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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2013 7:43:08 GMT -8
I have yet to play a FATE game, but I do have the Free FATE rules and have gone over them. I want to know, what type of games does FATE do well? We know Savage Worlds does pulpy action well, and Pathfinder does a very good tactical fantasy game well. What is FATE niche? I guess the other questions is, what does it not do well also? I am very curious about the system, and I have recently been running many Indie Press games, i.e. Inspectres, Shotgun Diaries, Lacuna Part I, etc... and FATE's name gets bandied about a bit, so I want to know more.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2013 12:29:04 GMT -8
FATE does 1930s style Pulp adventure extremely well, the Fate points allowing the players to pull off cliffhanger rescues a great deal. I've also found it to be good for heroic fantasy. Though it will work for horror the fate points do tend to make it hard to get the right kind of tension as the players have alot more power to alter the storyline and thus shed light on the things that go bump in the night.
By default its a very forgiving system as well and tends to not be very killy. However you can alter the rules for damage easily enough to make it a much grittier system.
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druggeddwarf
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Post by druggeddwarf on Mar 27, 2013 9:09:53 GMT -8
Hi, new guy here. Just thought I'd put in my two cents.
Fate is a glorious system for doing anything with if you are willing to change or put it in it's right way, but it gets its best strength and style from running high action-adventure games. If you are going to run anything where you want your players, or yourself, to become the downright cool ass hero you always wanted to be, Fate is always the way to go, maybe even more than savage worlds.
Want to have a high speed chase across rooftops? Fate can do that. Underwater knife battle? Fate can do that too. Have your professor suddenly point out that there's an rope on the top of the gong hanging over the badguy (that you just fate pointed to be there) that if shot at a specific angle will cause it to fall on him crushing him to death halfway through his monologue? Fate can do that too.
The plain old everyday fate, such as fate core, should be used as a starting ground. It's a cool system, and quite exciting, but don't let its rules or limits on Stunts hold you back from truly going full Indiana in your games. For a true high adventure experience, take a look at the Spirit of the Century RPG, written for the fate system and available online as an SRD (somewhere, my internet is being super rubbish and I cannot find it at the moment.)
Another strong point for fate games is, strangely, investigation style games. Casing a joint, investigating crime scenes, interrogating prisoners, hell, you can even run a procedial cop drama with you being the officer 3 days away from retirement and your friend as the balls to the wall badass loose cannon that gets results. Take it a step further - play as the chief of police who's 'getting tired of their sh**' if you like.
Strands of Fate, another fate game out there, is pretty well designed for investigation games, but I think Fate CORE blows it out of the bloody water with dynamite and a well placed nuke. Seriously, give it a shot.
Finally, even though it doesn't get much love anymore, FATE (and especially fate core) is brilliant for Noir style games. Rock in with your humprey Bogart with stylish Fedora and a few aspects as 'sucker for a devil in a blue dress', and you've got yourself one hell of a good time coming up. The real trick to changing this from pulp to Noir is (taken from the Spirit of the Century book), less focus on Fist skills (well, maybe a little for that final punch-up at the end), and more focus on Guns from the players and the NPC. Go a step further, make sure to stress the hell out of them from all angles - they should be sitting on a good number of consequences by the end of the game. Be a total di** about it, give them less stress boxes but more consequences space by the end of the game, and they'll be rocking the pain when they try to stop the big bad guy at the end.
For systems, any of the above will do, but probably stick to fate core, it's quite well streamlined that you would barely have to do any real edits as it is.
Oh and before I forget, for systems other than fate core that uses the fate system, try The Dresden Files for your Mage Noir tastes, Kingdom of Anglerre for old school dnd style games, or StarBlazer Adventures for SPACE ACTION!
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Mar 27, 2013 21:57:44 GMT -8
druggeddwarf seems like a hardcore FATE player, so I'll defer to him. I've played two FATE games, both of which were just so-so, but I did back the FATE Core KS and so have a bunch of books coming.
I think the question here isn't "what types of games can FATE do well" but rather "what kinds of groups will like FATE". I get the feeling that groups who are less proactive and more reactive won't like FATE. Some player like to open a book, point to a rule, and have everything laid out in black and white. From my limited experience, FATE seems to be more of a "let's interpret this rule" kind of system. Some players will have a field day with that, and other will say it's totally dumb.
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druggeddwarf
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Post by druggeddwarf on Mar 28, 2013 2:01:21 GMT -8
I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm a hardcore Fate player, but I do like the system a bit.
Your point however is very, very, VERY true - you really have to know your players/GM to know what it is that they like. But it shouldn't take too much convincing to get them on your side unless they are super hardcore BY-THE-BOOK types.
And even then, you can play fate by the book and it still works!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2013 4:15:58 GMT -8
Fate is a system for thespians and narrative players. Its combat system is incredibly abstract and thus doesn't do anything for tactical types. And the rules are some of the lightest you can find in a system that still uses dice, making it a poor choice for the crunch fanatic.
More then any other game I've played it is a game focused on collective story telling because literally every piece of every game is written by everyone at the table. Players are creating nearly as much of the world as the GM. So yes it does require proactive players.
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Post by jazzisblues on Mar 30, 2013 10:15:47 GMT -8
I would assert that it isn't so much a type of game (genre or atmosphere) that would be determinal as it would be what style of game play do I want.
Fate is at its best (in my opinion) when the players are expressive and engaged and self motivating. Where I think Fate runs into trouble (as will any game in my opinion, but Fate even more so) is when the players are passive and sit back waiting for the gm to lead them down the path.
Fate benefits from players and a gm who want an open expressive style of game play rather than one that is bound and defined by sets of rules.
I've only played Fate a couple of times but each time was with players and a gm who were very engaged and active and the game was f'ing amazing. One was Atomic Robo, the other was a mashup of most (if not all) of the legendary D&D modules.
Cheers
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2013 8:46:35 GMT -8
I have currently been running very narrative games, so much so, that FATE appears very crunchy by comparison. We have been running Inspectres, Dust Devils, Lacuna Part I, Blood & Honor, Prime Time Adventures, and the like. I have been looking at FATE wondering if it fits in, because it is an open system, that would give some flexibility. Many of the games above do "one thing" very well, and can possibly skinned into another "thing," but still limited. I like the idea of a narrative heavy system, that gives me the flexibility to create exactly the experience I want.
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Post by jazzisblues on Apr 4, 2013 11:26:23 GMT -8
I have currently been running very narrative games, so much so, that FATE appears very crunchy by comparison. We have been running Inspectres, Dust Devils, Lacuna Part I, Blood & Honor, Prime Time Adventures, and the like. I have been looking at FATE wondering if it fits in, because it is an open system, that would give some flexibility. Many of the games above do "one thing" very well, and can possibly skinned into another "thing," but still limited. I like the idea of a narrative heavy system, that gives me the flexibility to create exactly the experience I want. From the sound of it, Fate is EXACTLY what you're looking for. JiB
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Post by greatwyrm on Apr 7, 2013 16:53:15 GMT -8
I've been getting the itch to try an anime-style fantasy with FATE. It seems like the narrative focus would make it a lot easier to handle characters that would have wildly divergent power levels in other games.
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Post by shadrack on Apr 8, 2013 8:22:20 GMT -8
I agree, I think that would work well for an anime stlye game. If you want some more 'crunch' for your anime or super-powered FATE, take a look at Kerberos Club or the SRD for it here arcdream.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Strange-FATE-SRD.pdf(I just deleted a huge blurb in favor of a shortened version). Basically you can move your characters up in power level, not just skill ranks. (it ain't free though...) If you are a higher power level than your opponent, you swap one of your FUDGE dice for a d6/power level difference (max 4, clearly). This used to be referred to as 'strange FATE'
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Post by greatwyrm on Apr 8, 2013 15:21:18 GMT -8
I hadn't heard of that before. That would probably handle the scaling for a supers game, too. You'd just need a few different strata of power levels (e.g. normal, street-level, super, cosmic).
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Post by shadrack on Apr 8, 2013 18:15:29 GMT -8
Yeah, it's a Victorian setting so they call them Mundane, exceptional, superhuman, ascendant, and godlike.
I think...
If you're on the same tier you just roll fudge dice, and your skill rank becomes very important. But if you are a different tier that is usually dominant. It you're more than one tier different it just gets really slanted real fast.
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