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BESW
BESW
00:17
Some great questions lately!
 
6 hours later…
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
06:44
Indeed!
A Fate stunt: Whenever an enemy is taken out by or concedes to you or your team in your presence, you get a free invoke on {choose one of your character aspects}. This free invoke sticks around between scenes.
has a sort of reaper feel to it.
BESW
BESW
@RavindraWagh Hi!
harlandski
harlandski
Hello all
BESW
BESW
Hey.
SilentKiller
SilentKiller
hello
BESW
BESW
@harlandski Nice work on some of the recent questions.
@SilentKiller [wave]
harlandski
harlandski
06:53
I'm running a FAE game on Sunday and wonuld be grateful for some random conversation about it.
@BESW thanks!
BESW
BESW
I can provide that, at least for a short time.
What's on your mind?
harlandski
harlandski
I'm also time limited...
SilentKiller
SilentKiller
what kinda of game room is this ?
harlandski
harlandski
@BESW It's actually a bit like the previous conversation with STT LCU, I'm wondering how much to plan in advance as a GM, considering how much the players can change everything.
BESW
BESW
@SilentKiller This room is associated with Role-playing Games, and is dedicated to the fate gaming system.
We talk about Fate games and mechanics, and sometimes we play Fate games.
harlandski
harlandski
06:55
@SilentKiller I think it can be a game room, but also just a chat room about Fate.
At the moment, I'm hoping it's the latter!
BESW
BESW
We haven't done formal games here for a while; the chat was opened during the Core/Accelerated beta testing period.
harlandski
harlandski
So my question to y'all is how much prep do you do for Fate games, or do you just have a clear idea of the initial scene and let things flow from there.
SilentKiller
SilentKiller
i like to play action games mostly
BESW
BESW
@harlandski Really depends on a lot of factors. How long do you expect the campaign to last?
@SilentKiller RPG.SE is focused on tabletop role-playing games; you may be thinking of video and computer games, which is the bailiwick of Arqade.
harlandski
harlandski
We're trying to do it like a TV show, so after 10 sessions reach the end of the series, with the possibility to renew it after that.
BESW
BESW
06:58
@harlandski Hmm, cool. So, for that kind of thing you probably need a solid close-up frame with a lot of undefined elbow room in the world.
SilentKiller
SilentKiller
i think first i need to read about RPG.SE
BESW
BESW
@SilentKiller Tour, Help, main chat:

 TRPG General Chat

Main chat room for tabletop role-playing games. Anyone can ask...
5
harlandski
harlandski
I borrowed some stuff from Fate Core, so we have two Issues (one impending and one current). To be brief but helpful I should say we are running a kind of post-apocalyptic scenario where environmentalists basically got what they want and the world is one big forest, with forgotten tech lying around.
BESW
BESW
Sounds fun!
SilentKiller
SilentKiller
@BESW thanks. :)
harlandski
harlandski
07:00
People have regressed to different tech levels, so there are e.g. cowboys rubbing shoulders with medieval or tribal types.
BESW
BESW
That's not a world you should detail too much in advance: its charm and appeal lies in being able to find unexpected things.
harlandski
harlandski
Right, but should I decide on what these things should be, or at least what the next one should be?
BESW
BESW
You should let things be discovered through play: pose questions to which you don't know the answers, and let the group play to find the answers.
So define the immediate situation you start in, and a pressure that's going to push things forward (but don't have a solution to the pressure in mind). Let everything else develop through compels, event declarations, and aspect creation.
harlandski
harlandski
Oops I said things were time limited! Kids have just run out of their class. What you have sai'
'6yu7
BESW
BESW
If the scout rolls Perception to see what's over the next ridge, perhaps the scout's player should tell everyone else what he sees.
harlandski
harlandski
07:02
(kid hitting keyboard)
BESW
BESW
See you around! Have fun.
harlandski
harlandski
What you have said has been really useful and I hope we can chat again another time, about this or other things.
Thanks!
BESW
BESW
ttfn
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@harlandski that sounds very cool
harlandski
harlandski
07:58
@doppelgreener I was amazed what a cool setting we came up with collaboratively in about an hour. It immediately convinced me of the awesomeness of Fate!
Ok, that was a hit and run comment. Childcare!
 
1 hour later…
BESW
BESW
09:00
@harlandski Don't worry about drive-by chatting. The chat is permanently archived so nobody misses anything, and we're all used to being in vastly different time zones.
harlandski
harlandski
09:18
@BESW Good to know! (disappears again)
 
2 hours later…
STT LCU
STT LCU
11:36
@harlandski, are you still here?
BESW
BESW
11:49
Hey, guys? Let's not be too zealous about FATE->Fate edits. If that's the only change you're making, it's not a big enough deal.
Find something else to improve too.
harlandski
harlandski
@BESW oops sorry. Probably should have done it straight away too?!
@STTLCU yes for 10 mins or so
STT LCU
STT LCU
RE: your question above
I'd offer my GM point of view
at the moment, I improvise 90% of the material
i have only a very rough idea about what are the objectives and motives of the big players in the story, but only a little more than that.
BESW
BESW
@harlandski Eh, timing's not too important. Questions on the Stack never expire or get "too old" to be improved or get new answers. We've got a badge for necromancy, in fact.
And yeah, keep an eye on your PC and major NPC aspects, and your setting pressures. Those should be the fuel driving your big story arc choices.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW @trogdor i did some thinking about our ingame pressures
BESW
BESW
Ooh.
They do need some work.
trogdor
trogdor
12:03
yeah
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
yes, i go into each session forgetting what they even are, so they need work ;)
BESW
BESW
I think we had trouble telegraphing intent with them.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
i think we had trouble with relevance
under new management is irrelevant to people on the ground for instance
i don't remember what the other was
(case in point)
harlandski
harlandski
@STTLCU Gotta go. Did you ask because you wanted to talk about something (in which case go ahead and I'll reply later) or was my avatar mysteriously present? I wasn't actually there when you asked, but my phone might have been telling everyone I was...
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
tesladyne has pressures like: keeping up PR so every world government doesn't decide to turn on them and decide they're more trouble than they're worth, and that includes keeping the robot with an atomic bomb waiting to go unstable in his chest (as far as anyone cares), who disaster constantly follows, from looking like he's going to be a disaster himself. and that's a line they tend to walk very close to sometimes, such as during and after the incident with Majestic 12.
they also have to make successful experiments and remain contractable
this is stuff that regularly eliminates the most straightforward line to victory
for us, a pressure would be maintaining the veil, and we'd have stories where it's actively jeopardised: civilians are right there, and the black-ops agency and the plant people can't just bust in guns blazing
we're moving past that, so one pressure could be, say, maintaining the illusion that Amaterasu got wiped off the map, and then making that a problem we actually experience that gets in our way
BESW
BESW
12:11
Our pressure you can't remember is that there's a UFO threatening to wipe out all life on Earth, with the commensurate social and scientific panic and problems.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
this is one of those things like how we have to handle compels: this stuff has to have bite, and we have to make it matter
oh yeah.
BESW
BESW
oh yeah.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
i did not forget about that, i forgot it was a pressure though.
> Each game aspect is attached to the PCs’ faction, and can be a Mission Statement (an aspect representing what the faction stands for), a pressure (an aspect representing a threat or challenge the faction faces), or a title (an aspect representing the title of a previous volume). (p38)
> Tesladyne starts with three aspects. One of these is a Mission Statement, the factional equivalent of a character’s concept aspect. The other aspects are the volume’s two pressures—the external forces of immediate or lasting concern for Tesladyne and the PCs that will drive the volume’s central conflicts. (p220)
> When you clear the severe collateral consequence, at the start of the next volume one of your organization’s pressures must reflect fallout from the incident. (p122)
that's the three mentions of pressures that are in the index
i suppose the solar storms actually had a presence in our sessions, though i get the feeling that Nibiru-1 should not have been a pressure - it was something else, possibly nonmechanical
when we're out in space, a pressure would definitely be something like In space, nobody can hear you complaining about the music someone's blasting over the intercom
or something indicating that Out There Lies Death Probably
that is a major pressure: we've got solar storms raging and no atmosphere and so on, and totally invokable or compellable every time we want to do something involving leaving the ship or, heck, even the nibiru-1 object
i am not sure what the second pressure would be
something like All of the planet is counting on us. Very relaxing. No turning back or giving up.
both of those things will be in our face while we're all alone floating through the aether
toward who knows what, and also the sun
those are my thoughts
the descriptions of pressures in the book are pretty vague so i may be misunderstanding their purpose but it seems that if we want to have pressures that matter, they have to be something that's basically in our face whether we regularly notice it or not
BESW
BESW
12:29
It's pretty much in line with my understanding.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
oh hey, distracting apocalyptic nonsense was a pressure, i thought that was one of the costs of our invention
BESW
BESW
I think we've been struggling with two things, specifically: the "new management" one wasn't telegraphed very well so it didn't come up much, and I've been on the early end of the learning curve on how to use aspects in play.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
we all have been! :)
BESW
BESW
@doppelgreener The cost was accelerating the pressure, I think.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
for the record i'm not putting this on your shoulders or anything just because you're GM most of the time; i think this is something we all have an opportunity to learn from
BESW
BESW
12:31
(@harlandski We're talking about some rules and modifications specific to the Atomic Robo iteration of Fate, if you're wondering.)
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
(which is an awesome iteration of fate and I love it)
i also did not put this in the skype chat because... uh... this is the traditional place i go to when i have deep mechanical thoughts on fate
and in retrospect it was an awful lot to dump out so i am glad i did not go there for my first time of articulating all of this
BESW
BESW
Fairy Nuff. Might be worth summarising some time, though.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
yeah
harlandski
harlandski
12:45
(@BESW atomic robo looks amazing. One of the great side effects of my recent rpg stackexchange addiction has been discovering some great games to play)
BESW
BESW
@harlandski Oh, I know, right? My group is loving Roll For Shoes, Lady Blackbird, Cthulhu Dark...
harlandski
harlandski
@BESW I badly want to play roll for shoes! Even went to the length of playing a solo game (does that put me a rung up the geek hierarchy?!)
@STTLCU Thank you for letting me know about your 90% improv thing. I've been feeling that's probably the way to go with Fate, but it's good to get some confirmation for that. Like @BESW has said elsewhere, there is a lot of stuff to unlearn when playing Fate if coming from D&D and friends.
BESW
BESW
Eeyup. I was seven years deep in 3.5 and 4e before I picked up DFRPG.
I tried to run a campaign where I already knew the plot, and it was horribly awkward. I still haven't unlearnt that habit completely.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
I arrived on this site after I'd had only a few sessions of D&D 3.5e and AD&D 2e and BD&D in total. When I was picking up D&D 4e for a campaign, I had BESW's assistance in constructing a campaign where I did not have much of a plot planned in advance, except for some possible events that would occur along the way to force the status quo to change and give the players something to respond to.
i am very, very grateful I came across a site that expanded my horizons so significantly very early on in my learning about RPGs.
@BESW @trogdor ok done :D sorta-summarised, or at least put in a more organised fashion, and dumped in skype chat
trogdor
trogdor
I saw
harlandski
harlandski
12:59
@BESW It's just that I feel it ought to take a long time to prepare for a game, the words of Gygax from Men & Magic ringing in my ears "The most extensive requirement is time. The campaign referee will have
to have sufficient time to meet the demands of his players, he will have to devote a number of hours to laying out the maps of his "dungeons" and upper terrain before the affair begins."
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
totally does not happen in fate
harlandski
harlandski
It's very liberating just to co-create a world, make up a few interesting NPCs and have fun together!
BESW
BESW
I spend a lot of time thinking, but it's not planning.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@BESW <-- yes, this
BESW
BESW
I think about what NPCs want and what their plans and backup plans might be.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
13:00
i spent a few days thinking about a session i ran because it was fun and i wanted to tinker with it and iteratively improve on it, but i could have gone with something i came up with in a few hours.
BESW
BESW
I think of cool compels that I might want to hand out.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
(i mean, days and a few hours of idle thought and a limited amount of deep thought and conversation)
BESW
BESW
A lot of my brain-time goes into figuring out how to present cool problems without telegraphing pre-planned solutions.
harlandski
harlandski
I love dreaming about my scenarios (whatever system), but it is pretty cool that in Fate that's sufficient. No laborious map drawing! :-)
BESW
BESW
I've spent two months planning for our encounter with the Nibiru-1 Object, and I hope it pays out.
Most of the planning there is building up elaborate ideas, then stripping them down to cool setpieces which demand questions be asked and answers be sought.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
13:02
when i sat down to plan the session it was mostly spending an hour or two writing out everything i'd thought up and then revising it, and then a couple of hours on the morning of the same session statting up the NPCs i figured they might encounter (not all got used, i just wanted them there and available) and that was fun in and of itself
harlandski
harlandski
In fact it seems to me that a lot of stuff I would feel bad about in D&D is how you are supposed to do things in Fate.
STT LCU
STT LCU
@harlandski I pinged you because you nominated me in one of your first posts, so no worries.
harlandski
harlandski
@BESW @doppelgreener your thoughts here are really, really useful, on how to use planning time for Fate effectively!
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
tbh i had two main motivations for going to fate: (a) in our D&D 4e campaign, social interactions were a huge deal, but D&D 4e had rules almost exclusively for combat. Fate treated social interactions with equal rules density - in fact they used the same rules for physical fights and social interactions. (b) minimal prep time.
BESW
BESW
I'm glad our learning can be of help.
STT LCU
STT LCU
13:05
@everybody how can I write down effective and interesting factions?
I mean, on a rules level. I have already outlined them in game
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
as an exercise i actually deliberately ran a session with my players where I had not planned anything we came up with the entire setpiece of the session in about twenty minutes of pre-game talk.
it worked out pretty well i think.
BESW
BESW
@STTLCU First, give 'em a Face: an NPC associated with the faction who the PCs will interact with regularly.
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
@harlandski \o/ i am glad to hear this as well
BESW
BESW
It doesn't have to be a leader or a person of influence--in fact, it can be better if the Face is not in control. The dancer at the drug lord's gentleman's club, the soldier on guard outside the Lord's manor.
Second, give the faction skills to represent its action as a group.
harlandski
harlandski
@BESW "it doesn't have to be leader or person of influence" ooh that's a cool idea. Applying that immediately to a faction in my game!
BESW
BESW
13:08
These may be very different skills than players have, like Politics +3 and Research & Development +2, because these skills represent what the faction as a whole can accomplish which its individual members may not.
STT LCU
STT LCU
I distinctly remember seeing a faction character sheet in AARPG but i can't find it anymore
BESW
BESW
Third, give the faction aspects which can be invoked and compelled.
@STTLCU Here.
For faction aspects, look at ARRPG's model for ALAN.
He's got some aspects representing his power and influence, and whenever he does something it's a compel keyed off one of those aspects.
STT LCU
STT LCU
thanks!
BESW
BESW
I wouldn't give a faction stress tracks though, in most cases.
Taking out a faction should be more narrative.
STT LCU
STT LCU
Indeed, I agree. But since our table struggles at using aspects, i want to have as many as possible immediately available to my players
BESW
BESW
13:13
You can give a faction consequences as appropriate, perhaps similar to ARRPG's "collateral consequences" idea: members of the faction can impose consequences on the faction in order to soak stress dealt to themselves.
harlandski
harlandski
work calls. thanks everyone ttfn
BESW
BESW
ttfn
STT LCU
STT LCU
yeah I've already explained that possibility, but at the moment they're not part of any faction (yet)
they're freelancers in a fractioned (and factioned) universe
by their choice, i must add. I've thought they would start as part of the human alliance... (that was the one time i've planned something in advance, poor me)
BESW
BESW
You can always model it by having the gangster impose a collateral consequence on the mafia instead of on himself.
STT LCU
STT LCU
that's true too.
BESW
BESW
13:17
Tommy Blew the Whistle, maybe.
Anyway, I should go to bed. ttfn
STT LCU
STT LCU
bye
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
Goodnight!
 
2 hours later…
harlandski
harlandski
15:23
@STTLCU By the way I've had a thought about your previous question about Fate combat. You could have a look at Fudge, the rules Fate originally sprang from, as there are some different alternatives for dealing with combat there, from D&Desque through very big picture narrative. As Fate is a Fudge derivative it's not hard to port the combat ideas you like from there ino Fate.
harlandski
harlandski
16:02
@STTCLU I now have the book in front of me (Fudge 1995, freely downloadable from www.fudgerpg.com) and the most useful combat suggestion for Fate seems to be "4.21 Story Elements"
@STTCLU Quote from there "In the simplest combat system, the GM explains the sit-
uation in as much detail as is apparent, then asks the players to describe what their characters are doing. The more complete the description of their characters’ actions, the better the GM knows how to assess the situation. This can be important if she has something that
won’t be revealed until the middle of a battle. Die rolls, if any, are required by the GM for each story element.
STT LCU
STT LCU
16:32
@harlandski thanks for the tip!
harlandski
harlandski
@everyone Here's a Fate question that's been bothering me, but which is certainly too subjective to make into a main question. (There are some similar things on main, perhaps most pertinently "http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/26202/how-do-fate-core-and-fae-differ-in‌​-purpose" but I actually want some more subjectivity here :-)
In fact I have two questions, but I'll start with one and see where it goes, and then ask the second one.
So.. Question number 1: Is it really possible to play Fate Accelerated Edition having only read those fifty pages, with no previous experience of Fate, and making no reference to the Fate Core book?
Do you know anyone who has managed this?
I'll leave that with everyone, and so to bed!
STT LCU
STT LCU
@harlandski we are running a fate campaign where the GM hasn't even read the rules. he just know some basic mechanics.
it's going well.
harlandski
harlandski
16:58
@STTLCU Interesting, tell me more. Has anyone in the group read a Fate rulebook, and if so which one?
 
6 hours later…
BESW
BESW
22:32
@harlandski FAE is missing the discussions of philosophy which Fate Core delves into, but it's mechanically self-sufficient.

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