Saturday, August 31, 2013

So, I have sort of promised to run some Fate games at my local FLGS.  I used to run Pathfinder Society there several months back but grew tired of it pretty quickly.  I’ve been singing the praises of Fate to one of the owners since well before Core was announced to the world and even more so since the Kickstarter went live.  He’s onboard and even ran a short-lived Mass Effect game himself.  But, it’s come time for me to put up or shut up so I am going to run a series of one-shots to show the power, fun, and flexibility that are inherent in Fate.  I am going to run some FAE, some “straight” Core, and some hacked setting to show off the system. 

After re-watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation, G.I. Joe: Resolute (amazing, if you haven’t see it), and rereading a bunch of comics (both the old Marvel stuff and the newer stuff from Devil’s Due) I’ve decided to work on that setting first.  My general inclination is to use Core for this but I really want to try and use FAE.  I really feel like it’s a great hack for emulating 1980’s style Saturday morning cartoons.  So I am going to start with FAE and see if it scratches the right itch, if not I will go back to Core. 

Step one is choose the Joe’s that will be available for the mission.  My plan is to have characters that represent each Approach at Good (+3), which means twelve Joes for my roster. 

Here’s my short list:
Duke
Scarlett
Snake-eyes
Roadblock
Flint
Lady Jaye
Tunnel Rat

That leaves me needing five more.  What I will probably do is stat those guys out and see what “roles” I need to fill and then pick characters based on that.  Or just switch to Core and build all of my favorites…we’ll see. 

For Aspects I am going to try and emulate the file cards that came on the backs of the toy packages.  I used to read those over and over as a kid and, at one point, had them pretty much all memorized (I’m thinking about listing that on my resume).  Their High Concept will be take from either their “role” at the top of the card or their Primary Military Specialty (or both when they are the same).  Their Trouble will come from the narrative on their card, the information from their entry in the Order of Battle comics, or my knowledge of the character.  Finally the rest of their aspects will come from the text on the card and their Secondary Military Specialty.  I’ll probably Photoshop up some fancy looking character sheets that look like the old toy cards too. 

I am also thinking of bringing in the Organization rules from Atomic Robo because they make a lot of sense in this case.  Also Mike Olson used them for his RoboForce hack and it seemed like another cool Fate thing to show people.  


That’s all for now, more to come soon.  I am going to flesh out a character or two and post them up here when I am done.  I am going to do both Core and FAE to see which I like better. 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Ok, for real this time...


When I started this thing back in January, I had every intention of working on the things I said I was working on and posting here regularly.  Turns out, I failed at that.  Not due to lack of interest but simply a lack of time.  Well, I've cleared some things off of my plate and now it's time to get back to this.  I just returned from my first GenCon and it was amazing.  I got to spend some quality time with my son and play some great games.  During my time there I was lucky enough to play in a AtomicRobo game with Morgan Ellis and spend some quality time with some Fate luminaries and Evil Hatters (Leonard Balsera, Sean Nittner, Clark Valentine, Mike Olson, and Ryan Macklin to name a few).

I live in Austin, Texas (...yay...) and in January we're scheduled to have a new con on the scene, ChupacabraCon (the Kickstarter is active for a few more days and could use some love).  I have to say that I am really looking forward to having a convention focused on gaming just a short drive from my house.  One of the guests is Leonard Balsera so I’d like to do my part to make sure that Fate (Core and Accelerated) is well represented.

As a result I’m trying to decide what I’d like to run.  At a minimum I’d to run four slots; two Core and two FAE.  That said Atomic Robo should be out by then so that will likely cause me to add more slots or sub in a Robo game for a Core game…or both Core games.

For FAE I am thinking of running a GI Joe game and an A-Team game.  I think both fit the style of FAE very well and are fairly recognizable properties.  For Core I am undecided.  I will certainly run a Robo game based in Texas, possibly dealing with Chupacabras.  For the other, maybe just a generic fantasy game or something post-apocalyptic.  There's also a good chance I might continue work on my Grimm hack from previous posts.  I want the games to be accessible to as many people as possible and show of how awesome Fate really is.  Regardless of what I do, I will post it here for comments, suggestions, and critiques.  I'd like to get a couple of these done in time to run them at MonkeyCon the online convention in October.

I'll be back soon with more.