As a new player to Fate and someone looking to start getting my home group in the game, these videos will be very beneficial. Creating a fate setting is certainly something I have no experience with and something I'd like to get right.
Great production value on this video. I found the separate side videos of you filling out the cards was a nice touch. I plan on running Fate Core for the first time in a few weeks, so I look forward to seeing the other videos in this series. Keep up the good work.
Great stuff. Players have unprecedented say in the game in Fate Core. It's good to get them involved. Their aspects may meld with the aspects of the settings to cause useful dramatic plusses or friction or whatever you end up with. In the old-school RPGing I was talking about, I usually had to open with some generic adventures, and then sense out what player preferences were. The great charm of a RPG is that it is a tailor-made entertainment medium, and you can give each player more of what they want: combat, role-playing, storytelling arcs, political intrigue, whatever. But here Fate offers them a chance to talk up-front about storylines, the scale, etc., you don't have to guess so much what they want. I found one of the most brilliant TV series was ALIEN NATION. It had what you would call in Fate a dual-scale approach. It had the usual action-adventure buddy-cops feel, but then went into the small-scale. The aliens (Newcomers) had a culture, a home-life, small problems going on along with the big plots. This goes well with film-noir settings too.
I very much agree, the collaborative aspects of the game greatly appeal to me since I want to get my players involved in as many different parts of the campaign as possible, since it both gets them invested and also keeps in interesting for me. I remember Alien Nation the series and the various films based on the premise, the idea of a dual scope game is intriguing and I think can certainly work, although it may require a little more work to balance it than a single scope setting :)
Good advice and a very easy to understand example of the setting creation process. Great start to a series I'm still looking forward to! Thanks for your time and energy spent creating this video John!
Good video and a good broad brush stroke intro to FATE setting creation. Along with the example you provide later on this is well done and I am glad someone has done this for the FATE community. I would mention the FATE fractal specifically. You talk about drilling down, but people in the community use this example frequently and I think a verbal/visual depiction would help a lot of folks out there.
If I were to describe fate core from appearance and description I would say it is sort of built like a movie. There is usually a set up using characters that aren't the MC (depending on the movie or style of game) and then introducing our main heroes so as to give the players a sense of background of the story and better visualization.
CALLING ALL FATE HEADS For those of you who haven't seen my video about setting creation in Fate: ruclips.net/video/HfXHmaba4SE/видео.html It goes into the various setting creation processes outlined in the Fate Core rulebook; now that's great but i'd love to actually show how that works in action. So i'm planning to do a series of Google Hangouts where myself and a group of 3-4 people create a setting (as per the FC rulebook) to show people how it works in practice. So where do you guys come in? Well I need 3-4 people for each of the Hangouts, hoping to run the first one on 9th May 2015 at 12PM GMT (probably lasting an hour or two). If you're interested (and can make the timeslot) please post here, when i've got enough people i'll delete this post and alert the people chosen via private message and by inviting them to a FB event i'll set up.
Please note: If you are interested post your name and that you want to take part in the reply/comment section of this post. No previous experience of Fate is required, this is only a demo of setting creation, although it is possible that these settings may feature in future one-shots.
It's true that you need to do more work with genre-less systems by and large whereas a more focused game will generally provide more stuff you can just pick up and run with.
Don't be afraid to think outside the box is the best advice I can give people. I'm making a game where the players are a special police unit so I can keep using those hunt a killer murder mystery boxes. I'm letting the boxes shape my city with various locations and maps they provide.
So do you let all the players know specifically what the issues are and set the issue cards out, or is defining the issues just for the GM's benefit to gently guide the players to those issues? This is one part I am still confused about in Fate Core. Further on that question, just how much do I let the players know up front? For instance, you created some locations and NPCs as well on the index cards. Do you set those index cards out at the beginning of the game, or again is this just for the GMs to reference as the game unfolds?
I generally have the cards out in-front of the players, since I prefer to create the world collaboratively and have my players involved. That said, if I were doing a more mystery based game or investigative style plot, what I would do is put an ambiguous label on the cards that would give the players some idea of where the game was going (and serve as an aide memoire for myself) without telling them the whole story.
I think that any setting aid can be useful as long as it doesn't become a substitute for group creativity, anything that gives you additional ideas can be useful.
Hey Red Dice Diaries, or anyone else. I'm french speaker so dont use to much complicated words please. There's one thing i don't understand, or didn't catch properly. And it's an important thing. It's Game aspect... How do i make them? How do i manage to compelled or invoke them. Imagine a game under Alien or Zombie theme: Some aspects could be: "Zombie invasion" "Alien are, already, among us" Some Issues could be: "Word coming to an end" "The martial law is, now, declared" Imagine a Call of cthulhu theme: They are dark forces among us that we can't see, but they're powefull (Current Issues) The cultisme of Insmouth are going to threat nearby village (Current Impending) The fact is that i don't understand how to invoke or compelled them. Core rules books page 24 Making the Issues into Aspects As we said earlier, issues are aspects. Turn the ideas you have into aspects that you could conceivably use at different times in the story (often as compels to the protagonists or as invocations for foes, but clever players will always find other uses for aspects). So in all cases they will be "issue" for PC, they will always put them in bad situation. But the book also said "Everyone can invoke, compel, or create an advantage on a game aspect at any time; they’re always there and available for anyone’s use." - Types of aspect s page 57 Can someone explain me how all this works and how to use it while playing? Thx to those who will answer me. PS: Remember i'm not as good as you in writing, reading, and express thing in Shakespeare language. So take account of this. I'm not so bad neither. Am i not (Aren't I)?
A player can invoke an aspect when they could reasonably benefit from it, for instance in your zombie example of the players were rolling to locate a zombie so they could capture and study it they could spend a Fate Point to gain a +2 or re-roll.
ok dude i was thinking this way. But the fact is that the issues aspect should be written as obvious as possible. Something like, "The end of the world is comming" is not obvious for me (there's an example like this in the book). I was thinking of a setting in a futuristic and sci-fi world. A prison in a inhospitable planete where the player would have been confined in and where they should tried to get away from. PC could play human or uplifted animals. Further in the setting, the humanity would have been under the influence of a parasite which would have taken control of their spirits and bodies, making them stronger but deforming them so they'll look like perverted forms of themselves. Those beast surely will act violently against their ex kindred, and humanity would have needed the uplifted to fight against the parasitic threat. Issues aspect could have been: "Humans think they are superior" The uplifted animals wants to change this. This allow some "racisme" thing like in X-men Comic books where the Mutant are rejected. So for this i can think of different ways to invok or compelled this aspect. "Humanity is under control by an extraterrestrial parasite" This is the issue that will happen. A threat wich is not there for now. It's clearly the new threat i want in my story. But how to compel or invoke this? Sorry for bothering you. I promis it's my last intervention. :) EDIT: FATE is not very popular in my country (Belgium) and in France neither. Generic RPG aren't really popular. But FATE seems very interresting and could be great with my way to see how to lead the game as a GM. THX Red Dice Diaries
No bother at all, I would suggest that the 'humanity is under control by an extraterrestrial parasite' could be compelled whenever the characters do something to attract the parasites attention, after all it's eyes and ears everywhere. Since this is more like a Trouble aspect it would tend not to be invoked as much, although clever players will no doubt find a way.
As a new player to Fate and someone looking to start getting my home group in the game, these videos will be very beneficial. Creating a fate setting is certainly something I have no experience with and something I'd like to get right.
DMT Tabletop Gaming : Hope you find the video useful and that your game goes well :)
Great production value on this video. I found the separate side videos of you filling out the cards was a nice touch. I plan on running Fate Core for the first time in a few weeks, so I look forward to seeing the other videos in this series. Keep up the good work.
Escape Games : Thanks very much, I hope you find the videos useful, I hope to have the next video or two done in the series by the end of this week :)
Great stuff. Players have unprecedented say in the game in Fate Core. It's good to get them involved. Their aspects may meld with the aspects of the settings to cause useful dramatic plusses or friction or whatever you end up with.
In the old-school RPGing I was talking about, I usually had to open with some generic adventures, and then sense out what player preferences were. The great charm of a RPG is that it is a tailor-made entertainment medium, and you can give each player more of what they want: combat, role-playing, storytelling arcs, political intrigue, whatever. But here Fate offers them a chance to talk up-front about storylines, the scale, etc., you don't have to guess so much what they want.
I found one of the most brilliant TV series was ALIEN NATION. It had what you would call in Fate a dual-scale approach. It had the usual action-adventure buddy-cops feel, but then went into the small-scale. The aliens (Newcomers) had a culture, a home-life, small problems going on along with the big plots. This goes well with film-noir settings too.
I very much agree, the collaborative aspects of the game greatly appeal to me since I want to get my players involved in as many different parts of the campaign as possible, since it both gets them invested and also keeps in interesting for me.
I remember Alien Nation the series and the various films based on the premise, the idea of a dual scope game is intriguing and I think can certainly work, although it may require a little more work to balance it than a single scope setting :)
Good advice and a very easy to understand example of the setting creation process. Great start to a series I'm still looking forward to! Thanks for your time and energy spent creating this video John!
Thanks Colin, glad you enjoyed it :)
Good video and a good broad brush stroke intro to FATE setting creation. Along with the example you provide later on this is well done and I am glad someone has done this for the FATE community. I would mention the FATE fractal specifically. You talk about drilling down, but people in the community use this example frequently and I think a verbal/visual depiction would help a lot of folks out there.
Great video!
I have never been a fan of shared character creation but from your description it sounds really cool. I might give it a try.
I find it works really well, especially with games like Fate that stress a collaborative experience:)
Great video, very well explained basics of Fate core.
Thanks Sirko, glad you enjoyed it :)
If I were to describe fate core from appearance and description I would say it is sort of built like a movie. There is usually a set up using characters that aren't the MC (depending on the movie or style of game) and then introducing our main heroes so as to give the players a sense of background of the story and better visualization.
That makes sense :)
Excellent video by the way! Keep it up.
Many thanks :)
The second of my 'Matters of Fate' videos talking about creating a game setting in Fate:
ruclips.net/video/HfXHmaba4SE/видео.html
CALLING ALL FATE HEADS
For those of you who haven't seen my video about setting creation in Fate: ruclips.net/video/HfXHmaba4SE/видео.html
It goes into the various setting creation processes outlined in the Fate Core rulebook; now that's great but i'd love to actually show how that works in action.
So i'm planning to do a series of Google Hangouts where myself and a group of 3-4 people create a setting (as per the FC rulebook) to show people how it works in practice.
So where do you guys come in?
Well I need 3-4 people for each of the Hangouts, hoping to run the first one on 9th May 2015 at 12PM GMT (probably lasting an hour or two). If you're interested (and can make the timeslot) please post here, when i've got enough people i'll delete this post and alert the people chosen via private message and by inviting them to a FB event i'll set up.
Please note: If you are interested post your name and that you want to take part in the reply/comment section of this post. No previous experience of Fate is required, this is only a demo of setting creation, although it is possible that these settings may feature in future one-shots.
I thought you were planning this remarkably far in advance before I remembered you Brits put the day before the month in dates.
Setting is one of the most overwhelming aspects of genreless systems for me.
It's true that you need to do more work with genre-less systems by and large whereas a more focused game will generally provide more stuff you can just pick up and run with.
Don't be afraid to think outside the box is the best advice I can give people. I'm making a game where the players are a special police unit so I can keep using those hunt a killer murder mystery boxes. I'm letting the boxes shape my city with various locations and maps they provide.
So do you let all the players know specifically what the issues are and set the issue cards out, or is defining the issues just for the GM's benefit to gently guide the players to those issues? This is one part I am still confused about in Fate Core. Further on that question, just how much do I let the players know up front? For instance, you created some locations and NPCs as well on the index cards. Do you set those index cards out at the beginning of the game, or again is this just for the GMs to reference as the game unfolds?
I generally have the cards out in-front of the players, since I prefer to create the world collaboratively and have my players involved. That said, if I were doing a more mystery based game or investigative style plot, what I would do is put an ambiguous label on the cards that would give the players some idea of where the game was going (and serve as an aide memoire for myself) without telling them the whole story.
Good video!
when do you continue with the series? :)
Steeltiger : I'm hoping to release the next video next week, I was hoping to have it done this week but it's not been possible due to a busy schedule.
What's your impression of setting creation aids for fate like "a spark in fate core"?
I think that any setting aid can be useful as long as it doesn't become a substitute for group creativity, anything that gives you additional ideas can be useful.
Hey Red Dice Diaries, or anyone else. I'm french speaker so dont use to much complicated words please.
There's one thing i don't understand, or didn't catch properly.
And it's an important thing.
It's Game aspect...
How do i make them?
How do i manage to compelled or invoke them.
Imagine a game under Alien or Zombie theme:
Some aspects could be:
"Zombie invasion"
"Alien are, already, among us"
Some Issues could be:
"Word coming to an end"
"The martial law is, now, declared"
Imagine a Call of cthulhu theme:
They are dark forces among us that we can't see, but they're powefull (Current Issues)
The cultisme of Insmouth are going to threat nearby village (Current Impending)
The fact is that i don't understand how to invoke or compelled them.
Core rules books page 24
Making the Issues into Aspects
As we said earlier, issues are aspects. Turn the ideas you have into aspects that you could conceivably use at different times in the story (often as compels to the protagonists or as invocations for foes, but clever players will always find other uses for aspects).
So in all cases they will be "issue" for PC, they will always put them in bad situation. But the book also said "Everyone can invoke, compel, or create an advantage on a game aspect at any time; they’re always there and available for anyone’s use." - Types of aspect s page 57
Can someone explain me how all this works and how to use it while playing?
Thx to those who will answer me.
PS: Remember i'm not as good as you in writing, reading, and express thing in Shakespeare language. So take account of this. I'm not so bad neither. Am i not (Aren't I)?
A player can invoke an aspect when they could reasonably benefit from it, for instance in your zombie example of the players were rolling to locate a zombie so they could capture and study it they could spend a Fate Point to gain a +2 or re-roll.
ok dude i was thinking this way. But the fact is that the issues aspect should be written as obvious as possible.
Something like, "The end of the world is comming" is not obvious for me (there's an example like this in the book).
I was thinking of a setting in a futuristic and sci-fi world.
A prison in a inhospitable planete where the player would have been confined in and where they should tried to get away from.
PC could play human or uplifted animals.
Further in the setting, the humanity would have been under the influence of a parasite which would have taken control of their spirits and bodies, making them stronger but deforming them so they'll look like perverted forms of themselves. Those beast surely will act violently against their ex kindred, and humanity would have needed the uplifted to fight against the parasitic threat.
Issues aspect could have been:
"Humans think they are superior"
The uplifted animals wants to change this. This allow some "racisme" thing like in X-men Comic books where the Mutant are rejected.
So for this i can think of different ways to invok or compelled this aspect.
"Humanity is under control by an extraterrestrial parasite"
This is the issue that will happen. A threat wich is not there for now. It's clearly the new threat i want in my story. But how to compel or invoke this?
Sorry for bothering you. I promis it's my last intervention. :)
EDIT: FATE is not very popular in my country (Belgium) and in France neither. Generic RPG aren't really popular. But FATE seems very interresting and could be great with my way to see how to lead the game as a GM.
THX Red Dice Diaries
No bother at all, I would suggest that the 'humanity is under control by an extraterrestrial parasite' could be compelled whenever the characters do something to attract the parasites attention, after all it's eyes and ears everywhere. Since this is more like a Trouble aspect it would tend not to be invoked as much, although clever players will no doubt find a way.
Red Dice Diaries Thx a lot for you explanations dude. ;)
Happy to help :)