Mar 13, 2013 Random Fate Core Thought of the Day’T...
Random Fate Core Thought of the Day:
This one starts with a little story about my ex. One day, she decided to make Chicken Tikka Masala. Which is fine, except she had never cookied it, or eaten it, or really eaten any Indian food.
Still, she knew the ingredients on it, and had the sauce made up, so why not? We got some chicken, and a thing of sauce from Costco, and we were on our way.
She decided to "improve" the recipe. I don't remember what all she added, but I remember for sure there was a crapload of paprika in there, in addition to the normal amounts of paprika in Tikka Masala. When she was done cooking, the result was an inedible mess. The sauce wasn't a sauce any more, but caked on gunk.
One of the things that I see when people start up with Fate, especially Core, is that they think they need "more" stuff in it. This is especially true of players coming from more traditional games, which often do have rules for anything.
I remember one discussion here a while ago, where someone wanted rules for Splinter Cell-like takedowns. My initial thought there was "why?" The existing rules do a perfectly good job of that - a few Create Advantage rolls to get stealth and positioning, and you'll probably one-hit any minion with ease.
+Jack Gulick compared Fate Core to a 3d printer, as opposed to a Lego set, and I totally agree. It's a functional game out of the box for a broad set of scenarios and settings.
If you hack Fate, that's awesome. Seriously, it is. But play the game first. Understand what it's supposed to do, and feel like. Try to figure out how you'd get the effect you want with just the core rules. Want to do starships? Try it with just Piloting rolls. See how it feels. If people aren't having fun, or the story isn't what you want it to be, try the minimal hack you can to adjust it.
Hack when you truly get the system.
Hack when you know why the system, as-is, is insufficient.
Hack when you know what results you want.
He who hacks least, hacks best.
Don't ruin the Chicken Tikka Masala.
This one starts with a little story about my ex. One day, she decided to make Chicken Tikka Masala. Which is fine, except she had never cookied it, or eaten it, or really eaten any Indian food.
Still, she knew the ingredients on it, and had the sauce made up, so why not? We got some chicken, and a thing of sauce from Costco, and we were on our way.
She decided to "improve" the recipe. I don't remember what all she added, but I remember for sure there was a crapload of paprika in there, in addition to the normal amounts of paprika in Tikka Masala. When she was done cooking, the result was an inedible mess. The sauce wasn't a sauce any more, but caked on gunk.
One of the things that I see when people start up with Fate, especially Core, is that they think they need "more" stuff in it. This is especially true of players coming from more traditional games, which often do have rules for anything.
I remember one discussion here a while ago, where someone wanted rules for Splinter Cell-like takedowns. My initial thought there was "why?" The existing rules do a perfectly good job of that - a few Create Advantage rolls to get stealth and positioning, and you'll probably one-hit any minion with ease.
+Jack Gulick compared Fate Core to a 3d printer, as opposed to a Lego set, and I totally agree. It's a functional game out of the box for a broad set of scenarios and settings.
If you hack Fate, that's awesome. Seriously, it is. But play the game first. Understand what it's supposed to do, and feel like. Try to figure out how you'd get the effect you want with just the core rules. Want to do starships? Try it with just Piloting rolls. See how it feels. If people aren't having fun, or the story isn't what you want it to be, try the minimal hack you can to adjust it.
Hack when you truly get the system.
Hack when you know why the system, as-is, is insufficient.
Hack when you know what results you want.
He who hacks least, hacks best.
Don't ruin the Chicken Tikka Masala.
Shared to the community Fate Core - Public
+1'd by: Van Davis, David Hayes, Jon Smejkal, Felipe Real, Sergio Le Roux, Bean Lucas, Juanma Barranquero, Tim Noyce, Oliver Graf, Teo Morgan, Trace Lambert, John Moley, Mike Thompson, Ron Frazier, Jack Gulick, David Thomas, Christopher Ruthenbeck, Dan Hall, Ian Melville, Matthew Bannock, Wesley Harp, Alan Smithee, Jonathan Fearn Badillo, Javier Gaspoz, Winchell Chung, Yarden Raveh, Bob Everson, Kenji Ikiryo, Wil Hutton, Lawerence Hawkins, Mark Miller
What I meant was that Fate self-tunes to the level of accurate description the players want at every single table (that's just how it works) rather than being built out of pre-imagined, pre-shaped pieces (as most games with long lists of powers and associated costs tend to be).
And as such, I agree with your "don't hack until you have to" observation.
+David Thomas : Totally agreed.