Aspects
Tech Obsessed, especially Military
Fixing Things / Breaking Things
Flint Inspires Me to Improvise
Lonestar is reckless — she’s never even read the manual!
(TBD)
Skills
| Spacefaring | Physical | Social |
| Gunnery +3 | Athletics +1 | Discipline +2 |
| Pilot +1 | Fight | Empathy |
| Tactics +2 | Notice +2 | Investigate +3 |
| Technology +4 | Shoot | Provoke +1 |
| | Sneak +1 | Rapport |
Stunts
(TBD)
Aspects
Fun Lovin’ Cowgirl with a Heart of Gold
Carousing with Friends/Eats and Drinks to Excess
Cellblock is a Turd that needs Polishin’
Bookwyrm needs to get out and have some fun
It’s like my Grammy Always Says…
Skills
| Spacefaring | Physical | Social |
| Gunnery +3 | Athletics | Discipline |
| Pilot +2 | Fight +2 | Empathy +1 |
| Tactics +4 | Notice +3 | Investigate |
| Technology +1 | Shoot +2 | Provoke +1 |
| | Sneak | Rapport +1 |
Stunts
Howdy Stranger: Gain +2 to Gunnery attacks when attacking an enemy for the first time
Just Tap the Dashboard: Once per session, ignore the results of a Technology roll
Aspects
Former Pirate Looking for Redemption
Training with Uncle Iroh/Picks Fights & Dominates
Books keeps my ship tuned & souped up
Cellblock’s got skills, but will let me down
(TBD)
Skills
| Spacefaring | Physical | Social |
| Gunnery +4 | Athletics | Discipline |
| Pilot +1 | Fight +1 | Empathy +1 |
| Tactics +2 | Notice +2 | Investigate +1 |
| Technology +3 | Shoot +2 | Provoke |
| | Sneak +3 | Rapport |
Stunts
Danger Sense: +2 to create advantages to detect ambushes and concealing intent
Pugachev’s Cobra: Once per game session, in an engagement, you may use the On Their Tail action against someone who is on your tail-switch places with them on the maneuver chart
Aspects
Too valuable to rot in jail
Mandatory Rehabilitative Behavior Stabilization / Fun Violence
Lonestar is a bumpkin (oh, so mistaken)
Flint is a kindred soul, but weak
(TBD)
Skills
| Spacefaring | Physical | Social |
| Gunnery +3 | Athletics +2 | Discipline |
| Pilot +4 | Fight +3 | Empathy |
| Tactics +1 | Notice +1 | Investigate +1 |
| Technology +2 | Shoot +2 | Provoke +1 |
| Sneak | Rapport |
Stunts
Instinctive Flier – Use Pilot instead of Tactics in the maneuver phase
Recently, two different Fate designers have been starting up Star Wars campaigns and discussing how they modify the rules to match.
Rob Donoghue’s take: Shadow of the Sith blank character sheets, completed characters, and rules.
Meanwhile, Mike Olson has been working on a Faith Corps of Rebels for this weekend’s con. Overview, Maintaining Tone, Long Lasting Conditions, and Ships.
Each looks like a fun interpretation, though I don’t know Faith Corps (I haven’t seen the book yet), so I’d probably go for Rob’s take for now. Interestingly, both use a series of defined consequences, rather than Fate Core stress & consequences. I wonder if there’s a reason they both moved toward that design space…
Bryan and I discussed the old Bulldogs game in the past, but this new edition was the first time I read through the game myself.
It’s a good setting, with a lot of the Diaspora/Traveler/Firefly feel of tramp freighters crossing the galaxy, trying to make ends meet. The decision to set the game mostly in a balkanized neutral zone between two great powers does a great job of reinforcing the feel of small-fry trying to keep under the radar. Smuggling and the like are a sure result.
The character creation section is good, with another good discussion of Aspects. Alien Species are handled well-they come out as flavorful, but not just stereotypes, with common aspects and species abilities that replace stunts. And the Aliens are pleasantly alien. Sure, there are a few Aliens that are basically humans (with or without scrunchy noses), but space slugs and tripeds are great. Similarly, there’s a nice implementation of Credits and Gear.
The debate around heirachry in ship games is settled in Bulldogs by making the Captain an NPC representative of the company. Everyone has an aspect reflecting their relationship to the captain.
Anyway, rather than lots of detail, I’ll just end with: this game looks great. I’d be happy to play it.
I’m going to create the PCs as three “snap together” segments to create a complete character. The idea first came to me when planning out my Spirit of the Century game, but I realized that I’ll work well too for this–and prevent me from falling into “it should follow the novel” expectations. I’ll pass out blank character sheets and
Bookwyrm is coming soon; we’re beginning to wrangle GMs. Patrick and I are in charge of the indie track… and there’s a lot of people who’ve previously run that we’d love to see again. My GM recruitment post is here.
Beyond Bookwyrm, two recent developments in D&D:
web browsable basic D&D rules and a hyperlinked D&D FAQ (for AL)
Also, WotC is recruiting players to write adventures and website articles for D&D.
And Fate…
Fate new player’s guide
I wish I was more familiar with the source comics… but so far I’ve been good about resisting reading them during work.
It’s Fate, but they have an interesting character creation system using “Modes” that somewhat streamlines character generation by having you pick three of four modes and ranking them +3, +2, +1. The modes have associated skills, and where they overlap (a skill is on both lists), they auto-bump up, so the overlap isn’t wasted. Plus they have weird modes beyond the standard 4, to model specific concepts from the comic (like being an Automaton or dinosaur).
Something I really want to see in play is brainstorming–a structured way to bring science and similar “background” skills into prominence, by letting you influence the problem you’re trying to solve. Plus brainstorming is a competitive/cooperative thing… you’re all working together, but if you win by the most, your idea is true and the other players have to work their ideas around it.
I haven’t played it yet, but I’d like to.
I just spent too long tracking this down, so I’ll keep it here for reference.
Contests under fire (a contest/conflict merge)
fate-core-important-links
Community Fate Core Extensions
Mousguard via FAE: Guard Mice Accelerated
Doyce: Gaming with Kids, and FAE tutorial
From Making Stunts, is a stab below, leading to a randomized version by Fred Hicks called Stuntmaker.
STUNT TEMPLATE
Still confused on how to make a Stunt? How’s this handy chart- just match one of the WHAT’S with any appropriate WHEN:
WHAT
Grant +2 to a specific action using a specific skill…
Switch one specific skill with another specific skill…
Add an action to a skill (ex. you can now Attack; now Defend)
Ignore a simple rule (ex. can’t use a skill twice in a challenge)…
Add a +2 opposition to a specific thing (ex. block moving; writing in code)…
Grant a 2 stress hit…
Cause a mild consequence…
Create an Adventure (no free invoke) that takes a Fair +2 roll to remove …
Upgrade a boost to an aspect (with free invoke)…
Switch ANY skill with a specific skill (Requires TWO “Whens”)WHEN
…when attempting something that’s your speciality (ex. expert on Languages)
… in a specific circumstance (ex. when you’re On Fire; when you’re Surrounded)
…once per scene
… when you pay a Fate Point
… when doing a specific action (ex. Overcome, Create an Advantage, Attack, Defend)
… when you succeed with style for a specific action (Attack, Create an Advantage). This replaces a Boost, and is optional.
… when you invoke the aspect related to the stunt (this costs an invoke or fate point, and replaces the +2 bonus.)Ex. I have an evil witch. I match the “cause a mild consequence…” with a second half. “Once per scene” would work. Or if I want more color, maybe, “when you succeed with style (instead of a boost.” I like the second one better, as it means her bonuses are other’s downfalls.
When in doubt, the safest, easiest stunt template is “+2 to a specific skill, when doing a specific action (overcome, create an advantage, attack, or defend) in a specific situation.” For example, “My Little Burro”: +2 to Drive when Creating Advantages when in your favorite humvy, “Burro.”
Fred Hicks: That’s a good list. My only quibble is the “when” option of “… when you pay a Fate Point” because paired up with a lot of the WHAT’s it’s not really different from not taking the stunt and just spending the fate point on an aspect invoke as needed. Typically when I have a stunt cost a Fate Point, it’s because it’s granting a 3-shift equivalent benefit or something else pretty potent instead of the standard 2-shift equivalent benefit.
