Grade the Fate/Fate Core System

[JohnF]

I love Fate. It was an eye-opening game for me. I couldn't grok Fate at first. It required a paradigm shift to how I thought about roleplaying games, namely to move out of the sphere of more familiar approaches found in D&D and its sphere of influence.

That was my experience with Fate Core at first back in 2013. Since then, I've run lots and enjoyed the Fate experience immensely!

I've run...

• A sequel to Muse's Knights of Cydonia music video as a Fate one-shot
• Two full Fate Core Tianxia campaigns
• A couple of Fate Accelerated "It's Not My Fault!" one-shots
• Mindjammer games with a Fate Accelerated twist (one was a short campaign that was an all-time favorite: players were new to RPGs and loved it!)
• A Nitrate City short campaign
• A couple of solo mini-campaigns, including Romance in the Air
• A horror campaign based on Fate of Cthulhu (did not run as written, but the corruption rules are brilliant!)
• Probably other stuff I can't remember

No new games on the horizon, though...

 

[Kannik]

A dubious milestone: this is the first system to get a "Hate" vote.

Granted, I've only done four of them so far, but still--nobody has actually gone on record as hating any of them until now.

Interesting. This is a complete aside, but I wonder what the grading reaction might be to GURPS. I remember from decades ago when I would ask people their thoughts about GURPS, I had only found people who either loved or loathed the system. Well, until that time I was telling that story to someone and saying I'd never found someone who was just kinda middling on it, and they had to ruin my ability to ever tell that story again by admitting they were meh about it...

 

[CleverNickName]

Interesting. This is a complete aside, but I wonder what the grading reaction might be to GURPS. I remember from decades ago when I would ask people their thoughts about GURPS, I had only found people who either loved or loathed the system. Well, until that time I was telling that story to someone and saying I'd never found someone who was just kinda middling on it, and they had to ruin my ability to ever tell that story again by admitting they were meh about it...

Well, it sounds like I should do GURPS next, just to see.

 

[kronovan]

I rated it as "it's pretty good", mostly because I have some issues with the writing in the FATE Core book - just felt awkward and not particularly lucid at times. Otherwise, as someone who began with the 3.0 edition of FATE, I like where Evil Hat took the rules. I've definitely run and played in some good campaigns and adventures with them.

I'll ditto others that said they prefer Accelerated, as I've had my best experiences with that flavor. I ran a campaign for my daughter, son, niece and nephew, set in Middle Earth's 1st Age. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it ran and how effectively they could work the language of approaches and manage aspects and stunts. I'm played with Accelerated at a number of game CONs and have been contuinually impressed with how older preteens and teens can be very creative with the rules. If you have players within that age group, I highly recommend giving the Accelerated edition a try.

I have had my failing with the rules too; mainly with players more accustomed to traditional RPGs bouncing hard off of aspects. In my experience FATE Core more than Accelerated, requires a particular group of players to be effective. Those that are up for the narrative though, can really run with the rules.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

A dubious milestone: this is the first system to get a "Hate" vote.

Granted, I've only done four of them so far, but still--nobody has actually gone on record as hating any of them until now.

LOL. That would be me. Let me explain:

FATE is one of the only games (Cortex Prime being the other) that gets a full stop from me when it comes to playing. If it comes up as the system the group wants to use, I'll actually just sit out the campaign. Completely. No hard feelings.

FATE actively works against my enjoyment to the point that I'm miserable the whole time and can't wait until the session is over. Which makes it worse than "it's pretty bad." And since "I hate it" is the next step down, that's what I picked.

 

[schneeland]

I gave it a "It's pretty bad". For the most part, it's simply a game that doesn't really resonate with me, perhaps because I discovered it late (I think 2016 or -17) and, by that time, already had contact with PbtA games and BitD. So normally that would be an "it's alright I guess", but on the basis of how bad the FATE Core book is at explaining how to play the game (strangely, FATE Accelerated was better at conveying this), I have to go one step down.

 

[Aldarc]

I gave it a "It's pretty bad". For the most part, it's simply a game that doesn't really resonate with me, perhaps because I discovered it late (I think 2016 or -17) and, by that time, already had contact with PbtA games and BitD. So normally that would be an "it's alright I guess", but on the basis of how bad the FATE Core book is at explaining how to play the game (strangely, FATE Accelerated was better at conveying this), I have to go one step down.

I discovered Fate around 2015, so around the same time. That is one of my biggest criticisms of Fate: the writing. Fate doesn't really do a good job of explaining what the game is about or how best to run or hack it. (I have a similar issue with Cortex Prime.) Fate Accelerated and the later Fate Condensed do a better job of explaining the core game play. The Book of Hanz is also nearly required reading for Fate.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I love FATE and have been playing in a DFRPG(dresden files) play by post since 2006.

I've played FATE Core and FATE accelerated and have played Spirit of the Century. After playing D&D for so many years, FATE was a weird change that took some getting used to but it was a real eye-opener as to what cinematic role playing can be. It has just enough crunch to be enjoyable(making characters is fun and there are lots of choices) but its focus on narrative makes so many things possible in all kinds of conflicts.

Not as big a fan of FATE accelerated because I find it a bit too over-simplified.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I have had my failing with the rules too; mainly with players more accustomed to traditional RPGs bouncing hard off of aspects.

Yup, I've found this mostly with players who have played nothing but D&D had a difficult time with Aspects. People who have tried a variety of games tended to have an easier time making the adjustment. In my experience.

 

[Vael]

My general take is that Fate either clicks or it doesn't. Aspects work or they don't. Because of that, it's a system I worry about having the "right" players, ie, players that click with it. Which makes me more leery of running games in that system (And I've yet to be able to play it). That's where these more narrative systems tend to fail, for me, where a more rules-based, crunchier system feels like you can play it with a broader group of players.

It is such an open rule set though, that it is my go to generic system for running various franchises. I'd consider using it for Mass Effect, X-Men, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. over learning a new system designed for that franchise.