FATE test

[Yaw]

Again you try to dodge the first strike from Oduro, but exertion has slowed you down. The sabre thrust clips your side. You did see it coming, but had to dodge the wrong way, and only have a shield to aim at with your strike. Rebounding off the shield, you stumble backwards and realize this fight is not in your favour. You drop the karambit and hold out your hands, empty, to end it.

Hurt result. Second hurt box checked off. No additional -1 penalty, but additional Hurt results count as Injured.

[Yaw]

And that's the end. Lasted 4 rounds.

I think it ended up with the reasonable result, based on the character sheets. (It might be different when the sorcery starts coming into play, but not quite sure how to work that yet.) Didn't seem too hard to do either -- evaluating rolls was easy, most time spent was looking back at Nithrar's sheet for the newest weapon skill and looking up the ladder for the proper adjective. With some small amount of experience that would go pretty fast too.

One important point is that the narrative is flipped from the original combat tests -- instead of the PC writing up what happens, here it's the mod. I think it makes more sense this way, but it's something to consider.

[jeep]

I think you should allow the characters to kind of "pre-program" their fight... So they can say that they won't use aspect/fate points and tell you what they want to do next. It will shorten the real time a bit.

-JEEP

[Yaw]

I'm not sure it's a good idea to take those off the table. First of all, 4 rounds or thereabouts is not long. More importantly, though, a player may pre-program, then just shank a roll. I'd rather they have the opportunity to do something about it. (It should be noted that Fate Points can be spent in advance, though, which can speed things along a touch. So you could have said, "This round I'm going to try to disarm, and because this is important I'm going to improve my chances by spending a Fate Point." Can't really do that with Aspects, though.)

[jeep]

I don't understand though... once they see the roll and decide if they will use a point they'll have a pretty good idea what you want to do, even if you don't know the "story." You'll see you are "injured" and I strongly feel that at that point, you should be allowed to pre-program your next round without having to wait for the story. The mechanic is already resolved.

-JEEP

[Yaw]

Oh! Now I see what you mean. I thought you meant players should be able to program the

entire

fight in advance.

Yes, that makes sense. It would require a bit of a change in format, but not too much. A fight would now look like:

Post 1: Mod introduces combat. Mod should make clear any advantages/penalties existing at the beginning (superior weapons, superior armour, superior position, etc.)

Post 2: Player posts plan for round. Player may opt to use a Fate Point to aid success.

Post 3: Mod rolls dice.

Post 4: Mod adds up dice, bonuses, and skills, and presents results. Mod states the current measure of success/failure for the player, and what that would mean if unchanged (scratched, clipped, etc.) Mod offers chance to use Fate Point (if unused this round) and/or Aspect to modify.

Post 5: Player opts to change, or not. Player posts plan for next round. Player may opt to use a Fate Point to aid success in the next round. (Player should make clear where Fate Points are going, so it doesn't look like two are being spent for one exchange.)

Post 6: Mod posts final result for round, with story. Mod rolls for next round.

Post 7: See post 4, and loop.

It's worth making clear that FATE combat

is

FUDGE combat, so under either system this is how combat would function. The only difference is in how the adjustments work (FUDGE doesn't have Aspects and Fate Points).

[Yaw]

Races:

Jeep's suggestion for this was to make each race an free Aspect. So everyone chooses one race Aspect from a list, which goes in right at the beginning and doesn't otherwise affect the character creation process...though it would affect the character. Each Aspect contains a collection of benefits and challenges which a character can draw on (and a mod can use).

We can discuss what ought to be involved in each of these Aspects, but here's a starting point:

Aspect: Human

• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Great)

Aspect: Human (Tiktuk)

• Poor
  
• Lucky
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Tiktuk (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

Aspect: Human (Passani)

• Rich
  
• Close-minded
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Passani (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

Aspect: Elf

• Fair
  
• Thin
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Elvish (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

Aspect: Dwarf

• Tough
  
• Short
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Dwarvish (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

Aspect: Aerin

• Intelligent
  
• Uncoordinated
  
• Gains Skill: Flight (Average)
  
• Gains Skill: Unarmed Combat (Poor)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Aerin (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

Aspect: Slith

• Strong
  
• Ugly
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Slith (Great)
  
• Gains Skill: Language -- Trade (Fair)

The basic idea is to make each Aspect essentially value-neutral -- there are both good and points to moving off a typical human. It should be noted that the Aerin are a bit different -- Flight is definitely a skill unique to them, so it gets added. To balance that out, I decided to take the whole "not as coordinated on the ground" idea from the old character creation rules and take a level off unarmed combat on that basis. This means an Aerin would have to spend

two

skill levels to raise unarmed combat to Average. Unarmed combat does not count towards the skills pyramid until it is raised to this level.

All skills mentioned here (other than the hit to unarmed combat) are outside the skills pyramid. This means that all languages and Aerin flight count as extras.

[jeep]

Testing with Sorcery as an extra.
-JEEP


Nithrar grew up in Shina as the son of the most widely recognized expert in Da'Tashi. His father was lauded far and wide. As his son, Nithrar learned the art of Da'Tashi from an early age.

Aspect:
Relationship with Father (Aloysius) (fair)

• Unarmed combat
  
• Sticks
  
• Knife
  
• Throw

--------
Nithrar's father opened a school in Amstaad and would send his senior students to teach at the school in 1-2 year tours. Nithrar would accompany his father into the city to help with his seminars.

Aspect:
Da'Tashi(fair)

• Sticks
  
• Knife
  
• Teaching
  
• Alchemy knowledge

-----------------------
During one trip, Nithrar met a Hamadryad and received a gift of a wooden Karambit and a pair of Da'Tashi sticks made as hard as steel.

Aspect:
Hamadryad Gifts (Karambit and sticks) (Fair)

• Healing (unless this is under alchemy knowledge)
  
• Teaching
  
• Sticks
  
• Evasion

----------------------
Eventually, Nithrar became one of the senior students and took his turn teaching at the school.

Aspect:
Sorcery (Fair)

• Sorcery Extra
  
• Sorcery Extra
  
• Unarmed Combat
  
• Staff

----------------------
After taking his tour, his father gave him the school and decided to mostly retire.

Aspect:
Teacher (fair)

• Teaching
  
• Throw
  
• Sorcery Extra
  
• Sorcery Extra

----------------------
Final character:

Aspects

[col]O [col]Da'Tashi (Fair) [col]O [col]Relationship to Father (Aloysius) (Fair) [col]O [col]Teacher(Fair) [col]O [col]Hamadryad Gifts (Fair) [col]O [col]Sorcery (Fair)

Skills

[col]Sticks[col]Good [col]Teaching[col]Good [col]UA Combat[col]Fair [col]Knife[col]Fair [col]Throwing[col]Fair [col]Alchemy Knowledge[col]Average [col]Staff[col]Average [col]Evasion[col]Average [col]Healing[col]Average [col] [col]Sorcery Extra[col]Great

Fate points: 3

Goal: Improve his teaching skills and areas related to the school.

Equipment: As usual, Nithrar carries a staff, two Da'Tashi sticks, and his Karambit. He doesn't use armor.

-JEEP