Kiero
2012-01-17, 11:26 AM
It was going to happen eventually, I've reskinned this idea with several incarnations of FATE, and it was about DFRPG's turn. The idea has refined a little too, dropping all pretenses of supernatural and magical elements and keeping things strictly tangible.
This is my backup option if my group turn around and say they'd prefer to stick with the system they know well and have been using for my break game slot. I've posed that exact question to decide one way or the other how this should play out.
The original context info is thus:
I've been on a bit of a Hellenistic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period)-era kick of late, and this idea has been fuelled by reading Alfred Duggan's excellent Elephants and Castles (about the life of Demetrius I of Macedon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_I_of_Macedon)). Now fortunately a lot fo the hard work of turning the era into a game-able setting has already been done for me.
Paul Elliott (our very own Mithras, on these fora) has written the excellent Warlords of Alexander (which you can download here (http://basicroleplaying.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8)), which is designed for BRP. And is completely free.
He addresses the "why is this game-able" question right at the start, with who the PCs are:
Player characters are tough and rootless mercenaries, or wandering fortune hunters seeking a rich patron or perhaps rumour of a lost treasure hoard. The world they inhabit is dominated by huge and powerful kingdoms, massive fragments of Alexander the Great's short-lived world-spanning empire. His generals spawned a number of dynasties which now make interminable war on one another. All wish to be the next 'Alexander' - and the hoplite armies pay for these fruitless ambitions in blood ...
To which I would add that there's also plenty of scope for PCs to be agents of those powers (assassins, spies, diplomats, etc), or independents of various sorts (merchants running trading empires, for example). It's not just about soldiers and warfare (to be fair there's lots more besides in the book).
And then the setting:
WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER gives you a way to mix the vividly historical with the monsters and magic of Greek myth. We get both halves of Greece - as long as you enjoy a little 'imaginative interpretation' at the expense of rigorous historical accuracy. The aim of the book is firstly to map out the amendments and rules additions needed to convey the Greek setting. Secondly it is to provide a solid gaming 'hook' taken straight out of classical Greek history that can be used as a foundation for building scenarios and campaigns.
The hook I've chosen is the period of the Successor Wars, a violent and bitter struggle in the mid-3rd century BC between the loyal generals of Alexander the Great (and their sons and grandsons) for the remnants of that youthful hero-king's vast empire. It is Classical Greece writ large across the known world, with every mercenary a hoplite, the common language Greek, the Olympian deities worshipped from India to Italy and Greek city comforts (baths, agora, gymnasia, theatres etc.) available in hundreds of cities newly established throughout conquered territories by Alexander himself. This almost universal Greek culture stands in well for the accepted fantasy society that is a prevalent and unwritten standard in many RPGs.
In fact the Successor period is ripe for roleplaying in every way, mirroring the standards and assumptions of fantasy games: a common language (in fact the universal dialect of Greek in use at the time was called koine Greek, quite literally 'common'), numerous warring kingdoms, an accepted universal culture understood by most civilized folk, a well-known pantheon of gods, a well-known bestiary of monsters and supernatural beings and an international society that tolerates and even promotes heavily armed and armoured adventurers travelling freely in search of fortune and glory.
To which I would add that this is a fertile political background, with a three-way contest between democracy (characterised by Athens), oligarchy (often the reality in places without kings) and monarchy (given a new lease of life by the Diadochi). There's vast wealth if only someone knows how to find and plunder it (especially in the East).
I've been mightily impressed with how much DFRPG has streamlined the core FATE system over SotC and even some of the later incarnations. Especially at the mortal end of things. Granted magic is super-complex and adds layers of rules, but we won't be needing any of that here. You might wonder why bother with DFRPG without magic, but we're familiar with the system and there's still plenty to work with.
So to the meat of it.
Skills
As always, the first part of a FATE hack for me is getting the list of Skills right. DFRPG did a good deal of consolidation over SotC, but it still has too many for my purposes.
Alertness (Alertness and Investigation)
Athletics
Brawn (Fists and Might)
Contacts
Conviction*
Craftsmanship
Deceit
Discipline
Empathy
Endurance*
Intimidation
Larceny (Burglary and Stealth)
Melee (Weapons)
Missiles (Guns and Weapons: Distance Weaponry Trapping)
Performance
Philosophy (Scholarship)
Presence*
Rapport
Resources
Riding (Driving and Survival: Animal Handling and Riding Trappings)
Seamanship
Survival (Survival and Stealth)
That's 22 Skills, with two (Resources and Seamanship) which might be removed if they're not relevant to the campaign. As it turns out, DFRPG is already quite well defined, doing away with some Skills like Gambling that were irrelevant and focusing in on the ones that really matter in most games. I dropped Lore and merged a few others together. In the end I decided to keep Conviction/Discipline rather than merging them back into Resolve - it's quite nice having a "Stress track" Skill separate from defense.
I'm intending 21 points for Skills, with a general cap of Good (+3) and the column. There's an option of taking a single apex Skill at Great (+4), I'm musing over whether that should mean taking something else at Poor (-1). That should give broadly-competent, but not superhuman characters. Normal people will have Skills ranging from -1 to +1.
Stress Tracks
Health, Composure and Reputation. Unlike in DFRPG, mundane mental and social attacks will affect those Tracks. I'll port in Edge and Leverage ratings from SoF too, judged on the fly.
Armour and weapons count as usual, but one question is what shields should do. I could steal from LoA and have them add to Athletics defense rolls.
I may retain the base 2, roll up mechanic, or switch it to base 3 Stress as hitpoints. Not decided yet. Also toying with Reputation being base 0, ie if you don't take any levels of Presence, it's straight to Consequences if someone starts bad-mouthing you.
Stunts/Refresh
Keep the Mortal Stunts and allow the players to create their own, too. Nice and simple. I'm ditching Refresh, because I don't see the point in it myself. I want all FPs to come through Compels, not an automatic thing at the start of a session.
Everyone will have 3-4 Stunts, that seems enough.
Aspects
I really liked City and Character Generation in DFRPG, it was really powerful in orienting what was going on. However, this is a short game, not a full-on campaign, and that does take a lot of time. The main thing I'm focused on here is the Character, rather than City Aspects. Generating characters together, and particularly working out their Aspects as they related to their stories worked well. We'll try to nail down premise and characters in one session.
High Concept and Trouble as per. Obviously they'll be a lot more grounded and mundane than their counterparts in DFRPG, since they don't describe a supernatural nature. That doesn't stop them being interesting though, for example you could have Dispossessed Illyrian Princess with There's No Enemy Like Family. That might describe a character pushed off their throne, probably by some relative or other who keeps trying to get rid of them.
But there's something I want to try out here, a personal thing of mine. I want the Aspects to keep mostly to intangibles; beyond the High Concept, they should all be motivations, personality traits, beliefs, relationships and so on. I'm similarly going to avoid using Aspects for situational stuff or anything physical or physics-related. For the Other Aspects, all the usual Phases, just with Aspects about non-vocational things. I'm hoping these will prove different in play when Compelled and Invoked than your usual "I'm Invoking my Hired Gun Aspect to add +2 to my roll to hit this dude".
If anyone has any alternative spins on this area, though, like Keys from Lady Blackbird or the like, I'm open to them.
One question remains about DFRPG as a base; how to do mass combat. Anyone have any thoughts here? Obviously there's the platoon combat from Diaspora, and mass combat in LoA, along with Organisations in SoF which could all be ported across.
This is my backup option if my group turn around and say they'd prefer to stick with the system they know well and have been using for my break game slot. I've posed that exact question to decide one way or the other how this should play out.
The original context info is thus:
I've been on a bit of a Hellenistic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_period)-era kick of late, and this idea has been fuelled by reading Alfred Duggan's excellent Elephants and Castles (about the life of Demetrius I of Macedon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_I_of_Macedon)). Now fortunately a lot fo the hard work of turning the era into a game-able setting has already been done for me.
Paul Elliott (our very own Mithras, on these fora) has written the excellent Warlords of Alexander (which you can download here (http://basicroleplaying.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=8)), which is designed for BRP. And is completely free.
He addresses the "why is this game-able" question right at the start, with who the PCs are:
Player characters are tough and rootless mercenaries, or wandering fortune hunters seeking a rich patron or perhaps rumour of a lost treasure hoard. The world they inhabit is dominated by huge and powerful kingdoms, massive fragments of Alexander the Great's short-lived world-spanning empire. His generals spawned a number of dynasties which now make interminable war on one another. All wish to be the next 'Alexander' - and the hoplite armies pay for these fruitless ambitions in blood ...
To which I would add that there's also plenty of scope for PCs to be agents of those powers (assassins, spies, diplomats, etc), or independents of various sorts (merchants running trading empires, for example). It's not just about soldiers and warfare (to be fair there's lots more besides in the book).
And then the setting:
WARLORDS OF ALEXANDER gives you a way to mix the vividly historical with the monsters and magic of Greek myth. We get both halves of Greece - as long as you enjoy a little 'imaginative interpretation' at the expense of rigorous historical accuracy. The aim of the book is firstly to map out the amendments and rules additions needed to convey the Greek setting. Secondly it is to provide a solid gaming 'hook' taken straight out of classical Greek history that can be used as a foundation for building scenarios and campaigns.
The hook I've chosen is the period of the Successor Wars, a violent and bitter struggle in the mid-3rd century BC between the loyal generals of Alexander the Great (and their sons and grandsons) for the remnants of that youthful hero-king's vast empire. It is Classical Greece writ large across the known world, with every mercenary a hoplite, the common language Greek, the Olympian deities worshipped from India to Italy and Greek city comforts (baths, agora, gymnasia, theatres etc.) available in hundreds of cities newly established throughout conquered territories by Alexander himself. This almost universal Greek culture stands in well for the accepted fantasy society that is a prevalent and unwritten standard in many RPGs.
In fact the Successor period is ripe for roleplaying in every way, mirroring the standards and assumptions of fantasy games: a common language (in fact the universal dialect of Greek in use at the time was called koine Greek, quite literally 'common'), numerous warring kingdoms, an accepted universal culture understood by most civilized folk, a well-known pantheon of gods, a well-known bestiary of monsters and supernatural beings and an international society that tolerates and even promotes heavily armed and armoured adventurers travelling freely in search of fortune and glory.
To which I would add that this is a fertile political background, with a three-way contest between democracy (characterised by Athens), oligarchy (often the reality in places without kings) and monarchy (given a new lease of life by the Diadochi). There's vast wealth if only someone knows how to find and plunder it (especially in the East).
I've been mightily impressed with how much DFRPG has streamlined the core FATE system over SotC and even some of the later incarnations. Especially at the mortal end of things. Granted magic is super-complex and adds layers of rules, but we won't be needing any of that here. You might wonder why bother with DFRPG without magic, but we're familiar with the system and there's still plenty to work with.
So to the meat of it.
Skills
As always, the first part of a FATE hack for me is getting the list of Skills right. DFRPG did a good deal of consolidation over SotC, but it still has too many for my purposes.
Alertness (Alertness and Investigation)
Athletics
Brawn (Fists and Might)
Contacts
Conviction*
Craftsmanship
Deceit
Discipline
Empathy
Endurance*
Intimidation
Larceny (Burglary and Stealth)
Melee (Weapons)
Missiles (Guns and Weapons: Distance Weaponry Trapping)
Performance
Philosophy (Scholarship)
Presence*
Rapport
Resources
Riding (Driving and Survival: Animal Handling and Riding Trappings)
Seamanship
Survival (Survival and Stealth)
That's 22 Skills, with two (Resources and Seamanship) which might be removed if they're not relevant to the campaign. As it turns out, DFRPG is already quite well defined, doing away with some Skills like Gambling that were irrelevant and focusing in on the ones that really matter in most games. I dropped Lore and merged a few others together. In the end I decided to keep Conviction/Discipline rather than merging them back into Resolve - it's quite nice having a "Stress track" Skill separate from defense.
I'm intending 21 points for Skills, with a general cap of Good (+3) and the column. There's an option of taking a single apex Skill at Great (+4), I'm musing over whether that should mean taking something else at Poor (-1). That should give broadly-competent, but not superhuman characters. Normal people will have Skills ranging from -1 to +1.
Stress Tracks
Health, Composure and Reputation. Unlike in DFRPG, mundane mental and social attacks will affect those Tracks. I'll port in Edge and Leverage ratings from SoF too, judged on the fly.
Armour and weapons count as usual, but one question is what shields should do. I could steal from LoA and have them add to Athletics defense rolls.
I may retain the base 2, roll up mechanic, or switch it to base 3 Stress as hitpoints. Not decided yet. Also toying with Reputation being base 0, ie if you don't take any levels of Presence, it's straight to Consequences if someone starts bad-mouthing you.
Stunts/Refresh
Keep the Mortal Stunts and allow the players to create their own, too. Nice and simple. I'm ditching Refresh, because I don't see the point in it myself. I want all FPs to come through Compels, not an automatic thing at the start of a session.
Everyone will have 3-4 Stunts, that seems enough.
Aspects
I really liked City and Character Generation in DFRPG, it was really powerful in orienting what was going on. However, this is a short game, not a full-on campaign, and that does take a lot of time. The main thing I'm focused on here is the Character, rather than City Aspects. Generating characters together, and particularly working out their Aspects as they related to their stories worked well. We'll try to nail down premise and characters in one session.
High Concept and Trouble as per. Obviously they'll be a lot more grounded and mundane than their counterparts in DFRPG, since they don't describe a supernatural nature. That doesn't stop them being interesting though, for example you could have Dispossessed Illyrian Princess with There's No Enemy Like Family. That might describe a character pushed off their throne, probably by some relative or other who keeps trying to get rid of them.
But there's something I want to try out here, a personal thing of mine. I want the Aspects to keep mostly to intangibles; beyond the High Concept, they should all be motivations, personality traits, beliefs, relationships and so on. I'm similarly going to avoid using Aspects for situational stuff or anything physical or physics-related. For the Other Aspects, all the usual Phases, just with Aspects about non-vocational things. I'm hoping these will prove different in play when Compelled and Invoked than your usual "I'm Invoking my Hired Gun Aspect to add +2 to my roll to hit this dude".
If anyone has any alternative spins on this area, though, like Keys from Lady Blackbird or the like, I'm open to them.
One question remains about DFRPG as a base; how to do mass combat. Anyone have any thoughts here? Obviously there's the platoon combat from Diaspora, and mass combat in LoA, along with Organisations in SoF which could all be ported across.