News: The Mixed Six Patreon is up! Please check it out. The Mixed Six is now on iTunes as well.
Synopsis: Many gamers have a tough time grasping the power of Fate rule systems and player disadvantages in general. Aaron, Shaun, and I discuss how Fate aspects work by using anime and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a lens to examine how it works best. Character flaws make for better storytelling, as they create drama and conflict. We also have shout outs and anecdotes.
Shout Outs
- Observer Effect: A new Delta Green scenario is available in PDF. When things go wrong in a physics lab, they go WRONG.
- Invisible Cities: A unique novel of fantastic and impossible cities.
- Humans: A sci-fi drama about androids and their feelings.
- Baltimore: A horror comic series featuring an alternate history WW1 and a plague of vampires. Written by Mike Mignola.
- Ice Fantasy: A Chinese wuxia drama TV series now on Netflix.
- Rain Temple: One of the best vaporwave albums to come out this year.
- Being There: a comedic movie about a man’s unlikely rise to power.
- Spectral: A team of commandos fight ghosts in a war torn country. Great fodder for Night’s Black Agents.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: Kamen Rider doing Kamen Rider things. I don’t know. Ask Aaron.
Song: Bloody Stream (JoJo’s Bizare Adventure Remix) by CLIVE™ | #TheGreat
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:22:39 — 28.6MB)
Subscribe: RSS
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
we full jojo know?
If anyone wants the link to The Mixed Six iTunes page: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mixed-six-podcast/id1187748364
Oops! I have now added the the Mixed Six links to the show notes.
Spectral shares the same premise as the comic Hotwire which is cyberpunk plus ghosts. Well worth reading, also the characters use their aspects well too.
Is Mixed Six going to be uploaded anywhere other than iTunes, because I’d rather eat a bucket of broken glass than deal with Apple.
The Mixed Six podcast feed should work in any podcast software. I’ve submitted it to other podcast directories including Google Play. Is there a particular app you want it in? It’s also mirrored on its Patreon.
Another way to look at aspects is through the medium of soap operas. Every episode or arc there are people who are secret siblings, mistresses, people who lose their memory or have a secret antagonist that is trying to pull the PCs down.
I’ve always hated Character disadvantages.
My problem is that whilst disadvantages are thematically interesting and can be good for storytelling, their mechanicanics implicitly disincentivize thier expression during gameplay – the fact that minmaxers / ‘good’ players attempt to minimize thier effects is the perfect expression of this – so that the game rules and thematic requirements are at odds with each other.
What I’d love to see are mechanics where disadvantages work by granting a gameplay reward when the character FAILS in the associated manner, so that the player is encouraged to bring it into play rather than avoid it at all costs. Of the top of my head, a character who’s terrible at shooting might give his teammates a bonus if he misses a shot, because the antagonists are worried about that crazy person shooting randomly.
Regarding FATE aspects, I feel the problem is often weighing the cost/benefits of accepting a compel – you’re always getting a specific gameplay bonus of set quality compared to a disadvantage of unknown quality. If the range of effects the compel can produce are known beforehand, then accepting the cost is a lot more palatable.
I haven’t ran the game yet but I kind of like how Savage Worlds/ Deadlands turns negative character traits into an opportunity to be more badass down the line.
Also the Powered by the Apocalypse games with the Tags they use.
I can’t comment on Fate yet but Base Raiders is on my list (Buy His Book).
I’ve never watched JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and I narrow my eyes suspiciously at anime, but I did enjoy RPPR’s analysis of JoJo’s and the parallels between the anime and the FATE rules system.
You guys held my attention for a good hour plus, so this has to be a great episode for an actual anime fan. Nice job on cutting across boundaries.
Yay! Invisible Cities! It is a pretty good short read.
Fun fact: in the indie art osr space it is a often referenced book for planescape like settings (Planarch Codez for Dungeon World is one of the most direct connections).
Another one I have enjoyed (which inspired Ian Millers fantasy castle illustrations), is the gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. One review described it as the characters are human, but could just as easily be interpretted as inhuman creatures of mechanical parts and condensed personalities.