TRPG General Chat - 2020-05-26 (page 2 of 2)

« first day (3526 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1431 days later) »

10:00 PM

22

Q: Learning Fate systems from a D20 background

My history is rather linear, and mostly relies on traditional d20 systems (D&D Original, AD&D, 3.5 and Rolemaster, Champions) and I am interested in learning some of the other systems that are a bit less regimented. I have had the Fate system briefly explained to me, and I am interested in learn...

38

Q: How Fate games could go wrong and how to prevent that

I'm introducing a few of my friends to the Fate system, and we're using Fate Accelerated for a quick start. Reading answers for some questions on this site I found an interesting paragraph: One of the biggest, IMO, difficulties for traditional players is the proactive creativity that Fate bol...

fate fate-core fate-accelerated

Peter Cooper Jr.

I'm just very confused by one of the four actions being "Defend", and during an exchange a character "can take one of the four actions", but "usually this action is performed on someone else's turn". So if you defend, does that define your "AC" (to abuse a term) for the "round"? Or your "defend" for each attack, kinda like a reaction but could also defend on your own turn for some reason?

Yeah, that's... confusing. Defense is always a reactive action, never proactive.

In pre-Core versions of Fate there was a kind of proactive defense action, but it got rolled into Create Advantage.

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Can a paladin use the two-weapon fighting style?

According to the online basic rules, the fighting styles for Paladins are: Defense (AC bonus with armour), Dueling (damage bonus with a single one-handed weapon), Great Weapon Fighting (damage reroll for two-handed/versatile weapons) & Protection (use your shield to protect others). Is this an e...

dnd-5e paladin two-weapon-fighting fighting-style

By default, you roll defense against every attack that targets you, it doesn't "ride."

Peter Cooper Jr.

Part of it may be just trying to only use the Accelerated rulebook for now to try to simplify things rather than trying to learn all the "Fate X" stuff, but maybe it just doesn't work well on its own even though that's it stated intent.

So, I'm best off ignoring "defend" as an "action" entirely, and it's just the "saving throw" or "contested roll" or whatever you want to call it equivalent that the attacker is comparing to?

10:04 PM

Yeah, Fate Accelerated is a decent pick-up-and-play option but it accomplishes that by... not explaining any nuances.

Yeah.

They're using "action" as a term for any mechanic which prompts you to roll; it's distinct from D&D's "action" which is a unit of proactive "on your turn you can" ness.

Peter Cooper Jr.

@BESW Yeah, but then under Conflicts/Exchanges it sure starts talking about Actions like they were the D&D concept.

You might also be interested in Fate Condensed?

Feb 5 at 22:13, by BESW

Evil Hat released Fate Condensed, which can be read on fate-srd.com or downloaded from itch.io or DTRPG.

> Fate Condensed is an updated, streamlined, 50-pages-or-less version of Fate Core System. It's completely stand-alone and features new refinements to the Fate Core engine that'll have it running better than ever. Call it Fate 4.5, if you like—it covers all the ground (and uses the same skills) as Fate Core, in about a sixth the size.

Peter Cooper Jr.

yeah, I've downloaded it, haven't read it yet

One of the problems with both Fate Core and Fate Accelerated is, they're the very first iterations of those new versions of the system.

Peter Cooper Jr.

Like I said, I was trying to wrap my head around this before getting into the weeds

10:06 PM

Evil Hat has gotten a lot better at describing their own system in the intervening years.

Which is. Frustrating.

Peter Cooper Jr.

A lot of RPG systems seem to have that problem, where they're terrible at describing themselves. A lot of board/card/tabletop games are like that, where jumping in with friends who are familiar with it is much easier than figuring it out from the rulebook, but that means it doesn't work when you're all just starting from the rules.

Some of the newer Fate games are much better at describing themselves, but... they're not the generic system.

Except Fate Condensed.

[rummages]

Peter Cooper Jr.

And so I'm thinking examples would help, right, and on Evil Hat's Downloads there even a "FAE Combat Example" which purports to be a transcript of a session, but it opens with a disclaimer that it needed to be edited because people were applying the rules wrong. Which doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence in being able to learn it

Oct 31 '19 at 10:59, by BESW

You may also find Up To Four Players' Fate Core explanatory comic useful.

I really want to play Fate, but I also really don't feel like learning it from a book.

10:12 PM

Fate-ifying Star Wars: Luke vs Vader in Cloud City

Dec 7 '17 at 22:28, 14 hours 8 minutes total – 32 messages, 2 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked May 27 '18 at 23:10 by BESW

Peter Cooper Jr.

Like, it seems that linking to transcripts and videos of people playing it well, explaining rules as they go, would be an obvious way to try to get people into your product. But somehow everything I've found online has comments like "Yeah, but they got the rules wrong."

Though I'm looking for Accelerated specifically, and maybe I just need to give up on that.

[sigh]

Peter Cooper Jr.

More questions: Compelling is just completely out of combat, right? Could be done at any time, doesn't take up your "action" or anything?

Honestly "they got the rules wrong" is kind of a failure to understand how Fate works, itself? But as a teaching tool yes, it would be more helpful if the group called out where they're deviating from the text.

Yes, compels are a table-level negotiation, not an in-game action unless some narrative is required to justify setting them up.

I should really do a Fate one-shot for y'all.

Peter Cooper Jr.

And I'd also expect an alternate way of handling not having "fate dice", since emulating 4d3-8 is really awkward. Like I'd expect you could just roll 4d6 and add some constant (16?) to the DC-equivalents and get roughly the same graph, though I'd want to double-check the math.

10:19 PM

51

Q: What can I use in place of Fudge Dice?

If someone doesn't have any fudge dice, what are the best methods to replace them and why? Term: Fudge Dice are six sided dice with two sides labeled with a +, two sides with a -, and two sides that are blank. They are usually rolled in groups of four, and the + and - sides are added together t...

dice fudge fate

Other dice on Fate SRD, from the Fate System Toolkit.

I've used the "1 and 2 are minus, 3 and 4 are blank, 5 and 6 are plus" technique, it works just fine but adds a little mental overhead.

I've also sharpied up some dice.

@BESW I'd be super down for that, obviously if you were at any point ready, willing, and enthusiastic to do so :)

I feel like maybe I'm getting some spoons back, but somebody else would have to do the time zone coordination.

Peter Cooper Jr.

I would absolutely love to participate in a Fate Accelerated one-shot, since I think learning by doing is the best approach. And if I just GM for my family I'd probably get something "wrong" (which yeah, isn't the point since telling a fun story is the point, but I'd at least like to know when I'm homebrewing)

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer (87): How long are the life phases of a dragon? by Banana Man on rpg.SE (@Rubiksmoose)

Hot RPG Questions

4

Q: Why does an explorer's pack come with more things than can fit in it?

The Explorer's pack comes with a backpack and a bunch of stuff that (I assume) goes inside. A Backpack can fit 30lbs in it. But the stuff - a bedroll (7), a mess kit (1), a tinderbox (1), 10 torches (10), 10 days of rations (20), and a waterskin (5) - totals 44lbs. My party holds the weight of ...

10:27 PM

@PeterCooperJr. I took on the task of trying to learn Fate core last year having never played it myself.

I have my own personal Fate-like concoction, but I'll try to go back to basics.

For me it ended up being a lot of:
* Reading the book
* Looking up actual plays
* free-style jazz each session
* Reading the whole book again between sessions to figure out why we hit a rough patch rules-wise.

Peter Cooper Jr.

@BESW Well, as long as you explained what was by-the-book and what was homebrew, I think that'd be great. Especially as it wouldn't shock me if your ideas were better than the published material anyway. :)

@BESW I know I'm not as active in this room but I'd be up for something like that.

Peter Cooper Jr.

I'm also not clear how playing it online could work at all, though I'd probably have said the same about D&D before I started trying to figure out Roll20 a month and a half ago.

10:31 PM

@PeterCooperJr. There is a page on the Fate SRD about this fate-srd.com/playing-fate-online

Specifically Fari.app seems very interesting fari.app

I've played a decent amount of Fate online in past, and we do just fine with voice chat + a shared Google doc.

Yeah the moment-to-moment of Fate is a lot more writing quick notes then using rulers on a map.

Scenes with complicated zones can be tricky, but... I usually don't do complicated zones.

@RedRiderX oooer.

I don't get the difference between online and offline play, though?

Peter Cooper Jr.

Okay, you've sold me. So, I see BESW as GM and three players "signed up" as interested. What "time zone coordination" do you need, since BESW I see you active here pretty much 24/7 :)

@BESW If the board is offline only one person can see it. If it's online, a link to the same screen can be shared.

It's the difference between using a google doc and sharing the screen of Excel.

10:38 PM

@PeterCooperJr. Well let's hold up a bit. Let's not take BESW's generous, but general, offer of time as given or assume that this is something doable now for him or others. It's probably more polite if we start by asking BESW what they want to do.

Peter Cooper Jr.

@Rubiksmoose Oh, yes, my comment was intended to indicate excitement not that I was felling BESW had an obligation to us. Sorry if it came across wrong.

@PeterCooperJr. I figured! I just wanted everyone to be on the same page and nobody to feel pressured or rushed. :)

Hmm.

It's been a while since I've done Fate and my brain's been sorta fritzy lately but I'd like to.

Peter Cooper Jr.

And I'm crazy busy this week, and needed to cancel my normal weekly Friday night game as it is. So I do understand. But if this becomes a thing, let me know, and I'm willing to do some level of "coordination" (or maybe even GMing if there was someone experienced there to guide me) if that's helpful.

And I need to go for now. Thank you for the chat, and for clarifying many of the concepts for me!

Fate's game/character creation is more designed for longer play so I'd probably want to push for one of my signature half-made modules rather than do the full (and somewhat clunky, often awkward) pre-game experience by the book.

ttfn!

10:55 PM

I would be interested in playing if someone is willing to run it. I've been interested in trying out Fate :)

With advance warning, I'm available most days from 2300 GMT to 0600 GMT. After 0600 is doable but less flexible. If possible we should set aside four hours for the thing.

11:16 PM

The time I played Fate via roll20, we used the map space to write character aspects, as well as the scene and world aspects when needed. So all the aspects are visible to everyone.

Roll20 also has counters that we used to represent fate points.

Roll20 is massive overkill for pretty much anything I've ever done? Like, I can see how it's a really great tool, but it's got SO MUCH that I can't figure out how to do just the little bit I need.

@BESW a pretty good summary of it in my opinion

it's capable of a lot but a ton of it is just not obvious at all, hidden in obscure forum posts and wiki pages

and I've mostly just used it from a D&D 5e perspective. a pair of short-lived Lancer campaigns as well as a few sessions of Starfinder

11:32 PM

@BESW I'm interested in playing or running FAE; if running, I'll probably pull out It's Not My Fault!

If anybody else wants to run a game, they don't need to check in with me!

user image

I was offering in case you wanted to play.

Ah, thanks. But I'm bad at being a player, specially at tables with unfamiliar humans.

And/or play in a game you ran.

11:49 PM

@V2Blast A distinct advantage of R20 is that you can make safety tool macros.

2

« first day (3526 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (1431 days later) »

Transcript for

May '2026

TRPG General Chat

Main chat room for tabletop role-playing games. Anyone can ask...

dice pen-and-paper roleplaying

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile