What is it?:
FATE is a “multi-genre Story Telling”
system. Meaning that's more than just “roleplaying” it's about
telling a cooperative story between the GM and the players.
The setting:
There is no one setting for FATE. It
has been used for the Dresden Files RPG and a few others. In the
hardbound version of the game, the Core system, there's a few
different settings mentioned. The rules are adaptable enough to be
used for any setting you like.
My friend Phoenix and I have discussed
using FATE to play RWBY, as the “Rule of Cool” reigns supreme in
both FATE and RWBY.
If you by the Core book (which I did
and strongly suggest you do, too), there's some sample rules and
stuff for some settings. There's also a whole book of settings, FATE
Worlds, which I've seen but haven't had a chance to look through.
There's also a “Toolkit” book, too.
The system:
FATE uses a special set of dice, six
sided, with a + on two sides, a – on another two, and two blank
sides. You use these for your skills. Skills are interesting as they
have a “Skill Pyramid.” At the top, you have +4, then two skills
at +3, and then three at +2 and so on until you run out. You pick
your skills from a list and can even make your own skills. Each skill
has four different uses: Attack, Defend, Overcome an Obstacle, and
Create an Advantage. Not every skill can actually attack and defend,
but they do list them out. Some skills increase your “stress boxes”
(more on those later) and each one comes with a list of Stunts.
Stunts are special abilities that can give you a situational boost or
allow you to use one skill in place of another. You get two Stunts
for free and then have to start paying for more if you want them.
Before you pick skills, you have
Aspects. Which I skipped because... I wasn't thinking. Anyway,
Aspects. Each character gets a “High Concept” Aspect. This is the
Aspect that defines your character. For example, if your character is
a swordsman, you give him the High Concept of Master Swordsman To Be.
Or, you can even add things to the setting with your Aspects. Instead
of using Master Swordsman To Be, you could give him the Aspect of
Student Of Green Dragon Blade Style. Now, you and the GM can sit down
and develop what exactly the Green Dragon style is.
Once you get that High Concept down,
you have to work on a Trouble for your character. While most Aspects
should be a double-edged sword, meaning that they can be both
positive and negative depending the situation, your Trouble should be
negative. Perhaps our swordsman Likes To Drink? Or, A Tough Man To
Like. Both are equally acceptable to me. You really need to talk not
only with the GM but the other players as well during character
creation.
Once you've settled on your High
Concept and Trouble, you get three more Aspects to give your
character. Have fun with it. Depending on how your group wants to
make characters, you can come up with them on your own or you can
work with the other players to have interrelated Aspects for the
characters by referencing each other.
One final note about Aspects:
EVERYTHING can have one. The campaign, the location you're in, and so
on. You can also Invoke those Aspects like you would with your
character. Some cost Fate Points (more on that later, I promise) but
sometimes you can Invoke them for free. Aspects are important as you
use them to justify a bonus on a Skill roll or to re-roll something.
To continue with our swordsman character, he could take an Aspect
like I'm Better When I'm Drunk and would Invoke it to gain a bonus to
any roll, more likely a combat roll, after he's had a few rounds of
booze. But, that can also work against him, as the GM can point out
that he's Better When Drunk, making him try stupid stuff because he's
liquored up.
When it comes to combat and
interactions with NPCs, you can deal both physical and social wounds,
called Stress Boxes. Unless you take some skills at high level,
you're going to get only two for each type of damage. Beyond that,
you have to start taking Consequences. Consequences are kind of like
Aspects, but are bad and really screw you up for periods of time,
with the worst levels taking longer to “heal up.”
So, what happens when you've taken all
the Stress Boxes and Consequences your character has? You can
Concede. Once you do that, the GM can't kill you, but you're going to
lose... Something. That something is up to you and the GM (mostly the
GM), but at least she can't kill your character outright. In fact,
it's hard to kill a character in FATE. Which is both good and bad. If
you're looking for gritty realism, this game probably isn't the one
for you.
Now, let's talk about Fate Points. As
you can imagine from the name, they're pretty important in the game.
In fact, the term they use in the book itself is the Fate Point
Economy. You gain Fate Points by accepting Compels based on your
Aspects (including your Trouble) and spend them to power Stunts,
Invoke Aspects, and can even add a plot point in the game. They're
very powerful, but you're going to be gaining and losing them a lot.
Is it worth it?:
In short: Hell Yes. For $5 plus the
cost of the dice (unless you want to just use their quick and dirty
conversion guide for d6s), you have a fun little game you can use if
someone doesn't turn up for your game or you are bored with your
gaming friends. Or you just need a change of pace. For $25, you can
pick up the Core book, which is good if you're looking for something
that's got more meat to it. Either way, the flexibility is great and
it's fun if you have an imagination.
To give you an example of how easy and
fun FATE Core is to play, and throw together a game, let me tell you
about what happened awhile back in my gaming group. Due to some
problems, we had finished our Pathfinder adventure early and the GM
wasn't quite ready for the next one. Rather than force that game, I
offered up FATE. In a few minutes, we agreed on a setting (SPACE
TRUCKERS!!!! loosely based on the Firefly setting) and the group was
developing characters on pieces of scratch paper and 3x5 cards. I
wrote done some Aspects for the ship they were one, a few notes for
the enemy ship they would encounter, and got rolling in less than an
hour. And had another hour or two of play time before I ran out of
steam. I thought I got my money's worth for that night of fun.
