This is the thread for discussion of Fate Core, rules questions pertaining to Fate Core etc.

Okay, here's a question for you...

I'm developing a character for Fate Core in a SF setting, wherein the character is a a master Chef & Alchemist.

What skill should be the pinnacle skill?  Lore?  Crafts?

Sure, I know I can clarify anything with stunts.   How would you do this?

Well assuming you don't want to alter the Default Skill list in your game, I'd probably go with Lore since Crafts, IIRC, is for Engineering etc, and it seems like someone who is an alchemist is more closely aligned with Scholarly pursuits than they would be repairing or designing heavy machinery. That might just be me though.

Like you said, you can use Stunts or Extras to flesh out your Alchemy.

Yeah, that was my interpretation as well.  But Crafts is all about the use of tools... and cooking is also all about the use of tools.  So there is a cognitive association there for me.

Since it's not at all a key skill for the story or game-setting,  I'm not suggesting a change to the skill lien-up.  The alchemy art is to justify the cooking and the darker side of the character... poisons and the like.

I just couldn't see any other approach to it.

I believe you have it backwards. Many skills are about using tools. Crafts is about building, modifying, and repairing tools.

Being an expert cook would simply be an Aspect. Most of the time there won't be any game mechanics involved in cooking. Want to make a nice meal for yourself and some friends, just declare that you do and use the Aspect to justify it.

When there are game mechanics involved, you will use one of the skills.

Want to make a good impression with your cooking? Use Rapport.

Make money? Your cooking Aspect justifies a high Resources skill.

Want to detect a poison hidden in food or drink? Use Notice or Investigate.

Want to poison someone? Best fit, Lore. Some GMs might go with Shoot - inflicting damage at range using a weapon (in this case toxic food).

In all of these cases, you can spend a Fate point and invoke your Cooking Aspect for a +2 or reroll.

Remember, your Aspects are always there. If you have an Expert Cook Aspect, even when not rolling what you cook is better.

I thought I made it clear that I didn't think Crafts was a good fit.   Similarly, I do not feel that an Aspect alone adequately models such a pinnacle-skill.  To accurately model it, we need both an Aspect and a skill.

As a player making a specific point of having such a character, I am saying to the GM (and the table) that I want this skill to matter.  I expect there to be situations in-game where the use of this background and skill are important. And that means mechanics.

A character with a Mediocre(+0) ranked Rapport can, indeed, attain a Fantastic(+6) impact because of her meal.  But it can never--ever--be more than that, and there's only a 1.2% chance of that happening and only with the Aspect invocation.

Rapport does make sense as a fundamental skill to tie it to.  It's all about the impact the food has on people, after all.  I'm sure none of the players or GM really cares about the intricacies of filleting a mud-borne blowfish.  Even if it does mean carefully removing the poison-sac.

I think, to make this work, I need an Aspect, A high Lore skill, high Rapport skill and at least one stunt.  Probably (Lore: Specialization).

I think the specifics of preparing food would be covered in craft but I would say that there is more to being a chef than just preparing food. You need to work under pressure and work as a team so I think rapport is important.

If cooking would indeed be an important skill to the setting, I'd say go ahead and add it, but the player needs to keep in mind that by buying that skill, they're limiting access to other skills that, if important, could seriously hamper their ability to participate in other kinds of skill tests. Another thing to consider is, would this skill be utilized by anoyone else? This wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker, many good stories have people with rather unique skills, but unless you're going to RP NPCs to have cooking contests with, the utility of the skill would be rather narrow.

If it were my game, I would definitely make it an aspect and then use a stunt, (maybe one that doesn't have to be powered, since it's so specific), for them to have a +2 to rapport if they are able to cook for someone. This ties the outcome of the food and the outcome of the schmoozing to one roll and leaves the character's apex skill to be something that'd be useful in other scenarios.

An alchemist in a SF setting presents another unique challenge. Maybe you'd want to split craft into engineering and chemistry and their apex skill could be chemistry with a broad, powered stunt to provide alchemical effects with their chemistry? Or just make a separate skill for alchemy, since its uses are far more utilitarian. This could be similar to the "Magic" skill for The Subtle Art found in the System Toolkit, basically it enables a person to write an aspect (luck, charisma, clarity, health, etc) appropriate to a curse or a blessing on their target, in this case, someone that drinks a potion. They suggest this lasts for 3 days or 7 if you succeed with style.

Since we don't have advice thread, I'll have to ask it here.


Any cool thoughts on how to turn raging dwarven berserker into Fate Core. My table has forced Pathfinder to Fate Core conversion on me and I've picked WarCraft III: Fall of Lordaeron as the setting. It's not that I don't have ideas how to make berserker cool in Fate Core, it's more about granulating them into individual aspects and stunts, rather than doing an unique type of character.

Could you explain to me what a raging dwarven berseker is in your setting?

If I go from the little I know about dnd, I'd say that dwarven berseker could be the core aspect and rage a stunt that gives a bonus to an attack roll using whatever offensive skill you choose to include (fight, brawl, hammer, axe ... don't know how specific you get in your skills) with the restriction that you can only start to rage right after you received a physical consequence?

That's a start. We'll call it a class rule. Every time he takes damage must spend a Fate point or rage. Then we add rage powers as stunts.


(Minor issue) Any thoughts on rage duration?


One other thing to consider that when he inflicts a consequence he can strike multiple foes. This would probably be a stunt, as well as converting physical to mental stress, two weapon fighting and several others.

Let me start with pointing out that Fate is more about the story than the crunch. If a character wants to fight with two weapons, he fights with two weapons. It's cosmetic, it's flavor, and those are not bad, because they make things look better and taste better. Though some hacks give stats to weapons. I don't advise it though, it only distracts from the fiction by adding number crunching. My general rule for fate is that if you can do it simple, don't complicate it.

The step from dnd to Fate is not only a system change, but also a genre change. You are no longer fighting against a GM to win an encounter, you are working together with them to create an epic story. In Fate, death is optional. Protagonists don't die, and you are a protagonist. So putting all focus on combat is no longer needed.

I'm not sure if the rules state you can cleave if you succeed with style, but I think it's standard in Fate. If you inflict more stress on a character than it can take, I think you can carry it over to another nearby character if you want and if it makes sense in the narrative. We could however give him a stunt that makes him better at it. Something like: "Because you are a Dwarven Barbarian, you get +2 on your attack with fight if your attack inflicted more stress that your opponent could take." Which would mean that you can take two more stress to the next in line, if I'm not mistaken. This might be a bit OP, but I think the limitations are big enough, depending on how you are doing weapons (as just flavour, or as adding extra damage). I haven't run many battles yet in this system.

As to the rage stunt, for duration I was thinking for the rest of the scene, but I also like how 5th edition DnD seems to handle it, as long as you are either dealing damage or receiving damage, once that stops, your rage fades. Or you could make it more powerfull by adding danger, that when you rage and you fail to hit an enemy, you hit the nearest ally in range (if any) in your blind rage.

Also, you might try this:

http://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/skill-modes

If I remember correctly, when you strike a mob, or mooks the excess damage goes over to the next. It was stated in the core or toolkit, that using weapon damage class is so potent, because dmg 4 great sword will take out 4 mooks in a single swing.

I happened to convert one of my old Warhammer 2ed characters to fate today and he was a Norse berserker. I made him a following stunt:

Unstoppable blows: +2 to attack or create advantage with Fight, unless the opponent defends with athletics or has equal or greater physique.

Maybe it is too potent, but I tried to imitate the fact that berserkers are usually strong, but not so good at actually hitting things.

I just did a little brainstorm. Not finished yet, but could give you an approach to character creation or something.

Dwarven Barbarian
As a dwarf you know and are good in drinking very different kinds of ale, beer and alcohol, except perhaps the elvish invention of wine and the halfling or gnomish atrocity called cocktails. You are good in everything that is dwarven culture and can recognise and identify any type of stone and ore on sight. You are also very, very fond of gold and tend to keep grudges. You are sturdy and can take a hit.

As a Barbarian you are very good at hitting things and becoming angry, making you hit even harder. You can take a beating that a normal person of your race cannot survive. You are so strong that you can basically bend iron bars.

Common troubles for dwarves:
Alcoholic, Greedy, Grudge (name it/describe it), proud, goldfever

Common troubles for Barbarians:
Dimwitted, Overconfident, Careless, Illiterate, Clueless, Violent Temper

Possible Stunts
Because I am a Dwarf ...
... I get a +2 to skill checks to defend against intoxication effects.
... One time per session I can shrug off all stress that is inflicted in a single attack/overcome.
... I can shrug off stress done in a single attack at the cost of a fate point. (alternative for the above one, if overpowered, increase fate point cost, or charge a fate point per consequence avoided)
... I get a +2 when fighting with axes and hammers
... I get a +2 when fighting goblins or giants (pick one)
... I cannot get lost when travelling underground (possibly overpowered)
... I can sustain myself on stone alone when out of food. (could just be always true because of the aspect being always true, or it could be special training for certain dwarves)

Frili, for someone who feels I'm making things too complicated, you sure look like you're having fun. :}

Anyway, dwarven part I have covered. Basically all you wrote I put under invoke/compel dwarf part of high concept.


Because I am a Dwarf ...
... One time per session I can shrug off all stress that is inflicted in a single attack/overcome.
... I can shrug off stress done in a single attack at the cost of a fate point. (alternative for the above one, if overpowered, increase fate point cost, or charge a fate point per consequence avoided)

These two are really good. I was thinking about converting physical stress into mental instead. Thoughts?


For Cleave, good thing about it is that literally everyone has done it. Here are my thoughts.


Cleave Fate Core way a la Tzuppy
You can hit another character when you inflict a consequence, rather than when you take him out.

Cleave WarCraft III way
In addition to standard stress you inflict, you also inflict splash damage to nearby characters.
Level 1: 33% stress is splash
Level 2: 50% stress is splash
Level 3: 80% stress is splash

Cleave Dungeon: the Dragon way
When you successfully hit an opponent and you score double the number of shifts than opponent's defense rating, you can hit the next opponent and so on. If defender scores more than half your number of shifts, each shift defender scores above half, reduces strength of your subsequent attack by 2.

Cleave WarCraft III way a la Tzuppy
When you score more shifts than unit's chicken leg rating (or spend a Fate Point), you hit the next unit.


Actually the last two approaches work for a wide variety of WarCraft powers, like Bash, Pulverize and such.



Thorfred, personally I don't see a berserker creating advantage often. How would that work?

Hahah. I've got a creative brain. Once it's set in motion I can't help but think about it untill I make something from it. I don't see me complicating it though, but rather defining what a dwarf an barbarian are.

As for physical to mental stress/consequenses, I think Atomic Robo has something for it, but I feel like it's very meta unless it fits in the narrative. It would otherwise kind of shake my immersion. For a barbarian it could be aspects of rage. A mental consequense might be that the barbarian goes full offense, not being able to defend. Or that he targets the one that hurt him (or her) until slain, even if it is not a wise strategic desision, and that he has to persue until either them or he are dead.

Edited in: Also, I like to look at dungeon world for the phase trio aspect ideas. Mainly things like bonds and alignment statements that drive character. In Fate you have the fun of rephrasing it though.

A barbarian might be on a quest for vengeance, and while it also seems fitting for a dwarf, a dwarf might also be on a quest for Gold.
A barbarian might want the world to bathe in blood, or might want to take over a rival ruler, or form a horde to conquer all.
A dwarf might be prospecting, hunting lost treasure, restore honor to a family ...

Then again, I'm just basing myself on vanilla fantasy fare.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:19, Fri 24 Apr 2015.

Hello  :)

I've just started reading Fate Core and have questions about situational aspects, consequences and stunts.

During a conflict, if anyone wants to use a situational aspect related to the environment like 'Dense Vegitation' or 'Lots of Rubble', do they have to spend a fate point?

Likewise if you're using a character's Consequences against them, like 'twisted ankle' or 'lost his nerve', do you have to spend a fate point?

And suppose my PC is Ryu. And I have a combat stunt named Hadouken. Do I have to spend a Fate Point to fire a Hadouken?

It depends on if you have any free invokes on those aspects. If you do, then you can use those instead of spending a Fate point. The rules and/or the GM will let know when that is the case.

As for the stunt, that depends on if the stunt says that it costs a Fate point when you create it. If it doesn't, then its use is free. If it does, then it costs a Fate point. That, again, is decided between player and GM when the stunt is created.

For situational aspects and consequences rule out of thumb is that the side that created them (not necessary character that created them) gets one free invoke. After that point anyone can spend Fate point to invoke these aspects. For instance Bilbo Baggins spots (creates) a chink in Smaug's armor and then Bard uses it to slay Smaug.

For stunts, whether it requires a Fate point, that is usually mentioned in stunt description. General rule is that only most powerful stunts require Fate expenditure as having a stunt already reduces the refresh score.

Newb here, asking what may end up being a frighteningly simple question.

Let's say I'm running a game in the 1930's. My character has a revolver, and I don't feel it's going to do the trick against the velociraptor (don't ask) bearing down on me, so I grab a bigger gun.

What, mechanically, (if anything) is the advantage to picking up a bigger gun in this scenario?

Two ways to handle that. If you're using the Weapon/Armor ratings optional rule (Fate Core 277) then the larger gun will have a higher rating granting more shifts of damage on a successful attack.

Otherwise, you might just have a Scene Aspect in play like "Packin' a whole lotta Heat!" That you could invoke on the attack.

Ivan, make sure you say explicitly you are "creating an advantage" because it has happened a few times to me that when I simply narrate what my character does, but omit the "I'm creating an advantage" phrase, the GM doesn't gives me the +2.

Checking out the new Nest supplement by Evil Hat Productions. Looks pretty cool so far. :)

Nest supplement?

I suggest checking it out. :)

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/pr...enture-for-Fate-Core

Personally, Gods and Monsters were more my cup of tea. Of course, colorful artwork does it for me every time.

So, I'm running a FATE Core game and we're all new to the system.

Page 68 - The system is pretty clear you can spend a FATE point to Invoke an aspect on someone else's roll/action.

In order to invoke an aspect, explain why the aspect is relevant, spend a
fate point, and you can choose one of these benefits:

• Pass a +2 benefit to another character’s roll, if it’s reasonable that the aspect you’re invoking would be able to help.

This may just be my personal issue, but I'm having a problem with one character essentially hoarding FATE points (mostly from Event-based compels), and then spending all their FATE points on other people's rolls.

It feels like somehow there is a communal pool of FATE dice, since anyone can throw in on any action (assuming there is something to invoke, of course).

This is especially evident towards the end of the night, when everyone with 1-2 fate points knows they're going to get them back next week anyways and they all just start throwing in.

Thoughts? Am I just hyper sensitive?

I think you're making an issue where there isn't one. It's not going to happen often enough to be a problem, but when it does happen you probably want it to happen. See my second point.

First, if your players are hoarding more Fate points than you want them to have then give them more reasons to spend them.

Second, if a player wants to blow a mound of Fate points on another player's roll and there are enough aspects in play to make all of those invokes valid, then clearly whatever is happening is hugely important to that player. The group has gone through the trouble of setting up all of those aspects to use and then they are spending their "narrative currency" on whatever that other player is doing. That's them saying "Hey, this means a lot to us. This is important to our story. We want this to happen." That's player investment. That's a good thing. This situation is not going to happen often, but when it does it's going to be important for your story.

I think Ingersoll also mentioned that players were dropping Fate Points towards the end of a session on just any old aspects they could to give their buddies a bonus. While Cripple X makes good points you should keep in mind, this situation doesn't sound like that.

My advice: what Cripple X said anyway, but with less emphasis. :P If they're busting out FP simply because it's the end of the night and they know they'll refresh soon (which they might not, if the next session begins without a break for the characters!), then why not let them? They get to up the awesome as the session comes to a close, ending on a high note as the heroes get to show off why they're the heroes! Remember, Fate is about competent, proactive and dramatic heroes. Using aspects ups the drama, choosing to take action makes them proactive, and the bonuses from invokes makes them competent.

If it's really important to you that the heroes don't come up smelling roses, then just pull the same trick on them that they've been using. End of the night? Your NPCs are gonna get your GM Fate Point pool refreshed next session? Drop a whole load of FP to invoke all the NPC aspects on the heroes and put them in a real bad situation. Bonus points if you're invoking for effect rather than for a +2 bonus. :D

Situation: The characters are fighting Space Pirates on a space station in a sealed cargo bay. Characters are all in sealed power armor, along with some of the pirates. Other pirates are just in space suits. The cargo bay has the aspects of 'Cargo Crates' and there is a second zone of 'Control Gantry' with an aspect of 'Control Panels'

Action: One of the characters moves to the Control Gantry and successfully makes a roll to open the cargo bay doors. I add an aspect of 'Explosive Decompression' to both zones and remove the 'Cargo Crates' aspect from the scene. (If the scene went on longer I would likely change it to just 'Lack of Atmosphere' or something similar.

Here are the questions: I want to create an Event Compel using 'Space Pirate' to add 'Magnetic Boots' aspect to all of the pirates, keeping them from getting sucked out of the airlock.

1. Does this sound fair? It sure makes sense that people that fly around space all the time would have magnetic boots, but at the same time I don't want to just say that they have them without Compelling -something-.

2. Do I just give a Fate chip to every character in the scene? If so, would they get it immediately or at the end of the scene?

Thanks!

Ooo, I see what you're doing there. Personally, I'd handle that as the character making an attack roll on the affected zones (including his buddies) rather than applying aspects, but it could work the same way. So he makes an attack roll, and everyone needs to roll against that result or take "damage" (and being taken out results in flying out into space). Using aspects, you could apply the Explosive Decompression aspect to the whole scene (or just affected zones), and anyone affected would need to make overcome actions against the aspect in order to take other actions. If they're taken out by anything /else/ during that time, they're kicked out into space.

For the magnetic boots, I'd call that an invoke for effect rather than a compel. Drop one of your GM Fate Points for the pirates, maybe one for each (or each group, if you have them set as mobs), and say they can ignore Explosive Decompression. Or else have them take up an action to Create an Advantage they can immediately invoke, so they effectively spend the round activating the magnetics.

Does anybody have any recommendation for a set of Magic rules for a D&D world, specifically Planescape, for FATE Core? I don't have any desire to mimic the Vancian system (which I've never liked), nor do I feel a need for specific spells. I'm looking for something that captures the general feel and power level of a D&D mage of level 4-9, and would probably use a Spellcasting skill.

I haven't reviewed the FATE Core example yet, but have leafed through the Toolkit examples and didn't like them much.

Read the Fate Core example. It's simple and works well. I think it requires a stunt. If you didn't like the Toolkit systems because they were more complicated than you wanted then the example they give in Core will probably work for you.

Alternatively you could just have magic be a trapping of regular skill use, e.g. An Athletics roll could described as using a Jump spell. All that would really require is a Aspect with a Permission.

Yes, I just found those, and they look good and simple.

Which one do people use more often: the Collegia Arcana, or the more detailed approach in the back?

I like this idea! Never thought of it before. This way you could use aspects for permission, but also stunts since they are often used to let people use skills in previously impossible ways. Kind of like the Toolkit when it talks about race packages. Thinking about the elf/high elven magic one.

Another one you might try out is to go on the MP idea found in Toolkit. I know you said you didn't like much in Toolkit, but suppose you have a list of things that could be done with MP for each default skill. You then allow the player to trade Refresh for MP and give them all the options for all the skills they have (at +1 or better), and allow them to negotiate effects you didn't think of for say... 3MP for initial use that may drop with further use down to a fair number based on the proposed effect's usefulness.

Sorry for not being more clear. I was referring to the Collegia Arcana one. It's really easy to customize too. You can just change out the required skill and the trappings to represent different types of spellcasting.

One of my favorite magic systems for FATE was published in Spirit of the Season. While it is tied to Spirit of the Century, it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt to FATE Core. The main difference is the reduced number of Stunts and removal of most Stunt 'trees'. Here is the Mystic Rites stunt from Spirit of the Season.


Depending on the game, I could see allowing anyone with the appropriate Aspect to do this without requiring a Stunt.

A few more questions, if I may:
1) when using the Collegia Arcana magic extra, do you allow area attacks (fireball-esque)? Do you add penalties for increasing range or area?
2) do you use weapons and armor rating for regular fantasy games?
3) do you use the race skills from the Toolkit?

Thanks!

I imagine it varies on a case by case basis, but for myself the answers are.

1. Yes, split shifts between targets as normal unless you have a stunt or something.

2. Not for ordinary equipment, no. I have never found that Armor or Weapons ratings added anything to the system. It has always ended up being the zero-sum game that the sidebar talks about. So only a truly legendary weapon or suit of armor got a Weapon or Armor rating.

3. No. Not particularly familiar with the concept, but regular skill use and aspects have always covered my needs for different species in Fate Games.

This is the approach I prefer, in my slight dabblings with D&D-inspired Fate/SotC. The magic becomes how the character represents their skills. If they have a good Shoot skill, it's because they're slinging magic missiles. Good Stealth or Deceive means that they practice invisibility or illusion magic. Etc.

Aspects and stunts would make the use of these skills more magical, in how they're applicable and limited. The wizard would, for instance, be able to hide without necessarily having cover, but injury or other deleterious circumstances might hinder the wizard where they wouldn't hinder the thief.

One might call for the use of fate points for particularly magical effects, which I think would emulate the traditional disadvantages of a wizard. Consequences are a fine way to stock up fate points, so a wizard might gladly forego a high Physique. A particularly bad Trouble aspect (or other aspects for that matter) such as "Not my precious spellbook!" would pull the wizard in different directions and help them rake in fate points, to be used for a string of mighty spell castings later.

Just my thoughts. I haven't tried many of them in practice yet.

I'm new to Fate and I'm not sure I understand Challenge and Context. They feel like multiple rolls for the sake of multiple rolls... I have a harder time with Context, because except in case of Tie, the situation do not change between check. What I'm missing?

In reply to MalaeDezeld (msg # 42):

Here's my take on Challenges:

There are some things that make sense to resolve with a single roll or even no roll. Those are often things that are quick, or are themselves part of a larger collection of rolls in a scene, like a Conflict. One could resolve a Conflict with one roll, or even no roll, but we accept the need for several or even many, because it's about how the situation unfolds.

A Challenge is for when there's a specific goal that's going to take a whole scene to resolve, but which no one wants to spend more than a few rolls or moments resolving. That's a judgment call. I believe the example in the book is of defending some people in a house against a horde of zombies. A group could play out every moment of that, providing decision points or needing specification from the GM or players at every opportunity: where are the wood and nails?, Where do we start covering the windows? What if someone isn't strong or is too short? What happens at each point allows the situation to unfold and how successfully. You don't need to wonder what success or failure look like, because you can see it directly.

A Challenge just lets you boil down a scene like that into a handful of rolls. You could decide to do it in one, but that gives you a very simple pass/fail/pass with cost kind of outcome. In a scene like the zombie example, things could go wrong in one of several ways and the multiple rolls let us see which of those ways it goes wrong.

The key to Challenges, as I see it, is deciding what the failures mean. Those are how you take a handful of dice rolls and make them meaningful. I think the rules say to describe after they're all made, but you could describe as you go, too. The main reason to do it after is so that the game doesn't bog down on someone continuing to roll to succeed on some aspect of it. They get one roll for each aspect of the situation, and then you decide what it means in aggregate.

I think Contests are similar, though I'm not as familiar with those. Yes, I tend to agree that if nothing changes, it's hard to see what one is rolling for. But tracking who has how many successes seems to me to form the basis of the description one provides. If one side needs one more success and the other needs three, that's a different situation than if both sides only need one more.

I don't have a ton of experience with either, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about skill challenges in 4th Edition D&D, which are similar to challenges in Fate.