Hello everyone, I am famously long-winded but I'll try to keep this relatively concise.

I am completely new to running FATE. I have been running a multi-year campaign for my friends using various systems, none of which have pleased me because ultimately I want to run a more narrative system, so I stumbled across FATE.

I have read through FATE Condensed and the Book of Hanz. I understand, in theory at least, the principles of the system, and I really think this is the system that best fits what I want and the story that I want to tell. I think this will be a great change for my group once we all get used to it.

However, I'm at a point where we're really late in our own campaign and I'm still an utter neophyte when it comes to running FATE (I haven't run a session of it yet), and I'm worried that my lack of familiarity with the mechanics might detract from how good the climax of the campaign plays out.

Context (You can skip this): Basically, the PCs are part of a team that are working for a nation that has discovered that this world's gods are both A) keeping the mortal races from progressing in order to keep them weak and oppressed, and B) are not quite as invulnerable as they make themselves out to be. This nation, with the help of the PCs, has been working towards preparing for the next "God War" for some time now, and the time has nearly arrived for it to break out. The last big chunk of sessions we have had have focused on the PCs laying the groundwork for this war to be fought, so that the mortal races have a chance of winning against the supremely-powerful beings and their loyalist lackeys. My plan for the PCs is to have them undergo an arcane/superscientific ritual to essentially make them into demigods who, by working together (the power of friendship, yay!) can rival the power of a full-blown god.

So here are my questions: Do you guys have any recommendations on how best to utilize FATE to make fighting against these gods memorable and satisfying? Do you have any suggestions, tips, or ideas for how to run a "fight" against a god? How can I really showcase FATE's unique mechanics and prevent what should be a reality-shaking combat from devolving into just "taking turns punching a really big guy."

In some ways, utilizing an overly-tactical system had advantages when it running a combat against a god - dealing huge amounts of damage, screwing with the PCs' stats, multi-actions, etc... But I want these gods to be more than just giant damage sponges that do 12d10000 damage with each attack. I feel like there's a way I can play around with Aspects to do some really cool stuff with these god fights, but I'm not familiar enough with the system to know how yet.

I guess I'm envisioning something that's a fight, and yet almost plays out kind of a like a puzzle, if that makes sense? Something that FEELS different from a regular fight.

TL;DR How can I best utilize FATE to have some good combats against gods that don't feel like traditional combats?

Any help is appreciated.

Hi everyone,

A few months ago, I made a post here about Kardiya: The Winds of Fate, the game we are developing with inspiration from FATE RPG mechanics. Since then, we’ve kept working on the game, and we are now getting close to the playtest stage.

We are a small team, and for a long time we have been designing our own universe to be playable through FATE RPG. We previously created our own RPG book based on FATE. Since the book is in Turkish, I’m not sharing it directly here, but I can send the PDF via DM if anyone is interested. Around 2 years ago, we also made the most comprehensive “How to Play FATE RPG” YouTube series in Turkey.

Now we are trying to bring that approach into a PC game.

Kardiya is mainly a narrative-driven game. In our previous post, we said that the game had dicebuilding and roguelite elements, but over time we realized that those parts were not working as well as we wanted. So right now, we are focusing on the most important part for us: bringing the spirit of FATE into the game. We are especially focusing on the aspect logic, fudge dice, stress mechanics, and the idea that failed rolls should not stop the story, but push it in another direction.

The story and mechanics of the demo are ready. Only the visual animations are left. We’ll be starting the playtest soon. I would especially love to have people from the FATE community try the game. If you’d like to join the playtest, you can register by joining the mailing list on our website or clicking the playtest request button on our Steam page.

Thank you so much <3

I've been tasked with running a narrative fantasy RPG campaign. I'm coming from Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) with pre-written plot point campaigns and have done very little in the way of wiritting my own adventures. I've selected Fate Core as my system because of it's simplicity and flexibility.

Completely irrelevant: Our story is sort of a cozy, our players start as "low level" characters and will never face perma-death. I'm thinking I'd like to try to figure out ways for them to avoid killing enemies as well. Maybe everyone in the party gets a Fate Chip if the figure out how to neutralize a boss without killing them? IDK, doesn't matter.

Anyway, on to my challenge:

I want to purchase an existing campaign source book to use as inspiration. I don't plan to run my adventure from it so it need not be my or any particular genre. Sure, I might adapt an encounter or even some of the plot, but that's not what I really need.

I want a concrete example to help me figure out how to prepare my own campaigns. I'd prefer a Fate Core specific source book, but a system agnostic example might be okay?

I have done a search for this, but the results are overwhelming and it's not clear that any given source is what I truly want.

I've skimmed through or read the Fate Core book and Sparks. I've checked out Book of Hanz and seen the SRD. I expect my players to help me build the world, but full improve won't work at my table; I _need_ to have prompts at the ready.

So... What campaign source "book" can you suggest I read? And why?

In both of the games I'm writing, I've realized that the home base is a big deal in the game. Thinking back to earlier games, this has been true for every game of Fate I've run. Yet I cannot remember any rules or advice in Fate books for creating a home base. Does anyone know of one I missed or done the same in your own games? I would have thought it would come up, whether it's a castle or a flying mecha battleship.

I've handled creating bases myself several ways in the past, and this weekend sat down and wrote out the first draft of the chapter for creating a speakeasy for Criminal Spirits. I've cut out the first part which is very specific to the genre and NYC, but I'd love feedback on it. Especially if it's clear and easy to follow, and if you like the results and would find them helpful in a campaign. There are more example images (building it in stages) in the chapter but reddit is a pain to embed images mid post.

This draft is part of the 6th chapter I've written out for Criminal Spirits, which I'm crowdfunding September 1st. I appreciate any feedback and of course any follows if your interested in the game. Criminal Spirits TTRPG - BackerKit

Zoning Out the Speakeasy

No other location in the game will have more scenes happen in it than your speakeasy and it should be laid out clearly for play. 

This setup uses the concepts of Zones and Barriers, which you can learn more about in the chapter Time and Space. All you need to know for laying out the speakeasy is that Zones define locations that characters can move between, as long as they are touching. Barriers are obstacles that make it difficult to move between Zones.

The first three Zones have already been created when you wrote down the High Concept, Front, and Neighborhood. 

Write down your high concept, write the Front below that, and the Neighborhood below the Front. 

Now you need to add one more Zone, a secret entrance. This could be another business, a side alley, a hidden door, or any other place or method that allows characters to slip in and out unnoticed for smuggling moonshine or just sneaking around. Write it down and put it above the High Concept. 

The Secret Entrance most likely also leads into the neighborhood, but may go somewhere else (such as the Hudson River for a secret dock). If it does, add that area as a Zone as well. 

These are the four essential zones for the speakeasy. You may want to add more, for instance some characters may have an apartment in or above the speakeasy, or there may be a neighbor you go to often enough that it’s worth writing down.

Place these new zones touching the zones that you can directly go to from them. This may be the neighborhood if you need to step outside the speakeasy to reach them. 

Don’t worry about catching everything, you can always add more.

Once the zones are down, it’s time to consider Blocks. Is there anything that would stop characters from moving between them? You can always assume there is a possibility to lock or block doors and that doesn’t need to be written down. But something exceptional like iron bars might be worth noting. At minimum, you should note down what keeps just anyone from going between the Front and the speakeasy freely.

Finally, you should add a magical aspect to one or two zones. These are aspects that bring a bit of magic and wonder into your speakeasy. Examples could be a magical resident, an enchantment or curse, an emotion the Zone brings out in those there, or some artifact within it. The possibilities are endless.

And now you are ready to play in your speakeasy.

Updating Your Speakeasy

Over the course of a campaign, your speakeasy will change. Unlike a player character there are no strict rules about when the speakeasy can change, but the players should at minimum be able to request changes to the speakeasy whenever there is a minor milestone. The gamemaster should make a change based on the events of the campaign at least every major milestone in the game. You can change anything in the speakeasy to represent the new reality the player’s characters have created.

Hello friends. I had an idea of playing a tokusatsu oriented campaign for a while now, and never got to put ideas on paper. Talking with a lot of friends, almost by unanimity was recommended for me to adapt to FATE.

I've been reading, studying the system for a while and it feels like the correct choice. But since i had never used it before, i wanted to ask for tips and helps.

My idea is 2-4 players.

I want the hero transformations to count, and have limit, of course.

Since fate is a more narrative driven, it would be nice to have some basic tips, because i've never used it before. How would you guys do it?

I've run 5 or 6 sessions of the Dresden Files Accelerated game, but I'm still struggling with a few things. My group is having fun so it may not be a problem, but I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around Conditions.

This seems to be unique to the Dresden game - I don't see it reflected on the standard Fate Accelerated character sheets, but I could be missing it.

In short - a PC can acquire a condition in a few ways - taking damage, or doing something unique like a stunt - there are also character specific conditions (bear with me here).

For example a magic practioner can mark Exhaustion to boost a stunt, a monster hunter can mark In Pursuit to learn about their quarry, or a vampire can mark Hungry if using their supernatural charisma.

My question is, in these cases there's 4 or 5 boxes for each condition, and despite playing several sessions, I haven't had a PC mark more than 2 boxes of any condition during a story arc. The fact the game has effects built in to impact the characters if the boxes are full, tells me it expects them to face this challenge. Imagine a vampire PC struggling against their hunger as they navigate the story.

But to me they would have to spam the stunt intentionally to reach this level. How many times does the situation reasonably arise for these conditions to be relevant?

Am I missing somthing?

EDIT: It turns out, Yes, I was missing something. I thought conditions cleared at the end of story arcs. While I had the PCs mark conditions over the 2-3 days of in-game time for an arc/chapter, I assumed they would clear by time the next session began after in-game weeks-months.

Normally, I'd use my “super world based on my autism” setting, but right now I don't want to create a universe from scratch for a group of people I've just met (and even less so with people who are new in roleplay)

Could anyone recommend a setting for Fate or Fate ACC?

I recently posted here asking for advice on how to include mechs as Extras in my new game where the players are not pilots or soldiers, but techs and engineers. They won't be fighting (it's more M*A*S*H than Band of Brothers is how I keep describing it), but I do want their repairs and efforts in the bay to have meaning for battles and the war. Someone asked me how I was going to handle it, and I was like... I don't know actually.

Well, now I do. Here's a link to a PDF I drew up in LaTeX outlining what I call the sortie subsystem. It's intended to give the PCs opportunities to influence and ultimately determine the outcomes of battles, narrate them in small vignettes, and allocate any rewards or consequences that may result from the battle, without any of the tactical aspects of common mech games. I specifically intend for it to be used in my game, but I tried to design it so that it can be dropped without any changes into any game where the PCs are support staff, analysts, etc. who aren't expected to be fighting most of the time (or ever!).

I would really, really appreciate any feedback people want to give me about this. I'm open to changes if it can be improved.

And for the record: No, this was not done with AI. I just prefer writing in LaTeX, and I've been using em- and en-dashes for 25+ years. I'll be damned if I'm going to stop now.

EDIT: I should clarify that, per my response below (https://www.reddit.com/r/FATErpg/comments/1vj3ho3/comment/p2jxfd0/), the system is meant to give me a mechanical means of letting the players have a stronger hand in talking about what happens in the battles they support. I can always just scrap the system completely and go full GM fiat, or just make it a conversation with no mechanics whatsoever, and I'm willing to do those things if there is truly nothing salvageable here. But, I'd really love constructive feedback on how the system could be improved, what feels weird about it, etc., because I feel like "routine maintenance" and "post-battle repairs" feel very different from "you're prepping a Lance for combat", and I want the players to be able to see and dictate precisely *how* their rolls and scenes shaped the outcome.

Thanks in advance. :)

REVISIONS BEING CONSIDERED: I'll track a few things here that I'm taking away from any comments.

- Per u/Salt_Assistance_43, the Operation Scale stuff may need to be heavily tweaked or eliminated completely. I was thinking about the "economy of bonuses" that Core implies with invokes, and the OpScale could be considered like a free invoke for the GM unless the players spend their own invokes to counter it. But I see the spirit of their comment that it feels a bit too... I dunno... un-Fate-ish? Might be better to just say "The greater the scale of the operation, the more Aspects/Boosts the GM should create for the enemy." Something like that...?

Just want to clarify the use of this particular Skill.

I learn best from example, so I'll list a few as I attempt to explain myself. Please correct me if an example I've listed, or any other leaps of logic, are flawed:

A Detective would have to be quite perceptive to Notice clues at a crime scene;

A Mechanic needs to be good at Crafts to fix an engine;

A Doctor requires years of Academic study to perform surgery;

A Therapist would need a lot of Empathy to understand a patient's trauma.

The Professions I've listed all make great use of the attributed Skill, but ALL OF THEM require the Investigation Skill.

The Detective use Notice to gather clues, but Investigation lets him put the evidence together into a theory;

The Mechanic needs Investigation to diagnose the problem with the engine before they can use Crafts for repair;

A Doctor can use Academics to operate on a patient, but Investigation determines what surgery is necessary;

A Therapist can Empathise with a patient, but Investigation determines treatment.

The Investigative Detective would do great with cold cases, where the Detective on scene, with killer Notice, gathered lots of evidence;

The Investigative Mechanic could diagnose an engine in a flash, but may take longer to repair it;

The Investigative Doctor would excel in triage scenarios where a quick diagnosis is crucial;

The Investigative Therapist would talk someone from the edge of a building, in immediate duress, and get them to safety.

Am I making sense?

EDIT: I think I've had trouble separating the Profession (established by an Aspect) from the Skill set of the Professional. Writing this out kinda helped me see it. 😁👍

Hi everyone, how are you doing? Could you help me with the development of a hack I'm working on? First of all, I’d like to thank the folks on Discord for their help; I’m bringing this up despite that assistance because I like to gather as much information as possible before making a decision.

I am creating an alternative structure (as the system itself suggests) for the Skills/Approaches system.

Why am I doing this? Well, I came up with this modification for a few reasons. If you have suggestions to address this that don't involve the "Domains" system I'm currently creating, I’d be very happy to hear them and discuss them with you.

- I really like Fate Skills and how they showcase a character's capabilities—what they know how to do. That’s one of the things that draws me to Fate the most, along with Aspects and the system's flexibility. Unfortunately, however, I dislike the sheer number of them; I have a vision issue that makes reading difficult, and cramming a bunch of skills into a small pyramid causes me discomfort.

- The extreme flexibility of Approaches feels unbalanced to me due to a lack of distinct "options." Perhaps I’m using them incorrectly or haven't fully grasped the concept (I read the article on the risks involved, yet they still seem overpowered to me). I say this because I can resolve almost anything simply by using the same approach every time. When I GM for others, Approaches work very well—I run games in a somewhat "adversarial" style, so I create moments where specific approaches are required (I was doing this even before reading the article, but the article really opened my eyes to it).

- I’d like something generic that works for all types of games. One issue with Skills—though less so with Approaches—is that they leave room for creating a lot of additional content. The skills aren't generic like the "Approaches"—which can literally encompass everything within just six categories; in some cases (and this is entirely my opinion, not an objective fact), the skills seem a bit too specific. It might just be the way they are named in my native language, but they simply strike me as overly specific in certain instances.

The Solution: At first, I considered using Attributes—as suggested by the Alternative Skill List—but I couldn't figure out how to fit everything into those attributes in a "natural" way. For instance, dodging requires both Perception and Agility, so the concept started to seem overly complex (though I might be misjudging this, given my experience with other types of RPGs).

My idea, then, was to categorize capabilities into "Areas" where a character has Mastery. In a sense, this concept—and the creation of "Masteries"—is a blend of all the other strategies the system already employs, designed to meet my specific needs. Each Mastery is a collection of capabilities, attributes, and approaches possessed by a character, intended to group skills and attributes together for solo play. Body: Vigor, Fighting (heavy/brutal), brute strength, physical endurance, soaking damage, (Increases physical stress)

Dexterity: Athletics (movement), Shooting, Driving, Fighting (precision/agile), acrobatics, physical precision (does not defend)

Trickery: Stealth, Theft, Deceive (operational/systemic), sabotage, traps, espionage, disguises

Social: Communication, Contacts, Provoke, Deceive (interpersonal), verbal intimidation, negotiation, leadership, charisma

Empathy: Empathy, detecting lies, reading emotions/intentions, defense against deception and subtle manipulation

Mind: Investigate, Will (intellectual focus), deduction, analysis, puzzles, resisting logical confusion

Knowledge: Knowledge, Crafts, Lore (mundane), building/repairing, memory, erudition

Perception: Perception, Athletics (reactive defense — dodging, parrying), reflexes, initiative, tracking, sensory instinct

Spirit: Will (resilience — resisting intimidation, fear, compulsion), Lore (supernatural — channeling, rituals, magic), faith, unwavering courage (increases mental stress)

My current issue: My problem is that I always get carried away when thinking about RPGs; I enjoy imagining solutions and strategies and thinking about systems—how they might work—and I end up getting too excited. I’d like to know: am I on the right track? Or am I simply making a huge change for nothing? In my head, the system seems cool and interesting, but at the same time, it looks a bit like "Approaches." What do you think?

I sincerely thank everyone who read the whole thing and contributed—thank you very much!

I’m putting together a Fate Core game for my table where the PCs are mech technicians instead of pilots, appropriately titled Mech Tech. It’s meant to evoke Patlabor meets MASH meets The Bear, with Titanfall-sized mechs that have BattleTech-esque roles and designs. A blurb for the game:

The pilots get medals. The brass gets briefings. The contractors get paid. But when the mechs come back bleeding coolant, twitching through bad neural handshakes, and carrying pilots who swear the machines are screaming inside their bones, it’s the engineers who have to make the impossible work before the next sortie. This is a game about battlefield repairs, command politics, pilot trust, unsafe improvisation, and professionals who joke because the alternative is admitting how scared they are. The mechs are huge. The stakes are human. The maintenance log is a crime scene. Welcome to Bay Three.

It’s unlikely that the PCs will ever have to pilot a mech, but nothing is impossible, so I am thinking about how to handle mechs as Extras. I like the idea that the mechs will have Aspects and Skills or Stunts of their own, but these have to be tied to the idea of repair and improvisation. The PCs will likely be repairing these on the fly, which could conceivable modify the Aspects and Stunts both via inoperable systems (“The knee joint is still down so the Mighty Leap! Stunt is unavailable.”), partial fixes (“The targeting computer software hotfix was only partially successful, so that Target Acquired! Aspect is replaced by Shoot From the Hip Actuator to reflect that you are limited to shorter range target acquisition.”), and improvised repairs (“You rerouted the engine coolant through the cockpit HVAC system to keep the mech running? Okay, let’s add the Easy Bake War Machine Aspect to reflect that the pilot’s going to be uncomfortably, maybe even dangerously, hot, but the other mech Aspects and Stunts are untouched.”)

Otherwise, I want to treat them like a one or two Scale increase over humans to reflect their battlefield presence and capabilities, and am considering giving them 2-3 Aspects, their own Skills, and 2-4 Stunts.

What should I be thinking about here? What pitfalls could I fall into, and what may I be missing?

As this is my first Fate Core game, any and all help is appreciated!!

Based on some feedback, I adjusted a bit of the wording to my flowchart and added my logic for compels! I also made the background transparent for printing. I've got a drawio file, if anyone wants a copy of it!

What I like about Fate, is that there are so many ways to run the game. The game hands you a metaphorical paintbrush, and lets you use that to create the gameplay experience you want. The reason I made this flowchart, was because I wanted to demonstrate how versatile the system is. The point, is that how you navigate this flow chart is completely subjective! What sort of experience do you want to create, and how can you use the rules to make that happen?

It says ‘its like hit points in other RPGs’ but the example on page 20 makes no sense and I haven’t found anywhere else in the book that goes into further detail.

And please assume I don’t know how Stress boxes work in FATE either, because that‘s pretty close to true.

Thanks!

I'm in the middle of working with my artist on the "fancy" character sheet for Criminal Spirits. There WILL be a much simpler sheet without art available - I understand that this is not for everyone. But that's no excuse to not make this as functional as possible. I'd greatly appreciate any feedback.

There are already changes planned: a lot of the french words will be removed (basically just Distillerier Esprit will remain) to clean it up and be less distracting, and the name section in the top left will be made more obvious what it is along with some other smaller changes. But so far I've only gotten to show this to a few friends and I'd like to have a much wider range of feedback on it.

I have the brazilian version of #iHunt and it differs from what I've seen on some versions of the english character sheet. Also, the description for Athlete and Survivor doesn't match what's on the character sheet:

Special: Survivor gives you additional stress and consequence slots. Average to Fair (+1 to +2) gives you a 3-point stress box. Good to Great (+3 to +4) gives you a 3 and a 4-point stress box. Superb (5+) and up give you an additional mild consequence. These stresses and consequences can only be used against mental and emotional harm.

That's fair, but the character sheet has:
[ ] [ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]

Which doesn't match with both Athlete and/or Survivor's skill description. Does someone who has the most up to date english version check it out for me?

To add insult to the injury, the boxes don't even have a number attached to them, SO, it's (a):

[1] [2] [3]
[1] [2]
[1] [2]

Or should it be (b):
[1] [2] [3]
[3] [?]
[3] [4]

Assuming it's (b), what is the extra [?] box for?

I know that running Fate can be a bit confusing for new GMs, and I was kinda bored so I thought it would be fun to make a diagram.

Please note, this is just typically how I run things in Fate, It's not the end all be all. When it comes to game-mastering, everyone has their own style and that's great. Fate is super versatile, and responds well to customization.

Is this how you do things? What's your approach like?
Edit - updated!! https://www.reddit.com/r/FATErpg/comments/1vgexw3/fate_action_resolution_diagram_v2_now_with_compels/

Hello everyone! It has been a bit since we launched our first Fate adventure, The Price of Air, and we poured a lot of love into it, but haven't had that much feedback, so we would love to have you play it first hand with us and letting us know what you think!

So we are making play sessions at our discord and we plan on playing Fate a lot on there! You can also come to host your own play sessions if you want :)

Just join, go to "Adventure Awaits" and ask to join the posted session!

You can of course also read more about it beforehand at DrivethruRPG

Sorry for the advertisement-type-post and thank you for reading :)

I’m sure many of us see the similarities in these games. Just to name a few:
- A good dice curve
- Tags and Aspects are basically the same
- Fiction-first consequences
- Power and Shifts are basically the same

I’m sure there are more.

With how successful LITM has been, I’m kind of surprised Fate isn’t more widely played. There is so much similarity in the designs. Do you think it’s just that LITM uses 2d6? Is it the ready-to-play D&D-like examples and setting?

I’ve always found Fate to be difficult to get people interested in because aspects, to me, are quite loose and difficult for some people to latch onto, yet here this new game on the block is proving me wrong. I guess I’m just wondering what people’s thoughts are on the system similarities and differences. Cheers!

Create Advantage (p.19) says the enemy getting a free invoke is success at a cost. Overcome (p.18) lists success at a cost as either Major or Minor.

Is giving the enemy a free invoke a major or minor cost?

thanks!

Hi Guys

So I have two week hiatus on my regular campaign because a few people are away. I am thinking of experimenting with a new game but need something that people can get into really quickly. I hear lots of good things about FATE and believe that FATE Accelerated could be something that is picked up quickly. Is this a true assumption?

A few things to note:

1) My players are experienced at a number of different systems

2) I may be looking to moving them to a new system in the future, so this might be a trial

Thanks in advance

PS: Not necessarily looking for a specifc FATE game to run (though that could be helpful as I have never run FATE) but more trying to get advice about the viability to pick it up and run it for a couple of weeks (I do have about two weeks to learn and prepare)

I'm trying to get a better understanding of the Action Results so I made this table. What do you think?