Sword and Sorcery Fate: Session 3
Ran another session of the game. I am feeling like Fate Freeport adds a level of complexity that is unnecessary to the genre… namely weapons with damage modifiers and armor as free taggable aspects. The concept is great, for a D&D game, certainly, where gear plays a prominent role.
For S&S though? I think it’s just more math into the equation. Conan can kill you just as dead, and just as easily with a broadsword, a tulwar, a dagger, or his bare hands… He can be wearing chain, furs or going au naturel, and he seems to avoid bodily injury with the same degree of success…
My players, however, seem to love the idea, so, we’re going with it…
We had an interesting combat scene that again highlights my ambivalence with the system.
A PC had a single combat duel with an NPC, naked save for loincloths, armed with short spears, standing on a large tree trunk across a 15 foot deep pit, with an angry gigantic centipede waiting at the bottom .
On the one hand, I don’t think we could have used a better system for this combat, unless there’s a S&S PbtA game out there that I’m not aware of.
On the other hand, combat exchanges would become sort of a bidding war. Initial totals were rolled and calculated, then it was: “He tags the Slippery When Wet aspect of the trunk. Well, I invoke the Off-Balance boost to re-roll. Hmm, still tied. Well, now I invoke my Blood of Elder Giants Runs Through Him aspect, so now I’m winning by two…”
I dunno. Maybe I’m using the mechanics wrong, but after a protracted transaction of this sort, narrating the results is tough. It just takes me out of the fiction.
A similar thing happened, where the NPC tried to throw the PC off the trunk and into the pit. Fortunately, that ended well, as, after tagging a few aspects, the PC wound up throwing the NPC off the trunk, to a well deserved death by centipede…
Maybe the fix would have been to stop the regular fight mechanics at the point where they began grappling and reduced the outcome from that point on to one roll, Burning Wheel style, discussing the stakes before hand.
Whoever wins this roll, throws the other into the pit… Tag all the aspects you want and can, but it’s all come down to this one moment.
Make Every Roll Count is one of my favorite BW principles. Maybe should have applied it here.
All in all, though, we’re having a fun time.
You might try the PbtA trick of “to do it, do it” and treat aspects in combat as moves to be triggered.
In PbtA games you don’t say what move you’re using, you just say what you’re doing. Then if what you say hits a trigger the GM has you roll.
So for a Fate game, try not saying what aspect you’re using — just say what / how / etc. your doing, and if that pings an aspect, the GM awards you the +2.
You might try the PbtA trick of “to do it, do it” and treat aspects in combat as moves to be triggered.
In PbtA games you don’t say what move you’re using, you just say what you’re doing. Then if what you say hits a trigger the GM has you roll.
So for a Fate game, try not saying what aspect you’re using — just say what / how / etc. your doing, and if that pings an aspect, the GM awards you the +2.
That’s a great suggestion Ralph Mazza .
However, if you ping an aspect, then the GM says it applies, but you still have to wait to see if it will be used for +2 or to re-roll… unless you just discard the reroll ability of the aspect.
The other issue is with character aspects, though… is Champion of the Arena aspect going to trigger in every combat situation?
There’s also the Fate point cost vs. the free tags that some aspects get. When do you declare that?
That’s a great suggestion Ralph Mazza .
However, if you ping an aspect, then the GM says it applies, but you still have to wait to see if it will be used for +2 or to re-roll… unless you just discard the reroll ability of the aspect.
The other issue is with character aspects, though… is Champion of the Arena aspect going to trigger in every combat situation?
There’s also the Fate point cost vs. the free tags that some aspects get. When do you declare that?
Yeah, fate has a lot of fiddly bits to it. It suffers a bit from a “we trust you to do anything…but not really” syndrome.
One thing I’ve seen someone suggest to streamline the reroll vs +2 bit, is to only go with rerolls, but the rerolls are your choice of what to reroll not all 4. Then if you have all 4 plusses already it becomes a +2. Never seen that in action though.
But one thing I recommend if you try this, is to take a firm hand with rubber banding (stretching every aspect to be used for everything). Champion of the Arena? Are you in an arena? Does this resemble an arena fight? What would you have to do to make this situation more closely resemble an arena fight? That then becomes the interesting fictional stuff. Instead of letting them explain how it applies make them actually do things in the fiction that make it a better fit.
Yeah, fate has a lot of fiddly bits to it. It suffers a bit from a “we trust you to do anything…but not really” syndrome.
One thing I’ve seen someone suggest to streamline the reroll vs +2 bit, is to only go with rerolls, but the rerolls are your choice of what to reroll not all 4. Then if you have all 4 plusses already it becomes a +2. Never seen that in action though.
But one thing I recommend if you try this, is to take a firm hand with rubber banding (stretching every aspect to be used for everything). Champion of the Arena? Are you in an arena? Does this resemble an arena fight? What would you have to do to make this situation more closely resemble an arena fight? That then becomes the interesting fictional stuff. Instead of letting them explain how it applies make them actually do things in the fiction that make it a better fit.
The variant thing sounds sort of like PDQ# mechanics… I think the math breaks down, though. It works in PDQ because they are D6, and not Fudge dice.
I think the easiest fix is to have them declare what aspects they are tagging before they roll, by leading with the fiction. Then rolling and deciding on the spot if to reroll or +2, but no further aspects can be brought into the equation once the dice are rolled.
Thanks, Ralph Mazza
The variant thing sounds sort of like PDQ# mechanics… I think the math breaks down, though. It works in PDQ because they are D6, and not Fudge dice.
I think the easiest fix is to have them declare what aspects they are tagging before they roll, by leading with the fiction. Then rolling and deciding on the spot if to reroll or +2, but no further aspects can be brought into the equation once the dice are rolled.
Thanks, Ralph Mazza