Sorta, but it's not even across that range. The chance of rolling a +4 is 1/81, whereas the chance of rolling a nat'l 20 is more like 1/20 (well, a-duh).
In any case, something like 65% of the rolls are between -1 and 1 in SotC. If you assume that the math should scale directly, bad things will happen, since it's just very, very hard to roll a +4, and even +2s are rare. Thus, each incremental bonus to anything is very, very precious.
This all is very true, but getting bonuses is much easier in FATE than 4e. The normal curve rolls are interesting, and do tend to cut down on the variance of your rolls, but the range is still there.
Is this something you've actually done & played? How'd it work out for you?
Not a full game yet. Just a little bit of dice rolling for a playtest with a buddy. We want to work out a few more details before we actually play a full game, and I would rather have something more polished and written out first.
Yeah, but that wouldn't be any fun (at least for me). At that point you get _nothing_ with which to define yourself in the early levels. I mean, you could do it, but I'd never play as less than 6th level -- pick 1 skill and two aspects. Go play. I mean, it could work, but your characters would be extremely incompetent and on the whole, pretty similar. I contend it gives too little agency below level, oh, 6.
Yeah, I agree, but we never actually played below 5-6 in anything before 4e anyway.
If you are using this method to convert a campaign, you are likely doing it because the characters have some history, and they likely aren't 1st level. I would likely start at a pyramid of 3 with three predetermined aspects and 3 predetermined stunts, with an bonus of 3 stunts from your "class" and 2 "open" aspects to be filled during play. That gives you 6 stunts, 5 aspects, and 6 skills. Definitely a workable character.
Cute
Have you seen the "weapons as consequences" rule? That's my personal favorite weapon model, because otherwise using anything other than the biggest weapon you can get your hands on is
far deadlier than bog-standard D&D.
I have. I like them, but I am going to go with the Faster Combat rules, so I want to leave the consequences in the hands of the recieving party.
Using a modifier to attack/damage both gets at the fact that a dagger is at a disadvantage to a longword when trying to attack, and will do less damage as well. Armor then also both keeps you from getting hit (like D&D) as well as damage reduction (like how it really works). It seems to streamline things, and with spin increasing the level of consequences, the bonus to attack/damage turns into a bonus to damage/damage reduction if you don't need the bonus for success.
Ooo. Fork a thread. Details?
Quick summary.
One of your aspects will relate to your "class". This is equivalent to the background or war phase in SotC. You answer the question "How did you learn your trade?" and then you get a stunt package for free that is related to this aspect.
There are 4 stunt packages, one each for defender, leader, controller, and striker.
Defender Stunts
Tough- use either Might or Melee instead of Endurance when determining extra stress boxes.
Armored- you can use heavy armor and a shield to full effect.
Defender- +2 to any Block action attempt.
Striker Stunts
Quick- +1 to all forms of movement.
Deadly- +2 to any attack.
Lightly Armored- you can use light armor.
Leader Stunts
Healbot- you can either use the Heal skill at +2 to heal stress or downgrade a consequence, or you can use Heal as a supplemental action.
Buffer- +2 to maneuvers to add temporay aspects to you allies.
Medium Armored- you can use medium armor.
Controller Stunts
Zappy- Use the Magic skill instead of Ranged skill to attack.
Boom!- Take a -1 to your ranged attacks and they can target an entire zone.
Meddly- +2 to maneuvers to add aspects to enemies or the scene.
Probably needs some polish, but it gives a skeleton for the roles that 4e set out. Multiclassing would need an appropriate aspect as a prerequisite, and then you would have to dedicate stunts to get the role stunts that you want.
So as an example, if I wanted to make a dwarf fighter type character, I might do something like this. During the background phase, I take the "Dwarf of Sawtooth Mountain Hold" aspect. Takes care of race. Then I take the aspect "Veteran of the Deepingdelve Siege". I take the free Defender stunt package to relate to this. I might envision this armored dwarf to have risen in rank since the siege, so I could take the aspect "That's Seargent Stumpy to you!!!!" in the last phase, and then dedicate two stunts to the Buffer and Heabot Leader Stunts. We now have a passable multiclass dwarf fighter/warlord. Fill in the skill pyramid and the rest of the stunts, add some basic equipment, decide one Keys for XP (I haven't worked this part out completely) and you got yourself a crumugdeon dwarf vet.
Working on a way to have magical effects do composure then health stress. Not exactly sure how I want to do it. So right now I have a quite a bit to work out to make it a finished product that I actually playable.
