For me, it's the more action and faster pace to the portrayals that appeals. As well with the major changes to the timeline it just seems like a fresher slate. But also depends on whether exploration, or action is the general focus.

I'm having trouble deciding whether I want to play Save Game or to run it. I've found previous attempts to run Fate to be rather abortive, so that's my only apprehension in that regard, but I've been thinking of a Mario game with a basis in the beatdownboogie video Mario Warfare. Personally I could see the Glitch in The Mushroom Kingdom resulting from the events of said video, and have the players all be survivors that didn't chase Bowser.

Been reading the Fionavar Series, and much more so than Narnia or the other portal series it has me trying to figure out a campaign with a similar feel.

Has anyone tried a Portal Fantasy with Fate Core or Accelerated? Years ago now I was on a great freeform game here that was similar but totally died out over time. Just looking for ideas and such guys thanks.

While I only have a super vague idea for this, I'd love a historical campaign based on something like Crusader Kings, using FAE

Fate often strikes me as the perfect go-to for certain one-shot games, often inspired by neat video game ideas, such as A Plague Tale: Innocence. Here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djmHcNBe1Z4 (warning: it can be gruesome). The idea is an alt-history Black Plague-infested France, where swarms of hideous rats flood the streets. The rats flee sources of light (such as torches), greedily devour even living, healthy people when they gather in numbers, and there is some kind of unnatural mystery behind it all. You can try to sneak past them, cleverly use the environment to your advantage, or even manipulate the rats into devouring Inquisition guards who seek to stop or kill you.

How would you do this with something like Fate for a one-shot? What clever ways would you use Aspects and environmental stuff to represent the rats, the torches, the fact that to accomplish some goals you have to risk drawing in the swarms or abandon the thing you sought just to escape the swarms, or guards? How would you add tension and horror to the struggle to survive the Plague-infested streets?

None at all, just in the normal ways Fate works.


It doesn't sounds to me like they're meant to be opponents one actually fights. In general I'd probably treat them as aspects on the scene, and as Challenges.

A given building or room is Full of Rats (sounds like everything would be, really).
A given swarm of rats is in a Feeding Frenzy, or Distracted by a Fresh Corpse.
A given escape route is Slick with Bodily Waste.


Isn't a torch a torch? I'd be willing to make a torch (or not) a general aspect that can be compelled to matter. No need to get too fancy there.

Anything can have aspects, so if I wanted some distinction between torches, I'd use aspects. At the outset it would just be a torch. If the character were knocked into a puddle, I might put "Guttering and Flickering" on the torch, or maybe "Sopping Wet" which makes it more difficult to relight. If something results in the players taking too long the torches would start "Burning Low."


I'm not sure how one would make that a "fact."

I didn't watch the video, but what you're describing here makes it sounds like a puzzle game. Draw the rats from one area, to clear another area to sneak through to grab the meat that you can use to lure the rats to another location, etc. If that's what it's like, don't think Fate would be good for that, since nothing is absolute. A situation might play out in vastly different ways depending on rolls and fate point expenditure.


I'd pick players who wanted to have a game with tension and horror and we'd all describe the tension and horror we wanted present. There's no other way to do it.

As a complete Fate newbie, I was hoping for some assistance figuring out how best to run a game with this premise. So, here's hoping!



Right. If you do "fight" them, it's not generally a "sword them until they are defeated" thing. It's a "drive them away for a time with fire" or "escape them to one of the few shrinking safe places."



That sounds cool. That's the sort of thing I thought would help create a really atmospheric game, interacting with the environment and doing a rather dynamic, tension-filled scene.



More like, would you suffer a complication (or Consequence? I'll have to check the term again) in abandoning an objective? Or suffer one to accomplish something (rats injure you or break into a stronghold, etc.)?

Unless the mechanics are actually used, though, this is just description. Things need to happen that make those aspects matter.

I watched the trailer and it seems basically like a puzzle game. Maybe things get more free-form after the learning level, but it generally seems like it's linear, with a solution to be found at each step. There's not much that you'd roll dice for if it were an RPG. Which is fine, except that you don't need Fate or any ruleset at that point.

But if you're only taking the game for inspiration, then I guess I could see it.

The rats would be an obstacle and they'd have some standard aspects like "Afraid of light" and "Ravenous." Guards or looters would have "None too bright" and "Armored goons." To these, you'd add other aspects like "Searching the area" or "Drunk as a skunk," for guards, and "Waist deep" or "Unusually bold," for rats. In dealing with the obstacle, the players and referees could compel those to make things harder or easier.

For instance, if a room contains some "unusually bold" rats, then the referee can spend a fate point to make some of them approach despite the light, requiring more light, some loud noises, or the like to overcome their boldness. I'm not sure what skill that might entail, which makes it a tad tricky.

It might not involve skills so much as fate points. Players can declare details for the use of a fate point, so in that situation they might put an aspect on the scene like "bags of flour" which lets the create flashes by throwing the powder through the torch. Or whatever. They spent the fate point, so they make it through.

As fate points run out, they'll need to get them back. I guess characters could have aspects that are related to fears or responsibilities, and when those are compelled, they'd get their points back.


Consequences are generally suffered as a result of losing a Conflict, but I suppose they could be the result of failing or partially failing a Challenge. I think this game would mostly consist of Challenges.

The wood pile is Rotten so it won't burn for long. Athletics to move across the terrain quickly, Notice to find the fire-making materials quickly, Craft to concoct an igniter in time, maybe Shoot to place additional flames where you need them. Fail on one or two of those, and while you're out of danger you're not where you were trying to reach, and the guards in the area are "On High Alert." Compel you "Nose for Trouble" aspect on your Notice checks and your "Longshanks" aspect on your Athletics check, because the referee is going to up the difficulty with the "Troublesome Flocks of Crows" and "Sucking Mud" aspects.

Yeah, it could work. Good luck. Be sure to pick up a free copy of the rules or read the SRD.

I figured that would be the case. Basically, the whole question is "How do I use Fate to create scenes and games inspired by this?"



Yeah, I don't want to emulate the exact gameplay itself, just take inspiration for it. Or rather: "Say you're using Fate to run a game. The premise is that the Black Plague has struck France, carried by supernatural swarms of rats that threaten the stability of the place. It's a mix of survival horror and mystery. How would you run this game with Fate?"



Good! Sounds cool. I've read Fate, and played in some very, very short-lived games, so I never really got a feel for how to make the toolkit work for me. But there are lots of one-shot game ideas like this that seem like the system would work real well for, at least to me; it's why I seek the advice of Fate veterans in how you might do certain things.



This is what I mean. Cool ways to implement these things into scenes, how to put Fate's unique mechanics to work for you. The above is a perfect example of the kind of thing I wouldn't know how to do well, but figured someone could. And it makes me think my hunch was right: Fate would work real well for doing a game with this sort of premise.

In reply to Samus Aran (msg # 120):

Grab the FATE Horror Toolkit if you've not done so already, and familiarize yourself with FATE Core and an apocalyptic setting like that of Morts or The Ministry (all of which are pay-what-you-want for the PDFs).

Stuff like the FATE System Toolkit, and FATE games like Kaiju Incorporated and Achtung! Cthulhu, may provide further ideas should you opt for something other than FATE Accelerated Edition (by far the lightest version of FATE you'll find.)

I'm not sure I'd run it as a game, but there was a thread about running Heavy Metal type games in Fate (in the GPIA subforum here) because they had ideas that circumvented tyrannical Hit Point economies in D&D. For some random reason, that made me think of an anime game with stress boxes being tied to clothing state. I dunno why I thought of it. I don't think I'd want to run it, but it's just a random idea I had that I thought was hilarious.

I don't know what they didn't like about "hit point economies" but I doubt they'd get what they wanted from Fate. In my experience, fate points themselves get treated like hit points, in that players will resist using them because they feel that losing them puts them at the mercy of the GM.

The problem with hit point economies tends to be that they become the only way anything is truly decided. Every fight becomes about wiping out the other side, because just about everything else is messy to handle. All that is needed is to come up with other ways to declare victory and defeat. It's as necessary in Fate as in D&D and anyone who thinks just changing the damage system will fix the issues for them is in for disappointment.

Quick idea. I want to do a mashup of Traveller RPG setting with Fate rules, and Fantasy races. Pipe dream, already been done, to much work or cool idea. Not sure I can make up my mind. . .

By Traveller setting, do you mean the Third Imperium? It could certainly be done, but the setting already has plenty of races. Darrians are fairly close to elves, in a sense. Still sounds neat, though.

I’ve been thinking about running a pulpy, gonzo, freakshow of a game with action scientists, cyborg apes, and otherworldly madness set during World War Two. I’ll be drawing from the pulps and various pulp games along with Atomic Robo, Hellboy, and various WW2 games, including Spirit of the Century and Achtung! Cthulhu.

I’d be running this with Fate Core as it appears in the Atomic Robo RPG. Magic will be limited, if allowed at all.

So would anyone be interested in some over-the-top, pulpy, gonzo goodness?

I'd really want to play a Crusader Kings style game of fate or a FATE campaign in Middle-Earth

I would be up for a middle earth game. I was really into the idea of a Darker Dungeon game.

But I am also currently running a game right now that is just starting about people who are corrupted by a madness that is wrecking havoc on earth.

So think people who are turning into monsters who are being corrupted by this and have to struggle with trying to survive in the normal world while dealing with their monster nature.

link to another game

I'd really want to play a Crusader Kings style game of fate or a FATE campaign in Middle-Earth - or just a general medieval (like actual middle ages, not the traditional DnD fantasy) campaign.

I know I've said this a lot, but I'd love to play a crusader kings style campaign or an alt-history campaign.

I have learned way too much about the actual Middle Ages to be able to enjoy the romanticized versions of them anymore.  It even bleeds over into my enjoyment of Tolkien, at least a little.  (But I still love hobbits.)

Anyway, would anyone be interested in a game set in a project I've been working on for over a decade (off and on)?  It is called "After the Collapse" and it is a Fate game set in near future, in a time after the nuclear war in the Middle East has made all that oil unavailable.

No magic, no zombies, no supernatural of any sort.  It is typical pulp-style Fate where the heroic people are vastly tougher and more skilled than the normal, or minion, class.  But the world is just a gritty version of our own, but after a complete economic collapse.  The U.S. has splintered into several smaller countries with vastly different flavors:

• Republic of Texas, controlled by the corrupt oil barons
• Eastern badlands, where any pretense of the rule of law is gone
• United Northwest, where alternate energies have finally succeeded
• New Ellay, what's left of Southern California after the terrible earthquakes
• U.S. of A., what used to be the Bible belt has become a theocracy
• The Confederate States of America, where they've made 'Murica great again, and the KKK once again operates openly.

Any interest?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Fri 23 Oct 2020.

In reply to Zag24 (msg # 131):

fair enough, I'd be fine even if it wasn't a romanticized version of the middle ages

I'm not sure about a campaign set in the future, but I'll think on it

Well, the actual version of the Middle Ages was horrible.  The church and the nobles (the two groups were incestuously mixed) held all the power, the system was rife with arrogance and corruption, and the lives of actual people were short and brutal.  Any sort of change -- social, scientific, technological, philosophical -- that might threaten the establishment was squashed brutally and mercilessly.  It took a freaking plague that killed 30-40% of the population to get us out of the cycle of power begets power begets brutal oppression of those who don't have it.

Consider all the stories, all the ongoing myths that still trickle through our society, of "the wisdom of the ancients."  Talk to someone today who seriously believes in Astrology, and they will tell you how much more our deep ancestors knew than we do today.  It's ridiculous, of course, but those myths arise from the almost-a-millennium of Dark Ages in which the cycle of power wielded by the church and the nobles crushed any free thinking, any scholarly effort that was not "Biblical scholar."  During that 900 year period, it actually was true that the most knowledgeable, most educated people knew a lot less than their predecessors from ancient Greece and Rome.

And look!  Our own country is trying to revert to a system where scientists are ignored and politicians are considered the source of truth.  Sorry, I started to rant.

In reply to Zag24 (msg # 133):

oh yeah, totally. no worries about ranting

I've gone and resurrected a game from a while back because some of the players were that persistent.   But not everyone came back.   We've been in a kind of doldrums for a little bit a I was waiting on a couple of ghosts.  Thought I'd post here before posting in Players Wanted.

Sins of the Orishi is a Space Opera-ish game, taking a a heavy influence from Dark Matter, Killjoys and, at the players insistence, Firefly.

The PCs were awakened from an advanced cryo-sleep to find themselves aboard a space-station that was falling apart around them.   Turns out they were all convicted criminals, but the awakening was botched and the PCs don't remember their life before awakening.

They made their way through the perils of the decaying space-station, fought their way onto a half-stripped space-ship in the Station's Maintenance flight-deck, and survived a FTL jump (despite the ship--The Orishi--supposedly not having a jump drive).  The ship has just tethered to an asteroid colony, K-Zino, where they've got five cycles to come up with the cash to pay for their atmosphere, food, etc...

I've got four pretty active players and could take on one or two more.  Now is a good time to do so, because I'm just about to launch the next big conflict.

Sins of the Orishi

Woo hoo!  Awesome game!  Come join us!  :D


Next... Big... Conflict...?  *gulp* ;)