Fate Point Cards (Download included)

[Markn]

Can you elaborate on the Aspects part of all this or provide a link. This is interesting stuff but I am not familiar with this. I get the Fate Point side of things. Just not sure what things woudl be included in Aspects. Are they always negative? Are they narrowly or broadly defined?

Thanks.

 

[weem]

Can you elaborate on the Aspects part of all this or provide a link. This is interesting stuff but I am not familiar with this. I get the Fate Point side of things. Just not sure what things woudl be included in Aspects. Are they always negative? Are they narrowly or broadly defined?

Thanks.

http://www.faterpg.com/dl/FATE2fe.pdf

Chapter 4

Granted this is the 2nd edition and I think there is a 3rd now? But we did this based on the second edition and I think (if i saw somewhere correctly) it's pretty much the same? But I don't know for sure.

 

[LostSoul]

We don't have unspoken rules.

I apologize; I didn't realize you were working from a game text!

I don't know, you tell me - does changing the term from "Make a declaration" to "Take minor narrative control" make it easier to manage? What about after reading those rules (maybe you have read them before, I'm not sure)?

I've played some of the Fate knockoffs - SotC and Starjammers, but not Fate itself.

The thing to remember, I think, is that they are different games with different currency and different focus. These rules can work for 4E but it's a different style of play. That's all I'm trying to say. Be aware of what these changes can do to your game, and if they will work for you. Only you can make that decision.

(You in general, not you as in weem!)

 

[N0Man]

Thanks for sharing Weem, and being generous with answers, especially given that it appears you may have had to give more in depth answers than you originally intended.

I've also been interested in incorporating Fate Points into a 4E game. I played a one-shot of Spirit of the Century at a small convention and loved aspects and fate points. I'm still not entirely sure whether I think they'd work in 4E with players I'd play with, but I still want to do something that is at least similar.

I previously found that when I tried to explain Aspects and Fate Points to friends, I had a hard time selling them on the idea. Several seemed confused by the ideas, disinterested, or thought it added too much complexity.

In your experience, did players take long to understand and warm up to these mechanics? Has the reception been pretty consistent in your groups?

 

[N0Man]

The Spirit of the Century game that I played in we had a really fantastic GM (Sam Chupp, who I didn't realize until much later who he was). He also implemented something he called "Fan Mail", which I believe he said was from Prime-Time Adventures (which I'm not familiar with).

Anyway, it allowed an alternative way for players to gain Fate Points, which is simply by doing something really fun, cool, or interesting that the rest of the party likes. There will be 1 or more Fate Points on the table that can be freely taken by any player at the table to give to ANOTHER player to reward them.

Anyway, Aspects, Fate Points, and Fan Mail all were really fun... but then again, it might have all just been because we had a great GM.

 

[LostSoul]

PTA is a great game, I highly recommend it.

 

[SabreCat]

I think if you start with this sort of mechanic in play from the outset, it does change the tone and expectations of the game. People are capable of changing roles and perspectives mid-stream; they do it all the time already, just going from in-character to out-of-character and back. When you've got an element of narrative control from the outset, people can slide back and forth from "make the story more fun" to "win the battle."

In my game, with a similar seize-narrative-control structure, players have introduced nasty new monsters and hazards to combats, turned allies into enemies, etc. Other players groan and give the person in question a good-natured hard time about it... but then they carry on with the battle and later laugh about "that time when Lahktar made those crocodiles show up, God." You can appreciate both challenge-tackling and story-twisting in the same game, they're not at odds.

That said, it is important to set expectations early. Introducing such a thing to a campaign midway could be rocky if it wasn't part of the game's culture already.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

@Weem: How did you make the fate point card? Did you do it in MS Word and would you be willing to share the base template if you did?

 

[weem]

@Weem: How did you make the fate point card? Did you do it in MS Word and would you be willing to share the base template if you did?

Adobe Illustrator CS3.

So no, no Word doc here

 

[the-golem]

Weem.

Do you no longer provide the simple black/white version of your fate cards? I'd like to get a copy of those if I could. I looked on your website(s), but wasn't able to find a link to them.

Thanks in advance.