Motivation is awesome....

So, I have worked more on the game in the last week or so than I have in almost a year.

It is a nice feeling.

I cannot deny that when Fate Core came out, it allowed me to look at the system again and everything just went from there. I feel great about the direction the game is going in my head and each day brings something new to what I am trying to accomplish. Now there is still a lot to be done and I am excited to take that next step with my friend Chris and move forward.

I even made my first character for the game last night. Keep in mind it is just the first one and I would imagine the end result will look a lot different, but I like the direction the skills have went in the game and I am very excited about working on the magic for the game.

As you know Evil Hat previewed the magic toolkit and a lot of my ideas I had were damn close to what I read. So that gives me a lot of confidence in where to go next. Especially since the game revolves around the four elements, air, earth, fire, and water.

Our game is highly inspired by the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher. Still, it is not that world since there are two major differences. .

The first one is that the world of Alera is influenced by the Roman empire. I man A LOT. This is part of what made the books interesting. They took a period of time that a lot of people have knowledge of and added it to this world. I am still not sure yet what flavor our world is going to be, but it isn't going to be Roman.

The second thing is the use of furies in the world. Furies are elemental spirits that characters in the book could use to do things by fury-crafting. Like an wind fury could make you faster, or an earth fury could draw strength from the earth. Also, the fury could take form, usually as an animal, and this would allow the caster to do more powerful things like healing or flying.

These are cool, but not in the game.

Mostly, I just love the elemental world aspect of the books, and that is what we took from it. The rest of it, although cool, not so much. I never wanted to make a Codex Alera game.

We are doing something kind of ambitious. Instead of letting the players create the world at the beginning of the game (i.e. The Dresden Files rpg), we are creating the world from the ground up. This is going to take some time to do and we still have to figure out a lot of how that will look. But the hope is that since the world is already created, you can just jump in and start playing...but also giving you enough information about the world that it gives you a starting point.

As daunting as that is, I like the idea and all those hours of playing Skyrim has helped me look at the world from a new perspective. :)

We are creating a world where there are two major factions vying for control. The Devout, whom just want to take all of the world's resources and use that power to rule...and are on the verge of doing so. And the resistance (don't have a name yet) whom are just trying to survive and take back their world.

Is the idea a new one, no. But it is the type of story I love to read and the type of game I love to play. Also,  I am hoping that with a fully flushed out world created, there will be so many opportunities for you to tell your own story.

Whatever that story may be.

I mean who doesn't love to do that? :)

Magic System Toolbox preview is here!

Magic System Toolbox

So, Evil Hat released a preview of the Magic System Toolkit yesterday and people went crazy. I don’t mean burn peoples house down kind of crazy, but dropping everything they were doing and reading this like a madman...madwomn...madperson? kind of crazy.

A lot of people (me included) have been looking forward to this, in hopes of seeing what kind of magic systems could be used with Fate Core. Yes, you could always break down the Dresden Files, but the magic system in that game can be a bit confusing for some people and I have not really heard of people going that route all that often.

I know I wasn’t.

I had been planning on using magic as a skill for a long time now. So, when I read the toolkit yesterday and saw that a lot of my ideas were almost identical to the ones that Rob made…well I was both vindicated and irritated. Vindicated cuz it is nice to know that I am thinking along the same lines as the creators of the game. Irritated cuz I had thought I was being original in my thoughts and now I am wondering if I need to twist them around again.

I do have an issue with feeling like I need to make something original. I am aware of the trappings of that, but after years of creating mechanics to only find out that someone had already done them…it is something that bothers me. Yes, I know…I need to let it go and move on. Just find what works and there will always be something you can tweak to make it your own.

I do think a lot of people are complaining about what is not in it. Which is ridiculous since (a) it was only a preview, and (b) it is designed to only help you, not do everything for you. Suck it up people and stop whining.

Last night’s playtest

So, a few people got online last night via hangout and gave the system a test drive.

The magic system was the stormcaller example they gave in the toolkit. The idea is that there are 5 great storms that are constant and our players could tap into those storms with a specific element. My character could call forth lightning and the other three could use earthquake, glacier, and inferno. So, with this magic system you have to choose stormcalling as a skill and you use it do all kinds of things. Set up barriers, attacks, maneuvers, etc.

We were failed government experiments that escaped and were out to find the truth.

My character was Derek Storm (yes, I stole the name from Castle)

Aspects:

Thunder is my name

My ex wants me to die

Shoot first ask questions later

I will clear my name

Walks in the shadows

So, we ended up casing a place that had the information. I snuck in and managed to get lost. The others sat outside and thought of was to get into the building. Ideas were: setting it on fire, calling the cops and then beating them up and taking their uniforms, charging in. They eventually set a dumpster on file and paid a fate point stating they had already procured firemen suits.

So we fought out way to the vault where information was supposed to be. All kinds of elemental stuff happening. The fire guy kept...well setting things on fire. Ice guy used ice to put up a barrier (which trapped me on the wrong side of it with 9 guys and “my ex that wants me to die.”. Earth guy did some cool thing with reaching into the building and opening up walls and such.

We got shot a bit, and I eventually killed my ex...or did I?. She had it coming, so leave me alone. The last thing I did was punch a large hole in the wall and then used air to jump across to another building.

All in all, we had a good time. The system flows much quicker than DFRPG does (which as much as I love the game is a great thing). There is a lot to tweak about it…but that is part of the fun. 

Advice

The one piece of advice I have is that you may want to stop before you run the game and get a clear definition of what you want the magic to do. Not because it is hard to figure out or anything, but mostly so you are prepared for the questions that are likely to come.

To me the barrier thing kind of got confused with how blocks used to work in previous Fate games. I like the block option, since it handles differently than someone having to get past an obstacle to be able to move. But that is just me.

This kind of thing will probably be a non-issue once you have played with it a few times.

Saying that, the barriers are damn cool and a lot of fun to handle in the game. The great thing about Fate is getting to say how you want the scene to go, and adding that to the game makes storytelling that much more fun.

Overall, we had a great time and I am excited about running my own session of this.

Thoughts on amount of skills...

I spend a lot of time now working on Fate. Part of it is just tinkering with a setting (like the Old West one I am making) and another is the actual fantasy game I am making using the system (Kushara’s Fate).

I am still trying to figure out just how I want to go about doing this.

My first question has to do with the amount of skill each player/npc will have. Fate Core’s highest skill rank is +4 Great and you have ten total skills. I both like and dislike this.

I like it because with only ten skills, it really makes you think about what skills you want your character to have. Mostly due to the fact that you don’t have that many to choose from and just makes it harder. It looks like this:

1 Great

2 Good

3 Fair

4 Average

But if your character is a fighter, you will obviously have that skill as your apex skill. Then maybe some kind of endurance or speed skills as well. The rest are just what you want your character to be. This is not an easy decision, since you only have a few skills that you are really good at.

The downside to that is just what I was saying. I sat here making a character last night and I must have played around with the skills for over thirty minutes, just cuz I could not make up my mind. It got a big annoying, but I also overthink things, so the annoyance did not last long. Also, if you don’t do it right, your character can be a bit lacking.

The alternative is to do what they did in DFRPG, which was to make +5 Superb the apex skill. It looks the same for the most part. It looks like this:

1 Superb

2 Great

3 Good

4 Fair

5 Average

This adds five more skills to the games and definitely gives more options to the player. I like this, but it does miss that sense of importance in choosing the skills since there are more to choose. An urgency that is there knowing that there is probably a skill you would like to have that is going to have to be left off due to not having any left.

I am going back and forth on this today.

This is why this is hard. Say my character is a magic user. One idea I have is that they choose the element and put it on what skill level they want. Like +4 Great Fire. That is the level they can cast at. But if they wanted to choose another element, it could be up to half of the higher level. So, they could have a +2 fair Earth. Or something like this. The idea being they have to have at least a +2 Fair to be able to cast a spell in each particular element.

+4 Magic (Fire)

+3 Will, spycraft

+2 Magic (Earth), agility, guile,

+1 Ranged weapon (bow), stealth, rapport, endurance

But if used the superb apex, it could look like this.

+5 magic (fire)

=4 Will, spycraft

+3 agility, guile, rapport

+2 Magic (earth), ranged weapons (bow), stealth, endurance, crafting

+1 wealth, melee weapon (sword), contacts, perception, survival

You get more skills, but I sometimes feel like you are just adding skills at +1 average to get it done. Skills that you don’t think you will ever use, but you have to put something there.

So, I am still undecided on this. I find myself leaning towards the way DFRPG does it, but then again, I don’t want the game to be TOO much like that. Is 10 skills enough for a campaign game? For a one shot it has worked well so far.

Decisions, decisions.

A Fistful of Fate

So, I have been playing around with an old west idea for Fate Core. I am now calling it a Fistful of Fate.

It is a town in the old west.

A town on the edge.

A town in trouble.

A town named Serenity Hill.

I just found the idea of having gunslingers in a game awesome. Everyone on the planet is making some kind of hack of Fate Core (which is a great thing), and this is one of the ideas that just make smile. Pit a posse of lawmen (or women) against a rough outfit of lawbreakers, a town on the edge with two families at war, and possibly a third that no one will see coming.

So, as of now, I am just trying to get the skill list done in a way that I am comfortable with. It is the old west, so the skills should have that feel. This is probably not the finished list as I keep coming up with more slang and ideas from other people as to what they should be called.

Each skill then lists what isn't normal name would be in Fate.

Backbone=will

Banditry=burgarly

Betting=gambling

Bluff=deceit

Cohorts=contacts

Fisticuffs=fighting

Six shooter=guns

Horsemanship=riding

Law=Investigate

Long gun=rifle

Lore=knowledge

Quickness=alertness

Rope use=lassoing

Silver tongue=rapport

Skulking=stealth

Spot=awareness

Sympathy=empathy

Threaten=intimidate

Tough=endurance

Wealth=resources

Wilderness=survival

It is still a work in progress, but I am getting a lot closer to running the game.

Diaspora book review

So, let’s get this part out of the way. I am NOT a sci-fi guy.  Never have been, never will. Sure I like some sci-fi things, but once you get into the hard sci-fi stuff you typically lose me.

So when I heard a little over a year ago there was a sci-fi Fate game, I did not really want to have anything to do with it. Then I joined G+ and met people like Brad Murray and others talking about how awesome it was.

I just now got around to reading it all. J

So, obviously it is a Fate game.

You start by doing something that I think would be so awesome to do and lord knows it read well enough. Cluster Creation. Yes folks, you get to create the universe the game will take place in, and then roll to see how the different planets connect to each other.

Brilliant is the word that comes to mind.

You can roll the four fudge dice for the system attributes (technology, environment, and resources) and look at the results.  It goes from +4 to -4 and all in between. For example we will use technology, a +4 gets you a T4 which means that tech has advanced so far it is on the edge of collapse. Earth right now is at -1 which is considered the atomic age, and -4 means they have any tech at all…i.e. the Stone Age.

Just was just 3 of the 9 things you could get, but you get the point.

You roll for all three and voila, you get your worlds. You then have to give each world a few aspects and off you go to character creation.

A lot of the rest is basic Fate stuff, so I won’t go into much of it other than to say there are A LOT of skills available since there are so many different things you can do in this gamel

Then there is the social combat in the game. I have heard for a while how good it is. I am not going to try to explain it, cuz I don’t really understand it after reading it. Let’s just say it is very interesting, but I really need to see it in action.

I also loved how they wrote small examples of the game and how they felt like miniature stories. It was great stuff to read.

The bottom line is that it was a fun read. It is not typically my kind of game. I am not sure I would want to run it though. A bit too crunchy for me with some of hard sci-fi stuff, but definitely want to play. 

My three Fate Core one shot ideas...

So, I thought I would go into more detail about the three scenarios I am thinking about creating for Fate Core. These are just one shots to get the mind flowing on the system.

#1. The good, the bad, and the Fate.

The setting. It is the Old west. Serenity Hill. A small town in the middle of nowhere. Outlaws owning the roads and robbing the trains. The law doing everything they can just to survive. Six shooters blazing at will. Something lurking in the darkness.

Serenity Hill is a town that was once bustling and thriving in the world. People had a good life and the law made sure it was safe. Crops were bountiful to not only live on, but to trade to the nearest city of Riverwood. Times were prosperous. People were happy.

But as things often do, things changed quickly. Rumors of a vast amount of gold in the west sent a large majority of people off to find their fortune. Because not matt how wealthy one can be, you can always want more.

Now, the town struggles to survive with less people to tend the crops, and the two largest families on the verge of a feud. Not to mention the outlaws that constantly raid the town and demand tithes. Oh and then there are the creatures in the dark…

Who are you?  You are a company that was hired by the governor of the state to bring order to the region. You roam from town to town trying to help people fight the lawlessness that is taking over the world. Sort of like the Dogs in Dogs in the vineyard, minus the religious component.

#2. Fate’s Gambit.

The setting. Kushara. A fantasy world of magic and wonder. A world ravaged by the elements as natural disasters of all types constantly berate the land. A land where the people struggle to survive the harsh elements and those that rules with an iron fist.

Yet, it is a thriving world where the elements themselves can be wielded to do great deeds or cause mayhem.

Magic, however is forbidden except for those that rule. That cabal is known only as the Devout. The Devout have been in power for as long as anyone can remember, and their belief is that only they are worthy to hold such magic. So, they created sentinels to hunt down anyone else that shows any signs of magic.  Bringing them back alive if they can, killing them if they have no other alternative. These unfortunate souls are known as the wicked (yes, the name needs work).

Recently, you have found out that the Devout have learned of your identity. So, they are sending the Sentinels to ravage your home town of Devon’s Cross. You rush home to save your family (and everyone else if possible), or to help defend the town. Then again, it could be a trap.

Who are you?  One of your characters is a child of Fate and born with the power. Your lives have been a difficult one, since you have spent most of it looking over your shoulder. Allies have been made and friendships have made you strong. Yet, you struggle to find a way to fight back. Is now that time? Or are the Sentinels setting up an ambush in that pass ahead?

#3. Murder by Fate

The setting. The backdrop is a large mansion cascaded in shadows. Rain and lightning battering the manor as if nature itself was raging at its existence.

Four people arrive separately to the mansion via limousine service.  Yet, none of you know why you were invited. Your only clue was a letter addressed to each of you requesting your presence on this day, and a promise that the information you received would only further your ambitions.

What you don’t know is that you have been enticed to this place and time because each of you has wronged someone in the past. Someone with enough power to lure you to this place.

Someone who plans on killing all of you.

Who are you? Four strangers trapped in a house on this dark and stormy night. After the initial sequence you are left on your own in the mansion. What secrets does it hold? Who is the person behind this?

The four of you have to decide on how to move forward. You may have survived initially, but the mansion is massive and danger could be lurking around every corner.

Can you trust the others enough to work together to find the person behind this?

Or do the others feel “wrong” to you and you know the only person you can trust is yourself?

The choice is yours, but you must find a way to survive the night.

My thoughts on Fate Core after playing it a few times...

So, I have played the updated Fate Core a few times lately, and wanted to give a few thoughts on how it plays.

Now a lot of people have read the pdf by now, but there are some changes from some of the older versions of Fate.  A few of them are:

-You only start with a health and mental track of two. Yes, if you choose physique or will, it increases but since everyone doesn’t always choose those skills, the game seems a hell of a lot more dangerous for your character.

-When a player (or npc) take a consequence, it can be used as an advantage (what tagging used to be) for free.

-You get 20 skill points only, which comes up to 10 actual skills.(1, great, 2, good, 3 fair, and 4 average). This makes it really important for you to choose which skills work for you in the game.

-You start out with 3 fate points, and if you want a stunt it subtracts from that (but the first stunt is free). So, you start out with usually 1 or 2 fate points to start.

-You can now invoke an aspect to make the npc (or another player) overcome an obstacle. This basically is replacing the block action on a turn. I haven’t done this one yet, mostly because it is hard to remember to do it. It is an interesting idea.

-One cool thing I really like is that if you fail a roll, you can actually still succeed but at a cost. This is a very cool thing and since you don’t start out with that many fate points, it gives you another way to succeed.  Also if you tie, you can succeed, but at minor cost. Nice.

-They have created a boost. It is basically like tagging an aspect, but it is free and you can only use it once and then it is gone.

-If you (or the npc) succeeds at an action and get 3 or more shifts, you succeed with style. You actually get bonuses and/or extra advantages when creating them.

There might be a few more, but that is what I am remembering at this point.

So, what I got out of this was just how dangerous the game is now. I played a Star Wars game last week and someone almost died in the first scene. It was a bit brutal. With a smaller health track, it means you will be taking consequences pretty quickly if things go bad. Combine that with the fact that those consequences can be tagged for free, just intensifies that.

The other thing you get is that is just written so much cleaner. Everything they changed seems to speed the game along. Which has been one of the few issues I have had with the system over the years. Sometimes conflicts could take a while to resolve. Now, they seem to go at an almost super human speed.

Also, since it is a blank slate, people are going crazy with coming up with their own scenarios. If you want a Star Wars game, you make it. If you want a game set in the civil war, but with werewolves, you do it. It is very easy to create the world with this game and is kind of fun to see what everyone is making with it.

So, Fate Core is awesome. They took everything that was great about the system and cleaned it up a bit. It is decidedly harder for the characters to survive, but I don’t see that as a bad thing at all. Not to mention, you can still tweak it how you want and give them more skills or a higher health/mental track if you wish. The game yells flexibility.