Fate book for my friend's birthday.

[Wednesday Boy]

My friend's birthday is coming up and since he likes the Fate system I wanted to get him one of the books. He already has Dresden Files, so I was thinking either Spirit of the Century or Diaspora. He doesn't have any leanings for or against sci-fi or pulp. Which do you think I should get him? (Or if there's something better than those two, I'm all ears!) Thanks all!

 

[JediSoth]

Bulldogs! is a great sci-fi game that uses FATE. It has one of the best & streamlined sections on how to play with FATE of most of the modern incarnations, from what I've heard. I played a game of it at Gen Con this year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Basically, characters are living on the fringe of galactic society, taking jobs where they can and not being too picky about their legality. Think of it as Firefly or Han Solo & The Corporate Sector meets FATE.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Thanks for the suggestion. That sort of sci-fi is right up my alley--even if I don't get it for him I'll have to get it for myself!

 

[Treebore]

I've had a good time with Starblazers and getting familiar with the long running British comic series it is based upon. Your friend may end up hating you if he gets into it and wants to collect the back issues.

 

[Treebore]

Plus Starblazers is getting a new printing, but I have not kept up on if that has happened, or is happening soon. Part of the new printing is to do better organization and up dating rules, so look for it, if it is available yet.

 

[GlassEye]

I'm not really familiar with it but you might look into Strands of Fate (review). It seems to be a generic/setting free Fate system.

 

[Kobold Stew]

I'm partial to Diaspora (see sig), but I can honestly say that it wouldn't have happened without SOTC -- Spirit of theCentury was the first game that everyone at the table wanted to run, and there was a great stretch of four weeks when we just passed around reffing.

From there, we wanted to take that engine and use it to recapture the feel of Classic Traveller -- the Little Black Books we had played as kids. That's what Diaspora is, really: SOTC hacked to boogie around space in a little ship.

There are a lot of good FATE games out there, and (now) many SF variants. Diaspora is much more streamlined than Dresden or Starblazers: both in size (it's a single digest-size book) and in its conception (so instead of pages of stunts tuned for each skill, there's three pages about stunts to let you build your own).

If you want to see some of the rules the SRD (no examples) is available, but it's probably better to look at the Spaceship battles chapter, which (if nothing else) lets you test out the space combat system and get a sense of the ruleset.

Hope this helps! Whatever you choose, I'm sure your friend will appreciate the gift.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Plus Starblazers is getting a new printing, but I have not kept up on if that has happened, or is happening soon. Part of the new printing is to do better organization and up dating rules, so look for it, if it is available yet.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately the new printing isn't available yet and his birthday is next week. But maybe I'll pick up the PDF for myself.

I'm not really familiar with it but you might look into Strands of Fate (review). It seems to be a generic/setting free Fate system.

We tried Strands for a Star Wars campaign but didn't take to it. To me one of the appealing aspects of Fate is the narrative bend to it and Strands tended to micromanage and quantify everything. It got a little too crunchy for what I like out of Fate. But thanks for the thought!

I'm partial to Diaspora (see sig), but I can honestly say that it wouldn't have happened without SOTC -- Spirit of theCentury was the first game that everyone at the table wanted to run, and there was a great stretch of four weeks when we just passed around reffing.

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate the link--that is a great resource. Maybe I'll split the difference and get my friend Diaspora and get myself Spirit of the Century. I think if I tell myself that I deserve a present for being such a generous friend enough, I might convince myself!

 

[Kobold Stew]

Maybe I'll split the difference and get my friend Diaspora and get myself Spirit of the Century. I think if I tell myself that I deserve a present for being such a generous friend enough, I might convince myself!

Ha ha ha. You're a good friend. (The selfish friend would keep Diaspora for himself.)