I’ve been recently considering using some version of the FATE system to run the God Machine Chronicle World of Darkness game that i’ll be starting in a week or twos time (i’ll be putting up a post about the GMC game separately at some point in the near future); having become increasingly non-plussed at the more complicated rules systems inherent in many roleplaying games and given my recently switch to using a slightly adapted version of FATE core rules for my Rogue Trader game (there is a post on that here and my FATE hack is available for download here) I started considering using some version of FATE to run a world of darkness game.
Obviously a world of darkness game involving the various supernatural strains that populate the game world would require some sort of consideration for the various powers and abilities of the different creatures; luckily for me my GMC is a short-term (4 or 5 sessions only) that is going to feature entirely mortals and so this isn’t a hurdle that I need to handle at the moment (although several individuals on the various G+ communities have been extremely helpful). Adam Boothroyd suggested that I might want to have a look at Fate Accelerated Engine, a streamlined version of the FATE core system.
Size
Looking at FAE the most immediately obvious difference between it and FATE core is the size of the two PDFs, with Core weighing in at 300+ pages and FAE only being about 50 pages in length; skimming through the book it seems that a lot of the stuff that has been trimmed is the abundance of GMing advice that has been provided in the Core book, this is understandable and the FAE book itself isn’t shy about pointing out where you can locate stuff in its parent tome.
Approaches
Another major difference is that, unlike Core, FAE eschews the use of the more common skills present in most RPGs, instead positing the use of six approaches describing the manner that characters approach an action with rather than a specific skill (for example, instead of looking at your Fighting skill you might look at your Forceful approach).
The six approaches described in the game are:
- Careful
- Clever
- Flashy
- Forceful
- Quick
- Sneaky
- Stunts that give you a +2 bonus in certain situations
- The second type of Stunt allows you to make something true, do something cool or otherwise ignore the rules in some way.
A highly useful RPG that I look forward to trying out š
Funny, I was considering running a GMC story with FAE! š
My thoughts on FAE are much the same as yours. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to try it out.
I like your rundown. It's very simple and straight to the point, but I guess this is a natural thing to do, considering that it's a light version of Fate Core.
Dammit, now I want to game :-S
Yes FAE is extremely concise and streamlined when compared to FATE core however IMO (aside from some other minor differences noted in the blog entry) the main difference is the that the number of examples and the amount of GM has been trimmed down in order to keep the book size minimal.
Glad you're enjoying the blog and hope your FATE gaming is enjoyable š