#games

Horror—Ways to Make Your Adventures More Terrifying

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The following was a portion of the RPG based on our original comic, Skeleton Crew, that’s currently on the back-burner. In the meantime, I thought I’d share this section you on how to make your adventures a little more terrifying.

Unknown Threat

It’s easy to think of a dozen different types of monsters out there (ghouls, ghosts, vampires, etc.), but you have to remember—tales of monsters existed centuries before monsters had any names. It is common for gamers to label creatures into neat little categories—but to name something is to understand it, and the root of suspense comes from NOT knowing. When writing a creepy adventure, it might pay off to create a horror of your own. You might hint at the name through a local legend, but leave only vague stories as to what it could really be. In terms of skills and aspects, it might resemble other monsters, but the players will no idea how strange or tough the creature they are facing is. Or, make them think they know what it is, until you decide to switch it up on them—have them encounter a normal vampire, only to have his head sprout crab legs and walk off of his shoulders.

Naming Your Monsters (English and American)

Personally, I think folksy or childish sounding names often have the creepiest feel—better still if they have onomatopoeia in them. For example, why not the Tailypo, the Snickercatch, the Moggytom, the Nibblegnaw, the Cindergrim? Author Neil Gaiman wrote an amazing short ghost story called “Click Clack the Rattlebag”…little is known about the “Click Clack” monster, except it drinks the victim’s insides, leaving only a clattering “Rattlebag” of skin and bones. Brrr!

Nursery rhymes work great in there, too. Think of nonsense/old words like “eeny” and “winkum”, find a good meter, and add in some vaguely creepy stuff to the verse.

Ragged-Man

Ten little fingers, nine little toes
Ragged Man comes, and the Ragged Man goes
Eight little fingers, little toes seven
Keeps you from hell and he keeps you from heaven
Six little fingers, little toes five
Ragged Man steals you, a bit at a time.
Four little fingers, three little hairs
Ragged Man’s coming, up up the stairs
Two little eyes, and one little thumb
Nothing can help you, the Ragged Man’s come!

Naming Your Monster (Bilingual Version)

Of course, the above works best with English speaking threats—for exotic creatures, go with exotic names. Look up local monsters, and mash them around—the Indian Vyala becomes a Vylkara. Or, use an internet translator, and keep translating random dark words until you have a name that sounds neat. For example, Babelfish.com says “death forest” in German translates into “Tod-Wald”… not a bad creature name for 3 seconds of research.

Creating Monsters—Letting the Players Do the Work

There’s no reason that you can’t force your players to do the hard work for you. Don’t have a name for them? Let the characters come up with a nickname all their own—this helps if you give the creature a very distinct appearance—Example: , spiders for hands, three red eyes, etc. You probably won’t need to ask them—by the second time they see them, the characters will probably start tossing names around themselves as they communicate. Likewise, if they have a Mythos-heavy character in the group, he or she might declare that he or she has heard some of the legends concerning the creature, and come up with a neat new aspect to include in the origin story. An example of this shows up in the movie The World’s End, which features the heroes desperately trying to name the eerie villains—they use “the blanks” as a placeholder while the argue over the perfect name. Only then do they realize that “the Blanks” IS the perfect name for them!

Apparent Danger

Many of your adventures, humorous or horrifying, might start off the same way. However, once secondary characters start dropping dead or your group uncovers mass graves, the mood will change quite quickly. You have to get the players into the frame of mind that their characters are in legitimate danger—someone or something is here, just out of sight, and is fully capable of picking them off one by one. A few NPCs can be sacrificed to get this mood across—likewise, if the NPC Ranger Bob was the only with knowledge of the mountain (and with keys to the truck), your safe one-hour drive just became a 6 hour game of survival in the dark woods. Also, don’t be afraid to ignore dice and stats and tease the group with an impossible threat—maybe they can’t hurt the Moggytom during its first encounter, but learning its secret will allow them to physically hurt it. A helpless group will be more likely to fear the threat. If your group is a little virtuous, leave them a living NPC alive that they have to escort out—his vulnerability becomes THEIR vulnerability.

Get Gruesome

Not advised for queasy groups, but rather than just having NPCs disappear, have them be found again—in a barely recognizable state. Give them bloody scenes, slashed corpses, and guts galore. If you want to make it dark and still confusing, maybe the only way to know the number of victims is, (to quote the They Might Be Giants song), to “count the arms, the legs and heads, and then divide by five.” The primary function of such gruesomeness is to make the characters realize that danger can befall themselves (or the few remaining NPCs under their protection.) Secondly, any patterns might lead your characters to the origin of the monster—if all the victims are impaled with ancient railroad spikes, maybe researching into the old, abandoned railroad line will reveal a horrible tragedy left unavenged. Thirdly, if you like a bit of mystery, maybe you can hide the real threat amongst the victims—at first, it seems that all five of the grad students were liquefied in the dorm room, but close analysis shows that only four died in that mess. Was the killer hiding amongst you the whole time?

For further

Evil = Intelligence

All great monsters, but especially werewolves, focus on the idea that a normal human can be turned into a beast. Underneath our suits and ties, each of us has a hungry animal, waiting to lose control. This is a common trend, and will (and probably should) show up during your campaign. However, nowadays, we occasionally see traditional monsters as civil and intelligent—our zombies eat pizza, our vampires read the paper and only drink animal blood, etc. However, if you want to add a creepy twist, introduce a former-human-turned-monster that’s in control and yet still a man-eater—a civil, reasoning monster that does unspeakable things. For example, Jonathan Coulton wrote the song, “Re: Your Brains,” about a group of humans barricaded in a mall. One of the attacking zombies (and the singer of the song) is a former coworker turned brain-eater, trying to convince them to surrender. On the surface, it’s hilarious—a zombie is throwing around business buzz-words like “FYI” and “table it for now.” When you analyze it, though, it features a zombie that remembers his previous life, can empathize with the survivors, but still feels NO REMORSE for trying to bash their skulls open and devour them. That’s all kinds of sick.

Ticking Clock

A convention of suspense that easily carries over into horror. Make the heroes race a proverbial clock—if they fail to do something by a certain time, something horrendous will happen. This is common enough in most stories already, but the way to make it clearer still to the group is to have an actual escalation—a bogey that feeds in the darkness is creepy. Why not have the rain start coming in, along with clouds that darken the moon? Worse still, the city blocks are suffering blackouts, one after the other, getting closer and closer still…This can also be done with aspects—maybe they are each given a negative aspect representing a strange mental influence, such as On Edge, and when you get really close to the climax, replace it with more and more sinister aspects, such as Violent Rage, or Murderous Instincts—suddenly, they are not their own masters, and they have only a short time before their humanity is lost!

Further Reading

One last recommendation: for further reading, I recommend Steven King’s “Three Categories of Terror“.

That’s it for now… Until next time, Game On!

-Dave Seidman-Joria

WHISPERS IN THE DOORSTEP OF THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS – A Dark Comedy MicroRPG

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WHISPERS IN THE DOORSTEP OF THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS

A Cosmic Horror Dark Comedy Micro RPG for 3-11 players

By Dave Seidman Joria

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RPGs are funny; even though players know they are playing fictional characters, and thus are not at risk themselves, they will still act cautiously. There is a strange paradox of embodying adventurous characters who live dangerous lives, yet they still want to shelter them and be cautious.

So I had a strange idea: what if player death wasn’t something to be avoided, but embraced.

Thus, I’ve made a MicroRPG using a new, untested system:

The Inevitable Doom System

Material

1d6s, paper, writing utensils. (The setting below also requires lots of slips of paper).

Characters

The players should collectively create a team of 5-10 playable characters. A small group of players (2-4) are encouraged to create 2 or 3 pcs each, while a large group of players (6-10) will only create one character each.

Each player creates a character with a name (don’t get too attached; they’ll be dead soon enough). They get to pick one stat to specialize in; this is the Specialty.

Examples: Mind, Body, Soul, Gut; Quick, Clever, Forceful, Flashy, Careful

Also, pick a Personality Flaw: ex. Vain; Too Curious; Never Back Down from a Fight

Equipment: Each player has two packs:

A basic pack, with generic things.

A specialty pack: filled with any special items related to their specialty.

Players don’t need to declare their items beforehand; they just naturally have them unless they are used up or lost.

Play

The game consists of multiple Encounters; each encounter includes some obstacle or threat facing the team. At each Encounter, the GM will ask: What does your character do?

Each player will pick at least one of their characters that they control. They will decide how they react, and share it; this may be said aloud, or written down and then said aloud, depending on the scenario (see below).

The GM decides the order of actions (use common sense) and asks the player to roll a specific number of one-sided dice (d6s).

  • If the action matches their specialty, they roll 1d6.
  • If the action does not match their specialty, they roll 2d6.
  • If the action is particularly dangerous (ex. Jumping off a cliff; Punching an Elder God), the GM may ask them to roll 3 or more d6.

Results:

  • No 6s: If a roll consists only of dice with the values 1-5 (no 6s), the character survives. Depending on how they roll (low good, high bad) or the difficulty of the action, the GM can decide if they succeed effortlessly, or at some cost (ex. Costs include: they use up their rations; they lose all specialty items; they’re injured; they trigger a random encounter).
  • At least one 6 is rolled: If the character rolls at least one natural 6, the character meets their Inevitable Doom.

If more than one character rolls a 6 in the same encounter, the PC that rolled highest dies. In case of a tie, they both die! Horribly. Or suffer something worse than death (let the player pick).

The player is encouraged to come up how the character dies; if a cause of death is not clear, the GM is encouraged to help. (If a good reason isn’t obvious, see “Stupid Deaths” below).

Sidebar – The “Me First” Rule! – If another player INSISTS their character die instead (as it fits they story better), they can volunteer to die instead.

If there’s at least one surviving member of the party, they managed to overcome or sidestep the obstacle of the Encounter and move on to the next Encounter.

Continue going through all encounters until all characters are dead. Bonus: Players pick the favorite death (not including their own).

Sidebar – Spread the Love – In some scenarios, a player with no surviving PCs may have nothing to do. If so, players with 2+ characters are encouraged to share their survivors. (This is not the case in the following scenario, where players without characters are still involved as Whispers).

SCENARIO – WHISPERS IN THE DOORSTEP OF THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS

The following scenario is half “man-vs-nature” struggle in the Antarctic, and half cosmic horror. It’s also a parody of Lovecraft (with hopefully none of the racism).

Material – 1d6s, slips of paper (or 1/2 or index cards)

Pre-game

Pass around the random question chart.

Each player rolls, picks that question, and writes a brief (1-2 word) answer.

  1. What’s a word that makes you squeamish?
  2. Name an animal whose name starts with the same letter as your last name?
  3. What’s the dirtiest word you would say in front of your grandmother?
  4. What did you eat for lunch?
  5. What is your favorite color?
  6. What’s something you feared as a child?

The GM keeps these slips and sets them aside, these the Back-up Suggestions.

Plot

Decades ago, a strange pyramid was reported in the Antarctic, hidden inside a mountainous crater. A team went to find it, and never came back. It was assumed to be an optical illusion and a fool’s errand.

But now, the year is 1980. New reports of the pyramid are circulating, captured by spy planes and fuzzy satellite pictures. It could be a natural phenomenon. It could be the breakthrough of the century. It could be your doom.

You are the team sent to find out if the pyramid is real. Oh, and by the end of the game, every one of you will die.

Character Creation

Players will create characters as above. Suggested Specialties for this scenario:

STANDARD EXTRA
Science! Wilderness
Action! Cowardice
Occult Greed
Heart Handiness

A basic pack: generic items for surviving the Antarctic: rations, flashlight, rope, radios, etc.

A specialty pack: filled with any special items related to their specialty (ex. Science has instruments and satellite phone; Action has a rifle and dynamite; Occult has dowsing rods and wards; Heart has med kits and pictures of family, etc.).

Play

1st Encounter

Sidebar – For suggestions on the Scenario, see the Suggested Encounters Table

During the first encounter, the GM will ask players to react to the Encounter. However, the players will write their reactions on slips of paper; these are called “Reaction Slips.” After everyone is done writing, the players reveal what they wrote and roll.

After the end of the first encounter, the GM collects all Reaction Slips to the side, but does NOT discard them.

2nd Encounter

Starting with the 2nd encounter, the teammates start hearing unearthly voices in their head.
The GM will describe the 2nd encounter as they did the 1st. The players will write their responses and keep them hidden.

The GM, however, will also submit a suggestion slip; this is called a Whisper. A Whisper can come from a discarded Reaction Slip, from a Backup Slip, or from the GM themselves.

The GM then picks a random player; they give that player the slip. The player shuffles their Reaction with the Whisper, picks one at random, and follows the action on it. If it is the Whisper, the PC must attempt to do the substituted action, rolling like normal. Once a “Whisper” has been used by a player, discard it completely.

If the PC’s action did not kill the PC but did not clear the obstacle, the GM may ask that the PC complete their original intended action, rolling as normal. Alternatively, the GM may just decide that the obstacle is cleared (ex. Another pc might have resolved it during their action).

Using the Backup Slips: A GM may give a Backup slip as a whisper. These are vaguer than normal; when these are revealed, the PC treats it as a dangerous threat, rolling 3d6. Using the slip as inspiration, the player and GM should work together describing the dangerous, compulsive action the PC took (if they survived), or the bizarre threat that killed them (if they died).

Ex. The PC reveals a Whisper Backup Slip that says “Red.”

If they live:

  • The player may decide that their character became enraged and ran off on their own.

If they died:

  • They might explain how they exploded (at some badly cooked shoggoth?)
  • They hallucinate the color red, causing them to walk into a chasm
  • They get crushed from a falling red Chevy Corvette (nothing’s too weird for this game.)

3rd + Encounters

The GM continues with the adventure. They may give out an increasing number of Whisper slips (i.e. 2, 3, 4) with each encounter until at least 1 player is dead. The GM should do their best to give out whispers evenly, avoiding hitting the same person multiple times in a row.

Special Scenario Rules – Voices from the Dead

When a player dies, they are not out of the game; just like the GM, they are now passing Whisper slips on to the players. They can do one of the following:

  1. Pass out a used Reaction Slip. (This can be a slip that was written by any PC; if it is from their dead character, it is quite flavorful).
  2. Roll a D6: on a roll of 1-3, they write a harmful action, inspired by the dark forces of the mountain. On 4-6, they write a helpful action (at least, what their dead character would think of as “a good action”)

The GM and dead players should distribute the slips as evenly as possible between the living players.

Suggested Encounters

The following are inspired by Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness; however, do not be afraid to stray all you want.

  1. Lost in the Artic snowstorm – Your transport breaks down partway to the mountain.
  2. Climbing the mountain – Scaling the frozen icy mountain to the peak.
  3. Opening the Cyclopean Door – Before you stands a massive door, too large to be made by humans. It is covered in eldritch language. How do you open it? SHOULD you open it?
  4. Albino Cave Penguins – You encounter giant, flesh eating Albino Cave Penguins, with electric tentacles.
  5. Falling Stalactites – Your encounter with the penguins has loosened the ceiling, and you must run to avoid being impaled by falling icicles.
  6. Cave In – There’s a cave in, and the way before you and behind are blocked by rock and ice.
  7. Don’t Wake the Sleeping Elder Thing – You find a lair of sleeping elder beings, which looks like frilled cucumbers.
  8. Shoggoth Attack – A giant, indestructible Shoggoth, the slug-like rebel servant of the Elder Things
  9. Mental Barrage – You come to the realization that humans were crafted by Elder Ones to serve as a food stock for their Shoggoth workers. Everything you know is a lie!
  10. Albino Cave Penguin Cult – Turns out the Cave Penguins were secretly cultists all along! They are not happy you interrupted their summoning.
  11. Elder God Awakens Returns – An Old One has returned, risen from the frozen wastes! (Pick one: might be Yog-Sothoh, or Cthulhu; maybe both, and they’re having a slap fight. If any PCs aren’t dead by now, have them roll a fist full of d6s).

Random Encounters (To Throw in when Flavorful)

  • The Group is Split – How will you find each other?
  • Dark, Cold and Hunger – You have lost your rations and are starting to grow hungry and cold
  • Sudden but Inevitable Betrayal – One of you is Secretly a Mi-Go, come to collect your brains.
  • Lost Something Vital – You lose something vital to the mission (ex. A key, a map, your satellite phone to signal the rescue team). How will you recover it?
  • Injured – Someone’s leg is badly hurt. Can you save them?

 

Stupid Deaths

Need a Stupid Death that can be used anywhere? Here are a few:

  • Alien Possession – Your mind and body functions are taken over by a Yith. Sadly, the Yith doesn’t realize that you need to breath, and you suffocate to death.
  • Ghouls – A pit opens beneath your feet, and you fall into a cavern of ravenous ghouls. (I hate when that happens).
  • Existential Crisis – You suddenly remembered that you don’t exist. You instantly cease to be.
  • Glowing Rock from Out of Space – You are crushed by colorful meteor that happened to land on your exact location. You are dead (or, worse still, become mutated into a half-dead monstrosity that serves as the next Encounter).
  • Finally Caught You – The grizzly, ghoulish hound that has been tracking you for years finally catches up with you, tracking you all the way to Antarctica. It tears you apart in seconds. Guess you shouldn’t have stolen that Jade Amulet from that grave all those years ago!
  • Light Reading – You pull out your “Necronomicon – Pocket Edition” and read a few pages before your mind dissolves.
  • Grizzly End – By some strange compulsion, you pick a fight with a polar bear. You lose badly. How the polar bear wound up at the SOUTH pole shall remain a mystery.

Got a chance to try it out? Any feedback? Please let us know. Until then, Game on!

-Dave Seidman Joria

Kobolds Galore! – 5e and Fate Core

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Morning, Tangerines! This post, we thought we’d try to mix it up. Lately, I’ve been playing around with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and I created a few new sub-races for Kobolds. However, they were looking so lonely, I thought I’d keep it going; so I made some quick rules for using Kobolds in Fate Core.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CONTENT

KOBOLD SUBRACES

(These subraces require the reader to own the Kobold rules from Volo’s Guide to Monsters)

MOUNTAIN KOBOLD

(Note: this is the default Kobold as found in Volo’s Guide).
Modifiers: +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
Darkvision, Sunlight Sensitivity
Grovel, Cower and Beg – See Volo’s
Pack Tactics – See Volo’s

DRAGONWROUGHT / DRAGONSHIELD KOBOLDS

The dragonwrought kobolds are unique, in that they bear some semblance of coloration, much like a dragonborn; this proves their lineage to the dragons may bear some creedance. Dragonshield kobolds are similar, except that they were born normal kobolds, but were gifted by dragons to make them better guards for their eggs. They are typically stronger, revered in their tribes, and have longer life spans.

Choose: +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, or +1 to each.
Limitations: Cannot use “Grovel, Cower and Beg”; you’re too proud!

Abilities:

Dragon Resistance: Pick a dragon lineage:

Black / Copper Acid
Blue / Bronze Lightning
Red / Brass / Gold Fire
Green Poison
White / Silver Cold

You have resistance to the damage type associated with your draconic ancestry.

Dragonborn Related: If your group uses the optional Feat rules, when you take a feat, you have access to Feats with the prerequisite “Dragonborn.”

URD KOBOLD

You are a special kobold, born with the unique feature of wings. This makes you a pariah in the community, for your supposed link to the a renegade god.

Choose: +1 Intelligence, or +1 Wisdom

Limitations: May not use Pack Tactics against an enemy who is within 5’ of you; this does not include enemies that are the target.

Flight: You gain a flight speed of 30’, provided you are not wearing medium or heavy armor.

CITY KOBOLD

Choose: Only +1 Dex (instead of +2). However, you gain +1 to any Skill

Limitations: You don’t speak Draconic.

City Folk: You have a different dialect that other Kobolds spot and resent. You are at a disadvantage when using Deceive to convince other non-city Kobolds you’re one of them, and disadvantage when using Persuasion against non-city Kobolds.

Special Rules: You may start with one feat from the feat chart; in addition, you may pick feats that would normally require the prerequisite “Human.”

That’s it for D&D stuff. As a little bit of a plug, don’t forget that Tangent Artists also does webcomics, including the swords, sorcery, and sarcasm series, CRIT!

You can read it on Crit Webtoon and our Crit Webcomic, including the very first adventure, which features this little guy.

Crit-009

 

FATE CORE CONTENT

Kobold Player Character

High Concept: Kobold Rogue
Trouble: Fight or Flight
Aspect: Coldblooded (but not Heartless); Team Player
Country Kobold: Stranger in a Strange Land
Dragonwrought: I’m the Big Fish in My Pond
Urd: I Fly Solo
City Kobold: Need to be Useful

Great +4 – Athletics
Good + 3 – Stealth, Shoot
Fair +2 – Fight, Notice, Deceive
Good +1 – Craft, Will, Burglary, Provoke

Stunt
Too Small to Hit – You can use Athletics instead of fight whenever Defending against an opponent that’s larger than you.

NPCS

Kobold Soldiers (Mob)

Aspect: Smelly, Scaly, Skittish
Skills: Average +1  Fight, Athletics
Stress: 1
Conditions: 1

Stunts
Spears – Unless they are ambushed, the warriors armed with Spears always have the option of acting first in the first round of any physical combat scene.

Pack Mentality – When using Fight skill to Attack, a mob of Kobold add double their teamwork bonus. However, if they use this bonus and succeed, they can only deal a maximum amount of stress they can deal is 2 per round.
(Tip: An easy way to find the total is: X = 2xSize – 1; i.e. a group of 3 will Attack with +5; group of 4 will attack with +7; etc.)

 

Kobold Trap Master (NPC)

High Concept: Kobold Engineer Tactician

Aspect: I Prepared for That; Glass Jaw

Skills:
Good +3 – Craft
Fair +2 – Stealthy, Fight

Stunts:
Hidden Obstacles – In any scene in which a Kobold Trap Master is present (or has been present), the GM picks up to three zones and adds the aspect “Potential Trap” as an obstacle to each. If a non-kobold character tries to move through a zone with a Potential Trap, a player may invoke the aspect to create a trap; replace the Potential Trap aspect and replace it with a trap aspect, named however you want, with one free unfriendly invoke; depending on trap, this may create an obstacle (that opposes the character’s movement through the zone), deal an Attack (Fair +2), or something similar. As their action for the round, a character within 1 zone of a Potential Trap may use the overcome action to attempt to find it (Difficulty +2); a successful roll will either remove the Potential trap (it was never there), or reveal the trap (Placing it on the board) and making it less lethal (it loses the free invoke). Revealed traps may also be disarmed or sidestepped (using overcome).

Alternate Rules: Alternatively, if your group has a character with a high Notice, you can make the value of a sprung trap more difficult (Great +4), but the character gets a free Notice defense roll to dodge or circumvent it. (Spotting it as an Overcome action is still only a Difficulty Fair +2).

That’s it for today. Any monsters you’d like to see in 5e or Fate? Let us know! Until then, GAME ON!

-Dave Joria – Twitter

Tangent Artists – Twitter

DOMESTIC SERVANT – D&D Roguish Archetype

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Hello, gamers! Today we thought we’d try something new: a class archetype for 5e Dungeons & Dragons!

(Fate fans, fear not: I still plan to write plenty of stuff for Fate, but it’s nice to try out new stuff every once in a while).

Story: While talking to a friend,  Kara Dennison, writer for CruncyRoll (follow her on twitter @RubyCosmos), I was thinking about how Japanese RPG games (JRPGs) and Western RPGs differ. For example, in many JPRGs like Fire Emblem, players learn one skill at base level (ex. white magic using Cleric, a fighter, a rogue), and then merge the two together to form a 2nd level multi-class level (ex. cleric + fighter = paladin). Many of these, like the paladin, have equivalents in Western RPGs too; except for the Maid / Butler.

In JRPG games, the Maid or Butler combines the roles of rogue/assassin (ambushing, ignoring defenses) with the roles of a healer. It occurred to me: why not have a similar role in Dungeons and Dragons?

So, after consulting with D&D savvy friends of mine, we give you the first draft of a Rogue (with a touch of Paladin) archetype, the Domestic Servant!

*Warning* It has not be playtested at this time.

DOMESTIC SERVANT

333px-Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti_-_The_Bower_GardenA wizened human nursemaid, who watches her adult charge like a mother bear. A tiefling butler who carries out his master’s wishes with much alacrity and little morals. A nimble halfling gardener whose courage far surpasses his size.

You have chosen the path of the domestic servant, a loyal attendant who is bound to another person by oath; they hold this oath sacred and few things else. Your mission is twofold: to heal your master when they are injured, and to eliminate anyone who would seek them harm.

How did you fall into this lot? Perhaps you were a street urchin given employment and a second-chance by a rich benefactor. Maybe you were an assassin or spy in your youth, and settled into the serving life as you “retired.” Maybe you’re a devoted bodyguard who acts the part of a domestic servant so others will underestimate you.

OATH OF THE DOMESTIC SERVANT

  1. Safety – You will keep your master safe no matter what.
  2. Obedience – You will get the results your master needs. If possible, you will achieve those ends in using the means your master prefers.
  3. Humility – You will not upstage your master; they are the focus, not you. It is best to speak when spoken to and be seen only when your master needs you to be seen.
  4. Hospitality – You will offer hospitality to those who do not have it. Should they accept, nothing is more important than the safety of a guest, except the safety of your master.

Note to DMs: At this current time, we don’t have any rules for a Domestic Servant that breaks any of the oaths. However, as a means of positive reinforcement, we encourage DMs to freely reward Domestic Servants with inspiration when they act in the spirit of these oaths (even if it’s detrimental to themselves or their party.)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SERVANTS

There are many types of Domestic Servants that your rogue can be, depending on which era you are evoking and the role of your master. These include but are not limited to:

Butler, maid, valet, handmaid or handmaiden, squire, lady-in-waiting, bodyguard, manservant, cook, governess, nurse, nanny, batman, orderly, chamberlain, secretary, gardener, tutor, coachman, steward.

Note: We did not include “slave,” “bondservant,” or “indentured servant” because a. OWNING ANOTHER PERSON IS WRONG, and b. If the domestic servant is allowed to leave at any time without legal repercussions, it makes their decision to stay that much more meaningful.

Domestic Servant Features

Rogue Level Feature
3rd Master’s Bond, Servant’s Life, Spellcasting
9th Saving Instinct
13th Wine and Dine
17th Raise their Spirits

MASTER’S BOND

At level 3, you may pick another character to be your master (or mistress, or similar title). We recommend another PC in party, but it can be an NPC that is frequently with the party to.

Whenever you use a spell with spell slot 1 or an item to heal the master, they heal an additional 1 wound. If use a spell slot of 2 or higher, they instead regain extra wounds equal to the spell slot used.

You may only change your master:

  1. When your rogue goes to another level.
  2. Should the master die and be past the point of resurrection.

SERVANT’S LIFE

At level 3, you know the secret language used by servants “below stairs”; the ability “thieves cant” is extended to also include servants, allowing you to slow communicate in a way non-servants don’t understand.

Also, your rogue gains proficiency of your choice of the following: Calligrapher’s Supplies OR Cook’s Utensils.

Spellcasting

When you reach 3rd level, you gain the ability to cast spells. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the paladin spell list.

Cantrips

You learn three cantrips chosen from the following list: Guidance, Light, Mending, Message, Prestidigitation, Spare the Dying, Resistance. You learn another cantrip of your choice from this list at 10th level.

Spell Slots

The Domestic Servant Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your paladin spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell searing smite and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast searing smite using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher

You know three 1st-level paladin spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the enchantment and illusion spells on the paladin spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Domestic Servant Spellcasting table shows when you learn more paladin spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be a spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the paladin spells you know with another spell of your choice from the paladin spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an enchantment or illusion spell, unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 8th, 14th, or 20th level.

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your paladin spells, since you learn your spells through your passion and conviction. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a paladin spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

DOMESTIC SERVANT SPELLCASTING

      Spells Slots per Spell Level    
Rogue Level Cantrips Known Spells Known 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
3rd 3 2 2      
4th 3 3 3      
5th 3 3 3      
6th 3 3 3      
7th 3 4 4 2    
8th 3 4 4 2    
9th 3 4 4 2    
10th 4 5 4 3    
11th 4 6 4 3    
12th 4 6 4 3    
13th 4 6 4 3 2  
14th 4 7 4 3 2  
15th 4 7 4 3 2  
16th 4 7 4 3 3  
17th 4 7 4 3 3 1
18th 4 7 4 3 3 1
19th 4 8 4 3 3 1
20th 4 9 4 3 3 1

 

OATH OF THE DOMESTIC SERVANT SPELLS

At certain levels, your Domestic Servant will gain access to the following oath of the domestic servant spells. Once you gain access to an oath spell, you always have it prepared. Oath spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain an oath spell that doesn’t appear on the paladin spell list, the spell is nonetheless a paladin spell for you.

Domestic Level Spells
3rd Cure Wounds
9th Pick One: Warding Bond or Find Steed
13th Pick one: Leomund’s Tiny Hut or Create Food & Water
17th Raise Dead

 

SAVING INSTINCT

Starting at 9th level, when you use Evasion to dodge out of area effect, you may attempt to save another character within 10”. You must choose to use this ability before either of you have rolled to save; if the target agrees, this single roll is made for both of you, and the target does not get to roll to save. Depending on how you roll, either one or both of you may avoid damage, or either or both of you may suffer worse.

TABLE

  SAVING NON-MASTER SAVING MASTER
If you succeed Dexterity save Both take no damage Both take no damage
If you fail Dexterity save Both take full damage You take full damage, the master takes half damage

 

WINE AND DINE

Starting at Level 13, whenever your rogue provides a character with food, drink, shelter or comfort (ex. a bonfire in the cold) to a character, all members of your party gain advantage on any Persuasion (Charisma) checks against that character for the next hour.

RAISE THEIR SPIRITS

Starting at level 17th, when you use the spell Raise Dead, you do not have to use spell components (it is assumed your rogue stole them at some point in the past). In addition, if the character raised is your master, every time the resurrected master finishes a long rest, the penalty is reduced by 2 with each rest (instead of 1) assuming the Domestic Servant is there to help with the recuperation process.

Have any thoughts? Have you tried it out? Let us know!

Until next time, Tangent Artists and Dave Joria says, GAME ON!

Fate Accelerated – Adding More Crunch

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Howdy, folks! This post, I’m sharing another rules hack (two, actually).

I LOVE Fate Accelerated. I’ve run it at conventions and one-shots with kids and adults of every age.

However, I’ve asked players who prefer Fate Core skills over approaches, and I generally hear three different complaints:

  • Players spam their lead approach for every action
  • There’s not enough complexity / crunch
  • In large parties, player’s expertise overlap (not enough differentiation)

Then, to extrapolate even more about locked actions (as created in Save Game and discussed in a previous blog post), let us consider:

What if we split each approach up into multiple actions? Or better yet, into a sort of “sub-skill”?

With 6 approaches, each with 4 actions, becomes 24 skills.

Approaches – To help with alliteration, we’ve decided to rename “careful” as “peaceful,” “flashy” as “blaze” and “Quick’ as “zip”. (Which is not perfect, but works for a blog).

 

Approaches –

FORCEFUL

o- Fracture
Caa – Fault
A – Fight
D – Forebear

 

CLEVER

o- Crack
Caa – Conjure
A – Capture
D – Circumvent

 

PEACEFUL

o-  Pick Apart
Caa – Perceive
A – Placate
D – Protect

 

SNEAKY

o-  Split
Caa – Shroud
A – Stab
D – Shirk

 

BLAZE

o- Blow over
Caa – Bedazzle
A – Befriend
D – Blind

 

ZIP

o- Zoom
Caa –  Zero In
A – Zap
D – Zig-zag

Q. What is your level of approach?

A. For ease, I would recommend that PCs have all sub-skills within the same approach all share the same level . Ex. All unlocked Forceful skills be Good +3; all unlocked Clever be at Fair +2. 

Q. How many do the players start out unlocked, and which ones?

There are several ways to do this:

a. Players are given a certain number of points to unlock any subskills they want (mandatory: at least 1 skill for every approach over Average +1.)

b. Players unlock N subskills of their choice for each approach over Average +1. (N would equal either 2 or 3). (ex. 2 unlocked for Forceful, 2 unlocked for Clever)

c. For flavor reasons, each approach has a specific approach auto-unlocked, and players get to unlock N additional subskills (either 1 or 2). (ex. Forceful at Good +3 would have Attack unlocked and a second action; Clever at Fair +2 would have Create an Advantage and a second action).

d. Reverse tiered – the lower to value, the more skills are unlocked. (Ex. One unlocked at Great +4, two unlocked at Good +3, etc.)

Personally, I think B

Q. If I haven’t unlocked an action/ skill, can I still use it?

A. Of course! However, you get no bonuses. (Alternatively, I could imagine paying a fate point to temporarily “unlock” an action.)

Q. Can I have more than two actions unlocked?

A. Not by default. However, stunts can unlock it in set circumstances. Ex. Suave Swashbucker – you may use Flashy to make attacks when you are armed with a rapier. 

Q. Do NPCs have actions locked?

A. No. To keep things simple, NPCs always have access to all 4 actions.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Before I finish with this post, I had one last idea: what if you used the same Approach/lock/unlock set-up with Fate Core? Perhaps this is a new way to bundle skills for fast character creation.

I call this FATE Accelerated Bundled Core, or FATE ABC

CAREFUL
Investigate
Will
Empathy

CLEVER
Craft
Lore
Provoke

SNEAKY
Burglary
Stealth
Deceive

QUICK
Athletics
Notice
Shoot

FORCEFUL
Fight
Physique
Drive

FLASHY
Rapport
Contacts
Resources

Q. How would this work?

1.. GM’s would pick a pyramid type, either Tall or wide.

  • Tall: Approaches have 1x Great +4, 1x Good +3, 1x Fair +2, 2x Average +1, 1x Mediocre +0
  • Wide: Approaches have 1x Good +3, 2x Fair +2, 2x Average +1, 1x Mediocre +0

2. Players would pick their approaches based on that frame (Ex. Forceful at Good +3, Clever at Fair +2).

3. Players would then pick 2 skills under each approach that’s Average +1 or higher: those two skills are unlocked. The third skill is “zeroed out” (as in, can be used, but at Mediocre +0). Here’s an example (using the Tall set up):

fate abc2

Q. How does it compare to normal character creation?

A. In theory, it should be a lot faster. For example, picking 10 skills requires 10 decisions (or, by reverse, 8 skills you choose to not have). With this system, players pick 1 approach to have at zero, and then one of three skills that’s zeroed out- thus, you’re only making 6 choices.

Q. How does this compare to Skill Bundles from Toolkit / Atomic Robo?

The Advantage of this system is that it creates PCs that have skills that overlap in flavor, but still can be unique.

Take Fight for example: It results in 4 different PCS with 4 different feels:

Zero Drive – A strong a burly character that’s not good with machines.

Zero Physique – A tough scrappy get-away driver who might be physically tiny

Zero Fight – A gentle giant who loves machines

Stunts / No Zeroes – Using stunts, this character is can conditionally access all three skills.

Further Advantages

1. Another fun advantage is it provides a nice shorthand for stunts – by adding in the approaches, we now have another value to reference and technology.

  • Calm Mind – Once per session, I gain +1 to each of my Careful skills for the duration of the scene.
  • Cornered Trash Talker – When I have taken stress or a consequence, I unlock Provoke (same value as my Clever).
  • Backstab – If you are attacking an opponent who is not expecting your attack, you may use Fight skill using your Sneaky Approach value instead.

This saves players having to think of a direct parallel for substitution skills – rather, they have to pick a general approach that covers the category.

2. NPCS – The greatest use would be the fact that NPCs can keep using Approaches; this means GMs spend less time and energy creating complex NPCs, and don’t have to worry about minor NPCs that are too vulnerable against a specific type of attack (ex. Having to give them all Will to protect against a psychic PC).

3. This system allows players with Core and players using Approaches at the same table. For example, you might have one experienced player use Core, while another player (perhaps someone who is less experienced, younger, or differently-abled) uses just the approaches. Balance should not be a major priority (as it’s cooperative), but if you wanted to make it more “even,” the PCs using straight approach would have fewer stunts (which reduces their complexity further still).

That’s it for this post! What are your thoughts? Would you use Locked or ABC set-up? Tell us what you think!

 

Fate World Tour – Secret of Cats

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Welcome back, readers! Sorry for the small hiatus, had a busy few months (including a belated honeymoon.)

Next up on the Fate world tour, we visit one of the most popular Fate Worlds:

Secret of Cats

Author: Richard Bellingham
Artist: Crystal Frasier

Genre: Animal; Urban Fantasy; Gothic; Supernatural

Elevator Pitch: The Aristocats meets Supernatural

Full Description: Cats are magical; cats understand sacrifice and the power of names. A decapitated mouse left on the doorstep or pillow is a powerful ward, and a spell wailed by the cat chorus confers even greater protection. When evil is on the rise and the safety of the neighbourhood is at stake the Parliament of Cats is there to stand firm against the darkness. Take Silver Ford, for example, a sleepy tourist town near a played-out old silver mine. When kids messing around in the mine accidentally rouse an ancient evil on All Hallows’ Eve, the secret and magical cats of the neighbourhood are the only thing protecting their special people from the things that go bump in the night. This 50 page Fate Core adventure provides everything you need to play from character generation to plot and setting ideas, including a new feline magic system based on true names and sacrifices made to protect your human Burdens. The Secrets of Cats. Sharpen your claws and prepare to defend your territory!

Mechanics

Subsystem: Skills – 13 Fate Core skills, + 4 New Magic Skills

General Mechanics:

Magic System – Magic is divided into 4 areas.  Warding – Defense; Naming – manipulate others; Shaping – manipulate self; Seeking – Divination.

Masters and Dabblers – At creation (and at milestones), cats can choose to be a master in one of the four magic types. If they do, they can access exclusive “master only” stunts.

Scale rules –Larger targets are easier to hit, but harder to deal stress to; the opposite also is true (smaller = harder to hit, deal extra stress.)

Spirits – Spirit NPCs use approaches instead of skills.

REACTION

I’m gonna go ahead and say it; I’m not a cat person (I blame the allergies). Don’t get me wrong, I bear them no ill will, and wish every cat and cat owner long and happy days. However, roleplaying as a real-life cat doesn’t really grab me.

Which makes the following statement carry even more weight: this is a great world book, and you should definitely pick it up. Speaking as someone without pro-cat bias, I can see that this system is a perfect (purrfect?) gateway game for anyone wanting to hack Fate worlds of their own.

It has:

  • A skill list based on default Fate Core, but with minor alterations
  • Strong NPCs factions to play off of
  • Taboos that guide what steps a PC should / shouldn’t do (but no restrictions to keep a player from doing it)
  • A strong but simple adventure
  • Pre-gen tables for character creation.

Here are some more specific reactions:

Sapient vs. non-sapient: The setting establishes that all cats are sentient; however, not EVERY animal is sentient. I find this very clever and important; it lets the GM throw mindless beasts at them, with the occasional super intelligent ally / nemesis. However, it is especially important because cats power magic by “sacrificing” animals. If everything they sacrificed was sentient (or that they ate; cats are pure carnivores), they’d be absolute monsters, making them far less sympathetic protagonists.

Scale rules – I believe the scale rules were written previous to Secret of Cats, but I’ve never seen them better implemented. This really helps set the tone for smaller PCs living in a big world.

HACKS

4 Masters Roles – The game guides the PCs into being a master of one of the four magic areas. Without too much work, I suspect this setting could be ported over to the Powered by the Apocalypse Engine (i.e. the system used in Apocalypse World, Dungeon World). Given the Urban Fantasy setting, it might be a great hack for Evil Hat’s PbtA game, Monster of the Week.

 

320px-Herbie_at_a_show_in_Portland(OR)

Courtesy Moribunt through CC License

Secret of Cars – While writing this blog post, I accidentally mistyped the title as “Secret of Cars.” As silly as it is, it’s hard to get the image out of your head. Picture it: benevolent compact cars and motorcycles saving their drivers from haunted hot-rods and gloom carts. It’s Herbie vs. Carrie: The RPG. Mechanically, it’d be easy: just reverse the scale rules, with cars interacting with smaller humans and appliances (which using “large scale” rules when attacking the occasional evil Big Rig).

 

Secret of Toys – This is a hack I’ve been wanted to do for years. One of these days, I’ll have to type it up. Same concept, except with toys and stuffed animals keeping children safe from nightmares (and worse).

Bunnicula – SoC seems the perfect setting for bringing your favorite childhood books to life.

More Animals? – Don’t want to play just cats? If so, you can use the Zootopia rules that only / mostly mammals are sentient.

Mash-Up – Merge with White Picket Witches. The Location settings for White Pickett is a great way to increase tension. You can even include human witch NPCs; maybe PCs are the cat familiars belonging to the Five Families?

Secret of Umdaar Cats – Merging Umdaar and SoC. (This idea came from Richard Bellingham himself, so I take no responsibility for it.) I’m not certain what this would look like; either feline humanoids surviving through magic, or the adorable cat sidekicks (a la Snarf and Kringer) being the real heroes behind the scenes.

That’s all for this post!

What world would you like to see next? Let us know!

Fate Hack – Locked Approaches

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Hello! Dave here from Tangent Artist Tabletop. I’m taking a brief break from the world tour to explore a mechanic introduced in Save Game (see our review of it here). Specifically, I wanted to go over the mechanic of Locked Actions.

To explain: in Fate Core, there are 4 actions

  • Overcome – Remove aspects and handle small threats
  • Create an Advantage  – Create a free aspect (without spending a fate point) with one or more free invokes; OR add invokes to an existing aspect.
  • Attack – Used in conflicts to Deal stress / attempt to take an opponent out
  • Defend – Used to defend against create-an-advantage or attack.

In the Fate Core, each skill in the default list can do at least 2 actions (Overcome and Create an advantage), while some can do 3-4 actions (adding attack and/or defend).

However, with the setting Save Game, the author Rob Wieland made it so that every skill has only 2 actions. Save Game has 11 skills. But, I wondered: how many unique 2-action skills could there be?

The answer is 6. Which, as coincidence would have it, is same number of approaches in Fate Accelerated. So, here’s an experimental version: FAE-Locked!

FAE LOCKED

Each of the following approaches has access to the following actions:

Clever

  • Overcome – Unlock locks; devise clever ways to bypass obstacles; trick minor NPCs.
  • Create an Advantage – Create tools; confuse enemies; prep plans; bolster allies.
  • Locked – Attack, Defend

Forceful

  • Overcome – Break obstacles; power through weaknesses; bully or subdue minor NPCs.
  •  Attack – Deal mental or physical stress with direct attacks to the target.
  • Locked – Create an advantage, Defend.

Careful

  • Overcome – Detangle dangerous situations; disarm bombs; remove complications.
  • Defend – Carefully stay out of range of attacks and entanglements.
  • Locked – Create an Advantage, Attack.

Flashy

  • Create an Advantage – craft flashy stories and distractions; bolster allies; create dazzling tools and plans.
  • Attack – Overwhelm the opponent with attacks and displays.
  • Locked – Overcome, Defend

Sneaky

  • Create an Advantage – Sow rumors, create disguises, position self tactically.
  • Defend – Use denial, obfuscation, and stealth to avoid detection and harm.
  • Locked – Overcome, Attack

Quick

  • Attack – Quickly shoot, strike, or insult without pause or analysis.
  • Defend – Instinctively dodge attacks and attempts to hinder you.
  • Locked – Overcome, Create an Advantage.

Exceptions: In some cases, it might be good the bend the rules; for example, during a Challenge, it makes sense to use any appropriate approach to overcome.

But, I’m sure you’re objecting, “But what if I want to attack with my Rogue using Sneaky?”

Fear not! Just like Save Game, we encourage players to create stunts that unlock an action for one of those approaches. We recommend phrasing the stunt in such a way to give the player almost-endless access to the Stunt, with a few rare exceptions (to keep things interesting).

Here are some examples:

Flashy – Unshakable Ego – Unlocks Overcome – You can use Flashy to overcome mental and social aspects (ex. Despair, fatigue, pain, bad reputation), or to overcome minor opponents in a non-violent way.

Forceful – Shiny Inspiration – Unlocks Create-an-Advantage – You can use Forceful to create an advantage, provided you have a bladed weapon near at hand.

Careful – Defense is A Good Offense – Unlocks Attack – You can careful to Attack, provided you are attacking an opponent who has attacked (or threatened to attack) you or someone else.

Clever – Elemental Wall – Unlocks Defend – Your elemental abilities allow you to throw up magical walls of ice and water. You can use Clever to defend against attacks and corporeal advantages; may not be used if the location has an aspect signifying that there’s no water nearby (ex. “Desert”; “Parched Land”; Sealed Bank Vault”)

Best of all, you can use this to create Reinforcement Stunts for players – phrased in such a way that new players are reminded of the right way to use an approach (and potentially cut down on Fate Debates).

Quick – Be Nimble – Unlocks Overcome – You can use Quick to make overcome actions, provided it deals with you moving or reacting quickly (ex. Nimbly jumping a fence; wriggling out of hold).

Careful – Plan Ahead – Unlocks Create Advantage – You can use Careful to create advantages, provided you are not rushed or distracted (ex. Not multitasking).

Sneaky – Surprise Attack – Unlocks Attack – You can use Sneaky to make physical and mental Attacks, provided the target is not expecting the attack (ex. You’re hidden; target is distracted; flanking the enemy).

That’s all we have for this post. Next time, we’ll be continuing on the Fate World Tour!

 

Fate World Tour: Save Game

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Hello! Dave Joria of Tangent Artists here with the fifth stop on the Fate World Tour.

Part 1 – Worlds Take Flight
Part 2 – Worlds Rise Up
Part 3 – Worlds on Fire I
Part 4 – Worlds of Fire II

Today we’re covering the Fate World “Save Game.” Video game nostalgia, here we come!

Save Game

Vs-ThingCreators: Writer: Rob Wieland. Editor: Joshua Yearsley. Art: Brian Patterson.

Elevator Pitch – 8-bit video game heroes barnstorming through corrupted video game worlds.

Themes – Action / Adventure, Drama, Video Games, Nostalgia, Dark Fantasy

Description – THE GLITCH HAS COME TO TENDORIA. A vicious computer virus threatens to corrupt the entire internet, and the only ones standing in its way are the characters from your video games.
8-bit heroes battle monsters and corrupted files—it’s Wreck-It Ralph meets Lord of the Rings in a fight for the fate of the world!
This 56-page Fate Core adventure provides a complete world to adventure in, including randomized character generation rules, ideas to govern digital adventures, and new Fate point hacks. PIXELS ARE FALLING. IT’S UP TO YOU TO SAVE GAME!

Mechanics – Subset – Unique Skill List

Mechanics – 

Hearts & Lives – Hearts replace stress; unlike stress it doesn’t automatically disappear after a scene. Instead, damage goes away with items you can purchase, with an overcome roll, or when you lose a life (see below).

Lives – Replaces consequences. If you are taken out in a conflict, you may spend a Life to jump back in (without waiting until after the conflict). You can buy lives back with coins.

Coins – Replaces Fate Points.  Compared to Fate points, coins seem to fly fast and loose; this means you might see 2-3 times the number of coins be collected and spent compared to FP. Case in point, there’s a new way to earn points during a conflict, known as a Combo pool; if buying in, each player could potentially earn 3 or more coins in a single scene (though it is a gamble). Players cash in coins for upgrades, lives, and healing items.

GM Coin pool – The GM’s fate point / coin pool increases with each stage; the closer to the big boss, the greater the amount by a large factor.

Skills Unlocked – Each skill can only handle two of the four actions. Stunts can be purchased that “unlock” additional actions for skills.

Hax – The “magic” or uber-stunt system. This is expensive, both requiring a skill (that can’t be used without the stunts), and a coin cost. Glitch Mutations.  Antagonist NPCs often use these (making it a nice reference and resource for building new NPCs that’s not overwhelmingly long).

Speed Run and SideQuests – When Rob wrote each stage, he also included additional Sidequests. Then, he provides recommended lengths / modes for running the game. A group can do normal mode (normally 1 sidequest, 1 session per stage), a speed run (no side quests; obstacle + Zero – multiple stages per session); or a marathon style metroidvania (all the sidequests, 2 sessions per stage).

Reaction

I really enjoyed this setting; part of the reason that this review took longer than normal is that I wanted to big deeply into every part of it. Some of my thoughts:

Tone – To my surprise, the tone of the piece is surprisingly dark, bordering on Grimdark. This is not inherently a bad thing (it’s actually quite original). However, I would keep it in mind when picking your play group. A group of 20+ year-olds are unlikely to mind playing the dark “Dr. Chompa” adventure as written. However, if playing with a younger group of 9 year-olds, you may wish to create an original stage from scratch that is less severe. (When in doubt, robots make pretty harmless NPCs).

Great for one shots – I can see how this would be great for one-shots, or for conventions in general. This is true with both normal mode (one stage) and with speedruns (all of the stages).

danky_kang_doodle_1_by_kevinbolk_d71qfcg-fullview

Dankey Kang by Kevin Bolk, used with permission. Read his comics at: http://www.interrobangstudios.com/

Speedrun – I have one concern regarding speedruns; as written, it seems to encourage the play format to be: a. visit a stage and have only a short scene or obstacles; b. big conflict with the Zero; c. Rinse repeat. Without playing it, I predict that with conflicts making up 90% of the action, the action might get a goal. With this is mind, I pass on my normal recommendation when running a long Fate game; try to separate your conflict scenes with a non-conflict scene in the middle. Maybe the 2nd stage involves racing the corrupted Dankey Kang in a contest, or involves defusing a live Rob-Bomb in a tense challenge.

Skills Unlocked –  I love this mechanic, and will steal it the first chance I can. Reason 1: the beautiful symmetry of having each skill have only two actions makes it both easy to remember, and wonderfully fair.  This would normally be great in any setting, but it is particularly justified for a video game world. Why? Let me explain:

The only downside of the Fate rpg system is that it’s so loose, that any hard rules are often hit with resistance. For example:

Player: I want to use my Physique to attack and crush them.

GM: You can’t, Physique isn’t an attack skill.

Player: Why not?  I can break a door in half, but I can’t break a person pinned to the ground?

GM: Because… you can’t?

Of course, you can ask the player to pay a fate point to temporarily or permanently gain the ability to Attack with Physique, but that’s not the point; the point is, the player sees a rule added for a mere arbitrary reason that doesn’t match the physics of their world.

However, in a Save Game, being told “you can’t attack with that” is fine, because you can argue, “because you aren’t PROGRAMMED to attack with that skill.” Also, by calling any inaccessible actions, “Locked,” Rob has made a forced restriction seem more fun; it’s not that you can NEVER attack with that skill, but rather you can’t attack with that skill YET. When a player finally gains a skill to unlock it, they have the added joy of unlocking an achievement.  (Also, kudos to whoever created the great character sheet at the back of the book).

Coins – I enjoy the novelty of showering players with coins / fate points. My only concern is that I fear if it would disrupt the Compel economy; who would accept a compel for 1 fate point, when you have 7 already?  Some ideas:

  • Have some warp pipes that lead to shops in the middle of a stage; let players level up (and more importantly, unload their coins). If players want to save up for something big, offer a “piggybank / gift card” system. Merchant: Tell you what… for each coin you give me now, I’ll give you 2 coins worth of store credit when you visit the main shop after this stage. What do you say?
  • If coins are in high supply, I would recommend doubling or even tripling the amount of FP when compelling; offer 2-3 coins to accept a compel, or 2-3 to refuse.

Likewise, the GM Pool of Fate points would be heavy stocked too. Make sure any new NPCs you create have lots of aspects, don’t skimp on the using GM pool.

Hacks (Clarification: World hacks, not the mutation)

Here are some fun hacks and setting ideas.
Note: In most of these hacks, the PCs would know that they are part of a computer world. “Save Game” is a rare video game setting in that the characters are not meta-aware that they are in a video game.

Reboot – I could easily see using Save Game to visit the 90s show Reboot without any real tweaking (with maybe a slight focus on PC game nostalgia vs. console.)

Captain N – You could recreate this classic TV show about a teen gamer sucked into an all-star team of video game characters. Alternatively, I could see merging this the Fate World “Nest,” in that a whole team of humans are sucked into the games of their youth.

Matrix – For a serious twist; you’d want to focus on the skill Hacks for extra special fun.

Wreck-It Ralph – As a fun twist, why not pull a “Wreck-it-Ralph,” and have all of the PCs be Villains, saving the day from the corrupted heroes? Prove that Bad-guys aren’t Bad GUYS.

Iron Street Combat – I have yet to read this newest video-game-inspired Fate world, but I bet there’s some way to combine the two.

Lastly, based on what video game world you want to visit, you might want to read one of the following Fate Worlds

  • Underwater – Like Echo the Dolphin? Try Deep Dark Blue
  • Western – Tweak Blood on the Trail for fighting Glitch-Vampires on the Oregon Trail!
  • Space – For a space setting a la Metroid or Star Fox, try Andromeda, Red Planet, Sail Full of Stars
  • Food – For food-based games like Diner Dash, Tapper, or Cooking Mama, try adding Uranium Chef (had to work at least ONE shameless plug in this article)
  • Music – For musical games like Guitar Hero, try another new setting, Til Dawn

Sorry for such a long delay between posts, everyone. I’ve been working hard at finishing a prototype of my newest card game, “Don’t Go In There!”

It’s a game themed around slasher movies.

jaime sample

Model image from Adobe Stock, granted through license

I’ve got one playtest in, and it went fantastically (more on that another time). I’m praying to test more and tweak it until I can have a prototype ready for Origins Con.

Here’s a sample of one of the cards:

Speaking of which, Dave Joria will be at Origins Con! Tangent Artists will not have a table there, but we may have some of our Fate Accompli products coming (more on that as it develops).

As for the next Fate World, tell us what you’d like to see! Shall we do another early world, “The Secret of Cats?” Skip Ahead? Put in your requests, on this blog, or on twitter @DaveJoria.

 

FATE WORLD TOUR – REVIEW OF “WORLDS ON FIRE” PT. 2

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Hello! Dave Joria of Tangent Artists here with the fourth stop on the Fate World Tour.

Part 1 – Worlds Take Flight
Part 2 – Worlds Rise Up
Part 3 – Worlds on Fire I

Today, we’re talking going over the second half of “Fate Worlds: World on Fire.” 

KRIEGSZEPPLIN VALKYRIE

Author: Clark Valentine.

Editor: Amanda Valentine.

Artist: Rich Longmore

Elevator Pitch: World War I Flying Aces vs Robots.

Genres & Themes: Pulp; Action; Adventure; Romanticized Warfare; Alt-History / Speculative Fiction; Teamwork; Celebrity; Steampunk; Sci-Fi.

Summary: [“Kriegszepplin Valkyrie” features] a mini-campaign set in a World War One that isn’t quite like you read about in the history books. You play the multinational barnstormers and daring fighter pilots of the era, crewing the biggest airship that ever flew, as you take on the forces of a mad scientist and his army of galvanic automatons. It’s one part pulp, one part Battlestar Galactica, and100% high-flying zeppelin-and-biplanes action, from Evil Hat’s own Clark Valentine.

Mechanics – Sub-System: Fate Core Skill Lists

Mechanics – General:

Aerial Victories – A competitive “mini-game” in which PCs jockey for fame, based on how many planes they shot done (or claim they did).

Dogfighting – A mechanic for conflicts. In a nutshell, damage is capped at 1 stress per attack unless players have an advantage.

Wingman – Each PC pilot comes with an NPC Wingman/person (or persons), who aid in combat.

Relationship Cards – Each PC is tied to another PC through a relationship aspect. Clark has them written on cards.

Bot Villains that Learn – The heroes are opposed by robotic flying minions. They start off easy, but if a squadron leader is present, they will learn the skills and/or stunts the players use.

Planes – The system for PCs to start with a plane. In addition to 3 free stunts, each PC starts with 5 Refresh. However, they are required to buy a plane (most of which cost 1-4 Refresh, depending on how many bonuses it comes with).

Reaction:

First off, this was the first time I connected that the author (Clark Valentine) also wrote the brand new Sci-Fi aerial Fate world, “Tachyon Squadron”; Someday, I’ll review that too, and I’ll be itching to see what can be ported from one setting to the other.

Second, as Clark himself mentions, this could easily be a campaign for Spirit of the Century – as Spirit used Fate 2.0, this means Valkyrie might arguably be the first published “Spirit” campaign with Core rules.

Tangent: Speaking of which, I’m super excited at Shadow of the Century coming out. I plan to review that too, but my instinct is to do Spirit, Strange Tales, and Shadow all in a row, just so I can compare them.

Dogfighting – This reminds me a bit of the Swashbuckling rule from the Fate Toolkit. Personally, I’d test to see if they can be merged.

Ex. Whoever first creates an aspect on an opponent gains the Upper-hand. Only by overcoming this aspect does the current owner lose the upper hand, allowing the opponent to try and win it back. (This avoids the scenario where each side “has the advantage” on each other, which seems counter-intuitive to the story.)

Consumables – This is not a mechanic, but merely something Clark built into the game to force conflict; he made sure to remind the GM that the Zeppelin requires frequent refueling. This forces a group to avoid being too reactionary and is a great source of interaction during a campaign.

Relationship Cards – I have no major reaction, except I’m impressed Clark came up with NINE! That’s fantastic! I will steal them like the alarms are turned off. I also like how Clark gives great GM advice on how to drive minor wedges between the PCs, generally through the use of reporter NPCs and leading questions.

Encounters – As another resource, I’m really impressed by that Clark made NPC tables for encounters. On average, they appear to be a LOT bigger and tougher than my average game session (which could explain why my players beat most of my conflicts better easily – might need to up my game).

Planes – A simple system, really; it lets players differentiate their pilots and their planes from each other. Do they want a skilled pilot, a superior craft, or a balance of the two? I can easily see a similar hack for Mech suits as well.

Hacks – Nothing too major comes to mind, but a few thoughts (beyond the obvious SotC games mentioned above):

>Love and War – As a tweak, which if the zeppelin was not primarily a mobile battle station, but on a diplomatic mission? Merge it with “Romance in the Air” to feature high society ambassadors flirting with the ace pilots sworn to protect them.

>Space Zeppelins – Merge with Sail Full of Stars and enjoy steam/diesel punk aerial battles – in space! (Finally, I got to work into this week’s blog SOMEHOW).

>Mad science and heroes from history sound like a great basis for an Atomic Robo campaign / adventure.

Burn Shift

Author: Sarah J. Newton.
Editor: Matthew Bowman.
Artist: Jennifer Rodgers

Elevator Pitch: Post-apocalyptic Mad Max, except mutants can be good too. OR
How I learned to stop worrying and the love the bomb-related mutations.

Genres & Themes: Action; Adventure; Sci-Fi; Post-Apocolyptic; Survival; Transhumanism; Community; Peace vs. War; Anarchy vs. Civilization.

Summary: From the Mindjammer mind of Sarah J. Newton, a post-apocalyptic vision of the future! The Age of Space is gone, blasted to atoms in a devastation which buckled continents and boiled seas. Now the sky flickers with many-colored lightning and roiling clouds, and the air is heavy with poison. Twisted by strange energies from forms already geneered beyond natural adaptation, the remnants of posthumanity struggle to survive in the ruins of a once-glorious civilization. But for every one who succumbs to the curse of the Wounded Earth, another thrives with the Burn Shift — the new power which gives survivors an edge in this harsh and nightmarish world. Where most post-apocalyptic RPGs stop, Burn Shift starts: it’s not about wallowing in the devastation, but about pushing through it, reforming and rebuilding communities, going beyond… Whatever the future will be, it won’t be like the past.

Mechanics – Sub-System: Fate Core

Mechanics – General:

Genotype – Genotypes are basically “race” templates for quick character construction. Each come with a frame work for granting bonuses and penalties.

Burn Shifts – The name-same for the game, and after the term for a useful mutation brought about by radiation. Mutant characters can start with these, while any flesh-and-blood PC can gain them during a campaign if they suffer a severe consequence from radiation. (The book includes rules for transitioning from “wound” to “superpower.”)

Communities – Rules for representing large communities as they work with and against each other, and the PCs. These can be controlled by the GM and, to my surprise, by the players too (yeah home-team advantage). They use the same Fate Core skills as players, but they use them in a different way. Communities use the Scale rules (demonstrated in the Fate Toolkit, and reprinted here).

Equipment – A list of equipment items and extras that PCs can buy and acquire (many of them cost aspects, skills, and/or stunt slots.)

Reaction: The first things to jump out at you in the book are the stunts/extras. These powers and items are the most hackable part of the game and would port well into any superhero or fantasy game. They are so eye-catching, that it’s easy to forget what I consider the most revolutionary part of the game: the Communities.

Communities – Not only did Netwon design the communities to work at “tribe vs. tribe,” but it works on multiple scales (even asymmetric ones). Examples: Rival city-states in Eagle Eyes? A colony rebelling against its parent nation in a Sail Full of Stars? Rival gangs in Behind the Walls or The Secrets of Cats?

Tangent: Now I want to merge those last two, and have two clowders of cats warring behind prison walls.

Equipment – I missed this when I started this review, but caught it upon rereading; some of the items don’t provide a bonus, but rather a flat stat. This makes them great for NPCS. Want some Armored NPCs? The assault armor gives them stats of Good (+4) Fight, Fair (+2) Athletics, Weapon:2 and Armor: 2; just slap on an aspect or two and maybe a low Willpower, and your NPC is set!

Hacks: I already mentioned in Umdaar book itself how you can use Burn Shift as a late-campaign hack (although, you’d have to convert from Fate Core.)  Other options:

> Lots of Dystopian worlds / medium to copy: Tank Girl, Mad Max, Water World; I am Legend / Omega Man.

>Scrap the dystopian aspects, but use the Burn Shift adaptations to make a group of mutated heroes in modern day (ex. Doom Patrol; Toxic Avenger.)

>Hack for a Fall Out setting. (Extra option: Add video game elements from Save Game to have PCs be literally stuck in a game of Fall Out.)

>Personally, I think it’d be a handy foundation for a Nausicaa campaign. Alternatively, add some fun Nausicaa elements into your Burn Shift setting to take it a step away from Mad Max. Some of my favorite Nausicaa elements: Unstoppable mutant bugs; poisonous forests; no metal, only porcelain.

Wild Blue

Author:  Brian Engard.
Editor: John Adamus
Artist: Molly Ostertag.

Elevator Pitch: Superheroes in a fantasy Wild West.

Genres & Themes: Western; Superhero; Fantasy; Survival; Action / Adventure; Colonization vs. Preservation; Duty

Summary: From Bulldogs! co-author Brian Engard comes this setting of six-guns and superpowers, monsters and outlaws and keeping the peace on the frontier. It’s a dangerous world out there, but opportunities abound in the Blue Lands for those willing to help themselves. You’re one of the Queen’s Wardens, a newly inducted recruit into the land’s most elite law-enforcement team, a team made up entirely of Powers, people born with unique capabilities beyond those of the common folk. You’re a superhero, a law-bringer, a Warden. But all power comes with a cost, and being a hero is never without danger.

Mechanics – Sub-System: Fate Core

Mechanics – General:

Gear – A way of handling equipment. Players gain two simple aspects, each of which grants them a single strong resource (ex. A horse), or a collection of items lumped into a single bundle aspect (ex. A crafting kit; a camping kit).

Gift – A superpower (at start, only 1 each); these include a strength and a cost.  When appropriate, a strength can be used to automatically overcome mundane/nameless obstacles, as well as having a mechanical boost as well. A cost can be unrelated restriction on you at all times (ex. Can never tell a lie), or a strong limitation on the power itself (ex. Can only fly when rays of the sun touch you).  A gift is also an extra, which can be invoked and compelled. During campaigns, a gift can slowly be refined as your powers grow (ex. A stronger ability, but stronger cost). The book has lots of great examples!

Reaction:

If you had asked me a week ago which Fate subsystem Wild Blue used, I would have said “Fate Accelerated”;  upon rereading, I was surprised to realize that it used the Fate Core skills. I’m not sure WHY I thought it was FAE; possibly because a. the sentence structure used for gifts is similar to the same structure as Stunts in FAE, or b. the Wild Blue’s artist, Molly Ostertag, has an expressive and pleasing style not dissimilar to Claudia Cangini’s style (artist featured in the Fate Accelerated book).

That being said, the single-power format of Wild Blue WOULD lend it very well to FAE. I can easily imagine porting it over: the perfect, simple system for a younger audience, or a convention one-shot. The only flaw I see is that with only 6 approaches, it would be recommended that each PC pick a UNIQUE approach to link to their gift; if you have 3 bruisers with Forceful gifts, and 2 with Clever, it’s going to get a bit redundant very quickly. (This is where fill-in-the-blank pre-constructed characters are great).

The only concern I have with the setting is the same concern that comes with every Western: the role of the Native. In Wild Blue, the players take on the human colonizers to this magical land (in a way that parallels European society’s colonization of the American West), while the fairy-like Folk are a clear metaphor for Native Americans. Because one Folk group are antagonistic, on the surface, this can easily be seen as reinforcing the Eurocentric narrative of “Colonists good, natives evil.”

However, reading deeply into the setting will reveal the seeds of moral complexity in the piece.  So, to be clear: by all means, PLAY THIS SETTING, but I recommend either a. thinking long and hard about what stereotypes your campaign is reinforcing or subverting, or b. make your nastiest antagonists human (ex. The Sky Pirates, or an evil organization of your own creation).  The third option is c. have your players play as non-lethal, impartial mediators between the Folk and the humans, a la Princess Mononoke (which is possible, but requires the perfect group of players).

Hacks

A few ideas:

>Flip the script: PCs are young Folk, trying to prevent their parents from starting a war with the encroaching Blue Lands. Your only hope: win the trust of the noble (if not misguided) Wardens.

>If you want to keep the Wild West, but avoid casting the natives as villains, why not add a third faction: INVADING ALIENS. Splice in some of the Fate setting “Knights of Invasion” and you get a setting not unlike the movie “Cowboys and Aliens.” Maybe the Wardens can convince the Humans and the Folk to join against a common intergalactic enemy?

>While speaking of the Wild West, I wonder if this setting would work at all with Blood on the Trail (I haven’t read that one yet). Superheroes vs. Vampires in the Old West? Yes, please.

>There is a lot of overlap, thematically, with Frontier Spirit; I can easily see using the latter to put Wild Blue in space, or having Frontier Spirit ported to a fantasy Old West.

>The Gift / Cost formula adds a great flaw to any superhero setting, including Atomic Robo or Venture City.

> Similarly, the Gift/Cost set up would make Wild Blue a great foundation for a fate hack of the anime/manga series “One Piece.”. Each devil fruit power could simply be, “I get {this power), but I can’t swim.”

That’s it for this post. I was tempted to go on to “Fate World V2: Worlds in Shadow,” but I’m putting them one on the shelf for a little. Why?

Because there are so many AMAZING Fate Settings on clearance sale at the Evil Hat store at a fraction of the normal price.

*Cough* IncludingWorldsRiseUpwithMyGame *cough* 

The next few blogs will be showcasing some of these great games, and why you should grab a hard copy before they’re gone FOREVER.

Until next time, readers, Game On!

-Dave Joria

Fate World Tour – Review of “Worlds On Fire” Pt. 1

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Hello! Dave Joria of Tangent Artists here with the third stop on the Fate World Tour.

Part 1 – Worlds Take Flight
Part 2 – Worlds Rise Up

Today, we’re talking going over the first half of “Fate Worlds: World on Fire.” 
I was going to try to tackle it all in a single blog post, but Worlds on Fire… is more than I can handle!*
*(Alright, 2003 called, they said they DON’T want their Sarah McLachlan jokes back; they weren’t funny even then)

On with the review!

Tower of the Serpents

Author: Brennan Taylor. Art: Kurt Komoda

Elevator Pitch: A Conan-style dungeon crawl through a Wizards Tower.

Genres & Themes: Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Swords & Sorcery / Intrigue / Pulp

Summary: …At the very center of this vile pit stands a tower, the Tower of the Serpents. Older than the Palace, older than the city, it is made of an unknown material, white and hard as steel. The tower’s single spire rises nearly as high as the Palace walls, twin entwining serpents carved curling up the tower’s sides. A sorcerer lives there, they say, and this rumor seems likely true. The tower has a garden around it that grows despite the lack of sun, and strange lights shine from the upper rooms at night. No one is ever seen entering or leaving the place, and the single gate in the garden wall never opens. Darksiders say that on moonless nights you can hear the loathsome flutter of unholy wings from the top of the tower, and perhaps it is by this conveyance that the sorcerer comes and goes. They also say the tower holds a treasure of incalculable value.

Mechanics – Sub-System: Fate Core

Mechanics – General: None

Reaction: I’m going to start with the harsh, honest truth and work my way to the positive: From a purely mechanical, fate-hacker perspective, Tower of Serpents doesn’t introduce anything new. It’s no wonder that it was the first one adventure released with the Fate Core rulebook; I could easily see this as being packaged INSIDE the rulebook without it seeming incongruous. (Personally, “Tower of the Serpents” always felt like an ideal adventure for the Hearts of Steel campaign that shows up in the examples in the Core book – time to see Landon, Cynere, and Zird the Arcane in action!)
Now, is it still a good setting? Absolutely! “Tower of the Serpents” shines as:

  • A fun pre-made step-by-step classic dungeon – It’s got adventure, treasure, a gorilla… what’s not to love?
  • An amazing resource for inexperienced GMs on how to run any kind of game – Taylor provides great suggestions in all sorts of areas, including how to keep action moving, responding to players’ deviations, how to introduce conflict through the various factions, etc.
  • A useful template for experienced GMs who are inexperienced with Fate – If a friend of mine was an experienced D&D GM and said, “I want to port my setting for Fate, how would I do it?” I would give him this adventure as a sample.

As I mentioned, there are no mechanics to port over, but I could easily see a GM introduce this into any adventure they are currently running. Including:
Knights of Invasion; Dresden Files (Would need to update the town); Secret of Cats; Camelot Trigger (Add in Tech); Nest (with fewer factions); Strange Tales of the Century
With More Hacking the Skill List – Masters of Umdaar; Aether Sea; Fate Freeport Companion. (If you have more, let me know!)

White Picket Witches

Author: Filamena Young. Artist: Kel McDonald

Elevator Pitch: You are the leads (and the showrunners) on a program that’s part Charmed, part Witches of Eastwick, with a dash of Desperate Housewives

Genres & Themes: Supernatural / Urban Fantasy / Drama / Romance / Mystery / Television / Family

Summary: Small towns are cauldrons full of family secrets. In Salem, those cauldrons bubble over. Inspired by paranormal cozies like Practical Magic and the Witches of Eastwick, White Picket Witches give the players magic and charms to deal with small town pressures… and sometimes, the forces of evil. It’s about accepting the past, fitting in, or breaking out. It emphasizes friendships, brother/sisterhood, community, and a touch of romance. Designed by Filamena Young of Machine Age Productions, who has worked with Margaret Weis Productions, White Wolf, and many others.

Mechanics – Sub-System: Unique List, called Assets

Mechanics – General: Geez, so many. Where to start:

Place of Power – This is an important location, that holds both magical power (a leyline crosspoint) as well as a place where players can interact (ex. a hospital; a courthouse; a library). Players take turns creating the Places of Power, rather than the GM. Places of power also have their own sub-rules, including:

  • Leitmotif – Instead of labeling the place of power with a simple “high concept” aspect, the location has a general “mood,” described as “what music would play in the background when the camera cuts to the location.” (As a music theatre major, I appreciate the musical reference). Once per scene, players can invoke it for free. Players can also pay one fate point to temporarily change the leitmotif (this is generally done to help other players, even if they’re not directly participating in the scene).
  • Face-Off – Drama in “White Picket Witches” is handled in a unique kind of scene called a “Face-Off”; this is a variant on a conflict with a few small changes. Unlike a Conflict, in which one character takes an action (with the target rolling to defend), and then the second character taking an action (with the target rolling to defend), in a face-off, each character rolls only once; for example, if two players attempt to attack each other, the both roll to attack, and the loser takes stress equal to the difference. It’s a wee bit more complicated than that (ex. Having only two sides; extra stress boxes based on people involved), but that’s the basic structure.
  • Place of Power Assets – Places of Power have skills/assets, just like players. During a Face-Off, after the players have each taken a turn, the GM takes a turn as the Place of Power, exerting influence, pressure, or creating complications for the players. This represents both forces inside the fiction (ex. magical energies, NPCs), as well as outside influence from the show-runners who are adding drama to the TV show (which is fantastic).

PC-linked Antagonists – At player creation, each player creates an NPC to serve as an antagonist (which is not necessarily a villain; it can be a rival or foil). During scenes, the antagonists are played by any players who aren’t in the scene.

Scene Structure – Young lays out the scene structure very simply: A. Players and GM decide what scenarios they want to create, and their objectives. B. Players pick a Place of Power. C. Start a scene, and continue until a Face-Off starts.

Flashbacks – A special type of compel, invoked during a Face-Off. If a player can thematically justify it, they can compel an opponent’s aspect and one of the opponent’s skills/assets, including a time the aspect of their personality “got in the way.” They develop a quick flashback scene explaining what happened, and whether the opponent has grown from the experience or is still dealing with it.

Being Taken & Concessions – If one side takes out their opponent in a Face-off, their victory is written in a sentence aspect. If the loser concedes, they get to alter one word of the sentence. For examples, see the Reaction below.

Reaction

The first time I read White Picket Witches, I really liked it. Upon re-reading, it’s now in my top-five Fate settings. There are so many original mechanics, formats, and ideas that it’s hard to grasp that it’s only 34 pages long.

Face-off Reaction: I love the Face-off scene type; it’s a fantastic way to handle player vs. player interaction in a way that is faster and more dynamic than a normal conflict. I am reminded that I have a similar mechanic in Uranium Chef, which is also meant to emulate the stars of a TV show battling with each other; it’s even called a Face-off (whether this is pure coincidence, or whether “White Picket Witches” worked its way into my subconscious I’ll never know.) In “Uranium Chef” Face-offs, the conflict is boiled down to a SINGLE roll, rather than a full scene. I could easily see one being used in lieu of the other, i.e. using single-roll Minor Face-offs in White Picket Witches, and using long-form Face-off scenes in Uranium Chef.

Warning: If you’re running a White Picket Witches game, make sure the players are creating stunts that grant them a bonus to Defense rolls, or helps them get a higher turn order; as Face-Offs replace conflicts, stunts like these would be next to useless.

The only flaw with the Face-off mechanics as written is that there’s a small gap regarding creating advantages; it mentions to do with obstacles once they are created, but not how to create them. Normally, if you were in a conflict with person A, and wanted to create an advantage on person B (say, convincing a bystander to get involved), you would roll against the difficulty of Person B (or, if target b is an inanimate obstacle, against a set difficulty). While not stated, my guess is that you’d still roll against the opponent (to represent the fact that you’re still ducking and weaving physical or verbal jabs from Person A, all the while).

Example 1: Alex and Jenna are fighting in a Face-Off. Alex wants to punch Jenna. Jenna wants to place a hex on the floor. They both roll, the higher succeeds. If Alex wins, she deals stress equal to the difference. If Jenna wins, the aspect is placed.

Example 2 – Alternate: Alternatively, you could pick a normal difficulty, just to discern how many invokes they get if they succeed. Imagine the GM settings “placing a hex on the floor” at passive Difficulty Fair +2. Alex attacks, and scores a Great +4. If Jenna rolls Great or Less, no aspects are created (as she did not succeed against Alex). If Jenna rolls a Superb +5 or higher, she counts as creating an aspect with succeeding with style (rolling +3 higher than the obstacle).

Antagonists Reaction: Unlike most TTRPGS, in which all of the “party” is in the same scene in any given time, the story structure of WPW works best when splitting the party. This would normally lead to a few players interacting with the GM, while the others players grow bored. However, the Antagonist system provides players with a chance to create additional characters. The fact that Antagonists are played by dormant players (not the GM) means that some players can still be involved, while still providing ways for the remaining people (GMs & others players) to still have some influence (through action as the Place of Power or changing the Leitmotif).

Scene Structure Reaction: In writing books, I’ve heard it advised, “cut to the action.” Don’t want useless scenes on minor things, such as grocery shopping or brushing teeth, unless it does something to further the story. All Fate Core scenes are based on skipping straight to the drama, but the scene structure of WHW helps put that even more to the foreground. (I might have to borrow it for a LARP I’ve been working on).

Conceding Sentences Reaction – A great way to handle concessions, that I think would work in any Fate Setting. However, I would offer a small addition: the change to the sentence cannot be a 100% reversal of the original sentence.

Ex. Alex wins the scene and wants to beat it Jenna’s head that, “Jenna will not go into the Haunted manor.” As Jenna concedes, she can alter one word of the sentence.

Bad Example: Jenna’s changed sentence can’t be, “Jenna will DEFINITELY go into the Haunted manor,” as this merely reverses the original.

Good Example: Jenna changes the sentence to, “Jenna will not go into the Haunted manor ALONE.” (Thus, Alex partially succeeded in teaching Jenna that she’s too weak to go in alone, but not enough to diminish her determination.)

Hacking WHW – As I mentioned before, I think a lot of WHW could be used with Uranium Chef, and vice-verse. Similarly, the same principals can be used to add drama/soap-opera elements (both in-fiction and meta) to any setting. Imagine second season of the period British program “Romance in the Air,” or “The Real House-wives of Burn-Shift Postapocalyptic Earth.”

FIGHT FIRE

Author: Jason Morningstar. Artist: Leonard Balsera

Elevator Pitch: Real drama of fire fighters.

Genres & Themes: Realism; Action; Drama; Sacrifice; Crime; Medical

Summary: Fight Fire expands Fate Core’s handling of objective hazards, answering the common question “the warehouse has the On Fire aspect… now what?” Not only is this answered — literally — but it is enhanced and expanded in the form of a mini supplement that tackles both the day-to-day operations of urban firefighters (using tactics cribbed directly from the FDNY) and their lives off the clock. Raised in a firefighting family, Fiasco author Jason Morningstar takes Fate Core in a direction that tempers hard-researched realism with drama and danger

Mechanics – Sub-System: Unique Skill List

Mechanics – General:

Unique Skills – A very trimmed down Skill list, using primarily practical skills specific to fire fighting. A clever twist is that the fire npcs (see below) have their own unique skill list. It’s a bit of a rock-paper-scissors game, in that certain fire skills can only be overcome or defended against by specific skills.

Consequences – Do not automatically go away. Even when are recovered, they become aspects.

On Fire – A special aspect. When rolling to overcome it, if the character fails, they take stress equal to the difference. (This is useful for all RPGS, as it’s only a matter of time before a player asks, “Can I set it on fire?”)

Fire as NPCS – A great example of the Fate principal, “Everything can be done as a character.” Fire is represented as three types of NPCS, and a fourth for Smoke.

Vent for Life / Fire – A mechanic for dealing with fires; players get the chance of venting for life (flooding area with oxygen to help victims) or venting for fire (removing oxygen to suppress fire). Even if you succeed in one way, it mechanically hurts the other.

Reaction:

I will go out and say that realistic drama like this is not my particular cup of tea (I tend to prefer escapism and/or comedy to tragedy). However, if you were interested in such a thing, I can’t imagine a better way to handle it.

Vent for Life / Fire Reaction – As I’ve expressed before, Fate is a relatively forgiving system; if a player wants to succeed at something, they will likely make it happen. I think the “venting” system is a great way to mechanically include into systems, in that it forces the player to make a choice; even they succeed at one thing, they will fail in the other. I can easily see this in a medical or ER drama; a surgical incision may help the patient in one way, while risking their life in another.

The one minor concern I had for the setting is that “Smoke” is both the name of a skill that Fire NPCs have as well as the name for a type of NPC. To clarify, I recommend referring to the latter as “Smoke Clouds.”

Hacks – I definitely think there is lot of hack potential for Fight Fire. If you wanted to add cop drama, you can add in roles for Fire Marshalls (who investigate Arson) or Fire Police (which handle light fires, as well as can make arrests or assist in rescue efforts).

If you wanted to run the setting in a lighter, lower stakes setting, I’d recommend using it as the foundation for a paranormal exterminator setting. It would not be hard to reimagine the fire NPCs as nameless ghosts and lesser demons, lurking behind the walls, waiting to envelope the old mansion and pull it into the void.

That’s it for now. Will have the second half with you soon!

Until then, Game On!

-Dave Joria