“To Their FATEs” (working title) - A FATE game of Families in Arms

Originally Posted Here...


What began as a project to tell a compelling Avengers-Esque story of the origin of a high level Eberron adventuring party has gradually morphed into my desire to create a FATE game which is generic enough to be used for any game about characters ‘In the trenches’ of a massive armed conflict. I’ll drop a quick FATE Primer, and then some design goals, for people to pick over.

Read on to see what I’ve been working on!



What is FATE all about?

FATE is a simple enough game system, driven by a simple dice mechanic (using special six-sided FATE dice) and the usage of Aspects, or defining character/situation features.

You roll fate dice. They are D6’s with two blank sides, Two ‘-’ sides, and two ‘+’ sides. Add up all the +’s and -’s and then add your skill and you’re done. Aspects are character traits, ideally ones with both good and bad connotations, like, “Most Wanted Man In The Sector” or “Never Without A Gun”. You have a finite number of FATE points. Tagging is when you spend a fate point in a situation that one of your Aspects applies and get a +2 bonus. A Compel is when an aspect says you should act one way, and common sense says another. If you roll with your Aspect you get a FATE point. If not, you have to spend one. Characters have two parts - A list of Aspects, and a skill pyramid, usually with one +5 skill, then two +4 skills, and so on, down to 5 +1’s.

Design Goals:

I want a game that has some flexibility on how gritty it is, lets you capture a specific theme of the conflict in the story and the nations involved, but is also general enough to be used in anything from Epic Fantasy to World War I to Vietnam to Military SF.

The Aspects:

Aspects are somewhat defined. In many games, the number of aspects ranges from 5-7, or so, and I’m settled on six. There are four categories of aspects, with example categories following:

1. Where You Came From - [The Hometown] [Family Left Behind] [The Reason You Joined Up] [That Special Talent] [The Best Friend] [The Reason You Fight] [What The War Took Away] [What You Lost In The War]
2. Where You’re Stuck Now - [This Stupid Post] [My Role In The Unit] [What I Rely On Others For] [What Others Rely On Me For] [My Feelings About The War] [Me And War] [Me And Death] [The Emotion I Carry Into Battle]
3. Where I wanna Be - [What Is Waiting At Home] [Retirement Plans] [Professional Goals] [Creature Comforts] [Vices and Virtues]
4. Dog Tags(Optional) - (Basically, anything else. Player’s Choice)

You need to have two from both categories 1 & 2 and at least one in Category 3. Generally, 1 is background, and 2 is current relationships, impulses, or outlooks.  3 is motivations and goals, 4 is left open so people can fill in the blanks.

Lastly, every player has one additional aspect, but it doesn’t apply to them: Instead, each player contributes one Aspect to “The Unit”. The Unit also begins play with a single fate point, but uses of it, and the Unit’s aspects, are a +3 bonus, or re-rolling with one *extra* FATE die.

To represent how flexibility and unit cohesion change with the scale of the unit working around the players, whenever the players are separated from resources, a player dies, or other game changing event occurs, The Unit may scratch off an aspect permanently, but gains an extra Fate point in the Unit Pool.