Introduction, what Fate is good at

A short intro video talking about what I think Fate does very well and what I like about the game.
* History of Fate versions: www.evilhat.com...
* YT playlist of Fate Actual Plays: • FATE Actual Plays
* Evil Hat Patreon: / evilhat
* Evil Hat website: www.evilhat.com
* Fate Core on Drivethru: www.drivethrurp...
* Fate Accelerated on Drivethru: www.drivethrurp...
* Evil Hat store (print versions): www.evilhat.co...
* Fate RPG SRD website: fate-srd.com/
You can find audio versions of the videos on this playlist here: / matters-of-fate

[@m.a.packer5450]

FATE is perfect for folks like me who are more literary than mathematical. I love how it creates a perfect way for players to implement their characters' flaws and actually draw a benefit from difficult or awkward game encounters

[@Dracopol]

In Arthur C. Clarke's novel CHILDHOOD'S END, aliens come to Earth and benignly take it over, and their reason for doing so is that the human children are evolving into beings who transform into a new species made of energy and vanish into a higher dimension, but neither the aliens nor the older generation of humans can follow them or understand it, just observe it and make notes. That's kind of how I feel about Fate. It is the "higher dimension" that new gamers are vanishing into. I've struggled with playing and running it, but I'm too used to the old-school RPGs of defining stats and putting numbers on the stats, too set in my ways to follow. Fate does something different, with play focused on story not stats. It has a few Skills, meant to model any possible action (the Action types are Attack, Defend, Create an Advantage or Overcome), but there's not a lot of numbers flying in this game. Characters have traits called Aspects which define their job, competency or emotional traits, and these assume more importance. You can Invoke them, or a GM can Compel them to complicate a character's life. Emotions, fears, rage are not talked about as much in classic RPGs; usually the talk is what skills or gear can get the job done. These Aspects and their use deserve to be covered carefully. Stunts amplify Skills in some way (generally +2 to a Skill in a set of circumstances, or usable to substitute one skill for another). You can also define Extras. It's all a pretty loose framework of rules, but how do you make it lively, how do you get it to work?

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Dracopol : I wouldn't say that Fate's way of handling things is a higher way or gaming or anything like that, it's just a model of gaming that I particularly enjoy and that suits my style of play, it's not going to be for everyone, but then I don't think any one game appeals to every gamer or works for them. To try and answer your question about how to make a game lively and get it to work, the best place to start is with aspects, since they not only define characters but can also be used to define their relationships with other PCs, NPCs, organisations and parts of your gameworld. If you have a set of interesting characters with great aspects then the gameworld almost writes itself, plus they give you a ready made set of complications and plot that can be used to draw your group in to whatever adventures you have planned for your campaign.

[@solarys72]

Thank you so much for these! I recently discovered FATE and while my husband runs D&D and Pathfinder I wanted to find something different. Having support like this truly helps to know how to try things. Thank you!

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Glad you found it useful :)

[@AlexandreAlvesSantos]

Fate is really a powerful system, and it is my favorite one by far. I'm looking forward to your series of videos about Fate. Nice job.

[@colerape]

I really liked this one. You tackled a difficult topic..."what is FATE good at". It was a balanced description and can be used to help introduce players to the game.

[@dirkvoltaar]

Well done on making a clear, thorough and useful series of videos about FATE. It has really helped me to "get" the system.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Erik Salholm: Glad you found them useful :)

[@AJPickett]

excellent watching!

[@loicb.8255]

Very interesting speech about Fate. I'm reading the core book myself and having some people explaining on video is good ! Luckily I undersatnd english !

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Glad you enjoyed the videos :)

[@TheDragonIMA]

Good review with great points for those learning more about it

[@marcoselmo3417]

Great video! Clear, concise and to the point. I'm planning a Superhero game for Fate Core and was looking for a way to start. Thanks!

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Glad you found the video useful :)

Fate Core, hurray. Just recently read it through, but haven't played it so far.

[@troyspencer712]

Greatly look forward to this series.....

[@BryanLeeDavidson]

What a good and informative video. I want to make videos that are this well.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Bryan Davidson: Thanks very much :)

[@conway5481]

Starting to get into FATE through watching your Jadepunk campaign. Keep up the good work.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Andrew P : Glad you're enjoying the Jadepunk video, hopefully this video series will be useful to you :)

[@CarenLinn]

Thank you. I will be GMing Fate weekly for the first time..gulp!

[@RedDiceDiaries]

+Caren Linn : Glad you liked the video, hope your game goes well and your dice roll pluses :)

[@CarenLinn]

:)

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Introduction video to 'Matters of Fate' a playlist i'm creating to look more closely at the Fate RPG, how it works, what it does best and how you can improve your fate game. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmmsn6l9f7KFf7s

[@Pennanngalan]

Between your descriptions and the Nerdarchy playtest, a couple buddies and myself will be trying this soon. It sounds (and reads) like it will be a pleasant change to the rules heavy stuff we normally play.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Pennanngalan : It will definitely be a change from more rules heavy systems, i've always been a fan of more streamlined systems & love Fates balance between story and mechanics :)

[@Pennanngalan]

Red Dice Diaries Just made it home from our first game. It went quite well, everybody had fun and would like to play again next week. Fate gets a thumbs up from me (us)! I defaulted to the Dark Conspiracy setting for tonight's game and it seemed to make the transition easily, much less hassle than the D6 attempt of last year (in reference to the porting a setting to another system video you did).

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Pennanngalan : Glad to hear that it went well and that you all had a good time; one of the strengths of the Fater system IMO is that it can be used to cover a wide range of genres with minimal tweaking :)

[@griffincrump5077]

I think my issue would be that when I ask my players “so, what do you do?” I don’t get much of a response at first and it takes a fair bit to get the ball rolling

[@RedDiceDiaries]

It can take a little prompting to get the ball-rolling you're absolutely right, and some groups adapt to the question more easily than others.

[@griffincrump5077]

@@RedDiceDiaries yep, thanks for making the video. I think I’ve decided that Fate isn’t going to be the system for my group but this video was helpful nonetheless in my search for other systems that are!

[@RedDiceDiaries]

That's cool, it's not the system for everyone - glad the video helped you make an informed choice though :)

[@BrutalBarracuda]

Having never played any roleplaying games. Is this a good introduction for my gaming group or should i start with a game with more structured rules?

[@RedDiceDiaries]

It would depend on your group, if you think your group will be comfortable with a more story-lead system then Fate may be just what they're looking for; if you think they'd struggle or would benefit from more concrete guidelines/rules then I'd recommend going with another system to begin with.

[@BrutalBarracuda]

The reason I thought this would be great is because i could come up with scenarios that would really peak their interest i.e stealing the plans for the death star in star wars or escaping raccoon city before it gets nuked in resident evil. I'm assuming this is possible with Fate, would these scenarios be possibly with other systems. Like i say we are all total noobs when it comes to RPG's.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Yes this is most definitely possible with Fate, in-fact one of the first games I ran online was based (in part) on the Grand Theft Auto series of computer games since a friend of mine with very little tabletop experience was playing who loved GTA. That went really well. Fate is great for taking an existing world that people are familiar with and using a fairly simple system to support it in game terms, in-fact I think some of the Fate mechanics work better for this sort of thing since everyone has a common frame of reference :)

[@BrutalBarracuda]

Okay thanks for the replies. I've ordered the book so i can have a good read and hopefully get to grips with it. I'll be sure to continue with your series of videos too, they seem very useful. One final thing, having never played any RPG's before, do you have any tips for a first time GM :) Cheers +1 sub

[@RedDiceDiaries]

I've got a playlist specifically for GM advice: kzbin.info/aero/PLMlEyLAkrE_-WigG6-vTXRJEsPuU76EgZ It's not necessarily aimed at first time GMs but you may find it useful, certainly the video "Show, don't tell" I would recommend for first time GMs.

Though I haven't played it so far (except for using it for my sisters first roleplay approach), I already took plenty of roleplaying tools from it, like narrowed down question on player characters, the world, the plots, NPCs etc. For instance nailing down a character by something simple like high concept, trouble and a first aspect already starting a character side plot, great, additionally adding two more aspects regarding a fellow player character, just great. It also gave me a lot of constructive thoughts about my current campaign. Just great.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Sirko Rückmann : Yes I love how character (and even setting) creation is intertwined in Fate and can all be linked to a narrative, this is something i'm hoping to discuss in future videos; there's a lot of things i've learnt using the system that I take forward and use, even in non-Fate games that I run :)

Red Dice Diaries I've already introduced the fate point usage as style points from House of the Blooded into my current The Dark Eye group for over three years. The player who runs the other campaign in it had happily adopted it. Unfortunately I haven't found as good into using aspects, even though I once ran a Houses of the Blooded session, a system which uses aspects.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Sirko Rückmann : Aspects do seem to be one of the mechanics that divide people who play Fate with people either loving or hating/not getting them; being asked about aspects a number of times was what prompted me originally to start planning this playlist.

Red Dice Diaries I love the idea of aspects, putting strength, weakness and guidance for roleplaying the character or supporting according events to happen into the same mechanic, especially fueled by the fate points encouraging players to show weakness to empower them to be awesome. I am just missing according experience to really judge it by practise.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Sirko Rückmann : Yes it's definitely something that benefits a bit of practice, it's very much one of my favourite parts of the system and (IMO) really encourages players to describe their characters with words, which always feels more intuitive to me than using numbers to achieve the same end.

[@colinmatter4697]

Nothing super interesting to say here; just wanted to voice my enthusiasm about this new set of videos and to say that I can't wait to start watching the actual installments.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Colin Matter : Thanks Colin - the first instalment is already up: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpe7eaCXl8Zniac I hope to have the second uploaded in the next few days :)

[@danieldouglasclemens]

I am a bit distracted by the disconnection between video and audio.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Fair comment, this video was filmed 7 years ago, I would hope I've improved a bit since then.

[@danieldouglasclemens]

But still a great video on Fate Core

[@RedDiceDiaries]

Thanks very much :)

[@patrickbarnes9874]

I've been looking at the Fate system and really dig the aspects and skill pyramid and the fate dice and other things about it and would like to play it but I am having trouble getting past two things - first, the fact that all equipment is abstracted away such that whether you're wearing leather and using a butter knife or whether you're in full plate with a two handed sword you fight exactly the same, and second the consequences system seems like you need to retreat back for a month's bedrest to recover from any challenging fight at all. Are there any games using the fate system or fate mods that give some kind of mechanical consequences to your character's gear that don't depend on using up aspects and fate points to differentiate common leather armor from platemail and don't inflict debilitating wounds on a character every time they run out of a couple stress boxes? The rest of the game seems fast and fun, but the combat seems terrible.

[@RedDiceDiaries]

There is an optional weapon and armour damage system in the Fate System Toolkit, there are also a few games that go more into the detail of equipment, there's also Strands of Fate if you want a lot of detail (although personally I'm not really a fan of that game).