Vrock_Summoner
2021-05-24, 09:40 PM
tl;dr: Confrontational, Expressive, Fun, Harmful, Helpful, Understanding.
I read this really wonderful article recently on different ways you could approach (heh) Fate's Skills/Approaches, which focused on "asking a different question" of the character's actions - where Skills ask What your character is doing, and Approaches ask How your character is doing things, the article discussed alternatives, such as focusing entirely on the lens of Who is doing the action (covering things like Professions or Aspects As Skills from the Toolkit), or Why they're doing them (giving an example of a system based around a variety of moral virtues that the character might act in accordance with), among other examples.
So since I felt super inspired by this article, and since the default Approach list really has no place whatsoever in the game I'm about to run (it's a Steven Universe one-on-one campaign) I decided to try exploring a variation on the Why question in a way that keys everything around your character's preferred outcomes, their feelings, and what sort of tonal energy they put into the world.
So to this end, my current draft list of Approaches is Confrontational, Expressive, Fun, Harmful, Helpful, and Understanding. I'm not sure if I should be leaning more into What by making those nouns instead of adjectives though. And Confrontational in particular is screwing with my head in terms of whether I can communicate the idea in a way that differentiates it from other Approaches appropriately - the idea is it's the Approach for dealing with problematic stuff forcefully but constructively, like calling someone out for abusive behavior or stopping a runaway train without damaging it or the people inside, stuff that demands the world be better, as opposed to Harmful which is about tearing others down physically and emotionally, or Helpful which focuses on making people feel better and accomplish their goals or just stay safe.
The idea behind these Approaches is to focus on the characters' strengths and weaknesses as people and how that shapes their social and emotional approach to problems. Steven, for example, would probably put his +3 in Helpful and his 0 in Expressive (I'm using special rules for musical numbers, so low Expressive won't usually make him worse at those) because he's frequently sacrificing his wellbeing to help others and isn't good at expressing his own feelings or asking for help (or drawing). Or Amethyst early in the series might have Fun +3 and Helpful 0 because she's initially insensitive, hedonistic, and responds to stress by making goofs and pranking people, which makes her just the right person to take you on an exciting adventure around town but the last person you want around when you're having a crisis.
What do you guys think? Does this list have potential? Are there changes you would suggest, either to the whole structure or to specific Approach names? Looking forward to your thoughts!
I read this really wonderful article recently on different ways you could approach (heh) Fate's Skills/Approaches, which focused on "asking a different question" of the character's actions - where Skills ask What your character is doing, and Approaches ask How your character is doing things, the article discussed alternatives, such as focusing entirely on the lens of Who is doing the action (covering things like Professions or Aspects As Skills from the Toolkit), or Why they're doing them (giving an example of a system based around a variety of moral virtues that the character might act in accordance with), among other examples.
So since I felt super inspired by this article, and since the default Approach list really has no place whatsoever in the game I'm about to run (it's a Steven Universe one-on-one campaign) I decided to try exploring a variation on the Why question in a way that keys everything around your character's preferred outcomes, their feelings, and what sort of tonal energy they put into the world.
So to this end, my current draft list of Approaches is Confrontational, Expressive, Fun, Harmful, Helpful, and Understanding. I'm not sure if I should be leaning more into What by making those nouns instead of adjectives though. And Confrontational in particular is screwing with my head in terms of whether I can communicate the idea in a way that differentiates it from other Approaches appropriately - the idea is it's the Approach for dealing with problematic stuff forcefully but constructively, like calling someone out for abusive behavior or stopping a runaway train without damaging it or the people inside, stuff that demands the world be better, as opposed to Harmful which is about tearing others down physically and emotionally, or Helpful which focuses on making people feel better and accomplish their goals or just stay safe.
The idea behind these Approaches is to focus on the characters' strengths and weaknesses as people and how that shapes their social and emotional approach to problems. Steven, for example, would probably put his +3 in Helpful and his 0 in Expressive (I'm using special rules for musical numbers, so low Expressive won't usually make him worse at those) because he's frequently sacrificing his wellbeing to help others and isn't good at expressing his own feelings or asking for help (or drawing). Or Amethyst early in the series might have Fun +3 and Helpful 0 because she's initially insensitive, hedonistic, and responds to stress by making goofs and pranking people, which makes her just the right person to take you on an exciting adventure around town but the last person you want around when you're having a crisis.
What do you guys think? Does this list have potential? Are there changes you would suggest, either to the whole structure or to specific Approach names? Looking forward to your thoughts!