Experience with FATE?

[Metus]

I find myself turned off by most RPG systems these days, and I've explored quite a bit. However, the FATE system keeps grabbing my attention. I first saw it with Spirit of the Century, but was completely uninterested in the setting. However, I know that they have the free 2.0 PDF out for the FATE system. I'm reading it right now, and it's getting me excited unlike any recent RPG I can think of. I'm a very cautious person, and so I'm wondering about any hidden flaws I'm not seeing - after all, nothing is perfect.

I'd very much like to hear about anybody's experiences with the FATE system, whether playing Spirit of the Century or just the core FATE rules. If the latter, what kind of genre did you use the rules for? I'm wondering how versatile it is, if you can go from fantasy to survival horror. What are FATE's pros and cons?

Anybody try it out?

 

[xortam]

The group I play with are now on the third varient of a FATE system and enjoying it immensely. We started off with Starblazer Adventures which was a lot of fun although we did tweak it slightly so that the characters were less specialised and had a good spectrum of abilities.

The next FATE varient we played was Hot War. This was probably my favourite so far and worked really well without any type of maps for combat - all done through narrative based on who won the conflict resolution.

Currently we are playing a mish mash of Prime Directive and SotC (using the GURPS setting and ideas and the rules of SotC and some from Starblazer Adventures). I'm not that into Trek myself but surprisingly I'm really enjoying the game and it is a lot of fun.

What I like about FATE is the character generation. It is a lot different to D&D for example in that you build the PCs and the adventure as a group. In Starblazer for example you have to create episodes which involve the other characters. In Hot War you generate a pool of NPCs which you are interconnected to and relationships between each other.

What's really great about FATE is that it is very Role Play heavy and I find it quite immersive because of that. However you do generally need to dedicate the whole of your first session to creating your PCs as you need to bounce of each other for ideas and in the case of Hot War your suggestions shape the campaign.

At first I did find the FATE system a bit difficult to get my head around as it is very different to most other level based RPGs. The advantage is though that although varients of the FATE system may be different and have slightly alternative mechanics once you have a grasp of it you can pick up others fairly quickly.

 

[Metus]

I have no idea what Hot War or Prime Directive is. Is there a website that lists stuff like that for FATE? I'm trying to google it but I'm not coming up with any kind of clear cut explanation.

 

[coyote6]

Prime Directive isn't itself FATE-related, AFAIK; it's the title of the Star Fleet Battles RPG books (IIRC, they published GURPS and d20 versions). xortam is playing in that setting, using FATE rules.

 

[xortam]

Hot War: Hot War

GURPS Prime Directive is an RPG based on Star Trek which we are just using for a guide to races, setting etc but using the Starblazer / SotC rules to play in the Star Trek universe.

FATE is pretty adaptable to any setting - what I think makes it work with Trek is that the series is quite character driven.

 

[resistor]

I ran a one-shot Firefly adventure using the FATE 2e rules that worked quite well.

 

[Lackhand]

I'm glad you asked, Metus. Check out my signature for some notes on a fantasy hack, but I've played a game or two of FATE 3.0, and think that it's the bee's knees.

The cons are that, without a bit of grunt work on the part of the DM, SotC is too low resolution to make tacticians happy, because every aspect invoke or compel is as powerful as every other one -- there's no tricks built in, though if you're creative with compels, there _can_ be tricks there, they're just not crunchy math tricks like D&D revels in.

There's also little built-in character growth, which I think is awesome -- but then, I tend to DM...

I think it's an incredibly flexible, powerful engine.

 

[Starfox]

...they have the free 2.0 PDF out for the FATE system.

Got a link to this? I am also cautious, but I could give this a read if its free.

 

[ChrisBirch]

I picked FATE for Starblazer because it's a bit like Counterstrike the PC game - so many people are modding it and coming up with cool ways of doing things. Starblazer wouldn't have been been possible without all the ideas that had been brewing in the community for things like organisations, starships, big monsters etc.

With that much love for a game it was an obvious choice. We're not putting the finishing touches to Legends of Anglerre the fully compatible and stand alone fantasy book for Starblazer Adventures using some of the awesome fantasy art from the Starblazer comics.

It's going to let you do everything from peasants who happen to know the true name of the faerie queen to epic Exalted style mythic games. There's a very Elric style campaign world called Anglerre straight out of the comics where magic is limited but very powerful, gods incarnate in awesome magical swords, sorcerors open gates to other words and then the Hither Kingdoms which is your traditional fantasy with some cool tweaks.

We've got sieges, mass battles, flocks of dragons strafing galley fleets of sorcerors, diplomacy, espionage, running your kingdom, doing awesome combo's and video game style tricks in elegantly simple ways, random adventures, creating and running your family, future goals with rewards, background generation, advancement and campaigns. You can even drop your space opera crew straight in to a fantasy world or vice versa since it's compatible with the original book.

It's out for Christmas and there's a huge amount of support next year with campaigns, adventures, player's guides etc.

 

[diaglo]

i have yet to tempt fate with my group.