Role-based Character Creation in Fate

 

Shadow of the Century introduced the idea of roles as a way to make characters. I was ambivalent about the system when I read it, but then I tried implementing it in my eternally incomplete Fate Fantasy game. Looking at the role system from a designer's perspective was a revelation. It's such a great way to show your players what types of characters you can play. And since you choose three roles for your character, it's so much more flexible than a template system. (To say nothing of a class system.)

So here is my Fate Fantasy character creation system. I'm eager to hear people's opinions. 

This is designed to work with Quick & Dirty Magic. Magic Finesse is the same as Spell Casting.

I took a stab at doing the same thing for Star Wars. It's not as well made, but there's no magic system to muddy the waters.

Fate: Resources for Adventurers

Fate Core's Resources skill doesn't feel right for adventurers. I want to create the feeling of limited supplies slowly depleting over time. The wealth track from the Fate SRD is a good start, but still didn't fit quite right. 

Here's my alternate wealth system for the ever-fluctuating wealth of adventuring characters.

 

How to Mastodon, Part two

I wrote my earlier guide to Mastodon when I was just a beginner myself, eager to share my latest discovery. Here are some more useful tips and tricks for new Mastodon users.

Quick and Dirty Spellbook, part one

I made the Quick and Dirty Magic system, and realized that it needs a lot of examples to really work.  So here we have the Quick and Dirty Spellbook, a selection of excellent spells for you to tweak and customize for your own use. Then I got a little carried away, so now I have to split it into two parts. 

Quick & Dirty Magic for Fate

This is the magic system I invented for my perpetually-in-progress fantasy RPG. My goal was a system that could roughly approximate the feel of D&D magic, but with no bookkeeping. I also wanted to stick closely to established elements of Fate Core. So no spell points or other innovations.

How to Mastodon

 Mastodon! I dig it! It may be the future of the internet. But it's kind of intimidating. 

Step One: Find a Server / Instance

Don't do the obvious thing and go to mastodon.social! It's over-crowded and under-moderated. 

Check the directory at Fedi.Garden or Join Mastodon and find one that feels like it has people that you can relate to. I am on dice.camp, a server for fans of table top role playing games. Read the server rules, and make sure there's nothing there you can't live with. 

Some servers have open sign up, others may have a waiting list, and some are only open with an invite. If your first choice isn't open, it's good to have a second choice. This is pretty normal for non-corporate internet. Running a server is a lot of work, and it doesn't make any money. 

Step Two: Follow Some People

So how do you follow someone who isn't on your server? 

Say you want to follow the Hourly Cat Bot. Since you aren't on the botsin.space server, you can't just use the subscribe button. Instead you have to go your server, and click on the # Explore tab. Then copy and paste the cat bot's URL into the search bar. 

Not difficult, but a single button press would be better. Fortunately, we can fix that. 

Step Three: Set up Your Browser

Various Mastodon servers are easier to navigate with a few bookmarklets. A bookmarklet is a short Javascript program squeezed into a bookmark. Each of these pages has all the instructions you need. 

Here's a one-click subscribe button. Here's an instant post button. 

EDIT: And here's an instance swap tool that's useful.

 

 

Random Generators are fun

I love random generators. Last Saturday I discovered perchance.org, and spent nearly all day making a random Fate Fantasy character creator.