Grade the Fate/Fate Core System

[Thomas Shey]

I really don't know how to rate this one; how do you rate a game system that seems to be really well designed for a set of needs you don't particularly share while actively putting you off? I tried to run a couple Fate sessions and found it stressful as all get-out, but I can see why there are people who find it the bees knees.

 

[Thomas Shey]

One use is broad competency. This becomes more obvious in Fate Accelerated, that doesn't have skills, as such.

I play in a Fate Accelerated Space: 1889 game. My character has the High Concept: "Former Master Sergeant in Her Majesty's Service." You only get a few stunts, so you can't have one for each thing highly competent military personnel with a ton of experience in the field can do. But with this Aspect, I can get a bonus on anything you'd expect him to be good at - shooting, firing artillery pieces, driving vehicles, survival skills, field tactics and so on.

Another use is access to narrative, which, in Fate, matters, as you have to invoke that narrative to interact with things. My Master Sergeant can't invoke any supernatural narrative, as he's a very mundane character, by design. A "Fire Sorcerer of the 5th Circle" could invoke supernatural explanations for what they do.

Another related thing that an Aspect can get you that a skill or stunt can't is fictional positioning. My character's Trouble aspect is, "'Former' Master Sergeant in Her Majesty's Service" - while he says he is retired, nobody believes him - he is always assumed to be on some mysterious special detached mission or something, which gets him treated kind of like James Bond or something, for good or ill..

They also can be used to represent things that are attached to a character but not, in any meaningful way, in control of the character. Even Stunts don't cover that.

 

[Umbran]

They also can be used to represent things that are attached to a character but not, in any meaningful way, in control of the character. Even Stunts don't cover that.

I am not sure what "attached to, but not, in any meaningful way, in control of" is supposed to refer to. Can you give an example of what you mean?

 

[Thomas Shey]

I am not sure what "attached to, but not, in any meaningful way, in control of" is supposed to refer to. Can you give an example of what you mean?

"Cursed by the Love of a Goddess". This isn't anything the character does, or has any real control over, but on a narrative level it can nudge his life around to one degree or another, often to his deficit. Its entirely something that's all about narrative control, not any control on the level of the character.

You can also see this, of course, on the level of a lot of negative Aspects: "Price on Her Head" or "Weak Immune System" are essentially fodder for the GM and ways to rack up Fate points, but they aren't anything the character chooses to do.

Edit: I realize the problem, I said "in control of the character" rather than "controlled by the character". That was sloppy.

 

[Aldarc]

"Cursed by the Love of a Goddess". This isn't anything the character does, or has any real control over, but on a narrative level it can nudge his life around to one degree or another, often to his deficit. Its entirely something that's all about narrative control, not any control on the level of the character.

You can also see this, of course, on the level of a lot of negative Aspects: "Price on Her Head" or "Weak Immune System" are essentially fodder for the GM and ways to rack up Fate points, but they aren't anything the character chooses to do.

Edit: I realize the problem, I said "in control of the character" rather than "controlled by the character". That was sloppy.

Aspects are more about how the player understands their character and their wants, so yeah, it's outside of the character. Troubles, for example, are meant to be player-selected lightning rods for character complications. Some Troubles, however, can be character-facing: e.g., "I'll get you someday, Dr. Adlerstein!" or "My Brother's Unsolved Murder Makes Me Restless."

 

[Thomas Shey]

Aspects are more about how the player understands their character and their wants, so yeah, it's outside of the character. Troubles, for example, are meant to be player-selected lightning rods for character complications. Some Troubles, however, can be character-facing: e.g., "I'll get you someday, Dr. Adlerstein!" or "My Brother's Unsolved Murder Makes Me Restless."

Sure, I was just giving examples of things that weren't going to be able to be represented with skills or stunts (I think personally, so do your examples, but the ones I gave were very bright-line.)

 

[dbm]

We played a couple of Fate campaigns back when it came out. I like how aspects can attach significance to anything. We were playing a Firefly style game, and when there was a bar fight scene, we added that as an aspect which suddenly opened up opportunities for all the things you would see in a bar fight and also compel to block inappropriate actions (like immediately reaching for weapons…)

On the flip side, aspects seemed very bland to us with everything boiling down to +2.

So, while I personally quite enjoy Fate for its flexibility it left our group cold.

 

[Aldarc]

We played a couple of Fate campaigns back when it came out. I like how aspects can attach significance to anything. We were playing a Firefly style game, and when there was a bar fight scene, we added that as an aspect which suddenly opened up opportunities for all the things you would see in a bar fight and also compel to block inappropriate actions (like immediately reaching for weapons…)

On the flip side, aspects seemed very bland to us with everything boiling down to +2.

So, while I personally quite enjoy Fate for its flexibility it left our group cold.

FYI, there are some versions of Fate that use rated aspects.

 

[Campbell]

I'm not a big fan of FATE (but I adore Cortex). I really dislike FUDGE dice and how strongly their distribution is weighted towards the dice roll have no effect. When coupled with the Fate Point economy makes it almost like players are choosing when to fail and succeed. It takes all the tension out of play for me. I'm also not a really a fan of Compels and the way that shapes a suffer to win meta. I vastly prefer having the Doom pool as a source of tension and having more moment-to-moment tension.

 

[Umbran]

On the flip side, aspects seemed very bland to us with everything boiling down to +2.

Yep. All the tactical choices are up in the narrative, rather than in the mechanics.