The Gift: Character Creation, Approaches, and Aspects
The big setting post is in progress. In the meantime, lets talk about character creation.
The Gift uses Fate: Accelerated Edition. I toyed with renaming the five approaches, but decided against it.
My first version of this game used Fate Core, but I didn't like how powers made certain skills useless. There's no point in taking physique if you're not super strong, or Athletics if you're not super quick, and so on. The FAE approaches don't have that problem, because super strength isn't the same as being "super forceful."
As I mentioned in the intro, PCs choose a template called a mantle to determine their baseline powers and stunts, and can then add more powers. I want PCs to have varying numbers of powers, allowing for both narrowly focused characters and the do-it-all, Swiss army knife type. The obvious thing is to make powers cost refresh, but that means those with simple powers would have 10 or more Fate points every session.
So I hit on the idea of trading Approach levels for powers and stunts. A normal FAE character has 9 levels distributed among the six approaches. Characters in The Gift have a larger pool of points, and spend them on Approaches, powers, and stunts. I'm just calling them character points. Each mantle will list how many points you have to spend.
In practice, this means having a broad suite of powers makes a character generally less capable than one with just a few powers. All PCs are still capable of super human feats, of course.
Aspects work just like in other Fate variants, with a minor addition. Aspects need to be short and pithy, but super heroic characters tend to be complicated and messy. To resolve this, leave a space on your character sheet for power facts. Every PC has an aspect describing their powers, and the power facts fill in the details of how those powers work. The power facts spell out when your power aspect can be tagged or compelled. This is a good place for restrictions and complications, if you have any.
More facts can always be added in play. If you run into a weird corner case, like "does my telepathy work on ghosts," simply treat it like a compel of your power aspect. You gain or loose a fate point, and record the new power fact.
So much that I need to explain about this game! Maybe next time I'll take a look at mantles of power. Here's a look at my big list of mantles so far:
One of the big advantages of FAE is the simplicity of the system, so hopefully putting everything under the big tent of character points doesn't make character creation too onerous. I'm sure you'll make sure it doesn't, but I think it's something to be aware of.
ReplyDeleteMechanically, how complicated do you envision Mantles being? Around the level of stunts, or more or less so? And are these classifications used in-setting at all, or are they more for your benefit keeping track of them? Things like Physical and Elemental powers would naturally group together in a lot of people's minds, so I wonder if people with the Gift keep track of this somehow.
I also worry about making the game too complicated.The Gift is certainly more complicated than normal FAE.
DeleteMantles are more complicated than stunts, certainly. Each one is 2-5 powers and up to three stunts. Plus a few bullet points explaining how you can spend effort/energy points.
And because I can't help myself from embroidering, There's lots of suggestions to spur the imagination of the readers. Suggestions for aspects, heroic names, complications, and other powers and stunts to customize your character.
I try to keep the game's terminology in-universe as much as possible. The term "mantle," and many of the mantle names are ascribed to a an early super with ESP and a flare for portentous terminology.