FATE Archives - Neitherworld Stories

November 22, 2011

The sweet spot: simple, creative, tactical

The resurgence in old-school gaming has highlighted the appeal of simple rpgs that foster creativity. There is a powerful appeal here. Remove the learning curve for the rules, and you can focus on the learning curve for play. Player skill becomes a matter of critical thinking and decision-making rather than rules mastery. (This last bit raises issues of tension between...

November 9, 2011

How Many Stats?

What’s the sweet spot for the number of attributes and skills in an RPG ruleset? Last week, I complained a wee bit about the proliferation of attributes and skills in Eclipse Phase. One of my biggest frustrations with the Dresden Files RPG is how many disconnected social skills it has (Contacts, Deceit, Empathy, Intimidation, Performance, Presence, Rapport… ). Old World...

March 9, 2010

Destined: What is it?

I’m just about done with the first full draft of the game I’ve been writing. At this point, it is over 100 pages, although nearly half of that is devoted to things like spells and feats – long lists of things with write-ups. So, what sort of game have I written? Originally, I set out to create a fantasy version...

February 6, 2010

Monsters as Terrain

Long ago, I wrote about the problems of fighting big monsters. Part of this came from watching my housemate at the time play through Shadow of the Colossus. In that game, you have to climb giant monsters in order to attack them at their (few) vulnerable points. D&D, with its recent emphasis on a two-dimensional grid, has a huge problem...

December 22, 2009

Limits on Magic Use

As I may have mentioned, I’ve been working on a FATE-inspired, d20-informed gaming system. I’m designing it with D&D-style fantasy (loosely speaking) in mind. One of the problems that I’m running up against is that spellcasting is open to abuse. In the system I’m designing, spellcasting is a skill. It effectively gives you the the ability to use rituals and...

September 10, 2009

It all comes together

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been mulling the idea of a FATE/d20 hybrid. Today, I had a breakthrough. It was one of those things that seems obvious in retrospect… In FATE combat, you can use a maneuver during an attack. Instead of inflicting stress (damage), a successful maneuver allows you to place a temporary aspect upon your target… or generate an...

June 4, 2009

FATE 20?

I love Fate. I think that it is one of the better RPGs out there. Why? Because of the interplay between Aspects and Fate Points. They give you a tremendous ability to define your character and play the character that you want to play. The rest of the system, though? It’s OK. I don’t love the skill system or the...

April 28, 2009

Inspiration: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

I just finished reading Daryl Gregory’s first novel, Pandemonium. Pandemonium is a story set in a world much like our own, but for the presence of body-hopping demons that embody archetypes of the collective unconscious and human imagination. The demons usually have fairly restrictive goals, and they possess people (usually people who fit a particular profile) in order to fulfill...

February 17, 2009

Dresden Files RPG

Have I mentioned how much I am looking forward to the Dresden Files RPG? Yeah, I know I have. If you haven’t done so, you should check out the website for the game. It looks slick, plus it is being regularly updated with sneak previews focusing on possible character archetypes. I’m really curious to see how they are updating FATE...

February 5, 2009

Woodstock: Session One

Character creation took up a good chunk of the evening. The PCs: Ethan: metrosexual M.D. Rory: modern-day ranger Lance: crooked(?) P.I. Joan: Desert Storm veteran The PCs are employed as troubleshooters by the Houdini Foundation, a non-profit which concerns itself primarily with end-of-life issues. The Foundation is involved in a number of charitable activities such as hospice care, medical research,...

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