Fate magic - Aspect based magic

One of the questions that I see pop up more than any in discussions about Fate is people asking how to implement magic using the system; there are a number of suggestions and possibilities (I offered one such suggestion in my previous possibly the worlds simplest Fate magic system post); recently I downloaded copies of the 1st and 2nd edition of the Fate RPG out of curiosity to see how the system had evolved, and one thing in particular caught my eye in the first edtion, it was a system for improvisational magic.

Effectively the system allowed you to make a series of choices on a number of tables defining the effects of your spell, this would then give you the difficulty of the roll that you needed to make.

I like the flexibility of this magic but didn't think it would really work that well with the current iteration of Fate, it occurred to me that perhaps magic could be represented by allowing the spellcaster to create aspects; aspects are used to establish facts within Fate, if you have an aspect saying "fastest gunslinger in the west" then the you are in the fastest gunslinger in the west.

Being able to Cast a Spell

In order to cast any sort of spell the character must have an appropriate aspect that explains either their magical training or innate talent, this aspect can also be invoked/compelled as normal.

Creating a Spell

Spells are used to create aspects, in order to do this the character has to make a roll using an appropriate response or skill (whether this is a magic skill or an existing skill  is down to you, although Lore would probably be suitable from the Fate Core list).

Each use of magic costs a fate point.

The difficulty of the roll begins at mediocre (+0) and is modified by the choices that the caster makes from the following table.

The scope of the aspect is...

• Boost (gives the caster a temporary aspect that can be invoked free once and then disappears) +0 
  
• Situation aspect (lasts only for a scene) +2
• Consequence (inflicting harm on a target) +2 (mild consequence) +4 (moderate consequence) +6 (severe consequence) +0 (if the target is a mook) +2 (if the target is a significant NPC) +4 (if the target is a PC)
• Character aspect +4 (permanent but only applies to one PC or NPC) +0 (if the target is a mook) +2 (if the target is a significant NPC) +4 (if the target is a PC)
• Game aspect (a permanent fixture of the campaign world) +8

Additional modifers

Target of the spell is the caster only -2

Spell takes a single action to cast +2

Spell takes a scene to cast +0

Spell takes a session to cast -2

Spell takes several sessions to cast -4

Spell requires no components +2

Spell requires easy to obtain components +0

Spell requires difficult to obtain components -2

Spell requires extremely difficult to obtain/unique components -4

This system is only a rough system, and may require some tweaking but it should be workable in a Fate game, although I would suggest having even game aspects having only a limited life-span to prevent your game being overrun by loads of aspects. 

Jadepunk ready made stat blocks

For those of you who may not be aware, i'm a massive fan of the Fate system by Evil Hat Productions in particular Fate Accelerated Edition is the build of the game that is my go to game when wanting to run a quick one-shot or even just a game that players can jump into quickly and enjoy getting caught up in playing the characters they envision rather than getting snarled up in overly complex character creations processes and hundreds of pages of complex rules.

Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE for short) using six Approaches to define the stats of characters (instead of Skills as with Fate Core), choosing to define character less by what they know and what they do but more by how they do it, these Approaches are:

• Careful
• Clever
• Flashy
• Forceful
• Quick
• Sneaky

 (If you want to know more about Fate Accelerated you can find details on the excellent SRD site here: http://fate-srd.com/fate-accelerated-fae-menu)

One of the things I love about FAE is that right at the start it gives you six example spreads of Approaches to create six archetypal characters:

• The Brute:
  Forceful +3, Careful and Flashy +2, Sneaky and Quick +1, Clever +0
• The All-Star:
  Quick +3, Forceful and Flashy +2, Clever and Careful +1, Sneaky +0
• The Trickster:
  Clever +3, Sneaky and Flashy +2, Forceful and Quick +1, Careful +0
• The Guardian:
  Careful +3, Forceful and Clever +2, Sneaky and Quick +1, Flashy +0
• The Thief:
  Sneaky +3, Careful and Quick +2, Clever and Flashy +1, Forceful +0
• The Swashbuckler:
  Flashy +3, Quick and Clever +2, Forceful and Sneaky +1, Careful +0

These samples spreads are a great time saving device if you are playing a quick pick up game or you just want to jump straight in, you pick the type of character you want to play, bang on some Aspects and Stunts and you're good to go.

So you might be wondering why i'm banging on about Fate Accelerated when the title of the post mentions Jadepunk; well recently i've been running a Jadepunk game using Google Hangouts for a small group (you can see the actual plays here if you're interested: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMlEyLAkrE__EfHHAfYIIekLdh4qwJxOK) and it seems to be going quite well, we're on our ninth session. For those of you who aren't aware Jadepunk is a game by Re-Roll Productions that uses a slightly tweaked of the Fate rules to tell exciting stories that blend elements of Wuxia, the wild west and steampunk fantasy into a very compelling and exciting setting full of potential for great storytelling; Jadepunk uses a number of Professions rather than Approaches or Skills to define characters:

• Aristocrat
• Engineer
• Explore
• Fighter
• Scholar
• Scoundrel

 
However there's one thing that isn't in Jadepunk that i'd have liked to have seen, yep you guessed it, the example stats spreads that are found in Fate Accelerated Edition; you could argue that they're not really necessary and (truth be told) I don't think the game suffers massively from their absence, however they are a handy thing to have access to so i've come up with six archetypal character Profession spreads for you to use in your Jadepunk game:

• The Honourable Warrior/Samurai:
  Aristocrat +2, Engineer +0, Explorer +1, Fighter +3, Scholar +2, Scoundrel +1
• The Jadetech Engineer:
  Aristocrat +1, Engineer +3, Explorer +2, Fighter +0, Scholar +2, Scoundrel +1
• The Idle Noble:
  Aristocrat +3, Engineer +0, Explorer +1, Fighter +1, Scholar +2, Scoundrel +2
• The Sage:
  Aristocrat +2, Engineer +1, Explorer +2, Fighter +0, Scholar +3, Scoundrel +1
• The Thief/Shadowy Assassin:
  Aristocrat +0, Engineer +1, Explorer +2, Fighter +2, Scholar +1, Scoundrel +3
• The Pioneer/Explorer:
  Aristocrat +0, Engineer +1, Explorer +3, Fighter +2, Scholar +2, Scoundrel +1
  
  
  
  
   
  

[Handout-RPG] First issue of my Jadepunk Newsletter

As you may have seen in previous posts i've been toying with the idea of making a newsletter for my Jadepunk game and i've now completed the first issue, thought i'd post the link here incase anyone wanted to have a look (it's fairly basically in terms of layout since I didn't want it to be unnecessarily cluttered or over-complicated).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByVpAo4rxDGuSTM3Rm1IUUc0RDQ/view?usp=sharing

To make this available to my players I have posted the newsletter link in a document of useful links that we use and have saved on the games private facebook group.

[RPG] Jadepunk Character Sheets

Some small alterations have taken place on the characters getting them ready for the first session (I tend to allow players to make minor alterations to their character sheets up until the third session), below are the current backgrounds and character sheets that we have.

Ba Tu Satoru

The man who would be known as Ba Tu Satoru was the son of the sculptor Yutaka Kazami. When he was a small boy, he made a friend at school, whose father was Isaku Jirou. One day, the fathers collaborated in a contest run by one of the council of 9, the goal was to present to them the greatest clockwork sculpture (fame and fortune as the reward). Kazami, being a sculptor by trade, lacked skill at engineering and making clockwork, while Jirou was poor at aesthetics, but they worked together to cover each other's faults. Additionally, since his father's eyesight began to fail, Ba Tu would help Kazami by working on the finer details of the sculptures for him, though everyone else believed that he was just there to watch.

On the last day of the contest, Jirou betrayed Kazami. He made his own son stop Kazami's son from trying to help his father. Jirou's son, while crying and begging for forgiveness, bound his best friend's wrists and legs and went into Jirou 's hideout with him. Jirou locked him in, until he could come back .Meanwhile, Kazami killed Jirou in a rage and then fled the city, abandoning the search for his son. Since Jirou could not arrive back to release Ba Tu after the completion the boy began to starve in his prison.

Ba Tu would have eventually died, had it not been for the chance arrival of Dogen Hōinbō, a blind professional assassin who just happened to be passing by at the time with his dog Kuro, who noticed the pair. Hōinbō saved the boy and took him in. The trauma caused by his near-death experience left him unable to recall much from before his rescue.

Link to character sheet 

Sora Yoshida

Born to a Naramel nomadic tribe called the Red Talons Sora Yoshida spent his child hood years hunting for red jade out in the desert wastes with his family. Educated by the elders of his tribe Sora, became accustomed to the traditions and beliefs of the old gods, the pursuit of virtue.

While navigating the dune sea Sora came across a long abandoned village, uncovered by the erratic winds that trap the unwary. Upon approach an airship crashed into the village with a thunderous roar, not unlike laughter to Sora’s ears. Racing to search for survivors, only one is found close to death and covered in strange, almost animated tattoos. 

Before Sora could react the man grabs him by both fore arms and whispers to him, “My time is at an end but yours is just beginning, you have been chosen for a great task, Sora and I am afraid a difficult burden”.

The deserts are no place for children, so unlike the other clans Naramel’s youngsters grow up fast, usually gaining a hard survivalists edge. Sora already had enough problems with the weird dreams and compulsions that seemed separate from his own. He had though the incident at the abandoned village was a nightmare he had dreamt up until the incident at grey tower trading post. He had been unpacking satchels of red jade to be bartered for provisions when he suddenly found himself involved in a dispute with a water merchant and the local militia. 

With a strength that seemed beyond him he threw the guards into the fortified town wall.

To prevent his execution for this folly his clan smuggled him out and sent him to a distant relative in Kausao city.  There he confided in what would become his mentor about what he had witnessed, He believed the solution was to honour the old gods through an ancient series of traditional dances. Secretly also a martial art Sora spent several years practicing and perfecting this tradition. That is until his mentor’s temple is shut down by corrupt law enforcement cracking down upon any form of martial arts.

This leads Sora to end up coming into contact with the City’s less savoury characters in order to survive.  

In return for a favour owed Sora was able to learn something of his “condition” from a contraband book. It tells various tales of the land, some familiar to him while others totally alien. The tale of the laughing emperor was particularly interesting. It spoke of a legend of a man who managed to imprison a powerful spirit referred to as a djinn whose magic came from magical ink that adorned its body. Forced to aid in the creation of an empire, when the mocking emperor made a grave error in insulting the creature wishing it could stop him if he could, knowing that spirit could no directly lay a hand upon his owner. The djinn in retribution sacrificed itself into a thousand shards reportedly imbuing individuals who come into contact with them with the power to fight tyranny. 

A small faded illustration of a man bearing remarkable tattoos not dissimilar to Sora’s own was also provided. Most interesting was the bracelet the sketched described as being the way in which this dangerous legacy can be used. 

To find this item if possible and learn to control his tattoos Sora decides the time has come to fight back.

Link to character sheet 

Kaiyu Yuuto

Background TBC

Link to character sheet 

[Video-RPG] Jadepunk Setting & Character Creation

Myself and the three players for our forthcoming (and as yet untitled) Jadepunk game (Thashif, Jenny and Mathew) did a hangout last night where we did character creation and a bit of setting creation (hashing out the basic details of the characters home district within KauSao city). Very enjoyable (as always with this group), and we've got the first session scheduled for Sunday 28th, really looking forward to running it :)

[RPG] Quick & dirty Accelerated vampire rules - 2nd edition

I've got a friend coming to stay with myself and my wife Hannah for a week soon, Dave was one of the players in my short original test game for the quick & dirty vampire rules so it'll be interesting to see what he makes of the revised version.

These rules are based heavily on the super powered stunt rules, you can find them here in the excellent Fate SRD website.

Essentially the way the super-powered stunts will work is that players will purchase a stunt that allows them to automatically succeed at a certain task unless they are opposed by another person with an applicable stunt; if this happens then effectively whoever is willing to bid the most fate points triumphs.

As an additional wrinkle the successful use of a vampire stunt will give the GM (or the players if it is an NPC vampire) a free compel to use (ie. the compel does not award the person a fate point if accepted), that must be used to throw up some weakness of vampiric nature.

For example: If the player uses their potence vampire stunt to smash through a door, in the next scene the GM may use the free compel to suggest that the character is hungry due to the expenditure of vampiric force and that there just happens to be someone ripe for the taking in the scene.

A player can still choose to ignore this compel by paying a fate point as normal.

Please note: In the previous iteration of these rules, red fate chips were used to represent special uses of blood; in this version of the rules they are not strictly required, although using red fate chips in general looks cool for a vampire themed game :)

Vampire Stunts

These are the current vampire stunts that I have in mind:

• Animalism - Automatically succeed at checks to calm/communicate intent to animals and tests to ride or guide animals.
• Auspex - Automatically notice anything out of the ordinary or sense the presence of the supernatural, allows a player to ask questions about the recent past of a scene or object and have them answered truthfully.
• Celerity - Automatically escape from a scene or act first in a test of speed.
• Fortitude - Automatically ignore damage taken in a single turn.
• Obfuscate - Automatically hide themselves from scrutiny even if standing in plain sight or automatically conceal an object no larger than themselves.
• Potence - Automatically smash an inanimate object or take a foe out of action.
• Presence - Automatically succeed on social and persuasion challenge.

I'm sure those who are familiar with the World of Darkness will recognise that my stunts are very influenced by the list of disciplines available in the WoD, this is no coincidence, i'm most familiar with those abilities and think they give a good gamut of powers for a prospective vampire game, I may expand the list of vampire stunts once I have tested them out a bit more.

[RPG] So how did my quick & dirty fate vampire rules work?

Incase you've not seen my quick and dirty Fate Accelerated rules for vampires you can find them here: http://reddicediaries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/rpg-quick-dirty-fate-accelerated-rules.html

How did the game go?

Unfortunately because of other RL factors we didn't get to actually finish the session, however the three or four hours that we did do were quite entertaining and everyone (including the couple of less experienced tabletoppers seemed to enjoy themselves).

Generated characters with Fate Accelerated was extremely easy although it took the newcomers a little while to get their heads around Aspects, once they had though the rest didn't take long at all; to keep things simple whilst also maximising the potential for plot hijinks I told the players that their characters would not be vampires at the start and that they were all on a cruise ship heading to Hawaii, I then asked them to think of reasons they were there. We ended up with a fairly eclectic mix of characters:

• Aurelia - Cello player with a goth rock band who were on the cruise relaxing and doing some promo work after a big tour.
• Stevie Steel - Lead vocallist of said rock group, a vain main who traded on looks more than talent and had spent most of the cruise in various dalliances.
• Katherine - A waitress on the cruise who was later turned into a vampire by a strange fellow she encountered in the café on the night shift.
• Orsten Thomas - A medical researcher whose outré views and outlandish experiments had lead to unwelcome press attention that he was seeking to flee.

I ran the characters through a fairly simple sequence of events that lead to them being turned and the various complications arising from that; the aim of the game eventually would have been for them to discover that they had all be turned for a reason by the same vampire, however unfortunately we didn't have time for that.

So how did the rules work?

I threw lots of complications and obstacles at the players (probably more than I would have done normally) both to give them the option to use their vampiric side (and the demonic red fate chips) and to get used to the idea of the fate economy; it seemed to work quite well and none of the players seemed to be overly concerned that they were losing control of their characters by not being able to buy off the effects of the red fate chips.

This lead to all sorts of incidents such as when one of the band roadies witnessed the PCs covered in blood and attempted to flee to summon security, Orsten ran after him determined to stop him reporting the incident by any means necessary (especially given that he'd woke up next to the blood drained corpse of his wife shortly after his first awakening as a vampire); Aurelia, the only vampire who had not yet fed, decided that she couldn't allow this innocent roadie to be harmed and gave into her vampiric side, tackling Orsten against the wall, I then instantly used the red fate chip garnered to say that she tackled him so hard that the two of them went through a wall into an adjoining cabin.

What would I change?

I think that going forward that rather than having the players usage of their vampiric side give the GM a red fate chip that can be used for an unblockable compel, I would give the players a seperate number of red fate chips in addition to their normal ones (based on the strength of their vampiric blood) and say that they can be spent as normal fate chips for double the benefit, however, when they are a player must feed in the following scene or some other vampiric complication will occur.

I definitely think that the rules worked fine for a quick pick-up game, having a group of new tabletoppers with only one that has any experience of the Fate system we were able to get up and running in around 5 minutes (inc. character generation) and were soon enjoying a fun vampire game, don't get me wrong it wasn't the most serious nor angst filled vampire game ever and was a bit more tongue in cheek, but compared to some other horror/vampire systems it was certainly a lot more accessible and captured some of the essentials of vampire settings. I think that if I was going to run it for a campaign then I would seek to refine the rules a little, perhaps characters having stunts to determine what they can spend their red fate chips on our to expand their utility?

(picture is use for non-profit use only, no challenge to copyright intended, you can find this picture and more at http://thewondrous.com/40-disturbing-celebrity-vampires/)

[RPG] Quick & Dirty Fate Accelerated rules for Vampire

A friend of ours is coming down for the weekend and is now arriving a bit earlier that planned, quick randomly she mentioned to me that although she’s done a bit of fantasy and superhero tabletop RPGing that she’d actually like to try something a little bit darker than that; having noticed a picture of a recent vampire book sent to me by a friend she fancied giving something similar a go. Now I’m currently on a bit of a hiatus from WOD (although most of games tend towards the dark in tone), love the background, however the number of sub-systems and varying mechanics in the rules don’t really light my fire, I’m more a fan of having systems with a strong core mechanic that everything else hangs off.

Given that this is liable to be a short game and that my friend isn’t very experienced with TT RPGs I don’t want to get bogged down in lengthy character generation and explaining loads of different rules, what I want is an exciting game where character gen time is minimal and we can jump straight into telling an interesting story. So, as I find myself doing an awful lot these days, I’m planning to try and keep the background feel of the NWOD whilst jettisoning the mechanics and going for a simpler system; I’m sure it will come as no surprise to those who know me that I’ve decided to go with the Fate Accelerated system. Accelerated is very easy to create characters for, has a fairly easy learning curve and is one of my go to systems these days when it comes to running a quick game or something on the fly.

So without further ado below are the quick and dirty vampire rules that I intend to be trialling:

* * *

Aspects

• High concept (as per the book, must mention that character is a vampire)
• Trouble (as per the book)
• Occupation (what job the character held prior to their embrace)
• First Victim (who was the first person they killed following their embrace)
• Friend/contact (the name of one friend or contact that has stood by them or that they have managed to keep from their mortal days)

Stunts

• As per the book.

Vampire Edge

• At any time (where it makes sense within the game fiction) the player can choose to increase the bonus they would normally receive from a stunt/invoking an aspect from +2 to +4 by using their vampiric powers. When this is done the GM takes a red fate chip that may only be used for that character.
• Characters can also call on their vampiric nature to perform tasks that might otherwise seem impossible (not appearing on a CCTV camera or automatically escaping from a scene by either becoming invisible, transforming to mist or using supernatural speed) but doing so also results in the GM drawing a red fate chip.

Red Fate Chips

• A GM may spend a red fate chip to issue a compel to a character, this compel may not be bought off with fate points as per a standard compel since it represents the vampires own innate nature overcoming their human side and reason.

* * *

I’m under no illusion that these rules are anywhere near perfect, in fact I’m pretty sure that they’re not, but it should hopefully allow us to jump into a game fairly quickly without worrying about a lot of rules and (I hope) will manage to capture that feeling that a character sacrifices a bit of themselves every time they give into their beast.

I’ll do a report for the blog on how it went after the weekend :)

(picture by Sam Briggs - used for non-profit purposes only, no challenge intended to copyright)

New link to Rogue Trader Fate Hack

It's recently been bought to my attention that the link to my Rogue Trader Fate Hack no longer works properly, you can find a new (working) link to it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3N7nFBlEi_7TEZKR0plNktVRmM/view?usp=sharing

Making use of Fate Zones during Dungeon Crawls in Dungeonworld

Now i've never been a particularly big fan of the stereotypical dungeon crawl in RPGs for a number of reasons, mapping out a sprawlingly huge (often unreasonably so) underground complex has never really ticked my roleplaying boxes, I find a lot (not all) dungeons to be a little ill thought out and normally have no real logic behind them behind being a large space for a GM/writer to cram full of bizarre traps and monsters that seldom interact with each other in anything resembling an eco-system (despite all living in close proximity to each other).

In fact i'm such a non-fan of the traditional dungeon crawls that one of the earlist RPG Bugbears videos I did on my Youtube Channel dealt with this subject (I have embedded the video below for anyone interested in seeing some more of the details behind my dislike).

  

However, i'm currently at a point in my Dark Sun Dungeon World game where the players have trekked north to the dwarven city of Sandstone, Sandstone was once a watchtower of a much larger dwarven city in ancient times, however, now it is little more than a single tower containing a shanty-town of tents where the malnourished dwarven occupants (descendants of escaped slaves from the city-state of Arrakis) huddle together.

The players have discovered (through various means) that Drakkar, the dwarf slave who lead his people to reclaim Sandstone, discovered an unholy creature described as a demon of water lurking in the old mineworks and catacombs beneath the tower, according to the dwarven legends Drakkar called for the services of 10 loyal warriors to serve as eternal guards for the beast, he then descended into the depths with these warriors and none of them were even seen again. Given that the ancient water works under Arrakis have been sabotaged by the competing city-state of Pharn, the players are keen to locate this demon of water in case it can help with the current plight of the city and have ventured down into the depths.

This leaves me with an interesting dilemna, I don't want to forbid the player characters from exploring the ancient and partially collapsed caverns that compose the remnants of the ancient dwarven city (after all, helping the dwarves to reclaim their homeland could gain them valuable allies and potential a home base for future operations), however neither do I want them to have to slog through a massive dungeon crawl where they slowly and meticulously trawl through the vast network of subterranean passages, clearing them out and making them safe for habitation.

So what do I do about it?

One possible solution occurred to me when I was reading some posts on G+ where a question was being asked about the use of zones in Fate; for those who don't know, a zone is effectively a way of conveniently labelling and splitting up and area, used in combat in Fate it saves having to keep track of square by square grid movement, allowing PCs to travel between discrete areas.

A more detailed explanation of zones in Fate can be found on the excellent Fate SRD website: http://fate-srd.com/fate-system-toolkit/zones

This seems to me a great way to represent the undercity of the ancient dwarves without having to capture a ridiculously large amount of detail, I suppose it's a little like when you're looking at the street view on Google Maps, if you zoom out the overall map stays the same but a lot of the fiddly details disappear.

I think that using zones, combined with the travel rules and making custom moves from Dungeon World will allow me to capture the broad strokes of a dungeon without having to do extensive mapping.

A more detail explanation of the travel rules from Dungeon World can be found here: http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/moves#TOC-Undertake-a-Perilous-Journey

Essential journeys are measured in the number of rations consumed and dangers faced, the group picks a trailblazer, scout and quartermaster. Each character with a job makes a Wisdom roll and can achieve various effects on a success such as reducing the amount of time it takes to reach your destination, spotting any potential danger and reducing the number of rations consumed during the journey.

For each area I will write down the consequences of failing these rolls; i'd probably come up with something like the map below (please note: this is only an example, not my final design, and uses a map taken from this website - http://henchmanabuse.blogspot.co.uk/2011_03_01_archive.html).

Each of the zones would be a journey requiring a number of rations (depending on the distance) and would have a list of hazards associated with it for if the Scout fails their roll.

For example I might have something like the following list of encounters:

Catacombs Below Sandstone

• The PCs encounter a party of Sandstone dwarves attempting to excavate in the ruins of the catacombs.
• A desert creature has entered the catacombs through a tunnel/collapsed section.
• The characters comes across some old mineworks that allow them excess the the ruins of the dwarven city at a reduced ration cost (but they must make a roll to avoid a collapse).

Ruins of the Dwarven City

• The degenerate remnants of the original dwarven settlers still live here, a savage raiding party attacks.
• A clutch of mantis men have colonised several of the tunnels.

Lair of the Water Demon

• The characters encounter one of the Magmin guardians, intent on preventing anyone releasing the demon.
• A lesser water elemental spawned by the demon attacks.
• The rock in the area is weakened by the aura of the demon and collapses.

Obviously these are just a few examples, but I think this system will allow me to highlight a couple of key encounters in each zone and maintain the feel of a dungeon crawl without having to resort to the sort of dungeon crawling that I dislike.

Plus, it combines two of my favourite systems (Fate and Dungeon World) - looking forward to giving this a try in my next game :)

Powered by the Fate-pocalypse: Starting work on the Playbook

I have started to put together the general playbook for my Dungeon World/Fate combo, this playbook is adapted from the excellent blank playbook template created by Zarathud:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?700954-Dungeon-World-MS-Word-and-Open-Office-Playbook-Templates

Below is my initial starting point, there is plenty of work left to do on it, but it's a start:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByVpAo4rxDGuXzEtbnJWVUoyaU0/edit?usp=sharing

Powered by the Fate-pocalypse: Back to Basics

Those who've been keeping up with my blog posts will be aware that I have been attempting (with varying degrees of success) to create a game that combines the best elements of two RPing systems, Fate and Dungeon World, both games that I greatly enjoy. Although i'd thrown up what I thought were some interesting ideas, when I tried to combine them the system looked quite clunky and unwieldy, which wasn't what I was going for at all; both Fate and DW are very streamlined systems that enable to to jump straight into the action.

Looking back at my notes I think the problem is that I was trying to make the game equal parts Fate and Dungeon World; sitting down it seemed clear that the only way a combination game was going to work was if I decided at the start whether or not I wanted it to be more Dungeon World or more Fate. For the purposes of this game (and because my local players prefer a more structured approach) I decided to make the game mostly Dungeon World but with some inspiration taken from Fate.

So how do I do this?

Well I was reading the excellent Grim World that has a rough Fate hack at the back of it, essentially the player picks three hindrances and they gain a move that allows them to disadvantage their PC in return for receiving a luck point; luck points can be spent via a couple of additional basic moves to give the players an advantage, the author of the hack is the first to admit that it's a bit rough and ready but the inspiration from Fate aspects is clear.

My Recipe for a Combination

Below is the recipe for the combination game that I intend to create:

• Create a general one-use playbook that can be used for all types of character.
• Will contain the core stats and hit points as per DW.
• The playbook should have space for a character concept: effectively a two/three word description of the character, i.e. 'brave fighter pilot', 'grizzled war veteran', 'haunted detective', etc.
• The playbook should also have space for five aspects.
• A list of aspects will be provided but they can be added to by the GM of the individual game.
• There should be a space for race/species on the playbook: effectively the different races in a game will grant access to a pre-defined special move (as detailed later).
• The exact special moves granted will be down to the GM and their individual campaign but can be constructed using the rules provided for special moves.
• The playbook should contain details of all basic moves (as per normal DW):
• Hack and Slash
• Volley
• Defy Danger
• Defend
• Spout Lore
• Discern Realities
• Parley
• Aid or Interfere
• A few additional basic moves will be added:
• A compel move (for gaining fate points from aspects)
• Gaining bonus to a dice roll by spending a fate point move
• Improvising an element of the setting by spending a fate point move
• Playbook should also contain blank spaces for a number of advanced moves: advanced moves to be constructed in a manner similar to Fate Stunts.
• Players start with three advanced moves.
• An advanced move may do the following:
• Grant a player a +2 dice roll in a certain set of circumstances.
• Allow them to use a different stat for a particular type of move.
• Increase the amount of damage a PC does in combat.
• Decrease the amount of damage a PC does in combat. 
• Increase the amount of HP a character has.
• In a certain situation the player may ask a question of the GM and have it answered honestly.
• Heal someone of damage.
• Gain a companion.
• Gain a particularly notable piece of equipment.
• Cast a spell/use a psychic power (not sure how to handle this yet).

• AS MANY OF THE RULES AS POSSIBLE SHOULD BE INCLUDED ON THE PLAYBOOK.

• I may also look at adding some GM moves related to awarding fate points, etc.

Over the next week or so my plan is to create a document using the guidelines above and place it on my Google Drive, once this is done I will link to it in this blog; obviously this combination is not going to be ideal for everyone (I know that certain people aren't keen on various concepts from DW such as HPs for example), however, it takes the elements that I personally like from both games and combines them in a way that I think will be fun to play.

Powered by the Fate-pocalypse: Rules - More thoughts on Aspects

Thinking about Aspects and chatting with my wife (who is a big fan of that old-school D&D (but simpler) feel that Dungeon World provides, less so of Fate) last night; it occurred to me that one of the problems I have had people mention to me when talking about Aspects is that it can often be difficult to know what to pick since the choices are almost limitless, certainly newcomers to the game can find it a little bewildering at first. It occurs to me that perhaps combining Aspects with the Bonds system of Dungeon World might work well.

* * *

Bonds

Effectively in Dungeon World each playbook has a number of sentences describing connections to other characters and they just have to fill in the names of other PCs; for example the barbarian sheet has the following:

Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one:

_______________ is puny and foolish, but amusing to me.

_______________’s ways are strange and confusing.

_______________ is always getting into trouble—I must protect 

them from themselves.

_______________ shar

When a bond is resolved the player receives XP and replaces it with a new bond appropriate to the setting, however, aside from the resolution XP gain and being a great RPing guide the bonds have only a very small impact (a couple of moves have you roll 2d6+bonds) on the system.

So how could I link this with Aspects?

Well I was considering effectively providing a big list of Aspects but in a similar format and with blanks to fill in, the player could then pick a number of them for their starting character. For example, I might have something like:

• I am being hunted by the [type] organisation known as [name of organisation].
• I am well known throughout [name of country] as being the finest [occupation] in the land.
• My [object] was stolen from me by [name of thief] and I cannot rest until it is returned.

I'm considering perhaps using this system to effectively replace Aspects and Bonds, also i'm considering removing the use of Fate Points and simply giving the player the 'advantage' (roll 2d12 rather than 1 and pick the highest) when actively pursuing the bond.

* * *

Powered by the Fate-pocalypse: Rules - Dice Rolling, Aspects & Attributes

As part of my attempt to create a game combining elements of my two favourite systems (Fate & Dungeon World) I start collecting together some of the rules that I intend to use in the game.

* * *

Dice Rolling

I have decided to switch from using the 2d6+attribute modifier (espoused by the Dungeon World system) to using a straight 1d12+attribute modifier to lessen the number of dice that need to be rolled and because i'm considering stealing a version of the advantage/disadvantage mechanic from D&D 5E.

Having been reading about the effects this may have on the probability of certain dice rolls (http://mathofoldschooldandd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/2d6-versus-1d12-and-clerics-turning.html) I am interested to see what effect this has on the feel of the game.

Aspects

Aspects will remain largely unchanged from Fate Accelerated and are words or phrases that describe a person, place, thing, situation or group.

A character in Fate-pocalypse can take advantage of Aspects by spend Fate Point (I am still considering whether or not to determine how many of these a character possesses, but will put up a post about it when I reach a decision).

This next bit is where the Aspect rules diverge from the Fate system making use of a version of the advantage/disadvantage rules from D&D 5E.

When a character has an Aspect that may prove advantageous in a situation they may (as long as the GM agrees) spent a Fate Point to invoke it; invoking an Aspect allows you to do the following:

• Instead of rolling 1d12+attribute for an action the player rolls 2d12 and picks the highest number to add to their attribute (please note the Fate Point must be spent before the roll is made).
• Help an ally; this works the same as above but the allied PC gets to roll the 2d12 and apply the highest roll to their action.
• Establishing facts about the game world. Aspects are always true as long as they are active, so if a player has "hunted by the red arrow tribe of orcs" then they have established the existence of orcs, a tribe of them called the 'red arrows' and an adversarial relationship; Aspects should always be created in collaboration with the GM and other players so that they suit the game.

Please note: Only a single Aspect may be invoked per roll.

Players gain more Fate Points by allowing Aspects to be compelled against them; when an Aspect may prove disadvantageous or more complicate things for the player character then the GM can offer them a Fate Point; if the player accepts then the GM can make a move.


Attributes

I have decided to use the Fate Accelerate approaches for this: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Sneaky and Quick.


However I will be using the Dungeon World modifier spread, so each player will allocate the following modifiers between their approaches: +2, +1, +1, 0, 0, +1

* * *

Powered by the Fate-pocalypse: Initial Ideas

After reading a very amusing blog post by Ryan Macklin (http://ryanmacklin.com/2014/07/fateworld/) regarding the recent RPGGeeks best of RPGs tournament in which Fate and Dungeon World faced off against each other in the final (with Dungeon World winning) I started thinking seriously about how feasible it would be to create a game that incorporated elements from both Fate and Dungeon World since I love both of the systems.

Over the next couple of weeks i'm going to be attempting to kludge together a system that brings together the elements that I am most fond of from both of the system; please keep in mind that there are no doubt numerous ways to combine the systems, I will not be looking to create a definitive system, but rather one that I consider to be simple and fun and that (above all) is playable.

* * *

The Ethos of both Games

I decided first of all to decide what the concepts were from both games that I wanted to include in this combination:

from Fate:

• Aspects - These little story tags are an inherent part of Fate, but have caused some confusion for some RPers, if possible i'd love to keep the idea of having story tags but simplify them somehow.
• Versatility - a very simple rules system that allows scope for lots of different genres and types of game.
• Guidelines for creating customised Stunts - the ability to create your own Stunts using the guidelines is, for me one of the great things about Fate.
• A simplicity of actions - Fate only has four different types of actions making it very simple to grasp.

from Dungeon World:

• A unified dice mechanic - Dungeon World has a very simple dice mechanic involving rolling 2D6 and adding a modifier, a result of less than 6 means that the GM effectively determines what happens, 7-9 means the player succeeds with a cost and 10+ means they succeed with no cost. I love the way this mechanic works in play, keeping the dice rolling (when used very simple).
• Encouraging players to contribute to the campaign world - Dungeon World has numerous moves that allow the players to contribute (or find out about elements of the campaign world history of events), I definitely want to keep this.

Mapping Across the Elements

As my second step I decided to have a look at the elements in the systems and see if they could be mapped across to elements in the other.

Fate - Dungeon World

• Aspects => ??? (possibly tags)
• Approaches => Attributes (will prob use the DW att mod spread but remove the original stats and just stick with the modifiers, as Fate does)
• Stunts => advanced moves
• Actions => basic/advanced moves
• 4DF + approach => 2d6 + mod (i'm more than likely going to stick with the DW style of rolling since I want to use the game's dice mechanic)
• Stress/Consequences => HP/conditions (probably going to go with DW's HP/conditions for now and see how this works)

* * *

I'm pretty happy with the start i've made, i'll continue to work on the combined system and make blog posts detailing my progress.