Feb 25, 2013 Random Fate thoughts’1 Fate is the f...
Random Fate thoughts.
1) Fate is the first RPG I've seen where character creation starts with (and focuses more on) who the character is rather than what the character can do.
2) Fate Core, specifically, seems to be one of very few games that embraces "it's done when there's nothing else to remove" rather than "it's done when there's nothing else to add" in terms of its ruleset. Its design seems to be a result of deliberately removing every rules element that could be removed while keeping the essential nature of the system intact.
3) While it's heavily narrative, it's striking how strongly mechanical several of the narrative aspects are - gaining Fate points is very explicit, without much of the looseness found in similar mechanics in other systems (Bennies in Savage Worlds, even a lot of the Artha awards in Burning Wheel, etc.).
1) Fate is the first RPG I've seen where character creation starts with (and focuses more on) who the character is rather than what the character can do.
2) Fate Core, specifically, seems to be one of very few games that embraces "it's done when there's nothing else to remove" rather than "it's done when there's nothing else to add" in terms of its ruleset. Its design seems to be a result of deliberately removing every rules element that could be removed while keeping the essential nature of the system intact.
3) While it's heavily narrative, it's striking how strongly mechanical several of the narrative aspects are - gaining Fate points is very explicit, without much of the looseness found in similar mechanics in other systems (Bennies in Savage Worlds, even a lot of the Artha awards in Burning Wheel, etc.).
Shared to the community Fate Core - Public
More to the point, as I try to grok Fate and certain things stick with me helping to get more into (what I perceive as) the Fate mindset, I like sharing them with the community to help others that might be going through some of the same learning curve :)
I am not certain I understand this statement, would you mind explaining more on what this means?
OTOH, it looks like Evil Hat took a hard look at everything in Fate 3.0, and asked themselves "if we get rid of this, would the game be playable?" In many cases, the answer was apparently "yes" - so we have no stunt trees. We have assessments, declarations, and maneuvers combined into Create Advantage. We have fewer skills (do we really need Weapons and Fists to be separate skills?).
Compare this to Strands of Fate, even, which took the opposite approach, and took Fate 3.0 and added more stuff to it.
I can't really think of a single thing in Fate Core that doesn't need to be there, that the game would really work without, at least not without changing the nature of the system. And by doing that, Evil Hat has also hit on rules that cover a surprising amount of territory - as an example, the "hey, do we need a rule to cover Splinter Cell-like takedowns?" Nope, a couple of Create Advantage rounds combined with a standard Attack handle that situation perfectly well, without any need for additional rules.
Make sense? Or maybe I'm the one that is way off base :)
This is a very sobering statement. It makes perfect sense. It actually dissuades me from doing some of the things that I considered, but makes it apparent that I need to look more at setting material rather than how rules must be modified. You seem to have pointed out a few times that, with rules as they are, there is very little that can't be done.