Observations on FATE
I am a player in a weekly Dresden Files RPG. We meet every Monday and game until the cows come home (well, midnight, since there really aren’t any cows in downtown Austin).
After several weeks of playing (that means 3), I have made some observations that have coloured the way that I am adapting my version of FATE. Some of them have reinforced why I’m doing things the way I’m doing them, others are actually making me make changes to my plans. Would you like to know more? CAUTION: Semi-Rant Ahead!
Skills
In DF, it seems that there are way too many skills: 25, according to page 120. Even if you’re playing a submerged game (like we are) you can get 19 skills, if you top out at +3 for your best 5. That’s not too bad, unless you want to play a spellcaster. Well guess what, I am. So I have to worry about 3 skills just for casting spells, and another 2 or 3 for my concept (Gaia’s Park Ranger).
For casting spells, I need to have Lore, Conviction, and Discipline. To be a decent park ranger, I need Survival, Investigation, Perception, and at least Guns at +1. Being an outdoors type, shouldn’t Might and Endurance be important, too? That’s 9 skills right there. The more mundane skills can be around the +2 to +3 range, sure, and use Stunts to bump them up a bit…I’ll cover Stunts in a minute.
But What about spellcasting spells? both Lore and Conviction are necessary for the base power for evocation and thaumaturgy…well, since Conner is sponsored by Gaia, it’s Channeling and Ritual, but still. I can’t cast a block worth a darn with only 3 in Conviction, nor do many Rituals with Lore that low, either. It’s not like there are stunts that I can take to increase them. Don’t get me started on Refinement, it’s a joke for sponsored magic.
Along with loads of “required” skills for concept and spellslinging, how does one expect a spellcaster to be sociable? All of my skills are sunk into doing magic…with the +1 ranks filled with Resources, Contacts, Guns, etc, and the upper ranks filled with Musts for high concept. It’s a very lonely world Dresden lives in.
Stress
The combat and stress system works relatively well, until you start considering weapons. I can pick up a pistol (or, in case of my ranger, a bow) and deal 2 additional Physical Stress with every hit. Cool, that makes sense. But when you start throwing magic around, you start to get some God-awful numbers. A 7-shift weapon 8 spell isn’t unheard of (if what I read on the DFRPG message boards are true). If I manage to roll a 5 to avoid the attack, that’s still 10-shifts of stress that need to be absorbed! That’s a lot, considering that without supernatural powers your stress track tops out at 4! Sure, you can take stunts that give extra stress boxes (right? Haven’t seen one in the book) or a stunt that gives an additional mild consequence. And we’ll get to those when we talk about stunts.
Another thing that bugs me about stress is that it is biased towards physical combat. As I said above, I can pick up a gun/bow/rock and deal more stress than my roll would otherwise indicate. However, I haven’t found anything that acts as a stress-booster for social conflicts. Sure, there are some powers that give a bonus to mental conflict, but that’s against the laws of magic, and will get you killed real quick.
Aspects
One of the best parts of FATE is the concept of aspects. A word or phrase that describes more than the raw numbers on your skill list can. They’re great…when used in moderation. Stacking so many aspects at once, while within the rules, seems like a cop-out to me.
You can stack up the so-called “navel-gazing manouevres” so that even if you roll all [-]s on the dice, you still get a result of 10 or higher! But it’s fair, right, since both sides of a conflict can do that? Well, yes and no. It is “fair,” but again, it feels like a cop-out to say “they tag the following aspects they placed before you showed up.” I’m not calling the GM a liar, but they have more of an idea of what’s going on. That gives them a bit more foresight than the players have.
Stunts
Stunts are wonderful! They let you customize your character like nothing else! Heck, unlike some other games that have similar…uhh…feats…of game design, FATE Stunts are a build your own mechanic! My ranger, Conner, has a stunt that lets him roll Survival in place of Guns when shooting his bow! It’s thematic, and it’s within the rules. Heck, there are loads of examples of “Use this skill instead of that for this specific instance.”
Some of the Stunt-building advice can be a bit confusing, though. For example, how would I price out adding more stress boxes? Page 148 says that:
Give one or two expendable 2-shift effects (e.g., additional mild consequences) or a persistent 1-shift effect (e.g., Armor:1 against certain types of things). Lean towards one expendable effect if the application is broad (e.g., vs. all mental stress), two expendable effects if it’s narrow.
So it’s one extra mild consequence for a stunt. Does that mean it’s 2-stress for a stunt? I’m only curious since there are a few examples of extra consequences but nothing at all about extra stress boxes. I’m assuming it’s 1 Stunt to get 2 extra stress boxes. I know, I should be able to talk to my GM about it, but I do like to keep some internal consistency.
Also, stunts and powers draw off of the same “pool” of points: Refresh. After I’ve spent my 4-refresh on sponsored magic (Gaian Magic) and my one stunt to shoot with Survival, that’s half of my refresh. Well, slightly more than half since I need to be at minimum 1 refresh. That leaves 4 refresh to play with (remember, I’m playing a submerged character). I, however, like to have some Fate Points to play with at the beginning of the session, so I don’t want to have a Refresh lower than 2. That only leaves me with 2 Refresh to play around with! You’re probably asking yourself “what’s the difference between 1 and 2 Refresh?” 2 is a nicer number (I’m weird, I know).
What’s My Point?
Well, you’ve stuck with me this long, so I’ll tell you my point. I think that FATE games have a bit of “numbers bloat.” That is to say, there are too many skills than you can conceivably have for your character, and the deficit is designed to be made up with Stunts. However, those stunts are also used to differentiate yourself and get supernatural powers. After the Musts are taken care of, there’s little left over for making up for missing skills or personalizing the skills you do have.
Bringing It Full Circle
So what does this mean for my Halo game? First off, I’m going to be keeping the skill list to less than 20 skills. Remember, I’m keeping the pyramid scheme, so that’s 15 skills. Any Stunt that is taken to allow skill substitution will follow Diaspora’s lead and max it out a +3, even if the skill is +4 or +5. Granted, you’ll be able to spend a Fate Point to invoke for effect to use the full skill, but that’s for another post.
Aspect usage will be limited in scope, again like Diaspora. Since gear is going to have their own Aspects to use, it’s not going to be that big a deal…I hope…
Stunts, I think, just need a bit more narrow “rules” for making them. Nothing drastic, just some further guidelines, I think.
Conclusion
Thanks for sticking it out! I know this is my most verbose post to date, but I felt the need to rant and explain why I’m doing what I’m doing.
What about the rest of you, anyone have any gaming stories you’d like to share? Any replies to my observations? Criticism welcome!
