Lately I’ve been on kind of a Fate kick.
I picked up both Fate Core, and Fate Accelerated Edition from Evil Hat Productions, and I’ve been digging into them all week. For those of you that follow this blog mostly from the D&D side of the street, and aren’t aware of Fate, it’s an rpg with a large emphasis on story and characters, and less on tactics. It relies heavily on the characters taking an active part in the setting, its creation and in how they interact with the scenes they are engaged in. It’s an interesting game and it requires those of us from the D&D world to rethink a little bit how we see rpg’s. I’m really liking the Fate Accelerated Edition version of the game. In essence, it’s a stripped down version of Fate, with fast character creation and a quick on-ramp to gameplay.
If you’re a newbie DM who has only been exposed to d20-type games, Fate may seem a little strange to you, at least at first read it did to me a bit. I’ll give you an example, I’m writing an small adventure for the system (related to something I’m working on Fate Accelerated related) and found that I couldn’t really have too many set-in-stone facts about the story because then I would be taking away some interesting ways for the players to become part of the setting and create Aspects for their characters. Aspects are an integral part of the way a character is constructed in Fate. Things like Last Son of the Sun or Quick on the Draw serve to both add to the character, but can sometimes add to the setting as well.
So what I did was create a list of NPCs and Locations that are important to the story and created questions for the PCs to answer. Thereby accomplishing a few things: giving me information about my own adventure and setting, getting them familiar with the important parts of the story (the clothespins on which the adventure hangs, if you will), and allowing them to use their answers as sources for potential Aspects. This adventure will never be the same twice. I got the idea from Clark Valentine’s Neutral Grounds casefile for the Dresden Files rpg. I hope it works.
So then I wrote up the things events that must happen in the three acts. Basically where ever they take the story, they are still going to meet Mr. X, find x clue at a location, and get attacked by X who leave behind X or y.
It’s a new way for me to approach adventure design, and getting into the mindset of barely creting an adventure so I can leave them room to do it is challenging as a tried and true dungeon crawler. 🙂
But I’m liking the system, and I’m hoping to play it soon. That, I haven’t had the chance to do.
www. Newbie DM .com 
James Girden
August 26, 2013
Thanks for the post. As a gamer who has only played d&d its nice to see info from another first time player of other systems. Helps me a lot in deciding on what new systems to try out. Again, thanks for taking the time to write this.
ExiStanc3 (@ExiStanc3_rpg)
August 27, 2013
Hi there. I’ll give you my two cents on the subject. I’ll try to be brief and note that my comment is not FAE specific. You’ll tell me if that’s the kind of things you’re looking for.
In d20, in the old days, it used to be dungeons : PCs would go in there, pieces by pieces, trying to be as “better equipped” as possible to affront the “adventure”. Now, we’ve changed “pieces” with “chapters”. But still, it is a linear process, for which the players try to be as “better equipped” as possible.
Now, in “non d20” game, the game tends to be much less linear, and the PCs, often, can provide information themselves about the upcoming “adventure”. They might tell you “what they want to play” or “what their character is about”. It is not anymore about being “well equipped” against a “dungeon”.
Given that, a couple of things :
– You want to provide your players with an interesting and large “environment” in which they can “explore” or “expand” or “built upon”
– You’ll want to put your focus on the main NPCs, the powerful ones. For instance, build the structure of the thieves’ guild, with the major “bosses”. You can always come up easily with a single petty thief (or best, one the PCs is affiliate to him/her and the player will create it for you). This applies to main location/races/objects … Plan, but plan from high above.
– Your role as a DM will change : you’ll now play with your players. Really with them.
– Systems : I do prefer now systems that provide a way to emphasize/use motivations or beliefs as it clearly helps you, the DM, but also the other players understand what a character want/”is about” (the shadow of Yesterday uses keys, Burning wheel uses belief and instinct).
– Example of those : a PC with a “motivation” labeled “defending the helpless” would score experience, or get a bonus, each time he is “defending the helpless”
– Question is now : can you provide an “environment” in which that character can express that motivation?
– Lastly, I’m definitely not a big fan of the extreme solution of “no adventure/setting at all”. I still do think there must be some interesting or greater events happening in the world as to get a good adventure. I’d say, I’m looking for my players to have “their own story within the adventure”.
I clearly remember having d20 players coming to me after a game, asking “did we do what was expected?” or “Did we f#cked your game?”.
Those questions just doesn’t make sense anymore …
And when I said I was going to be brief …
ExiStanc3 (@ExiStanc3_rpg)
August 27, 2013
I came across this today on another subject and thought of you : http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/the-fish-tank-as-a-mystery-2/
It’s a simple technique you might be interested in.
brantaylor
September 16, 2013
You’ve definitely got me interested. I have so many systems to try and so little time to run them all! We are about finished with a long running 4E campaign, so I think I will get this a try and get away from the combat/crunch heavy game for a bit.
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travailler chez soit
July 27, 2014
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these subjects. To the next! All the best!!
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July 28, 2014
I hardly leave a response, but I looked at some of the remarks here Expanding Horizons | www. Newbie DM .com.
I actually do have a couple of questions for you if it’s allright.
Is it only me or does it appear like a few of the responses appear as
if they are coming from brain dead folks? 😛 And, if you are posting on other places, I would like to keep up with you.
Could you post a list of the complete urls of all your social community sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?
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