Converting to FATE and starting a new campaign

[Greensnakedrex]

I am very excited to play some FATE. I've had to take some time away from RPG's for a while to finish school, and now that I've graduated, the time has arrived.
FATE excites me because I believe it will suit my playstyle. I plan to run two campaigns. One is a conversion of a game I play with my wife and kids. We've been playing Pathfinder and we recently dabbled in Savage Worlds. I am running a homebrew that leans on the Carrion Crown adventure series for resources. I hope that FATE will allow us flexibility and freedom from getting bogged down by rules. We will need to convert 3 characters, a Firbolg Barbarian, an Elven Ranger, and a human Illusionist. Does anyone have any pointers as to developing traits/stunts that will somewhat reflect some of the attributes that these characters have already established in our game? I think the Illusionist and Ranger will be fairly simple, but I'm having a little trouble coming up with some ideas handling the Barbarian's rage. I plan to streamline dungeon experiences, remove non critical encounters and remove the need for detailed mapping. Anyone experienced with dungeon crawls and FATE?

The other game I plan to run will have a more mature theme- no children will be playing. I'm playing to run Day After Ragnarok. I'd like to have a central narrative as a basic theme to push the action along, but I'd really like to try and run this 'sandbox' style.

I have not run, or even seen FATE played as of yet. Any suggestions or pointers would be appreciated. I am leaning toward using FATE accelerated, especially with my home group (easier for kids). Anyone have any thoughts on using accelerated for Day After Ragnarok? Is it a good fit?

My first impressions of FATE have me really excited about sharing some of the narrative control. I hope to avoid any 'grinding' or combats that are not crucial to the story.

I've noticed that there hasn't been much posted regarding FATE lately. Anyone playing? If so, how are things going? Can you steer me clear of any newb FATE g.m.ing pitfalls? Any system issues to look out for? How about community? Can anyone steer me toward some resources?

 

[RobShanti]

I think that Barbarian Rage would work well just as an Aspect, and not a Stunt.

If you must make it a stunt, consider using the Killing Stroke stunt on page 111 of the FATE Core rulebook (or a variation thereof). Some kind of "once per scene" and "spend a Fate Point" benefit to the Fight skill.

I think FATE would work perfectly for Day After Ragnarok. I know that you can check YouTube for videos of people playing FATE by Google Video Chat. That should help.

My gaming group is pretty much dedicated to FATE right now. We have played everything from Cthulhu to Tolkien to medieval intrigue and so on using FATE. I run a phpBB forum dedicated to FATE at http://faterpg.forumotion.com/forum. Stop by and chat about your games or questions.

 

[Umbran]

I have not run, or even seen FATE played as of yet. Any suggestions or pointers would be appreciated. I am leaning toward using FATE accelerated, especially with my home group (easier for kids). Anyone have any thoughts on using accelerated for Day After Ragnarok? Is it a good fit?

My first impressions of FATE have me really excited about sharing some of the narrative control. I hope to avoid any 'grinding' or combats that are not crucial to the story.

I've noticed that there hasn't been much posted regarding FATE lately. Anyone playing? If so, how are things going? Can you steer me clear of any newb FATE g.m.ing pitfalls? Any system issues to look out for? How about community? Can anyone steer me toward some resources?

I can't speak to the adventures you're using, but I've played several FATE variants recently - Spirit of the Century, The Dresden Files, Atomic Robo, and FATE Accelerated.

My observation is that FATE is not particularly good at reproducing particular mechanical details. For example: in Spirit of the Century a gun is a gun. Snub-nosed .22 or big old .45, or a rifle or a shotgun - all the same. None of them so much as adds to your damage. The differences in guns only help you decide what stunts might be appropriate.

So, for a fantasy game, to first approximation, the FATE mechanic itself is bad at differentiating between the heavily armored fighter with a two-handed sword and the lightly armored, dual-wielding ranger. They have weapons. Swords. Okay, fine, FATE says, so what? One piece of sharp metal is much like another.

What FATE does do well is help support overall tone and style, via Aspects.

 

[bert1000]

So, for a fantasy game, to first approximation, the FATE mechanic itself is bad at differentiating between the heavily armored fighter with a two-handed sword and the lightly armored, dual-wielding ranger. They have weapons. Swords. Okay, fine, FATE says, so what? One piece of sharp metal is much like another.

I’d say yes and no on this. Fate doesn’t have a lot of mechanical moving parts for differentiation. Where in d20, with the heavily armored two hander and the lightly armored two weaponer you might have differences in damage dice, str modifiers, number of attacks, feats that apply, movement rate, etc. Fate doesn’t do this but can model the narrative difference quite easily.

Each Fate version is slightly different but imagine two characters with the following aspects (plus more aspects not shown):

Character # 1 (two hander)
• Knight of the Purple Dragons
• My father’s mithral great sword, Ice
• Armored Juggernaut in Full Plate
• Wrestled a sand demon and won (great str)

Character #2 (two weapon)
• Ranger of the Grey Forest
• Nimble as a weasel
• Whirling short blades of doom
• What…where’d he go?

Fate doesn’t give you tactical/simulationist difference, but these aspects can be used or compelled to easily give you advantage and disadvantage based on “fighting style”.

The advantage and disadvantage mechanically plays out within the fate system but it’s clearly there. (with the added advantage of many of the aspects being useful for all kinds of non-combat stuff too)

In a situation where a heavily armored two hander with great strength would be helpful, the bonuses stack up. In a situation where it’s a disadvantage, the aspects get compelled and the penalties pile up.

I think whether or not this feels different enough for you is more a question of buying into the Fate system itself rather than the inability to ‘model’ fighting styles.

 

[Umbran]

Fate doesn’t do this but can model the narrative difference quite easily.

Correct. That is what I meant by it not reproducing *mechanical* details. He was asking about stunts to model powers. While stunts are useful and good, my point is that trying to come up with direct mechanical analogs.

For the firbolg, you can have Aspects, "Anger Management Issues", and "I'm a *giant*, remember?". Then, when being big and angry would be a good thing, you spend a couple of fate points, you can get significant bonuses...

 

[SkidAce]

Fate Core does have a chapter or so on simulating weapons and armor.

One example is where "heavy" armor would give a +2 shift to defense, unless the opponent had one of the large weapons historically effective against heavy armor. There is even a chart. Other examples include pistols only affecting one zone (measure of distance) while rifles affect several zones.

However, in the spirit of the game's intent, they mention that this just leads to a zero sum arms race. I.e. the player gets a powerful weapon and the bad guy gets heavy armor. So using their game mechanics, the plus and minus would cancel out leading the designers to conjecture "what's the point?". But they do discuss it for those that desire such differences.

I really liked the example of how to model weapons and armor based on aspects, and found it be more in line with the philosophy of the game, although I have several players who might want weapon and armor modifiers reflected. We are currently discussing. To the example;

A girl with a two handed sword is fighting a guy with a knife in a "The Walls are Crushing In on Us" aspected alley. The DM invokes the aspect on the girl's combat and assigns a -2 to her combat skill rolls. Much like any other aspect, the people at the table normally must concur that such is reasonable*. They could have given the knife fighter a +2 I suppose.

Anyway the chart is there, and they discuss the pros and cons better than I could. Fate Core pg 277 starts the discussion, and the narrow alley is on 281.



---

*reasonable does not describe the rule lawyering gearheads in my group..

 

[Neonchameleon]

I'm not sure Fate is what you want for your home group. Fate does what it does extremely well (largely pulp - Day After Ragnarok looks perfect) - but there's no way in hell I'd use it to play D&D. (It does do character-driven sandbox as opposed to GM-sets-all sandbox well). For D&D my recommendation would be Dungeon World; it has an SRD and has pretty simple rules (short version: When you try to do something with a serious chance of failure roll 2d6 and add your stat modifier. 10+ you succeed. 7-9 you succeed with consequences or have to make a hard decision, 6- you up).

 

[dbm]

One of the shifts in approach needed for Fate is that the characters should experience an ebb and flow of success and failure. If they don't experience some travails then they won't earn any Fate Points to power them through a climactic finale.

In traditional D&D dungeon crawling, one failed encounter can spell the end of the party. This is a very different set of mental expectations and can be a real sticking point for experience players of more traditional games. I would definitely suggest talking this difference over with your group, so they can prepare themselves for early defeat and adversity. You also need to work out how you are going to GM such incidents.

I don't have any experience with Fate Accelerated Edition, but I have found Fate 3 to be a really fun game; I haven't played Fate Core yet but having read it through it cleans up the rules greatly and the extensive designers notes throughout make it an excellent toolkit.

My group did have challenges with the transition, around both the idea of having to fail sometimes and we had challenges with Aspects in general. They didn't like the similar mechanical impact of all aspects (only being differentiated by when they trigger) but when people 'got it' they really loved it. But not everyone 'got it' so we switched back to playing more traditional games afterwards.

 

[Umbran]

One of the shifts in approach needed for Fate is that the characters should experience an ebb and flow of success and failure. If they don't experience some travails then they won't earn any Fate Points to power them through a climactic finale.

Well, note that travails are not equivalent to failure. It isn't that the characters need to experience failure. The characters have to experience difficulties - in fact, have them imposed on them by the GM in the form of compels - for them to build up Fate Points. Now, those difficulties may lead to failures or setbacks, but they don't have to. It isn't failing that earns the Fate Point, but accepting the Compel and its negative modifiers that does.

So, it is more that the players have to admit their characters have flaws or weaknesses, and those flaws *will* be an issue in play.

But even that isn't entirely true. Take, for example, Spirit of the Century. At refresh, a character's stock of Fate Points rises to equal the number of Aspects they have, which may be as high as 10. That's a lot of Fate Points. If you don't try to stretch and spend them, you can sit on that pile of points, and have it get you through climatic encounters. If your GM has you refreshing too frequently (say, at the beginning of every session, when your sessions are short) you may find yourself never really needing to accept a compel. Managing the Fate Point economy is a notable skill the GM has to learn.

 

[Bluenose]

I have not run, or even seen FATE played as of yet. Any suggestions or pointers would be appreciated. I am leaning toward using FATE accelerated, especially with my home group (easier for kids). Anyone have any thoughts on using accelerated for Day After Ragnarok? Is it a good fit?

There are some actual play podcasts of Fate-based games which might be worth listening to. Fandible has one for Legends of Anglerre, and I think Spirit of the Century too, There's a Dresden Files one on The Walking Eye. And RPPR has an actual play section, though I haven't listened to any of the Fate games on there. Any of those might give you some idea how it's played.

Here is the wiki with a *large* selection of material covering settings and games converted to Fate (Fate Core, usually). There's a Pathfinder FAE conversion on there, though I've no idea how good it is - I noticed it while looking for possible Glorantha uses.

As for Rage, as has been suggested I think it would work best as an Aspect. "Fury of the Firbolg" or something like that, which would allow both for gaining a bonus and for the GM to tag it a few times to create problems with a character keeping their temper under stress.