Serpents Fall: Session 3 (video)

RPG review - Mummy the Curse (video)

GM Tips - Absent Players (video)

Fate Accelerated - Ships

I have decided to trim down the Approaches of vehicles somewhat since I don't think that all of the standard player Approaches are required; I have decided to go with the following Skills/Approaches: 

• Speed : Representing sailing speed and maneuverability.
• Used to attack if ramming.
• Used to defend if attempting to avoid damage via maneuverability.

• Combat: Representing the ships ability to both deal out punishment and to receive it.
• Used to attack with cannons or other weapons.
• Used to defend if attempting to deal with damage via the ships innate toughness.

Below are the list of statistics that I have come up with for numerous different ship types:

I have amalgamated stress with the number of crew a ship possesses; for each point of stress the ship has 10 crew, during a combat each of these can be used to soak one level of stress (in addition to the option of using the ship's consequences). Any ship reduced to half crew or less has it's Approach/Skill scores halved (rounding down) until it can replenish crew (the ship stress boxes can only be 'healed' by taking on more crew).

If a player character is onboard then they may choose to take stress intended for the ship on their own character instead should they so wish.

Each of the ships received two fate points that can be used with it's Aspects, and player characters can also use their own fate points to aid the ship, but only if they have an appropriate Aspect.

The Stunt Cannons means that when a ship fires it may target all enemies is the same zone using a single roll, the enemies then make seperate defence rolls to avoid harm as normal; any differences in scale are added/deducted to any stress caused after defence rolls have been made.

Fate Accelerated - Vehicles - First draft

The below vehicle scale is based on the scale rules from Legends of Anglerre.

I was forced to scrap the idea of having no stress boxes, only consequences because I wanted to make the larger scale vehicles more difficult to kill but didn't want the players/GM to have to track a vast number of additional consequences.

Each vehicle has it's approaches rated at +0 by default and receives a number of points (based on their scale) to spend on increasing their ratings on a one to one basis.

Vehicles can only directly attack others that are a maximum of 2 scale points lower or higher than their own (individual human sized characters count as scale 1), each Stunt devoted to this matter can increase this limit by a single point.

Otherwise Stunts generally work the same as normal in Fate Accelerated (either adding a +2 in certain circumstances or allowing the vehicle to accomplish something 'cool' 1/session as per the Fate Accelerated rulebook); each Stunt costs a point of the vehicles Refresh (no vehicle may have a Refresh of less than 1).

Fate Accelerated - Vehicles

Anyone who has read this blog will know that i've devoted a considerable number of posts to trialing various methods of represented spacecraft for my Fate Core Rogue Trader game and that, after a lot of consideration, I settled on a fairly narrative style of adjudicating them.

Recently in my Serpents Fall G+ hangout Fate Accelerated fantasy game the players have captured a pinnace (a small ship) from an enemy pirate; inevitably at some point the players will want to make use of this ship (and quite rightly too) so i've started early musings about how to represent the ship (and potentially other vehicles) using the Fate Accelerated system.

These are my early musings:

• Vehicles should have the same basic approaches as players (Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick & Sneaky)
• Vehicles should also have Aspects and Stunts in the same way as players.
• Vehicles should not have stress boxes, only consequence boxes (because it's more interesting when a ship or vehicle is hit to have it cause a noticable effect).
• Players should be able to take vehicle stress on their characters if they choose in order to spare the vehicle damage (and to represent being injured by falling masonry, timbers, etc)
• Players should be able to substitute their characters Approach score for certain of the ships default scores.
• Vehicles should have some indicator of scale and how this affects their interactions with vehicles/individuals or smaller/large scale.

I hope in future posts to expand on this and come up with some quick and easy rules for vehicles in Fate Accelerated :)

Serpents Fall - Cast of characters

We're now on the run up to our third G+ hangout session for our Serpents Fall Fate Accelerated game so thought i'd post up a little about the characters that are taking part in the game:

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Captain Benito, deposed Pirate King

Captain Benito was once the chosen King of the Sword Isles, ruling over the Scarlet Brotherhood, however the treachery of his black-hearted colleague Horningold Blythe laid the flashy pirate low; a great and powerful curse was laid upon Benito, it was intended to kill him but the strength of his Lemurian heritage allowed the Captain to avoid this fate, but the sea would forever afterwards shun him, visiting disaster and misfortune on any ship should Benito try to use it to voyage across the waves. Spat out by the seas of the mainline, Benito quickly discovered his curse and immediately set about trying to find a way to have it removed, even seeking out help from the renowned spirit shaman of southern Stygia, it was here he encountered the wandering outcast Ozuchi Komodo and the death priest Horesh Komani, each also seeking their own destinies.

Benito has recently encountered an old enemy of his in the shape of Captain Hannibal Hawkins, a lieutenant of Blythe's and one of the first people to call for his disposal; Hawkin's black corsairs seem to be in league with the savage Picts, kidnapping people for some nefarious purpose. With the aid of his friends Benito has captured Hawkins, taken his ship and freed the prisoners, although he sustained a severe skull injury in the process.

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Gunnar Kron, norsican warrior seeking to atone for his past

As part of the Timber Wolf raiding fleet that ravaged Stygia, Kron spent many years as a terror to the more civilised people of Serpents Fall, proving himself worth the murderous and savage reputation that grew up around him; however when he was commanded to butcher those who could not fight back Kron refused and found himself forever outcast by the fleet. Ozuchi Komodo, the person who Kron had refused to kill, saw that the warrior had some part to play in the destinies unfolding and suggested that the forceful warrior join them. Kron now fights within his own code of honour, but the red spectre of his past constantly plagues him.

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Horesh Komani, khemrian death priest

Born amongst the death-worshipping tribes of Khemri, Horesh showed an early aptitude for the death magics and spiritual workings of the country's priesthood, attracting the services of a death-raven spirit companion during his younger years; his rise to prominence however was watched with jealous eyes from certain quarters and, during his initiation exploring an ancient tomb, Horesh found himself forced into a position where he had to choose between the life of a fellow or advancing his own knowledge of death. Horesh found this decision easy to make and channeling death energy through his body slew his fellow priest.

As Horesh continues to expand his knowledge of the spirit world he finds himself increasingly drawn into situations where he must rely on the power of the spirits, but ever so slowly he finds himself owing a tangled web of favours that must someday be paid.

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Ozuchi Komodo, last survivor of the komodo tribe

From the moment he was born Ozuchi knew that he had a destiny, the spirit world revealed it's secrets to him, that one day he was destined to help re-unite the fractured kingdoms of Stygia; however it appeared that his dreams would come to naught when the Timber Wolf raiding fleet were sighted on the southern coast and norsican raiders began to pillage and burn their way across the country. As his tribe fell, Ozuchi prepared to sell his own life dearly when again fate played it's hand and one of the warriors (a norsican by the name of Gunnar Kron), disgusted by the brutality of the slaughter, turned against his fellows and helped Ozuchi to escape.

Some time later whilst exploring a ruined temple in the jungles of Khemri, Ozuchi witnessed two death-priests battling and, as one fell, he recognised the survivor Horesh Komani as his khemrian counterpart, he knew that together the two of them could re-unite their splintered homeland.

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