Fate Horror Toolkit

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Yeah it looks great. I just love the whole Fate Core/FAE thing, easily one of my favourite set of game mechanics.

I have the other Fate Toolkits, so I'm sure this one will be good to. It will be interesting to see Fate portray a less puply action genre, there's no reason why it can't, it's down to aspects and consequences to set the tone of the game.

I think the use of Compels will be a big thing with this genre, so I'm very interested in the advice on that. No doubt there will be a fair bit of information that will have nothing to do with game mechanics, so that will probably be good advice for any system wanting to use horror.

Yep I'm also looking forward to this Toolkit!
 
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Most of my Fate games typically run pretty gritty*, in truth. It's all in how you set difficulties, how free you are with additional Fate Points, and how much you play up Consequences.

The Horror Toolkit will be neat, as horror is something I don't think Fate is too awesome at.

* depends on how you define "gritty", of course. Default Fate isn't really going to have one shot kills, so if that's your definition of "gritty", it's going to be a bit hard to achieve.
 
It definitely depends on what you mean by "horror" and what you mean by "good at." I feel like a lot of the time when people say that Fate isn't good at horror, what they mean is that it's not good at being CoC / BRP. Well, duh: it's a different system. However, I think there are plenty of horror styles that Fate could handle with minimal modification, or even RAW. Even some of the suggestions in the general Fate System Toolkit are probably sufficient; having said that, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with this!
 
The Fate Core rulebook is set at a wild pulpy action dial, but actually the system can portray most genres, the tone of the setting is up to the GM.

This plays out in terms of setting concept, character and scene aspects, consequence names, and difficulty levels.

I can portray court intrigue, high fantasy or gritty grimdark fantasy just as well as I could do action flick or pulp adventure.

This makes it one of my 'go-to' rpg systems which I can plug almost any setting into (HeroQuest could be another game like this, although my friends find it a bit too 'narrative' for their tastes)

I'm really interested regarding the advice in this toolkit; it will be good to see how the game designers approach the horror genre.
 
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Cool - I have been waiting for this book.
I just downloaded it thru DrivethruRPG, and pre-ordered a hardcopy thru Aetherworks AU.
Not sure when I'll get time to read it in depth, but I'll sink my teeth into it soon!
 
I'm still reading through my copy of this, but there's a lot of good stuff here - not just the details of how to do it in Fate, but also the philosophy and practice of running horror games in general.
Top stuff.
 
Ladybird said:
I'm still reading through my copy of this, but there's a lot of good stuff here - not just the details of how to do it in Fate, but also the philosophy and practice of running horror games in general.
Top stuff.
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Yah, I actually think I like the non-Fate-specific stuff even more than the Fate-specific stuff!
 
I got my hardcopy.

Reading the section about complimentary mechanics at the back emphasized how thin a sliver of the horror genre I am interested in. I don't want any of my gaming experience to be like Saw, for example.
 
No SAW for me either.
We're going to do the whole Fate game creation thing during our first session and narrow in on the specific type of horror / suspense that we all can find some enthusiasm for. We've done a little bit of horror before in Savage Worlds and Silent Legions a while back and they seemed to prefer far more subtle horror, investigation into secret cults and such. We'll see where we end up this time.
 
I bought it and thought it was super useful. I'm not even running a horror game right now, but I'm going got use some of the ideas in my Venture City FATE game I'm pretty sure and just apply them slightly differently. also loved the Fate style zombie campaign ideas. The monster creation section was also very useful IMO,even for non-horror games where you want players to have a sense of a true "Big Bad" as oppose to a standard adversary.
 
TheophilusCarter said:
It definitely depends on what you mean by "horror" and what you mean by "good at." I feel like a lot of the time when people say that Fate isn't good at horror, what they mean is that it's not good at being CoC / BRP. Well, duh: it's a different system. However, I think there are plenty of horror styles that Fate could handle with minimal modification, or even RAW. Even some of the suggestions in the general Fate System Toolkit are probably sufficient; having said that, I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do with this!
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Well, to be fair, it's actually an issue that the Fate System Toolkit discusses itself:
Fate System Toolkit; p176 said:
At face value, Fate is a bad fit for the horror genre. It’s right there in the opener of Fate Core: “…works best with any premise where the characters are proactive, capable people leading dramatic lives.” Horror does its dark work by placing characters in deadly, inescapable circumstances beyond their control. In horror, characters are often forced to react, rather than act. Despite their capabilities, characters face threats that outclass them; their competence isn’t enough to win. Defeat seems inevitable, and success comes at a high cost. Rather than charge in and win the day, characters focus more on surviving the next few minutes and making good on an escape.
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