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View Full Version : [FATE/SotC] Basics of tweaking the system



Kiero
2009-06-24, 06:51 AM
I've got a fair bit of experience in both playing and mucking around with FATE/SotC (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html), so I thought a thread on the basics of messing with it might be useful to people.

FATE is an eminently hack-able system, something that makes it pretty easy to tailor to a lot of things with fairly minimal tweaking. It's also pretty robust, changing the areas I'm talking about will certainly make it fit the flavour of what you're doing, but it's unlikely to break the engine.

The following I think are the necessary areas you should look at whenever tweaking SotC to fit something. This is assuming you aren't making sweeping changes like dropping Aspects altogether.


1) The Skills list

Skills are important because they're the main "fixed" part of FATE; they give you a means to compare characters meaningfully. Some people prefer to ditch them and run everything off Aspects, that's a matter of taste really.

It's currently set for 1920s pulp. You might not want everything that's in the list, some things may be too narrow (merging Fists and Weapons, for example is a common one, as is condensing the Social ones down). Mysteries needs to be changed for whatever occult type thing may be appropriate, and judicious renaming may be appropriate.

A good place to start when tailoring Skills is FATE 2.0 (http://www.faterpg.com/dl/FATE2fe.pdf), discussion starting on page 69.

Switching the pyramid in favour of the column is often a good move if you want more rounded characters. This also comes from FATE 2.0. Here, rather than the tier above having one less than the one below, the requirement is only that there be at least as many below as above.

This lends itself to a points-buy style of Skill purchase (one point for an Average (+1), four points for a Great (+4) and so on), default SotC characters have 35 points, more normal characters might have 20. You can vary this for characters of differing levels of competency.

Another areas to consider is capping Skills. The regular range up to Superb (+5) can mean you get contests with a foregone conclusion, which may be undersirable. Besides which, sometimes the sheer range makes the claim that Average (+1) or Fair (+2) is "professional" rather silly. The main options here are to cap at Great (+4), or for something more grounded Good (+3).


2) Stunts

The list that comes in SotC is long and detailed, and is probably the most complicated bit of the game for sheer volume. It's also inappropriate for a lot of other genres and settings. If you don't want to toss them altogether (which is an option), generic stunts are a good compromise.

Here each Stunt does one of the following:

+1 to a Skill in a broad range of situations
+2 to a Skill in a narrow range of situations
Allows the subsitution of one Skill for another
Something else (including adapting existing ones from SotC)


Not my idea, stolen from Spirit of the Blank (http://spiritoftheblank.blogspot.com/).

If you want different power levels in the same game, besides varying the number of Skill points, you can also vary Refresh (as in the number of FPs everyone starts each session with). Every extra Stunt a PC has over a certain number, reduces their Refresh by one. Every Stunt under increases it by one.


3) Stress

The biggie. Even the developers of SotC have said the default method is too slow to reach Consequences. A simple and really effective way of changing that is to use the "Stress as hit points" method. Instead of Stress 4 checking off the fourth box, it checks off all the boxes up to four (as in takes out 4 Stress). Consequences can be taken to absorb incoming Stress for 2 (for Minor), 4 (for Moderate) and 6 (for Severe).

If you want to make things a little less pulpish still, reduce the base number of boxes from 5 to 3.

Some people even go so far as to remove the track altogether, with all damage going straight to consequences. Endurance and Resolve allow you to take additional Consequences.


4) Aspects

Aspects are one of the defining parts of the system. They're a driving force in the FP economy. However, in SotC as default you have ten of them which is too many and leads to ill-focused characters IMO. Plus the "novels" phase isn't really appropriate outside of pulp. Somewhere around 5 is a good number, make sure they're all double-edged (ie can be both invoked and compelled).


And there we have it, a starting point to mess around with FATE/SotC. Useful?