Grade the Fate/Fate Core System

[Golden Bee]

I love Fate; I think Fate is great for general stories and ones of indefinite length.

In games that you wanna run for a long time without players increasing in power, it’s very hard to do in d20 but trivial in fate. Lateral change is easy.

The free codexes, the boatloads of original, pay-what-you-want content with original artwork… no company has done products as far ranging as Uranium Chef, Iron Street Combat, Save/Game, The Three Rocketeers… or even games that are post-combat, about music festivals. See Under the Table, Arthurian myth interpreted through gangster Chicago, or Fantasy Political Drama House of Bards.

I also dig that mountain climbing, an eating contest, a public debate, or a horse race can be adjudicated with one simple system.

As for players buying success, I think it depends on the genre, but that’s usually the stories we consume. Protagonists get kicked around early on, grit their teeth, and use that adversity to power them on to success in the finale.

 

[Vael]

I do love FATE, and I'm now gearing up to run a FATE campaign, but it does drive me mildly bananas that the answer to "how do I do this in FATE?", the answer is almost always "it depends, here's 5 possible solutions". The MTG player in me demands a "correct" answer, and FATE does not provide.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I do love FATE, and I'm now gearing up to run a FATE campaign, but it does drive me mildly bananas that the answer to "how do I do this in FATE?", the answer is almost always "it depends, here's 5 possible solutions". The MTG player in me demands a "correct" answer, and FATE does not provide.

You'd have been driven up a wall by Hero System constructs.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've both played and run Fate. And when I see a something I'm considering running Fate Core/Accelerated is one of my two "benchmark systems" (the other being GURPS); will the system in question do things better than Fate would? The answer is normally no - but Fate is never IME a near perfect system for doing things in. So I haven't used it since before the pandemic. I like it and it sets a pretty high bar but I always want to do better.

 

[Vael]

I do think that FATE is really good at running any established franchise setting, like Star Trek, because it works well within a shared understanding of the narrative and genre conventions. I've considered FATE instead of trying to learn whatever "official" system exists for said setting.

 

[Arilyn]

I do think that FATE is really good at running any established franchise setting, like Star Trek, because it works well within a shared understanding of the narrative and genre conventions. I've considered FATE instead of trying to learn whatever "official" system exists for said setting.

I do this quite a bit too.

 

[Crusadius]

I have never played it, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I first purchased Spirit of the Century and loved the setting but got confused about the system - I kinda liked it but the Aspects bogged me down a bit. E.g. being On Fire but this appearing to have no effect unless someone interacts with it (spending Fate points, etc - its been a while since I read the rules so may be misremembering things now).

This didn’t stop me from getting Dresden Files, Fate Core and other Fate iterations.

Still have mixed feelings about it.

 

[Tonguez]

I have never played it, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I first purchased Spirit of the Century and loved the setting but got confused about the system - I kinda liked it but the Aspects bogged me down a bit. E.g. being On Fire but this appearing to have no effect unless someone interacts with it (spending Fate points, etc - its been a while since I read the rules so may be misremembering things now).

This didn’t stop me from getting Dresden Files, Fate Core and other Fate iterations.

Still have mixed feelings about it.

yeah a common criticism is things in Core werent very well explained to begin with, which is why the Fate fractal was introduced and emphasized as a support for creative licence.

“On Fire“ is an Aspect in exactly the same way as “Alert Guard” is an Aspect, and just as the shared fiction means the Guard, can Move and Attack and Use Skills/Approaches/Stunts so can ”Fire.
Fire moves, Fire has an Attack (lets call it burn) and lets give it a stunt called “spread”.
Putting out the fire is an overcome roll v its harm track (2 boxes called smoulder and out)