Fate RPG: My Favorite Universal System

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   Fate is one of my favorite Tabletop Role-Playing Games. It is fun, versatile, and exciting. It is also hard as hell to get into and the explanations in the book are pretty lackluster. The way the text talks it sounds like this is a game so far removed from your average RPG that you have entered a world that must be experienced properly to be understood. This is not the case.

    Fate is a universal system. It lets you play anything you like at any power level you like with minimal rules. In the book it says characters are: "Competent, proactive people who lead dramatic lives." This turned me off immediately because I don't like assuming that every character is this way. However, in retrospect, this is true of every character in every RPG I have ever played. Even in games where one plays as children, amateurs, or beginners in their craft the players can expect a reasonable chance of success of they attempt something. The situations in RPG's are often dramatic even in a shopping trip there is the question of: "Will I get the thing or won't I?" So yes. I will allow the drama. Proactivity is also a feature of every RPG character I have ever played. I will proactively run away, get the thing, make the speech to achieve my goals.

    In a Fate game your character is designed around Aspects. These are statements about the character that are always true and describe important things about them. You can spend Fate points to invoke these aspects in order to add a +2 to your roll or to re-roll a result that is just awful. Your character starts with 3 Fate Points and can earn more when their aspects are compelled (a complication is introduced based on your aspect.)

    There are four actions you can take: Attack, Defend, Overcome an Obstacle, or Create an Advantage. These are your main ways of interacting with the game world. Attack and Defend are pretty self explanatory. Overcome an obstacle lets you get rid of part of a situation that complicates your life, or it allows you to debuff an opponent. Create an Advantage allows you to apply an aspect to a situation that will make life better or easier for you and your opponents. 

    There are no lists of weapons, armor, or spells in Fate. Thank heavens because that is the stuff that makes my eyes glaze over. If your plate mail is important to you make it one of your character's aspects. At various points you can change up aspects. This is the main method of character advancement. Yes you can shift some skills around but the real joy of Fate is that my Apprentice Wizard can change aspects over time to become an Archmage many years down the road. I think that is way more cool than gaining another level and a stack of gold and a ten page list of powers that I personally could not care less about.

  This is a game about telling stories. It is one of the best ones I have ever found. I use it to run other RPG worlds quite often. Werewolf the Apocalypse in Fate was a lot better than it was in the old Storyteller system because I can get new players playing a pack of werewolves and having lots of angsty gothic-punk drama in ten minutes without having to worry about whether or not they did the assigned reading on whether or not the Silver Toenail tribe is at war with the Angry Children of Loki or whatever. Before you come at me about this I was a Storyteller fan for a very long time and have grown lazy over the years. I don't care about the richness of the lore or the metaplot or any of the stuff that makes a game official. I want to see my players live out their stories in whatever way they see fit. Fate helps me do just that.

    Fate isn't that different from other games. It can be lethal, it can be absurd, it can be dark and gritty. It does this with a clean little set of mechanics. You can also mash up all the  other RPG sourcebooks you own without having to do a ton of math. (Not a fan of doing math needlessly)

    Heck, with enough practice you can even use Fate to run old school D&D modules, but more on that another time. If you like this little diatribe, I encourage you to check out Fate for yourself. You can buy the hard copy books or you can visit the Fate SRD to get a good idea of the system and how it works. It is one of my favorite universal systems on the market.

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