Tabletop RPG Club Season 2: Fate Core vs Savage Worlds

Games
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So my coworker is sick meaning I have less interruptions to my day (irony!), which has meant a more thorough reading of some rules that came up last night as we were going over some high level concepts for the setting and characters.

Which is to say I love the flexibility of the FATE system. I have ideas (naturally) on how the setting is, but there were some questions about how, specifically, magic would work. Since magic is, nominally, existent but repressed/ extremely rare the aspects give a wonderful way to work with that.

My philosophy is that if the players want to do something fun and interesting, to always try and allow it as best I can. Which means that for things that aren’t inherent to the setting or characters I absolutely can allow that, but it may be at a price. @malkav11 hinted that his character has only one eye, perhaps having sacrificed the other in some dark ritual. I love that idea, and intend to run with that. The Aspects and Fate points allow that to be something that works into the story in interesting ways. He now gets some access to things otherwise closed to man, but if something is flying at him his odds of catching or deflecting it may be hampered (monocular vision man, you’ll never make the MLB with it).

In short, after spending some time with the group going over the high level stuff, I’m even more excited to do this thing. I’ll probably create the rollD20 group in the next week, and start distributing a few key items to start.We can also start putting together everyone’s character sheets, though note that we will leave a few things for the first session proper.

@glimjack @malkav11 @Brad_Grenz @CF_Kane thanks for being, well, you. I know arranging the group was a tricky thing, and required compromises. But you seem like good people, and can’t wait.

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Got to say that I absolutely agree with this, Craig. I’m super excited to play with @Tin_Wisdom, @Otthegreat, @ineffablebob, and @mtthwcmpbll this go around, and really appreciate their flexibility and patience with the sorting process. But I’m super pumped to get this season kicked off!!

Your idea sounds fantastic, btw. . . so now I’ve got to step up my game and compete :-D

///

If anyone has any questions on the system, planning, etc., please never hesitate to drop me a line whenever you need to. Otherwise, I suspect this thread might get a little quiet for the time being, till we start getting AARs/session summaries. . . :-D

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Sunday afternoon works for me, depending on time zone.

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So it seems I may be able to participate, depending on what hour Sunday afternoon would be for me. (and it’s every other week, right?)

Do you have any specific (UTC) time to suggest, @Galadin ?

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I am thinking of 3pm EST which is 8pm EST. However, this is open for discussion. I would like everyone in group three to start using the rpgclub3 channel in discord so we can get a consensus. Also, we can start talking about the types of scenarios we want to play.

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Group 2 is under way!

We had a first session to flesh out the characters and world. So, without further ado, here are their characters and stories:

@CF_Kane Charles Foster Kane is a man of… shady reputation, and shadier deals. With a silver tongue, and no idea when to stop it, he has gotten himself into, and out of, multiple scrapes. He had many times sold goods of… indeterminate repute. One particular delivery would be trouble. See, it turns out, hos delivery was all set to go to the merchant Forstall LeClaire (@glimjack). However the delivery was no good, and was turned down… only for him to sell it to Magero Varex instead (@Brad_Grenz).

Speaking of the explorer Magero he had been leaving on an adventure to search for some mystical valley. However this journey would end poorly. Poor maps, lacking instructions, and impetuous action would leave only Magero alive. Starving, weakened, and racked by disease, Magero crawled onto a beach…

Where Sebastian LeGuerre (@malkav11) found him. It was not possible for him to easily ignore those he could save. He had not gone this far in his difficult life to do so. Born of nobility and natives, his place in this colonial world was unsettled. Rejected by his distant family for living in his fathers world, rejected by that world for his heritage and rumors of forbidden magics. He spent time on a spirit journey where he ripped out his eye. This gave him a vision beyond sight, for a price. While fasting and meditating he was discovered by Charles, who was trying to hide from the heat his actions brought. He ‘borrowed’ the bone earring for a bit. This will leave a mark.

Finally Forstall Leclaire. Son of former parliamentarian and prominent noble, brought low by familial circumstance. Living with a patron in Cymru, he grew his wealth. The merchand was able to use Leclaire’s name and connections, and eventually this young man caught notice. As he grew he also started to independently make his own trades, though perhaps the best trade he made was the one he didn’t. Declining to buy a shipment of bad goods (from Charles) that had been hexed by Sebastian (for revenge on Charles due to some bad dealing). The same shipment that Magero bought. However there was a strange sensation.one night. Unbeknownst to him, Sebastian’s spirit journey ignited a long lost familial connection between them through their fathers. This connection led to strange sensations that he could not explain…

Together they found themselves on Cymru. They were approached by the Commandant oof the Royal Anglessian Navy. He had a job they could not refuse. For each of their own reasons, Leclaire for regaining family honor, Charles a chance to expunge his scaliwag reputation and mutineer history, Magero to regain position in a new kingdom after earning the enmity of the Queen of Giroesia for his failed expedition, and Sebastian to receive the title and opening into full society that his father never gave. Their task was simple, their ship the Schooner Legend ready.

They had to find the World Source, the Well of Souls, the source of all magics. A legend, one that none knew where to find, or whether it existed. Simple, really.

(writing down so I have the details, the aspects hint at much but not all).

Also. it seems there will be no problem getting along. They are going to get along great. Yup, everyone will love Brad, and Malkav will definitely not spook anyone else.

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This is amazing.

Gazes coolly at the eerily quiet Group 1 thread

Mmmm ;-)

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So in the lead up to the official campaign kick off, I’ve been reading thoroughly through the rule book again. And, I’ve got to say, it is really impacting how I am building out the world and preparing.

See I already had a world and an adventure that I thought would provide a fun and interesting campaign. Yet, as I read through the rules, I also realized I was not going to be fully able to take advantage of the things FATE brings into the system. The Fate point system is really interesting, and one with lots of potential, but it needs hooks.

So here I am today, thinking about what hooks I can provide, what ways I can engage in the variety of tools and experiences the players are bringing with their characters. Creating opportunities to think outside of the box, creating compels, basically thinking of how I will get them to spend, and get, Fate points. This has led to me including some things that the campaign was probably lacking. So here I am, off to create a new character sheet, among other things.

Ultimately this is a good thing, as I think the campaign would have been lacking a few elements otherwise. Obviously all this can change and move once the game proper starts, but now there are bones for some new wrinkles, stand alone encounters (that can happen independent of location), and generally planning the types of activities that give a reason to use points.

That said my mind is near exploding. Though Fate isn’t a super dense in terms of rules complexity, it is highly interactive and flexible, making the cognitive load higher on the front end. That’s fine, it is what I signed up for, but my mind is swimming today. But I think it should go well. Certainly I’ll miss some things, but multiple players also are familiar with the system, so it should help iron over some issues.

EDIT: also I’ve been researching how tide patterns work, and the effects of square versus triangle rigging in sailing the seas, because I care ;)

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Yeah. I’ll be honest and say that Fate is, far and away, the most potentially exhausting system I’ve run. With a good group who are constantly throwing out wild ideas, taking crazy Compels, shifting the world subtly with Story Details, and generally just sinking their teeth in, keeping up with them is exceedingly taxing. But just as much, if I get a bunch of lumps who wanna sit and be talked at a One-Shot (okay, in fairness, that’s never completely happened, but I’ve had one or two in the past), having to generate all that stuff on my own is just as hard, in its own way.

I generally take a nap after GMing full four-hour sessions of Fate, no joke.

So worth it, though :-D

Really glad that you’re digging into the system and finding new ways to work it directly into your wordlbuilding, @CraigM.

I myself put together a small Player’s Guide for our game (starting up on Monday night!), which changes a few basic game rules (biggest change is reducing starting Refresh, to make for a more Compel-dependent playstyle that fits with the horror theme), adds a few Skills, and suggests a few new Stunts. Sharing here cuz hey, I put some time into this shit ;-)

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So I meant to type this up sooner, but things happened that prevented me from writing it up sooner. Details in the ‘what happened to you recently’ thread.

Anyhow, chaos aside, we did our first proper session on Thursday. Only two hours (got cut short due to aforementioned things), but enough to get the story rolling.

So our intrepid band of adventurers set out from the town of Cymru, and immediately captain Forstall fell ill from the seas (@glimjack had warned us in advance he may be unavailable). They had but a few clues. One was the admonitions that they seek out the witch doctor Francis to their south. The Commandant had reason to believe that he may have clues to their quest. The other was a pendant that was given to them with some cryptic clues.

Well it seems Sebasitan (@malkav11) had interest in pursuing this line of questioning. So after asking nicely (intimidating the poor soldier sent to deliver the goods, using his missing eye to boost intimidation), he spilled the truth. Their quest was not the first. In fact they had recently recovered the Lupine in a shoal near the southern expanse of the colonies. The ship had been found with no sign of life on it, no sign of struggle. Everything merely… vanished. Everything except the small brass pendant that had been recovered by a passing merchant, who had been imprisoned by the constable at Strath Clyde, and so came into the Royal Navy possession.

So off they went to the nearby Francis. A short climb up the long thin mountain along the center of the island and they reached what was, apparently, the sole village. There they walked by an uneasy populace. Neither group was willing to make the first move, until a little girl cheered up when she saw Sebastian. His demeanor and look made her seek out and bring the village chief, Francis.

Francis was keen on helping them, for motives they could only hint at. Telling how magic had become sealed over 100 years ago, and has been on decline since, he could tell through the spirits what their mission was. It seems that the spirits had an interest in this crew’s success. A mysterious prophecy came as he channeled the other realms. It gave potential hints as to their actions.

As his prophecy finished, he suddenly became agitated. He rushed them out of the village, saying their presence endangered them all. An evil presence was clouding the sky, and coming their way. As soon as they were outside the village they turned, and it had vanished behind them. So our brave adventurers steeled for a fight of this mysterious evil…

…nah, just kidding. They ran like hell. They booked it out to their boat. Sebastien was, however, poorly suited for the chase. So instead Magero (@Brad_Grenz) and Charles Kane (@CF_Kane) each grabbed an arm and carried him out while running (teamwork mechanics, yay!). The chase was afoot (challenge mechanics!) and they made it to the beach ahead of their pursuit. As they reached their boat, and attempted to unmoor it, Sebastien tried to hex their pursuers as they reached the beach in the distance. Despite a rather well executed hex to trip them, the lead pursuer merely brushed it away. (Malkav ended with something like a 5, it failed by 2 steps despite he rolled a -1). So out of self preservation they ignored any further attempts to hinder, and went.

As they reached the boat in their rowboat they turned and saw their opponent uncork a flask and take a sip. As the rigging was let loose, and the anchor hoisted, he raised his hand and summoned a bolt of lightning that, narrowly, missed.

Sailing along they decided to take the time to hunt out a vessel for plunder. Just privateers doing privateer things. It was a swift and majorly successful plunder, as Kane created a distraction while Magero skewered the captain. Money up, ship sent for rewards. prisoners, and a ship sent to a trading post to turn in for gold.

However Sebastien had recieved a dream in the night, it turns out the mysterious figure, Alaric Greyskin, was probing through the spirit world for the. Their connection to magic allowed him to do so successfully. Sebastien did not resist (compel), and the hunt was on again.

They reached Strath Clyde, found the merchant, were able to make a deal for his services to get him to lead them to the abandoned Lupine. There they sailed the shoals with his guidance, and reached the husk. After searching the ship they were able to turn up one last bit of evidence, the captain’s journal. No sooner had they acquired it than the clouds seemed to sink low, and the mists became material. As they solidified they saw a ship appear before them.

Alaric had found them once more.

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At long last, my encoding war is at an end. I apologize for the occasional pops and squeaks in the audio; the setup I used to grab it was. . . sub-optimal. Oops.

This is our Fancied Up (and slightly made up) version of Fate Core’s Session 0 world/character building mechanic. Starting from a scant paragraph of setting description for Culgotha and a few names/dates in my head, we dove right into things this past Monday night.

In FC chargen, you’d normally get down your High Concept and Trouble for your character right away, then start a collaborative storytelling process with other players, writing a short snippet about a time you met them or worked with (or against!) them, ending it on a cliffhanger. . . as another player jumps in to write the continuation of the story, featuring their own character. Once all is said and done, everyone looks at the snippets they wrote and devises additional “Aspects” (descriptive statements that have in-game mechanical effects) about their character from them. Things like Skills and Stunts (akin to D&D Feats) are filled in, and meanwhile, everyone is working together to decide the scope, starting point, and main troubles of the campaign itself.

For our variant, we got a few world details out the way immediately with the backstory I’d written and the scale we opted for (fairly small start, growing larger). Then, about 18 minutes in, we began to collaboratively story-tell the group’s very first adventure together, each player adding onto the ongoing tale as we went along. As this developed, I’d occasionally drop in with suggestions ro complications, and we began leveraging character Skills (forcing the players to decide what level they wanted their Skills at!) and even Stunts. In the background, more setting details emerged as we went along, as did character personalities and talents.

By the end, I think most everyone had a better idea who their characters were and why they worked together. Moreover, we had a single, lengthy story we’d all told together that they could draw Aspects from at will.

The players are finishing up their characters now, in preparation for our first proper session next Wednesday, February 15!

And just because I’ll go nuts if I don’t say it, I’m really grateful to the guys for going along with what we did with such good attitudes. It’s a very unusual way to create characters, and to be honest, I was improving pretty heavily at the top of the night, as we almost immediately changed gears from what I figured we’d do toward what we seemed to be wanting to do, instead. Everyone played along really well, contributed awesome moments, and helped tell a fun story about the Curious Case of the Belltower Man-Bat.

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Session 1 of the campaign proper is finally edited together and uploaded! As before, my apologies for technical issues, but I’m not super great at this stuff. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Below is a text-based summary, for those who prefer that

The remaining parts should go faster, since I’m not having to chain together multiple video files and opening title screens. . . mostly. …

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How did season 2 go? @ArmandoPenblade have you thought of offering up ACKS for a season? That sounded interesting.

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I mean to write up the adventure, but alas the last month has been nightmarish.

But we did have a right old adventure, though I suspect that the overall impression of fate was not entirely favorable. Not that they hated it, so much as some players found it not to their style.

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Yeah, I feel like I never totally got my head around the system, but @CraigM did an awesome job crafting our adventure and even sent out some really cool physical puzzle devices for use to solve and unlock. I think we all came up with some really interesting character concepts and the first session where we worked out the shared history was pretty cool. Though for a high seas adventure we probably should have brought along someone who knew how to steer a boat.

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I am trying to find the time to transcode the remaining sessions to upload to YouTube, but our entire adventure was completed more or less successfully!

I am unable to run again in the near future, but if there will be a Season 3, I suspect that @mtthwcmpbll will let us know all the sexy details,

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I really enjoyed the “looseness” of the FATE system, and the development of the characters and their aspects over the first session or two was a great way to dynamically come up with a concept… far better than sitting at a desk trying to min-max your way into what your are envisioning.

Personally, I never quite grokked “invocations”, “boosts” or “succeeding with style”, but @ArmandoPenblade did most of the fiddly stuff for us and kept the game moving at a brisk clip despite my incompetence. By the end of the season I was starting to figure out the mechanics and see all the potential therein.