So for the past few years I have attempted to run a Farscape game for me and a few friends that generally just want an excuse to meet up as the older we get the hard it seems to do. The game has been started twice before with a few gaps in between mainly due to life getting in the way as usual. But I am resurrecting this game once more to hopefully run a game once a month which is fun and easy to pick up and play. The system that made me think I could finally achieve my idea of a completely story driven system with out far to much book checking and maths to slow down the enjoyment came into my life.
Fate can be found HERE and it's Pay what you want for it, well worth a download if you are even remortly interested in tabletop role playing as it's a very new and interesting way of using the system to keep the story moving. It is a very good system to be introduced to tabletop role play and great for kids if you want to get them started.
If you click on the link above you will see there are two different books, Fate Core and Fate Accelerated. The first is the full Fate system and the FAE is a lighter version which is a nice introduction. But also stands on it's own merits of removing more of the normal system mechanics like skills so that you can focus on the story even more.
The FAE system is what I will be using for now as like I said our group also enjoys LARP and are mainly there to have a laugh and do some cool stuff in a game. I made the decision that even though some of us in the group are more comfortable with skills in a tabletop game I think it will allow us to not get to bogged down in what is being added together.
The game was designed so that you can change the rules of the game to get the best system for your game, in the community this is called Hacking and I have read through a few including my friend +John Large's blog in which he has wrote blogs about Hacking the Fate system to suite his Rogue Trader game and also his White Wolf mortal game. His site can be found HERE and is worth a read as it has many good idea to help understand how to Hack the system.
I won't go to far into the system in this blog as the books are available to read, but I will explain the basics for anyone that might want to read this and understand what I'm talking about.
Dice/Scale
The dice is the first thing that makes it very different from many popular tabletop games, the dice is a D6 which has three different sides marked, +,-, , the last one is blank by the way. Everyone gets four to role and that is the first thing in the game that puts you on the Fate Scale.
Fate scale is very simple its a ladder of succession arranging from -2 to +8 or Terrible to Legendary. Pretty simple which will give you an outcome with the four dice, your skills and other stuff I'll come to later.
Aspects
These are the most important mechanic in the game and the hardest to get your head around how it works within the game as a system. One thing you need to do is forget some habit from normal tabletop games or trying to create a character with parameters like skills and attributes. I'm not comfortable myself with the concept and have only used it once in a quick game I ran to test it. As I tried to explain the concept to my players it was tough as I don't think I'm great anyway at explaining games. We persevered and as we just talking about character ideas they started to take shape themselves. It was agreed that playing the game and using them will also help understand them more.
Aspects are a concept that represents something about your character, it can be just a word or a sentence, sometimes they are quotes your character would say. But what they do in game is create facts that effect the game world and can be used by the player within the game. This game requires a lot of player involvement in shaping the game world and every game should have a discussion with the GM and all the players to establish what will be in the game and what shape the game will take. I will talk about this later in a blog about the game world we chose.
Also in game an aspects can be triggered to give you a bonus, either a +2 or a re-roll. But it can also be used against you which will cause you some trouble or drama within the game but will also grant you a Fate Point, I'll explain later. This is how the game gets it's narrative flavour and encourage the players to help create the story together.
Approaches and Stunts
Approaches replace skills from Fate Core, instead you get six words which describe how you 'approach' a task or challenge. You get several number ranging from +1 - +3 which you arrange and then that is your bonus when using that word in a test which adds onto the four dice.
Stunts are were you can add more interesting flavour into your character and either be specialized in something or break the game rules for one thing. Also stunts and all aspects can also be items if it is something that is important to your character. You can be as simple of creative as the game will allow with stunts just like approaches but everyone has to agree.
Fate Points
Well approaches and stunts are free but to use an Aspect to help you then it costs a Fate Point, you always start with a couple every game but it is the player and GM's job to work the Aspects into the plot by compelling them which gains the player a FP but also some bad happens which is discussed before decided on. This help creates drama and problems the players have to overcome and spend the newly gain FP's but that's the fun of the game.
The Game
The game world that we will be playing in is the Farscape Universe or fondly know as The Uncharted Territories. I will explain in more details in my next blog about what we as a group decided on and each player character.
In a nutshell it will be set a while after the Peacekeeper Wars and the players will be a group of Pirates/bounty hunters in the uncharted territories and known but one of the themes will be them gaining more notoriety around the galaxy. Like in the series the themes of being chased and crazy sudo-science. The group has given me four very uniquely flawed characters that will probably give us no end of funny and cool moments while playing.
My first game will be in two weeks so I will be posting more blogs with my ideas for the game, please freely free to comment and make suggestions, positive critiquing on my work is fine and welcome. I have got a lot of great ideas so far from many members of the Fate Community and other rpg communities. I'll try and attribute my work to those I have used but if I don't I'm sorry just point it out and I'll rectify the mistake.
Hope you frelling enjoy my blog
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