Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8596263" data-attributes="member: 93670">Or at least tossed it in the dmg optional rules if not a UA.  From his description It doesn't sound like it was all that fleshed out.  You can absolutely see how other areas of the game like devauling gold/magic items/etc were adjusted to make room for that kind of Fate-like  push/pull mechanic.  I ran fate for years & it's really easy to show someone how it plays at a table of people who are up to speed but extremely difficult to break them out of the d&d box once they start so I can see why they dumped it.  In one of my games I use death at zero no death saves & fate style conceed/taken out to avoid  early/don't dare die which works well.  Trying to get the fate style <a href="https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/phase-trio" target="_blank">collaborative phase trio</a> character creation running with players can be really tough too, without that you either need lots of generic aspects (like 1 BIFT each for more than one of background/race/class or archetype), the suggested ones are too specific & niche for a small number to be useful in any meaningful way then they get invoked for a compel with things like NPC persuade/intimidate/etc=DC  & inspiration for fail by dice or fail by choice.  It takes a while for players to think of aspects as something that should grow & evolve during a story/campaign so there would need to be ways to regularly allow/force them to change or just a ton of them.  Fate characters have a high concept+trouble+3 character aspects so 1 each BIFT is super anemic already if characters don't have more piled on from things like race/class/etc too.You'd be surprised, once you start letting players leverage NPCs in their orbit they start getting real creative.   Here's a few off the top of my head<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My sister works in the kitchen/laundry/etc at lord whathisface's  manor.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I bet she could get us in</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I bet she could get us an audience with someone</li> </ul></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My sister is very religious.  I bet she could help us get a deal on removing this curse/raise dead on bob/etc</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">said to the herbalist:My sister grows herbs for you, any chance we can get a deal on these potions/sell us the illegal poisons we have trouble buying/etc?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">in all seriousness I once had a player declare out of the blue mid session that <a href="https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Jaela_Daran" target="_blank">the lolipope</a> was his sister.  Think of how often a player has declared themselves blood relatives & students of to high nobles gods eleminster types & so on.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">etc</li> </ul>The trouble is not usually with mundane NPCs who are usually tough to involve too much though.  Things start getting hairy when bob is playing something like a noble, guild artisan, folk hero, soldier, criminal/spy, accolyte, etc.  Those backgrounds come with connections to powerful people with real clout who players might often expect to call in favors from<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Your sister got you in a while back & is in desperately in need of steady work elsewhere cause lord whatshisface suspects what she did.  Lady  whosit has a position but she 's only willing to hire her if you fix the problem with the mine she owns fast.  No you can't just give her a thousand gold  to support her bob</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">the church has voluntold you for dealing with this problem, your sister's job is in the lurch.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">etc</li> </ul>Depends on who aunt mae is, I think some versions of her have her working pretty  well connected jobs.  In a dresden files rpg (fate variant) game I had a player build a real frank castle(punisher) type PC with no ties to anyone save his love for his [trouble aspect] love for his wife.  The wife's development went something like this<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">someone needed to recover>she was a doctor</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Not just any DR the department head or something nurse or something</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There was some kind of magical virus similar to one that got mentioned or actually came up in the novels.  Investigating it would have required going through some things to build a lab> she has sway with the virology department</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">and she is working in the ER today which is important because we can see bob's lung right now & need to start healing it</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">And I know the layout of this conference hall because my wife the doctor has given presentations on cutting edge medicine here so often</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">none of us have any computer skills but my wife the doctor uses them all the time because of electronic medical records laws, we could get her* or the IT department there to look at this & use their computer skills.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">My wife the doctor has her medical kit in the trunk of my car, we could use that to start the recovery on this</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Somewhere along the line the player had gotten many warnings about leaning too heavily on his trouble aspect wife to solve problems & that he's need to put some refresh into things other than murder skills but he never did & never changed his aspects even though those warnings came with it being pointed out what the point of a trouble aspect is.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">  After almost a year of this a BBEG started something in the hospital putting her position at risk .  The player ignored it after the group  a monster of some forgotten kind  in the lobby with magic & heavy weapons.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Things continued for a couple months as before & a BBEG outright kidnapped her, the player lost it in a fit of rage</li> </ul>* as an IT person with multiple family members in various aspects of healthcare I'm sure a few people will understand why I lost it laughing at this when it came up.</blockquote>

Verification