StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Recently I discovered this system by accident and found it to be nearly perfect for virtually any time of game I would be interested in running or playing. The key to the system is that is about modelling fictional narrative rather than trying to model some sort of reality. The most important rule for the engine is that it is more governed by the common sense of the players than it is by the rules themselves. If you are playing a game with realistic soldiers, you wouldn't be able to be shot repeatedly and still survive, you would instead be slowly drawn out of cover or flanked in some fashion. Both scenarios can be modeled equally well.

The first key element to the game is aspects, which for characters sort of work in a similar fashion to advantages and disadvantages in other games. The difference is that they are a general way for a character to interact with the world and tell something about a character. An example would be a Force sensitive character in Star Wars. If they had Force affinity as an aspect, it could be used in a positive manner to justify an awesome ability(invoke) or it could be used in a negative manner to force them into an action a la Luke in ESB(a compel). The secret to this system is that of a Fate point economy, which you gain for every compel and lose for every invoke. Going back to Star Wars it is analogous to how in ESB, the heroes are losing on every front before winning in the finale.

A subset to this rule is that of complications, which are solely negative aspects taken as a form of damage. For the above scenarios, being pinned down and flesh wounds could both serve as complications.

Another key element of this system is the idea that skills are not literally how skilled the character is, they are how much a character can affect the scene. So a character can take wealth or social status as a skill(Nathan Fillion as Castle is a good example of this). This is also influenced by stunts, which are situational bonuses to skills that also help distinguish characters from each other who otherwise have similar skills.

The final interesting mechanic in the game is the idea of stress tracks. While the idea could in certain cases represent things like armor, it is actually more of a literal plot armor for the character. It can also be used to represent mental, emotional, or wealth losses as well. In some cases it could even be used for more exotic things like ammo tracking and chases. Generally, it is simply a way of timing action in the story.

One of the elements to the system that makes it interesting is that it models virtually any story element as a character, massively simplifying things like environmental threats, what is known as the bronze rule or Fate fractal. So if you were modelling two conflicting armies, you would simply give each side aspects, skills and complication slots and have them fight as if they were characters.

I wish there were a proper Star Wars supplement for this game as I feel that the system is almost perfectly balanced for Star Wars, with the main characters being significantly more powerful and influential than the lesser ones.

There is however a downside to this system. The nature of the mechanics make it somewhat poorly suited for weak characters, those that are poorly able to influence events. So it is less effective for most noir or horror settings. Though playing them using Fate would be interesting in a similar manner to the original Die Hard, by removing the dread, we would have a story that is more about our characters being awesome than about how horrible the situation they are in really is. It is interesting, but not really faithful to most of the genre.

As an additional bonus the entire system is available for free under the Creative Commons license.

I think you could make the system work with a noir or horror setting if you handed characters out more flaws at the start and gave the enemies an extra advantage or two. It would lead to a character having the upper hand right up until his weakness comes up and forces him into a bad situation, or the bad guy just playing rope-a-dope until he can use his advantage. The dread comes from knowing that the flaws are there and waiting for the penny to drop.

Jub wrote:I think you could make the system work with a noir or horror setting if you handed characters out more flaws at the start and gave the enemies an extra advantage or two. It would lead to a character having the upper hand right up until his weakness comes up and forces him into a bad situation, or the bad guy just playing rope-a-dope until he can use his advantage. The dread comes from knowing that the flaws are there and waiting for the penny to drop.

This is largely was is suggested by the System Toolkit. The problem is that it doesn't work as well from a dread standpoint. The problem with Fate is that a player can affect the sucess after the roll. While it can have an effect in which players run out of Fate points and are forced to accept defeat and later accept compels, it doesn't work quite as well. The further problem is that the Fate system is build on the assumption that players are competent, which is obviously not the case in most horror or noir settings.

Another key thing that violates the social contract of Fate as a system is "gotcha" plot twists in a manner analogous to The Usual Suspects. Generally, Fate is less effective at running GM driven investigations. Though it can handle Columbo style reverse whodunnits quite well in which the players know who the killer is. Another suggestion given to me, though I have never tried it, is allowing the players to decide who the killer is once they gather enough evidence. This could also involve using the Fate fractal to make the mystery itself a character. When the characters fill a stress track, they can dictate who the killer is. This can also potentially be incorporated with Atomic Robo's brainstorming rules.

Adamskywalker007 wrote:This is largely was is suggested by the System Toolkit. The problem is that it doesn't work as well from a dread standpoint. The problem with Fate is that a player can affect the sucess after the roll. While it can have an effect in which players run out of Fate points and are forced to accept defeat and later accept compels, it doesn't work quite as well.[/qupte]

It would be an easy fix to make it so that Fate, when spent, increase the next amount of stress you take by some amount. For every Fate point you spend without having taken stress the penalty goes up. Now, not only do you not have the Fate, but you're also making it so that when you can't fix a problem it really gets you. On the other hand, maybe you take the hit just to reset the penalty, especially if it's a check that won't cost you stress normally. The fear is getting to you, your hands tremble and you fail a task normally beneath you.

I don't know the system well enough, having read it but not run it, but I think you could probably tweak it enough to fit the grittier genres.

The further problem is that the Fate system is build on the assumption that players are competent, which is obviously not the case in most horror or noir settings.

Competence depends on the level of threat. For a harsher game, you could probably up the difficulty on certain tasks by a step or use some better thought out version of the idea I threw out above.

Another key thing that violates the social contract of Fate as a system is "gotcha" plot twists in a manner analogous to The Usual Suspects. Generally, Fate is less effective at running GM driven investigations. Though it can handle Columbo style reverse whodunnits quite well in which the players know who the killer is. Another suggestion given to me, though I have never tried it, is allowing the players to decide who the killer is once they gather enough evidence. This could also involve using the Fate fractal to make the mystery itself a character. When the characters fill a stress track, they can dictate who the killer is. This can also potentially be incorporated with Atomic Robo's brainstorming rules.

It does close off certain styles of game, but it doesn't really stop you from leading the players down a path that just gets darker with each step. You may not be able to say Joe is the killer, but as the GM you can certainly add details about what the killer did. I do agree that the system isn't designed for these kinds of games, but I think it can be made to work.

Fate is a good system, and rather flexible. There are many, many games that run modified versions of Fate to good effect. There are limits to what it is good at, but that holds for any game system. These RPG cores boil down to as elegant a selection of dice and rules as you can get which (when run together) exemplify one kind of ups and downs rhythm over another. Fate tends to give you more of a dramatic back and forth than some games do, which I think is a positive, but it also makes the game a bit more deterministic, which makes it harder to do anything except fall upwards.

But for anything like cinematic or casual play it does an excellent job, I think.