if desired, and if GM agrees). Note how the decoupling of aspects and approaches means your character isn’t beholden to certain stereotypes, so don’t let your imagination be limited. On your character sheet, you will rank-divide them between what your character is Good at (1 approach), Fair at (2 approaches), Average at (2 approaches) and Mediocre at (1 approach), which influences the bonus you get on Actions in Roll Checks, when using these Approaches. You can increase these through Milestone rewards (more on these later).
- Careful: when you pay close attention to detail. The rogue dismantling a trap, the sniper lining up a shot, the princess trying not to step on rivals' toes, the mage drawing intricate spell-circles, the duelist precisely sticking his rapier in an armor-gap.
- Clever: when thinking and problem solving is involved. A hunter luring a beast into quicksand, the starpilot using gravity to curve his shot, the politician using his knowledge to implicate a rival in a plot, the hacker reverse-engineering some code.
- Flashy: anything where you perform or draw attention. The priest delivering an inspiring sermon, the bard insulting a rival, the ranger screaming loudly to scare off an animal, the artist creating performance art, the army general motivating troops.
- Forceful: when you use brute force. the engineer spamming keycodes frantically until the bomb is defused, the berserker going in swinging, the wizard blasting the area with a not-so-subtle explosion spell, an officer interrogating 'bad cop'-style.
- Quickly: when you use your speed and agility. The duellist avoiding an incoming sword blow, the racer hitting the accelerator at the exact time the countdown hits 0, a songstress delivering a rap battle, the sorcerer spell-slinging magic missiles.
- Sneaky: when you try to keep something hidden. The thief infiltrating a building, a suspect lying to police, the warrior locking shields then stabbing below the belt, the hacker phishing to get a password, the mage telekinetically pickpocketing.
- Example of ranking for a character: Good (+3 bonus) at: Careful; Fair (+2) at: Sneaky, Clever; Average (+1) at: Forceful, Quickly; Mediocre (+0) at: Flashy.
- Example of alternate Approaches for Nation Roleplay: Industry, Research, Culture, Military, Politics, and Espionage.
Stunts: Stunts are the awesome things a character can do that’s more than what their Aspects imply. They describe what truly exceptional things a character can do. And that can be taken quite literally: Stunts function as in-game exceptions to the default rules of the game. Think of them like the Feats, Skills or Spells of other systems, except in Fate you can make them yourself! They cost 1 FP to use (representing how truly exceptional skills do not come without effort or price). You can have a max. of 5, but any stunt past 3 decreases your Refresh (how many fate points you start each session/chapter with) by 1. It can be difficult when just starting with Fate to immediately create a trait or ability referencing Fate’s gameplay mechanics. So don’t: express the idea of the stunt first, and only then see if there are rules that can express this (again, ask GM for help if you find this difficult). Most Stunts can be formulated using the following 2 templates:
- Because I am/have/know something cool, I can gain a +2 on Approach+Action combo when some in-game condition is met
- Because I am/have/know something cool, once per conflict/chapter/session I can describe something exceptional you can do
- I want to play a socially smooth aristocrat. Because I Was Raised In The Courts of the Dominion, I can take an additional +2 when Carefully Creating an Advantage when navigating social situations.
- I want to play a traditional fighter. Because I have a Large Sword, I can gain a +2 when Forcefully Attacking when I am engaged in a physical fight.
- I want to play a traditional fighter. Because I have a Large Shield, I can gain a +2 when Forcefully Defending when I am engaged in a physical fight.
- I want to play a magical duellist Because I Have A Duelist’s Eye, I can add +2 on Careful Attacks when using magic requiring precision.
- I want to play a shadowy assassin striking from the dark. Because I Am A Shadow Assassin, I can gain a +2 on Sneakily Defending or Attacking when I am standing in a dark area.
- I want to play a song-slinging bard! Because I Have A Bardly Voice, I can gain a +2 bonus when Flashily Attacking when I am in situations where I can charm, persuade, or comfort others.
- I want to play a savvy journalist. Because I Write For The Newspapers, once per session, I may declare I know something about this and automatically Succeed in Style when Creating an Advantage.
- I want to play an elite sharpshooter. Because My Sniper Rifle Never Misses, I gain a +2 when Carefully Attacking across zones.
- I want to play an elemental warrior. Because I Can Imbue My Fists With Elemental Energies, once per Conflict I can Create an Advantage (e.g. ‘Fired up’) granting me +2 to Flashy checks against opposite elements (e.g. fire vs. ice).
- I want to play a storm-warlock. Because I Am Bound To The Great Storm, once per session, I can add a ‘Storm’ Aspect to my zone, which Flashily Attacks 1 enemy each turn (4dF+0 bonus) until I am out of the engagement.
- I want to play a cat-person. Because I Am A Great Climber, I gain +2 to Quickly Overcoming Obstacles when the obstacles are climbable.
- I want to play a rogue thief. Because I Am A Master Pickpocket, I gain a +2 on Sneaky Attack rolls when they are used for non-damaging actions involving thieving or burglary.
- I want to play a changeling. Because I Am A Changeling, once per session, I may declare that I have the perfect disguise for a given situation, granting a ‘Disguised’ aspect.
- I want to play a whirling martial artist. Because I Am Proficient In The Typhoon Style, I can Forcefully Attack a second target in one round, when my first attack ends up hitting one target.
- I want to play a robot with multiple personalities. Because My Programming Has Many Personality Profiles, once per session, I may swap the skill levels of two approaches as long as these are only 1 rating apart. I can swap these back at any time, otherwise these will swap back at the session’s conclusion.
- I want to play someone who can teleport. "Because I can teleport, once per session I can instantly transport myself to any Zone in sight, even when it is otherwise obstructed.
- I want to be a blood-mage. "Because I can use blood magic, I can gain a +1 on Forcefully Attacking +1 for every Consequence.
- I want to be a pilot of a Gamma-Wing Starfighter. Because I have a Gamma-wing, I can gain a +2 on Quickly Defending when piloting.
- I want to be a pilot of a Beta-Wing Bomber. Because I have a Beta-wing, I can gain a +2 on Carefully Attacking when piloting.
- I want to be a demon-bound warlock. Because I have a pact with a Demon Lord, once per chapter/session I can summon an Imp Mook to help me in conflicts.
- I want to be a fire-bomber. Because I have incendiary grenades, once per chapter/session I can create a situational aspect ‘Wall of Fire’ in the scene.
- I want to be a lightning-bender. Because I know the Chain Lightning spell, once per chapter/session I can apply my Clever bonus of Stress, dividing it in any way I want amongst my enemies.
- My character is an enormous flirt, and has a lot of former lovers. Because I have a Girl/Guy in Every Port, once per chapter/session, I can declare I know someone there, but I will have to make a 4dF roll check and consult the Fate Ladder to find out their disposition towards me..
With that, let’s look at an example of a Fate Character Sheet below. Note how it is quite minimal. This is on purpose: this lets other players quickly understand your character and how to interact with them, it gives you a lot of freedom in how to apply and develop your character in-game without having to strictly pre-define everything beforehand, and through the Fate system, these aspects can come back to help you (without your character becoming overpowered), or bite you in the ass. In short: you better make your descriptions count! Save the rest for the actual RP.
Name: Holo San
Gender: F
Refresh: 3
Description: Based on her utilitarian looks alone, you'd never take her for the feisty and ruthless business woman she is. With short black hair, tanktop, several blaster guns hidden in the pockets of her cargopants, critical eyes, and a blabbermouth that would put the inner system's holovid actors to shame, Holo San is a large personality in a petite frame. No surprise too: a smuggler's job is a hard life - a successful one, even harder - and Holo San has quite the resume. Currently endebted to the Thuggs, she scours the solar system in her cargoship Centurion with her trusty friend Bacchuca for their next big job.
Approaches:
Aspects:
Stunts:
Gender: F
Refresh: 3
Description: Based on her utilitarian looks alone, you'd never take her for the feisty and ruthless business woman she is. With short black hair, tanktop, several blaster guns hidden in the pockets of her cargopants, critical eyes, and a blabbermouth that would put the inner system's holovid actors to shame, Holo San is a large personality in a petite frame. No surprise too: a smuggler's job is a hard life - a successful one, even harder - and Holo San has quite the resume. Currently endebted to the Thuggs, she scours the solar system in her cargoship Centurion with her trusty friend Bacchuca for their next big job.
Approaches:
- Good (+3) at: Sneaky
- Fair (+2) at: Quick, Flashy
- Average (+1) at: Forceful, Careful
- Mediocre (+0) at: Clever
Aspects:
- High Concept: Hottest smuggler in the galaxy.
- Trouble: I only look out for numero uno.
- Want: I need to pay off my debt to the Thuggs, and soon.
- Relationship: Bacchuca is my trusty co-pilot, and my only friend.
- Extra: I’ve kitted out the Centurion with some surprising modifications.
Stunts:
- Because I Always Shoot First, I can gain a +3 bonus on Attacking Quickly during the first round of a Conflict.
- Because I Made The Sekel Run In 12 Parsecs, once per chapter/session, I may declare I found a way past or out of trouble.
- Because Bacchuca Is A Well-Trained First Responder, once per Conflict, 1 Mild Consequence may be Recovered on anyone.
When you read the above example character, it is likely that interesting scenario’s start popping up in your mind immediately, despite the brevity of the Aspects. What happened with Holo and the Thuggs? What if they were to find her again? What would she do when she meets someone who needs help? How would she respond if things didn’t go her way? What crazy things can the Centurion do? This is exactly what Fate facilitates you to explore in your play. Indeed: players are rewarded for creating these ups and downs in their stories!
Meeting Opposition
Things would become boring if everything always worked out, wouldn’t it? This is where opposition scenes come in. These are scenes in which players come up against adversity in which success or failure could meaningfully impact them, and where its outcome is also dependent on some randomness. For the different types of scenes, please see the GM section. For now, let’s see how to deal with opposition scenes as players.
Remind yourself of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. This is extremely important to this section. Do not, never ever, never never never ever, think in purely mechanistic actions and approaches, stunts and aspects. You can let yourself be inspired by them (do I want to attack the enemy, use my special ability, or do I try to overcome an annoying obstacle first?), but don’t start off trying to optimize which actions, approaches, aspects or stunts you want to use. Narrate what you do, and only then choose what action, approach, aspect or stunt fits that. Roll (applying any aspects or stunts if wanted), resolve the outcome, and narrate the success or failure. The most important thing in this whole thing is the narration! What do you do? Only then worry about what rules to consult.
Actions: Fate’s Actions are generic things you can do during opposition scenes (Attack, Overcome, Create Advantage, Defend, Move, Concede/Give In, Help). They are applicable to any context (whether it is a physical challenge or magical space battle, a social argument, a political conflict between nations, or a spiritual test of willpower, even a test of engineering). They influence what Stunts are applicable to them, and what Outcomes may result from these depending on how well the rolls succeed or fail (see the one-page cheat sheet at the start, or the Outcome matrix further down). Actions are always executed using one of the Approaches from earlier (so, you could Attack Sneakily, or Defend Forcefully, or Cleverly try to Create an Advantage, etc.), which influences the bonus you take on your rolls. But again, whenever you do an action during opposition, narrate what you do first, then figure out which Action and Approach fits best.
- Attack: when directly doing things ‘to’ the scene’s opposition. Note that the Attack action doesn’t necessitate a combat situation. Think of this action more like attacking the problem in the scene. Physical attacks, social retorts in arguments, hitting the accelerator to get ahead in a race, trying to fix an intricate piece of broken machinery, trying to quench an out-of-control magical fire.
- Create Advantage: when doing things that could give you and/or allies an advantage in the scene (usually in the form of creating a Boost or Situational Aspect, or Discovering a hidden Aspect on an enemy or situation). Bumping over a candelabra to set a scene On Fire, setting off an Evacuation Alarm that will get rid of a lot of bystanders, casting a Smoke spell to obscure the room, hacking robots to put them in Standby mode, investigating an enemy and finding out their Weak Spot, discovering a rival is Secretly Meeting Up With Their Lover.
- Overcome: when trying to get rid of an obstacle in the scene (usually an enemy Boost or an annoying Situational Aspect). Trying to tear down a Barricade, trying to bypass the Security Alarm that keeps summoning new troops, calming down a Bear Gone Berserk, deactivating the Shield Generator that gives enemy troops more protection.
- Defend: when trying to counter any of the above 3 actions. Trying to block a sword blow, summoning your willpower to not be insulted during an argument, activating a firewall against a hacker, boosting the shields on your gamma-wing starship when being attacked.
- Move: moving between zones during opposition. GM may decide at what cost. you can hear your friends screaming in the kitchen of the Haunted House, but you are in the hallway, and there is a locked door in the way you’ll have to unlock first! You are on a magical sports field with 5 zones, and GM decides you can move 4dF + your quick bonus per round - you roll a 1 + 2, so you can move 3 zones ahead! You’re in a battle on a spaceship with 4 zones (cockpit, hallway 1, hallway 2, escape pods), and you need to get to the escape pods from the cockpit, GM decides that because there are boarders in the hallways these get a difficulty score of 2 each versus the others who get 1, and you will need to roll check on any approach you think makes sense narratively (you roll 3) so you end up in hallway 2 for now!
- Conceding/Giving In: often used to avoid being taken out, conceding/giving in is when you (the player, not necessarily the character!) voluntarily lets go of the conflict. You now get a say in how you exit the scene (though it must still reflect defeat), and GM awards you 1 FP. You are in a heated battle, and your enemy knocks you out cold and assuming you are dead, they move on to their next target. You are defeated in a duel but just before the final coup de grace, you whimper away, and in response the enemy spits on you, and lets you live with your shame. You are defeated in a heated argument, and stomp off, your opponent laughs and you feel your classmates’ respect diminish just that bit more.
- Helping: helping an ally with something they’re doing. An ally is trying to push open a door/hacking a terminal/placing a spell/whatever (GM assigned target difficulty 3), but he only rolled 2 and has no more FP to use, so you come rushing to his help and add 1 to the roll, coming up on 3, and the door is swung open... Yeah, teamwork!
Invoking Aspects and Stunts: During opposition, there are several kinds of methods to influence the outcome of dice rolls. These may include the Stunts we covered earlier, but also Invoking Aspects. Invoking Aspects is different from Compelling Aspects. Invoking Aspects uses the Aspect as an explanation for gaining a +2 bonus on the roll, getting to re-roll a roll, or making things more difficult for the opposition by +2. Aspects that can be invoked are your own character aspects, but also Situational Aspects (aspects in the scene, not on any one character) and Boosts (single-use aspects only invokable for one round before vanishing), even opposing character aspects (a so-called Hostile Invoke). You can do this as long as it makes narrative sense. Invoking aspects or stunts both cost 1 FP to use (in the case of Hostile Invokes, you give this FP to the invoked opposing player/GM, though they can only be used after the scene ends). You can ‘stack’ bonuses from Aspects and Stunts technically for as long as you have FP, and while it still makes narrative sense. Some Actions can result in you gaining Free Invokes on Aspects or Boosts. In that case, you don’t need to use 1 FP to use them.
Roll Checks: in general, when you think the success or failure of an Action would make for an interesting story development (instead of just being annoying), rolling is warranted. Usually you will be prompted by the GM to roll, or you may ask for it yourself as you write your post (whether you do this through OOC or through a back-and-forth in IC is up to you). Depending on the kind of opposition, you may deal with the opposition yourself or hand it back to other players or GM (ex. Passive opposition can be handled on your own based on GM-given target difficulty, whereas active opposition from players or NPCs may be given back to them). Rolling a Roll Check itself is quite easy:
- Roll Check = 4dF + Approach Bonus + (Bonuses from Invoked Aspects, Stunts, and Help)
- where 4dF is shorthand for the sum of 4 Fate/Fudge dice. These are dice where the sides are either +, - or 0 (blank). There are online rollers for these (in Discord, you can add an App such as Fate Dice or FateBot), but if you wish to simulate it using a six-sided ‘D6’ dice, just take 1 and 2 to be a -. 3-4 to be 0, and 5-6 to be +. A roll like this could look like 00++ (summing up to 2), --++ (sum 0), 0+-- (sum -1), etc.
Note that sometimes rolling gives less than favorable results. This can be remedied by applying Aspects, Stunts, or asking for Help for bonuses, but sometimes you just have bad luck and you’ll have to roll with it (ha!). DON'T BE AFRAID OF BAD ROLLS! The Fate System is built such that you always have some measure of control (even in a failed roll, you have choices as to how that looks, from an outright failure, to a success, but at a cost!). Failure and getting into trouble isn't always a disaster, but makes for more interesting stories! And remember: Fate is a cooperative storytelling system, that means the GM is on your side! Even if an action doesn't work out as you thought (or wanted), the GM will have to roll with it as much as you do, and that means giving you other options or opportunities to advance the story, and be awesome.
Click here for the Action-Outcome Matrix that show what outcomes each action may have. In general, a roll’s success is measured by the difference between the roll result (with any and all bonuses applied) and target difficulty or opposing roll. This difference is also called the Shift. Based on this:
- You Fail if your roll result is less than the opposing difficulty/result. You don’t get what you want, you get what you want at a serious cost, or you suffer negative consequences.
- It’s a Tie if your roll result is equal to the opposing difficulty/result. You get what you want, but at a minor cost, or you only get a lesser version of what you wanted.
- You Succeed if your roll result is greater than the opposing difficulty/result. You get what you want at no cost.
- You Succeed with Style if your roll result is 3 Shifts or more greater than the opposing difficulty/result. You get what you want, and also get an additional benefit.
When it comes to the outcomes of rolls (as well as target difficulties and bonuses), Fate uses something called The Ladder to express in words (and numbers) how good the roll is, how difficult a task is, how skilled your bonus. It ranges from -2 (Terrible) through 0 (Mediocre) all the way to +8 (Legendary). See the one-pager at the beginning for the full Ladder. Suffice it to say: the higher the score, the better an outcome is or more difficult the task; and the lower the score, the easier the task or the worse the outcome is.
It is generally good to narrate your rolls, aspects and stunts in a way that makes sense in-game, instead of only using them as mechanical aspects of the system. This way, you also include the ‘ups and downs’ of even a single roll check. Really view a Roll Check as what it is: a small moment of tension in the scene. A useful trick to structure your narration is the Ellipsis trick, where you narrate each ‘step’ of the Roll, punctuated by ellipsis for roll results. If the roll succeeds, then yay! If they are less-than-satisfactory, and you use FP to alter the roll or re-roll, you narrate this too. By doing this, you get all of the action step by step: the initial failure, the sudden surge of determination or insight, the special skill you decide to use, and only then the final outcome. You can even choose to style the narration based on the difficulty of the roll or the final outcome of the roll. Note that you can then remove these ellipses in your final post/narration. They simply serve as a framework for you to write the roleplay narration around.
One final note on this is that sometimes player characters can have an opposition scene/drama scene between each other. This is where making a Collab post can come in handy. Here, you don't have to go back and forth all the time, but can work in one single document at the same time (ex. google docs or some other doc sharing workflow), taking turns writing RP sections, and then posting the completed exchange as a single post.
- With a Forceful Attack (--++ + 3 Forceful Approach Bonus = 3) against the opposing Forceful Defend (2), you succeeded at your Attack roll. You consult the Action Outcome matrix and find that you deal Stress equal to the Shift. The Shift being 3-2 = 1, you deal 1 Stress to the opposition. The android bucked under your attack, and you see you managed to loosen some of its wires. Just a little bit more now!
- You succeeded the roll, and use 1 FP add a +2 bonus from one of your aspects or stunts to Succeed in Style (it’s now 5 against 2). The android buckled, your Shaolin Monk attack was so well-placed that its motor control sensors broke. Trying to right itself, you notice it is Off-balance.
- You tied the Attack roll (2 vs 2), and get a Boost instead of dealing damage. The android proved too strong for your kick, but you managed to dislocate its optical sensor. It’s not much, but it might take a while to put it back in place.
- You tied the roll, but choose to succeed at a minor cost. The android proved too strong for your kick. As you stumble back Off-balanced, you nick some of its wires.
- You have failed the roll, but there is a Situational Aspect in the scene you can invoke for free to get a bonus. The android proved too strong for your kick. In its distraction, you quickly grab the Loose Water Spout and shove it into its hardware, short circuiting it.
- You failed the roll, but succeed by using fate points to add bonuses via aspects and/or stunts. The android proved too strong for your kick. In its distraction, you quickly grab your SMRT-13 pistol and using your Lightning fast reflexes, shove it into its hardware, blasting a hole clean through it.
- You failed the roll, but you ask your companions for help. The android proved too strong for your kick, and your shins scraped against its metal leg. Its eyes glowed red as it approached you again. You shout for help at your friend!
- Another character failed a roll, and you jump in to help, adding +1 to their roll. It is now a Tie. Still no damage, but you gain a boost at least. The android's eyes glowed red as it stepped towards your friend. Snap it all! You jump into the fray and try to wrangle it Immobilized.
- You failed the (Overcome) roll, but you can still choose to succeed at a serious cost. You wrestle yourself free from the Android's grip. As it crashes down the atrium, you thank your lucky stars, until you realize the clanging will have alerted more of them...
- You decide that instead of attacking, you want to Create an Advantage. You notice that there are Fuel Cannisters in the scene. Taking aim, you shoot and they engulf the whole area In Flames.
- You Roll an Overcome Action and Invoke a Situational Aspect to Succeed. Dammit! Someone just set the place on fire! You use the Loose Water Spout in the scene to put the fire out.
- You Attack, Invoking an opponent’s Aspect against them. These Shambling Androids are no match for your agile and quick attacks!
- You Attack, Invoking an opponent’s Consequence Aspect against them. You attack the android. Its Loose Wiring causes a delay in its processing, giving you just the edge you need.
- You are at 2/3 stress. Instead of risking the villain's attack, you CONCEDE the conflict, and write a scene exit with a cost. The android's eyes glowed red as it stepped towards you. You shout that you surrender. The android's eyes turn blue, and it stuns you.
- You are at 2/3 stress, and risk the villain's attack. You fail and the GM takes you out of the fight. Luckily, GM thinks death is boring. The android's eyes glowed red as it smacked you unconscious, and quickly starts uploading a cyber-virus into your skull.
- You are at 2/3 stress, and risk the villain's attack. You fail and the GM takes you out of the fight. Your death is very sad. The android's eyes glowed red as it stepped towards you. Your friends shout in vain as your brains splatter all over the walls. It is very sad.
- Example of the Ellipsis Trick: The street samurai swings at the Android with his vibro-sword (bad roll), only barely grazing them. (rerolls) But in their distraction, he quickly pivots and swings to the other side, (invokes aspect) and drives all of his hatred towards androids into the strike (shift gives enough stress that the android is taken out), and the android crumbles to the ground.
Stress and Consequences:
Sometimes things don't go the way they planned. This is OK, you can’t win everything. That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be consequences for failure, though. Fate’s Stress and Consequence mechanic allows you to model these explicitly in-game. In conflicts where the involved parties’ (both NPC and/or player characters’) wellbeing are on the line, whenever the active opposition scores a ‘hit’ (whether that be a bruising of egos, a grazing laser bolt on a spaceship, or a flesh wound), the hit character takes Stress (the exact amount is dependent on the outcome of the Attack roll, see the outcome matrix above or the one-pager). ALL of that stress will have to be incurred by the character in one way or another. In Fate, this can be done in two ways (or a combination of both):
- Ticking Stress Boxes: Stress can be incurred by ticking stress boxes. These symbolize the maximum amount of stress (mental stress, fatigue, bruises, etc.) your character can take in a single conflict before being taken out. Each Stress Box can be used only once until freed by their recovery (usually all boxes are freed as soon as the conflict scene ends). Each character generally has 3 Stress Boxes (NPCs can have less, or even none at all, in which case they are taken out as soon as they take any Stress). Box 1 can incur 1 Stress, Box 2 can incur a maximum of 2 (so 1 or 2 Stress), and Box 3 can incur a maximum of 3 (so 1, 2 or 3 Stress). Once ticked, they cannot be used anymore until recovered, even if they were used to incur less Stress than they could have maximally. When all boxes are ticked, or there is no more way to incur all the Stress the character has taken, the character is Taken Out (they are defeated, can’t play the scene anymore, and their opposition decides what happens with them). This can be avoided by Conceding the conflict (where the character decides how they are defeated and exit the scene, and get 1 FP for their loss, see the Actions section above).
- Creating a Consequence: Stress can also be incurred by creating a consequence that reflects the ‘damage’ taken. Each consequence slot can be used only once until freed by their recovery, even if they were used to incur less Stress than they could have maximally. Consequences are Aspects that can be Invoked by the opposition to gain a +2 bonus on their roll (reflecting how injuries impacted the character). Each character generally has 3 consequence slots (NPCs can have less):
- A Mild Consequence slot, capable of absorbing a maximum of 2 Stress; these are recovered after the scene has ended (implying the character will have gotten rest).
- A Moderate Consequence slot, capable of absorbing a maximum of 4 Stress; these are usually recovered after the next chapter/session. In the meantime, these may be renamed to reflect the passing of time and living with the consequence.
- A Severe Consequence slot, capable of absorbing a maximum of 6 Stress; these are usually recovered after the ‘scenario’/story arc is deemed over by the GM, or when you reach a Major Milestone in which this is a reward. In the meantime, these may be renamed to reflect the passing of time and living with the consequence.
- A minotaur hits a player character for 3 stress. The player chooses to incur it by ticking stress box 3.
- A mage student is hit by their rival’s stunning spell during duelling class for 2 stress. The player chooses to incur it by creating the Mild Consequence Numbed Tongue. It is freed again after the fight scene.
- The Big Bad Dragon breathes fire and hits a player for a whopping 7 Stress. The player chooses to incur it by creating the Severe Consequence (6) Severe Burn Wounds, leaving him with 1 more Stress to absorb. Because his Stress Box 1 is already filled, he will have to tick Stress Box 2. This is getting tense!
- The duellist feints and puts his rival on the wrong - and very injured - foot, creating the perfect moment to strike!. Player A uses 1 FP to Invoke Player B’s Moderate Consequence Arrow to the Knee to gain a +2 on his Sneaky Attack. Player B will be able to use the FP after the scene ends.
- The Elite Sci-Fi Police shoot the subject with a shotgun at point blank range. He goes down, bleeding heavily, and is apprehended and rushed to the hospital. GM hits a player for 7 Stress. Unfortunately, his Moderate and Severe Consequence slots and stress box 3 were already filled. If he were to fill the last Mild (2) consequence slot and the stress boxes 1+2 that would still only amount to 5, leaving 2 Stress left. It is impossible to incur any more, so he is Taken Out.
- A heated argument has bruised a character’s reputation so much he harrumphs and stomps out of the room. Player A just Attacked Player B in a social context, and dealt a Moderate Consequence. Player B Concedes, and decides to simply leave the scene.
Playing with Ups and Downs
Remind yourself again of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. During play, this means that you should play as usual, but that there are rules that you can use to really put your characters to the test, where they have to use everything they’ve got in creative ways, to put them in situations where they’ll be tempted to do things that are not optimal, and where sometimes… things won’t work out the way you hoped, and other interesting things happen!
In Fate, this is done not only through the Roll Checks described previously, but also through Compelling Aspects of characters.
Compelling Aspects: Compelling Aspects is different from Invoking them. Where Invoking Aspects gives you bonuses, Compelling Aspects creates a complication. Compelling is when you try to get a character to do something, or have something happen to them, that would complicate their life or the scene, based on one of their Aspects. Note that compelling isn't to bully, annoy, or to make life miserable for the player. Rather, view it as a 'playing the RP ball' towards them, to offer them a personal scenario to RP. In gameplay terms, when you Compel, you offer 1 FP to the player in question and hint at what the character might or would usually do in this situation. The player can then choose to accept the compel and play it out (and gain 1 FP at the end of the scene), or deny it by paying 1 FP of their own (then, both FP are discarded, so both players will have lost 1 FP). Do note that a compel should always make things more difficult in some way or another. Both GM and other players can generally compel, and indeed: a player may even choose to compel themselves (in which case they are gifted 1 FP from GM).
At first glance, this sounds strange: why would I want to have a system where I make things more complicated for myself? And this is understandable, but do also notice that this doesn’t have to be negative: a hero can also be compelled to help someone, for example, just as much as a character flaw can sometimes be a burden. Compels can thus make for powerful character moments in which the character can really shine (or where they have to overcome a hard time), and make it so that individual characters each get their own little challenges and moments in the story! Not only that, but players can do it to each other through their characters too, creating interesting and meaningful character dynamics. There are 2 generic types of Compels you can use to think about how to Compel yourself or another character:
- Event: You have … aspect and are in … situation, so it makes sense that, unfortunately, … would happen to you.
- Decision: You have … aspect in … situation, so it makes sense that you’d decide to …. This goes wrong when … happens.
Note that when it comes to Compels, You might want to make agreements between GM and the players (whether at the start or flexibly during play) on:
- who may compel (only self-compels, also GM, or also other players)
- how compels may be done (I would suggest that GM can compel using NPC’s or the world update, by placing very clear temptations or challenges in front of the character, and for players, that you actually have to play out the compels and denials, with you own character, clearly setting up, baiting or tempting the character through their actions or words, and clearly reacting to it if denying the compel; alternatively you can discuss this beforehand in OOC)
- when you may be compelled (ex. technically, if you have 0 FP, you can’t deny a compel anymore, and your character simply gives in; and though this may make for interesting story, it can be very annoying for the player, as such, you may want to make agreements on if you wish to allow this, or if you only allow a compel on characters with at least 1 FP so the player still at least has a choice)
- when the compel becomes active and when it must be handled (ex. right now or in the same scene, the next scene, or even at any time before the end of the ‘chapter’ so the compel functions as foreshadowing)
- how the compel will be handled (ex. can only last one round of posts between players and GM so everyone can react but the compel doesn’t take up too much time; a conflict/contest scene is started up, possibly alongside the usual action; the action continues as usual, but with an additional complication in the scene that all players will be open to deal with)
- Hobo Braggins, Wearer of The Dark Lord’s Corrupting Necklace gets a compel by GM. In it, he describes the Dark Lord’s Dragon Knight calling out to him and the necklace. Hobo’s player accepts, and describes how he feels the pull, and, in a daze, walks out of cover and towards the Dragon’s grasping claws, fire rumbling ecstatically in its throat. How will Hobo get out of this situation? Will the other players come to his aid, fight the Dragon Knight, pull him away?
- Hyperman, Man of Titanium, Hero for Life, gets a compel by GM during a battle. In it, GM describes a falling bridge, and oh no! A child is still on it! Of course, Hyperman’s player accepts the Compel towards his heroism and describes how Hyperman leaps to the child’s rescue. GM starts up a small Challenge scene, describing the obstacles Hyperman faces on his way to the kid and how difficult they are. Hyperman’s player rolls for each of the obstacles, and describes how he overcomes most of them (one of the rolls Failed, and he chooses to make up for it by taking a Mild Consequence). At the end of the scene, he gets awarded 1 FP for it.
- Two players are having a back and forth about their upcoming mission to infiltrate a heavily guarded Android factory. Player A compels Player B’s character’s Androids killed my family aspect, asking IC if he’ll be alright with the mission. Player B accepts the compel, narrating that his character says he’ll be fine, but that you feel immense hatred coming off of him. They decide OOC that Player B’s character will act on his hatred in the next scene (and possibly plan out a situation sketch for it).
- A Novice Mage has just used a powerful Stunt to create a large firewall on the ground. GM compels the mentioned Aspect, focusing on the ‘Novice’ part, and implies she loses concentration and lets the fire get out of control. The player accepts, and a new Magical Fire Out Of Control ‘enemy’ is created in the scene the players will have to face also. Will the mage get her fire back under control, quench it, or does it burn the entire building down?
- A Novice Mage has just used a powerful Stunt to create a large firewall on the ground. GM compels the mentioned Aspect, focusing on the ‘Novice’ part, and implies she loses concentration and lets the fire get out of control. The player denies this compel by paying 1 FP, and describes what tremendous effort she has to do for her to keep the firewall in control.
Notice how there is a balance to the Fate Point ‘economy’: they allow you to do truly awesome things, change your rolls so you may succeed, even succeed in style, and do awesome stunts. But if you only ever did awesome stuff, your Fate Points would be gone in no time. The only way (apart from waiting for a Refresh) to get more Fate Points is to engage in Compels and Concession mechanics of Fate, to introduce complications to your character. Even ‘defeat’ is rewarded. This makes it so there is a natural flow in the story, a balance between Ups and Downs. In this way, no one person dominates the story, no one is godlike. Everyone has their difficulties as well as their high points. And you can all work together to create these stories for yourselves: if you have a lot of FP let and you notice someone getting low on Fate Points, why not try Compelling them?
Introducing Elements to the World
Sometimes there are non-trivial things your character may know, or have access to, that can help the scene or make the scene more interesting. It is OK to introduce these during play, with one caveat: they must be explainable by your Aspects. Remind yourself of The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. If you choose to introduce elements to the world, try not to do it willy-nilly or randomly. You can do this when you feel it could add an interesting element or dimension to the scene, if it could help with something that the group feels stuck by. The general question you could ask yourself is: does this help in driving the story forward? Does this open up a new possibility or complication? Does this help with the ‘flavoring’ of the world? That said, consider it a good practice to check in (OOC) with the others and the GM if the element you'd like to introduce is fitting. Perhaps other players have another nice idea or addition, GM sets some condition on the idea, or make you roll to make at least some aspect to the introduced element random.
- The players are stuck on a planet in the Outer System, and have to get somewhere fast. They encounter a smuggler who uses her Aspect I’ve kitted out the Centurion with some surprising modifications to establish that she has a spaceship that could take them there, and a fast one too! What luck! I hope nothing bad happens along the way…
- The players are coming up with a plan to infiltrate the house of a mean baddie. The house, however, is guarded by many guards, and a security system too. The 1337 H4xx0r establishes the fact that the security system might have alarm codes that can help them distract the guards for a bit. What a good idea! I hope the guards don’t find out they’re taken for a ride halfway through…
- The players are engaged in martial arts combat with a group of Mooks. One of the players, My sister and I were trained in the Qaoli arts at their Temple establishes that she recognizes their fighting style, what are the Qaoli monks doing here? (GM is inspired by this, and compels this same aspect to… wait, is… is that her sister?)
- The Bawdy Bard gathers around the fireplace with his companions. Suddenly, he establishes he remembers a song about just the thing they’re going through, and starts plucking at his strings. It’s not much, but it warms up the atmosphere a bit, doesn’t it?
- During a crime scene investigation, you notice something strange about the subject. Because of your Friends in low places, you establish that you might know someone that knows something more about this. GM takes you up on this, and starts a scene where you visit them to interrogate them. He also Compels you on the ‘lowly’ part of that aspect, and you hope they’ll be open to dealing with you after that last stunt you pulled with them... GM asks you to roll for their disposition. Here's to hoping it comes out well!
Playing Fate: Summary
RP Guidelines when using Fate:
- Play as you normally would. Let the rules inspire and guide your storytelling.
- Create a Character (define Approaches, Aspects, Stunts), and develop them via Milestones.
- Compel Aspects that you think would make for interesting complications to the scene.
- When appropriate, Roll Check (4dF + Approach bonus + Invoked Aspects bonuses + Stunt bonuses + Help bonuses) against a Target Difficulty or Roll, calculate the Shift between them, and resolve the Outcome based on the Action.
- Establish Facts related to your Aspects if you think it would be interesting to the scene.
- Keep track of your FP, Stress and Consequences.
GMing Fate
GMing Fate isn’t very different from GMing your regular ol’ RPG: you go back and forth with your players, updating them on the outcomes of their actions, setting up scenes, playing the world and NPCs, and driving the story forward. Because Fate works with Randomness and Reward mechanics, the Fate system does require you to put in a little bit of extra effort. These have to do with Scenario and Scene Setup, Opposition and Rewards. That said, the Fate system is very forgiving - if you forget something or do something not fully ‘according to the book’, the worst that can happen is that the story just continues.
Remember The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. This is true for the GM as well. Driving the story forward is the most important job of a GM, the rules are there to guide you and the players into interesting scenario’s. GMing is a balancing act between the ideas you have for the setting and what strange and wonderful trouble your players get themselves into. It is your job to give them enough setups, Compels and opposition to drive them to act in the main story, but also give them enough leeway that they aren’t railroaded onto GM’s one-man show (if that’s your thing, no judgment, just write a book). The Fate system focuses and scopes the game to the Facts and Aspects that are established, so a story can’t trivially become undone, but that doesn’t mean players have to go along with everything you set up! It’s almost as if they are real living, breathing people with their own ideas, in-character and out, in a living breathing world you all create together! Isn’t that the joy of RPing to begin with?
In general, when setting up a scenario for a story (whether that is the main story or a single player’s story), it is important to ask yourself what the main conflict is, and find out ways to work the players into this scenario: what’s in it for them? You might want to prompt your players to answer this during their character creation, or have them fit the main story’s pitched goal into their character motivation. Alternatively you can let yourself be inspired by the Aspects of the player characters, so the characters could be Compelled into action.
Note that these Scenario’s are only a starting point. After the setup you must make them into playable Scenes. When doing this, it is important to keep in mind what the goal of the scene is: what do the players have/want to accomplish in this scene? Why are they here? This way, you can make the scene focused, and you’ll know when it’s time to move on to the next scene. Typically, scenes and plot developments can be divided into two types:
When setting up scenes for Fate, narrate them as usual. If the scene or the story warrants it (ex. the players encounter or start non-trivial opposition, a challenge or puzzle they need to solve, they need to discover things in the environment, etc.), the GM may specify Aspects and stat out NPCs to the degree that it is necessary, split the scene into Zones, create Situational Aspects around the scene, etc. Again, remember the Invoke/Compel mechanics: look through your players’ Aspects and see if you can introduce elements that could make for nice Compels or Invokes. This way, you not only drive the story forward, but in a way that it becomes personal to them.
Note that generally, Aspects of characters or situations are available to all players. Sometimes, however, you might want to hide aspects from your players that they may have to find out by paying close attention or investigating the scene. The players will have to narrate this in any way that is appropriate (in opposition scenes, this usually means using the Create Advantage action on this existing but still-hidden Aspect). On Success, you reveal the Aspect. On a Tie, you reveal just enough for them to get an advantage out of it. Sometimes in these ‘investigation’ situations, you only want to hint at something that still gives an advantage to a player, but that doesn’t betray a plot twist (e.g. a “Secret Agent for the Rival Faction” may become known to the players as “Was Caught Making A Phone Call At A Strange Hour”). If unsure as to what Aspect you might give them, ask your players: what are you looking for? What is it that they are investigating about them? How are they checking them out? Then base the Aspect on that.
One final trick when it comes to playing a Scene (especially when it comes to dialogue, and letting the action flow without constantly having to go back and forth with players save for crucial moments), is to ask a player to take control of an NPC temporarily (or to let all players do so). You can give them Aspects of the NPC, and let them at it, basing their answers on the Aspects that you gave them. Maybe they won’t play the NPC exactly as you would’ve, and perhaps they’ll even create setups you didn’t see coming, that’s the surprising joy of RPing!
Remember The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. GM’s primary goal is to drive the story forward and to make sure each character can shine, not necessarily to lord over the rules like a tyrant. Know the rules, and make sure to explain them if your players are confused about something, but don’t let the story be dragged down by them. Indeed: one of the greatest skills a Fate GM can develop is to know when to stay out of the action’s way!
Not everything has to be decided by dice roll. It is OK to let the story develop. In general, whenever success or failure both could make for interesting story development, is when creating an opposition scene or a roll is warranted. You can even leave the choice of when to roll with the players! This is something you should check with the players, or even between the players (you could give one player more rolls than another, for example, or could agree that you as the GM will do all of the rolling on a players’ behalf). It can also be a good idea to give an 'Action budget' per post during an opposition scene so the players can do more without having to constantly go back and forth with each other or the GM. You could make Defend actions applicable by default (that way players won't have to reserve actions from their budget). Alternatively, you can make it so that Defend actions are like all other actions, in that they have to come out of this action budget, instead of applied by default to Attacks. This speeds up the scene and makes spending Actions more thoughtful (will you Defend against a strong Attack, or prioritize another action and take the hit).
The Fate system is flexible, so it can be totally up to you how to model the opposition. In general, opposition can be divided into 3 types:
Active Opposition in Fate is any kind of opposition that can make their own decisions. In the standard Fate system, initiative is decided from highest to lowest Approach ratings (Quick for physical confrontation, Careful for mental confrontations). I recommend that you change this to just ‘first come first serve’ when it comes to posting, unless players ask differently in OOC (e.g. due to tactical reasons). In the Fate system active opposition can be broadly divided into 3 types:
Note that you can decide to give players more freedom when it comes to certain NPCs, mooks and groups of mooks. You can make agreements per opposition scene on which NPCs will be important enough to be played by GM, and which are ‘free game’ and can be played and rolled for by players. Another way you can do this is to pre-roll some action checks for the NPCs, list this in an OOC post, and let the players choose how to fit it into their roleplaying.
One final thing to mention here is Fate’s Fractal Rule, which states that ANY world element can be given Aspects and stats, if warranted. This means that not just characters can be given a character sheet, but also vehicles (like starships or other important objects), factions, even nations.
Finally, stories are fun when there are ups and downs. Characters get into trouble, then they get out of it… or not… And the characters change and develop due to these. Fate has a reward mechanic that stimulates this: in general, a Fate Point is awarded to players when their characters get into trouble (through a self-compel), or when they admit Defeat (they don’t get what they want in a contest, or they concede a conflict). And sometimes, there are big events that happen in the story that trigger something in the characters, and that warrants reward. These are called Milestones, and these are points where players are Rewarded by gaining various benefits, and the choice to develop parts of their characters. It is recommended for GM to take these Milestones to also Refresh players’ Fate Points (though this can also be done at other times, at GM’s discretion). There are 3 types of milestones:
GM guidelines when using Fate:
Setting up Scenarios and Scenes
Remember The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. This is true for the GM as well. Driving the story forward is the most important job of a GM, the rules are there to guide you and the players into interesting scenario’s. GMing is a balancing act between the ideas you have for the setting and what strange and wonderful trouble your players get themselves into. It is your job to give them enough setups, Compels and opposition to drive them to act in the main story, but also give them enough leeway that they aren’t railroaded onto GM’s one-man show (if that’s your thing, no judgment, just write a book). The Fate system focuses and scopes the game to the Facts and Aspects that are established, so a story can’t trivially become undone, but that doesn’t mean players have to go along with everything you set up! It’s almost as if they are real living, breathing people with their own ideas, in-character and out, in a living breathing world you all create together! Isn’t that the joy of RPing to begin with?
In general, when setting up a scenario for a story (whether that is the main story or a single player’s story), it is important to ask yourself what the main conflict is, and find out ways to work the players into this scenario: what’s in it for them? You might want to prompt your players to answer this during their character creation, or have them fit the main story’s pitched goal into their character motivation. Alternatively you can let yourself be inspired by the Aspects of the player characters, so the characters could be Compelled into action.
Note that these Scenario’s are only a starting point. After the setup you must make them into playable Scenes. When doing this, it is important to keep in mind what the goal of the scene is: what do the players have/want to accomplish in this scene? Why are they here? This way, you can make the scene focused, and you’ll know when it’s time to move on to the next scene. Typically, scenes and plot developments can be divided into two types:
- GM-driven: the players react to the GM, and the GM is most involved in driving the story forward. Usually the beginnings of story arcs will be more GM-driven, as the game’s setting and conflict is set up through these scenes, as well as the conflict scenes where GM plays the opposition. It is important to be clear about these: what are the stakes, why should the characters care, why is it interesting, where could the players go with it or do about it?
- Player-driven: the players actively take part in charting their own course through the game world. They set their own goals, and work towards achieving them. If players constantly keep looking at GM for guidance, either you need to give your players clearer setups, or you can try prompting them directly: what are the character’s goals? What do they want to achieve with their actions? If players stay too long in the player-driven ‘mode’, then the story will not drive forward. Feel free to then simply drop a metaphorical bombshell on the players and force them into action (note how this can be done through Compels also - if you are not a fan of your players’ characters, you’re not throwing them the right kind of Compels and opposition they need to bounce off of!). Even in very free-form RPGs this GM-guidance can be handy: to simply ‘drop in’ new opportunities, events, threats, etc. that the players could (choose to) engage in.
When setting up scenes for Fate, narrate them as usual. If the scene or the story warrants it (ex. the players encounter or start non-trivial opposition, a challenge or puzzle they need to solve, they need to discover things in the environment, etc.), the GM may specify Aspects and stat out NPCs to the degree that it is necessary, split the scene into Zones, create Situational Aspects around the scene, etc. Again, remember the Invoke/Compel mechanics: look through your players’ Aspects and see if you can introduce elements that could make for nice Compels or Invokes. This way, you not only drive the story forward, but in a way that it becomes personal to them.
Note that generally, Aspects of characters or situations are available to all players. Sometimes, however, you might want to hide aspects from your players that they may have to find out by paying close attention or investigating the scene. The players will have to narrate this in any way that is appropriate (in opposition scenes, this usually means using the Create Advantage action on this existing but still-hidden Aspect). On Success, you reveal the Aspect. On a Tie, you reveal just enough for them to get an advantage out of it. Sometimes in these ‘investigation’ situations, you only want to hint at something that still gives an advantage to a player, but that doesn’t betray a plot twist (e.g. a “Secret Agent for the Rival Faction” may become known to the players as “Was Caught Making A Phone Call At A Strange Hour”). If unsure as to what Aspect you might give them, ask your players: what are you looking for? What is it that they are investigating about them? How are they checking them out? Then base the Aspect on that.
One final trick when it comes to playing a Scene (especially when it comes to dialogue, and letting the action flow without constantly having to go back and forth with players save for crucial moments), is to ask a player to take control of an NPC temporarily (or to let all players do so). You can give them Aspects of the NPC, and let them at it, basing their answers on the Aspects that you gave them. Maybe they won’t play the NPC exactly as you would’ve, and perhaps they’ll even create setups you didn’t see coming, that’s the surprising joy of RPing!
- The players have decided to investigate something strange going on in an Abandoned Factory. One of the players has the Aspect Androids killed my family. It may be a good idea to have the factory be guarded by Androids, to later Compel the player with.
- The players have decided to ambush some bandits trekking through the town together with the villagers. GM splits the surroundings up into Path through the Village, Forest, Lumberjack’s House, and creates the Situation Aspects of Cloudy Night, and Ready When You Are. That should give the players enough to play around with and create interesting scenarios and strategies.
- The players are in the middle of ambushing some bandits trekking through the town. One player asks if he can sneak up on the rooftops of the houses. What a great idea! GM creates an additional zone Rooftops, but does state that players will have to climb it using a Roll Check to get up there.
- The players are summoned for an audience with the Ambassador. GM wants to insert some intrigue, so he creates a ??? Aspect on him. During the scene, one of the players wishes to figure out what’s bothering her about the Ambassador and tries to discover the Aspect. GM asks her what she is looking out for, how and what she tries. The player narrates she tries to detect if there is any magic going on in the scene, being a Novice Mage. GM responds that the Ambassador shifts his attention fully to her, with a smile that seems to imply that he knows. Wait, is the Ambassador Secretly Proficient In Magic?
- The players are in conversation with the innkeep. GM doesn’t want to hold up the action, so he creates the aspects of I Keep My Best Stuff In The Back and Boy, Do I Have Some Juicy Rumors, and lets the players rip. What rumors will they come up with? Could make for nice ideas for follow-up scenes…
Opposition and Enemies
Remember The Golden Rule: Fiction First, Rules Second. GM’s primary goal is to drive the story forward and to make sure each character can shine, not necessarily to lord over the rules like a tyrant. Know the rules, and make sure to explain them if your players are confused about something, but don’t let the story be dragged down by them. Indeed: one of the greatest skills a Fate GM can develop is to know when to stay out of the action’s way!
Not everything has to be decided by dice roll. It is OK to let the story develop. In general, whenever success or failure both could make for interesting story development, is when creating an opposition scene or a roll is warranted. You can even leave the choice of when to roll with the players! This is something you should check with the players, or even between the players (you could give one player more rolls than another, for example, or could agree that you as the GM will do all of the rolling on a players’ behalf). It can also be a good idea to give an 'Action budget' per post during an opposition scene so the players can do more without having to constantly go back and forth with each other or the GM. You could make Defend actions applicable by default (that way players won't have to reserve actions from their budget). Alternatively, you can make it so that Defend actions are like all other actions, in that they have to come out of this action budget, instead of applied by default to Attacks. This speeds up the scene and makes spending Actions more thoughtful (will you Defend against a strong Attack, or prioritize another action and take the hit).
The Fate system is flexible, so it can be totally up to you how to model the opposition. In general, opposition can be divided into 3 types:
- Challenge: players meet passive opposition, in which case GM sets one or more Target Difficulties. Standard target difficulties are: 0 for Easy tasks, 2 for Difficult tasks, 4 for Extremely Difficult tasks, and even higher for Impossible tasks (consult the Ladder, the players will have to get very good rolls, and probably apply multiple Aspects, Stunts and Help to bring the task to completion, but for some tasks that just fits).
- Conflict: players meet active opposition (i.e. the opposition can act and make decisions on its own), GM or the Player rolls for opposing Actions. Importantly, a conflict is one that directly endangers the player’s wellbeing (whether that be physical health, mental willpower, social standing, or anything else that can impact the player such that they can create lasting consequences).
- Contest: same as Conflict, but with a goal other than applying Stress/Consequences (though similar mechanics can be used to model it, but only while the contest lasts).
- All can be Timed (must be dealt with in a set amount of rounds).
- All can be a Series of Exchanges/Stages, even with different goals.
- These can also be Combined, where one ‘side’ (ex. players) have to do a Challenge, and the other (ex. enemies) tries to apply Stress to them (so: are in Conflict). Alternatively, a Series could have one ‘stage’ be a Challenge, whereas the second ‘stage’ could be a Conflict.
- Challenge: the rogue having to climb over a wall or be caught by the authorities (target difficulty 1); the thief who has to pick the lock to the door (target difficulty 2) or find another way in; the mage who has to decipher parts of a mural’s script based on what little of the ancient language she knows (target difficulty 3); the hacker having to gain access to a network (target difficulty 4), Repairing a damaged airship before it crashes into a mountain (target difficulty 6).
- Conflict: confronting a gang of bandits occupying the village tavern (potential consequences: physical harm); two rival guild factions clash in a heated debate (potential consequences: harm to reputation); a mental battle between psychonauts (potential consequences: mental/emotional issues).
- Contest: a race across a dangerous desert; a cooking contest; an archery tournament.
- Timed Challenge: defusing a bomb that will detonate in ten… nine… eight… (2 rounds); rescuing bystanders from a flaming building before it crumbles (3 rounds); escaping from a sinking ship (4 rounds, divide into zones with obstacle Aspects or ‘costs’).
- Series: a multi-stage race over various kinds of terrain (where each sub-landscape gets its own contest), a multi-stage ‘boss fight’ (where each stage is their own conflict OR challenge)
- Challenge/Conflict Combination: evacuating civilians from a burning city (Challenge) while being pelted by the enemy’s fire arrows (Conflict); deciphering an incantation to exorcise a room (Challenge) while being plagued by the invulnerable ghosts and poltergeists (Conflict).
Active Opposition in Fate is any kind of opposition that can make their own decisions. In the standard Fate system, initiative is decided from highest to lowest Approach ratings (Quick for physical confrontation, Careful for mental confrontations). I recommend that you change this to just ‘first come first serve’ when it comes to posting, unless players ask differently in OOC (e.g. due to tactical reasons). In the Fate system active opposition can be broadly divided into 3 types:
- NPC: a more fully defined character. Can be given a Character Sheet if warranted. In general, it is not necessary to Aspect and Stat each NPC you encounter, but only to the degree that is useful to the story. Are they important NPCs? Give them a couple Aspects. Are they going to be a boss fight character? Make them a more powerful Mook (see below) with some more Stress Boxes and/or Consequence slots than the usual Mook. Are they going to practically be a player character? Only then create a full character sheet for them.
- Mook: a character or enemy type that only has a few Aspects, a few things they are Good at (for which they get +2 bonus), and Bad at (for which they get -2 on rolls), and how much Stress boxes they get (or none, in which case any damage takes them out), and how much Consequence slots they get (usually none, unless it is a particularly strong Mook/’Boss’).
- Group of Mooks: treat groups of enemies as one group as much as possible, unless the story warrants splitting them up. They are treated like Mooks as much as possible, with the exception that they get more Stress Boxes (usually 1 per 2 individuals in the group, but this is to the GM’s discretion). This also makes ‘reinforcements’ or ‘second waves’ more easy to model in Fate: just add more or recover already ticked Stress Boxes.
Note that you can decide to give players more freedom when it comes to certain NPCs, mooks and groups of mooks. You can make agreements per opposition scene on which NPCs will be important enough to be played by GM, and which are ‘free game’ and can be played and rolled for by players. Another way you can do this is to pre-roll some action checks for the NPCs, list this in an OOC post, and let the players choose how to fit it into their roleplaying.
One final thing to mention here is Fate’s Fractal Rule, which states that ANY world element can be given Aspects and stats, if warranted. This means that not just characters can be given a character sheet, but also vehicles (like starships or other important objects), factions, even nations.
- NPC: See the Holo San character example from earlier.
- NPC (fractal rule example): The Nation of Bakonia. Aspects: “Nation of Windmills and Wheat”, “Shortage of Workers After The War”, “Our Queen is the Best Ever!”. Approaches: Industry (3), Military (2), Culture (2), Research (1), Politics (1), Espionage (0).
- NPC (fractal rule example): The Centurion. Aspects: High Concept: “Good Ol’ Cargo Ship”, Trouble: “Breaks Down At The Most Inappropriate Times”. Extra: “Many Modifications”. Approaches: Quick (3), Sneaky (2), Forceful (2), Flashy (1), Clever (1), Careful (0). Stunts: "Because I have a Boosted Engine, I can gain a +2 on Quickly Defending when fleeing from opponents.". Stress Boxes: 1-2-3. Consequence Slots: Mild (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6).
- Mook (weak): Giant Insect. Aspects: “Flying Stingers”. Good at (+2): Flying, Stinging. Bad at (-2): Everything Else. Stress Boxes: 0 (first hit takes them out).
- Mook (average): Grunt. Aspects: “Hrrmph!”. Good at (+2): Hitting you with a club. Bad at (-2): Thinking ahead in steps other than ‘bonk’. Stress Boxes: 1.
- Mook (strong, mini-boss): Elite Hunter. Aspects: “I Only Hunt The Most Dangerous Of Prey”, “I Am The Night”, Good at (+2): Ranged Attacks, Hiding. Bad at (-2): Forceful Defends. Stress Boxes: 1-2. Consequence slots: Mild (2).
- Mook (fractal rule example): Magical Fire Out Of Control. Aspects: “Raging Magical Fire”. Good at (+2): Burning. Bad at (-2): Being Clever. Stress Boxes: 1-2.
- Group of Mooks: Grunt Batallion. See Grunt above. Stress Boxes: 1-2-3.
- Group of Mooks: SIE Fighter Wing. Aspects: “Guns with Engines”, “Black Wing Reporting In!”. Good at (+2): Quick maneuvering, Teamwork. Bad at (-2): Penetrating Shields. Stress Boxes: 1-2. Consequence slots: Mild (2).
Rewarding Players
Finally, stories are fun when there are ups and downs. Characters get into trouble, then they get out of it… or not… And the characters change and develop due to these. Fate has a reward mechanic that stimulates this: in general, a Fate Point is awarded to players when their characters get into trouble (through a self-compel), or when they admit Defeat (they don’t get what they want in a contest, or they concede a conflict). And sometimes, there are big events that happen in the story that trigger something in the characters, and that warrants reward. These are called Milestones, and these are points where players are Rewarded by gaining various benefits, and the choice to develop parts of their characters. It is recommended for GM to take these Milestones to also Refresh players’ Fate Points (though this can also be done at other times, at GM’s discretion). There are 3 types of milestones:
- Minor: you can issue these after small but significant enough plot events; player may choose to: rename a character Aspect (NOT their High Concept) OR switch 2 Approach ratings OR replace a Stunt OR get a new Stunt. All of these represent a change in their character and their skills because of the event.
- Significant: you can issue these after bigger significant plot events; gain one minor milestone bonus AND raise 1 Approach bonus AND clear a Severe Consequence. This represents how the event has caused the character to grow.
- Major: after a big story arc; gain significant milestone AND increase your Refresh (if wanted, you can use it to get a new Stunt) AND rename High Concept (optional). This represents how big changes can have a truly big impact on the very essence of a character.
- Refresh Point Example: just before the players ambush the bandits coming through town, they decide on a good night’s sleep. They awaken feeling refreshed. (Note: I wouldn’t make sleep or rest a default refresh point. Rather, I would try to find a ‘silence before the storm’ or ‘cliffhanger’ moment and use this as a Refresh point, though this is at GM’s discretion - perhaps you want to keep up the tension, and therefore choose not Refresh).
- Minor Example: After interrogating a bandit to find out about their raid, GM announced a minor milestone. As the Mage character seems to focus more on illusions and deception than outright fireblasting recently, she decides to swap her Forceful (previously 2, now 1) and Sneaky (previously 1, now 2) bonuses. Speaking of which… The Fighter character has grown suspicious of her, with all that psychic prying. He changes his Relationship Aspect I Must Protect The Mage to Can I trust the Mage?.
- Significant Example: After managing to overthrow the Android Factory, GM calls for a Significant Milestone. The Hacker character has grown to get better at his craft in Careful ways, and he decides to grow it to Great (+4). Furthermore, he notices his Debilitating Trauma Flashback Severe Consequence has healed after burning the factory to the ground. He notices this act has given him a lots of satisfaction both in-character and OOC RP-wise, and so he decides to continue the trend and as a minor bonus, changes his My Family was Killed by Androids Aspect to I WILL Avenge My Family.
- Major Example: After rescuing the princess and helping to destroy the Moon’s Atomic Blaster, GM calls for a Major Milestone. Holo San is rewarded for her service by the Princess. After taking all significant and one of the minor bonuses, she decides to join the Uprising. Hottest smuggler in the galaxy? How about Hottest Captain in the galaxy?
GMing Fate: Summary
GM guidelines when using Fate:
- GM as you normally would. Let the rules inspire and guide your storytelling.
- Craft Scenarios and Scenes with interesting goals that can connect with players’ Aspects.
- Compel Aspects that you think would make for interesting complications to the scene.
- Whenever it would be interesting, set Target Difficulties for Passive Opposition, and Roll Checks for Active Opposition.
- Define and/or stat Situational Aspects, NPCs, Mooks, Group of Mooks, and other World-Elements where applicable.
- Define points in the game where players’ FP are Refreshed, and where Milestones are reached.
- Make agreements on:
- Compels (IC/OOC, >0FP, player-specific/all-aboard), and
- Roll Checks (amount preferences, who does them, how many actions per post, pre-rolls).
- Keep the story in-scope, while keeping as much initiative with the players as possible.
Resources
See below for some resources that you can use for your game, including character sheet template, post template, OOC scene summary template, and world update template. I’ve made them as minimal as possible to be usable with the Fate system. Feel free to modify these as you wish (e.g. you might wish to do all rolling in OOC instead of IC).
... ROLEPLAY AND UPDATE PLAYERS AS USUAL (don’t forget to remove the ‘dot’ in the [.hr] in the template) ...
@MrSkimobile ...IC Roleplay specific for player...
Actions:
[header with the character name, colored by IC speech color - check if it is legible and different from other players'!]
[optional image representing the character - if possible, credit the source]
Name: character name, colored by the speech color you'll use in-character
Gender: M/F/W
Refresh: how much Fate Points this character starts with each chapter, usually 3
Description: a few-paragraph summary of the character, including appearance, personality, skills and history
Approaches: how does this character approach challenges: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky?
Aspects: 5 short-and-sweet descriptions of the character, 1 for each of the following categories. Each aspects has to be one single meaningful and descriptive fact/aspect about the character. These can be invoked in-game for 1 Fate Point to get bonuses on rolls, or can be used to compel you into action, so make sure to think about how you want to actually play this character. Any flavoring, details and interesting or fun facts about the character are better put in the description, writing sample, and the trivia sections.
Stunts: special abilities/traits/items the character can use for 1 Fate Point
Trivia: miscellaneous information that's nice to know about the character, but not necessarily essential for gameplay
Writing Sample: 2-3 paragraphs of IC writing illustrating this character (for example their life, mindset, potential storylines and themes).
[optional image representing the character - if possible, credit the source]
Name: character name, colored by the speech color you'll use in-character
Gender: M/F/W
Refresh: how much Fate Points this character starts with each chapter, usually 3
Description: a few-paragraph summary of the character, including appearance, personality, skills and history
Approaches: how does this character approach challenges: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, Sneaky?
- Good (+3) at: pick 1 approach
- Fair (+2) at: pick 2 approaches
- Average (+1) at: pick 2 approaches
- Mediocre (+0) at: pick 1 approach
Aspects: 5 short-and-sweet descriptions of the character, 1 for each of the following categories. Each aspects has to be one single meaningful and descriptive fact/aspect about the character. These can be invoked in-game for 1 Fate Point to get bonuses on rolls, or can be used to compel you into action, so make sure to think about how you want to actually play this character. Any flavoring, details and interesting or fun facts about the character are better put in the description, writing sample, and the trivia sections.
- High Concept: short phrase summarizing your character as a whole
- Trouble: short phrase summarizing a flaw or obstacle that gets this character in frequent trouble
- Want: short phrase summarizing what this character wants, or what's really important to them
- Relationship: short phrase summarizing their relationship with another (preferably player) character
- Extra: short phrase summarizing any other thing you think is important to know about this character
Stunts: special abilities/traits/items the character can use for 1 Fate Point
- Because I am/have/know trait/item/ability, I can create an effect/get a bonus when some in-game condition is met.
- add more, up to 3-5 in total; try to vary them, some utility, some combat, some trivial, some 'ultimates'. Ask GM for help if needed.
- if you want MORE than 3, up to a max. of 5 stunts, your Refresh will be decreased by 1 for every stunt over 3 as a trade-off. That means each chapter you'd start with LESS Fate Points, and therefore would be able to USE your Stunts/Aspects less often out of the gate!
- Making Stunts is often the most difficult thing to get right on the first go. SO ASK GM IF YOU'D LIKE HELP!
Trivia: miscellaneous information that's nice to know about the character, but not necessarily essential for gameplay
- Possibilities: Face claim, speech code, important NPC connections, miscellaneous trivia that you'd like to note.
Writing Sample: 2-3 paragraphs of IC writing illustrating this character (for example their life, mindset, potential storylines and themes).
[hider=CHARACTER_NAME]
[center][h1][color=]CHARACTER_NAME[/color][/h1]
[img][/img]
[sup](image source: [url=]... by ... on ...[/url])[/sup][/center]
[b]Name[/b]: [color=][b]CHARACTER_NAME[/b][/color]
[b]Gender[/b]:
[b]Refresh[/b]:
[b]Description[/b]:
[b]Approaches[/b]:
[list][*] [b]Good (+3) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Fair (+2) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Average (+1) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Mediocre (+0) at[/b]:
[/list]
[b]Aspects[/b]:
[list]
[*] [b]High Concept[/b]:
[*] [b]Trouble[/b]:
[*] [b]Want[/b]:
[*] [b]Relationship[/b]:
[*] [b]Extra[/b]:
[/list]
[b]Stunts[/b]:
[list]
[*]
[/list]
[b]Trivia[/b]:
[list]
[*]
[/list]
[b]Writing Sample[/b]:
[/hider]
[center][h1][color=]CHARACTER_NAME[/color][/h1]
[img][/img]
[sup](image source: [url=]... by ... on ...[/url])[/sup][/center]
[b]Name[/b]: [color=][b]CHARACTER_NAME[/b][/color]
[b]Gender[/b]:
[b]Refresh[/b]:
[b]Description[/b]:
[b]Approaches[/b]:
[list][*] [b]Good (+3) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Fair (+2) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Average (+1) at[/b]:
[*] [b]Mediocre (+0) at[/b]:
[/list]
[b]Aspects[/b]:
[list]
[*] [b]High Concept[/b]:
[*] [b]Trouble[/b]:
[*] [b]Want[/b]:
[*] [b]Relationship[/b]:
[*] [b]Extra[/b]:
[/list]
[b]Stunts[/b]:
[list]
[*]
[/list]
[b]Trivia[/b]:
[list]
[*]
[/list]
[b]Writing Sample[/b]:
[/hider]
... TITLE AND ROLEPLAY AS USUAL (don’t forget to remove the ‘dot’ in the [.hr] in the template) ...
Actions: actions plus rolls ex. Attack Forcefully + Invoke (1+2+2 = 5) | FP: FP cost of the action, ex. -1 | Stress: if any stress boxes have to be ticked, ex. tick 1 | Consequences: if any consequences are taken, ex. Concussion (2)
Tag: player tags, ex. @MrSkimobile
Actions: actions plus rolls ex. Attack Forcefully + Invoke (1+2+2 = 5) | FP: FP cost of the action, ex. -1 | Stress: if any stress boxes have to be ticked, ex. tick 1 | Consequences: if any consequences are taken, ex. Concussion (2)
Tag: player tags, ex. @MrSkimobile
[.hr][b]Action[/b]: | [b]FP[/b]: | [b]Stress[/b]: | [b]Consequences[/b]:
[b]Tag[/b]:
[b]Tag[/b]:
SCENE_NAME
... ROLEPLAY AND UPDATE PLAYERS AS USUAL (don’t forget to remove the ‘dot’ in the [.hr] in the template) ...
@MrSkimobile ...IC Roleplay specific for player...
Actions:
- NPC1: Action: | FP: | Stress: | Consequences:
- @MrSkimobile: misc. OOC prompts to player, ex. compel, request for fact establishment, etc.
[center][h3]SCENE_NAME[/h3][/center][.hr]
[.hr][b]Actions[/b]:[list]
[*] [b]NPC1[/b]: [b]Action[/b]: | [b]FP[/b]: | [b]Stress[/b]: | [b]Consequences[/b]:
[/list][b]Tag[/b]: [list]
[*] [@]
[/list]
[.hr][b]Actions[/b]:[list]
[*] [b]NPC1[/b]: [b]Action[/b]: | [b]FP[/b]: | [b]Stress[/b]: | [b]Consequences[/b]:
[/list][b]Tag[/b]: [list]
[*] [@]
[/list]
Current Scene: url and name of the scene, location/datetime, whatever.
Type: Normal/Conflict/Challenge/Contest
GM FP: GM's usable FP pool, ex. 3
Players:
Zones: Zone 1, Zone 2
Type: Normal/Conflict/Challenge/Contest
GM FP: GM's usable FP pool, ex. 3
Players:
- Character X1 (Player X2): FP: player's FP, ex. 3. Stress Boxes: available stress boxes, ex. 1-2-3. Consequences: currently active/unfilled consequences, ex. Concussion (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6).
- NPC Y: Aspect 1 (Free Invokes: 2)
Zones: Zone 1, Zone 2
[b]Current Scene[/b]: [url=][/url]
[b]Type[/b]:
[b]GM FP[/b]:
[b]Players[/b]:[list]
[*][b][url=][color=]Character X1 (Player X2)[/color][/url][/b]: [b]FP[/b]: 3. [b]Stress Boxes[/b]: 1-2-3. [b]Consequences[/b]: Mild (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6).
[/list][b]NPCs[/b]:[list]
[*] [b]NPC Y[/b]: Aspect 1 (Free Invokes: 2)
[/list][b]Scene Aspects[/b]: Scene Aspect 1, Scene Aspect 2 (Free Invokes: 1), Boost
[b]Zones[/b]: Zone 1, Zone 2
[b]Type[/b]:
[b]GM FP[/b]:
[b]Players[/b]:[list]
[*][b][url=][color=]Character X1 (Player X2)[/color][/url][/b]: [b]FP[/b]: 3. [b]Stress Boxes[/b]: 1-2-3. [b]Consequences[/b]: Mild (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6).
[/list][b]NPCs[/b]:[list]
[*] [b]NPC Y[/b]: Aspect 1 (Free Invokes: 2)
[/list][b]Scene Aspects[/b]: Scene Aspect 1, Scene Aspect 2 (Free Invokes: 1), Boost
[b]Zones[/b]: Zone 1, Zone 2
Acknowledgements
For further resources on the Fate System:
For examples of (tabletop) Fate in-play:
This guide was made using inspiration from the following articles and RPGs on this site:
- Evil Hat Productions
- Fate: Accelerated - System Reference Document
- FAE Quick Reference, on D20
- I created a minimalist Fate Accelerated "Table" or playing area in Google Docs. Feel free to use it or give me recommendations to make it better., by smatpith on Reddit: used as a basis for the reference cheatsheet in this article.
- Fate Dice, by Matita on Github
For examples of (tabletop) Fate in-play:
- Fate Core Pregens: The Avengers, by Ryan M Danks, on Wordpress: Fate Character Sheet examples (Marvel's Avengers).
- Avengers Accelerated: The Invasion Begins (part 1/5), by Station53 on Blogspot: Fate gameplay example (Marvel's Avengers).
- RollPlay - Nebula Jazz, by itmeJP, on YouTube
- FATE Accelerated ACTUAL PLAY (Part 1/3), by Games and Play All Night And Day, on YouTube
This guide was made using inspiration from the following articles and RPGs on this site:
- GMing 201 - Randomization, World Narratives, & LLA, by Lady Absinthia.: inspired my version of the World Update.
- Collab for total Scrubs - A guide on collabs for the rest of us, by BrokenPromise: inspired me on how to handle PC-to-PC opposition / drama scenes.
- Avonshire, a D&D-based adventure, by Sigil: inspired me in its application of DND rules, and its player status template.
- Avengers Academy, by Morose and BlueSky44: inspired me in its application of the Relations Chart, the Activities/Gossip/News in World Updates, and how it could prompt players in adding to the story and setting.