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Fate Core RPG

RPG Name: Fate Core

Description: Fate Core RPG Evil Hat - Fate System - Generic - Fantastic Adventures in Tabletop Entertainment based on the FUDGE engine. No longer an acronym. There are other games that use the Fate engine.

What are your reviews for this category of role-playing game? Would Fate Core play by post work well? Do you think you can play this easily for a first time get together or are the rules too intense?

Played As: Fate Core PBP RPG? or See more RPG systems

RPG Core Fate

Fate Core and Fate Accelerated are different versions of the same system. Both are incredibly flexible, capable of handling nearly any setting. Feel like being a superhero? No problem. How about a daring archaeologist searching for signs of Atlantis in 1930's Borneo? Sure. A cyber-enhanced super intelligent gorilla? They used that as a sample character. How do they do it? Simple. They use the power of story.

A Fate Core character has three parts. Aspects, simple phrases that describe important things about them, Skills, which define the scope of their abilities, and Stunts, little tricks they've learned to make their live easier. There are optional Extras, like super powers, starships, organizations or psionic powers. Rather then give exhaustive lists of traits, the designers merely provide examples. A Fate Accelerated character trades Skills for Approaches. It isn't about what you do, its about how you do it. Instead of rolling a Fight skill, one launches a flurry of blows, attacking Quickly. Unless one prefers brawn, in which case you can launch a Mighty blow.

The beauty of Fate is the way the system uses narrative to determine results. A character's Aspects allow them into the story, creating drama both personal to them and relevant to the overall story. Say you have the Aspect "Hate Dr. Machismo." If you are in a fight against Dr. Machismo, you can use that hatred to your advantage, focusing your rage to gain a bonus to your roll. This is called invoking your Aspect, and it costs a fate point. Or the GM can use that hate against you, causing you to perhaps assume Dr. Machismo is at the heart of the problem when he really isn't involved. This is called a compel of the Aspect, and if you accept it, the GM GIVES you a fate point to use later. You and the GM negotiate how the compel affects you. It has to at least inconvenience you or otherwise make an interesting story, but you have a say in how it does so.

Fate is my current favorite system, and does indeed power many other games. The Dresden Files Role-playing Game and Mindscape are two that I own, and while they have the same rules at their heart, they are very different games, which only goes to show the versatility of the engine. You can make it a free flowing story, or a deeply integrated multifaceted system, with complex interaction between effects. The choice is yours.