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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9616375" data-attributes="member: 93670">Fate DOES mechanically pressure what is optimal while maintaining the narrative focus of combat, on some leves it does so with long lasting hurt that impacts play backed by an incredibly steep death spiral when tested. [USER=177]@Umbran[/USER] mentioned fate/fae's stress tracks earlier but didn't say much about consequences or <a href="https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/getting-taken-out" target="_blank">getting taken out </a>because those elements are so incredibly relevant to how this tediously trading blows vrs any hit could kill your PC. that bold bit of your post makes it both relevant and important to clear up some misconceptions.In fate stress tracks refresh (clear) themselves often, but they are also short and taking stress beyond what they can hold forces the target to make a choice with two not at all pleasant options.  Firstly the player can take a consequence, but clearing those takes an amount of time that varies based on the consequence.. that time could be the d&d equivalent of something like "next session" all the way up to what might as well be a system jargon free "maybe after this hard cover adventure/campaign".  I ran fate through most of 4e (dfrpg then core mainly) and some consequences I've given out that come to mind range from things like bruised ego and sprained ankle all the way to broken bones severed limbs organ damage and even "in the ICU on life support" in one case of an "extreme consequence". Consequences don't just go away, they step down so an extreme eventually improves by shifting to a major then eventually that major becomes a moderate and once again it eventually becomes a minor before going away.  The entire time that a PC has a consequence filled it can be tagged by opponents and even other players to effectively enjoy the benefits/impose penalties to an attack or even just flat out "no you can't do that" with a compel the player needs to work around narratively.The second option players have is to get taken out & it's such a terrifying result that both sides of a combat are generally quick to conceed so they can have a say in working out the details of how they lose.  Frequently that happens early on as the narrative advantages are rolled out because the stress track is short and consequences are brutal.  For the record, a player expecting that trading blows was a workable option is how they wound up on life support in the ICU with an extreme consequence after a for took them out and declared they walked off to continue doing their thing with a comment about the party needing to get their fool to the hospital before he died (the attack would have overflowed past the extreme consequence and due to thinking trading blows was ok so were his other consequence slots. Given the options available to them, the bbeg & his allies let him off easy and he came back better prepared with a new PC the next session.</blockquote>

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