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Captain Walker posted:I'm running a sort of Metal Gear/Deus Ex/Archer/Alpha Protocol mashup and I'm looking for tips on how to Effectively GM. I understand that offering compels is really important for the players to have a good balance of Fate Points. Any other pitfalls? The closest thing I've run is Dungeon World. Show me a session you ran. I can give you actually decent pointers if I see what your style's like.
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Jan 26, 2015 00:30
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Er, about to start running, I should say. Poorly worded. I'll record session 1 and upload it here if people are willing to help me improve.
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Jan 26, 2015 00:51
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Make a list of pc aspects so you can glance at it to see what you can invoke. If you're stuck for something (anything) , ask the players: "So, what does a sci-fi factory look like, gimme a couple of aspects?", "I reckon your 'easily distracted' might kick in, what grabs your attention? ", etc.
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Jan 26, 2015 17:28
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Captain Walker posted:Er, about to start running, I should say. Poorly worded. I'll record session 1 and upload it here if people are willing to help me improve. If this is the very first time you're running anything then yeah, that's probably the best idea. Just go in with an open mind, be flexible, keep things moving and make sure not to focus on only one person or two.
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Jan 26, 2015 20:37
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Any advice for spaceships? I'm going to be running a SpellJammer-ish 1920's flavored thing with elemental magic and my players want a ship, but aren't all that interested in big ship to ship combat scenes. I was thinking of just giving ships a few aspects, a single stress track (with a couple of consequences), and just have the players skill at things if space combat stuff comes up. Does that sound alright? I'm new to running/playing fate and I'm trying to get out of the "Everything must have stats and mechanics!!!" mindset that starting RPGs with d20 has burned into my brain. 8one6 fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Jan 27, 2015 |
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Jan 27, 2015 01:22
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That's the best option to keep things light.
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Jan 27, 2015 02:00
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You could also check out Aether Sea, which is at least 2/3 Spelljammer and has a simple flying ship system where ships have approaches and "stations", which let people who're not the pilot do things in ship-to-ship combat. For what it's worth you've got about half the ship mechanics already; the only real additions are the stations and approaches.
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Jan 27, 2015 02:16
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I'm thinking about a magic system with some crunch to it. It cribs a bit from Dresden and Mage, probably? It's been a while since I read either of those books. It's intended for games where PCs are all wizards in some kind of wizardpunk genre- eg "Wizards who are cops" or "Wizards who are paparrazi" otherwise some genre where characters want to use magic to solve their problems, but magic is kind of unwieldy and maybe a teensy bit illegal. Only, they have to use it anyway, because they keep running into problems that are magical. I'm thinking there are several magic skills, pretty much one for each "element" being controlled along general axes like "Space/Time", "Materials", "Living Things", "Dead Things", "Mind/Soul". Achieving a desired effect requires, at minimum, a "source", and a "focus". A source is some object relating to the effect you are trying to create, as well as the element you are using. A focus is some object or ritual through which to conduct the effect. The source is always consumed as part of the spell. The focus is not necessarily consumed by the spell, but it has aspects with a tendency to stick to the end result. Procuring either of these components is typically some sort of "Create an Advantage" type of interaction, though a character may have a particular focus that they keep on hand and prefer to use repeatedly. Casting the spell amounts to making a skill check in the appropriate "element", with difficulty based on the task being performed. Magic can emulate other skills- you could, for example cast a Mind spell in order to manipulate another person, rather than Rapport, but usually you are better off saving magic for things that might be "impossible" for a mundane use of a skill. A normal person probably can't use Empathy to covertly read minds, or Notice to know the location of a well-hidden corpse, but application of magic could do it. Magic has drawbacks, though- Advantages racked up in the form of Sources and Foci must be used- either for re-rolls or bonuses. Undershooting your difficulty has the usual effects- Overcoming fails or succeeds with a cost, Creating an Advantage either fails, makes a lesser Boost, or turns against you. Overshooting creates a new mechanic called Overkill. Overkill needs to be managed. A spell generates Shifts of overkill like an attack might, by going over its difficulty. A character has a Magical Stress track they can use for smaller amounts of Overkill. Otherwise, they have to find ways to reduce the remainder or deal with their spell going Weird. Other ways of management involve corrupting or destroying a focus, taking on a personal Consequence, or creating a Setting Consequence. If there's any Overkill left, the spell goes Weird. Sometimes it's worth it to let a spell go Weird so you don't have to have some curse in you from a Consequence. Going Weird means that the spell gives you what you wanted, but then also goes awry in a way that's a bit more than the usual parameters of "succeed at a cost" and always consequential of the type of spell being cast. So a Weird mindreading spell could give the target the delusion that they are actually the person who read their mind. A spell to locate a corpse turns the body into a friendly, but stupid, zombie that only wants to help the caster out by beelining to their location. Basically a lot of actions would be spent procuring supplies for a spell that would solve a lot of the party's problems, and then maybe also trying to deal with the new problems that the spell created. There's a lot of room in there for self-complicating story arcs. Wizard paparazzo needs to find out where Kanye's new secret vacation house is located, and searches for it with Space/Time magic because he doesn't want to do the legwork- he way overshoots his mark, though, and decides to let the spell go Weird because he doesn't want to lose the sick-rear end old timey camera that he's using as a focus during the first session. As a result, wizard paparazzo knows exactly where Kanye's vacation house is- but now said vacation house is linked to the paparazzo's bathroom by a dimensional portal inside one of Kanye's upstairs closets. If Kanye figures out the ruse, wizard paparazzo faces charges of home invasion using Sorcery!
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Jan 27, 2015 20:16
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Been a while since I stopped in to this thread (I think my unread post count was 500+?) But I figured I'd pop in long enough to tell you guys that I got a chance to play Save Game for Core over the weekend and it was lots of fun. It's basically Wreck It Ralph the Fate game. I played Star Badger, an anthropomorphic space fighter pilot with attitude. My party included Solid Snake, The Contra Red and Blue Marines, Long Tetris Block, Link and Fantasy Red Mage. It all worked out quite well  It would be really great to play a MegaMan-based game, too, if that's up anyone's alley.
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Jan 28, 2015 19:34
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Blasphemeral posted:Been a while since I stopped in to this thread (I think my unread post count was 500+?) But I figured I'd pop in long enough to tell you guys that I got a chance to play Save Game for Core over the weekend and it was lots of fun. Please tell me what Long Tetris's Aspects and Stunts were 
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Jan 28, 2015 20:05
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deadly_pudding posted:Please tell me what Long Tetris's Aspects and Stunts were This. I nearly spit out my drink when I read "Long Tetris Block".
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Jan 28, 2015 20:58
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Not L Block? What a heretic!
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Jan 28, 2015 22:09
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quote:Solid Snake, The Contra Red and Blue Marines, Long Tetris Block, Link and Fantasy Red Mage. The fact that this is not hard to throw together is why FATE is the Best System
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Jan 28, 2015 23:08
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I-block's aspects did include 'never around when you need it', right?
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Jan 29, 2015 00:34
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Still working on an idea for a setting/supplement, I don't know if I'm on the right track. Synopsis Inspired by a combination of X-Files, Fringe, and Catch-22, Dead Drop is a blend of supernatural horror, mad science, and comically inept bureaucracies. Players are members of a clandestine government organization that seemingly combats the supernatural while haphazardly building up mountains of rules and regulations that frequently contradict one another. It's a world of vampires, werewolves, doomsday cults, and mandatory safety inspections; a world where a bureaucrat is as threatening as a horde of snake people. Gameplay Ideas: Game Creation is Agency Creation. Players work with the GM to create the agency they work for and come up with a trouble aspect that represents how the agency makes their lives harder. Then they create the agency using a character sheet to assign skills and stress tracks for budget, manpower, and intelligence. Lastly, they create the agency's motto, which is an aspect as well. The goal should be to create an aspect that implies some kind of gross incompetence. They can all so make an insignia if they want to. The game is primarily broken up into missions. During the briefing phase players are given objectives and bargain with the agency for better intelligence or resources. The goal is to give them vague details and conflicting orders. During the mission there will be a clusterfuck phase where a major shift occurs reflecting a change in priorities, support, or intelligence. Again, the focus should be on circular logic and comic incompetence on behalf of the agency. The clusterfuck phase might also change rules slightly. I also thought about using cluster generation from Diaspora to generate a web of relationships between departments and agencies that should shift around as bureaucrats gently caress everything up while trying to get promoted.
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Jan 29, 2015 06:29
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Elderbean posted:Still working on an idea for a setting/supplement, I don't know if I'm on the right track... Part of what made those shows you take as inspiration so good was that the complications felt natural. Part of what made Fringe specifically feel (at least to me) more rewarding at the end was that most of the overall story arcs concluded, somehow. Unlike how in other shows with a similar keep-twisting-the-knife structure, like X-Files, Lost, etc. we never get resolutions because something new comes along and there was no looking back. Maybe, whenever the players encounter a supernatural plot or organizational mandate, they add it as a card in a deck. Eventually, they would draw cards (new season planning?) and they are "forced" to resolve all the cards they draw in some manner during the coming episodes. For example, let's say that a season has 10 episodes (sessions). They'd have at least 10 (probably more!) cards in their Twist deck. Next season, they'd draw some percentage of the deck (let's say 80%) and have to resolve it. Maybe, instead of drawing, they'd sit as a group and pick the most interesting ones. "Season planning" could be a thing in such a deadly_pudding posted:Please tell me what Long Tetris's Aspects and Stunts were Our house is the place where, basically, all table-gaming happens. As such, we have a filing cabinet for all of our character sheets and game-centric information sorted by campaign. It's the only way we don't come pouring out of our doors and windows on tides of PbtA playbooks, AEDU power cards and forever-lost poo poo farmers from countries whose names contain far too many apostrophes.
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Jan 29, 2015 17:36
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Elderbean posted:Inspired by a combination of X-Files, Fringe, and Catch-22, Dead Drop is a blend of supernatural horror, mad science, and comically inept bureaucracies. Players are members of a clandestine government organization that seemingly combats the supernatural while haphazardly building up mountains of rules and regulations that frequently contradict one another. It's a world of vampires, werewolves, doomsday cults, and mandatory safety inspections; a world where a bureaucrat is as threatening as a horde of snake people. Blasphemeral posted:Maybe, whenever the players encounter a supernatural plot or organizational mandate, they add it as a card in a deck. Eventually, they would draw cards (new season planning?) and they are "forced" to resolve all the cards they draw in some manner during the coming episodes. For example, let's say that a season has 10 episodes (sessions). They'd have at least 10 (probably more!) cards in their Twist deck. Next season, they'd draw some percentage of the deck (let's say 80%) and have to resolve it. Maybe, instead of drawing, they'd sit as a group and pick the most interesting ones.
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Jan 29, 2015 17:46
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Evil Mastermind posted:... Perhaps. Ideally you'd want to always have a surplus, and you'd want to have enough growth in that surplus to simply eject ideas occasionally if they were uninteresting or contrived while still having enough to go on. You'd want to be sure you conclude all of the interesting ones eventually, but the deck adds a nice sleeper mechanic to never know for sure when a problem will re-emerge. Maybe, in season 1 planning (world-building) you'd generate three times the number of hooks you'd normally expect to use in a season. Then, you'd track how many items you add in the season and draw that many card when planning the next season--discarding any unpopular or no longer relevant threads--and building the remaining threads into the season plot. Finally, when you are reaching a point where you'd like to reach a series finale, you'd draw the remainder and plan the finale using all of the ones that seem to fit, either discarding or using the rest to the players advantage somehow (like how Walter used a bunch of old Fringe cases against the final "enemy" in Fringe). Blasphemeral fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 18:56
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Is there anything particularly unbalancing about paying a Fate Point to knock players/NPCs around during an explosion? I don't want to get too fiddly in rules, but I'm trying to figure in a setting with superheroes or something like Atomic Robo where hitting someone with a truck or shooting a tanker truck full of fuel is probably a lot more common place, if paying a Fate Point per affected target to move them a zone. Given that an Aspect is always true, tossing out "Big rear end Fireball" and then invoking it for each target should be fine, right? It'd suck up Fate Points pretty quick, but it's be pretty cinematic. We're about to switch our group over to something with superheroes or maybe Atomic Robo and I want to be sure that there's a lot of smacking people with cars and lamp posts and knocking them through walls and the like.
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Jan 29, 2015 19:05
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Mortanis posted:Is there anything particularly unbalancing about paying a Fate Point to knock players/NPCs around during an explosion? I don't want to get too fiddly in rules, but I'm trying to figure in a setting with superheroes or something like Atomic Robo where hitting someone with a truck or shooting a tanker truck full of fuel is probably a lot more common place, if paying a Fate Point per affected target to move them a zone. Given that an Aspect is always true, tossing out "Big rear end Fireball" and then invoking it for each target should be fine, right? It'd suck up Fate Points pretty quick, but it's be pretty cinematic. You might be better off just making the zones big enough to account for the fact that people are getting flung around for some of these cases. There's a bit in the System Toolkit about "detonating an aspect". If you have a potentially hazardous aspect, such as a "Conspicuous Fuel Truck" in a zone, a character can "detonate" it for a free invoke, plus also making the whole situation more hazardous for everybody as a result. So, the "Conspicuous Fuel Truck" becomes "Covered With Flaming Wreckage". Generally getting blasted through a wall is just flavor, unless somebody's trying to Create an Advantage along the lines of "Embedded in a Wall" against you.
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Jan 29, 2015 19:14
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Captain Walker posted:I'm running a sort of Metal Gear/Deus Ex/Archer/Alpha Protocol mashup and I'm looking for tips on how to Effectively GM. I understand that offering compels is really important for the players to have a good balance of Fate Points. Any other pitfalls? The closest thing I've run is Dungeon World. This is going on Saturday and I want to make sure starting with only the barest of frameworks, as I am, is OK. The PCs work for the creatively named Company, and I'm basically planning on having them run through that early mission from Alpha Protocol where you hunt down the arms dealer in his palace. I figure it'll take three or so scenes to get to the inner sanctum, but what happens on the way I'm pretty much playing by ear. Does that work in this game? I'm gonna give aspects to the arms dealer, and probably that room with the tank and stuff, but not everything needs to be stated out, right?
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Jan 29, 2015 19:18
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Mortanis posted:Is there anything particularly unbalancing about paying a Fate Point to knock players/NPCs around during an explosion? I don't want to get too fiddly in rules, but I'm trying to figure in a setting with superheroes or something like Atomic Robo where hitting someone with a truck or shooting a tanker truck full of fuel is probably a lot more common place, if paying a Fate Point per affected target to move them a zone. Given that an Aspect is always true, tossing out "Big rear end Fireball" and then invoking it for each target should be fine, right? It'd suck up Fate Points pretty quick, but it's be pretty cinematic. I wouldn't even bother paying a fate point for it - you can always move one zone as a free action, and superheroes often have increased methods of movement anyway. Just let it happen whenever appropriate, or maybe just on a success with style.
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Jan 29, 2015 19:33
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Going on the idea for "twist cards" What if players pick 4 cards and then connect them via something like the cluster generation system in Diaspora? Then they could come up with little connection webs like this and go about resolving them. 
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Feb 3, 2015 06:26
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Yarrbossa posted:This. I nearly spit out my drink when I read "Long Tetris Block". Or you could play The Man Who Arranges The Blocks. His special moves: That Are Made By The Men In Kazakhstan (Upgrade) - +2 when using Spot to Create Advantage on anything not native to the current game They Come Two Weeks Late And They Don't Tessellate (Unlock) - Unlock Attack for Fix thanks to a wide variety of powerful cutting tools But We're Working To Stalin's Five-Year Plan (Unbeatable) - once per session, create an aspect detailing a hidden cache of useful equipment with two free invokes Glazius fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Feb 3, 2015 |
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Feb 3, 2015 21:48
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I've been considering putting together a Fate implementation for the old TSR setting Star*Drive and am pondering which version of Fate to use, for those unfamiliar with the setting it features a bunch of playable aliens, cybernetics, and psionic powers. Accelerated is probably too light and while Dresden's powers and creatures rules would work they are both older and kind of unbalanced. Core is doable but a lot of work (not that I really mind that) but I've been looking at Atomic Robo recently and wondering if things like mega stunts would work better for some of the character concepts. Basically, I'm not really familiar enough with AR to do that kind of hack and was wondering if people with more experience with it could point out any problems with it.
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Feb 5, 2015 02:57
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There's a Shadowrun version coming out soon. Day after Ragnarok has reasonable psionic rules.
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Feb 5, 2015 04:15
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Kwyndig posted:I've been considering putting together a Fate implementation for the old TSR setting Star*Drive and am pondering which version of Fate to use, for those unfamiliar with the setting it features a bunch of playable aliens, cybernetics, and psionic powers. Accelerated is probably too light and while Dresden's powers and creatures rules would work they are both older and kind of unbalanced. Core is doable but a lot of work (not that I really mind that) but I've been looking at Atomic Robo recently and wondering if things like mega stunts would work better for some of the character concepts. You don't need to hack anything. Robo does all that outta the box.
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Feb 5, 2015 05:45
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Golden Bee posted:There's a Shadowrun version coming out soon. Is is for Core or a hack of Robo? Will it be an official release or is this a fan thing?
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Feb 5, 2015 07:29
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Running a FAE campaign right now. One of the players wants to pick up a (still alive) monster and throw it at the encounter boss. How the hell would you model that?
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Feb 9, 2015 04:29
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ProfessorProf posted:Running a FAE campaign right now. One of the players wants to pick up a (still alive) monster and throw it at the encounter boss. My first instinct is to have them gram the creature with an opposed roll. If they do they do no damage to the creature but it gives them the result of a create advantage on the next roll to attack the encounter boss, Maybe split the damage across both the creature and the boss unless they have some sort of stunt.
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Feb 9, 2015 04:48
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I agree that it's definitely two things: create an advantage (grabbed/hauled off its feet/whatever) then... Well it depends on what they're trying to accomplish. Just bowl them into each other so they're both knock down? Could just create advantage again on the encounter boss and just rewrite the first advantage as thrown aside or something. I wouldn't think it's be an attack unless the thrown thing is very large or otherwise dangerous, like a living spike ball or something. In either of those cases, I wouldn't feel a need to split the damage, and you could still just rewrite the aspect on the thrown guy.
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Feb 9, 2015 05:34
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It is a Cool Thing, therefore I want to encourage it. Sounds like a simple 'create an advantage (tangled heap, etc.) with Strength'. I think that trying to model the process in any more detail penalises being awesome for no real reason.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:05
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I want to play a character with a native american background in our latest Dresden Files campaign. I am looking for a cool aspect to go with that. We're playing in Seattle so I thought of "Chief Seattle's Speech". Do you think that it's a decent aspect? I am still having trouble coming up with a lot of compels.
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Feb 9, 2015 20:10
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What does being NA mean to them? Is it mystical? A cultural responsibility? A joy? A burden? Does it really effect how people treat them, for good or ill? Is there a big community or are they the Last of their Mohicans? These all point at different aspects of being NA, different tags and compels.
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Feb 9, 2015 20:27
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ProfessorProf posted:Running a FAE campaign right now. One of the players wants to pick up a (still alive) monster and throw it at the encounter boss. I would model this as a straight up Create An Advantage.
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Feb 10, 2015 03:13
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Golden Bee posted:What does being NA mean to them? Well my Character is going to be an Emissary of Power, sent out by the Bear, one of the last spirit totems to hold any powers. His roots are with his tribe, but he's taken up lawyering before becoming the Emissary. I definitely want this background to be part of the aspects. I haven't played much Fate yet, so I don't have the experience yet to judge what would make a really cool aspect.
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Feb 10, 2015 10:06
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BabyFur Denny posted:Well my Character is going to be an Emissary of Power, sent out by the Bear, one of the last spirit totems to hold any powers. His roots are with his tribe, but he's taken up lawyering before becoming the Emissary. I definitely want this background to be part of the aspects. I haven't played much Fate yet, so I don't have the experience yet to judge what would make a really cool aspect. Something along the lines of "emissary of the Bear" or something maybe more loaded like "on a mission from Bear" would be good. There's some compels in there to make you keep in line with your duties, and invokes for when you're either exemplifying the Bear's ways or doing stuff that fall within his sphere of powers.
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Feb 10, 2015 10:40
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I have been working on an M:tG inspired hack for Fate Core, using a two column skill set up. Due to the M:tG inspiration I made up some cards as rules references for stuff like the summoning rules and the PCs assets (I'm using the asset rules for signature items, allies and spells). I also made some cards for the four actions:
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Feb 14, 2015 05:16
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Not too fond of the art for Defend, I'm not sure what the person's doing. Overcome though needs to stay the way it is.
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Feb 14, 2015 05:45
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Krysmphoenix posted:Not too fond of the art for Defend, I'm not sure what the person's doing.
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Feb 14, 2015 08:04
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