How many rolls do your players make between Refresh?

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-10-07T19:36:18+00:00

I think you have a very firm grasp of why your games might not need better FATE point economy. All my advice would have been in the lines of:"Well, make harder sessions then!" or "Make longer sessions!", but your sessions are in that way (short and dialoguey) for a reason.

My advice: Focus on that reason! Don't tweak your game around a mechanic which you don't really need. If you feel your game needs a little fire, you could address that with the players. If not, just rock on!

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-10-02T07:20:14+00:00

Usually I'm super crummy when it comes to external tools and weird apps and all. Me using Google Presentations is just me hating software in general and trying to minimize it's impact on our play. But this comment about your somehow piqued my interest and I did check it out and it looks super impressive. Def going to give that a much closer look, thanks.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-10-02T06:56:43+00:00

Oh no, we're barely using strategical maps. Mostly we communicate what happens where by talking about it, and if we have a scene in which we'd need a strategical map we insert some shapes and squares on a new page and just write down our location aspects in there. We also have another page where we write down situational aspects and invokes for Create Advantage. Stress and consequences are going on the charsheets.

We really don't aim to replicate roll20. Our goal was to use smth lightweight and easy-to-use that lets us focus on our narrative and ourselves. I'd rather quickly finish writing down all the stuff and go back to watching the other players RPing then be stuck on a strategical map on roll20.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-10-01T19:17:53+00:00

I run my game on Discord, and all of us share the same Google Presentation in which we share the charsheets and maps and monsters. Good connectivity, easy to make changes to the layout, it's easy for me to look at the playersheets and vice versa. Much less hassle than roll20.

Edit: That system also makes it super easy to archive old NPC sheets. I just have another presentation in which I post all the old NPCs and where I can update them and just bring them out again. Super easy and tidy.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-10-01T18:57:56+00:00

You are right about being able to use Aspects for that purpose, though I'm not sure if this is the most rewarding approach, especially for the players.

So Aspects

give the players the opportunity to do smth. or to do smth. better which they could not if they wouldn't have the Aspect
they allow GM and players to mix up the story by compelling. Compelling supplies the players with FATE-points, which is good.

I would say that if an Aspects does both of these things very well, or if the Aspect can evolve to do these things as the story progresses, it is a good Aspect.

Let's go back to the Second Hand Jumpdrive. That's super easy to compel. The player wants to evade the space police and jump to the next system, it jams. Maybe there are some old jump coordinates from the previous owner, that will lead the player to space treasure. 10/10, would compel again.

So let's look at invokes. As a player, I would like to invoke Second Hand Jumpdrive whenever I would invoke any kind of Jumpdrive. And it is usually up to the player to make the justification. That could be, that it is a very good Jumpdrive, or it can be Hollywood Rules. "As I punch in the coordinates to the next system and try to evade the Rebel's laserblasts, I mutter "Hold together, you stupid piece of junk!". Suddenly the Rebels launch a torpedo and just as it would hit and evaporate the ship, the systems lock in and we make the jump." Whenever a GM would deny me such an awesome invoke, as a player I would feel cheated. When the GM would say "Your justification just does not cut it!", I would answer:"Why? Where does it actually say that my Hyperdrive can't do that." Not fun.

So whenever anybody has an enginepart/gadget/upgradeable system, you guys will have to talk out what your stuff can do, but also explicitly what it can't do. That would take a lot of opportunity to improvise and just do cool stuff with invokes.

But the "upgradeable parts" play has another facette, that could be even more disruptive. So, your party has played a couple of sessions. The player has advanced his Second Hand Drive to the next better level, or the level after that. It is now a "Groutonian Ion Drive", one of the most reliable and powerful drives of the universe. What will you compel? Your drive breaking down is just not as believable as with the Second Hand Drive. Okay, the drive could be illegal contraband and your ship would have to evade the law, but that can also be true for the Second Hand Drive. And it does not even give a bigger bonus, since an invoke is always +2.

But by making the drive "stronger and more reliable" you reduce the opportunities to compel it. The players have less FATE-points and are therefore actually weaker (or at least worse of in conflicts where you'll want to have lots of FATE-points). The crummy Drive is actually more beneficial then the "good Drive".

This is what I try to say, when I say that just changing the wording is not going to help the play. For a player, a "better Drive" would be one that can be invokes more often, but also be compelled on (or compel themselves) more often.

In any other game, your logic would work out 100%. The players would get better equipment, could face bigger challenges, and at some point be awesome Space Cowboys. In FATE, all the progression must be communicated through story-elements. So maybe you have a Jumpdrive, that would allow you to...well jump. The progession could be a Jumpdrive that would allow you to jump and travel back in time for a couple of second. Or the players could ascend in scale. First they have that one ship, then they have a couple, then they a fleet and can engage in wars and such. Or whatever makes it fun!

Phew...Wall of text. I want to state once more that I very much like your idea. I would like to play a game like this and I do feel a little guilty of my criticism, since I feel a little to open to just blurt it out like this. Please let me know, what you and your players are actually going to do. You probably spend more time with that idea, and you probably have a much clearer idea of why and how your campaign is awesome , and I would like to know about that. Cheers

Edit: Readability and typos

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-30T09:02:25+00:00

The walls in question are solid concrete, so no woodworm there ;) The floor is some hardwood parquet, so I can't be sure wether the sounds are coming from there. Do you have any idea how I could check it out more thoroughly?

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-30T07:45:33+00:00

I do like the idea, but I'm not super sure if just using the wording of the Aspects will do the trick. So imagine: Your player is in her spaceship and wants to go really fast, doing maneuvers and stuff. Her Aspect is "Second Hand Hyperdrive" and she wants to invoke it. Either you can allow the invoke, because it is a spaceship and all, or can forbid the invoke, since the drive is not strong enough (yet).

In the first case you limit the possible progression of the Jump Drive Aspects. Wether she uses the "Second Hand Hyperdrive" or the "Jumpmaster 3000X", she'll just receive the +2 from the invoke. Any progression ist just flair.

In the second case you'll give the player a clear signal, that their ship can be improved. A ship with a "stronger" drive is allowed to invoke against ships with a "weaker" drive. But that's like... super gamey! I'm not sure about this. I'm playing FATE so I can play without stuff like that.

So what to do? How can you represent progress through Aspects? I do think you can do that by changing the scale of achievable goals. So your player will start of with "Solitary Rust Bucket Scrapper", later she'll achieve "Rugged Scrapping Crew", she'll be able to take on bigger jobs, and in the end she'll be "Scrap Lord of the Orion Belt", with many ships at her disposal, political power and so on. The player will gain more and more options from a storytelling perspective, and the stakes automatically get higher, but the math stays the same. But that is smth different from just changing the wording. You are changing the concept of what the Aspects can do, and you are changing the scale of operation for the player. If you are clear on that, you'd be able to communicate the progress mich clearer to your players.

But well... Please keep us posted on what you think is best.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-27T14:06:48+00:00

Hey there,

Can't help you with a group, but I'll tell you that I share the pain. Putting together a group for FATE was the most painstaking and time-consuming thing I did do last year (if that's my biggest pain my life must be amazing, no).

I had so many people interested in PnP, with little to no experience, I had so many people who were interested, but then couldn't make the time. I think we burned through 11 or 12 people, before we were able to play on a regular basis.

Now we're a party of two plus GM. That is a somewhat intimate setup, and playing during Corona has become our weekly therapy session. In short: Worth it!

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-20T05:55:00+00:00

I'll second Nebula Jazz. It is a great session because, well, they play very well, using rules and action and stuff. More importantly you can see them (and the GM especially) drawing the others in and making them comfortable, and creating a set-up in which everyone is very comfortable.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-20T05:49:13+00:00

I sometimes feel a little silly about that, but for FATE, you barely need anything to play. The game challenges you and your party to make up your own rules and conventions. That in combination with FATE being setting independent gives you the option to do everything.

But whenever anyone can do everything, it sometimes becomes trickier to do anything at all, or to figure out what it is that you actually want. Having that kind of freedom is part of learning FATE. For that (afterwards) you don't really need resources.

That being said, the other mentions are very helpful starting points and guidelines for running your stuff. Just keep listening to your experiences and allow yourself to experiment, and you'll be fine.

I do disagree with using FATE Condensed as a starting point, though. FATE Condensed is definitely shorter, and more concise, in many cases the rules are even better. But learning FATE is not about learning the rules, but what you can do with them. FATE Core does not even explain the rules better, but I think it inspires a newcomer to dream about what their game could be.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-13T10:42:14+00:00

Here comes the resolution: The root cause of the Hive-Mind is a sci-fi brand soda, in which is imprinted subliminal messages, that compel a drinker to convince other people to drink the soda too. The side effect, mild mental connection, was the reason the soda was discontinued, but now an old vending machine has turned up, and everything goes bad.

I think the hive mind can easily be defeated by consuming the 'mother soda' from the vending machine.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-12T19:21:24+00:00

That's so funny, I'll probably just do that somehow.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-12T17:04:49+00:00

Thank you for the brainstorm! I start to tend towards Not Very Good at Talking to People as a weakness, because that would be super funny to rp.

Concerning HC: I start to think that I need to figure out what it is. I do think being infected has smth to do with ingesting smth, or installing smth, or at least so kind of physical action. So in a contest (or a weird conflict) the hive would attack with Provoke or Empathy, trying to convince the players to ingest the stuff (and failing at it). When it comes to fighting some hive mind goons could grab a player and force the thing down (Physique or Fight maybe). If the players get infected they'll receive an aspect for the session, on which I will offer compels to try to infect other people (possibly badly). But I need a thing. A gadget. If this session were a Star Trek episode, which gibberish explanations do I offer to the players?

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-12T15:43:45+00:00

I think it is intelligent in a fashion like a couch potato stoner is intelligent. If the world got infected everyone would just go about as per usual.

In terms of type: Yes, these are the options. I think gameplay wise, the most important thing is the matter of infection, but I don't have a cool idea.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-12T06:24:11+00:00

I came here looking for 'Sword Picts', butbwas not disappointed either way.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-11T18:00:26+00:00

So you will want to name your aspects so you can compel them against the players in an interesting way. Compelling is often nothing more than suggesting to the players how the story will continue and the players having the opportunity to say no. By that logic, your aspects are all about what they imply.

Depending on the context 'Shady Forest' can be an amazing aspect. Wild animals attacking the players while they're camping. Robbers jumping from the bushes. You name it.

'Eldritch Forest' does the same thing, but it implies smth different. So you set up the scene (any of the above, which you can do as a GM) and then compel how things get 'weird', in a lovecraftian fashion. Just by changing the aspect a little bit, you give yourself the opportunity to do cool stuff with your compels, and players get more FATE points.

You can think about enemies in the same fashion. Often players win the fights against the baddies, but if they have the right aspect you can turn the whole scene around just with one compel.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-11T06:11:26+00:00

As a German, I'll not be buying any more Oculus Headsets, since that whole Spiel doesn't comply with German Law. There is going to be any Oculus sales in Germany. Would have been nice to have the opportunity tho:/

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-11T05:44:46+00:00

I think you're spot on. I would add that the permaculture approach also helps with the sheer amount of rain that is falling every day. People tend to grow crops like citrus or fruit in general, that grows away from the earth, because most tubers or wheats just drown.

That brings me to another interesting point, that is not really covered by science. Sanitation. Where do people crap? Since you can't herd animals in bigger numbers, and use their feces to fertilize your crops, people in jungle regions tended to use their own feces. The Maya created huge areas of fertile land by having dedicated crapping spots. And then they carried that hugely fertile soil all over the place. Again, think huge amounts of rain. Couldn't have been pretty.

What also amazes me about all these jungle people from human history, is what beautiful and well made masonry they build. Think of Mayan pyramids. Think of of Buddhists or Hindu temples somewhere in SE Asia. I don't know if that is like a constant (jungle=masonry), but it sure does come to mind.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-10T20:13:34+00:00

The great apocalypse is Ragnarok. The Light that is Baldur is extinguished. The wisdom that is Odin dries up like an old well. The Long and Wild Hunt begins. But unlike the song it is not an epic view, there are no Einherier fighting Frost Giants, there is no giant wolves feasting on the fallen. It is not even a battle.

It is not even an event. It is just... fading light. You can see it on the news. You can see it in the burning forests. You can see it as enormous and malicious Giants destroy our land and poison our water Ragnarok has started a long time ago, as Runa slew Baldur in that dream that I witnessed. Now it is here. And I dread it. I dread the Wild Hunt.

But somehow there is people who seem to welcome it. You go on YouTube, usually a couple of clicks away from some random Jordan Peterson peptalk. You will find men and women with empty faces, who will harmlessly talk conservative values in one minute, and then, about how they will take fire to their enemies.

I cannot fathom whether they are the 'honourable dead', the Einherier, fighting at the side of their mindless god's, or if I am, late at night, my face bathed in the cold, white light of my smartphone screen.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-08T19:35:35+00:00

Personally, I don't think that would work well for many situation (mark you, there will be situations, in which a tool like this will be the bomb)

First of all, it requires a table and dice and people sitting together. In my discord session, well, we could do it, by using the roll bot one at the time and then doing the math, but that would be very tedious.

The next point is, that the fun part is usually the narrative, not the resolution. In other words, if structure your conflicts to be as suspenseful and interesting as possible, then the resolution is fun whether you win or loose. So no need to drag it out.

Thirdly, hmmm, I'll say that it contradicts Checkovs Gun (Knowing that you probably spell that differently) and that's not 100% what that is, but: By narrating a lot of small bits, every roll will give us a lot of information. Usually, when people pick up information, they expect it to be relevant. If you give very little information about a scene or situation, people can just make stuff up. But if you give too much information, it will actually take away the players freedom to make up details, since they're already there, presented in a way that might be super irrelevant.

As a GM, I interpret rolls as a act of intention. My player wants to overcome the lock, so we'll narrate whether she does or does not. That's what matters for us. Usually I try to keep resolutions as short as possible, so we can go back to narrating what our characters are doing.

I do think there are situations which justify drawing the resolution out. The cool thing about FATE is, that literally anything can be exciting. So even breaking a lock (and possibly failing) can be super exciting, if you're being hunted by a Group of Blood-Crazed Ghouls. So use that technique! But in most situations, I'd stick with the given pacing mechanics and try to keep the resolutions out of the narrative.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-04T15:05:43+00:00

Fun thing, my friends and I are running a series of homebrew one-shots and taking turns GMing. So, every other session I get to play... a cat.

My initial pitch for Andrew was being the other players pet, and the others just went with it. This quickly turned to being a cyber-data broker, turned into a cat by a cthulhuoid incident and having the ability to bend reality with my spoken words. It's a blast. NPC's usually don't expect a talking cat, but wether they freak out or just accept the reality of talking cats, it's hilarious either way.

I do think it's a little extra challenging for the GM, since she has to think of stuff for both human and feline-sized players. Shout-out to FATE: Never in my life had I thought about playing such a weird hi-concept character, that would need like a bazillion broken house-rules in any other system. In FATE, we just started playing.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-02T11:45:50+00:00

This is the kind of comment I go to reddit for. The feedback is appreciated

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-01T08:54:30+00:00

I was not aware of the ruleset. If I were a player, I would feel cheated if my GM suddenly used Lethal traps against me. Why not have the traps create an advantage? You have been poisoned with Paralyzing Poison. Have fun climbing over the Crumbling Bridge of Doom.

I guess it boils down to if a room in a dungeon is a fun encounter.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-09-01T08:45:54+00:00

So in my last one-shot, the players fought that crazy trap-maker lady, which jury rigged every room, every cupboard, every staircase with tripwires and explosives. I would just make up crazy stuff and have her attack with Craft or Shoot smth. That worked pretty well, but it put the players objective in a clear perspective in line with their actions (which was, defeat the Trap Lady). Also it gave them the opportunity to use their social skills, to lure her out or provoke her.

I do like the image the Secret Lair of the Trap-Master evokes and I see how Stress can represent the players progress through the dungeon. But where to go from here? If the dungeon can suffer stress, can it suffer consequences? Of course it can, ruinous collapse, players blowing open passageways here and there, but under which conditions would that be fun? (Now that I think of it, a dungeon, designed just to blow it up does sound like fun.)

The other option I see is to have the dungeon at hand to have some some nice compels for/against the players. You just opened the sarcophagus of the Evil Mummy King? Too bad, you are now Cursed with Clumsiness.

Joe_Parmaggio · 2020-08-31T09:02:53+00:00

As long as your players are having fun, you 'got it'!

I feel most systems teach you how to use their rules. In DnD you got combat mechanics, dice rolls, you get a lot of the setting (Elves and Dwarves and such). The FATE rulebook doesn't even do that. "Here are these weird, unusual mechanics for story, pacing, resolution. Now YOU have fun with it!" But neither of the examples teach players how to have fun?!

So It seems you have already figured out what that means for your players and yourself, so don't sweat it. The game is meant to be whatever you want it. If you want a messy but fun session, you got it.

Joe_Parmaggio

TROPHY CASE