D&D 5E Mapping Fate Character Aspects onto D&D

[Hriston]

I've been interested for a while in playing D&D in a more "indie" Story Now! style, and particularly in using Inspiration to drift things in that direction. I think the resemblance of Inspiration to fate points from Fate is obvious enough, but I've wanted to codify for myelf which parts of the mechanic are analogous. Now, I have no experience playing Fate, and I'm sure I'm about to display my ignorance, but I wanted to share what I've got so far and see if anyone has anything to share in response.

I'm focusing right now on character aspects. In Fate, a character begins with a high concept and five trouble aspects. I think the closest thing to a high concept in D&D is a character's class. You could throw in a lot of other details about a character such as race, background, etc., but I think it's possible to use just a character's class as a high concept.

Trouble aspects are analogous to a character's personal characteristics, i.e. personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw. There are two types of trouble aspects in Fate: personal struggles and problematic relationships. Looking at the suggested personal characteristics in the PHB, they seem to fit into these two categories by type.

Personality traits and flaws are like personal struggles. They're things that might be hard for the character to control or be tempting to do at the worst possible moment.

Ideals and bonds are more like problematic relationships. The difference in D&D (especially with ideals) is that the relationship is quite often with an idea, rather than with a person or organization, which is how they're defined in Fate.

I'm running a game now where I'm using these "aspects" of the PCs to drive situations, and I'm noticing that some of the personal characteristics from the PHB are a little bit weak as written and that sometimes it's a stretch to come up with the right circumstances for an event-based compel.

I'm sure others have tried similar approaches. What worked/what didn't? And yes, I know, "If you want to play in that style, use a different system, blah, blah, blah," Feedback is appreciated.

 

[Garthanos]

D&D character design tends to be really really fiddly or i would have done this. Sounds like you are interacting with the more recent fate and I know less about it... Aspects were just aspects back in the day LOL.

 

[Hriston]

I'm pretty much looking at Fate Core for this.

 

[Garthanos]

I'm pretty much looking at Fate Core for this.

I was really close to buying into Dresden Files rpg when 4e pulled me back into D&D

The thing I recall about Fate Aspects were the best ones worked well from both sides of the screen being exploited and compelled both.

 

[Fenris-77]

I might limit it to Ideal/Bond/Flaw and not focus on character class. Given the option I'd probably set the focus on character motivations and drives (good and bad) which can be far more varied and interesting than specifically class related stuff. If an ideal was 'protect the innocent of X" then she could invoke that aspect for an inspiration die to aid an appropriate action. If her flaw was "indecisive in the face of tragedy" the DM could award a die for RPing it well, or even invoke the aspect by offering the die to RP the flaw. Your knobs and dials there are the number and type of aspects each character has, and the precise nature of the mechanic.

If you've never played FATE before I might keep the idea simple to start and fold in complexity and depth as the table adjusts to the new mechanics and consequences.

 

[Hriston]

The thing I recall about Fate Aspects were the best ones worked well from both sides of the screen being exploited and compelled both.

Yeah, that's a big difference in the two systems. The equivalent of "invoking" an aspect would be earning and then spending Inspiration. I think the limit of one point of Inspiration in D&D is necessary because of all the mechanics that would get run over if a player was allowed to accumulate multiple points.

 

[Fenris-77]

If you want this to work the carrot needs to be appropriately sized. If the Inspiration die isn't useful enough (which it isn't, out of the box) then you may find it's not enough to motivate players to use the mechanic the way you want. FATE points are a big deal, so people are ok being compelled for the sake of gaining one.

 

[Hriston]

I might limit it to Ideal/Bond/Flaw and not focus on character class.

This was my thought too at first, but then I started noticing how the personality traits were actually applicable to a lot of situations for getting the PC in trouble and started to use them more. I've just started to use class as high concept, so I can't really say how that's working out. I'm using the fluff text in the class descriptions to figure out ways to apply it.

Given the option I'd probably set the focus on character motivations and drives (good and bad) which can be far more varied and interesting than specifically class related stuff. If an ideal was 'protect the innocent of X" then she could invoke that aspect for an inspiration die to aid an appropriate action. If her flaw was "indecisive in the face of tragedy" the DM could award a die for RPing it well, or even invoke the aspect by offering the die to RP the flaw. Your knobs and dials there are the number and type of aspects each character has, and the precise nature of the mechanic.

If you've never played FATE before I might keep the idea simple to start and fold in complexity and depth as the table adjusts to the new mechanics and consequences.

I think this is all good advice. One mistake I was making earlier on was trying to compel a player's decision, which felt too heavy handed. On a closer reading of Fate, I noticed that it warns against doing that. So now I'm focusing on presenting circumstances that will play into the aspects of the PCs and see where it goes from there, awarding Inspiration if the player chooses to complicate their PC's life that way.

 

[Hriston]

If you want this to work the carrot needs to be appropriately sized. If the Inspiration die isn't useful enough (which it isn't, out of the box) then you may find it's not enough to motivate players to use the mechanic the way you want. FATE points are a big deal, so people are ok being compelled for the sake of gaining one.

I'm using it as-is, but I haven't seen the kind of Inspiration economy develop that I'm hoping for yet. My idea is for the PCs to pretty much always have and be using Inspiration, and once they use it, that's when I know to start pushing on that character's aspects until they have it again. So far though, I've seen the oft cited tendency for players to hold on to Inspiration, which brings things to a halt for the purpose I'm describing.

Since I'm lacking the experience, what makes fate points a big deal in a way that Inspiration points aren't?

 

[Garthanos]

Since I'm lacking the experience, what makes fate points a big deal in a way that Inspiration points aren't?

Fate points could be used to leverage the story... ummm I see it as things like when Frodo was captured in a tower and the enemies in the tower all started fighting over him that could have been him or Samwise spending a point or more than one point why not.
It gave Sam egress when it would have taken Aragorn and Legolas a bloody dangerous fight to do a rescue attempt.