Being a compilation ofmusings concerning the Fate RPG done by RobertHanzonGoogle+.

CollectedbyTomasiusPadeliensis.V01.00,20140909

What'sFate?

Afewpostshavegotmethinkingaboutthis,andit'sathoughtthat'sbeeninmy head for a while in other ways - mostly around the whole "if you'rehacking,whatarethe'safer'thingstohack,andatwhatpointareyoumuckingwiththebaseassumptionsofthesystem?"

Muchlike+RyanMacklin'spost,ItendtothinkofFateasbeingaspecificgame,thatdoesspecificthings.Itcancoverawidevarietyofsettings,butitdoessoinaveryFate-likeway.There'sthingsFateissuper-awesomeat,andthings that Fate isn't super-awesome at.When Iwant to do something thatFate isn't super-awesome at, I tend to just pull out a game that is super-awesomeatthat.

I don't consider that a negative on Fate in any way. I have a JeepWrangler. It'sgoodat some things (transportation),awesomeatother things(off-roading), and absolutely sucky at certain things (hauling lots of things,carryinglotsofpeople,goingfast).AndmakingmyWranglerbetteratthosethingswouldalmostnecessarilymakeitworseatthethingsitdoesreallywellrightnow.

SoIdon'tuseFatetoplayD&D.ImightuseFatetorunagameinaD&Dsetting, but I don't think it would feel much like the D&D game - I'vepreviously described what I think it would be as more like "D&D: TheMovie:TheGame"(no,notthehorriblemovie,butanimaginarygoodone).

Yeah, I could hack Fate enough to run a passable "D&D game", butwoulditstillbeFateinanyrecognizableway?Idon'tthinkitwould,becausethecorequestionsandassumptionsofD&Dareverydifferent thanthoseofFate.Which,again,isn'taknockonFateoronD&D,muchlikesayingthatmyWranglerisn'tasfastasaFerrariisn'taknockonmyWrangler.

So,whatarethethingsthatIconsidertobe"Fate"?Notassomekindofpuritytest,butratherasamoregeneralgauge-ifIseeaFatebuildthathits95%ofthese,it'llprobably"feellike"Fatetome.ButifIseesomethingthat'sostensiblyFatethatonlyhits10%ofthings,itprobablywon'tpushthoseFatebuttonsverywell.

Proactivecharacters

This is, tome,oneof thebiggest.Fatecharactersareproactive.Theymakethingshappen.Thegameprogressesasaresultoftheiractions.

This seems like all games, but it's really not - it's an argument thatrailroadingdoesn'tbelonginFategames.Ifyouknowwhat'sgoingtohappen,thenatsomelevelthecharactersaren'tproactive.They'rejustlookingforthemagic"nextscene"button.Theyhavenorealagency.Andsomegamesandstylesarebuiltheavilyuponthiskindofgamestructure.Whichisfine-Ijustdon'tnecessarilythinkit'sagoodfitforFate.

Italsomakesitagoodquestionwhetherinvestigation-basedgamesareasuper-awesome fit for Fate, either. Investigation-based games are usuallyaboutfollowingthebreadcrumbthatisleft,whichisoftennotveryproactiveonthepartoftheplayers.ItalsomakesthelevelofnarrativecontrolthatFategivesplayerssomewhatproblematic.

Competentcharacters

Fatecharactersarecompetent.They'regood at stuff.Maybenot thebest inthe world, but whatever they're good at, they're good at it. They're notbumblingamateurs.

Skills,aspects,compels,invokes

Tome,thisisthecoreofFate.Youcangetridofstuntsandstillhaveit"feellike"Fate,butifthesefourelementsdon'tworkmoreorlesshowtheydoinCore,itdoesn'tfeelmuchlikeFatetome.

Thephasetrio

Thishasbeenaround,andalmostunchanged,sinceSotC.Itworks,andhowitgeneratesinterlinkedcharactersis, tome,aprettyimportantpartoftheFateexperience.

Lackofcharop

As a game, Fate seems to almost go out of its way tominimize characteroptimization.Discussionofwhatstuntsdoisdirectlyopposedtotheideaof

"hey, let me find the combination of stuff that makes me awesome", as ageneraltablevetoisbuiltintotheprocess.

"Final"skills

OneofthethingsIreallyappreciateaboutFateistheideathatskillsrepresentyour final ability to influence a scene - not your base ability that's thenmodified by a gazillion other factors. This ties in pretty heavily with thecharoppointabove.

Lackofemphasisonsystemmastery

Fateis,tome,notagameaboutlearningtomanipulatethegamesystem.It'sagameaboutthefiction(asin,thestuffwe'reimagininginourheads),nottherules.Therulesgetoutofthewaymorethananything,andit'shardtohavesystemmasterybeimportantifyou'retryingtode-emphasizethesystem.

AttemptstomakeFate"crunchy"(thatis,tomakesystemmasteryamoreimportantthing)tomemakegamesfeellesslikeFate.

Branches,notgates

Scenes in Fate games to me work best as a series of possible branches.They'renotchallengestobeovercome.Ifthere'sa95%chanceofsuccessatnocost,there'snorealpointinhavingascene.

Focusonopportunitycost

This is a big one to me. Unlike games that focus on system mastery andovercoming challenges, Fate to me works best when opportunity cost isshoved in theplayers' faces.That'saquestion thatappearsoverandover inFate - spending Fate points to buy a victory, success at a cost, acceptingCompels-allof thesepointdirectlyat the ideaof"howmuchdoyouwantthis,andwhatareyouwillingtogiveuptogetit?"

If a Fate gamede-emphasizes this, tome it starts to feel less likeFate.HackstoFatethatdothingslikerequirethepre-spendingofFatePointsorthe

likefeelless-"Fate"tome.

Afocusonwhat'simportantinthestory,notmodelingreality

If you think onmost fiction, theweapon that a given combatant uses isn'tparticularlyrelevantmostofthetime.Thefactthatsomeoneusesanaxevs.asword isn't going tomean that they lose in a scene. Sure, there are specialpiecesofequipment,buttheytendtobejustthat-special.

To me, a good Fate game approaches its systems in that way - what'sactually important, in this genre?Do characters tend to lose fights becausethey're not armedwith bigger weapons or sturdier armor? If not, then thatshouldn'tbehowyourgamemodelsit,either.

Agoodexampleofthisisthinkingaboutmecha.Howmanystatsshouldamechhave,andhowmuchofitscombatabilityshouldbebasedonitinsteadofitspilot?Andthatboilsdownto-'whatstoryareyoutelling'?Ifit'saboutthe pilot, and a good pilot in a weak or mediocre mecha can still be aneffectivecombatant,thenthemechashouldonlyhaveamodifyingimpactonthepilot's skills, and the storywill focus around thepilots.But if the storyshouldfocusaroundtheattainmentofawesomemecha,thentheyshouldhavea larger impact. It's not amatter ofwhat's "realistic". It's amatter of "whatimpact does this have on the game, and what elements do I want to beimportantinthegame?"

Activeinsteadofpassivebonuses

AbigthingwithFate,tome,istheideathatmostbonusesareactive-they'rethe result of things that you do. This fits in with the "proactive" part ofcharactersaswell.Thiscomparestoothergameswheremuchofthegameisfocusedon"howmanybonusescanIfindawaytomakeapply?"Thatcanbeagreattypeofgame-butitain't(tome)Fate.

Skillstiedtoresults,notactions

Another biggie. In many games, using a skill means you're engaging in aspecific task thatmay have a variable result. In Fate, I see itmore as "I'm

trying to accomplish this - do I succeed?" It seems subtle, but it's a prettyimportantpoint,andcolorshowalotofmechanicsgetapplied.

Bellcurveresults

Fate uses a randomization scheme that is heavily biased towards "average"results.Itdoesn'tuseaflatdistribution.Howthatisspecificallyachieved,orexactly how biased it is, is somewhat more open - but a flat distributiondoesn'tfeellikeFatetome.

Anyway,thosearethemainthingsIcanthinkof,atleastfornow.I'msureI'lladdmorelater!

Andthesearejustmyopinions.They'renotthewordofGod,andotherswillabsolutelyhavedifferent lists,andeventhingsthat theythinkI justgottotallywrong.But, tome, this is kindof the core ofwhat I consider to be"Fate"-and, ifyou lookat it,agoodpredictorofwhatgamesI'llgenerallysaydon'tfeel"Fate-like"tome.

WhytheHeckamIDoingThis?

Okay, no big reveal (I'm actually working for Evil Hat! Muahahaha) oranythingofthesort.ButI'veputalotoftimeintosomeoftheseposts,andI'dliketojustpointoutwhyI'mdoingthis.Imean,attheendoftheday,thisisjustanRPG,afunwaytokillsometime.

I'm a long term gamer. Been playing for over thirty years now, startedwith Moldvay D&D. I've played a plethora of systems. I've worked withfamous industry folks, though I certainly am not a "famous industry folk"myself.

Mymindsetisprettyfullyold-school.Yay,characterdeath,anddifficulty,andearningtheawesome.Ifyouhadaskedmeayearagoif itwouldmakesenseforacharactertofindasecretdoorthatwasn'tonthemap,justbecausethey'drolledwell,I'daskifyouwerecrazy.IfyoutoldmeayearagothatI'dadvocatenotkillingcharacterswithoutadiscussion,I'daskyoutoshareyourstash.(BTW,I'dstillmaintainthosestatements,forcertaintypesofgames!)

I started Fate with SotC and DFRPG. And… it was a learning curve.TherewerethingsIjustwasn'tgetting,andIknewit.ButIlikedenoughofwhatwasgoingon,and likedenoughofFate (myprevious foray intomorenarrative systems had been Burning Wheel) that I stuck with it. And thebiggest issue, over and over again, was the fact that I was unconsciouslytryingtomakeFateactlikeamoretraditionalsystem.

Whereweretheattributes?Wherewerethethingsyouputtogether?HowtheheckdiditmakesensetohaveanaspectReallyStrong,yetitonlycameintoplayonoccasion?Thisismadness!

But I stuckwith it. I read thebooks, Iplayedwith folks thatgot it (Hi,+JacobPoss!).Ireadresponsesfromthegurusonthiscommunity(morethanIcaretoname…mostofyouknowwhoyouare!).

Atfirst,itwasafewbitshereandtherethatcametogetherthatwerejustawesome.Andthen,atsomepoint,somethingclicked.Itcametogether.Igotit."Fiction,notphysics"becamemorethanacutecatchphrasemeaningthatfunwasmore important than realism. I stopped looking formore systems.The airplanes-as-stunts in Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie made sense. TheimportanceofthePhaseTrioclicked,anditwasn'tjustpartycohesion.

Whenitallcametogether,IfoundanewwaytoplayRPGs.Awaythat'sprettyawesome,andnotverymuchliketheD&DIplayedwhenIwas10.

Now,don'tgetmewrong-Istill likeotherwaysofplaying.I'vegotnoproblemwith a goold old fashioned dungeon crawl, or a set of tactical setpieceencounterswithsomestory/investigationbitsbetweenthem.I'vehada

heckofalotoffunovertheyearsplayingthosegames,andI'msureI'llhavemoreintheyearstocome.IwanttorunanX-COMgameatsomepoint,andit almost certainly won't be in Fate (GURPS and Savage Worlds are thefrontrunnersatm).

And that's what these posts are about - detailing my realizations, andthrowing them out there to maybe help other people that are struggling tocome to grips with the same things I came to grips with. So if I postsomething like, "Fatedoesn't have adamage system,"don't take that as thepropheton themountmakingaproclamation. I'mnot into theholyprophetthing, given that the fashion choices are terrible and the life expectancy isgenerallyworse.Instead,takeitasmegoing,"Holyshit!Ijustrealized,thisgamedoesn'thaveadamagesystem!Itthinksabouttheresultsofcombatinanalmosttotallydifferentway!That'scrazycool!"

So that'swhat these posts are about. Trying to help others look at Fatewith a bit of "beginner's mind," and seeing it through eyes not trained byyearsofgaminginothersystems.It'sabouthelpingotherstofindthethingsthatIfindawesomeinthesystem.It'snotabouttellingpeoplethey'redoingthings"wrong"-there'snoFatePolicereadytoknockdowndoors,thelastIchecked.Ifyou'rehavingfun,asfarasyou'reconcerned,you'redoingitright.It's about sharing the things that I've discovered about the system when Istoppedtryingtoshoveitssquarepegintoaroundhole.

And I'll say,doing that is tough.We'vegota lotof things in traditionalgamingthatwork,andmakeforawesomegames.Inalotofcases,deviatingfromthoseslightlydoesn'twork,asthosegamestendtositon"localmaxima"- areaswhere thedecisionsmadework together in a tight, interlockedway.ButIthinkFatesitsonaverydifferentlocalmaximumthanmostgames,andtofindityou'vegottachangealotofassumptions,andbewillingtoapproachit like itwas thevery firstgameyou'veplayed. I've found it tobeworth it,and so I want to share what I've learned to help others find that sameawesome.

And if you're interested, come on along for the journey. Share yourinsightswithme, and I'll happily shareminewith you. If not, hell,maybewe'llget togetherandplayagamethatsits inadifferentarea,andhavefundoingthat.

IntroducingPeopletoFate

So,thisseemstocomeupabunch.FiguredI'dgetmythoughtsout,andseewhatothershavetosay.

Anyway.Fatedoessomethingsdifferently.Fundamentally, I thinkthat'sbecauseithasendeduptryingtoanswerverydifferentquestionsthantypicalRPGsdo.Assuch, itcanlookabitweirdatfirstfornewplayers.There'sanumberofconceptsthatdon'tmeshparticularlywellwithmore'traditional'ortypicalRPGs.

So,howtointroducenewplayers?ThefirstthingIdoistalkthesystemup-specificallyitsstrengths.Ipoint

outhow the systemreallyallowsyou to thinkaboutwho your character is,insteadof justwhat they are andwhat they cando. I point out how fast itruns,andthegreatsupport ithasfornon-combatoptionsandactions.Ialsopoint out that it's a different game, and that it's not a replacement for theirfavoritegame.

AssumingI'vesuckered^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hgottensomepeopletobewillingtotry,Isetupagame.Beforethegame,individuallyifpossible,Igooverafewthings.

First, I talk up the fact that in Fate, the expectation isn't that you'll begivenabunchofencounters,andthatyouhavetoovercomethem.Ipointoutthatfailureisnormalandexpected,andwon'tmeantheendofthegame.

So at game time, I actually do go through cooperative setting/charactercreation. I find thisbuilds investment in thesetting,andeases themakingacharacterbit.

Usually,bytheendofsettingcreation(whichisprettyquick),Ifindthatthe players are pretty excited about the game. That's why I actually do it,BTW.Sincesettingcreationisfun,andisn'twhereanyoftheusualstumblingblocksoccur,gettingplayersinvestedinthegameandexcitedbeforetheyhitthemseemstobereallyusefulforgettingthemtoplowthroughiftheyhitaroughpatch.

Imakesurethatwhencreatingcharacters,it'sdoneasagroup-thepersonwhosecharacterisbeingmadedriveshispartofthat,ofcourse,buteveryoneispayingattentionandcontributing.

Helpingexplainaspectsabitatthispointhelps,aswellascomingupwithsuggestions.Sincewe'restillfocusedonthe"storybits"atthispoint,itseemstoworkokay.Icandrivethemtowardsslightlymoreusefulaspectswithmyknowledgewithouthavingtoknowledgedumpthem.

TheusualexplanationofassetsIliketogiveissomethinglikethis:"TakeHanSoloat theendofStarWars.Let'ssay that there'ssomestorieswrittenabout him between then and the beginning of Empire.What things wouldthose stories have to include to really be 'Han Solo stories'?" Usually theanswerwillbethingsliketheFalcon,Chewie,hisdebttoJabba,himbeingadashing/cockyguy,etc.AndthoseareallthingsI'dconsidertobehisaspects.

While thecooperative,one-at-a-timecharactercreationmayseemlike itwouldbeslow,inpracticeIfindthatitactuallyworksalotfaster.Ithinkthecollaborationand interest level, combinedwithattention fromsomeone thatknowsthegamekeepsthingsmovingatasomewhatbetterclip.Also,forthe"guest star" phases, it seems to help because the players will already besomewhatfamiliarwiththestoriesthey'reguest-starringin.

Skillsareprettyeasy,butIusuallykindofglossoverstuntsabit,andjustleave blanks. I may help them think of stunts that would work with theircharacter, but I've found this to be the thing that can take the most time.Instead,I'llsuggeststuntsduringplayastheybecomeavailable,andpointoutbeforehandthatthisiswhatwe'llbedoing.

Okay, so during play I make sure I stick with the model ofTV/Movie/Book.AllexamplesIusetoexplainruleswilleitherbefromoneofthose,orframedasbeinginone.I'llmakereferencesto"camerashots"andstufflikethat-evendocutawaysor"titlesequences"asappropriate.Tome,Ifind the key here is being consistent in framing things this way, to helpovercome some of the "simulationist" tendencies that most new players(myselfincluded)have.

Also,duringplayItrytokeepinmindwhatIwoulddoifIwasrunningthatPC,andoffersuggestions.Ialsokeepanemphasison"okay,butwhatdoyoudo"wheneverplayersstartfocusingmoreonthenumbersthanthegame.

OnethingthatI'veseeniskindofdifficult isforplayerstobeproactiveand try to actually drive things. The usualmode I've seen for players is tokindof passively investigate.So Iwill also frequently ask "Okay,what areyoutryingtogetoutofthis?Imaginethebestpossiblesuccessforthis-whatdoesitlooklike?"Strangely,Ithinktheideathatplayerscanactuallysucceedatthatlevel,andgetwhattheywant,isanovelconceptinmanycases.

AlmostcertainlyaphysicalConflict(fight)willcomeup,iffornootherreason than in most RPGs it's expected, and so I don't mind meeting thatexpectation. This is one of the other big points for teaching people Fate, Ifind.

The key here is to get them thinking in terms of good Fate strategy -targeting weaknesses, using Create Advantage, and all of the other stuff.Again,Ifinditusefultogobacktomovies/TV/books.I'veseenanumberof

peoplenewtoFate(asin,almosteveryone)justtrytogohead-to-headwithatoughopponent,whenthey'renotcombatoptimized-badmove.EitherbeforetheConflict,orwithinaroundorso,I'llcallaquicktimeout,andexplainhowit works, and how Create Advantage can really do wonders for youreffectiveness,ratherthantryingtothrowyour2Fightagainstyouropponent's6.

I'llalsomakesuretheyknowaboutconceding,andwillpointoutthattheycan offer to do so at any time. I'll emphasize that how long they stay in isreallymoreabouthowmuchthey'rewillingtorisktogetwhattheConflictisabout,andreiteratethatit'sexpectedtoloseonoccasion.Inmanycases,thisfirstfightwillbedeliberatelydesignedtobelost/conceded.I'lloftenframeitasanincitingincident,sothatitservesasthemdiscoveringtheissueathand.

Anyway,that'smygeneraloutline.It'sgenerallyworkedwell,andwhenithasn'tIcanprettyeffectivelypointtooneofthethingsI'velistedabovethatIhaven'tdone-thisprocedureistheresultofmistakesandthelessonslearnedfromthem.

OnethingthatIdon'tdoistryto'ease'thelearningofFatebymakingitmorelikeothergames.Iknowthat'sprettycommon,butIhaven'treallyseenanyvalueinit,oranyneedforit.Ifinditusuallyworksverywelltojustsay"Yes, this isdifferent.Here'swhy,andhere'swhat itgetsyou.Solet's try itout."For those things that "don'tmatch", I thinkyouhave todooneor theother-eithermakeitenoughlikewhattheexpectationisthatitdoesn'ttriggerthe reaction, or call it out so that it is in the consciousmind of everyone,whichalsobypassesthatkindofunconsciousreaction.

So-whatdoeseveryoneelsedo?Anytipsortricks?Experiences?Storieswhereit'sgoneamazinglywell?Horrorstories?

FictionFirst,Fiction-RulesInteraction,andNonsensicalResults

So,thisisjustacollectiononmythoughtsonthissubject,asIthinkit'softenoneofthemostoverlooked,oftenbyme.Someofthisstuffmaybesubtleorjustpedantic.So,eitherbearwithme,orcallmeanidiot.It'sallgood.

"FictionFirst" is theGoldenRuleofFate.Tounderstand it,wehave todefine"fiction".

"Fiction",tome,isjustthecrapwe'reimagininginourheads.Whenweforgetaboutournumbers,andletourimaginationtakeoverthescene,that'sthe "fiction". It's not a statement of some kind of book-writing agenda, ortalkingaboutsomekindofpredeterminedplot.It'swhathappenswhenweletour imaginations take over the game, instead of focusing on the dice andcharactersheets.

And that's pretty damn powerful. I don't know about anybody else, butthat'sthereasonIplayRPGs.Notforthenumbercrunching,butforthatsenseofbeing"in"theworld,andseeingwhathappens.That'sthegoodstuff-alltheotherstuffisjustwhathelpsusgetthere.

So,whatdoes"fictionfirst"mean,atleasttome?Itmeansthatcharacteractions should start with the "fiction", and be described in terms of the"fiction".Then,andonlythenshouldtheybeinterpretedintomechanics.

This means that in general, players shouldn't start with "IAttack/Overcome/Create".Ifyouhearatonofgamejargonintermsofwhat'sgoingon, it's time toplacemore emphasison the "fiction", and lesson therules.Paintapicture.Makesureeverybodyis"seeing"thesamethingintheirmind.Have themsaywhat theircharacter does,notwhat thecollectionofnumbersonthepagesuggestistheoptimalcourseofaction.

Fromthat,figureoutwhatelseisinvolvedinthisaction.Whoisopposingit?Howdifficultisit?

Once we've figured this out, then we can start figuring out how we'regoing to resolve the action. Is it an Attack? An Overcome? A CreateAdvantage?Istherepassiveopposition,andifso,atwhatlevel?Thenwerollthedice,gothroughanyinvocation'bidding',andfinallygetaresolution.

And here we get to the next point. Fate doesn't actually tell you whathappens.Thedicenever tellyouwhatactuallyoccurs-at leastnot thewaytheydoinGURPS,wherethesystemwilltellyou"youhittheorcinthearm,for x amount of damage, and have disabled the arm". Instead, they placeconstraintsonthenarration.

IfyouAttackanopponentwithasword,andtie,yougetaBoost.Great.Whatdoesthatmean?It'snothingconcrete,that'sforsure,atleastnotlikeitwould be in GURPS. We have to narrate what happens, but what doeshappen?

Well,Fatedoesn'ttellus.Whatitdoestellusisthegeneralparametersofthenarration.Weknowthatnostresshasbeeninflicted,sothatthetargetisn'treallyinherentlyclosertobeingTakenOut.Weknowtheyhaven'ttakenanyConsequences, so nothing significant happens to them. We do know thatthey'replacedata temporarydisadvantage, though,and thenarrationhas toincorporatethat…howwedothatisuptous,though.

Foragrittygame,itcouldbethattheshockofparryingtheswordmadethemgoslightlynumbinthathand,butnothingthatwon'tgetshakenoff.Orthey couldbe knockedbackby the force of the blow.For a swashbucklinggame, maybe their clothes get ripped causing them to see red for a fewseconds. In a more cinematic game, maybe they take a flesh wound thatcausesthemtorecoil.

Wait..What?HowcanaBoostactuallybeahitthatcausesdamage?Wedidn'tinflictStress!

Well…. yeah.But Stress isn't damage - it's a pacingmeasure, awayofdetermininghowclosesomeoneistobeingTakenOut.AndsucceedingonanAttackdoesn'tmeanyouhit,andtying,orevenlosing,ontheAttackdoesn'tmeanyoudon'thit(thoughthat'susuallyagoodbet).Again,Fatedoesn'ttellyouwhat happens, it just places constraints on the narration. And sinceStressisreallyameasureofhowcloseyouaretobeingTakenOut,solongasthenarrationof the resolution is consistentwith that, you're fine.Youdon'tneed tohit someone to get them to be closer to beingTakenOut, and justbecause you hit someone doesn'tmean that theyare closer to being TakenOut.

Sowenarratetheresults,andgetonwiththegame.Thisgivesanoverallflowthatlookssomethinglikethis:

1)Describesceneintermsof"thefiction"2)Determinecharacter'sactioninthe"fiction"3)Determineopposition4)Determinehowtoapplyrules5)Resolveactionmechanically6)Getconstraintsonresolutionfromthemechanics7)NarratetheresolutionwithinthegivenconstraintsOkay,soinmymindthisclearsupafewcommonquestions/concernsthat

frequently come up about Fate, especiallywithmore 'transitioning' players.Youknow,likeme.

First,ifyoucanuseCreateAdvantagetocreateanarbitraryaspect,whycan'tyou justuse it tocomeupwithsomeblatantlyoverpowered thing thatwinsthescenario?

So,thisisansweredbythefactthatwe'reskippingthefirstfivestepsofthe resolution process! If the proposed action doesn't make sense in thefiction, you'll never get past step two. And step four definitely stops it, asthere'snorealwaytoapplytherulestoanimpossibleaction.

Ifwe'replayingagrittymilitarygame,andsomeonesaysthattheywantto flap their arms and fly to the top of a guard tower… that just doesn'thappen.Neitherdoesmakingabomboutofsticksandmud.Toevenget tothepointwherewerolldice,theactionhastobeacceptedasplausible,evenifunlikely.

Secondly,I'veheardabunchofstuffaboutstressanddamageandtakinglargehitsandwhatnot.Thekeyhereisthatstressisn'ttangibleorconcrete.Itjustplacesconstraintsonthenarrative.Ifyou"gethit"witharocketlauncher(aka, the Attack succeeded), and take a single point of stress, that doesn'tmeanthattherockethityoufullonthechestandyoubrusheditoff.

What it means is you take a point of stress. One point. And that thenarrationofwhat happens as part of the rocket launcher attackneeds to beconsistentwith that.Sincegettinghitbya rocket launchermeans, logically,thatyou'returnedintotheconsistencyofchunkysalsa,thenclearlyyoudidn'tactually get "hit" by the rocket launcher. Maybe you twisted your ankledodging. Maybe you got hit by some kicked up rocks. Maybe you weremostlycovered,butgotsingedabit.

But at any rate, Fate can't give you an illogical outcome, because itdoesn'tgiveyouanoutcome.Forittogiveyouanillogicaloutcome,therewouldneedtobenopossiblescenarioinwhichthatoutcomemadesense…and thereareplentyofways to justify takinga singlepointof stressas theoutcomeofarocketlauncherbeingshotatyou.

ThethirdthingIseeisthevariousformsofshootingsomeoneinthehead.ThisevenshowsupinthemainFateCorebook!Oneofthesamplecharacters(Iforgetwhich)dropsanimportantNPCwithasinglehitfromtheirsword.Whataboutstress!Whataboutconsequences!

Well,whataboutthem?Ifatrainedwarriorhitsanunarmed,unexpectingnon-combatantwithasword,whatdoyouthinkisgoingtohappen?They'regoingtogetprettywellmurderified.

Thisisn'treallyaConflict,sostressisn'tevenrelevant(stressisaConflictpacingmechanic,notaninherentpropertyofcharacters).Themissedstepinthe resolutionoutline above is four - determininghow to apply the rules toresolve theaction.Thecoreerrorhere is really inassuming thatevery time

someoneswingsasword(orshootsagun),it'saConflict,andsoweneedtousetheConflictpacingmechanismandrulesandallthatjazz.

Butwedon't.Wedon'tskipstepfour!Weshouldalwaysthinkaboutwhattherightwaytoresolveanactionis,evenifjustforamillisecond.Andmostimportantly,thatresolutionmechanicisdependentonafewthings:

1)Theactionbeingperformed2)Theintendedresult3)Thespecificsituation4)Thelarger"goal"ofthesceneInmany systems, resolution is dependent only on the first of these. In

Fate, though, that's not the case. Pushing someone can be an Attack(attemptingtopushthemoffacliff),oritcanbeCreateAdvantage(knockingthemdownoroffbalance),oritcanbeanOvercome(movingthemoutofanadvantageousposition).

Shooting someone doesn't mean it's an Attack - Attack is generally aConflictaction. If thescene isbettermodeledasaChallengeorContest,orevenjustasimpleOvercome,anAttackmaynotbenecessary.Heck,asnipershootingsomeoneintheheadshouldbeabletotakeouthistargetwithoneshot - something that's not really possible against non-mooks using defaultstress/consequences.So…maybethatmeansthata'typical'snipingsituation(unaware target, etc.) isn't a Conflict - which would make sense since thetarget isn't providing active opposition, and isn't trying to hurt the sniper(yet!).

So… that's what "fiction first" means to me. It means that the fictiondrives the rules. It's called the"GoldenRule"ofFate fora reason,and thatreason is that following that rules settles an absolute ton of other potentialproblemsorquestions.

Aswellasbeingahellofalotmorefun.

WhatCollaborativeSettingCreationMeansToMe

Okay,so,collaborativesettingcreationseemstobeoneofthoseweirdthingsforpeoplenewtomorenarrativegames,anditwasabitofahurdleforme.WhatexactlydoestheGMhavepowerover?Doesthatmeanthattheplayerscanjustdeterminewhatevertheywant?DoestheGMdonoworldbuilding?Ifthe players can just declare anything theywant, then doesn't the game justdevolveintosittingaroundandtellingastory?

IthinkthebestwayIcanexplainmythoughtsonthisistogiveyouafewexamplesofwhatIthinkitmeans.Asalways,thisismyopinion,andotherswill almost certainly disagree :) My examples will be three versions of asinglepitch-governmentagentsinvestigatingsupernaturalthreats-andhowthis changes according to the three groups it's run with. Any similarity toanything "real" is as utterly unintended as any similarity Nanoc the IP-FriendlyBarbarianhastoanyothercharacter.

Some of this will be slightly not-strictly-according-to-the-rules for thesakeoftheexamples.

Groupone

GM: "Okay, so government agents investigating the supernatural.What doyouguyslikeforathreat?Kindofattheloomingthreatlevel?"

P1:"Aliens.Ilikealiens."P2:"Cool!But,howaboutaconspiracy?Like,thealiensareworkingwith

thegovernment?"GM:"Idigit.Soyouguysarewhat,then,FBI?"P1: "Yeah, that sounds cool. Some interesting possibilities for the

governmentinvestigatingitselfandpoliticsinthere."GM: "Okay, any ideas on characters? I'd like to keep the players pretty

normal-Idon'twantthistobeasuperherogame."P1:"Okay,Icandonormal.Sincewe'redoingaliens,howaboutifI'man

investigator obsessed with the supernatural, since my sister was abductedwhenIwasakid?"

GM:"Ilikeit."P2:"Goodstuff…asacounter,whydon't Iplayacharacter that'smore

skeptical?That'llmakesomegoodtensionbetweenthetwo?"GM:"Awesome.I'llworkonsomedetails,andwe'llgettoplaying."

GroupTwo

GM: "Okay, so government agents investigating the supernatural.What doyouguyslikeforathreat?Kindofattheloomingthreatlevel?"

P1:"Hrm.Howaboutsomethinglikeanalternatedimension?"P2: "Yeah, there could be something like a war looming, only we're

unawareofit."P3:"That's…prettycool.Thoughmaybethereshouldbesomethingelse,

some kind of group that's kind of… I don't know, dimensional cops orsomething."

GM:"Goodstuff.Okay,anycharacterideas?"P1:"CanIbeagovernmentagent?Maybepsychic?"GM:"I'dliketokeepthisprettymuchwithnormalpeople.Iguesspsychic

isokay,butisitokayifit'smore'plot-psychic',asinit'snotagenerallyusefulskill?"

P1:"Sure,thatworks.It'snotrelevantuntilitis."P2:"Iwanttobeamadscientist,how'sthat?"P1:"Hey,youcanhaveexperimentedonmewhenIwasakid,andthat's

whyI'msortapsychic!"P2:"Awesome.Iloveit."GM:"Cool.P3?"P3:"We'redoingthisdimensionthing,right?HowaboutifI'msomeone

fromthisotherdimension?"GM:"Mmm,Ikindawanttokeeptheotherdimensionthingunknownto

thecharactersatthestart."P3: "That's fine,maybe I justdon't know it.Maybe Iwasdraggedover

herewhenIwasakid."P2:"…maybebyyourfriendlyneighborhoodmadscientist?"P3:"Iloveit.Butwhy?"P2:"Maybeyou'rethealternateversionofmydeadson?"GM: "Oh,wow. I can't see that blowingup in anyone's faces.But does

thatmeanthateveryonehasanalternateversion?"P1:"Yeah,Ithinkitwould."GM:"Thatcouldgetverycoolifpeoplestartcrossingdimensions.Love

it.Okay,I'llsetitup,seeyouguysnextweek."

GroupThree

GM: "Okay, so government agents investigating the supernatural.What doyouguyslikeforathreat?Kindofattheloomingthreatlevel?"

P1: "I really like the idea thatmyths arebasedon somekindof reality,evenifit'sheavilydistorted.Canwedosomethinglikethat."

GM:"Sure.Whatkindofmyths?"P2:"Idunno,mostoftheoldmythsareoverdone."P3: "How about fairy tales? Except we've drastically misinterpreted

them."GM:"That…couldbecool.So,whatareyouguysthinking?FBIforyou

guys?"P1:"Mmmmm…howaboutsomethingmorelow-scaleatfirst,tokindof

makethelargerconflictseembigger.Maybelocalcops?"P2:"Yeah,Ilikeit.Andmaybethefairy-talecreaturesaretryingtoriseto

prominenceliketheyusedtobe."P3: "Oh, that's awesome. But if we're going with misinterpreted fairy

tales,Igettobethebigbadwolf."GM:"Cute."P3:"No,really!ExceptI"mlike,reformed,andavegetarian."P1:"That's…kindofawesome."GM: "I really want to keep this more about regular people, not

superheroes…"P3: "That's fine. Maybe I'm a bit tougher than most people, but that'd

really be about it… I figuremost of these supernatural folks are just kindahangingoutlivingregularlivesanyway,soIdon'treallyneedanythingsuper-awesome."

GM:"Yeah,Icanseethatworking."P1:"Okay,sothesearefairytales,right?Howaboutifthefairytaleswere

written down originally as kind of a warning about the supernatural? AndthenI'moneofthedescendantsofthisgroupthatfoughtagainstthem?"

GM:"Ilikeit.P2?"P2:"Well,youwanttokeepthisgrounded,andwe'vealreadygotthebig

badwolfandamonsterhunter,sowhydon't I justbearegularcop?That'llprovideatleastsomegroundingbackinreality.Plus,Ithinkgettingexposedtothisstuffwillleadtosomecoolcharacterdevelopment."

GM:"That'sawesome.I'llgetsomestuffplanned,andseeyouguysnextweek."

---

So,ineachcase,theplayershavemodifiedthesetting,andthestoryofthegameswillenduprevolvingaroundthem-itwouldn'treallyworkwithothercharacters. But, the GM still has a huge amount of responsibility over thegame- theplayershavehelpedset theoverallworld,aswellas thegeneralthemes of the game, but the individual events and scenarios still are wellwithin the realm of what the GM does, even if they're often based oncharacteraspects.

FocusontheTable

Yeah,Iknowthesearen'tanywhereneardaily,butit'sstillthethoughforthisday,sothatcounts,right??

This posthttps://plus.google.com/u/0/110592364350710312709/posts/Ye6LSw8Wwhwgot me thinking about one of the things that I find different about how IapproachFate.

Asbriefbackground,themajorityofmyadultlifehasbeenspentmakingvideogames invariouscapacities.Oneof thehighgurusof the field isSidMeier, though he for some reason gets less credit than many of the"visionaries". Sid Meier has an incredible, almost perfect track record ofmakingawesomegames,withveryfewmissteps.(Whyhegetsless"fame"isperhapsatopicforanotherday).

There'saquotethat'sattributedtoSidMeier.Itmaybemisattributed,butIthinkit'svalidanyway.Thequoteis:"Therearethreetypesofgames.There'sgameswhere thedesigner ishavingallof the fun.There'sgameswhere thecomputer is having all of the fun. And there's games where the player ishaving all of the fun." And whether or not Sid said this, I think it's anincrediblytruequote.

And it's applicable to RPGs. RPGs are famous for having incrediblyintricatesystems.Butwhoishavingthefunwiththose?

Let'stakeasimpleexample,andmakeagamethat'saverybasiccombatgame.BarelyanRPG,ifatall.Inthisgame,theonlyactionistoattack.Now,let'ssaythattherearetwoversionsofthisgame.Inone,youjustrollad6todeterminedamageonanattack. In theother,youadd inallkindsof factorsaboutthesituation,thecharactersinvolved,theweaponsandarmor,anddetailout every aspect of theblow - the angleof blow, exactlyhow it penetratedarmor,etc…andendupwithdamagebetweenoneandsix.

Who is having the fun in the secondversion?Assuming that theplayerhas little control over the factors that go into the simulation, is the secondgameanydifferentfromaplayerperspective,exceptforthedierolling?(I'llacknowledge that this game may be fun as a "deck-building" type game,wheremanipulatingthosestatisticsisthepoint,butthat'snotthefocusofthispost).

So, what happened? The designer of this game focused on making anaccuratesimulation(andI'mnotsayingthatsimulationsarebad,btw,solet'savoidtheGNSreactions,mkay?).InSid's language,hemadeagamewherethecomputerishavingallofthefun.

Whatdecisionswouldwemakewiththisgameifwewerefocusedontheplayer having the fun? That's going to vary greatly based on what anyindividual thinks is fun (and that'sdefinitely a topic for anotherday),but Ithinkthemostobviousthingthatstandsoutisthathavingexactlyonethingtodo - "attack" - on any turn isn't a very interesting game.Hell, I don't evenknowifitisagameinanyrealsense.

Personally, I'd focuson the "chess-game"of combat. I'dgive theplayervariousmoves,andfigureouthowthosemovesworked.Maybesomekindofdouble-blindmechanictoadduncertainty.I'duseabitofGameTheory(themathy kind) to figure out something approaching an appropriate payoutstructure, and use theminimummath possible to get the interactions at thetabletoworkoutthewayIwantto.

Okay, sowhat does this have to dowith Fate? I'vewritten quite a fewwords,andexactlyzeroofthemhavehadanythingtodowithdicethathave+sand-sonthem.

One of the things about Fate as a core/generic system is that it's prettycommonthatitneedssomeleveloftweakingtoworkwithaparticulargenreorsetting.

And that's where I get to the real point here - how and why do youtweak/add?What'sthepriority?Howdoyouknowwhattodo?

Thecommonimpulseinthesecases,builtbymanyyearsofgaming,istothinkofthegameassomekindofarealitysimulator,andcomeupwithsomekindofmodelforhowthesepartsworktogether.Andthatmaybeuseful.

Butwhat'sreallyimportantiswhathappensatthetable.Howtheplayersinteractwith the system, the fiction, and eachother.And that'swhat this isreallyabout.

Ifyouask"howdoIdocyberneticsinFate?"that'sagreatquestion.It'salsoanexampleIcomebacktotimeandtimeagain,sothere'sthat.

So, how do we start? We can hypothesize that there's some kind ofhumanity stress track. We can start looking at adding or removingconsequences or the like. These seem like pretty reasonable places to start,but…

Theseareallsystemsquestions.Theseareallaboutbuildingamodel,andtheyhaven'texplicitlylookedatthingsfromtheplayersideatall.Theremaybe some kind of implicit idea of how players will interact with them, butmaybethatshouldbethestartingpoint?

So, what does cybernetic enhancement usually do?Well, it makes you"better," for one - but, so doesworking out, so I don't know ifwe need toreallyincreasetheoverallcaponskillsforthat.Andbesides,biggernumbersaren'tsuperinteresting.

Theusualthingweseewithcyberneticsisthatthere'ssomekindoflossofempathy, especially as people becomemore enhanced.Also, theymay fail.Onamorepositivenote,giventhatthey'remachine,theymayallowpeopletosurpasshumanlimitsinsomeareas.

Theseallseemveryhighlystory-centricsofar.Thenegativesseemverymuchlikecompels,andthepositiveseemslikeitcouldbehandledperfectlyfinewithaninvoke.Ifwewantedittobemorepersistent,wecouldaddinastunt.

Butthekeypointhereisn't"gosystemslite"-eventhoughwithFateyouoftencan.Makeasheavyofasystemasyouneedtomake.Thequestionisindefininghowheavyofasystemyouneedtomake.

As a software developer, I believe in something called Test DrivenDevelopment.It'shorriblymisnamed.ThebasicideaofTDD(asit'scalled)isasimpleloop:

1)Definewhat"working"lookslike2)Makeitwork3)CleanituptomakeitniceThebiggestkeyhereisthefirststep.Itseemsobvious,butit'softennot

followed inmanydisciplines. If youcan't definewhat "success" looks like,thenhowwillyouknowifyourworkissuccessfulorcomplete?

Andwhenwe do systems changes,we usually have some idea ofwhat"success"lookslike,evenifit'sveryimplicit.Andforme,theimplicitideaofsuccesshasgenerallybeenbasedonsomethinglike"givesrealisticresults".

Insteadof that, I've learnednowto lookatsuccess in termsof"whatdothe players do at the table?" Themath ismostly irrelevant, so long as theinteractions are there. And by doing this, I've started to focus on makinggamesthatarefunfortheplayer,andnotthesystem.

Thefunnythingaboutthisisthatwhenyoustartthinkingintermsoftheplayers,alotoftimesitturnsoutyouneedlesssystemthanyouthought.Oneof themost complex, deep games on the planet (Go) has rules that can bedescribedin…lessthanapage,probably.Igenerallyteachpeopletherulesinaboutfiveminutes.

I'vefocusedsofarinthispostonmodifyingthegame-andthat'sbecausethis is the placewhere this tends to showup theworst.But it's a principlethat'susefulwheneverthinkingaboutRPGs,especiallyasaGM.Whoisthisfunfor?

Is it fun because you get to show off your incredible creativity? Thinklong andhard about the role of theplayers - they shouldn't be an audience(especiallyinFate).

Is it fun because it's an intricatemathematical simulation that producesgreatresults?Again,thinkofitfromtheplayerperspective.

Becauseattheendoftheday,thegameisabouttheplayers(includingtheGM,ofcourse).Ifthey'renothavingfun,there'snogame.Itdoesn'tmatterifthe systemhas fun.And theGM/designerneeds tohave fun,ofcourse,butnotattheexpenseoftheplayers.

PacingMechanismsinFate

So, this is something I've wanted to write for a while, but haven't gottenaroundto.Untiltoday.

What'sapacingmechanism?

OneofthethingsIseesomeconfusionaboutinFatearethevariouspacingmechanismsavailable-Conflicts,Contests,andChallenges,orasIliketocallthem,the3Cs.

So,Icallthemallpacingmechanisms.WhattheheckdoIevenmeanbythat? That seems to imply that they're all related to each other, but they'reclearlynot,right??

Okay, so time forRob to get pedantic (like that's new).We roll dice inFatetoansweraquestion.Technically,ifwewantedto,wecouldansweranyquestion, nomatter how big or small, with a single die roll - probably anOvercome.

Hell,ifwewererunningStarWarsasaFategame,wecoulddotheentiregameas a singleOvercome roll against theEmpire!But…what funwouldthatbe?

And fundamentally, that's the point of pacing mechanisms. They'renothingmore,andnothingless,thanatooltomaketheresolutionofasinglequestiontakelongerthanonerollofthedice/actionresolution.

(And ifyouhearmerefer tostressasapacingmechanism, that'swhy-stressdetermines,toagreatextent,howlongaConflictwilllast).

But why call them pacing mechanisms? For instance, aren't Contestsreallychases?Isn'tthatwhattheymodel?

Nope. Contests don't "model" anything. They just drag things out, andprovide an ending condition. Sure, theirmechanicsmap reasonablywell tohow you'd model a chase, but that doesn't mean that they actually modelchases.Ingeneral,you'rebestoffifyouusethepacingmechanismsaspacingmechanisms, and leave the modeling to the narrative level. Roll the dice,figureouttheresults,andthennarratetheresultsinawaythatmakesitclearthatonesideortheotherisgettingclosertoachievingtheirgoal.InFate,the"fiction", the shared imagination and view ofwhat's going on, informs themechanicsratherthantheotherwayaround.

So,whichoneofthesedoyouuse?Thisseemstobeacommonquestion,andone that I thinkhas apretty simple answer, ifyou lookat thequestion

fromaslightlydifferentway.Much like Attack vs. Overcome isn't based on what you're doing, but

rather whether you're trying to Take Out your opponent, which pacingmechanism you choose isn't determined by the actions that are beingundertaken,primarily.It'sdeterminedbythenatureoftheopposition.

Challenges

I'llstartwithChallenges,sincetheyhavethegenerallyeasiestcriteria.UseaChallengewhenyoudon'thaveactiveoppositionover theentireChallenge.This couldmean that that the opposition is the environment (barring FightFire and the like). This could mean that the opposition is unaware andinactive (see theContest section forwhat Imeanby that).Thiscouldmeanthat you do have active opposition, but only for part of the Challenge (inwhich case you can either model that as an Overcome, or as a sub-Conflict/Contestasappropriate).

Zird warding off the zombies meets these criteria. The zombies are(mostly) a passive, environmental challenge, and at any rate he's reallybarring the door to them. Convincing the townspeople is arguably activeopposition… but they're not interfering with themajority of the challenge,andsoisanOvercome.Castingtheritualissimplyenvironmental,andisanOvercome.

Now, part of a Challengemay involve active opposition - such as thevillagers being convinced in the Zird example. In that case, you can eithertreatitasasimpleOvercomewithintheChallenge(remember,thatallpacingmechanismsarebasicallystand-insforasingleresolution),oryoucanexpanditoutfurtherintoaninnerConflict/Contestifappropriate.

Butwhatifyouhaveactiveopposition-someindividualorpartythatisdirectly opposing the question that you're trying to answer? That leavesConflictsandContests,whichiswherealotofquestionsseemtocomeup.

Conflicts

Ifyouroppositionisactive,anddirect,youuseaConflict.Bydirect,Imeanthat thegoalofbothparties is toget theother tobackdowninsomeway-eitherbygettingknockedoutandkilled,bysurrendering,byfleeing,etc.ForaConflict,thetwothingsshouldbetrue:

1)Bothsidesarecommittedtogettingtheothersidetobackdown2)The"question"oftheconflictiseither:a)whetheraparticularsidewillbackdowninsomewayb)somethingthatthewinnercanaccomplishiftheoppositionisn'tthereSo ifyou're trying tocapture somebadguys (or theotherwayaround),

that could be a Conflict, so long as both sides are exchanging blows (bychoiceorbecausenootheroptionexists).Ifyou'retryingtogetpastguardstodefuseabomb,that'saConflict,upuntiltheguardsrunofftosavetheirhides,oryoudo.

Contests

Ifyouroppositionisactiveandindirect,chooseaContest.By indirect, I mean simply that both sides aren't engaged in mutual

annihilation.Theobviouscaseswouldberaces,orachase.Itcouldbetryingtocapturesomeone,solongasthey'retryingtoevadecapture.Itcouldevenbe fleeing from a shooter (where the question becomes "Can I make it tocoverbeforeIgetshot/killed?").Butthekeyhereisthattherearestilltwoormoreactiveparticipants/sides-yougenerallydon'tuseaContestifonesideisunaware.

Aside:YoumightchooseaContestwithanunawareside, if that side isactivelydoingsomethingthatwouldbringtheContesttoaclose-asorcereropeningagate toanevil realm, for instance,mightbe inacontestwith theadventurerstryingtomakeittohissanctumtointerruptthespell,evenifthesorcererisunawareoftheirpresence.Therealkeyhereistheactivebit.

Ingeneral,anytimeyoucanphrasethequestionyou'reansweringas"doI<mydesiredgoal>beforethey<theirdesiredgoal>"isaContest,unlessbothofthedesiredgoalsare"beatuptheotherguy".

ChoosingBasedOnContext

So that's the basic way that I divide up the pacing mechanisms. And it'sinteresting,becausesomehigh-levelactionsmayfallunderanyof the threepacingmechanisms,basedonthecontextoftheaction.

Asanexample,let'ssayyou'reasniper,andwhattoshootsomeoneinthehead.IsthataChallenge?IsitaContest?IsitaConflict?

If the target is unaware of what you're doing, and there's no enemyawarenessofyourpresence,it'sachallenge-there'snoactiveopposition,sothere'sno"otherside".There'scertainlysomepassiveoppositionthatmustbeovercome in some way or another, but you're not dealing with an activeopponent.

Ifthetargetisunaware,butthere'sapatrolintheareathat'shuntingyoudown,thenit'saContest-"doIshootmytargetbeforetheenemypatrolfindsme"definitelyfallsintotheContesttemplatedescribedabove.

If you're in the middle of a firefight, and trying to snipe one of youropponents,thenit'saConflict,prettyclearly.

LastThoughts

Thesethreepacingmechanismsdoaprettygoodjobofcoveringjustaboutallsituations.Somemightrequiringabitofcoercingtogetintoplace,butthey'reall basically workable. I don't know that I'dmix them - shooting someonethat's running to me seemsmostly like a Contest, so I don't know that I'dnecessarilymix Stress/Consequences into that.And again, they don't really"model"anything.They'reaboutpacing,notmodeling.

Andobviouslythere'sotherwaystohandlepacingbesidesthesethree.Ifthere's something that reallybugsyou,comeupwithanothermechanism tohandle it!But I'd keep the general idea of these beingpacingmechanismsintact,andkeepthemodelinginthenarrative.

Calibration-theDialWithoutaDial

Oooh,howzen.A common thing that I see discussed in Fate is how to model super-

strength or the like.Which is a great question. If +4 Athletics is a super-athleticperson,anda+5or+6isanOlympicqualitygymnast,thenhowdoyoumodelsomethingevenmoreathleticthanthat?Maybepeakskillshouldbeadial?

(AndassoonasIsaiddial,youprobablylookedatthetitleandwent,"Oh,Rob,youthinkyou'resoclever."Well,yagotme.)

One of the things that I look at in Fate Core is that themechanics arereallysolidforalotofscenariosoutofthebox.Andthatskillsdon'trepresentanobjectivemeasureoftraining,butarerathertheabilitytoinfluenceasceneinaparticularway.Theseseemlikerelativelycontradictorythings,butcometogetherintheideaof"calibration".

InFateCore,Idon'tthinkthat+4Athleticsmeans"veryathleticperson".Idon't think that+5or+6means "Olympicgymnast." I think that+4means"themostAthleticthatastartingcharactercanbe."Nomore,noless.

Themeaningofthiswill,ofcourse,varyfromsettingtosetting.Ifyou'redoing a Zero-Dark-Thirty style game, +4 will mean a highly trained,extremelystrong,professionalsoldier,atorneartheboundsofhumanability.+0 means the baseline capabilities of a professional soldier, below whichyou'dbedrummedoutoftheservice.

Now, if you're doing a game about normal people in extraordinarycircumstances, the calibration is going to be a bit different - +0 probablymeansamoreorlessaverageperson,whilethat+4maybecalibratedslightlybeneaththe"+4"inthepreviousexample(whowouldbelikelyclosertoa+5inthe"everydaypeople"game).

And ifyou're runningsupers?Superman isprobablya+5,andanormalhumanbeingwouldbeluckytohit+1.

Thebeautyofthisisthatthenallofthedifferencescanbehandledwithnarration, while the coremath doesn't even get tweaked.Which is a greatthing-thecoremathworksgreat,andmodificationstoitareinherentlymoreriskythansimplymodifyingyournarrationappropriately!

I'lladmit,ofcourse,thattherearecircumstanceswherethisdoesn'twork.If you want one skill to have a higher scene influence than another, forinstance,orwhereyouwantthedifferenceincapabilitybetweenthepeakandthe base to be higher. In practice, though, I think those circumstances are

relativelyrare,andshouldprobablybetheresultofplaytesting.Youjustdon'tputa+5skillvs.a+0withanyhopeofsuccessanyway.

Damage is another thing that can benefit from calibration. The "gritty"question keeps coming up, and I see lots of number-based ways to handlegrittiness.Andthosecanwork,butmaynotbenecessary.

Stressandconsequences,tome,areaboutpacingand"aftermath".They'renotaboutdamageorrealismorgrittiness.They'rejustabouthowlongfightslast,andwhatcarrieswithyouafterwards.

Solet'ssaythatwithdefaultFaterules,youtakeathreestresshitfromasword.Youmarkoffyourthirdstressbox(movingyouclosertobeingTakenOut)andnarratethisastakinganastycutacrossthechest.

Now,wewanttohaveagrittiergame.Onewhereanastycutacrossthechest may well be fatal, and taking one probably means that you're prettymessedup.So,wecandothisbydroppingthestresstracktoone,andmakingconsequences onlyworth -1/-2/-3.Now, that's amoderate consequence andyouronlystressboxfilledin!Grittier!

Italsomakesfightsshorter.Whichmaybewhatyou'regoingfor,butisn'tnecessarily tied togrittiness.Agritty fightmightbe twoguys fightingeachother forminutes, slowlywearingeachotherdown,smallnicksandbruisesaddingupastheydesperatelystruggle.Thatcertainlysoundsgritty,anyway.Andit'snotnecessarilyshort.

So,howdowemodelagrittyfightinFate,withoutchanginganyofthedials?Again,youcouldchangedialsaswell,butIthinkit'sinterestingtoseewhathappensifwedon'tchangethosedials.

Okay, so we take a three-stress hit. What does this mean? Well,mechanically, it means two things:We're somewhat closer to being TakenOut,andtherearenolonglastingeffectsfromthishit.

So ifwe'regoing for "gritty", clearly thisdoesn'tmeanwe tookanastyslice across the chest. It could mean lots of things though. Some things itmightmean:

*We'vebeenforcedoutofpositionandare"onourheels"*We've taken a parry poorly, causing our hand to sting but no lasting

damage*Wehadtojumpoutofthewaytododge,causingnoinjury,butmaking

usgetabitmorewinded.But what would a nasty gash to the chest be, then? Well, probably it

would be Taken Out. Pain, muscle damage, blood loss and shock wouldprobablymeanthatasingleseriousblowmeans"gameover".

We can do the same thing with consequences. What does a -2consequencemean?

Well,mechanically, itmeans that theperson thatdelivered itgetsa freeinvoke,itwilllikelygoawayshortlyafterthefight,andthatyou'rethatmuchclosertobeingTakenOut.

What thatmeans, narratively, has tomatch the feel of the game. For a"cinematic"game,thatmaymeanacuttothearm,orsomethinglikethat.Fora"gritty"game,itmaysimplymeanthatyou'velightlytwistedanankle,gotabitof"deadarm"fromahitthatyourarmorsoakedup,orthelike.

"Butwait",youmaybesaying."Thedescriptionsofa lotof thosedon'tsoundlikehitsatall!"

And?Thedicedictate themechanical results of the action.A "hit" or a"miss" is a narrative explanation of that mechanical effect. The dice don'tdictatenarration- they justprovideanendresult thatyounarrate to. "Doesthree stress" is a purely system-level statement. How that translates intonarrativeisuptoyou-andshouldvarybasedonthetypeoffeelyou'regoingfor.

What this ends up meaning is that, to create a grittier feel, youparadoxically narrate effects of hits as beingweaker, not greater. A threestresshitbecomesgettingknockedoutofposition.Aminorconsequence isgettingwinded,oraminorlacerationfromshrapnel.Asevereconsequenceisamildcutratherthanaseveregash.AndbeingTakenOutmeansyousufferedasinglehardblow,nothalfadozen!

Here's an example of how the same fight may play out in both"cinematic" and "gritty" style.The samemechanical effectswill be used inbothsituations!

AlfredhitsBobforthreestress:"AlfedstrikesatBob,leavinganastycutacrosshischest.BlooddripsdownasBobbeginshiscounterattack".

BobhitsAlfredforfourstress,Alfredtakes2andaminorconsequence:"Bob'swickedcounterattackcatchesAlfredoff-guard,cuttinghimacrossthearm.Thecutlooksdeep,butAlfred'snotoutofthefightyet."

AlfredhitsBobforfivestress,BobtakesaSevereconsequenceandonestress:"AlfredcontinueshisfuriousassaultatBob,layinganastystriketotheleg.Thecutdoesn'tlookquitetothebone,butit'sprettysevere".

…etc.Compareto:AlfredhitsBobforthreestress:"AlfedstrikesatBob.Bob'snotreadyfor

thesuddenstrike,sohestumblesandfallsashebarelymanages toparryintime."

BobhitsAlfredforfourstress,Alfredtakes2andaminorconsequence:"Alfredpressestoohastily,andBoblashesupfromhisoff-balanceposition.Bobmanagestogethisbladedownintime,butitlookslikehishandisgoingtobesorefromtakentheimpactpoorly."

AlfredhitsBobforfivestress,BobtakesaSevereconsequenceandonestress: "Nursinghis injuredhand,AlfredkicksatBobandsprawlshimout.Bobgaspsinpain,itfeelslikehemayhaveafracturedrib."

Samemechanics.Verydifferentfeel,baseduponnarrationandcalibration.

Conflicts(aswellasContestsandChallenges)ascampaign/scenario-levelpacingstructures.

Okay,sooneofthethingsI'vebeenbrewinginthebackofmyheadissomeway toput somekindof larger structure into aFate campaign - the idea isprettymuch directly stolen fromBurning Empires (and, to a lesser degree,MouseGuard).There'ssomethingjustkindofsatisfyingtomeabouttheidea.It also fits in with my idea of fractal challenges (see:https://plus.google.com/108546067488075210468/posts/87wrm6yrdWx). I'vejustfinallygotenoughofmyheadwrappedaroundittoshareitabitmore.

Just tonote: Idon'tknow that this is agood idea. It couldbea terribleidea.Thisisjustmyinitialthoughtonhowtoimplementit.

The basic idea is that, ultimately, the entire plot of a game (at a givenlevel) can be viewed as a single Overcome roll. But that's not particularlynarratively interesting, so we employ a pacing mechanism to drive moredetail into the game and make it last longer. Each "turn" in the pacingmechanism employed (be itChallenge,Conflict, orContest) can in turn beturnedintoanotherChallenge/Conflict/Contest,andsoonandsoforth.

Foraninitialpass,andbecauseIlikethesymmetry,I'mgoingtopresumethatthepacingmechanismsworkthesameonalllevels.Idon'tknowifthat'sthe right solution, but I think it's a good starting place, and as I said thesymmetrypleasesme.

Togenerateoneofthesepacingmechanisms,wecreateappropriate"side"charactersrepresentingthefactionsinvolved.Wegivethemskillsappropriatetothesideandrepresentingtheirabilitytoinfluencetheworld.Wealsogivethewholesituationappropriateaspects.

Note that the skills probably donotmatch in anyway to the characterskilllist!

Let's assume aConflict.Now, on each "turn", each side gets tomake amove,justlikea"normal"Conflict.Ifthemoveismadeinsuchawaythatitcan'tbeframedasasceneinvolvingthePCs,it'sjustrolled.

However,ifitcanbeframedasasceneinvolvingthePCs(andtheeffortshouldbemadetodoso!),we"drilldown"intothefractalbydesigningthescene.

Wecomeupwithgoals for each sideof the scene, andan ideaofwhatpacingmechanism the scene uses. If the scene is anOvercomeor aCreateAdvantage,wedefinewhat"successwithstyle"means.If it'sanAttack,wedefinewhatcanbedoneinthescene,andhowmuchstressit'sworth.

Then,thesceneisplayedout.Theresultstranslateuptothe"higherlevel"Conflict just like if it were a single roll - if an Overcome is successful, itremovesanAspect.IfaCreateAdvantagemoveissuccessful,anewaspectisgenerated.AnAttackdealsstressand(possibly)Consequences.

Then,wemove to the next side's turn, until the higher-level conflict isfinalizedinsomeway.

So,thebasicflowchartwouldlooksomethinglikethis:

-

1)SetuptheConflicta)Makesides,withappropriateskillsandaspectsandstresstracksb)Createsituationalaspectsdescribingthescenec)Makezones,ifnecessary?2)Decidewhogoesfirstbysomemanner3)ThesidewhoseturnitisgetstodeclareanormalConflictaction.This

shouldstillbenarrativeratherthansimply"Iattack"4) If this cannotbe framedasa scene involving thePCs, simply roll as

normal.5)Ifthiscanbeframedasascene,createthescene:a)GiveappropriateNPCs/resistancepertherelativeskillsofthesidesb)Ifaspectsareinvoked,modifyappropriatelyc)Definesuccesscriteria,andstressvaluesifthisisanAttack6)Playthesceneout7) Using the criteria set in step 5, transfer stress/aspect

creation/destruction/consequencestothe"upper"conflict.8)MovetothenextsideandgotoStep4.

-

So,Iabsolutelyhatemechanicswithoutexamples,sohere'stheexample.This isprettymuch thesameexampleas the last timeImentioned this inacomment.

TheRebelCoalition is fightingoff the Imperions!Todestroy theDoomBase,theyfirstneedtodeactivateitsshieldgeneratorontheforestmoonofRodne.

The rebels just have a few units in comparison to the Imperions. TheImperionshavea lotmorehardwareandmen (though it's a relatively smallbase),buttheyhavethedisadvantageofbeinginaknownlocationandprettymuchunawareoftherebelpresence.Sowe'llmodelthatout:

-

Rebels:Raid:+2Recon:+3Sneak:+4

-

Imperions:Detect:+1Assault:+4Search:+2

-

We'llsaythattheImperionsareBlissfullyUnaware,aswellasbeinginaFixedPosition,butthattheyhaveHeavySupportandareInaSecureBunker.

TheRebels are Small andMobile and have the advantage ofNoFixedLocation.

There'salsosomeHostileNativesinthearea,becausehey,whynot?AndthewholethingisinaThickForest.

So,wedecidetheImperionsgofirst.Notbecauseofanygamereason,butbecauseIwantthesampletomorecloselymatchthemovie.Dealwithit.

TheImperionsareheavilylimitedbytheaspectsinplay-theycan'treallyattacktheRebelswhilethey'reBlissfullyUnaware.SotheGMdecidesthathewants to become aware of theRebel presence. That sounds likeDetect vs.Sneak.

Okay,wecouldrollhere,butcouldweturnthisintoascene?Obviously,we can! So we decide an interesting scene would be for a light Imperionpatrol to find theRebels, and then have a chase scene as theRebels try tocatch the Imperions and prevent them from reporting back to base! Thatsounds like aContest, sowe set that up appropriately. The Imperions onlyhavea+1Detect,whichisn'tgoingtoworkwellforthem,sotheyreallyonlygetacoupleofmooksinvolved,andthemainPCsmanagetochasethemoffin short order. (There's a question here on whether the Imperions invokedtheirHeavySupportaspecttobringthespeedersintoplayornot…)

Well,thePCswonthatround,sotheBlissfullyUnawareaspectstays.ThePCsrealizethatadirectassaultwillbeprettypointless,sotheydecidetogetsomehelpfromtheHostileNatives.WedecidethatthisislikelyaChallenge,andthatSWSwillrequirethatthenativesendupbelievingthatwearegods.

Fortunately,theplayerofthetranslatorbotendsuppullingthisoff,givingtheRebelstwofreeinvokesontheHostileNativesaspect!Go,team!

(Mymemoryontheorderofeventsinthemoviegetsabitfuzzyhere,soforgivemeifIglossoverabit).

SotheRebelsdecidethatwiththeirnewfoundfriends,theyhaveachanceto attack the Imperions and take out the shield generator. However, theImperions have invoked theirHeavy Support, making the resistance prettytough.TheRebelsdecidethattheirHostileNativeshavecomealongfor theride,eveningoutthefightabit.Appropriatestressvaluesaredecidedonfortakingoutvariousnumbersofenemies,andtheConflictison!Somestressisdone,butnotenoughforaConsequence-boo,hiss,theRebelshavegainedsomegroundbuthaven'tradicallyalteredthecourseofbattle-yet.

TheImperionsmountacounter-attack,whichendsupbeingfendedoffbytheRebels.

Thebunkerisgettingannoying!TheRebelsdecideit'stimetoneutralizethat,andspendtheirturnOvercomingthatparticularobstacle.ThisisdoneasaChallenge,representingthedifficultyofgainingentrytothebunker,whilefightingofftheattackingThundertroopers.Again,thePCssucceed,meaningtheygetaccesstothebunker!Thefightmovesinside!

Andsoon,untiltheImperionsconcedeorareTakenOut.

-----

There's still some open questions I have like dealingwithFate Points -sinceaFatePointexpenditureatthe"upperlevel"hassomuchmoreimpact,howdoIdealwiththem?DoIjustsaythatexpendinga"upper"FatePointrequiresoneFPperPC?OrdoIgivethemaseparatepool?Theseareallgoodquestions.

Ialsodon'treallyknowhowIfeelabouttheinherentone-sidednessoftheAttackoption.Ina"normal"attack,onlytheattackercandealstress.Idon'tknowhowthatfitsinthiscase,butIguessyoucouldmaketheargumentthata "success with style" boost could model a scattered retreat, and in mostcases,theattackerswillsimplyretreatratherthantakeanykindofsignificantcasualtiesorlossofposition.

Anyway, thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Is this just a terrible ideawithinthegeneralFateframework?

Fiction,notPhysics

"Fiction,notPhysics".Ifindmyselfquotingthisalot,andit'sreallybecomekeytohowIunderstandFate.WhenIfirstheardit,Iassumeditmeant"we'renotconcernedwithrealism,here!"Andthat'spartofit,butcertainlynotthewhole thing, andprobablynot even themost important thing (after all, youcanhaverealisticfiction).

WhatI'vecometounderstandthisphraseasmeaningisthatFatesetsouttomodelhowstoriesflowinactualstorymedia-movies,novels,etc.

Here's anexample:Let's say thatour spyheroneeds togetpast adoor,guardedbyacoupleofmooksinamovie.Weseehimslipintotheshadowswhere the mooks can't see him. He then climbs into the pipes above theguards, and once above them drops down, taking them both out with hisweight.Hehaulstheguardsoffbehindsomeboxesandproceeds…

Okay,soinamoretraditionalRPG,thiswouldbeastealthroll,probablysomemorenoticechecks,probablyarolltogetuponthepipes,andthenanattackrollwithsomebonuses.

Now,sure,youcoulddosomethingsimilarwithFate,afterallitdoeshaveelementslikeskillrollsandwhatnot.But,really,it'sbettertomapactionstoperiods of "camera time", just like in themovie. So in the first shot of thescene,weseeourspyslipintotheshadows…That'saCreateAdvantageroll,opposedbythemooks'Notice.

Then,ourheroclimbsupon thepipes.Again, this isCreateAdvantage,butagainstastaticdifficultythistime(thedangeroffailingismorefromtheinherentdanger,andlessfrombeingnoticed-we'vealreadyestablishedthatourcharacterisoutofview.)

Withtheseaspectsnowinplace(thesceneisnowABOUTourherobeing"IntheShadows"and"OnthePipesAbovetheDoor"),andourfreetagsonthem,it'saprettyeasyFightingrolltodoenoughstresstoknockoutthetwomooks.

Concessions:Concessionsareoneofmyfavoriteexamplesofthis,sincethey,more than anything else,model fiction.Otherwise,whywould losingmakeyou,inaway,stronger?

Butthinkofit.Thesecondactofmanymoviesinvolvesourherogettingbeatup, thrownaround,and thencomingback in the thirdact to stomp thelivingtaroutofthebadguys.Andthat'swhatconcessionsenable.

Heck,ifyouputitingameterms,allofTheEmpireStrikesBackwastheplayers colluding to grant every concession they could for a couple ofsessions, to give them an absolute hoard of fate points to use to crush the

Empire! I'm convinced that the Ewoks being effective at all was simply amatter ofHan andLeia's players dumping fate points into the "Useless (?)Ewoks"sceneaspect…

StarWarsgivesmelotsofexamplesofFateMechanicsatplayinfiction,whichgivesmealotofideasonhowtousethemingames.Han'sontherunfrom the Imperials, and has flowin into an asteroid belt. The opposition isoverwhelming, and he knows he can't win in a straight up fight, and it's amatteroftimebeforehe'sworndown.

-

Han:"Hey,I'masmuggler.IwanttofindanasteroidwithabigcaveorsomethingIcanhideinside."

George:"Sure,givemeaPilotroll."Han:"Awesome,SucceedWithStyle!Let'ssaythere'sanasteroidwitha

big,deepcaveinit."George:"Okay,butyou'llhavetorollaPilotingrolltomakeitinwithout

damage-ofcourse,sowillthebadguys."Han:"Noproblem!Imakeitinfine."George:"SodothetwoTIEFightersfollowingyou."Han:"Notsofast!I'mburningmytagon'DeepCave'todroptheirroll…

andthey're0pointmooks,right?"George:"Yup,theTIEFighterscrashintothecavewall.You'resafe-for

now. You hear bombs going off above as the Imperials try to find yourlocation."getsagleam inhis eyeandholdsupaFatePoint. "Hey,Han,don'tyouHaveaBadFeelingAboutThis?

Han:"Nowthatyoumentionit,Isuredo!"takesthefatepointGeorge: "You've landed in thecaveandare resting foramoment,when

somethinghitsyourfrontviewscreen.Somekindofcreature…"

ConflictwithnamedNPCs

(I'm getting a little off in the weeds here. This is of course just personalopinion, and I'd be happy, as always, to have people tell me I'm dumb.)ConflictwithnamedNPCsisn'treallyaboutwhowins,oreventactics.It'satestofyourcommitmenttoyourgoals.It'sabiddingwar-agameofchicken.

In a roughly even conflict, there's a steady escalation of resourceexpenditures.Sure,you'llwinifittakesnothingbutsomeskillsrolls,afterall,thatcostsnothing.But,areyouwillingtospendsomeFatepoints?

Thenweescalatetoconsequences-areyouwillingtotakethem?Areyouwillingtoriskbeingtakenout?

Here's where the concession mechanic really comes into play - at anypoint, you can accept a loss and gain a fate point. That helps escalate thestakesastheconflictgoeson.

Atthebeginning,it'sjust"thethingyouwant"vsgettingafatepoint.Then, it becomes "the thing you want and spending fate points to get

them"vs.gettingafatepoint.After that it becomes "the thingyouwant and spending fate points" vs.

gettingafatepointandnottakingconsequences.Thenwegettothepointof"thethingyouwant,spendingfatepoints,and

takingconsequences"vs."abunchoffatepoints"AndonlyafterthatpointdowereallygettothepointwherebeingTaken

Outisevenaconsideration.And this same escalation is happening for both sides in the conflict,

simultaneously. Tactics and abilities can change how quickly each sideescalates,but at theendof theday it's abouthowbadlyyouwant itmorethananythingelse.

PutaBirdSceneOnIt.

I think I've mentioned before, but these are more like my journal ofunlearning other systems, and I'm not sharing them to be the Guru on theMount,butmoreasarecordofmymis-stepsinhopesthatotherscanavoidstepping in the samepotholes. I fully expect lotsofpeople to lookat theseandgo"yeah,duh."

That'sprobablymoretruefortodaythananyotheroneofthese.So,let'stalkChapter9,folks.Youknow,thatchapterthatItotallyignored

whenI first readFateCore,because,youknow, Iknowallabout this long-termgameplanningstuff,thatchaptermustbefornewbs.Justgetmetothecrunchybits.

You'll also note that a recurring theme in these posts is how Fate ain'tother systems. So any time I think "hey, I know that" I'm probably aboutreadytostepinit.

SoI'mrunningmyKriegszeppelingame,andaplayerwantstohopuphisplaneusingsomemechanics.I'mfullyinGURPS/D&Dmode,andsoIhavehimrollthedice.Hesucceeds,getssomeinvokesonaSceneAspect,andwemoveon.Ididitright,right?

Yeah,no.Couldn'thaveflubbedthatonemore if I tried.Wherewas thedrama?Wherewastheconflict?Wherewasthestory?Nowhere,that'swhere.

What I should have donewas frame this in a scene. "Okay, Eddie, theplane's in the hangar with the other planes. When are you doing this? Atnight,whennobodycan see?Or areyoubeingopen about it?Whatdo themechanicsthinkofyoumessingwiththeplane?Whatabouttheotherpilots?"

Then, I couldhave some framing for the scene.Once I've tied this to aspecificplace and time, it becomesa lotmore interesting -otherpilots canshowup.Themechanicscanshowup themselves.Compels start to suggestthemselves.Conflict.Drama.Story.Thereasonsweplay.

So that'smybigzenmoment for theday.Any timesomethinghappens,frame it in a scene. Contacts roll? Okay, where are they going that'sappropriate to find these people? Investigate? Okay, they're in a library orpoundingthestreets.Andgiventhenewscene,howcanyouabsolutelyscrewwith them? What opposed interests can be there, what complications canarise?Thereisabsolutelynomechanicthatcan'tbeimprovedbyframingitinascene.Fiction,notphysics-ifyouwantedtogetthedesiredresultinaTVshow,howwouldyoushowitoncamera?

And it goes the other way, as well. You want your players asking forscenessotheycandostuff.Letthemgetthecrewtogetherbeforethemission

to make a Rapport roll and inspire them, getting a few free invokes on anewlycreatedsceneaspect.GettheminadinerwiththeBigBadforabriefwarofwords,alaHeat.

There's another subtle benefit of thinking in scenes. Things happen inscenes.Ifyou'reinthe"physicssimulation"modeofwhathappensmoment-to-moment,it'seasytogetstuckplayingalotofboringstuff.Butifyouframeit in a scene, you've got to ask the big scene questions first -What is thissceneabout?What'satstake?Whatcouldgowrong?Whatinterestingthingisabout to happen? And if you don't have interesting answers to thosequestions, it's probably not an interesting scene and should just be skippedover.IfyourgamewasaTVshoworamovie,wouldtheywastescripttimeonthis?

Rampitup.Putasceneonit.

FateCorecharactercreation

IloveFateCorecharactercreation.Buttoexplainwhy,Ineedtotellastory.IwastryingtoplayBurningWheelabitback,neverreallygotthefeelfor

it. Then I had an opportunity to play with someone that did get it, and itchanged some of my perceptions. I remember talking about running a"tapestry" gamewith this guy, and he basically said he didn't see how thatcouldworkinBurningWheel,andItotallydidn'tunderstandit.

Character creation seemed normal, and I did a lot of the usual things.Specifically,IhadtakenanEnemycharacter,aswellasafriend.Weworkedupbackstoriesforourcharacters,andawaitedthefirstsession.

Thenwestartedplaying.Itquicklybecameapparentthattheenemywasasignificantenemyofthegame.Itquicklybecameapparentthatthestorywasaboutourcharacters,inawaythataD&Dgameisn't-itwasourstory,notastorythatyoucoulddroprandomcharactersinto.

Thiswasoneof thefirst"aha!"moments formewithnarrativegaming.Backstoriesaren't"just"backstories.They'restories.They'rewhatdrivesthegameforward.

Andthat'swhyIloveFatecharactercreation.First, it's oneof the fewcharacter creation systems that focuses first on

whoacharacteris,ratherthanwhatacharactercando.Ifinditinmanywayshard to create characters in other systems now, as it's an exercise in pointoptimization.Bleah.

The shared stories also present the party a good reason to know eachother,anddoagreatjobofbanishing"youmeetinabar".

ButtherealreasonIenjoycharactercreationinFateismorethanthese.It's thePhaseTrio. It'screatingandenrichingstoriesabout thesecharacters.Because each time I go through the exercise,we endupwith a plethoraofthreatsandantagonistsintheworld.Weendupwithstorythreadsthatneedtogosomewhere,andthatIwanttofindoutwhathappenswith.IendupwithcomplexrelationshipsthatIwanttoseeresolveinaninterestingway.

I can't imagine running a Fate game where character creation didn'tinfluencecomingevents.AndifIplayedinonewhereourpastsdidn'tcomeintoplay,I'dkindoffeellikesomethingwasleftout.

I've learned to dislike the term "backstory" when it comes to Fatecharacters.Backstory implies that it's the past, and inmany gaming circlescarries the connotation that it's only important from a motivational view -afterall,thestorywasprobablycreatedbeforeyoumadeyourcharacters.Butyourcharacter'shistoryisn'tthatinFate.It'swhatdrivesthegame.It'swhat

creates complications, and gives players the chance to decidewhat type ofgametheywanttoplay.

JustDoIt.

(thiswilllikelybeatwo-parter,withtheotherpartdeliveredwhenthesun'sup)

Oneof the thingsIseea lot inFate,bothonlineandwithpeople IplaywithIRL,isquestionslike"DoesFateCorehaverulesfor<xyz>"

And,ultimately, I think that's thewrongquestion.Theright question is"Can I make a character like <xyz> in Fate Core?" And the answer, ninetimes out of ten, is "Sure can!Without using anything outside of the corerules,even!"

Crazy,right?Imean,there'snorulesforcybernetics,sohowcouldImakeacharacterwithacyberneticarm?

Real simple.You justhave tounlearn somestuff.Startbyasking"whatdoes the cybernetic arm mean?" Well, in fiction it probably means you'restrong.Insomefictionitmeansthatyourconnectiontohumanityislessening.Dependingonthesetting,itmightalsomeanthatpeoplereactpoorlytoyou.Thearmcouldmalfunction,requiringrepairs.

Now,I'matraditionalgamerbybackground.IstartedwithMoldvayBasicD&D,andGURPSwasmysystemofchoiceforalongtime.Idon'twanttosayI'veplayedeverysystemever,butIplayedatonoftheminthe80s.I'vehadachancetoplayinsomeseriouslyold-schoolcampaigns-asin,runbythefatherofmyfriend,anddatingbacktoprobably80orearlierandbeingadult-runandadult-playedthewholetime.

I ain't saying this towin the geekwang competition, as I know there'speople reading this who haveway bigger geek-peeners thanme.My pointhere is that through all of that time, my reaction to the problem of thecybernetic arm is based on figuring out what it does, how it hurts me,balancingitwithsomekindofcharacterbuildresourcecost,etc.Imean,Igetthislineofthinking,andIunderstandtheurgetoaddthiskindofstufftoFate.Itwassuremyfirstinstinct.

Butit'snotneeded,thoughittookmealongtimetofigurethatout.Here'showyoubuildaguywithacyberneticarmthatmakeshimstronginFate:

GivehimaPhysiqueskill(youcouldprobablymakeacaseforAthletics)of4.

Givehimanappropriateaspectrepresentinghiscyberneticarm.That'sit.You'redone.Haveabeer,taketherestofthedayoff.Seriously.

You'redone.No,I'mnotkidding.Buthowcan thisbe?Well, youwanthim tobe strong, sogivehim the

appropriateskill-Justdoit.

You want the arm to malfunction, so make the aspect and it can becompelled.Justdoit.

Youwantthearmtomakehimsuper-extrastrongonoccasion-soinvoketheaspectwhenneeded.Mostofthetime,thebonuswon'tmatteranyway,sonotmuchdifferencethere-andrealistically,havinghiscyberneticarmmakeeverythingawesomewouldgetalittleone-note.Justdoit

Youwant thearm tocausehim tohaveproblems relatingwithpeople -invokethearmaspectagainsthimwheninsocialconflicts,andalsoconsidercompellingwhenappropriate.Justdoit

Sowithtwothings,we'vedoneatotalimplementationofacyberneticarmthat'swellbalancedwithinFate,anddoeseverythingwereallywantittodointermsofactualplay.

If youwant to go a bit further, you could add in a stunt allowing extradamage,similartothealready-existingstuntinthegame.ButIthinkitwouldworkprettywellwithoutit.

Andthisworksforalmosteverything.Wantillusionmagic?Decidewhatyouwant,makeupanappropriateskill

thatdoesjustthat,andhavethecharacterhavean"Illusionist"aspecttograntaccesstotheskill.Bam,done.Justdoit.

Andwecangoonandonwiththeexamples.AndI'llbehonest-there'ssomecaseswhereyoureallydoneed togoabitdeeperintoExtras-Landtomake things work. And sometimes it just adds a bit more flavor. If you'reremakingDresdenFiles,youmaywanttoconsiderabitmoreinthewaysofstunts.Insomecases,therewillbebitsthatarecoretothefictionthatdon'treallymodelwellwithoutsomemodification-IthinkthatCamelotTriggerisaprettyprimeexampleofthat.

But really, theFateCoresystemgivesyounot justa toolkit,buta fullyfunctioning 3d printer (thanks for the metaphor, +JackGulick, even if I'musingitslightlydifferentthanyouroriginalintention).

Ithinkthere'ssomeprimaryreasonsIseepeoplewantingtoaddinmore"toolkit"likestufftoFate.

1) That's how it's done, damnit! And I'll admit, that's how I initiallyapproached the system. "Where's the rules for<xyz>?"Somethingdifferenthastorequiremoreparagraphs,right?

2) Permission. The idea of Just do it is a bitwild to people, especiallythoseusedtorunninggamesliketheonesI'vetalkedaboutabove,whereyoureallycan'tdoanythingunlessthere'saruleforit.

3) Balance. Hey, if we just let people make up their stuff, it won't bebalanced,right?Imean,whatiftheyjustmakeanaspectcalledAwesomeAtEverything?Andmyanswer to that isprettysimple- justbemature.Ifyou

can't figure thatoutat the table,Fatemaynotbeagreatgameforyou.Butalso, let's be honest - are those complex character building games reallybalanced?Canyou tellme thatall150-pointGURPScharactersareequallyeffective?IplayedthatgameforYEARS,andIwilltellyouemphaticallythatthey'renot.Soifthecomplexityisn'tbuyingusbalance,whyshouldwekeepthecomplexityinthenameofbalance?

4) People like Legos. They just do. Lots of people enjoy the charactercreationminigame,andtryingtoputthepiecesandpartstogetherinnewandinterestingways,anddon'treallydosowellwhenjusttold"well,whatdoyouwant it to be?"This is probably the biggest "real" issuewithmoving awayfromatoolkitapproach,IMHO.

5) Some people want to use the Lego/toolkit approach to get biggernumbers…and that's the topicof the secondhalfof this, if Iget around towritingit.

Rob'sGuidetoWritingGoodAspects

(Thisseemstobeoneoftherecurringthingspeople,especiallynewpeople,haveproblemswith,soIthoughtI'dtossmyideasintheringaswell.Pleasefeelfreetotellmeifthereareasthatthiscouldbeimprovedin,orareflatoutwrong)

Pooraspects

Lotsofpeoplenew toFate thinkof aspects in termsofdefiningwhat theircharacterscando,asMerits/Feats/Advantagesworkinothersystems.

Try not to think of aspects in this way, it tends to create poor aspects.Instead, the best overall view of aspects is "whatwould Iwant to see in astoryaboutthischaracter?"

Specifically, things that can be handled with skills or stunts should behandledasskillsorstunts.Youdon'tneedaGoodShotaspect tohitpeoplewithagun-that'swhattheShootskill isfor.Andifyouwanttobeagreatsniper,anappropriatestuntwilldothejobmuchbetterthananaspectwill.

On the other hand, The White Deathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4 is pretty darninteresting, and the story of what happens to him after, or during, the warwouldbepretty interesting. Italsocoversafewothermechanicalareas thatsimplyGoodSniperdoesn't.

Now, what a good aspect is becomes a bit harder to define, especiallywithoutasolidunderstandingofwhataspectsdo.Don'tworry,I'mnotgoingtodive toohard into themechanicshere,asmygoal is tomake these ideasunderstandablewithaslittlegamejargonaspossible.

Whatdoaspectsdo?

Towriteagoodaspect,it'sfundamentallyimportantthatyouunderstandwhattheydo ingame.While thismaydependonanumberof things,aspectsoncharactertypicallydooneormoreoffivethings:

1)Grantpermission2)Makeyouawesomedoingsomethings3)Hinderyouinsomecircumstances

4)Complicateyourlife5)CreatesettingWe'llcovereachofthese,andwhythey'reimportant.

Grantpermission

One of the common uses of aspects is to "grant permission" to do certainthingsthatthemajorityofpeoplecan'tdo.Thisisprobablythevaguestofthefourusesofcharacteraspects,soI'lltrytoclarifywithsomeexamples.

Mostpeoplecan'tusemagic,butaWizardPrivateEyecan.Mostpeoplecan'tusetheForce,butTheLastJedisurecan.Mostpeoplecan'tgointothepalaceandtalktotheking,butTheBrother

oftheKingsurecan.Mostpeoplecan'tfindtheassassin'sguild,andcertainlycan'tgetin,but

AnAssassininGoodStandingcan.As you can see, a lot of times a 'grant permission' aspect follows the

formula"Mostpeoplecan't<blank>,but<aspect>can".Ifyou'vegotanaspectinmind,thinkofwhetherornotitgivesyouany

kindofpermissions.Ifnot,that'sfine-notallaspectsdo.

Makeyouawesomedoingsomethings

Themostcommonuseofanaspectisprobablytomakeyoumoreawesomedoingthings.Whencomingupwithanaspect,trytothinkofthingsthatyourcharactermightfailatiftheaspectweren'ttrue.

"Mycharactermighthavemissedthatshot,butTheWhiteDeathdoesn'tmiss."

"Imaynothavebeenable todefeat thosestormtroopershad itnotbeenforMyWookiieCopilot"

"ImaynothavebeenabletojumpoutofthatcarbonitetraphadInotbeenTheLastJedi"

"Theymayhaveseenmetrytosneakby,exceptforthefactthatI'mOneWiththeShadows"

"Imaynothavebeenable todowhatIwant,but I'mamasterofWhiteRussianDiplomacy"

Hinderyouinsomecircumstances

Thisistheexactoppositeoftheprevioussection.Aspectsunderthiscategorycancausefailurewhenotherwiseyoumayhavesucceeded.

Now,thisisprobablyanoddconcept.Whyintheworldwouldyouwanttodothis?

Aspects are triggered by Fate Points. Each scene, the GM gets a FatePointforeachcharacter.IftheGMchoosestouseoneagainstyouononeofyouraspects,yougetthatFatePointattheendofthescene.

IftheGMusesthemononeoftheNPC'saspects,youdon'tgetthem.Now, rest assured that the GMwill use his Fate Point budget on each

scene.It'sjustgoingtohappen.TheonlyquestioniswhetherornotyougetthoseFatePoints,oneofyourfellowPCsgetsthem,oriftheyjustvanishintothinair.

That said, the template for "bad" aspect use is almost exactly like the"good"ones,soyoucanthinkoftheminalmostthesameway.

"I probably would have talked the official into doing things my way,exceptthatI'mobviouslynottrustworthysinceI'mOneWiththeShadows"

"Iwouldhavebeenabletograbontothatledge,exceptmyBionicHandfrozeup"

"Iwouldhavebeenable to jumpoutof the trap,had itnotbeenformyLameLeg"

Complicateyourlife

Andhere'sanotheronewhere itseemsaspectsarenegative.Andthereasonforwhyyouwanttheseisexactlythesame-togetdelicious,deliciousFatePoints.

Occasionally,theGMcandecidetocomplicateyourlifebyusingoneofyouraspects.Ifyou'reTheLastJedi,thenthereareprobablypeoplehuntingyoudown,andtheyverywellmightbargeinonyouatthemostinopportunemoments.Andwhenthatdoes,theGMhandsyouaFatePoint(don'tworry,therearewaystostopthisfromhappening,butthat'sbeyondthescopeofthisdocument).

Even without the Fate Point, wouldn't you be better off without thesecomplications?Well… think about it. It's the GM's job to complicate yourlife.It'swhattheydo,orgameswouldgetreallydull,reallyquickly.

Sotoseeifthisappliestoyourcharacter,tryandseeiftherearewaysthatthiswillcomplicateyour life.This isabitdifferent than theprevioussetofideas,though,inthatthesesituationsaren'taboutdirectlyhelpingorharmingyouatatask,ratherthey'reaboutstory-levelcomplications.

Forinstance:

"Hunting down the bounty hunter got a lot tougher when a bunch ofImperialsambushedmesinceI'mTheLastJedi"

"Itgetstoughtoworkinthistown,sincethecopsliketohassletheonlyknownWizardPrivateEye"

"Man, I keep creating trouble for myself since I'm a KnownTroublemaker"

"PeoplekeeptryingtokidnapmesinceI'mTheBrotheroftheKing"

CreatingSetting

Thisisprobablytheleastimportantuseofaspects,butit'sstillworthnoting.Sincewithanaspect,youdeclaresomethingastrueaboutyourcharacter,thisisagoodwaytomakethingsexistintheworldbecauseyouwantthemthere.

Ifyou'reaGuildAssassininGoodStanding,well,then,theremustbeanAssassin'sGuild.

ThesearethetypesofthingsthatyourGMmayveto,though,sokeepthatinmind.But a lot of playingFate is taking the ideas from everyone at thewhole table andmaking an awesome story, so yourGM shouldworkwithmostreasonableideaslikethis.

Actuallymakingyouraspect

Okay,nowwe'vetalkedaboutwhataspectscandoforyou.Howdoyoumakeone?

Lotsofthingscanmakegoodaspects-specificitems,relationshipswithpeople or organizations, internal aspects of your personality, goals, or evencatchphrases. Someone who's Got a Bad Feeling About This is probablygoingtoberightaboutthosefeelingsatleastsomeofthetime!

So thinkofsomething thatyou think is interestingaboutyourcharacter,somethingyou'dwanttoshowupinastoryaboutthem.

Now, go through that list of how aspects are used, and see howmanywaysthatyoucanthinkoftousethataspect.Themore,thebetter!Ifyoucanthinkofatleastthreeways,you'reintherightarea.Ifsomeofthosehelpyou,andsomeofthosehinderyou,you'reontosomethinggood.

Go broad in your aspects, not specific. If you choose a relationship,considerarelationshipthathasalotofimplications.BrotheroftheKingletssome things happen, butExiledHalf-Brother of the Tyrant King says a lotmore!Fornon-relationships,thinkofphrasesthathavebothflavoraswellas

multipleconnotations-MrsFixithassomeobvioususes,butMonkeyWrench(oneofmyfavoriteall-timeaspects)canbeusedallovertheplace-whetherwithhittingthingswithaliteralmonkeywrench,fixingthings,orcausingorbeingtherecipientofametaphorical"monkeywrenchintheworks".

Lastly,thinkofaspectswithflavor.Thinkofthingsthatmakeyouexcitedaboutthecharacter,andshowthecharacter'spersonality.TroubledLifeiskindof blah.Penchant forTrouble is a little better, but"I'veGot aBadFeelingAboutThis"saysalotaboutthecharacter.

And mostly, have fun. This ain't rocket surgery. It's a game, and it'ssupposedtobeafunone.Andnodecisionyoumakeissuper-permanent-thevastmajorityofyouraspectscanbeswappedoutonaregularbasis,soasyougetabetterfeelforwhatisandisnotcomingintoplayonaregularbasis,youcanadjustyouraspectssothattheybecomemoreusefultoyou,ortoreflectcharacterdevelopment.

IntentandTask

Okay,soI'mstealingalittleBurningWheelterminologyhere,forgiveme.Itstillapplies,honest!

OnethingthatI'veseenasastumblingblockforpeoplecomingtoFateisthatFatehandlesrollsandactionsslightlydifferentthanalotof"mainstream"games.

Inalotofthesegames,youdescribewhatyouwanttodo,roll thedice,andthenseewhathappens.Soifyouwantto,say,throwsomebody,therulesmightsaythathe'snotthrown,orthatheisthrown,andhowfarhe'sthrown.Ilike to call these "task-based" games, as the player decides what task he'sgoingtoaccomplish,andthenseeswhattheresultofthatactionis.

Fate's a bit different. Fate's in the bucket ofwhat I like to call "intent-based"games.Whatthatmeansisthataplayerstartswithwhattheywanttheresultsoftheiractiontobe.Thentheyseeiftheycanachievethatresult.

For an intent-based system to work, you need to know two things foreveryaction.TheIntent-whatitisyouwanttoachieve,andtheTask-howthe heck you're going to go about doing that.Without those two pieces ofinformation,youcan'treallydeterminehowtorollforsomethinginFate.

Forinstance, let'ssayaPCisflyingaroundandhasanenemyplaneOnHisTail.Thisplayer thensays"Iwant tofly throughthecanyons."Okay…that'sprobablyapilotingroll,astheTaskalmostalwaysdeterminestheskillrolled,but…whichofthefouractionsshoulditbe?

TheclearestcaseisanOvercome,andtheIntentofhteplayermaybetogetthosepeskyplanesoffofhim!

Or,itcouldbeanattempttoCreateAnAdvantageoneitherthoseplanes,or even other opponents, something like Lost Him In The Canyons. Theplayermaywantthattoreallyensuretheygetthoseplanesoff!

Or,hecouldbepullingaHanSoloandtryingtogettheplanestoflyintothecanyonsandblowup-whichsoundsawfullylikeanAttack.

SowithoutboththeIntentandtheTask,wecan'treallyresolveanaction.Several of the "classic" how does this work conundrums fall into thiscategory. Handcuffing someone to a desk - well, is it intended to bepermanentandeffectivelyremovethemfromthefight?Ifso,it'sTakingthemOut,andisanAttack.Isitjustsupposedtoslowthemdown?It'sCreatinganAdvantage.

SamewiththeHulkthrowingsomeoneoverthehorizon…ifyou'retryingto throw themover the horizon and remove them from theConflict, you're

tryingtoTakeThemOut,andit'sthereforeanAttack.Ifyou'rejusttryingtostunthem,movethemaround,orwhatever,it'sCreateAnAdvantage.

Getting players to say what their Intent is is often tricky, especially ifthey'recomingfrommoretraditional(task-based)games.Iliketoaskplayerswhen something is unclear "Okay, describe success. Let's say this works -whatisitthatyouwanttohappen?"

Sometimesthis isn't reallynecessary,ofcourse.If theplayersays"Irunhimthroughwithmysword!"youcanprettywellassumethattheIntentistokillhim.

IntentandTaskalsoareimportantwhendiscussingFateCorebuildsandmodifications/stunts."HowdoIdocybernetics"isanunanswerablequestion,without understanding what it is you want cybernetics to do. If you wantcyberneticstomakepeoplesuper-powered,that'sonething.Ifyouwantthemtograntsomeotherbonus,that'sanother.Iftheycanreachthelimitofhumancapability,that'sfine,too.

But what kind of difficulties can cybernetics cause? Can they breakdown?Dotheyneedmaintenance?Couldtheyevenbehacked?

On the other hand, there's also the social aspects of cybernetics toconsider-docyberneticscauseyoutobecomeremovedfromhumanity?Dotheycauseotherstoreactdifferently?

Andreally,cyberneticsarea"Task".They'reameanstoanend.Tofigureouthowtousethem,youreallyneedtostartwithwhatyouwantyourgameto be. If youwant superheroes going around doing super stuff, then you'regoingtoapproachthemoneway.Ifyouwantpartofthethemeofyourgametorevolvearoundthelossofhumanity,thenyou'regoingtoapproachthemaverydifferentway.Allthosequestionscombinetoformthe"Intent"ofyourcyberneticssystem.Anddependingonhowyouanswerthem,youmaydecidethatthey'renothingbutdescriptivefluffandhavenonarrativeeffect(peoplearen't against them, but you don'twant them to grant superhuman abilities,anddon'twantthemtoreallybetroublesome,either).

Andallof thosearegreat, andcanserveaparticulargoal.But theonlywaytojudgetheeffectivenessofyourcyberneticsimplementationisagainstadefinedgoal.

FateDoesn'tGoToEleven

(Forthoseofyouthatdon'tgetthereference…SpinalTap-11)Okay, so Imay have over ormis-sold this one. This is really a second

thoughtthatIthinkinformsandsupportsthepreviousinawaythatit'skindofhardformetotalkaboutonewithoutbrieflymentioningtheother,andviceversa.

I'mgoingtodoalittlesetuponthisone,asIthinkyouneedtounderstandhowIviewskillstogetthepointI'mtryingtomakehere.Asalways,thisisjustRob'sHumbleOpinionandobviouslyain'tanythingofficial.IworkforalittlesoftwarecompanyintheNorthwest,notahugegamingconglomerateinSanFrancisco!

Solet'stalkaboutskills.Skillsarehowgoodyouareatsomething,right?Imean,that'swhatitsaysonthetin.

That's true inmost games, and is superficially true in Fate. But I don'treallylookatskillsas"skills"inFate,because,hey,Physiqueisn'ta"skill".WhatIlookatskillsasiscloserto"howacharacterimpactsthescene".Thismakesa lotof thingsmakemore sense. Ifyou thinkabout someonewith agunversusamartialartist,realistically,themartialartistwillbelesseffectivegiventhesameskill.

But, ifwe just say that the skill represents your ability to influence thescene,thenwecankindofrolltheinfluenceoftheweaponintotheinfluenceof the skill andcall it aday.SowithahypotheticalMartialArts skillof4,you'd be JackieChan, butwith aShoot of 4, you'd bepretty competent, asyourweaponitselfwouldbepartofthatsceneinfluence.

I'mgettingsomewherewiththis,really!Thanksforreadingsofar!Inthepreviouspost,I talkedaboutmodelingacyberneticarmprimarily

by just giving the character the appropriate skill (Physique or possiblyAthletics),anAspectforthemorenarrativebits,andmaybepossiblyastunt,andcallingitaday.Thisworksbecause,tome,havingthat4inPhysiquesays"Ihavethismuchinfluenceinscenes,whenIapproachtheminthisway.HowIgotthatinfluenceisirrelevant,whetherit'sworkingout,technology,magic,orwhatever."

At this point, you might ask "what if I was a body builder that hadcyberneticsinstalled,hrm,Mr.SmartyPants?"

"FateDoesn'tGoToEleven."Okay,Ifinallygotaroundtotheposttitle.ButwhatthehelldoImeanby

that?Ifyou'renotfamiliarwiththephrase"goestoeleven,"itcomesfromthemovieThis Is Spinäl Tap. In it, one of the guitarists talks about his amps

beingspecialbecausewhilemostampshavetenasthehighestsettingonthedial, his goes to eleven. Apparently he's too dumb to realize that it's theinternals of the system that determine the volume of the amp, and that thelabelisexactlythat,justalabel.

Fatedoesnotgotoeleven.Ifthemaximumskillyoucanhaveinanareais+4,thenthat'swhatyouget.Thatalsorepresentsthemaximumabilitythatastartingcharactercanhaveinthatarea.Period.(Okay,there'sstunts,too,butthereshouldn'tbeanythinggrantingaflatbonus).+4doesn'tneedtorepresentthe same thing in everygame. It represents themaximum that aplayer canstart with, in that game. +4 Physique could be the strongest a human canachieveinonegame,anditcouldbeSupermaninanother.It'sascale,awayof calibrating. It's notGURPS,where 15STRmeans exactlywhat 15STRmeans,andyouhavelotsoftablestellingyouexactlywhat15STRdoes,andyou have to have crazy high levels of strength to represent augmentedindividuals,orsupers,orwhatever.

Now I'm going to tie back to JustDo It again.One of the reasons thatpeople like toolboxes is that they like going to eleven. They like hearingaboutthemaximumvalueofsomething,andthenfindingawaytosurpassit."How high can we stack the bonuses?" Many folks will want to make acharacterwithacyberneticarmnotbecausetheythinkitmakesagreatstory,butbecausetheythinkthatitwillallowthemtogohigherthanthesupposedhighestinthesystem-itletsthemgotoeleven.Which,ofcourse,meansthatthe"highest"infactwasn't,andthereal"highest"istotallydependentonhowhighyoucanstackyourLegoblocks.

Fatedoesn'tdothat.Fatejustsays,"Youcanhave+4.Andafewstuntstoletyoudoabitbetterinspecificsituations.Youcan'thavemore.Haveaniceday."Fate justsaysyourampgoes to10,andifyouwant tobe louder,youneedalouderamp-aka,playinasettingwhere+4meanssomethingelse.Itdoesn't lie to you and just relabel the loudest as 11 so that you feel moreawesome.It'shonestinitscalibrationsandranges.

Some people, of course, do love that type of charop. I personally havelitlte use for it, and I suspect some people agree with me. And thankfullythere's tons of games in the hobby, and lots of them support that level ofcharop.IfIwantagamethatdoesthat,thenI'llplaythattypeofgame.

I'mjustgladthatFatedoesn'tdothat,andthatitgivesmeanoptionthatdoesn'tgotoeleven.

Fatedoesn'thaveadamagesystem

(Yeah,+WilHutton,youkindapromptedthis,butit'sbeeninmyheadforabit).

Seriously, Fate doesn't have a damage system. I mean, read the books.Wheredoesitsay 'damage'?We'vegotStress,we'vegotConsequences.ButnothingthatsaysDamage.

Whichmeanswehavetwowaystointerpretthis."No,really,theymeandamage, they just didn't say it."Which would mean that +FredHicks and+LeonardBalseraareincompetent,anddidn'tusetheproperterm.Idon'tbuythatforasecond.

Which leads to the second interpretation. "They didn't use the word"damage",becausethere'snosuchthingasdamage."Yeah,thatsoundsaboutright.I'vefoundI'velearnedthemostaboutFatewhenI'vestoppedtryingtointerpretitandjusttakeitatfacevalue.

Sowhat's Stress, if not damage?Well, at an abstract level it's a pacingmechanism.What thatmeansmore concretely is that it's ameasureofhowclose you are to being taken out - and there's lots of reasons youmight beTakenOut!AndsinceStressclearsattheendofaScene,it'sprettyclearthatit'snotmeanttorepresentactualphysicaldamageinanyway.

Well,whataboutConsequences,then?Nope. Still not damage. I'm going back to "physics, not fiction" here.

"Damage" isprimarilya "physics"concept -what theactualphysicaleffectsomethinglikeanattackorafallhasonyourbody.Fatedoesn'tmodelthat,anddoesn'twantto.Itmodelsfiction.

Now,what'sinterestingaboutfightsorotherconflictsinfictionisnotthedetaileddescriptionofexactlywhatthephysicaleffectsofaswordbloware.It'stheimpactthattheyhaveonthestoryonanongoingbasis.Whetherit'sHarryDresden having a headache, or JohnMcClane limping from his feetbeinghurtfromglass,whatfictioncaresaboutistheimpactthatthefighthasonthestory.Ifan"injury"ispurelyinternal,orinanotherwaydoesn'timpactthestory,it'sirrelevant.

Andthat'swhatConsequencesmodel.Theymodelthecontinuingimpactoftheconflictandhowitcarriesthroughthestory.

And this is awesome. Because it opens up all sorts of options. There'sonly so many ways you can describe damage, but there's lots of possibleconsequencesfromafight.Bigswordhit?Sure,itcanbeaGashedLeg.But..that'snotvery interesting.But ifyouassume that there'snodamagemodel,thenyoucanalsododgeasideat the lastmomentandhityourhead,giving

youaRingingHeadache.Youcanbarelyparry itasideat the lastmoment,makingyouFearfulofYourOwnMortality. Itcandestroyamysticartifactyou'reholding,leavingyouHalfInThisWorld.

TheStressandConsequencesmodeldictatestheleveloflastingimpactanAttackhasonacharacter.It'snota"damage"model,soitdoesn'tdictatethetype.That'suptoyou,yourtable,andyourgame.Makeitawesome.

TheNot-So-HiddenLogicofPayingtoInvokeAspects

(Whew,longtitle.)Okay,oneofthethingsthattrippedmeupthemostwhenIstartedplaying

Fate(apartfromthelackofstatistics/abilities-thatwasadoozy)wasthefactthat I could claim things likeRipplingBarbarian Thews formy barbarianwarrior, but they didn't actually do anything unless I spent a Fate Point onthem.

Imean, seriously,huh?Howdoes thatwork?Aspectsarekindof likeacombination of advantages and disadvantages from GURPS, only morefreeform, right? If I'mreallystrong, itwouldmakesense that I'dalwaysbereally strong, and itwouldbe a constant bonus. Imean, that's just how theworldworks,right?

"Ahhhh,"myolderselfsays,asmyyoungerselfwalksintothetrapIset."Thatmaybehowtheworldworks-butisithowfictionworks?"

Let'stakeasectionofbadly-writtenprose:Nanoc,theIP-FriendlyBarbarianwarrior,wadedintobattle.Heknewhis

target, the evil warlord Baddaguy. A screaming warrior attacked him, butNanocsplithiminhalf,thepiecesfallingtohissides.HelookedaroundforaglimpseofBaddaguy.There!Uponthathill!Nanocstartedmakinghiswayupthehill,onlytofindthreeofBaddaguy'sfilthyminionsblockinghispath.Aswordstrikefelledone,andaparry-and-countercombinationsentthenexttohell.Thethirdminion,seeinghisfriendsdieinamatterofheartbeats,ranofflikethecowardhewas.

NowtherewasnothingbetweenNanocandBaddaguy.Hechargedupthehill, screamingabarbarianwarcry.Baddaguy facedhim,andwavedoffhisuselesstroopstobattleNanoconeonone.

Their blades clashed, sparks flying. The two opponents were evenlymatched,andtradedlightblows,neitherbeingabletostrikeasolidblowontheother.

Theirswordslocked.Theystruggledagainsteachother,strengthagainststrength.Nanoc'smightybarbarianthewsrippledwiththeeffort,andheflungBaddaguydown.Baddaguycowered inhelpless fearasNanoc impaledhimuponthetipofhisblade.

Okay. Thatwas crappy prose.ButwhileNanoc presumably always hasMighty Barbarian Thews, they're only really narratively relevant at onepoint,whenNanocneededtoreallypullsomethingout.

Comparethattojustthismodifiedfirstparagraph:

Nanoc,theIP-FriendlyBarbarianwarrior,wadedintobattle.Heknewhistarget, the evil warlord Baddaguy. A screaming warrior attacked him, butNanocsplithiminhalfwiththestrengthfromhismightbarbarianthews,thepieces falling to his sides. He looked around for a glimpse of Baddaguy.There!Uponthathill!Nanocstartedmakinghiswayupthehill,onlytofindthreeofBaddaguy'sfilthyminionsblockinghispath.Aswordstrikefueledbyhismightybarbarianthewsfelledone,andaparry-and-countercombination,supportedbythemightofhisbarbarianthewssentthenexttohell.Thethirdminion,seeinghisfriendsdieinamatterofheartbeats,andquiveringinfearofthemightybarbarianthews,ranofflikethecowardhewas.

Asbadasthefirstsectionwas,thesecondoneis…IfeelIneedtobatheindisinfectantforhavingwrittenit.

Butthat'sthefundamentalreasonthataspectsare"fueledby"FatePoints.Nanoc's struggle against Baddaguywas the only place he really needed toswingthenarrative,andconstantlytalkingabouthismightybarbarianthewsisjustdull.

FateCore, as far as I can see, tries to emulate fiction.That doesn't justmean "a physical simulation of fictionalworlds". Thatmeans the flow andstructure of fiction. Thatmeans thatwhenwe look at how a game of Fate'should'flow,ourreferencepointshouldbe'doesthisplayoutlikeabook,oramovie?'ratherthan'doesthisworklikehowitwouldworkinthephysicalworld'?

A slippery, ice-covered surface, in fiction, doesn't mean that everydescriptionorshotofpeopleonitinvolvesthemslippingandslidingaround.That'sboring.Whatitprobablymeansisthatatsomekeymoment,somebodywill slipbecauseof the surface creating somedramaticmoment.And that'swhatFatetriestoemulate-howthedramaticelementsworktogether,nottheactualeffectsoffightingonaslipperysurface.Itfollowstherulesoffiction-regardlessofrealism,notreality-even'cinematic'reality.

HowIGMFateCore

Note:ThisishowIrunFate.It'snotthebe-all,end-all.It'snottheonlywaytorunit.It'snottheOneTrueWay,andotherwaysaren'tBadWrongFun.Butit'showIrunit,anditseemstofitthesystemwell.

Stepone:ThePitch

This is where I just say to some people "Hey, let's play some Fate!" I'llinclude a general description of what type of game I'm thinking aboutrunning: "Let'splayabasic fantasy-typegame!" "Let'sdoagamebasedonBrutalLegend!" or something along those lines. I don't really have a lot inmind at this point -maybe something like an overall story or theme, but Ideliberatelykeepthingsprettyvague.

StepTwo:InitialPrep-work

Assumingthatsomeoneisdumbenoughtoplaywithme,I'llusuallythentakealookattheskilllist,dialsinFate,extrasubsystems(Magic,armor,etc.)andproposesomedefaults.Thisisstillprettylightweight,andseriouslysubjecttochange.This ismoreaboutsettingan initialstake in thegroundin termsofwhat thegamewillbe thananything.Aspartof this, Imay fleshout somehighlevelconflictthatIthinkmaybeinteresting-butagain,thisiskeptveryvagueandloose,primarilysothatI'mnotoverlyattachedtoitifitturnsoutthe players go a totally different direction. Depending on how detailed thepitchis,theplanningI'lldoatthispointwilltypicallybemorealongthelinesofcomingupwithNPCs/factionsthatmaybeopposingeachotherandcreatedynamicforcesintheworld,notaseriesofevents.They'lltypicallybevague,sothatIcaninsertappropriatedetailsfromcharactercreation.

If I'mgoing tomuckwith thephases,etc., I'llusuallydosoat this timeand throwitpast theplayers toseewhatsticks.Thiswillbebasedonwhatmakes sense, thematically, for the scenario. Ingeneral, I'll add an aspect ortwobeforeIactuallyremovethePhaseTrio,butifIneedtodorkwithstuffmorethanthatthenI'llconsiderditchingitinsomeway.

I'll also try to come up with some kind of immediatesituation/encounter/etc. forsessionzero, thoughagain, Igowith lightweight

forthis.

StepThree:SessionZero

Okay, nowwe're actually going to throw somedice. I come to this sessionwithmyprepwork,anewfolderforgamedocs,someblankcharactersheets,theFatecheatsheetsavailable,andacoupleofdevices thatcandisplaymyelectronicversionsofFate.

Firstissettinggeneration.I'mabigfanof"PlacesandFaces",andsettingup immediate/impending issues. One thing I've found with more narrativegames like Fate is that they work best if there's something that demandsimmediateattention,soItrytomakesurethere'satleastonecurrentissue.

Idosettinggenerationfirst,asithelpsgivetheplayerssomethingtolatchonto for character creation. I also try to be very permissive at this stage -there'snogame,soitmakesnorealsensetovetoanything,unlessitjustgoesutterlycontrarytothegamepitch-someonewantingtobeaspacealieninafantasy game, for instance. Of course, sometimes that can be worked intosomethingthatmakessense-seeWarforgedinEberron,forinstance…

Even in cases where there's an established setting, most of settinggenerationmakes sense, there's just a fewmore defined fences that alreadyexist. But in no published setting is every tavern, every organization, andeverycitymappedouttothedegreethatplayerscan'taddtheirownstufftoit,evenwithoutcontradictingcanon.

Aspart of this, I'll expandon the faces/places created, anduse those tocollaborativelyworld-build.Often,asingleplace/facewillsuggestsomethinglarger about the world, so I'll drill down on that. If organizations orgovernmentsaresuggested,I'llguidethegroupintofleshingthoseout.

Then,charactercreation.Igenerallyrunthisby-the-book.I'mahugefanof the Phase Trio, and think it's something that adds a lot of value to Fategames,especiallyintermsofmakingthegamereallyaboutthecharacters.Ifyou've already got a plot planned out that won't be impacted by yourcharacters'backstories…it'slessimportant.Butthat'snotwhyIplayFate.

Idothephasetrioverycollaboratively.Igofromplayertoplayer,aseachphasegoesout,andhavethemsaywhattheirstoryis,kindofonthespot.Iencourageotherplayerstomakesuggestionsorgiveinput,andif theplayerwhoseturnitisseemsstuck,I'llaskthemfortheirkindofgeneralthoughtsonwhat they want, even if it's somewhat vague. The idea here is to keepeveryoneinvolvedandactiveandthinkingcreatively.Asecondgoalofthisistohavealloftheplayersinvolvedwithallofthecharacters,sothattheyhave

some knowledge of these characters and some investment in them. I is asneakyGM.

Aswe'regoingthroughthephases,Itrytolookforrecurringthemes,pulloutoppositionalNPCs/groups,andstartmergingthisintoanypreviousideasIhadaboutthebigplayersinthescenario.Ifsomethingpre-planneddoesn'tfit,Iditchit.Ifthere'saclearthemeinthecharacters,Irunwithit.Ifsomeofthebackstoriesimplysettingfactsthatdon'tworkwithmypreconceptions,Irunwith those and ditch the preconceptions. This, to me, is really about theplayerstellingmewhatkindofgame/worldtheywanttoplayin,andit'skindofmyjobtoprovidethat.

I have two primary jobs during all of this:Recordingwhat is said, andkeeping thingsmoving. I'll offermyown suggestions and input, but I don'treallyassumethatmyinputhasanymoreweightthananyoneelse's.

Ifthere'senoughtimeaftercharactercreation,andthere'senoughformetograbonto, then I'll run somekindof initial encounter/inciting incident. Iusuallytrytogettothis,sincemanypeoplearen'tusedtoa'play-less'SessionZero.

StepFour:Post-SessionZero

This is probably the biggest prep time forme, evenmore than keeping thegamegoing.WhatIneedtodonowistotakemyinitialthoughtsforwhatthegamemightbeandreconcilethemwithwhattheplayersandIcameupwith.Between my initial thoughts, the current and impending issues, settingcreation, and player backstories (via the Phase Trio) I'll have a number ofelements toplaywith.Now, I take theseelementsand try to integrate themintosomekindofconsistentsetting.

This will often require the creation of NPCs. I focus more on NPCcreation than plot creation - characters drive stories, not events. Eventshappen due to conflicts between characters. I'll try to have severalNPCs/organizations/groupsactinginoppositiontoeachother,tokeepthingsinteresting.Dependingonthegame,Ialsotryforalittleambiguity-badguyswhohavegoodintentionsordosomegoodwork,orgoodguysthathavebadmethods,oreventwogroupsthatbothwantincompatibleversionsofgood.Ifind these types of things make for more interesting stories, generally. I'llwrite all this down in my campaign folder, and use it to generate severalpossible initial arcs, where an arc is usually defined by some NPC/grouptryingtoachievesomegoal.I'lllookatwhattheirgoalis,howothergroupsmightbeinvolved,andgowiththat.Partofthisisalwaysgoingtobelooking

atcharacteraspectsforthingsthattieintothecharacters-thestory isaboutthem, after all! Though that is generally not an issue since thesegroups/NPCs/goals have generally come out of setting creation, characterbackstories, or the current/impending issues! Still, ensuring that things aresomehowtiedintocharactersisalwaysagoodthingtodo.

StepFive:ArcGeneration

ThisiswhereIstartactuallyplanningthearc.Isetthisoutasaseparatestep,becausethere'sabigloophereinlongergamesthatgoesbackherewhenanarcisresolvedorisstartingtoberesolved.

Arc generation is usually about taking one of the preliminary arc ideasfromStepFour,andfleshingitout.Again,IfocusonNPCs,notevents.Whoistryingtoachievewhat?Whomightbeintheway?Whomightassistthem?And,perhapsmost importantly, howdo thePCsgetdragged into this?Thebestarcs,again,areaboutthePCsinsomewayoranother,andwouldn'tworkifyouhadadifferentsetofcharacters.That'saprettygoodheuristiconstoryarcs,anyway.

So,anyway,forarcgeneration,Iusuallytrytoanswersomeprettybroadquestions,andleaveitatthat.Thosequestionsare:

0)Whyisthisrelevanttothecharacters?1)Whoisinvolvedinthis?2)Whataretheytryingtoachieve?3)Whomightbeopposingthem?4)Whomightbehelpingthem?5)Whatwilltheydo,ifunopposed?Questionzeroisespeciallyimportant.Whenpossible, theactionsshould

stem directly from the characters in some way. This becomes easier onsubsequent arcs after the first! At the minimum, what happens should besomethingthatisdirectlyopposedtooneofthecharactersinsomeway.

Moretraditionalplayers/GMsmightfindthisartificial.Iseeitasafocusonfiction-infiction,theeventsaredirectlyaboutthecharacters,andoftenspecifically to highlight inner conflict of the characters. This involves thecharactersandplayersmoredirectly,and focuses thestoryon them.This iswhatchangesStarWarsfromagenericstoryaboutshootinglaserstoamoremeaningful story about the darkness within us, and the temptation of thatdarkness.Thisiswhatgivesusrecurringenemiesthatplayerslovetohate.

Incidentally,oneofthemainreasonsIuseplayer-createdoppositionwhenpossibleisthesimplefactofinvestment.Playerscareaboutthingsbasedon

howmuchtheyhaveinvestedinthem.GMsoftenforgetthis-thebigbadthatwecreateiscooltous,becausewehaveinvestedinthemheavily.Theplayerscouldcareless,untilthatbadguytouchessomethingthattheyhaveinvestedin. By stealing opposition from the players, we start with some level ofinvestment,even if that'snomore than theplayerscomingupwithaname!And we'll be invested naturally through the prep process. So this ends upmakingamoreinvolvedgameforeveryone.

StepSix:Pre-GamePrep

Okay, nowwe've got the game and arc prep done, and it's time to do thesessionprep.Fortunately,thisisusuallyprettyeasy.

1)Sowhat'schangedintheworldsincewelastplayed,orasaresultofthe last session?This ismywayofgettingmyheadaroundallof theotherNPCsinthegameandwhatthey'redoing.Howaretheygoingtoreacttotheeventsofthelastgame?Howhavetheirplanschanged?

2)WhataretherelevantNPCsupto,anyway?Figurethisout,andusuallythenextsetofeventswillsuggestthemselves.

3)Lookoverthecharactersheetsforanygoodcompels/complicationstoadd.Alwaystrytotiethingsbacktothecharacters!

4) Do I have an idea of where the characters are going this session?Hopefully,yes-Fate isagameaboutproactivecharacters,andsogenerallytheyshouldhavebeen inmotionat theendof the last session. Ifnot, that'sokay,wecangettheminmotion.

5) Prep some hand grenades. Hand grenades are events that occur thatdemand a PC response - even if not a particular response.They should bethingsthatmakethestorymoreinteresting.Theymayormaynotbecompels,butiftheytieintoacharacteroraspect,that'sawesome!NPCscomingtothePCsforaid,revelations,NPCactions,theseareallexampleofhandgrenades.

Anexampleofahand-grenadefromoneofthelastgamesIran:ThePCswere investigating some particularly nasty bandits, who it turned out to bewere demon-infested (void summoners). One of the PCs had the aspect"Doesn't trustaprettyface",anotheronehad theaspect"Compelled tohelpthose inneed",and thePCsgotstuckwith thesituationaspect"Theyknowwhoweare"astheresultofaconcessioninthepreviousgame(theincitingincident, actually). The hand-grenade was the youngish, female demon-infestedbanditcomingtothePCsandaskingforhelp.

Demands action? Yup. Deliberately targets PC aspects, and createsinterestingconflict?Oh,yeah.

6) Sketch out possible set-pieces if they're clearly coming up. This isactually the thing Ido the least, as it investsheavily in adefinedcourseofactionbythePCs,andItrynottodothat.AsaGM,it'swaytooeasytogetaparticularcourseofactioninmind,andsubtly"guide"thePCsthatway.SoIdeliberategotheotherwayandavoideventhinkingaboutwhatthePCswilldo. Instead, I create interesting situations, and, as a "fan of the PCs", getexcitedabouthowthey'lldealwiththosesituations.

StepSeven:RunningtheSession-SessionStart

And nowwe're into the good stuff! I sit the players down, spread out thesnacksanddrinks,handoutwhateverhandoutsneed toget there,checkoutany character sheet updates if necessary, and ask a player to recap the lastsession,includinganycorrections/etc.frommynotes.

DuringthegameIhavealaptop/tablet/etc.outthatIcantypeon.SinceItypically use pdf versions of the game books, I try to have at least twoavailable,onesetupjustfornote-taking.

Ifthisisthefirstsession,I'llbreakouttheincitingincidentandstartthecharactersin-situ.Otherwise,it'stimeforthattime-honoredquestion:

StepEight:"WhatDoYouDo?"-AKA,SettingtheScene

Hopefully, thecharactershavesomecleargoal inmind, something that justwon'tstandanddemandsaction.Ifnot,Ibreakoutahand-grenadeandlobitatthem.Doneright,thiswillgetthemmoving,evenifinanunknowntomedirection!Forinstance,withthedemon-infestedgirlaskingforhelp,Ihadnoideahowthatwouldgodown,ifthePCswouldoffertohelp,iftheywouldattackandkillher,ifthey'dtrytotrackherback,orwhat.Theimportantthingistogetthemmoving.

Now,thePCsshouldcomeupwithsomecourseofaction.ThisiswherealittleGMsubtlenudgingcomesintoplay.Whatwe'retryingtodoatthispointistoquicklydrivetoaninterestingscene.Ifindthere'safewthingsIcandotohelpthis.

1)Iftherequestisabstract,turnitintoarealaction."Investigate"isn'tascene. "Go to the arcane academy's library and look up xyz" is a possiblescene.

2) Understand what the PCs goal is. "Okay, so what are you trying toaccomplish?Ifthisgoesyourway,whatchanges?"It'samazinghowoftentheplayerswon'tinitiallyhaveanidea!NudgingthemtowardsthisallowsmeasaGMto:

a)notrailroad,b)provideappropriateoppositionc)keepthingsmoving!3)Figureoutwhomightbeopposedtothis,andhowitmightgopoorly.

While in some cases 'behind the scenes' consequences can be interesting, Imoreoftenprefertokeepthings"on-screen".

If there's no interesting consequences, and no interesting opposition, Igenerally just let them havewhat it is they're trying to do, or briefly do acoupleofrollsandgetonwithit.Nopointinspendingtimeonminutiae.

Okay,sonowwe'vegotascene!Atthispoint,I'llsetthescene,andfigureout the appropriate skill/roll structure for the scene - challenge, conflict,contest, or just simple rolls. Lately I've been trying to do less of thenaturalistic'rollafterroll'sequenceinfavorofmorestructureapproaches,butthat'sastylisticthing.

Note that I'll generally allow almost any proactive action from theplayers, even if it's not what I had in mind. If the players want to trysomethingthat's justutterlyagainstthepreceptsofthegame/scenario,Iwillwarnthem,butapartfromthat,anythingisfairgame.ThreeguystakingontheentireKing'sGuardinbroaddaylight?Mightbeabitmuch,buttheycantry.However,iftheywanttotryandpoisonthegarrison?Sure!Iftheywanttotrytodrumupsupporters?Sure!Findawaytosneakinundetectedthroughahiddenpassage?Whynot?Disguise themselvesandget in thefrontdoor?Soundsgoodtome!Theplayerssettingthesceneismoreaboutwhatkindofchallengeandstorywe'llhavethananythingelse,soI'mtypicallywillingtoallowanythingachanceofsuccessunlessitjustmakesnorealsensewithinthefiction.

Anothergoodthingtodowhenplayerswanttodosomethingthatshort-circuitsalotofthingsistoaddcomplications."YouwanttosummonaghosttofindoutwhokilledBaronWhatsisname?Sure,youcandothat.You'lljustneed to find a ghost summoning spell, or a specialist.And figure outwhatmaterialsareneeded.And thenyou'llneed toenter theDeadRealm to findhim."Again,theplayercourseofactionishelpingtodeterminewhatkindofstory they'llhave, it'snotshort-cutting thestoryentirely. Inmanycases, theplayercourseofactionwilltakemorethanasinglescene,andthat'sfine-justhandlethescenesoneatatime.

StepNine:ResolvetheScene

Tookawhiletogethere,huh?Well,thispartisprettymuchinlinewiththeFateCorerules,soIdon'treallyhavetoomuchtoaddhere.TheonlythingIwillsayhereistokeeplookingatyourcharacters'aspects,andlookforwaystocompelthem.

Also, each die roll should have a potentially interesting consequence.Beforeaplayerrolls,askyourself"whatcouldhappentomaketheplayergo'oh,crap!'?"That'syourcalibrationpoint.Notnecessarilytheworstthingthatcouldhappen.Noteventhemostdangerous.Butwhat'sthemostinterestingthingthatcouldhappenasaresultofthisifitgoeswrong?

Soplaythroughthescene,anddeterminetheaftermath.

StepTen:EndingtheScene

Okay,soyourplayershavedonesomecrazystuff.They'lleithergetwhattheywant,orgetsomethingelse,orencounterasetback,orsomecombinationoftheabove.

Now is time forwhat's called in the fiction-writingbusiness a "sequel".Recapwiththeplayerswhat'schanged,figureouthowtheoppositionisgoingto react to this in thenear time,andgive theplayersachance to reflectonwhat'shappened.Then-gobacktoStepEight,andrepeatthisuntiltheendofthesession.

If a scene resolves well (as in, you've done a good job - not that theplayersgetwhattheywant),youshouldn'thavetolobmanyhandgrenades.Awell-resolvedscenewilleitherprovidetheplayerssomethingthat theyneedtomoveforward(which iswhyIask themthegoalof thescene),or itwillprovideanobvioussetbackthatneedstobeaccountedfor.Ifinvestigatingatthe arcane library, a successmightmean that they find the information thattheyneed,whichpoints themin thedirectionofwhatever it is theyneed tofind/kill/acquire/etc.Afailuremightmeanthatenemyagentshavefoundthemandarenowchasingthem.Eitherway,theplayersshouldhavesomeimpetustokeepthemmoving.

Ifforsomereason,thisisn'tthecase(hey,ithappens),throwoutanotherhandgrenade.

RepeatStepsEightthroughTenuntilit'sclosetothesessionend.

StepEleven:EndingtheSession

Hey,goodjob.Yourplayersarehavingagoodtime,everyone's rollingdiceandlaughing.Awesome!

Butatsomepointtheclockisgoingtotickclosertotheendingtime,orpeoplewillstartyawning,orsomeothersignwilloccurthatit'sgettingclosetotheend.

Andthat'safinething!Youwanttoleaveyourplayerswantingmore,notanxioustoleave!Iftheywantmore,they'llshowupnexttime,andyou'llkeepa healthy game going. If the game drags on and on, you'll start to noticeplayersnotshowingup.Thegoalisn'ttokeepthegamegoingonaslongaspossible - it's tokeep theAwesomePerMinute ashigh aspossible!And ifthat starts to flag for any reason, call it a day andget somemore ideas forwhatwouldbeAwesome!

Oneofthebestthingstodoistoendthesessiononabang.Istheresomescenario-changingCompelyoucanthrowdown?Doit.Somegreatrevelationyoucanmake?Greatwaytoendthesession.Setthingsupforanepicbattle?Oh, yeah.Make it a cliffhanger, and the players will want to tune in nexttime!

Once you've ended the actual 'game-time', you'll need to handle all thewrap-upstuff.Tell theplayerswhatkindofmilestone they'vehit, andwhatthat means. Ask them if they've got any initial ideas on character changes(especiallyaspects!)thattheymaywanttomake.Collectallofyourstuff,anddotheclean-up.

Butperhapsmost importantly - solicit feedback.Youshouldalwaysaskafteragameaboutwhatwentwell,whatdidn'tgosowell,whatpeoplewouldliketoseemore/lessof,etc.Thegoalofthegameisforeveryonetohavefun,and if they're not, then something needs to change. Also make sure thatplayers feel they can email you or contact you privately, as somewill notwanttospeakup.

The most important thing about feedback is to listen to it. Don't getdefensive-evenifyouthinksomethingwasawesomeandthattheplayersarewrong,don'ttakeitpersonally.It'snotaboutwhat's"good"or"bad",it'saboutwhattheplayersfindfun.Andthatwillnotbethesameforeveryplayer.Thisisa learningprocess foryou tobeable to improveyourGMingskills.Andeven negative feedback doesn't meanwhat you did was "wrong" - anothergroupmayhavelovedit.It'saboutfindingoutwhatthisgrouplikes.

Incaseswhereyouhadtomakeacallthatwascontentious,explainwhyyouendedupmakingthecallyoudid,thefactorsinvolved,andwhatelseyou

considered.Also,ask theplayershow theywouldhavehandled it.Beopenand honest - Fate is a game that encourages this kind of behavior. Often,simplyexplainingthesituationandaskingtheplayershowtheywouldhavehandleditisenoughtogetthemtoseeyourside,aswell.

CollectanyFatePoints,andseehowplayersaredoingwiththem.Ifthey'rehoardingFP,didthiscostthem?Asessionwhereplayersendup

withpositiveFPshould,ingeneral,beonewherethingswentpoorlyoverallfortheplayers(ortheyjustgotlucky).Butifthey'rehoardingFPconsistently,and not suffering setbacks, throw more compels at them and increase thedifficultyoftheiropposition.

AretheyalldrainedofFP?Ifso,theyshouldhavemadedecentprogress-ifnot,youmayhavebeentoohardonthem.Inthefuture,youcanreducetheoppositionorprovidesome'weak'compelstoincreasetheirFatePointpools.

StepTwelve:NextSession

So now you need to start thinking about the next session. Think about theeventsthathavehappenedsofar,andwhatthatmeansforthefuture.Ifyou'rehonestwithyourself,youmayneedtorevisesomeofyourplansforthefutureofthegame-nothingpreppedis"real"untiltheplayersseeit,anyway!

Maybe some new characters/groups/etc. have been added to the game -makesureyoufindsomewaytointegratethese!

Maybe somethinghasbeen revealed that changeshowyouviewoneofthe groups/NPCs in the game - again, go with it! Maybe it makes moredramatic sense for the supposed bad guy to actually just look bad, and befightingthe"real"badguy!Maybesomeinnocentguymakesmoresensetobe the mastermind behind everything! Maybe an NPC changes their waysbasedonevents!Remember,theworldneedstoreacttotheplayers-theyarethe protagonists, and they are the agents of change in theworld! It's theirstory!

Hasthearcended?Ifso,planthenextarclikeStepFive.Otherwise,justplanthenextsessionlikeStepSix.

Ifthecampaignhasreachedanaturalconclusion,andthere'snodesire(oreasyway)tocontinueit,thengreat!Pitchanewgame!

-----------------

There'salsoacoupleofthingsthatItrytododuringthegame.Theseareoverallguides,andsotheydon'treallybelonginanyonesection.

0)Trynottopredictwherethegamewillgo.Thisoneissoimportant,I'llputitatrulezero.Themoreyoupredictwhatwillhappen,themoreyou'lltrytomakeithappen.Goingintoagamewithnoclueofwhereitwillgoisquitescaryatfirst,butisalsoamazinglyfunonceyougetusedtoit.Italsoensuresthatyou'relisteningtoyourplayers,andlettingthemdrivethegame.Ifthere'sanoverall arcof thegame that you're expecting, like fomenting a rebellioninsteadofhavingguerillaaction,orheavypoliticalplay,makesureyoutalktoyourplayersaboutthat-thisisthekindofthingthateveryoneshouldbeonthe samepageaboutwhen it comes to"this is thegamewe'replaying." It'salsosomethingthatcanbereadilydiscussedwithoutcausing"spoilers".

1)Keeppeopleinvolved,butrespectstyles.Thisissomethingthat'sabitofabalancingact.AstheGM,youarekindofthemediator.It'syourjobtokeepeverybodyinvolvedinthegame,butsomepeoplearejustnaturallymoreintroverted, and won't be as proactive or forceful in their opinions. Try tocoaxinteractionoutofthem,butdon'tpresstheissue.Yourmainjobwiththisis to keep the more extroverted/forceful folks from drowning them out ordominatingthegame.

2)Keepthingsdramatic!Fateisagameaboutdrama.It'snotaverygoodgameaboutpreppingthehelloutofthingssothatthere'snochanceofthingsgoingwrong.Don'tgetmewrong-thatcanworkwellwithcertaintypesofgames, but those are usually the games with enough tactical 'crunch' tosupportthis.

3)Keepthingscenteredontheplayers!Show,don'ttell.AsIsaidearlier,some 'behindthescenes'stuffcanbeinteresting,but ingeneralyouwant tokeep thingsvisibleandon-screen.Your job is tokeep theplayers interestedwithwhat's happening, not keepyourself interestedwith all of the behind-the-sceneshiddenstuffthatyouknowabout.

4)Iusuallylikedifficultiestobebasedondramaticimportancemorethananything.Ifsomethingiscritical,maketheplayersdecidehowbadtheywantit!Fateismoreaboutdecidingwhat'simportant,viaFatePointexpenditures,than it is aboutmicro-managingbonusesor simulating reality.Soput thoseharddecisionsfrontandcenter!

5)Keepfailures interesting!Successwithacost isgreat,andinterestingfailures are great, too.What's not great is "that doesn'twork."Keep thingsmoving,evenifnotinthedirectionthecharactersnecessarilywantedtogo!

6)Solicitplayerinput.Thisisagreatwaytooffloadsomework.Detailsaboutaholiday?Asktheplayers!Who'stheinnkeep?Asktheplayers!Also,encouragecollaboration.Ifaplayerfeelsonthespotbyaquestionlikethat,askthemforanykindofthoughttheyhaveonit,andthengetotherstojumpinandcollaborate.

7)Behonest. Fate is a great game for honesty. There's nothingwrongwith telling the players the consequences of a failed roll before you roll -especially if you're planning something that's not super-obvious.Talk aboutwhyyou'resettingthingsacertainway,andencourageplayerstobeinvolvedinthat.

8)Keepconsequencesappropriate.Iliketosay"ForsomeonetobeTakenOut,theyhavetobeTakenOut."That'smywayofbasicallysayingthatyoucan'tshortcutthestress/consequencestrackby,say,throwingsomeoneoffofacliff-iftheystillhavestress/consequences,thenmaybethey'reholdingontothecliff,evadedyourgrabandtwistedtheirankle,etc.Butitworksforotherrolls, too.Achecktocasta trivialspellgenerally shouldn'thave theendofthe universe as failure! This can be true even if it would "make sense".Instead,takeahigher-leveledview:Eveniftheparticularspellfailingwouldresultintheendoftheworld,maybeafailuremeanssomethingelse-maybeitmeansthataspartofcastingthespell,somethingbadhappens-orittakeslonger than you expected - or possibly you realize that you don't havesomethingyouneedorcan'tsummontheenergy.

Ingeneral,Iliketokeeptheresultsofsuccessandfailureroughlyeven.Ifasuccessinsomethingwillgainahugeadvantage,it'sprettyreasonabletomakefailurealargeriskaswell.Whilethismaynotalwaysmakesensefroma"howthingswork"perspective,it'salmostalwaysgooddramatically,andifyoupullbackandabstractjustslightly,youcanalmostalwaysfindawaytojustifyit.

9)Helpplayerswith the rules and strategy!Man, if I couldchangeonething about the first couple of times I ran Fate, thiswould be it. EffectivestrategiesinFatearen'talwaysobvioustonewplayers,andassuchthegamecanbeveryfrustrating.MakesureyourplayersknowhowCreateAdvantageworks,especiallyinaConflict.MakesuretheyknowhowtouseCAtousetheir better skills against either environment opposition, or their opponents'weaker skills.As aGM, constantly askyourself "hey,whatwould I do if Iwas thisplayer?"andsuggest that to theplayers!Haveabriefconversationwith themabout skillmatchups, stacking aspects grantedviaCA, and eventhe tradeoffs between big hits (fewer rounds to take someone out, requiresmoreshifts)andlittlehits(moreroundstotakesomeoneout,requiresfewershifts).

10)Thisgoes alongwith the last one.Getyourplayersused to successandfailureinFate!Specifically,makesuretheyknowhowtoughitistogetTakenOut ina singleblow!Put them throughaConcessionearly if they'renotusedtoFate,andshowthemhowthegamekeepsgoing.Havethemfailsome rolls, andagain show themhow thegamekeepsgoing.Manygamers

areusedtogameswhere"failure"="gameover",sothisisakeypartofFatefornewplayers.

And…mostofall…HAVEFUNFate is a great game…but it's still a game!The point of playing is for

everyone-playerandGM-tohavefun.Ifyou'renothavingfun,FIXIT!Ifsomeoneatthetableisn'thavingfun,FIXIT!

TheJoyofCreateAdvantage

WhilemostofmypostsareprobablyGM-centric,thisone'salotmoreplayer-centric.Hey,gottachangeitup,right?

OneofthethingsthatIseewithplayersnewtoFateisthattheyoverly-relyontheAttackactioninconflicts.Myexperiencehasshownthat,inmanycases, Attack is actually the least effective option, when viewed from anoverallperspective.Sure,youcan'tCreateAdvantagesomeonetodeath(ortoTakenOut,asthecasemaybe),butCAhasalotofadvantagesoverAttackoverall,andespeciallyasalead-uptoanactualdamagingattack.

Tomostvets,thisstuffwillbeobvious,soIapologizeforthat…butthesemightbegoodpoints to raisewithyourplayers,especially if they'rehavingissues,orover-relyingonAttackactions.

Here's a few of themain reasonswhyCreateAdvantage should be themajorityoftheplayers'actionsinaConflict:

1)It'smoreefficient.

BothAttackandCreateAdvantagegiveyoutheopportunitytobuyshiftsofeffect.ForCreateAdvantage, theseshifts(viafreeinvocations)aredelayed,butforagivensuccessthreshold,you'llactuallygetmoreshiftsofeffectthanAttackforthevastmajorityofcases…

MarginofsuccessCreateAdvantageshiftsAttackshifts02(boost)2(boost)12122234(twofreeinvokes)3444Admittedly,afteramarginofsuccessoffour,Attackstartstowinout-but

yougenerallywon'tseethatmarginofsuccessunlessyou'vegotanumberoffreeinvokestoboostyouthere,orburnabunchoffatepoints!

2)CreateAdvantageisflexible.

Attackdoesonething- itcausesstressandconsequencestoyouropponent.However,theshiftsofeffect(freeinvokes)createdbyCreateAdvantagecan,

dependingon the advantage,beused forAttackorDefense!And they alsohavethepotentialofbeingusedbyothermembersofyourgroup.Ortheycanbe used with an Attack to do straight damage. Create Advantage createsoptions.

3)CreateAdvantageletsyouchoosetheskillmatchup

Inconflicts,andespeciallywithanAttack,absoluteskilllevelsareirrelevant.What's important is therelative skill levelbetweenyouandyouropponent.Andoneofthemain'strategy'bitsinFateisfiguringout,narratively,howtomaximizethatdifferenceinyourfavor.

Usingyour'best'skillisn'talwaysthebestidea.Ifyou'vegotFightof4,and you're facing an opponent with Fight 6, you're at a permanentdisadvantage.Andit'susuallyprettyhardtojustifywhyyou'reusinganotherskill for Attack, or why Fight can't be used to defend (substituteShoot/Athleticsasappropriate).

ButCreateAdvantageletsyougetaroundthis.Solongastheactionyoucreatejustifies it, itallowsyou tosetup theskillmatchup.Soifyou'vegotFight 4, and the bad guy has Fight 6? No problem… maybe you've gotIntimidate4,andhe'sgotaWillofonly1!Scarehimwiththat!Oruseyourathleticsskilltosetupafavorableposition,perhapschallengedbyhisNoticeskill.

Once you've internalized this, the big bruiser just looks like a bigopportunity, sinceyouknowheprobablyhassomeprettyweaksocial skillsjust waiting to be exploited. (Strangely, against a superior combatant, it'softenthecombat-focusedcharactersthataretheleasteffective,astheyhavefewergoodskillmatchups).

Ofcourse,anespeciallyninjatrickistouseCreateAdvantageactionsthatareresistedbytheenvironment,ratherthantheenemy-theseareverylikelytobeeasiertoaccomplishthansomethingwithpassiveresistance!

4)CreateAdvantageletsyousetuphugehits

While it'snotalways the case, inFate it's often true that a singlebighit isworthmorethantwolittleones.Ifyou'vegotthreestress,apairoftwo-stresshitswilljustmarkoffyoursecondandthirdstressboxes-butasinglefour-stresshitwillforceyoutotakeaConsequence.

Ingeneral,biggerhitswilltakedownenemiesquicker,whilesmallerhitswill be more efficient (require fewer overall successes) at the expense oftakingmoreactualattackstoaccomplish.

Andwhat's theeasiestwaytosetupabighit?EitherburnthroughyourFate Point supply or… set up a bunch of free invocations of aspects viaCreateAdvantage.Youknowwhathappens tobadguys ifyourwhole teamconcentratesforaroundortwoonCreatingAdvantages,andthenpassesallofthosefreeinvocationstoyourmostcompetentcombatant?Pain.

Combine this with the higher efficiency and preferred skill-matchup ofCreateAdvantage, and you have a recipe forTakingOut even the nastiest,ugliest enemy you encounter (or, themost attractive, suave enemy if it's asocialconflict!)

5)TheNarrativeTruthofAspects

So far, I've just talked about the purelymechanical,math-based benefits ofCreateAdvantage.Butthat'sonlypartofthestory.

Inadditiontoalloftheotheradvantageslistedabove,CreateAdvantagecreatesnarrative truth. If you get your opponentCowering in Fear, thenhe'sdoingthat.Whichshouldrestricthisactions.

Aspects can do all sorts of things, from action permission to denial, tosetting up difficultieswhere none existed, to granting permission for activeinterference.

They knock people on the ground, disarm them, have them wanderingaboutinafog.

Andthisisallontopofthemechanicalbenefits.Beautiful,Itellyou!So,anyway,Ihopethishelpsinsomeway.It'sbasedonmyobservation

of new Fate players, and is basically a rundown of the points Imakewiththemtogetthemoutofthe"AttackAttackAttack"cycle,andthinkingmore"likeFate",whichoftengetsthemintodescribingnarrativegoodnessandalltheothercoolnessI'vecometoassociatewithFate.

Failure

So,beforegettingintothis,I'dliketosayagainthatthesepostsareaboutmyexperiencescomingfroma traditionalgamebackground.They'realsoabouthowIplayFate,and inmanywaysabouthowI've figuredouthowtoplayFate in a way that has little friction in the system, not bymodifying it orchanging in when I found friction, but rather by abandoning mypreconceptionsthatwerecausingfrictionwithFateCoreAsWritten.

So,again,don'ttakewhatIwriteasanykindofauthoritativesource.Takeitmoreasmyrevelationsandmegoing"wow!Itmakessensenow!"ratherthananythingelse.(ThisisalsowhyI'mprobablyabitmorecriticaltowardsFate hacks thanmany others - I've found inmany cases that the 'need' forhacks is more about the preconceptions I've brought into the game thananythingelse,and that it's easier toeitherabandon thosepreconceptions,orplay something that's better aligned with them if I really want thatexperience).

Also, keep in mind that if I say something about traditional games, orpeople that play them, I'mnot being critical. I like traditional games!Andmostof the things that Iportrayas 'things traditionalgamerssay'are thingsthatI'vesaidmyselfatvariouspoints.So,again,nothingthatI'mgoingtosayinthisisreallyintendedasavaluejudgementatall.

Anyway.Failure.Oneof the things that I've saidhereabunch is thatFate is agame that

encouragesplayerstofail.I'vealsoarguedthatjustaboutanyplayer-createdplanshouldhaveachanceofworking(whichseemscontradictory, Iknow).Recentpostershavesaidthattheirplayerswantariskofdeath.Inthepast,Imyselfhaveargued thatgameswithoutdeathwereweak, and that allowingplayerstoalwayshaveachanceofsuccesswascrazy.

Theseseemlikeawholetonofunrelatedtopics,butthey'renot.Theyallcomedowntoakeyconcept:Failure,andwhat itmeansinthegame.(Ataslightlydeeperlevel,it'saboutgamestructure,andwe'llgettothat).

SoinatypicalRPGsession,you'vegotsomegoal.TheGMprobablyhassome kind of quest path planned out. Princess Perky has been cursed!Youhave to go into the ClammyCaves to retrieve the Dewdrop of Decursing!And,onceyoudo,unknowntoyou,PrincessPerkywilltellyouthenameoftheWileyWizardthatcursedher!

Okay, great. Heck, you could even set up a Fate game like that if youwanted.Sure,it'sadeliberatelycliché-riddenexample,butthemajorelementsarethere.

SothecharactersgointotheClammyCaverns,andencounteraroomwithbadguysandtrapsandwhatnot.Awesome.Theygetintoafight.

Okay,here'stherealthing.Inmosttraditionalgames,you'regoingtowinthatfight.Flat-out.BecausetheotherrealoptionisTPK,andthat'snotfun.

Thetrickisthatplayerswanttheimpressionthattheymaylose.Andsoalot of theGM's job in these typesof games is tomake theoppositionhardenoughthattheplayersfeelatrisk,butweakenoughthattheywillwin.

Evenplayersthatsaythingslike'Iwantdeathtobeapossibility'arekindofbeingvagueandmissingthepoint.Theywantthefeelingofdanger.Theyprobablydon'twanttheircharacterstodie(or,atworst,theywantdeathtobeaninconvenience).Theysurelydon'twantagamesolethalthattheyhaveacharacterdyingeverysession.

Here'sanexperiment:Thenexttimethataplayersays'theywantagamewheredeathisarealpossibility',askthemwhatpercentageofgamesthattheythinkthegameshouldincludetheircharacterdying,andwhethertheythinkthatresurrectionshouldbefreelyavailable.

BTW,Idon'tblameplayers for this.Whengamesareoftenaboutgoingthrough a series of challenges (whether they're puzzles, exploration issues,non-combat challenges, combat, or whatever), and they're gated by thesolution, it becomes pretty obvious that they're very likely to actuallysucceed,andthatthe'risk'ismostlyimaginary.Theyjustwanttobelieveit'snot.

There'stwofundamentalreasonsforthis:1) the number of games ('Adventure Paths', I'm looking at you!) that

utterlyremoveplayeragencyintermsoftheoverallstorystructure2) the number of games that don't provide for meaningful failures that

aren'tdeath.Ifyoulosecombat,theorcskillyou.Ifyoufailyourjump,youfall into the deathy-death pit of death. Or, you lose hit points, which willeithereventuallyresultindeath,oreffectivelyhasnoconsequence.

Okay,solet'sgetbacktoFateagain,andmore'narrative'stylesofgamesingeneral.

In Fate, death is a rare occurrence. By the rules. To kill someone, youhavetoTakeThemOutbeforetheycanconcede,andeventhenyouhavetoexplicitly choose that they die. There's no automatic death condition, andTakingSomeoneOutbeforetheygetachancetoreactorconcedeisvirtuallyimpossible.

Tomytraditionalgameeyes,whenIsnapbacktothatmode,thatmakesitseemlikeyoucan'tfailinFate.So,whybotherplaying?

Asimilarissueoccurswhenyougettothingslike'ifaplayerwantstheretobeahiddenpassage,giveitachancetoexist.'Mytraditionalgamerbrain

hears this and says 'what? That fortress is a challenge, designed to test theplayers'abilities.Ifyoujustletanyoldthingpossiblysucceed,thenwhat'sthepoint?'

Andherewegettothecruxofthematter,truly.I'vedescribedthiskindof'gatedevent'structureabitbefore,Ithink.And

youknowwhat,itcanbealotoffunintherightgame.There'snothingwrongwithpuzzlesthataremeanttobesolved-youcanbuyjigsawpuzzlesallover,and they're clearly meant to be solved, and the challenge of the jigsaw isfiguringouthowtodoit.That'salotoffun!

But other things exist that let you make pictures. Like crayons. Andcrayons let you make any picture you want. That's crazy! Where's thechallenge!Howdoyouknowyou'vedoneitright?

Here's the thing. I adoreFate.Truly. It's one amazingly elegant system.And I find it incredibly poor at producing the types of challenges I find intraditionalgames.It'saweaktacticalskirmishgame,atbest.Therulesdon'thavealotofsupportfor'puzzle-solving'typeactivities,either.TheexistenceofFatePoints essentiallymeans that players can 'buy' success at just aboutanything.

Andwithaweakchallenge system, thewhole ideaof 'gatedchallenges'utterlyfails.

Sowhentraditionalgameplayerssaythingslike 'what's thepoint,you'llalwayswin!' they kind of have a point. Fate is a pretty bad system to runtraditional(gatedchallenge)adventuresin.

Solet'snottry.Let'srethinkwhatthese'encounters'are.Andlet'susetherulestoguideus.

Let'slookatanincrediblysimplesituation.Alockeddoor.Inatraditionalgame,you'llhaveachancetogetpastthisdoor.Ifyoufail,

youfail.Ifyoureallyneedtogetpastthatdoor,you'reSOL.Butnothingelsewilllikelyhappen,justthedoordoesn'topen.

Butifyoureallyneedtogetpastthatdoor,otheroptionswillbeavailable,somewhere-thisisoftencalled"TheRuleofThree".Andwhileitseemslikeit's not the "gated challenge" structure, it really is - there's just multiple'solutions'tothechallenge.

But…whataboutinFate?FateCore,pg.187:Ifyoucan’timagineaninterestingoutcomefromboth

results,thendon’tcallforthatroll.Whoa.That'sweird.Does thatmean if you can't think of how tomake

opening the door interesting, then it just opens? Where's the challenge inthat???

Butthere'sahiddengemintherethat'sthekeytounderstanding'failure'inFate. If you have an interesting outcome for both results, then opening thedoor isn't a "gated challenge". It's a fork in the road. It's a placewhere thestorycangooneoftwoplaces,andyoudon'tknowwhichonewillhappen.Sotherollbecomeslessabout'dowepassthechallenge?'andmoreabout'howdoesthestoryprogress?'

Sowiththedoor,wewanttobreakitdown.Great.Wenowneedtocomeup with an interesting failure, another way that the story can go. "It justdoesn't open" isn't a story, it's a stall in the story. It kills momentum, anddoesn't progress anything.But… trying tobreakdown thedoor isprobablyprettynoisy-soifyoukeeptryingit,maybesomeonewillhearyou…Nowyou'vegotan interestingbranch!Youcaneitherget through thedoor,orbefoundbytheguards!Eitherofthemwillkeeptheactiongoing,andeitherofthemcanmakeaninterestingstory.

I'vesuggestedtheideaof'FractalChallenges'before(theideathatasingleroll can be expanded into a Conflict, Challenge, or Contest, and that theinverseistrueaswell).Solet'slookatPrincessPerkyfromthesameview.

In theoriginalversion, ifyoudon'tmake it through theClammyCaves,youdon'tsavePrincessPerky,andshedoesn'ttellyouwhotheWileyWizardis.And,duetohowtraditionalsystemsgenerallywork,theavailablechoiceswillprobablybe'yougettheDewdropofDecursing'or'TPK'.

In Fate, the same 'interesting result' rule for a single roll applies to aConflictasawhole.Ifthere'snotaninterestingresultifyoufailtheconflict,don't have one. So what does failure mean? Well… it could mean you'recaptured.Itcouldjustmeanyoudon'tgettheDewdrop…whichcouldmeanthat Princess Perky doesn't get cured.What happens then?Maybe PrincessPerky turns into some kind of demonic vessel? Maybe the curse spreadsacross the town over time, cursing NPCs that the players either haverelationshipswith, or that areuseful assets.MaybeBaronBoring evengetscursed,anddeclaresthePCstobeoutlaws,andcausesthemtobehunted!ByviewingtheConflictasadecisionpoint,asabranchinthestory,ratherthanachallengetobeovercome,weallowfor'failure',whereinthetraditionalgamefailuretendstoberathergame-ending.

For the third example, finding a secret passageway - again, the rollindicatesless'weovercamethechallenge'thanitindicates'howwillthestoryprogress?' Finding a hidden passageway doesn't mean that the challenge isdefeated.Itjustmeansthatthestoryprogressesadifferentway-itbecomesastory about trudging through the dark, forgotten passages underneath thecastle,andthehorrorsthatlurkthere.Maybeyoufiguredthatthegamewouldbe more about being sneaky and stealthy. Or heroically fighting into the

castle.Orsomemasterfulbluff.Butascaryhiddenpassagewaystoryisjustasgood,andcanbejustastense.Andyoumightstillgetyourway-afterall,ifthe attempt to find the passageway fails, then something bad is likely tohappenasaresultofthecharacterspokingaround!

And here's the thing - since 'failure'will generallymean that things getworsefor theheroes, itcanbea real threat ineverysingleencounter.Youcanrunthegamesothatnoencounterisguaranteed.Yourfailureratecanbe50%.PCscangointoeveryencounterknowingthatsomethingisontheline,evenifit'snotusuallytheirlives.Insteadofwinning99%ofthetime,losingwillbearealthreat.

I'llgoso faras tosay thateverydie roll inFateshouldbe tense.That'swherethesystemworksbest.Thisisn'tagamewherethegoalistostackyourbonuses so high that you never fail. This is a game where failure shouldalwaysbeapossibility,wherethingsgettingworsecanalwayshappen.

Becausehere'sthething-FatePointsandtheconcessionmechanicsalsocombine toensure that, inalmostanysituation,playerscanget theirway ifthey choose to dedicate enough resources, in terms of Fate Points andconsequences.I'veseenitsaidherethattheinitialdierollisn'taboutwhetheryou succeed or fail, it's about the cost of success. And that seems prettyaccurate.

So,whenIseequestionslike"howdoImakesureafightischallenging,withouthavingtheplayerslose",myansweris"whocares?"Makeit tough.Let thembuy theirwayoutof itandcarry thoseconsequences.Or let themlose,andletthestorygothatway.

Fate isn'teasierbecauseof thesethings.It'sharder.AFategame,runasFatecanbefarmorebrutal thananyD&DgameI'veeverplayed.Embracethis.Embracefailureinyourgames.Embracenotknowingwhatwillhappen.Embrace rolls, Contests, Challenges, and Conflicts as decision points.EmbraceConcessions,anddon'tthinkofthemasacop-out.

FailureisacorepartofFate"asFate".Embraceit.

DemystifyingtheFateFractal,andtheNatureofAspects

(AKA,howarethoseevenrelated?)So, my first real exposure (in terms of playing Fate) was Spirit of the

Century.Ihadcomefromalonghistoryofplayingtraditionalgames.AndsoI saw Aspects and thought "Hey, neat! Those are just likeAdvantages/Feats/Edges/etc.!, except youget toname themcool things andyoucanmakeanythingyouwant!"Itseemedprettyobvious,andprettycool.Havingfiguredthatout,Iwentontotherestofthesystem.

Except that I was wrong. I couldn't have been any more wrong if mynamewasW.WrongWrongenstein.

ThiswasjustoneofmyfirsterrorsinunderstandingFate,butit'saprettysignificantone.Iwasthinkingofanaspectasprimarilysomethingthatgaveabonus,andsomethingthatwasattachedtosomethingelse,likeanadjective.Andyoucanmakeanargumentthatsomeaspectsarelikethat,butit'sreallynotaverygoodunderstanding.Anaspectisbothsimpler,andmorecomplexthanthat.

An aspect, really, is a story element. It is something, anything, that isimportanttothestoryinsomeway.It'san'aspect'ofthestory,ifyouwill.

Atit'smostsimple,it'ssomethingthatthestoryisabout.I'mgoingtogobackto'narrativefirst'here.Weneedtounderstandwhat

isimportanttothestory(atleastatthispoint,thisscene),andthenwecapturethosethings,sticklittlelabelsonthem,andcallthem'aspects'.

Butwhat about characters, youmayask.They're important to the story,clearly!Andthey'recharacters,notaspects!

Ah-ha!You have fallen intomy trap, oh non-existent-person-that-I-put-words-in-the-mouth-of! You're assuming that characters aren't aspects, buttheyclearlyare!

Well, then how come characters have skills, and aspects don't? Imean,clearlyPitchDarknesscan'tdriveacar!

Andhere,perhaps,there'ssomepresumptionsmadeaboutwhata'skill'is.A'skill'doesn'trepresenttraining.Itrepresentstheabilityofastory'aspect'toinfluenceascene,withoutbeinginvokedbysomeoneelse.

Okay,thatsoundslikeabunchofcrazymeta-talk,solet'stryandgetbacktoEnglish.

Acharacterisastoryelement.Itcaninfluenceascene.Itdoessobyusingskills. What a skill represents, then, is the ability for an story element toinfluenceascene,withouttheinfluenceofanother.

So,whataboutPitchDarkness?Itcertainlycan'tdrive!Thisistrue,whichiswhyitwon'thavetheDriveskill.But,dependingonthegameandscene,itcaninfluencethings!Darknesscanmakepeopleparanoid,itcancausethemmentalstress.Insteadofhavingabunchofrulesforallofthesethings,Fatejusthandlesitbysaying'Sure,PitchDarknesscanbeactiveandinfluenceasceneifappropriate.Justgiveitskills'.

And this is one of the fundamental points of the fractal - that storyelementscaninfluencescenes,andtheydothoseusing'skills'.

Acharacterisn'treallyanydifferentthanPitchDarkness.It'sjusteasiertolumpupsomecommonalitiesofstoryelementscontrolledbyplayers,andcallita'character'byconvention.

And story elements can have other story elements. The character storyelementHanSoloisassociatedwithTheMillenniumFalcon.It'seasytocalltheFalcona 'detail' ofHanSolo since, if hewasn't in the story, theFalconwouldn'tbeeither.SowedeclareTheMillenniumFalcontobean'aspect'ofHanSolo(whois,himself,anaspect-astoryelement).And,ofcourse, theFalcon can have its own skills, and its own aspects (Hidden StorageEverywhere,forinstance).

And that'saprettygooddescriptionof theFractal.But there'sonepiecethat'smissing.A fundamental feature of fractals, inmath, is that they haveinfinite detail. You can zoom out of them, view them at a larger scale, orzoomintothem,andseethematatighterscale,andtheystillhaveequivalentdetail.That'sprettycool.Andit'sprettyimportanttounderstandingtheFateFractal,aswell.

Let'ssaywe'replayingsomefantasygame,andthere'sthesettingaspectTheCityStateofWarrington.It'srelevanttothestory,soit'sanaspect,andassuchcanbeinvokedorcompelled.

Now, later on, our protagonists get closer to Warrington, and so itbecomesmorerelevanttothestory.Wecanstartgivingitaspectsofitsown,such as Rules With An Iron Fist, Constantly Guarded, and BloodthirstyMilitia.Wecangiveitskills,likeConquerOtherCity-States:4.

Now, let's say that our protagonists get closer to the city. The city isconstantlyguarded,butwewantsomemoredetail,sowecandeclareaGateGuardsaspect.Iftheprotagonistsmaintaintheirdistance,anaspect,byitself,isprobablysufficienttoindicatetheireffectonthescene.

Butifwegetcloser,wemightwanttohavesomemoredetailthere,again.Maybewe decide that there's aFatGuard and aSkinnyGuard. Aswe getcloser,maybetheygetsomeaspectsoftheirown.Andcertainly,ifwestormthe gates, they'll need skills, and possibly equipment, and so on!And even

theirequipmentcouldgetaspects-ifaPCusesCreateAdvantagetodeclarethattheSkinnyGuard'sswordisoldandbrittle,thensoitis!

This is, fundamentally, what the Fate Fractal is really about. It's abouthaving a universal way of describing story elements, and their ability toimpacttheworld.It'sabouthavingtheabilitytodescribetheseelementswiththe right amount of detail for the current scene. I don't need to knowspecificsaboutthetwoguardsifI'mahundredmilesfromWarrington.Ineedtoknowthatitexists,andthatit'soppressive.

Butas Igetcloser, itsability tomanipulate thingsbecomes important. Ineedtoknowmoreabouthowitimpactsthescenescharactersarein.SotheFateFractalgivesmetoolstofleshthisout.Eventheguardsgofrombeingageneralized aspect (Gate Guards), to individuals, to individual elementscontainingskills,andpossiblyevensub-elements.

And none of this changes a single thing about them, at any point. Theguardsdon'tsuddenly'gainskills'whenIgetclosetothem.Theyalwayshadthem.It'sjustthattheyweren'tactuallyimportantuntilwewereinapositiontointeractwiththem.Theydidn't'change'from'aspects'to'characters'-that'safalsedistinction.Theywerealwaysaspects,inthateverystoryelementisanaspect!And theywere always 'characters', becausewhat else couldaguardbe?Butasweneededtoknowmoreaboutthem,wedetailedthemoutfurther,andwhenwedidn'tneedthatdetail,wedidn'thavetothinkaboutit.Thecity-state of Warrington didn't become a fractal aspect when we needed moredetail-it'sstill'anaspect',justonewithlessdetailassociatedwithit.Nothingaboutitsfundamentalnaturechanged.

Soifyouhaveanaspectthatneedstobeactiveinascene,justgiveitaskill!There'snochangein'type'thatneedstooccur.'Skills'isjusthowstoryelementsimpactscenes,withoutbeingdrivenbyanotherstoryelement.

It'salljustaspects.Allthewaydown.Untilyoureachtheturtles.

SomeadvicefornewFateplayers

CharacterCreation

-Chooseyouraspectswisely:-Remember,aspectsaremoreaboutyourcharacter'sstorythananything

else.Feat/Advantageequivalentsareinstunts.-Chooseyourtopthreeskillscarefully.It'satendencyinmanygamesthat

hyper-specializationisthewaytowin.ThisislesstrueinFate,whereskillstendtobemore"complete".Thinkofavarietyofscenariosyouthinkyou'llbein,andtrytohaveaskillthatwillbeusefulineach-RememberthattheadviceforGMs,forsoloenemiesatleast,istohavetheirpeakskillatthePCpeak+2.Whenencounteringanenemylikethat,you'dbetterhavesomethingthatcantargetoneoftheirweakareas.

- Remember that nothing on your character sheet is permanent. Skills,stunts,aspects,theyshouldallchangeovertime.

- Ifyoucan,don't setallofyourstuntsat first.Seewhat situationsyoufindyourselfinfrequently,andtailoryourstuntstothat(andyourcharacter).

- Seriously consider the stunts outside of the typical "+2 to skill when<circumstance>"mold.Theycanbesurprisinglyeffective.

-MakesureyouandtheGMhaveanunderstandingofwhatyourstuntsandaspectsdo-whentheycomeintoplay,howtheycanbeused,howtheywon'tbeused.

Basicstrategy

-Thenumberone"strategy"inFateistogetagoodskillmatchup.Trytofindawaytobringoneofyourbetterskillsintoplay.

-Againstanyopposition,it'smoreimportanttohaveahigherrelativeskillthanahigherabsoluteskill.+2vs.+0isbetterthan+4vs+6.

- Don't get too paranoid even by imposing opposition. It's nearlyimpossibletobeTakenOutinasinglehit.

-CreateAdvantageisyourfriend.-Teamworkisalsoyourfriend.YoumaynotbeabletogetagoodAttack

matchup,butyoucandefinitelypassalongthosefreeinvokes(ifnarrativelyappropriate)tosomeoneelseonyourside,whocanusethemtocleanup.

PlayingtheGame

-Play"fiction-first".Thinkofwhatyouwanttodointhe"fiction",andthenworkwiththeGMtotranslatethatintogamemechanics.Frankly,Fatedoesn'treallyhaveenough"crunch"toplayamechanics-firstgame.

-Prepare to fail.Fate isagamewhereoccasional failure is encouraged.Don'tfearit.Ifyou'replayingFate"bythebook,"afailureofanysortdoesn'tendthegameorthestory,itjustpushesitinadifferentdirection.Don'tfeelyouhaveto"win"everyencounter/scene-savetheFatePointsforwhereyoureally,reallywantthestorytogoaparticularway.

- Conceding is your friend. If you're getting your butt handed to you,Concede! It's a lot better than being Taken Out, and you'll even get FatePointsforit!

- Self-compel whenever you can. The GM will complicate your life.That'shisjob.Byself-compelling,youatleastgetaFatePointoutofthedeal.

-Beproactive.Callforscenes.Figureouthowyouwanttodrivethestoryforward.AgoodFateGMwillworkwiththis-afterall,yourcharactersaretheprotagonistsandshoulddrivethestory,notjustreacttowhathappens.

-Thinkintermsofgoals.Youractionsshouldbegearedtodrivethestoryforward. Figure out what "amazing success" looks like, andmake sure theGMknowswhatyou'reafter.Fateislessaboutprobingtheexistingscenario,and more about driving a story forward. Even if your "amazing success"doesn'tmakesenseforsomereason,theGMcanatleastgiveyousomethingsimilar.

-NegotiatewiththeGM,butacceptthatsomethingswon'tgoyourway.InFate,theGMhasalotofpower.Andsometimesyou'lldisagreewithhim.Fatealsorecommendsbringingthingsuptothetable,andsoagoodGMwilldosowhenthere'sadispute.Sometimes,though,you'llstilldisagreewiththefinalanswer.Dealwith it. If it'snothappeningallof the time,and isn't justcompletelyruiningthegame,letitgo.Thinkaboutitafterthegame,andifitstillbugsyou,takeitupwiththeGM-awayfromthetable.

Fate'sBigQuestion

Thisissomethingthat'sbeenpokingaroundmyheadforabit,andIthinkI'vefinallyfiguredouthowtoexpressit.

I think that all RPGs have a "Big Question" - that is, a fundamentaldecision-makingexercisethat'sreallythepointofthegame.Toagreatextent,competencewiththisquestioniswhatseparatesa"good"playerfroma"bad"player inagivengame,so that'sausefulmetric to figureoutwhat thisBigQuestionis.

For early D&D, the Big Question was "can I use the resources at mydisposal,andthoseIgetontheway,togetasmuchtreasureaspossibleoutofthe dungeonwithout dying?"And by looking at thatBigQuestion,we cankindofseethechoicesthatdrivethegame-resourcemanagement,theriskofdeath,andadesiretogaintreasure.It'sallthere,spelledoutinfrontofus.

The vast majority of RPGs today have variations on the same BigQuestion:"Ismyabilitytobuildacharacter,andmyabilitytomanipulatethemechanics of the game, sufficient to overcome these obstacles?"And that'showmostgamesareplayed-thefirsttwofactors,invariousproportions,areputupagainstasetofobstaclestoseeiftheplayerisskillfulenoughtobeatthem.

(BTW, I understand that most games aren't "just" that. I'm not talkingaboutthetotality,justtheprimaryemphasis).

AndbecausealotofelementsinFatelooklikethosesystems,it'sprettycommontoassumethatFatehasthesameBigQuestion.

Butitdoesn't.FateCoredoesn'treallyallowforoptimizationinawaythatmakescharop

aninterestingexercise.Characterbuilding,sure.Characterop?Notsomuch.Ifyou'rehalfwayproficientinthesystem,it'shardtomakeacharacterthat'sreallyincompetent,orsuper-competent.(Asanaside,IfindthebiggestissuewithcharopinFateis,ironicallyenough,peoplethatover-specialize,whichisthebeststrategyinmostgames).

AndFateCore'smechanicalsystemsdon'treallysupportadeepgameofmechanicalfiddling.Again,yeah,there'ssomebasics,butonceyou'vegotthegeneral hang of using Create Advantage, the mechanics ofStress/Consequences,andhowtogetgoodskillmatchups,you'reprettymuchgoodtogo.

So,thosecan'tbeFate'sBigQuestion.Butwhatis?One thing that I've been saying a lotmore recently about Fate is that a

FateCharactercandoanything,buttheycan'tdoeverything.

Now, that's obviously an exaggeration. There are some things thatcharacterjustcan'tdoinagivensetting.Butthat'snotreallywhatI'mtalkingabout.

WhatI'mtalkingabouthereisthefactthat,givensufficientFatePointstospend, and sufficient willingness to take on Consequences, a character canaccomplish just about any reasonable goal. If the character wants to sneakinto the castle, he will. It's almost inevitable. Almost anything can beaccomplished.

Butdoingsowilldepletethoseresources.You'llendupoutofFatePoints,andwithyourConsequencesall consumed.And thenyou'll findyourselfatthe whims of the dice next time around - which is exactly why you can'taccomplisheverything.

And tome this leads right to Fate'sBigQuestion.And that question issimple:

"Howmuchdoyouwantthis?"Or,sincecostisreallyonlyinterestingintermsofopportunitycost,"Whichofthesedoyouwantmore?"

Andtome,that'stheBigQuestionofFate.Andjustlikeeveryencounterin a "typical" RPG has to drive towards being a challenging exercise ofbuild/tactics, every scene in Fate should drive towards making the playersmakethosetoughchoices.Thechoiceofwhichthingtheycareabouttheycanhave,andwhichonetheydon'tgettohave.

That'swhyfailureisimportantinFate-ifyouneverfail,thenthatmeansthatyou'vegotteneverythingyouwant-andyou'veneverhad tomake thathard choice. That's why we drive plots off of character aspects - becauseotherwise,it'slikelythattheplayers/characterswon'treallycareenoughaboutanythingtomakethechoiceatoughone.Andthat'swhyweletthecharactersbeproactive-toensurethattheygettomakethedecisions,thatthey setupthe hard choices for themselves by conveniently telling theGMwhat theycareabout,andwhatthey'reinvestedin.

SowhataGMreallyneedstothinkaboutinFateisnot"howdoImakethisencountermechanically interesting"(at least,primarily - though that'sagreat secondaryconcern). It's "howmucham Igoing tocharge them togettheirwayonthis?"It'sfundamentallyacostingexercise,andthecostshouldbehigh.Every time theybuysomething, it shouldbepainful,knowing thatgettingthismeansthatthere'ssomethingelsethattheycareaboutthatthey'llhavetoforego,orapainfulcostthatthey'llhavetobear.

(spoileralert)Wantanexampleofthis?HarryDresden.Herefusedtosignupwiththe

badguysforyears,untilhisGM(akaJimButcher)madehimchoosebetweenhisdaughter'slifeandsigningonwithoneofthebadguys.

He had to make that hard choice. That's great drama. That's greatgameplay.That'sthepointofFate.

Sodrivethatcost.Figureoutwhattheplayerswant,andmakethempayfor it. Make them give you the "you're a dick" look on Concessions orCompels.Lettheirprioritiesgetthemindeeperanddeeper.

They'llthankyouforit.

PacingMechanismsinFate

So, this is something I've wanted to write for a while, but haven't gottenaroundto.Untiltoday.

What'sapacingmechanism?

OneofthethingsIseesomeconfusionaboutinFatearethevariouspacingmechanismsavailable-Conflicts,Contests,andChallenges,orasIliketocallthem,the3Cs.

So,Icallthemallpacingmechanisms.WhattheheckdoIevenmeanbythat? That seems to imply that they're all related to each other, but they'reclearlynot,right??

Okay, so time forRob to get pedantic (like that's new).We roll dice inFatetoansweraquestion.Technically,ifwewantedto,wecouldansweranyquestion, nomatter how big or small, with a single die roll - probably anOvercome.

Hell,ifwewererunningStarWarsasaFategame,wecoulddotheentiregameas a singleOvercome roll against theEmpire!But…what funwouldthatbe?

And fundamentally, that's the point of pacing mechanisms. They'renothingmore,andnothingless,thanatooltomaketheresolutionofasinglequestiontakelongerthanonerollofthedice/actionresolution.

(And ifyouhearmerefer tostressasapacingmechanism, that'swhy-stressdetermines,toagreatextent,howlongaConflictwilllast).

But why call them pacing mechanisms? For instance, aren't Contestsreallychases?Isn'tthatwhattheymodel?

Nope. Contests don't "model" anything. They just drag things out, andprovide an ending condition. Sure, theirmechanicsmap reasonablywell tohow you'd model a chase, but that doesn't mean that they actually modelchases.Ingeneral,you'rebestoffifyouusethepacingmechanismsaspacingmechanisms, and leave the modeling to the narrative level. Roll the dice,figureouttheresults,andthennarratetheresultsinawaythatmakesitclearthatonesideortheotherisgettingclosertoachievingtheirgoal.InFate,the"fiction", the shared imagination and view ofwhat's going on, informs themechanicsratherthantheotherwayaround.

So,whichoneofthesedoyouuse?Thisseemstobeacommonquestion,andone that I thinkhas apretty simple answer, ifyou lookat thequestion

fromaslightlydifferentway.Much like Attack vs. Overcome isn't based on what you're doing, but

rather whether you're trying to Take Out your opponent, which pacingmechanism you choose isn't determined by the actions that are beingundertaken,primarily.It'sdeterminedbythenatureoftheopposition.

Challenges

I'llstartwithChallenges,sincetheyhavethegenerallyeasiestcriteria.UseaChallengewhenyoudon'thaveactiveoppositionover theentireChallenge.This couldmean that that the opposition is the environment (barring FightFire and the like). This could mean that the opposition is unaware andinactive (see theContest section forwhat Imeanby that).Thiscouldmeanthat you do have active opposition, but only for part of the Challenge (inwhich case you can either model that as an Overcome, or as a sub-Conflict/Contestasappropriate).

Zird warding off the zombies meets these criteria. The zombies are(mostly) a passive, environmental challenge, and at any rate he's reallybarring the door to them. Convincing the townspeople is arguably activeopposition… but they're not interfering with themajority of the challenge,andsoisanOvercome.Castingtheritualissimplyenvironmental,andisanOvercome.

Now, part of a Challengemay involve active opposition - such as thevillagers being convinced in the Zird example. In that case, you can eithertreatitasasimpleOvercomewithintheChallenge(remember,thatallpacingmechanismsarebasicallystand-insforasingleresolution),oryoucanexpanditoutfurtherintoaninnerConflict/Contestifappropriate.

Butwhatifyouhaveactiveopposition-someindividualorpartythatisdirectly opposing the question that you're trying to answer? That leavesConflictsandContests,whichiswherealotofquestionsseemtocomeup.

Conflicts

Ifyouroppositionisactive,anddirect,youuseaConflict.Bydirect,Imeanthat thegoalofbothparties is toget theother tobackdowninsomeway-eitherbygettingknockedoutandkilled,bysurrendering,byfleeing,etc.ForaConflict,thetwothingsshouldbetrue:

1)Bothsidesarecommittedtogettingtheothersidetobackdown2)The"question"oftheconflictiseither:a)whetheraparticularsidewillbackdowninsomewayb)somethingthatthewinnercanaccomplishiftheoppositionisn'tthereSo ifyou're trying tocapture somebadguys (or theotherwayaround),

that could be a Conflict, so long as both sides are exchanging blows (bychoiceorbecausenootheroptionexists).Ifyou'retryingtogetpastguardstodefuseabomb,that'saConflict,upuntiltheguardsrunofftosavetheirhides,oryoudo.

Contests

Ifyouroppositionisactiveandindirect,chooseaContest.By indirect, I mean simply that both sides aren't engaged in mutual

annihilation.Theobviouscaseswouldberaces,orachase.Itcouldbetryingtocapturesomeone,solongasthey'retryingtoevadecapture.Itcouldevenbe fleeing from a shooter (where the question becomes "Can I make it tocoverbeforeIgetshot/killed?").Butthekeyhereisthattherearestilltwoormoreactiveparticipants/sides-yougenerallydon'tuseaContestifonesideisunaware.

Aside:YoumightchooseaContestwithanunawareside, if that side isactivelydoingsomethingthatwouldbringtheContesttoaclose-asorcereropeningagate toanevil realm, for instance,mightbe inacontestwith theadventurerstryingtomakeittohissanctumtointerruptthespell,evenifthesorcererisunawareoftheirpresence.Therealkeyhereistheactivebit.

Ingeneral,anytimeyoucanphrasethequestionyou'reansweringas"doI<mydesiredgoal>beforethey<theirdesiredgoal>"isaContest,unlessbothofthedesiredgoalsare"beatuptheotherguy".

ChoosingBasedOnContext

So that's the basic way that I divide up the pacing mechanisms. And it'sinteresting,becausesomehigh-levelactionsmayfallunderanyof the threepacingmechanisms,basedonthecontextoftheaction.

Asanexample,let'ssayyou'reasniper,andwhattoshootsomeoneinthehead.IsthataChallenge?IsitaContest?IsitaConflict?

If the target is unaware of what you're doing, and there's no enemyawarenessofyourpresence,it'sachallenge-there'snoactiveopposition,sothere'sno"otherside".There'scertainlysomepassiveoppositionthatmustbeovercome in some way or another, but you're not dealing with an activeopponent.

Ifthetargetisunaware,butthere'sapatrolintheareathat'shuntingyoudown,thenit'saContest-"doIshootmytargetbeforetheenemypatrolfindsme"definitelyfallsintotheContesttemplatedescribedabove.

If you're in the middle of a firefight, and trying to snipe one of youropponents,thenit'saConflict,prettyclearly.

LastThoughts

Thesethreepacingmechanismsdoaprettygoodjobofcoveringjustaboutallsituations.Somemightrequiringabitofcoercingtogetintoplace,butthey'reall basically workable. I don't know that I'dmix them - shooting someonethat's running to me seemsmostly like a Contest, so I don't know that I'dnecessarilymix Stress/Consequences into that.And again, they don't really"model"anything.They'reaboutpacing,notmodeling.

Andobviouslythere'sotherwaystohandlepacingbesidesthesethree.Ifthere's something that reallybugsyou,comeupwithanothermechanism tohandle it!But I'd keep the general idea of these beingpacingmechanismsintact,andkeepthemodelinginthenarrative.

QuestionsandDecisions

Okay, this ismore of a generalRPG thing, but it applies verywell toFateCore.

So, I readSave theCat! recently. It kindof openedmyeyes to a lot ofscriptstructure,andpushedmeinafewdirectionsIhadalreadybeengoing.

I think there's two things that are critical in everyRPG.Questions, anddecisions.

Every RPG session should answer some question. This is what drivesplay,andkeepspeopleengaged.Thisisnodifferentthanastory,beitbook,movie, or whatever.We watch StarWars because we want to know "WillLukemanagetodestroytheDeathStar?"

That'smoreofacampaignlevelquestion.Butthereareotherquestionsaswell - "WillLuke findR2?""Will they findapilot?""Will theydisable thetractorbeam?"Theseareallinterestingquestions.

Sowhenstartingacampaign,askyourselfwhatthecampaignquestionorquestionsare.Agrand,sweepingquestionisfine,butthenthereneedstobesomethingmore immediate, relevant, and obtainable. "WillLuke defeat theGalacticEmpire"isaninterestingquestion,butit'shuge."WillhegetoffofTatooine before theStormtroopers find him" is amuchmore approachable,andsolvablequestion.

Theotherthingistoensurethattheplayerscareaboutthequestions.Sothink aboutwhat your players care about -which is generally stuff they'veinvestedsomethingin.InFate,thatmeanstheircharacters,butcanalsomeanthesettingbits that they'vehadinput into.Youmayhaveagrandideaforawar betweenmassive factions, but the players, at least to start, don't reallycareaboutyourfactions.Youdo,becauseyoumadethem-you'reinvestedinthem.

Evenonasmallerlevel,mostscenesshouldansweraquestion.Sure,thereare scenes that are just exposition, or character development, but a gooddramaticscenehastohaveaquestionthatitanswers.Ifyoucan'tfigurethatout, thenmaybeyoushouldskipover thescene,orgive theplayersenoughinformationthattheycangettoascenewithanimportantquestion.

Theotherpartof thisequation isdecisions.Questionsset thestage,andcreatethedrama.Butplayerdecisionsarewhatanswerthequestions.

Whenever you're looking at a scenario, think about what decisions theplayersaremaking. If they're justgoingalong frompointA toB toC,anddefeating challenges, then they're not making a ton of decisions, and not

doingmuch to answer the importantquestions.That's fine for somegames,butitseemskindofcountertothegameswhereFatereallyshines.

A lotof timeswe lookat addingmechanics,orencounters,or tweakingthings,orsettingupscenarios.Andthat'sgreat.ButIfindit'sbesttoalwaysdothosethingswithamindtowards"whatdecisionsdoesthisenablefortheplayers?"

You'vegotatownthat'shavinganinternalpowerstruggle?Great!One'sclearly the good guys, and one's clearly bad…well, you've just removed adecision, in that (hopefully!) the players will align with the good guys.Instead,trytomakethetwosideshaveimplicationsforthefutureofthetownthataren'tjust"good"and"bad"-orevenbetteryet,tiethemintocharacteraspects,especiallyifyoucanfindconflictingaspects!

Same with game mechanics. Got some funky new dice mechanic youwant to try?Awesome!Butwhatdecisionpointsdoes itgive to theplayersthat they don't have? If the players are stillmaking the same decisions (orworse,fewerbecausethenewmechanicsprovidesomekindofoptimalpath),thenrethinkyourmechanic.

Notethatiftheplayers'decisionsaredrivingtheanswertothequestionsofthegame,thenyoucan'tknowtheanswersaheadoftime.Ideliberatelyavoidplanningwhatwill happen - even to thepoint of thinking about howcoolthingsmightbe,andthenstoppingmyselffromthinkingaboutthat.

Questionsanddecisions.Getthose,andyou'reprettymuchgolden.

InDefenseofMonsteroftheWeek

Okay,sothishasbeenonmymindforabit.It'salittlebitlessaboutgrokkingthesystem,andabitmorepracticalintermsofrunningsessions.Weird,huh?

Anyway.("Monster of theweek" doesn't necessarilymean amonster, of course -

justanyone-shotepisodenotrelatedtotheprimarystory).MonsteroftheweekepisodesonTVgetabadrap,andtheycanalsogeta

badrapingamesessions.Theusualideaisthatthey'refillercontentthattakeslittlecreativityandhasnothingtodowiththeoverallplotthat'soccurring.

Andtheycanbeallofthosethings.Buttheycanbesomuchmore.Monster of the week sessions are great trial balloons. They're ways of

throwingelementsattheplayersandseeingwhattheplayerslike.Iftheylikesomething, it's easy tobring it back,or something like it.But if theydon'tlikeanelement, it'sa loteasier to justforgetabout itandmoveonwith thegame,asopposed tobringing inanewNPC that'smore integratedwith theoverallgame.

Especially at thebeginningof a campaign,MotWsessions aregreat forhelpingtogetafeelfor theoverall toneof thegame,andfiguringoutwhatthegroup,asawhole,respondsto.It'sagreatwaytofigureoutwhatelementsplayerswillwant to dealwith, and to take those and start integrating themintothebiggerpicture.

AndthoseareallvalidpointsinfavorofMotWsessions.But there's a huge misconception about MotW sessions/episodes. And

that'stheideathatthey'renotrelevantbecausethey'renotpartoftheoverallplot. But they're very, very relevant. Because a monster of the weekepisode/sessionain'taboutthemonster.

It'saboutthecharacters.Lookat the first seasonofBuffy, for instance.Witchcheerleadermom?

Totallyunrelatedtotheoverallplot.Monsteroftheweek.Pointless,right?Nope. Because the episode wasn't about thewitch. It was about Buffy

wantingtoliveanormallife,andabouthowshecan'tbecauseofwhatsheis.Mantis teacher? Pointless, right? Nope. It was about Xander being

unlucky(andabitdesperate)inlove.Hyenagang?That'sadouble-whammy,beingbothaboutXander'sdesire

tofitin,butmostlyabouthowmuchWillowcaresaboutXander.Computer demon? Another double-whammy, hitting up Willow's

unluckinessinloveaswellasGiles'loveofbooks/discomfortoftechnology.

Thepointoftheseepisodesisn'ttoadvancetheplot.It'stohighlightandfleshoutthecharactersthatareinvolved.Andthat'sthekey.

Soifyou'redoingamonsteroftheweek,great!Goodforyou!Butdoitright.Makeitaboutthecharacters.Don'tstartwithamonsteridea.Startwiththeaspectsof thecharacters,and thenmakeupa 'monster' that reflects thataspect,orshowstheweakness,ordrivesthatconflicthome.

FateCoreThoughtoftheDay:Aspects,theInformationEconomy,andChekov'sGun

(No,nottheStarTrekguy).Okay,IthinkmostpeopleareawareofChekov'sGun-"ifagunisonthe

wallinthefirstact,itshouldbefiredbythethird."Ultimately, what this really means is "don't bother the audience with

extraneousdetail."Especiallyinaplay,everythingthat'sthereshouldbetherefor a reason. There's a deliberate choice that's made to focus on what'simportant,andremoveeverythingthatisn't.

WeseethisinTVshows,movies,andbooks,aswell,butnottoasgreatofanextent.Mostofthesemediatrytoimmersetheiraudienceintherealityofwhat'shappening,somethingthat'sgenerallynotagoalforplays.Andsotheremightverywellbeagunonthewallthatnevergetsfired,orashadowthatnobodyleapsoutof.

Butthecamerawillneverfocusonthosethings.Andthat'sausefulwayof looking at it, aswell - an aspect is something that gets camera focus indescribingthescene.

Toputitanotherway,there'sadifferencebetweenascenebeingdark,andascenebeingDark.Adarkscenemaybeapoorlylitbar-butthelightingisjustambience.Itdoesn'tinfluencetheplotinanyway.Itdoesn'treallyimpacthowthecharactersdothings.It'sjusttheretosetamood.

ADark scene isdifferent. In aDark scene,wecanexpect somebody tojumpoutoftheshadowsatsomepoint,ordisappearintothem.

Andthat'skindofwhataspectsare.They'rethethingswe'repointingoutto the players as important.We don't try to capture every detail, or worryabout the minor things that have a slight influence on what happens. Sizeadvantages/disadvantages aren't a big deal, until you're talking aboutsomethingon the levelofBruceLeevs.KareemAbdul Jabaar…yeah,oneguymighthaveaslightlylongerreach,andoneguymightbeslightlyfaster,yada,yada,yada,butallofthoseareminorfactors.

Fateworriesabout themajorfactors.Itworriesabout thebigthingsthatwillswinghowthescenesplayout.Itdoesn'tworryabouttheminoreffects,even thoughthosecertainlycanaddup toabigeffect -but itassumes that,likeaTVshowormovie,thatthoseturnouttobeawashmostofthetime.

Now,sincewedon'thavefullcontrolofthestory,wecan'tfullyobeythelaw of Chekov'sGun. But it's important to keep inmind that every aspectshould be something that could be important, and that could be somethingthatcausesthescenetoswingadifferentway.

And that'swhy aspect "spamming" is kind of a bad thing.The point ofaspects is to restrict what the players have to think about, to restrict theimportantelementsinascene.Ifyourscenehasalistoftwentyaspects,thenyou'vedestroyedthiseconomyofinformation,andhavereducedthevalueofcallingoutthingsasaspectsinthefirstplace.

CharacterCreationMusings

So, I've done character creation a bit. Mostly because I force my playersthroughitforone-shots,sincethoseoftenendupasasalespitchforthegameasawhole.

Anyway.Throughdoingcharactercreation,I'venoticedthattherearesomethings

that areveryquick, and some things that aren't. I've alsonoticed that somethingsareveryvaluable, and some things less so.Annoyingly,manyof thethingsthatarelessusefularealsothethingsthattakethelongest.

I'vedecidedthatI likescopingout the"FirstAdventure"phaseas"yourfirst spotlight episode". It seems to help players in coming upwith stories(antagonists,etc.)ratherthanvignettesfortheirfirstadventures.ItalsoeasessomeofthetimeissuesthatI'vehadoccur.Anicesidebonusofthisisitgivesmeaprettygoodideaofwhattheplayersthinkanepisode/minorarcshouldlooklike!Idon'tseealotofproblemswiththis,exceptthatitleavesoutthepossibilities for stuff that occurred before the "series starts". Luckily, that'shandledwellby…

I add the Early Life and Turning Point phases back in. I think it was+RyanMacklinthatsuggestedthis,andIthinkit'sagreatidea.

Ofcourse,thisonlyreallyworksifyoudecoupleaspectsfromphases,sothat'sagiven.Fortunately,oneofthelow-benefit,high-costareasthatIseeisdefiningaspects at character creation.At thispoint, the character isusuallybeingfeltout,andIalwaysgivethego-aheadformassiveaspectmodificationafterthefirstfewsession.So,ifI'mgoingtodothat,whynotjustallowforFAE-styleaspectcreationonthefly?

Samewithstunts.Stuntshavebeenthehighest-cost,lowest-valuepartofcharactercreationthatI'veseenfromdayone,soI'veswitchedtoFAEstyle,on-the-flystuntcreation.Ifpeoplehavestuntsthattheyknowtheywantatthestart,that'sfineofcourse.

Ialsoonlyreallyaskthatplayersfillinthetopthreeskills,thoughIfindthatgenerallytheydotheentirepyramid.

Procedurally,Ithinkthiswillgosomethinglike:1)Goaroundthetable,comeupwithHighConcept2)Goaroundthetable,comeupwithTrouble

3)Go around the table, do early life/turning point as appropriate 4)Goaround the table, do first spotlight episode 5)Go around the table, do firstcrossingpaths

6) Go around the table, do second crossing paths 7) Opportunity forpeople to write down aspects if they choose and get input 8) Individually

writedownyourtopthreeskills,+moreandstuntsasappropriate

„Missing“rulesinFate

There'salotofrulesthatFate"doesn'thave".Inmanycases,theseseemtoberules that are derivatives of the core rules, may be different based on aparticularsetting,oftenarevariableinnature,andcaneasilybeagreeduponatthetableifyouhavereasonablepeople.

Taketheeternalexample:"onfire".Manygamessay"beingonfiremeansyoutakesomeamountofdamageperturn."

That'soneinterpretation.Fateallowsforthat,withthefractal(thoughit'susuallyframedasanattack,notanautomaticdamage.Closeenough.)

But being "on fire" could mean lots of things, everywhere from beingfully engulfed in fire to having a couple of flames on your sleeve. Is oneanswer really correct here? One single mechanic? If not, how manymechanicswoulditreallytaketocoverallthepossiblesituations?Dowejusthandlethemechanical,physicaleffects?Whatabouttheinstinctualterrorthatsomethinglikebeingonfire tends tocause?Imean,getmearoundawasp,andIguaranteeIdon'tactinanykindofrationalmanner!

And that's assuming a single genre. A similar cause (say, having yourclothes on fire) might have very different effects in different genres - anActionMovieStarmight justblow itoff,while someone inahorrormoviecouldtotallyfreakout.

FateCore'smodel(figureoutwhatyouwanttodo,thenapplytherules)handlesthesevariationsincrediblywell.

There's disadvantages to this approach, of course. The lack of explicitmechanicsmeans that there's roomfornegotiationanddisagreement. Ifyoucan'tcome tosomekindofanagreementwithoutAppeal toAuthority,Fateisn'tgoingtoworkforyou.Ifeverybitofjudgementcallisgoingtoresultinanhour-longargumentwithflyingdice,Fatedefinitelyain'tthegameforyou.

Personally, I prefer to game with people that can compromise, acceptjudgement calls, anddon't have to argue about every little thing.So in thatway, thisweakness isactuallya feature,as it'sagreatway todetectpeoplethatIprobablywon'tenjoygamingwithlongtermanyway.

Index

What'sFate?

Proactivecharacters

Competentcharacters

Skills,aspects,compels,invokes

Thephasetrio

Lackofcharop

"Final"skills

Lackofemphasisonsystemmastery

Branches,notgates

Focusonopportunitycost

Afocusonwhat'simportantinthestory,notmodelingreality

Activeinsteadofpassivebonuses

Skillstiedtoresults,notactions

Bellcurveresults

WhytheHeckamIDoingThis?

IntroducingPeopletoFate

FictionFirst,Fiction-RulesInteraction,andNonsensicalResults

WhatCollaborativeSettingCreationMeansToMe

Groupone

GroupTwo

GroupThree

FocusontheTable

PacingMechanismsinFate

What'sapacingmechanism?

Challenges

Conflicts

Contests

ChoosingBasedOnContext

LastThoughts

Calibration-theDialWithoutaDial

Conflicts (as well as Contests and Challenges) as campaign/scenario-levelpacingstructures.

Fiction,notPhysics

ConflictwithnamedNPCs

PutaBirdSceneOnIt.

FateCorecharactercreation

JustDoIt.

Rob'sGuidetoWritingGoodAspects

Pooraspects

Whatdoaspectsdo?

Grantpermission

Makeyouawesomedoingsomethings

Hinderyouinsomecircumstances

Complicateyourlife

CreatingSetting

Actuallymakingyouraspect

IntentandTask

FateDoesn'tGoToEleven

Fatedoesn'thaveadamagesystem

TheNot-So-HiddenLogicofPayingtoInvokeAspects

HowIGMFateCore

Stepone:ThePitch

StepTwo:InitialPrep-work

StepThree:SessionZero

StepFour:Post-SessionZero

StepFive:ArcGeneration

StepSix:Pre-GamePrep

StepSeven:RunningtheSession-SessionStart

StepEight:"WhatDoYouDo?"-AKA,SettingtheScene

StepNine:ResolvetheScene

StepTen:EndingtheScene

StepEleven:EndingtheSession

StepTwelve:NextSession

TheJoyofCreateAdvantage

1)It'smoreefficient.

2)CreateAdvantageisflexible.

3)CreateAdvantageletsyouchoosetheskillmatch-up

4)CreateAdvantageletsyousetuphugehits

5)TheNarrativeTruthofAspects

Failure

DemystifyingtheFateFractal,andtheNatureofAspects

SomeadvicefornewFateplayers

CharacterCreation

Basicstrategy

PlayingtheGame

Fate'sBigQuestion

PacingMechanismsinFate

What'sapacingmechanism?

Challenges

Conflicts

Contests

ChoosingBasedOnContext

LastThoughts

QuestionsandDecisions

InDefenseofMonsteroftheWeek

FateCoreThoughtof theDay:Aspects, theInformationEconomy,andChekov'sGun

CharacterCreationMusings

„Missing“rulesinFate