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View Full Version : Avatar: The Last Airbender [FATE]



horngeek
2012-06-10, 01:28 AM
So, yeah. Exactly what it says: I'm going to see if I can write a hack of the FATE system for the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender (and Legend of Korra, of course). I might take more from the Dresden Files RPG, since that's what I'm most familiar with, but a few systems need reworking, and I might need some help from the Playground in some areas- the Bending system is the major one here.

Now, first order of business: I'm thinking whether to largely stick with standard DFRPG skills, reworking them a little to handle the lack of guns, or make an entirely new skill set. Thoughts?

Second order of business: Bending system. I've got one idea (the Evocation system from the Dresden Files would work great here- the Avatar slots neatly into it as well), but if someone thinks a different system would work better, feel free to say so. :smallsmile:

Actually as an aside, I'm not sure how to work the Avatar State as a power, although I know it'll require spending of Fate Points.

Finally, I might want to do some playtesting down the road. Volunteers for that would be nice- although to be fair, the system is pretty hard to outright unbalance, given that there's no outright 'win' condition for FATE- it's much more about storytelling. :smalltongue:

Xefas
2012-06-10, 01:50 AM
I would suggest making it much lighter in the Skill department than the Dresden Files.

And, for Bending, I don't think it needs to be any more complicated than "Roll Earthbending" -> "Declare Attack/Block/Move/Maneuver" -> "Done". I think this would reflect the nature of bending, and the feel of the setting, much better than the Evocation mechanics from the DFRPG. Magic in the Dresden Files is complex, varied, dangerous, to a large degree unnatural and unintuitive, and the mechanics of it are, in-setting, under a much closer inspection than Bending is. The use of multiple statistics, Rotes, and other such mechanics reflect these things.

Bending is difficult to learn, yes, but it's much more free-form and intuitive for its users. "I move this rock" isn't a spell, or a rote, or anything like it. It's part of the bender, almost as much as breathing or walking (or, exactly as much as the latter, in the case of Bumi's earthbending pimp-swagger move he uses against Aang). The setting itself doesn't put a magnifying glass on the mechanics of bending very often - typically only for a training sequence, such as Iroh teaching Zuko. The focus is on the characters and their feelings and personalities (so, Aspects - focus on Aspects). Shooting fire out of their face is just a cool, cinematic way to get from one scene to the next. Keeping it simple will reflect this.

horngeek
2012-06-10, 01:56 AM
True. What, lessen it to a single skill, slap a Refresh Cost on bending, and call it a day? With a higher refresh cost for the Avatar's 'all four elements', I suppose.

Xefas
2012-06-10, 02:31 AM
True. What, lessen it to a single skill, slap a Refresh Cost on bending, and call it a day? With a higher refresh cost for the Avatar's 'all four elements', I suppose.

Basically, yes. A cut down skill list, a few Refresh-cost abilities (Chi-blocking, Being The Avatar, doing spirit stuff, etc... perhaps "Having A Badass Animal"?), stunts and Aspects largely remaining the same, an Avatar-themed Character Creation process, and you're kind of done.

There are two things that I think would improve it a tad. "City Creation" isn't really that great for Avatar. Not every campaign is going to be in a Republic City-esque metropolis. I think a "Season/Book Creation" mechanic would be neat, in its place, though. Have the players insert important NPCs into the setting, put Aspects on the campaign itself ("Love Always Triumphs", "Benders vs Non Benders", etc) that can be tapped by anyone, PC or NPC, to push things towards the themes of your game. Just sort of de-couple things from "being a city".

And, optionally, I really think Avatar would benefit from a touch of the "Task/Intent" sort of deal that many games have - most well-known likely being Burning Wheel.

See, in the Dresden Files, dudes get hurt. The entire series is built on the very human pain and suffering of a single individual, both physical and emotional. Every fight, every bullet, every second is another opportunity to be killed, maimed, or knocked unconscious if you're lucky.

Avatar... not so much. You'll see a bit more give-and-take, a bit more retreat, a bit more compromise. So, I think Health Tracks, while viable, aren't the best fit.

Think of this progression instead.

1) Decide what we're doing. (ex. "We're having a fight")
2) Decide what you want. (ex. "I want to protect Kyoshi Island")
3) Decide what they want. (ex. "I want to capture the Avatar")
4) Resolve the conflict.
5) Who won? (ex. Team Avatar)
6) They get what they want (ex. "We protected Kyoshi Island!")
7) But the loser gets a compromise, based on how well they did (ex. "I just barely lost. So, oh you protected the citizens of the island alright. No one was hurt. But I burnt the place down and now you're on the run again.")

So, I guess, the two questions after that are-

-How do we decide who wins? I think a "Team Effort" track might work. Everyone pitches in a certain stat, depending on the conflict, and you come up with something akin to a health track that depletes as the opposing party does successful Attacks towards you. Groups of NPCs could, perhaps, have a number simply decided on by the GM as a measure of their overall difficulty to defeat.

-What about Aang's physical and emotional scarring? Well, keep the idea of injury-Aspects in the game. Azula wants to kill the Avatar. Aang wants to prevent the fall of the Earth Kingdom. Azula wins handily. Aang uses his tiny compromise to say that he doesn't die. "Sure, but I get the Earth Kingdom, Iroh, Zuko, and you get the "Horrible Gaping Spinal Wound" Aspect for a while." Done.

Thoughts?

horngeek
2012-06-10, 02:46 AM
Eeeeeeh....

The 'Season/Series' creation is a great idea. Although I'll note that very little actually needs to change.

The 'task/intent' idea isn't something I like, though. I'll admit I haven't played anything with the system, but I personally would prefer individual health tracks.

Xefas
2012-06-10, 04:32 AM
The 'task/intent' idea isn't something I like, though. I'll admit I haven't played anything with the system, but I personally would prefer individual health tracks.

It is a matter of what you're designing for, sure. And I will note that the Legend of Korra has a lot more knocking fools out as a result of conflict than did the original, so there's that.

If you are going solely with health tracks, I'm kinda wondering if you even need a Mental Health Track. Not a lot of insanity, delusion, and mental illness going on as a central theme of Avatar, though the physical and social tracks still work fine.

horngeek
2012-06-10, 05:25 AM
Mmmm. It's a possibility- I will note that my aim is to run the universe, not necessarily the show. Running the show should be an option, of course, but I'd like different styles and feels of game to be possible.

I'll see about writing something up for 'Book Creation'. I'm entirely unsure what to do for a reworked skill list, though. :smallconfused: Ideas? I'm thinking the 'unarmed combat' skill also acts as Bending's key skill, because... well. The bending styles are, essentially, martial arts.

Xefas
2012-06-10, 05:42 AM
I'll see about writing something up for 'Book Creation'. I'm entirely unsure what to do for a reworked skill list, though. :smallconfused: Ideas? I'm thinking the 'unarmed combat' skill also acts as Bending's key skill, because... well. The bending styles are, essentially, martial arts.

I'll have to get back to you, as I gotta do some serious sleeping in a minute, but I do have an idea or two. I agree with the "Bending" power just adding additional functionality to some kind of 'martial arts' skill (I'm hoping we see at least one bending-drained character in Korra show they can still be a badass unarmed fighter), although I hesitate to call it "martial arts". "Unarmed" or "Fists" doesn't seem interesting enough, though. I'll think on it (when I'm conscious again).

horngeek
2012-06-10, 07:29 AM
I'll probably also write up a section titled 'So, You Want To Play An Airbender, Huh?'

Specifically dedicated to 'how to get an airbender into the period of the shows'. :smalltongue:

Xefas
2012-06-10, 04:16 PM
I'll probably also write up a section titled 'So, You Want To Play An Airbender, Huh?'

Specifically dedicated to 'how to get an airbender into the period of the shows'. :smalltongue:

Off the top of my head, "Aang wasn't the only surviving Airbender" and "Aang had more children/other surviving Airbenders had children" seem to work pretty easily. I mean, Airbenders are the ones who are the best at evasion, whether evading a fist or an entire conflict altogether. It's not unreasonable to say that a few of them saw their elders murdered by Firebenders and decided that discretion was the better part of pacifist kung-fu and flew away. There are plenty of places they could go for safety. The Northern Water Tribe capitol and Ba Sing Se, being the two obvious ones. The only reason this wasn't a thing that happened was because Aang being the last surviving member of his race was important to his story. If we're not telling his story, and we're telling you're story, then the sky is the limit (attempted pun).

For skills, I'm thinking something like this:

Physical

Hands - Can be used as a physical offensive skill, and a physical defensive skill against other actions made with Hands.

Blades - Can be used as a physical offensive skill, and a physical defensive skill against the actions of Blades or Hands. Requires a melee weapon of some kind, but depending on the kind of weapon used, may add an additional +1 or +2 automatic shifts to inflicted stress.

Arrows - Can be used as a physical offensive skill, at a distance. Requires a ranged weapon of some kind, but depending on the kind of weapon used, may add +0 or +1 automatic shifts to the inflicted stress.

Feet - Can be used as a physical defensive skill. Is also used for all forms of movement, and to determine the order of initiative in a physical conflict.

Muscle - Increases physical stress track. Also used for enduring hardship, breaking things with pure strength, lifting things, and so on.

Social

Clear Words - Can be used as a social offensive skill, when persuading, encouraging, inspiring, enraging, or clarifying.

Empty Words - Can be used as a social offensive skill, when lying, deceiving, intimidating, manipulating, or demoralizing.

Heart - Can be used as a social defensive skill against actions made with Clear Words. Increases social stress track. Can be used to Assess the Aspects of another person.

Mind - Can be used as a social defensive skill. Also used to determine the order of initiative in a social conflict.

Mental

Shadow - Hiding, sneaking, stealing, ambushing, forging signatures, lock-picking.

Eyes - Noticing things. Assessing the Aspects of a place or area.

Thought - Knowing things.

Spirit - Knowing things about spirits, the deeper truths of bending, communing with the spirit world, understanding mystical symbolism.

-----

Optional - for the Age of Republic City, "Steel" - Driving Satomobiles, operating machinery, knowing things about machines. "Gold" - Buying things, having things.

horngeek
2012-06-10, 05:58 PM
Also 'some of the Fire Nation soldiers couldn't kill some of the kids and smuggled them away'.

Also, your story, not you're story. /grammar dictator :smalltongue:

Darkkwalker
2012-06-12, 12:39 AM
Consider picking things from this: https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/
Brewed right on this forum I believe.

Welknair
2012-06-12, 12:54 AM
Consider picking things from this: https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/
Brewed right on this forum I believe.

I was just about to post a link. This is a good place to look for what people in the past have done. It is specifically worth noting how they dealt with Bending (They used a Seed system very much akin to how Epic Level Spells are created, but without a lot of the cheesability) and how they tried to balance non-benders (Lots of very cool options, plus nonmagic weapons that still get enhancement bonuses). Obviously you're working with a different system, but I feel that this work did a decent job of capturing the feel of the world. Just suggestions.