Never On Sunday

I expect to be done with our current RPG by early October. Give or take. Pinning down the conclusion is impossible without treading too far upon the players’ free will, even when the conclusion for the world at large is foregone. Ella intends to be ready with her campaign by mid October, give or take. It’s possible we may pad out the schedule with a one-shot, wherein Dave can give the new FATE engine a spin.

I’d like that. I generally enjoy one-shots more than regular campaigns, and, like Dave, I really get into analyzing the merits of RPG systems. Looking over the PDF for “Spirit of the Century,” the FATE adaptation to two-fisted pulp adventure, it shows promise.

FATE closely resembles the older FUDGE system on which it is based, but it abandons the generic, normative mechanics for mechanics that remain focused on gaming spectacle. For starters, FATE dispenses with the symmetric bell curve, lumping different levels of incompetence together where players rarely use them and expanding room at the top of the scale, where games often need to distinguish between expert, world-class, and superhuman mastery. FATE also dispenses entirely with basic attributes, though it keeps the skills, and takes a page from Over the Edge by adapting FUDGE‘s gifts to ask players to make up their own abilities and weaknesses (aspects), broad themes of abilities that set them apart from ordinary men.

Most interesting, FATE offers players fate points, earned by enduring setbacks triggered by their aspects. These fate points can be used to inject some directorial control over the story, subject to GM approval, or they can be used to fuel cinematic uses of their skills—“stunts.” For example, a character with skill at intimidation might burn a fate point on a dramatic entrance, striding into a mafia hideout while all present fall silent and watch with bemusement, rather than simply gunning him down. A character with stealth might choose to burn a fate point to activate the “Just follow me and you should be all right” schtick, allowing an entire party of less stealthy people to creep silently along behind him. Any player who’s seen a cunning plan ruined by one lousy stealth roll out of five will appreciate that one. I’ve seen fate points in other systems used for directorial control, but not to activate stunts in this clever and character-embracing fashion.

Other elements I’m not so keen on. Allowing players to sacrifice the use of an aspect for the rest of a session in exchange for a significant bonus goes the wrong direction, trading character definition for mere pluses to the dice. I haven’t yet entirely wrapped my head around the idea of “tagging” other characters’ aspects, giving them fate points in exchange for immediate penalties, especially as players are expected to guess what the aspect might be while tagging it. And the power level seems a little high to me, though that’s probably a personal foible.

It took a year, but I finally got all my players to see something worthwhile in OtE—some took longer than others, and nobody was truly converted, but I didn’t really expect conversions. I’m satisfied to get them used to the idea of rules-light systems with a generic resolution system. Perhaps FATE, like d6, would make a good compromise between simple, free-form rules and explicit rules with lots of powers from which to choose.