The Backerkit campaign for Criminal Spirits is now LIVE!

If you don't know Criminal Spirits from my earlier posts here, Criminal Spirits is a 1920s Urban Fantasy game using my Glorious Fate rules, a simplified version of Fate Accelerated. The 12 page rules are available for free here. In Criminal Spirits, you are the staff and supporters of a new speakeasy in New York City, the first speakeasy run specifically for ghost, faeries, witches and other magical creatures. You and your found family strive to keep the speakeasy open and achieve your ambitions despite the mob, the police and your own customers.

Thank you everyone here for all of the feedback on the character sheets and speakeasy. If you haven't seen the final character sheets, you can see them here. Your Speakeasy will be one of the first chapters shared with backers in October.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this, and to make a complete setting book for this world.

So a friend of mine is going to be running a mini-campaign using Fate soon, and while I've been interested in playing Fate for a while, this will be the first time any of us are actually getting the chance to do so. I'm hoping it will live up to the hype!

So anyway, we just had our session zero and we're basically going to be doing a campaign where we're all crewmates and explorers aboard a piratey-type sailing ship, and we're going off to explore the last uncharted bit of the world, a series of unexplored islands set amidst a mysterious and treacherous patch of sea. We'll be exploring a lot of different locales, scouring the ruins of an ancient civilization, and trying to find wealth, knowledge, and more. I'm hyped for this campaign!

But we're coming up with our characters on our own and then we're going to run them by our GM, and I'm having some trouble coming up with good aspects. We're not doing the phase trio, by the way, which is maybe exacerbating this problem, but that's just the way it is. I came up with a backstory I'm happy with; I've been wanting to play a Captain Ahab-type character for ages so I took a lot of inspiration from that. But now I'm feeling like what I've come up with for my aspects aren't that creative... but I don't know, this is my first Fate character so maybe it's fine??

I'd love some feedback. I want this guy to be fairly well-rounded and fleshed out.

Here's a summary of my backstory for context:
Abijah Greaves is a lizardfolk who was a part of a clan that lived on the coast of the sea beside a dense jungle. He worked as basically the equivalent of a whaler/mariner, and he was good at his job and he enjoyed it. He had a loving wife and too children, and life was happy and prosperous for his clan. In the waters nearby lived the Ancient Neighbor, a gentle giant of a leviathan who was viewed as a sort of "spiritual guardian" for the clan, and it was forbidden for any to try and hunt it. For reasons unknown, the fish left the area and food became scarce; famine struck. Watching his family and clanmates slowly starve, Abijah resolved to hunt the only significant source of food still around: the Ancient Neighbor. He killed it, and his clanmates feasted and all was good again - until a few days later, the Neighbor's parent showed up, a horrifying seabeast not far from a god. It destroyed the clan, killing everyone except Abijah - including his wife and daughters. Abijah swore revenge, but is still hunted by the sea beast's cult. He has spent years searching for some weapon or method to actually kill this invulnerable god-like beast, driven solely by his hatred and desire for vengeance. He has reason to believe that these newly-discovered islands and the civilization they once housed may provide the weapon he has been looking for...

---

Aspects

High Concept: Bitter-but-Unbroken Lizardfolk Mariner

Trouble: "From Hell's Heart I Stab at Thee!" (basically, his obsession with revenge being his sole driving reason to go on)

Aspect #3: How Do You Kill a God? (read this in Hades' voice from Disney's Hercules)

Aspect #4: An Outsider, Trying to Fit In (having lost his home, Abijah has spent years traveling through different lands and while it’ll probably always be obvious that he's “not from around here,” he's gotten decent at picking up cultural norms and such)

Aspect #5: I’m Not Losing Anyone Else!

---

I can provide more info about each aspect if you have questions, but seeing as how the Aspect itself is supposed to concisely encapsulate everything I want it to convey, I'd like to know what you guys think of these aspects "at a glance."

I'm trying to balance the "I literally only care about staying alive so I can fulfill my oath of vengeance" with leaving the door open for potentially coming to think of the other PCs as my "new family" and finding a reason to go on beyond burning hatred.

Do you think I conveyed that well? Have I made any obvious "rookie mistakes?"

Every Skill/Approach in Fate has (potentially) *FOUR* Actions: Attack, Create an Advantage [CaA], Defend, and Overcome.

One could regulate the strength of a character's powers by limiting a player's access to these Actions. In my mind, the logical order of progression would be: Defend, Overcome, Attack, and CaA.

A character would be granted permission to use their power via an approproate Aspect (High Concept, most likely), which would be worded to reflect their proficiency in said power, with four tiers of potency.

**For example**: A Campaign's characters have reached a Major Milestone/Breakthrough. Their initial Psychic Training is complete and they're Aspects have been rewritten: "Kevin" is Telekinetic, "Mindy" is a Telepath, and "Peter" is a Pyrokinetic.

As novices, they can use the *Defend* Action with their powers: Kevin can block gunfire; Mindy can protect her dreams; Peter can absorb a flamethrower strike.

At the next level, the psychics would have more control over their powers, which would allow for unopposed Overcome Actions: Kevin could perform kinetic leaps, Mindy could communicate from great distances; Peter can walk through a forest fire.

Attack is the next Action, where they've mastered their raw powers for violence against others: Kinetic punches for Kevin; Mindy breaks minds; Peter shoots Fireballs.

At the last stage, Creating Advantages will cover all other possibilities.

Is limiting Actions like this *too* restrictive?

I've never played or run any version of Fate before. I knew it was supposed to be a lighter version of Fate Core, but I was still surprised when I got the book, I think it's the shortest RPG book I own. I'm really looking forward to giving it a try

Regina Luisa Concepción Pizote Tejón aka The Churro Girl
Refresh: 3
Setting: Zootopia
Scale: Small
Age: 23

Aspects:
High Concept: Owner of Churros y Tacos (Food Truck)
Species: Coatimundi
Trouble: Raising Marisol (Little Sister)
Aspect 4: Barrio Born and Raised
Aspect 5: “Everyone loves churros, mija.”
Aspect 6: Party Animal

Approaches:
+3 Quick
+2 Clever & Forceful
+1 Careful & Flashy
+0 Sneaky

Stunts:
The CIA (Churro Intelligence Agency): Because Everyone loves churros, mija, my food truck can be found all over Zootopia, serving animals from every district, and every walk of life. And animals talk. They talk to me at the window, they talk to Marisol while buying merch, they talk to each other while waiting in line. I hear it all. I never have to spend a Fate Point to declare that I’ve heard an important bit of news, a juicy rumor, or some other useful piece of information through my customers, suppliers, or neighborhood connections.

Stress: [1] [2] [3]
Consequences: Mild [2] Moderate [4] Severe [6]

A fun variant of attack I came up with for more risky combat, or for fights where dodging and blocking is not really a thing.

When attacked, instead of rolling for defence, you roll a counterattack. Whoever rolls higher does the attack, inflicting as much shifts as if the defender had rolled a (+0). Basically, you give up your defences for a more devistating blow.

Works really well for close-quarter gunfights and duels - where the question is not "do you block the attack", but "have you hit the enemy before they did?"

If you want to use it for gunfights I would recomend spliting Shoot into Accuracy and Storm, Storm being used for initiating the attack and Accuracy being used to counterattack. It gets pretty boring if everyone rolls the same skill over and over and theres no difference between attacking and being attacked.

For duels I would just stick with Athletics being used for defence and Fight being used for counterattack.

Also mind the fact that this rule makes fights a lot deadlier, riskier, and quicker. When a huge attack is on the line, a lot of fate points will be exchanged. And a lot of exchanged fate points make the stakes only higher - the number of shifts grows higher and higher.

Example of the rule in use:

- I attack the pirate, I got (+4) on my Fight roll

- The pirate wants to counter. I've got a (+3), but i'm going to invoke *I've got dime a dozen landluber thoats on me saber, for a (+5)

- Oh here we go... I definetely don't want to get that nasty (+5) hit. Im invoking *Law is sacred, im fighting outlaws, so makes sence. I've got a (+7).

- Well, Theres a couple of pirates around with unused turns. Three of them surround you, giving the pirate a (+8) for the teamwork bonus.

- Maybe I shoud've settled on that (+5). Well, can't stop now, that (+8) will take me out! Aight, im our of fate points, but I still have an invoke on my rapier, so (+9).

- Lemme check... Yeah, I've got nothing. Also that (+9) kills like... 4 pirates at least. Injuring one. You can go on and describe that

- Oh yeah, I'll grab the first guy's throat AC2 Ezio style, turning him around, slitting his throat, then I block a hit from the back, and then I (...)

A fun thing I noticed is that it makes melee duels feel more fantasy, but makes gunfights feel more gritty. Really really brings punch to close-quarter gunfights.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if there is an PC app, website or mobile app that allows you to GM more easily a FATE campaign.

Im more interested in presenting the situation aspects clearly and creating and removing them easily specifically. If it has dice roll, battlemaps or any other functions i will consider it a bonus!

I've made it look CLI'ish. It doesn't have any room for development, was released to be played out once and then taken away. The sheet has lots of navigation, that's because players would be playing for the first time. So I need lots of visual indications to navigate a player through the sheet via something like: "Take a look at 04 Stunts window, Stunt 03".

That's going to save a lot of time. I've already realized that such overwhelming navigation pane makes it easier for me to point at the data I need from a player to play next.

Sharing something I've been working on for a while.

It's called The Hearth Ring. Instead of a map, there are three regions, hearth where promises hold, shadow where you find out what you're actually willing to trade away, and a far place that doesn't explain itself. The core Fate Condensed rules stay the same, a couple of things just grow out of the setting, like a shadow-debt stunt for trades that seem clever until they aren't, and a milestone system where advancing your character is framed as their story being retold a little differently each time.

Eight archetypes, a small bestiary, a scenario you can run as-is.

I made this myself, it's up on DriveThruRPG at a launch price if anyone wants to take a look.

Click here for Hearth Ring

What happens if a consequence recovery roll is failed? Is there anything to prevent someone from just trying again immediately? If not, should the roll even happen?

Has anyone else ever ripped out the entire 4dF+stat core resolution mechanic and replaced it with something else? If yes, why, and did it have the effect you were hoping for?

Asking because for my upcoming Gundam campaign, I've replaced the standard mechanic with Storypath-style d10 pools to try and better serve the grittier war-drama feel I want. For each die, an 8 or 9 contributes 1 hit, a 10 contributes 2 hits, and a 1 subtracts a hit. Pool size is Skill + Approach, using some of the suggestions for running the hybrid from the Fate Codex article and some ideas from when I ran the 2d20 system. Invokes and stunts remain flat bonuses.

Two reasons for the change:

1. Fixed numbers for skills and approaches would give characters 4dF+6 in their apex stats at character creation and ultimately cap out at 4dF+10, with the average still falling way higher than any skill or approach on its own in stock Fate Core / FAE. Shifting the numbers to pool sizes let me keep the character creation and advancement rules unchanged while bringing the possible result gap down to something more manageable.

2. Higher result variance. Math time: stock Fate has ~88% of rolls end up within +/- 2 of the skill / approach being rolled. Competence still absolutely matters in the replacement dice system given that difficulty for most Overcome rolls is 1. As pool size increases, so does the chance for extreme spikes above or below the average result - skewed towards above, since 10s count as double while 1s only subtract 1. End result: you still get strong clustering around the average, but less of it. Spikes are more frequent and potentially much more extreme. And opposed rolls where one character's skill is higher than the other's are much less of a fait accompli. Considering I wanted combat to feel dangerous and make sure that a random throwaway grunt can absolutely still ruin a PC's day, that's a good outcome. If the players don't want to eat 8 harm in a single attack, which has happened in my solo playtesting, then they have fate points to help them out.

Necessary changes as a result of the core dice replacement:

1. Fail / tie / success / with style result grade remains as is, with "catastrophic failure" added as an overall negative result (like a botch). This is one of only two ways the GM is allowed to use severe costs (converting failure to success with guaranteed severe cost is the other).

2. Adjective ladder had to be compressed from -2-8 to -1-5.

3. Invokes had to be changed to a flat +1 or reroll instead of flat +2 or reroll. Otherwise they'd completely shatter the math. I won't post the exact numbers, but you can derive it yourself pretty easily to see just how bonkers a flat +2 is in the new system.

4. For the same reason, default stunt bonuses changed to flat +1. I did include an option for a second-tier +2 bonus if the circumstance that grants it is much narrower and significantly raises the stakes. For example, "DAMN THE TORPEDOES +1 when you Operate Boldly to direct your vehicle into oncoming fire; +2 if you have passengers."

Has anyone else done or seen something like this before? If so, what did the change buy you and how do you feel about it in hindsight?

I've been working on a small TTRPG project called Roll101 website, and one part of it is a free session-prep tool for Fate.

The idea came from a problem I sometimes have during prep: I can have a good premise, but that doesn't necessarily mean I have a situation that will actually produce interesting play.

So the generator starts with a tone and builds a loose situation rather than a sequence of scenes.

It generates:

• an initial hook,
• three situation nodes,
• an escalating pressure,
• a hidden truth,
• a complication or twist,
• and the stakes of the situation.

For Fate specifically, it then turns parts of that structure into situation aspects and suggests a compel and opposition.

For example, the goal isn't to produce something like:

"Scene 1 happens, then the players go to Scene 2."

It's closer to:

Situation Aspect: The Witnesses Are Going Quiet
Situation Aspect: Justice Behind Borrowed Faces
Complication: The Evidence Points Home

and then giving the GM enough connected material to decide how those things react to what the players do.

I also added fillable Node, Quest, NPC, Session and Season templates. They can be completed in the browser and exported as PDF or DOCX.

It's completely free and doesn't require an account:

Roll 101 Website

This is the first public version, and I'm particularly interested in whether the Fate side actually feels useful to people who regularly run Fate rather than simply feeling like a generic adventure generator with Fate terminology added on top.

That distinction matters to me, so criticism is very welcome.

Obviously, she’s been built for a Zootopia campaign. The character was inspired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Alexander Hamilton. I originally wrote her name as Alexandria Olivia Camelton, making it a double pun. But with her being a camel it felt more authentic to give her a more Middle Eastern/Arabic name and cultural upbringing. Her surname al-Jamal literally translates to “The Camel”, so there’s still a pun there.

For a better tomorrow today
Vote for al-Jamal

If I had to describe her politically, I’d say she was a Progressive Populist.

Biggest concern I have is that her High Concept and her Aspect 6 may be redundant.

Any thoughts anyone has on the PC are absolutely welcome.

Made some equipment rules that our party really enjoys.

At the start of a session, or after the group had an opportunity to update their equipment (at a base or a trader) they can choose one of the loadouts:

A) *Lightweight and non-threatening [] [] (two free invokes)

(+1) _

(+1) _

B) *Equiped and possibly armed

(+2) _

(+1) _

(+1) _

С) *Heavily equiped and threatening

(+2) _

(+2) _

(+1) _

(+1) _

Those (+1) and (+2) are equipment slots: minor and major accordingly. They are empty at the start, but that doesn't mean that the players are empty handed: players can fill them in with equipement when neccessary. Bassicaly, an empty equipmenet slot means that there is something equiped, we just don't know what that is exactly yet. A player can fill the slot with equipment before or after a roll. When a player looses an item, the slot is filled with an X. If a player has an opportunity to loot, they can empty an item slot and fill it with some new item later.

Minor slots (+1) can be used for:

- Creating a (+1) passive bonus that can be used whenever an item is usefull. Its bassicaly a second skill that can be usen on top of your regular skills. You can't use more than a single item in a single roll.

- Creating a [2] stress slot. It can be used to take stress, or as a consumable - giving your roll a (+2) bonus and filling the slot with an X.

Major slots can be used for:

- Creating a (+2) passive bonus instead

- Creating a stunt that doesn't relly on a (+2) bonus

- Creating a [4] stress slot instead

This rule does in practise increase the skill ceiling by 2, so consider lowering the skills or upping the difficulties when using those rules.

The loadout aspects are also very important - if your players are running around in a city in heavy equipment, you should absolutely compel that aspect and involve the police or concerned citizens. Loadouts should also restrict movement - parkour, climbing, running, all that should be hard or impossible in heavier equipement. Stealth, consealment of equipement and disguise as a civilian is also ment to be restricted to lightweight loadouts.

These rules also do not restrict you from describing equipement without filling in slots: You can absolutely still pick a lock without having a (+1) Lockpick filled in a slot, just roll Bulglary without equipement and describe having some cheap lockpick. Consider that to be free (+0) equipement slots - some cheap and common stuff you have for free without filling in slots, just for flavour, as part of your skill. The slots are meant to be more specialised, high-quality, hard to get equipement, especialy the (+2) slots.

Thank you for everyone who gave feedback on the Fancy character sheet I shared for review three weeks ago. If you want to see what the final version looks like, you can find it on the pre-launch page for Criminal Spirits. Me and the artist took a lot of the feedback we got here to heart, though not everything.

As I mentioned (though many commenters ignored), the Fancy sheet is only one of two versions of the character sheet for the game. Here is the second - the practical sheet. Clean. Simple art. Computer fonts, not hand drawn lettering. All black and white.

I believe this is the final version of this character sheet, but I'm happy to take any comments. There's not going to be any major changes to the artwork and so the general layout, but it's quite possible something was overlooked or could be improved in the text. Please give me your feedback!

I love Fate Core. I also love hacking TTRPG systems, especially for solo play. I built my ideal system by stitching together some others and thought I’d share it here where it might fit best.

It’s “almost-Fate-but-not.” It doesn’t use as much math, and it ditches opposed rolls. After rolls, you choose dice for different jobs rather than adding up results. It separates whether you succeed at your goal and whether you face a consequence.

I’m just sharing it for others to possibly enjoy. To be clear, I’m not looking for constructive feedback, just sharing.

This is heavily hacked from The Tears of a Machine SC by Russell Collins, which I highly recommend.

Here is the idea:

1. The max dice pool is 4dF.
2. You still get a list of skills. Each is ranked 0-3. The rank tells you how many dice you get when you use it.
3. You still get five Aspects. Each one contributes a die to your pool when it fits the action.
4. You can also use setting Aspects or other characters’ Aspects to add a die to your pool.
5. Roll your pool. Don’t add them. We’ll need to pick a Goal die and a Cost die in the next steps. You may spend a Fate point to reroll now.
6. Pick one die from the rolled results to determine if you achieved your goal or not.

Plus: You succeed. Additionally, you may create another Aspect for the scene or choose your Cost die. (More on that soon.)

Blank: You succeed.

Minus: You fail.

You may pay a Fate point to invoke an Aspect that was used on this roll and turn this die before applying the results, improving the result by one degree (Minus turns to Blank; Blank turns to Plus). Each Aspect can only be invoked once per roll.

1. Set the Goal die aside. From the remaining dice, the GM picks your Cost die (unless you picked a Plus for the Goal die, in which case you pick).

Plus: You suffer no consequences.

Blank: The GM gets to freely compel an Aspect or create a new Aspect.

Minus: Fill in the most minor consequence slot you have available (starting with mild slots, then moderate, then severe).

You may spend a Fate point to invoke an Aspect and turn this die, improving the result by one degree.

1. Apply the results and narrate!

2. For each leftover Plus die that was not selected as a Goal or Cost, gain 1 Fate point.

Other Rules
Solo Play: Episodes
In solo play, an episodic structure is encouraged. Each “episode” of the game tracks one short story, typically involving one crisis to solve as you try to protect someone/something from a threat. Plan for ten rolls to be made per episode.

The first 2-3 rolls should establish the Ward, which is who/what is worth protecting and why we care about this person/thing/place, while also foreshadowing the impending crisis. For added drama, consider what the PC wants to emotionally or socially achieve, and tie the Ward to this desire in some way.

The next 5-6 rolls should be the crisis, an action scene or multiple action scenes in which you protect the Ward and deal with the threats to it.

The remaining rolls should tie up loose ends of the episode’s emotional journey while letting the player try to clear consequences.

Gaining Fate Points
You gain Fate Points if the GM compels one of your Aspects, like in Fate Core.

Stunts
These are the same as in Fate Core, allowing skills to be used in new ways or allowing certain rules to be modified for you.

Consequences
You start with 1 Mild, 1 Moderate, and 1 Severe consequence slot. To clear a consequence, you must make the Goal of a roll to address the consequence in a narratively logical way. After you roll, the GM chooses the Goal die for this task, so expect to spend a Fate point to reroll or turn dice unless you roll well.

When a Mild consequence is successfully addressed, clear it immediately.

When a Moderate consequence is addressed successfully, revise the consequence to reflect recovery. This new Aspect still functions like other Aspects. It clears at the end of the episode.

A Severe consequence must be addressed successfully in two episodes, improving slowly this way. Revise it both times. It clears at the end of the episode in which it was addressed successfully the second time.

Leveling Up
Trade 10 Fate points to improve a Skill by 1 rank (3 ranks max) or to gain 1 Mild Consequence slot (3 slots max).

Edit: I think if your slots are full and you would gain another consequence, you are defeated but can concede like in Fate Core to maintain some autonomy over your fate.

Edit 2: How is combat handled? If any obstacle (including an enemy) is meant to be simple, the Goal of a roll can be to overcome it. But if a threat is meant to be harder to defeat, the GM should declare more objectives and obstacles that the PC must overcome first. For example, objectives of a crisis scene might be Break their defenses, Find a weak spot, Defeat their lieutenant, Gain the high ground, Wear them down, etc. Then a later objective would be Defeat them.

W2A2 is a VTT tool that was created with a few big principles in mind: make any TTRPG session as easy to play as possible, be user friendly for beginners but still offer advanced tools for more experienced players, and most importantly, be affordable and not subscription based.

This app stores everything locally and allows the GM to host a game in a matter of minutes, without having to pay for any hosting services. It includes all things you'd normally expect from a VTT tool, and a few additional features that we thought of while testing through our own sessions.

App is still in development, should be available in a few weeks! 

Hello everyone, I am famously long-winded but I'll try to keep this relatively concise.

I am completely new to running FATE. I have been running a multi-year campaign for my friends using various systems, none of which have pleased me because ultimately I want to run a more narrative system, so I stumbled across FATE.

I have read through FATE Condensed and the Book of Hanz. I understand, in theory at least, the principles of the system, and I really think this is the system that best fits what I want and the story that I want to tell. I think this will be a great change for my group once we all get used to it.

However, I'm at a point where we're really late in our own campaign and I'm still an utter neophyte when it comes to running FATE (I haven't run a session of it yet), and I'm worried that my lack of familiarity with the mechanics might detract from how good the climax of the campaign plays out.

Context (You can skip this): Basically, the PCs are part of a team that are working for a nation that has discovered that this world's gods are both A) keeping the mortal races from progressing in order to keep them weak and oppressed, and B) are not quite as invulnerable as they make themselves out to be. This nation, with the help of the PCs, has been working towards preparing for the next "God War" for some time now, and the time has nearly arrived for it to break out. The last big chunk of sessions we have had have focused on the PCs laying the groundwork for this war to be fought, so that the mortal races have a chance of winning against the supremely-powerful beings and their loyalist lackeys. My plan for the PCs is to have them undergo an arcane/superscientific ritual to essentially make them into demigods who, by working together (the power of friendship, yay!) can rival the power of a full-blown god.

So here are my questions: Do you guys have any recommendations on how best to utilize FATE to make fighting against these gods memorable and satisfying? Do you have any suggestions, tips, or ideas for how to run a "fight" against a god? How can I really showcase FATE's unique mechanics and prevent what should be a reality-shaking combat from devolving into just "taking turns punching a really big guy."

In some ways, utilizing an overly-tactical system had advantages when it running a combat against a god - dealing huge amounts of damage, screwing with the PCs' stats, multi-actions, etc... But I want these gods to be more than just giant damage sponges that do 12d10000 damage with each attack. I feel like there's a way I can play around with Aspects to do some really cool stuff with these god fights, but I'm not familiar enough with the system to know how yet.

I guess I'm envisioning something that's a fight, and yet almost plays out kind of a like a puzzle, if that makes sense? Something that FEELS different from a regular fight.

TL;DR How can I best utilize FATE to have some good combats against gods that don't feel like traditional combats?

Any help is appreciated.

Hi everyone,

A few months ago, I made a post here about Kardiya: The Winds of Fate, the game we are developing with inspiration from FATE RPG mechanics. Since then, we’ve kept working on the game, and we are now getting close to the playtest stage.

We are a small team, and for a long time we have been designing our own universe to be playable through FATE RPG. We previously created our own RPG book based on FATE. Since the book is in Turkish, I’m not sharing it directly here, but I can send the PDF via DM if anyone is interested. Around 2 years ago, we also made the most comprehensive “How to Play FATE RPG” YouTube series in Turkey.

Now we are trying to bring that approach into a PC game.

Kardiya is mainly a narrative-driven game. In our previous post, we said that the game had dicebuilding and roguelite elements, but over time we realized that those parts were not working as well as we wanted. So right now, we are focusing on the most important part for us: bringing the spirit of FATE into the game. We are especially focusing on the aspect logic, fudge dice, stress mechanics, and the idea that failed rolls should not stop the story, but push it in another direction.

The story and mechanics of the demo are ready. Only the visual animations are left. We’ll be starting the playtest soon. I would especially love to have people from the FATE community try the game. If you’d like to join the playtest, you can register by joining the mailing list on our website or clicking the playtest request button on our Steam page.

Thank you so much <3

I've been tasked with running a narrative fantasy RPG campaign. I'm coming from Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) with pre-written plot point campaigns and have done very little in the way of wiritting my own adventures. I've selected Fate Core as my system because of it's simplicity and flexibility.

Completely irrelevant: Our story is sort of a cozy, our players start as "low level" characters and will never face perma-death. I'm thinking I'd like to try to figure out ways for them to avoid killing enemies as well. Maybe everyone in the party gets a Fate Chip if the figure out how to neutralize a boss without killing them? IDK, doesn't matter.

Anyway, on to my challenge:

I want to purchase an existing campaign source book to use as inspiration. I don't plan to run my adventure from it so it need not be my or any particular genre. Sure, I might adapt an encounter or even some of the plot, but that's not what I really need.

I want a concrete example to help me figure out how to prepare my own campaigns. I'd prefer a Fate Core specific source book, but a system agnostic example might be okay?

I have done a search for this, but the results are overwhelming and it's not clear that any given source is what I truly want.

I've skimmed through or read the Fate Core book and Sparks. I've checked out Book of Hanz and seen the SRD. I expect my players to help me build the world, but full improve won't work at my table; I _need_ to have prompts at the ready.

So... What campaign source "book" can you suggest I read? And why?

In both of the games I'm writing, I've realized that the home base is a big deal in the game. Thinking back to earlier games, this has been true for every game of Fate I've run. Yet I cannot remember any rules or advice in Fate books for creating a home base. Does anyone know of one I missed or done the same in your own games? I would have thought it would come up, whether it's a castle or a flying mecha battleship.

I've handled creating bases myself several ways in the past, and this weekend sat down and wrote out the first draft of the chapter for creating a speakeasy for Criminal Spirits. I've cut out the first part which is very specific to the genre and NYC, but I'd love feedback on it. Especially if it's clear and easy to follow, and if you like the results and would find them helpful in a campaign. There are more example images (building it in stages) in the chapter but reddit is a pain to embed images mid post.

This draft is part of the 6th chapter I've written out for Criminal Spirits, which I'm crowdfunding September 1st. I appreciate any feedback and of course any follows if your interested in the game. Criminal Spirits TTRPG - BackerKit

Zoning Out the Speakeasy

No other location in the game will have more scenes happen in it than your speakeasy and it should be laid out clearly for play. 

This setup uses the concepts of Zones and Barriers, which you can learn more about in the chapter Time and Space. All you need to know for laying out the speakeasy is that Zones define locations that characters can move between, as long as they are touching. Barriers are obstacles that make it difficult to move between Zones.

The first three Zones have already been created when you wrote down the High Concept, Front, and Neighborhood. 

Write down your high concept, write the Front below that, and the Neighborhood below the Front. 

Now you need to add one more Zone, a secret entrance. This could be another business, a side alley, a hidden door, or any other place or method that allows characters to slip in and out unnoticed for smuggling moonshine or just sneaking around. Write it down and put it above the High Concept. 

The Secret Entrance most likely also leads into the neighborhood, but may go somewhere else (such as the Hudson River for a secret dock). If it does, add that area as a Zone as well. 

These are the four essential zones for the speakeasy. You may want to add more, for instance some characters may have an apartment in or above the speakeasy, or there may be a neighbor you go to often enough that it’s worth writing down.

Place these new zones touching the zones that you can directly go to from them. This may be the neighborhood if you need to step outside the speakeasy to reach them. 

Don’t worry about catching everything, you can always add more.

Once the zones are down, it’s time to consider Blocks. Is there anything that would stop characters from moving between them? You can always assume there is a possibility to lock or block doors and that doesn’t need to be written down. But something exceptional like iron bars might be worth noting. At minimum, you should note down what keeps just anyone from going between the Front and the speakeasy freely.

Finally, you should add a magical aspect to one or two zones. These are aspects that bring a bit of magic and wonder into your speakeasy. Examples could be a magical resident, an enchantment or curse, an emotion the Zone brings out in those there, or some artifact within it. The possibilities are endless.

And now you are ready to play in your speakeasy.

Updating Your Speakeasy

Over the course of a campaign, your speakeasy will change. Unlike a player character there are no strict rules about when the speakeasy can change, but the players should at minimum be able to request changes to the speakeasy whenever there is a minor milestone. The gamemaster should make a change based on the events of the campaign at least every major milestone in the game. You can change anything in the speakeasy to represent the new reality the player’s characters have created.

Hello friends. I had an idea of playing a tokusatsu oriented campaign for a while now, and never got to put ideas on paper. Talking with a lot of friends, almost by unanimity was recommended for me to adapt to FATE.

I've been reading, studying the system for a while and it feels like the correct choice. But since i had never used it before, i wanted to ask for tips and helps.

My idea is 2-4 players.

I want the hero transformations to count, and have limit, of course.

Since fate is a more narrative driven, it would be nice to have some basic tips, because i've never used it before. How would you guys do it?

I've run 5 or 6 sessions of the Dresden Files Accelerated game, but I'm still struggling with a few things. My group is having fun so it may not be a problem, but I'm having difficulty wrapping my head around Conditions.

This seems to be unique to the Dresden game - I don't see it reflected on the standard Fate Accelerated character sheets, but I could be missing it.

In short - a PC can acquire a condition in a few ways - taking damage, or doing something unique like a stunt - there are also character specific conditions (bear with me here).

For example a magic practioner can mark Exhaustion to boost a stunt, a monster hunter can mark In Pursuit to learn about their quarry, or a vampire can mark Hungry if using their supernatural charisma.

My question is, in these cases there's 4 or 5 boxes for each condition, and despite playing several sessions, I haven't had a PC mark more than 2 boxes of any condition during a story arc. The fact the game has effects built in to impact the characters if the boxes are full, tells me it expects them to face this challenge. Imagine a vampire PC struggling against their hunger as they navigate the story.

But to me they would have to spam the stunt intentionally to reach this level. How many times does the situation reasonably arise for these conditions to be relevant?

Am I missing somthing?

EDIT: It turns out, Yes, I was missing something. I thought conditions cleared at the end of story arcs. While I had the PCs mark conditions over the 2-3 days of in-game time for an arc/chapter, I assumed they would clear by time the next session began after in-game weeks-months.