PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Looking to run a Fate Tabletop and I have some questions (FATE Rule System)



Joshuam303
2016-04-01, 10:00 AM
I did a similar post about this before with the M&M system instead of the fate system, but for various reasons I have decided to use the fate system, but I have some questions

1) for those who ran a fate tabletop with the FATE rule system, how did you use the system to get the whole "holy grail war" feel?

2) how do you properly represent the power difference between masters and servants? as well as some servants and other servants?

3) How are the class abilities and the skills each servant has represented in the system?

kyoryu
2016-04-01, 10:24 AM
1) for those who ran a fate tabletop with the FATE rule system, how did you use the system to get the whole "holy grail war" feel?

You mean like the Arthurian legend? Or?


2) how do you properly represent the power difference between masters and servants? as well as some servants and other servants?

Differing skill levels, mostly. Shorter stress tracks will make a difference in Conflicts.


3) How are the class abilities and the skills each servant has represented in the system?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is there an example of what you're going for?

But generally, in Fate everything is going to be a skill, a stunt, or an aspect (or a combination thereof).

Joshuam303
2016-04-01, 10:54 AM
You mean like the Arthurian legend? Or?

I mean the FATE core system I heard people mention , I downloaded it and am looking through the PDF


Differing skill levels, mostly. Shorter stress tracks will make a difference in Conflicts.

Ahh, right makes sense


I'm not sure what you're talking about. Is there an example of what you're going for?

I mean like say Magic resist rank A or Independant action rank B , etc etc, how would they be represented in the fate core system ?


But generally, in Fate everything is going to be a skill, a stunt, or an aspect (or a combination thereof).

Have you used the fate core system for a fate tabletop game? :)

Eisenheim
2016-04-01, 11:50 AM
fate is a generic/general/base rpg system. Not a system designed to run games in the universe of the FATE/stay night anime.

However, someone has made efforts toward a fate core hack for playing, FATE/stay night. You can find it somewhere in the archives of the fate core G+ group.

Joshuam303
2016-04-01, 12:15 PM
fate is a generic/general/base rpg system. Not a system designed to run games in the universe of the FATE/stay night anime.

However, someone has made efforts toward a fate core hack for playing, FATE/stay night. You can find it somewhere in the archives of the fate core G+ group.

Yeah I know that, just heard it was a good system for running it and fate core G+ group?

Anonymouswizard
2016-04-01, 01:06 PM
I did a similar post about this before with the M&M system instead of the fate system, but for various reasons I have decided to use the fate system, but I have some questions

1) for those who ran a fate tabletop with the FATE rule system, how did you use the system to get the whole "holy grail war" feel?

I haven't yet (I have a hard time managing to get people to let me run anything these days), but you'll want an X masters X servants setup, with each player taking the role of one master-servant pair. I consider servants to belong to the master, so I'd put the master as the main character (so more a Fate/Stay Night perspective than a Fate/Zero one) and servants as extras.


2) how do you properly represent the power difference between masters and servants? as well as some servants and other servants?

Again, just my thoughts, but I'd begin by just giving servants higher approaches than masters have skills (yes, I'd run servants with approaches, I'll go into this below). Different servants will have different levels for their approaches and different stunts, as well as their extras.


3) How are the class abilities and the skills each servant has represented in the system?

Okay, here's my servant template:
Each servant has five stats, Strength, Agility, Endurance, Magic, and Luck. They have one at +4, two at +5, one at +6 and one at +7. In a suitable situation a servant rolls on their stat, picking if several are equally valid (so combat would normally be done by rolling the highest of Strength or Agility versus Endurance).
Servants have one stress track of four boxes, with bonuses for high Endurance (+1 box at +5, +2 boxes at +7).
Servants have three stunts basic, which can be stuff like 'use Magic to attack in combat'. Skills as Fate/Stay Night understands them should be represented here if possible, otherwise they'd be extras.
Servants always have at least one Extra, their Noble Phantasm. Work with the GM to get some rules for it.

Classes would add to stats and provide extra stunts (and possibly extras), so Sabers get +STR and AGI while Berserkers get +STR, AGI, and END. Depending on identity servants may have additional extras, which can be noble phantasms but don't have to be.

Note I'd allow a master to lower their refresh in order to begin with a more powerful servant, and later in the game sacrifice some of their current refresh if they want to try using multiple servants. Command Seals would be an extra for masters that allow them to give a bonus to their servant's actions.

(For the record, a full-power Gilgamesh would probably require a hearty chunk of refresh just to afford his Noble Phantasms, which let him attack at insane values by spending a Fate Point or two)

One other thing, as Servants are Extras in my rules they share their master's Fate Points. You might want to alter this if you want separate 'prana reserves' for servants.

Eisenheim
2016-04-01, 01:57 PM
yes, there's an active fate core group on google +. I've seen posts about a fate/stay night hack on it, some time ago.

kyoryu
2016-04-01, 02:44 PM
I mean like say Magic resist rank A or Independant action rank B , etc etc, how would they be represented in the fate core system ?

Generally, it'd be a skill with a rank between +0 and +4 (though higher is possible). In some cases, appropriate Aspects would also be used, and perhaps stunts.

Fate generally has fewer skills than a lot of games, even less if you use Approaches.


Have you used the fate core system for a fate tabletop game? :)

Quite a bit. I even have a doc on the Evil Hat site.

Joshuam303
2016-04-02, 04:57 AM
I haven't yet (I have a hard time managing to get people to let me run anything these days), but you'll want an X masters X servants setup, with each player taking the role of one master-servant pair. I consider servants to belong to the master, so I'd put the master as the main character (so more a Fate/Stay Night perspective than a Fate/Zero one) and servants as extras.



Again, just my thoughts, but I'd begin by just giving servants higher approaches than masters have skills (yes, I'd run servants with approaches, I'll go into this below). Different servants will have different levels for their approaches and different stunts, as well as their extras.



Okay, here's my servant template:
Each servant has five stats, Strength, Agility, Endurance, Magic, and Luck. They have one at +4, two at +5, one at +6 and one at +7. In a suitable situation a servant rolls on their stat, picking if several are equally valid (so combat would normally be done by rolling the highest of Strength or Agility versus Endurance).
Servants have one stress track of four boxes, with bonuses for high Endurance (+1 box at +5, +2 boxes at +7).
Servants have three stunts basic, which can be stuff like 'use Magic to attack in combat'. Skills as Fate/Stay Night understands them should be represented here if possible, otherwise they'd be extras.
Servants always have at least one Extra, their Noble Phantasm. Work with the GM to get some rules for it.

Classes would add to stats and provide extra stunts (and possibly extras), so Sabers get +STR and AGI while Berserkers get +STR, AGI, and END. Depending on identity servants may have additional extras, which can be noble phantasms but don't have to be.

Note I'd allow a master to lower their refresh in order to begin with a more powerful servant, and later in the game sacrifice some of their current refresh if they want to try using multiple servants. Command Seals would be an extra for masters that allow them to give a bonus to their servant's actions.

(For the record, a full-power Gilgamesh would probably require a hearty chunk of refresh just to afford his Noble Phantasms, which let him attack at insane values by spending a Fate Point or two)

One other thing, as Servants are Extras in my rules they share their master's Fate Points. You might want to alter this if you want separate 'prana reserves' for servants.

Since you seem to know both this system and M&M system well, which do you think is better for running a fate game? my idea is a long fate campaign, essentially it'll be a 155 man holy grail war, I already picked out 140 heroic spirits (20 of each class) and I've got masters for each, and the idea I was going to have was leave the last 15 as player lives , so if there is 5 players, 3 lives per player , and once the lives are gone, they are out, but I was going to allow masters to form contracts with servants if they have the skill for it

Joshuam303
2016-04-02, 05:03 AM
yes, there's an active fate core group on google +. I've seen posts about a fate/stay night hack on it, some time ago.

I checked and couldn't find it :/

Joshuam303
2016-04-02, 05:06 AM
Generally, it'd be a skill with a rank between +0 and +4 (though higher is possible). In some cases, appropriate Aspects would also be used, and perhaps stunts.

Fate generally has fewer skills than a lot of games, even less if you use Approaches.



Quite a bit. I even have a doc on the Evil Hat site.

Ahhh right

JCarter426
2016-04-02, 05:26 AM
So, you're running Fate with Fate. That's great.

I haven't done this, but I'd suggest taking a look at the Dresden Files RPG, since that's also Fate, and the settings aren't entirely dissimilar either. In particular, the Emissary of Power template could be applied to some servants, with the Noble Phantasm as an Item of Power. And considering the game has everything from mortals to White Court vampires and wizards as playable characters, I think balance should be manageable.

Anonymouswizard
2016-04-02, 05:28 AM
Since you seem to know both this system and M&M system well, which do you think is better for running a fate game? my idea is a long fate campaign, essentially it'll be a 155 man holy grail war, I already picked out 140 heroic spirits (20 of each class) and I've got masters for each, and the idea I was going to have was leave the last 15 as player lives , so if there is 5 players, 3 lives per player , and once the lives are gone, they are out, but I was going to allow masters to form contracts with servants if they have the skill for it

I'd recommend Fate. It's not that M&M is bad, it's just Fate is far more customisable, and this allows it to reflect Fate a lot better. In addition, aspects and consequences are really powerful, if you can get your group to ever use aspects (problem number 1 I have when I ran Fate).

That sounds good, although I'd personally have gone for a smaller number (63 for a long war or 7-21 for a shorter one) just because that makes it more manageable for me. I'm also not overly fond of giving player's lives, especially as it's hard to die in Fate (I think you have to fill out Stress, Consequences, and then not yield? I've never had it get that far EDIT: just checked my book, it's all that, and your opponent/group has to say you die, in Fate that's not a common situation [most servants will retreat with a consequence or two]), but again, each to his own.

Oh, and you should probably use multi-quotes, double and triple posting is against the board rules.

Joshuam303
2016-04-02, 05:33 AM
So, you're running Fate with Fate. That's great.

I haven't done this, but I'd suggest taking a look at the Dresden Files RPG, since that's also Fate, and the settings aren't entirely dissimilar either. In particular, the Emissary of Power template could be applied to some servants, with the Noble Phantasm as an Item of Power. And considering the game has everything from mortals to White Court vampires and wizards as playable characters, I think balance should be manageable.

I don't know what the dresden files RPG is xD I am not that familiar with most tabletops, only done shadowrun, dragonage and M&M, this'll be my first time using the fate system


I'd recommend Fate. It's not that M&M is bad, it's just Fate is far more customisable, and this allows it to reflect Fate a lot better. In addition, aspects and consequences are really powerful, if you can get your group to ever use aspects (problem number 1 I have when I ran Fate).

How is this a problem?


That sounds good, although I'd personally have gone for a smaller number (63 for a long war or 7-21 for a shorter one) just because that makes it more manageable for me. I'm also not overly fond of giving player's lives, especially as it's hard to die in Fate (I think you have to fill out Stress, Consequences, and then not yield? I've never had it get that far EDIT: just checked my book, it's all that, and your opponent/group has to say you die, in Fate that's not a common situation [most servants will retreat with a consequence or two]), but again, each to his own.

Oh, and you should probably use multi-quotes, double and triple posting is against the board rules.

Yeah, it's going to be a long campaign, but, one of the reasons I added so many is because most will probably die before meeting the party anyway, some servants are very powerful, and if they run into lesser powerful servants the numbers will decrease pretty quickly anyway , or powerful servants will take out other powerful servants etc etc , but yeah most would try retreat , but some don't get the chance (like caster from fate stay/night when Gilgamesh obliterated her) and ahh okay I'll try sorry didn't know about the rule

Edit - the reason for lives is because , the holy grail war is essentially a last man standing type fight, so there will be PVP , I don't want a player to get killed fast the first time and bam they are out the entire game, that'd be no fun, hence each one will get a equal amount of lives so if they die super fast the first time or 2nd time, they have another chance or 2 depending on their previous deaths, and once that 3rd life is used and they die, they are out then , and the remaining players will play it out until 1 person survives, whether NPC or PC , It'll depend, I am going to be promoting PVP and plotting against not just players but NPC's alike, but ofc, it'll depend on the personalities that each character has, and if they want to work together till the end for ease (like tohsaka and shirou) then they can :P

Joshuam303
2016-04-02, 06:00 AM
Also does anyone happen to have a editable pdf game creation sheet for fate core? I found the pdf on the main evilhat site but it isn't editable and I don't have a printer :/

Aevylmar
2016-04-07, 11:52 PM
If you were going to run Fate with FATE, I think that two important elements are, first, the character powers in the Dresden Files system (contrast Masters, who just use skills, with Servants who have powers - like the regular Dresden Files contrasts mundanes and superpowered folks), and second, Noble Phantasms costing fate points to use, so they stay awesome and special.

Of course, I wouldn't run Fate with FATE, but that's only because I designed Fate/Heroic based on Marvel Heroic, my favorite system for action-based games; I admit that FATE is what I use for most everything else.

With regards to - "lives" - I would represent that specifically as deus ex machina save-your-life things, rather than 'extra lives;' Masters being left for dead and saved by a friend, Servants going incorporeal, that sort of thing. Or just use of Command Seals. Probably, I'd also want to combine that with giving each player character a secret hidden trump card, the characteristics of which they can reveal later - the second Noble Phantasm for the Servants, and some sort of clever little wizardly trick for the Masters.

Joshuam303
2016-04-10, 11:52 AM
If you were going to run Fate with FATE, I think that two important elements are, first, the character powers in the Dresden Files system (contrast Masters, who just use skills, with Servants who have powers - like the regular Dresden Files contrasts mundanes and superpowered folks), and second, Noble Phantasms costing fate points to use, so they stay awesome and special.

I still don't know what the dresden files are xD


Of course, I wouldn't run Fate with FATE, but that's only because I designed Fate/Heroic based on Marvel Heroic, my favorite system for action-based games; I admit that FATE is what I use for most everything else.

I am not familiar with the marvel heroic, I've only used a couple of different systems, but heard that FATE was the best for fate, so I am trying to learn it


With regards to - "lives" - I would represent that specifically as deus ex machina save-your-life things, rather than 'extra lives;' Masters being left for dead and saved by a friend, Servants going incorporeal, that sort of thing. Or just use of Command Seals. Probably, I'd also want to combine that with giving each player character a secret hidden trump card, the characteristics of which they can reveal later - the second Noble Phantasm for the Servants, and some sort of clever little wizardly trick for the Masters.

And in this holy grail war, it'll be a large last man standing type fight, how do you know who your "friend" is to save you, in the holy grail wars there is only 1 winner, but it could work.