Messages

1

RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 25, 2014, 08:46:52 PM »

Stuff like that is kind of what made me want to try the system in the first place.

I have this idea for using this system to stat out a faction or group as an abstract.

Meaning the company gets skills and and aspects ect.

It's just not something I've gotten around to yet.

The Fate Fractal is the best part of the system to me. Even though Aspects are genius, I think the Fractal is pure genius and so simple.

If you check out the Evil Hat official site they have a section with free supplement downloads and one of them is Factions. It basically sets it up so you can do exactly what you talk about pretty easily. I looked through it and there were some things I would change but I imagine with that supplement plus their "Drops In A Pond" in the same section you could play a game where the players are key members of a faction, then you zoom out and do the Faction stuff, and then have the giant battle with Drops In A Pond and the players as the significant factors in that battle.

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RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 24, 2014, 07:22:33 AM »

I think that's a straightforward use of a 1 refresh stunt. I think the times that I have seen it are especially when there is a special Skill you have to take for it. Say "Sorcery", cause it means you also have to use up one of your precious Skill Rating Slots for it.

 That way there is an extra cost due to the advantage that it replaces the "Shoot" skill for you in basically every situation.

3

RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 23, 2014, 03:21:02 PM »

Does the once per combat clause of the "Spear!" stunt not feel restrictive enough? I suppose it could be cranked up to a two cost stunt.

Whoooooops, that is my mistake. I did not even see the once per combat requirement. I think that actually balances it out enough, I certainly don't think it's beneficial enough to warrant you give it the "once per session" restriction.

As far as Armor Rating. If you hang out in the Fate Core G+ community, the conversation about Weapon & Armor Ratings is a constant, some of us have tried to come up with our own takes on it several times, so I definitely don't you're doing it wrong or anything. He is an NPC, so the +2 Armor Rating could be justifiable in that sense, might not be a bad idea to see how it works in play, and if you see it's too much just avoid it another time.

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RPGs / FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 23, 2014, 07:42:09 AM »

I think these look good, overall

Pierce looks alright. His High Concept is a little clumsy though. Maybe go with "Young Kid Out Of His Depth". It says about the same thing because "Sword and Sorcery" should be said in your Game/World Aspects so he doesn't need it in there too.

The other thing is both yours and my own adapted version of the concept I don't think leave much room for him to invoke it in his favour. I would maybe make it something like "The Brave Upstart In Over His Head". At least he's brave, he's still implied to be young but also kind of gutsy, with some gumption to him. But he still is deep in things he doesn't understand.

Following that, I think he's good. Even though "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" is a little on the vague side I was definitely able to think of instances for invoke/compel so it passes.

Akkar's high concept is great and what you should shoot for every time. My only issue is with part of his Trouble. Adding the "when in an unfamiliar land" piece to it makes it way too narrow. Just "Violence Solves Everything" is great.

Also, I'm pretty sure Spear doesn't work well as a single cost stunt because it allows you to move a zone AND and replace a skill with another. I think a good fit is just to make it a "Charge" type stunt for 1 refresh, where it's "When you move a zone and attack someone, you can use Physique instead of Fight".

I won't comment on Minotaur Toughness since I think categorically that stunts that give Armor or Weapon rating bonus flat out without a specific circumstance narrowing it's use should not be done. For a good argument against this in the book go check out the example when one of the character's wants a similar stunt when attacking with his family heirloom sword.

P.s. Sorry for the terrible format. Answered from my phone

5

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR on Patreon - what bonus content would you pay to get?

« on: June 22, 2014, 08:11:26 PM »

If we pledge enough can we get Caleb's Nights Black Agents game going? I want to hear that.

This! Motherfucking this!

You guys should look at Evil Hat's Fate Patreon -> http://www.patreon.com/evilhat

They are creating adventures and settings but what they have is a paragraph for each "pitch". So what you guys can do is say, have Ross, Tom & Caleb (I'm not sure if anyone else GMs) pitch a game. Single paragraph, what the system is, the set up etc. Of course, these should be approved first by the group (People have to want to play in it). Then you throw them up on the Patreon, the backers vote for which one they would like to see first and that one is thrown to the top of the queue.

Now if you do decide to do something like that. The #1 thing that I would like to see is that whatever actual play gets voted on and starts up, the recordings for it be given top priority so they come out relatively in sync with when the campaign is being played. My impression is that often, there is a huge backlog of recordings (this is a good thing!) but in the main podcast or other APs we hear you guys sometimes talk about games that haven't come out yet.

I could be wrong about the sync thing, but it'd be nice to be relatively current with you guys with the Patreon games. Just a thought.

6

RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 22, 2014, 08:03:29 PM »

Where did you get the fate core mecha rules? Good writeup btw!

Thank you! My players are fantastic and they really made the game awesome without me having to do anything (Mostly by being suspicious of literally ANYONE). I'm going to be playtesting my own game soon and I hope to cajole them into letting me record the sessions for "feedback" and, hopefully, posterity.

My Fate Core Mecha rules are actually the rules for Camelot Trigger in Fate Worlds: Worlds In Shadow -> http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/119384/Fate-Worlds-Worlds-in-Shadow

How you build the Mecha themselves is straight from their rules, I came up with my own Skill List, Stress/Consequences, Repair Rules, Hex Movement, Contacts & Resources. Uhhh i guess I changed almost the whole game except how you build the systems lol.

I am also super curious where that mecha sheet came from.  it looks pretty well produced which tells me it might actually be a retail product..but I haven't actually seen a fate engine come across the table that has that in it
(I know of Mecha vs Kajui and Apotheosis Drive, but neither of them look quite like that).

Hey, glad to hear you like the char. sheet, here is what the second page of it looks like: http://i.imgur.com/Xx4qqlC.png

I actually made the character sheet myself, the Mecha Art is just some Concept Art from the Armored Core series (I'm a huge fan on Mecha, especially that series of games).

Can't say I've looked at Mecha vs. Kaiju, but I have Apotheosis Drive X. Unfortunately, I am not a fan of ADX and kind of regret the purchase. It didn't do what I wanted for a mecha game, and there is no character sheet anywhere in the box. Hence why I just gutted the mecha rules from Camelot Trigger and whipped up my own version for anything else.

I am also running a FAE game at Free RPG day at my local comic shop.  A FAE variant of Venture City Stories Supers game, that will have the players actually developing the bad guy they fight.

That's awesome. The game I'm currently working on will have the players generate everything from the world, the antagonists and the culture of their group who are tasked with protecting the world. I'd love to hear how this game worked out for you.

In this Mecha game every time a support character came up, we actually stopped the game and "Cast" the character by talking about who would play them, giving them a couple of aspects. Within like 2 sessions we had a full base of supporting characters who were fleshed out. It was one of the best parts of the game, so I think it could be extended to everything really.

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RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 19, 2014, 05:42:50 PM »

This would be lovely.

I feel like I've kind of hit my limit on what I can get out of the book so real life examples are much appreciated.

On the matter of letting them roll at +0 for Skills, as everyone else has said, yes you should let them do that! Although they don't have a great chance at succeeding. Check out anydice.com to roll up probability tables for any dice +Skill Rating (0,1, 2, etc.) and you can see for yourself. Also, if you take the time to construct a Fudge (Fate) die on there d{-1...1} etc. take a look at the probability curve for 4dF vs. 3d6, 1d20 or any other popular roll. You'll probably like the system even more once you see how nicely it makes the players even more competent by relying on their Skills...

-----------------------------

http://imgur.com/DndOYh6 -> Char. Sheet for Zero
That aside, regarding the Char. Sheet and situation for Invokes I promised. This is one side of the player's character sheet that I'm going to talk about. I think this version is missing the stunts but has the important stuff anyway (Aspects).

Without going into game story. The players blew any notion of operation security in their last mission. They're sitting at a debriefing and getting reamed out for it. Command argues that they need to get rid of a prisoner they took during their mission, he has to be executed immediately because he is a liability and a threat to their deniable asset status.


Player Compel
So one PC, Resident Manipulator, decides that he thinks this is super fishy and sneaks out. He uses what is essentially their Tacnet to make a Player Compel (he offers one of his own Fate Points to compel another player) to a second PC, who was saved from a horrible accident by "Peace" (their boss) and inducted into Black Ops after giving him some cybernetic limbs. He tells Robot Man that he is compelling his "This Is My Only Chance" Aspect, which referred to Robot Man's desire to enact this sort of life debt he has to this organization for saving him, lying to him that he has received separate orders from Peace, that command in the briefing room is compromised and that he should delay them at all costs. Robot Man has no Fate Points so he can't buy off the compel so he HAS to accept (Had he denied it, they would both basically pay into the central Fate Point pool and BOTH would lose their Fate Point).

Invoking
Robot Man tries to delay action from everyone in the briefing room (including the other PCs in the room) by various means but they're continuously on topic. So, he decides to derail the conversation by supposedly slipping out, (he's lying), that one of the bumbling aids in the room is in love with one of the officers. He's played his character as supposedly being incapable in social situations and not understanding emotion (Trouble: I'm Still Human -> i.e. sometimes he does let feelings get to him). So he fails his lie check, BUT invokes "Can't Stand Fools" for the re-roll, deducing that the aid will provide the perfect derailment when this comes up cause he's not too clever and gets it, delaying enough for Resident Manipulator to get to the prisoner.


GM Compel
Their boss, "Peace", basically video calls in (which they thought could not happen due to setting stuff. Basically Minovsky particle stuff) at this point and blows Resident Manipulator's lie. Command reveals that they do have contact with him (which confirms some of RM's suspicions, and makes him think even more they're trying to cover something up with the prisoner's death). "Peace" completely agrees with command and gives the direct order that prisoner is to be executed. I compel Robot Man's Aspect that he needs to follow this order "To The Letter". He accepts, gains a Fate Point, the meeting doesn't even finish and he's up and out of the room to kill the prisoner.

---------------------

And there you go, the scene closes and this turns into an awesome attempt at an escape plan by some of the PCs with the prisoner, against the members of their own base. But best of all, an awesome scene when Robot Man confronts Resident Manipulator in his quarters as he's trying to sneak the prisoner out. I hope that illustrated some stuff about how the Fate Point Economy works.

p.s. Holy crap, my Resident Manipulator is Caleb and Robot Man is Aaron! I didn't realize this till now lol

Edit: Replaced image of char. sheet with one that wasn't shit-tastic

8

RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 11, 2014, 04:55:17 PM »

Figured this might also be useful for everyone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0f3JMY74Q4
This is the first session to a Space Opera Fate Core game ran by Jacob Possin (who also had a hand in writing Jadepunk). They do character creation, including making up races on the fly for some of the players. They do not spend too much time on talking about how to play the game but Jacob's very experienced with Fate and I think he runs it almost as well as you can.

This later turns into the Silence Falls Some More, and then the Shadow Legion series if you're interested in continuing to follow the APs on his channel.

http://www.twitch.tv/thursdayknights/b/516859979 (Start at about 00:46:30 to skip a bunch of small talk before they start the game)
This is Thursday Knights. They have been livestreaming an AP of an Edge Of The Empire Game for a while, but in this episode, they decide that they don't like EotE too much and switch over to Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE). Greg, their GM, does a really good job at explaining both the basics of Fate itself but also what's neat about Fate Accelerated.

After this session they pretty much end up entirely switching over to FAE from EotE, so you can continue watching if APs are your thing. Word of warning, they just continue their campaign with the new system rather than reboot, so you're likely to be a little lost in terms of story if you haven't been following from the beginning.

9

RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.

« on: June 11, 2014, 02:36:46 PM »

Yes, absolutely. Aspects drive pretty much the entirety of play.

Essentially, Fate is not about whether a PC will succeed at something but how much they are willing to pay to succeed. So if a PC is a sort of Engineer type in a Space game, they might have 2 or 3 Aspects that are named in ways that can be interpreted to invoke for fixing the Ship's engine. So the PC, as long as they are willing to pay Fate Points to invoke this, is likely to succeed.

The end result of this is that they are drained of Fate Points, which means that now they shift to self-compelling or are more receptive to the GM compelling their Aspects because they need those FP to succeed later.

I ran a Fate Core Game (with some Extras) for a Black Ops Mech Team and have some of the character sheets. If you're interested, I can throw one of those up and maybe give you a little write up to an Actual Play situation where a PC was invoked/compelled

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR on Patreon - what bonus content would you pay to get?

« on: June 08, 2014, 04:29:33 AM »

Book reviews or discussion about gaming related things with Caleb (and/or Tom) would be cool. I enjoyed when you guys reviewed those really terrible adventures (AUTODUEL!) so would be cool to hear thoughts on actual good adventures. I like the actual plays but more stuff for the regular podcast would be even better.

11

General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff

« on: May 16, 2014, 02:00:36 AM »

In the vein of John Wick's Wield, they're also Kickstarting A World of Dew
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/381911690/a-world-of-dew-a-samurai-noir-role-playing-game

It's supposed to be the sequel to Blood & Honor. I've never gotten to play that but this game just sound so cool. Samurai Noir? With Yakuza, and all the similar shady dealers instead of all the honour and whatnot.

Anyone played Blood & Honour before? How'd it go?

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Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: 100th episode coming up - ask questions to have them answered on the podcast

« on: May 10, 2014, 02:50:24 PM »

How do you guys feel about running scenes "out of order" in a game. Effective? Ineffective most of the time? Things like we say this thing happened, and then later coming back to play out how that came about, or players in different scenes that occur during different points in time and location? Or even Flashbacks to "That one time when..."

Also, I would like to know if you guys have considered Patreon or something similar as a funding source to improve equipment, production quality etc.

Finally, any chance we can get you guys playing more of the "Story games" or other ones a little more out there. Diceless, etc. or just not your cup of tea?

13

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR Gamedesign Workshop - To grog or not to grog.

« on: April 29, 2014, 03:56:22 AM »

Hello, I made a post over in "Introductions" but GDW is the thing that made me finally post after years so I thought "Damnit, just get on with it!" and decided to put the idea out there beyond my little circle.

I've strong-armed my sister who works in art direction and general computer graphic thingamabobs into doing a bit of a NaNoWriMo in Game Design. Except, our deadline is Sept. 1st. I started work March 10th.

I've stolen the same format Mr. Tad used to try and condense things without mechanics.

Inspiration
"Fantastic" Media: Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa: Valley Of The Wind, Spirited Away (Pretty much everything Miyazaki).
Video Games: Shadow Of The Colossus, Ico, & Majora's Mask
Bits of: Neil Gaiman, Tim Powers, Patrick Rothfuss
TTRPGs: Annalise, Polaris, 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars, Apocalypse World, Fate, Misspent Youth.

The Pitch
You are Chosen. You are young and impressionable. You are inextricably tied to Forces that shape destiny and reality. This relationship with things you cannot understand marks you to undertake the Quest. You and those like you are to encounter the Beasts. You are the only ones who can, the only ones who meet the fantastic head on. You can sink yourself into the overwhelming ocean that is the Force that branded you and ask for power. Ask for the gifts you need to survive another encounter, to twist and bend the laws of the universe, but every time you come back, there is a little less of you and a little more of It, until maybe none of you comes back at all.

Concept
No setting. Instead, there are a "Things That Are Always True". It's a collaborative game, where the first session is character and world creation. A brief outline of these things are:

The World

• Is besieged by the Beasts and in peril.
• Is a place where the mundane is intruded upon by the Fantastic.
• Is worked and shaped by the unseen Forces.
• Cannot truly comprehend the Chosen's Quest.

The Chosen

• Are the only thing that can stand between the Beasts and the World.
• Know that their quest is lifelong and inescapable.
• Are inextricably bound to the Forces of the world.
• Are sometimes welcome, sometimes hated, and sometimes tolerated by the World, but never allowed to settle down with them

Thematic Goals
I think it was Caleb that said that the goal of his game was in some ways "to rescue the dungeon crawl from DnD". I could be wrong, but whoever it was, it got me to understand what it is that I wanted my game to really focus on. The game is about rescuing the Hero's Journey from, well, the Hero's Journey.

I want to skip loot, it's not interesting. I want to mostly skip the fights with mooks, it's not interesting. I want to mostly fast forward the trudge down the road to the dragon's den. I want to get to the Dragon. In between there, the only thing that is important is whether a Scene matters enough to discover something about your character or change them. It's about whether facing things that no one understands, is willing to face, or sometimes even believes in is worth it, and whether you are willing to lose control over your identity to overcome them.

Thematically, the game is a Bildungsroman. Secretly, it's about being a teenager and growing up. This amounts to the same thing, but people are likely not to notice the latter.

Design Goals

Enforce the sense that your party, and in turn, only other Chosen like you can be relied on and trusted to understand you. Through Bond Scenes, Flashbacks, etc.

Breathe life into "Myth Creation" where it is fun to take turns crafting and inserting surreal and fantastic elements into a mundane world.

Make the game tell the same thematic story in every world people can come up with.
       I've attempted so far playstests with a "Where The Wild Things Are" type of setting, a Tribal Hero's Journey a la Zelda and Shadow of the Colossus, and a Victorian Urban Fantasy with Demons & Angels with some success.

Make people care about their characters enough that they are interested in developing them from "Guy with Sword" like every Game Protagonist ever to find out why they would do this and who they would do this for.

Make players okay with not necessarily character death, but losing control of their character (mechanically the same thing) so long as the closure to the character's story is satisfying.

System

I'm not making a system, because I'm not a masochist (mostly just cowardly) and because mechanics make my head hurt. My system is a version of Fate Accelerated Edition + Mechanics Structures The Narrative via Apocalypse World with my own bits of system thrown in to handle tapping into Forces, generating Beasts and Myths, and the Journey.

Conclusion & Personal Conviction
This is a focused game, there is no place for someone who wants to play a Skyrim-type Sandbox. Like in Polaris, it is very likely that your character will lose control or die unrecognized and with little fanfare. Make that okay, make it that if they survive and walk into the sunset at the end of the game that their story is told. Make encounters with the Beasts about characters. Make the party not just a group that stays together, but one that wants to.

Now that I've dipped my toes in, there's no reason to not make this an actual thing. I'll be coming back and giving my thoughts on other people's ideas (if that's okay), and will try my best with mechanics (mostly on the side of LESS MATH!). From reading the thread, everyone's really thoughtful so I look forward to getting your ideas as well.

14

General Chaos / Re: Introduction

« on: April 29, 2014, 02:55:14 AM »

Hey everyone, I'm Jose. Jae (Jay) is fine too.

I'm 23, live in Canada, will be starting my Msc. in Psych in the Fall. I've been listening to RPPR for maybe 2 years now? It all blurs together. I get to use headphones during my part time so RPPR is one of the podcasts that stays in rotation, although I can't keep up with all the APs that get pumped out (I don't know how anyone does).

I started playing TTRPGS about the same time I started listening. I was always interested but didn't know how to even get started until a buddy mentioned that he used to play. He decided to run for a few sessions for us, we liked it and converted a few of our friends. It's since become a bit of a rotating GM-ship between him and I, and soon one of our players will be becoming a GM as well. I'll play anything, but I mostly GM "Dirty Hippy Games", like *World games, and Fate. My buddy runs 3.5 DnD, Classic Deadlands and the like.

Hope to become part of the conversation. Game Designer's Workshop series is the one the particularly lit a fire under my butt, and getting involved here seemed like a good place to start.