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Fate Ambereta 8/1/09 http://www.iago.net/amber/crown/rpg.shtml http://www.panix.com/~sos/fudge.html http://evilhat.wikidot.com/stuntless-rules http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html (these rules are based on the Fate 2.0 SRD, with some concepts from SotC) Character Creation in Brief
SkillsMere Humans (MeHums) default skills to Mediocre (-1), while Amberites default to Average (0). Amberites also enjoy broader skill selections than MeHums; While an Amberite is trained in Melee, a MeHum has some skill with a knife, but not a club. A specialty should be selected; Amberites are at +1 to their specialty. Things sufficiently far from an Amberite's specialty, such as an Amberite bowman firing spines from the Blurg, a slug-like bioweapon from an obscure shadow, may suffer a -1 penalty. MeHum skills are Amberite specialties. Lists of specialties are not exhaustive. It is possible for one specialty to apply to more than one skill. For example, the scope of "underworld dealings" could be covered by Legerdemain, Leadership, or Networking all depending on the specific wording of the specialization and the relationship of the character to the larger surroundings. Amberite Characters arrange their skills in a tree, with one skill at +5, two at +4, etc. until they assign five skills at +1. Specialties should be listed following the name of the broad skill. It is possible for two specialties of the same skill to partially overlap the same application. For example, both Fencing and Swords would cover the use of a rapier, but only Fencing would indicate knowledge of a parrying dagger, and only Swords would cover a greatsword-- unless the Amberite is so mighty that they're fencing with it like a foil. (Fencing would also cover, for example, using one's cloak as a weapon.) Skills such as Science and Arcana include not just knowledge, but the potential to apply it. (some of these need much better names.)
AspectsAspects represent elements of the character that are not reflected by their skills, including things like the character’s advantages, disadvantages, connections and even attributes. The exact form that aspects take in a game depends on the taste of the players. At their simplest, they are a dramatic replacement for more traditional attributes like strength or intelligence. Used to their full advantage, they can represent the character’s ties to the game world in a manner that bears directly on play. Using AspectsAspects have a number of uses, most commonly to gain a reroll. After the character makes a roll that is germane to the aspect (such as a joust with the Knight aspect, or a sword fight with the Strong aspect), the player describes how the aspect helps their character out, spends a fate point, and: 1. Picks up all four dice and rerolls them all or 2. Applies +2 to his total As such, it only takes a single reroll to try to undo a terrible roll, but it may take many rerolls to try to get a really good roll. And that's fine - if the player's been explaining each element, this is probably a pretty dramatic roll. When you reroll, you are stuck with the outcome of the new roll, unless you want to use another reroll. Each aspect may only be used once per scene. A scene is a thematically connected series of rolls, such as a combat, defined by the GM. An aspect may also allow an Amberite to do something which they otherwise would not be able to do; it isn't possible to create a trump without an appropriate aspect, and an Amberite with Pattern Initiate may be able to effortlessly travel through shadow while his cousin, who lacks this aspect, has to spend days tracking down a shadow path to move to a second shadow. These uses all cost a fate point. (Note: A character with Pattern would use one fate point to take one journey, while another character who is aware of shadow and wishes to conveniently 'stumble' on shadow paths would have to successively spend fate points... and pretty quick, the GM would likely tell him 'no' or require some kind of a roll to keep it up.) Aspects can also be used against the player-- if the GM uses Roberto's "Lady Magnet" aspect against him to have the psychotic, tentacular, Chaosian dominatrix take an especial interest in him, the GM offers the player a fate point. Strongly suggested aspects:Most Amberites will have these four Aspects. (Players in Shadow Earth 2020 will not have Initiate of the Pattern.)
Suggested aspects:
Places also have aspects, and players may invoke these aspects. The first such invocation in a scene is free, and the second costs a fate point. (eg: a player may use the 'On Fire' aspect of a burning building to allow the smoke to cover his escape; a GM might invoke the 'On Fire' aspect to cause a beam to fall, redirecting the hero's progress.) Whole shadows might have aspects according to their flavor, like "primitive" or "magic-rich". Fate PointsIn addition to their role in deferring negative invocation of aspects, players may use Fate points in a number of other ways. They may spend a Fate point to receive +1 on any roll. This may be spent before or after the roll, or even after any aspects have been invoked. Only one point may be spent in this fashion, unless it's countered (see below). This is the only possible way to increase the outcome of a roll to +5. They may also spend a Fate point for minor narrative control of a situation. Common uses for this include finding a convenient item, knowing someone in a particular town, or showing up at just the right moment in another scene. Effectively, this expenditure allows the player to take the role of GM for a moment. The GM has full veto rights on any such expenditures, in which case the point is not spent. More often than not, this sort of expenditure of Fate points is an attempt by the players to keep things moving. It's more fun to just assume you have the tool you need in your trunk than to have to drive back from the haunted house, hit a hardware store, and then drive back. As a GM, if the expenditure lets people continue to have fun without breaking anything, it should generally be allowed. It's also important to consider how reasonable the player's request is. If it's really no stretch at all, spending a Fate point shouldn't even be necessary. Fate points are really for use in that narrow spectrum between completely logical and GM ruling. Fate points may also be spent to cancel someone else's expenditure of a Fate point. If this happens, both Fate points are spent, but the person who spent the original point may spend another point to try again. This process can repeat as many times as people are willing to spend the points. (Spend a fate point to invoke an appropriate aspect to get a reroll or add +2) Amberites begin play with 12 fate points, and are awarded fate points when their aspects are invoked against them as well as when they accomplish a neat stunt, make the game laugh, etc. The AdjectivesRather than just assigning numerical values to elements like skills these rules use adjectives, which are ranked as follows: Abysmal, Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Average, Fair, Good, Great, Superb, Epic, and Legendary. Consider: a bodyguard might be a Good swordsman but have Mediocre social skills. He'll probably win a fight with an artist who's a Superb painter but a Poor swordsman. Almost anything can be described using this ladder... an empire may field a Superb army or a spaceship may be limping by with a Poor engine. The LadderValue Descriptor Rolling the DiceTo roll dice for Fate, pick your starting level (say, Good) and roll 4D6. For each 1 or 2, move down one step, and for each 5 or 6 move up one. Lets say we rolled 2,3,5 and 5. Go down a step because of the 2, from Good to Fair, but then go up a step thanks to the first 5 (from Fair to Good) and again from the second 5 (from Good to Great) for a final outcome of Great. Another way to look at the dice is as if they rolled either +1, 0 or -1. From that perspective, rolling 2,3,5,5 is the same as rolling -1,0,+1,+1, which is easier to deal with, since that just becomes Good + 1, which is Great. (The use of Fudge dice, marked with +'s, blanks, and -'s, is preferred for the sake of simplicity.) Success and FailureWhen the dice are rolled, there is usually a target difficulty described according to the ladder. For instance, it might take a Good climbing effort to ascend a steep wall. To face this challenge, the player consults the appropriate skill, rolls the dice, and compares the outcome to the difficulty. If the outcome is equal to or higher than the difficulty, it’s a success; if not, it’s a failure. The difference between the difficulty and the outcome is called the margin of success (or failure), MoS or MoF respectively. It is often used to determine how well the character succeeded or how badly they failed. When two characters are competing in a task, they both roll; the difference between the outcomes is the MoS for the winner and the MoF for the loser. A check made against a static target is a Test, while one made against another character is a Challenge. ResolutionAs in ADRPG, resolution of actions is by GM fiat, in this case with the higher score winning in contested rolls and success assessed against a static difficulty in unopposed rolls. |