Let's Review: FATE Core

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.