Adventures in Role Playing and Game Mechanics

As many of you may know, I’m a huge fan of board games ranging from more the casual variety (Bang, Catan, Code Names, Pandemic) to the much more strategic time sinks (Legendary, Descent, Betrayal). That interest also led me to old school pen and paper systems as well.

However, the ONLY successful and consistent pen and paper experience I have ever had happened right here with you, @Severok, @Mew, @asad3ainjalout, @ashes987 and @AbrarSyed. It was an intriguing adventure into the RPG world, fighting creatures, hunting for clues, transforming into an epic werewolf and struggling to retain enough control to fixate on enemies rather than my own teammates.

The one thing that really bogged down the experience was the leveling and combat mechanics. The board game variety did much to streamline combat, but lost a lot of life and choice by way of the medium.

But I think I might’ve found it.

There’s an open and free to use system called Fate Core. It leverages minimal dice roles and abilities that are just specific enough to let the general mechanics give way to a theatre-of-the-mind-like storytelling experience.

There is no leveling required because characters are already considered to be at their maximum level. Instead, the characters have general role-centric abilities along with unique qualities that the system calls “aspects” ---- creative phrases which encompass a boon when it is invoked in a manner relevant to the story. These aspects can also be leveraged by the GM to “compel” characters into an action which creates tension, challenge or misfortune.

It’s a fantastic system—in theory.

And I say “in theory” because I have yet to test this system out. I’m still learning the ins and outs, but it’s a thrilling departure from the numbers heavy, mechanics-plagued alternatives we see out there today.

So will you do it?

Are you willing to venture forth and experiment with this system? Perhaps even re-imagining our past experience and exploring possibilities only caged by the boundaries of our creativity and imagination?

Also, it’s free.

Rulebook & Toolkit: https://fate-srd.com/fate-core/basics
Resources from the Devs: http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/

Of course, this experiment is open to any that may be interested (@roketfiq, @Wulf, @BloodMoney, @Abdz, @everyone) . But for now, I’d like to spark some discussion among any that have heard of, played with or read about the system.

What do you think of it?

3 Likes

I’m in.
You have my sword, and stuff.

id be open to give it a try

And my bow.

Wow this is very interesting… im totally down

1 Like

I’m in! I’m down! I need 10 characters!

I love you guys. :heart:

Y’know, after i stopped playing league, I actually have time for this. Count me in!

If you’re talking about playing another rpg forum thing like u guys did way back, or anything similar, I’m definitely down. Haven’t read the whole thing as I have the attention span and focus of an American president, but I think it’s safe to say I’m in.

So do most cats and goldfish…

Has anyone had a chance to look at the rulebook? @Severok I’d appreciate your perspective since you were the GM in our last run through.

I don’t mind running the show as a GM, but it might require patience on everyone else’s part since I’d be experimenting and figuring it out at the same time. I’d need to draw up a scenario first though.

It would help a lot if everyone clicks in to the rulebook link and reads through the first 6 pages—surely even American presidents can read that much.

Reading it now.

I love having a real PC with 2 monitors. I can multi-task now!

What are we thinking about for setting?

Traditional fantasy like D&D or Pathfinder?
Modern day like Vampire Masquerade or Call of Cuthulu?
Cyberpunk like Shadowrun?

We going text based again or do we want live sessions on something like Discord?

From what I have read so far, it looks like an interesting system.
Much more focus on roleplay and player interaction, less stilted mechanical combat.

Fate points sounds like a great system for this. As far as I understand it when you embrace your character flaws and character traits (Making the story interesting and preventing your character from being a perfect Mary Sue type) you earn tokens that will allow you to push more influence on the story in more pivotal moments.
IE the player makes some concessions for the story and in turn has concessions made for them later in the form of more favorable dice outcomes. Everybody wins.

GM still makes DC calls and seems to have the freedom to enforce the rule of cool.

I would like to officially state my constraints:

  • Live sessions are unlikely
  • I would like to be secondary/tertiary to the game, not primary like before

Sorry guys, I’ll explain someday inshaAllah.

I’m okay with slow movement on the game.

Apparently maximum capacity is half a page lol.

Anyways, skimmed through the basics, have a general idea of the aspect, compel, and fate points mechanics. Pretty complicated lol, will prob be doing a lot of learn as I play. So do we start making character sheets now? I’m fine with the system, but as this is my first time playing this, my opinion isn’t worth much.