Fate SRD

The Book of Hanz for the Fate RPG

Apr 20, 2015 Fate can do any setting but it may not...

- April 20, 2015 at 4:01 PM -0400 - Updated: April 20, 2015 at 4:01 PM -0400
Fate can do any setting, but it may not be able to do any game.
Shared to the community Fate Core - Public
+1'd by: Jason Pitre, Gerrit Reininghaus, Jacob Possin, Joshua O'Kelley, Evan Prodromou, Angela Robertson, Judd Goswick, Sophie Lagace, Jonata Sodre, Mike Thompson, Craig Page, Stephanie Bryant, Brian Boring, Danilo Jara, Robert Slaughter, Christopher Andersen (CJ), Devon Apple
- April 20, 2015 at 4:03 PM -0400
I'm not even sure it can do ANY setting.  But I certainly agree here, there are many games it isn't a great tool for and some it can't much do at all.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:04 PM -0400
.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:05 PM -0400
Care to elaborate?
- April 20, 2015 at 4:06 PM -0400 - Updated: April 20, 2015 at 4:06 PM -0400
+Jack Gulick: That's fair.  My statement is somewhat clickbait, even though it's pointing out a fairly important distinction.

Hey, at least it's not "Want to turbocharge your game?  You'll never believe this one weird trick!"
- April 20, 2015 at 4:12 PM -0400
Ha!
- April 20, 2015 at 4:16 PM -0400
I agree there... It's a restatement of something +Fred Hicks has said, that Fate isn't a generic game system.

It's a toolkit you can tune to a lot of settings, but it has significant assumptions as to the nature of the games it works for (in terms of the role of the players, the capabilities of the characters, etc.).
- April 20, 2015 at 4:18 PM -0400
But it is a game system that is very good for use as the system for a wide variety of cool settings.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:21 PM -0400
Yeah, it's no Cards Against Humanity, that's for sure.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:23 PM -0400
"You'll never believe this FATE trick that your doctor +Fred Hicks hates.​"
- April 20, 2015 at 4:28 PM -0400
+J Alberto Abreu is it the d5-d5 option instead of 4dF?
- April 20, 2015 at 4:43 PM -0400
I've often said that Fate won't do "Tomb of Horrors: the D&D Module" well.  It'd do "Tomb of Horrors:  the Movie: the Module" pretty well, though.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:44 PM -0400
By that logic, there can be no universal games, as anything will have its own assumptions and takes on things.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:45 PM -0400
I think that is a fairly accurate statement.
- April 20, 2015 at 4:47 PM -0400
There are a few, perhaps.  But the ones that work tend to be VERY slim and limited in what structure they provide, leaving the bulk of the emulation up to the players.  (Which is something Fate does as well, but it provides a lot more than the minimum by way of tools to assist with that.)

But yes, for the most part, "universal" is something of a pipe dream of RPG design.  And I'm not even sure it's a desirable goal, even if it was achievable. 
- April 20, 2015 at 4:52 PM -0400
I don't think it is.  I think the real work in design is involved in making decisions and tradeoffs.  And since some things will work for certain "games", and others will work for others, you have to make those decisions.
- April 20, 2015 at 5:06 PM -0400
http://ryanmacklin.com/2013/11/fate-misconceptions-and-aspect-spamming/ This article is about "Fate is not for everything"
- April 21, 2015 at 8:34 AM -0400
From tinking fate in a couple of different settings I personally find that running fate as a gritty game is tough for me. My group have decided that date is more geared towards the pulp, over the top crazy toes of games and those style of games it seems to really shine.
- April 23, 2015 at 11:11 AM -0400
The Fate Core rulebook puts it nicely: "it works best with any premise where the characters are proactive dramatic lives" (p. 2). Probably ties in with describing it as 'cinematic'; the way blockbusters are cinematic.