[Fate] Shadow of the Century

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Like that cover. Have yet to really give FATE’s core rules a real read.
 
Like that cover. Have yet to really give FATE’s core rules a real read.
I posted my homemade cheat sheets / rules summaries in the resources section if you want a super concise take on it; the Fate Core book PDF itself is free on DTRPG if you want more details. Despite all the rhetoric, it's a fairly traditional system.
So far, Shadow looks pretty interesting. It gives you a solid sketch of the setting, while allowing your own group to fill in some details, and even decide on some of the central themes, which is my preferred approach to settings. It's definitely meant to be a mish-mash of over-the-top 80s action and intrigue movies, though it also has mechanics for urban fantasy that seem more 90s and later to me (Buffy, the Teen Wolf TV series, etc.). I could totally see running Big trouble in Little China with this. :smile: I need to look at it more closely, but I have a fairly positive impression of it so far.
 
Like that cover. Have yet to really give FATE’s core rules a real read.
The 4DF mechanic is pretty straightforward, but the real gimmick is in how to use aspects and stunts, and their relationship to the FATE point economy. If you use the RAW, the DM doesn't award FATE points for cool role playing, but only for invoke-against and compels on aspects and concessions. Ergo, the key to doing this is to learn how to use and design aspects properly, which takes a bit of practice to really get your head around.

Combat and task mechanics aren't anything terribly unusual. Character generation is supposed to be done as a group, and you swap sheets around and write bits into other characters sheets, which gives your party the hooks to hang together. FATE points are essentially bennies you can spend to goose your rolls. There are rules that govern the DM's use of FATE points as well.

The gimmick is in the relationship between aspects and the FATE point economy. Under the RAW, you only get FATE points for having aspects invoked or compelled against you, or conceding. To design an aspect for a character you need to think about 4 things:
  • What permissions does the aspect give you - e.g. 'Brother of the king' might give you the ability to get an audience with the king on short notice.
  • How do you invoke the aspect for an advantage - e.g. 'Fastest gun in the west' might be invoked at the cost of a FATE point to get a quick draw off before your enemy can shoot at you.
  • How can the aspect be invoked against you (thus allowing the DM to bribe you with FATE points) - e.g. 'I am a being of the night' could make you easy to dazzle with bright light.
  • How can the aspect be used to compel you to get into trouble (also allowing the DM to bribe you with FATE points) - e.g. 'Fastest gun in the west' could be used to compel the character to get into a quick draw with someone who turns out to be the local plantation owner's nephew. Characters can also compel themselves.
Aspects don't have to lend themselves to all of these, but characters should have a set of aspects that offers opportunity for these to happen. You will need invoke-against and compels to get FATE points (you can also concede, which is a sort of fail-forward mechanic). The system is intended to encourage fail-forward to accumulate FATE points to spend in epic battles at the end.

You can also have situational aspects, which can be invoked but don't necessarily participate in the FATE point economy. Characters can also have stunts, which are special abilities and can be sorta kinda thought of as aspects without a down side.

That's FATE's key gimmick - figuring out how to use the FATE point economy to bribe the party to get into trouble. Perhaps the hardest part of using FATE is designing aspects that work well.
 
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Ah, this is interesting. Chargen includes choosing among sixteen roles. You pick three, each of which comes with some starting skills, and a half dozen example stunts from which to choose. You get some more skill points that you can put into any skills, and you can still define your own stunts as per Fate Core if you like, but I think this approach could really help move chargen along, especially for folks newer to Fate, or who just have trouble coming up with stunts, or even just basic character ideas. (BTW, the roles are: brain, brawler, cop, detective, dilettante, face, hacker, inventor, leader, ninja, saboteur, soldier, spy, thief, warrior, and wheelman.)
 
Heh, some fun example characters too: Army of One, Coolest Kid in School, Earthbound Alien, Fugitive Android, Loose Cannon, Martial Artist, Sorcerer for Hire, Teenage Werewolf (or vampire, or mummy, or ... ), Time Rider, and Unlikely Chosen One. Now I'm getting a Buffy vibe ...
 
The 4DF mechanic is pretty straightforward, but the real gimmick is in how to use aspects and stunts, and their relationship to the FATE point economy. If you use the RAW, the DM doesn't award FATE points for cool role playing, but only for invoke-against and compels on aspects and concessions. Ergo, the key to doing this is to learn how to use and design aspects properly, which takes a bit of practice to really get your head around.

Combat and task mechanics aren't anything terribly unusual. Character generation is supposed to be done as a group, and you swap sheets around and write bits into other characters sheets, which gives your party the hooks to hang together. FATE points are essentially bennies you can spend to goose your rolls. There are rules that govern the DM's use of FATE points as well.

The gimmick is in the relationship between aspects and the FATE point economy. Under the RAW, you only get FATE points for having aspects invoked or compelled against you, or conceding. To design an aspect for a character you need to think about 4 things:
  • What permissions does the aspect give you - e.g. 'Brother of the king' might give you the ability to get an audience with the king on short notice.
  • How do you invoke the aspect for an advantage - e.g. 'Fastest gun in the west' might be invoked at the cost of a FATE point to get a quick draw off before your enemy can shoot at you.
  • How can the aspect be invoked against you (thus allowing the DM to bribe you with FATE points) - e.g. 'I am a being of the night' could make you easy to dazzle with bright light.
  • How can the aspect be used to compel you to get into trouble (also allowing the DM to bribe you with FATE points) - e.g. 'Fastest gun in the west' could be used to compel the character to get into a quick draw with someone who turns out to be the local plantation owner's nephew. Characters can also compel themselves.
Aspects don't have to lend themselves to all of these, but characters should have a set of aspects that offers opportunity for these to happen. You will need invoke-against and compels to get FATE points (you can also concede, which is a sort of fail-forward mechanic). The system is intended to encourage fail-forward to accumulate FATE points to spend in epic battles at the end.

You can also have situational aspects, which can be invoked but don't necessarily participate in the FATE point economy. Characters can also have stunts, which are special abilities and can be sorta kinda thought of as aspects without a down side.

That's FATE's key gimmick - figuring out how to use the FATE point economy to bribe the party to get into trouble. Perhaps the hardest part of using FATE is designing aspects that work well.

Nice, clear explanation. Thanks Nobby-W Nobby-W. Seems pretty straight forward how you describe it.
 
Nice, clear explanation. Thanks Nobby-W Nobby-W. Seems pretty straight forward how you describe it.
Really, the nuances lie around designing aspects that work well, which takes a bit of thought. A good set of aspects gives your character both useful abilities and opportunities to generate FATE points through invoke-against and compels. This essentially means that FATE characters are supposed to be flawed in ways that can be used against them.

FATE characters are supposed to be 'Competent, Proactive and Dramatic'; the system is really designed to encourage pulp action and melodrama (it also has fairly strong social combat mechanics for settings where this is more appropriate than sword play or gun slinging). The idea of the FATE point economy is to encourage the party to get into trouble and make for more drama in the story. You use FATE points to bribeencourage the party to stop acting like paranoid D&D players and get into the story and make drama.

Using concessions (i.e. the party suffers an early defeat and takes some penalty in exchange for FATE points) lets you fail forward, generating drama in the adventure. Concessions aren't normally related to aspects but to situations in the game where the party must concede - for example being forced back from a battle, being captured, having something taken from them, being humiliated by their enemy at court or suffering some other significant setback. In a concession, the party takes a hit in exchange for FATE points.

The Book of Hanz is a collection of essays by Rob Hanz about topics like designing aspects. It's a more philosophical view of how to use the system in an idiomatic FATE-like way and can be downloaded off the interwebs for free.
 
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I was a Fate backer too……for a $1!

So, I'm not getting a free backer copy of this any time soon. That said, I do have some Fate books and PDFs, and this is the sort of thing that works really well with it in my view. I'll probably pick it up in due course.
 
Fate is one of my favourite systems, and one of the Fate Core campaigns I have in hiatus at present is a homebrew that I call 'Action Flick Episodes,' which is set in contemporary times and owes alot to cheesy action shows like Magnum PI, Burn Notice, The A Team, as well as The Fast And The Furious, The Transporter, Mission Impossible, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc

This new Shadow Of The Century sounds really cool, I'm sure I'll be able to mine it for inspiration for my own Action Flick Episodes game!

I am a KS Backer and got the message, but was unable to load the page up last night, so I'll try again this evening.
This all sounds really cool!
 
Looks fun. I'd run it with Savage Worlds. :shade:

On a serious note, FATE is one system I wish I could get into. My one attempt to run it was marred by misunderstanding some of the rules. I should really give Core and FAE a good read some day.
 
Rules for 80s style montages ... :smile: Kinda like flashback mechanics, but to get you forward a bit, in an interesting way, but without dragging things out. I'll definitely be stealing this for other games.
 
ok I got this pdf a month or so ago, but keep forgetting I have it, as I dont have the physical copy in my bookcase.

Hopefully this weekend I will get some time to start reading it, as I am definitely going to mine this for ideas for my pre-existing Fate Core Action Flick game, which I am looking to kick off again mid year.

I would like to see Evil Hat promote some more resources regarding this. It really needs to be a small setting line by itself, otherwise it will be overlooked my many.
 
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