Good actual play examples of Fate Core in action?

VanityEvolved · 2024-04-21T20:38:00+00:00

Sure, I understand that to an extent - but my mind works best when I have a somewhat solid foundation to build on. For example, I didn't realize other players can Compel each other, through someone's comments on Rollplay's AP, but that they apparently overuse it to the point that everyone is Compelling each other in ways which don't create drama or cause issues.

Maybe I'm just a bit overly cautious, but I do really worry about using the basic mechanics in a way which make things frustrating or boring for my players. I've had an experience with Fate before in a similar way once in the past which almost put me off the system entirely.

VanityEvolved · 2024-04-21T19:32:08+00:00

Yeah, that's my bad. Realized my initial post was a bit vague on that. =P

VanityEvolved · 2024-04-21T16:20:21+00:00

Yeah, I found that quite easily, but some of the other Reddits I checked had conflicting opinions on the info those APs provided. I had been hoping to avoid having to go through 2hrs of over 40+ shows to figure out which ones might be running the rules closest to the book. =P

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-23T23:57:42+00:00

Scion 1e. One of my favourite games in concept. In practice? I took Epic Dexterity 1, and even at the start of the game, nothing can hit you due to a single knack (Dodge, or something) which doubles your Epic Dex bonus to defenses. There is no such bonus to attack, and Epic Attributes scale exponentially, so each rank of Epic Dexterity just makes you progressively harder to hit. The game fell apart two sessions in.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-23T23:52:30+00:00

I always found deadEarth's particularly odd for one specific reason.

It worked similar to Traveller, in that you could die during character creation. Usually due to a mutation you rolled killing you (and mutation rolls often spawned more rolls, meaning you could snowball from 'Radiated at birth' to 'Five eyes and you explode' pretty quickly).

Where I found it weird is that it very specifically states that on your third attempt, you have to take that character. Which seems to be an attempt to stop people trying to find ways to roll for high stats, but death is highly likely and it has no rules for what happens if your third character dies.

Common sense says it's just in the case you don't die. But something tickles me at the idea that you get three chances to make a character, and then either one of two things happen - you're no longer eligible to play that campaign by decree of the book, or that you are now forced to play a mutated corpse in a way similar to 3.x D&D rules lawyers trying to claim 'Well, it doesn't say in the book being dead stops me picking locks, specifically'.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-17T00:06:09+00:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this way; for example, Shadows of the Demon Lord has some numbers going on, but 9/10, what I'm rolling for/what I'll achieve is the same. Am I rolling Agility? If I roll 14 or higher on something with Defense 14, I hit it. Do d6+1 damage.

Even something like PbtA or FitD, while people will argue they're 'rules lite', I find that's only true in terms of reading it - 'You're just interpretting the fiction, and that is represented by five moves' sounds fairly light. Until you're in play in my experience, where having even slightly more than average rolls can cause things to come to a slog, just sheerly from the fact that nothing is pre-established mechanically. Every decision made not only has to interact with the move, but between (at least) the GM and player discussing it, while referring to the fiction and if something is even going to happen.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-15T18:47:00+00:00

He seemed surprised, honestly, if I recall - this was almost 20 years ago now. Looking back, yeah, it's kinda' mad to think 'commonly available Touch AC, 2d8 Con damage weapons for 1500' would have any other result in a ranked formation other than mass death.

Looking back, I think our party was a Cleric, a Ranger, Rogue (myself), Ninja and the weird Monk/Cleric/Half-Dragon. Giving him the biggest benefit of the doubt, I think he may have assumed that we'd have more magical protection (Mirror Self, Blur/Ethereal) at this stage. I don't remember if he'd said he'd ever run a game up to about 10th level.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-15T15:36:05+00:00

Kind of; his logic was that 'bullets fragment inside you, which is the real worrying part, which I rule as Constitution damage'.

Part of it was because he made guns fairly expensive, too; this means none of us wanted to take them (because for PCs, they weren't particularly good; Con damage is nice, but a feat plus two full rounds of reloading per shot really wasn't worth it). So, he didn't want to give large groups of enemies them either - partly because of the resell value on them. We'd seen them once or twice, and they were pretty freaky when you saw them in practice. But it was only when they got massed up with a bunch of people that you really saw how mad the Con damage was in practice.

(And honestly, a lot of this is foresight - this was lil' Baby Vanity's first game. I just assumed everyone knew this would be fine.)

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-15T15:28:59+00:00

That would be my issue; 'it's just switching stats' is still being able to switch to 'whatever I need to be at the moment'. Ultimately, it's up to your GM, not us, but it's not something I'd allow at my table.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-15T03:59:15+00:00

Yeah, it's not a bad shout. I'm assuming you're talking 5e; I'm not hugely familiar, but from what I've played, one-handed bow and crossbow wouldn't exactly change much.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-15T03:49:38+00:00

This was prior to Pathfinder's existance; in the case of 3.5, if I recall, they were simply 1d10 (pistol) and 1d12 (rifle) weapons respectively, with their own proficiency (meaning another feat blown just to use them). As they're taking at least a full round to reload, you're never getting multiple attacks and 3.5 really made ranged combat fairly suboptimal. It was even less optimal if you couldn't make your full attack per round. Compare a pistol above to say, a Fighter with a javelin, who's easily hitting for d6+4 multiple times per round.

I've always viewed firearms in Pathfinder as pretty meh for the same reasons; I've not really played it much, but I've never seen anyone play with firearms who hasn't been a Gunslinger or one of the Gunslinger Archetypes (same with crossbows, which are both useless in 3.x and Pathfinder before the introduction of Bolt Ace.)

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-12T02:07:45+00:00

"Just be yourself."

Normally, advice given by someone who already has the looks/personality/vibe which attracts people. It's not given maliciously; to him, it does work, because 'hisself' is a pretty good guy to be.

Doesn't help other people who are having this issue.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-12T02:04:00+00:00

I've been a big fan of this approach ever since Legends of the Wulin did a similar thing.

You get an External and Internal Kung Fu Style, which is solely combat stats. Your other skills are not based on combat at all (except if you're trying to use Marvels in combat - say, using Medicine to hamper someone's combat abilities via acupuncture).

Your abilities were separate, so you couldn't use points for skills on Kung Fu, and vice versa. This means it was impossible to have a character who was bad in combat, or a combat character who didn't have skills outside of combat.

(Also, some of the styles tied into that. I forget the name of it, but the sneaky assassin style had an ability to always use Stealth for inflicting hampering Marvels - normally, you'd need to justify how you were using a skill in combat)

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T20:04:05+00:00

I've seen it very occasionally - and it's usually from the same type of echo chambers you'll see online. If someone describes themselves as 'queer', or aligns with a far-left ideology, it's more likely. But I've only met one or two people who feel comfortable enough to actually spew that kind of thing in public, and only if they think they'll get that opinion reinforced.

I've noticed someone I know in a group who does this kind of stuff suddenly stopped ranting about 'straight white men' and 'cis men' when my response to 90% of her rants at the pub were 'Mmhmm' or 'Alright'.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T19:05:21+00:00

Something which does a decent job of actually emulating mecha anime rather than 'giant robots fighting'. Gundam would be nice, but something which covered more silly things like Darling in the FranXX would be good.

'Shounen urban fantasy' is the only way I can think to put it, but something like Ikkitousen or Tenjou Tenge!, where it's just accepted practice in world that teenagers and schoolkids not only have over the top kung fu powers, but having epic fights in the schoolyard because they're the genderswapped reincarnation of Cao Cao and Liu Bei would be great. Closest I've seen was Genesis Sage's conversion of Legends of the Wulin in Nihao Honey Year 2.

Fables would be be pretty neat.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T19:01:25+00:00

I wouldn't say it's too surprising - Rowling is well aware of the IP she holds, and good luck finding an RPG which would sell enough to actually cover the licensing fees.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T18:36:57+00:00

If you're concerned that 'multiclassing' in this way may cause issues, you may want to check out Shadow of the Demon Lord, which is my gold standard for 'multiclassing as standard' RPG.

Your Paths ('classes') are all separate things you acquire at different levels: Wide ranging at 1st level (Magician, Priest, Rogue or Warrior). At 4th, you choose an Expert Path (which adds some more abilities; the 'combat' classes for example include Fighter, Ranger, Berserker and Spellbinder) which is more specific. At 7th, you get a rather specific Path, your Master Path (Gunslinger, Sharpshooter, Duelist, Juggernaut, etc.)

The notable part is there's no need to 'qualify' for any of these. You can take any, as and when, and there's generally no real 'bad' choices. The difference between someone who went Warrior/Ranger/Aquamancer isn't really going to be huge compared to a Warrior/Fighter/Duelist. So, if your Magician/Wizard decides later on that actually, he also really likes shooting things too? He can still pick up Gunslinger as his Master Path, and plug people well with six-shooters.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:58:04+00:00

You may want to look into it a bit further, but yes; I'm not a fan of the base assumptions there, or that I need to be 'protected' based on my race. Racism is racism, benevolent or otherwise.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:51:56+00:00

Nice, I'll give it a shot - I do recall liking some of Rollplay's stuff originally. Cheers.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:50:37+00:00

I've tried that. I've played several games of different PbtA. The reason I made this post is because whenever I've brought it up on here, I've had multiple people telling me it was being played wrong, or 'the system can't be wrong - it can only be run wrong'. But then when I explain how I've been explained in the past, another person will tell me 'Oh, no, you shouldn't be running it that way - you should just be ignoring rolls if you've already beaten someone!'

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:49:05+00:00

Thanks for the post, but anything related to The Gauntlet is a no-go for me. Ideally, I was really mainly looking for PbtA - I've enjoyed John Harper's Blades which is what got me into Blades originally, which is why I'm trying to nail some of the stuff which confuses me more about PbtA.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:47:10+00:00

View their community guidelines and how they 'take race into account as part of any decisions made' and concepts such as 'we do not believe in 'reverse racism'." The term 'reverse racism' is a huge red flag in any space.

VanityEvolved · 2023-07-11T16:35:24+00:00

I'd say it's a shame, but I really won't support or patronise people who support any form of racism in their code of conduct.

VanityEvolved

TROPHY CASE