Grade the Fate/Fate Core System

[dbm]

All the tactical choices are up in the narrative

One of the comments made in my group at the time was that playing Fate was like playing a word game. If you could describe what you wanted, you could get it. It’s not quite that straight forward, and the need for Fate points act as a limit anyway, but still it didn’t work for us.

 

[Tonguez]

One of the comments made in my group at the time was that playing Fate was like playing a word game. If you could describe what you wanted, you could get it. It’s not quite that straight forward, and the need for Fate points act as a limit anyway, but still it didn’t work for us.

Thats probably a good point that Fate and other narrative-first games appeal to those who like to play with words and whose minds shutdown on too much maths. Fates +2 is basic especially when the spread is -4 to +4 but its also a significant bonus on its own. Then of course You can invoke multiple aspects on a single roll, which is the whole point of Create an advantage and its free invokes - if you enjoy weaving aspects into daisy chains you can easily turn a +2 into a +4 or +6 as part of the narrative word salad

 

[Thomas Shey]

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.

Oddly, I found Cortex more appealing than Fate myself, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think its because there's a lot more baked in assumption that at least one of a each category of traits is likely to be involved in everything, so as a GM you're less pushed to decide if anything goes there at all.

 

[Carnun]

Thats probably a good point that Fate and other narrative-first games appeal to those who like to play with words and whose minds shutdown on too much maths. Fates +2 is basic especially when the spread is -4 to +4 but its also a significant bonus on its own. Then of course You can invoke multiple aspects on a single roll, which is the whole point of Create an advantage and its free invokes - if you enjoy weaving aspects into daisy chains you can easily turn a +2 into a +4 or +6 as part of the narrative word salad

"You (Fate) had me in the first half," lol. That success ladder rears its ugly head and ruins the parts I like about Fate (the Aspects and Stunts... or at least their concepts). It's the same kind of treadmill effect you see in D20; bigger numbers, but nothing really changes. I want to experiment with a lite Fate-like system that basically has player-facing rolls that either have advantage or disadvantage (Aspects) and lower difficulties for characters' specialties (Stunts).

 

[Aldarc]

Oddly, I found Cortex more appealing than Fate myself, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think its because there's a lot more baked in assumption that at least one of a each category of traits is likely to be involved in everything, so as a GM you're less pushed to decide if anything goes there at all.

I do enjoy Fate greatly, but I do think that there are some things about how Cortex approaches play differently that are attractive to some players turned off by Fate:

• Distinctions can be stepped down by the player to generate the metacurrency rather than the GM compelling a PC's aspects.
• It's a dice pool system with a fairly easy mechanic of adding two of your choice.
• It's a dice pool system that uses different die types - e.g., d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 - which is great for people who like rolling different dice or using the dice that they may already have for D&D.
• The dice pool mechanic draws from all of a character's traits and qualities.
• The GM rolls opposition to set the difficulty rather than choosing from a value from a ladder.

 

[Kannik]

• The dice pool mechanic draws from all of a character's traits and qualities.

That is what I think makes Cortex really shine over FATE. While Aspects only come into heavy play* when you spend a FATE point, that a Distinction is included in every roll in Cortex means that they have a much greater influence in the story. For example, one character in our Broken Lands campaign is both a "Badlands Techno Ranger" and also an "Elf from the Sunless Sea", the latter of which was not necessarily a happy time for her. So, when tracking someone through old ruinous caverns underground, the feel and importance to the character's story is very different depending which Distinction she includes. With the former, it's a pretty straightforward pull of her skill set, where she's focused and in her element. But if we include the latter, then it's drawing on her history... is it a bit of a surprise to her, where she finds familiarity in the way she begins to move and perceive the area, harkening back to a time long ago? And, does it also become more ominous, where this begins to bring back bad memories of said past? Or are the memories so overwhelming that the player chooses to roll a d4 instead? Rich RP opportunities abound!


* While they are also in play as setting something true in the narrative, I find they still remain mostly in the background unless a FP is spent.

 

[ThrorII]

I WANT to like FATE, but it ends up being too loosey-goosey. I'm not a fan of players having that much narrative control, which can devolve into driving the game off the rails. Also, there is a huge player buy in, in that they must create interesting characters and be willing to loose in order to win.

 

[aramis erak]

Oddly, I found Cortex more appealing than Fate myself, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think its because there's a lot more baked in assumption that at least one of a each category of traits is likely to be involved in everything, so as a GM you're less pushed to decide if anything goes there at all.

Before Cortex Plus, I would have rated it pretty good (B) or rather good (B+). After, it drops to "It's alright" (C) with Fate Core, due to blandness being actually C-, while the two I've done multi-session with (Dresden Files and SOTC) being C+ still.

For Dresden Files, I think Fate is a really good fit... especially for playing white court vampires. Cortex Plus conditions are more reliable than Fate... Fate, they last until cancelled, but cost to use a second or later time. CP, they can be reused, but stacking them requires spends.

The difference in reuse is part of my dropping my view of Fate.

I don't mind fate dice at all,

The ladder makes perfect sense to me. Difficulties being the answer to "What level of expertise is required to do this?" and the roll modifying your skill being "How well am I acting above/below score at the moment?", with the aspects being literally conditional modifiers.

My favorite Fate flavor has scope as a consideration - you can not tag more than one aspect each from character, tool, scene, nor chapter.
Cortex Plus also has scope rules in each version - one from each category, more costs extra.

 

[dbm]

For Dresden Files, I think Fate is a really good fit

Fun fact! Fate was created specifically to run the Dresden files. Fred Hicks is a friend of Jim Butcher. Spirit of the Century was a ‘test bed’ of the system before they went for the primary objective of DFRPG.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I have played a number of FATE-versions. It is a system that I do like a lot (not enough to call it perfect, but it is oen of my favoruites, the other favourite system is BRP; especially how it is doen in The Troubleshooters). It does imo opinion suit pulpy and slightly larger-than-life characters best, especially in a more adventurous setting. The main drawback is that it is hard coming up with good drawbacks, and the GM and players often miss invoking the aspects in a way that they earn new FATE-points.

First version I came in contact with and ran was Spirit of The Century when it ws relatively new. I liked the concept, but it was too many aspects. Then later played in Dresden Files (the original version. In the story-telling subforum I even put up the chronicle of the campaign I played in there) and Atomic Robo. Those two are perfect imo. I am not entirely sold on some of the mechanincs in the later versions.

Then later I tried running The Ministry Initiative (based on the Ministry of Peculiar Occurences-novels) at a convention. It worked so-so. Also ran a short campaign using Daring Comics RPG, where I kind of painted myself intoa corner with a super-hero setting, and I made som less than optimal campaign choices (imo. superhero-games are much too reactionary, and here the characters were also a bit too powerful even though I put them on the lower end of the spectrum). Then in my group we had a short campaign in the Gods & Monsters-setting using Fate Accelereated. Was a fun idea, but it fizzled. I prefer the Core and Condensed versions to Accelerated, but the Accelerated version is probably better for a quick one-off pickup game.

Then later we did a one-shot in a sf-setting that turned into Wearing the Cape, and then later a short campaign in the FATE-version of Mindjammer. The latter was a setting that really really didn't work with FATE. It was much to complex. GURPS would have been a much better choice there. And lately we ran a campaign that started as a campaign in Tianxia; Blood, Silk & Jade. It has now been converted to a homebrewed PbtA-campaign (the GM keeps fiddling with the rules to get the exakt mood he wants)