Snorlax the Bearded is not to be trusted.
Warning: The following post contains near-constant references to role-playing games. If your life is so distant from joy and happiness that you have never played such a game, you may be confused. Read it anyway though.
Greetings Beardegains! Today’s thrilling blog post is written to inform you of perhaps the best, and definitely my favorite, generic toolbox role-playing game system currently being written and played. The game is FATE and, in addition to the free version of the game, there are a variety of variations on the basic mechanics. In this entry I will introduce you to the basic ideas of FATE that I personally find exciting and then briefly discuss some of the improvements made to it by the very popular RPG, Spirit of the Century.
I’ll be straight up with you – I’m not doing this for no reason (translator’s note: I’m doing this for a reason). I want you to read this and go play FATE or FATE based games for two very important reasons: 1.) it’s a great game that will probably improve your RPG life (or be a great introduction to it), and 2.) we plan on releasing games in the near and distant future based on the FATE engine. In fact, I plan on using this introduction to FATE as a spring board to discuss my personal take on playing FATE as a fantasy game (because even though Legends of Anglerre does it, I really want to see the fantasy RPG tropes of races, classes, and levels played out to their full extent).
What’s Great About FATE?
Good question! The answer is, “quite a lot.” Perhaps the most important, and definitely the one bit of great that was most instantly attractive to me, is Aspects. Aspects are a short phrase, from 1 to 5 words or so, that describe an element (or aspect) of your character. Aspects interact with a pool of something called (appropriately enough) Fate points. When you choose to get the benefit of an Aspect, you spend/lose a Fate point. When one of your Fate points gets you into trouble, you gain a Fate point.
Let’s say, for example, you want to play a dwarf who has always has a light hangover and ale from the previous night in his beard. You could take the Aspect, “Heavy Drinker” and this could come up in the game in a variety of ways. Perhaps as you play your dwarf is poisoned by a powerful sleep potion you might suggest to your GM, “Ah, but you see Snorlax the Bearded has the Aspect, ‘Heavy Drinker’…surely he can shake off some cheap sod’s knock-off sleeping potion.” If your GM agrees Heavy Drinker is applicable then you spend a Fate point and get a benefit (which can come in a variety of ways) to resisting the effects of the sleep potion. On the other side of that if Snorlax the Bearded happens to find himself in a tavern, the GM may look sideways across the table at you in the sly way GMs do and say, “Snorlax the Bearded feels rather parched…he feels the urge to order a drink or 8.” The GM then bribes you with a Fate point which you can either take it (which you should because the antics Snorlax gets into for drinking when he’s supposed to be protecting the duke’s daughter is sure to get him into some excellent trouble) or reject it (which means you don’t get the Fate point or the whatever possible storyline that comes from the trouble you avoided).
What makes the Aspects element of the game so strong is that the game is mechanically simple enough that these become a driving force of game play which really bring the unique qualities of the characters into the forefront in every game. Although the FATE system has a variety of other strengths I am going to leave for further discussion at another time (or for post replies). Instead let’s jump into how one variation on FATE has taken the basic FATE system and improved it.
Variations on FATE
Spirit of the Century was the first FATE game I ever purchased and played. It’s a truly fantastic game (I think it advertises itself as a “pick up and play game” that’s good for one shots but once you make up characters, I’ve found, you want to keep coming back to them as often as possible) that has a couple of noteworthy additions to the FATE system: the character creation structure and Stunts. I’ll go in reverse order because, even though Stunts are great, they don’t melt my heart the way Spirit of the Century character creation does.
What Stunts do to the FATE system is add a level of mechanical complexity that helps distinguish one character from another beyond just comparative stat and skill ratings and their Aspects. While on the one hand this is regrettable, because I really enjoy the elegant simplicity of FATE, on the other hand it provides a fun mini-game for players who prefer that extra level of mechanical complexity to their games. I think FATE is great and works fine without Stunts, I’ll be clear, but with Stunts in the mix I think the game has a lot to offer people with a wide range of tastes in mechanics.
Character creation is really the part of Spirit of the Century that I’m totally in love with. The book spells out that everybody who is playing the game should be together when they make characters and the reason why quickly becomes obvious. Character creation takes place in 5 narrative phases where players describe eras of their characters’ lives. The third phase of character creation is when you title the pulp novel your character first appeared in (ex. Dave Dare and the Nefarious Twinston Churchill – not a typo, a clone of Winston) and the last two phases are you participating in other character’s novels. What’s great about this method is that the characters involved in the game begin play with a pretty involved and interesting narrative about how they all know each other. Running games where the heroes are all long time friends right from the start is a great way to get straight into the action.
Beyond Spirit of the Century there are a variety of other excellent games based on FATE such as Diaspora (which has a really, really neat campaign creation method where during the first gaming session you create the network of solar systems in which the game will take place) and Legends of Anglerre (one take on bringing FATE into the realm of classic fantasy settings). There are many more beyond even the ones I mentioned and I highly recommend if you are interested at all in RPGs you look into getting your hands on a FATE game in whatever setting/genre you prefer.
Give a Man a Boat
So now that you know about FATE you should rush out and read more. You can check out more about the in-development FATE 3.0 SRD or the completed Spirit of the Century SRD. Both of these SRDs are complete games so you can literally play these games from the free information provided there if you so choose. In addition you may want to check out Evil Hat Productions homepage for more information on all the different FATE games out there. I sincerely hope you enjoyed your (ever so brief) introduction to FATE!
- Chuffington Beardsworth
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